All The Tropes

Mecha-Mooks: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Mecha-Mooks (view source)

Revision as of 12:22, 8 April 2014

745 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (Mass update links)
m (Mass update links)
Line 25:
 
== Anime & Manga ==
* The multitude of (live) enemy troopers who would get mowed down in most episodes of ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Anime)|Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'' were [[Macekre|recast]] as [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]] in some of its various US incarnations (e.g., ''Battle of the Planets'').
* A subversion is featured in ''[[Texhnolyze]]''. The creepy white [[Death Ray]]-wielding Shapes appear to be Mecha-Mooks, but are in fact humans who have (voluntarily or otherwise) undergone full-body Texhnolyzation. Their heads, concealed beneath [[Cyber Cyclops|monocular faceplates]], as well as the rest of their organs, stuffed in a green cone in their chest, are all that remains of their original bodies.
* A subversion of this trope are the Pacifistas in ''[[One Piece]]'' {{spoiler|as they are cyborgs modified to be human weapons by the evil World Government, and they are anything but as just one of them took the Straw Hats everything they had to beat just one pre-timeskip.}}
* ''[[Star Blazers]]'' was infamous for, as an American adaption of anime, having enemy soldiers who were killed described as "robots".
* The Jovians employ millions of the suckers in ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', ranging from drone scouts to automated [[Wave Motion Gun|Wave Motion Guns]], to the point where [[The Reveal|we don't see a live Jovian until halfway through the series]]. There are several reasons for this, including some justified [[Offscreen Villain Dark Matter]] and how the [[Teleporters and Transporters]] [[Applied Phlebotinum|Phlebotinum]] works, but mostly it allows the ship's mostly civilian crew to [[Stuff Blowing Up|blow stuff up]] indiscriminately, {{spoiler|and allow for drama when actual human enemies appear}}.
* ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' makes this a major plot point with the introduction of Mobile Dolls, mecha controlled by an AI program rather than a human pilot. Its introduction widens the pre-existing ideological fissure within OZ, between [[Worthy Opponent|noble-minded soldiers]] who hate them for dehumanizing war, and [[War for Fun Andand Profit|heartless war profiteers who love them for being good business]], which results in an outright civil war between the supporters of Treize (who is the former) and Duke Dermail (the latter).
* Jail Scaglietti's [[Anti-Magic]] Field protected Gadget Drones in ''[[Lyrical Nanoha|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]''. Precia also had her own small army of Mecha-Mooks protecting the Garden of Time.
* Numerous small ''[[Zoids]]'', such as the Molga, Godos, Zabat, Scissor Storm and Laser Storm. The most infamous, however, would have to be the Rev Raptor. While the aforementioned Zoids were depicted as being reasonably formidable in their introductory episodes, the Rev Raptor is completely pathetic right from its introduction and is *never* given an opportunity to shine, except for in one episode where Van pilots one... and uses it to destroy ''other Rev Raptors'' before getting quickly shot down himself.
Line 37:
* Partially subverted in the ''[[Zegapain]]'' anime, as the Gardzorm seem to use animal-like mech designs against the main characters, when one is blasted open, they see that it's piloted. Later still, several altered humans are seen boarding the blue aerial Gardzorm mechs, though it's implied their level of awareness is significantly less than human.
* The Bugmechs from the ''[[Vipers Creed]]'' anime.
* Black Shadow uses them in the ''[[F -Zero]]'' Anime. You [[Player Mooks|can actually race as them]] in the anime based F-zero climax.
* The Grimoire units from the ''[[Ride BackRideback]]'' anime.
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has the Tanaka-sans and the [[Spider Tank|Spider-mechs]] and all the other robots that made up {{spoiler|[[Mad Scientist|Chao Lingshen's]]}} Martian Robot Army in the Mahora Festival [[Story Arc]].
* The American release of the Vehicle Team ''[[Voltron]]'' had just about every enemy unit, and most friendly units, as robots. The number of "robot attack ships" and "android stormtroopeers" was staggering. This was done to follow the "nobody can die in cartoons" standard against animated violence on TV at the time.
