Since people often ask “Alright, well this is fantasy! Why can’t we have boob shapes in plate armor?!“ I decided to make a post about it. My frustration has nothing to do with historical inaccuracy and I’m all for imagination and freedom– but I’d like to (very quickly) illustrate this for you:
I purposely over-emphasized the shape of the two spheres in the armor so you can really think about this.
Look at the shape of the blue cups and the green line, think about the form of that on some beautiful ornate plate armor. A female warrior is charging into battle. In the midst of this, she trips! Or is pushed over, or takes a blow to the chest! So long as the force is on the front of her torso it really doesn’t matter for the conclusion:
She feels a sharp pain in her chest and hears the cracking of bone! Oh no, what’s gone wrong? Well she doesn’t have time to think about that, because she is now dead.
Her sternum just fractured, take another look at that green line, that’s where all of the pressure from any front impact is going to go because of the shape of the two blue cups made for her breasts. The rest of the armor slides around your body, but because of the two cups for breasts that are often made in fantasy female armors, the pressure point is directly on the sternum. The breasts are not going to stop the force of you falling onto them, and because of that the metal is going to push in and bash you in the sternum.
What does a fractured sternum do? Why it goes right into your heart and lungs of course.
(that was the sound of all of my followers inhaling a sharp breath between closed teeth at once)
Here are three great solutions to the problem:
GREAT EXAMPLE OF FANTASY TORSO ARMOR THAT IS FEMININE BUT FUNCTIONAL:
It is usually possible to bind the breasts when fighting if they really are far too large to fit into regular looking armor (there’s padding anyway), but most women can actually fit into a similarly sized male counterpart’s armor quite easily. Even if that’s the case, the armor can be made to have a curve to it without putting all of the pressure in one area, which was actually a style of armor for quite some time as shown here:
And don’t even get me started on the dreaded “Cleavage Window”
The “Cleavage Window” defeats the purpose of having any armor on your torso because it means you’re just going to be leaving open the vital organs the rest of the armor is trying to protect.
If people are going to protect themselves and not have much torso protection, invest in some blocking lessons, because the best defense is to not get hit at all. There are also advantages to not having plate armor, and plate armor was often really expensive anyway.
I’d also like to add that boob bulges direct blows straight to the sternum as well, rather than making them glance to either side. Good post.
but how else can you sexualize the women if you don’t give them armored boob pods!!!!
Also, breastplates are shaped to redirect the tip of a sword or spear to the side. Boobplates would redirect the weapon right into the middle of the woman’s chest.
This topic pops up (or the subjects of the topic pop out) every now and again. Something to remember is that it’s easier for an illustrator on a deadline (check comics costumes) to start with a basic nude then add enough “not-naked-honestly” colours and patterns to make it fit for print.
That’s (IMO) the technical reason for boob-plates, chainmail bikinis and all the rest, but then come the excuses and justifications about “lightness”, “mobility” and “distraction”. I’ve said before that Red Sonja could strip to the buff and any opponent who knew her reputation would still pay more attention to her sword that all the flesh on show. Naked T&A aren’t as dangerous as naked steel.
And why is it always boob-plates? Why not bum-plates? There’s actual historical precedent for those…
Here’s another commentary on boob-plates; here’s yet another; and here’s a rebuttal to that one from someone who knows rather less than he thinks he does. Some of his original post made sense, but his reply to a comment destroyed his credibility in 17 words:
“And yes a mace, morning star or hammer would cause some damage but it wont kill you”.
Facepalm. Headdesk. Of course they bloody well would! Why else were they carried in battle? As flyswatters or back-scratchers?
They’d do it without going through the armour, too. They’d crush and dent the plate, they’d ruin the joint articulation and the wearer’s mobility, they’d transmit impact shock into tissue and organs, bones and joints…
Look up “blunt force trauma”, “concussion”, “coup-contrecoup injury”, “internal haemorrhage”, “depressed skull fracture” and indeed any number of other fractures, and all the many other ways in which apparently-well-protected human beings can come to harm. If that can be the result of accident, think about deliberate assault with a weapon designed to negate the protection and wielded by someone trained to use it to best effect.
A man in full plate harness getting seriously done over by a percussion weapon, like the mace, morning-star or hammer dismissed so lightly, would suffer injuries similar to a car crash. But in this crash, the “other car” would be taking deliberate aim at the places where impact would do most harm, and that full plate harness would be proper armour meant for battlefield use to avert injury if possible, not some Vegas showgirl “look at the boobies” nonsense. It might help.
Or it might not.
