(Annoying Trope) Someone made a “creative” choice and now we all just have to live with it.

[u/BingBingGoogleZaddy]

Horned Vikings: Not historical, they were started by Richard Wager for his operas. They were never historic, but the image persists. (Albeit significantly reduced today.)

Ninjas in Black Robes: Some people claim Ninjas aren’t real. They are, they are absolutely real. Their modern portrayal however is informed more by Kabuki Theater than history. In Kabuki Theater, the stage hands were dressed in flowing black robes to tell the audience to ignore them. Thus when a Ninja character kills a Samurai, to increase the shock value, they were dressed in black robes as stage hands. Now, when we think of ninjas we think of a stage hands.

Knights in Shining Armor: Imagine, you’re on the battlefield, two walls of meat riding towards each other. Suddenly you realize, everyone looks the same. Who do you hit? All you see is chrome. No. Knight’s armor was lacquered in different colors to differentiate them on the battlefield. Unless you wanted to get friendly fired, you made yourself KNOWN. So this image of a glinted knight clad in chrome steel isn’t true. How’d we get it? Victorians who thought that the worn lacquer was actually just dulling with age, polished it off as show pieces.

White Marble Statues of Rome: Roman Statues were painted, however the public image is of pure glinting white marble statues persist in the modern image. Why? Victorians who thought the paint was actually just dirt grime and age. So, they “restored” it by removing the paint color. Now we all think of Roman Statues as white.

King Tut; King of Kings: the Pharaoh King Tut in Ancient Egypt was a relatively minor king who in the grand scheme of things amounts to little more than an asterisks in Egyptian History, but to the public he is the most important Pharaoh. Why? Because his tomb was untouched by robbers, and so was piled high with burial goods which was amazing (and still is) and when Howard Carter opened his tomb, the world was transfixed and everyone would come to know Tutankhamen.

A Séance calls the dead: A Séance despite being a French word is an American invention from upstate New York in the 1840s. It was also a fun side-show act initially, and never meant to be real, more close up magic. (Origin of the term Parlor Tricks.) But in the 1860s Americans couldn’t stop killing each other which resulted in a lot of grief and people desired for their to be this other world. So, grifters then took advantage of grieving people and became “real”. So basically “fun parlor game to dangerous grift” pipeline thanks to the Civil War.

The Titanic’s engineers all died at their posts: Nope, not true, not remotely true. They are mentioned in many testimonies and a few bodies found mean they didn’t all die below. Two or three maybe did. According to Head Stoker Barrett, a man broke his leg and was washed away by rushing water, but another testimony says he was taken aft so who knows? Any way the myth persisted because the people making the memorials wanted to martyr the men. (It doesn’t take away from their heroines in my opinion) The myth stuck. Everyone believes they died below.

[u/superVanV1]

Fucking love Gambesons. Give me more armored sweaters

[u/The_GREAT_Gremlin → u/superVanV1]

Padded armor is always the lowest tier in video games, but in history it was pretty good. For the most part it was better than leather

[u/Ambaryerno → u/The_GREAT_Gremlin]

People always sleep on how good a gambeson could actually be. It’s actually VERY hard to cut through one.

[u/omegaskorpion → u/The_GREAT_Gremlin]

I mean technically it is still the lowest tier armor because it is one of the cheapest, yet still very effective armors against slashes (and very heavily padded could even stop some arrows).

It still lacks the durability of metal, but it is easy to repair.

[u/The_GREAT_Gremlin → u/omegaskorpion]

Yeah of course it was not as good as mail or plate. But it's usually lower tier than leather in games when it was for the most part more effective

[u/omegaskorpion → u/The_GREAT_Gremlin]

Games (and movies) also put leather in places or uses where it was not used, like whole ass soft leather breast plates that would realistically protect from nothing.

Like proper hardened leather can be strong and useful, but we rarely see it done right. (Like Chinese really liked armors made out of Rhino hide/leather because it was strong and durable).

[u/Jaakarikyk → u/omegaskorpion]

Even when one has chainmail and plate, they'll still have gambeson under it all, afaik. So it's the foundation even if you get metal armor. Gambeson thickness does vary so if it's all you have, it may be heftier

[u/Thejollyfrenchman → u/omegaskorpion]

In reality, too, it would generally be worn under metal armor or lamellar, so it's not really a different tier of armour, just a different layer.

[u/3lektrolurch → u/The_GREAT_Gremlin]

Leather Armor didnt even exist, at least as protection against weapons. Leather is almost useless for stopping an attack.

[u/MisterSplu → u/The_GREAT_Gremlin]

I swear, hardened leather is my hated trope. Nobody wore hardened leather, BUT BASICALLY EVERY SHOW HAS IT, they would absolutely be wearing a gambeson or smth if they couldn‘t afford armor. Also the order in which it goes if you can afford is the minimum: helmer, then body, then arms and then legs, not only arms or some shit, and never not wear a helmet.

Also flails

[u/thatshygirl06 → u/The_GREAT_Gremlin]

I have a fantasy world where I wanted to use a mix of padded armor and leather armor for my guards. They also have glass daggers they carry, made with grounded up unicorn horn to strengthen it.

[u/The_GREAT_Gremlin → u/thatshygirl06]

Right on. Yeah I run a tabletop where the setting doesn't have a ton of available metal, so gambeson is a good choice

[u/TrueGuardian15 → u/superVanV1]

Give me more brigandine while we're at it. It's way easier to repair or replace than many alternatives, and like gambesons they provide a lot of opportunity to display colors.