Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

Well, as Dr. Crane and Dr. Crane would tell you, blackballs aren't necessarily permanent.

No, I don't know what you're pointing out. Honestly, I'm lost.

I click the link and it goes to the Announcement thread, your post of April 22nd:

"It comes naturally to him.

Seriously though, I'm torn here. On the one hand, Independence Day would be an excellent choice. On the other hand, I gotta say I sympathize with Nate's situation. If he didn't get to participate last time -- all four years of last time -- it's perfectly fair for him to bring that up. So let's put Independence Day to one side for now. It may well be what I go with, but for now let's discuss the alternatives."

So you tell me what I'm supposed to get out of that.

[NAHTMMM]

I see an extra letter in there. Has it finally happened? Has Nate spent too much time around here, been overloaded, and gone pun-blind?

[Nate the Great]

Pun-blind? Are you sure I'm the one who's been nipping away at the vanilla?

[NAHTMMM]

No, I'm just accusing you so the real culprit will let his or her guard down so we can have a properly dramatic denouement.

Don't let it get around, though.

[Zeke]

Nate, unless you're pulling my leg here, something very odd is going on. Is there seriously no E in "nateurally" when you look at that post?

[mudshark]

It's there for me. Perhaps Nate is using a rather more aggressive spell-checker than most of us do?

[Nate the Great]

Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhh.....

I must've automatically spellchecked that. No, I can see the "nate" in "nateurally" now. Very subtle gag. I should fix my sig to reflect that. Very nice.

PS. Must stem from the same condition that makes me unable to see Magic Eyes.

[Chancellor Valium]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Nate, unless you're pulling my leg here, something very odd is going on. Is there seriously no E in "nateurally" when you look at that post?

I knew the quote in his signature couldn't be right....

[Nate the Great]

Oh, sure, NOW everyone else is all "Wile E. Coyote, Suuuuuuper Genius."

[NAHTMMM]

*checks his fortune cookie to see if it says "anvil", "safe", "boulder", or anything similar*

[Nate the Great]

No, it says "cracked bowl catches no rice."

Okay, let's see somebody ID this one without search engines!

[Nate the Great]

Am I the only one who can't get invested in live-action/CG films because all the exciting stuff that happens is clearly completely made out of fake stuff? I just saw Transformers for the first time, in case you were wondering.

Will they ever perfect CG humans such that you really can't tell the difference?

Will I ever stop wondering how a normal-sized Camaro (volume perhaps a dozen cubic yards) turns into a thirty-foot high robot with easily ten times the volume?

Will I ever know why the creators thought that Optimus Prime needed a mouth? I was just fine with the faceplate moving up and down, thank you very much.

How come the Matrix of Leadership neutralized the Allspark without killing Optimus Prime? Old Primey sure thought it'd kill him, and if HE doesn't know, who would?

Would it have killed the Autobots to refer to the Decepticons individually by name once in awhile? Cybertronian translated subtitles (used only once) really don't help me remember these guys' names.

How come the Allspark being destroyed stranded our heroes on Earth while still allowing other Cybertronians out there to get here without EVER having it?

Is Witwicky the most outlandish sidekick name you've ever heard, or what? It makes Snapper Carr sound positively biblical.

[Nate the Great]

Oh, and these have been REALLY persistant and niggling...

What constitues an "active" member of this forum?

How come people who joined four years ago but never actually posted are still on the books? Seems like a terrible waste of cyberspace. I love double punchlines.

[LtFielding]

Why can't I use the quick reply box?

Why does everyone think I'm crazy when I say global warming can cause an Ice Age?

What in the world is Team Stargate?

Why did I sign up for Team Stargate if I don't know what it is?

What is the purpose of http://www.isitchristmas.com/?

Why did I know more about physics when I was ten than my dad did?

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Will I ever stop wondering how a normal-sized Camaro (volume perhaps a dozen cubic yards) turns into a thirty-foot high robot with easily ten times the volume?

It doesn't. They took great pains in that film to make sure the laws of conservation of mass were obeyed. That's why Jazz is such a runt, since GM only gave them a tiny car to work with.

What you should worry about is how a 30-foot-tall robot turns into a ghetto blaster small and light enough to be picked up by a human, or how Optimus can transform into robot mode and abandon his trailer, run halfway aroound the world, transform back and then have his trailer roll up out of nowhere. That bugged me even when I was six and incredulous (just like how I wondered why the Autobots' robot modes were made out of Earth cars even before they got to Earth).

Will I ever know why the creators thought that Optimus Prime needed a mouth? I was just fine with the faceplate moving up and down, thank you very much.

It's hard to emote from behind a faceplate.

How come the Matrix of Leadership neutralized the Allspark without killing Optimus Prime? Old Primey sure thought it'd kill him, and if HE doesn't know, who would?

It didn't. It killed Megatron. Did they even mention the Matrix in this movie?

Would it have killed the Autobots to refer to the Decepticons individually by name once in awhile? Cybertronian translated subtitles (used only once) really don't help me remember these guys' names.

No kidding. Although, it's not like there were any properly applied names from the cartoon, apart from Megs and Starscream.

How come the Allspark being destroyed stranded our heroes on Earth while still allowing other Cybertronians out there to get here without EVER having it?

