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lrgcarter · 7 years

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Understanding the appeal of Transformers

Over on Twitter, Colin Smith of the comics blog Too Busy Thinking About My Comics (technically a retired blog, but I live in hope) asked ‘I wonder if it's possible to truly enjoy The Transformers if you didn't grow up with them at all?’

Twitter is not the best medium to answer this question, so I have turned to Tumblr. I’m going to lay out a few notes that hopefully will show readers why people like Transformers, even if they can’t get into it themselves.

I’m not a hardcore fan of the franchise myself. I remember watching it as a child, but those memories are hazy to say the least. My partner is a hardcore fan. She didn’t have any contact with the show as a child, but discovered it as an adult. I’ve watched this development of her interest from outside the fandom, which is why I consider the following opinions to be an informed answer to the above question.

To start with, here are the conditions of this essay:

1. I’ve got other things to do today, so I’m setting myself a time limit. The 1986 animated Transformers movie is playing in the background. Once that finishes, I’m posting what I have, regardless of how well edited it is.

2. I’m going to try to keep things ‘Outsider friendly’. I’m going to avoid franchise-jargon as much as possible. I’m going to paraphrase things as much as possible. This may cause True Fans a problem, but they will just have to deal with it.

3. Having said that, I’m going to use the word ‘continuity’. Transformers has lots of these, and I couldn’t think of any way around using this word. I’m sure one will strike me as soon as I hit the ‘post’ button.

4. I’m not going to provide sources, or even look things up to confirm my memories. I’m writing about the appeal of a cartoon, not fixing the planet’s political problems.

With these points in mind, let’s begin…

The Toy Commercial Argument

I want to get this out of the way before we go any further.

Critics claim the franchise is nothing more than a vehicle to sell toys.

Now, while it is undoubtedly a vehicle to sell toys, it isn’t just that. Sure, some Toy Company CEOs wanted kids to buy toys and so hired a cartoon to be produced, but to say ‘this robs the resulting cartoon of any quality’ is insulting to those who worked on it. I never hear similar criticisms thrown at Noggin the Nogg, even though that is also a cartoon based on a toy (I know this is a somewhat false equivalence, whatever).

It all comes back to the idea that if you are getting paid to do your job then it isn’t art, This toxic idea has been discussed by those more eloquent than I, so I won’t dwell on it here.

Needles to say, I’m going to avoid insulting the creators of these works and assume they actually care about the stories they are telling, and wanted to do their jobs as well as they could (well, with one exception, but we’ll get to him).

The Problems Presented By Understanding Transformers

1. Mega-franchise.

Transformers suffers the same problem as any big, old franchise. Where do you start? It’s a question faced by fans of Dr Who, 2000ad, Star Trek, and many others. As with any of these franchises, there is no right answer.

Transformers has many different continuities. These continuities have sub-continuities, which in turn have sub-continuities themselves. I’m not exaggerating. This means that any two ‘Introduction Points’ could be consumed back to back and leave the audience completely confused as to what the franchise is about.

All of these continuities have different pros and cons, as well as different selling points. Beginners should consider each continuity as separate entities if they wish to understand their appeal. I’ll return to this later.

2. Preconceived perceptions.

People think they know what Transformers is about. It’s about giant transforming robots, right? Robots in disguise, it says so in the theme-tune!

The problem is, this is almost never what the stories are about. Remember how every aspect of the franchise has different selling points? Transforming was the unique selling point for the toys. In the cartoons and comics etc, you could mostly drop the transforming aspect and the stories would still work. Don’t get me wrong, people enjoy the transforming aspect, but it isn’t essential.

Here’s an example in defense of this controversy: there’s a group of Transformers that can turn into Dinosaurs. The creators of the old cartoon film wisely decided to hardly ever show these transformers not as dinosaurs, because their audience liked dinosaurs. They could have just made them non-transforming robot-dinosuars, and no one would have objected, or even noticed a difference.

So what is the franchise about, if not transforming? Like any enduring franchise, it’s about the characters. When the creators remember this, they produce popular material. When they don’t remember this, the fans tend not to like the result.

1 and 2, combine to form… Confusion!

The characters between continuities can provide one of the stumbling blocks when getting into the stories. You may have two robots that look identical and have the same names, but in two continuities will have two completely separate characters, plot roles, relationships with the other characters, and so on.

Getting Past These Problems

If you want to enjoy Transformers, you need to get to the characters without getting bogged down in the knotty history of the franchise. I’m going to give a brief summary of a few key continuities in an attempt to lay out how each of them has won or lost their fans. This is far from being a complete list of Transformers stories, and is not given in order of release date:

1. Original Cartoon Series

Plot summary:

Two armies of ancient, giant robots get stuck on Earth. They both have to: A) Solve humanity’s energy crisis. B) Learn what these weird organic human creatures are all about. C) Continue fighting their war.

The Original Cartoon Series (from now on, OCS) consists of almost two series and one cartoon movie. Any fans currently reading this are shouting at their screens right now, saying I’m wrong. They think I am talking about what they call ‘Generation One’, but I’m not. The OCS is what non-fans remember of the Transformers from the 1980s, regardless of whether or not their memories are complete or true.

