Within the past year, it has come to my attention that Hasbro and Paramount are collaborating on a new Transformers series, this one dubiously dubbed Transformers: EarthSpark. While most of my friends - and perhaps even my followers - on this site are aware that Iโm a huge fan of the franchise, I have actually lost severe interest in the more recent adaptations for the Transformers. The reason for this, as discussed here, is that Hasbro themselves have taken to hiring non-union voice actors for the productions.
Why is this a problem, you might ask? The problem resides in that two of these men in particular, Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, who are not only the sole reason the Transformers franchise has survived the past almost forty decades, are still INVESTED in their characters. They continue to appear at conventions, they still do the voices for their characters, and have repeatedly expressed a desire to continue to play Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively.
But Hasbro, in their obscene greed, vanity, and hubris, have thrown dirt in their faces for almost five years by hiring low-level talent from up in New York. These people, whom the shallow company has procured for the last two abominable animated projects that somehow passed as television shows, are outside the Screen Actors Guild, which means they are free to pick up any work for a low price, often at half the talent of the SAG voice actors. By seeking these people out, Hasbro is telling Mr. Cullen and Mr. Welker that theyโre not worth the paycheck and are easily replaced, not to mention insulting their acting abilities.
But thatโs not the problem for EarthSpark. Below is a link to the Wikipedia article for this travesty of media entertainment:
If you stuck around long enough to read that page, you may have noticed some familiar names. Thatโs because these people are actually from the SAG. By selecting this group of people, Hasbroโs Freudian Excuse toย โsave moneyโ falls completely flat on its repugnant face because these actors are as expensive as any other name in Hollywood. And if they have the gall to use the above financial defense, then how in the Pits of Kaon are they able to afford Sandorย โthe Houndโ Clegane from Game of Thrones fame, and not longtime VA Frank Welker for the Leader of the Decepticons himself?
Hasbro has pulled a lot of BS the past few years. Heck, they were even doing it when the original Transformers film came out in 1987 when they first killed Optimus, as it was never in the original script.
But this? This is an entirely new level of underhandedness. Itโs cheap, itโs dirty, itโs despicable, and downright disrespectful. Itโs disrespectful to Peter Cullen and Frank Welker; itโs disrespectful to Mr. Cullenโs late elder brother Larry, who inspired Optimusโ voice; itโs disrespectful to the characters, lore, and history; and more to the point, itโs disrespectful to me and every other fan of the Transformers. Because by telling Mr. Cullen and Mr. Welker that theyโre old news and unimportant, theyโre telling me and everyone in the fandom that we donโt matter, and that we must move on forย โprogressโ.
Well, Hasbro, you conniving creature that would make a fox turn its nose up in disgust, Iโm telling you that youโre a bunch of selfish, greedy backstabbers who have lost any lingering support that I might have had for your treacherous company. I am done with your ideas for Transformers, G.I. Joe, and all of your other properties, because you are denying me and the men who have given me nothing but joy for years the remaining opportunities to tell more stories with the characters. And considering that you still havenโt given Mr. Cullen a standalone Optimus film, which, in his own words,ย โ...[I] want to do before Iโm [Peter Cullen] goneโ, I will most certainly not be supporting you. Because we all know that neither him nor Mr. Welker is getting any younger, as much as it pains me to say it, and by taking these chances away from two wonderful men who are so kind to their fans, you are showing just how detestable you really are.
I refuse to have anything to do with the support of this or any other product Hasbro churns out in the coming years. To anyone who feels the same way, please, I beg of you, boycott this monstrosity and anything else of Hasbroโs. The sooner Hasbroโs budget is hit, the sooner theyโll get the message that ourย voice tips the balance in the flow of entertainment. Mr. Cullen and Mr. Welker have spent decades helping us through any trial and tribulation weโve faced, regardless of how large or small it was. By doing this, we can pay back the hours they spent making us happy, and maybe, just maybe, weโll be able to get them another series before their time is up.
