Author Topic: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?  (Read 3097 times)

Cinnder

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Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« on: May 05, 2014, 05:49:22 PM »
I'm hoping someone can explain to me why so many games like to show increased power/gear via ridiculously oversized shoulder pads/pauldrons.

Just two examples of many:  In SWTOR when playing a Sith I actually kept less powerful armour sometimes because the better stuff had shoulder pads that looked like kites.  Playing Skyrim just now, and the Daedric pauldrons make it look like I have 3 heads, with two of them being Heat Miser's.  Not only do they look silly to me, but such attire would be vastly impractical for combat.

I don't understand -- why is this such a popular theme/style?


Dollhouse

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2014, 08:29:04 PM »
They go with those absurd gigantic swords...   :P

Cinnder

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2014, 09:25:18 PM »
Yep, I'm with you on that.

FlyingCarcass

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2014, 02:09:05 AM »
I think The Noob Comic explains it best:



Cinnder

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2014, 06:58:51 PM »
LMAO!

Brilliant.

Shenku

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2014, 11:05:45 PM »
I blame the '80s, personally... So many bad fashion ideas, and some of them still haunt us today...

Cinnder

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2014, 07:23:52 AM »
Heh....  When my gf and I moved in together, we performed a cull of my closet and filled up 2 big bags of clothes for charity.

She wryly said later that the charity probably figured someone had died in my house in the 80s and we were only now getting round to clearing their stuff out.

Lol, but also ouch.

Botzo

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2014, 06:22:20 AM »
I've had to "try" (but fail horribly) to not ever put large shoulder pads on my characters on CoH. It only got worse when I played Champions. Probably because I grew up with Rob "needs more pouches" Liefield.

Aggelakis

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2014, 06:41:41 AM »
HIS CROTCH IS BIGGER THAN HIS HEAD. HIS BIG TOE IS PRESUMABLY BIGGER THAN HIS HEAD JUDGING BY THE SIZE OF HIS FOOTWEAR. WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN
Bob Dole!! Bob Dole. Bob Dole! Bob Dole. Bob Dole. Bob Dole... Bob Dole... Bob... Dole...... Bob...


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Cinnder

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2014, 05:44:32 PM »
Aaaaaa!  It burns!  It BURNS!!!

Nyx Nought Nothing

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #10 on: May 11, 2014, 06:01:43 PM »
HIS CROTCH IS BIGGER THAN HIS HEAD. HIS BIG TOE IS PRESUMABLY BIGGER THAN HIS HEAD JUDGING BY THE SIZE OF HIS FOOTWEAR. WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN
Based on the bunching of the fabric his crotch apparently has a wedgie as well. In the front. As i recall the character is an archer, so he needs the massive footgear to help resist the massive recoil bows have, as well as to slow him down and stop him from running into melee range, which is a compulsion that apparently afflicts all archers. Remember Legolas' tendency to stab people with arrows...
So far so good. Onward and upward!

Blondeshell

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Re: Question: what's up with giant shoulder pads?
« Reply #11 on: May 11, 2014, 06:52:34 PM »
HIS CROTCH IS BIGGER THAN HIS HEAD. HIS BIG TOE IS PRESUMABLY BIGGER THAN HIS HEAD JUDGING BY THE SIZE OF HIS FOOTWEAR. WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN

Ah, this is a perfect segue into:

The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings

and

40 MORE of the Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings

Some of the language is NSFW, but funny.