Driven Back To Fandom

[sakon76]

As it began, so shall it begin again. I've been largely absent from DW and LJ, and have shifted my blogging to my quilting blog at https://tinkerstitch.blogspot.com/. But now I'm back, because my typing into the void there won't do a thing for my fandom needs, and Tumblr is crashing and burning as a platform, like LJ before it.

Today, Wonderful Husband dragged me to see Bumblebee. Partly, I think, because he's worried about me and knows that my love for Transformers is a deep and abiding one.

(Which is why I stopped watching the Bayverse movies after Dark of the Moon. That was the point at which they went from "not good, but interesting" to "this is bad, you cannot make me watch any further.")

But I'd heard good things about it, so I was mildly jazzed, and these last two weeks with him taking time off have been the first times we've gone to see film movies since... Black Panther. Good heavens, has it really been nine months? I guess it has. So last week we went to see Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse (loved it!), and this week we went to see Bumblebee.

(And, no, we don't really watch movies on TV. It takes energy and two hours of the kidlets not getting up to see what Mummy and Daddy are watching. Which is why I still haven't seen most of the Marvel'verse.)

But Bumblebee was... wow. It was honestly a love letter to the original series. And to all of us girls who weren't supposed to play with the boys' toys (both literal and metaphorical, though not in this case sexual). I have FEELS about this movie and I need to spend some time thinking about it. Wonderful Husband and I debated whether or not this can even be part of the Bayverse. The continuity cracks between it and the first film are wide and deep. Yet at the same time it clearly was intended to be part of it. And Bayverse has always been riddled with continuity cracks. (Kind of embarrassing when a 1980s cartoon series has better continuity than the multi-billion-dollar Hollywood blockbuster franchise based on it.)

So, any of my TFs peeps still around and alive and interested in talking about Bumblebee?

Comments

[tainry]

Oh I would love to talk and talk about Bumblebee!!!! Just went to see it for a second time last night! <3 Still good second time! o^___^o

Have you watched any of Lindsay Ellis' meta on youTube? It's from a film school person's perspective but also a Transformers Fan perspective so there are technical things re film which I don't know about but which do help me understand some directorial/editing decisions better - even if I don't agree with them always, from a fan POV - and also she's funny and wry and wants to find something salvageable...even when there isn't. u.u

Anyway! Opening sequence! For a second I actually wondered if we were going to see Wheeljack and Bumblebee smuggling energy rods into Iacon like right out of G1! XD We did get to see Wheeljack for a split second at least!!!! <333 And Arcee! (Poor Cliffjumper! Again! At least he didn't get turned into a mindless zombie this time!)

I am never made happy by "The Touch" but it was amusing to hear it here - an actual nod to previous TF incarnations! And oh my gaaaah I bweed so hard when Bee was driving away across the Golden Gate and came abreast of Optimus!!! <333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 GLEE! GLEE GLEE GLEE! And Optimus 'old friend'ing people and putting his hands on shoulders and CHARLIE GETS TO HUG BEE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! So good. ::snuggles into::

OK, I have a guest over so while there's lots more to eeee over, I'll restrain for now... ::hugs!:: Got your card! Thank you! <3 <3 <3 I have been the opposite of organized this year but I do hope to get cards out at least...eventually............... o.o;;;

[sakon76]

I haven't watched any of Lindsay Ellis' stuff. I'll have to check her out. Thanks for the rec!

For the opening sequence, I gasped in happiness, turned to my husband and whispered "THIS is what I wanted Bayverse to be!" So much happiness.

And, yes, poor Cliffjumper! The moment I saw him I knew who he was and that he was not going to make it. I flashed to that memorial video they did for him at the last Botcon I went to. :)

Was that supposed to be Optimus? I thought it was just supposed to be a nod to his G1 design, because I thought this was a prequel to Bayverse and it would be about 20 years before the arrival happened, but then there are so many continuity cracks that I'm no longer sure....

[tainry]

:D

Yesss! <3 Cybertron is instantly recognizable, even has the torn-apart sections below just like G1...

Yeah, continuity between this and Bayverse is dubious at best. Consensus seems to be that Hasbro wants to be able to play it both ways - it's either a prequel or a softish reboot. Simmons is a junior agent here, there's a Sector 7 headquartered under Hoover Dam, but...the timeline doesn't make a lick of sense. The timeline in strictly Bayverse doesn't make any sense either, though Captain Continuity aka John Barber took a stab at it and managed to string things together...sort of.
It's a prequel if it doesn't do well enough to make more along this line. It's a reboot if it makes enough money. Sigh.

I'd rather think of it as a reboot; closely related but a separate universe. There were seven more Autobots coming down there at the end, with Bee and Prime setting up camp and waiting for them... (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ✧

[sakon76]

Makes sense. I'm assuming the seven Autobots landing at the end are the ones we saw at the beginning, but I suppose there's no hard and fast reason that would have to be so.

[tainry]

::nods:: It could be almost anyone! Lessee...Ironhide, Ratchet, Arcee, Wheeljack we definitely see. Cliffjumper had a bad day on a moon of Saturn. So three more... Me personally I can't not have Jazz, so...XD