A Guide to Guts's Armors, Part 2.3

A Guide to Guts's Armors, Part 2.3:

The Albion Armor

Welcome back to "A Guide to Guts's Armors." For those joining us now, please start by reading Part 1, Part 2.1, and Part 2.2 for the previous armors in the series, including important terminology.

The main features of this armor are new pauldrons, new leg armor, rearranged pouches, a new repeating crossbow, and some nifty little bombs.

All images created by Kentaro Miura, unless stated otherwise.

The Saint Albion Armor: Introduced Volume 17, episode 131, "To Holy Ground". Last used in "The Berserker Armor (1)"

After receiving a warning from the Demon Child that Casca is in danger, Guts returns to Godo's workshop and is confronted with the consequences of having abandoned her for two years to seek his revenge. She's been missing for about a month, and though Rickert searched repeatedly he couldn't abandon Erica or her father, who's now dying of old age. Godo remarks that Guts's sword and iron hand have more damage and weathering than would be expected after ten years, and tells Guts that he's on the path to destroying himself and losing the only precious person he's still got. Guts spends that night in the elf cave, where he decides that he's going to find Casca and never lose her again. Rickert works through the night on Guts's iron hand and other gadgets, while Godo wills himself away from his death bed for one last reforging of the Dragon Slayer.

On Rickert's workbench we get to see some details of the iron hand's parts. The hand cannon has a pair of trunnions in front and in back which fit into holes in the frame of the prosthetic forearm. 

On the inside of that frame is a spring-loaded plunger (green) which is actuated by Guts pulling the trigger. The fact that it extends all the way up to the wrist joint, instead of merely to the hammer in back, explains how pulling the trigger causes the hand of the prosthetic to automatically fold under and out of the way before the cannon fires.

The next morning, Guts receives the repaired Dragon Slayer, repaired iron hand, new armor, and a new crossbow. Rickert mentions that Godo had prepared this armor beforehand in case of Guts's return; Guts comments that it feels good to him, and it's lighter than it looks. I call it the Albion Armor because it goes with Guts to St. Albion, a monastery and refugee camp where Casca has gotten mixed up in a conflict between the Inquisition and a heretic cult.

Starting from the top, there are new pauldrons. These ones are quite large, and in addition to the shoulders they cover the outside of the whole upper arm. The buckles attaching them to the cuirass are clearly visible on top, at least when not covered by his cape.

The shape of the pauldrons is geometric and pointy, foreshadowing the style of the Berserker Armor. The cap plates that sit on top of the deltoids are faceted in appearance, with multiple parallel ridge lines which originate from the inner edge of the cap plate, and which converge into a point that sticks outward near the bottom of each cap plate's outer face. 

There's also a raised, perpendicular ridge on each cap plate which crosses the aforementioned parallel ridges, dividing each cap plate neatly into inner and outer hemispheres.

Four lames extend down the arm almost to the elbow. These have three ridges that run up from the bottom and converge with the other ridge lines at the point of the cap plate; the central ridge has a pronounced triangular cross section. In the picture below, you can see the amount of flexibility that's sometimes required from the lames.

The cuirass is the same as that of the Lost Children Armor, except for the fastenings: the leather straps with metal ends have been replaced with all-metal straps similar to those on the Raid Captain Armor. Also, the hooks hang from pivots above their respective pegs, instead of beside them as on previous armors.

The sword baldrics, large waist belt, and codpiece are unchanged from the Lost Children Armor, but the culet or "butt flap" has been deleted. The number of straps that pass between the legs has increased from one to two; they both start at the bottom of the codpiece but quickly divide in two, following a "V" pattern before connecting to the back of the waist belt a significant distance apart. 

The baggage items are moved around somewhat. The large side pouch is at Guts's right hip as before. To the left of that is the crossbow bolt box, and to the left of the bolt box is the small pouch which used to hang all the way over on Guts's left hip. Guts's crossbow, which in the Lost Children Armor was inserted into a loop on the left side of the bolt container, is now inserted sideways into a box-shaped container that sits above the small pouch and the bolt box. As in the Lost Children Armor, these items are all held up by the two thin belts that overlap the large waist belt. See below for a peek inside the large side pouch.

The crossbow that goes with this armor is a new invention by Rickert. Its big trick is that it folds up for compact storage.

This design looked very complicated to me at first, but after a lot of racking my brains and almost giving up on understanding it, the answer hit me with an, "Aha!" The two bow arms and the top cover of the magazine are connected by rods on hinges (green) to a small metal arch at the front of the bow (red), which is on the end of a ratchet-toothed bar that I will call the "rack" (blue).

