monocle-teacup

[monocle-teacup]

And So the Cycle Begins Again Chapter 16

Link post isn't working for me so here.

Summary: It's the anniversary of The Battle of the Bay and Stephen's thoughts go down a familiar path.

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How long should Transformers live? Millions? That feels too long for many reasons. Thousands? Tens of thousands?

In most continuities, they're almost immortal so them being around for millions of years makes sense to me. They're giant alien robots so things like life expectancy can/should be something difficult for a human to fathom.

Now the Terrans on the other hand should have a far shorter lifespan due to their hybrid nature IMO. Yeah, Terratronus is millions of years old, but she was specifically created by Quintus to guard the Emberstone so of course she was made to last.

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It's been an insane week because why tf am I missing Agent Jon (no H) Schloeder right now. Please I just need a silly dude who is also trying so hard to be a good person. Please his sister just died and I wanna be his friend please

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in ES, I would imagine for tight security purposes, governments from around Earth would use a blacklist to list all the obviously evil TFs (usually Cons) and any TFs who broke laws/policies, withheld info related to Earth, cause harm, entering Earth without identifying yourself (on a TF-legal nation), etc. This is about trusting they will not be trouble when a nation allows a bot into their land. Like Thundercracker. If he proves he’s honourable and willing to fight with the Autobots and their human allies, he’ll have it easier. There may be restrictions on moving freely. And if they are in a nation where they are illegal, pray you don’t die on sight.

IMO this is realistic, but S1 would've 100% framed humanity as being the ultimate evil for having these security measures. You know, because how dare they want to protect themselves after the TFs brought a freaking war to Earth.

It makes no sense that another organization of some sort didn't take GHOST's place in the show post S1 especially with the Cons being active again.

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In my Lotus AU, the Terrans are pretty much confined to GHOST while Mandroid is on the loose. Seeing that the young bots are having a rough time, he suggests that they start really exploring their organic side. OP is all for this idea in order to make the Terrans introduction to other Cybertronians as smooth as possible. Nightshade has always been curious about it so they've done research already.

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Headcanon that Mandroid's favorite season is winter and he still loves playing in the snow as an adult. Imagine him in the FF having a snowball fight with the Terrans.

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Bayverse, in all of it's faults, acknowledges how terrifying the concept of alien robots disguising as everyday machines are, utilizes it, and doesn't blame any human characters for being afraid of them, want no part of their issues, or want them to leave Earth. The point in bayverse is humans should be afraid of Transformers if they were ever real.

Then there's Earthspark--a show aimed at 7 year olds-- tried to make itself serious and "properly morally grey", makes redemption as ... victims having to forgive the people who hurt them or else they will be worse than the latter? Because a bunch of kids who haven't experienced a fraction of life say so?

Where has the logic gone? They're only over a decade apart...

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So I just finished watching one of the greatest movies of all time: Muppet Treasure Island and have an idea:

Imagine the ES Cons led by Starscream singing a variant of A Professional Pirate except it's about being a Decepticon. Hashtag would be Jim Hawkins in this case.

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i think a lot of people who hate earthspark season 2 and 3 because it didn't "redeem" Starscream do so because they want Earthspark Scream to be treated how they think Prime or Armada Scream "should have" been treated.

But those are two completely different shows. It's like watching TFA and getting upset that TFA Megatron isn't like Prime Megatron.

If you watch the actual show, Starscream only shows up for one epsiode and a half. he doesn't do anything to be redeemed FROM because he is, at most, a side character! But people have in their heads a picture of what Prime Starscream is, and then project it onto ES Starscream.

Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty sure it's implied ES Megatron was abusive and tyrannical towards all the Decepticons, but no one's clamoring for the Soundwave or Swindle redemption arc.

So if you claim to "only" like season 1 of Earthspark, don't go into the next batch of episodes thinking about Starscream as if he's Prime or Armada or whatever. In fact, I highly encourage you to go back and watch season 1, 2, and 3 and actually pay attention to what Starscream's like.

And remember that Earthspark's a show for kids based on family and cooperation. It's not a shipping-focused fanwork written by an adult. You'll just end up disappointed if you go into it expecting that.

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“Babe are going to bed? How did you get under there???”

