Why Romanticizing Villains Hurts Modern Storytelling

It's gonna be fun. We can stay up late swapping

manly stories and in the morning, I'm making

waffles. Hey, this is Steve Bloom, and you are

listening to the Geekcast Radio Network. You're

tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered Geek. Welcome

to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve Megatron,

and joining me on this adventure into geekdom

is TFG1Mike. Hello. Hello. Hello. So, for reference

point, this has been recorded right after we

finished the top 100 part five. Yes. I'm not

referencing any of the stuff in it. No, we should

not. I'm just going to say boo. That's it. There

we go. everybody will have to listen and make

their own opinions be sure to go to the website

and Let us know have a conversation there Listen,

you love it. You hated it. Yes. Yeah, that's

let's hold a discussion there. That would be

awesome Especially since Beast Wars Megatron

came in at number 62 And Rodham has came in at

100, uh -huh Uh -huh related numbers we are I'll

deflate your number. Yeah. Anyways, what have

you been working on? No Mother mother effort

No, seriously look I am a podcast machine. I

am an editing machine However, as I've mentioned

before on this show and other shows I do not

have a, we, our apartment complex only allows

portable air conditioners. They do not allow

window units. They do not have centra. Okay.

So in the state of Oregon, which is below Washington,

as everybody knows, but we're literally like,

we can look out our windows. It's right across

the river from us. State of Oregon and Portland,

Oregon, the whole state 33 % or less. of dwellings

have central air. In Washington state, it's even

less of a percentage than 33%. You're lucky if

you find a place with central air. And yeah,

the living room, the living room of the apartment

does not have, that's why I say every time before

we usually record. i'll say if you guys hear

anything or whatever i'll try to mute myself

the best i can but like right now i can hear

a motorcycle and i've got my head i can hear

a motorcycle through my headphones because i

have to have the window open for air except it's

100 degrees here anyway this is not interesting

to anybody i have been pouring my my blackened

non -ac haven soul into getting the top 100 transformers

characters countdown done and uploaded and ready

to go for the next... Well, part one's out as

of this recording. Part one was out... What the

hell was it yesterday? Crap, I don't even remember

now. Yeah, Tuesday, August 10th. So from Tuesday,

August 10th to September 17th, we are going to

be releasing the Top 100 Characters Countdown.

I already have four of the six parts edited ready

to go online. All of the ads are inserted. Everything

is just ready to go. It just needs to be published

for each week that we do it and whatever. That's

essentially all I can work on because half the

time I can't sit here. I'm lucky I'm able to

sit here right now recording this episode with

you because it literally is. If I brought my

Temperature clock gauge thing that that Karen

has in the bathroom out here to the living room.

It would read 89 degrees I remember a couple

about a month or so ago we had this huge ass

heat wave and heat dome and whatever else and

it read 89 degrees in this apartment and It's

like holy crap. So yeah, no, I'm I'm trying to

do as little as I possibly can like literally

I'm like, okay everybody if I don't end up living

in a different place with central air Next year

all of my summer recordings are gonna be between

1 a .m. And 5 a .m. Pacific time Because I can't

do this nighttime record stuff anymore it like

literally my back is like There have been times

where I've recorded in this chair lately that

I've gotten up and literally The chair comes

with me because my pants are stuck It's crazy

Anyway, it's enough about my stupid life. So

I've been working on the Beast Wars Darkglass

project again. You've been resurrecting it. Yes.

