#Malignus

[askvectorprime]

Is there an Exarchon in the Malgus cluster?

Dear Threefold Threat,

According to popular history, Exarchon was a Malignus warlord during the Second Cybertronian War. Claiming to be blessed by the tripartite god Vion-Lenja-Igern, contemporary records claim that Exarchon had a mutant mitotic spark, which allowed him to split his consciousness between three separate bodies—and, indeed, to take over the bodies of others that he had subjugated in battle. This made him functionally immortal, as even if one of his bodies was destroyed, he had two more to continue to spread his will.

These days, the understanding among academics is different. Lancer—a professor of archaeometallurgy at Drouhard University—argues that there is little direct evidence for Exarchon's supposed powers, which do not line up well with the modern scientific understanding of mitotic sparks; instead, she posits that it is more likely that the idea of Exarchon's "threefold spark" was a shared fiction created by the Malignus leadership through the use of public performance, puppetry and sleight of servo. The idea of an "immortal warlord" would, of course, be extremely useful as propaganda for a faction that rarely, if ever, found themselves with the edge in their war against the Guardians.

[autoacafiles]

[mmalignus]

[ilovebeinaturtle]

🧡💚🖤💛Turtle Titan Appreciation Post Part 5💛🖤💚🧡

Hiya! All the gifs were made from the Fast Forward episode “The Journal” Season 6 Episode 13! All gifs made by me! Enjoy~!

and also super duper late happy 18th anniversary to Fast Forward! It was July 29th lol

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

[thewiglesswonder]

You know the TFA Decepticons aren’t an oppressed minority right? DJW even said their Rise Up rhetoric was a jab at how conservatives preach about Protecting Freedoms, and in the Allspark Almanac it’s explained they wanted to colonize other planets and the Autobots objected to that. The Decepticons were exiled for being military fascists.

I'd really, really love to know where I've ever said that on this blog, but since you seem very convinced that I did, let's look at the lore again. I don't feel like trawling the internet for this specific tweet/whatever form this DJW evidence has, so if you have that, I'd love to see it.

This timeline from the Allspark Almanac II pretty clearly states that the entire crux of Cybertronian society as a whole has rested on colonization, very early on in their species' history. Their "Golden Age" 8 billion stellar cycles ago is characterized by expansion that led to the colonization (!!!) of their solar system, further colonization only prevented by isolationism.

The earliest indications of the factional split that mark their history exist within the ruling class Guardians and the Malignus, defined as a "military caste". This implies that Golden Age Cybertron existed as a caste system. Which I would take a guess as not being particularly great.

And when we get to the first (again, quoted from the text here,) "military coup", it's executed by the political ancestors of the Autobots. Not a peep about the Malignus while that was going on.

This faction eventually becomes the Protectobots, and the most notable thing about them is that their leader attempted a Great Purge of "undesirable elements" from their society. I'd be hard pressed to think I'm wrong in thinking that's kinda fucked up. We're not given explicit reasons for this 17 million year war, but wars don't happen without someone to oppose someone else, and we get this in the form of the Destrons.

As for the point about colonization: my point is not that the Decepticon's motivations are not what we see in canon. Not at all. My point is that the Autobots have the same fucking motivation.

The Age of Expansion literally begins when the Autobots take power! It only ends when they butt heads with the Quintessons! Colonization, militarism, and facism, as you put it, are not traits that are unique to Decepticons.

And, according to this timeline and historical reasoning given, there is no mention of either faction's position on further expansion. The formation of the Decepticons is rooted in the divide between labor and military aligned Cybertronians. Both sections are equally responsible for the imperialistic efforts of their Empire/Commonwealth/whatever you want to call it, and make no mistake, this does continue into the present day! From both factions!

Assuming you're referring to my hefty lean towards the Cons in terms of character/exploration interest in the gist of your message, my goal here is not to elevate them to the same Good Guy Status the Autobots have by virtue of being the protagonists. I am fully and completely aware that they are a group of insane zealots that have rallied under a guy who was described by his own VA as an "elegant bully". Rather, I think what you're picking up on is my focus on the fact that the Autobots in Animated have more than their fair share of insidious shit going on.

They retain what is essentially a military dictatorship, with the position of Magnus being only theoretically beholden to the will of the Council and Guilds, as seen when Sentinel was able to fire Fortress Maximus with no approval from the Council and got nothing more than a disapproving sentence from Alpha Trion. We have no word on how their schooling institutions work, but all of it seems heavily centered on their version of the military they've concocted in the absence of warbuilds. And, just in case we forgot about Sentinel's proposed budget...

