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Armor Is Useless: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'''Hector''': A man died while wearing it!
'''Artimaeus''': ...Hector, it's a suit of armor. Men who wear them tend to do that.
|''[[Tales of the Questor]]''}}
In fiction, armor has virtually no protective qualities. Characters who wear no armor to speak of are no more (and often less) at risk of injury or death than somebody who is "protected". Indeed, it's often the case that people who wear armor find themselves far more competent after they either discard it or have it [[Clothing Damage|destroyed for them]] by the nice people out to kill them. In the latter case, it leaves one wondering why they bothered with it in the first place, if they can survive attacks that completely demolish their armor anyway.
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This trope probably stems from the fact that armor—especially [[Helmets Are Hardly Heroic|helmets]]—in movies, games, and other media often serves not to protect characters but to render them [[Faceless Goons|faceless and anonymous]]. Thus dehumanized, they make excellent [[Red Shirt]] and [[Mooks]]. The [[Unspoken Plan Guarantee]] may also be connected; the armor represents a plan to be invulnerable, which, once presented to the audience, has to fail or it'd be boringly predictable. (This helps explain why ''hidden'' [[Bulletproof Vest]]s usually work.)
See also [[The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort]]. The logical extreme of this trope is the [[Full-Frontal Assault]]. For non-armor objects that make for bizarrely non-useless armor, see [[Pocket Protector]]. Contrast [[Heavily Armored Mook]], where the armor is genuinely useful to the detriment of the player.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'': The Sailor Senshi wore nothing but moderately skimpy clothing made of what appears to be cotton, yet appeared to be perfectly capable of keeping their wearers—exposed skin and all—protected from everything from flying debris to flames to the vacuum of space. Further, while they were often smacked around, their clothing only showed it when they were fighting the [[Big Bad]] or somebody directly under them. In the live-action ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'', Senshi wears some armor—a sports-bra-style [[Breast Plate]] made of what looks like fiberglass or plastic.
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* In Frank Miller's ''[[300]]'' features Spartans going bare-chested into battle, with little but loinclothes and bracers as armor besides their shields. Miller, with his background drawing spandex-clad superheroes, was more comfortable drawing human physiques, and thought the Spartans in armor looked too weird. In reality, Spartans wore heavy bronze armor, including breastplates, which was a major advantage over the cloth armor and wicker shields of the Persian soldiers.
* In the ''New 52'', ''Superman'' wears armor. Given that he's tougher than any materiel in the DC universe, the only possible explanation for this is that he wants clothing that won't disintegrate when he so much as sneezes. There's a Yakkov Smirnoff joke in there somewhere.
* [[Spider-Man]]'s enemy the Vulture used [[Powered Armor]] during the brief period where he had de-aged himself and became a young man. If was later destroyed by a monster called DK, who also caused him to regress back to his true age, and he [[Status Quo Is God|never seemed motivated to rebuild it.]] He did consider doing so once in a story where he was with some other villains at the Bar With No Name; Kraven (as in, Alyosha Kravinoff) advised him not to, saying he himself never had much luck with armor.
** Alyosha may have had a valid point there, as his half-brother Vladimir did indeed use armor in his brief stint as the Grim Hunter. {{spoiler| He didn't last long, killed by Spider-Man's corrupted clone, Kaine.}}
** And let's not even get into the armor Spider-Man himself wore in order to fight the New Enforcers in ''Web of Spider-Man #100'', something Marvel would love readers to forget about. [https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Web_of_Spider-Man_Vol_1_100 (Here's a picture of it, for anyone who is curious.)] Not exactly the best thing for a landmark issue, it lasted about eight pages before Spidey realized it was weighing him down and got rid of it, never to use again. This was during the time where Marvel was trying a lot of ideas they now regret, like the Invisible Woman's [[Stripperific]] costume.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* Averted in ''[[Drunkard's Walk]]''. Even though main character Douglas Sangnoir has a mutant power which makes him difficult, if not almost impossible, to hit with an attack, he ''also'' wears a suit of form-fitting, flexible body armor for those times when the attack gets past his defenses, being well aware of [[The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort]]. It's saved his life a couple of times in the story material extant as of mid-2021.
== [[Film]] ==
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* All cops in ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' wear bulky armor that does absolutely nothing to stop bullets.
* Most of the troops in ''[[Red Cliff]]'' wear various forms of armor which provide no protection whatsoever. Master Archers who (because this is a [[John Woo]] film) can [[Improbable Aiming Skills|bullseye any target they can see]] shoot enemy troops right through their breast plates, not even bothering to aim a few inches higher to hit exposed necks. The senior generals frequently cut off limbs with a single stroke, not even slowed down by the heavy metal armor their targets are wearing.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy: The
* In ''[[Battle: Los Angeles]]'', the Marines' armor is ineffective at stopping the aliens' weapons, as the incendiary rounds they have
* In ''[[Only the Brave (2017 film)|Only the Brave]]'', {{spoiler|the Granite Mountain Hotshots attempt to use their fire shelters to ride out the Yarnell Hill Fire. Said wildfire burns so much hotter (2000 degrees Celsius compared to fire shelters rated only for 500) that they die anyway.}}
* Averted in ''[[John Wick]]''. John and several other characters get bulletproof suits that their opponents need to aim for exposed areas against. High Table [[Heavily Armored Mook]]s wear full-body SWAT-style tactical gear that is bulletproof everywhere and John either has to grapple them to expose weakpoints or use special [[Armor-Piercing Attack]]s in order to kill.