Yes. I resurrected it with good cause because

people care. And so, yeah, it's it's like the

perfect opportunity to revive this. And I figured,

why not? So I am working diligently at this,

including to the point of. Reviving the the website,

I rebought the domain and reset up the website,

got it set up like it used to be, added some

stuff, change some stuff. I had a headache with

a background image that I was messing with, and

so I was like, yeah, I don't feel like messing

with this for another like three hours, so I'm

going to just I just deleted the background and

put a blank. Because what I had there before

was supposed to line up with the menu but for

whatever reason due to modern WordPress it was

like laughing at me and So I just said screw

it and I deleted it. So So yeah, I've been working

on that People are very interested especially

because Kingdom was a letdown to a lot of people

Just in the voice acting department, the writing

department, but on the, you know, the visual

and getting Beast Wars back to some degree, people

were excited about. But yeah, so this all stems

from another problem, which has been plaguing

franchises for about 10 years. Yeah, about 10,

11 years. It's the the concept of romanticizing

the villain. and It's funny because I was there

was this big long drawn -out conversation on

the all -spark discord channel because we were

talking about why you know certain series for

us just Plane don't hold up. I think it was because

there's there's more leaked news about the Transformers

live -action movies and the fact that the studios

like have no idea how to make something people

care about yeah, and It's it's not that they're

trying to make a good movie. They're just trying

to make a movie Yeah, and basically unlike Disney

which when they ate up Star Wars and they ate

up Marvel They looked at the back cannon. They

looked at the history. They looked at everything

and they said hmm, what can we mine from this

restart the universe tell it from scratch and

Make it good and and keep us, you know authentic

as possible to the the designs the characterizations

the you know, how they you know should be portrayed

and and just they put a lot of effort in now

nowadays unless you're watching the The Disney

Plus TV series which are the only thing that

really stand out the movie stuff since endgame

Have kind of I mean there's not really been anything

of note and if there has been Nobody's really

paying attention to it. It's it's kind of like

They hit that formula too long. And yes, they're

putting out still good movies, but they're not

great like they used to be because they've kind

of milked the franchise to the to the killing

point. Are you talking about Marvel or Star Wars?

Marvel. Star Wars is just they don't know what

to do with it. Yeah, Star Wars is a whole other

bag. OK. Yeah, but that's Lucasfilm and that's

not Kevin Feige. Kevin Feige, anything he touches

turns to gold. And that's the problem is you

get these big wigs that have no cares, have no

back knowledge of it. They're just studio heads.

And that's the same reason why all of the DC

and the Warner stuff has flatlined by comparison.

And they can't seem to build a universe is because

they're not allowing the creation to happen.

The TV side of it. I don't have any interest

in anything outside of flash at this point That

DC puts out which is kind of sad to say I I have

very little interest even in the flash at this

point. I know they're wrapping up after season

8 They're gonna end it with reverse flash is

the main villain again but On a whole like I

don't care for anything DC is putting out, whereas

Marvel and Star Wars for the television side

are slam dunking it. Yeah. Well, you know, here's

the thing. DC TV. From 2012 until now has had

a decently good run. There's a few things in

there that are a little whatever. But Arrow was,

you know, it was what it was, but it was the

one that started it all. Flash was good. I've

all but lost interest in Flash completely. I

just, I just don't care. I'm watching it to see

it finish out. Right, yeah. At this point. Yeah,

and I probably will too. But like for me at this

point, I've taken it off my DVR and I'm just

waiting for the final seasons to hit Netflix.

Like I know season seven, which just ended as

you said, Just hit Netflix so I'll watch it eventually

but I want to watch it commercial free I don't

want to watch it with whatever. Yeah Netflix

I actually blitz through the last like four episodes

of the flash Netflix yeah some of it I was able

to skip some of it not but. They made it work.