Line 44:
 
== Comics ==
* Spoofed in ''[[Tom Strong (Comic Book)|Tom Strong]]'', where Timmy Turbo realizes that "We can be as violent as we like with these teachers, because they're just ''robots''!"
* One of Lex Luthor's plans to take over the United States relied upon him unleashing a horde of GI Robots that were technically property of the US army. Since [[Superman]] was apparently dealing with Brainiac that week, [[Batman]] ended up taking out all except one -- that Bats had reprogrammed with the Geneva Convention. Really.
* Codified in an issue of ''[[Exiles (Comic Book)|Exiles]]'', when Mimic reflects that superheroes really, really love fighting robots for the sheer pleasure of unfettered destruction.
* The robotic aliens who hunt the title character in ''[[Omega the Unknown]].
* [[Doctor Doom]]'s Doombots--both the [[Robot Me]] Doombots, and the more straightforward purple-and-gray Mecha-Mook Doombots. Oddly, the two designs rarely appear together in a story.
* [[Superman]] is one of the few ''good guys'' to keep a contingent of Mecha-Mooks, the Superman Robots in the Fortress of Solitude. In the Silver Age, he mainly used them as [[Robot Me|decoys]] to preserve his secret identity, and occasionally to pinch hit for him when he'd been incapacitated by Kryptonite or some such. A [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|bridge got dropped]] on the bunch of them in the [[Bronze Age]], but they were reintroduced in the [[Post-Crisis|modern era]] and occasionally appear in the present day.
* The minor [[Spider -Man]] villain Armada was a [[Robot Master]] who liked to build little flying robots to attack enemies with. The interesting thing is that he ''cared'' about their welfare, and would [[Berserk Button|freak out]] when they inevitably started getting destroyed.
* Through the law of [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]], The OMACs from ''Countdown To [[Infinite Crisis]]'' [[Badass Decay|fell from]] [[Killer Robot]] to [[Mecha -Mooks]] pretty quickly
* A major plot point in ''Savage'' from about 2007 onwards is the introduction of robot soldiers by both sides in the war. It began with the Allies deploying Hammersteins in Wales, which were so effective that the Volgans had to develop their own robots, the depraved Blackbloods, to compensate. These robots invert the normal rules of mecha-mooks by being much stronger and tougher than human soldiers, what with being made of metal and all.
* [[Moon Knight|Doug Moench's]] ''[[Electric Warrior]]'' had a [[Heel Face Turn|refomed]] Mecha Mook as the main character.
* In ''[[Megalex (Comic Book)|Megalex]]'', the Shock Troopers are intelligent and evil robots.
 
 
Line 66:
 
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* Both ''[[Star Wars]]: The Phantom Menace'' and ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'' blew up ''acres'' of battle droids, though they didn't hesitate to "kill" the good-guy troopers either. Of course, they were [[Cloning Blues|clones]], and thus almost as safe to kill.
** The kid-friendliness goes away a little when you reflect they still scream as they die.
** The use of battle droids seems to revolve entirely around the fact that the prequels featured Jedi action scenes. Such scenes involved plenty of decapitation, bisection, and outright mutilation of said battle droids using lightsabers, all of which would have been unacceptable in theaters had the victims been living sentient beings instead.
** Before their predecessors the clones were shown, it was popular to speculate that the Imperial Stormtroopers in the original trilogy were Mecha-Mooks, in spite of the fact that Luke Skywalker and Han Solo were capable of dressing up as them. Talk about [[Faceless Goons]].
* The Golden Army in ''[[Hellboy II]]''. Clockwork Mecha-Mooks that put themselves back together upon being destroyed.
* ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]] 2'':
{{quote| '''Vanko:''' [[Memetic Mutation|Dhrone bettuh.]]<br />
'''Hammer:''' What, why '''"drone better"'''? Ivan, I got an order for '''suits''', not '''drones!'''<br />
Line 104:
* Unmanned combat drones are ''everywhere'' in ''[[Shadowrun]]''. From spy-cameras disguised as pigeons to robot tanks.
* These are the main troops of the genocidal human civilization Wreathe in [[Mortasheen]], all modeled after Pre-Cambrian creatures. In a subversion, these are usually more powerful than lower level characters.
* ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'' has the Myr from the ''Mirrodin'' block. They're essentially a ''[[The Swarm|swarm]]'' of Mecha-Mooks with a [[Hive Mind]] community.
** There's also the terrifying Phyrexians, who are [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|zombie cyborgs]] who want to assimilate everyone.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'': The aptly-named Meklord ''Army'' monsters from ''Extreme Victory'' are these for the Meklords, with the Meklord Emperors being, obviously, [[King Mook|Emperor Mooks]].
Line 116:
 
== Video Games ==
* German versions of computer games, notably in ''[[Half-Life]]'', where all soldiers are replaced by robots, The [[Contra|Probotector]] series, ''Carmageddon'', or fighting games, where blood is recoloured green or black. This is because of censorship in Germany (''UCK'' board) disallowing displaying [[Never Say "Die"|human deaths]].
** In the German version of ''[[Command and Conquer]] Generals'', the "real world" GLA soldiers were replaced with cyborg clones that bleed green. Referenced in ''[[AH Dot Com the Series]]'', which has The Germans (a mercenary group of recurring characters) use "Cyborg Robots with Green Blood" as their disposable muscle.
*** Most (probably all) earlier Versions of ''C&C'' did the same, with soldiers being cyborgs with black "blood" (supposed to be oil) and also cyborg guard dogs... even in the booklets the pictures of these units were crossed with a bar noting "top secret" so you couldn't see the faces... in the GAME itself tho those faces were still used as the build icons, so one must wonder what that was all about.
* The Novus in ''[[Universe At War]]: Earth Assault'' are a heroic example, a race of Mecha-Mooks [[Laser Guided Tykebomb|Laser Guided Tykebombs]] working with the [[Ancient Astronauts]] Masari against the [[Planet Looters]] Hierarchy.
* The [[Starfish Aliens|Ceph]] from ''[[Crysis (Video Gameseries)|Crysis]]'' use an army of tentacled [[Powered Armor|exosuits]] and small man-sized octopus robots to take over the Lingshan Islands. They all explode upon death (with [[MacGuffin|one]] notable exception), but it has more to do with preventing humans from acquiring alien technologies than with dealing damage.
* ''[[God Hand]]'' has a great deal of robot enemies in the fourth level. They aren't too different from the regular type, but it helps emphasize the level's mechanical theme (as opposed to Western, wasteland, or circus, the themes of the preceding levels). The boss of the level is a mecha [[Giant Mook]], Dr. Ion.
* Disney's extraordinarily "kid-friendly" [[MMORPG]] ''[[Toontown Online]]'' solely features an ever-replenishing army of robots as your enemies -- whom you destroy with ''jokes''.
Line 127:
** The Geth themselves seem to be a slight subversion of the trope. They have a smooth organic appearance, bleed some sort of white blood-equivalent, give off odd electronic death-squeels when shot, and don't explode upon death. This doesn't stop the heroes from mowing them down by the score without batting an eyelid, however.
*** The sequel reveals that the Geth are nearly immortal, as they simply upload back into their mainframes when the humanoid frames are disabled. Destroying these mainframes can kill thousands of them with a few bullets, however. Their "death-screams" are actually them transmitting themselves to a new mainframe. Also, all the geth the heroes kill have already crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]] in spectacular fashion.
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' [[Never Say "Die"|generally uses the ambiguous term "defeated"]] regarding human enemies, but the robots used by various factions all explode spectacularly when defeated. The exception is the Clockwork, who usually just slump over, but that's because {{spoiler|they're not really robots, but metallic constructs animated by a powerful telekinetic [[Brain In Aa Jar]]}}. Even some of the cyborg enemies explode upon defeat, most notably the Arachnos Tarantulas.
* ''[[Dinosaur King]]'' has the Alpha Droids, who act as servants and guards for the Alpha Gang in the anime (often carrying out orders which lead to their own destruction), and as [[Random Encounter]] enemies in the DS game.