And that's not even getting into how fucked up Autobot culture is! They're unspeakably xenophobic, throw around propagandistic phrases like they're nothing ("Cogs in the Great Autobot Machine", anyone?), have an incredibly questionable justice system if Wasp is anything to go by, and this only seems to be getting worse at the end of Season 3, if Sentinel's curfews and public service announcements are anything to go by.

I'm not trying to make the Decepticons look better. I'm trying to make the Autobots look worse.

[joyfuladorable]

Update: I watched it. I had to get out of my chair and walk away like five times during it, but I survived lmao

I'm about to watch one of the cringiest episodes of 2k3 someone hold my hand please

[tmnt-whump]

Find your current personal 2003 TMNT whump scenario according to your Tumblr experience!

(Warning! Several whump / injury tropes are mentioned ahead!)

Last number of your follower count determines whumpee.

1 - Leonardo 2 - Raphael 3 - Donatello 4 - Michelangelo 5 - Splinter 6 - April 7 - Casey 8 - Angel 9 - Leatherhead 0 - Usagi

Last number of the amount of blogs you are following determines type of whump.

1 - Stabbed 2 - Beaten 3 - Thrown through a window 4 - Burned 5 - Captured / tied up 6 - Starved 7 - Exposed to cold 8 - Infected with a virus, etc. 9 - Trapped under a collapsing building 0 - Thrown overboard / abandoned at sea

Last number of your drafts determines whumper:

1 - Shredder 2 - Karai 3 - Hun 4 - Baxter Stockman 5 - Bishop 6 - Garbageman 7 - Savanti Romero 8 - Dr. Malignus 9 - Drako 0 - A random thug

Last number of your queue count determines rescuer / caretaker. If whumpee and caretaker match, come back to this when you have a new queue count!

1 - Leonardo 2 - Raphael 3 - Donatello 4 - Michelangelo 5 - Splinter 6 - April 7 - Casey 8 - Angel 9 - Leatherhead 0 - Usagi

Let us know your results!

_____ gets _____ by _____ and is rescued and cared for by _____.

Bonus points if you write a fic or create fan art around your scenario!

(Should I make similar posts for other iterations?)

[tatortart]

Moriko and Mikey 1, 3, and 8?

First date?

Instead of a night out, Mikey and Moriko had a night in for their first date. Once he found a babysitter for Takumi (thank you, Splinter!), Mikey handled the snacks, the video games, and the cozy setting. He got Moriko addicted to Yokai Crossing while he played his fighting platform Silver Sentry: Revenge of Malignus.

(At first, he wasn’t sure how Moriko was going to like video games, but…once that tail started going, he got his answer! Now they play games as a couple.)

3. Who buys flowers, what kind, how often?

That’s Mikey! Although, more ‘obtain’ than ‘buy’, but he tries to leave money behind…he’s not really sure what kind he’s grabbing, but he tends to buy them whenever Moriko’s looking to dye her latest weaving project. So far, he’s noticed her favorite to work with are marigolds!

8. Who cooks, and are they good at it?

Both do! Mikey uses cooking as a way to introduce his dimension’s cuisine to Moriko, while Moriko uses cooking as a way to create hearty meals for the people she starts to view as family. Sometimes their attempts are…a bit of a failure—breaded pork cutlets in Japanese curry comes to mind—but for the most part, the two of them can whip up some pretty damn good food for each other and the rest of the Hamato clan.

That said, if the spice level has gone up in each dish since Moriko’s arrival, well…that’s no one’s business but hers.

[blueikeproductions]

So I’ve been thinking of the EarthSpark children’s books again.

Besides the Guidebook, these two seem to be the only ones out atm that are original stories and not recaps/adaptions of episodes of the cartoon. I personally prefer original stories set roughly during the cartoon’s universe, and to no one’s surprise I’m naturally a big fan of the RiD15 books being all original stories.

However, my nitpick with the EarthSpark books is they��re too short and �� safe. There’s no real conflict or if there is one, like Racetrack Recon, it’s resolved instantly…

Now kids books or not, I think most of us want some kind villain for the Autobots to fight, which the RiD books excelled in. My favorites being Scuzzard from above, Liege Maximo starting trouble because he was bored and needed a cheap thrill, and Drift meeting up with his old Decepticon crew. So what can the EarthSpark books do?

