Basic Trope: A character with high offensive power, but low defense.
- Straight: Alex can take down most of his opponents in a few hits and has speed on-par with the Jack of All Stats, but if one of his opponents hits back it really hurts him.
- Exaggerated: Alex either kills you in one hit or dies in one hit, whichever comes first.
- Downplayed:
- Alex has a super move that's powerful but can only be used when he's unhurt. When he's hurt, he loses access to that move, but isn't otherwise decisively more fragile or powerful than anyone else.
- Alex is a Flying Brick compared to ordinary mortals, but his enemies wield weapons so destructive that he's effectively this in battle with them.
- Justified:
- Alex is a Cute Bruiser who hits with the force of a freight train, but his fragile body is... delicate.
- Alex has a BFG which can cut through anything his faces, but weight concerns force him to abandon armor.
- The story is in a setting where offensive power has far outstripped defense. Armor Is Useless, so no one bothers with any.
- The shows features a realistic portrayal of the Muscles Are Meaningless trope.
- Alex is a Squishy Wizard with a lot of offense spells, but few defense options.
- While B.U.D.D.I.E.'s weapons and locomotion systems are fully installed, most of his plating is still awaiting installation.
- Alex is an Old Master who is still highly skilled as a fighter but his older body can't take as much punishment as it used to and even some of his past injuries are catching up with him.
- Alex the archer is flanked by Stone Wall units that protect him from most incoming attacks. He provides the offense and they the defense of the squad.
- Inverted: Stone Wall.
- Subverted:
- At high levels, the various compensations he receives for having such low health, such as an incredibly high dodge rate, make him almost impossible to decisively harm.
- Alex's best defence is his good offense. His aura of destruction is so powerful that missiles, bullets and melee attackers get disintegrated before they can even touch him.
- Alex is only a Glass Cannon at earlier levels. As he levels up, his HP and damage output gradually balance out until he becomes a Lightning Bruiser.
- Double Subverted:
- Other characters also receive similar abilities a little further in, to the extent that high-level attacks are often made absolutely accurate or built to get around death protection. Alex is still extremely susceptible to moves that are common in the endgame.
- The second they can hit him with a weapon that can get past that aura of destruction, Alex drops like a sack of potatoes.
- Parodied:
- Alex can't take a hit, so he spends every day blasting anything vaguely threatening in his immediate vicinity, from ornery cows to evil armies.
- Alex can be killed with the slightest touch, but he is armed with various attack spells ranging from lethal to apocalyptic and he lives in the strongest fortress ever built, having healing spells and force fields under his sleeves just in case.
- Alex has the ability to transform into a literal cannon made out of glass.
- Averted:
- Alex's attacks and defences are balanced.
- Mighty Glacier, where the character's weakness is slow speed instead.
- Lightning Bruiser, where the character's defence is just as good as his powerful attack.
- Enforced: "Alex's incredible attacks are a defining trait of his, but he needs a weakness for the sake of Competitive Balance."
- Lampshaded:
- "Everyone, guard Alex! He really, really needs it!"
- Alex gets his item from an Amuletof Concentrated Awesome. It's a pendant made of glass, with the image of a cannon on it.
- Invoked: Alex believes that the best defense is a good offense, so he purposely skips all the defense lessons and concentrates on his attacks.
- Exploited:
- A character with high defense manages to outlast Alex in a fight.
- The antagonists attempt to delay the heroes, resulting in Alex being deployed to ensure a short and bloody battle.
- Defied: Alex trains up his physical strength and becomes a Magic Knight, Lightning Bruiser, or something equivalent to that.
- Discussed: "Just you wait until I land a hit!"
- Conversed: "That guy's like a walking Papier-mâché atomic bomb."
- Implied:
- Alex is a Non-Player Character. He is shown with a sword equipped, but no armor or shield. He is also sometimes seen with Black Magician Girl Marcy learning powerful spells.
- In a sequence where the characters fight clones of themselves, Alex is the first to defeat his opponent, due to his high offensive power and the clone's weak defences.
- Deconstructed:
- Alex develops a sense of insecurity over being super powerful and extremely fragile, and his fear of being attacked first leads him to kill people he could easily have dealt with diplomatically, or even people who startle him.
- In a world of long-range firearms that allow someone to attack him from far away with no defense, Alex is simply useless in the battlefield.
- Warlocks of Destruction tend to die very frequently without enemy action - not only are they incredibly frail but their sheer offensive power can send shrapnel flying and reduces them to hamburger compared to others who usually suffer something survivable with prompt medical attention.
- Reconstructed:
- Which he realizes is an overcompensation, so he develops defenses that help him dodge attacks so he doesn't get hurt.
- Alex himself is already the master of the arts of acrobatics, stealth, hiding, and powerful long-range attacks. He's also a damn good sniper, as his particular set of strengths and weaknesses leads to the aforementioned long-range firearms being an ideal weapon for him.
- Played For Laughs: The reason why Alex's defense is so poor? That's because he doesn't wear any kind of defensive gear... as in, he doesn't wear anything at all!
- Played For Drama: Alex's high offence and low defence frequently results in fights where the first strike decides everything. As a result, Alex's screen time is often fraught with tension with the knowledge that a single mistake could cost him his life.
- Plotted A Good Waste:
- Alex anticlimactically defeats a villain disliked by the audience.
- Alex becomes disliked by the audience, and his frailty makes him easily and humorously dispatched.
- Untwisted: Alex is a character in a war film, and equipped in the same manner as everyone else in his group. Despite this, he manages to acquire a heavy weapon and become stranded behind enemy lines where he competes with vehicles. As such, most of the film from his perspective portrays him as vulnerable but dangerous.
Strike back to Glass Cannon quickly - you can't last out here!
