Howdy fellow fans. Read, don't read, it doesn't really matter. But if you continue, you have my thanks.

I know most goodbye topics don't go over well, but I'm hoping to end on a good note. I'm pretty much done, with message boards that is. If not, I just really need to take an extended leave. I've tried to just up & out many times before, but there's always some kind of comment that pulls me back in. So maybe instead of "goodbye" it's more "goodbye for now". I don't want to post anymore because it all turns to arguments that never stop and just drift. I've been hating it all a bit for a while now. I don't care to do it anymore, so I gotta go. It's just not worth it. With exceptions known, nobody cares, nobody listens, everyone's a smartass with little to say and what's said is all argumentative anyway. People resort to lying & purposely missing the point of a statement or entire paragraph of thought waaaaay too much. Everybody makes smug remarks that heavily lean the facts toward fiction in their favor thinking they're being clever. Business as usual these days.

I really don't want to come back to message boards, and I've done good now for a few days (work's made it easier), but I just have this need to say the ol'official "Seeya", know what I mean? When you just feel you have to do something, that is? Despite getting to know some really decent folks, friends, and associates, this whole message board thing has really put a nasty little dent in the joy Transformers have brought me through the years.

It's just a sad state of affairs right now, and I hope when I come back, if I come back, things are a bit better all around. I'm tired of arguing the truth with people. You can say nobody associated directly with the film lied or contradicted themselves, but that's simply not true. You can say a more traditional aesthetic wouldn't have worked for the film, even claim it could have been detrimental while you ignore the fact a more traditional design can be realistic, functional, and eye candy (as is the case with MPs, Alts, & Classics, and those are just toy versions of recognizable representation!) while ambiguously saying anything other than Bay's designs would have been "too cartoony", but that's not the truth either. Say it's not possible to make a recognizable, almost humanoid face on a Transformer....other than Prime...of all Transformers no less, doesn't quite fit anymore now does it. Heck, argue down to the last just because a certain toy's push button-movable faceplate can be removed so a full view of a character's speaker/vocal generator engraved in the plastic can be had means he has a mouth, unless you believe as well the fact you can pop fingers off the item implies the character was meant to not have fingers, you're just kidding yourself and no one else.


Confirmation of the departure, the lies, etc recently came out of recent Q & A with ILM no less. One of DM's top Stooges went to ILM and asked some questions & the answers should not surprise you.

• While we're on that subject. Of course I brought up the design aspects and such with the ILM team there. What they had to say may or may not surprise you. The day they saw the initial designs that we're sent to them from the design firm working on them in LA, everyone flipped out. ILM HATED THE DESIGNS. People were throwing fits and walking out saying they weren't gonna work on it and such. Keep in mind these guys are just like us, 25-35, and many of them huge G1 fans. They said it really took some time to get used to them and warm up to them. A lot of it had to do with actually talking to Bay about it and being able to understand where he was going with the film and what he wanted to do. This was never going to be the cartoon, never a G1 version, never any other version we know. It's a fresh take. Perhaps if that were made more clear in the initial stages of the film, we would all have been more accepting. That in mind, I still can't say I like the design style, but what can I do?
  
  
• The one single thing that pretty much everyone was in agreement on was the faceplate. Everyone wanted to keep it on. From us to the writers, to the animators. They even purposely kept it on during preliminary renders in hopes of swaying Bay's decision on it. Alas, it was his film and he had final say. Fin.
  
  
• I asked about the rumored G1 design tests. ILM knows nothing of the sort. As far as they know they don't exist. They say if anything they might have been done in animatic form by the design team in LA, but they don't know anything about that.
  
  
• I also brought up the Weaving deal. The people that were there from Paramount really couldn't explain it. Megs has 4 lines and doesn't even sound like Hugo Weaving. They aren't even advertising his involvement, the general public doesn't even know he's in it. Many agree that it would have been Welker just because and why not? Again it seems to be one of those things that was Bay's call.
  
  
• We saw so much it's tough to go through everything. We saw pretty much everyone's transformations. Jazz really moves around a lot as he transforms. Can you say Eddie Gordo? Ratchet has a pretty neat transformation as well. Oh yeah, they all agree he should have been white. By the time they got there, they already filmed too many of his scenes and it was too late. Well poo...
  
  
• Yes, there is cheating. They commented that there simply isn't enough "stuff" in any of these vehicles to make up these giant robots. So yeah, there are magic parts that come from nowhere but they made sure that they were all things you could find as part of an actual car.

