You must log in or # to comment.
I always they don’t call them “mechs” in-story because it creates the idea that nobody every thought of giant walking/battling human piloted robots before whatever crisis appeared in the story. Alternatively the in-story universe recognizes that fictional mechs exist like Gundam etc, but the new name is used to differentiate between in-story fiction and in-story fact.
“Remember when we were kids and watched mechs Voltron and Gundam on Saturday morning? Now we’re Jaeger pilots!”
How come nobody knows what zombies are but everyone knows what aliens are?
The answer is because aliens have been a topic of speculation for ages. It’s similar to vampires. Vampires have their own lore from books. Zombies don’t have that. They have other zombie movies. The only way for someone in a zombie movie to believe in zombies is if they’ve seen a movie about them or they have previously experienced a zombie outbreak.
It’s entirely plausible that individuals in a movie’s universe might contemplate the possibility of extraterrestrial life before an alien invasion.
It’s equally plausible that people have encountered the lore surrounding vampires before experiencing their first encounter.
It’s highly unlikely that people watched a zombie movie and then experienced a zombie outbreak.
I mean… Zombies are a Haitian voodoo thing.
Voodoo introduced zombies, but the modern zombie has diverged significantly from that concept, making them quite distinct from each other. A movie character pointing at a zombie and saying “it’s like one of those voodoo zombie things” doesn’t make much sense because the concepts are pretty different now. Additionally, more people associate Romero zombies with the word “zombie” rather than the voodoo zombie.
*Xeno scum
Shaun of the Dead though…
Shaun of the Dead is a parody of other zombie movies, and it humorously highlights the fact that other zombie movies are hesitant to utter the word “the Z word” without raising questions about its origin.
yup you’re absolutely right!
I wrote that comment a bit tongue in cheek as opposed to being a contradiction … when I came back to my comment I realized I’m just too tired today to have conveyed that well enough
I can relate. I feel dead.
:)
SI spotted
What are the mecha shows?
Gundam, Evangelion, Transformers, Macross, Aldnoah Zero, etc etc. There are some more nonjapanese examples but I didn’t see much of those myself. I think MegasXLR or something was one? Live action of course I’ve seen much less of.
Mech Warrior of course bucks the trend. There are several game series I failed to mention beside Mechwarrior as well. Battletech iirc also uses Mech.
There are several game series I failed to mention beside Mechwarrior as well. Battletech iirc also uses Mech.
Just some useless factoid: MechWarrior is Battletech. There is the MechWarrior (mostly first-person shooter with some RPG mechanics) series and a Battletech (Turn-based Strategy game with RPG mechanics) video game too of course but both come from the Battletech tabletop.
I knew there was some connection between em but wasn’t sure if it was by the same people, or based on it like Robotech, or a knockoff, so I just left it out. Thanks for clarifying.
Yeah no problem. I just figured it was maybe an interesting piece of trivial information you might like. I didn’t intend it to be like an ACKTUALLY moment or anything.
Robotech
OK, so I know this because I used to watch it before school and when I was trying to figure out what that weird show was many years later, it turns out it is actually Macross but butchered up for American kids and tells a different story. Then I was like “wtf is Macross?” This is pretty much the same thing that happened when I found out MechWarrior is Battletech. I’ve never played the tabletop but I’ve played most of the video games from both now.
I think maybe I’m a Mech nerd. If I end up going out and spending hundreds on Battletech pieces I’m blaming you!
Battletech plastic minis tend to be way cheaper than most (like Warhammer). People definitely spend more than hundreds, but you can get the box set with the game rules and 8 minis for $60.
I’ll take the blame off chatokun and link it right here: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-a-game-of-armored-combat
I’m going to see if my oldest son would be interested too. If he is, then I’m going to do it.
got into macross from robotech childhood, learning how macek / harmony gold rebranded and repackaged those properties is interesting, but then you learn about all the IP fuckery they were involved with, preventing macross from US audiences, but also, claiming sole ownership of mech designs that forced Battletech to retire/retcon classic designs and other shit - ugh. Just awful behavior.
Does Power Rangers count as mecha?
Hell yeah
Don’t zoids count?
Because at this point zombie movies are so generic they have to have a way to tell them apart.
Last of Us is unique enough of a zombie franchise that they could call them Zombies and still be leagues ahead of anything else in its genre
Zombies aren’t cool anymore, so renaming is an attempt at making them interesting.
Mechs are cool af, but just calling them mechs makes it boring.
Zombies were being renamed at their peak. Look at the walking dead.
The walking dead is not peak zombie. It might be peak soap opera.
I didn’t mean it like that. What I meant was the walking dead existed in the time period of peak zombie.
I feel like even back then TWD was seen as a refreshing take on a tired concept. I wouldn’t call that “peak” zombie, though I have no idea what the actual era of “peak” zombie would even be, 2007? no clue.
You’re probably right, I think I’m biased and/or misremembering because I wasn’t a fan of the genre until a little later on.
It’s that old? Dang.
Maybe I’m wrong. How I remember it is it was born out of that time and kicked the end of that time down the road a bit. Remember TWD had spin offs (maybe just one?) and copy cats and adaptations and so on. But yeah it’s almost 15 years old now, so it’s relatively old for a show.
Oh wow, yeah that sounds pretty close to the right time.
I think it’s to show that the characters don’t know what zombies are so when they have to learn the same tired tropes that most zombie mythos regurgitates it makes sense to the audience.