* There are quite a few examples in the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series, but the Mecha Koopa enemies from ''[[Super Mario World (Videovideo Gamegame)|Super Mario World]]'' onwards are the most obvious examples. Some other examples include the entire population of The Factory/Smithy Factory in ''[[Super Mario RPG (Video Game)|Super Mario RPG]]'', Wizzerds in ''[[Paper Mario (Video Gamefranchise)|Paper Mario]] 2'' and Mechawfuls in ''[[Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story (Video Game)|Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]''.
* [[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dr. Wily]] and [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik]].
* One of the first signs you aren't in Kansas anymore with the last two ''[[Wizardry (Video Game)|Wizardry]]'' games is when your sword-and-sorcery party runs into their first Savant robot armed with a laser lance. Fully fledged battle droids also make an appearance towards the very end of ''VII''.
* Subverted and used in ''[[Super Robot Wars (Video Game)|Super Robot Wars]]'' series, as times goes on, it shifts from fighting human pilots (which most of the time will get a chance to escape) to battling AI versions of robots due to the bad guys sharing AI technology since manpower gets smaller with the huge killcount our men racks up in the battlefield. In the OVA, the ATX and SRX had discovered the shocking revelation of the Bartool's [[Powered Byby a Forsaken Child|ODE system]] and had concerns about killing more innocent captured civilians but during the final push later on, they were unmanned with no human core inside which allowed a more liberal course of destruction.
* ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' invariably features hordes of robots. While there are usually organic opponents in there as well, they will be vastly outnumbered by robots. {{spoiler|In ''[[Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal|Up Your Arsenal]]'', most of your organic opponents are turned ''into'' robots by [[A Wizard Did It|the Biobliterator]], simply to show how severe a threat Dr. Nefarious is.}}
* The Scarabs, and the raven-like [[UA Vs]] accompanying Raging Raven in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]''.
* [http://fear.wikia.com/wiki/Unmanned_Aerial_Vehicles Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] from ''[[FEARF.E.A.R.]]''.
* The ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' games feature, as the primary enemy, tons of [[Mooks]]. ''[[Dynasty Warriors: Gundam]]'', of course, changes this to use various grunt suits (and some variants) from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam (Anime)|Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (Anime)|Zeta Gundam]]'', ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (Anime)|Gundam ZZ]]'', and ''[[Chars Counterattack|Char's Counterattack]]''.
* The mooks in the Fielder's Challenge in ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Baseball]]'' are robots.
* The MTs in any of the ''[[Armored Core (Video Game)|Armored Core]]'' games are this with few exceptions, especially if they're the armless "chickenwalker" variety.
* Many ''[[Transformers]]'' games have you fighting numerous generic or nameless enemy chassis (the Armada game, called simply "Transformers" in the states, coined them as "Decepti-clones"). Different from the TV shows in that every character shown was given a name.
* The [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]] part got a nice Lampshade Hanging in ''[[The Incredibles|The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer]]'', where Mr. Incredible spots the first robot enemies in the tutorial stage and quips, "I guess that means we don't have to play nice!"
* Without [[The Igor|Klungo's]] aid to raise her army of monsters in ''[[Banjo-Kazooie|Nuts & Bolts]]'', [[Big Bad|Gruntilda]] resorted to create her own band of [[Mecha -Mooks]] with the Gruntbots. Thanksfully, those crud-looking mechanical mischief makers are more a nuisance than a real threat to the bear and bird duo.
* ''[[SD Snatcher (Video Game)|SD Snatcher]]'' gives Gillian a large variety of Metal Creatures to do battle with.
* [[Serious Sam]] 2 has the Floaters, Spawners, Rollers, Rhino Cybertoys, Rocket Turrets, Fatso Fighter Planes, Seagull Bombers, and Giant Cyborg Spiders which are usually mixed in with the various other enemy types, primarily zombies, aliens, and bio-machines.
* ''[[Mini Robot Wars (Video Game)|Mini Robot Wars]]'' has the evil-looking Machines. Also inverted as the good guys units are also mecha mooks of sorts, except cute-looking.
 
 
== Web Comics ==
* Inverted in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' where the Dig-bots who get bloodlessly massacred are the good guys, and the very human Hereti-Corp agents doing the massacreing are the baddies.
