User talk:Chris McFeely/2007

I'd just like to say that the continued expansion of the Headmasters cartoon articles is pretty awesome... even if the episodes themselves are so not. THIS is the kind of shit that our wiki really needs to make it stand out... we got the dirt on EVERYTHING, not just "hey look I remember this guy from 1984". You can get information on Optimus Goddamn Prime anywhere on the web. A rundown of the Japanese episodes and incidental characters and bizarre powers?... (Incidentally, does "Cross-Head-On" have an article? Should it?) --M Sipher 22:58, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Ta, guv'nor! It just remains to see how long before I get distracted by something shiny and forget about 'em. As for Cross-Head On, I covered the process in the Transtector article (which I should update to remove that bit about the different Transtectors' powers. "Head On" doesn't deserve an article, it just being the plugging-in of the head, so I don't reckon the Cross-Head On warrants one either, really. Mind you, I'm trying to remember where the "Head Formation" fits in. I'll see when I get to it in the show, I guess. - Chris McFeely

I think it would at least warrant a redirect link to a relevant sub-section of the Transtector article. Even if the whole process is vague at best... --M Sipher 01:23, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Transformers (2007)

In honor of your outstanding achievement in posting the best snark ever, I hereby bestow upon thee the Andrusi Seal of Approval. --Andrusi 23:58, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Money is everything

Hey, do your scripts tell you what unit for force Computron uses to activate Abominus's timer mechanism in the final act of MiE? I can't make it out. -Derik 03:35, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

?

What part of ireland are you from?User:GWolf

Quint Q's

Were the various Quintesson ships or Quint body types refereed to as anything in the original scripts? -Derik 18:54, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Alas, nay. They're all just randomly "Quintesson," "Quintesson Scientist," "Quintesson Leader," etc. Just describing the role of the character in the episode, rather than as a name for the body-type. - Chris McFeely 19:40, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Drat. Well, thanks. -Derik 19:47, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

???

Just wondering. You're the guy who did the audio commentary for HM right?

Yessir, that's me. I also appeared on the Masterforce, Victory and movie DVDs. - Chris McFeely 15:09, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Fort Max voice

Chris, if there's some sort of dispute/common error about the voice for RID Fort Max, maybe you should add a note to that effect. That way people won't think that our article has an error in it. --Steve-o 18:48, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

IT MUST BE COMPLETED

Hey, Chris. Please tell me you have the second half of "The Beast Within", so we can complete this memorial to the worst thing ever. Interrobang 22:09, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Ye-es, sadly. Should I dig it out, or can I just invite you over to jam a rusty fork in my eye? (I really wish I could be nicer about this comic, since it's done by TheTF.Net's webmaster, an' all, but... there's just nothing nice to say about it...) - Chris McFeely 22:12, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Scans needed, then. For science! (I'm masochistic. I am so sorry.) Interrobang 22:26, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Aww, it's okay to feel bad Chris! I was actually trying to dig the thread where I yelled at you about your Ryo Annual story out of google groups because I thought I could recycle some of the language for a trivia note explaining why giving a fan writer one shot to tell a story in limited pages almost inevitably results in a stupid decision to do something 'signifigant' and bad/pointless rather than telling a good story... but I couldn't find it in the archives.  :(

You're allowed to be mean to Darren, because you've been through the same thing he has! ^_^ -Derik 22:30, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, but mine was editorially interfered with! :) - Chris McFeely 22:35, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and it was Chris Funaro who made a comment on it, rather than yourself, Derik. Although I didn't really get what he was saying at the time, and I still don't. But I get what you're saying here. Although I wasn't making up what I wrote, as "The Beast Within" does - I was just stealing it out of Japanese video games. :) - Chris McFeely 22:39, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Really? I know I drafted a response at one point, i wonder if the posting service lost it...?

I believe the nature of my objection was that you needed to step back and say "Gee, all this story is doing is awkwardly affirming the Japanese backstory of the character, complete with bizarre footnotes saying 'it's true, check out a series of video games not available in english if you doubt me!' Unfortunately doing this doesn't actually make Ryo any less confusing because if he's a dimensional refugee- why the hell does he haf a father on tamers!Earth?" Basically, you were were given a forum- which is fine, and a subject you wanted to talk about- also fine, but rather than add to the universe, you used it as a soapbox to declare "Yes, the Japanese backstory counts, and I'm goign to gloss over it in a quick-to-the-point-of-incoherence summary!" As a result the DM Universe 'looks' exactly the same whether this story had been published or whether it hadn't. Now if you'd used the story to explain about Ryo's father (given Ryo's brief cameo on adventure!Earth in 02) that explanation would have added to the universe, explained a problem- and the Japanese fans would be saying to one another "Hey, there's this official story published by the limeys that fits between the last game and Tamers and explains some things! Scanlations PLZ!"

