Basic Trope: An armoured dress.
- Straight: Princess Martia, Supreme Commander of the Royal Troperian Army, rides onto the battlefield wearing an elegant gown, augmented with an ornate plumed helmet and cuirass.
- Exaggerated: Princess Martia’s dress just looks like a gown with no armor attached. It it still as impenetrable as a tank.
- Downplayed: Princess Martia rides onto the battlefield wearing an elegant surcoat over her otherwise Boring, but Practical suit of armour.
- Justified:
- The Princess' role is largely ceremonial, being a woman in her culture she won't be expected to actually take part in the fighting and is simply addressing her troops to raise their morale. As such, she needs to be seen to appear as the right mixture of "respectably feminine" and "means business". Moreover, protection from stray arrows is a must, but such annoyances as being pulled off her horse by her skirt need not concern her.
- Given the constant risk of assassination, Princess Martia needs to wear 24-Hour Armour even when attending court functions whilst still looking appropriately stylish.
- The dress is enchanted, making it considerably stronger than it looks.
- In a World… which runs off Rule of Glamorous over Combat Pragmatism, Martia's unofficial motto is "if you're going to die, you might as well look your best."
- Inverted: Chainmail Bikini
- Subverted: It turns out that Martia's "armour" is just a costume; she's hosting a fancy-dress ball dressed as an Amazon.
- Double Subverted: Or at least that's what she told the Ambassador of Tropeland, where they don't approve of women warriors. To the surprise of her guests, the "costume" held up rather too well against that assassin's dagger.
- Parodied: The princess wears a tutu that has no defensive augmentations whatsoever, and she survives a nuclear explosion.
- Zig-Zagged: The armor on Princess Martia's war-gown is actually an activated feature - it retracts and protrudes out.
- Averted: Princess Martia just wars proper armor, like everyone else.
- Enforced: "Audiences need to see that Princess Martia is a girl or else they'll just get confused, but we don't want to sexualize her either!"
- Lampshaded: "Why do I have to wear this Battle Ballgown? It's impractical and ridiculous-looking!"
- Invoked: The king make princess Alice wear this large padded ballgown to keep her protected from danger.
- Exploited: During a heated duel, Sir Blightgore notices that Princess Martia's armored gown goes down just about to her ankles, meaning she'll get caught on it if she doesn't get up properly. He takes maximum advantage of this detail by focusing his strategy on knocking her off her feet, which makes her waste time and effort.
- Defied: "People are going to think I take everything too seriously if I show up in such a heavy dress. I'm just going to dress normally."
- Discussed: SB: "Vacuous fool! Your steel gown is a hinderance to essential footwork; you've sacrificed movement that could spare your life in the vain name of vanity. Your combat potential weeps, Martia!"
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Princess Martia is wearing a ballgown made interlay of thick heavy steel. It weighs her down so much she can barely stand in it.
- Reconstructed: But her heavy steel ballgown also works as a steam-driven powered armor that allows her to charge into battle.
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