Megatron started off as some kind of mining vehicle. His tank mode(s) still kind of fell in line with that, but then his stealth bomber mode completely diverged (being capable of flight, the only thing it had in common with the others was it's military application). Megatron himself showed that an alternate mode doesn't need to remain in line with the function of the original. It seems to me that the implication is that it's perfectly within their ability to alter their supposed "function" if they have access to the right resources, but that they tend to gravitate toward familiar forms (also, alt-mode compatibility with their body type might be important, that was never made clear as far as I know).

 

The stealth bomber body was created separately, then had Megatron's consciousness put into it after his current body was damaged beyond repair. There's no indication that this level of alt mode modification can be done without outside assistance.

 

A couple of notes to help you:

1) if you ask respondent "is this good or not" without criteria, you will get all sorts of opinions. If you want any structure, you should provide measurements or categories. E.g.

"Who well do you think IDW Transformers comics represented racism, from 1 to 5, with 5 being "very realistically" and 1 being "not realistically at all"?
This will channel the responses in one of five categories. then you can give the option a freetext reply:

"What made you give that score?"
The freetext answer might be a complete rant or nonsensical, but at least you will have some usable information from the categories.

2) even better, at the end of questionnaire - not at the beginning - it will help to ask respondents to define each core theme, e.g. "How do you define sexuality in a fictional setting?"
This will help you understand the results, and it will provide insights into different interpretations of a topic. If you put this at the beginning, all categoric answers will be processed with that definition in mind - it's useful to leave that at the end.
On the other hand, if you want respondents to strictly focus on one interpretation, then you should provide YOUR definitions at the beginning - and some respondents, of course, will reply "I gave it this score because your definition doesn't make sense to me".


3) You will also need to account for demographics: age, gender, income, religion, country, etc. all affect a person's perception of the world. Anonymised information about participants will allow you to differentiate a bit - and while you won't be able to provide any causal association, you will at least be able to describe whether there is a significant overlap between different demographic groups and specific answers. Commenting on this will help you create original reflections, beyond just reporting the results of the survey.

Good luck!

 

What I came for were just some quick quotes just to see people's thoughts so I could collect a bit of first hand opinions as part of my overall project, my project isn't opinion based. I wanted to leave the issues up to representation so people could mention the things they noticed. However, it all seems to have gotten out of hand and people are more offended by each other than the representation in IDW.

 

People who feel strongly affected by a topic are going to be highly opinionated about a topic. And you raised highly sensitive topics, which high potential for arguing. This is why a structured survey would have helped you. Maybe try surveymonkey next time.

 

First off, I'd like to apologise for the state of this thread. (But maybe you expected this going in.) Now, I think I'm unusual in that I feel like IDW handled a lot of social issues quite poorly, but from the complete opposite to the perspective of "get this identity politics out of my comics". I'll try to explain my perspective as best I can, trying to be reasonably neutral about it.

Firstly, racism. Now, as a White People, I can't speak to this from any personal experience, but I feel that functionism as a concept was a fairly well-constructed "robot racism" system that didn't obviously map 1:1 with any real-life prejudices, having parallels with classism, ableism and eugenics as well as racism. By contrast, however, the concept of forged vs constructed cold Transformers came across as a very lazy and poorly-handled racism allegory that was clumsily applied without any thought put into it - I think it's appalling to introduce a concept with the word "apartheid", and then have the oppressed minority in the allegory turn out to be literally physiologically and mentally inferior to the oppressors. Like, what the dick. This gets even worse when later writers appear to not even consider the obvious racism parallels, with TAAO #12 essentially centered around the thesis of "Starscream would be a better person if he wasn't a minority"; John Barber fortunately did try to walk that back by presenting it as just an in-universe opinion, but the damage is done.

Gender is one area where IDW Phase 2 did fairly well. Having inherited a frankly terrible piece of worldbuilding from noted misogynist Simon Furman, the writers did a fairly good job of remedying it without outright retconning anything, and were able to introduce the concept of transgender characters in a way that was respectful and inoffensive, as well as turning the wildly transphobic Spotlight Arcee into a source of good representation. No real complaints there.

In terms of sexuality... look, I appreciate the effort, but IDW's first gay couple was introduced with the death of one of the partners. This would unfortunately end up being a recurring theme - Rewind and Chromedome, Needlenose and Horri-Bull, Brainstorm and Quark, Lug and Anode, Drift and Ratchet; all of their relationships framed primarily through the lens of bereavement. There were some exceptions, like Knock Out and Breakdown and (of course) Aileron and Arcee, but the majority of same-sex relationships in IDW were defined by some form of tragedy, even in cases like Blast Off and Onslaught where neither died. I don't think it was intentional, but it is kind of unfortunate that a big chunk of the couples who got out better than others (Lightbright and Sparkstalker, Wreck-Gar and Rum-Maj) were straight.

