One thing that I've always been curious about with Transformers.. How are they seen by mankind? Now wait, I know you're already pointing to old G1 episodes, or Rad, Kicker, or Sari, or the EDC, but those aren't quite what I mean. The children fill the roles of "The Watson", if you're a TV tropes fan, the EDC provides the secret government organization out to cause trouble for the protagonists, and even the TV News Announcer, to provide a heads up on what the Decepticons were doing, and making the heroes feel bad for being big boys in a world made of cardboard. But there's more to the public's reaction than what the media tells the world, and what the "in the know" kid feels. I've heard mumurs of a group called "Followers", but only that they're from an absolutely nightmarish novel that was badly written in pretty much every way. Where there other reactions to the Transformers, by groups of people, not established groups or individuals with exceptional power? I'm not specifying universe, just to get as much as I can here.
He means if you stopped a person, in one of the many TF universes, on the street, just a random person... and asked what they thought about the Transformers, what would they have to say.. what would their opinion be about having giant robots running around fighting an intergalactic war on our world. One person might say its nice to know alien life exists... another might say that they aren't aliens but some kind of government plot. I can only guess "The Followers" from that badly written novel are humans who see TFs as some kind of new pantheon of gods or higher beings that they worship and wish to curry favor from. He means humans that generally interact with transformers on a daily basis like Spike, Sparkplug, Sari, Rad, Kicker, etc don't count because they're ... well, "the plucky sidekick" and are "in on it". he's wanting to know what other fans like us think about the OTHER humans... like the cameos of Spike and Carley in Animated... think about Transformers I think I understood him, and I hope I cleared things up ^^; sorry if I didn't
i go with the Men In Black answer: a Person is smart and intelligent, but people are dumb scared animals. or look at Independence Day (ID4) will smith's character punched an alien out before he knew what he was dealing with. The President and those alive on Air Force One saw the aliens in the cylinders and weren't too worried. even the nutjobs who waited with signs on rooftops tell you that a person can be open and warm to a notion. but look at european soccer games (no offense to Europe) where sometimes riots break out mid game or shortly after. or look at us here in the U.S. a city's major league team wins a championship and it looks like the '65 Watts riot all over again. Individuals can have the luxury of rational, reasonable thought. People, crowds, tend to lack that and rush to judgment. so, if I saw Optimus, or Omega in a cornfield walking by, it'd take a few minutes, but i would accept it and be okay. as for the rest of my hometown, i think pandemonium would break out despite the best efforts of some to prevent it. that's my 2 cents; i can be wrong, and expect change back for it.
Well.... I happen to have and be reading the book(s) you're referring to... Hardwired-By Scott Ciencin (very detailed, but slow and most of the story isn't about tf's) and Annihilation-By David Cian (picks up speed quick with twist and craziness) Fusion-By David Cian Anyways... The Followers were kinda cult-ish and were formed after TFs had been around for awhile. If I saw any TF I'd probly get killed trying to figure out who/what faction they were.
Furystrike got what I meant. Sorry, I didn't realize I was making so little sense. I understand that persons react better than people, but I always was interested on how society would change based on things. I mean, the G1 Dreamwave comic, as atrocious as it was, absolutely jarred me with two words... one of the people on the Ark 2 as it was about to go back to Cybertron was a professor of religious studies. That opened up my mind, I want to imagine and think of how society would react to the Transformers as a society, rather than individual humans or just paniced passersby going OH MAI GAWD
I personally believe there would be 4 different types of people. There would be the people who want to live and let live, sort of like a you scratch my back I scratch your back arrangement. There would be of course the nuts who want to worship them ala the idiot people on the tops of buildings waving signs in Independance day. There would be the people who want to blow them up because their dangerous robots. Then of course you would have the people who want nothing more than to have them to leave the planet, or else. Lastly of course what with humans being humans you would have people looking for ways to make money off of them or to turn them into weapons of war. This could be applied to the discovery of any new species of intelligent life.
As would I... but then my other sides would start talking... "oh god giant alien robots are fighting in my city" "there's Aliens... all the super-religious people are gonna go nuts" "... I wonder if they need an out of shape psuedo-science/anime/general nerd/geek on their side... >//> ... and can I breathe on their planet..." stuff like that. I assume even US on this board and in this thread thing long and hard about the "what if" you'd find, like my self, we All would have several voices inside ourselves, each reflecting the types of people we've pegged but, on the upside, they're internal voices ^_^ No face-changing for us, right? <quinteson>*ebil laughter*</quinteson> ... >//> ignore that. *cough*
If I were some random TF universe citizen and you asked me what I thought of the Transformers id probably on the one hand think they were awesome (my love for giant robots,aliens and alien giant robots guiding my thoughts) but id probably be pretty pissed about all the destruction they were causing here on earth too.
I feel that the views of overall society will change over time. Firstly, there will be shock. The realisation that we are not alone in the universe will cause a radical and ever-lasting re-evaluation of how we see ourselves. The pyschological, soiciological, and religious aftershocks of discovering that aliens -- yet alone giant robotic aliens! -- exist will be enormous. There will most likely be mass suicides and breakdowns as people struggle to carve out a suitable place for themselves in their radically altered personal view of the world and the universe. Think about it, we are the top of the food chain now. A more advanced being comes along and we cease to exist as the pinnacle. Following this, there will be gradual acceptance. This may take some time, re-evaluating where we rest in the balance of all things cannot be done quickly. When we see that these alien machines are here to stay there is really little that can be done about considering their super-advanced nature in comparison to our weak, fragile, organic selves. With the acceptance of the aliens' existence, mankind will subdivide: * Some will welcome the interaction with them as being beneficial to our continued advancement (assuming, of course, that the aliens don't operate on a Star Trek-like Prime Directive system of non-interference; that said, however, the mere presence and truth of the aliens will kick-start development). * Some will be threatened by them as they are unable to accept a more advanced society that humanity. They will want them to leave and never return. They will believe that we are threatened with extinction by these beings or enslavement. * Some will see the damaged wrought by the continued Autobot-Decepticon civil war and seek the aliens withdrawal from our planet as the cost of their stay is too high on us. * Some will simply ignore the presence of the aliens. "They aren't here, so it doesn't trouble me" would be the general consensus.
I think starscream1701 has said it best, at the very least more clearly than I have as this is what I was thinking as well, adding to it with my above post about those several sub-divisions with-in ourselves as sort of like the stages of acceptance to death or something like that. you know, Denial, rage, doubt, etc
You should definitely read the four-part manga, "The Star Gate Battles": The Allspark: Transformers News Movie Comics Animated - Transformers: The Stargate Battles, Part 1 of 4 It takes a much more in-depth look at how the world reacts to Transformers: formal political alliances being forged, other nations resenting them, scientific mergers, groups of normal human beings staging anti-Transformer protests... give it a look.
