Today's Leap Day Special is from a BattleTech fan channel, Black Pants Legion, regarding the big event that would shatter the Inner Sphere: The Amaris Civil War.
Outside of gaming, BattleTech doesn't get its due respect as a successful mecha property. Best summarized these days as "Game of Thrones with giant robots", it's a sad thing that this American original science fiction property has languished for so long due to the rights being so spread apart (and that's before all of the issues with Harmony Gold).
Even worse is that attempts to break out of this rut and ghetto are greatly complicated due to its reliance on art assets originating with other properties (Macross, Dougram, and Crusher Joe) for many of the well-known BattleMechs and vehicles; you have to look at the Clans to find the first truly original icons of the property.
I would like to see BattleTech make a new attempt to break out of the gaming ghetto, but it would require a production team with balls as well as experience and partners outside of Western media (i.e. Japanese studios and publishers) to do it, and the way forward is to lean heavily on that "Game of Thrones" element punctuated by the Realest of Real Robots going at it good and hard. I'd start with putting together a manga adaptation of this very story, simultaneously published in Japanese and English, and then following up with an anime version.
Yeah, a bit of cultural recursion, but it wouldn't be the first time.
Enjoy an afternoon of Princes & PPCs, folks.
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