#IDW2 continuity

[novafire-is-thinking]

IDW1 has Terminus, and IDW2 has Termagax.

I want to see them compare notes on how they “raised” their respective Megatrons.

[catbusdriver]

The Titans

Cybertron's space program is ODD by most standards. However, it's still working

[cryptids]

One of my fav things about nightbeat transformers is that he's like "a detective" but nobody is actually paying or hiring him to do any of that??? He's not even a PI. Solving mysteries is just his special interest.... like that's his hobby. That's why he always has to just announce his findings to whoever is in the same room at the time bc he's never actually working for anyone

[optimistpax]

Finished transformers (2019) vol. 6 last night and honestly?? I’m really impressed. They did a really good job wrapping things up with only 12 months notice. It’s really clear that before that announcement they were trying to set up a story that would run way longer than the 4 years they got.

[maikhiwi00]

watching tfc and this is like the third time they kill my boy blurr 😭😭😭😭

[cerebrocentric-bullet]

I'm opening Transformers bust commissions in exchange for 30 euro donations or more (or amount of equal value in your currency) to Palestinian GFMs raising money to leave or survive in the Gaza Strip.

Steps:

Make a donation of at least 30 euros to a Palestinian GFM campaign (You can find verified campaigns over at Gaza Funds)

Email me proof of your donation where both the amount and date of donation are visible at cerebrocentric.bullet@gmail.com. The date has to be from the 16th of August or later.

Include the name and continuity of the character you'd like me to draw as well as the expression and pose you'd like me to draw them in. Make sure to include a visual reference if your character is an OC.

You'll receive a high resolution PNG and JPG image file of your commission in your email within 2-3 weeks.

I'm best at drawing Generation 1, IDW1 and IDW2 Transformers, but I'll try my hand at TFP and TFA designs if you'd like me to.

[0/5 slots taken]

[unlikelypandahologram]

Reasons to ship every single version of MegOP

since Very Dumb Discourse™ exists about whether or not certain versions of this ship are valid, this is going to be THE most positive post about all versions of MegOP. refer back to this post for reasons to ship your favorite version of MegOP if anyone gets weird about it with you. now let us begin!!

G1: goofy '80s faction dads fighting each other in a denny's parking lot every week LET'S GOOO, that shit is fun as fuck. orion pax also totally had a celeb crush on megatron before megatron ruined that and shot him and his pals 😔 and there's a lot of angst you can add with megatron becoming galvatron and optimus coming back to life to see how much he's changed!

BW: it's the sheer fucking comedy gold factor of a newly minted college graduate and a terrorist dinosaur IMMEDIATELY singling each other out on a prehistoric rock and deciding to call their daily gang slap-fights the BEAST WARS, what iconic drama queens LMAOOOO. also, megatron made his final body in BM look like optimal optimus SPECIFICALLY to fuck with him, and that's just...incredible

UT: the fact that megatron CANONICALLY acted like a grieving widower over optimus after he died in armada is. amazing. never forget their absolutely insane obsession with each other that they can never EVER give up on played a direct part in unicron nearly ending the world <3

Bayverse: this is the one continuity of all fucking things that gave us the lore about megatron being prime's lord high protector. absolute galaxy brain writing from the tie-in comics. also these two would ABSOLUTELY have the messiest, nastiest, most brutal hate sex imaginable, and that's beautiful. <3

Animated: optimus being a rookie washout underdog and megatron being a super scary much older warlord is a really interesting and underrated fresh take on their dynamic! lots of fun to be had with exploring what their relationship would be like after megatron finally acknowledged him as his archnemesis, lol. also...age AND size difference ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Prime: do i even need to say anything, i'm pretty sure that one flashback still of orion and megatronus being friends is responsible for birthing a million shippers for this pairing alone LMAOOOO. the bitter ex-boyfriends energy was TRULY off the charts in this show, it's a damn shame megatron never appeared in RID15

Cyberverse: same bitter ex-boyfriends energy but this time with dates at maccadams. megatron also dies encouraging optimus to beat the unhinged alternate dimension megs AAHH THE ANGST

