#and I could honestly see this happening in g1

[equusmaniac]

Locations

Megatron: “Come to die, Prime?”

Optimus Prime: “To see if it's suitable for death,” (he pauses for a moment, looking at their surroundings) “So yes, I think it is.”

Megatron: “You really are suicidal Optimus, I will make your suffering come to an end quickly.”

Optimus Prime: “I never said who was going to die today, I just said the location was good,” (he turns serious) “Though someone is going too, and I doubt it'll be me.”

[icyrambles]

the cassettes are a group of characters where if i think about them for too long i start to get physically ill.

because i really like the cassettes. they're really fun and i adore the concept of a guy who happens to have a gaggle of goons to do his dirty work. the combination of making them actual cassettes who live inside of soundwave (and/or blaster but this is gonna be a soundwave cassette focused post) is really interesting.

unfortunately most bits of canon (and fanon to be entirely honest) do not treat the cassettes as actual beings with their own thoughts, feelings, and personalities outside of "soundwave's little guys."

for the sake of clarity i will only be talking about the continuity that i have the most experience with, that being idw1 and my post will mostly be talking about those versions of the characters. i've been told that the cassettes feature more prominently in the g1 marvel comics but i haven't quite gotten around to reading those in depth so i won't be discussing those.

back on topic.

i always feel so disappointed at the actual cassettes as characters. they're often sidelined into being background characters and the majority of the time when they show up in fics they're never majour characters, just background guys to pad out the cast. i'm honestly not gonna judge fan writers and fan artists too harshly because most canon sources don't really feature the cassettes as actual characters worthy of having attention paid to them.

idw1 is specifically the continuity where i feel a bit sick whenever i think about the cassettes because they go through sooooo much shit and it's never brought up. like okay, laserbeak, buzzsaw, and ravage are mostly chill. obviously they probably have the whole beastformers are lesser beings thing going on but they're overall the most well rounded of the cassettes. (ravage especially since he's actually allowed to be a character outside of soundwave)

rumble and frenzy are were my stomach starts to like... explode. because they didn't get a choice in being soundwave's cassettes and it's never brought up, ever. megatron basically tells them that they're gonna be reformatted and neither party ever brings it up. like do rumble and frenzy just tolerate soundwave because it could be so much worse? do they genuinely respect soundwave and fight beside him because they want to see him succeed in a similar manner as the beastformers? like... phase 2 shows them reformatted again into motorcycles and they seem okay with it, like neither of them seem to be hung up on no longer being cassettes.

but also i have issues and problems with rumble and frenzy always being shown as a package duo. like i think they're a fun combo, especially as siblings because i adore platonic relationships but most pieces of canon treat them as interchangeable. like it's an ongoing joke in the fandom that they swap paint colours to fuck with people and in actual canon sources they don't have consistent colours so it's harder to actually treat them as genuine individuals. and that makes me soooooo mad. i don't like it when twins/duos in media get treated as a weird conglomerate individual with two names. it's boring and it's lazy and i wish it would stop happening.

side tangent. i hate what how skybound treats the cassettes. like okay yeah sure it's fun to see soundwave go "you hurt my ravage" but what about his other cassettes. either rumble or frenzy is dead and soundwave just doesn't fucking care? does he play favourites, boy i sure would like to know but daniel warren literally fucking said that he killed off one of the twins because he found the colour debate to be annoying and that grinds my gears a bit. if you don't like them, don't fucking include them or idk, have mike spicer, the colourist, keep their palettes consistent.

and skybound also treats ravage like an object. he's not an actual character with thoughts and feelings and emotions, he's a fucking toy for soundwave to moon over whenever warren needs soundwave to be less of an asshole than shockwave. like yeah sure, soundwave being so desperate to get ravage repaired in skybound is good for his character but that dynamic, where ravage has no actual dialogue and no actual personality outside of "soundwave's cassettte" makes him so much less interesting to me. skybound is getting a small benefit of the doubt because there's only 11 issues so far, but i will critique it to all hell because any emotional tension involving ravage and soundwave falls apart for me because ravage could easily be replaced with literally any other cassette. he's not special and the comic doesn't do anything to make me genuinely care about soundwave and his relationship.

tangent over. i'm going back to talking about idw1.

specifically it's time to talk about the fucking elephant in the room that i'm always thinking about whenever soundwave's cassettes come up; ratbat.

now to preface this little rant of mine. ratbat sucks. he's a terrible person who actively believed and contributed to the oppression of millions of cybertronians. he used soundwave as nothing more than a tool and proved himself to be a slimy scumbag with the few moments that he was on screen.

however, that does not stop me from feeling just a tad bit bad for him considering how soundwave treats him. it's one thing for the decepticons to murder the whole senate, those characters don't really matter in the long run, they're nameless, they never get brought up ever again and the story just doesn't care about them once they're dead.

but ratbat is different because rather than killing him, soundwave shoves his dying spark into a cassette body and for all intensive purposes, turns ratbat into his slave. because ratbat doesn't get a choice, he doesn't get the ability to say no. he just has to be toted along and do whatever soundwave tells him to do and that alone makes my opinions on idw soundwave.... well they're not great. because later stories treat idw soundwave like he's a good guy, he's the dude who wants to make the decepticons what they were originally, he wants to be done with cybertron's bullshit.

and i have to sit there, fist clenched, wanting to grab him by the fucking shoulders and ask "WHAT ABOUT RATBAT? WHAT ABOUT THE GUY WHO YOU LITERALLY MADE INTO A SLAVE FOR AT FOUR MILLION YEARS AND WHOSE DEATH YOU DIDN'T HAVE ANY REACTION TO WHATSOEVER? DOES LIBERATION AND EQUALITY ONLY MATTER WHEN IT COMES TO GUYS WHO DIDN'T PERSONALLY FUCK YOU OVER?"

ehem, anyways, yeah i do not like the fact that idw just brushes over the fact that ratbat is not willingly soundwave's cassette. they do not ever focus on the fact that soundwave stuffed his former employer's spark into a completely different frame and then proceeded to do exactly what ratbat did to him for around four million years. and then didn't react whatsoever to ratbat dying.

like in early idw1, ratbat doesn't have any dialogue. he's a nothing burger character like all the other cassettes. but idw phase 2 specifically makes him a political rival. he's the guy in charge of the cons (along side shockwave to some extent) and then prowl fucking orders arcee to kill ratbat and no one ever talks about him ever again...

i have complicated emotions regarding ratbat because the story really wants you to see his treatment and go, yes, he deserves this treatment, he's evil and he was mean to soundwave and therefore he deserves to be imprisoned by another and used as a weapon for four million years and once he's dead we'll never talk about him ever again.

and i don't think that's fair. ratbat should've been a crucial character to soundwave after he died. soundwave should've had a moment in phase two where he realises that the decepticons have been terrible from the beginning, that he was actively a part of that terribleness, and he should've made the active decision to change the decepticons into something that stands for equality and freedom and peace.

i'm gonna move onto ravage because i feel so bad for ravage. he got shafted hard. oh the one hand, i love mtmte ravage, i adore seeing the cassettes in environments that don't involve soundwave because it means the writers have to actually care about them as more than just little guys that soundwave bosses around.

unfortunately, ravage goes from being soundwave's little guy to being megatron's little guy in mtmte. which like... okay, fine, megatron needs a guy who he can bounce off of and ravage fits that role pretty well (though i'd argue that having megatron potentially bounce off of an autobot whose morals are a bit lax is much better than simply having a decepticon who already likes him.)

but the point is, ravage, rather than being his own character who has thoughts and opinions, only exists to be a buffer for megatron. the devil on his shoulder if you will, trying to see and understand and coax megatron back into being the fearsome leader he was before. and it works to some extent, ravage getting fatally injured is literally what prompts megatron into ripping the djd to shreds. but unfortunately, that's ravage's only real purpose in the story. we don't see him interacting with any other characters means that he's entirely dependent on megatron for any insight to his character development. nautica is an exception but i have my own issues with the fact that she treats him like a pet upon first meeting him and like... to my knowledge she never really gets over that whole cute kitty aspect of their relationship.

and this makes me so mad because ravage is really interesting. he's older than most of the characters on the lost light and should reasonably be a fascinating insight to how beastformers are treated and discriminated against during the pre and post war eras. but instead he's relegated to a side character who gets murdered to further the arc of megatron, a character who sort of forgets about ravage as soon as lost light starts. this isn't helped by megatron's character arc being rushed and happening mostly off screen but ravage's death feels so unnecessary to me. he would've been much better had he been forced to be separated from megatron for most of lost light.

and unfortunately this is much the same for most other continuities. transformers prime my forever detested treats laserbeak like a fucking drone. it doesn't have any voicelines, it's just a little creature hooked up to soundwave's chest. (i haven't read the books because i cannot be bothered with aligned continuity and also if i have to go to external sources of canon beyond the original show to get key character information, it probably wasn't too important to begin with)

earthspark is fun in season 1, i'm happy that frenzy and laserbeak are allowed a few moments of time outside of soundwave but they're very minor characters and unfortunately ravage isn't much of a character considering he can't speak (which is weird because laserbeak can) and only gets a few scenes throughout seasons 1 and two.

cyberverse only has laserbeak and once again she/he (i don't think they state their pronouns) only exists to be soundwave's little guy.

tfa soundwave is so nothing burger that i genuinely forget that he exists 90% of the time. so his cassettes, as to be expected, not characters and just random objects to be played around with.

my point in all this is that the cassettes deserve better. they deserve to be actual genuine characters who are treated as more than just set pieces for soundwave and the other decepticons. i hope that in later transformers series, the writers give the cassettes the opportunity to shine.

