History Main / ArmorIsUseless

As illustrated by various examples in the Real Life section, the balance of power between weapons and armor has fluctuated throughout history. There really have been certain times when a new weapon appeared that could reliably defeat even the highest practical level of armor, leading to decreased reliance on armor for protection until some improved version was invented. The trope can be justified in a story if it depicts such a transitional period in technology, or if a violent FirstContact occurs between peoples or species of different technology levels. The trope becomes unrealistic when people of the same technology level as their foes are shown to wear armor that doesn't have enough protective function to justify its expense and encumbrance, to the point where you wonder who bothered to invent that useless armor in the first place.

As in real life, there are many different levels of threat and also different levels of protection. UsefulNotes/WorldWarI saw the reintroduction of steel helmets, which may not have been expected to do much good against rifles and machine guns, but did greatly reduce deaths and injuries from low-velocity shrapnel. Similarly, an armored car for reconnaissance may have a shell that's proof against machine guns, but wouldn't stand a chance against the main gun of a tank. Troops are armored according to their role, and no matter how armored you may be there is always someone out there with a BiggerStick. Mobility, cover, and not being seen are often at least as important as armor for avoiding damage.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', we see Jack slicing through heavily-armored robots and mercenaries with ease, making it likely that the armorers of Aku's evil future make people's armor out of aluminum foil out of spite. Jack himself dons a full set of plate mail after the TimeSkip, it gets disintegrated within the first minute of him facing the [[AmazonBrigade Daughters of Aku]], and he never bothers to replace it.

* Noticeable in ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'', where the ragtag, unarmored peasant army led by Bowen, has no noticeable issues, punching through the chain-mail and other armor the villain's troops are wielding, despite being armed with sharpened sticks and other {{Improvised Weapon}}s, mixed in with a few real ones.

** Legolas and Aragorn wear no armor through all of ''Fellowship'' and slaughter goblins and Uruk-hai with half-plate armor and heavy shields by the dozens. At the Battle of Helms Deep in ''Literature/TheTwoTowers'', Aragorn wears a mail hauberk while Legolas has only bracers and leather pauldrons. In this same battle, Théoden, wearing the best armor of anyone in Rohan's forces, gets wounded in the shoulder (albeit in the weak armpit underside, putting the blame on his chain mail undercoat).

* ''Literature/BloodSword'' has armor of most characters stopping 2 damage (the Warrior's chainmail stops 3). Besides taking up a slot on the very limited space a character can carry, armor stops being effective after Book 1 as enemies soon cause so much damage that a 2 or 3 point reduction isn't noticeable.

** The long-awaited Oberyn and Mountain duel is a fascinating glimpse of this. Oberyn wears light armor and no helmet to give him speed, while the Mountain is a walking Tank covered in chainmail and metal helmet, Oberyn wields a very sharp spear that proves effective in piercing Gregor Clegane and he ends up defeating him and flat on the mat, he could have easily won had he not delayed the CoupDeGrace.

* ''VisualNovel/YoJinBo'': Nobody wears armor, except for [[spoiler: Mon-Mon]], who wears [[BulletproofVest chain mail]] under his clothes. Which does save him from being stabbed in the back in one event, but the trope is played straight aside from that one instance.

* Played with at the end of ''WesternAnimation/UltimateAvengers'': when the team fights [[Characters/IncredibleHulkBruceBanner The Hulk]], guess who appears to be doing the least well in the fight? ComicBook/IronMan. That's right, the only dude wearing any kind of outfit that would seem useful when fighting something that can rip a tank apart, is the one who seemingly does the least. This is, however, mostly due to his massive power demands to operate the suit and less due to the armor itself failing to protect him. It even manages to shrug off a hit from the Hulk, though not before he rips Tony's helmet off.

** ZigZaggingTrope when Syrio Forel defeats several armored mooks with his wooden practice sword by knocking them on the helmets but fares less well against a slightly heavier-armed Ser Meryn Trant of the Kingsguard.