IDW1: they're both depressed gay war criminals in this one who CONSTANTLY live in each other's heads rent-free and that's amazing, lmfao. also, megatron becoming an autobot means this is one of the VERY FEW continuities where it's not nigh impossible to figure out a way to give these two a happy ending together in fanon

IDW2: space date space date SPACE DATE. they were falling together and everything. megatron also LITERALLY tells optimus to open himself to him...to give him the matrix...yeah megs my dude i'm sure that's the ONLY thing you wanted from optimus "opening" himself. toootally positive, lol

G1 Marvel: megatron was SUPER fucking pissed and weird as shit about the time optimus died over a video game. it counts

Dreamwave: their first fight had megatron urging optimus to join him AND they disappeared together in a space bridge explosion once which is like, a fanfic-esque setup for them to be alone. also i'm pretty sure this is the continuity where optimus accidentally gave megatron a lobotomy, so...uh...potential for angst is to be had

SG: mirror universe!! evil crazy villain optimus with noble goody-goody hero megatron has so much potential for absolute chaos. bonus if you also bring in the normal versions somehow through multiverse shenanigans <3

KP: the only way this version of prime can redeem himself from the creepy underage human girl bullshit is if he gets a good hard dicking from megatron. next

Prime Wars: huge "ex-husbands go on a road trip with their disgruntled daughter" energy here. megatron also LITERALLY says "oh optimus, if only you could see me now" <3

Earthspark: again...need i say why? they're pals and working together from the get-go, what's not to ship??

Skybound: optimus literally wears megatron's arm. truly beautiful <3

TF One: it's not out yet but give it time. the entire movie is going to be about orion and d-16 being madly in love and tragically breaking up, baby!!

[decepti-thots]

🔥 on IDW

People like to blame IDW2's lackluster fan reception among enthusiasts for them losing the license. I think this is bullshit, and that they would have lost it whether or not they continued the IDW1 continuity instead. At the end of the day, IDW as a license holder never had amazing sales figures for the Transformers comics after the original launch post-Dreamwave- I know Roberts and Barber have both confirmed that MTMTE was doing better than the official sales figures indicated (as it was selling unusually well on digital platforms due to its demographic appeal, which are not counted because Comics Industry Bullshit), and I believe them when they say that helped there. But even by the overall dismal standards of USAmerican monthly comic sales (and they are dismal), by 2018 every single comic they were selling for Transformers was not looking good figures wise, and nothing they tried was boosting them for long. Hasbro didn't take it away because critical reception was poor; they took it away because they saw a better offer, and IDW as a company is just often... not... great at getting their comics the kind of publicity that is needed to keep your longterm serialised monthly comic out of the cancellation-figure graveyards. It's sad as hell it got cut short and I really wish it hadn't been. But I think attributing it to anything but sadly mundane comics industry problems- that unless you are Literally Batman, the market is tiny and highly spread out and keeping comics profitable is a losing game- is grasping at straws. Certainly I think laying all the blame at Ruckley's feet because not everyone loved IDW2 is unfair. (It sold better than the LL and OP runs in phase three!) (That relaunch was, of course, also comics industry BS, and not their fault.)

By contrast, Skybound is as of the latest sales figures outselling EVERY SINGLE DC COMIC. This is so incredibly rare among non-big-two comics. It won two Eisners. That is near unthinkable for a licensed comic. It's clear that Hasbro took that offer when the license was being renewed because Skybound had a plan to make TF comics explosively popular again, one which has self evidently worked to date, and there's really no need to get conspiratorial about why this happened when that explains the decision perfectly well. Shrug.

[thestitchesart-chive]

day 3 let's give it up for day 3 :3

in which I start getting funky with coloring and backgrounds and the whatnot huzzah

day 3 is favorite iteration/continuity and for this one, I chose idw2- controversial, but I really liked it all things considered. Decided to slap together a few of my favorite parts from the series (aka cool space stuff, the gals, and obviously cyclonus because if I ever not like cyclonus then I am dead and an imposter has taken my place)

this series sure had its moments i gotta say

[blueikeproductions]

They finally posted a trailer and poster for the next batch of EarthSpark. And it’s described as S3, though experience with Netflix makes me think this is just the remainder of S2… Still according to the marketing, fans finally got a third season, so that counts for something. It’s only roughly 7 episodes, but G1’s final fourth season was a three part finale, so a very short season isn’t unheard of.