* In ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (Webcomic)|The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' storyline "Death Volley," Doc is very pleased when he discovers the palace guards are robots, so he can go completely berserkers on them without compunction. Then he learns that one of the guards is actually {{spoiler|his disguised ex-girlfriend, Hortense}}.
* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'', when Riboflavin escapes from his prison ship, he destroys a robot guard. He expresses disappointment that the guard was not sentient, and therefore could not feel pain. Riboflavin is not a nice man.
 
Line 156:
* Parodied in ''[[Ask a Ninja]]'', where the ninja says that [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evkMVb839Lc robots are no fun to kill.]
* ''[[Whateley Universe]]'' example: in "Ayla and the Great Shoulder Angel Conspiracy" and "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl", Team Kimba are going through a Team Tactics course. Their first 'pop quiz' is against robots and mechanical weapons. Their big 'invading the supervillain lair' simulation includes an armada of Mecha-Mooks. In neither of these are there tons of exploding robots, except where Tennyo and Fey unleash their powers.
* Doctor Infanto of the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' is a hyper-intelligent mutant toddler who commits crimes using remote-controlled [[Mecha -Mooks]] (among other high-tech devices).
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across Thethe 2nd Dimension]]'', Doofenshmirtz-2 has an army of these, based off of Norm.
** An early episode of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' has the boys construct their own horde of robot clones of themselves to increase productivity, in a rare non-violent use of this trope. {{spoiler|They fulfill this trope better in the movie, where they're used to fight the previously mentioned Normbots.}}
* An early instance is the 1941 [[Superman Theatrical Cartoons|Superman cartoon short]] "Mechanical Monsters", which climaxes with Supes whaling on some big ass robots. This may be the [[Ur Example]].
* ''[[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]]'' had perhaps the most famous TV mecha-mook, Dr. Zin's robot spy. It's a spider-like robot that can take an incredible amount of punishment, as the Quest family learns when it makes its escape from a military base. They throw small arms, flamethrowers and tanks at it, and nothing makes it more than momentarily pause.
** A whole army of them appeared in the ''[[Jonny Quest: theThe Real Adventures (Animation)|Jonny Quest the Real Adventures]]'' episode "The Robot Spies".
** Modern audiences may remember this as the Walking Eye from ''[[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|The Venture Brothers]]''. Walking Eye!
** Though in general the original ''[[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]]'' series [[Moral Dissonance|didn't have many problems killing off human Mooks]] as long as it wasn't ''too'' graphic, like the two frogmen crushed by the leaping motorboat in the title sequence.
* The original ''[[TMNTTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ]]'' cartoon turned the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage (Comic Book)|original comic's]] Foot Ninja into a robotic army with unlimited numbers. In the Turtles' first battle with the Foot, they were evenly matched with the robot ninjas until one of them was sliced open. Then began the dismemberment.
* Heavily subverted by ''[[Samurai Jack]]'': although he only ever cut the Mecha-Mooks (or [[Demonic Invaders]]) with his sword, they always seemed to be [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]], either outside or internally ("veins" and "bones" in the interior of a roach-robot Jack cut in two, for instance). This allowed the show to get away with the [[High-Pressure Blood]] trope and other extreme scenes of carnage, because [[Symbolic Blood|it was just oil]]. ''Really.''
** Additionally subverted in one episode in which an episode is told through the perspective of a mecha-mook, and his very real, very human emotions are made painfully apparent to the viewer. Then he fights Jack and gets cut up like any other robotic malcontent.
Line 175:
{{quote| '''Dodgers:''' You are lucky I didn't cut you to ribbons.<br />
'''Guy:''' Not with a Y7 rating, you won't. }}
* ''[[G.I. Joe]]'', when there are B.A.T.s or S.N.A.K.E.s involved, the Sky B.A.T.s in ''[[G.I. Joe: Sigma 6]]'' as well as the Zaps and Skyrenes in ''[[G.I. Joe Extreme]]''. All five kinds of Mecha-Mooks are the only bad guys that the Joes seem to be able to hit [[A-Team Firing|on the first try.]] Not that they did them any good since B.A.T.s just keep coming and only anti-tank weapons can take them down. Or in case of the B.A.T. Mark I, a [[Attack Its Weak Point|rifle-shot to the weak spot]] (which on the action figure's [[All There in the Manual|filecard]] is noted as the back, but inexplicably in the Sunbow cartoon, was the large window in the middle of their chest). Or Sgt. Slaughter's fists, which proved to be the most effective anti-B.A.T. weapon ever seen.
