Both look really cheap, and are badly designed, especially when compared to lotr.
For example look at the angles on the chest.
Boromir’s armour is angled to deflect incoming strikes. So if someone tries to stab him in the chest, the strike will slide off. It makes sense, and is the basis of good, functional armour throughout history.
Now look at these other two. You can aim for the heart, miss and hit the ribs, and the tip will still slide and go under the pec. It directs all strikes towards your heart instead of away from it.
Also, what’s with the shoulders on the guy from the show? It’s shaped like scales, but looks like the same material as the breastplate. Sure, armor can have a lot of decoration, but that means he can’t lift his arms very high. Boromir has proper, segmented pauldrons. If he lifts his arms up, the plates slide past each other and he’s good to go.
Also, armpits are one of the biggest weak points in armor. Boromir gets hit in the armpit (or a point slides off his breastplate into his armpit) and his chainmail has a good chance of stopping it from penetrating or at the very least from getting too deep into him. The Aragorn we have at home is wearing what I will charitably assume is a gambeson, no mail. The tip of a pike or spear slips in and he’s got a punctured lung.
You’d think for a billion dollars they could pay a consultant to work with the wardrobe department, especially because they’re following up a film series known for absolutely excellent costume design.
You got a point. But in a way so was the Middle Ages. A lot of knowledge was lost and forgotten, especially in arts. Doesn’t mean some things won’t improve.
Would be nice to see the numenorians fighting in a shield wall formation, would justify not focusing on a full plate, which is better suited for solo/mounted combat like a knight does.
My thoughts: Rohan has the technology of the early middle ages, def a step down from imperial roman times. But even the late empire saw a loss in technology and centralised armories (more maille than Lorica Segmentata).
But the high middle ages had better metal working than the Roman empire. I would say Gondor is more equal to the high ma then the early ma like Rohan. But the cool thing is, their armour is not straight up copied from a specific culture (like Italian or German armour). Esp the helmets are very different from a stereotypical knights visor helmet. That makes Gondor feel unique and more fantastical than just “European medieval”.
Now the hoplites. Hoplites are from the era if greek poleis, before imperial, republican or even monarchical Rome. Technologically, that’s the bronze age and def less developed than imp Rome or the MA. But that’s not a bad thing.
In the intro sequence of lotr fotr during the great war of the second age , the elves have a greek inspired armour. Corinthian style helmets with the iconic face shape cutout and the long horse tail. But they also are not a copy and feel like their own thing.
So… I don’t need the numenorians to have more rivets or better shoulder joints. Mostly what is disappearing in Arda is not knowledge, but magic. So choosing greek inspiration is cool. But they need to feel 1) not copied 2) more magical than Gondor.
Perhaps the worst offender (which unfortunately gets a lot of screentime) is the odd Númenórean scale armor. Now scale armor was not necessarily a bad idea here (it could make for an interesting visual motif connecting the seafaring Númenóreans with fish-scales, for instance), but there are two immediate problems with this armor. First, it doesn’t seem structured like scale armor. The strong cording around the edges and rigid spaulders make it look like rigid armor made to look like it is composed of scales. The effect is only increased because the backing is shaped to give it pectoral muscles (and chests for women, which is doubly silly). But that’s not how historical scale armor hangs on the body.
Scale armor is [supposed to be] a lot more flexible (with the downside that the very flexibility of the scales means that a strike from below can pass beneath them and through the armor) and would thus hang and shape to the body. This armor does not do that. Instead as noted what this looks like are solid plates that are made to look like they are made out of scales. And that’s also not a terrible idea except that the actors are then also wearing scale-armor-print shirts underneath the armor which makes it clear that we’re to understand a flexible scale armor covering the whole of the upper body, which this clearly isn’t.
What on earth is this armor made out of? The queen’s armor looks like it might be bronze, albeit less well polished than I’d expect for royalty, but everyone else’s scale armor is made of this dull off-white material that looks like plastic or pressed foam, presumably because it is plastic or pressed foam. Surely this stuff should be made of iron?
You also get the bonus factor from it being made by skilled Numenorean smiths who had access to techniques used by the Noldor and whatnot. Maybe it was mithril or something too. Dunno, but it’s not a huge ask to suspend disbelief on this one.