This poster is a lot better than the past main posters they’ve used over and over.

These are better also, but they don’t get used much.

But after RotB & TFONE, I think we can all agree decent advertising isn’t modern Hasbro & Paramount’s strong suit.

As for the trailer itself, it continues a trend I’ve noticed where most EarthSpark ancillary stuff tends to down play the Terrans. Twitch appears for a split second and Thrash appears in a gag where he gets shot… continuing his “just kinda there” vibe.

The trailer primarily focuses on the traditional Autobot & Decepticon conflict, with a big focus put on Prowl, the newest and seemingly only Transformer added to the cast so far.

A news article further describes Prowl as an “old world” Autobot detective who trusts the hard facts & always finds the truth. He is immediately distrustful of Optimus’ allies, so presumably that includes the Maltos, Terrans and naturally Megatron. It’s interesting how he’s specifically described as a detective, perhaps that’s to avoid ACAB allegations I could see the old writers attempt through him….

Prowl’s G1 profiles cast him as a by the books, semi prickly, military strategist. This doesn’t really get explored in the old cartoon, and while it was touched on briefly in Marvel, IDW went hog wild with it, casting its Prowl as a corrupt cop antagonist towards the end of the run. IDW2 cast him as more of a detective pre-war though, possibly where EarthSpark borrowed it from, and while he was still a hard-aft, he had a soft spot for his pet dinosaur-alien.

The main villains of the season, unsurprisingly, are the Quintessons. Their leader is a female Judge, who the blurb declares it “is her birthright to possess the power of the Emberstone. She’s wise, dangerous, and her ego is so large that it’s no wonder she has five heads”.

What exactly constitutes gender among the Quints has never really been defined before.

It might be safe to say as far as the G1 cartoon is concerned, they’re an all male race.

WFC & CV attempted to insert female gender among the Judges, having some of the masks speak in a female voice.

That adds another oddity to Judge biology, as the G1 cartoon or Marvel UK comics never stated the other faces being separate personalities, instead other media describes them as different emotional states.

Alpha Q in Superlink did have multiple personalities based on which mask was displayed, each one squabbling/talking amongst themselves.

Presumably WFC/CV borrowed from Alpha Q, but the ES Quintesson Judge might be operating on G1 logic, each mask being a single (female) gender, as she has a female voice actor only.

The other big G1 thing the trailer shows is the Hate Plague. The leaked synopsis already revealed it, but like G1, those infected with the plague glow an intense red.

Once infected, they turn incredibly violent and try to kill each other. Despite the G1 show’s violence, nobody actually died ironically, at least it was never confirmed. The synopsis implies the Quintessons unleashed the Hate Plague on the Transformers, and while the 80’s Quints were instead among the victims of the outbreak, they do have a vague connection to it.

The oldest known leader within the Matrix, only known as “It”, resembles a Quintesson, with Japanese media confirming that’s what they are. Optimus Prime asks this ancient Quintesson how to combat the Hate Plague, with It saying the Plague couldn’t be outright destroyed but contained, where a wise man trapped the spores in a star. The spores nevertheless has a weakness to pure wisdom, so Optimus unleashes the power of the Matrix and uses its eons long store of wisdom to eradicate the virus once and for all… Until it briefly returns in Beast Machines.

As mentioned before, the Hate Plague isn’t exactly a popular concept cartoons like to go back to. Comics don’t like using it typically either, so its inclusion here is both unique but also a little… peculiar. I’m leaning towards it being a vague, modern topical metaphor for something, as an infected Megatron is fighting Optimus in particular. Probably some hogwash about Megatron succumbing to his biases and own hatred, but we’ll see soon enough.

Perhaps the most utterly bizarre detail is the blurb seemingly confirming the return of Spitfire and Aftermath.

How…?

