Its no secret that armor in the fictional world has often been butchered for the sake of sex-appeal or just general “coolness” or “aesthetic”. But what can you do to avoid this trope in your armor design? Well, here are a few things to consider to avoid such pitfalls.
★What time period is this? What time period did your character come from?
★What state should this armor be in? (Has been taken care of? Will it need repairing? You can’t just grab armor off of an age old skeleton and expect it to be in prime condition).
★Consider the coloring of your armor that would make sense for the culture that it is from.
★Overall, just do you research.
★ When making modifications or your own armor, do such changes make sense? What are the reasons for these changes? Do they serve as advantages?
★Does the society or culture that the armor is from have male and female versions of their armor? (Most of this time, the answer is a “no” as not dying is gender neutral. If your character is female, she may have to make certain modifications if she gets her hands on predominately male armor by making it lighter, fitting it better to her body, etc.)
★Consider mobility of said armor.
★Consider the level of defense this armor will serve and whether or not this makes sense for the type of weaponry the wearer’s are supposed to be up against.
★For real, this could all be summarized as do your research. So please, if it important to you to have accurate and sensible armor, do your research.
By the Brooke 