By necessity the hands and feet of plate armor are thinner and more flexible. If a lion was able to get a hand or a foot in its mouth, it’s game over for the knight. They have more than enough bite force to crush the armor and the body part inside.
One big benefit of the plate armor when facing a lion is that the armor was usually shaped to deflect and defend against strikes to the head and neck. Lions usually dispatch their prey by crushing the throat and asphyxiating them. The armor should be a good defense against such attacks.
What I think it comes down to is terrain. If the lion can ambush the knight, the knight will be knocked down before they can bring any weapons to bear effectively. From there, their armor will only make their demise slower and more agonizing. If there is no cover and the knight sees the lion coming, they may be able to keep the lion at bay with weapon swipes. This gives the knight the opportunity for a killing blow or for multiple strikes to make the lion retreat. The knight just has to hope the lion doesn’t charge regardless of potential harm because then it’s just the first scenario again.
If, however you shove your arm down it’s throat to the shoulder, your pauldrons might give you some protection, and the arm and hand can now choke the lion from the inside. It’s gonna try to claw you back out, but hopefully it doesn’t gain a purchase, and then the fight is over in less than 5 minutes.
This is actually what I’ve heard suggested, without the armor, to survive a Jaguar attack in South America
By necessity the hands and feet of plate armor are thinner and more flexible. If a lion was able to get a hand or a foot in its mouth, it’s game over for the knight. They have more than enough bite force to crush the armor and the body part inside.
One big benefit of the plate armor when facing a lion is that the armor was usually shaped to deflect and defend against strikes to the head and neck. Lions usually dispatch their prey by crushing the throat and asphyxiating them. The armor should be a good defense against such attacks.
What I think it comes down to is terrain. If the lion can ambush the knight, the knight will be knocked down before they can bring any weapons to bear effectively. From there, their armor will only make their demise slower and more agonizing. If there is no cover and the knight sees the lion coming, they may be able to keep the lion at bay with weapon swipes. This gives the knight the opportunity for a killing blow or for multiple strikes to make the lion retreat. The knight just has to hope the lion doesn’t charge regardless of potential harm because then it’s just the first scenario again.
If, however you shove your arm down it’s throat to the shoulder, your pauldrons might give you some protection, and the arm and hand can now choke the lion from the inside. It’s gonna try to claw you back out, but hopefully it doesn’t gain a purchase, and then the fight is over in less than 5 minutes.
This is actually what I’ve heard suggested, without the armor, to survive a Jaguar attack in South America
Your arm would be destroyed from the bites, armored or not.
You might survive, but your arm wouldn’t and you’d need medical attention to prevent death from blood loss or crush syndrome.
Yeah, I assume the arm is sacrificial. Hopefully the knight has tourniquets