Starscream yanked out their Allspar-er-Emberstone Shards, and the rock itself is dust. You can’t get any deader than that.

The only thing I can guess, is similar to Sari’s key, the Sleeves are the repository of the Emberstone’s life giving energies (the sleeves do just about anything else now so why not), and the Malto kids are incentivized to revive the two Decepticon Terrans for some reason.

MetroTitans in IDW also can grant life and that was carried over to Prime Wars, so it’s possible Terratronus can grant life too, and she restores the Terracons.

Worst case scenario is the two hellions are back up and running like nothing happened, and their death is never addressed again.

Crap writing if so, but the previous two scenarios would be preferable.

Not much longer to wait now. This might be the final batch, as the Quintessons make sense as the final end goal in the struggle over the Emberstone. The show has never been super committed to showing what’s going on Cybertron that whatever Prowl and Cosmos have to add to the matter is probably the best we’ll get. Plus the Terrans don’t have much incentive or interest to even go to Cybertron anyway; Alex would get more out of going there than his kids. Only thing I could guess is the Quints took over Cybertron off screen and that loosely ties into the Judge’s role on Earth, but eh. We’ll see.

[geek-antic]

I wish I could’ve asked the writers of idw2 about the background story they had written for soundwave.

Because it seems like they had something pretty clear in mind that they wanted to delve into. And from the looks of things it could’ve been a rather interesting background story.

i love the how the artist was able to make him so expressive I can only imagine that it would’ve given some much needed depth to Soundwave’s character. Also would’ve been nice to finally see him get a proper origin story which I don’t think he really got in idw1 (the fact he starts out with no memories of his origins and no resolution still bothers me)

But I admittedly have a lot more issues with idw2, (mostly the repetition of words and sentences) yet surprisingly from what I did read in regards to soundwave I didn't have any major issues with his portrayal. (y'know aside from his yellow visor and job position) from what we did see of him he behaved coherently and according to his character. His little issues with starscream added some fun drama and made him a bit more relatable.

And then throughout the comics there are hints to soundwave having what seems to be a complicated past involving both soundblaster and sixshot? Which points towards it being a mercenary group of some kind.

And we never saw him in any of the flashbacks of the war against the Three fold spark, despite it being the perfect place for soundwave to become acquainted with megatron. but no, there's no explanation for how they met but there is a lot of megatron giving soundwave both orders and almost mentor like advice.

Its always a shame to see a continuity go dead when it had just started but I can’t say i’ll mourn anything else from it that isn’t soundwave. which says a lot.

RIP idw2 tf continuity, atleast you gave us a nice little story in the shattered glass comics you made before you lost the license.

Though now that the new license holder is image comics, I look forward to seeing what they’re gonna do with it. And if they’ll learn anything from the previous continuities.

[pluralsword]

tempted to make a short fic out of this it would be funny.

also it kills us that three out of ten of these have harmed Arcee in awful scientist capacities in some way (Animated Shockwave with his interrogation techniques that involved taking her head apart, IDW1 Jhiaxus by being a transmedicalist shit instead of listening to her when it came to her gender affirming journey, and Flatline forcing her spark to power two other bodies), and she in turn mostly trashed them (while she did trash Prime Shockwave at least once iirc she didn't get the chance to take down Animated Shockwave, but sure gave him a hard time), and a fourth hasn't but was her arch-rival (Airachnid) before acquiring the mad scientist archetype in other continuities. Considering that Prime Ser-Ket is concurrent with Prime Airachnid and Arcee was on Cybertron for a long time in that continuity one has to wonder if she would have run into and fought Ser-Ket and the Forged before coming to Earth.... ....gaaaaaah feels like seeing the time knife is contemplating the transformers multiverse just the time knife, haha XD

also before you choose Shockwave as the winner because of IDW1 time travel shenanigans we want to point out there's a funny causal loop wherein that Shockwave's ideology originates from (and largely copies) Jhiaxus, who is maybe the only person he's shown any true loyalty to in the events leading up to Dark Cybertron. the counterpoint of course is that in Jhiaxus's opinion, Shockwave surpassed him by then in the sciences and he was but Shockwave's minion, so given that Shockwave is the only person Jhiaxus has ever truly cared for without also blatantly betraying, he'd probably just let Shockwave shoot him.