* The Jackbots in ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'', nevertheless the egregious use of [[The Hit Flash]] was deemed necessary anyway.
* A variation on this is in ''[[Transformers]]'', where ''every'' character is a robot; this allowed it to do things like, say, [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Death kill off] main characters in [[The Movie]] to [[Merchandise-Driven|make place for new ones]]. This didn't keep the scenes where it happens from being quite disturbing to younger viewers who idolized the fallen, [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|original Prime]] and [[Heroic Sacrifice|Dinobot]] being the best examples.
** In episodes that aired before the movie, an important distinction was sometimes made between sentient and nonsentient robots. Several episodes involve the characters encountering armies of identical, literally faceless robots (as opposed to the individualized sentient Transformers) usually described as "drones" or some such, which were mindless and could be blasted to bits with moral impunity. The episode "Sea Change" even went so far as to establish that Transformers have souls like human beings, while the Mecha-Mooks they were fighting in that particular episode did not. The Vehicon drones of ''[[Beast Machines (Animation)|Beast Machines]]'' are the closes to a traditional army of Mecha-Mooks.
** In the case of the aforementioned Vehicons, the common Mecha-Mooks are simply Spark-less drones often under the control of the [[King Mook|larger]] Vehicon generals. Naturally, this makes the Vehicon drones the most [[Cannon Fodder|blown-up, dropped, disemembered or crushed]] mooks in Transformers history.
** ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' also has Vehicons, but they are intelligent enough to talk to one another and are just as disposeable as their predecessors. Bulkhead even disembowels one of them (to protect Miko).
Line 187:
{{quote| '''Dodgers:''' Uh..., those were just ''robot''-piloted ships, right?<br />
'''Cadet:''' Yeah, "robots". ''(laughs maniacally)'' }}
* The ''[[X-Men (Animationanimation)|X-Men]]'' animated series as often as not had the titular heroes battling the robotic Sentinels and all manner of mechanical foes, rather than organic bad guys. Indeed, only two characters (good, bad, or background) are directly shown to die at any point in the series, and both eventually come [[Back From the Dead]].
* Although most of the villains in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Batman the Animated Series]]'' are human, "The Last Laugh" featured a robotic henchman to [[The Joker]], called Captain Clown. In an interview, the producers admitted this was done specifically so that Batman wouldn't have to hold back in the fight.
** Another instance, with better in-universe justification, occurs in the second part of "Heart of Steel."
* ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (Animation)|Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]''. Hornets. Interestingly enough, the [[Robot Buddy]] protagonist is the target of more violence than any villain, [[Good Thing You Can Heal|since he's capable of being rebuilt from ridiculous amounts of damage.]]
* In ''[[Challenge of the Go Bots]]'', the "robot" protagonists are actually [[Brain In Aa Jar|cyborgs,]] living beings despite their mechanical appearance. However, the villains used nonsentient, inorganic [[Humongous Mecha]] called Zods which the heroes could destroy without any ethical quibbles.
* Both the 1970s [[Filmation]] animated ''[[Flash Gordon (Animationanimation)|Flash Gordon]]'' and the 1980s ''[[Defenders of the Earth (Animation)|Defenders of the Earth]]'' gave [[Big Bad|Ming the Merciless]] armies of Mecha-Mooks. Interestingly, in the Filmation series, good guy [[Red Shirt|Red Shirts]] would get killed all the time (usually a very tidy and bloodless disintegrator shot, or else an exploding manned vehicle). Presumably because killing people is, after all, what makes the villains ''villains''. The good guys got to fight Mecha-Mooks.
