This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
From YKTTW (Link gone due to the The Great Crash)
Sci Vo: Why the gratuitous, undiscussed plural in the name?
Servbot: Because typing up the article made me realize how a race would more likely be described in plural, than in singular.
Morgan Wick: Would Futurama count?
Servbot: Hmm... tricky. Haven't watched Futurama, but from what I've heard of it, robots were clearly created by humans but they've reached the point where they have a separate culture and even an afterlife (is this right?). I also hear they have a planet of robots though. Borderline for earth robots, but clear example for the planet, maybe? Maybe someone who watches it could give a clearer answer? <<
Heart Burn Kid: I'd probably say no, because even the robots on the robot planet were created by humans; they're just robot separatists who decided to leave and found their own society. With blackjack. And hookers. (Not really on the last part, just couldn't help cribbing that joke from another episode of the show)
Cosmetor: It seems that the Mechanical Monster article was merged into this one. It was, in fact, an entirely different and mutually exclusive trope, referring to lifeforms which look like machines but actually aren't.
Scrounge: I think part of the problem was that Mechanical Monster had kind of a misleading name. But yeah, someone dropped the ball there.
Sniffnoy: I don't know, I think you're making a non-distinction here. We have two dimensions here - firstly, composition - are they made out of organic matter, or out of metal and plastic? I'll just call this axis organic vs. metallic, for simplicity. (Or they could be made out of entirely different materials, but those don't seem to enter into it, so I'll leave that out for now; when it comes up, I'll call it "weird".) Secondly, creation/agency - are they machines, artificial, built to accomplish a specific purpose, or are they free agents, probably natural rather than built, with a will of their own, best considered as alive? I'll just call this distinction artificial vs. natural, again for simplicity. Organic natural - people, animals, aliens. Organic artificial - Organic Technology. Metallic artificial - robots. Metallic natural - this. And that seems to be what you're describing - they're lifeforms, i.e., natural, and they look like machines, that is to say, they look like what we think of as machines, i.e., they look artificial; as we naturally associate organic with natural and metallic with artificial, this is basically saying they look metallic (since artificial vs. natural is rather harder to tell at a glance, especially when dealing with strange creatures not existing in the real world). And so, I would think, they are metallic, and hence Mechanical Lifeforms. Unless you mean they are natural and look metallic, but are not actually - i.e., either organic natural that appears metallic, or organic weird that appears metallic. To which I say: Huh? Who does that? All the examples here that I recognize or have descriptions look like straightforward metallic natural to me.
Scrounge: We mean organic but looks mechanical or metallic, and may even have steel skin with flesh underneath. Think X-Men's Colossus.
Servbot: I don't think that fell under the original definition of Mechanical Monster either. I remember the original entry specifically excluding things that are only armored with steel.
Well, the crash at least brought back the original article to be saved for posterity:
The Mechanical Monster is a being that resides in many games, but has recently come into its own as a staple of the recent Final Fantasy games. It is a creature that, despite being a "living" monster, appears to be partly or wholly mechanical. That is, not a living being in armor, but an actual machine. Note that this article is about living beings, not robots or cyborgs, but living beings that look like robots or cyborgs.
Servbot: On the Wild Arms demons- I thought it was the other way around, with the humans being descended from lower classes of demons? I need to play Wild Arms 3 again >>
Clarste: Cut:
- Especially since the demons were originally "upgraded" humans from Earth.
Since its just Fanon. Also, the demons described in the entry are the ones from WA 1 ("living metal" with mercury for blood sounds more like a fantasy version of "silicon-based lifeform" than "mechanical lifeform" to me), and it seems hard to reconcile with them with the demons in WA 3 (transhuman cyborgs). Also, they're from a different planet... and neither of those planets is explicitly Earth.
arromdee: Cut:
- What makes it better is that these meat creatures are implied to be humans - we are essentially meat, and our voices are just our larynx-meat moving and our tongue-meat flapping around in our meat-mouths. The aliens are disgusted enough not to contact the "meat-creatures", thereby explaining why we haven't had any alien contact.
That's explaining the joke.