Source:

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All the more reason to get away from the insulting bs & board related bickering it naturally produces. Sucks it couldn't be all different, and I mean it really sucks, but name a point in history regarding anything that statement couldn't be applied to, yes? I'm just better off, I think. The handful of hypocritical, badly debating folks out there, they'll never change their opinions, no matter what side of the fence you'll view them on, they'll always ignore the facts, they'll constantly turn anything against the film into a huge argument. If you wish to count me among that description, well, I'd have to tag that back to the dishonesty pile right quick.

One last time, there's nothing stopping such cg rendering liberties being taken for Masterpiece-like, Classics-like, & Alternators/Binaltech-like designs for the big screen except a decision of those making the film, a decision of those admitting a departure, an intentional one at that. Nothing’s keeping more solid/less exposed/less bit-made transformations/aesthetics from the big screen except the lack of faith on the production's side of things. The designs & aesthetics aren't representative of the Transformers as they've been for more than two decades (advancing all the way whether you choose to intelligently admit it, or ignorantly ignore it). You cannot depart heavily from a traditional source material and become THE representative incarnation of it. Period.

There was a bit on a past Saturday where I decided to just visit & lurk at TFL from a bud's house. Instantly I saw posts left & right I could already see my answer to. Almost started to login each time. Didn't though, and quickly departed. Back to that "what would be the point" stuff. What would it have accomplished? People that would have agreed would have given kudos or expanded all argumentative like, then those disagreeing would have just ignored major points and clear facts just to spout on without concern. Nothing would have changed. That idea makes it easy. I can't make a difference with some words, so why spend so much of my time, effort, consideration and analysis by wasting it on those that won't appreciate it? It's so frustrating now. I could easily jump back into any topic here at TFL or some other Transformers board and do the deed I've been doing all along, but it just wouldn't matter either way in the end now would it.

So let bs claims & valid ones be made, I say. Just let it be done without me, I guess. It's all to convince themselves. Let them live on their flat Earth where all objects in the sky, including the sun, encircle our planet. They aren't changing any people's minds and no one's going to change theirs any time soon. By ignoring clear information readily available or know to be fact, any & every argument ever engaged in has already been long lost, and while certain folks let topics die to the pages of history only to spark up a needless battle elsewhere, I know I sure as shit know better to the behavior displayed. Who is anyone to put any further taint to a like of Transformers in any respect, including myself what with my single passionate hobby in life that I have time for outside of work & family? And that's why I'll eventually always come back I suppose, because I care so damn much. It may seem dumb to some to care so much about Transformers fiction and the related merchandise there in to some people, however you know what "normal" people do when they aren't working or taking care of daily duties & chores? Same as us, they're being "geeks", just about different stuff. It's all about their shiny new lip gloss, the latest win for their local team (Go Stars!), the new sound system in their car, the juiciest gossip from some talk show or magazine, vintage cars, fine cuisine, baseball cards, figurines (they're statues!), pets, interior design, whatever. Same stuff, different game.

So what if someone out there, not myself mind you, wants, let's say, that hardly represented viewpoint of a live action/cgi "carbon copy of the cartoon". It's not coming, so let them dream, let them want. Argue facts, don't insult someone directly for the presence of want, the desire for something they like. Seriously.

Since I'm trying to get my house sorted before departing, there's just a couple more member-direct items I need to say before departing. Wishful & Fwiff. Whatever's come of it, I considered you both nice friends & good associates, certainly & undeniably important parts of the original TFL familia. But ever since the designs came out and TFL was canned for a limited time, the entire family has grown apart. Many hardly post online anymore, the location of said posting is as fractured as a broken mirror, and we know of at least one dear friend to us all that's had this fandom-related experience put her off Transformers almost entirely. I don't care for the way either of you conducted some debates, but in kind I'm sure you feel the same. Regardless, I just want to clarify I neither want to nor do I hold any serious ill will to either of you. I miss our old family, you two & I, Bloke, Voo, Bladey, duo, Maidel, galvy, Wavey, Autobot Gal, Chromia, Pris, WaR, Bulldoggy Dogg, the Xaxman, xalia, pit, TruePrime, rav, TV, Sledge, the toxic bovine, Hessen, ol'Jules, Nevermore & FFN, Darth, Bub, Tyrant, just everyone from those old days a couple of years ago all the way up to when TFL was taken offline with little to no warning. I've wondered many times how different it could have been if just a few things had happened differently.

And folks, know I'm always available on email. Those keeping in touch, keep in touch. Those not, heck, email me sometime.

You know what? It's funny. The other day, before work claimed me fully, I was searching through Bay's site at the old posts of mine from right around the time my feelings for the film started changing. Here's a sentiment I'd shared before the first leaked designs surfaced...

