Chainmail Bikini/Playing With

Basic Trope: Females wearing armor in medival and fantasy settings don't use as much protection as their male counterparts.

• Straight: Hiro, Kelvin and Leon all dress reasonably. Their female companions Lumina, Sayuka and Jewel tend to wear less armor and show a little more skin.
• Exaggerated:
  • The guys are fully clothed, but the girls are beyond Stripperiffic, wearing only chainmail thongs and chainmail pasties in the Arctic.
  • Full-Frontal Assault.
• Downplayed: The girls' armor is relatively realistic... with the exception of the lack of a helmet and a small area of exposed thigh.
• Justified:
  • The female warrior uses her looks as a distraction, and her fighting style is one that requires her clothing be light and form-fitting.
  • The female warrior specializes in acrobatics, which full-plate armour tends to get in the way of.
  • The warriors in question are gladiators. When their equipment was designed, giving a good show was the first priority, Competitive Balance was the second, and effectiveness in combat was the third.
  • The series takes place in a tropical area with relatively little metal. The "armor" is meant as a status symbol, not protection.
• Inverted: 24-Hour Armor, Samus Is a Girl
  • Girls dress reasonably, guys tend to be Walking Shirtless Scenes.
• Subverted: The heroine shows up to the fight in nothing but a Fur Bikini...then mentions she was taken by surprise and didn't have time to put on her armor.
  • That armor you see is just casual clothes. When it's time for a real fight, the girls suit up just like the guys.
  • Or that the skimpy armor is actually a regular armor that can fold itself. When she gets to battle, the armor expands, covering her and adequately protecting her.
• Double Subverted:
  • The heroine shows up to the fight in nothing but a Fur Bikini...then mentions she was taken by surprise and didn't have time to put on her armor. Later, she goes off and gets her armor...and it covers less than the Fur Bikini.
• Parodied:
  • In an RPG, skimpy outfits afford more defense points then realistic ones.
  • The girls wear armor that effectively covers every part of their body except the privates, which are left exposed, and they all think nothing of it.
• Deconstructed:
  • Because they have less protection, female adventurers are naturally more vulnerable and have a higher mortality rate. Those who aren't killed amass plenty of scars, causing them to be viewed as less attractive and undesirable.
  • Exposed skin on an otherwise well-camouflaged outfit makes a handy target for snipers.
• Reconstructed: Alice wears only chainmail bikini and tends to get more serious injuries than Bob and Jake, who wear full armor. After a while Alice tries full armor but it just becomes too awkward because she is used to wearing less. Finally, she finds someone who can train her to make full use of the lighter clothing so that she can be just as effective in battle as her partners.
• Zig Zagged: Attire goes across the board; most members of both genders dress reasonably, but there are a few outliers on both extremes. A few girls and guys show off tons of skin, while others cover up so much it's amazing they can move under all that weight.
• Averted:
  • All the women wear armor that is reasonable and appropriate for their jobs.
  • Or none of the women are fighters.
• Enforced: All about the Author Appeal and making things Hotter and Sexier, or so say the execs.
• Lampshaded: "That's not armor, that's lingerie!"
• Invoked:
  • The female wearing this outfit is The Mole and is distracting the hero as well as acting as his love interest to give him a Heroic BSOD
  • She's a member of a Proud Warrior Race and is Made of Iron; the distraction bonus is worth a slight bit of extra risk.
  • Chainmail armor of any kind is very expensive and the female hero has only rags to protect herself with otherwise. She got this set of armor off the skeleton of a fallen adventurer and fully intends to get some better armor as soon as she can afford it.
• Defied: "Like hell I'm going into battle wearing nothing but a Chainmail Bikini. That's stupid."
• Discussed: The hero suggests she wear one, saying it always works in fiction, and she points out the idiocy of that statement.
• Conversed: The readers make fun of a dead woman who tried to take on a bear in one.
• Played For Laughs:
  • Morgana, the youngest member of the party who's currently decked out in Frills of Justice, tells her big brother figure Kelvin that she can't wait until she's old enough to wear real heroes' attire like Sakuya. Horrified, Kelvin starts trying to get the older girls to cover up more, much to the dismay of the other guys. Hilarity Ensues.
  • The female warrior's exposed parts are completely invulnerable anyway.
• Played For Drama: Barbara trained alongside Kelvin, but her sexist superiors deliberately gave her armor that leaves more more exposed and shows off her figure, much to her humiliation and outrage.

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