And honestly, the last three seasons have been

lackluster. COVID kind of hurt them too. But

this next season is going to be good. And part

of the problem is we were discussing on that

forum is that a lot of the modern stuff, a lot

of the reasons that people are mad at modern

storytelling is because you're getting these

these aspects where, you know, the mindset is

of heavily overhauling and modernizing beloved

franchises because their version is a significant

change to, you know, basically deconstruct and

undo everything that most people love about it

and replace it with a new beginning, which I

get it from a starting point, but at the same

time, You know, fandoms don't, they have like

these weird extreme elements where they don't

understand the difference between spite and constructive

criticism because they're like you either unquestioningly

love it or you hate it and thus they hate you

which is terrible when you think about it because

you're not allowed to have an opinion. You're

not allowed to have that constructive thoughts

and I think a lot of it boils down to We make

the villain not the villain. Yeah. Like we have

too much of that, you know, humanizing them too

much. I mean, Disney has been doing it for a

while with, you know, their cruelest, you know,

movie with the Angelina Jolie ones where she's

playing the the wicked stepmother type thing

or, you know, from Snow White or whatever it's

from Maleficent. I don't need that, to be honest.

I don't need a reason why they're bad. I just

need a concrete bad villain so that the good

guys can stand on their own with that. Now, the

problem with that is even in this War for Cybertron

stuff, they made Megatron questionably decent.

And in doing so, they neutered Prime, and he's

no longer this beacon of hope and of upstanding.

It makes him look petty and bad. Yeah. The problem

is, is where society has come. So you look at...

Things like the the super friends and challenge

of the super friends and Batman 66 and Wonder

Woman 77 and Superman 78 and you look at all

these firsts we've had you know DC Comics and

Marvel Comics and whatever else has been around

for 80 90 plus years at this point now and and

we've come from all of that to where we are now

and the thing of it is is and I more so blame

social media than anything else because It's

these quick bites like look. I'm in the same

way I will have a quick reaction and then I will

actually think about it and then go back and

say oh well that was my When I first saw it thing.

I don't really feel that was the shock value.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely and it's just one of those

things where The shock value most of the time

sadly is all that people Leave us with some time.

Well, yeah, but it's like It's like you with

With predict I'm just gonna call him Predacon

Megatron because he ain't Beast Wars mega He

was called Predacon Megatron on the show, you

know You kept saying you wouldn't watch it if

the voice wasn't good or whatever Whatever, whatever

you did watch it. You didn't like the voice and

that's fine. It is what it is but it isn't like

you going out there writing an article about

the thing saying oh my god it's this or oh my

god it's that or whatever and even in my spoiler

review I I was I was trying to be as diplomatic

as possible even with the shock value that was

welling within me and I wrote it like honestly

I wrote it the day before it was due so that

I had plenty of because one I just forgot and

two Was on this this mindset of like I don't

really want to totally take a dump on it because

it's gonna be somebody's gateway Even if it's

garbage, it's somebody's gateway But I wish that

you know, I mean there was a lot of things going

on with that that you came out after I you know

Netflix not allowing more than six episodes per

Chunk and so it left him in this conundrum Hasbro

coming in You know while they're working on it.

Hey, we want you to include this this this this

this this this this this and this and you have

to do it and then Rooster Teeth with their lackluster

voice direction and In casting, you know, I mean

in the limited budget that was handed to them

I can understand why they got screwed on this

entire trilogy like it's I give them some of

that benefit of the doubt but at the same time

it still falls on them and I like what they tried

to do, but the implementation was bad. And so

I feel like, and like I said, this conversation

went, you know, that, you know, we're going to

like these extreme elements of modern, you know,

fandoms don't want, they get mad when something,

you know, like for instance, Masters of the Universe,

they, Revelation, they changed a lot. Yeah, and

yeah, I mean part of its polarizing because some

people hate Kevin Smith and To be to be fair.

He's a shill You know, he kind of he's he's paid

to do that people know that I mean he's outside

of his own movies Yeah, he's directed some stuff.

That's not been his own But he's he's a company

man You know, whatever he's being paid to handle,

you know, whether it's DC movie previews or,

you know, this and that, like, he's a hype man.

And so you got to expect he's going to give you

hype and back it up the only way he knows how.

