This isn't a review or anything like that. I could say this is a fun post, more than anything else.
Speaking of the movie itself, it's not anything groundbreaking but it does its job being a prequel taking a lot of inspiration throughout history. Considering that it's the anniversary, the movie does celebrate that.
On an aside note, due to the fact that the movie is an origins story, one of the many, it's a foregone conclusion on what we knows how it's going to go: Optimus and Megatron's friendship will shatter and it will lead to millions of years of civil war that unintentionally brought the war to Earth for its resources. How the war will end depends but it's often at Optimus' death to restore Cybertron to the livable world.
Maybe this iteration won't happen but Optimus could probably pass down the Matrix with Primus' issuing the coronation of the newest Prime to lead not a war but a peaceful war where there is no more civil war.
Transformers as a whole is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The movie shows why the franchise wouldn't have survived this long because as the franchise says, more than meets the eye.
The movie is a gateway for newcomers, as the movie itself takes inspiration from its predecessors to create its own continuity.
For new fans, each piece of media is its own universe, so you can pick and choose which one. Please note that each piece of media takes inspiration from each other, so there are things that are originators, so keep that in mind. Each new piece of Transformers media will always influence new future media. Whatever new lore material that somehow makes sense would carry over.
The lore by itself and its continuous transformations across the decades of influence is pretty much why Transformers have their 40th anniversary.
In sheer contrast, Winx Club for all its years doesn't seem to have the same staying power as each iteration since doesn't do much to build upon the other. I mean they try but they are poorly thought out in terms of fashion alone if that's any indication of the poor thought process.
Even Scooby-Doo, bumpy road aside in the recent decade, has some showing of why it has staying power and does build upon each other.
The ones that survive this long surely built on top of each other.
TF1 will definitely implement new ideas in future media soon enough. I don't know which, but I can guess.
The fandom itself has multiple continuities or mashups into a consistent universe of elements they like across the franchise. I have seen them pick one universe and cherry-pick whatever they like in other media.
For example, this Orion Pax would've definitely been an archivist had he had his t-cog and we see that in this Orion with his love for history and education in general.
While I enjoyed Orion as an archivist (and I know others who enjoyed that he's essentially a librarian), there are others that he's still higher on the food chain, mostly because he's Alpha Trion's protege or has an in with the council.
These jobs are still interesting to explore but to have Orion go back to his roots on the bottom of the food chain or at least a laborer job that has a passion for learning and history will do the job better in understanding.
I have seen Megatron typically placed at the lowest rung with the miner coming from the IDW and the gladiator from the Aligned. The TF1 continuity did have the concept of gladiator D-16 as a side job hence his fighting capability (just like this Orion has a passion for history) but only alluded to it.
Also I see a lot of Megop newbies as well as just newbies in general who want to do things correctly all for their doomed yaoi ship.
Yeah, I've been there. I dove into the fandom one time I was just in a Transformers mood. I say I’m not particularly too deep into Transformers but TFWiki will always remain on top of everything and I wholly recommend it to any newcomer. The snarky tone is entertaining.
I am at least that Orion Pax, the past version of Optimus Prime, is now somewhat known to the wider public at least as well as D-16.
Poor marketing aside, Transformers One’s audience is specifically aimed at the Pixar and DreamWorks crowd. The initial poor trailers outright stated what kind of audience they are aiming at, even if it seems like Illumination’s audience if we go by that generously.
The director used to work at Pixar for the love of Arceus. They have an audience in mind even if the marketing team was so piss poor at their jobs or Hasbro just didn't care even though there are plans for a trilogy from the creative team.
Transformers have always aimed at kids whereas the transmedia franchise is aimed at teens and young adults and even long-time fans. I doubt kids are reading the novels.
Again, we wouldn't have fandom without adult fans who have time in their schedule to tell stories they want to tell and fanart.
Transformers would have survived this long by building onto each other and understanding where the maturity lies.
Heck, from how they are building on to each other, there are deep cuts.
