because Optimus Prime is a Byronic archetype

The third Transformers movie “won’t be as robot-heavy and there will be fewer explosions,” according to the Los Angeles Times blog Hero Complex, which quotes Michael Bay thusly: “It gets much more into the robot character.”

Or perhaps because Megatron secretly longs to dance upon the stage, but fears how this will impact his relationship with Jetfire.

This has been your WTF Thought for the Day.

share and enjoy
               
If you haven’t commented here before, your first comment will be held for MaryAnn’s approval. This is an anti-spam, anti-troll, anti-abuse measure. If your comment is not spam, trollish, or abusive, it will be approved, and all your future comments will post immediately. (Further comments may still be deleted if spammy, trollish, or abusive, and continued such behavior will get your account deleted and banned.)
If you’re logged in here to comment via Facebook and you’re having problems, please see this post.
PLEASE NOTE: The many many Disqus comments that were missing have mostly been restored! I continue to work with Disqus to resolve the lingering issues and will update you asap.
subscribe
notify of
15 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
view all comments
JoshDM
JoshDM
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 3:52pm

Fail.

Every true fan knows Jetfire’s relationship is with Starscream, not Megatron.

Accounting Ninja
Accounting Ninja
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 4:03pm

AS IF, JoshDM. Everyone knows the REAL Ho-Yay is between Megatron and Starscream.

Wait, it “won’t be as robot-heavy” but will “get(s) much more into the robot character?” I don’t get it, but Transformers WITH lots of robots = good. That’s one of the reasons I hated the first one: too much human-focus.

And full confession? Optimus Prime was my first girlhood love.

JoshDM
JoshDM
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 5:27pm

Don’t you ever quote TVTropes at me again.

JoshDM
JoshDM
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 5:28pm

Also, Bay will be focusing on more Chihuahua antics this time around.

JSW
JSW
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 6:06pm

Or perhaps because Megatron secretly longs to dance upon the stage, but fears how this will impact his relationship with Jetfire.

I think his secret’s out.

Paul
Paul
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 6:17pm

Yes, quoting TV tropes is dangerous. Sure, the beneficial side effect is a sense of scale, context, and perspective about the media, but the main effect is I lose an hour or two of my life.

Bluejay
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 6:25pm

I think his secret’s out.

Oh. My. God.

Victor Plenty
Victor Plenty
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 10:34pm

That YouTube clip is hilarious even to me, with minimal knowledge of Transformers storylines or characters. And that TVTropes page makes me more than happy to keep my knowledge of those subjects as minimal as humanly possible.

JoshDM
JoshDM
Mon, Jan 18, 2010 11:30pm

You want to lose some more hours?

Try the oft-humorous Transformers Wiki.

Shadowen
Shadowen
Wed, Jan 20, 2010 11:14pm

MaryAnn, I loves ya, and I agree with you about Revenge of the Fallen, but you mock Optimus Prime’s being a fine example of a heroic archetype (though not a Byronic one) one more time and you an’ me is gonna have words.

To steal from Brian Clevinger: I never understood religious fanatics, until I asked myself, “What if God is their Optimus Prime?” Which is not to say that I worship a gigantic alien robot, even one so advanced as to be in disguise, but if Prime were to say to me in that inimitable voice, “I need you to kill a man,” that man would be fucking dead. “I got your back, Prime!”, and next thing you know I’m shopping for sniper rifles.

Just as well he’s as fictional as God too, I suppose.

Also, I fully expect more dreck from Bay, but until I see it, I will possess that rarest of treasures, which is Hope.

MaryAnn
MaryAnn
Wed, Jan 20, 2010 11:22pm

if Prime were to say to me in that inimitable voice, “I need you to kill a man,” that man would be fucking dead. ”

Terrifying.

MaryAnn
MaryAnn
Wed, Jan 20, 2010 11:24pm

Also, Byronic archetypes are way too angst-ridden to ask anyone to kill for them (they’d feel too guilty afterward). But they would probably mope about how the people they want dead never just die already.

Bluejay
Thu, Jan 21, 2010 9:55am

Forget Prime as God; how about Prime as President?

http://www.lazarusworld.com/archives/images/CNN-Election-Winner.jpg

http://galleygrub.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/change-into-a-truck1.jpg

Although with our luck he’d sacrifice himself nobly on some damn fool mission, and we’d wind up with dithering Vice President Ultra Magnus in charge…

Accounnting Ninja
Thu, Jan 21, 2010 10:40am

Although with our luck he’d sacrifice himself nobly on some damn fool mission, and we’d wind up with dithering Vice President Ultra Magnus in charge…

AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

JoshDM
JoshDM
Thu, Jan 21, 2010 10:47am

I was gonna say something regarding succession, but I can’t find a way to combine “Hot Rod” and “Obama” into a proper amalgam without making it sound creepy-weird.