#youre piloting your robot

[transbian-vergil]

We might both be mech pilots but I pilot mine in a way that is far more homoerotic than you could ever hope to achieve.

[inkyminx]

I’ve been watching a SRW 30 playthrough (cause I don’t personally have the game yet)—

And literally it’s just Koji being the dad of the gang, Hyoma being the baby brother and Ryoma being the asshole older brother tormenting him.

I approve, I love them so much.

[no1ryomafan]

So I finished mazinkaiser awhile ago after months of procrastination on it and for one reason or another I’m not gonna give my solid thoughts on it but there is one specific thing I wanna point out, not as a critique but more so a confusion. That being: I find it weird how Mazinkaiser isn’t the turning point for Mazinger where they finally go “hey the robot is sentient” because it’s not yet near the end literally EVERYONE talks to Venus A as if shes actually a person:

I’m not saying this as a criticism for the reason of my already biased to vaguely sentient robots-because as much as I prefer this angle with mecha, I understand not every and all mecha can approach this because sometimes the robot is JUST a narrative tool and not a character, which is fine-however I’m confused with Mazinger of all things didn’t take this approach when there’s already so much emphasis on Mazinger being tied to gods. I mean, apart from the fact the robots are based off Greek Mythology and there is a constant message of “will it become God or Devil” which feels like it warrants this enough, it would start to make sense if the robot grew sentient because Mazinkaiser is treated as the ULTIMATE Mazinger. (And where have we heard a case where the “ultimate” form of a robot starts to be the one that displays more self awareness *cough* GETTAH🗿)

Especially also within this ova- it seems to do stuff on its own accord to PROTECT Koji, like going on auto pilot as he’s knocked out and somehow keeping him safe from being burned alive in magma, but I cannot tell if this IS a indicator Mazinkaiser is actually sentient or if it’s just all auto pilot. Oh and it’s a more minor thing but also just- the human poses Kaiser and Venus take during the beach episode… I cannot tell if that’s something they wanted or if their pilots just posed them comfortably because lines seem to blur with the robots just being treated as the extensive of the pilots. (Venus is literally based off of Sayakas appearance after all)

It’s just weird Nagai never went this route and just stuck to metaphorical stuff, when it feels like SOMETHING he would do given the nature of his stories and yet the only fully sentient Mazinger media I know is Zero. Of course I still have such a limited window on Mazinger so if this is me actually being wrong please feel free to correct me, but I still will never not find it weird Mazinkaiser lacks this aspect asides from maybe vague allusions to it that may or may not be implying it. Maybe if I ever rewatch it or find more Mazinkaiser content specifically I’ll be able to piece things together a bit more.

[xbuster]

your definition of mech is several decades out of date.

a robot is an autonomous machine. a mech is a piloted machine, typically but not exclusively humanoid. there is occasionally overlap (like titanfall 2's mechbot being both autonomous and piloted) but astro boy is not a mech by the contemporary definition of the word.

if astro boy ever got remy-ratatouille'd, however, then you might have a case.

It’s actually really simple: mecha is anything that will market model kits to Japanese otaku

[halikyon]

So I've been pulled into some Mechwarrior shenanigans and I truly forgot how much I liked the concept of 'its a fancy walking tank and it's unwieldy but can take a hit and is incredibly effective in the hands of a good pilot' over the 'i get in and become superman' style. Both are good, I just like one better. Also probably why I enjoyed the MSG: The 8th MS Team more than a lot of other MSG's...also early Code Geass fights

[purpleuniform]

if you consider vanessa canonly DID then you should consider michael canonly DID too

[thesugarhole]

i have such most cringe thoughts the other romac fans would skin me alive for due to the mischaracterization

[jet-bradley]

I kind of miss botw guardians

[todayisafridaynight]

THE MOLE SONG!!!!!!!!! PLEASE ENJOY I AM SO EXCITED TO TALK (ALWAYS AM BUT!!!!!)

HEY I SAVED OFF ON ANSWERING THIS UNTIL I FINISHED THE MOVIE AND IN THE SHORTEST REVIEW POSSIBLE

THAT WAS DEFINITELY A MOVIE™️

[cherenkov-blues]

mech pilots who walk with the wrong gait, knees slightly bent and leaned up on their toes. Most mechs have digitigrade-esque legs. Humans don’t.

mech pilots who can’t feel any pain or sensation when they’re in the machine but can feel everything once they’re outside the cockpit, too much and all at once. The sensation of having nerves everywhere instead of sensors in key places should be familiar, but it just isn’t anymore.

mech pilots who ere almost incapacitated with vertigo except when they’re in the cockpit, too used to being massive and heavy and standing above the world.