And that's by talking crap. And part of, you

know, like I. I feel like we try to over explain

things a little much in in all of these different

Storylines like we they they have too many overarching

grabs for You know XYZ, but not enough payoff

to make it worth it, but they still want you

to be sympathetic to The villain, you know, they

want to have you sympathize with them, you know

over what the villain has done or wants to do

but You know and how sometimes we you know only

see them at their peak or You know, there's there's

been a road to get there and it's you know Everything

more or less has to be grounded and relatable

and reflect, you know, the world nowadays. And

the wonder of these stories of heroes and villains

is kind of lost. And they're trying to parallel

too much with how things are. The problem is

everything has gotten really dark and like there's

not a lot of. Good versus evil you have like

a ton of gray and that's that's that's what plagued

the Star Wars movies You that you know the last

three that's what's plagued all the transformers

all them a lot of the modern stuff like that's

why there's the polarized hate in the Star Trek

fandom to over the new versus the old and it's

that they have this mentality of You know burn

the old stuff down and start over but not start

over you know, use what's here, use the established,

but wipe that out and replace it with this or,

you know, or completely rewrite, you know, change

old characters, you know, where, you know, they

flip them on their polar opposites. You know,

it's there's just a lot of that going on. And

and I get, you know, stretching the creative

muscle, but it just doesn't resonate. Well, here's

the problem as I see it number one We are approaching

we are three years away from the 40th anniversary

of transformers overall So 40 years ago, let's

say Hasbro came up with the idea or took the

idea from microman or however the Origin of how

the transformers brand started. I know that I'm

not looking at anything. I'm not trying to do

any research. I'm just saying 1984 will be 40

years old in three years, okay? Here's the thing,

Asbro, Disney, whatever, they all have these

intellectual properties that have been around

for four decades that specifically to, let's

say, Transformers, and I know this is not all

things Transformers, but it's the easiest example

I can give you and give the audience that I'm

trying to make this point here. You have four

decades of transformers. You have multiple iterations

of whatever. Forgiving someone, okay. How old

are your boys right now? Uh, eight and six. Okay.

Let's go back to 1986 and 1988, when I was six

and eight years old. watching He -Man, watching

Thundercats, watching Voltron, watching Mask,

watching Gem, watching Care Bears, watching He

-Man and She -Ra and Transformers and everything

else. It was my starting point. I didn't need

to know because that's when it started. The thing

is, your kids now are six and eight, okay? They

need, they need something now. That they can

imprint on not what we not what I imprinted on

not what you imprint like I know you've shown

them some beast war stuff And I know they love

it and that's great because they love it because

you as their father loves it. That's awesome

Kids today need new stuff. Yeah talking about

us. I'm not I'm not talking about us I'm not

talking about the people that are that are old

and gray and whatever else We need new stuff

too, and I'll get to that in a second. But here's

the thing There needs to be a new starting point

with new like the companies they want to protect

and keep their IPs That's the thing they all

want to can I and rightfully so as they should

the problem is how they go about doing that with

whomever Hasbro gives the license out to for

transformers like honestly, I don't remember

the last time Okay, I do 2015 Before then, before

Robots in Disguise with Will Friedel and whoever

else was in there, because I know Will is in

the union. I think he is. Anyway, but the point

is, this whole union versus non -union stuff

with actors and things like that, like really,

outside of Robots in Disguise in 2015, you look

at Transformers over the last 11 years, The last

time we had a union cast, major union cast, was

Transformers Prime and before that was animated.

And it just seems like all these little, little

tiny machinima 10 minute... Like, I look at,

um, Cyberverse and Robots in Disguise and a couple

of the... I look at those shorts on... that are

now on Netflix and I'm like, oh my god, these

were 10 minute episodes on YouTube five years

ago or whenever it was. And I'm like, oh man,

like... We need to find a way to And that's that's

the problem with the companies the companies

have to supposedly Cater to the new fans the

children and us old fans. That's why I liked

with prime and with Rescue bots Rescubots was

kind of mean adults could watch it and I know

several adults who have watched in like rescue

bots Michael Wilson loves it. I know lady rec

loves it Nicole Beatle Steve a Loves it not saying

you can't love it as an adult, but I'm saying

in the aligned continuity Was in a line continuity.

