#‘'omg isn’t it crazy how breakdown /probably/ totally scuffed up knock out’s paint and he /probably/ didn’t even get mad <3’'< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[mincedpeaches]

Genuinely curious but is it okay to ask why you don't like ko/bd esp compared to other canon tf ships? (I'm personally neutral abt them since i only watched tfp as a kid & when they appeared in idw i was just 🤷 )

Is it okay to ask? Anon this is you and me right now

It’s been many years since I’ve watched the show, so I’m going to put a disclaimer on everything I’m recalling in this post by saying that I could be recalling incorrectly, but also I remember I specifically tried and FAILED to put my shipping goggles on for KOxBD when I did my tfp rewatch back in (oh lord) 2015 after not having watched the show since it aired. And I was only REAFFIRMED in my stance that: Oh. There’s nothing interesting here. They genuinely read as coworkers to me. There is no compatibility to expand upon that seems interesting. I do not get it and it does NOT compel me.

Knock Out as a character before Breakdown dies was presented as wholly selfish and self-interested. The way he is presented in fan works with Breakdown is almost always antithetical to that. One of the favorite KOxBD crumbs people I remembered people liking; the “this was so much easier with Breakdown around” line when Knock Out is trying to wax his back, read more to me about how Breakdown’s absence is an inconvenience to him. There didn't seem to be any deep affection there, no pinning - nothing really even hinting at anything more. Knock Out is a sultry character by nature but I swear he flirted more with Optimus than he did with Breakdown. And meanwhile Breakdown was hitting on Arachnid lmao. Which to be fair, I’m not going to pretend that a man hitting on a woman has stopped me from shipping them with another man, but again, there was nothing with his dynamic with Knock Out that provided anything interesting to expand upon. I recall him having next to no thoughts on it outside their battles. His somewhat affable demeanor when he talked to the Vehicons wasn’t even really seen in the show with Knock Out as far as I remember. He died before anything could even hope to be interesting with them.

And then MEANWHILE in fanon world, it feels like its yaoi clichés all the way down. Which makes complete sense if you believe there’s nothing interesting in their dynamic to start with, since yaoi clichés can fill in the pieces when you want to slam two hot guys together and stand in for their personalities.  Granted I haven’t bothered to read any fanfiction with them in the spotlight (that I remember) and the clichés I’m picking up were mostly gleaned through fanart, but it all goes back to there not being an interesting enough dynamic for me to want to read fanfic in the first place. Compare to my tfp underdog ship, Knock Out/Starscream where the KOxSS moments seem so plentiful and interesting. Type in “Knock Out Breakdown” into youtube. You get a video “Knock Out and Breakdown teaming up”, a five minute video where they hardly even talk to each other, with Knock Out giving Breakdown the FYI that he left a battle with all the gravitas of a coworker saying sorry that he’s leaving you on shift but he’s clocking out for his smoke break.  

But type in “Knock Out Starscream” and you get “knockout and starscream being disaster ‘friends’ for 11 minutes” (air quotes included) where they microaggress each other, scheme together, interact as doctor/patient, scheme some more, try to beat each other up, trade barbs non-stop, BUMBLE their way through fighting zombies, and betray each other all the time. It’s soooo much fun. And hell, this video has the best KOxBD moment as far as I’m concerned, with the whole “you’re no Breakdown” line when they’re having their moment hiding from the zombies. But that line, like most KOxBD, felt like a barely there conjecture within the show. I didn’t get to see how Breakdown compared to Starscream such that Knock Out would say a line like that. As far as I recall, even with my yaoi goggles on, Knock Out and Breakdown in the show barely DO anything together.

And in the end I’m mostly 🤷 about it too - except for SOMEHOW the ship is popular enough to be winning tf yaoi polls left and right, getting them in IDW as a real couple, getting people to fanon Wildbreak as their child because he kinda looks like them, and having people mention Knock Out’s name in relation to Earthspark!Breakdown even though ES!Breakdown feels more G1 inspired and has his GREAT thing with Bumblebee, and I’m just like. Enough. Be serious.