Darren was given 8 pages to tell a story, and rather than tell a cute adventure that would add to the universe (and we know it's possible to do a full story in as little as 3-5 pages, we've seen it done, repeatedly) the enormity of the opportunity instead overwhelmed him and he instead chose to the biggest, kewelest thing possible. There's no personal interaction in the story- Predaking, Devastator, Menasor and Bruticus clearly were not actually killed (despite what the story implies) the Beast goes crazy and then it stamped down with Grimlock vowing that they will never speak of this again under punishment of catapult. So basically-- nothing happened, and there's a fiat at the end saying 'and the beast will never again appear anywhere, ever.'

Even ignoring that a Dinogot gestaly is a dumb idea and that part of why the Dinobots were awesome that they were a non-combining sub-group tough enough to kick a combining sub-group's ass... even ignoring that The Beast dripped 'kewl' and 'x-treme' and 'badass' in ways that should be avoided on principle... the true crime is that the story basically never happened. If you took it away from the universe, continuity would look exactly the same, except it would lack the footnote 'Dinobots can combine, but they never ever do because the combiner is crazy.' No personal interactions, the actions in the story (the deaths of the 'cons) dont' actually occur so they're not even worth counting as having occoured. The story is pointless You could have accomplished the exact same thing with a 1-sentence note in a Dreamwave guide. "Dinobots can combine, don't." It's a generic battle with generic deaths and generic angst spun around a footnote. It accomplishes nothing other than establishing that footnote to be true while essentially saying 'but you can ignore it because it will never be used again.' And I don't think Daren would ever have chosen to tell that story if he hadn't been dazzled by the overwhelming opportunity and become consumed by a need to do something significant.

The result is that people love and passionately declaim the virtues of Linkage, which everyone everywhere accept is actually happening during the Armada cartoon, off-screen. By contrast for this other multi-part DVD pack-in story (with more pages per installment) is so looked-down on that even the wiki staff, who are completionist freaks who delight in documenting the weird and the stupid part of Transformers were saying "Yeah... can we just leave that out? DVD pack-ins don't count, they're like the profiles calling Cyclonus a Unicron, right?"

And it wasn't that I dislike affirming Ryo's japanese backstory? I thought it made for a bad story, and I think addressing why Ryo had a father could have been a good story in the same number of pages if you wanted to tell a story about Ryo jumping universes, and that story would have added to the universe. While I dislike the core concept, it's probably possible to tell a good story about the Dinobots having a combiner mode-- but this wasn't it. In both cases while events occour in both stories, they are completely inconsequential evens that serve merely to contain a editorial fiat saying 'this is true.' and I blame that response on the overwhelming urge to 'do something signifigant' when a fan-writer is given one shot to tell a story that overrides good sense and objectivity.

(That was more or less what I was going to post back then, even if google lost it. I trust you can see what I'm getting at even if you may choose to disagree.) -Derik 23:14, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Oh, I can totally see what you're getting at, all right. My goal, though, wasn't really to affirm Ryo's backstory, but more to tell people - "Hey, so, this exists." This was something that was real and official in Japan, but which next to nobody in the west knew about. Heck, had I the room, I would've totally tried to explain his dad - but that was a secondary concern to actually just putting the information out there. Funnily enough, the regular writer did something similar of his own accord when he summarized the first Tamers movie in an even more ham-fisted way than I did. - Chris McFeely 23:40, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

So take one page out of the story about how Ryo has a father since he's dimension-hopping and do a 1-page fact-sheet at the end about the events aof the games which received only a passing reference in that story (footnoted to 'see the fact seet at the end for more info on this!')

I'm also being way too harsh on this. I despise Monday morning quarterbacking<ref>That reference probably makes no sense to you if you're British, does it? It refers to criticizing the decisions made by the football field leader in the heat of the game on Sunday night from a privileged perspective of the next day when it's easy to say 'that was a stupid idea' about something you know didn't turn out.</ref> because hindsight is 20/20, and it comes off like this guy.

There's some correlary to Murphy's law about "once you start asking the wrong questions you will never find the right answer." Having decided to tell Ryo's game backstory, it's really hard to step back objectively and see it's not working. I'm not quite asshole enough to hold you feet to the fire for something that's a fundamental tragedy of human nature. :p

Besides, you were being disingenuous when you said you had no editorial interference. Didn't they cut your length by 30% after you scripted it? Thus the whole story ended up compressed and you lost most of the shell sequence about Ryo coming to trust Cyberdramon more. I'm not thrilled with that story, since I think 'characters learn to trust one another' is boring and genric, but it did speak to Cyberdramon becoming much less unpredictable and dangerous in the anime vs. the games. So there was an attempt at telling a story to add to the universe- it just got mostly squeezed out. (And thus part of the reason I speak in generalities about the problems involved in fan-gets-one-shot, not all of which directly apply to you.)

