Or it could just mean that Hobbits in general are a peaceful lot who know jack diddly shit about how to properly wear armor, and are lucky that mithril is super-fanta-magically strong or they'd have gotten screwed up by their own mail.

Just a thought.

For you, isn't that redundant?

QFT

I concur that the hobbits got lucky. However, that still makes them ~right~, when it comes to wearing mithril. Armor protects at the cost of speed and agility. Mail that can be worn like cloth, with no significant padding, would be a way of gaining that protection without the cost. It's worth noting that mithril, in D&D, is not merely lighter--armors made from it imbue fewer or no penalties on movement and agility. That would suggest that the "mail worn as cloth" concept is, in fact, how it should work.

In a group shot, the elf should be standing next to one of the better-portrayed humans from the list; the human wearing a padded suit of forged steel of the sort that Knaight was advocating, the elf wearing the mithril mail.

You really don't lose that much speed or agility. Full plate won't prevent you from doing cartwheels, and properly fitted armor basically doesn't restrict movement. I'm not saying you lose no agility or speed, but the amount is pretty trivial, and unless you need to climb or swim frequently armor is basically always a good idea.

Of course, none of that has anything to do with the meaning of "reasonable" in the context of the blog, since the blog is about armored women who look badass instead of cheesecakey. It's not anti-stylization.

Especially when the baseline for comparison is closer to this

Armor works by reducing the concentration of impact to manageable levels. Two techniques are deflection and dispersion. Plate armors, and some of the scale armors use deflection. Blows hit the armor at weird angles and most of the energy gets deflected away. Chainmail uses dispersion. It intercepts a concentrated blow, like from a sword, and spreads the blow over a larger area. That is where the padding comes in (never mind the chaffing). Without padding to displace the energy, elven chain offers very little protection. I would even say NONE vs. bludgeoning attacks.

Huh. I'm trying to figure out whether the armor, the shield, or the spear is the dumbest of the lot, and it is proving difficult. That said, that is significantly worse than normal, and its the typical which should be used as a baseline for comparison. Still, that is somewhat closer than any of the pictures on the tumblr, which is sad and pathetic.


Exactly. Unless it stiffens when hit and a large area is suddenly basically a solid plate that won't bend in, the mail is nigh useless. The fact that it is flexible means that padding is necessary.

It's not like fantasy, it's not like conservation of momentum applies anywhere else. Ergo if your metal is fantasy special enough, you don't need padding.

Unfortunately, it isn't any worse than normal. The default for women in armor is the steel lingerie, the battle corset, the boob-windowed skin-tight thing paired with metal stripper boots. If you want worse than normal, you're getting into the realm of the "pasties and a cork" school of design. Or something like this.