You saw Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime in both

Transformers Prime and rescue bots however It

was two separate shows. You didn't have to show

the little, the six year olds the prime cartoon,

but you could show them the rescue bots cartoon.

So that's the thing with companies is number

one, they want to protect their IPs. Number two,

they need to find a way to cater to everybody.

And that often falls flat with what, with when

they give out their license and who wants to

have a budget for like, I don't know what. What

rooster teeth and what like? All the all the

channels I watch on YouTube that react to some

of the stuff for that do news things to this

stuff are like It's all about one franchise over

the other like and I'm I'm not calling them out.

I'm not being negative about them I actually

enjoy their videos, but clownfish TV neon and

geeky sparkles. Hi guys. Love your work They

have a ton of Masters of the Universe videos

from the She -Ra Princesses of Power days to

now. I don't think they've done one single Transformer

video because honestly, I think that Netflix

buried the trilogy. I remember two trailers from

one, maybe two trailers from each of those series.

They weren't outside of... A few major news outlets

that are not solely transformers based like cbr

or comic book dot com or whatever you want whatever.

There wasn't a lot of news for the war for cybertron

trilogy there was because i don't know why. Is

it because revelation had the major voice cast

they had powerhouse animation behind them is

it that is it because mattel decided to. Go the

major route and get the union actors versus Hasbro

and Netflix and Rooster Teeth and whatever. Going

the cheap route. It's kind of like how you say

about the paints on certain figures lately that

they've been doing. That they've cheaped out

on certain things and I know companies cheap

out all the time on toys. But it's just crazy

that we live in a world now where the world revolves

around these companies. that wanna protect their

IPs and they don't wanna start anything new.

They don't wanna create a new character. At this

point in time in 2021, over the last, I'm just

gonna say 41 years of my lifetime, since 1980,

and even before then, there have been a million

different tropes. There are a million different

character archetypes and attributes that you

can give heroes or villains. You can make a villain

so despicable that you love to hate him. That's

the thing about villains. You shouldn't be romanticizing

the villain. You should make the villain evil

enough to where we enjoy the fact that we hate

the character. You know, take classic Beast Wars

Megatron. He's a likeable guy. He still wants

to take over the universe But he doesn't need

to be understood. He doesn't need he doesn't

need this writing of oh I I lost my my choo -choo

and it sent me down the path of evil no he was

always evil from the time he stole the golden

disc and Well, then he tell he was cutthroat

He didn't have a problem, you know chopping down

his own guys if the push came to shove and right,

you know he He was a, you know, just a stinking

tyrant. He was a villain that didn't need to

be sympathized with. He didn't need to be empathized

with. He was a villain that we loved to hate.

And I don't mean, like, I know that you love

the character. I'm not saying that you can't

love a villain. What I'm saying is... We understand,

again, going back to our episode 22 over on Studio

2009, fictional characters. Fictional. You know,

people have written these things up. And sometimes

you get great writers, sometimes you don't. And

that sucks, because when you are dealing with

an IP like Transformers, and it's not written

well, or acted well and I don't blame the actors

that they have to go by what's written they have

to go by what the writer you know so I'm not

saying the performances even though whatever

it's the writing yeah it's the writing it always

comes down to the right like there are lines

that I will write out for several people that

I would like to do voice promos for I'm not talking

about you I'm talking about like Kyle Higgins

or you know Frank Todaro or whatever kind of

thing I'll write it out like Frank is a perfect

example. I wrote several things for Frank and

some he did some he didn't and that's fine. If

you know if I write out like this is what I'd

like you to say, but I understand if you feel

that you don't want to say it or you it's not

in your nature to say it as the character or

something like that. That's fine. No worries.

I just tried to be as creative and I tried to

get like again Frank Chidaro perfect example

with with Starscream from from War for Cybertron.