It looks cheap and poorly made, though. With this budget, they could have just made scale armor that actually looks like scale armor. Especially for prominent characters.
They had SO much money, and I bet if they went to any fantasy festival or a decent larp and said “who wants to make us a full-sized scale armor for 5000 bucks and a mention in the credits of LotR” they would have to break up the resulting rush of volunteers.
Most of the costumes in the show are very, very good tbf. It’s something they generally did well. Same goes for the props.
I also wouldn’t really compare heavy “in battle” armour against some more casual armour that he wore off-duty.
E: Here is Elendil’s battle armour, which is probably a more apt comparison to Boromir’s heavy armour.
Both look really cheap, and are badly designed, especially when compared to lotr.
For example look at the angles on the chest.
Boromir’s armour is angled to deflect incoming strikes. So if someone tries to stab him in the chest, the strike will slide off. It makes sense, and is the basis of good, functional armour throughout history.
Now look at these other two. You can aim for the heart, miss and hit the ribs, and the tip will still slide and go under the pec. It directs all strikes towards your heart instead of away from it.
Also, what’s with the shoulders on the guy from the show? It’s shaped like scales, but looks like the same material as the breastplate. Sure, armor can have a lot of decoration, but that means he can’t lift his arms very high. Boromir has proper, segmented pauldrons. If he lifts his arms up, the plates slide past each other and he’s good to go.
Also, armpits are one of the biggest weak points in armor. Boromir gets hit in the armpit (or a point slides off his breastplate into his armpit) and his chainmail has a good chance of stopping it from penetrating or at the very least from getting too deep into him. The Aragorn we have at home is wearing what I will charitably assume is a gambeson, no mail. The tip of a pike or spear slips in and he’s got a punctured lung.
You’d think for a billion dollars they could pay a consultant to work with the wardrobe department, especially because they’re following up a film series known for absolutely excellent costume design.
It matches breastplates from hoplites, though. It makes sense if we think LOTR = Middle Ages and ROP = Ancient Rome.
Except arda is a world that’s deteriorating and not developing
You got a point. But in a way so was the Middle Ages. A lot of knowledge was lost and forgotten, especially in arts. Doesn’t mean some things won’t improve.
Would be nice to see the numenorians fighting in a shield wall formation, would justify not focusing on a full plate, which is better suited for solo/mounted combat like a knight does.
My thoughts: Rohan has the technology of the early middle ages, def a step down from imperial roman times. But even the late empire saw a loss in technology and centralised armories (more maille than Lorica Segmentata).
But the high middle ages had better metal working than the Roman empire. I would say Gondor is more equal to the high ma then the early ma like Rohan. But the cool thing is, their armour is not straight up copied from a specific culture (like Italian or German armour). Esp the helmets are very different from a stereotypical knights visor helmet. That makes Gondor feel unique and more fantastical than just “European medieval”.
Now the hoplites. Hoplites are from the era if greek poleis, before imperial, republican or even monarchical Rome. Technologically, that’s the bronze age and def less developed than imp Rome or the MA. But that’s not a bad thing.
In the intro sequence of lotr fotr during the great war of the second age , the elves have a greek inspired armour. Corinthian style helmets with the iconic face shape cutout and the long horse tail. But they also are not a copy and feel like their own thing.
So… I don’t need the numenorians to have more rivets or better shoulder joints. Mostly what is disappearing in Arda is not knowledge, but magic. So choosing greek inspiration is cool. But they need to feel 1) not copied 2) more magical than Gondor.
The costumes are good, but the armor in the show is all over the place.
According to this blog post by a military historian, that “scale” armor you linked is the worst of a bad bunch:
You also get the bonus factor from it being made by skilled Numenorean smiths who had access to techniques used by the Noldor and whatnot. Maybe it was mithril or something too. Dunno, but it’s not a huge ask to suspend disbelief on this one.
It looks cheap and poorly made, though. With this budget, they could have just made scale armor that actually looks like scale armor. Especially for prominent characters.
They had SO much money, and I bet if they went to any fantasy festival or a decent larp and said “who wants to make us a full-sized scale armor for 5000 bucks and a mention in the credits of LotR” they would have to break up the resulting rush of volunteers.
Yeah, I hope the Noldor could produce something better than this cheap plastic looking piece of trash shown here.
That’s good to hear, at least.