Why does Tetsuya Nomura include pauldrons on the left shoulder and not on the right?

[SuperMillionaire]

Have you noticed that with main characters such as Cloud and Tidus, they only have pauldrons on their left shoulders, while their right shoulders are left bare! Why is that?

[Del Murder]

That's a good question. I always wear my pauldron on the right shoulder. It just seems natural to do it that way.

[Laddy]

Nomura is a good designer. His designs are more fashionable.

[Mirage]

Which other characters have pauldrons on their left shoulder? I can't think of many at all.

[Mo-Nercy]

Which other characters have pauldrons on their left shoulder? I can't think of many at all.
Jecht, Basch and Lightning have them too.

[Garland]

The most logical answer is that he believes a pauldron would stifle movement in the character's business arm, reducing their effectiveness in melee. Looking at historical armor by googling plate mail, though, the most common occurrence is asymmetrical pauldrons, where one side was beefed up a little more to take a jousting impact. I imagine real knights valued not dying from an infection because of even a glancing blow to exposed skin, more than a smidgen more mobility with one arm- especially if they were using two handed weapons anyway.

[Hot Shot]

The most logical answer is that he believes a pauldron would stifle movement in the character's business arm, reducing their effectiveness in melee. Looking at historical armor by googling plate mail, though, the most common occurrence is asymmetrical pauldrons, where one side was beefed up a little more to take a jousting impact. I imagine real knights valued not dying from an infection because of even a glancing blow to exposed skin, more than a smidgen more mobility with one arm- especially if they were using two handed weapons anyway.
I totally agree. And if you think about it, a right handed person's fighting stace would put the left shoulder more forward than the right shoulder... at least I think so :/

[Mo-Nercy]

That's certainly the case with Tidus and Lightning, who both fight with a 'sword held by their side behind them' stance.

[SuperMillionaire]

The most logical answer is that he believes a pauldron would stifle movement in the character's business arm, reducing their effectiveness in melee. Looking at historical armor by googling plate mail, though, the most common occurrence is asymmetrical pauldrons, where one side was beefed up a little more to take a jousting impact. I imagine real knights valued not dying from an infection because of even a glancing blow to exposed skin, more than a smidgen more mobility with one arm- especially if they were using two handed weapons anyway.

Maybe they should design pauldrons with more mobility in mind for both shoulders, but I guess it does make sense that if a character is right-handed, they would need more mobility on their right arm. But then again, Sephiroth has pauldrons on both of his shoulders, and he's left-handed. So why doesn't Sephiroth only have a pauldron on his right shoulder?

[Goldenboko]

The most logical answer is that he believes a pauldron would stifle movement in the character's business arm, reducing their effectiveness in melee. Looking at historical armor by googling plate mail, though, the most common occurrence is asymmetrical pauldrons, where one side was beefed up a little more to take a jousting impact. I imagine real knights valued not dying from an infection because of even a glancing blow to exposed skin, more than a smidgen more mobility with one arm- especially if they were using two handed weapons anyway.

Maybe they should design pauldrons with more mobility in mind for both shoulders, but I guess it does make sense that if a character is right-handed, they would need more mobility on their right arm. But then again, Sephiroth has pauldrons on both of his shoulders, and he's left-handed. So why doesn't Sephiroth only have a pauldron on his right shoulder?

Because he's Sephiroth and in their minds he's beyond "logic", which I agree with anyway. We shoot fireballs out of our hands and can run up walls, no Pauldron will slow these people down.

[SuperMillionaire]

But so is Cloud, right? So why no pauldron on his right shoulder?

[VeloZer0]

Because Cloud is wearing a normal SOLDIER uniform and Sephiroth is wearing the 'I'm so good I can wear whatever I want' SOLDIER uniform.
I recall hearing that Sephiroth was ambidextrous, though I'm not sure. (Obviously things like Dissidia and AC reveal that he isn't)

[Mo-Nercy]

http://www.myfconline.com/character_avatars/93688_94881.jpg

Look who's breakin' all the rules. I guess Zack had more common sense than Cloud.

[SuperMillionaire]

Then why did Cloud remove the right pauldron if Zack kept it?

[BarelySeeAtAll]

I think Seph is ambidextrous though, I'm pretty sure I've seen him also use both hands at the same time, and right hand at least once somewhere.

Maybe Nomura honestly believes it looks good. And you know what? It does :p the stance thing all makes sense, too, and characters have their own minds, hence Cloud went with a different look to Zack. He's not meant to be entirely identical to him ya know xD

[SuperMillionaire]

That still doesn't explain why Cloud removed his right pauldron.

Sephiroth is officially left-handed; he was right-handed in the first Kingdom Hearts, but officially, he's left handed in all other appearances, and thus if Cloud had to remove his right pauldron, Sephiroth would reciprocally have to remove his left pauldron.

Perhaps Cloud could have redesigned his outfit in some other way instead of removing his right pauldron, which leaves his right shoulder exposed.

[BarelySeeAtAll]

hence Cloud went with a different look to Zack


He wanted to!!

:( stop itttt :cry:

[Iceglow]

A lot of armours over the millenia have featured just one pauldron or shoulder guard of any sort. Ancient Roman Gladiators often had just one Pauldron if they even had any armour at all (for the best examples of designs made on actual historical references watch episodes of Spartacus Blood & Sand which shows the very pauldrons of leather we're talking about here)

As for Zack having 2 Pauldrons...in the ending of FFVII Crisis Core Cloud too has 2 pauldrons displayed as seen here, note mega spoilers. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vki80HCOLgg) It would seem Cloud removed a pauldron from his uniform probably for personal preference of mobility or style but there is also a possibility that his pauldron gets bent, broken or damaged and he cannot replace it so just discards it.

There probably is a reason for the use of a single pauldron but atm I'm not in the mood to go digging for it and will only do so if pressed by the one who calls me a guilty pleasure. :bigsmile:

[SuperMillionaire]

And that right pauldron gets damaged because he uses his right arm more often than his left arm?

[VeloZer0]

I'm going to go with Cloud and Zack both had one pauldron in FF7 and they changed it to two for the CC FMVs because one looked silly when rendered in a higher definition FMV.
Not that I don't think they agonized about the decision to change it.

[SuperMillionaire]

Oh, so they added the right pauldron in Crisis Core.

But what about Advent Children? Since he got new pauldrons, and only wore his left pauldron, what did he do with his right pauldron?

[VeloZer0]

I'm sure they have a detailed explanation in the Ultimania and it isn't an oversight.

[SuperMillionaire]

Well then where is the Ultimania, and what does it say?

[Jaffer]

SOLDIERs were always supposed to have two pauldrons, the SOLDIER enemies you fight did, they were just lazy with Zack's design (or he was genuinely that unimportant, take your pick). I don't think Cloud destroyed his right shoulder at some point on a job and damaged his left ad enough that the only way he could repair it is with sticking another plate on it with gigantic bolts sticking out. But it did accomplish the look what he wanted it too: "Ex-SOLDIER, but SOLDIER nonetheless, don't **** with me." I assume that he just got used to the weight distribution by the time AC rolled around.

[SuperMillionaire]

Perhaps then he should have just removed both pauldrons altogether if that was the case...

[champagne supernova]

Maybe he misplaced it before he went on his first mission with AVALANCHE and by the time he got home, he forgot about it/preferred only having one.

[ChickenHeart]

Maybe he wanted to be different and make a fashion statement