I tried to get into his head and how he voices

Starscream, and I always reference those TFCon

videos from 2012 or something when it's him and

John Bailey and Jason Marnoca. And one of the

people asked him, and they don't know. I mean,

Frank knows because Frank's a fan, but the other

guy, you know, Marnoche didn't know. He's like,

whose idea was it to put Starscream in charge?

and that's kind of like where we got the promo

for all things transformers that we have where

it's like you know you know the one we do and

it's like you know he's always been in charge

he's always been the leader of Cybertron the

true leader of the you know it's just what fits

the character and if something i scripted didn't

fit the character i don't expect any like you

know Cause you know we're not, sadly we don't

have David Kay locked up in a jar somewhere.

You are easily one of if not the number one second

best to David Kay's Beast Wars Megatron. You

know the character inside and out. You know,

like if I sit here and write certain things that

I know that I think that he would say or he should

say in his voice. And you come back at me like,

yeah, it wouldn't work well or it wouldn't. I'm

like, OK, fine. Do it however you want to do

it as long as the information gets gets across

kind of thing. Like, well, and that was the thing

is is like General Techno on Twitter mentioned

when he heard the voice for Kingdom and he says,

I don't blame the actresses. I blame the voice

director. He says this should have never happened.

He's like. you know, even with the dialogue that's

given, he said, if you know how Megatron works,

like his, if you can get into the, and that's

part of being an actor, is if, you know, for

one, if you know the character, you know, and

get into the psyche, and I guarantee you they

didn't have good information on these guys, because

some of them were so polarized off, it was hard.

But he said the beautiful thing about Beast Wars

Megatron is, is The inflections I choose to make

are different from the inflections David Kay

chooses to make and the ones that General Techno

makes. But they all fit the persona. Whereas

what we got was not fitting for the persona.

And this kind of tied in here, too, was that,

you know, the sad truth is that modern writers

Don't want to put the effort into making a new

character because people might not instantly

take to it And it's funny you say that because

like what well like wind blade. I I did not like

the character in the Combiner Wars trilogy now

in cyber verse I did and You know, it just depends

on how it's written but that's and that's the

thing too is that They don't want to work on

building a new character, unless it's comics.

They want the appeal and clout of a legacy name

because it requires less work. Then they complain

when people get justifiably upset about it. The

go -to reaction when people don't like it lately

is for writers to take to Twitter and... You

know lash out and you know, the fans fire back

and then it's a it's a volley back and forth

and it's honestly and this is something I kind

of believe too honestly like writers and People

that are signing these ndas should be signing

a no twitter agreement or no Because during the

during the course of any of these shows that

are running Don't engage negatively with fans

because it never ends well for the show or the

writer or the fans Because you you end up polarizing

someone And often it reflects on the company

employing them, which is, again, why people are

so irritated with, you know, the masters of the

universe is because Kevin Smith, you know, he

polarized them had he just kind of said, you

know, this is a slightly different take and we're

doing it in different direction. It's going to

feel in the vein of the original. And, you know,

but the way that he, you know, built it up beforehand

and then he's like backpedaling afterward. And

then he's like, well, The fans suck because blah,

you know and that's we haven't really gotten

that with the Transformers But people are just

argumentatively irritated with choices that are

made and I get it. But again, here's the thing

you have a And I want us to interview the guy

eventually Maybe in this post or in some other

post I will link the two videos from Rodimus

Primal who interviewed FJ DeSanto F .J. DeSanto

is a fan of Transformers. Yeah. They put their

stamp on the writing on the story on what they

wanted to do and how they wanted to do it. And

that's fine, well and good. F .J. DeSanto is

not. That's the thing. No one is Kevin Smith.

No one is this person. No one is that person.

You know, it's kind of like I recently. Well,

I've been watching the movies that made us on

Netflix. And I'm up to the episode about Pretty

Woman. And, you know, some of the people talking,

you know, some of the producers and writers and

whatever that are. That's a Disney film. That's

a Gary Marshall film. That'll never work, I think.

