Line #45 PlayingWith/ArmorIsUseless


1	'''Basic Trope''': Wearing armour doesn't reduce your chances of being killed, and may even ''increase'' them.
2	* '''Straight''':
3	** TheHero, [[MeaningfulName Victor]], goes into battle wearing only normal clothes. Both his [[RedShirtArmy supporting force]] and enemy {{Mooks}} are equipped with bulletproof vests. He is only one who is not injured in some way.
4	** Victor stabs a {{Mook}} in full plate mail with his sword and it penetrates the armor like it were flesh.
5	* '''Exaggerated''':
6	** Everyone except for the hero is equipped with PoweredArmour. It's useless anyway.
7	** Not only armour is useless, it's also [[FelonyMisdemeanor extremely uncomfortable]].
8	** Victor can shrug off arrows that directly impact his chest, but when he starts wearing armor, arrows penetrate the metal with ease and straight through his ribcage.
9	** Victor stabs Emperor Evulz’s ArmorOfInvincibility with a dull butter knife. It not only goes right through, but the armor shatters to pieces and dissolves.
10	* '''Downplayed''':
11	** Armor can turn a lethal blow into a not-so-lethal one, but attacks rarely glance away.
12	** Mook and redshirt bulletproof vests can resist if not outright nullify each others' weapons, but do little against the superior gear EliteMooks (and their good counterparts) pack.
13	** The armor protects the wearer but is rendered unusable after one attack.
14	* '''Justified''':
15	** The bulletproof vests aren't stab-proof (or vice versa).
16	** The vests aren't enough to stop the caliber Victor is using.
17	** The armour in question is horrendously bulky and inefficient, but was bought at a low price because that's all the military could afford.
18	** Victor’s [[SuperToughness body is actually more durable]] than his armor, which was merely for show.
19	** The weapons that Victor uses are more powerful than what the armor can stop, or Victor is a top-notch shooter who aims for places ''other'' than the main body (such as the head).
20	** All weapons are ArmorPiercingAttack, so an armored combatant fares no better than an unarmored one.
21	** Victor has no access to comfortable armor and/or needs as much mobility as possible.
22	** [[LawOfConservationOfDetail We don't see any of the times when armor actually saves people's lives]], even if it might not stop them from being wounded.
23	** The Enemy is an OutsideContextProblem wielding weapons or powers that the armor's designers [[DidntSeeThatComing had no way of anticipating the need to defend against.]]
24	** Armor makes people overconfident and less likely to shy away from danger. Even if armor protects them from harm, a lot of harm will still come their way.
25	** Victor hits a weak spot in the armor.
26	** The armor in question is [[ImprovisedLightningRod highly conductive]] to Victor's ShockAndAwe tactics.
27	* '''Inverted''':
28	** Without the armour, Victor [[MadeOfPlasticine is rather squishy]]. But wearing a flak jacket, [[ArmorOfInvincibility he can safely walk right into enemy fire]].
29	** Unarmoured Victor [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome gets killed]] by an attack that the armoured redshirts and mooks survive.
30	* '''Subverted''':
31	** Victor seemingly easily kills a group of armored mooks, but the gunshots wounds prove to be not quite fatal.
32	** Armour is generally useless... until the ArmorOfInvincibility is found or the {{Heavily Armored Mook}}s show up.
33	** Victor's so-called normal clothes are later revealed to be packed with magic or nanomachines that greatly increase their protection beyond conventional armour.
34	* '''Double Subverted'''
35	** The mooks get up after there seemingly fatal wounds, only to then promptly collapse of blood loss.
36	** Victor's packing armor-piercing rounds.
37	** Enemies with mundane armour superior to Victor's special clothes show up. They still die in droves.
38	* '''Parodied''':
39	** The armour is literally made of cardboard.
40	** The armour is directly harmful to its wearer.
41	** Full plate armour is shown to be both worthless and uncomfortable, so the troops switch to {{Chainmail Bikini}}s... which are still worthless and uncomfortable.
42	** Armor illuminates the user in bright neon lights, loudly blasts “Hit Me”, magnetizes all attacks towards it, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and has a bullseye painted on it]].
43	* '''Zig Zagged''':
44	** Armour that withstands powerful attacks inexplicably crumples under less powerful ones. Even with technical explanations, there's simply no way to realistically account for the inconsistency.
45	** Armour is useless because the authors simply can't seem to make up their minds about it.
46	** [[PlasmaCannon Plasma weapons]] pierce kevlar vests and high strength polymers easily. But Mag Shield (for Magnetic Shield) armor generate a strong magnetic field that easily deflects plasma. Too bad Mag Shield armor is heavy and delicate, and as such doesn't help much against ballistic weapons, and then you have PowerArmor, combining high strength polymers with a Mag Shield system, weighting 300 kilograms a suit but using servomotors to allow the wearer to use it without SuperStrength, effective against both ballistic and plasma, but requiring regular refueling or else it becomes a paperweight that costs a few million dollars... In short, different kind of armors have different strength and weaknesses. Someone wearing armor unadapted to the situation might as well be naked. Someone wearing armor fitting the situation they are in enjoy decent (but not perfect) protection.
47	* '''Averted''': Armour isn't useless - but it's not impenetrable either.
48	* '''Enforced''': "This is an action movie, not real life. You know how boring it would be every time our hero has to unload a shitload of bullets onto one guy?"
49	* '''Lampshaded''': The Hero said: "Is that cardboard, or what?"
50	* '''Invoked''':
51	** Emperor Evulz realises this trope is in action and organizes a mass production of armour-piercing rounds for his Mooks to use.
52	** Armour is useless because the manufacturer of bulletproof vests was bribed by Emperor Evulz.
53	* '''Exploited''': "I'm not bringing that armor. Knowing the fight we're in, it's not going to help."
54	* '''Defied''': The top quality weapon manufacturers are called in to make sure armour ''won't'' be useless.
55	* '''Discussed''': The Hero said to his Sidekick: "Don't worry about aiming for joints or silly crap like that, Evulz troops are cheaply outfitted, their powered-armor, while massive, has all the integrity of an egg carton."
56	* '''Conversed''': Two guys talk about storming the castle. One says: "Look, I watch TV, I know how it works. There'll be five hundred Mooks in there armoured to the hilt, fighting against us two with no armour whatsoever. We're bound to win."
57	* '''Deconstructed''':
58	** Because their armour is so weak, the army loses to its better-equipped enemies and they lose the war with high casualties. It goes down in history as the worst military defeat of the century.
59	** The production of armour for combatants is a complete waste of resources due to their uselessness.
60	* '''Reconstructed''':
61	** R&D shifts away from making tougher armour to making stuff that offers decoying, mobility and stealth; since armour won't stop a good hit, might as well ensure that hit never connects.
62	* '''Played For Laughs''':
63	** Everyone sees being ordered to wear armour as a punishment.
64	** An armoured character falls over and every scrap of armour on him collapses into dust.
65	* '''Played For Drama''':
66	** Hero's friends die tragically due to uselessness of their armour.
67	** The massacre of armoured troops is compared with the grief of their families as they watch helplessly from afar, as well as their disbelief and outrage as the unarmoured Enemy racks up a body count.
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69	Back to ArmorIsUseless
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71	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
72	%%
73	%%* '''Implied''': ???

Context PlayingWith / ArmorIsUseless