== [[Literature]] ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games ''Morrowind'' and ''Oblivion'', a character's protection depends more on his skill with armor class rather than the armor itself, though despite that NPCs are almost always armored appropriately. This includes the existence of "Battlemage" profession, military mages wearing heavy armor. NPCs will occasionally [[Lampshade Hanging|reference this trope]] if the player asks them for advice. You're warned not to judge how tough a fight will be based on the amount or quality of your opponents armor or weapons, as the really powerful characters don't need these things to kill you.
** Another thing is that normal armour is useless against magic damage, as are basic shield spells.
* ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' 2. Yes, you are wearing a suit that can withstand pressure at the bottom of the ocean. No, that won't help against a gun. Or a wrench. Or fire. Or anything else, for that matter.
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* Played straight in ''[[Dead or Alive]]'', with the fully power-armored [[Space Marine]] Nicole being just as vulnerable to punches and kicks as the more [[Stripperiffic]]ally-dressed women.
* In ''[[Drakengard]]'', there is no amount of armor you can be wearing, damaged or undamaged, that changes how much damage you take. And in cutscenes, we're shown it works the same way for [[The Evil Army]], although that's possibly because the protagonist is a [[Badass Normal]].
* The ''[[Ghosts 'n Goblins
** Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins has a variety of armors, most of which can take more than one hit. The trouble happens when you ''need'' a certain armor that can take only one hit to get past a certain point (especially the Angel Armor), meaning that once you lose the armor, you're hosed. Two ways, in fact.
* In the anime-themed PC game ''[[Shogo: Mobile Armor Division]]'', the enemies come in many varieties, some sporting basic uniforms, others power armor, and still others ten foot tall mini-mechas. The difference that makes in their durability is negligible: 100, 125 and 150 health points. All forms die to a single shotgun blast or a short burst from an assault rifle.
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' doesn't
* While armor ''is'' quite important and tends to provide benefits other than sheer protection in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', these values don't necessarily correlate with the ''amount'' of armor. [[Breast Plate|Females get away with much less armor in general]], and an Eyepatch provides just as much protection as a full plate helmet, as long as it's given the same armor class. Another weird instance is the druid's bear form, which, despite not showing any armor whatsoever, magically ''quintuples'' the armor rating of his equipment, enabling the usually rather fragile, leather-wearing class to be a very capable tank which outranks full plate warriors and paladins in terms of sheer physical damage reduction (however, they can't use shields to block or weapons to parry, and have a rather limited array of abilities).
** In addition, Armor Is Useless when fighting elemental enemies whose elemental damage ignores armor, as do spells. Which kinda makes sense to some extent; getting hit by a fireball will probably melt you the same regardless of the thickness of what you're wearing—it may even be worse with metal armor if it's hot enough—but considering how the fire came from a flaming boulder, and therefore part of the damage is blunt force trauma, there's many types of magic for which you must scour your brain for the reasoning of how it damages someone, in that you'll survive a fireball from someone around the same level around you, despite how it's hot enough to ''set a boulder on fire'', which makes it kind of like a meteor...
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* Golden Armor in ''[[Minecraft]]'' looks spiffy, but it really doesn't do anything. Clearly not worth the 24 blocks of gold you have to find in order to craft it. It actually has ''half'' the durability of Iron Armor, and iron is a lot easier to find.
* One unlockable you can get in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain]]'' is the Gray XOF, a flack-jacket set for Quiet. For those who are not fans of the game, the reason Quiet usually [[Stripperific| wears only a bikini]] is because surgery has altered her so she breathes through her skin [[Sex Sells| (yeah, yeah, we know that's not the real reason)]] meaning wearing such armor would cause her to suffocate. It doesn't, but then again, it doesn't help her at all, being nothing but a skin. So why would the developer change the already-established rules? Hard to say.
* There's your typical [[Chainmail Bikini]], and then there's Shahdee from ''[[Prince of Persia: Warrior Within]]''. [https://princeofpersia.fandom.com/wiki/Shahdee Is this even armor?] It's metal, yes, but it almost looks painful to wear, and Shahdee doesn't seem to be the type who'd benefit from it anyway, being more of Persia's answer to a ninja assassin than a more martial fighter.
