"Rainbow Pimp Gear" in fiction

[No brains]

Rainbow pimp gear refers to a bunch of weird pieces of gear that clash aesthetically, but are mechanically effective together. It's a common trope in games where gear has a great effect on power.

I just wonder if any stories use this largely video-game trope in their universes. Are there any characters that wear weird, out of place things because they help them do their job? Examples would be fun.

Bonus round: What rainbow pimp gear sets from video games are your favorites?

[Lord Raziere]

it doesn't often show up in serious fiction, even ones about MMO's. all their clothing were too realistic or well put together.

in parodies it shows up more often I think, like webcomics or other internet things, because its a common thing to make a PC stand out from the NPC's in a comedic manner.

the only reason it shows up in MMO's is due to the loot systems involved, where you get an item and its simply better, but it has a weird color so you end up putting it all together into a mish-mash.

at this point though, WoW, the MMO titan, has transmogs, and probably many other MMO's who probably copy it to survive have ways to better customize the appearance of your gear, or just give you realistic non-rainbow gear that when you put it together never truly looks like a fashion disaster even if its not from the same set. so as the MMO ability to customize and change aesthetics advance, the more rainbow pimp gear is simply going to fade as a trope until it dies, because once people have the ability to make the clothes look like anything, there is no way they're going to allow things to look that mismatched if they can help it, unless doing so requires money and they are poor, so it might survive, but only to signify someone is a newb or doesn't know how to make in-game money to afford changing the gears clothing to suit their tastes. and to be fair, the examples I do know of cost in-game currency. normal game currency you can farm from any mob, but currency nonetheless.

[BeerMug Paladin]

Well, there's this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0573.html), but I'm not really sure if it qualifies, since the speaker is specifically trying to avoid this trope, and it comes from a gamey universe in general.

[Saph]

The best version of this I've seen is from Blood Stain by Linda Sejic. Here's a good shot of it (https://www.deviantart.com/sigeel/art/optimized-gear-430178303).