The silliest & scariest mechwarrior in the setting | Battletech lore

oo boy today's a big topic today we are talking about arguably the best Mech warrior in all of BattleTech the biggest troll you have ever seen in the figurehead of a massive pseudo organization that's a vigilante hero to some a murderous war criminal to others and the scariest Boogeyman in BattleTech to all if your name is on his list generic greetings and welcome to science Insanity a channel dedicated to bringing my love of Science Fiction and all it's often stupid glory to you the viewer today we're covering the Bounty Hunter a character of myth Legend and endless memes from BattleTech and an objectively cooler character than pretty much the definition of Master Chief or the Doom guy or any mixture of the two you can come up with mostly because he Pilots a giant War Machine rather than running around like an idiot on foot trying to fight massive Galactic scale enemies alone but before we get into that some Shameless Shilling if you enjoy the content like subscribe bring the Bell button drop a comment help the channel grow all that good stuff since it does help and the algorithm gods are cruel and unforgiving especially to smaller channels or if you're feeling particularly generous check out size Patron and drop a few space shuckles in support if you just want to hang out with like-minded people however we have a small but growing community of Turbo nerds in the Discord links for everything in the video description and with that onto the video first things first I need to put a huge warning right at the beginning if you're one of those people that only wants pure raw facts then firstly why are you here secondly the Bounty Hunter is as much a meme as he is a real character and there's going to be many many things in this that are not exactly Canon but are either heavily implied or have become community truth because people just you know want to believe in it so for a lot of what he's supposedly done there's no way to tell for certain if it was a real event or something that was created in universe or just something that the community came up with and eventually became true and approaching it from a this is factual lore would be really boring and we're here to have fun so I'm going to ignore that now at first first glance the name alone probably gives away exactly what his character is in the vein of the Doom guy being the guy of Doom or the master chief being the master of chiefs the Bounty Hunter is the hunter of bounties that was that was profoundly stupid his entire stick is reading through the settings hit list and picking the guy with the most zeros after his name and introducing him to copious amounts of murder or at least you would think because as it turns out there's a lot more to the Bounty Hunter than simply painting the symbols for money all over his battlemc and walking over the corpses of his enemies that is a thing he does by the way not the moon walking part the the painting money symbols all over his Mech presumably because it's funny to have the most disgustingly obvious paint Scheme ever while still being Head and Shoulders above every other Mech warrior in the setting and being able to flex the fact that you're Filthy Rich while on the battlefield is probably also entertaining for the Bounty Hunter considering their personality and despite the fact that I was talking about the Bounty Hunter as an individual it's more accurate to say it's closer to a shadow organization or mercenary Corporation than it is directly the Persona and figure head of the titular Bounty Hunter this is also reinforced because the Bounty Hunter is more of a title that can be passed down from person to person and there have been several confirmed persons who've actually held the title and piloted the money Mech before we get into all of that though let's talk about who the bounty hunters are and what they do they kill the best of the best why you may ask well for the same altruistic and honest intentions Mr Krabs underpays and overworks his staff money a frankly unbelievably unhealthy amount of money like Scrooge McDuck levels of money and then some and it just keeps going in the setting the number of zeros at the end of this guy's name just doesn't seem to have an end the very first time the Bounty Hunter appeared was around the year 2900 still well into the succession Wars and constant low-scale fighting that pretty much epitomizes the state of humanity in BattleTech if you don't know what this is go watch some of our older BattleTech stuff for more info into the setting but suffice to say imagine World War I but every country on Earth fighting every other country on Earth and then give everybody giant heavily armed mechs that they can't rebuild and you get the idea of how that conflict would look so things were violent chaotic and Prime real estate for murderers mercenaries Bandits and wannabe Warlords to start infesting human controlled space many of these people also had enormous bounties on their heads which tends to happen happen when you make your living robbing banks killing people and in some cases stealing entire moons or planets as your base of operations so into this chaotic world the Bounty Hunter Strode over the corpses of Highly distinguished Mech Warriors I might add you see nobody really knows when the