what was the dumbest reason that you’ heard for someone not liking transformers?
For me it was my friend who said that he hates transformers because they die a lot

 

From what I have seen of normal non-fans, a lot of those people think Transformers is stupid, period, so I think disliking Transformers is a fairly normal human reaction even if all of us here love it. And I think there are plenty of silly reasons fans dislike specific toys and fiction.

But the dumbest reason I have ever seen for not liking Transformers? I'll try to say this without breaking Rule 3. Let's just paraphrase and say I saw someone once claim that it glorified "spiritual evil." That trumps any reason I have seen a fan dislike Transformers fiction or toys.

 

I don't know if I've ever had someone give me a super dumb reason.

One of my friends told me he's never been able to get into Transformers because the characters have pretty basic character traits. Which isn't necessarily wrong, they're mostly archetypes. But this friend is also into anime, and most animes I've seen have very archetypal/stock characters. Maybe he's into animes that have more complex characters, I just thought it was a funny complaint to hear from someone who seems like he'd be used to that.

I'd argue a lot of complaints directed at the Bay movies are a bit over-the-top. Like, people often call them "stupid", "long", "obnoxious", "headache-inducing", "an insult to cinema", etc. A lot of people act like they're the worst movies ever. Those are fair complaints, if you're into highbrow cinema. But I find it weird when people say that stuff about Transformers, but excuse other loud dumb movies. The truth is, the Transformers films are closer to Marvel films than something truly incompetent like The Room. It's completely fine to not like the Transformers films, but I find it a bit goofy when people who are into other 'dumb' blockbusters act like Transformers movies are some sort of crime against the art of film. Then those same people get mad when Martin Scorsese criticizes the Marvel movies for being big spectacle-based roller coasters.

 

Transformers are for kids and Optimus prime is a dumb***. “Marvel is better than Transformers” line from toxic kids. Mainly before I used to here my classmates before say that lol

 

Hm...Usually the dumbest reason I've seen has to do with them being robots. That is, the usual, "they're just programming, their personalities aren't real" dismissal of the idea of robots as characters.

 

The dumbest reasons I've heard come from Retroblasting and Analog Toys (I think it was Analog Toys, I can't remember for sure), and I think one of them got it off the other.

I forget what their exact reasons were, but you know how people are still mad at Optimus Prime dying and the whole Rodimus Prime thing from way back? It's exactly like that, except they're mad at the entire franchise for it. They try to justify it with words like "profiteering" which is dumb because ultimately all toylines are about making profit.

 

But if it’s marvel then it’s a whole different story...

 

Have you considered blowing their minds with a Marvel Transformers comic?  

 

I'd be curious what people who say that think of R2-D2 and C-3PO. They aren't too different than the Transformers in terms of personality. They basically act like people in robot suits.

 

Lol nope. They won’t believe me lol.

 

Transformers is just a glorified toy commercial...

Which is true, I'm not arguing that it isn't, just pointing out it's a dumb reason to not like it. I just don't really understand why Transformers gets singled out for it over other properties. If it was a cartoon targeted at kids with an associated toy line targeted at kids, it was a glorified toy commercial. What makes your favorite glorified toy commercial better than my favorite glorified toy commercial?

Just being a glorified toy commercial doesn't inherently make it bad. What makes it bad is when they introduce things that don't really make a lot of sense in universe until you look at the real world reason, to sell toys, as to why it's there. As long as they can write in a good reason that makes sense in universe and I can't immediately picture a literal advertisement being placed over the cartoon saying "Buy it now!" then I don't mind so much that it's a glorified toy commercial. It's when the story really doesn't make sense or someone has to break character in order to incorporate a super obvious toy gimmick that I hate it.

It's just kind of hypocritical to say "I don't like Transformers because it's a glorified toy commercial" while standing in a toy store buying figures from other franchises which are clearly also glorified toy commercials.

 

I like Transformers just to troll GO-BOT fans.



Me ---> <---a GO-BOT fan

 

The only reason I get made fun of transformers is mainly because it’s “For kids”

 

Robots are cool. Nuff said.

 

Yup. But “Superhero’s are cooler”

 

When i was a kid i remembering telling my friend wwe is fake and gay and he got mad and said transformers is fake and gay

 

In effect, Transformers are robotic superheroes when one considers all their abilities. If someone was getting on my case about it, I'd just say, "OK, like superheroes then. BTW, if my Transformers bother you so much, tell Superman or Thor to come give you a hug and cookies."

 

I kind of agree that they are just robots but I don't see what that has to do with anything. I mean one of favorite characters in Star Trek is Data and he doesn't even have a personality.

I think that's true of 3PO more than R2. Mostly because he is literally a person in a robot suit. R2's design isn't very "suit like" or humanoid in any way. I know there is actually a person in there but it's more like he's piloting this makeshift vehicle than wearing a costume. That said he is very expressive despite the utter lack of a face or voice.

And technically speaking, being fictional, it doesn't really make much a difference if a character is a robot or not because even the human characters personalities aren't "real" they're written and acted to be a certain way. That's kind of like programming a robot.

Though a true robot would be able to act autonomously and learn on it's own beyond it's original programming. Fictional characters don't do that, once the story ends and no other stories are written about them they stop growing as characters. Scrooge goes through a lot of character development during a Christmas Carol but after a Christmas Carol, we never learn anymore about him. His story just ends there. There's no real reason to continue it, that was the natural end to the story but we can assume if this were a real person that he would continue to grow as a person but he doesn't because nothing else is ever written about him and he doesn't actually exist.

In this way Siri technically has more of a personality than any fictional character. Because even if you're not directly interacting with her she still continues to exist. She may only be programming but that continued existence long after any living person has made any contact with that existence makes her more real than Ebenezer Scrooge. Fictional characters only exist while people are invested in their stories. They don't really exist before their story began and won't exist after their story ends. But a robot, will always exist regardless if anyone actually interacts with it.

If anyone is interested there's actually been a few stories written where the characters come to life and break the 4th wall as part of the actual story. I think Mark Twain wrote one while he was having writers block and began to imagine what the characters might be doing between pages as he tried to figure out what the actual story should be.

 

Lmao

 

They insist upon themselves.