Reboots can mean many different things.  Rebooting can mean changing a certain aspect of your life OR the most common meaning of reboots is referring to remaking of TV shows, movies and music. Reboots can also mean projecting a need a person is lacking in their lives.

Today blog post is inspired by the latter of the meaning. Reboots is interesting topic, this past weekend I had an interesting chat with my champion Cammie about reboots.  Our conversation started out innocent enough, we touched on the reboots of shows like Charmed, She-ra and Voltron how the producers and writers love to remake out of touch alternative world completely changing the dynamics of the shows die-hard fans come to love. The lack of originality, diversity is very disturbing.  Everything is the same premise it’s like taking a lump of cow shit throwing on the wall and see what sticks than Cammie said something that stuck out.  He said “it’s us the fans of these shows who are now adults that will buy the tickets”.  He was referring to his dislike of the reboot of She-ra.

Our conversation then moved to Transformers and how we dislike the direction the reboot (Michael Bay version) is going. 80’s was a decade of excess and indulgence out of this was born three classes the weathly, the middle and the poor. Most families middle and poor class families are single one parent income, that was the case in my middle class home.  Parents would go to work doing their thing making ends meet and leaving the TV to babysit.  It’s during this time many of us Gen-X discovered cartoons like Transformers.

In the 80’s cartoon version the title character is Optimus Prime a cyborg from the planet Cybertron. Optimus leader of the auto-bots transformers into a red, blue and silver chrome freightliner truck (yes representing USA flags).  Optimus is strong leader, Optimus has compassion, empathy and displays dispensary with firm but kind hand. Optimus demands the respect from his auto-bots like a father.  Now you can see the appeal. I was 14 when “Transformers the Movie” came out the power to be namely Hasbro, the producers and writers thought it would be a great idea to killer off Optimus and turned relatively unknown auto-bot Hot Rod into a prime Rodiums.  This struck a nerve, I sat there watching such a beloved character die in tears overcome with grief. It was like I lost my father. This was very traumatic for me so much so that I couldn’t watch neither the TV show and Movie and this stayed with me, taking me a long time to overcome.

Can you believe I spent years in therapy trying to organize and understand my grief.  I equated this character to the lack of not having a father.  Optimus represented all the things I needed from my father.   In researching this topic I found that I wasn’t alone.  Many Gen-Xers felt the same way.  Shocking isn’t it?

These shows and characters are beloved because they trigger a happy memory and to have that memory fucked-up by completely revamping and calling it a reboot is beyond unconscionable.  As I travel along this route, I learned it doesn’t matter where you been, where you going and where you come from as long as the essence still remains and the guidelines are true rebooting your life can be a good thing.

Be kind, Be creative and Drink responsibly