"This movie venture is not The Transformers as we've known them to a T. No matter the preference, it will be what it will be and it will stand on its own merits as such. If it's for some reason hated, let it be done so for it not being a good film, don't let that hate be because it isn't a rehash of what we've grown up with. Nor let it be dashed in your liking simply because ideas you've spouted aloud here with the rest of us weren't seeded into the film. This is a new reality of Earth, until the release date it is a modern society untouched by Transformers. This isn't the 80's cartoon or comic, nor anything we've applied the label of "G1" to in the past nor present as in the case of IDW's comic title. This is the soon-enough-to-be-onscreen adaptation of ideas and elements that are based in various core elements of the 80's cartoon and comic Transformers as well as the Transformers we've applied the label of "G1" to in the past as they were/are. And strictly because of that is no reason to stick with elements that wouldn't necessarily be productive to the movie's success or onscreen flow."

How sad. How utterly freakin' sad a preexisting Transformers fan with a good online presence (I've been told) once was so eager & ready for this film with that frame of mind going on, then so easily had it dashed. That quote's from back before the designs hit, back when all discussion & talk was about characters, story, the finer points of the upcoming film that had nothing to do with aesthetics either way, back when the majority envisioned what an update in visuals would mean, none of us thinking of Bay's admitted departure in the slightest. Through bad public relations, mistreatment of the "official site" and it's community a while back, certain folks that aren't doing Bay or the film any favors by some of their interactions online (sadly, Bay included sometimes), contradictory statements, the argumentative shtuff of those who refuse to face reality and argue any potential fans away by jumping on comments & ignoring facts, and designs that are overly departing from recognition even though Transformers has been making advancements since the cartoon and still maintaining this recognition up until this film, a potential supporter is simply sickened to the point of no return. Even if I see this film and somehow think to myself, "What a good action film that was", it won't be the Transformers film awaited, the one it could have been.

To be truthful, I really hope to take in the upcoming film at this point in the same mind of that italics quote above. Maybe then I can enjoy it for what it is, not what I would have preferred, nor what it could have been if done by someone like Singer or Raimi, some kick ass director that knew & wished to fully respect the fiction/source material a bit more rather than assume all along the way it had to be changed so drastically here & there just to work. It's going to take a lot, thanks to those creating the film and those so overly & badly defending it in all the wrong ways, but perhaps in the end I can do it. The wife enjoys action films heavily, and this could very well be the Transformers of my son's generation so to speak, so who knows. Maybe their enthusiasm coupled with a heavy lack of online bs will draw me in by the end of it all.

If this ran too long for some, apologies as I think right now I'm trying to convince myself of the multiple reasons not to go back to online postings, outside of this goodbye. I really don't have the time either, can barely get around to visiting my own website nowadays. I just can't do this message board stuff right now. Time, interest, fortitude. It's just not in me. Our company just had a massive layoff, luckily I'm in a key position, so the workload's picking up even more, where as before it was already keeping me from the usual five minutes here, ten minutes there online stuff I'd used to do. I also finished my Transformers novel recently, and it's going to be a struggle to get that published. It'll either get published as official material, or become easily available online for free. Either way, I'll be sure to let yall know. Life's full right now, and the spare time I have shouldn't be used to argue. I hope to return some day and kick once again, without angst on my part or from anyone else.

My best to you & yours. Take care everybody,

Chuck "Covenant" Ritchie

Wow, I don't have time to read all of this right now.

I will say to you that I wish you the best and it's been fun. Thanks for your encouragement and cheers in response to some of my posts in the past.

Hope to see you again sometime, dude.

Your hand is love.

Best,
T

Good luck. It's easy to get burned out with all the arguing. Some people just will not cease with obtuse "debating" tactics and strawmen. Sometimes I feel like quitting posting too.


Hope we will see you back at some point.

Pleasure to have conversed with you, Cov, my man.

I've had my fill of the movie discussion myself, hence my lack of presence around the more moviecentric boards. Hopefully, once the recriminations all fuck off in August or so, the old, friendly spirit will again return.

Laters Cov, I wish you luck for all your future plans.

Enjoy the world Sir

Godspeed, El Capitan.

Returneth sooneth.

Hope to see you back soon Cov.

And I'm getting fed up with all the bitching myself. too many Holier-Than-Thou types springing up lately, and frankly, I can't be too bothered with them.

I opened my board to all at TFL for actual discussion, but, it seems that if you don't have the "right to vent your spleen at any and all fellow posters who don't agree 100% with you", then most people don't want to join.

And that's okay...I would have just banned their asses anyway:p

Anyhoo...hope life gets better for ya! Later*hugs*