Deep cuts don't necessarily mean that it'll be good. Clumsily put-together messes like Disney's Wish are so poor that they degrade the overall final movie. The deep cuts there if there are even any that can hold up to scrutiny just make it clear that they aren't building their own identity.
Each consecutive Transformers series in each medium it has ever been in has always been unique from one another. The references can range from light to deep but it's reflective of how Transformers will keep on building on each other to make each continuity their own.
Fuck, Transformers even ones that are so kid-friendly are by far more mature than Power Rangers of the past decade who went back to their roots to their detriment. Instead of understanding which part of great, Power Rangers just went full 90s without the substance of the later arcs of MMPR, simply season 1 and that's it and even the better part of said season is still relegated to second best to not at all in terms of writing.
Yeah, my disappointment with the Neo-Saban era and onward is still pretty much there. While stuff slightly got better in later seasons, they still aren't displaying the level of maturity that later PR seasons displayed and heck even later MMPR. It's as if season 1 is the only one that mattered to them without taking into consideration what made it work. Just in tiny bits.
The Wild Robot demonstrates that animation is a medium. A medium that isn't designated entirely for kids.
While Oscars are slowly getting better, it's by no means perfect as animated features have no chance outside of music, and in the era of remakes, we are not getting any better. We really have to wait till Disney runs out of things to remake for them to even consider making new fairy tale adaptations
Godoka, since John Powell is returning for the live-action HTTYD, I wonder how he will expand the magnificent soundtrack.
At this point, the HTTYD remake was the last straw for people who didn't even want live-action remakes.
Considering that I know just how bad the first ORV live-action will go even with the plans of having a series of movies for it, I'll take what I can get so my favorite book of recent years gets the respect that it deserves and sits beside the danmei. Honestly, a bad adaptation of ORV will bring some flavor considering what ORV as a whole is. It’s one of the books I’m desperate to own in print but for now, I’ll wait to see it on bookshelves so I can physically grab it and buy it at the register, holding it in awe as I walk out. I think I would be holding back tears if one of my fave pieces of literature is finally in my possession. Admittedly, a part of it was reading the English summary so I’m putting it off till it’s in stores. The feeling of serotonin I receive whenever I have something I love in my hands is just a hit. You can imagine once pin mail came in, the same feeling of excitement and joy came through every time. My ORV collection is so slow-going but that's the case for all my collections really. Unlike most pin collectors I see, I'm way too picky and cautious with my money so I often research and don't give away my money willy-nilly. Heck, I don't even follow over 1000 accounts at this point. I didn’t even follow one apparent scammer assuming another identity because the art I saw on their account just doesn’t jive with me. I don't know whether that is good because I've been so stingy by comparison that I haven't been scammed by the pin community's biggest scammers and those who just couldn't keep up the business aspect.
Hey, I haven’t bought anything from Nakamapin or Hunterflowerpin, but at least I know they're reliable. Nakamapin had been cutting back on effects and now seemed to be better, considering the larger pins they have are still priced less than any aftermarket 3.5-inch pop pin.
I prefer to buy my books physically as the hit I get from having them is the best. Seriously, the best hit I received was when I received my Dragonair Mamo AX exclusive. I wish I could buy Mamobot in person.
Like I knew about the HTTYD books way before I knew Dreamworks picked up the rights for it. My dad randomly selected it from audiobooks as in my childhood my brother and I were lulled to sleep via audio books and classical music hence our appreciation for music scores and audiobooks. We have a great appreciation for the books read aloud to us. I listened to the OST of the first movie before seeing it in the theatre. I read the entire book series well before the release of the first movie.
Animation and therefore kids media have strived and grown to be mature. Kids are passive about any romance, focusing cool aspects like sparkles and monsters. Do you really think my little niece care about the awful writing of Frozen? Heck no but she loves the sparkles. My toddler nephew loves cars but I don’t think he cares about the mediocrity of Pixar Cars.