[arceespinkgun]

Honestly with IDW, even though I think a lot of the ideas and even some plot points were cool, the way it treated certain characters felt weird to me.

Perceptor was character I liked a lot in his Sunbow cartoon version, especially the episode with him, Brawn, and Bumblebee. He’s not a complex character or deep, none of the g1 characters really were, but I thought he had a lot of potential in his dynamic with Brawn and how he’s basically the opposite of Shockwave - someone who sticks to being a scientist in war, but becomes a pacifist instead of a morality-less monster. I think there’s a lot of ways he could have been expanded on.

Then… IDW happened, and now his most popular version feels like a spit in the face to the old Perceptor.

I get what they were going for, “war is hell and changes people”, but they way the comic does this seems like it’s showing that Perceptor “came to his senses” after what happened rather than he was very traumatized. I know the comic this happens in is from the wrecker’s perspective, but it feels less like a tragedy and more of an excuse to write him as a different character - especially since his old personality is basically gone from then on. It’s a bit frustrating how it feels like a writer went “old Percy is lame and nice, now he’s cool and an asshole!”

Sorry lol, I’m scared to make my own post since IDW is pretty popular and I don’t like making people feel bad for liking a character.

Just a quick note: I'm a little confused by the mention of Perceptor being a pacifist. There are actually a decent number of Autobots who've been portrayed as pacifists, but I don't think Perceptor ever has been? He just is rarely on the battlefield since he's focused on science, that's why Brawn was bullying him at first. Or do you mean you'd like for Perceptor to be one?

You know, I don't really think you should be scared to post takes like these. The post I made where I said I felt MTMTE/LL Getaway should really be treated with more nuance and that he was done incredibly dirty was one that sat in my drafts for ages because I thought people would be furious and disgusted if I said it (I've seen intense reactions to the character, mostly because he's a self-described groomer). But then I posted it and a bunch of people agreed with me and nobody seemed to be mad? With another post about IDW I made, I've seen people vague about me... but that's all. Nothing bad happened. I think the narrative about this continuity is finally shifting away from the "THESE ARE LITERALLY THE BEST-WRITTEN TRANSFORMERS THINGS EVER" take that I used to see all the time.

I didn't like this version of Perceptor as a cold sniper either, but I think I'm more bothered by the fact that like, Nick Roche and JRo wrote him basically reprogramming Kup to make him Prowl's slave...?! What was that? What would Perceptor's friend Blaster think of that given his own trauma in IDW? And then later, JRo had Perceptor be in MTMTE/LL, but then had him be one of the mutineers, who all got disrespected and barely explored in the narrative, and eventually JRo had him get with Brainstorm as a couple at the end after having barely interacted with him in a positive way whatsoever. Huh?

I definitely prefer cute Perceptor as he was in G1 and one of my biggest fandom pet peeves is how so many fans seem to think IDW is definitive somehow in terms of its lore and how characters were written when many times its takes were really bad! You know who I think has it maybe the worst ever? Ultra Magnus. He was literally written to be a different person LMAO

[ppnuggie]

hi! if ur comfortable with it can i ask for the constructicon and insecticons x gn human reader?:3

　　　　　　G1 x gn reader

　　　　『　constructicons ,, insecticons ,, gender neutral reader 』

　　-> relationship headcannons

　　— fluff ,, sfw ,, crack

　　— YESSS i love these guys sm 😭🙏🙏 i wrote sm of them ,, hope you enjoy

    - constructicons

| • these guys are so silly ,, theyre always trying to get your attention ,, especially if youve been gone for long or theyve been at work for a while

| • whether hook wishes to admit it or not ,, he does make plans with you in mind . he thinks about you more than youd think ,, always on the lookout whilst at work for something that'd pique your interest

| • scrapper just enjoys hanging around you in general ,, no matter what it is you two do !

| • you two could chill out and watch earth tv shows and he'd enjoy every minute ,, especially if it means you get to sit in his lap

| • mixmaster loves to steal you away any chance he gets though ! so be prepared to be picked up and tossed all around with him around

| • he is a sweetie though ,, and loves to hug and hold you close to him ,, even if its just an excuse to be close to you

| • mixmaster would take you wherever you wished to go ,,vibing to whatevers on the radio

| • but dont forget about scavenger :( whilst pushed out a lot by the rest of the constructicons ,, he really feels happy with you

| • he enjoys mass displacing and making blanket forts with you . he also loves how soft everything is ,, you included ! he'll probably steal any plushies you have and store them away in his habsuite <3

| • or he'll snatch a couple of blankets and pillows when you arent looking

| • bonecrusher also doesnt mind what you two do ,, but he is somewhat intrigued by human food ,, and tries to make it based off one of the shows you watched with scrapper

| • it didnt go so well though ,, and the other constructicons make fun of him for it

| • he enjoys when you give him a little cheek kiss ,, the big bot acts like a little girl ,, giggling in delight

| • long haul usually gets time to spend with you last because of how overworked he is ,, but he knows you'll listen to his troubles

| • youre there to cheer him up ,, make him feel better ,, he swore that if he wasnt a decepticon and wasnt so attached to the constructicons ,, he'd give away his days to spend with you

    - insecticons

| • being with the insecticons is quite chaotic ,, especially when they dont really listen to the rules and all

| • not only are they super clingy but theyre super overprotective of you ,, any bot that happens to look wrong at you is now landing themselves into the medbay for repair

| • shrapnel spends the most time with you ,, whether you think about it or not

| • he usually says its to protect you from certain decepticons ,, but hes just really worried that something might happen and he wont be there to help you

| • youre the only human he likes :( he cant have you just dying on him ,, now when hes this attached

| • kickback loves to break into your home though ,, no matter how often you try to foolproof your house of insecticons ,, he always finds a way in

| • honestly youre considering getting bugspray but youre pretty sure thatd just make him mad

| • kickback also loves invading your fridge <3 so thanks to him youre always in need of a refill

| • though he usually eats the leftovers that you havent gotten around to eating ,, and unfortunately the tubberware too

| • its pretty much futile to stop him from eating it ,, hes threatened to eat the whole fridge before and you honestly dont want to take that chance

| • it takes time but bombshell ends up warming up to you in the end ,, and finds himself conflicted about his emotions for you

| • on one hand ,, youre a human and he knows how little time you live ,, how its a waste of time to even bother mingling with you

| • and on the other ,, youre quite addictive ,, and he cant bring himself to stop seeing you in the end ,, always seeking you out

| • he's probably the one with the only braincell amongst the insecticons ,, always fretting about how the others are gonna crush you

| • he doesn't understand how you can just laugh it off ,, letting kickback lay all his weight in your lap ,, he swore he heard a crunch somewhere !

| • though due to this ,, hes hesitant on giving you affection ,, but he does adore when you give him a hug or a kiss to the forehead

| • at night when you cuddle ,, he chitters silently and it's honestly become a replacement for white noise on the background

[rowiewritesstuff]

Hehe, here we go. Part 2 with the transformers multiverse where a good month passed (the base is fine and the Decepticons are so confused they don't even plan an attack or anything, they're just.. there and I think STARSCREAM from every damn universe is just hoping to not get a beat from Megan) they still didn't fix the groundbridge situation and William Lennox and Epps have been called in to assist (much to his utter amazement and he’s so done with life at this point and Epps totally fainted) and he meets T.F.P. Reader who is a lil younger than his own and well it just so happens that there is a reader in the Bayverse universe who works with the scientists at Sector 7 and Lennox decided to bring her to help! Sooo... my guy Bayverse O.P. has no clue what to do, can’t take his own damn advice to actually speak to the reader and she is almost the same as T.F.P. just a tad better at keeping her romantic feelings in and more waiting for the guy to speak to her ’cause she is amused. G1 totally made matters worse and T.F.P. Reader mainly helped the Ratchets and her counterpart. They actually start becoming friends and it was albeit awkward at first, but they definitely got comfortable quickly! I could imagine my Animated O.P. just low-key sulking wondering if he’ll get to meet his reader.

Ratchets when they see Bayverse O.P. trying and MISERABLY failing to interact with Bayverse Reader: “I’m too old for this shit.”

Bayverse transformers are just so confused and Jazz is totally loving this, seeing their Prime so... scared, worried, confused and the Bayverse reader could tell that their counterparts are dating and honestly is more curious and happy that they found love at least. Bayverse Reader is a total science and weapons nerd (Lennox and Epps are more worried than anything ’cause they are kind of protective of her) and 100% becomes Bayverse and G1 Ironhide’s pal. I would like to see how O.P. tries to talk to her or if he’ll avoid her in fear of hurting her and how their interactions just end up so nerd-like and a disaster. Bayverse Bumblebee is totally teasing tf outta the Primes at this point.