[elfdragon12]

Hey guys, I know some folks like to make a fuss over Prowl being a cop, but this is the list of continuities in which he is actually a cop:

RID01

Unicron Trilogy

IDW1

WFC Trilogy

IDW2

That's it. Most of the time, it's just an alt mode. Most writers just focus on what he's doing in the Autobot army (tactical/second in command/whatever else).

[ponett]

hello!

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas 🎄🎁🎉 😄

I was gonna ask when the series had gone on a little longer, but since you got gifted "Do A Powerbomb", I was wondering if you'd checked out DWJ's Transformers run?

Have a wonderful day! 🌠

I have! I've been following it as it comes out and was completely enamored with it by the end of the first issue, which is why I wanted to read Do a Powerbomb (which also completely owns)

After IDW lost the Transformers license I kind of dreaded what a new publisher might do with the property. IDW had pushed Transformers into so many new and exciting directions over the years, giving me some of my favorite Transformers stories ever and shaping other parts of the franchise for years to come (and also making a ton of Transformers canonically queer). The last thing I wanted was for a new publisher to throw all that out and just go back to square one with easy G1 cartoon nostalgia. Especially after I ended up being really unenthused with the post-continuity reboot "IDW2" era, I worried that it could be years and years before we got another new Transformers comic that really spoke to me like the MTMTE/RiD era did

And then Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers dropped from Skybound. Despite leaning so hard into G1 cartoon aesthetics, and despite being part of a new shared universe with the okay-but-not-amazing Void Rivals by Robert Kirkman and some GI Joe comics I don't really care about, I was cautiously optimistic because I'd previously heard really good things about DWJ's other work. And I've just been absolutely blown away by it. It's already one of the greatest Transformers comics ever made

From the very first page you can tell it's doing new things with the traditional Transformers iconography, while also tapping into the heart of the series better than anything else I've seen in years. The hand-inked art can be a little loose and messy, but that helps give it so much energy, ESPECIALLY in the inventive fight scenes. Whether it's vehicle mode action, Optimus doing literal wrestling moves on Decepticons, or even just a panel of someone transforming, there is SO much life in all of DWJ's drawings. But he also cares about tying things to the human cast in really compelling ways. We've already gotten so many good scenes between the robots and the humans that give it so much heart. The deer scene with Optimus and Spike went viral for a reason, it was instantly one of the best Optimus Prime scenes ever written. It's not just about the robots or the humans, it's about the dichotomy between them. He gets it

I love a lot of IDW's comics that are just about robots interacting with other robots many light years from Earth and barely ever even transforming on the page, but like. This is the comic you wanna hand to someone to be like "This is what Transformers is about. This is why it fucking rules"

Seriously, though. Anyone with even a passing interest in Transformers should be reading these. I am constantly on the edge of my seat waiting for the next issue these days. Look, Optimus literally suplexes Starscream in the first fucking issue YOU HAVE TO READ THIS

[decepti-thots]

☕idw 2019?

You know, I always get asked this. And my answer has always been the same: I enjoyed it! Not as much as my absolute fave IDW1 series, but I enjoyed it and it was very fun and I was sad when it wasn't able to continue. Given that my opinions on it generally have been beaten to death over the years, I will focus on some specifics.

I feel like the folks who did not vibe with IDW2 will always throw it the bone of 'well, it had some good worldbuilding, at least'. Which is fair, because as an IDW2 Liker Mostly, I Enjoyed It For Real, that is in fact what always draws me to it. I get a real sense of Cybertron as a place in IDW2, an interest in constructing a broader society that convincingly feels as though it has a history and where people live off-panel. That's important to me, and to be honest, it's a place I always find IDW1 lacking. IDW2 does not feel as though its planet is a backdrop on which actors perform character drama. It convinces me people live there, and have lived there for a long time.