I love my morally ambiguous gray protagonists. It’s why I can stand the gray protagonists whereas Western audiences seem to want pure heroes. Well, forgive me for wanting feral KDJ and government assassin Hawks. Listen, love Hiccup and all those pure-hearted heroes but gray morality is my preference, given my shipping tendencies that Tokyo Babylon started.
The reading comprehension is so goddamn low with the reading of Megatron and the absolutely terrible reading of politics. Sure, go with pathos when mecha anime displays more political know-how as they are anti-war through and through. Even Code Geass as part of the genre is obstinately anti-war. People think that’s it’s pro-war but it’s really not. VLD is pro-war and I can prove that.
People have the right to their emotions but being ruled by emotions and that emotions are the only thing that matters in this current world is not good. Megatron has the right to his anger but he has no right when the due process of Sentinel’s trial where a civilization needs to have their say, not a single terrorist. Fuck, the whole city has no idea of their beloved benevolent leader’s treachery. Megatron was going to kill them all and rule tyrannously more so than their previous dictator.
I know reading comprehension is so goddamn low that people seem to think Glinda is the bad one without taking into consideration that she’s flawed and grew from her mistakes just like her foil. It’s the same thing with Optimus, saying that he’s a hypocrite for exiling Megatron and the High Guard when expressively the latter were planning a hostile takeover for a new dictatorship with their philosophy and definite vindictive executions.
Godoka, I feel my brain breaks at the intentional almost bad-faith reading (given these people, it’s genuine) instead of considering things like flaws and character development. Heck, even noted moments of dialogue and shown in detail seemed to be outright missed.
Forgive me for just knowing reading comprehension is so goddamn poor that these readings are somehow valid even though the text and basic media literacy are on the floor.
Apparently, there are no such things as flaws and character development, positive and negative. Apparently, these are now indicators that they’re the true villains or the cause of future conflict even though what we’d just seen indicated the other party is just as much to blame or simply not comprehending the larger picture or nuance.
Stories have always been a thing for me. I made it a point that for my ORV collection, it’s story based and featuring every character. It hurts to see so bad reading comprehension. It’s one thing to have hot takes that aren’t really controversial and is a matter of opinion but it’s another to disregard stories and their nuance.
While Princess Tutu is in my top three favorite magical girls anime with Shugo Chara at 4th, it was a threefer hit with stories, fairy tales, and ballet. How can I not love it?! Having great meta writing with stories is a good way to shoot your way to the top or near the top of my favorite pieces of literature. How else did ORV win that honor so quickly?
Madoka is nice and all but it's nowhere near my top faves. I like it well enough that I'm open to a Godoka pin. I use Godoka's name so often that I might as well get a merch of her, preferably with Godoka with her bow in a dynamic action.
Even the most cliched storms that Dubois and Sanders think of are full of rhymes like the OG Star Wars before Disney got their grubby hands on it. If people like the ST, whatever. I ignore them and stay on my lane, brushing off Reylo and their individual characters especially the white boy neo-Nazi like flies they are. At least they don’t induce brain breakage like EndHawks I avoid like the plague and ignore to oblivion. You really don’t see me wasting any energy on ship hate because seriously, seeing ship hate makes me roll my eyes. I really don't like Endhawks and that's putting it lightly but you don't see me invade the spaces of those shippers. You would see me scrub any trace of the ship in my fandom curation than spew out hate.
It's understandable why TOne wasn't in the nominations at all. With its poor marketing and doubtful Oscar hopeful nomination, no way will that happen. With Hasbro going all about Transformers and Power Rangers, I don’t know what Power Rangers is doing right now in its indefinite hiatus with the auction of so many props and costumes.
Unlike Wild Robot’s Oscar race hopeful, there’s no chance in hell that’s happening even with a crew that has Pixar experience with TOne. Hasbro as a whole didn’t think they’d profit from it and let it fail. I mean the shows are doing fine. The movies are not. TOne’s performance was their own and Hasbro didn’t give a shit.