Man I miss Tamers, I should rewatch it. Was Savers any good? (I hated the first episode...) -Derik 00:55, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Oh, you said 'was' interfered with, not 'wasn't.' ignore that bit then. -Derik 01:01, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Now, see, to me, that's doing it backwards. You're saying it oughta to have been about why Ryo had a father... with an addendum explaining the story that contains the problem with him having a father? You need to remember, out of the vast majority of kids picking this comic up, nobody knew this stuff. To explain away a problem in a story that no-one has read... well, that's just... backwards. You need to atually tell them the story first, so they can be aware there's even a problem that needs to be addressed. Re: the intereference, the bit about Ryo trusting Cybertron was actually more like what got added in to the story. My aim was to tell a story dealing with Ryo being torn out of his home universe, and trying to find a role or purpose for himself in a world not his own. This, then, would be my explanation for that "super-hero" personality he had in Tamers (which I had previously lampooned all to hell and back in fanfics). There's a vestigal reference to that in the final panel of the finished story, which is a total non-sequiter to anything else that happens in the story because it all got cut out because I was "witing over the heads of the target audience." Grmmble....

Oh, and I quite enjoyed Savers. But it was very far removed from all the other Digimon series and had a very different tone and approach that I could see not pleasing a lot of folks. - Chris McFeely 20:48, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

I'd just like to note "it can't happen in any established continuity" is because, well, basically it can't. Lack of quality aside, it has characters alive and active alongside others who were not around with them (for example, the Predacons), various deaths, etc. It just can't be wedged in anywhere without a metric shit-ton of ridiculous, speculatory to the point of being utterly made-up retcon. And for that we should be thankful. --M Sipher 00:42, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

There should be a note that the Dinobot combiner is probably not part of most continuities, just like Cybertron is not internally configured to allow Primus to transform into robot mode in most continuities. (I think that's how the Ultimate Guide described it...) -Derik 00:55, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Headmasters appearance lists

On "Operation: Destroy the Decepticons", it's just a recap before the title card, as you suspected.

In "Duel on the Asteroid", there is an establishing shot of the interior of Spaceship Bruce's bridge. You can clearly see Fortress' back, and then there are four guys seated at a console further up who are too small to really distinguish. From the context and a later shot, it's clear that they are the four main Headmasters. But you can't really tell visually. So... I don't know exactly what rules you have been following when making your lists. I decided to put Fortress first, since he's quite recognizable, then Pointblank, and then the HMs when they get a closer shot. Feel free to modify if that's not the way you were doing things. Also, when they do appear, they are seating (L to R) Chromedome, Highbrow, Brainstorm, Hardhead, so I rearranged them from your ordering. Again, I don't know if that's how you were doing things or not. When the Decepticon Targetmasters first appear, on Fortress' screen ambushing Pointblank, I can't tell which of the two blue guys is which. I'm just trusting the order you listed them in. --Steve-o 22:00, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

That is, indeed, precisely the way I've been doing them, so that's just lovely. Ta muchly! :D Now, I just need to belt out the final two episodes before the end of Sunday... - Chris McFeely 22:12, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Hooray!

He's back! --ItsWalky 23:37, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Linking episodes to the Masterforce page

Perhaps you should create links for episodes on the Masterforce cartoon page as you write the articles as that page is linked to our main page, it would be helpful. I've already linked up the one you have already completed (to my knowledge) *cheesy anime thumbs up* --FFN 18:00, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Metrodome

Hey, since you've worked on some of the Metrodome TF DVDs, how about you create an article about Metrodome, detailing their releases of Transformers over the years? I've done a similar thing for Madman Entertainment, and I think it would be useful to list the various different versions of DVDs released (at least in the english-speaking countries). So how about it?!? --FFN 15:03, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

It's certainly been on my mental "to-do" list for a wee while now. Hmn, what time is it... half-past midnight here... ehh, let's have a go at it, then. - Chris McFeely 00:27, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Character Information Boxes

Why can't we keep them? Captain William Lennox Transformers 18:37, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

It's long been decided roundabouts here that we're not doing infoboxes. Also, you just ganked that from Wikipedia, and it was full of headers that would have had no use here. - Chris McFeely 18:42, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

We took a look at infoboxes, and decided that it just wouldn't work. A great many characters cross too many continuities, have too many altmodes, too many alternate names, and even have too many allegiances to fit in a box that wouldn't be several pages long. It's all information we have better ways of presenting. --M Sipher 19:00, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Sorry about the "Vandalism", but from the other Wikis I edit, we use serious terms, and I didn't know how you wanted it, so, again, sorry. Captain William Lennox Transformers 18:52, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

I was just cleaning it up a bit. Captain William Lennox Transformers 19:35, 8 December 2007 (UTC)