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โI don't know what Cobra was working on here Duke but whatever went wrong devastated the whole area. My analyzer is picking up a giant cocktail of lethal chemicals here. The fact that this stuff is also glowing green has me very concerned.โ
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TSSM What-If: Peter Parker vs Selective Reporting and Sensationalism
This takes place during the one Venom arc where Peter's ID was released to the public and he had a whole crowd of paparazzi and newspeople harassing him. Basically, he's going to turn the tables on them. @hermesserpent-stuff, @just-anaverage-person, @blade-liger-4ever, @catch-all, @sharpmidnight @thyla-scene360
Peter Parker was feeling a lot of things right now and none of them qualified as good. Not that the people shoving microphones and cameras in his face seemed to care. Actually, they hadn't shown any signs of caring for the past few days now, so he guessed that they were pretty consistent on that front.
However, dealing with this circus on a daily basis was exhausting at best and downright frustrating the rest of the time. At least most of the people he knew thought the whole thing wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Their reactions mostly were a source of relief to Peter like the Midtown faculty stepping up to actively keeping the press out and May asking Ned Lee if he was pranking her.
The school thing was a bit of a shock, come to think about it. Did he expect them to be laughing at his distress? No. The student body, the ones that weren't staring all the time, seemed to have the laughing part covered and it was at the thought of him being Spider-Man. (He had expected Flash and maybe Harry to do so, but not Gwen. Actually, Flash and Harry seemed more offended and disbelieving, respectively.) In contrast to said student body, he'd always had a good relationship with most of the adults running the school. However, he also wouldn't have been surprised if at least one reporter managed to bribe their way in for an interview read: more harassment.
(After the near miss with Harry, whose tendency to approach the dark-haired teen at his locker was getting consistently too close for comfort to Peter's *ahem* "extracurricular supplies," he'd decided to store his things in harder to reach alcoves like the air vents when at school. Specifically, the air vents of the least traveled parts of the school with fewer to no cameras.)
Another thing on plus side, May was taking the whole thing like a champ. That being said, Peter still kept an eye out for any symptoms of physical stress. Wasn't he doing that anyways? Yes, but Venom's accusation wasn't exactly something that'd improve her condition. As a matter of fact, most supervillain accusations aren't really doctor recommended for patient recovery. Thankfully, Doctor Bromwell was kind enough to do pro bono check-ups on her. It was rather nice of the guy, really. Peter figured that between being friends with May and not catching the signs of heart disease sooner, Bromwell probably was feeling somewhat responsible for her near death. Honestly, he could relate to that feeling, especially given that these circumstances with the press are also kind of his fault for not being better at disposing of a certain alien goo.
With all that in mind, he was outside the Connors lab glaring at the blonde feeling more than a little done with being ambushed by these guys.
"Hey, don't suppose you could rattle off some of the laws concerning harassment given that you're, you know, the daughter of a cop?"
Upon hearing that last part, one particularly sleazy-looking member of the group froze just short of encroaching on Gwen's personal space. His eyes darted between Peter and Gwen before he took a less confident step back. The rest, unfortunately, hesitated only for a moment in their verbal hailstorm of questions.
A newsman in a suit and gelled hair lowered the microphone in his hand towards the boy asking, "Should we take this to mean that you think you need legal and police protection?"
Then there was an overly made up woman trying to edge him and the cameraman out of the way with her own crew.
"Isn't it hypocritical for a vigilante to seek help from the police when you subvert the laws on a regular basis?"
"The press and general population both have a right to know! This is the natural consequence of being a public and highly controversial figure," said someone else that wasn't in view.
The "public and highly controversial figure" in question was getting a rather large headache at the moment. The type he usually gets from dealing with particularly stupid and nasty thugs. Maybe it was his imagination but there seemed to be an annoyingly large overlap. At least the thugs have the cathartic benefit of being deemed acceptably punchable enough by society that Spider-Man wasn't being pursued all that much for being the one doing the punching.
Peter, however, has no such justification or even anonymity to get away with that here. (No matter how tempting it seemed at the present moment. . .) And so, having been fed up with being chased with no end in sight and with few other means of defending himself, the teen resorted to an old but deadly fallback: his words. Not in the sense of the jokes that Spider-Man used, rather, these words would be sharper and more intelligent so as not to tie his mannerisms back to his vigilante side. After all, Peter Parker had a nerdy reputation to uphold.
In a quiet voice, he brought the shouts to a brief halt, "You're right."
Both Gwen and the crowd practically jumped for two different emotional reasons.