It didn't strand them. They can leave at any time, only there's no point is leaving 'cause Cybertron is doomed. Starscream buggered off during the closing credits.

[Nate the Great]

Okay, cue the math music! Note that I'm more or less guesstimating each solid into a box shape to make calculations easier.

Camaro: 4 ft X 6 ft X 15 ft=360 ft^3
Bumblebee: 30 ft X 8 ft X 4 ft=960 ft^3

Truck: 8 ft X 10 ft X 30 ft=2400 ft^3
Optimus Prime: 50 ft X 15 ft X 6 ft=4500 ft^3

Unless these giant alien robots are mostly air, this is not conservation of volume.

Emoting without lips? That's what proper voice acting is for! Not to mention body posture, eye emoting, etc. How many seasons of Power Rangers have we had that don't have any facial expressions at all? Plus you got Iron Man, Steel, and so forth in the comics.

"If I cannot defeat Megatron, you must shove the cube into my chest! That will destroy it!" More or less. The only things in Optimus Prime's chest are his Spark and the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. I doubt that his Spark could neutralize the cube, so what's left?

For that matter, what did kill Megatron in the end? I watched the climax twice and that's still bugging me.

[NAHTMMM]

"If I cannot defeat Megatron, you must shove the cube into my chest! That will destroy it!" More or less. The only things in Optimus Prime's chest are his Spark and the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. I doubt that his Spark could neutralize the cube, so what's left?

Gremlins.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Okay, cue the math music! Note that I'm more or less guesstimating each solid into a box shape to make calculations easier.

Camaro: 4 ft X 6 ft X 15 ft=360 ft^3
Bumblebee: 30 ft X 8 ft X 4 ft=960 ft^3

Truck: 8 ft X 10 ft X 30 ft=2400 ft^3
Optimus Prime: 50 ft X 15 ft X 6 ft=4500 ft^3

Unless these giant alien robots are mostly air, this is not conservation of volume.

Where are you getting these numbers from? I read that the producers took great care to ensure that every transformation was feasible, and that the giant robots could indeed fold up into those cars. I think your solid boxes are introducing gross errors into the calculations. Was Bumblebee really 30 ft tall and only 8 ft wide? Seems awfully unstable.

While I'm on the subject, what are these strange foreign units you call "ft"?

[/quote]Emoting without lips? That's what proper voice acting is for! Not to mention body posture, eye emoting, etc. How many seasons of Power Rangers have we had that don't have any facial expressions at all? Plus you got Iron Man, Steel, and so forth in the comics. [/quote]

Speaking as an actor...mouths and eyes are two of the most important tools an actor has to convey expression. That's why all the aliens on Star Trek look like humans peering out and speaking from behind latex.

"If I cannot defeat Megatron, you must shove the cube into my chest! That will destroy it!" More or less. The only things in Optimus Prime's chest are his Spark and the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. I doubt that his Spark could neutralize the cube, so what's left?

In the comics, he's got the Matrix of Leadership. I don't think they even mentioned the concept in the movie (wanted to avoid confusing people with Keanu's movie). Prime was going to merge his Spark with it, destroying them both. One Spark will serve just as well as another. Megs just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

For that matter, what did kill Megatron in the end? I watched the climax twice and that's still bugging me.

The MacGuffin.

[Nate the Great]

I guesstimated the numbers! I thought I'd made that clear. It's even right there in the thing you quoted!

Optimus has eyes. I'm not complaining about telescoping lenses.

If we're going to say that the Autobot Matrix of Leadership wasn't involved and we're treating the cube as a sort of Spark-specific antimatter, then why was Optimus talking about suicide missions?

Foreign units...hah. So I'm stubborn. I have to deal with meters enough in my engineering work enough to want a break from it. Besides, our official engineering specs are still in feet, so there.

Oh, come on, matrix has umpteen meanings. The target audience is the twenty- and thirtysomethings who remember the heyday of Transformermania in the eighties, right? We know what a matrix is.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

[QUOTE=Nate the Great;75046]I guesstimated the numbers! I thought I'd made that clear. It's even right there in the thing you quoted![quote]

I know you guesstimated them, I'm just wondering about how you arrived at those numbers.

"Michael Bay stated in an early interview that Bumblebee stands about 17 feet tall [5], but the scale of his Deluxe concept toy suggests he stands closer to 18 feet tall." <-- Wikipedia

I don't know where you got 30 from. Bumblebee didn't appear to be six times as tall as the squishy meatbags he was running around with.

If we're going to say that the Autobot Matrix of Leadership wasn't involved and we're treating the cube as a sort of Spark-specific antimatter, then why was Optimus talking about suicide missions?

'cause it's an Optimus thing to do. Noble self-sacrifice and all that.

Foreign units...hah. So I'm stubborn. I have to deal with meters enough in my engineering work enough to want a break from it. Besides, our official engineering specs are still in feet, so there.

Pffft, engineers. You're just too lazy rip up the entrenched foundations on which the entire construction industry is built upon and throw everything into chaos by redefining the 2x4.

Oh, come on, matrix has umpteen meanings. The target audience is the twenty- and thirtysomethings who remember the heyday of Transformermania in the eighties, right? We know what a matrix is.

Don't talk to me, talk to the producers. There's nothing so simple that Hollywood will fail to get the point.