Prime directive

Transformers is bloody damned awesome. Initially I was worried that it wouldn’t meet my nostalgic expectations of the cartoon which for better or worse I grew up with (not to mention owned half the toys of!); but it took a nice little spin on an old nostalgic concept, and I pretty much thoroughly enjoyed it. Animation was pretty good, characterization was reasonably accurate where it mattered, and all the splashes of G1 dialogue in the script somehow managed to smooth over the lame and cheesy bits. Damnit the Eighties are back in a big way! Although I must say, a two and a half hour long advertisement for American military technology and capability, didn't enjoy that so much.

Of all the cartoons of my irrepressible youth, Transformers somehow stood head and shoulders over everything else, barring of course the fact that the average Autobot does stand at least 7 or so feet taller than the average human (ie: Bumblebee). In many ways, Optimus Prime is very much the poster… robot… for a generation, much more than Luke Skywalker, or even Gandhi was. That we as children did in some way have a attachment to a talking blue and red truck is a testament to how central Prime is, and remains today. That a robot cared more for the little man than any other human character in the Sunday morning cartoons of its time is vaguely frightening, possibly even disturbing. To a very large degree, Prime espoused what was really good about Sunday morning cartoons, and that personality, the capacity for self-sacrifice and to always see the good in others, and to care for others indiscriminately regardless of who they are or where they came from. Prime lived the moral lessons you got at the end of every He-Man or G.I. Joe episode without sounding preachy, and that was probably the best example he could give. Lofty ideals which really speak to what it really means to be the best person you can in these troubled times.

We laughed with Prime, we cheered in the (exceptionally rare) times he laid the smackdown on Megatron’s arse, we listened when he took the moral high ground, we cried when he died. Strange isn’t it? That the fictional death of your favourite cartoon character would cause you much more distress than the actual death of an actual person. I distinctly remember asking my father why Optimus Prime had to die, and I sure as heck don’t remember asking why my Grandmother had to pass on a year or so later.

Death is a funny thing, we always treat it as so final, as if nothing exists once we ‘exit the circles of the world’ so to speak. Seriously, you know what we all need? A little bit of Optimus Prime in our lives, and to stand head and shoulders above everyone else and just live life. Not so much as in the live and enjoy aspect, but the live to the fullest, to the best that you can, to be there for others. I find that reflected in the little session David did with Charmaine and me last Tuesday. Maybe that’s heavily biased towards one facet of the jewel, but I find that this is how I want to live my life. And although later teachers and inspirations have guided my steps since those days of wide-eyed innocence, one dead robot was the start of it all.

To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. – 1 Cor 9:22

Transform and roll out.