Suit up, everyone! Today, I’m listing five of my all-time favorite suits of armor in SFF. Both sci-fi and fantasy are teeming with amazing armor of all sorts, so I’m bound to leave some great examples out—consider this an invitation to tell us about your personal favorites in the comments!
Alphonse Elric — Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
How do you make it to the top of a list of cool suits of armor? Well, by making the armor into something more than an object… by embedding a human soul into it.
Alphonse’s state of being is the result of failed Human Transmutation, which also left his brother Edward without a left arm or leg. His soul is alchemically bonded to the suit of armor, effectively making him the armor itself. Alphonse is a character of extremes. He can be happy and silly despite the tragic events that bound him to the armor. He is kind and gentle despite being capable of incredible feats. While Elric shoulders the guilt of the transmutation gone wrong, Alphonse is patient and compassionate. The accident occurred when he was only ten, so Alphonse retains some of his childlike innocence, a trait that often proves invaluable.
With the philosophical stuff out of the way, let me add one more thing: Alphonse looks cool as hell. He’s massive and imposing. If I had the crafting chops, this suit of armor would be at the top of my list to cosplay.
Shardplate — The Stormlight Archive
You know it, you love it… it’s the iconic, incredibly valuable Shardplate from Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive.
Shardplate has clear advantages over typical armor, which offers protection at the cost of weighing the user down and slowing their ability to move and react. Shardplate doesn’t come with such drawbacks. While it is incredibly heavy, it’s infused with Stormlight, thereby granting the wearer amped-up speed, strength, and dexterity, so that the weight is not an issue (unless a segment is shattered). Paired with a deadly Shardblade and the right warrior, Shardplate makes the wearer a force capable of turning the tide of battle.
Every suit of Shardplate is unique in look, and each can adapt to the size and shape of the person wearing it. While it’s instantly recognizable as Shardplate, each suit is distinct in its form.
Charger — The Salvagers Trilogy
Mechanist Orno Sokol comes as a package deal. Charger is her mechanical armor, and she can connect with it using her magic to achieve insane acts of strength and dexterity.
In Alex White’s Salvagers trilogy, Charger is essentially its own character, rather than a simple object. In some ways, Charger is like a pet, getting into things it shouldn’t and acting distinctly cat-like. White plays with that description in action sequences, too, which often feature Charger bounding into combat like a big cat chasing its prey.
For these reasons and more (no spoilers!), it’s easy to become attached to Charger. I certainly found myself rooting for the armor, despite knowing it was a machine. I dreaded the idea of anything happening to it! As with Alphonse above, I regularly cheered for Charger, and I have to give credit to Alex White for their phenomenal job at making a hunk of metal and wires feel relatable.
Lorica — The Founders Trilogy
In Robert Jackson Bennett’s Foundryside and its sequels, scriving allows wielders to magically redefine an object’s relationship to reality. A Scriver might convince a door that the act of opening backward doesn’t really count. Or perhaps they’d convince a platform that down is actually up. The possibilities are near-infinite, and I’m sure you can see the utility this would have when applied to armor.
A lorica is a powerful scrived suit of armor. Most lorica can stave off magical attacks, and they often come with built-in weaponry.
Further on in the trilogy, the protagonists discover other uses for a lorica, including one that could be inspired by the Fullmetal Alchemist pick above. Leave it to Robert Jackson Bennett to create one of SFF’s coolest suits of armor by weaving the concept into his amazing, intricate magic system.
Mandalorian Armor — Star Wars
I’m no expert on Star Wars lore, but I know damn well when a suit of armor from the movies, TV shows, and the expanded universe is iconic enough to appear on this list.
What’s special about the Mandalorian armor? It’s sleek and shiny, of course. But also it’s known to repel blaster fire and even strikes from lightsabers. Wearing the Mandalorian armor makes a skilled wearer a fearful sight. No wonder it’s commonly used by bounty hunters.
Mandalorian armor is made of beskar, an immensely strong metal with a closely guarded origin. Its air of mystery definitely adds to the cool factor.
Bonus Pick: Iron Man
I wrote all five sections of this piece and was about to turn it in when I finally remembered one of the most influential suits of armor in pop culture: Iron Man’s suit!
Tony Stark’s MCU armor (and that of the original comics) are instantly recognizable, practically a household name (insofar as a suit of armor can be a household name). Back in 2008, Iron Man set the stage for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the armor has continued to evolve over the years.
Plus, you’ve got to hand it to Tony. He has built suits for other heroes, including the Iron Spider for Peter Parker. Credit where it’s due: Iron Man belongs on any list that mentions SFF armor.
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As I notes above, these are just five contenders out of many, so please feel free to chime in with your own favorite examples below!
Cole Rush writes words. A lot of them. For the most part, you can find those words at The Quill To Live or on Twitter @ColeRush1. He voraciously reads epic fantasy and science-fiction, seeking out stories of gargantuan proportions and devouring them with a bookwormish fervor. His favorite books are: The Divine Cities Series by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.