I don't know at this point that TOne will get the trilogy going when Hasbro themselves are backing out of all film projects.
For the sake of all animation and film in general, look at the lesser-known titles. Fuck, even with anime gaining ground, only Ghibli films ever made the nominations. I don't even think the Look Back crew even attempted to go for a nomination hopeful at all.
It is funny looking at the K-pop industry's desperate attempts to get into any of the Western Big 3 music award shows. I don't think Blackpink was even placed in any other categories than just TSA and more than just the K-pop-created categories designed entirely to other them since the removal of the category no less whereas BTS was able to be nominated in other categories at the BBMAs.
There were groups who were there just to be on the carpet and quickly left the premises because they weren’t even nominated. There are groups like the aforementioned Blackpink never asked to make their TV debut or to perform their hit singles continuously as an established act on the Western music scene. BP performed only at the VMAs, a fucking attendance award show.
Oh, I’m sure the groups who were nominated and knew they would lose basically watch BTS just win in categories they’ll never get in and perform to a loud ecstatic crowd at these award shows. We don’t know their thoughts but they have to know they’ll never win or get into the categories BTS was able to get. They’ll never perform there too.
I know BTS opened the doors to a Grammy nomination but I repeat that they haven’t been able to get any of the Big 3 western music awards that would make them stick out from the pack other than their popular name and still arrogant enough to submit. BTS has 5 Grammy nominations yet BP has none.
Oh sure, Rose was able to get Apt out there but would it be enough to sustain?
The Western music scene and especially the award shows are notoriously racist. There are so many people of color who were nominated for a Grammy but never able to win. Why does the K-pop industry think they can even achieve a Grammy nod? It was an uphill battle for BTS to even achieve a stage of their own on Grammy much less their own nominations. These groups are fighting an uphill battle surely but almost they never realize they would need to get the awards BTS were at least nominated in to get a peek of recognition from the voting base or even get the numbers to get there.
Fuck, when BTS was first nominated for Best Duo/Group, ARMY wasn’t expecting the win because it just seemed so unlikely. Heck, the nomination by itself was already a win. BTS and ARMY are graceful losers. They would’ve accepted the loss had any other person won.
ARMY knew the likelihood of winning a Grammy which is nil but they knew the Butter stage was very important. They are always conservative in their predictions and always forewarned they might not even win.
BP’s MMAs won’t matter here to get the awards BTS were in.
Even the 4th gen groups who appreciate BTS opening the doors for them to get a Grammy nomination are deluded in thinking they can even do that one easily. Listen TXT, you’re a good group but you haven’t won shit in the American music awards. You are at least able to get the Kpop categories that I repeat are designed to other you but you are never to get into the best group with your sunbaes.
Ya haven’t scored even just below the BB100 in American charts. I know that, unlike others, you are aware that as long as BTS is there, they'll win the Daesang.
However, those who haven't even won a single Korean award much less a music show award are outright delusional about aiming for Billboard. I want those guys to be realistic and just focus on building up their fanbase to get even a single music show award. That’s manageable, right?! If BTS doesn’t release something, there’ll be a chance you win something. Ya already know that your labels are pushing to not fight against BTS on their release dates as I know that infamous one where they piled on TXT whereas BTS dominated November but still releases on Fridays. BTS can still get enough points to get the simple music show award but you guys can't. Just get a single music show award and stay and grow musically rather than focus on the hardest music market to break into even if the barrier have been broken. Just because BTS was able to achieve that and a following to boot, does not mean you can't achieve at least a sizeable fandom. Just get enough points to score a win with the full tracking week rather than BTS who can still compete with the western artists. They need Friday releases to even chart at all while BTS scored a top 10 in their first Friday release. That is not the same when DNA definitely would’ve scored higher on the charts had it released Friday as well. BTS sees a chance of success in the west with the Friday releases. The other groups follow suit because of course the stagnancy of the industry follows.