One well-placed blow of his mace, hammer, whatever, against the back of your gauntlet hasn’t damaged the steel, but the impact shock though the metacarpal bones has made you drop your sword. It hurts like hell and distracts you enough that you don’t avoid the next one, delivered low against your knee. Again the armour holds, but its joint and that of the leg within snap sideways in a direction it was never meant to go. Cartilage rips, your kneecap pops loose, ligaments tear free of bone, the leg buckles and you crash to the ground. You wrench up your visor to yell “Quarter!”, but his next blow is already on its way as you sprawl. It starts high above his head and ends against your helmet. The helmet’s as well made as everything else you’re wearing, it doesn’t shatter or split, but its metal crushes so much that the dent caves in your skull. If you’re lucky, if you’re unaware of what’s about to happen, the lights will just go out. Otherwise the last thing you ever see, coming down hard and fast, is one of these…
I mean it. You’re getting the attention you think you want, all eyes on you. Except ours.
“Isn’t there anything you can do?” Your fellow waiters ask us, concerned. Behind the triage window, you can’t hear our teeth grinding.
You’re in pain, i understand that. This might even be the worst pain you’ve ever felt.
But you’re probably not dying.
Dying isn’t loud.
A patient having a heart attack does not scream and thrash and gasp for air. It’s a whisper, a tightness, with slow flexing fingers.
A stroke happens in a fraction of an instant, and never makes any sound. More whispers, halves of sentences and muscles that don’t quite match up anymore, a puppet with a few of the strings cut. Alarmed and wandering eyes, maybe, but never yelling.
Or the more common killers, infections that shut down organs or the pipes of blood that sever. Cardiac or respiratory failure. If a person can talk they are, in fact, breathing just fine.
Remember this, the next time you come to an emergency department. Remember this when you’re sitting in the waiting room, while a sleepy-looking person in a wheelchair is whisked away without a word.
Some understanding of the factors that influence wounding capacity and pattern of injury may help the imaging assessment. The main contributing factors are the type of firearm, projectile characteristics and the inherent characteristics of the wounded tissues.
Type of firearm
The type of firearm influences the velocity of the projectile and given that e = m x v2, projectile velocity is a major contributor to the energy imparted to tissues and hence, to wounding capacity.
Projectile characteristics
Deformation : encased (jacketed) bullets used in higher velocity firearms tend to deform (“mushroom”) on impact. A deformed bullet decelerates faster, hence increasing local tissue damage
Tumbling: when a bullet hits its target, it loses its directional stability and is able to rotate around its short axis; for this reason, non-deformed bullets may sometimes be seen pointing towards the entry wound
Fragmentation: generally occurs on impact of a non-jacketed or semi-jacketed bullet. As well as giving some clue to the bullet type/characteristics, fragmentation often leads to a telltale distribution of fragments spreading along the bullet course. Fragmentation gives important information about the mechanism and direction of injury.
Tissue characteristics
Bullet injury is more severe in friable organs such as liver and brain due to temporary cavitation at a distance from the bullet path. Both dense (e.g.bone) and loose tissues (e.g. subcutaneous fat) are more resistant to damage. Bone can significantly alter behaviour of the projectile and its wounding capacity by slowing it down and changing its path
It may look like this model brain is made of Jell-O, but it’s the same consistency as a real brain.
As Dr. Christopher Giza from UCLA demonstrates, the brain is made of soft tissue and floats in fluid inside of the skull. When the skull moves quickly, the brain can jostle around a lot, which can lead to neurological symptoms.
“Most concussions are recoverable,” Giza said.
But concussions can be difficult to identify and some people suffer
more serious symptoms, particularly after multiple concussions.
Lab studies have shown a “window of vulnerability” after a first
concussion, Giza said. Concussed athletes are three to six times more
likely to get another concussion. If they rush back to play, their
reflexes, reaction time and thinking may be slower, putting them at risk
of a second concussion and longer recovery period.
Description: “Let Them Come is an old-school pixel art shoot'em up with a dynamic lighting engine. Blast your way through waves of challenging enemies that exist only to eradicate all human life. Can you fight your way out?”
There are two broad categories of things that kill trauma patients. No, I’m not talking about violent penetrating injury, falls, car crashes, or any other specific mechanisms. I am referring to the end events (on a macro scale) that take their lives.
These two basic killers are: hemorrhage and brain injury. The vast majority of the time, a dying trauma patient has either suffered a catastrophic brain injury, or has ongoing and uncontrolled bleeding.
Here’s the law:
Your trauma patient is bleeding to death until you prove otherwise.
Bottom line: Since there is little we can do above and beyond the basics in the ED for severe brain injury, your focus must be on hemorrhage. There are lots of things we can do about that, and the majority involve an operating room. Always assume that there is a source of hemorrhage somewhere, and it just hasn’t shown itself yet. There can be no rest until you prove that the source does not exist. And hopefully, you do that very, very quickly.
I’m an apprentice tattoo artist. An artist who owns a few shops invited me to their team.
I’ve got a long way to go. I’m still learning basic shading techniques. Working with a tattoo pen adds depth to the traditional flat plane I’m used to working on.
One is never too old to learn a new skill.
At times I feel like a complete newb.
So, here is a meme that I love. I’m sharing it for everyone who is learning something new.
chequerootlurks
