The Engineer: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

In war, equipment is an essential part of victory. From tents and rifles to bases and vehicles, no army can fight on manpower alone. They need technology, and people to maintain it and move it forward. The average soldier actually does not have full knowledge of ''how'' his equipment works, let alone have the knowledge or time to maintain said equipment. Bigger and badder pieces of equipment require even more know-how and maintenance. There are also myriad obstacles and situations which a soldier will not be equipped to handle, like obstacles that impede troop movement, difficult to traverse terrain, and the elements themselves falling on their heads.

So, behind the glamorous officers and the rough-and-tumble enlisted soldiers, there's one man who will always be there to give them a technologically empowered hand: The Engineer.

 

 

The Engineer is practically never one of the protagonists, since the more glamorous frontline soldiers are the ones that usually get the spotlight. However, if the Engineer is in a story, he will always be an ESSENTIAL character, and you can expect his skills to be crucial for victory at some moment in the story. Engineer characters also usually tend to be older, more experienced soldiers who are [[A Father to His Men|a father figure]] to younger soldiers, be they frontline soldiers or younger engineers. They can also have elements of the [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|drill sergeant]], demanding constant effort and discipline from his crew, although this is not surprising considering the frontline soldiers depend on the equipment they service to survive. Younger engineers can have [[Hot-Blooded|a tendency to be very passionate about their work]], and have the gift of creativity and tenacity on their side. Expect young Engineers to come up with new technologies and strategies using existing technology that will give their allies a new edge in combat. Sometimes, an Engineer will actually [[Ascended Extra|get the spotlight on him and remain a major character.]]

* The [[Camp Gay|faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous]] Leeron of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]''. For the first half of the series, he practically takes care of all the Gunmen, the Gurren Lagann AND the massive Dai-Gurren all by himself! And post-timeskip, he's even MORE talented.

* The maintenance crew in ''[[Shinkon Gattai Godannar|Godannar]]''. Also a major source of comedy and [[UST]].

* Franky from ''[[One Piece]]'' is the crews shipwright, responsible for the upkeep of the [[Cool Boat|Thousand Sunny]] (which he designed and built, of course). He's a Combat Engineer by virtue of turning himself into a cyborg.

* Heihachi in ''[[Seven Samurai]]'' who lacks martial experience, but fights with engineering tech instead.

* The German film ''[[Stalingrad]]'' follows a platoon of combat engineers, known as ''Sturmpioniere'', fighting in the eponymous city.

* Yori in ''[[Tron]]''. She ran the Solar Sailer simulation, and a "blink and you miss it" [[Chekhov's Gun]] in the beginning of the movie indicates she helps control the laser.

 

== Literature ==

 

* ''The Engineer Trilogy'' by K.J. Parker features an engineer as the central character. Set in an alternate [[Middle Ages]], engineering pervades the story: design, manufacture the application of machines (particularly war machines) are all tightly interwoven into the plot. Ziani Vaatzes, the titular engineer is a subtly [[The Chessmaster|terrifying genius]] who [[Batman Gambit|applies]] his deep understanding of mechanics to manipulate everything from people to empires to achieve his own ends.

* Julio Poertena and his "[[Funetik Aksent|pig pocking wrench]]" from the [[Prince Roger]] series by [[David Weber]] and [[John Ringo]] qualifies.

* Episodes of ''[[Band of Brothers]]'' have shown the Army Corps Of Engineers helping infantry and cavalry move. Also makes it an example of [[Truth in Television]].

* The multitude of engineering officers in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' universe. They've proven their worth many times over.

** Indeed, in ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'', the engineers have attained a [[Worthy Adversary]] status amongst the Dominion Vorta officers, one of whom claims that Starfleet Engineers can turn "Rocks into Replicators".

* Walter in ''[[La Femme Nikita]]''.