* Referenced in ''[[Darkwing Duck (Animationanimation)|Darkwing Duck]]'', a series famous for averting [[Never Say "Die"]] (at least in the earlier seasons, before [[Executive Meddling]] came in full force). In the first season episode "Bearskin Thug", villain Steelbeak's trained bear turns out to be a robot. Upon learning this, Darkwing says "Then I can take off the kid gloves!"
* The Brigadiers from ''[[Skyland]]''.
* ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' has a surprisingly wide variety of Mooks, but some definitely fall into this category. Slade's robots from the first two seasons are clearly there just to get blown up (though they serve the dual purpose of allowing him to [[Hannibal Lecture]] his enemies remotely from the comfort of his own home). Brother Blood in the third season uses human soldiers at first, but then switches over to [[Elite Mooks|Elite]] Mecha-Mooks based on Cyborg, which are actually quite tough, especially when there's a lot of them. In season four, the mooks are [[The Legions of Hell|demons]], which while not technically robots blow up just as nicely and painlessly. The fifth season, however, features [[The Chessmaster|the Brain]] using a pretty even mix of mechanical and human Mooks.
** Very nearly done in ''[[Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo]]'', too. In fact it would have been, had they been robots instead of living ink.
* [[Thundarr the Barbarian (Animation)|Thundarr the Barbarian]] would often slice an enemy in half or lop off a limb, see the sparks and yell "Ookla! Ariel! They are ma chiiiiiiiines!" Note that lopping first is Thundarr's favored tactic, but he knows it would make a difference to ''Ariel'' -- who arguably packs more firepower than he does, if she doesn't hold herself back.
* Averted very subtly in ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (Animation)|Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]]''. The Crown Agents look and sound like robots. However, they take bribes, argue, go rogue, scream and throw up their hands when their plane crashes into a tower, etc. More damning is that the Ranger [[Technopath]] Doc Hartford ''never'' used his powers against them, though he could subvert most any technology with ease. "Lord of the Sands" topped it by having Zach admit "''As far as we know,'' Crown Agents are some kind of robot..."
* Deuce's robot army in ''[[Loonatics Unleashed (Animation)|Loonatics Unleashed]]''.
* ''[[She -Ra: Princess of Power (Animation)|She Ra Princess of Power]]'' was [[Depending Onon the Writer|inconsistent about this.]] In some episodes, the Horde Troopers appeared completely sentient, and were defeated non-lethally by the heroes. In other episodes, they didn't get any dialogue, and could be smashed to pieces without any compunction.
* In ''[[Re Boot]]'', when Matrix and Turbo are confronted by some infected Guardians, Matrix asks if their drones "have personality chips". As soon as they heard a No, both of them shot the robots, destroying them easily.
* An episode of ''[[Star Wars: theThe Clone Wars]]'' has the good guys reprogramming a trio of battle droids to aid them in infiltrating a Separatist prison. These droids seemed to [[Rule of Empathy|live much longer]] than ordinary battle droids by sheer virtue of being on the good side. However once the situation got dicey, these droids were promptly ordered to sacrifice themselves to buy time for their organic masters to escape.
* In ''[[Code Lyoko (Animation)|Code Lyoko]]'', XANA's various monsters can count as the virtual version of Mecha-Mooks. They do appears robot-like the two times some are materialized in the real world. Then in season 4, the [[Big Bad]] is busy constructing a whole army of robots to conquer the Earth.
* In ''[[Kim Possible (Animation)|Kim Possible]] : [[The Movie|So The Drama]]'', Kim and Ron fought against an invasion of Diablos, mini-robots distributed by Drakken as free toys inside Bueno Nacho's Kids Meals, programmed to grow into giant mecha-robots when triggered by a radio signal.
* In ''[[Centurions (Animation)|Centurions]]'', [[Cyborg]] [[Mad Scientist]] Doc Terror had several varieties of mecha-mooks to pit against the titular heroes.
* Dr. Robotnik's Swat Bots from ''[[Sonic theSat Hedgehog (Animation)AM|Sonic the Hedgehog]]''.
* ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold]]'': Degaton's robotic army in "The Golden Age of Justice!"
 
{{reflist}}
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/894388"