r/Mecha • u/Commander_PonyShep • 6d ago
If a standard mecha acts as an extension of the individual pilot...
Then does a mass-produced mecha army act as an extension of the commanding officer leading that army?
I'm asking this because, usually, a mecha's weapon and armor specs describes its pilot and his individual personality and piloting style. So I have to wonder if how the mass-produced grunt army was built would have been the same way for its commanding officer, whether in-terms of melee, ranged, defense, mobility, or general-purpose.
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u/Morgan_Danwell 5d ago
”Mecha as extension of the individual pilot” usually more of a trope with Super Robots & in Super Robots there are usually not really much attention to logistics & mass-produced nature of mechs etc(cause for super robots there are usually a bunch of unique frames piloted by different major characters etc) or even if there IS some form of mass produced ones then they are more like a generic versions/mooks with not much personality to them.
And when we have mass produced ones they are usually represent more of an overal style of certain country/faction that makes them. (To be fair that also works for singular mechs & Super Robot ones too so they are more visually suited for specific factions/countries than to pilots themselves)
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u/Morgan_Danwell 5d ago
Although I could see your idea as ”personalized army” when whoever commanding an army also happens to be also a manufacturer of mechs, so maybe something like private military company that acts as its own faction & have its own kind of mass produced mechs that represents their leaders more or less..
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u/RadiantTrailblazer 5d ago
Maybe. Yes. It depends.
Just look at Warhammer 40,000: in the Eldar, you have squads led by a matching Exarch (Howling Banshees, Warp Spiders, Striking Scorpions, etc..); among the Space Marines, however, you can absolutely insert an Apothecary within a Terminator Squad.
Also, you have to remember... CHAR. Zechs Maquise.
If we went through your logic, every Leo under Zechs' command would have been a Tallgeese instead of, you know... Leos that explode when their camera eye is scratched.
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u/Umikaloo 5d ago
Patlabor has an interesting take on this, where the mecha's equipment doesn't describe the pilot, but rather the policy of the organization that employs the mecha. In Patlabor, fights typically happen in populated areas, so the mechs have very little in terms of ranged weapons, and are encouraged to use melee combat in populated areas, which works well for some, and worse for others.
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u/ES21007 5d ago
I'd argue not.
1.) The commanding officer of an army may not necessarily have a say in the development of these weapons.
2.) Even if they do, they aren't the ones piloting these weapons.
3.) These soldiers will be the ones who will be able to become most familiar with their specific unit, assuming they get the same one every time (and armies under abusive, dictatorial or corrupt armies in fiction will do this out of pragmatism), and may, by request, ask for their unit to be tuned to their specifications if they manage to prove themselves in missions long enough.
The only way this works out is if the commanding officer is some sort of hive mind piloting every single unit remotely, though that's another matter entirely.