we lost something with the constant insistence that mechs have to Be Believable In Real Life. Should've broadened acceptance for mechs that are just overtly operating on Space Magic.
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worst thing about gritty realism is that it's almost inevitable that it will break and then it throws the rest of the story in question by making the established boundaries seem fake/inconsistent
I liked it back in the old days where you can just convert an entire subway station of a massive city for a train track for your trusty mech that you can summon within minutes.
I'm okay with any kind of mech, fantasy or boring realistic scifi, aslong as it does the metal ka-dunk shing-shwang noises when it moves like it's fully rusted through
Like at some point you have to understand that the only thing downplaying the unrealistic tendencies of mechs actually achieves is turning your mechs into a less believable tank substitute to appease people who don't want mechs to begin with
Far as I can tell they really just split them off into two different types - mechs as weapons of war and mechs as super robots.
Even Macross was like “This giant mech is actually a super fortress left over from a previous era but also let’s win the war by singing to the space giants”.
I think this is because Gundam is right in the border zone, it operates on gritty warfare logic in storytelling terms but the mech physics are consistently slowburn revealed to be various forms of space magic
Like they've done "The gundam is possessed by a ghost" MULTIPLE times
But because there's a perceived (false) contradiction between political relevance and space magic power scaling, Gundam fans who want to emphasize that Gundam is amazing for its politics will downplay that it's also Space Magic... But the space magic is part of the politics!
Gundam is a very silly franchise where very serious stuff happens and honestly, I feel after First Gundam, the colourful flamboyant melodrama becomes more noticeable. But it always operates on the YA mentality of ‘Adults bad and the kids know what’s up.’
Major Spoilers for Iron Blooded Orphans, and defintiley a nitpick
IBO's second season is pretty explicitly about a case where the Main Characters are (relative to the antagonists) "the bad guys" and the show punishes them for it heavily.
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Even Macross was like “This giant mech is actually a super fortress left over from a previous era but also let’s win the war by singing to the space giants”.
Like they've done "The gundam is possessed by a ghost" MULTIPLE times
And psychic space magic.
IBO's second season is pretty explicitly about a case where the Main Characters are (relative to the antagonists) "the bad guys" and the show punishes them for it heavily.
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/738578/all-the-stars-to-cinders/