Bishop Steiner, on 19 July 2016 - 01:42 PM, said:
aka axes and clubs.... "gaijin" weapons according to 1990s FASA.
Actually historical evidence suggests axes/Ono were very rarely used by the samurai class as weapons, instead being stigmatized as peasant farmer weapons. FASA got that right.
Regarding the club, well unlike the Clans I don't believe the Kurita ever had a problem with ripping the arms off other mechs and using them as clubs.
Yes, FASA (and particularly Wizkids!) got carried away with the Totem designs, but historically both Greek "Spartan" culture and Samurai culture (also spartan in its own way) did in fact "waste" resources on elaborate head plumes and crests for their helmets. Part of the reason they did this was to frighten the enemy, because as Sun Tzu emphasized time and again (and the Mongols and even ISIS have demonstrated in practice), the most efficient and least resource intensive way to win any battle is to intimidate the enemy so much they don't even want to fight you. I think I'd be pretty scared seeing a 100 ton Kodiak bearing down on me.... it's not like the Inner Sphere didn't do the exact same thing with the head they put on the Atlas and Banshee.
Finally, regarding the whole furry thing, it's important to remember that Imperial Rome, the Third Reich and The United States of America all plaster a bloody eagle across their military emblems... England until recently did the same thing with lions. Australia still paints KANGAROOS on all its fighter jets... does that make all the residents of those countries closet furries?
The giant genetically modified wildlife that the Clans named themselves after were all much much more fearsome than any of those. And of course, Kurita is in love with dragons/snakes, Liao is in love with tigers/horses, Marik is in love with eagles, Steiner is in love with griffons and successive generations of Kats, and Davion is just in love with themselves.
Edited by Rat of the Legion Vega, 19 July 2016 - 03:21 PM.