Not all that long ago, I was taken to task by a fellow
Transformer fan for daring to say that I saw many of the Decepticons
as personal friends. The question, in thinly-veiled ridicule, was how I
could possibly claim friendship with fictional characters who did not
exist beyond a printed script or television screen. I explained that
when you have a great deal of affection for a character and feel you
know them extremely well, there are times when you look to them for
guidance in some sense, just like you would with a "real-life" friend.
If I were stuck in a bad situation, for instance, I might imagine what
Megatron might do to survive it, or take inspiration from his courage;
if I felt like I needed to rearrange an approach to a problem by talking
it out and bouncing it off someone, just like I might do with a RL-
friend, I might picture taking it to Soundwave, and could easily
imagine both the thoughtful advice and the unconditional empathy
that he might give in response. Just as a flesh-and-blood friend can
help you at times just by being there for you and listening to you talk,
so you can take comfort and inspiration from "fictional" friends, and I
don't see a thing in the world wrong with that. At least, I made the
attempt to explain all of this, but I don't think my detractor
understood the message.
Regarding "the conceit that some fictional characters are
more fictional than others", Lizard once put it much better than I
could, and so, with his permission, I'm re-printing his post to the
Transformer newsgroup that addresses the subject:
"It is quite common for humans to focus on fictional
characters and make them internally real. We have an
entire class of professionals devoted to helping people do just
that -- they are called priests, rabbis, mullahs, etc. 'God' is
just as fictional as Megatron, yet if someone said "God is my
co-pilot" or "Jesus is my best friend", he would generally not
be looked down on. (I would look down on him, for having
such poor choice in friends, but that's beside the point.)
"Mr. Spock helped me get through a particularly
difficult childhood. Did I ever believe Spock was 'real', in the
sense that my cats are real? No. Did I ever confuse Spock and
Leonard Nimoy? No. Nimoy is not a role model for me, never
was. Some people pray to God. Some people hold
conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt. I used to 'talk' to
Spock.
"So? I'm hardly 'living in my parents' basement'. I've
kissed (and quite a bit more) a reasonable number of women.
As a general rule, I've found people who believe in the
fictional being 'God' to be far more unstable, emotionally
immature, and generally dangerous than people who believe
in the fictional characters 'Megatron' or 'Mr. Spock'. So, if
you're against people having relationships with fictional
characters in general, that's fine, but I'd focus on the most
dangerous and fanatical of the bunch first. People in the
Mideast and Bosnia are literally killing each other over
what their non-existent Gods allegedly told them to do -- next
to that, a Usenet flame war over 'Are the Decepticons evil' is
pretty much small potatoes.
"Convince them to get a life and stop believing in
their fictional characters -- then work on the rest of us
reprobates. :)" ((c) 1997 by Lizard)
Incidentally, no offense is intended toward the religiously-
inclined readers of this magazine; my personal view is that some
believers are exactly as Lizard has described, while some are not.
Anyway, it rather puts the whole thing into perspective, doesn't it?
What harm can there be, then, in considering "fictional" television
characters among one's friends, if it helps you and harms no one, and
why should anyone have a problem with it?
The appeal of the Decepticons, as friends, to me, is their
extreme loyalty. It's one of the defining characteristics of the species.
It's also the one quality that's hardest to come by in real-life friends.
You never want to trust someone completely in the real world, lest
they some day use it against you; you never know when your best
buddy is going to suddenly turn into a complete stranger. But having
a stable base of friends you can absolutely rely on, adds immeasurably
to the quality of life. I suspect that many of us TransFans have stuck
with it so long and so obsessively, precisely because we feel a
personal sense of friendship with the characters. After all, we've
known them and been closely associated with them for many years;
we've shared their triumphs and sorrows, their most intense moments
- we've made them lifetime-inspirations and role-models and trusted
allies when no one else in the world would stand by us. If there is
anything in that to be ashamed of, or to apologize for, or to make
stammering excuses over, then I certainly don't see it. I'm proud to
consider the Decepticons my friends - and this magazine, in part, is
my way to repay them for all they've done for me. Con-Quest has
existed for half a decade now ... amazing that it achieved one reprint
special, let alone a second ... but I suspect, if the intensive Decepticon
fans have anything to say about it, it's going to continue and just keep
getting better. There is the true test of friendship.
Watch the shadows.......
--Raksha The Plumed Serpent
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