first Bounty Hunter started killing people only that suddenly around the 2900s 2920s that area reports of some of the biggest outstanding bounties started being claimed worldclass mercenary Mech Warriors killed on the battlefield with precise weapons fire blowing out the cockpit and subsequently the pilot a pirate warlord randomly killed alongside his entire War band inside of their fortified moon base their mechs found smoking slag a prominent General a little too happy to engage in war crimes screams over the radio before they find his decapitated Mech dead in a ditch somewhere the Bounty Hunter was a staggeringly effective Mech warrior in the first few years of his activity he had successfully killed dozens of the very best Humanity had to offer turning in pretty much every single one of them dead the event that put him on the map however was catching a group of bank robbers a pirate group consisting of 29 dudes pretty much all of which were piloting their own battle mechs or armored vehicles like tanks and stuff and you know they managed to make off with a mountain of money which they used to continually fortify their Hideout and get new weapons the Bounty Hunter brought brought in all 29 of them stoned dead collecting tens of Millions worth in bounties and he also dragged every single thing that he could find that wasn't nailed down with him to sell the mechs the vehicles the weapons anything else that could have been of value from I assume Furniture to medical kits and all of this Salvage netting him like tens of millions more this was possible most likely because the Bounty Hunter has a preference for super long range weapons he piloted an especially customized Warhammer at the at least during the earlier stages when he was seen and that Mech is famous for having two colossal [ __ ] particle cannons as its main weapons main weapons that were well capable of vaporizing someone from over a kilometer away so generally the first and last a potential Target would know that the Bounty Hunter was actually engaging them was the crackle whiz of a particle Cannon shot slamming directly into their forehead and while I couldn't find anything in the the lore about the Bounty Hunter being especially good at headshotting enemy mechs the fact that the vast vast majority of its targets didn't eject Escape or survive the initial opening shots of the fight with him leads me to believe that they never even got the chance to eject or to shoot back which is quite rare considering as we've seen many times in the books games and often on tabletop Mech can take a massive amount of punishment without exploding that or my Army composition in Mech build is just trash and I can't win to save my life because I can't do any damage to the enemy full speed charges over flat open ground to have four one-on-one honor duels is the correct way to play Clan Max on tabletop right but you may ask surely this is just the Bounty Hunter being a small side character and assassinating mercenaries Pirates and general scum and small skirmishes or at the very most picking off some officer or general that's like way out of position and to that I ask were you paying attention at the beginning this man could chaa slide between volleys of autoc cannon fire kill Legions of Mech Warriors and then find a way to drag all of their mechs off for salvage or saale not because he has an army of his own the Bounty Hunter just Spends His free time naked bench pressing assault mechs for fun and by the way everything I just described as a cannon event allow me to paint you a picture there was a case where the Bounty Hunter took on a job from the draconus combine a job to kill two Federated Sons generals and bring them in for a reward now those of you who know the lore the draconus combine kill mercenaries on site they really really do not like them so the fact that they were willing to put out a bounty on and actually follow through with paying the Merk who came to collect means that the hate boner they had for these fed Sons generals was just off the charts like they were willing to sacrifice all social and personal tabos to kill these people now unlike a lot of officers and feds son's nobility the generals don't tend to be leading from the front or anywhere at risk this image on screen is a pretty good example the furthest forwards they tend to B is behind the rear line observing longrange artillery and coordinating troop movements they're also protected by several lances of Mech each one being anywhere from four to 7ish because the FED Suns do lances differently than the rest of BattleTech the Bounty Hunter only brought one lance of handpicked Mech warriors with him on this Mission so like five dudes including his own souped up Warhammer and that means that the Bounty Hunter and his wingmen would reasonably have had to fight through dozens of Mech Warriors at least meet in personal combat and kill both generals who by the way would probably not be near each other due to security concerns and then kill any and all local threats pick up the corpses of their enemies as proof and dip out with all the Salvage all of the Salvage before anyone could realize what was going on and get reinforcements over there to check why everybody was screaming into the radios and he did he accomplished all of this because they successfully turned in the bounties