Character shields are plot devices in movies and television shows that prevent important characters from dying or being seriously injured at dramatically inconvenient moments. It often denotes a situation in which it strains credibility to believe that the character would survive.
The phrase originated with fans of the television show Star Trek to describe combat situations where the Enterprise is not destroyed, but other ships are lost, despite taking apparently less severe damage. It also applies to situations where important characters are on the surface of a planet, and a minor character is killed, while the stars of the show survive.
The concept of character shields can be applied to almost any movie franchise or TV series. Police dramas, spy thrillers, and science fiction dramas are particularly susceptible to this plot device, which tends to diminish the suspense and believibility of the plots. Horror movies, on the other hand, often create suspense by putting the main characters in near-constant mortal danger and killing them off, one by one, over the course of the story.
An interesting twist on the concept is in the Lord of the Rings movies, where it almost seems that the characters are actually aware of their protected status. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli repeatedly put themselves in danger by engaging in battles with opponents who vastly outnumber them. Indeed, they seem to treat these battles as games, instead of the terrifying experiences that they should be.
