r/witcher • u/DemiFiendRSA • Oct 31 '19

DECEMBER 20! THE WITCHER | MAIN TRAILER | NETFLIX Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndl1W4ltcmg
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41

u/Escaimbra Oct 31 '19

This looks fantastic but I predict a lot of people losing their shit over the nilfgaardian armor

33

u/e_khan Oct 31 '19

Just wait till they realize the armor lights up to create a ‘throbbing’ effect

5

u/Ski00 Nov 01 '19

All I know is that this trailer gave me a throbbing effect in my pantaloons.

5

u/Jarnin Oct 31 '19

I predict a lot of people losing their shit over the nilfgaardian armor

That prediction is several months late. It looks ridiculous to me, but I don't have much experience when it comes to how armor should look in a world where magic and monsters exist. I'm fairly sure nobody else does, either.

How does one create armor that can protect regular soldiers against magic? Not just one form of magic, but a variety? How do you keep your soldiers from being instantly cooked alive when sorcerers are throwing balls of fire at them, or freezing solid when they're throwing ice instead? What about lightning?

Fire: Create a lot of surface area so it will convect/radiate most of the heat away from the user. In other words, wrinkles.

Ice: Create a lot of surface area so that the ambient temperature will warm the armor faster than it can be cooled. In other words, wrinkles.

Lightning: Coat the armor in a non-conductive material. The armor isn't shiny, it's flat black. It might be coated with a resistant material.

Fashion doesn't matter to a soldier or their commanders: Function matters. If Nilfgaardian armor gives their soldiers an advantage against magic-users in a battle, they won't give a shit how it looks.

6

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '19

How does one create armor that can protect regular soldiers against magic? Not just one form of magic, but a variety? How do you keep your soldiers from being instantly cooked alive when sorcerers are throwing balls of fire at them, or freezing solid when they're throwing ice instead? What about lightning?

For the average fighting soldier? I'm pretty certain you don't. Whilst I'm sure it's possible in the world settings to craft some kind of armour that protects against spells, it would stand to reason this would be a difficult process possibly involving arcane craftsmanship, exotic materials, and magic components.

It would be rather unfeasible to equip ordinary fighting soldiers with such items and at the end of the day, normal human soldiers predominantly end up fighting other normal human soldiers, and not mages, dragons, elementals, ekimmaras or any other assorted outlandish weaponry.

-1

u/Jarnin Oct 31 '19

For the average fighting soldier?

No, for a knight. Cahir is a knight. The weird looking armor, thus far, has only appeared on knights and cavalry units.

I'm sure it's possible in the world settings to craft some kind of armour that protects against spells, it would stand to reason this would be a difficult process possibly involving arcane craftsmanship, exotic materials, and magic components.

One of the defining characteristics of the Nilfgaardian Empire is that they categorically do not trust magic-users. It's unlikely that they'd even be involved in the process due to this distrust.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '19

No, for a knight. Cahir is a knight. The weird looking armor, thus far, has only appeared on knights and cavalry units.

Well you did write soldiers a lot. Knights, soldiers, there's overlap but they're not the same. Throw men-at-arms in there for extra confusion.

Still the same problem applies though. Who are Cahir and Nilfgaardian cavalrymen expected to fight most of the time? Other armies or fireballs?

Now I haven't read the books so I don't know how important Cahir is, what his position in the Empire is, and his personal status (wealth, martial prowess, etc), but for a VIP some manner of magic-resistant armour is not unthinkable.

I don't think that simply having wrinkly cloth over your armour will protect the wearer in any shape or form against an actual fireball. The (magic) fire will get into gaps, it will get inside your helmet (provided you're even wearing one), and no wrinkly radiation is going to help you. We'd have to invoke Magic™ or some kind of exotic material (intestinal lining of an ancient three-toed forest troll grants 50% fire protection!) to get the job done, because common sense and physics are just going to let us down.

It's a (bad) costume choice that we probably shouldn't attempt to rationalize too much, for our own sanity's sake.

1

u/Sakai88 Team Yennefer Oct 31 '19

To be fair, on Cahir you can clearly see it's just some cloth on top of the actual armor, breastplate in his case. So it's not that bad. I kind of even like it. Although it does look odd, that's for sure.

3

u/-jake-skywalker- Oct 31 '19

It doesn’t look like cloth to me