** Rakharo believes a Dothraki would defeat an armored knight in a duel because of speed and freedom of movement. Ser Jorah's duel with Qotho convinces him otherwise.

** It may simply be flak armor, designed to protect the wearer from debris, shrapnel, and the occasional bullet hitting from an oblique angle, but simply not designed to withstand the colossal biting and crushing power of the claws and mandibles of an alien arthropod the size of a terrestrial auroch.

** A more egregious example can be found in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' when the Klingons Lursa and B'etor slip a hidden camera into Geordi's VISOR and can see the "modulation" of the ''Enterprise-D'''s shields and program their torpedoes to fire at the same frequency, thus passing through the shields as if they aren't even there.

** This is seen in ''Film/ANewHope'' as well. At one point during the film, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker stole two sets of Stormtrooper armor to hide among Death Star personnel. As soon as they free Leia and escape the trash compactor, they immediately dispense with the armor. Once its use as camouflage is rendered irrelevant, so is its use as armor.
*** It is shown to have at least some use in the first firefight of the movie. Several Rebel troopers go down from shrapnel after near misses hit the walls near them, but the Stormtroopers are completely unaffected by anything but a square hit to the chest. We also see a few of them getting back up after the fight. It's been theorized that it just limits the burning so much, a quick bacta dip and you're good.
** Averted in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''. Jango's armor is the only reason why he's able to take as much punishment as he does. Whether it's a beating from Obi-Wan, damage from a jetpack malfunction, or a blow from a reek, Jango's armor can take it.
** In ''Film/RogueOne'', Chirrut manages to kick much Stormtrooper ass with '' a staff''. On the other hand, the armor is shown deflecting the Stormtroopers' own rounds, so it could simply be a case of the armor being made to withstand more common blasters, as opposed to the military-grade or heavily-modified stuff we would see in the Original Trilogy and beyond.
** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in ''Film/TheLastJedi''. Snoke's Praetorian Guards are notable for wearing armor despite being trained to fight lightsaber wielders. Given the [[LaserBlade nature of lightsabers]] armor would normally offer no additional protection against lightsabers, and merely slow down the wearer. However, one guard survives a glancing lightsaber slash to the torso courtesy of [[spoiler: Rey]], and manages to rejoin the fight later. Though we see direct, head-on thrusts from lightsabers penetrating the armor, and the combatants aim strikes at gaps in the plating at the neck and legs, if whatever armor the guards wear can withstand glancing strikes that would kill an unarmored person, then it is certainly worth it.

* ArmorIsUseless/RealLife

* In ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'', a tribe of orcs [[http://oglaf.com/newmodelarmy/ realize this]] after finding record of a "toddler" with a stick stabbing right through an orc's breastplate (the "toddler" appears to actually be a hobbit), and switch to ChainmailBikini armor on the theory that it offers just as much protection, but weighs much less and [[DistractedByTheSexy distracts the enemy]].

* In ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' early space warfare is described as being like playing hide-and-seek with bazookas.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* PlayedWith in ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls''.

* Zig-zagged in ''Fanfic/SpiritOfRedemption''. The armor the Young Guns start out with works as well as expected when it is 10-20 years old and comes face to face with modern high-end weapons. However, when you take a vibroblade to a rachni's natural armor, it will scratch it at best, and piss off the rachni at worst.

* Played with at the end of ''WesternAnimation/UltimateAvengers'': when the team fights [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk The Hulk]], guess who appears to be doing the least well in the fight? ComicBook/IronMan. That's right, the only dude wearing any kind of outfit that would seem useful when fighting something that can rip a tank apart, is the one who seemingly does the least. This is, however, mostly due to his massive power demands to operate the suit and less due to the armor itself failing to protect him. It even manages to shrug off a hit from the Hulk, though not before he rips Tony's helmet off.