I also think that its concept of mentorship is a really interesting approach to what a society that does not have a humanlike concept of either family or reproduction might look like. The emphasis on choice is a really good way to angle it, and if there's an element I want future incarnations to pull from, that's it. The idea that it's a mutual choice, a responsibility that relies on agreement between mentor and mentee, something that doesn't 'naturally' happen but has to be deliberately agreed upon, is a genuinely great take on them as characters who are relatable to us but ultimately have a meaningfully different way of organizing their society. (I am fond of the side series with Gauge really going into this mutual element, where Gauge has that choice with Arcee and Greenlight, it isn't just something that can be impressed on her for 'her own good', and that she has that choice in the first place is what empowers her to make it.)

I really feel, overall, like IDW2 reads better in the trades than it did monthly (though I still personally enjoyed it monthly). And like, yeah, when it was in fact a monthly comic that is not something I can fault people for not jumping for joy about; that's a structural criticism in and of itself. It also basically exists because US comics publishers won't let you do anything but monthlies, though, which is a reality of US comics. I have a lot of real affection for IDW2. It has some great characters. (I adore IDW2 Cyclonus. I love Arcee and Greenlight. I think it has a very interesting take on Megatron, which a refusal to engage with on its own terms and not as though it was a response to IDW1... well I found that Annoying, lmao.) It has a setting-first approach to storytelling that really appeals to me. Oh, and that Halloween special? MWAH. Love that issue. I reread it every October, haha.

tl;dr: i love trickdiamond so much. can we have trickdiamond back please. she's My Girl. also geomotus, whomst i Love.

[icyrambles]

one of the things i find consistently weird about transformers as a piece of media is how the decepticons keep being the bad guys without any really attempt at reworking them as a faction

pretty much every continuity that exists has the decepticons filling the role as the primary antagonists. here's a list of the tf media i've consumed over the past year; g1, animated, prime, cyberverse, earthspark, rotb, first 2 bayverse movies, idw1 + idw2, the first 5 issues of tf skybound, shattered glass, the first 10 episodes of rid15, and a few episodes of armada and beast wars. and literally all of those have the decepticons fulfilling the role of antagonists.

now i'm specifically not taking issue with the fact that the decepticons are the bad guys. that's not my problem here. my problem is that the franchise as a whole seems to have a problem with actually developing the decepticon characters and the faction as characters/concepts worth being antagonists

this isn't a dash on the existing pieces of transformers media just to be clear, i enjoy cartoonishly evil shenanigans as much as the next person (my favourite character is fucking tarn for goodness sake). instead please read through the rest of this post as a single person's critique of a tonal inconsistency throughout the franchise of transformers

with the more recent pieces of transformers media attempting to paint the decepticons in a more sympathetic light (see cyberverse and earthspark) i noticed a core writing flaw with how the teams behind these works tackled making the decepticons more morally grey characters.

and that's the fact that they decepticons are still just as evil as they are in the original g1 cartoon, just with a little more grey paint thrown over their war crimes. it's one of the main writing flaws i have with both idw1/2 and earthspark.

because those writing teams really want you to view the decepticons as less evil. they really want you to watch/read through their content and see the decepticons as a group of individuals who, while not right in their actions, still deserve to be treated as more than a villain of the week.

and i agree with this sentiment. i think the decepticons should be more than villains of the week who need to be defeated at all costs. i think the decepticons should get the opportunity to be fully developed characters with hopes, dreams, aspirations, flaws, and emotions just like their autobot counterparts.

but there's a problem with how these writing teams interact with the decepticons. and it's the fact that they're still the bad guys. even if you give megatron a redemption arc in earthspark, there's still the looming implication that he, along with an army, invaded a random planet and potentially killed millions. (it's a kid show i'm not expecting them to go into detail with all of megan's war crimes, but earthspark does imply that megatron did fuck up a lot of earth's shit)

idw does a slightly better job with this, showing that the autobots have their fair share of war crimes, but the decepticons are still the primary antagonists throughout the comic's run.

even shows that paint the decepticons as purely the bad guys have tonal issues with how they're written

taken animated for example. the autobots get to be fully developed characters with personality traits outside of just being the good guys. bumblebee is impulsive, he likes video games and racing and being a little shit, he's not a beacon of virtue. prowl is antisocial, he doesn't like communicating with his team, but he fucking love nature, he loves meditating. he has a whole backstory about wanting to avoid being drafted into a war for fucks sake.