Well for starters:

Use Swindle. He’s perfect for low scale conflict, and you can get a lot of mileage out of him starting trouble with a guest star that the Terrans have to stop. Obviously you could experiment with other villains besides him, but still.

Book idea 1: Items have been going missing from Witwicky. The culprits are Swindle and Chop Shop.

Besides trying to make a quick buck, they also seek to steal important GHOST tech to benefit the Decepticons still roaming the Earth. Dot and Optimus have to keep Croft and Schloder distracted so the Terrans can put a stop to Chop Shop’s kleptomania.

Book Idea 2: The Decepticons need energy if they plan to still take over Earth and stick it to Megatron and GHOST. Swindle, seeing an opportunity to make some moolah, gets Octane and RatBat to join him on a fuel syphoning scheme.

I feel like it’d be a Jawbreaker and Grimlock story as a gag on fossil fuel.

Book Idea 3: Revision of Recon where Swindle fixes the race using the RiD15 originated Stunticons. I already talked about this one.

Book Idea 4: Tarantulas runs afoul of an old lab partner, the insane Autobot scientist Flame.

(For a potential toy, I feel Flame would be a hybrid design of these two, taking more from the one on the right for ease of toy design.) Flame, fed up with the humans treatment of Transformers, decides to release a Cyber-Virus bio weapon Tarantulas developed during the Great War, and use it to Cyber Form Earth into something more palatable. Tarantulas needs Nightshade, Wheeljack and Hashtag’s help in a race against the clock to defeat Flame’s mad ambitions. Akin to RiD15 Grimlock with Simacore, Nightshade gets their first arch rival in Flame.

Book Idea 5: Nightshade and Sam team up to take down crime in Philadelphia, playing up a bit of the superhero side to the owl. Playful parody of 60’s Batman, using Animated supervillains like Angry Archer and Nanosec.

The supervillains are part of a larger scheme by the Decepticon Malignus.

Of which Nightshade and Sam need to call in the rest of the “Teen Terrans” and Bumblebee to help deal with.

Book Idea 6: Optimus Prime’s trailer/Combat Deck starts malfunctioning and causing a rampage around town, causing a headache for GHOST and the Autobots.

It’s discovered the jailhouse Decepticons implanted a computer virus into the trailer via Bombshell’s Cerebro Shells to spite the Autobots. Twitch, Robbie and Hashtag have to jack in and defeat the computer virus within, Kremzeek, in a video game showdown while Jawbreaker, Mo, Thrash, Nightshade and Megatron try to contain the Combat Deck on the outside. There’s a fun visual of Roller effortlessly pulling the trailer around town in its rampage.

Book Idea 7: GHOST develop their own Navi program in TORQ III from studying Cybertronian technology and Teletraan 1.

A hybrid of the G1 episode, Marvel UK’s Raiders of the Last Ark, and TFP’s Flying Mind, TORQ finds GHOST inefficient and seeks to apprehend every remaining Decepticon on the planet with his own methods, regardless of the consequences to the Autobots, and humans like the Maltos. Optimus, Elita and Megatron have to stop TORQ and his mind controlled Decepticons from starting a new Machine War.

Book Idea 8: The elusive Mirage, based on the RotB version with his body being closer to RiD01 Mirage, returns and pays a visit to the Malto household to see what all the hubbub is.

Mirage, Robbie and Thrash become fast friends, and team up to put a stop to the latest scheme of Swindle’s. Battletrap, Transit and Scorponok are present as part of further RotB synergy.

[maareyas]

Incredibly important question!!!

Are there more of Lettuce's species, and if there are, are they all just based on lettuce(like can there be purple or red lettuce ones), are they all just clones of each other, or are they based on vegetables and/or various food.

This felt like a very important lore question.

THERE ARE and I actually drew some of them!! I never posted the doodle but luckily i sent a screenshot to my discord once XD

friend suggested that Lettuce specifically would have the scientific name Cavianis Sativa Malignus instead

I imagine that different lettuce (the vegetable) variants would be more akin to different coat colors/patterns :3

[levityleviathan]

"Fulcrum. He was the first person I killed. A K-Class who was going to level Starsreach. I shot him. landed a round in his left eye from across the room. I still remember the yelling. The trembling in my hands as his fingers twitched a bit more before his spark faded. After that there was Darklight. and Umbra. and Biteback. Three of the guncons. they were part of a group that breached into the Grand Imperium to kill Orion Pax. I was acting as security. Two shots. the first passed through Biteback's neck, and into Umbra's forehead. The second i put directly into Darklight's chest, caused a Zero-point. he ended up dying a month later in an Autobot Infirmary. Then Blackwall, and then Killswitch, Retrofit, Malignus, Transit, Arm-Or, Trannis, Legonis, I can keep going if you want- I remember their names.

