Let’s think about works where mecha is used to good effect. (I assume you aren’t counting The Iron Giant, because he’s not really a mecha and it’s a fantastic movie.) Aliens? Maybe if you count the tripods in War of the Worlds (the book)? Not much else that I can think of. They make good bosses in video games, though (and bad protagonists).

Disclaimer: I work for a University with massive DoD contracts for creating military robot thingys. They’re quite handy for stomping on all the unarmed hippie protesters.

argh, That’s JOHNNY SOKKO
(my super fantastico spelling powers at work again)
http://home.alphalink.com.au/~roglen/johnny_sokko.htm

I think most people would agree with you about the Matrix thing though… it was SO annoying.

I usually just think “Go Jonny Socko GO!” when I see mech-based fiction.

If people are going to explore fantasy based sci-fi tech, I wish someone would write more about portable transportation discs, and the idea of moving through molecular time/space/mass/energy…

Who needs knees when you have instantaneous transportation discs?

A recent minor fascination with the details of McCarthyism got me interested in the artwork written as a response to it. ST makes me think of this Mark Twain story I once heard where he describes writing a parody of the Leatherstocking tales that was so subtle nobody realized it was a parody. I can’t decide if Heinlein’s being reactionary or revolutionary in his commentary on the current political climate of the day.

But then, what else is new.

Stuff like power armor makes a lot more sense – and especially the power armor in Starship Troopers: it’s really a space suit that has weapons; it is used for zone dropping from orbit, etc, etc. Since it’s a lot smaller, it could be more stealthy and would require less power.

“Power Armor” is, indeed, a sound idea militarily. They’re even making forms of it now – exoskeletal suits and the like. Also, remember that Heinlein was a military man, so he writes from a position of “how they’re gonna think.”

The reason that power armor works while mecha do not is that power armor attempts to *compensate* for the weaknesses of an *infantry man* while *enhancing his capabilities*. Human beings already have knees; we’re trying to make that better; it’s an unavoidable design flaw.

Whereas a mecha? Again: you’re designing a flaw into your tank. A really, really, really bad one.

You’re like, the seventh person I know (including myself) who has recently re-read Starship Troopers. There was even a big thread about it on the NW forums (though mostly about his political leanings).

GRARG. Sorry for the triple-post. Cookie expired, then lj decided I WANTED to be posting anonymously.