They remember two armies of giant robots fighting in arid desert landscapes with loud sound effects and rock music. They don’t remember that one where the Transformers go to another planet and turn into trees and mermaids. Not every episode in the first two Transformers series qualifies as part of the OCS. It is a cherry-picked collection of stories, a series constructed by nostalgia, but it does exist and sits ready for people to enjoy.

Appeal:

This series is adrenaline for the eyes. It is what 2000ad calls Thrill Power. Everything is turned up to eleven, then multiplied by two. All the characters are larger than life, in personality, motivations and ambitions, and obviously, physical size.

Generation One.

Plot summary:

This is the same show as above, but with the addition of everything that people have selectively forgotten. The Transformers actually get themselves un-stuck from Earth pretty quickly. They can then return to space and intergalactic adventures with loads of other alien races. There’s a planet where some of the characters realise they have gambling problems. There’s the previously mentioned tree-and-mermaid planet. There’s the psychologist planet, to which the bad-guys send their boss because they are worried he is too unstable to be their leader. There is the planet where everyone sings.

Appeal: The appeal of this story is epic scale. There are infinite corners to this universe, and anything can happen in any one of them. The war takes a back seat, and loads more characters are introduced. It’s kind of like a blunderbuss approach to appealing to people.

Transformers Armada

Plot Summary:

Two armies of ancient, giant robots try to beat each other at Pokemon.

Appeal:

This series is pretty awful. Apparently the creators were given unworkable deadlines, and it shows. I mention this series because the Boss Good Guy opens it with the following voice over:

“In the beginning, there were three races of Transformers: Good-guys, Bad-guys, and Pokemon. War broke out between them, because the Bad-guys wanted to enslave the Pokemon, while the Good-guys wanted the Pokemon to take their rightful place as servants...”

This series places at the forefront a theme that lurks in most Transformers continuities. The Good-guys and Bad-guys are very, very similar, to the point that it is hard to tell them apart. The so called Good-guys are incredibly flawed, and any moral high ground they once occupied has collapsed under years of war. The Bad-guys often have good reason for starting the war (I mean, not in this particular story, but in some of the others) and have only become bad-guys because war tends to do that to people. These character dynamics provide plenty of story potential.

Transformer Animated

Plot Summary:

A small, plucky band of reject good-guys get stuck on earth. They make friends with humanity while trying to prove that they were never the rejects that their fellow Transformers thought they were.

Appeal:

This series throws out the formula of the above shows and almost completely rebuilds the franchise. It benefits from this originality immensely, and is favoured by fans because the creators showed a great deal of respect for the original material. It’s basically the Eccleston Dr Who of Transformers.

This show casts the Transformers as superheroes, and has a ‘Returning Ancient Evil’ arc plot. Everyone loves those, entertainment statistics would suggest.

I recommend this series as a starting point for any people trying to get into Transformers.

Transformers Prime

Plot Summary:

A CGI remake of the OCS, but the good-guys have Herbert West for a doctor, voiced by Jeffrey Combs, and he is always suspiciously nearby when some of the Transformers become zombies.

Appeal:

This series has flaws, but the fact that it is Transformers meets Reanimator is not one of them.

Rescue Bots

Plot Summary:

A small team of giant robots sleep through an intergalactic war. When they wake up, the fighters of the war want to avoid explaining some four million years of history to them, so set the awoken sleepers up as a rescue response team on an island full of unregulated human inventors. Hilarity ensures.

Appeal:

This series asks the question ‘can we make transformers without the good verses evil plot?’ They can and they did. This is one of the best Transformers series. Non violent and humorous. Innocent and inspiring.

I recommend this series as a starting point for any people trying to get into Transformers.

More Than Meets The Eye (comic)

Plot Summary:

An ancient war is finally over. A group of giant robots from both sides try to live on a spaceship together, with hilarious results.

Appeal:

This story lets characters meet without them instantly trying to kill each other. It explores LBGT themes among the robots.

It does require you to be at least familiar with the franchise norms.

Bayformers

Plot Summary:

This is what fans call those live action films that have been coming out recently. As soon as I make sense of the plot, I’ll return here to summarise it.

Appeal:

Everyone says these films are bad, yet they keep making money. So, there must be something to them, right? Here are some cons and pros:

Cons: Sexism. Racism. Lack of coherent plot. Lack of transforming and character at the same time. Lack of any evidence that the director has employed writers. The fact that the director has said on many occasions that he doesn’t understand the appeal of the franchise. Too often, a complete lack of actual Transformers. I know I said that the transforming isn’t really important, but these films even short-change people on the giant robot front.

Pros: Special effects Fans flock to the films hoping that they might be able to sift five minutes worth of character moments out of the whole film. That’s it.

Steven Universe

Plot summary:

Through the view point of a human child, the viewer comes to understand a galactic war between two non-organic factions.

Appeal:

This show comes in 10 minute episodes, and is completely free of any Transformers franchise baggage. There are songs and jokes and love conquers all. Very LGBT friendly.

I recommend this series as a starting point for any people trying to get into Transformers.

And that’s it, I’m out of time. There is more to transformers than this, but I don’t have space to investigate it all. Hope this has helped people understand why others like Transformers, even if they can’t see it themselves. I’m one of the few people out there that isn’t a fan of Star Wars, so I know how you feel.

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