sometime later and sold off all of the killed fed Sons mechs and equipment the Bounty Hunter is Magic this man literally walks onto a battlefield casts power word kill and everyone's heads explode like that scene from the movie Kingsmen the best part oh the best part is that the Bounty Hunter is a spiteful Petty [ __ ] that Delights and [ __ ] with people because he can like the kind of stuff he just casually does because he can is Peak Peak douchebaggery he's the kind of person who if you meet in real life you would feel the overwhelming urge to drop kick his head into his rib cage but in fiction it's like all the social conditioning of real life disappears you can acknowledge he's a prick you can accept he's a trash person you can accept that he does terrible things but it's just so funny to see how hard he screws everyone over and then just gets away with it he's like jamy Lannister from Game of Thrones just so insufferable but so fun to watch be insufferable to kick this point home as an example when he was heading over to turn in the bounty on those generals the Bounty Hunter ran into a fairly new mercenary outfit promising to help them get in contact with the draconus combine and set up some kind of contract or employment for them whatever he convinced them to help him haul the loot there and assist if they ran into any more combat related troubles along the way so this new mercenary group did as soon as they made contact with the draconus combine the Bounty Hunter shot them in the back killed them all and presented their mechs as Salvage and for sale as well just because he could I guess the definition of hippity hoppity your stuff is his property and while we're on the topic of the Bounty Hunter being just the biggest troll in all of BattleTech let's talk about his love to haate situationship with Natasha kensky for those of you who've been around since the early days of the channel where we talked about the Clans and eth three-part nightmare kensky is essentially the most badass character in all of BattleTech and all the people who share his name and the clanners that like venerate him as a pseudo deity essentially everybody who's descended from Ken in the setting goes on to be massively influential in the setting or to drastically change the events and the current politics of stuff that's happening Natasha kensky is no different long story short she's the most amazing Mech Warrior from Clan wolf to ever moonwalk across the battlefields of the inner sphere the most badass to ever badass their way across the badassery of BattleTech whatever she not only has plot armor but in Universe crazy levels of skill and Effectiveness behind the controls of battl Mech and the bounty Hunter has spent literal years clowning all over her for example anyone who's aware of the Bounty Hunter knows he uses a wide variety of mechs always bringing the best option for the mission at hand however he has had a particular preference for the marauder because he like me is a man of culture and refined taste and can recognize the objectively best vehicle in the setting but he might not use it for its raw power and good looks even though it is incredibly powerful no no no the one he uses the famous bright green money Mech Marauder with all of the dollar signs painted all over it that thing is Natasha keny's Mech he stole it from her during a mission where he was temporarily working with her in her mercenary outfit he returned from a scouting Mission reporting that a very obvious very easy Ambush point was in fact Ambush free it was not as Natasha walked into that fight and got bogged down in combat her and her entire Lance were destroyed suspicous iously from behind she also took some gunfire and she was knocked unconscious as she ejected funnily enough the Bounty Hunter appeared to salvage all of their wrecks suggesting he either a made a backdoor deal with the Enemy forces or showed up to kill them all and set the whole thing up because he just really really wanted to [ __ ] with Natasha and of course because it adds insult to injury not only did he steal her personal Mech he completely souped it up and rebuilt that that thing from the ground up and now uses it as his signature Mech with which he strikes fear into the hearts of the enemy this started like a blood feud between Natasha kensky and the Bounty Hunter but it doesn't end there oh no because of course it can't it's not funny enough you see they've had run-ins after this as well this was just the start of that long Feud I mentioned the second major time and only really significant event to bring up after this that the Bounty Hunter had a run in with Natasha was when he was hired to ambush capture and convince her to sign on with hassk Davon for whatever mercenary needs he had at the time she was lured into an ambush but she managed to successfully fight her way out of it despite the Bounty Hunter trying his best to stop her non-lethally however when she escaped the Bounty Hunter turned the pettiness and childlike sadism to 11 because as she was escaping he pursued them only to casually murder two of her friends he literally turned around went fine then [ __ ] you I can't get my payday you don't get your friends and vaporize them before just leaving all because Natasha had the audacity to try not to be press ganged into the service of some random