Forum Fantasy-&-Science-Fiction Armored Characters

I've read a lot of fantasy characters, especially with the advent of video games, that are covered head to toe in thick metal armor. Such armor in real life is almost impossible to move in, and requires incredible strength. However, fantasy is fantasy and anything is possible. 

Well, there is something to what you say, Knights quite famously needed quite complex machinery to mount their horses, although by the point armor technology had developed to this point in Europe (13 cent. or so) knights were already becoming anachronistic. They were expensive, slow and useless if, for example, you wanted to put down a rebellion in Scotland (See Robert the Bruce) or anywhere wet (See Battle of Agincourt) and mostly useless unmounted (Agincourt again, which showed that while a fully armoured man can move unmounted, he can't do much else).

In fiction, I still take it seriously. Mostly because a band of knights is a lot of fun, and an intelligent author keeps them in mail normally, and out of dense forests, swamps etc. David Eddings Elenium comes to mind as a fairly good series that uses knights mostly semi-realistically. (His Tamuli is a fairly bad series that does the same).

I think my favourite example would have to be Sandor Clegane from a Song of Fire and Ice whose armour, despite his being absolutely massive, is the death of him. Pity he took down such an awesome character with him.

Best subversion of this trope, Ce'Nedra from the Belgariad requesting both Chain mail and plate armour, so as to look impressive. Ends up asking that they be made so light they're useless as armour.

You're right in saying fantasy is fantasy, there are no expectations on you to remain totally realistic with how you use armour (British spelling, forgive me).

I'd relate better to a character wearing thick leather armor, since that's what I prefer myself.  :)

 

What do you mean by thick metal armor?  How heavy/massive is this stuff?  Unless it is fairly realistic (allowing for special circumstances of the setting, of course), I'm going to have trouble with anything that hinders my ability to suspend disbelief.  If he's running around in half a ton of spiky plates with no articulation at the joints, that's a problem... 

 

On the other hand, my twin used to fight in about 120 pounds of armor (when he weighed only 160 himself), so I know from almost-personal experience that some armor is easier to move in than people realize.

 

I don't think that simply having the character wearing a full suit of armor would keep me from being able to relate to him.  I love John Steakley's novel Armor, for example.  It's science fiction rather than fantasy, but it does feature a protagonist who wears armor throughout the story; readers don't even get to see his face.  If you work with it, your character's armor can give added dimension to him beyond "he's the badass guy who wears armor all the time."  It isolates him both physically and psychologically from the people around him.  Maybe he does things that he'd never do if others could see his face.  Maybe he starts to think of the armor as his true identity.  Maybe he worries that he'd be unable to function without that layer of protection/isolation.

 

 

Full Plate Armour of the 15th century weighs approximately 55-65 pounds depending on various things. The thing about it is that it is well balanced and is only around 5 pounds on each part of the body, which although slightly inhibits speed and stamina does not make someone slow. People also always ignore experience many knights wore heavy armor since they were around 19.  So if you were it frequently for only a year I'm sure you'd compensate for it's weight although it would still inhibit it's not really relevant. A man in full plate and a man in common clothes were nearly the same speed, with the commoner being slightly faster. The armor does however protect against most sword strikes and a good amount of blunt weaponry. The only true weakness is if you use a pole arm against it.

I can take seriously any knight wearing heavy armor in battle. Anyone rich enough to afford it would (and there was the limiting factor, historically. Eventually it just became too expensive to be practical to purchase.)

What I can't take seriously is full-fledged dodging/twisting/turning in heavy armor. Mobility (as opposed to movement, perse) was limited. The armor was balanced to allow normal movement, but agility was traded for protection.

As a result, it was quite typical for a warrior to have to choose in different situations what one would wear. If you were fighting 1v1, then agility was preferred, and armor would be simple leathers, to allow for dodging or anticipating the enemy. But the more one was faced with the possibility of being struck from an unexpected quarter, the heavier you wanted your armor.

Three rules of armor:

1) No armor is so thick as to prevent a lucky blow.
2) No armor is so thick as to prevent someone from finding a chink, given sufficient time or strength.
3) If I am so foolish as to lose my focus in battle, someone WILL teach me the significance of rules 1 &/or 2.

When I write about fantasy battles or even just fights, I usually put my female characters in leather armor. It's not so much armor as it's just protection. Leather is light and easy to move in and it can block the blow of a blade pretty well. I'd say 80% chance of getting hurt if you put your character in leather.

 

As for my male characters, I usually give them chainmail and then a tunic over that. It doesn't always work, since I have written several knights. I agree with Tarien Cole that yes, I can stand kinghts in armor, but if they're completely agile on the battlefield in armor, I doubt the author's credibility.