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posted: *14 feb 2022*
Giant stompy robots powered by insanely complex fusion reactors and computer
systems doggedly persist in an interstellar feudal melting pot that has all but
forgotten how to even create such things. The same vapid self-interest that
causes so much anger and divison in politics today is magnified to a scale
of billions and trillions of souls across planets in every concievable
condition and technological level. Now, instead of knights in armor and grizzly
mercenaries a la the Swiss Guard, you've got people from every walk of life
who have spent their days and years helping propel a hulking mass of metal,
lasers, guns, and missiles forward into explosive combat with other similarly
sized marvels of engineering.
I'll never forget the dropship commander's one-liner from the Mechwarrior 2:
Mercenaries intro after you watch your own commander get left behind and blown
up by an advancing enemy force.
"Look at it this way kid: now you get to keep all the money."
It's interesting to see how these almost dystopian values and concepts presented
in Battletech (especially the original 3025 era) clash and coexist with the
art style the property hails from: 1980's line art, chunky Vietnam-style
data connectors, and just-barely-futuristic weapons designs that might as
well come out at R&D expo's in the defense sector in the 1990's.