Tagged: nice nice, but it covers the nose? i may be misremembering but didn’t a while ago you say that covering the nose up would be disorienting, bc of sensory organs being there?, i’m probably mixing something up.
You remembered correctly! Originally (as I posted I think a few years ago now, ahhh) I was going to remove the helmets entirely, I posted that they were simply trialed and then dismissed as too much of a compromise with too little gain.
I’ve changed my mind on this matter (and here’s the reason I don’t make master posts haha)! Or rather, I revisited armour design a few times to see what I could do to protect Cardassians. Their military uniforms leave a shocking amount of exposed vulnerable neck and head considering. That’s sort of fine in the show, where the majority of combat is energy-weapon based (and therefore it probably doesn’t really matter what you’re wearing much), but with redesigns, Cardassians are clearly a lot more physically involved, even if their combat may still be majority energy-weapon based.
It’s not really easy for you to see unless I made a cutaway diagram, but this design doesn’t sit directly flush with the snout. If you drew over the artwork to trace where the Cardassian head would be under the helmet, they’ve got a bit of “wiggle” room in the snout area. Since the helmet does not apply pressure to their snout (the “pressure”, ie where it’s held on, is more around the crest and eye-ridges), it won’t cause problems. Cardassians experience disorientation if you apply pressure to the snout, so without that, they’re A-Okay. In fact this time round, the helmet protects them from others trying to disable them in this way. It’s the best compromise I think. It could be even more armoured and secure, but then it would start causing navigation problems.
It was just a matter of me figuring out a design that worked with that vulnerability really, which I’m sure is something Cardassians themselves would do asap!
deepintheshadyglen