Ask Orci, Final Edition?

It has been a few months since checked the Don Murphy and TFW2005 Ask Orci (writer of Transformer films) and did a summary. Main reason is because he took a break for the Star Trek world tour. This could be the last edition but hopefully not, time will tell. Orci covers topics from the Twins language, why no vocoder for Soundwave, more Prime action, and more. My comments in brackets [].

Wankertron: Who's idea was it to include questionable language in the robot's dialogue? I refer to Wheelie calling people "bitch", and the twins coming out with "pussy". It's one thing for a kid to repeat bad language after watching, for instance, a Schwarzenegger movie. Because then one can say "Well, what were they doing watching that?", and the blame can be laid elsewhere. But In Transformers? A movie designed for kids? I felt it was inappropriate. What's your take?
Those examples were improvised or added by Michael. We actually arm wrestled about it. I think it's appropriate barely as you approach 13. If we had final cut, those lines would not be in the movie. But I'm not going to cry that Michael left them in, or condemn him. Can't argue with results, right? Certainly the first movie walked the line, and there's been no false advertising, or at least not MUCH!
[The Twins were specifically created and marketed for the kids and then preceeded to use frequent adult language. The PG-13 rating is Bay's excuse for bad behavior but at the end of the day he screwed up, plain and simple. If he wanted to use adult language, he shouldn't have created characters designed for kids. Its not rocket science.]

Master Fwiffo: what exactly was the intent with Arcee? Is she supposed to be one bot in three bodies, or three separate bots, or what?
Wrote her as one who made up of three. Bay kept them as individuals.
[On the bright side, even with one of the three dead, they were never named or directly implied to be seperate so the third film could go with the writer's orginial concept with ease.]

BRAWN1228: Can you tell us what scene it was that Bay put in the movie where he said "The fans are gonna love this."
He said that about a few things, I think. Certainly, Megs abusing Starscream.

butz: which fandom was crazier; the Transformers fans or the Star Trek fans?
too close to call

neospark1: ...not vocoding Soundwave's voice is an incredible injustice/mistake. How hard did you go to bat for this? Soundwave's "look," personality, and his voice are the three top iconics on him.
We hassled him about it many times, but we can't be there every second to make sure he behaves! We got day jobs!

Chris B: How did you come to decided the alien satellite alt. mode for Soundwave? What other alt. modes did you consider for Soundwave? Were there any particular Autobots and Decepticons that you had planned on including but were cut?
On Soundwave we recall that as a Boom Box, he was one of the true SPY Decepticons who could blend in anywhere and record things. So a SPY SATELLITE who can see everything seemed like an interesting update. We considered a super rigged up audio kind car and, of course, it's original boom box form. I wanted every Autobot in there!

The Mad Artist: 1. Was Barricade ever meant to be in the movie? 2. Do you see Devastator as being made up of individual robots, or just separate pieces? 3. Was there ever thought of him having more of a role on the battlefield, or was he always meant to be the eye in the sky? 4. Was that Blackout? Was he just revived off camera along with Megatron? 5. ...was there any roadblocks to getting Prime so much hero time? 6. Speaking of BB, were there ever plans for him to speak?
1. Considered it. Honestly can't remember reasons for decision!
2. I suppose since we didn't commit either way, I wouldn't want to tie the hands of future writers with my non-canon opinion.
3. Fought to have him come down, but so many robots to service and he had his moments -- his main draw is as a spy.
4. Could explain it that way, but I can't remember if he's ever called Blackout in the movie. Is there a Revenge of the Fallen Blackout Toy?
5. We knew we had to do A LOT more with Prime this time, and if we could do it again we would have EVEN MORE time with Prime.
6. We discussed it, but we all loved the musical ability so much, and Bay wanted to focus more on the twins because, as he said, he thought kids would like them

mattjy: 1. There were five new Autobots (Sideswipe, Arcee, Jolt and the Twins), yet only the twins had a large degree of screentime. What was the reasoning behid this choice? 2. Was the fact that the Autobots spent so much time in vehical mode, even when they were beign transported an artistic decision or a practical one?
1. Michael loved the idea of the twins and wanted to feature them to make the movie, as he said, kid friendly.
2. I don't disagree. Money can be tight!