STATESMAN SOAPBOX: Fan-boys – don’t kill the thing you love

This is not a Geek Beat. That one is on page 6.

This is the opinion page, and I intend to treat it with the respect that it deserves. I’m going to talk about Transformers.

Really, this is not a Geek Beat.

I’m all-a-twitter in anticipation of the new Transformer movie that’s coming out this summer. I won’t spend too much time explaining what the Transformers are to anyone who doesn’t know. We’ll let it stand to say that they were very important to anyone who was in grade school in the ’80s.

But now all those grade-schoolers have grown up and are really excited to have our favorite member of the cars-turning-into-robots genre appearing on the big screen.

Now as much as I love the Transformers, I remember full well that they are a product of the ’80s and the style of the time. The show was also created for the sole purpose of selling the toy versions of the characters.

Naturally Michael Bay, director of the movie as well as “The Rock,” “Bad Boys” and other action-packed films, decided to redesign the Transformers from the animated toys of our childhood into some sleek and fierce looking robotic creations.

Thanks to the wonder that is the Internet, I’ve seen some of the new designs. For the most part, I like them; I think they’ll look a lot better than giant versions of the original toys would.

The problem is some people don’t agree. Not only do they not like the new version. They hate them. They consider Bay the Great Satan. They would let their childhood love die rather than see it any other way.

These obsessive people are normally referred to as fan-boys. Fan-boys are held in contempt and considered losers, even by people who spend all day on the Internet, because they always end up ruining what they love.

Keep in mind what a fan-boy can be a male or a female. A fan-girl – which can also be either gender – is something else entirely.

They end up killing the thing they love in many ways. I’ll be referring to Transformers specifically, but it applies to anything.

First, they chase away or alienate potential fans.

They set rules for being a fan of the Transformers. These rules are not based on anything but the opinion of the vocal minority. They always start with phrases like “Any real fan knows” or “A true fan would.”

These harsh rules make people think, “Hmm, I guess I’m not fan. I must not care about this movie.”

Secondly, even people who aren’t scared away by the fan-boys will be less excited about the film and produce less positive buzz because they don’t want to be around them.

This missed buzz could be fatal for the Transformers world.

For the Transformers film to be a success, it’ll need more than just the hardcore fans’ support. Yet the fan-boys would rather it stay the way they want it to be, even if it means the end of it all.

Finally, they make the community of fans as a whole look like morons.

It’s hard to tell “normal” people that I’m excited for the Transformers movie without getting lumped into the same group of people as the 30-year-old shut-in who keeps going off about how Megatron (the leader of the bad Transformers) should turn into a gun like he used to, not a tank (although honestly, a tank makes more sense, but I’m not going to get into that here).

So in one fell swoop the fan boys have scared off some, annoyed many and made the rest look like social rejects. Now no one wants to see what should be the best movie of the summer. Bravo guys, bravo.

It’s now impossible to have a mature discussion with a fan-boy about any of these. They won’t listen. The just spout their fan-boy rhetoric, do some name-calling or try to sound smarter than they really are.

I just ignore them; it’s about all I can to. No matter how annoying the fan-boys get, I am going to that movie. Because I – unlike the fan-boys – want the Transformers to be the way that’ll let the most people enjoy it, not the way I personally think it should be.

So that’s my two cents. Fans don’t have ownership of what they are fans of. This is true for movies about ’80s toy lines. It’s true about sports teams and programs. It’s true about political parties and candidates.

It’s true about life.

Steve Shinney is a senior majoring in computer science. Anyone who wants to play Transformers or swap trivia can contact him at steveshinney@cc.usu.edu.