Bayverse Optimus X Bayverse! Reader TMV Pt. 2

It had been over a month since the huge multiverse events happened. The bots from all of the universes check in on one another every once in a while- even assisting with fighting the occasional decepticon. 

You were brought in by two soldiers who worked with the Autobots- Epps and Lennox. They escorted you from Sector 7 to the Autobot base, ensuring your safe arrival- your presence and knowledge of Cybertronian science often attracting Decepticons. 

When you arrived, you were shocked to see a large group of Ratchets standing around, trying to solve the problem of the odd malfunction of the spacebridges. Even more shocking- there was a double of you there. They didn’t have the same hairstyle or clothing- but they were clearly the same as you.

“Fascinating. I didn’t believe that there were dupes, but now that I’m seeing it, there’s little room to doubt.” You said as you walked around your double. 

“Uh… okay then.” (Y/N) two, as you dubbed them, spoke awkwardly as everyone watched in curiosity. There was a sudden thump, and everyone looked over to see Epps unconscious on the ground. Everyone facepalmed. 

Bayverse Optimus was shocked to see you- he had only met the Primeverse version of you. You were clearly a little older- and your general air exuded confidence. 

(Y/N) Two wasn’t too different- but it was clear that there were key differences. You were surprised to see how Bayverse Optimus gravitated towards your counterpart, almost as if he had feelings for her. You grinned a little but quickly covered it up. 

You became quick friends with (Y/N) Two, and eventually you teased them for Bayverse Optimus’ feelings towards them. They looked shocked and a little off. 

“I’m already dating my Optimus. Are you sure he has feelings for me? He seems really into you.” 

The more you thought about it, the more you realized that your universe’s Optimus did spend more time with you. He would often offer to take you out on drives, or lift heavy objects for you.

As soon as this came to your attention, you decided to tease him subtly. Making a flirty comment here, and a compliment there. You never went to him, though. He always came to you for any interactions. 

The Ratchets all looked on in irritation and stress as they saw Optimus’ failed attempts to flirt back. He was far too flustered, and yet they weren’t surprised by his actions. No matter how strong of a face he puts on, they have known him for millions of years. 

Jazz and Animated Optimus talked about it, trying to keep quiet. Jazz thought it was hilarious, how the boss bot struggled to find the words to woo his crush. 

Animated Optimus, on the other hand, sulked. He wondered if he would ever find a version of you. From the way it looked, there was one of you in every universe- and he had no clue how to find you in his. 

The Ironhides and Wheeljacks absolutely adore this version of you. You’re funny, playfully flirty, and- best of all to them- a weapons expert. You made some weapons (that you got in trouble for later) and went with them to fire them off in the training area. How were you supposed to know apparently all Ratchets carry wrenches? 

You eventually began having feelings for Bayverse Optimus. It was adorable to you how he got when he tried to flirt with you, and even more so when he tried to ask you out and failed miserably because he couldn’t get out of his own head. 

Bayverse Optimus was a little angry with himself because no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t bring himself to ask you out. He had helped Primeverse Optimus get out of his slump- why couldn’t he help himself?

One day, he overheard you talking with his Ratchet and Jazz. “You know, it’s not cool to keep teasin’ him all the time.” Jazz laughed a little. 

“I agree- you’re driving him up the fraggin’ wall. If he asks me for my opinion one more time, I may run out of wrenches.” Ratchet grumbled.

“Hm, maybe I’ll let him take me on a date… Maybe. If he could ever ask me.” 

That night, Optimus got a bundle of flowers. When he handed them to you, he realized he had crushed them by accident in his huge servos. He was swearing at himself in his mind. “I-uh. They weren’t meant to be-”

“I know.” You interrupted him with a teasing smile. 

Bayverse Prime had never felt so much anxiety- not even while fighting his oldest foe. “Will you,” he paused. “Would you… like to go somewhere with me?” 

You raised your eyebrow. “Ah, where would this ‘somewhere’ be?” Your eyes glinted mischievously. 

A swell of confidence filled his spark and he suddenly spoke with his usual confident voice. “You will have to find out.”

There was a hush that fell over the room. Everyone pretended that they were working, when in reality they were listening for your answer. You looked at him, wrapping your arms around the crushed flowers gently as you leaned forward on the desk you were sitting at.

“Well, now I’m curious. I suppose I’ll have to see what you have in store.” You got up and began walking towards the exit. You looked back to see Optimus standing there dumbly. “Are you just gonna stand there…? Unless you changed your mind…” You teased.

Within seconds, Optimus transformed and left the base with you. Everyone was hooting and hollering as the two of you left.

[goldeaglefire1]

excuse me for one moment. I need to expose all the non-Transformers fans to the name overlap between Beast Wars and G1 because some of these examples are so fucking funny

"what are you talking about" glad you asked! you see, all the way back in the 90s, Transformers was actually dangerously close to getting canned entirely because after Generation 1 - that being the original toyline and cartoon - Hasbro attempted to continue the success with what they called Generation 2, and it sold like ass. Beast Wars was the solution to that issue, and it worked! the toys sold exceptionally well, the cartoon was well-received, everyone lived happily-ever after

except. because Beast Wars was an effort to revive the franchise it was effectively treated as a soft reboot. it was not a reboot (keep that in mind for later) but the people naming the characters weren't afraid to use names that were already used for G1 characters. this makes things exceptionally funny in hindsight considering how wildly different these characters can be from the original Transformer with their name

now. come along with me. let's journey through these name overlaps together.

going in no particular order (well maybe SOME order because I'm saving the funniest bit for last), let's start off with Scorponok

now, Scorponok is a name that kinda got passed around like a blunt later on in the Transformers series, but we're just focusing on the Beast Wars and G1 versions since that's the important comparison here. so! In Beast Wars, Scorponok is more or less your basic evil goon. guy who goes "you got it boss!" and then fucks it up immediately in comedic fashion. classic. so what did the original Scorponok do exactly?

well, you see, G1 Scorponok was the rival to Fortress goddamn Maximus. If you don't know who that is - which, honestly, is probably most of you - that is the Transformer who, and I cannot emphasize this enough, turns into an entire city. There are several of those fuckers but Fort Max is like. the OG guy who turns into a city. and G1 Scorponok was meant to be his rival.

so, I have to say, dear god can you imagine the amount of pressure that's on BW Scorponok. imagine sharing a name with the guy who regularly fistfought an actual fucking city. insane.

moving on, Silverbolt!

In Beast Wars, Silverbolt is a guy who turns into a wolf-eagle hybrid ("what-" toyline gimmick don't worry about it) who acts like a chivalrous knight with very clear cut black and white views - which, considering his teammates include Rattrap, the guy who gleefully uses every dirty trick in the book to pull ahead of the stronger, tougher Predacons, and [[REDACTED]], who defected from the Predacons but is still perfectly willing to use their methods from time to time, makes for. interesting conversations! anyway, G1 Silverbolt is the guy in charge of the Aerialbots, those guys being a combiner team who forms Superion, who is. The first big Autobot combiner I'm fairly sure? I don't actually know anything about G1 Silverbolt besides that I apologize to all the Aerialbot fans

speaking of guys who were named after combiner components! Rampage!

hooooooo BOY does Beast Wars Rampage make a fucking impression. result of a Maximal experiment gone horribly, horribly wrong, before the entire plot of the show happened he was given to out main cast of do-gooders with the explicit instructions of "please just dump him on a rock in space somewhere where he can't kill people or eat people or BOTH because we can't fucking kill him and we want him very far away from us." unfortunately, the plot happens, and Rampage breaks loose, causing everyone involved to have a very bad day, only punctuated when Megatron manages to get him nominally on the side of the Predacons by cutting his heart in half and putting said half in a cage he could squeeze as a sort of "leash."

this is the basics, by the way. I haven't even gotten into the whole ass guy who comes to prehistoric Earth specifically to kill Rampage. like. my god. there really isn't anything G1 Rampage can do to compare to whatever the fuck BW Rampage has going on aside from being part of Predaking. or possibly some IDW thing I'm not aware of

moving on from all that, Inferno!

now you might have noticed that up until now that, while the designs and personalities between the Beast Wars characters and the G1 characters can be drastically different, the Beast Wars characters tend to be on the equivalent of whatever faction the G1 character was on - i.e. Maximals for Autobots, Predacons for Decepticons. and then with Inferno, the G1 guy is a fire truck, clearly heroic, while the Beast Wars guy is...some sort of horrific ant man. so, what's going on there?

well, you see, in Beast Wars, Inferno is a Predacon who, due to a glitch in his programming, actually thinks he's an ant, and sees the Predacons as his colony (this also results in him she/her-ing Megatron on a regular basis by referring to him as "my Queen." this isn't relevant to anything I just thought you should know). this means he tends to charge in with zero regard for his safety because. y'know. ant mentality. meanwhile, G1 Inferno...well I know nothing about him, but, according to the wiki page, he apparently also does this, not because of the ant thing, but because he's just like that. Honestly, good for him

now, before we get to the funniest example, I would like to make an honorable mention to Megatron, the only guy with an actual reason for the name overlap

see, remember what I said about Beast Wars still taking place in the G1 continuity? Beast Wars Megatron is the first time that really comes into play because what I haven't mentioned before now is that for most of these guys, the names being the same as a G1 character is purely a coincidence because they were Protoforms at the start of the series - those being effectively blank slates/baby equivalents for Transformers - and started their lives on Earth, meaning the references to previous Transformers are purely coincidental. even homicidal crab man cannibal Rampage only got a proper name on Earth, being called "Protoform X" before then. sole exception to this rule is Scorponok, who was part of the Predacons from the start...and Megatron

