people talk a lot about what Mech fiction can emphasize but I want to shout it out into the tags that Mech fiction can also be about romanticizing and confronting the experience of being a tradesperson. I feel like it gets a little complicated by the implicit fact that so much of Mecha media is concerned with war, but the lives of people who labour on complicated machinery, who are instrumental in constructing any kind of titanic mechanism, are interesting. They give each other advice. They fuck around with one another and might even screw each other over. They’re melodramatic, they’re tough, they’re vulnerable, they’re icing each other out or they’re bringing someone in. It can be good or it can be bad, and every job is different.
I am not a tradesperson. I have only worked with them, mostly doing fire suppression (spark watch) for millwrights and welders. Even though I only did it for 3 years, their stories and attitudes have stayed with me because it still feels so unique.
I also think about this a lot, and it's part of why I'm working on some stories that feature mechs used in a non-combat capacity. Mechs for racing, for salvage, for search and rescue. Focusing on pilots who aren't the "ace hotshot, best in the galaxy" types. Trying to include mechanics, and squads, and buddies. Think about mass production models, and what's that one problem they all have that every mechanic between here and the next galaxy bodges the exact same way.
while I also want to write fiction that bends reality until it snaps, and mechs are a fun vehicle to do it in, sometimes it's just nice to think about what day-to-day life is like.
I think it's telling that when this sort of thing does show in mass-produced mech media, it's usually really interesting. Evangelion has mechas used for combat, but the weird "biomecha fighting angel kaiju things" action is only part of that show's action. So much of that show is dedicated to the infrastructure of maintaining a ready-at-a-moment's-notice giant robot strike team, and that includes human infrastructure.
In my day job, I'm a consultant who mostly does software things for other companies who hire consultants, and somewhere in there a lot of money gets made. Because my company implements the software we use and doesn't really develop for it, we're under a lot of constraints. If I tell a coworker I submitted a support ticket, their response is "don't hold your breath on a solution". I don't hate my job, but there's a lot of drudgery and a lot of muck to wade through. So it's kind of exciting to watch an episode of a mecha anime where every character is hell-bent on making the impossible possible by whatever means necessary. I'm going down to the R&D base and telling them I'm not leaving until we have their experimental super-rifle on a boat to send back to Tokyo. How fast can you set up the power supply for an experimental beam sniper? Twelve hours? Pull whoever you need in and get it done in ten. Call the power company and tell them we're requisitioning the energy grid for half the country. Don't take no for an answer, and if they complain tell them to call my cell phone. It's a really specific example, but it's fun looking at this kind of media and imagining having the drive and clarity of purpose of working with machinery that impressive, and seeing the results of an effort that seems physically impossible.
