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Transformers is Totally Badass™

July 2007

Transformers is Totally Badass™. Doesn't really justify a full review, but some notes:

  • The Decepticons (the side of evil) all take the form of machines of war—weapons—while the Autobots (the side of good) all take the form of classic symbols of American consumerism.

  • We first meet the Autobots in America. The Decepticons, on the other hand, are encountered in the middle east (Qatar, in the UAE), then bring themselves and their terror to America.

  • It's curious how so many of the alien races we invent describe us as ‘a violent race.' I mean, the only possible explanation is that we consider ourselves a violent race, which means we have some idea that this isn't the way things should be… but we're still violent? On the bright side, violence is supposedly diminishing over time.

  • People really want deep government conspiracies to exist.

  • For all that I'm close to pacifist, hi-tech military hardware is FREAKING AWESOME. Military aircraft in particular. Phwoarr.

  • I gotta be honest, Quentin Tarantino made far better use of Tomoyasu Hotei's Battle Without Honor Or Humanity in Kill Bill.

http://problemattic.net/2007/07/142

Nato commented:

I wonder if the reason so many races we invent describe us as violent may just be a product of how stories are written. Firstly, either the alien races are going to be more violent than us, or less violent than us. Writers will tend to exaggerate differences, so you'll tend to get more races who exemplify violence, and races who exemplify peace, than 'average' races. Now, the violent ones are probably going to be the ones who don't sit around talking about us, and just go about killing us, and don't really bother to describe us, because we're pansies. The peaceful ones are probably the ones we get to meet, because they aren't going to immediately destroy us, but are going to sit around and talk about us, and so in comparison, we'll be violent.

Alternatively, it could just be the product of a Christian world view, that mankind is fallen, totally depraved, etc...