T-Macksimus wrote:ILL-Star wrote:I don't like hearing that a TRANSFORMER speaks only a specific Earth language. It's not the same as only speaking Cybertronian. Unless of course it came to life in that part of the world. But still, Optimus and the other Autobots seemed to learn a new language quite easily. Even the twins had to learn a new language. The idea of an alien robot being restricted like that seems stupid and unnecessary.
Whoa!
Restricted?? At what point does it mention that he's restricted by this? As far as I'm concerned and until I learn otherwise, this Autobot speaks only Mandarin BY CHOICE! And THAT is a decision that I happen to applaud.
And saying that you don't like hearing that they speak only a specific language... WTF do you think they were doing in the first 3 films??? Speaking SPECIFICALLY ENGLISH, that's what! Fine, some Cybertronian too but Megatron came right out of cold storage speaking English and he crashed and froze long before spoken language even existed on the planet.
Screw the arrogant, elitist, western culture. Make all the damn Yanks have to read sub-titles in this film and actually have to put some conscious thought into the experience instead of sitting on their ever-widening western asses letting their brains atrophy as they watch explosions, scant cleavage and crude bodily function humor. (and yes, I am an American and I am proudly slamming my own culture and country. Suck it! You all KNOW the rest of the world sees us as dumb, fat, gun toting hill-billies and yet we do nothing to counter that image and in fact create reality shows glorifying the stereotype)
Their may yet be some hope for this film after all if it actually has the slightest hint of intellectual influence and manages to piss off a portion of the fandom just because it makes them have to think for once. Whoever this 'Bot is, I'm picking up every incarnation, every action figure of his character and building a shrine to him.
I could be wrong, but maybe he meant restricted in terms that, as his point makes, these are alien robots with the tech to learn new languages in an instant, so, when the need arises, why only speak one language? Movie 1 states they learned Earth's languages via the internet-this was in direct response to Jazz's speech pattern, not particularly that they spoke English. It's fair to assume any cybertronian would not be restricted to one language. And yes, I DO see only knowing one language a restriction. I'll get back to that.
I'm guessing he speaks Mandarin because he has lived in China. But, when he comes in contact with our Autobots and possibly the human characters (was Wahlberg's character in China?) why not learn to speak the English they speak? I think that is the point of view some people have-HOWEVER why doesn't Op and the others just learn Mandarin, if this is the case?
For me, if I had a robot brain, and could download languages from the internet, I'd do it in a flash the minute the need presented itself. I'm British, thus I only knew English. Until I met foreign people I had no need to know another language. This isn't ignorance, it's life. We all need a first reason or experience of some sort to want to break out of our native language. I got interested in Japanese culture (please don't laugh, but it first happened when I was 8 with the Ninja Turtles
) As I grew up I loved anime and then to toku and movies and dramas, and finally met some Japanese people, and now have many friends from both Japan and China. Seriously If I had the capabilities as a Cybertronian, I'd learn FAST! Sadly, I don't so I'm doing it the old fashioned way.
Please note above I make the argument that either side could do the same. Op and the others could switch to Mandarin when in China just as easily. This won't happen because we are watching a western movie. Without inciting race rows...an american movie isn't going to shift to Mandarin for 3/4 of a film. For various reasons, and many of them have nothing to do with cultural ignorance. I hate racism and cultural ignorance, but I'd like to think I am objective enough to not see it everywhere.
Given they can do what they can, as we know from movie 1, it's a pretty fair question to ask; why does he only know one language? Why do ANY of the TFs only know one language?
Simplest answer is, like Jetfire's Cane and the wreckers speaking with British accents-it's nothing more than a way of bringing individuality and character to each robot. A lot of people ripped apart Jetfire being old and rusty because TF's can repair easily being robots and all, but that was before we saw the film. He was old and rusty because he had been away from any and all cybertronian life and activity for years, so then in context it made sense, as I am sure this mandarin speaking fellow will, if indeed you need it to make sense at all
I get some people are instinctively defensive to this issue, but I'm not sure we need to accuse everyone who questions why one lone bot speaks Mandarin only in a predominantly English movie. Yes, really it only takes few seconds to think on it-'Oh yeah, a large portion of this movie takes place in China-that's why' But...y'know not everyone does that. If anything it gets people talking about it, so consider this the eye opener to some, because honestly, do any of us know what's outside our own walls until something else shows us?
To go off topic slightly, the movie that annoyed me as a lover of foreign culture-The Wolverine! Coincidentaly all the people Logan meets magically know perfect English. Nice
But again, that's not strictly racism or ignorance. it's for audience convenience. Does that pander to and feed cultural ignorance, yes. Is that the full intention of the movie studio...no, I don't believe it is. I don't want to be that cynical yet
And to be fair, how many Chinese and Japanese movies purposefully film a good chunk of the movie in America, and involve American citizens, just to broaden the minds of their target audience?
I'm fairly certain after watching ROTF I posted on these boards asking why Jetfire was British (or Scotish...it was one or the other, and another poster corrected me) It did seem out of place when it happened. I wasn't being negative, I was just curious. If in G1 or Prime a new bot turned up and suddenly had a French accent, would you not question it? You're not a bad person if you do. Judging a character negatively for their accent or language is a bad thing, but naturally being inquisitive and curious about it is good, because we learn that way
That's my thoughts.
Hopefully this bot won't be handled in a negatively stereotypical way. However, given the trilogy's track record...I remain skeptical.