The arch provides a way for the magazine cover's rod to be actuated by the rack, without obstructing the exit of crossbow bolts shooting out. The stirrup-shaped foregrip is attached by a hinge to the front of the arch piece.

When the rack is locked in the extended position, the rods connected to the arch hold the magazine cover and the bow arms in their open positions. The rack is presumably held in place by a pawl inside the crossbow, which is a type of catch used in ratchet mechanisms. A ratchet-type linear rack has teeth which are sloped on one side and vertical on the other. The pawl in the picture below allows the rack to be pushed in the direction the green arrow is pointing, because the slope of each tooth will wedge the pawl upwards as it passes under. The pawl snaps downwards under spring pressure as soon as each tooth goes past it, and if the rack attempts to backslide it will be stopped by the pawl pressing against the vertical side of the tooth. 

180 degree flip of an image from Wonkee Donkee Tools

When Guts wants to retract the rack of his crossbow, he presumably presses some kind of switch which disengages the pawl. Then he pushes on the arch to make the rack withdraw back into the crossbow body. As the rack and arch travel back, the connecting rods on the arch push the bow arms back and the magazine cover down, so that the collapsed bow will fit into the rectangular leather container on Guts's back. Enough of the handle will remain sticking out of the container that Guts can easily pull it out when he needs it.

The strange revolving side-hooks of the old crossbow are not present on this one. Looking into the slit in the top of the crossbow body that the bolts feed into, I see something like a bicycle chain (yellow) which could transmit the crank power to whatever mechanism draws the string.

Guts's crossbow probably works in a way similar to the heavy repeating crossbow that Rickert is shown using later on. In it the large bicycle chain (yellow) is wrapped around a front and a rear sprocket wheel.

When Rickert turns the crank handles counterclockwise, it rotates the large gear in back, which meshes with a small gear attached to the rear sprocket. This causes the sprockets to rotate clockwise, so that the lower portion of bicycle chain moves away from the operator, while the upper portion moves toward the operator. There is a hook-like string-puller (turquoise) which takes the place of a traditional rotating nut; it slides backwards in a channel cut in the bottom of the bolt track. The string-puller somehow engages with the bicycle chain, so that the rotation of the chain pulls the bowstring back with it. Having said that, I am uncertain of how the string is released, or in what manner the string-puller returns to the forward position after each release.

The bracket that holds the back of Guts's crossbow to the prosthetic forearm has changed in form. Instead of two half circles connected by one straight pin at the bottom, it's a full circle with multiple short sections connected by hinges.

The crank on the right side of the crossbow is overhung by a large, blocky projection of unclear purpose. Depending on the angle at which the crank has turned, it could be obstructed by this projection or by the arms and string of the bow. For that matter, wouldn't it prevent the left side bow arm from folding flush with the body? I don't know what to make of it.

Even though I refer to a magazine, it's really little more than a cover consisting of a pivoting lid and some accordion-like siding. The back is wide open to enable reloading. The bolts are held in a single stack by a vertical wire frame, which feeds them downwards into the chamber of the bow. 

To reload, Guts will reach behind him to draw bolts from his bolt box.

It seems that the aforementioned wire frame is nothing more than a clip which holds a full magazine worth of bolts, and that Guts has pre-loaded spare clips in his bolt box.

This allows Guts to reload faster by simply inserting a new clip into the magazine.

Despite this we also see him reload the old way during the fighting in Qliphoth, with individual bolts grasped between his fingers. I don't really understand why, since he should have had time to load extra clips beforehand.

Rickert has also invented something else for Guts: miniature bombs that explode with surprising force. The method of use is as follows: Guts will first take a bomb out of the large side pouch at his right; 

He scrapes the fuse cord against his iron hand;

The friction ignites the fuse;

Guts throws the activated bomb towards his foe, and hides behind the Dragon Slayer to protect himself from the resulting blast. Note that in this case he grips the handle of his sword with his iron hand (since it's more resistant to damage than his intact hand) and braces his right arm against the flat of the blade to steady it.

Guts's new leg armor consists of metal cuisses which have extra lames at the top of the thigh for flexibility, and poleyns permanently attached. There are still no greaves, and the sabatons are the same as on the last armor. 

 

Each of the cuisses has a main plate which covers the front of the thigh, and abutting it on the outer edge is a smaller side plate which wraps a little further around the outside of the thigh. The main plate is attached to a wide sheet of leather, which serves as a substitute for smaller straps by wrapping around the inside and back of the leg and buckling closed where it meets the side plate. It isn't clear to me whether the side plate is attached to the main plate by hidden internal hinges, or if it's merely riveted to the same leather backing as the main plate. In either case it is able to hinge open when the buckle is undone, which avoids any problems with putting on a metal cuisse that wraps more than 180 degrees around the leg.

