Line #33 Literature/Armor


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/armor_john_steakley.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"That's the problem with armor. It can't protect you from who you are."'']]
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4	Not to be confused with ''Literature/Armor2022''.
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6	''Armor'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by Creator/JohnSteakley. It's the distant future, and humanity is embroiled in a BugWar with the implacable, incomprehensible Ants. There's an epic SpaceOpera backdrop, but the story takes place among the little people at ground level, for whom their own high command also seem distant and incomprehensible.
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8	The story alternates between two plot strands.
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10	The first follows new recruit Felix, who joins up in the hope of finding a meaningful death and an escape from his traumatic past, but discovers himself to be [[{{Determinator}} constitutionally incapable of giving up and letting himself get killed]], no matter how hopeless the situation appears to be. He not only survives more battles than any soldier in history, but winds up collecting a whole bunch of new traumas as well.
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12	The second, set some years later, follows mercenary Jack Crow as he infiltrates a remote space colony to help steal something from the research base there. Shortly before arriving, he encounters a derelict spaceship containing a suit of PoweredArmor, and takes the armor with him as a memento; the research base's head historian, Hollis Ware, finds the suit's blackbox/recorder pod and becomes obsessed with finding out about the armor's former owner.
13	----
14	!!''Armor'' provides examples of:
15	%%* AbsentmindedProfessor: Hollis Ware
16	* TheAce:
17	** Played with in the case of Nathan Kent, who is awesomely skilled with a suit of powered armor, not to mention handsome and extremely charismatic -- and has never been anywhere near actual combat, except for brief and carefully stage-managed publicity exercises, because he's far too useful as a propaganda icon to let him go and get killed. [[spoiler:For a while it seems like he's a FakeUltimateHero, but it turns out he's really as good as his image suggests, which just makes it worse that the high command have made such poor use of him.]]
18	** Played straight with Forrest, who placed second to Kent in the Armored Olympics, which just means she's the very first one the commanders call on to do every impossible mission. Felix believes she's the best fighter he's ever seen, even better than him. [[spoiler:It's just enough to get her killed in the end.]]
19	* ActionBomb: Flipping every switch on an armor's control panel to "on" overloads its safety features, triggering its power core [[GoingCritical to go Prompt Supercritical]]. It's used when a nuke is called for, but they can't get one.
20	* AlienBlood: Ant blood is black.
21	* ArmCannon: ''Warrior'' class Power armor carries an integrated "blazer" rifle in each forearm. They're fired by going limp-wristed at whatever a marine's aiming at. ''Scout'' suits have to make do with rifles, however.
22	%%* ArmchairMilitary: Fleet high command
23	* BlessedWithSuck: Felix is a DeathSeeker whose fighting instincts are too good to allow him to die.
24	* BlingOfWar: The Masao wears gold armor.
25	%%* BugWar: The Antwar
26	%%* CannonFodder: A large proportion of the characters
27	* CoversAlwaysLie: The novel states that suits have a [[ShoulderCannon shoulder-mounted grenade launcher]]. Covers invariably do not have it.
28	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: [[spoiler:Lewis, the founder of the space colony, ''appears'' to be a harmless drunk. He's actually ex-military, using alcohol to deal with all the trauma Felix had and then some, and once he's decided he has no other option than to come out of retirement and take on the space pirates it's pretty much all over but the shouting.]]
29	* DarkAndTroubledPast: Felix joined the military to get away from his past, specifically [[spoiler: the death of his wife.]]
30	%%* DeathSeeker: Felix
31	* DeathWorld: Banshee, the planet Felix is posted to, would be lethally unpleasant even without the Ants. It's a desert that's so cold that the smallest hole in one's armor would result in rapidly freezing to death.
32	* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype:
33	** With Felix, the OneManArmy InvincibleHero: WarIsHell and his mind couldn't take it, creating a SplitPersonality that can kill its way to victory with ease, but cares absolutely nothing about friend nor foe in its quest to survive. Furthermore, the military's VastBureaucracy doesn't realize they're sending him back over and over, or even that he's alive (Felix's entire battalion died on its first scramble, he was listed as dead along with the rest, and they never bother to delete the names of the dead from the automated call-up lists), and tosses Felix again and again into deadly scenarios where he becomes more traumatized.
34	** Nathan Kent is TheAce almost to the level of AlwaysSomeoneBetter, and even Felix swoons over the guy. The deconstruction is that high command also doesn't believes he can be ''that'' good and cannot afford to have him risk his life and die and demoralize the troops, turning him into a PropagandaHero instead much to Kent's own disgust.
35	* {{Deconstruction}}: Felix's narrative bears a lot of similarities to Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'', namely soldiers fighting a BugWar on a DeathWorld in high-tech PoweredArmor. ''Armor'', however, seems to be what happens if you mash that novel up with the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar: the reasons and goals of the war are unclear, and it's told from the perspective of a single ground-pounder for whom the enemy appears demoralizingly persistent, ruthless, and unstoppable. Meanwhile, Felix gets a series of disjointed missions from [[ArmchairMilitary upper brass who seem so out of touch with the conditions on the ground]] that [[InsaneAdmiral they're as incomprehensible as the Ants themselves]]. And just like in Vietnam, [[spoiler:it's strongly implied the Ants won]].
