If you recognise the title and are currently in a cold sweat, don't worry I won't go all out. Yet.
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Armored Core 6 arrived at an interesting time. Fans of a gritty corporate-war mech series found themselves rubbing shoulders with lesbians freshly giddy from watching Gundam: The Witch From Mercury. The partnership between these two factions has been... interesting.
In hindsight, the first trailer containing the words "wake the dog up" was an obvious flag. Then 621 getting ordered around by "Handler" Walter, with a gruff voice born of gravel getting run through a blender, set people off like nothing else before it. Later in the game, it leans directly into mind control plot lines. I wonder if the writers knew how it would all be received. Or maybe they were finally let loose.
What's followed since AC6 melded all this together is a fresh fanfic genre of a lovely diverse range of people getting hurled into scenarios of control (physical and mental), brainwashing, petplay, delightfully unhealthy relationships, containing lots of trans girlies. All enshrouded by the cold heartless shell of a mech they've been forced into. Fascinating stuff, really.
Unfortunately the unhealthy relationship stuff doesn't sit well with me. So I've been thinking instead about the coolness of mechs, the appeal of having one's humanity augmented and/or stripped away, and how this interacts with other people.
I adore technology at its hardware heart: cold metal that simply does what it does, and nothing more. You know why a mechanical watch moves, how an engine performs, how a lightbulb glows. They know their place, and I love them for it[1].
Technology should not think, that's what we're here for. The second metal thinks it knows better than you, intentionally or not, is where it all falls apart. Whether it's software designed for a different purpose than what you want, malicious code, or just plain bad design, the roles begin to shift. Metal is power, not control - that's your job.
This clashes badly with most mech fiction. Normally the mech is a tool of control via another entity - a human controller or corporation maybe. But what if it's a symbol of individual power? I like how Heaven Will Be Mine captures this. The Ship-Selves are first and foremost an extension of their pilots, beyond even their physical forms. They live and fight on a tier of existence that humans could only dream of. They merely exist in ways never before possible.
The human element must reign supreme and free. Even when enshrouded in metal, even with orders being barked into their ear, even with the elements trying to wipe them out.
"I bet you're thinking of an F1 clip-" you're damn right I am. Behold the final five laps of the 2021 Russian Grand Prix from Max Verstappen's perspective. If you're expecting something dramatic, it doesn't happen. Max's engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, is on top of every event before it's in front of his pilot's eyes. He makes the perfectly-timed call to switch to wet weather tyres on a track that's half dry, half soaked, and getting more volatile every lap. Gianpiero, with the crispest of voices, gives Max every bit of information he needs, and not a thing more, knowing with full confidence that Max can sweep aside everything in his way.
(The below embed likely won't work without watching it on youtube, still trying to figure out fixes to this)
Max makes it look easy, and carves up other elite pilots for breakfast. What powers it all is the confidence in every word said between them: no second-guessing, no doubt as to the thought put into them. The human element is simultaneously drowned out by mechanical whines, and the most powerful thing there is.[1]
Outside of still-niche VNs, this concept doesn't seem to have much sway with the masses. Yet the concept of trust and love conquering all is a huge undeniable trope, I'm just applying it to massive hunks of metal that can crush your enemies. Y'know, normal kink stuff.
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Yes this is hot to me↩