Basic Trope: Humongous Mechas portrayed with relatively realistic weapons compared to their counterparts in the Super Robot Genre, often portrayed as comparable to a typical military/combat vehicle.
- Straight:
- The Armed Porte is the latest line of The Federation's war machine. The humanoid shape takes full advantage of ground-breaking artificial muscles, frame, and neuro-link control systems, allowing the Armed Porte to totally dominate the battlefield. One notable Armed Porte is the Troperion Alpha, the Super Prototype equipped with a new Applied Phlebotinum Drive that enables it to arm and use a Wave-Motion Gun and/or Deflector Shields.
- A Walking Tank is given a combat test; attempting to combine the durability of a tank with the agility of an infantryman.
- Exaggerated:
- Despite their high performance, Armed Porte suffer from short operational times, so tanks and other vehicles remain as mainstay battle unit. One notable Armed Porte is the Troperion Beta, an Ace Custom refitted with improved sensors and fire-control systems. Armed Porte in general are more about instilling fear in the enemy, taking advantage of their theatricality.
- Armed Porte mecha are nothing more than tanks with a mildly humanoid structure.
- Downplayed:
- The artificial muscle, frame, neuro-link control system, and Applied Phlebotinum Drive were derived from alien technology, and Armed Porte pilots are aided by a complex AI that can learn, adapt, and even make conversation to a degree. Nonetheless, Armed Portes are used and destroyed by both The Federation and The Empire in great numbers.
- Armed Portes are dangerous weapons, and the protagonists happen to pilot them, but they're only one part of the military and serve alongside traditional weapons.
- Armed Portes are a very niche weapon for antiguerilla warfare. They have good visibility and sensors and are capable of traversing rough terrain and climbing while fulfilling the role of armor and artillery where they would previously have to go without. Against a modern military outside those conditions they are inferior to conventional machines.
- Justified:
- At an early state of development, Armed Portes were experimental machines for artificial muscles, frame, and neuro-link control system that require a humanoid form to be fully realized. It take decades of development from there before the first combat-worthy Armed Porte can be built.
- La Résistance is lacking in real armor support, so they improvise them from load-lifting machines used in construction, where the precision and lifting capacity of the Porte are vital.
- Inverted: Super Robot Genre
- Subverted:
- Armed Porte don't have any advantage over prior/existing war vehicles. The Empire simply uses them for their psychological effect before razing the target with its main force.
- Once Troperion Alpha unlocks the Applied Phlebotinum Drive's limiter, it gain the ability to distort time and space (for example).
- Double Subverted: Not wanting to waste any potential force multiplication, La Résistance applies some modifications to a captured Armed Porte. It turns out to be fearsome, powerful machine.
- Parodied:
- The latest model Armed Porte comes with a stereo system and a turret ripped straight off a tank as an absolutely impractical hand-carried weapon. It also tends to fall over a lot.
- All shall tremble before the mighty Roomba with Knives Taped to It!
- Zig Zagged: The Empire deployed the shiny new "Armed Porte" and claimed it to be an innovative machine that would change warfare forever, but that turned out to be little more than propaganda or even an outright lie. La Résistance managed to capture some of these units and converted them into construction machines. These "Armed Porte (Con)" turned out to work pretty well in that field - so well that they became widespread. Eventually, The Good Kingdom improved the Armed Porte and turned it into a truly awesome combat unit.
- Averted:
- There is no mecha, regardless of size.
- The mechas, while realistic, also have some super power as well.
- Enforced:
- "We're going to sell loads of action figures. Since Bob is our script writer and he's a famous Science Fiction novelist, lets add some Techno Babble for bit of realism"
- Despite writing a realistic miltary series, for Rule of Cool or some other reason the writer wants to put mecha in it, but makes them as realistic as possible to keep with the general tone of the series.
- Lampshaded: "Sure, we can't suplex enemy tanks with the Armed Porte, but we make do."
- Invoked: The Empire recognized that their war machines have a limit on where they're effective, but something more humanlike could fight in many more enviroments where tanks and planes wouldn't be as effective, so they begin blueprints for the Armed Porte.
- Exploited: The Empire attacks and take control over The Federation's most resource heavy regions to make the production of their Armed Porte impractical.
- Defied:
- The main character is an extreme Combat Pragmatist who is presented with a cool Humongous Mecha to use in battle, but explicitly refuses to use it because he knows that the humanoid shape is just for Rule of Cool, and that nothing beats a good old-fashioned artillery strike or well-placed gunshot.
- "No, sir, I will not authorize funding for this. This is a military unit, not an Asian cartoon. Come back to me when you've got something that can take hull-down stance behind something that doesn't happen to be a skyscraper. And by the way, where did you expect me to get the parts for these leg workings? Can you say 'logistics?' Lo-giss-ticks. It means 'military supplies' and the good old Wheel-and-Axle is super easy to stamp out by the hundreds of thousands. Leg workings... *scoffs* the very idea..."
- Discussed: "Sure, the cost of an Armed Porte is equal to three M-2000 battle tanks. But as you see, three tanks stand no chance against a mech."
- Conversed: "Huh? That mech throwing grenade? Are they even aware how hard it is to program such pattern data for Armed Porte?"
- Implied: Armed Porte are vaguely and cryptically mentioned throughout the series, which mainly shows realistic war machines.
- Deconstructed: The Armed Porte prove to be a waste of money to construct because they're so impractical in combat, being top-heavy, slow, and a large target.
- Reconstructed:
- Eventually, these flaws are smoothed out, and the Armed Porte dominates the battlefield.
- The Armed Porte is retooled as a specialist unit, deployed in urban areas where tanks are too vulnerable.
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