But it's like, you know, the problem with the

whole Masters of the Universe thing besides Kevin

Smith. Number one. Oh, you know, for promotional.

Purposes please don't spoil anything like this

plot this plot this plot this plot And we've

we talked about this over on powers of grayskull

series I'm like, but you spoiled Skeller God

as soon as you released the figure and then July

1st hit or whatever date it was and Kevin Smith

in the beginning of that video on July 1st that

he posted said This is Mattel television This

is not universal universal has the formation

rights blah blah blah blah blah and i understand

that it's all that's the problem with these these

long standing intellectual properties. Various

people very specifically with him and various

entities have rights to certain parts of it so

you can only use so much that's why when i watched

it i was like oh. This is an animated version

of the toy stories This is like the toy bios

from the old days coming to life and telling

a story and yes There's a little bit of filmation

there. Yes. There's a little bit of 2002 there

You know, there's all this kind of stuff there

and it's all well good and fine But again, they

said, oh, this is a continuation of filmation

and it never was. It never was. It just felt

in the vein of it, but it wasn't right. No, no,

no, it never was. Yeah. So in my my closing argument

here, as we prepare to close down and let the

listeners comment on the episode post or on Facebook,

the this is the thing is. Stories only have so

much runtime, you're not going to have enough

time to flesh out everyone. So sometimes it might

not be the best choice to do a gray villain that

you won't be able to do properly or consistently

shove MacGuffins consistently in there. So these

complex evils are fascinating and can create,

you know, these compelling stories and battles

against the hero. But like, like, for instance,

the Transformers, the movie where Prime. Against

all odds, goes against Megatron and the Decepticons,

takes them out, even Megatron, and then dies.

Same thing with Dinobot, you know, takes them

all out. But modern writers sometimes forget

that the battle of good and evil doesn't always

have to be morally gray. Too many writers nowadays

just see these legacy... stories that they're

on as a paycheck. They don't understand or appreciate

the actual legacy behind them, and so don't understand

why you just shouldn't touch certain things.

So this lack of understanding of the legacies

behind those legacy stories is part of why so

many modern writers insist on trying to redeem

villains, usually giving them some tragic and

socially acceptable backstories in order to justify

what they're doing. And in some cases, it works.

such as IDW recasting Megatron as a political

idealist whose dreams turn into a fascist nightmare.

But that was good storytelling, though. It was.

That was good storytelling. But it can fail badly

because the hero ends up being written as less

noble in order to help with the tragedy of the

villain. So the whole conflict becomes untenable.

