Oh dear, the had to omit "Fly me to the Moon" as well due to licensing. Win some loose some I guess.

 

If by “Evangelion style” you mean “a deep deconstruction of Transformers as a concept focusing both on the real world political and social implications of aliens on earth as well as delving into the psychology of Cybertronians having brought their war to an innocent planet and the humans having to deal with the existential terror of aliens existing”...

Then yes. Absolutely.

Also just load it up with bloody fight scenes and religious/Freudian/vaginal imagery while you’re at it.

I’m being serious. Let’s do it. It’s not like Hasbro’s route is making them any money. Bumblebee barely scraped by, so why NOT do something totally out of left field.

And while we’re at it, Hideaki Anno definitely had some ire to throw at otaku - let’s match that by throwing some of that same anger at transformers fans. Make fun of the sexist idiots who complained about a woman being the main character of Bumblebee, make fun of the fans who want to fuck the robots, make fun of the fans who think everything needs to be G1...

Seriously guys the more I dive into this the more I think it’ll be a good idea. Admittedly I’m biased but fuck it man this sounds awesome to me

 

Man. Gundam ia more up for comparison than Eva. Eva is really about growing up, responsibility and psychological trauma just to name a few. Hideaki Anno became very depressed during its production and the themes shifted over to his personal struggles getting out of depression and finding acceptance and resolution.

Could a Transformers story be patterned off this? Sure, but do we need to? Transformers already has enough on it's plate with politics and war.

 

I don't think it's appropriate to starting attempting a "deconstruction" of Transformers, when it's barely been "constructed" to begin with, in terms of films. Like, establishing any coherent history (that doesn't pertain to macguffins), what distinguishes Autobots from Decepticons, major character tropes likes Starscream being treacherous, etc.

And the way I see it, emulating EVA would entail even more human drama taking focus away from the Transformer conflict....

This could be the worst possible time for a studio to put out a big franchise movie that deliberately pisses off the fans.

 

I understood this reference and it's one of the best songs ever lol

 

I mean I feel like it’s been constructed pretty well? There’s a war on cybertron that grows so large that it moves to earth where the Autobots and their human buddies have to stop the decepticons. Throughout the majority of the franchise that’s been the basic plot line, and that in and of itself is RICH with material you could deconstruct. What sort of outcast loser would be friends with a giant robot? The Autobots always seem to be allied with the military so what’s the political fallout of that? What country do the Autobots answer to, if any? What if a group of Autobots decide to align themselves with a country that’s an enemy to the U.S? What’s the psychological toll of these robots literally losing their home and being displaced? WHY is Starscream always so treacherous, and what exactly would he do if he got that power he so desperately desires? Follow these tropes and story beats to their logical conclusions and you have yourself a deconstruction.

And who said the drama had to be limited to humans? Obviously yes you’ll need some humans but one, I never suggested just emulating Evangelion, mainly just taking similar thematic concepts, and two, you can do the human drama with robots if it’s written well enough. Also if the human drama is written well the specter of the robot wars will linger in their dialogue, or even better, have the drama be about them trying to find their place in a conflict that doesn’t really need them but they’re in anyway,

And on that last part - is anyone else sick of the CONSTANT fan service? It was sorta pushing it in Bumblebee, but now EVERY transformer media has to have so many little winks and nods to the fans that it’s almost insulting. Like I would gladly take a film with NO fanservice whatsoever if it meant we get a story with actual substance and meaning beyond “lol robot cool”. I know I’m probably alone in this but whatever - my point is there’s plenty of negative and toxic aspects of the fandom. I know we don’t want to discuss it but if a movie takes the piss out of these bad actors I’d be able to respect it a lot more. Keep in mind a lot of the “take that otaku” stuff in Evangelion was so subtle most people didn’t pick up on it.

If you wanna stick it to the fans treat it like a genie - give them what they want, but in a way that makes them realize maybe they shouldn’t want that. They want robo-gore? Give them robot deaths so violent and horrific that it makes them squirm in their seat. They want less humans? Have the Autobots kill a bunch of humans to make some room. They want robot sex? Don’t even touch that some things shouldn’t be rendered and put to film. Hell, make Wheelie a main character while you’re at it. Even if the fans hate it they’ll still see it a thousand times so why the hell not?