Can name the ships I took out of the sky too- The Rash Action, The Fatal Consequence, The Semper Tyrannis, The Torment, and The Doomsday I took down during The Rorsha Campaign. Back to back. One hundred and thirteen crew members died total, half as many made it out. Names, Ships, Manifests, Operations. I remember what I did. I remember who I did it to, and why I joined the Autobots. Every time I look at my reflection, I remember my sins, and I ignore them, I REPRESS them. I have to- Prime. I have to because if I don't- If I let myself think about it too long, I'll fall apart. I'm a good shot. Too good. People died by my hands, more than by yours, more than by Cliff's, or by Sideswipe's, maybe even more than most Decepticons. Ive killed Hundreds, maybe thousands of people. I've done it, because they shot first, and have kept shooting, and the worst part? The thing that makes my spark freeze up? You all stand around like I'm not some killing machine, I talk to try to drown out my own doubts, and to repress my thoughts, and to- to-

To just IGNORE introspection, and to avoid people looking at me, and examining the things I've done, and the people I've hurt, and- and its just- Primus- it works, its drowns it all out- Primus it works. Then it gets late- gets dark, maybe I'm on patrol, maybe not- It gets dark, and late, and the sun sets, and I- I'm not a religious woman- never have been- but I pray."

"I pray that I can make it to the sunrise in one piece."

[gluttonygirls]

But why not play Malignus if you wanted a really really big creature? Especially against someone that has a gigantic set of couch breaking hips a big lifetotal?

It's not a worm, a wurm, or a wyrm-

That, and it's hard to beat them, because every time I lose I get fed and it just gets harder to focus-

[autoacafiles]

[mmalignus]

2022 Curitiba, Brasil

[danco110]

“Stick close to the torch.”

The traveling noblewoman nodded and clung tightly to her guide’s side, earning a quiet chuckle from the cathar.

“Yeah, that’ll do,” the soldier muttered under her breath. “And keep an eye out. Lots of zombies and vampires around nowadays.”

The noble nodded vigorously once more, scanning the tree line with eyes unadjusted to such darkness. “Yes, of course. And I’m sure it will also come in handy if we run into Ishkanah, or any of her accursed brood- Ow! What was that for?”

The cathar raised her torch once more, having used the butt of the handle to strike her charge on the top of the head. “This torch shall not burn spiders, their webs, their eggs, or their captured food!”

“But what if they attack us?”

“Have…have you ever been attacked by a spider?”

“Well, no, but-”

“Exactly. Ishkanah and hers keep to the deepest parts of the Ulvenwald. And even if they didn’t, I still wouldn’t dare try to set them ablaze.”

The noble put one hand on her hip. “Well…why not?”

“Besides potentially starting a cataclysmic forest fire, maybe spawning another Malignus? Let me think…oh, yeah! Ishkanah keeps the woods safer for us!”

“And how in the world does she do that?”

“You’ve taken this road through the woods before, yes? Albeit with different guides before me?”

“Yes.”

“And have you ever seen a witchstalker on this road, let alone been attacked by one?”

“A wolf? No.”

“Exactly.”

“You mean to tell me Ishkanah hunts wolves?”

“Yes.”

“…Oh…I thought she was smaller than that.”

“And that’s why you’re hiring a guide.”

“H-Hey…!”

[Headcanon: on Innistrad, they’re called wolf spiders because they actually hunt wolves.]

[thewiglesswonder]

this might be an odd question, but how much does Mac know about the Destrons and/or Malignus caste, either from the data cylinder or from what other bots have told her? I remember that the data cylinder Mac handled contained the history of the Decepticons - how far back does that go? does it start only with what led to Megazarak's exile? does it contain anecdotes of what carried over from the prior faction(s)?

This is actually an extremely cool question, just to get that out of the way first, and thank you for asking it! In regards to the information, the Malignus era is where things start to get fuzzy. Like, Mac knows of them, but it'll take her a while to fish out the name "Ariex" from her brain, and even then, the information is more of an overview than anything. The origins of the Decepticons lie with the Destrons, so their history goes fairly in-depth as well. The events leading up to Megazarak's rule and exile onward have the most clarity and detail.