I can see your point Frey, however in the 4 years i've been fighting i very rarely ever have need to lift my upper arms more than at most 15 to 20 degrees above horizontal, even with out the neck guards. Looking at the neck protection I'd say she has a good 35 to 40 degrees of bend in there. 1) The armour is just too cumbersome and heavy to get your arms up like that . and i only wear leather not full metal plate. 2) lifting you arms that high will wear them out way too quickly. the higher you lift your arms the more strain you put on the arm muscles, and the quicker you start to suffer fatigue. 3) Lifting you upper arms that high means your entire body from the armpit down is completely unprotected and the likely hood of getting an arm back into place to block is very unlikely. To see point 2 in action lift your arms up over your head almost straight up and hold them there. After 30 seconds to a minute the atms start to be come heavy. by 2 minutes they'll become sore. If you can hold them up there for 4 or 5 minutes the muscles in your arms will probably hurt for the next 2 days. Now add another 3 to 5 lbs in each hand for a sword, and throw a good 3 to 5 lbs more on each arm for armour.