Over on Long Forgotten there's
a new post about
suits of armor and haunted houses that reveals (among other things) that the helmet of the famous armor
by the Haunted Mansion's infinite corridor was originally an ornamental
piece worn by Martin Luther's archenemy Albrecht von Brandenburg, the
indulgence-flogging Archbishop of Mainz. What's more, there's a damned
good reason why they only used the helmet (click through to find out
why).
It isn't hard to explain why suits of armor are scary. First of all,
they're ancient and unfamiliar, from another time and place, and often
they are holding wicked-looking weaponry. Armor, after all, is supposed
to look intimidating. Second, they present you with a human-shaped
vacuum that could easily be a hiding place for a prankster or a
villain—you can't tell by looking. Since you don't know for sure if
anything is in there, when you see one your fight-or-flight instinct is
automatically put on low level alert (otherwise known as the jitters).
Funny, but you can't help imagining them starting to move, however vague
or backgrounded or foolish this anticipation might be. Third (and best
of all in my book), despite any misgivings you may have, it is
nevertheless presumed that suits of armor are likely to be empty, which
is to say they contain nothing, they define a void, they create a
something-that-isn't-there, and this "nothing" is in the shape of a
human. See? You've practically molded for yourself a ghost, instantly
and automatically! With a suit of armor, it's all so easy that it's
practically cheating.
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