"About you being Spider-Man?!"
Peter could see them practically scrambling to switch their cameras towards his face after days of silence.
Perfect.
"I mean, about the public having a right to know. Although that begs the question of why you all haven't investigated who Venom really is or what reason he has for making these claims against me."
They looked slightly taken aback by that redirection.
"We-we don't even know where he came from or how he can be found so how can we investigate him?"
Peter tilted his head, "Then how can you trust his word when you can't even verify your source?"
"This is why we're here! Spider-Man and Venom are basically both cryptids who don't have any address," the sleazy guy from earlier piped up.
"That's right," the overly made up woman, her eyes were blinking rapidly (probably because her eyelashes were remenicent of tarantula legs), said, "You're the only person we can physically tie into this whole thing!"
Peter blinked himself, partially out of feigned realization and partially because just looking at her made his own eyes water a bit.
"Ah. I see. You're only following me around to my school and job to get answers."
"Yes, exactly," the newsman in the suit nodded despite his hair being rather cemented in place and again shoved his microphone a little more insistently towards Peter.
"I guess my next question would be. . . why I don't remember any of you taking these measures with L. Thompson Lincoln. Didn't he have a masked guy make accusations against him at one point for being a crime lord? The Green Goblin, remember him? It's been a few months since anyone saw the guy, of course, and news cycles do turn pretty quickly but still."
The collective deer-in-the-headlights look was something that the teen would likely cherish for years to come.
"Are-are you suggesting that he is one," a voice farther back stammered.
Peter smiled.
"Oh, not at all. I just thought our cases had some interesting parallels despite the different responses from the press. I mean, when the Goblin busted into one of Lincoln's charity galas and called him a crime lord, everyone treated him like a lunatic for targeting someone so respected. Then you have Venom, who busts into the Bugle, accuses me of being Spider-Man and suddenly everyone takes him at his word. I suppose I must've missed the memo that not all 'masked lunatics' are considered equal in your view."
Quite a few people were starting to shift uncomfortably at the statement.
"There have been rumors about Lincoln before but there's never been any evidence of any substance!"
"Really? I thought taking supervillains at their word was enough for you to look into a story. I mean, here I am with no previous reports of me being Spider-Man outside of Venom and you're shadowing me from place to place, hoping for a story that hasn't come yet. Lincoln has previous unsubstantiated rumors surrounding him long before the Goblin crashed his gala and I don't even remember any of you giving standard follow-up questions about it after the event."
"That's not a fair comparison! Your job at the Bugle shows that you're one of the closest ties to Spider-Man!"
Peter's eyes widened in innocence at the tv newsman in particular, "Channel 8, right? Isn't the LTL corporation one of your biggest advertisers on record? I apologize for how my question put you in an awkward spot."
Despite not being able to physically punch someone, the dark-haired young man found that his words had something of a similar effect when the man's head snapped back (in a sort of painful manner) out of shock.
"So, anyways, I suppose a fairer comparison would be how you handled Adrian Toomes and Otto Octavius' respective accusations towards Oscorp given that they were each dismissed out of hand for being disgruntled, mentally unstable employees."
"They're all homicidal maniacs with vendettas! Goblin, Octavius, Toomes-"
"Um. So, what exactly makes Venom any different? I know for a fact he's taken hostages and tried to murder innocents before."
Out of the corner of his eye, Peter perceived a flinch from Gwen. He had tried to make his point as blunt as possible without getting into the past details of the Thanksgiving Parade. What else could he do? If enough people believe Venom, she'd have a whole city full of crooks after her. Better to at least try to nip this now than have it turn into the witch hunt that Eddie wanted.
"Look, no matter how you people cut it, you're investigating a teenager on the word of supervillain while also simultaneously disregarding the supervillains that are pointing towards the rich and powerful of New York. Am I accusing either Norman Osborn or L. Thompson Lincoln of being the things their super-powered enemies say? No. What I am saying is that you can't say that you're serving the public interest when you take one masked guy at his word and then dismiss the rest without investigation. Thank you all for listening, I hope the rest of your week is less eventful than mine has been so far."
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Me seeing this for the 14th time in my 5 years on tumblr and seeing more notes and comments but still reblogging it since itโs literally a World Heritage Post
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