'''Major Lee Adama''': He was used to working with machines. Command is about people. }}

** Chief Galen Tyrol also exemplifies this, particularly "The Mechanic". He spends most of his appearances fixing one thing or another (usually vipers), is very possessive of the vipers, and has an entire crop of newbies to mentor. The few times he does go into combat mode, its like watching Gordon Freeman.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

 

** Space Marines have Techmarines, specially trained by the [[Machine Worship|Adeptus Mechanicus]] to maintain their battle-brothers' equipment. Due to being every bit as tough and skilled as other [[Space Marines]], they're the [[Genius Bruiser]] type.

** The Salamanders, however; belong to the Promethian Cult which value self-reliance and have anvil, hammer and fire as important symbols; and as their Primarch was a blacksmith, they all maintain their equipment by themselves personally. There are still Techmarines within their chapter though, and due to every battle brother in their chapter taking care of their own equipment, they are free to make even more impressive items.

== Video Games ==

 

** The Engineer is better at defense than offense, though he can be played as a "Battle Engie" with the right loadout (specifically, the Gunslinger and the Frontier Justice).

** The Demoman is also an engineer of sorts, as the resident explosives expert.

** This is especially true to ''Earth 2150''. The ED Gruz and the UCS Mammoth can both carry out tasks like digging trenches and tunnels, building bridges and walls, etc.

** The custom-map-only Engineer unit in ''[[Empire Earth]]'' can repair buildings as well as construct bunkers and (pathetically weak) barbed wire fences.

** The Crimson Lance Engineer enemy summons a turret to help them out similar to Roland. It's stated in the [[All There in the Manual|Official Guide]] that Roland was a former Crimson Lance Engineer.

* The worker units in ''[[Starcraft]]'' fulfill the role of engineers, but it is the Terran [[SC Vs]] that follow the trope most closely, being piloted units dedicated to construction, mining, terrain-forming, and unit repair. Science Vessels and their succeeding equivalent in the sequel are worth mentioning too, as their detection capabilities are invaluable, and their abilities are no less useful in harassing the enemy or supporting allied troops.

* Basically all of Cid's incarnations in ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', except for ''I'', ''VIII'', ''XIII'', and the spinoffs. ''IV'', ''VI'', and ''XII'' are probably closest to the trope as written.

** King Edgar Figaro of ''VI'' is also an example of the trope. His mechanical, sand-diving, transforming castle just by itself is [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|an example of how incredibly COOL an Engineer can be.]]

** [[Truth in Television]], the flying machine was based on sketches Da Vinci made in his notebooks. [[Rule of Cool|On the other hand, those sketches never actually produced something that really worked...]]

* In the ''[[Command and Conquer]]'' titles, engineers are used to either sabotage/capture enemy structures or instantly repair one's own.

** Imperial Guard Enginseers in the expansions to the first game are the toughest builders available. Other factions tended to use various types of slaves or drones or other squishy units.

* The Worker in ''[[Fat Princess]]''. Not only are they absolutely ''essential'' for harvesting resources and upgrading structures, general consensus actually has them as the game's best combat unit. A team composed of upgraded Workers and [[The Medic|Priests]] supporting them is pretty much an unstoppable juggernaut.

* [[Brutal Legend|Eddie Riggs]], in an unusual example of The Engineer being the protagonist. Sure, he can fight, drive, lead armies {{spoiler|and turn into an ass-kicking demon}}, but the main reason he's so valuable to the Ironheade army is his knowledge of mechanics and capacity for building stuff. He's a perfect example of how Engineers help turn the tide of battle through usage of technology. Later in the game, Mangus and Jack(the Headbanger with the hydraulic car jack of death) are examples as well.

** In fact, nearly any protagonist of a tower-defense game could be considered an Engineer of sorts.

* Andy from [[Advance Wars]]. His [[Limit Break|CO Power]] heals and buffs all his troops.

* PROTAGONIST engineer from ''[[Doom|Doom 3's]]'' expansion pack

* In [[Knights of the Old Republic]], T3-M4. And Bao-dur in the sequel. Bao-Dur in the second [[Knights of the Old Republic]] is a Tech Specialist (a class unique to him). His hit points aren't great, but he gets insane bonuses to his technical stats, making him very useful for slicing, droid repair, and most anything that isn't brawling or bluff. {{spoiler|It's almost not worth it to cross-class him.}}

* ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'' has Mechanics as a class of [[Player Mooks]]. They're the ones who patch up your vehicles between battles, though you'll need [[Mad Scientist|Professors]] to improve them. Oh, and they can do field repairs with giant wrenches.