* Mordessa's armor, from ''[[Enclave (video game)|Enclave]]''. [https://brettneufeld.tumblr.com/image/120577520250 This armor] - with no eyeholes in the helmet and horns that would likely get in the way during a fight - would actually be detrimental to the wearer, as her cleavage is exposed, making it the most obvious target. Maybe she had intimidation in mind, but she doesn't succeed ''there'' either, seeing as it's hard to even ''look'' at her without laughing.
* In ''[[Dragon's Lair]]'', Dirk's chainmail doesn't help him in any way whatsoever, seeing as he's a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]] who can (and will) be killed by anything if the player fails [[Press X to Not Die|
* Armor gives you a ''little'' bit of a defense in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' (meaning some foes might take two or three attacks to flatten you instead of just one), but it also impairs your ability to dodge, which isn't an even trade
* Similar to Hilde and Siegfried mentioned above, the [[SNK]] games have Janne from ''[[World Heroes]]'' and Charlotte from ''[[Samurai Shodown]]''. Both fight in plate armor, but it offers no more defense than characters who wear regular clothing.
* Subverted in ''[[NetHack]]'' - a full set of armor is usually vital to increasing your AC (armor class) enough if you plan to survive anywhere beyond the early game. The subversion is that AC can also be provided from other sources: the spell of protection, donating money to a temple's priest, rings of protection, etc.
** [[Self-Imposed Challenge|Nudist runs]] in general play this trope straight by definition, as they will have to seek out their AC from sources such as the above.
** Also subverted for many of the monsters, who will put on armor when possible to augment their own AC (which may already be naturally high).
* In ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', this is subverted with Ashley's medieval-style plate armor, which is unlocked by finishing the main game and finishing the Separate Ways mini-game. [[Lethal Joke Item|It looks kind of silly]] given the genre and setting, but it makes the game a ''lot'' easier, protecting Ashley from attacks (enemy attacks and accidentally hitting her yourself) and makes her too heavy for enemies to carry away, which becomes a frequent problem without it.
* The Iron Bull in ''[[Dragon Age: Inquisition]]'' has very few armor options, because he really doesn't need it. He's your typical bare chested, [[Boisterous Bruiser]], [[Barbarian Hero]]; armor would just slow him down.
* Undine's plate armor in ''[[Undertale]]'' was actually ''detrimental'' in the original version of the game. The first time you fight her, she has a ''negative'' defense score, and in the "date" battle later (where she isn't wearing it) her defense is higher. It's also a handicap story-wise, because if the player wants to win the first battle without killing her, they have to lure her to Hotland, where the armor causes her to dehydrate quickly and collapse. A later patch fixed the first problem, but it still doesn't give her a significant boost in defense score.
* Zigzagged in ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)|Gauntlet]]''. Thor doesn't need armor - he avoids 30% damage despite [[Walking Shirtless Scene|being bare-chested!]] On the other hand, Thyra wears plate armor, and she resists 40% of damage.
* In ''[[Lethal Company]]'', all employees wear [[Hazmat Suit]]s, but it doesn't do anything to protect them from the bloodlike substance a Masked vomits.
* Averted in ''[[Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice]]'' with the Armored Warrior, who wears full plate and is immune to Wolf's attacks. Instead, he is a [[Puzzle Boss]] whose posture the player must break in order to knock off a ledge.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* A [[Cyclic Trope]] in regards to naval warfare. During the age of [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men]], cannon fire could blast through anything that could float, so warships generally <ref>The original six frigates of the US Navy, utilizing a type of wood [[Unobtainium|found only in the United States]] for exceptional cannon resistance, are the most famous exception.</ref> didn't bother with armor. Then came the era of ironclads, where cannon balls would [[Won't Work On Me|bounce off]] armored hulls. This began an arms race between naval weapons and naval armor that saw both getting [[Serial Escalation|ever bigger and heavier]]. This pattern finally broke in [[World War II]], when it became clear that heavily armored warships were not effective against serious airpower. Thus, ships were generally low on armor again... at least until the 1970s and 80s showed that then-modern destroyers were so unprotected that they would take catastrophic damage from things that WWII-era ships could just shrug off. So they began adding ''some'' protective armor back; for instance, the ''USS Cole'' (a 90s design) survived an explosion that would've destroyed a 70s-era Spruance-class destroyer.
** The Soviet Navy feared the Iowa-class battleships above any other ships in the US fleet because of this. There is a story that they even nicknamed them the "Cockroach Battleships" because, when the Sovs ran simulations, they just wouldn't die.
* Modern soft body armor, intended to stop bullets, is fairly defenseless against bladed weapons - the fiber weave is designed to stop (or at least slow) relatively blunt objects travelling at high speed, and can be cut or pierced by a sharp edge much like any other cloth. This has been a problem for some, such as prison guards, who wear [[Bulletproof Vest|Bullet Proof Vests]] as part of their standard equipment, but frequently face lower-tech threats than firearms. Stab vests, designed to protect against knives, have the opposite problem of offering no protection against bullets. Modern vest designs try to combine both protections in one way or another, though you're often stuck with wearing two types of light armor or heavy plates that cover fairly little of the body.
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