"so is he the same guy as G1 Megatron? you said it's the same continuity as G1 so he's the same right" that's the fun part! he isn't! he very much is not G1 Megatron, he just looked at the OG and went "you know what. I want to do what you did. godspeed" and then he named himself after that guy. coincidentally, Megatron is also the name of a figure in the Convenant of Primus, AKA the Transformers equivalent of the Bible, which was completely made up for the Beast Wars cartoon and I'm convinced was introduced solely so they could say "hey our villain named himself after his religion's equivalent of the antichrist. and also may or may not be that antichrist due to time travel shenanigans" ("when did time travel get involved-" don't worry about it)

now, onto the funniest name overlap of all

mr. [[REDACTED]] himself

Dinobot

now, to be clear, Dinobot is one of the most popular characters to come out of the Beast Wars franchise. He's well known for his gradual change from "technically a good guy mostly because he hates Megatron's ass, he has a code of honor, and nothing else" to "honorable hero with one of the most heartbreaking death scenes in all of Transformers" over the course of his screentime, and is in fact so popular that he was the third Beast Wars character to get a Masterpiece figure - Masterpiece figures being incredibly complex Transformers figures that boast show accuracy in both forms and typically have the price range of a small kidney - with the first two being Cheetor and Optimus Primal. If you didn't get the implications of that, that means Dinobot managed to beat out Beast Wars Megatron for getting a Masterpiece toy first. MEGATRON. Again, might be a different guy from G1, but he is a Megatron! Still the main villain of the damn show! Says a lot that Dinobot was popular enough to get a toy first. I could go on, but I need to get back to the point - what's so funny about the name overlap here?

well. if you're even tangentially familiar with transformers, you might actually be able to guess this one!

no, seriously! this isn't a "geologists overestimating how much their audience knows about geology" moment, because if nothing else, the leader of these guys ("these guys?" shhhhhhh) is one of the most popular Transformers out there. if I may be so bold, I'd argue that after Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, and Starscream, the leader's name is like. one of the first Transformers characters who comes to mind. if nothing else I imagine you've seen a picture of this guy at some point

...

alright, ready to see if you were right?

3, 2, 1...

eeeeeeyup, the name overlap is with an entire subgroup of Autobots, and not only that, but one of the most popular subgroups of Autobots, led by one of the most popular Transformers of all time: Grimlock

and like. the Dinobots don't really have the whole "gradual redemption" "tragic hero" thing going on but they do have the ability to tickle the five year old within everyone's brain because their characters can be summarized as "caveman robots who turn into robot dinosaurs" and if that didn't cause said five year old in your brain to go "holy shit" you are actively lying to yourself. so it's very understandable why they're popular.

the funny part is that because Dinobot shares a name with the Dinobots, the latter of whom are more popular and will get priotity, every Transformers writer since Beast Wars has effectively been locked out of making their own version of Dinobot, and I imagine there has been at least one guy cursing out whoever decided to give the bot who would be Dinobot a name that overlaps so heavily with other popular characters. the most he's shown up outside of the original cartoon is in the War for Cybertron cartoon (which. I'll be honest I've heard very little about and haven't watched myself but what I have heard is "it's bad" so that hasn't been encouraging) and the IDW comics. and that's it. while any sane person would count those as their own continuities, by Hasbro's logic they're the same universe as G1, so like. if we go by Habsro logic he hasn't even shown up anywhere beyond G1. which is insane given how popular he is - again, see "third Beast Wars character to get a Masterpiece, beating the local Megatron," and did I mention that one time he won the Transformers Hall of Fame in Botcon 2010 purely by fan vote. because he did do that. I guarantee you that the only reason Dinobot has not shown up more is because of that name overlap. The group of Dinobots may be more popular but I have to imagine there's at least one guy at Hasbro fuming over not being able to make money off of Dinobot (the character) toys outside of shit like the Legacy toyline

and like, while I do wish Dinobot would show up more, the thought of that is extremely funny

[magpiemagica]

-Guide to Rainbow High G1.5-

Differences Between G1 and G1.5 dolls:

- There seems to be less of a focus on designer fashion. In leaks, multiple accessories are recolored and reused from other dolls. Not unheard of for fashion dolls but something Rainbow High is not known for doing.

- As far as we know (right now December 2023), Poppy Rowan seems to be cut from the main lineup. This kinda stung. I’m not a big Rainbow High fan (more of a ironic enjoyer) but Poppy was my favorite while watching the webseries. She was the only neurodivergent character (synesthesia) and was overall very cute 🦋💔

- All the main dolls being released in this new gen have forehead glitter. I think it is supposed to make them look more cohesive next to their new pets. I can see this giving ooak customizers some trouble. Along with the forehead glitter, the dolls also have tinsel in their hair (another inconvenience for many collectors and ooaks)

- The elephant in the room, the unicorn/hybrid pets. Based off of the latest webisode and YouTube shorts, these little shits (/j) seem to be a big part of the new series and are going to bring some fantasy elements to the brand (portals, magic eggs, etc.) Whether you find these creatures cute or not is really up to your personal taste and patience lol.

- The slime. The first line of new toys really focuses on slime play and creation. As someone who worked with kids a lot at the peak of the slime trend, I could easily see this going south for sales. Slime is messy, gets in the doll’s hair, is hard to clean up, and very frustrating for parents to deal with. Also collectors of what I’ve seen have little to no interest in the slime too. It could be a hit but I see it affecting the brand more negatively than positively.

- Change of setting. As of the day of posting this, Rainbow high has posted an YouTube short of Sunny jumping through a rainbow portal. Sounds like we might be leaving Rainbow High as a setting. I honestly have no clue where the new series will take place; I’m not too familiar with the “Poopsie Surprise universe”.

- Main character design changes. Amaya (based off of the leaks) has changed the most in fashion and appearance. She now has reverted back to her white and rainbow hair (emphasis on the rainbow). Her clothing is also much more in your face with the rainbow theming. If you are a fan of Amaya in Moschino, don’t worry, she still has a brand inspired bag.

- New webseries. On leaked dolls, there is a sticker “as seen on Rainbow World”. I guess Rainbow World is the name of the new series that will be dropped. It is unsure whether Netflix will pick it up this series like they did with Rainbow High. The webisodes will most likely be posted on the YouTube channel.

- No wrist articulation. Is exactly what it sounds like. The new dolls will not have wrist articulation like the Rainbow Junior High.

——————-——————-——————-——————-

Personal Questions and Concerns For the Series:

- What happens to Shadow High? Will any of characters we know come through the portal with the Rainbow High students? Or will they just disappear from the series as a whole?

- Will members of the main cast missing from the leaked line up be included in this new series like Poppy or Bella?

- How much will the doll prices differ?

- What new characters will be introduced in this portal world?

- What will the plot be and how will the show runners keep the world engaging?

- I am concerned about the characterization of the main cast. Rainbow High was relatively grounded before and now with all of these magic elements getting introduced, I’m worried some of the characters might all blend together in order to focus on the pets. Also just general character butchering.

——————-——————-——————-——————-

Overall, I just wanted to make this post as a general summary of what is going on with Rainbow High right now as a doll brand. There is a lot of different information and I wanted to throw it all in one place for people who aren’t super up to date on this kinda stuff. This is a kind of doll rebranding you don’t really see everyday and I want to document it.

Posted December 12, 2023

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

What kind of toys do you like?

[pretend i'm twirling my hair] I'm sooooooo glad you asked! Most of the toys I like are either dolls or small little guys, normally made with a young girl demographic in mind! I always adored dolls, but whenever I see a tiny little creature my mind just go bonkers. Like! It's a small little creature! In a small little world!

My favorite doll lines are Monster High and 2000s Barbie dolls in general. MH g1 is something else, although I'm eyeing the g3 (the newer ones) with heart eyes. I REALLY need to caught up on what's happening over there, but it's all so adorable! The theming is IMPECCABLE, let me tell you that. Barbie dolls from the 2000s are very nostalgic to me as well, as I believe it was Barbie's pinkiest and sparkliest era to this day (hopefully this changes soon!). I think Blythe dolls are adorable as well, and I hope I can get one someday, even if it's "just" a fake. BJDs are also something I really like, altho it's nothing compared to MH and Barbie dolls to me. I want to get into Bratz dolls as well, though!

Here's the obligatory shout-out to Novi Stars. FANTASTIC doll line for how creative and out there it was, and it's such a shame it didn't last longer!

I really want a Susi doll one day, though. I love her face mold, and many of her dolls have incredibly adorable clothes. For context, Susi is a doll made by Estrela, a brazilian toy company, and she's just the cutest thing:

For the tiny ones: Polly Pocket falls in the middle between fashion doll and tiny girl. I'm talking about her 2000s incarnation, whose plastic clothes will always be iconic to me. Tiny little fabulous worlds! It's perfect! But Littlest Pet Shop will always be #1 in my heart when it comes to tiny little ones. I'm obsessed, I NEED to expand my collection and I'm SO happy that they made a comeback recently! I really like how Hasbro, the owner of the brand, is doing the new molds for the pets, keeping the iconic look from the 2000s/early 2010s but adding to it. Have you guys seen the new axolotl pet?