Each cuisse has three upper thigh lames, whose purpose is to extend protection to the upper thigh while allowing enough flexibility for Guts to raise his leg. To accommodate the groin while maximizing protection, the edges of the upper cuisses are slanted so as to be low on the inside and high on the outside. 

The highest and most tapered part of the top lame is attached by a buckle to Guts's waist belt. Fastening the cuisses to the upper body not only prevents them from slipping down the legs, but also transfers some weight from the legs to the waist, thus improving comfort and endurance. In medieval times the top of the leg armor could be laced to the hem of the arming jacket, or else to a girdle-like garment called a lendenier. 

In the early 14th century days of plate leg protection, when armor tended to have fewer articulations, cuisses tended not to extend much higher than the groin. The vulnerable part of the upper thighs would be covered by a skirt of mail, and ideally a long fauld or skirt of plate. Shorter versions of the fauld gained popularity during the 15th century, which would often have tasset plates hung over the gap between the lower edge of the fauld and the top of the cuisses. The right side of the image below shows the gap between a fauld and cuisse, while the left side shows how the gap could be covered by a tasset. A mail skirt worn under the fauld would provide additional protection.

"Avant Armour," Italian, ca. 1440; R.L. Scott Collection, Glasgow. The gauntlets
are replacements; tasset is a photoshop reconstruction by Knyght Errant.

On the other hand, cuisses could be built much higher by adding more articulation to the top. A 1480 armor made by Lorenz Helmschmid for future Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I featured cuisses with upper articulation that went all the way up to the waist, thus enabling the use of a short fauld and no tassets. A mail brayette resembling underpants would have been worn underneath the cuisses instead of a mail skirt under the fauld. The replica leg harness below demonstrates how such upper thigh lames are supposed to flex to allow the raising of the leg; also note how the tops of the cuisses are laced to the hem of the model's arming jacket.

Gothic leg harness, made by William West for Mark Caple in 2005

Similarly, we can see here how the upper lames of Guts's cuisses contract when he kicks upward or lunges.

The cuisses of Guts's armor are smooth and undecorated, but the poleyns attached to them have the same angular form as the pauldrons. The main plate of each poleyn has a wing on the outside with flutes (channels) hammered into it, so that it resembles a bat's wing or a fish's fin. These animal-like wing plates were common on the German Gothic style of armor in the late 15th and early 16th century. There are two upper lames that connect it to the cuisse, and three lower lames that go down to the top of Guts's boot. There's one attachment strap directly behind the knee, and another that goes around the second of the lower lames.

This armor is definitely the finest that Godo made, because it proves remarkably durable throughout the Chapter of the Birth Ceremony and almost to the end of the Chapter of the Holy Demon War. After getting stomped on by the Great Goat in the heretic cave at St. Albion, Guts notes that only Godo's armor saved his spine from being crushed. 

He subsequently endures being slammed with the iron wheel of one of Bishop Mozgus's torturers...

...and getting pummeled by the "Thousand-fist Cannon" of Mozgus's final form. Despite this abuse inflicting serious blunt trauma on Guts's body, the cuirass and all the other pieces resist deformation and protect him from the worst of it.

Alas, even this armor eventually falls to a member of the God Hand in physical form. During Guts's fight with the trolls in Qliphoth, Slan creates a body out of their intestines and restrains Guts using her bat-like wings. Toying with her victim, she pierces his cuirass with her claws and rakes him across the chest and back, at the same time tearing his shirt to rags and sending the whole upper half of his armor flying in pieces.

The straps of his sword baldrics come undone instead of being cut through, and they hang loosely from the back of his belt before he hooks them back into place. We see them dethatched again shortly afterward when his wounds are inspected.

After escaping from Slan with the help of the Skull Knight, Guts is left armored only from the waist down, wearing his strap system over his bare torso. Even after his wounds from Slan have physically closed, the damage to his astral body is unhealed and they could re-open at any time. Guts's lack of armor gives him a steep disadvantage when the party returns to find the Mansion of the Spirit Tree under attack by the reincarnated Griffith's forces, and Guts is forced to fight the formidable giant Grunbeld. 

Blocking with the Dragon Slayer merely saves Guts from being killed outright, and he takes a massive amount of damage from each blow. As a result, his wounds from Slan reopen and start to bleed again. 

Recognizing that Guts is on the ropes, Schierke resorts to the desperate hope provided to her by Flora: the Berserker Armor.

Look forward to the final installment, Part 2.4!