I roll my eyes whenever I see that ‘K-pop groups never needed Western validation!’ from K-pop stans. This is why your group will never ever achieve higher than BTS. ARMY never wanted that, just to make it clear to the Western music industry that BTS is here to stay and their music deserves analysis and a place in music history that the racist Western music industry cannot ignore, snub sure but cannot ignore their presence. Oh, the general public loves BTS but not the Western music industry which decides who gets to be big. They can light up landmarks in purple and have a festival during their concerts.
Western validation yet these groups are desperate to get a Western music award. SB19 wanted the damn TSA award yet BBMAs scraped it due to BTS winning again breaking Justin Beiber’s record which they refuse to see. GMA turned into another music show without the weekly award yet these groups never even achieved a high debut on the Hot 100 without collabs. BP never achieved a top 10 on their own with a Korean song without collabs.
All their attempts to be BTS because that's the difference in the end, isn't it? They want to be BTS and have that level of success. I roll my eyes at this argument because once again, it shows a lack of understanding towards the American music market. Do not expect BTS’ popularity for your groups even BP. BTS will be a towering presence but to say BTS closed the way is to demean simply because they ain’t achieving BTS’ popularity and better yet numbers that they should help for their groups but no. They are already hating on BTS for achieving these groundbreaking things, why the fuck are they defeatists on something they could help their groups with?
America knows Adele, Justin Bieber, and Ed Sheeran but they do not know the fuck whoever this popular in France they have no idea whose this guy is. This is the American music market. It's not K-pop where one gets into one group and falls in love with an entire industry.
Of fucking course K-pop overall isn't that popular. It's only a slice. Sure there might be hits now and then with BTS being the only consistent one with once a blue moon hit like Rose's Apt but K-pop, while still globally recognized for the most part, is still just a slice of popularity. BTS is the popular one, not K-pop. BTS gives rise to K-pop but BTS is big despite it.
The K-pop groups and their big agencies want BTS' popularity when they should've just carved out their identity and made themselves stand out.
American artists have individuality or at least a facade of one.
BTS has individuality even when they aren't a powerhouse. Fuck, nobody said Taylor Swift is a good singer but she has individuality in her writing that created fans. Musicians promote their music first whenever they can, not promote their features more than themselves. K-pop groups, fuck even BP, are guilty of being manufactured because they don't control their music and attempt to promote themselves as the ones who paved the way.
That and the overinflation of their numbers that the K-pop industry and stans tried to pump up are utterly baseless because they ain’t performing in stadiums and hitting the top 10s. Mediaplay and hyping up BB200 and BB100 when they couldn’t even out chart BTS’ first Friday release that debuted at no. I0, Fake Love. When I say BTS has the numbers to compete with Western artists, I and the ARMYs do mean that.
This is BTS' success just as it's Adele and One Direction's success in the West. America knows them but they don't recognize every K-pop group ever because that's not American music. Don't make me laugh harder at these stupid K-pop stans because of their ignorance. If their ignorance hasn't already been shown via stupid accusations of plagiarism and copyright. I don't care much about the music industry and I feel I know more than them through basic common sense.
BTS already dealt with so much BS with double standards of both industries they upended. BTS didn't even attempt to promote themselves during the Wings era until their next album with the LY albums. BTS arrived due to their fans and growing demand.
BTS didn't even want an exemption from military enlistment. I know they would've done it anyway even early into their career. Yes, Jin took the extension but he was always going to go into the military anyway. It's the big companies who wanted the exemption, not BTS. BTS is always proud of their country and culture and displays it in their songs and performances. They were always going to go despite people wanting to take advantage of the BTS Law for their own gains.
There's a difference between them and YJH. YJH is an orphan who needs to take care of his little sister who is basically a minor so he has to be exempted because Yoo Mia doesn't have any other relatives to take care of her and even if YJH sends money from the military, it won't be enough. He’s a famous gamer but unlike Faker, he is utterly exempted due to his orphan status with parents who died before he became a tween, and taking care of his sister who is a minor, and not because of whatever achievements he did for the nation. I’m sure the nation as grateful as they are for KimCom just do not want to deal with their terrorist who they can’t even arrest and don’t want to think of giving this strong dude more ammo. Luckily, YJH just wants to be a househusband who would give his star all the love he deserves.