GOSH, THEY'RE SO CUTE.

I never had Sylvanian Families (very expensive for me!), but shout out to them as well. Everything is incredibly detailed and adorable, and I love seeing pictures of these little guys online! When I was a kid I wasn't interested on fofoletes at all (also made by Estrela), but I came to appreciate how they look. They're so cute!

Of course, I can't forget to mention My Little Pony (gen 3 toys specifically, although the gen 4 show did my brain chemistry). Their playsets... Magnificent. Honestly half the reason I like tiny toys so much is just because of the playsets, I loved making little scenes with my playsets as a kid and just looking at them.

Honestly, I have so many Pinterest boards full of girly toys at this point you guys could ask me to find a specific toy on them and I probably could lmao.

[lillified]

I remember you saying earlier (on twitter,not here) that the autobots were kind of boring,since they only fit into a few archetypes. I’ve kind of been thinking about that, and I thought they may also have been boring because of another thing: these few personality types means no one really bounces off eachother, and it doesn’t lead up to any interesting conflict.

This may only apply to G1,or I may just be talking nonsense, but compare them to the decepticons. The decepticons have a lot of different personalities , so they contrast against eachother and a lot of the times,disagree with eachother,creating conflict. However, with the autobots, the similar personality problem can come when no sort of conflict,even ones between certain characters,exists, and everyone has no sort of unique opinions towards eachother. And conflict,you know,makes up a lot for a story and characters.

A lot of people don’t care much about the autobot moments a lot, however you don’t really need to scour the internet to see videos and people posting about Megatron arguing with Starscream or skywarp getting clowned by rumble and frenzy, if you know what I mean.

hey!! wow, it is always surprising when people remember stuff I said lol

I’m admittedly just not really a big autobot fan (if I get the opportunity to write the autobots they’d be very messy) but I totally agree with you here—people seem to like the autobots, conceptually, for very different reasons than people like the Decepticons, and it factors into an interesting dichotomy between how different people view characters as a literary device.

while it isn’t a rule by any means, I’ve noticed there are a lot of people who love certain autobots, but specifically like them in isolation. the idea of the character is more important than anything they’ve actually done. pretty much every autobot that exists has a fan, but they could have little, if any, screen presence. this isn’t bad, of course! in many cases, it’s extremely novel and sweet. that being said, I’ve noticed that even the most prominent autobots have this happen—Optimus Prime is more of a symbol than a character, and that separation is a source of comfort.

This also happens with Decepticons, but I’d argue it’s to a lesser extent? They tend to have much more defined and consistent character relationships, arcs, and themes. The decepticons who are viewed in isolation most frequently would probably be Soundwave and Autobot Megatron, which is interesting (I am honestly not a fan of the modern characterizations of either of these, but I totally understand why people are!), in that their interactions, story purposes, and even personalities are flattened to separate them from the underlying narrative. People love the idea of Soundwave, but fail to give it a personality.

Once again, I don’t think any of this is bad! Moreover, isolating characters from the existing narrative and putting them in different places according to where they might better suit a story is a very good thing, actually. I’ve never agreed with the pushback for iterative/adaptive media altering existing characters’ traits or personalities to suit their thematic purpose, because I think it takes away the agency and undermines the vision of the artist. obviously you can dislike certain characterizations (I do that often) but blaming a deviation from the norm is extremely reductive. Trying to stick to an idealized checklist of how a character ought to act instead of recognizing them as a reactive, dynamic story device is how you end up with flat, unchanging characters and a boring story.

To tie that back to what I like about the decepticons, I think the fact that they are so messy is their strength—they aren’t all just different skins on the same archetype, they’re unique thematic elements which adapt and serve a function in the story. You can make them physically and even archetypally unrecognizable, but as long as you utilize them as elements in the story and afford them the conflict and complexity they deserve, it’s much more difficult to go wrong.

thanks for reading, and thank you for the question!! I hope this all makes sense—I wiped myself out last night and I’m still recovering, so I apologize if this was incoherent lol

[lets-try-some-writing]

If you could mix transformers universes what would you do

Hm. Well honestly that is a question that would require a bit of thought to answer well. But off of the top of my head I feel like bayverse and tfp could mix well due to the relatively similar personalities of the bots involved. Or better yet, G1 and Animated due to the ties between the two.

In tfa the G1 war is a canon thing that happened (at least I am pretty sure), meaning it would be quite easy to swap around a little lore and make everything work out well.

G1 & TFA Lore Mix

It wouldn't be hard to drop G1 Optimus in there and throw him into the plot as an ancient war hero who fought for the Autobots. He would have the Matrix and be a true Prime, an actual herald of Primus during the early years of the war. Whatever his origin story, him and Megatron would hate each other but have this odd Perry the platypus and Dr. Doofenshmirtz like relationship to keep with the fun G1 feel. But sooner or later Optimus would start becoming a threat to the Autobot high council and eventually he would see the corruption. At some point during the height of the war when the council believed themselves near victory, they would try to get rid of him due to his too good morality getting the way of their goals. At some point Optimus would disappear without a peep, prompting intense backlash from Autobots and Decepticons alike.

Megatron and his Decepticons, while still not fond of Optimus, respected him greatly and would lash out, knowing that most likely the Prime had been killed. And Optimus's most loyal Autobots would rebel but ultimately find themselves slowly being picked off and mind wiped or sent out to dead-end positions where they would have no influence. The council would rewrite the story of Optimus Prime, turning him into a fairy tale figure, a made up story of loyalty and bravery to the Autobot cause for young sparklings. And with time, Optimus Prime would fade into obscurity outside of the imaginations of sparklings, his legacy quietly removed and his records and assets destroyed.

Optimus's young son Bumblebee would be put into stasis, too small to remember just about anything in regards to his Creator. He would only be woken vorns upon vorns later when not a spark would remember his lineage, at which point he would be drafted into boot camp. All of Optimus's old comrades save Ratchet, Kup, and a few others would be... removed, new sparklings being given their names to make up for the loss. Ratchet and the few that remained would be blackmailed into remaining silent, their skills too useful to be lost and their disappearances being far too suspicious to be acted upon. Ultra Magnus hoping to save at least some of the legacy of his old commander and Prime, would take control of the Autobots as best as he was able. He would try to stop the implementation of the title of Prime as a military rank to no avail and struggle viciously to preserve the ideals he and his fellows fought for. He would try, but with time he would grow apathetic and detached from it all.

Eventually a young bot would be given the name Optimus by Kup in the hope that the youngling might live up to his namesake. And with that done, transformers animated would proceed as usual, with Optimus taking the fall for Sentinel and going to earth with his repair crew in an attempt to get the Allspark. Shenanigans would ensue and very little would change story wise besides a few small cultural things and perhaps a snippet or two of Bumblebee still loving the old sparkling tale of Optimus Prime the war hero. He would also definitely poke fun at the current Optimus all the time for being named after a fairy tale figure while secretly admiring him for it. Ratchet would also likely struggle to treat Optimus normally considering he served under the original and was his best friend. But overall everything would be normal... until the last of the Primes is unearthed trapped in a stasis pod.

Cue everything going to heck in a handbasket as the original Optimus wakes up very much confused, angry, and unsure as to what in the pits he is supposed to be doing. Not only that but he would have a bit of a breakdown trying to find his sparking, likely going onto believe that his little one is either dead or long gone. Ratchet would do what he could, but the original Optimus and the new would bicker, not really angerly, just because of differing styles of leadership and cultural misunderstandings. Maybe to make everything better the original Prime is weak from slumbering for so long, not at full strength or otherwise being mostly out of action for quite some time. He would become a mentor figure and work from the sidelines for most of the show, adding a more mystical element to everything or even a humorous aspect due to his age.

It could go many ways, but it would be fun nonetheless and has amazing potential for fluff and angst.

[lovelyllamasblog]

Some more EAH and MH stuff I made!

Pic 1: Apple Bite, my take on the leaked prototype dress that @luc-elementix posted a while ago. This would have been Apple dressed as/transformed into a vampire and would have happened in The Lost Movie or been movie exclusive dolls.

Pic 2: the Scarily Ever After doll line with Draculaura as Snow Bite, Frankie Stein as Threadarella, and Clawdeen as Little Dead Riding Wolf. (I know Frankie’s doesn’t really match the art, but I tried by best.)

Pic 3: Scarily Ever After Cleo and Abbey. They only appeared as background characters in Draculaura and Frankie’s stories, but I wanted to include them anyway. Cleo is the Evil Princess (/Queen) in Snow Bite and Abbey is the Fairy Ghoulmother (Scary Godmother in my head) from Threadarella. (In other stories, I think Cleo could be Sleeping Beauty and Abbey could be the Snow Queen.)

Pic 4: Destiny swapped Apple Queen and Raven White. Honestly, I just swapped their color palettes 😅 Nothing nuance here except maybe for Apple’s purple highlights. I kind of like this AU/theory. I know some people don’t and Apple could have just inherited her hair color from her dad (he’s stated as having blonde hair in the books), but it’s just such a cool theory to me.

