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{{examples}}
== Film
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' - The infamous stormtroopers and their predecessors the clone troopers. As well as the Mandalorians.
** Stormtrooper armor blocks radiation, chemical and biological weapons, stun bolts, and most (non-energy) melee attacks, as well as providing general life support and environmental protection. [[Armor Is Useless|Too bad (for the stormtroopers) that the rebels just use simple blasters.]] But, [[All There in the Manual|other sources]] say that while it might be penetrated by a direct blaster bolt, it would at least significantly reduce damage from the absorbed bolt, [[Fan Wank|so the]] [[Short-Range Long-Range Weapon|constantly close-ranges of combat]] [[Fan Wank|in the movies is why the armour seems useless]].
** Blaster hits also tend to turn fist-sized chunks of a wall into shrapnel, so without armor near misses can wound or kill too. This is illustrated in the first battle scene in the entire series
** Stormtrooper armor, as everything else, is designed for a specific purpose. Being a product of the same "[[Zerg Rush|drown them in attackers]]" doctrine as TIE fighter, it's made to protect ''units'' rather than ''individuals''. That is, optimized to stop anything (short of very heavy weapons) that could inflict mass casualties. While ''direct hits'' of blasters stronger than handguns can knock down or wound, melee weapons and ''sometimes'' a lucky shrapnel may kill through the weak neck joint, hits in a small area at just right angle are a rare misfortune, and stormtroopers can shoot more than they are shot at. A large unit of stormtroopers cannot be stopped by toxic and corrosive gases, depressurizing, shrapnel and shockwaves of blaster near misses and grenades. They most often can win simply because of the greater numbers, as long as they are disciplined and competent enough - and stormtroopers usually are. The helm's communication and optics lock down so it's mostly useless for an enemy who picked it up, especially for [[False-Flag Operation]].
* ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' - Making the fact that they left out the book's power armor even more obvious.▼
** If you look for tough "space marine" grade stuff, it's [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Katarn-class_commando_armor Katarn-class commando armor] of clone commandos. It's made of material resistant even to lightsabers, with shields on top of this, and even a retractable [[Vibroweapon|vibroblade]] on the glove. Later versions included cool extras like EMP-hardening. Of course, it's also inconvenient when the wearer tries to sit and costs (on black market) like ''five'' of Gian landspeeders<ref>low-profile "boats" in which Naboo Royal Security Forces buzzed by and one-shot assault hovertanks</ref> in mint condition, or ten used.
** The armor props were sold to a ''lot'' of other productions, like ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]'' and ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]''.▼
▲* ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers]]'' - Making the fact that they left out the book's power armor even more obvious.
* The colonial marines in ''[[Alien (Film)|Aliens]]'', though apparently it doesn't provide much protection from acid blood.▼
▲** The armor props were sold to a ''lot'' of other productions, like ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]'' and ''[[
** Debatable. Hicks DID survive the acid burning. Without the armor he could have potentially been burned much worse.▼
▲* The colonial marines in ''[[Alien (
▲**
* ''[[The Fifth Element]]'': The cops wear so much armor that they look like mobile metal bon-bons with the word "Police" stenciled on them.
** Ditto for the Mondoshawan, assuming the mechanical-looking structures that covered them actually ''were'' armor and not their actual bodies.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': Earth security forces wear armor designed to deflect energy and plasma-based weapons. There are a few variants of this, including a vest and full jacket style.
* ''[[
* ''[[Star Trek:
** Given that World War III was generally acknowledged to be partly nuclear in nature, these may be radiation suits of sorts.
* Not an actual example, but probably why the guys in [[The Big Bang Theory]] wear an excessive amount of plastic while playing paintball. That and getting hit with a paintball ''hurts''.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Most of the ''[[Warhammer
** The Imperial Guard's uniforms make seem they're just wearing armour over top clothing like normal modern soldiers, but actually, their entire uniforms are flak armour as well.