KDJ went to the military because even though he was orphaned essentially with his mom in jail to take the fall for his kill, he still lives with relatives and eventually lives in his own apartment somewhere else because he's not welcomed by his other relatives after high school graduation.
BTS are able-bodied and are proud of their Korean heritage. They will serve their country.
The BTS Law only affects BTS and the Korean people who don't know any better look down on them for even thinking of exemption when they're able-bodied despite BTS not even wanting that. It was pushed upon them by others who wanted them to continue succeeding for the country's pride and bigger companies' selfish means for their own groups.
BTS didn't attempt to break into the other music industries because it wasn't ever the plan. Heck, their social media promotion was their only way of getting themselves out there while remaining true to themselves.
K-pop stans with their deeply embedded biases against BTS failed to see and vastly underestimated BTS’ success in the US. They said their groups don’t want Western validation yet try to demean BTS for their achievements just because they aren’t winning it. They fail to see ARMY’s perspective and just how hard they have to work to even get into the main categories with an unwelcoming Western industry that hates them for breaking their facade. Oh, the Western music industry is still hard to break into but make no question ARMY research into the music industry so that they can make damn sure BTS get what they deserve showing it’s a facade of power and racism. ARMY have been aware of how unfair it is to BIPOC artists in the West already but BTS with its powerful fandom made it clear just how bad it really is for foreign artists when they made it in the West.
DNA would’ve achieved a higher debut had it been released on a Friday, just like Fake Love did. One year after its US debut with a Korean song with no collaboration, Blackpink will never achieve that. BP can pump up that they made it to the Top 40, but they never reached a single top 10.
Oh, K-pop stans are fine with buying albums but longevity is a nope. When BTS songs freefalled to send a message, BTS’ numbers can level with it to achieve the higher main categories as they never made it on the year-end charts. BTS has more than just longevity as a band, they have longevity to stay as they were not forced by the Western industry to not ignore them but still snub them. The other groups including BP do not have the numbers to compete.
Again, only a slice of the music is part of Hallyu. No media play will ever make up for the numbers that backed up BTS. No numbers have ever backed up BP. Fuck, if it weren’t for the numbers, BTS wouldn’t be able to attend.
At least with Kdramas as the apolitical and idealistic version of what Korea is still dramas and don’t have to worry about playing to industry rules. At least with K-beauty products don’t have to worry about anything but what can be sold. K-movies even with their criticism towards Korean culture are still pretty great. I think that it’s ironic that things that criticize society are often the things that stick out. Even BTS stuck their heads out for the LGBT community.
Again for my sake, even though a terrible adaptation of ORV will have some flavor given everything about ORV, it's still some kind of flavor. Listen, ORV is one of my favorite pieces of literature ever and I would love to see it given the dignity that it deserves. Even without a trailer, the live-action adaptation seems to be coming off a bad start with the casting and the movie poster, especially the movie poster. The trailer for it was just bad… WTF is with those guns and not with the right characters?? No ORV fans are looking forward to this even those who want to be cautiously optimistic.
Again there is some flavor with abysmal ORV adaptation given ORV is ORV. I am still gonna watch it out of duty to see it through. There might be fodder to be used. I have already seen ideas thrown around. It's already hilarious to see the memes. Why swords on the poster but guns in the trailer when fans know those characters do not use guns in those scenarios? I’m still not looking forward to it because a character been aged up when that wasn’t the point of her character and worse yet I saw shipping already.
If BCD returning was enough of a warning of just how insufferable ARMY will be upon the reunion in June, then I don't know what is. I didn't know about his return considering I can't enter Twitter again without an account. Even in the main pin Discord server that I go to as my main hub, the few ARMYs in there already accepted their fates of a bloodbath upon their concert in 2025.
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