* ''Sly Cooper''s Bentley. In the first game he is mainly much needed Support, but in the second and particularly the third he outfits himself with some sleep darts and explosives and heads out into the field, proving himself to be truly badass in Combat as well.

** The first, Tali is one of the best engineers from her species. Her race, the quarians, are considered the most expert of all the species in the game at engineering. It's their biggest [[Planet of Hats|hat]], which they need it to cover the baldness of their rickety, jury-rigged antique space vessels.

** Of course, the main point of Tali and Engineer!Shepard is to hack enemy robots' IFF targeting systems and make them go on a berserk rampage through their own lines.

*** As well, there are a number of minor examples who are engineers for the Normandy. Gabby and Kenny in particular within ''2'' serve as [[Those Two Guys]] (well, That Guy and Girl.) with humorous conversations.

*** Also from [[Mass Effect 3]], Cerberus Combat Engineers are a new type of [[Elite Mook]] that, while not too difficult on their own, can deploy [[Demonic Spider|stupidly powerful auto-turrets]] if given half a chance. Because of this, and that they can repair damaged [[Mini-Mecha|Atlas walkers]], give them [[Shoot the Medic First|very high target priority]]. You can thwart their turret placement doing so, or at least hose off the turret while it's still deploying. Or if you're an engineer yourself or have an engineer on the squad, [[Hack Your Enemy|help yourself to the turret to cause hilarity to ensue.]]

* In ''[[Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]'', the Engineer is the most important class in multiplayer, since they are the only class that can plant and defuse dynamite, which is the only weapon that can destroy objectives. They gain more support roles in the ''Enemy Territory'' expansion, where they can lay mines, build support structures, and repair damaged equipment.

* The Mechanic from ''Dungeon Fighter Online'' is an example. He has the basic attack skills of the original Gunner, with the added bonus of several robots that he can send out to fight for him, such as a turret emplacement, a small exploding 'bot, and a floating gun that follows him and shoots blue energy orbs.

* ''[[Touhou Project]]'' kappa show signs of every sort of Engineering, depending on the story in question, from building all the technology for the [[Youkai]] of the mountain after ''Subterranean Animism'' to Nitori's [[Gadgeteer Genius]] use of tools like [[Rocket Punch|extending arms]] and Optical Camoflauage. Kappa are the standard [[Hand Wave]] explanation for how anything gets built in fanon.

** A good canon example of this in the realm of [[Magitek]] comes from Patchouli Knowledge in ''Silent Sinner In Blue'', who created a working spaceship out of essentially plywood, duct tape, a whole lot of magic charms, and a [[Miko]] channeling the power of Gods of Voyage for an energy source, as well as a backup thruster in the form of [[Cute Witch|Marisa]] and her [[Kamehame Hadoken|Master Spark]].

* In [[Civilization]], the Engineer is a vital upgrade to the Settler class, able to build roads, railways, irrigation canals, mines, and cities twice as fast.

* [[Captain Obvious|Needless to say]], Engineers are one of the 3 player classes in ''[[Star Trek Online]]''. Most of their abilities on the ground have to do with creating machines and coaxing other machines into overpowered glory. In space, most of the abilities involve reworking the ship's power systems into short bursts to increase defenses and otherwise help keep the ship in one piece. It's a mostly defense oriented class, but not quite up to the traditional title of "tank".

* Engineers in ''[[Civil War Generals]] 2'' build and remove obstructions, fortifications, and bridges, but are poor fighters.

* In ''[[Torchlight]] II'', the Engineer is not only capable of making turrets but is also the resident [[Meat Shield|Tank]] wearing [[Steampunk]] [[Powered Armor]] while wielding [[Drop the Hammer|hammer-like]] [[Wrench Whack|wrenches]].