Femme Armor Sacrifices Safety for Sex Appeal

[John Funk]

Femme Armor Sacrifices Safety for Sex Appeal

[collegehumor=6550847]​

Females in fantasy stories really do bring a whole new meaning to the term "breast plate."

The heroic knight readies for battle in his full plate armor, as his less-lawful thief colleague dons thick studded leather from head to toe. Even the cleric is wearing a complete suit of scale mail - but their female archer companion? Why, she's in little more than a bikini. Obviously, it's to preserve her mobility, of course!

Armor (or the lack thereof) on female characters in fantasy settings is as much of a cliche as anything else is these days. Naturally, this applies to videogames as well - when female characters can don a piece of full plate armor in WoW and have it turn into a metal bra, it feels a bit ridiculous.

College Humor has tackled the subject in its latest silly short, with a blacksmith and two male warriors trying to convince their female companion that her new chainmail bikini will actually offer more protection than eye candy. After all, enemies' attention will be drawn to the shiny parts, won't they? Of course they will.

Still, I'm not sure that female characters really need to show so much skin. I mean, Samus Aran is kind of a nerd sex symbol, and she wears a full suit of power armor! Usually, anyways.

(College Humor [http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6550847/female-armor-sucks])

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[VanityGirl]

The guy with the beard cracked me up. Bwhahaha. This was so funny. She got a crossbow to the boob!

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Not usually a fan of College Humor, but this was actually pretty funny.

Kind of an old joke, but still funny.

 

[Sleepingzombie]

I liked it. Although I am abit puzzled as to why she feels a pinch when she is about to strike. (though it is funny)

I understand that some peeps like the whole " a lass with quite alot of skin to show but not quite that much to cover it with" and that some can go over the river styx to defend the practise.

I like the "woman in power armour more". Im not interested in titillation but for those that are I have a argument.

"the more armour a woman has on her the more armour can suddenly go missing"

on a serius note. The more armour a lady character have the more effect the reveal can on the audiance.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Chainmail bikini jokes? Cutting edge, CH, really pushing back the fucking boundaries. >.>

Also, WoW gets a lot of unfair flack for this. It crops up in covers and artwork a lot more than in the actual game. Only a very small handful of items actually work like that (although people do tend to seek them out).

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Chainmail bikini jokes? Cutting edge, CH, really pushing back the fucking boundaries. >.>

For sure...Thrud the Barbarian was doing those jokes back in '81.

 

[Cousin_IT]

Still, I'm not sure that female characters really need to show so much skin. I mean, Samus Aran is kind of a nerd sex symbol, and she wears a full suit of power armor! Usually, anyways.

Do they really need to be sex symbols at all?

 

[Slycne]

I liked it. Although I am abit puzzled as to why she feels a pinch when she is about to strike. (though it is funny)

Let's just say there's a reason you normally wear chainmail over leather.

 

[Lexodus]

In other news, fire is hot.
Still, even if it is an incredibly tired gag, they've done it well enough to get me to giggle.

 

[Kahunaburger]

This is hardly a new joke. Although, sadly, it's still pretty relevant.

 

[Sleepingzombie]

oooh. . . .right. . .well.

"ahem" I long for the day when most women in games can be other things than sex symbols. There are just too few exeption to the norm.

 

[Gindil]

on a serius note. The more armour a lady character have the more effect the reveal that she is a lady will have on the audiance.

*ahem* [http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Meredith]

Sometimes, they can wear armor and not be there to titillate the crowd...

There's at least one other woman that wears full plate armor which seems to get the point across that they need to wear something other than a chainmail bikini.

 

[Macgyvercas]

But John, weren't you aware? Accordin to comic book logic, female skin is stronger and more durable than titanium. Any other armor is just superfluous and redundant when skin does the job just fine.

/very bad logic fail

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

I've always been more a fan of tight fitting leather armor...Not for myself anyway but hey nerds will be nerds xD.

 

[RN7]

Because there's nothing more attractive than a bifurcated corpse in a skimpy, platemail two-piece! Everyone knows that the female warriors have to preserve their mobility while fighting giant dragons and demons with horrible flamey swords of death that can cut through their 2-feet-thick-slab-of-metal-with-a-person-inside male counterparts! People these days can't see the practicality and the sheer common sense of not allowing female characters even the mere option of dressing like "one of the guys". This is a gameplay mechanic that forces the players to assume the role of the chosen character, only by looking over her shoulder and totally not at her buttocks!

 

[WanderingFool]

Funny thing, this actually annoys me. Not the skit, but the fact that armor becomes bikinis when worn by girls...

Cant really explain why it bothers me... I guess I just dont have the time to admire the... er... craftsmenship... of the female armor...

 

[Sleepingzombie]

I concur but it seems the average video game player enjoys our current scantily clad female characters more. I wonder how long time it will take for that practise to change. . .5/10 years?.
I hypothesise that it will take a new batch of freshly graduated game designers to change this, after they have had a few years to gain some weight in the industry.

 

[jerrrry]

I'm curious to see how game of thrones tackles this in the show, but I'm guessing when they get to the few armored females in the books, they will be wearing essentially the same armor as the men.