You find the sillest and most useless things on the web. This is my contribution to useless webpages, except for maybe the people that care unconditionally for the Transformers (Generation One). I admit that this is one of my favorite things now as well as my childhood. I'm not going to brag my experiences about my childhood experiences but to have fun with it now and just be silly. My inspiration for this came about reading some other Transformer fans pages that reviewed episodes and the recent Dvd sets of Seasons One and Two that I just found myself with a lot to say about characters and shows. So why not, throw out my opinions about the show for fun's sake. [this is will probably be on another page once I am organized] There is something very interesting that I like the Transformers. I have pacifist ways, strive for worldly peace and understanding, absolutely cannot stand Male Machismo, especially violence and the prevalant attitude to act tough and question authority on many levels. So why do I like Transformers, aside from it being a relic from my past?
Well that brings up a point: how many childhoods have been raised on Transformers and its contents. What are its contents: Two armies both ran by a singular power, one who uses violence and threats to lead his men, and one who one supposively uses peace and honor to rule but sometimes sounds like some bad patriotic, democratic (by which I mean the US version of democracy) propagandist [not to mention that his colors are red, white and blue.] Both these armies have the weakest excuse to fight each other (totally rendering it to a green versus blue, good versus evil archtype) and use violent means over and over again, providing that violence only increases the amount of future violence. So what has this done to our kids? One can ask any male (and it doesn't have to be a male, but face it: females have been so long seperated from power, from being considered strong or tough and so long seperated from being treated as equal that a womyn who watches Transformers is not only breaking stereotypes and enforced gender roles, but is a relief to see and if they may act slightly more violent, depending on the action it can be understandable) if he remembers the Transformers and he'll probably say Yes and remember Optimus Prime. So it has left an impression. So is this show teaching kids to be more violent and army-like mentalities? Well, some kids remember it is just a show and are able to seperate it and reality and understand the conse- quences of violence in the real life. Then again, some cannot. So I see how people can complain about the show, especially since you do not get any kind of alternative - sure the Autobots save humans now and then, but you never see Prime and Megatron trying to talk their differences out or any consequences of violent behavior. Sure in the Movie you see some dead robots, but face it, like the death penalty, we have been dehumanized from death, it doesn't stop us from committing murder. I mean when Optimus Prime dies, it is sad, but you don't see the Autobots moping around and trying to cope with the loss of their leader who has been leading them for many many generations.
So this show makes a rather interesting case study on me. Cuz I have to admit it. I rather like seeing these robots kick the shit out of each other. And I have personal feelings for some robots, ones that I really like and others that I can't stand. And that adds to the dare I say excitement of seeing them battle each other. Yet, I would be horrified, scared and really sad if I were to see even the mildest fight/violence among the people I know in real life, my friends and family. Hell, an argument makes me uncomfortable. So where does this come from? My theory is that it is an escape from reality. I guess there is a violent side of me (that makes me nervous) and thought it hardly surfaces in real life except when I am shooting my mouth off sometimes, I still want to see some violence. At first I thought I could justify it because these characters aren't real - but is that really a justification? Isn't that hypocritical or a double standard of sorts? So I can't explain really why this is...I certainly do not wish violenct on people and maybe I really wish the Autobots and Decepticons dropped their guns, allowed the Female Autobots (any Decepticon females?) to get half the spotlight and then have a giant robotic orgy to Weird Al's "Dare to Be Stupid."