Noble [ __ ] and the Bounty Hunter just disappeared after this because of course he did didn't stay to gloat didn't stay to show off just nope shot them in the back and left with a scowl on his face because he missed out on a Payday and this kind of thing happens all the time like this guy essentially travels across the inner sphere wrecking everyone he comes up against and even a uses the Clans every time he runs into them stealing their mechs like the Timberwolf for his own personal use and when the inner sphere created the mo the marauder 2 the second greatest assault Mech ever built after King pincher he yed one of those for his own personal use as well so I hope by this point in the video it's become blatantly obvious that this character is a meme despite the often very good writing and set dressing he gets when he shows up he's like the Orcs from 40K it doesn't matter how Grim dark or serious or cool you try to make them the the way they behave the what like what they do it's just it's just hilarious it's a joke it's meant to be a joke but it gets better his Legend got so big in universe that entertainment conglomerates started producing a serialized television show about his adventures and the life of the Bounty Hunter I don't think he has any input or even cares but in Universe the Bounty Hunter has like a super Sentai TV show portraying him as some vigilante law man bringing the worst of the worst to Justice and it's stated in lore that so many people only know of him through this show that most people have no idea how much of a raging dick he actually is which could help explain how he manages to Swindle people all the time and to such a devastating degree he's like a griefer that team kills you and then successfully gets the rest of the team on his side to vote kick you from the match it's great also brief derailment because I forgot to put this in here and it's important to talk about in The Script but the the Bounty Hunter also wears power armor at all times both to hide his identity and to give him an advantage if he needs to chase a fleeing Bounty through cramped tunnels or something his Mech can't follow through the history of the Bounty Hunter's power armor is also quite interesting because it started out as just mere reinforced Mech Warrior combat suit with a face plate to hide his identity as you can see in this really really old art it's just a dude in a normal suit add on a helmet and a little bit of extra armor for the breastplate and hey Presto the pesto colored armor is born But as time went on the Renditions got close closer to this and just look at how [ __ ] stanced this iteration of the Bounty Hunter is dual wielding handguns in the most country western style of [ __ ] around and find out pose with what is presumably an infantry scale anti- Mech weapon on his back this is just chef's kiss perfect it's also totally obscures everything from The wearer's Voice to their appearance to their gender because while I've been referring to him as a him because it's just easier and the majority of them have been men at least the ones we know of there have been multiple women known to hold the title of the Bounty Hunter to to everybody listening in the comments to just segue off even worse than I segwayed into this topic The Bounty Hunter on foot in his power armor versus a clan Elemental in their power armor my money's on the Bounty Hunter go argue and debate in the comments on who wins that fight while the Bounty Hunter first became active or at least known that they were active around 2900 I want to explain that the Bounty Hunter as an entity is still shrouded in a lot of mystery only with Snippets here and there giving glimpses into the reality of things well the first time we see the bounty hunter in his current Incarnation is again 2900s it's suggested that it's a mantle or idea or kind of creed that's been passed down from generation to generation far far longer than what we actually see in the setting potentially all the way back to when battl mechs or even armored vehicles became available for Mercenaries to use and in the setting each incarnation of the Bounty Hunter being given a book called the tradition which is a massive compendium of skills tactics Concepts and important information that has been handwritten by each of the previous holders of the title it's so it's essentially a giant book of cheat codes that let you engage in the ancient art of Mech Fu to murder your enemies as for house said title is actually passed down from person to person nobody really knows for sure we have evidence and examples of some current holders training and grooming a successor to take their place examples of the Bounty Hunter simply fading away in history after passing it to a close or trusted associate we've seen examples where the current Bounty Hunter is murdered on the field of battle and the usurper is essentially invited to become the new Bounty Hunter sometimes apparently it's even been sold off to the highest bidder within the small group that works together as well the Bounty Hunter's organization it depends a lot on each incarnation of the Bounty Hunter and how they want to I guess transfer it get out of the business retire whatever one potential example of this is what I mentioned far earlier in the video that big debut Bounty where the hunter killed 29 Mech