This is a scene I added late in the writing of Armor.

I once listened to legendary animation directory Brad Bird (creator and director of The Iron Giant and The Incredibles) talk about pacing in a story. He explained that there’s a tendency–especially in animation–to try to make every single moment special. To go for the big laugh or the big thrill in every scene.

He explained that you can’t do that. While any story will have big moments, it needs small moments so the audience can breathe and react to the big moments.

This bit of Armor is a small scene. It involves Tom and Adam walking around the city, being normal. Well, as normal as they can be. It’s a time for them to see what it is they’re protecting.

It also hints a bit at the society of the city. We see that entire families work in their shops, including children. Nobody’s surprised by this; it’s just how things work here.

This is something Tom must face: what is it that he’s really fighting for? Who is he defending? Is it worth defending? How far would he go to defend it?

All questions he’ll have to answer soon enough.