Many people seem intent on doing anti -heroes

and sympathetic villains without actually understanding

how to write them or how to make them work. There's

a difference between hero who understands that

he sometimes has to do bad things for the greater

good and psychopath who feels that anything they

do is justified because they think they're the

final arbiter. So, you know, complex doesn't

always have to mean tragic. In some ways, like

the IDW, you know, this was written on there,

the IDW Shockwave kind of encapsulates the best

and worst of the complex villain because on the

one hand, you've got the tragedy of Senator Shockwave

and the horrors done to him and that make him

evil. On the other, you get the progression of

it was Shockwave all along reveals, you know,

every single tiniest element of plans, failures

and almost the totality of the universe being

because of Shockwave. And that's That happened

in the Marvel run that happened in the Dreamwave

run that happened in the IDW run and you know

to some degree even in the prime universe like

It's you know, there's there's a good and a bad

way to do it. And so I guess they I guess people

just need to Realize what they're delving into

and what their goals are before they get into

writing before they get into modifying every

little minutia of it because they could be ruining

what makes the story good to begin with. Yeah,

that's my soapbox. Yeah, no, you're right. And

yeah, and the thing of it is, is the flip side

of that is though, sadly, like, OK, so over on

the pull bag, I basically have the rest of 2021

plotted out as far as what I want to cover or

what I feel like we have to cover. and we get

submissions all the time. Sometimes I will accept

them, sometimes I won't. The problem is we're

getting, and look, I'm on the IDW media templates,

so I get all of their stuff anyway, so it isn't

like I'm not, but it's just some of the stuff

that young writers, that young and hungry writers

want to do isn't. I always feel guilty when we

end up doing that stuff because it's like I don't

want to knock them down a peg because they're

a new writer they're just starting out or they're

just doing this project or they're you know putting

their heart and soul into this but at the same

time if I don't relate to any character whether

it's hero villain whether it's the girl in the

pink dress I don't care what if I can't Over

on the pullback. I always say make your great

escape into comics and jump inside the pullback

today If I can't jump into a comic and have some

sort of reaction to what's going on in the story

Then I'm not gonna like it, which means then

I give this person who you know gave their they're

all into this a Negative review and that's not

good for them. It's not good for the podcast

either and that's why half the time I don't even

accept them because No offense to any new creators

out there, I would much rather read a bad 80

-year -old DC comic like Batman peeing on the

wall or something, than something so new and

so fresh. Again, it's a double -edged sword.

And I know I'm being contradictory here when

I say this. I don't want to read new stuff from

new creators kind of thing, from people I don't

even know kind of thing, but yet I want new stuff

within these IPs. You know like do something

slightly different do like 40 years ago they

would have never thought of killing Adam twice

never Never I don't know whatever. It's just

this It's difficult to deal with the creative

process whether you're a podcaster or a writer

an animator Whatever because you want to put

your heart and soul into this and you have ideas

for certain things like and Sometimes you you

follow through with them and sometimes you don't

and when you don't you go back to it seven years

later like oh hmm Maybe this could work and may

you know hey look at toy cast After Gary's death

to Gary Clark's death after Scourge's death in

2011 yeah, I ended that show in 2014 never thought

I'd bring it back and here it is seven years

later back. It just depends on the flow that

you're in and it depends on what you're trying

to do. The issue as we've already mentioned it

to close this out or to hand it back to you to

close it out kind of thing is that these companies

that own these IPs want certain things in them

and you have to work around that. Well, let us

know what you guys think in the comments. I really

want to hear comments from the listeners here

so that we can kind of discuss them on the next

episode, as well as where we could go from here

and how we could help them to guide them into

the future and try and make these things enjoyable.

And I'm not saying that they shouldn't be able

to be freely able to create, you know, like you've

said. But but understand the source material,

like really understand it and not. You know,

Kingdom was too busy. We had the Allspark, we

had the Golden Disk, we had Beast Wars, we had

G1, we had, you know, the Dead Universe, we had,

you know, time travel, we had... There was way

too much going on. And it's six episodes. Now,

if they had take... Okay, so in total... If that

would have worked into, like, two seasons? That's,

yeah, that's the thing. It would have been fine.

It's just that they... Plus, I'm honestly sick

and tired of the Allspark thing. Like that first

came up actually in Beast Machines. Yep. And

they did the Oracle and Vector Sigma, which was

a callback to G1. But the AllSpark, the well

of the AllSparks, that started there and then

they just dragged it on through that. And I think

that that needs to take a rest for a while. But

that's that's, again, a different soapbox entirely.

Just like Unicron at number 19. I don't even

know where he landed. He did. Yeah, I know exactly.

Yeah, I know exactly. Hello. I wouldn't have

said it if I didn't know. But yeah. So anyways,

let us know on the website. You can get a hold

of me on the Twittersphere at SCP 21. And where

is your Twitter, sir? At TFU and Mike. So thank

you as always for listening to Altered Geek.

I've been your host along with TF2 and Mike and

you can get a hold of the show at Altered Geek

or the episode post on Facebook or GeekCastRadio

.com. So until next time, get altered, get geeky

with the Altered Geeks.