Warrior Pirates Who robbed a bank and turn them in their mechs in for a bounty afterwards the Bounty Hunter went silent for years just dropped off the face of the inner sphere before coming back suddenly years later and crumping a general in the middle of a war zone this is most likely a case of the current bount Hunter taking the score of a lifetime and just retiring but training a replacement in the intervening years just before disappearing generally the way to determine when a new Bounty Hunter takes over in the lore is if their behavior and attitude changes for example suddenly working with more Mech Warriors suddenly working alone again suddenly focusing on Pirates and criminals and the scum of the Galaxy suddenly ignoring all morals and taking only the highest paying bounties with no regard to who you're killing suddenly ignoring bounties entirely and instead challenging the most skilled Mech Warriors in the setting like during the clan Invasion generally you can also use Mech load out and tactics to kind of figure out when and where the Bounty Hunter switches identity but it's a little bit less viable this way because they tend to mix and match the mechs as they need them but preferences towards all it Firepower over surgical accuracy and Strikes Lone Wolf operations or full lances of dedicated Mech Warriors pretty much each and every time the Bounty Hunter notably changes tactic and behavior it's probably a new person in the power armor and at the helm this is also a pants [ __ ] scary thing to worry about as well from an in Universe perspective because it makes the Bounty Hunter impossible to plan against you have no idea what kind of Max weapons or tactics the Bounty Hunter is going to show up with if you even know that you're being hunted by them you don't know whether he's coming in Solo or has a small army backing him up you can't predict or plan around him so he's functionally always got the advantage since he will will know everything about you before he ever steps foot on the battlefield and he's also most likely going to pick the best possible time to strike whenever you are isolated alone or unprepared to respond and speaking of knowing everything about you like I explained the Bounty Hunter isn't an individual it's more of a Creed or Shadow organization and as such the Bounty Hunter is essentially cstar RIT small this isn't Canon but I refuse to believe that I'm wrong the Bounty Hunter has to have some form of sphere spanning network of spies information Brokers or agents that assist him alongside a small army of technicians Mech Warriors and even Aerospace Pilots the Bounty Hunter personally has dozens of confirmed battl mechs and potentially hundreds more for all his various followers and backup Mech Warriors and the fact that they never enter battle without utterly pristine almost brand Factory new Mech suggest a huge Logistics Force keeping everything repaired and maintained to a very high level the Bounty Hunter and Friends mechs are also often extremely customized being described as running faster hotter and more heavily armed than should be possible for contemporary Mech designs this also suggests that the Bounty Hunter has well suggests the Bounty Hunter might have access to star league AER Tech during the earlier years and during the clan Invasion he obviously uses Clan Tech since he's beaten and captured multiple of the best mechs the Clans can offer it would also explain how he manages to sneak around outrange and headshot his opponent so consistently if he's got some sldf ECM sensors targeting computers and extended range weapons bolted on to his uh bolted onto his mechs but the biggest part is it's extremely rare to actually see the Bounty Hunter go anywhere or appear anywhere in a world he's operating on the first time most people are even aware that he exists on the same planet is when they already have Munitions flying directly at their forehead from an angle they didn't expect now one would think that with that much power in the form of skill battl mechs and mountains of money it would be almost impossible to stay Anonymous whenever he moved around kind of like how the wolves drons are so Infamous in the setting that they pretty much can't go anywhere without somebody knowing of them and a lot of the great houses will keep track of these really big really skilled mercenary outfits specifically because they're so big and so skilled and so dangerous so again it suggests that the bounty hunters organization is is extremely Adept at controlling information hiding who they are or maybe even moving around without other people being able to track them I'm sure that commstar would know exactly where they are at all times but all of the other great houses would probably have no idea where someone of this kind of threat would actually be lurking around and from what little has been explored in the books and games the Bounty Hunter and his immediate Associates are like a family almost living eating training fighting and often repairing their mechs together the people he chooses to work with also sharing the payouts for the ludicrous bounties that the hunter collects for example the Bounty Hunter his five Mech Warrior backup Lance and his Mech teex all get a cut and since it's only like a dozen people maybe a little bit more that actually get a split of the