Shadow Mirror
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Shadow-Mirror refers to the dimension-travelling army of mecha and their crew that has made appearances in the Super Robot Wars video game series. They have appeared in Super Robot Wars Advance and Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation 2.
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[edit] Background
The Shadow-Mirror are part of the Earth Federation forces. The kanji for their official name translates into "Special Task Maneuver Squad." They are an elite group similar to the Titans in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. They exist in a parallel dimension, wherein several events happened differently in their continuum compared to the one they are invading.
In Advance, for example, Vindel Mauser refers to Amuro Ray as a master seargent, when in the game he is a lieutenant. The Vanishing Trooper Incident, wherein SRX Team pilot, Raidiese F. Branstein lost his hand, also happened in the Shadow-Mirror "homeworld," scaring the Personal Trooper developers there from designing anything resembling a Huckebein.
In both games that they have appeared in, the goal of the Shadow-Mirror is to plunge the world in eternal war. Vindel, their leader, believes that war brings about change and the best in humanity, so there is no reason to desire for peace. He defines peace as the stagnation in between one war and the next, causing man to become corrupt and weak, and is thus undesirable.
[edit] Characteristics
The Shadow-Mirror modus operandi is chilling in its simplicity: scout out any war-ready organizations in the dimension they wish to invade next, infiltrate the organization with sleeper agents, strike an alliance with said group, and steal their technology. If stealing their technology proves impractical or impossible, the Shadow-Mirror will attempt to use them as pawns to achieve their own goals. Ultimately, when they have gotten all they could from their victims, they turn against their former "allies."
The Shadow-Mirror are masters at copying technology, often building exact replicas of the units from blueprints, and at other times are able to craft original creations based on combat data gathered from their opponents. In the final level of Advance, Londo Bell is met with an army composed of mecha from the various enemy factions that the Shadow-Mirror have allied with and/or stolen designs from (nearly all enemy series in the game are represented in the last stage). In Original Generation 2, combat data on the Alt Eisen, Weiss Ritter, Wild Wurger, and Wild Falken were used to create the Rapiecage, an Assault Dragoon with weapon systems and capabilities common to the previous four.
[edit] Technology And Units
In Advance, the Federation's grunt of choice was the Metal Armor Dragoon, which is outclassed by the more expensive Gespenst MK II. In this timeline/dimension, the Dragoon was chosen due to its lower production cost and so was produced in numbers, yet the Shadow-Mirror have the same number of Gespensts. In Original Generation 2, the mass-production Gespenst MK II M of Earth is a slow ground-pounder that needs to close in to bring its weapons to bear. The Shadow-Mirror mass-produced these Gespensts, equipping them with Tesla Drives, a powerful, costly propulsion system that grants increased speed and flight, and has more first-strike capability and range.
It would seem the Shadow-Mirror has access to more efficient production, allowing them to mass-produce expensive, high-performance units. Thus far, the Shadow Mirror has been seen to field the following units:
- Gespenst MK-II M
- Laz Angriff
- Randgrith
- R Eins M
- Ash Saver
- Rapiecage
- Soulgain
- Vysaga
- Angelg
- Zweizergain
[edit] Notable Shadow Mirror Officers
- Vindel Mauser
- Lemon Browning
- Axel Almer
- Lamia Loveless
- Echidna Issaki
- Wodan Ymir
- Gilliam Yeager
[edit] Rank And File
The Shadow Mirror army is comprised of two kinds of soldiers: human grunt pilots, skilled and battle-hardened after fighting in countless wars, and the W-Series bioroids. These bioroids boast piloting skills that normal humans would not be able to accomplish. Upon defeat, bioroids will activate their unit's Code ATA (Ashes-To-Ashes) sequence and destroy it, to make sure that the enemy does not capture Shadow-Mirror technology, and that includes themselves.
[edit] Notes
There are noticeable similarities between the machines the Shadow-Mirror use and the Banpresto original machines in Super Robot Wars 64. Fan speculation has it the Shadow-Mirror actually originated from that universe, considering the close resemblance to the machines the Banpresto original heroes use.
