If TFTM were made today, would the Junkions would speak like Gen Z?
Thread of Thoughts, Questions (and Maybe Even Answers) That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread
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Somebody would. Whoever the -whatever generation they are- writer wants to highlight as annoying, maybe. IDK, Wheelie. ("TV" now is probably influencers/streamers, which overlaps a bit but will be more "like, share, subscribe").
Or, hell, Hot Rod. Give me stuff with xennial Optimus Prime trying to train zoomer Hot Rod and gen alpha Bumblebee.
Basically he turns because he's supposed to end up as Megatron -- the rationale exists on a meta level, but not on the page. Even that stuff Sabr cites as having gotten cut (you made me this) feels more of the same stuff we did get, just more intensely blamey-delulu. Deleting that scene of him witnessing the energon flowing while he and the High Guard traveled away was a mercy, because he would have looked incredibly stupid. Gives an angry speech, Shockwave points to the flowing energon, and Megatron can only go "d'oh!"
I will second the need for some of that Aligned energy (not least because there's so much of a gap in TF One). I was heartened to see the wiki pick up on this and use Prince of Egypt lyrics ("All I Ever Wanted" and its reprise were among the best things about that movie) as captions, because that sort of mix of brotherly bond and simmering jealousy/slightedness was a good thread running through these. There's stuff that gets lost when eschewing the data clerk/gladiator backstory, more the latter, and making them co-workers in the mines -- even if D-16's anger is read as being at Orion Pax failing upwards and the injustice of him affording to be optimistic because it all works out for him anyway, it's not something with that kind of gravitas, it's Jim vs Dwight.
D-16's angry arc in general is kind of flat because he starts the movie with zero stakes or desire for stakes. He's timid, content to keep his head down and slave away, maybe wanting to be employee of the month or take on a middle management role or whatever. Then suddenly he wants to kill Sentinel, not even to avenge the Primes or his favorite Prime, just because of Sentinel's lie serving up the planet to the Quintessons. Which, fine (but the framing is more personal than "see what he's done to all of us?"). But there's a singular focus for his anger, which turns into being murder-angry at Orion, which turns into a protracted civil war... it's thin, there's not much to work with there. It's all carried along on a tide of "well, he was supposed to become Megatron, sure".
Or, hell, Hot Rod. Give me stuff with xennial Optimus Prime trying to train zoomer Hot Rod and gen alpha Bumblebee.
Basically he turns because he's supposed to end up as Megatron -- the rationale exists on a meta level, but not on the page. Even that stuff Sabr cites as having gotten cut (you made me this) feels more of the same stuff we did get, just more intensely blamey-delulu. Deleting that scene of him witnessing the energon flowing while he and the High Guard traveled away was a mercy, because he would have looked incredibly stupid. Gives an angry speech, Shockwave points to the flowing energon, and Megatron can only go "d'oh!"
I will second the need for some of that Aligned energy (not least because there's so much of a gap in TF One). I was heartened to see the wiki pick up on this and use Prince of Egypt lyrics ("All I Ever Wanted" and its reprise were among the best things about that movie) as captions, because that sort of mix of brotherly bond and simmering jealousy/slightedness was a good thread running through these. There's stuff that gets lost when eschewing the data clerk/gladiator backstory, more the latter, and making them co-workers in the mines -- even if D-16's anger is read as being at Orion Pax failing upwards and the injustice of him affording to be optimistic because it all works out for him anyway, it's not something with that kind of gravitas, it's Jim vs Dwight.
D-16's angry arc in general is kind of flat because he starts the movie with zero stakes or desire for stakes. He's timid, content to keep his head down and slave away, maybe wanting to be employee of the month or take on a middle management role or whatever. Then suddenly he wants to kill Sentinel, not even to avenge the Primes or his favorite Prime, just because of Sentinel's lie serving up the planet to the Quintessons. Which, fine (but the framing is more personal than "see what he's done to all of us?"). But there's a singular focus for his anger, which turns into being murder-angry at Orion, which turns into a protracted civil war... it's thin, there's not much to work with there. It's all carried along on a tide of "well, he was supposed to become Megatron, sure".
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What can I say except "You're welcome!"?
Twas also me who suggested that movie for the TF One article's captions.
Love Prince of Egypt. It's the best animated movie Dreamworks has ever made.
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You could say "You're welcome"...
But yeah, that works well for that incarnation of the characters. Even when I first read "Exodus", I was having flashbacks to the first Thor movie, which had a similar rivalry brewing between Thor and Loki (but of course very different characters across the three).
There's just more substance to work with there. Megatron advocates change and casting off the abusive status quo. His friend who didn't even come up with the ideas gets selected over him by the status quo. Not hard to see how he might view his friend as a puppet and traitor.
Honestly I kind of miss the days when we didn't have to justify the bad guys. Like yes, it's a better reflection of the shades of gray that society actually works under, but it can be a tricky depiction concern.
But yeah, that works well for that incarnation of the characters. Even when I first read "Exodus", I was having flashbacks to the first Thor movie, which had a similar rivalry brewing between Thor and Loki (but of course very different characters across the three).
There's just more substance to work with there. Megatron advocates change and casting off the abusive status quo. His friend who didn't even come up with the ideas gets selected over him by the status quo. Not hard to see how he might view his friend as a puppet and traitor.
Honestly I kind of miss the days when we didn't have to justify the bad guys. Like yes, it's a better reflection of the shades of gray that society actually works under, but it can be a tricky depiction concern.
Although, something I cannot take credit for are the many myriad of music videos made by people on YouTube who put "The Plagues" to footage from TF: Prime, TF One, the WFC video game, stop-motion toys, and even hand-drawn animatics.