Pic 5: Snow White and Eva Queen during their school days. This is taken from the comic Class of Classics, where we see the previous generation in their youth.

Pic 6: Gigi Grant, Djinni “Whisp” Grant, and Genie/redeemed Whisp

Pic 7: Howleen Wolf fashion evolution (G1 and G3). I really like her second look. I know some people don’t but Howleen’s whole thing is that she’s trying to find herself. She feels like she has something to prove since her older siblings have all done great things. Fashion is great way to do that. She’s expressing herself through her fashion. (I couldn’t get the hair poof that she has in her first and newest look so I went with the braided/cornrow look (I don’t know what hairstyle this is. My knowledge of African hairstyles is abysmal.)

Pic 8: Casta Fierce, Catty Noir, and Ari Hauntington. Honestly, these were my favorite to make. I love that MH made some pop stars. I still listen to Witching Hour and Catty’s songs are so good. I also really like her and Pharaoh. They are so cute and would definitely be THE monster pop star power couple (in my opinion). Ari also has a really interesting storyline. She’s a pop star in both the human and monster worlds.

[youngerfrankenstein]

hello can you introduce us to some of your ocs 👀

THANK YOU!!!

For the most part all my OC’s are from a specific story or story idea but unfortunately(? Maybe just how it is) the main two who live in my head rent free have had their story become more and more nebulous over time (still have a supporting cast though lol) Perhaps someday I will iron things out so they can pay for their stay, but also I just like having them around as imaginary friends.

Jules!

Juliet, but only her dad really calls her Juliet anymore. Mother was a Shakespeare scholar, passed away when she was four, hit her dad really hard. Cheery, energetic, friendly to just about anyone. And it’s only slightly forced at this point! Became a Shakespeare nerd herself and is actually a bit snippy about it. Can speak at least English, Spanish and Irish Gaelic (probably also French?) Has a tendency to not swear in English as to not get caught. Curious and enthusiastic perhaps beyond the point that’s good for her. And perhaps overly optimistic, though that’s largely a choice. A lot less blind to things than people tend to assume. Also a shorter temper. (And I have at this point made the executive decision she’s a big G1 Transformers fan because weirdly it suited her well? Helped her feel less awful about being called a robot due to being very unemotive until age like. 10 or 11. At which point she chose violence for a year or two. Followed by actively deciding the kind of person she would become.) She’s also just generally quite smart, though she also tends to miss the details. And also play up the goofier side of her personality to keep people a little less on-guard.

Sebastian!

Very, very angry teen when he and Jules met. And he was a grouch and a half to her. Basically an angry boy with a crush he had no idea what to do with. But weird shit happened and they became friends. Tends at least early on to lash out and just insult people. He keeps insulting people he just becomes a lot more clever and witty about it. It’s basically part defense mechanism, part a want to see how people react to different things and part he just finds it funny. Voice of an angel. Pianist and kind of a music nerd, taught himself on an electronic keyboard he fished out of the trash and from what theory books he could find at the library. Actually really good at reading people and could be the most charming man you’ve ever met if he didn’t have more fun being mean. That said he’s really not a bad guy and over time becomes a little more willing to be selfless and even hopeful, though he does tend to think the worst of people (he had a really shitty mom). He also becomes way more comfortable in his own skin. Honestly happy Jules never recognized his crush as they are way closer now than they would have been if she had.

(I, kind of have this thing about him where his absolute most hated thing in the world is an untuned grand piano. Since it means the person has the cash to buy one but no love for music or even respect for their own possessions, they just want a status symbol.)

Often they just hang out in my head. Sometimes with random other fictional characters lol. This feels like a dull way to put them but… they mean a lot to me okay? Almost as much as they mean to each other.

[lavend-ler]

Those guys from Transformers you like (I don't go there but you seem to love them 🤠)

I SURE DO LOVE THOSE TRANSFORMERS GUYS YES 😎🤠

u didn't specify which Transformers guys so lemme do my TF OTP SoundRod <3

god I'm like. so unwell abt them. I swear I am they have just won my heart over and I cannot stop thinking abt them. no matter the contuinuity too, this ship just ALWAYS works. and I think it's abt who they are at their cores

Soundwave is such an omniscent mech, he knows everything, he is everywhere. he is completely loyal and never wants anything else in his loyalty. he doesn't do it bc he wants to move up the ranks, he does it bc he genuinely believes his cause. he is calm, collected, he has to have everything under his control. and he's so curious, he needs to know more abt those arround him and the world around him. he is also so caring, even if he doesn't appear much like so. he genuinely cares not only for things he believes in but also mechs he believes in. also he's pretty much an asshole. I mean his most recognizable line is abt his superiority like. cmon

Hot Rod on the other hand is just passionate to his core. everything he does is out of love for everything around him. he wants to make the future better, he wants to lead mechs to the better future. he is headstrong and brash in his decisions but his spark is always in the right place. he is curious abt the world and wants to help everything. I also kind of never got from him that he truly needed the leader position, it just comes naturally for him. G1, CBV, it's all so natural to him. he is caring and charismatic, he wants everyone to see the world in pink just as he does

u see this already, right? one is calm and calculating, the other is loud and hotheaded. but it's the other traits that are so...similar to each other. hence I think that they would hit it off. they're both caring, curious and stubborn. not to mention, they both have a knack for leading, even if Rods is a natural born leader and Soundwave prefers to be the second one

and that's what I honestly love abt them. it's that their differences do NOT divide them but rather bring them closer. Rods would become steadier and think through more with Soundwave. Soundwave would live more in the moment and let things happen more. I truly believe these two would make each other better

it's also that moment of them being impressed by each other. with them being a Decepticon-Autobot couple it already creates Drama but I love to think abt the walls cracking. the moment when Soundwave is so impressed with Rods and his abilities in fight and leadership. thinking that he's more than just a dumb Autobot he's been fighting. same with Rods, he'd see a Decepticon who is not only abt the fight but also connections. that he cares and that tough exterior helps to protect others. and who could see behind the mask better than Rods?

also I think they both would be super into human culture. as in Rods would be into movies and racing and Soundwave ofc into music. they could share interests and times together

goddamn, I just love to see them share their time together and become better with each other. I see Soundwave becoming more affectionate, realizing how much Rods means to him. I see Rods choosing Soundwave, no matter what. I see them not caring abt the war just to be with each other. I think they both would see sth in each other they never knew they needed

and I was talking purely on all canons but knowing their story in Cyberverse.....holy shit man. it's a love story u know? I cannot describe it in any other way. the beautiful slow burn and opening up to each other. the fact that Soundwave loved Hot Rod so much he gave up his life so he can lead a better life. that's poetry man, one day I almost bursted into tears just thinking abt CBV ending

tl;dr as the band The Wombats sang once

[lord-squiggletits]

Do you like continuity cross MegOP? Like TFA Optimus x TFP Megatron and the sorts? (That's the most popular pair, it seems. Unlikely but I can see their point)

Not at all unless it's for a joke pairing, like IDW OP/IDW2 Megatron for both being jocks that like jumping off things or something.

I'm someone who very much feels that characters are a product of the world/story they're written within, so blending continuities or just ripping a character and putting them in another continuity makes it feel very disjointed imo.

Plus, one of my biggest MegOP pet peeves is the fact that the AO3 tag is proliferated with fics that are basically IDW Megatron/G1 or TFP or some vague continuity soup Optimus, because I hate IDW Optimus erasure.

Tangential hot take below the cut about a particular crossover MegOP pet peeve of mine, IDW Optimus, and the MOP fandom's treatment of him in general. If you don't like bitching, this is your disclaimer to not read.

Also. I really really hate how people will erase IDW Optimus and ship IDW Megatron with literally any other Optimus besides him, because for me it's incredibly boring and cowardly lmao.

Like, people can handle the fact that Megatron is a bad person (I mean honestly some people write him as if he has no flaws and doesn't need to apologize for anything, so maybe they can't handle Megatron being a bad person considering they refuse to acknowledge that he is/was idk) but they can't handle the idea of Optimus being morally gray? Megatron is allowed to be a complex pacifist-turned revolutionary-turned warlord-turned regretful Autobot, but Optimus has to be frozen in some G1/TFP mishmash where he's just an innocent librarian/dockworker whose main personality trait is being a nice dad completely erased of anything that makes him "problematic"?

You can't even argue "oh IDW OP sucks because he's a cop and cops are bad in real life" because 1. the story agrees with that and Optimus constantly faces the consequences of his pre-war alignment 2. people have no problem with the fact that Megatron was an imperialist technoist, and imperialism and racism are both bad in real life. And 3. if people had an issue with him being a cop, they could just write IDW OP's personality but give him a different job, except no one writes IDW OP's personality at all. For some reason people will excuse all of IDW Megatron's shitty behavior/beliefs away (or just pretend they're not canon) but viciously attack IDW Optimus's personality and the occupation he only had for like a fifth of his total life? It's really disappointing to see such favoritism and bad takes from MEGOP SHIPPERS who are the people you would expect to like BOTH Megatron and Optimus, but this fandom has an overwhelming amount of Megatron favoritism where people write him as having all the initiative and Optimus is just some oaf that doesn't understand why the war happened.

