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Sentient, autonomous, giant fighter mechas.
So far the most popular franchise with this is Transformers, but most of their media is mediocre at best. There are some exceptions like a few of the comics and some of the series which are really good, but overall as a franchise they are lacking unfortunately. I really love the trope though.
The other franchise with this would be Bionicle but I can't say I know much about it.
There are plenty of mechas out there, but they don't tick all the boxes for this trope. Most are either non sentient or require a human pilot to be active. And those which are sentient and autonomous are rarely fighters.
So if you know of any - please let me know. Thanks.
EVAs (from evangelion) are sentient. And can be autonomous but -everyone would rather they didn't
Evangelion has been on my list for too long, I just don't have time for anything in my life. So does each one have their own distinct personality, motivations etc? Are they actually characters or are they more like props?
More like monsters, really. With one exception because one of them has a (very creepy) bond with the main protagonist.
Minor Spoilers (backstory)
The Evas are half-biological half-mechanical clones of the Angels the characters are fighting, so they are malicious by default if they break control