but the animated decepticons don't get that. there's nothing about blitzwing or lugnut or starscream that makes them uniquely suited to being in the decepticon cast. none of them get to have defining character traits outside of being decepticons who need to be beaten.

the same can be said for prime.

while i don't particularly think that any of the tfp characters are written well, at least the autobots have reasons for their personalities. arcee is a jaded bitch because she watched both of her partners die right in front of her. optimus is distant because he lost his best friend to differing ideologies. ratchet is grouchy all the time because he's constantly running low on fuel and is probably worried about his only family dying horribly in a war while he sits on the sidelines.

but the decepticons. they're just evil. megatron gets so addicted to power that he hypes himself up on the space equivalent of hard drugs for most of the series. soundwave.... he's there i guess? shockwave decided to violate the laws of nature for shits and giggles because the series never decided to expand upon his character except for evil scientist. starscream gets to be a sniveling coward who gets beat up whenever he appears and we never learn why he acts this way.

time and time again, transformers has an issue with writing decepticons as anything more than the bad guys.

and the reason why i take issue with this, isn't just because it's "bad writing" it's because the decepticons have a habit of having backstories that involve being discriminated against and it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth when the group of people who are more than often classified as second class citizens on their own planet get lumped into the role of "bad guys who want to steal and murder and pillage" when they want to change the system that is actively discriminating against them

and this all sounds like a lot of complaining. and it is. but i do have a method of trying to remedy this mess. two ways actually

#1: the hard way. (aka, this is the harder of the writing solutions because it requires viewing the decepticons as more than villains)

instead of having the decepticons being a group of revolutionaries who loose their way and become evil and genocidal seemingly for no reason other than "oh well revolutions don't really work and anyone who starts one just wants to cause problems against the system" why don't writers actually try and view the decepticon faction for what it is in most cases a group of people who were heavily discriminated against and who want to change their planet to actually treat them more than objects.

cybertron is shown to be a shitty planet to live on in more continuity, i can find it perfectly believable that people would want to change the system through radial reform.

show me why the decepticons became the way that they are. don't just tell me that megatron was always a bad person who wanted to become a dictator. that's stupid and highly uncreative after it's been done 15 times in a row in every single continuity

i would highly prefer a series that takes place from the decepticon perspective. i wanna know more about them. why is starscream constantly trying to overthrow megatron? is it because he thinks megatron is a bad leader? does he have a plan for how he would change things if he did become leader? if he's just doing it because he's egotistical, does he have a backstory that made him the way that he is?

give me decepticons with hobbies and personalities outside of wanting to kill everything.

#2: the easy way (this is easier because it doesn't require radical re-imagining of the decepticons as a whole)

just make the decepticons the ruling class. genuinely, just make the decepticons the people in charge from the beginning. you wouldn't have to imagine that many changes. megatron can still be a warlord intent on conquering the galaxy (it's just re-framed through the lens of him always being this way instead of having to learn violence is a solution), starscream constantly vying for the throne is now much easier to understand because the faction isn't rising up from the lower class, they were always in power and starscream wants more of it.

it even works out for the autobots because them being the lower class rising up against a tyrannical force re-contextualizes their desperate want to defend planets being attack by the decepticons. they're not just doing it because it's the right thing, they're doing it because they know what it's like. and that makes their motivations seem more sympathetic than a fucking god complex of saving the "tiny pathetic humans who can't defend themselves"

the decepticons being purely the bad guys is actually the reason why i'm not gonna read the rest of the skybound comics. i have no interest in another comic that is functionally (at least from the five issues i've read) just a bloodier, more violent g1. it's disappointing that instead of trying to explore the existing transformers characters through a different lens other than "evil" tf writers keep making the decepticons the same old bad guys.

this franchise has so much potential for interesting stories, cyberverse proved that to me when they allowed the autobots to team up with clobber, dead end, and soundwave, but it's being held back by the pervasive trope of the decepticons being the bad guys in every single story