Even going all the way back to RiD 2001, too, in which that show's version of Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus were brothers and the latter grew bitterly jealous and resentful of the former for Optimus having been the one chosen to bear the Matrix over Magnus.
Which, if I may also point out, was also the very first time in all of the brand's history that an Optimus Prime was specifically chosen by the Matrix itself to be its bearer, as if we'll recall that G1 Optimus admitted that he was not worthy when the Matrix was first passed onto him.
My theory is that D-16 always wanted to be named "Megatron" because of his hero worship of Megatronus Prime, but no one was going to accept a lowly cogless miner being named after the strongest of the Primes, so he kept that to himself.
It's only after he's gained a transformation cog, beat the piss out of Starscream to win the loyalty of the Honour Guard through might makes right, and killed Sentinel (and taken Megatronus' cog for himself) that he feels confident enough to loudly proclaim that he's Megatron. And like a lot of self conscious introverts, he doesn't really have a handle on that middle ground. He's either willing to blend into the background and not make a scene or loudly and angrily proclaim he IS Megatron and you WILL follow him.
It reminds me of the writing style of a blog I follow, The Figure in Question. He reviews action figures (not just Transformers, though he does do that too) in text form. He has that same "random aside" style of writing. Thing is, it works with like... a three paragraph action figure review because it's short enough that you get back to the point quickly, and it does help break up the monotony of "as you can see, the blue costume is cast in blue plastic."
Here though? It's kind of grating because there is a bigger point Wadapan admits he's failing to get to while he goes on humorous asides. Since it's significantly longer as a write up, these asides take longer to work through, and there's more of them. And it's like... G-d... get to the point please.
So in DC Comics circles... Captain Marvel (or Shazam) is really a kid named Billy Batson who a wizard gave the combined powers of mythological heroes to. Billy's Captain Marvel form is said to appear to be about 35, but his true age as Billy is currently set to sixteen. And since comics exist on a sliding timescale, that means Billy is always going to be whatever the current generation of sixteen year olds are.
All of this is to say that Captain Marvel/Shazam is totally annoying Batman with "six seven" memes these days.
I wish one of these reboots would just get rid of Megatronus as a name. Even Exodus struggled to explain how it got shortened to Megatron and that was some unintentional and unneeded hilarity.
But yeah even with all that? Dude is a dork who got into all this violent struggle and capped it off by renaming himself after his idol (who in this narrative is not associated with any such thing). It's like finishing a rite of passage and proclaiming yourself to now be Ladiesman217.
I think I've seen that blog and like it mostly because I miss written photo reviews and blogs (sup, The Dragon Fortress). And iirc the writing does flag or warn when there are asides, and it never drags to this extent.
This, though, yeah. Smell of own farts sometimes. And it doesn't help that it's self-called-out; like dude, if you CATCH yourself doing this, delete that chunk of text and write a better one? Self-awareness is not absolution.
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I remember going "Megatronus Prime? What kind of Live Journal bs is that?" when they revealed The Fallen's canonical name. Maybe I was just pissy that my idea of making Liege Maximo be The Fallen wasn't what they went with... but no. "Megatronus Prime" is just really, really bad.
I liked the way the "Megatron" name worked in G1/BW. Where G1 Megatron was named after a name a prophet foresaw in the Covenant, and in turn an ambitious Predacon names himself after him. Only BW Megatron is who that ancient prophet foresaw, so both Megatrons are named after each other. That was pretty cool. Now "Megatronus Prime" kind of ruins the whole thing.
I do think TFO is the one piece of fiction that manages to make "Megatronus Prime" work though, because they don't make him evil. Making The Fallen "Megatronus Prime" and D-16 ends up named after him is so cringey in an out of story sense. But making D-16 an over-eager fanboy of the strongest ancient Prime because he's secretly a violent bully who's drawn to strength above all else, and naming himself after him because he misses the point? That's still cringey, but it's cringey in an in story sort of way. It's not a bad narrative, it's a
good narrative (or at least an acceptable one) of a bully and a tyrant being a small, petty person.
Or like me.
Sadly C-67 is Rewind's ID number, Wreck-Gar is C-81.
But you know who has 67 without the letter designation?
Orion Pax!
But you know who has 67 without the letter designation?
Orion Pax!
On further reflection, they would probably speak in internet memes.
Which Gen Z does, so that's covered. (It HAS been somewhat funny to watch Gen Z age a bit and start themselves cringing over Gen Alpha memes and slang.)
It probably comes off like Steve Buscemi, but I (born in 1975) have occasionally pulled the "excuse me, I speak the dank meme" card with some confused a-decade-younger folk. I even unnerved a twenty-something co-worker once by (sarcastically) exclaiming "What the ∑?" when said co-worker was worried about terminal online behaviour....
That being said, even my mental flexibility reached a limit with the most recent craze, but I thought this take, at least, was funny.
That being said, even my mental flexibility reached a limit with the most recent craze, but I thought this take, at least, was funny.
I picture them speaking in outdated memes since the Junkion dialogue is from shows that were already old in the 80's.
The scene where they all pop out of the ground, now chanting badger badger badger badger.
"Maybe All Your Base really belonged to the friends we made along the way."
Oh my Millennial ass has been loving Zoomer cringe at Gen Alpha memes.
I used to be with "it"! Then they changed what "it" was! Now what I'm with isn't "it" and what's "it" is strange and confusing! AND IT'LL HAPPEN TO YOUUUU!
But yeah... it can sometimes be troublesome getting my Gen Z students to talk like people and not memes.