Why wouldn't you wear a helmet?

I see how my assumptions about the purpose of helmet were wrong, but I don't see how I was derailing the thread. I was simply trying to say that combatants with superpowers such as elves, fighter pilots, dragons, etc. may be subject to speeds and forces where a helmet would have to be unjustifiably heavy to be effective. I get your point that the helmet protects you from shrapnel and from being knocked around, not just from blows.
however, I think I may have some sort of point, because, looking at pictures, WWII pilots didn't wear helmets either. They may be helpful and even lifesaving, but they clearly aern't an overwhelming necessity, or in the 25 years of air combat experience the world had, someone would have thought of giving the most valuable 'soldiers' the protection all other combatants would have had.

 

What an untrained conscript...
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-medi...ogressive,q_80,w_800/vldz6cfocvf4qmrqui5o.png

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2f/46/f0/2f46f0faa00fadf35167e5cdf1eae2b2.jpg
https://static0.srcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/conan-barbarian-video-games.jpg
https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/imce-images/superman_logo.jpg

So poorly trained...
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/6a57f80d49bdabf1154328b16787410c

It makes a character look like their martial skill is insufficient to protect their head. Or their head isn't magically protected, or supernaturally durable. And in fantasy, the people with a combination of:

- Insufficient martial skill to protect their head.
- Lack of magical protection that would negate the need for a helmet.
- Lack of supernatural durability.

If you lack those things in a fantasy setting that has them, you're a jobber.

 

Funny I never thought the question was about superheroes or screen characters. Perhaps you should check with the OP to see if his character is from Krypton?

But even Xena knew a helmet was a good idea...

and if I recall correctly Superman led from the front.

 

Read the original Conan stories and you'll see he wore a helmet in quite a few of them, especially when he was in a pitched battle. And he led from the front.

Then, of course, there was this guy: Frank Frazetta Death_Dealer_3
He, too, led from the front.

 

No one lead from the from the front the way it's portrayed in popular media if we're talking realism. Nobody complains the times Conan does not wear a helmet, either in books or movies. Because to most people, fantasy is entertainment, not a history lesson.

There's no distinction between fantasy heroes and superheroes beyond semantics. Both can be human, both can be superpowered through various means. Who complained that Aragorn didn't have a helmet at Helm's Deep? That Legolas didn't?

The average consumer of fantasy fiction doesn't care.

Xena didn't wear a helmet in a setting where helmets were common. Hercules, Iolaus, and Gabrielle didn't wear helmets either. Joxer the Mighty, the inept bumbler did have a helmet though. So by the logic in this thread, Joxer by default looks like the most capable and professional of the lot? Ahaha.

 

But it was you who originally complained about characters wearing helmets:

Conan often wore a helmet, especially when he was a king leading armies into battle. I think we can say he wasn't a mere jobber. Do you think the Death Dealer's helmet makes him look a lot less bad ass? There are plenty of examples where a helmet did not detract from or even added to a character's presence.

 

Actually, they did, but you just refuse to acknowledge the real history behind that truth.

There were episodes where Xena wore a helmet, more than one if I recall.

Comics, TV and movies are all every different mediums. The TV, comic and movie media are all far more visual and thus showing the face is far more important than in a book where the characters is identified through the prose not the image. Very, very different things. I would have thought someone like yourself who claims to be a comic artist would be the first one to get that.

I guess you don't like the OP's original question:

would there be any practical situations where you would not want to wear a helmet in battle?

Saying "Superman didn't and Xena didn't and sometimes Conan didn't" doesn't really answer the question now does it?