*** Or in the case of the Catachan Jungle Fighters, just t-shirts over massive muscles. [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|Which function just as well as the armour worn by other guard troops]].
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* In [[GURPS]] the trend away from armor that started in [[Technology Levels|TL 4]] (1450 to 1730) starts to reverse in TL 7 (1940 to 1980) with the discovery of lightweight, bullet-resistant synthetics such as kevlar. In some TL 10+ (2075 and beyond) campaigns armor is vital, while in others weapons are so devastating that dodging or shooting first is far more important.
** For example, disintegrator technology makes armor irrelevant because they do enormous damage and bypass most armor completely while FTL laser technology makes it so that soldiers always need to be in armor because shots can hit with deadly accuracy from tremendous range.
*
* ''[[Fading Suns]]'', with its deliberate [[Anachronism Stew]], has anything from studded leather to stiffsynth (polymer cloth that bends easily, but hardens for sharp impacts) to ceramsteel [[Power Armor]]. There are personal [[Deflector Shields]], but [[Dune|slow cuts]] and blaster fire alike can leak through them.
== Video Games ==
* Starting with ''Tiberian Sun'' soldiers in [[Command
** Given that they're living in an increasingly-[[Crapsack World]] that is getting more and more toxic to humans, the armor is justified, given that it also contains life support systems.
* The UNSC marines in the ''[[Halo]]'' series tend to wear more plating than their modern counterparts, especially the ODSTs. But it is not powered like the Spartan's MJOLNIR armor. The trope has gotten more pronounced as the series has progressed: in the first game, quite a few marines are wearing simple fatigues, and even the armored ones wear a relatively modest set of helmet, breastplate, and greaves. The armor set gets noticeably bulkier in ''Halo 3'' and ''Halo Reach'', where it's become more like standard Sci-Fi plate armor.
* Lots of armor in ''[[Mass Effect]]'', which also functions as a spacesuit when necessary. This is probably because mass accelerator technology has made small arms even more lethal without armour.
** Not so much in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', however, where most of your teammates do not, in fact, wear armour. Interestingly, several of the villains do.
* In the ''[[Fallout]]'' series, being set in a [[Schizo-Tech]] [[Alternate Universe]], armour was very popular both before and after the war, amongst individuals, companies, armies and police forces alike. Its effectiveness greatly depends on how improvised it is -
* ''[[Gears of War
** It is revealed in the third game that most of that bulk wasn't armor, they are just that large and muscular (Marcus's biceps are two third's the width of Anya's torso).
* The armor worn by Terran Marines in ''[[
** Hilariously, the armor provides no in-game benefit as Marines have no armor value until you research upgrades.
*** [[Fridge Brilliance|However, the armor does give marines 55 health compared to the 10 health of an unarmored human.]]
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== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[SSDD]]'' it's stated that buckminster fullerene armor made conventional firearms obsolete. However, the various weapons designed to counter it all have their own disadvantages ([http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20070709.html slow firing], [http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20070710.html cumbersome], [http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20070712.html expensive], [http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20070714.html tends to explode], etc).
* In ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' there is a lot of both light and heavy body armor variants.
** The low-profile powered suits look a lot like cloth uniforms, but definitely function as armor. "Carbonan [[Latex Space Suit|crotch-huggers]]", as Karl Tagon calls them, seem to be standard issue in at least some human armies, and they stop a lot of things, from bullets to flame to anti-personnel [[nanobots]], can sustain the wearer in space for short time periods ([[Collapsible Helmet]] is deployed on mental command or bad atmosphere), and include inertiics that both protect from collisions and provide limited flight. [[Armor Is Useless]] usually when armor-piercing ammo or overkill with heavy weapons are involved. Which is to say, almost as often as not.
**
** Exosuits used by security teams on Haven Hive were capable of keeping wearers uninjured even after a plasma cannon hit (the same glancing sweep ''cut a wide gap through ship bulkhead and deck''), though the suit itself ends up utterly destroyed in process.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:We Will
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