Human brains adapt quickly, almost too quickly, to being in the machine. But once you become the machine, you can never really go back to being human. Not like you used to be

Thinking more about Mech dysphoria today.

Stepping out of your cockpit and stumbling because you don't have the right number of legs.

Blinking your eyes out of sync because you don't have the right number anymore, don't have access to on board cameras the way you're supposed to.

Struggling to grab and pick things up because you have the wrong number of fingers.

Failing to recognize your face in the mirror without layers of armor plating over it.

Feeling like a brain pulled from its body and forced to function independently.

[ryuki-blogs]

God has put George and Erik into different houses because if they had to share a dorm at the beginning of their soon-to-be friendship, all hell would break loose

[no1ryomafan]

I do not bother to check if Getter and Big O ever interacted in SRW because I’m so use to the other mechas I like being in the same game as getter but being so different that they never have any story reasons to have interactions since Getter is only ever allowed to interact with mazinger, OG gundam and any other combiners + it’s all in untranslated hell so I won’t even know wtf was said if there WERE interactions but god damn it I keep rotating a scenario where Roger negotiates to get Ryoma out of jail even though I know for a fact that DIDNT happen despite how many times they used arma and how Z2 actually adapted it fucking correctly for once but it’s just so funny to imagine.

[spiribia]

when you start neon genesis evangelion you are like damn they are in such a dire world that they have no choice but to use children to pilot their mechs in their defense against angels and NERV is simply the accepted terrible necessary means to that end. and then they go to like a giant robot making companies conference and the other companies are like The FREAKS at NERV are using CHILDREN to pilot!! and youre like Wait LMFAO WAIT Oh my god

[gornackeaterofworlds]

@little-mouse-gardens @mermmarie @thelaundrybitch @avery73 @luckycharms1701 @desceros @gbao3 @fishsticksloser @pastelanthophila @shardkn1ght @khayalli @blackmoonowl @shutupcake @turtlecleric I appreciate and love you all and all that you do and are

its so scary to put yourself out there but a SINGLE message saying "hi i loved what you made it touched me in some way" makes it all worth it 10000%

[justsomuchhacking]

So like another thing about the transgender mecha discourse is like... the mech can be a metaphor for empowerment and an extension of the customizable self, but specifically for transfemmes the metaphor also works in the other direction!

The mech is safe. And it is familiar, and you have gotten used to controlling it. You are told that your highest purpose is violence, but that's not true about you, though it might be true of the mech.

The mech is safe. It is many layers of cold steel and machinery between you and the world. When people see the mech, they see power and strength. But you will have to crawl out of it if you wish to be seen and known by your name, instead of your callsign*.

The mech is safe. It does not take courage to pilot - it takes courage to leave. Anonymous, stoic violence in a shell that is not your body vs the horrifying ordeal of crawling out of a numb pile of metal and hoping people will love the weird-looking girl who is a little unused to socializing. On account of all the mech-piloting.

Anyway if I was going to write transgender mecha fiction the robot would be the closet. War is hell, truth is life, get out of the fucking robot, girl, and live!

Other small things I would include in an anti-war transgender mecha story:

"Why did you stop being a mecha pilot? You were so good at it!"

Patriarchal military industrial complex discovers trans people are just better at using the weird neural mech piloting interface. This plays out as badly as you'd expect.

"cis" pilot who has an unusually high sync with the mecha and the veteran pilots who Definitely Know.

Nothing good ever happens as a result of mecha battles and the reader should start to feel anxious about which beloved character Isn't Going To Be The Same after this one.

This would of course be very difficult to pull off in a way that's like... as fundamentally entertaining as giant robot fights where the giant robot is a metaphor for personal agency and the power of the individual, where a very traumatized trans girl incinerates mecha hitler with a blue-and-pink laser beam she got from self-actualizing. I recognize that my version is harder to make and definitely not for everyone. But I think it should be made. Both should be made!

*historical note here about callsigns - in fiction people choose their own but in the military these are chosen for you by your unit - and if yours is cool it usually means that your unit thinks you're a dweeb. If you try to make people use a callsign you chose for yourself, there is no doubt at all about whether you are a dweeb. So for me a callsign is a terrible stand-in for a true name. Knowing this fact ruins movies, because every Cool Callsign Protagonist makes you think "Iceman? Oh, he definitely got caught masturbating in the walk-in freezer".

[heavenprotect-m]

i'm posting this here cause honestly, on any blog i make, i'm pretty much obligated to say: pacific rim au verse anyone? 👀