* Discussed in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' when Lucius and Bruce are discussing upgrading/improving Batman's armour - increasing its worth against knives makes it less resistant against bullets and vice versa, and the payoff to agility and speed is less protection. Both are {{truth in television}}.
** Strangely, despite hanging this lampshade on how impractical it actually is for superheroics, the armoured design of Batman in this film ended up proving popular enough to [[FollowTheLeader inspire a trend of superheroes dressing in armour]] across live action and comics, particularly street level heroes like Batman, but even superpowered ones like Superman who wouldn't even need it. Very rarely does it seem to offer any more protection than just wearing tights, and in live action it can even cause FightSceneFailure by encumbering the actors.

* In ''Film/IronMan3'' Extremis-enhanced soldiers cut through Tony's armors like butter, as their bare hands can generate heat of up to 3000 degrees Celsius. It also doesn't help that most of the versions of the armor we're shown during the battle are half-baked prototypes that Tony didn't bother perfecting before moving on to the next idea.
** The Iron Man armor does, however, hold up extremely well against almost everything else in the MCU, with the notable exception of [[BigBad Thanos]]. And even then, [[spoiler: the Nanosuit manages to keep Tony alive in a hand-to-hand fight against a guy that beat ''the Hulk'']], so it's very far from useless.

* ''Film/TheSiegeOfJadotville'': Commandant Quinlan and Sergeant Pendergast examine the UN helmets provided. They're plastic -- and rather flimsy at that -- and offer no protection against a bullet or shrapnel. They decide them pointless to issue.
** Notably, special forces actually made use of plastic helmets, using them to protect against bumps to the head against doorframes, walls, etc.

* Averted in ''Film/JohnWickChapter3Parabellum''. The climax of the film has [[MouthOfSauron the Adjudicator]] send in a squadron of the High Table's elite forces decked out in armor that protects them from most conventional firearms, requiring John and Charon to get in close to shoot point-blank in order to penetrate it. They later rearm themselves with shotguns loaded with armor-penetrating shells to properly deal with this problem.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E1TheMasqueOfMandragora "The Masque of Mandragora"]], the Doctor dons a suit of armor under his clothes to channel the {{Hand Blast}}s of the VillainOfTheWeek, though he uses a wire to ground it. In the novelisation the wire melts from the energy pouring through it, forcing the Doctor to absorb the final blast unaided.

* Played very straight in Literature/TheBible, and possibly the UrExample: David and Goliath. When David prepares to face Goliath, King Saul offers him his armor, but as David is a young boy, the armor is too big and heavy for him, so he declines. Goliath is heavily armored, but David nails him in his unprotected forehead with [[SufferTheSlings his sling]] to knock him out, then decapitates him with his own sword. Then again, God is responsible for this outcome: God's protection is better than any armor, and if God is on the side of your enemy then no armor will keep you safe.
** This example is more of a DownplayedTrope, because while David was indeed putting himself at great risk without armor, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sling_(weapon) a real sling]] is not at all like the modern-day ''slingshot'' that kids use for toys. It is comparable to a modern firearm and is ''easily'' capable of breaking bones and denting armor. David didn't bring a child's toy, he brought a GUN!

* When Wrestling/EddieGuerrero tried to wrestle in a flak jacket back when Smackdown went to Iraq in 2004, it was considered an illegal advantage and he was forced to remove it. When Wrestling/DeanAmbrose wrestled for the same company in a flak jacket, it served him no better than his t-shirts and wifebeaters had before. So this is either ThreeMonthRule or DependingOnTheWriter (booker?) in effect.

The logical extreme of this trope is the FullFrontalAssault, where the warrior doesn't even bother to wear clothes. See also TanksForNothing, if the useless armor in question has treads and a gun on it.

** Armor rules were later printed in the ''[[FanonDiscontinuity Cathay]]'' supplement, which was written after all of the setting's creators had [[JustForPun jumped ship]].