If people want an Optimus who's conscious of his role in perpetuating social inequality and contributing to the civil war, while still having relatable depression and having some moments of humor, IDW Optimus is literally right freaking here waiting for people to read his huge and interesting story.

Plus, half the people who bitch about IDW OP and say they hate him either haven't read the comics or completely misread/misrepresent what IDW OP actually does in the comics. If you want IDW OP to be "called out" or criticized then he gets called out and criticized all the fucking time. People just want OP to be a happy dad or a sadboi or an uwu twink and refuse to accept that since IDW is a darker story, Optimus needs to be dark and problematic along with it or else he doesn't fit within the context of his story.

This fandom's tendency to whitewash IDW Megatron while villainizing IDW Optimus is one of its most annoying qualities, and frankly I find it boring and childish lmao. Accept the fact that IDW Optimus is written like an actual person with flaws that can become ugly when he's put under the immense pressure of everything he's dealing with. Real people don't go through all the trauma and guilt IDW OP went through and remain perfect saints who are always nice and never snap out of anger/frustration. IDW Optimus is too interesting and cool for the people who just want unproblematic happy dad Optimus lmao.

And MegOP shippers shitting on IDW OP for things he didn't do or things that were understandable in context, while acting like Megatron did no wrong and should have everyone else apologize to him, is literally the reason why I don't read any MOP fics outside of my circle of friends/mutuals any more. It's just not worth reading fanfic when my favorite character is constantly erased and excluded from having stories written about him.

[darkstarofchaos]

SkyStar and Starscream/Soundwave

SkyStar: A+: OTP A: I love it B: It’s really cute C: Not a bad ship D: I’m neutral on it E: I don’t really like it F: NOTP N/A: I don’t know the ship well enough I went back and forth between A and A+ for this one, because I like a lot of Starscream ships. I settled on A+ because it’s my favorite, but it comes with a few caveats: It has to be Skyfire, not Jetfire, and I’m honestly not that thrilled about fanon interpretations of Skyfire as a pacifist marshmallow who never gets angry and is forever tolerant of Starscream being a little ball of murder and rage. Admittedly, Skyfire didn’t get much personality in canon, but his debut episode proved that he does have a temper, he is willing to choose violence, and he’s not tolerant of Starscream being horrible. So it’s frustrating when fans ignore the one episode that gave Skyfire a real character in favor of “opposites attract”. I also consider MegaStar to be canon in G1, which is relevant because I feel like it gives an idea of the kind of person Starscream would be attracted to. He likes excitement, by his own admission, and one could infer from his relationship with Megatron that he likes a partner who can challenge him. So I have trouble believing he would be interested in Skyfire as a romantic partner (or even as a friend) if Skyfire never pushed back on his worse ideas and behaviors. Starscream/Soundwave: A+: OTP A: I love it B: It’s really cute C: Not a bad ship D: I’m neutral on it E: I don’t really like it F: NOTP N/A: I don’t know the ship well enough Soundwave's loyalty to Megatron does mean he could provide a challenging partner for Starscream, but I can’t really see anything working out. I liked their dynamic in TFP, and the fact that Starscream actually listens to Soundwave (which is especially fun because Soundwave doesn’t talk), but that’s really the only continuity where I could see something happening between them. But people seem to have trouble writing TFP Soundwave even when romance isn’t involved, so I pretty much have no interest in the pairing.

[lazypanartist]

One Mikey × Starsick hot n ready! I hope you enjoy and you feel better!

-📝 nonnie

---

Michelangelo had everything planned out to a T.

The youngest was going all out. He had a very nice human disguise all ready to go, a fun jacket and shirt, baggy cargo pants with straps here and there, some old high tops, and a sunset toned beanie. He was going to take you to the museum of natural history during a slow day with no big fancy shows to bring a sudden influx of humans who might discover him, so he could focus on hanging out with you. The museum had a section with a planetarium, something he knew you'd love. 

He'd get you something from the gift shop. He looked online, and had several plushy ideas, but goal 1 would be the astronaut.

Mikey then had a reservation at Run of the Mill Pizza for after your trip to the natural history museum so there was a guaranteed table. He made sure to expressly tell Hueso that this was a date, and to please for the love of everything keep his brothers out while you were both there. Not that he didn't love his brothers! No, he loved them all deeply.

He just knew they'd want to spy and pry and mess with him on his date.

The two of you would have a delightful night either eating regular OR exotic pizzas, whichever you would be up for. Then, when you both were full and lazy, he would take you back to your apartment and you would cuddle up watching old sci-fi or space adjacent movies and shows. He had the full season of Stargate S-G1, The Little Prince, Passengers, and even Event Horizon, all thanks to his craftiest brother hooking him up. Each a different flavour of the stars for whatever you might have been craving.

(He almost got Interstellar, but Donatello steered him VEHEMENTLY away from that choice, decidedly declaring it Not Great.)

Now, this wasn't the first time you hung out together- far, FAR from it. But, it would be the first Specifically Romantic Date you both had, the two of you testing the waters to see if you could handle the jump from Friends to More Than. He had asked you honestly last week if you would go, making his feelings abundantly clear, and you seemed shy but excited at the prospect. If he didn't know any better, Michelangelo would think that maybe you harboured some feelings for him.

…Wait.

His brain malfunctioned briefly, face hot at the idea that maybe, just maybe, you really really liked him back. Should he ask you?

…He would wait for now.

Regardless! He had this date planned exceptionally well!! He had everything in order, and a little earlier than he thought you would on Date Night, you texted him.

His brothers were all nearby to give moral support before he went out, Leo reminding him to just relax, Raphael instructing him to use his finest manners, as if he wouldn't! …But he was glad he was reminded about opening doors and pulling out chairs and keeping his elbows off tables. Donatello had of course been the one to provide him with his watching material, claiming he asked "a friend" for some good recommendations, but the softshell also gave him his free spending money for the date.

(...For a cost. He DID have to help with some minor testing in the lab for it. Fish would apparently STILL taste like creamed corn for the next 2 days.)

His brothers all watched as their youngest pulled out his phone, eager for his first date with you to go well.

They also watched as their little brother's face fell, a look of dejection and worry replacing the excitement that was just there.

"Uh oh. What's wrong Miguel? What happened??"

Mikey swallowed nervously, pocketing the phone. "They uh. They're sick. And cancelled."

The den went quiet for all of 5 seconds before erupting in shock and anger.

"What!! No way, this is too last minute. What did it say exactly?!"

Mikey felt his eyes spin as Donatello shook him. "Uh. It said 'Hey, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to cancel. I have a cold.' Those words exactly."

Donnie's face creased in worry as his mind whirled. Raph stepped up next, arm slinging around the youngest. "Now, it's okay. You can always reschedule! It'll be alright lil bro."

"Are we sure they're sick?"

Warm tones looked over at the cool toned twins. "Whaddya mean?"

Leonardo crossed his arms and looked over at Don, the two having a similar thought cross their mind.

…Could you be flaking because you didn't want to be with their brother? Couldn't see yourself being with 'aaalll this'?

Maybe they were just a wee bit protective, but this all sounded AWFULLY convenient if you wanted to mess with the youngest.

"...I'm just saying, maybe call them, yeah?"

Mikey picked up on their mistrust and, while he wanted to scream at them that you would never…the mutant had his insecurities. Anxiously, with your contact still open, he called you.

It rang once before you answered.

"Hu'lo…?"

The four turtles winced almost audibly. Yeah, you were definitely sick, your voice was cracked and dry like the desert earth.

"Hi! Hey, are you okay? You said you were sick?"

"Mhm…" You rasped, rolling over on your back. "I think it's a cold. Hurts a lot. Sorry Mikey, I really wanted to go. I hope you didn't have big plans…"

Michelangelo's heart squeezed at how pitiful you sounded. "Well, I did-"

"-Nope!! He had no big plans at all!"

"...LeonAdo…?"

Whoops. Raphael shoved the red eared slider away. "Hey! Sorry, Mike told us you were sick and we got worried. Wanted to uh, send a care package and whatnot."

Nice save!

Even your laugh sounded weak as you chuckled at his eldest brother's mother henning. "You guys are s…sweet. Sorry. Hurts to swallow…"

Donatello stiffened. "Can you give me your symptoms?"

"Mhm. Sore throat, fever, fatigue, achey…hurts to talk and swallow…"

"Mh, you haven't coughed once…I need you to go check something. Find a mirror or use your phone camera and see if there's any red or white spots on your throat or tonsils. You'll need to open your mouth wide and stick your tongue out."

You gave an exhausted "okay" and they could hear you shuffle off away from your phone.

"Yeah they're sick, and if they're spotty, it's strep. Which means they've been taking the wrong medicine for it." Donatello sighed. "It also explains how it cropped up so quick." 

Right on que, you came back stating you had blisters and spots. Suddenly, all of his brothers had their own idea of what you could need in a little get well soon package. 