bounties proper and aren't just paid out imagine getting like a $50 million Bounty split 10 ways and that happens every few months to years you would be an obscenely rich person after a decade or two of working for this guy so the monetary reason to stay quiet is all well and good but also you are a dead man walking if you try to snitch it's also heavily implied that people don't uh don't really retire from the service of the bounty hunters depending on which one you ended up working for you are retired in heavy air quotes this is like The Sopranos is that the right reference insert random Mafia movie Whatever same difference an interesting thing though is how these ass Associates are actually added to the well party and that's Up For Debate similarly as to how the new Bounty Hunter is chosen nobody really knows the hunter might simply turn in a bounty on an especially skilled pirate only to have left him alive and recruited him if they Pro to fit whatever the hunter is looking for they might simply raise them from kids and the family of other associates keeping the family tradition alive they might simply recruit random mercenaries who are damn good Mech Warriors while playing and threatening them into silence and and it stated that often when a new Bounty Hunter takes to the scene only the most trusted or competent of the old Associates are kept on while the rest are like I said retired and finally the last thing to discuss is what the bounty hunters actually do what's their goal what's the purpose of it aside from just making absolutely stupid amounts of money because we don't really see them doing much with it aside from quietly retiring into the background of history and just fading out of the books because while the only def Bing trait that binds them all together is bounties and missions with the insane payouts there is a pattern we can follow maybe it's part of the handed down tradition maybe it's just the type of people that the Bounty Hunter chooses to replace them from each generation but the biggest factor is that the Bounty Hunter takes on missions that are thought to be impossible taking down nearly three dozen Mech Warriors at once in a fortified pirate base killing two generals of a great house military on the field of battle amidst their army challenging and killing the very best of the clans in one-on-one combat in a fair fight the Bounty Hunter seems to gravitate towards missions that provide the greatest challenge the greatest threat often tangling with the setting's main characters like Natasha kensky or the biggest events like the clan Invasion or succession Wars the most defining trait of the Bounty Hunter besides their Endless Quest for money even greater than what Steiner has is that the bounty hunters make their living by killing Legends and that mostly sums up what they do and why they may have these weird desire for money they may have this incredible shadowy cabal Credo whatever but without fail whether they have no morals too many morals honorable dishonorable whatever whoever they're targeting the only unifying factor is that the bounty hunters always go for the biggest the most dangerous the most fear inducing impossible missions that generally the setting can throw at them and that mostly sums up the Bounty Hunter battletech's silliest and yet most intimidating Mech Warrior the man who not only wears power armor while piloting a Mech but actually makes it look cool but before we end off the video entirely thanks to the member of Science and sanity's patreon assisting in the funding of my basement dwelling Lifestyle by providing sustenance and stimulus to keep me going with a special thanks to the members of the $5 tier we really need to re-evaluate how we do the patron thanks at the end of the video man it's starting to get out of hand we're already at like 4 and a half pages I don't know how much more of the [ __ ] I can add in there with a special thanks to David G the original Augie 11 Bravo crunchy Terry Higgins Pedro munas David G the other one silencer Vox apolon Phoenix BT Legend Electro boy 11 Logan maynord Mickey David Arman Crome Robin St at fer Striker Tachi tuane he's Deb pixie Veris fabric 445 ano V Bob mini crustation Charles the snap Paulie Eric Jones Joseph holiday zombie the zerker David be sweet be rro Leb butcher stabby Taco nwam Brian Hall John Joshua J the hay folk unit zero tally Bob and I think that is everybody dear dear God I need to reevaluate how I do this Patron thank you it's it's starting to get very out of hand I'm too good at conning people into giving us money I guess anyways that's the end of the video thank you all very much for your support I hope you enjoyed it I will see you in the next video exas are hard goodbye

Channel: SCIENCE INSANITY

Views: 20,559

Keywords: mechwarrior, battletech, battletech lore, mechwarrior 5, battletech bounty hunter, the bounty hunter, battletech lore video, inner sphere, mechwarrior online, mwo, battletech marauder, battlemech, mech, star league, federated suns, draconis combine, house kurita, house davion, house steiner, mecha, mechwarrior mercenaries, capellan confederation, mw5, free world league, SCI, science insnaity, science, insanity, battletech warhammer, battletech character

Id: yXBYb474wSk

Length: 30min 11sec (1811 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2023