Mental illness and disability are one of the most disappointing areas of IDW, for me. A lot of people praise them, but frankly I think that it's painfully obvious that a lot of the writing about mentally ill characters was done by people who had never experienced these things themselves. More than Meets the Eye, in particular, constantly jumps back and forth between portraying things like Red Alert's paranoia as a serious issue and a wacky personality quirk; it's also notable that a very large number of MTMTE villains - Tyrest, Tarn, Demus, Getaway, etc - are or were at some point disabled or mentally ill in some way. Stuff like Tarn having (barely-notable) transformation addiction as a "shorthand for how evil and self-indulgent he is" is particularly horrid. And then there's stuff like the second Scavengers story, where Misfire's abuse of the mentally disabled Grimlock is portrayed sympathetically. There's plenty of commentary on the treatment of disability in IDW out there, and on the whole I think it - at best - shows well-meaning neurotypical incompetence.

 

Yeah I get you, I just wasn't sure where else to find so many Transformers fans in one place.

 

The place is right, the method can be improved.

 

If you’re doing a project for college, I don’t think you’re going to be able to say “a bunch of people on a message board had an opinion” vs you writing about the opinion you came to after reading it yourself.  

 

Hey, Treadshot...

When you have a child with severe disabilities, down syndrome for instance, and they don't even know their own name and can barely speak... and yet they take joy and completely light up upon making a simple painting... is that propaganda?

 

You say this like it's some kinda "aha!" moment when it actually reads like you treating some kid like theyre subhuman. Disability is a diagnostic tool and not more or less than that. That human person is as susceptible and dependent upon an entire network of relations and economies as anyone else; they absorb media, they are conscious to the world and they respond accordingly. When children make art it is often a direct consequence of the world around them (how could it be otherwise!). And the world, such as it is brokered by human relations, is a political one. Even within the family unit so it appears.

 

Now this is a good, insightful post!

 

The state of the thread was inevitable so there's nothing to apologize for.

This is an interesting perspective, so you agree it dealt with these issues poorly yet you want MORE identity politics? Given how that kind of stuff is incredibly divisive and often inflammatory and only really serves to pander I'm gonna have to say... nah, no identity politics.

First of all: White people can experience racism, and the idea that 'white people' can't speak about racism is just bullshit on its face.

"TAAO #12 essentially centered around the thesis of "Starscream would be a better person if he wasn't a minority"

         

Um, no. Just... no. That's called looking way too deeply into something and seeing what you wanted to see, and look I'm all for criticizing Mairghread Scott, I think her writing sucks and she has idiotic ideas, but that is a really, really dumb take away from that plot point.

Fuck off with that, he wasn't and isn't a misogynist. Also Spotlight: Arcee wasn't 'transphobic'. "Noted", that's cute, it's only well known to smooth-brained snowflakes it seems.

Arcee wasn't trans either btw, she went from having no gender to having gender. She didn't go from one to the other. But don't let facts and logic ruin your little rant.

It wasn't intentional and you're looking too deeply into something and seeing something that isn't there, again. Seems to be a theme here.

This is why IDW1 fizzled out and died by the by: Because it pandered to people like this guy instead of trying to tell good stories with solid characters so forth. In the end it still wasn't enough.

Just out of curiosity, were you one of the kind and open-minded folks that harassed James Roberts over a fictional character? I'm asking for a friend. :^)

This wasn't a 'good insightful post'. Just more ideological pseudo intellectual Tumblr drivel that will only sound good to those who probably think the same way and have the same biases as you very evidently do. Your goal was to be as neutral as possible, and you failed miserably on that front. Better luck next time I guess? Also before you plod out some half-basked response, right after you apologize for the state of the thread, I'd advise against that.

 

Nien. By definition they're two different things.

 

Don't forget the pistol mode he had throughout Escalation.

Inherently political, because reasons. The same people who will tell you that are the same people who fall back on "Death Of The Author" to infer their own meaning on any text.

 

It's only misogyny when it comes from the misogyny foothills in France, otherwise it's just sparkling shitty writing.

 

Personally, the more my escapist entertainment looks "like me," or the world I know - the less interested I become. And perhaps other people feel the same way and that's why comic sales are in the toilet.

 

Ah yes the reason comic sales are down is uhhhh...humans? Well I guess yr not wrong per se, but not really right in any useful way either ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Are you even capable of a straight answer?

 

Beyond what I already have written about (and been ignored in the doing) what is there to seriously respond to? Po faced cultural revanchism gets old pretty quick and we gotta make fun where we can winky face &c&c