Donatello had a handle on medicine, making sure to get you some anesthetic throat spray and antibiotics. Even if you didn't HAVE a cough, you could cough, and it would feel utterly awful and probably make you bleed or pop…eugh. Yeah. None of that. Leonardo knew a few home remedies that Splinter made when they were little. It wouldn't be as good as the medicine, but the honey, cinnamon and lemon concoction would soothe your throat and peppermint tea would be good for you. Raph got together some stuff for a quick potato soup and crackers, as well as apple juice, worried your body might be going through feast-or-fast due to your sickness.

Mikey straightened his mask some. Sure, his brothers were giving you goodies to fight off this virus, but he had an even better plan to help you.

–

You jolted awake from your 3rd nap so far to something outside your landing knocking into a chair. Tiredly, you got up and shuffled to the balcony door and opened the curtain, making sure to slip a mask on before.

You blinked slowly, brain processing the sunny mutant standing on the other side. "Michelangelo…?"

"Hey hey! Doctor Mikey's in the house!" He grinned behind his own cloth mask, waving energetically.

"What about Dr. Feelings or Delicate Touch..?" you lightly joked, stepping out of his way.

The terrapin waved you off as he slipped inside, setting the duffle bag he had on your floor. "Those are more Emotional doctors. Doctor Mikey is here to help you feel better!" He gently led you to the couch and sat you down. "Now! How are you feeling?"

"Bad," you wheezed. "I keep getting heat flashes and my bones and throat just…Hurt, man."

Your friend could absolutely tell you felt miserable. Your eyes were glossy like Perceus's shield but dark as the depths Cetus swam through. Nothing like the bright sparks they normally were, cautious and curious and always for him.

You couldn't see it, but felt his frown. "That's awful…well! No matter, I should have just what you need!"

You watched the box turtle dig into the bag he brought along, pulling out Tupperware and boxes of tea before finding his prize, a bottle of tablet pills, some painkillers, and a spray bottle. "Now, nurse Donnie-"

"He will turn you into 100% water if he hears you called him nurse."

"Hush, he's tried that already. Anyways, Don says that you need to take these once a day and you can spray your throat twice every 4 hours. It'll numb it so you can ingest stuff better!"

The grateful look you gave made the butterflies in his gut kick into gear. Michelangelo passed over the three objects and watched you stiffly take the antibiotic and tylenol before using the spray. "Thank you. Let him know I appreciate it." You sighed. "Throat feels so much better…"

The mutant was elated at how quickly the medicine worked, and he went flitting about your home, albeit a bit nervously, getting more stuff gathered as he made you rest on the couch. He didn't want to be spotted by someone who wasn't supposed to see him. "Sooo…where's the fam?"

"Out." You rattled out, looking over to the window. "For a while. Mom's visiting my uncle in the hospital and helping my aunt with the niblings, and Ma's work transferred her to New Jersey for a bit."

"Wow, I think that's a hate crime."

You barked a laugh, which made you bones and brain hurt but you didn't mind. "I said the same thing…!"

"So who's taking care of you?"

You rolled your eyes, grin not leaving as you motioned to yourself in grandeur. "I'm a big kid, I can take care of myself."

Wow, that had to be the saddest thing he heard all day.

The box turtle hid his frown and went about gathering blankets, pillows, all manner of soft cozy things for you to curl into on the couch in front of the tv screen. You were watching crappy daytime television, something he was keen on fixing quickly.

"Are you hungry?"

"A bit. I've been iffy with food."

Michelangelo nodded and grabbed the container of soup from his go bag, snagging the tea and other concoctions that had been shoved in. He made you half a bowl and brewed two cups of the mint tea, bringing it out in your favorite matching mugs, setting it all before you before taking a seat in the recliner nearby.

He watched as you slipped your mask off, taking a bite of the potato soup, only to gain a puzzled look.

"You didn't make this?"

"Ah! No, it was Raphael! How could you tell?"

It didn't taste like his love. There was love, yes, but not Michelangelo's. Raph's was warm like embers, comforting and cozy like a blanket during a snowstorm. Mikey's was like a brilliant sun beam, catching cathedral windows and flashing all colours and shapes.

"Mh, you add more salt."

You got a laugh from the youngest as you kept eating, watching as he took his mask off as well to sip tea with you.

"You're gonna get siiiiick…"

"Psh, please. My immune system is great!"

"Whatever you say~"

The two of you ate and drank mildly, once in a while chatting about the other brothers and mission or laughing at whatever your cat Félicette did that was silly. It was easy, it was calm.

Guilt was eating you alive.

"I'm sorry I ruined our date…"

Mikey looked over, the string he held forgotten as Félicette pounced on it and tore off down the hall with her kill. "What?"

"Our date. I uh…Heh, I kinda really messed…everything up, huh…?"

Mikey frowned. "No, you didn't. You can't control that. You can't control, like, getting sick."

You sighed, staring into your tea.

"...Would you be mad if I had been the one getting sick?"

"What?"

"If I had gotten sick, and cancelled, would you be mad?"

"No…?"

"Then why should I be mad?"

You opened your mouth once, twice, before sighing and looking away.

Your ninja friend got up, mask slipped back on and moved to the bag. He then grabbed one of the movies and threw it on. However, instead of going back to the recliner, he plopped on the couch next to you.

"I'm not mad you're sick. Promise. Now! Have you seen Event Horizon? Don says it's good."

You smiled a bit, leaning your head on the terrapin's shoulder. This was easy. Familiar.

You loved this.

What you DIDN'T love was your nerves eating away at you. He had to have planned something, right? Leo said it was nothing, but…

Your artist…datemate? Boyfriend? Currently just a friend but testing the waters for more? Anyways, he was drawn into the horror movie quite easily, his eyes drawn to every little detail and hint about what was to come. He seemed to be really enjoying it, despite him clinging to you with every stressful scene.

"...So, uh. What did you have planned?"

"Mh?"

"The date." You looked down at your half full tea, now gone cold. "You uh…you had plans. What were they?"

"Well, I was…Uh, gonna take you to get pizza. Watch movies like…now, eheh."

"That's it?"

"Maybegototheplanetarium-"

You hand dragged down the side of your face. "That sounds so sweet…ugh, I'm-"

"Don't…!"

"But I am! I'm sorry! I feel awful knowing you had something nice planned and I ruined it!"

Orange turned to face you directly, making you shrink back a bit. "You did. Not. Ruin. It. We can go some other time! Look, we're having our date now!"

"But-"

Three fingered hands gently grabbed your own, mask covered eyes boring into yours as his obscured mouth continued.

"Why do you think I should be mad at you? Why is it okay for me to be sick and cancel, but you have to hold yourself to a much higher, much more unfair standard?"

Your standards for yourself seemed to reach the stars themself, dooming you as a cosmonaut to burn alive before reaching them.

"Because you deserve someone who doesn't mess up the first date!!"

(You deserve better than me. I'm not the best and you deserve perfection.)

Angrily, Michelangelo ripped his medical mask off and yanked yours down, pulling you into a bruising, emotional kiss. He pulled away after a moment, huffing angrily at you.

No…not anger. Frustration. Frustration that you don't treat yourself like you treat others- with care and understanding.

"Y…Mikey, you're going to get sick..!"

He kissed you again, before peppering your cheeks with more.

"There. We both messed up."

Your very, very warm face screwed in confusion. But he could see curiosity spark in your eyes.

"What? No, you didn't, that was- Mikey, you're a really good ki- no, I mean, didn't even get a chance to kiss- YOU'RE GOING TO GET SICK!!" Flustered, you quickly pulled your mask back up.

"First off, my immune system is great, so if I do, then there's no way you WOULDN'T have gotten sick."

"Michelangelo…"

"And two! You're not supposed to kiss on the first date. So I messed it up pretty bad, probably as bad as getting sick."

You opened your mouth to deny that he did so, tell him he didn't ruin the date, but if you did, you'd be admitting that your sickness didn't ruin it either.

The youngest could see when his ruse clicked, your eyes brightening like Polaris and Andromeda were held in them. He had you caught, and as you rolled your eyes, he knew you couldn't help smiling.

"Okay, okay, sorry-"

"You…!"

"For being hard on myself!!"

Michelangelo grinned brightly, his joy warming you like a red dwarf star.

"I think you should apologize to yourself. And try to be more fair, okay?"

The mutant's eyes widened as you pulled your mask back down and kissed him sweetly. "Okay. Have to say, pretty good for a bad first date."

–

You held the backpack tightly, filled to the brim with goodies and soups and movies galore.

You WERE supposed to be going on your second date with your favorite turtle, buuuut…

"See! I told you I wouldn't get sick!"

You couldn't help the unimpressed look as you stared at Raphael, who sheepishly waved while sipping some water before wincing. Donnie was passed out on the couch, apparently too fatigued to make it to his room. Leo was spraying disinfectant cleaner all over himself, not wanting you to re-catch your strep throat. Splinter holed himself up in his room after shotgunning what you were positive was pure honey and lemon juice.

"Yeah, but you spread it to literally everyone else in the lair." Sighing fretfully, you put a mask on. "Come on, Doctor Mikey. I'll heat up the veggie soup if you start on getting them all some medicine."

"Roger that, Doctor Datemate!" he beamed.

🧡

Doctor Datemate and Nurse Donnie, lmao 🤣 We can tell who he's trying to actually get along with 💕

Just. Love how the rest of the turtles send things with Mikey to help you ^-^