Their armor is thick and their shields broad

When armor isn't useless, but it limits speed, see Shed Armor, Gain Speed. The best armor, of course, is Plot Armor. See also Tanks for Nothing, if the useless armor in question has treads and a gun on it.ДЇor non-armor objects that make for bizarrely non-useless armor, see Pocket Protector. The logical extreme of this trope is the Full-Frontal Assault, where the warrior doesn't even bother to wear clothes. Mobility, cover, and not being seen are often at least as important as armor for avoiding damage. Troops are armored according to their role, and no matter how armored you may be there is always someone out there with a Bigger Stick. Similarly, an armored car for reconnaissance may have a shell that's proof against machine guns, but wouldn't stand a chance against the main gun of a tank. World War I saw the reintroduction of steel helmets, which may not have been expected to do much good against rifles and machine guns, but did greatly reduce deaths and injuries from low-velocity shrapnel. The trope becomes unrealistic when people of the same technology level as their foes are shown to wear armor that doesn't have enough protective function to justify its expense and encumberance, to the point where you wonder who bothered to invent that useless armor in the first place.ДЄs in real life, there are many different levels of threat and also different levels of protection. The trope can be justified in a story if it depicts such a transitional period in technology, or if a violent First Contact occurs between peoples or species of different technology levels.

There really have been certain times when a new weapon appeared that could reliably defeat even the highest practical level of armor, leading to decreased reliance on armor for protection until some improved version was invented. The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort is a reason that heroes or the 'cool' characters are often less armored than the common rabble they're either confident enough in their skill to not get hit in the first place, or else so superhumanly tough that armor would be superfluous.ДЄs illustrated by various examples in the Real Life section, the balance of power between weapons and armor has fluctuated throughout history. That would do a lot to explain why hidden Bulletproof Vests usually work. From a more meta perspective, Unspoken Plan Guarantee may also be connected: the armor represents a plan to be invulnerable, which, once presented to the audience, has to fail or it'd be boringly predictable. You can even be led astray by genuine historical documents or artworks if you look at them without understanding their context, such as religious/mythical subject matter or the possibility of artistic license.ДЄ potential handwave is that quality armor (such as the plate suit that stamps someone as 'medieval warrior' on sight) should be quite expensive mooks might be issued cheap protection that only looks like quality armor. There are a lot of popular myths and misconceptions about historical armor, and it's pretty common for creators to be inspired by previous works of fiction which had these errors in them, rather than doing historical research. The creator is simply ignorant or misinformed about how armor works.They could have Super Strength, Charles Atlas Superpower, or be some nonhuman creature like an ogre, an alien, etc. It may be justified if the attacking character is much, much stronger than the defending character's armor was designed to handle.

Sometimes combined with Made of Plasticine.

A creator may want to make battles look as violent and gory as possible, so making the armor useless provides more opportunities for bleeding and dismemberment.

In a video game, you can avoid the bother of additional fight animations or complicated physics/damage modeling if just hitting any part of the enemy can kill them. The repertoire of Flynning is largely based on unarmored fighting, and it's easier for the actors if they don't have to learn a whole different set of moves for defeating armor.

Creators making a historical or fantasy work include armor for the sake of aesthetics, but donВ’t want the bother of factoring it into combat.

Such dehumanized extras make excellent Red Shirts and Mooks, with the bonus that an entire army can be portrayed by a half dozen or so stuntmen.

It is often the case that in movies, games, and other visual media, armor and especially helmets are not really there to protect characters, but to render them faceless and anonymous.

Their armor is thick and their shields broad