36	* DefiledForever: This is what Karen believes about herself, leading her to seek a DestructiveRomance with Jack. She also verges on TooKinkyToTorture.
37	* {{Determinator}}: Felix. Deconstructed because even when he actually ''wanted'' to break, his mind absolutely refused, creating a SplitPersonality that takes over when the shell shock becomes too much for him to be effective in a fight instead.
38	* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler: Allie]] dies in [[spoiler:Felix]]'s arms after [[spoiler:his suit is punctured on Banshee]].
39	* DrowningMySorrows: Lewis's reason for being an alcoholic.
40	%%* DuringTheWar
41	* EnergyWeapons: Standard issue weaponry is the Blazer, a sort of incendiary ray gun. Their grenades use it as well, so it may be a PlasmaCannon.
42	* EverythingsBetterWithSamurai: The Masao's culture is clearly based on Feudal Japan.
43	* FeudalFuture: Some of the planets in the backdrop have absolute monarchies with feudal trappings; it's explicitly mentioned, though, that rather than being a natural social development they were each deliberately founded by somebody with a large ego and too much money.
44	* GenderBlenderName: Allie is short for Alejandro. Similarly, Hollis is usually referred to as Holly.
45	* HeelFaceTurn: Jack Crow, after he discovers what Borglyn is really planning to steal.
46	* HeroicSafeMode: "The Engine", the altered mindset that keeps Felix alive in battle. As Felix puts it, the Engine "is a remarkable creature. It was a wartime creature and a surviving creature. A killing creature. The Engine is not me. It will work when I cannot. It will examine and determine and choose and, at last, act. It will do all this while I cower inside".
47	* HeterosexualLifePartners: [[spoiler: Felix]] and [[spoiler: Allie]] have been very close since infancy and shared most of the major events in their lives. [[spoiler: Allie came to Banshee to try and bring Felix back to his people.]]
48	%%* InsectoidAliens: The Ants
49	** Also the Lyndrill, who are a different sort of bug.
50	* InspirationNod: This novel is a response to Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/StarshipTroopers''. Felix is asked at one point if he joined the army because bugs blew up his home in South America, which is occurred in Heinlein's novel and [[spoiler: was the motivation for the main character's father to join the Mobile Infantry.]]
51	%%* IronicName: Felix ("happy, fortunate")
52	* {{Irony}}: Early in the story, Jack Crow remarks whether his anger towards an antagonist is just from the fact he always hated fat men. By the last chapter, Jack remarks how he himself has become fat and thoughtful.
53	* KingIncognito: [[spoiler:Felix is the hereditary ruler of his home planet. As far as he's concerned, he's done with all that, but his people haven't given up on finding him and persuading him to come back.]]
54	* LapPillow: During a mental breakdown prompted by [[spoiler: Allie reminding him of his past]], [[spoiler: Felix]] attempts to commit suicide on Banshee by unsealing his armor, and [[spoiler:Allie]] pins him down to stop him. [[spoiler: Felix]] then eventually falls asleep and they end up like this.
55	* LoyalPhlebotinum: Because it's custom-designed to fit with incredibly close tolerances, Powered armor kills anyone that tries to put it on except its designated user. [[spoiler: Even then, if their user is out-of-shape, it still makes them miserable]].
56	* MeaningfulName: The dwarf crewman Jack murders while escaping prison is named "Praun." Jack called him "the Shrimp" due to his short stature.
57	* MeltingPotNomenclature: Alejandro Jorges Umemoto.
58	* NeckLift: Borglyn does this to Crow to let him know what will happen if Jack double-crosses him.
59	%%* NiceGuy: Nathan Kent is one.
60	%%* NobleFugitive: see King Incognito
61	* OhCrap: Felix's first step onto the planet Banshee. [[spoiler: Into twelve marching rows of ants.]] Then too many more to recount. So much so that the Antwar is a running stream of OhCrap.
62	* OlderThanTheyLook: Jack notes in narration that another character looks about 50, which, if it is non-cosmetic, makes him about 20 years younger than Jack. The implication is that Jack has had some cosmetic changes of his own.
63	* OnlyOneName: "Just Felix."
64	* PlanetBaron: Several planets, including Masao and Golden, are ruled as absolute monarchies. The Masao of Masao and the Golden Archon, the respective autocrats of those two planets, both appears as characters in the novel.
65	%%* PoweredArmor: Standard issue for the soldiers in a few varieties.
66	* ShoulderCannon: Power suits have a grenade launcher on one shoulder.
67	* ShroudedInMyth: Jack Crow is a legendary space pirate, although it becomes clear that most of his exploits are greatly exaggerated.
68	%%* SpacePirates: Borglyn's crew, as well as Jack during his long and checkered career.
69	%%* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Karen
70	%%* SpaceOpera
71	* TakingYouWithMe: Flipping every switch on an armor's control panel to "on" overloads its safety features, triggering its power core [[GoingCritical to go Prompt Supercritical]]. It's used when a nuke is called for, but they can't get one.
72	* TimeSkip: To after the war, [[spoiler: and Felix is drowning his sorrows on a backwater feudal world.]]
73	* TheUnfettered: The Engine, what Felix calls his drive to survive, will not let Felix die. Ever.

Context Literature / Armor