Female Characters and their Armor

[gareb]

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stumbled on this nice article about female characters and their armor. answers a lot of questions. read on

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FANTASY ARMOR AND LADY BITS

The brilliant tumbler feed Women Fighters in Reasonable Armor has inspired me to add my two cents to the discussion.

Why does my opinion matter? I’m an armorer. I make actual armor that people wear when they hit each other with swords. When making armor I have to strike a balance between comfort, protection, range of motion, and appearance. My experience has made me more than a little opinionated on the subject of fantasy armor.

I intend to set the internet straight. See below for how to do it wrong, how to do it right, and why you might care.

1: The Problem
There is a commonly held understanding in the fantasy role-playing community that female armor sucks. That is, it doesn’t really cover any vital organs. It follows the relationship below:

What does that mean? It means that you get fantasy art trying to sell us on the idea that these…

Red Sonja, Dynamite Entertainment


NIght Elf, World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment

…are things that women might wear to a sword fight. Clearly these women are both poorly insulated and have no particular intent to keep their vitals inside their bodies.

We know why these images exist. It appeals to a specific market. That, though, is a whole other discussion. All we want to establish here is that there is a rather strong trend to dress women in metallic lingerie rather than protective armor in fantasy combat.

To predict a counterpoint: There are men that wear next to nothing in fantasy art as well. Take Conan or He Man, for example. Neither of them are wearing much in the way of protection. This is true, but they aren’t meant to be armored. Both of the ladies above are wearing armor, not barbarian-style loin-cloths. Their metal garments describe access to real armor, but the decision not to wear it.

(more armor analysis for the geeks; click on the title link to continue )

[Blackbeard]

Red Sonja's stated she wears what she wears not for protection(clearly) but because it obviously distracts his straight male enemies, which she encounters almost 97% of the time.
and besides it's high fantasy, applying real life logic into it is ****ing retarded.
not to mention *** sells.

I do get where he's coming from though lol.

[endlessknight]

S** sells, especially to s**-deprived nerds and fanboys.

[windupbird]

tungod na mas mahalin kung ga bikini ang babay. the appeal for fully clothed women in the field of fantasy is, unfortunately, sorely lacking.

[risklight]

i think this is related

[jinfreecs]

up...............

[crazy_monkey]

nice info! hehehe