“Mreh!” >:(

“Oh, I’m sorry! G’night!”

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Another reason why the graffiti scene in S1 makes no sense is that Robby has firsthand experience seeing how terrifying TFs can be, especially from being caught in that Seeker attack during the beginning of Age of Evolution. The emotional connection in the cyber sleeves alerted Twitch that Robby and Mo were afraid during it. Oh wait, the Malto Way means conceal don't feel and just rug sweeping negative emotions.

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Most of Dot's bios emphasize that a large reason why she gets along so well with Megatron is because of how similar they are. This isn't a flex, especially when you realize that she's a watered down version of his worst qualities like being controlling, selfish/possessive, arrogant, and how comfortable they are using aggression. To sum up these qualities in Dot using canon: -The Maltos moved to Witwicky because that's what Dot wanted -Her reaction to Robby being understandably upset about moving is to angrily lecture him for daring to voice his thoughts. In general, she quickly/firmly shuts down anyone that questions her. Alex and Mo freeze during the scene with Robby. -The only time Alex objects to what she wants is during Prime Time (which is a train wreck in terms of writing quality) when he convinces her to let Mo let Mandroid. The rest of the time he cheerfully goes with the flow and does nothing about the problematic behavior running rampant in the family. -The only times she shuts down the kids and Terrans problematic behavior is when it specifically affects her such as Nightshade altering her prosthetic -The way she stresses the concept of family paired with how isolated they are. It's always MY family -The Terrans, Robby, and Mo's ignorance about the War, especially when it comes to Megatron's past comes across as being very intentional. According to bios, the only reason she isn't bitter about losing her leg is because she became Megatron's friend and clearly thinks herself as SPECIAL for this -There's enough evidence to support she's the reason why the Maltos handle negative feelings the way they do -Yes, multiple instances of her being aggressive is a result of wanting to protect her family, but the majority of them are very 'act first then think later'. For example, the possibility of her and Megatron being immediately killed by the Arachnamechs after she punches Mandroid clearly doesn't cross her mind. -If she can't solve a problem via force/aggression, she either runs away/avoids/ignores it -Her lessons/words of wisdom often comes across as sanctimonious such as her response to Mandroid's backstory essentially being: "I lost my leg and I didn't turn into an asshole." She's angry when she says the line.

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It just occurred to me that going by some of the fandom's logic, Mandroid would be redeemed if he helped the Maltos like the Cons did in the S1 finale.

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(I’m finally coming out to say this..)

I don’t like Breakbee

Bee needs to raise his standards

Breakdown is a bum and a deadbeat.

Deadbeat dad. If him and bee had babies he race to go get milk. On a different fucking planet.

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Something that points to Mandroid being a good person before his accident is that he was perfectly content being a university professor. His bios and the show itself state that he was drafted by GHOST under protest and that he hated the projects they had him working on. He's obviously brilliant so he could've been making some serious money creating weapons or other destructive things, yet he wanted to teach instead.

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We're only a week into January but we already have the dad of the year

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This got a laugh out of me! But in all seriousness, I like the idea of the Maltos on paper, but it's not an exaggeration to say that they come across more like a cult than a family. If you look at the BITE Model of Authoritarian control, the Maltos fit the requirement for so many of the check boxes that it's horrifying. Look at the following list of behavior they display in the show and think about how most cults work:

-How isolated they are -The way they treat outsiders and how outsiders must prove themselves before receiving better treatment -The blatant Us vs Them mentality -The show framing them as always being right and anyone that doesn't think the same as they do is misguided/bad. The Chaos Terrans being an example and how S1 demonizes the rest of humanity. -How ignorant the Terrans, Robby, and Mo are about the War despite the fact Dot fought in said conflict and Alex specializing n Cybertronian history -The toxic positivity thing and how they treat everyone like crap, even each other, for not adhering to it at all times -Family is important, but ES basically beats the audience to death with it -ES stresses that being a Malto is the most important thing

A very common complaint and undeniable part of why the show failed is because the Maltos aren't likable. You want a wholesome family done right that actually acts like a family, see the Burns and Greene family from Rescue Bots.

i blame @monocle-teacup for 70% of my beef with the maltos/autobots