Apr 25, 2015

Robots in Disguise



In the Transformers film franchise, the giant robots are likened unto angels, with the ability to disguise themselves as every day machinery.

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” ~Hebrews 13:2



So I just couldn’t help but go see the giant robot disguised as the Polar Pioneer drilling platform that arrived in Port Angeles (get it?) on the Olympic Peninsula this week, on April 17th.

We drove out there today, and I was amused to find that you had to literally pass through a Japanese paper mill in order to drive out on the spit for the best view in the harbor. Almost as if we drove through a Manga gate.



Concurrently, the name “Leto” has been syncing strongly. Leto is the mother of Apollo and Artemis.

In the Olympian scheme, Zeus is the father of her twins, Apollo and Artemis, the Letoides. When Hera, the most conservative of goddesses — for she had the most to lose in changes to the order of nature —discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she realized that the offspring would cement the new order.
Hera banned Leto from giving birth on "terra firma", the mainland, any island at sea, or any place under the sun.
She found the barren floating island of Delos, still bearing its archaic name of Asterios, which was neither mainland nor a real island, and gave birth there.

An apt description of the Polar Pioneer drilling platform is a “floating island”. It made me wonder… is the new “Apollo” being born? Is Hera represented by the Greenpeace protesters?



As I parked the car to take some pictures, a Dodge Intrepid autobot pulled up and parked itself pointing directly at the floating island. Over the years, the word “intrepid” has gained a strong personal symbolism for me - it means “steadfast grail seeker”, and whenever I see it, it is saying “pay attention”.

In the Transformers universe, the AllSpark is the “life force”, the “grail”, and there are “heroic” Autobot robots who want to keep it secret, and there are “villainous” Decepticon robots who want to distribute it to the local earth machine population. Running the robot/angel allegory down, one might suppose that WE are the local earth “machine” population, though made of meat and DNA, not metal and C++.

Is Megatron the rebel angel? Does he offer the AllSpark apple of knowledge? It seems more like the fruit of a different tree - the Tree of Life. Would I refuse the fruit of the Tree of Life, even if offered by the devil? Not on your life.

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NOTES:

When I looked around at the scrubby beach flora, I noticed that it was covered in a local variety of Wormwood.

4/20 was the 5 year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Megatron, Metatron - tomatos, tomatoes.

“As a gesture of gratitude, Delos was secured with four pillars and later became sacred to Apollo.” If you squint at the oil platform through Japanese anime tinted glasses, you will clearly see a giant Transformer robot riding a golden, four pillared boat.

2 comments:

Eunus Noe said...

Syncing on Dune lately.
Leto is the Duke Ateides--father of Paul Maud'Dib
hmmmmm

Michael said...

Frank Herbert lives in P.T.

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