#and his relationship to Bee (and a little bit to Optimus and Hot Rod).

[bunclebee]

Greetings! I come bearing more WIPs! I think it's most prudent to show the angle from which i am approaching this fandom--which is cheetorcentrism.

[cozzzynook]

Hot Rods water breaking when the peace treaty is signed.

The peace treaty was being signed and every bot on Cybertron couldn’t be any happier.

Multiple mechs and femmes were revealing long kept secret conjunxs and partners while others were becoming conjunxed and partners.

Bots like Drift and Ratchet were revealed conjunx along with the surprising courting relationship of Wheeljack and Starscream. Not to mention Prowl and Jazz finally admitting to being conjunx. Many mechs were shocked to learn that Bumblebee was not only conjunx to Windblade but they had a sparkling together. It was obvious from the extra frame weight that Bee was the carrier and Windblade the sire.

There were a large number of same faction and cross faction couples like chromedome and rewind and knockout and breakdown. Cyclonus and Tailgate with Whirl somehow being deeply woven in was revealed. A shocking development was Optimus being with Shockwave and Soundwave being with Blaster. No bot saw those two couples coming and it was Perceptor who held his conjunx Brainstorm back from asking them just what made them connect.

Rodimus was not one to judge, he simply let the couples be and enjoyed the first official day of peace on a restored cybertron.

He couldn’t find it within himself to truly enjoy every moment though.

Not when he was currently seated with a thermal blanket covering him because he was freezing and not a single bot had seen him in a very very long time in face plate to face plate. Drift hadn’t seen him up close until the meeting and thankfully it started before Drift could hug him. He wasn’t exactly keen on bots knowing anything until the peace treaty was well signed and done with, with plenty of years between it.

Sure he was going to see Drift…after everything was said and done.

He didn’t want to interrupt his amicas honeymoon nor did he want Ratchet coming back to work, he’s completely sure they would rush back and he didn’t want that. Not to mention he didn’t have the best experience this entire time and he really didn’t want them worrying.

He already had plenty to deal with at home and he did not want more.

“You okay Roddy?”

His amica noticed him shifting uncomfortably in his seat and he nodded with a deep frame sigh as he adjusted the blanket keeping himself shapeless as he did so.

Magnus and Megatron eyed him closely and he shook his helm at them, though it did nothing to keep the pair from looking at him.

He rolled his optics and sighed again leaning back into the chair. It did little to comfort him and it seemed his discomfort was slowly progressing to pain as the meeting went along.

He felt a heavy pressure beginning to build up and he feared he was going to empty his waste tanks tight here in front of every bot at the meeting.

He refused to be embarrassed or revealed in such a manner and so he opened the comm to Magnus and Megatron asking for them to covertly hurry the process along.

The two were not at all subtle in turning towards him and completely ignoring the others who looked to them.

Rodimus was going to try and play it off and smile but it turned into a wince then grimace as he groaned squinting his optics shut and gripped his heavy protruding tanks that sat painfully tight in his lap with how large it was.

Magnus and Megatron both jumped out of there seat kneeling beside him and a haggard breath that couldn’t get anything out was followed by him feeling a very sharp pain and thunderous weight drop his tanks as he gasped and cried out.

He suddenly could not care one bit about the other bots looking at them in concern as he let Magnus and Megtron lift him using their strength as his legs turned to heavy led jelly.

The moment they had him standing the thermal blanket fell and his humongous tanks were exposed and Ratchet was yelling something as he and Drift ran towards him.

He couldn’t focus on that because in the next moment he’d grabbed hold of Megatron and Magnus servos as they held him and he squeezed hard.

The sound of liquid splashing onto the chair and floor met his audials and he gasped frame jerking from a kick before he yelped in pain.

A chorus of “he’s in emergence,” and “someone get him to a hospital,” and Whirls, “wow he’s fraggin big,” followed by Cyclonus and Tailgate shutting their conjunx up and Rodimus was carried by Megatron towards the hospital with Magnus keeping up letting him squeeze his servo while Ratchet got an operating room and Drift was right beside him.

“Really Roddy?! Why didn’t you tell me you were sparked?!! I told you when me and Ratty had our sparkling!”

And okay other bots didn’t know Ratchet and Drift had a sparkling and they also were quickly learning just who the sires to Rodimus sparklings were.

“I’m sorry Drift,” Rodimus panted trying to remember to vent, “You would’ve been the first to see them I promise. I just…,” Rodimus yelled as he felt another pulse and he squeezed harder on Magnus servo, “really didn’t wanna bother you guys on your honeymoon or worry you.”

Rodimus groaned from the pain and from the fact that the sparkling wasn’t moving down low just yet.

“Wait!”

Magnus and Megatron stopped and looked at Rodimus in pure worry before hearing him say, “sign the treaty.”

They looked at him in confusion and began to protest like many others when Rodimus snapped and gripped them both by their neck cables.

“Sign the damn treaty now so we won’t be back here later! I will not have my sparklings until it’s signed!”

The signatures between Megatron and Optimus were quick making the war officially declared over.

As they began leaving again they heard Rodimus groan and yell in pain,

“I will murder the bot who made it mandatory for me to be at this fragging meeting!”

In the background Optimus looked around nervously and it was Bee who looked to his sire while calming his own sparkling down did he give the mech a heated glare. His carrier emotions were still in full flux and that meant he didn’t really give a slag about rank as he stood and stalked over to the mech who looked nervous.

Windblade didn’t do anything to stop her conjunx and Shockwave just made sure Bee didn’t do too much verbal damage.

It was early the next morning that Rodimus, Magnus and Megatron were greeted by their twin sparklings.

Drift was smiling from audial to audial taking multiple photos while recording the whole thing as Ratchet did the delivery.

Rodimus was fast in deep recharge after passing out while Megatron and Magnus held the two sparklings crying.

They were so tiny compared to their servos and they looked just like their sires only having Rodimus’s spoiler.

Just like their creators they made a very grand entrance.

[nova--spark]

Hiii!!! Can you tell us what's Hot Rod's relationship with his parents is in your story? 🥺

Also, personal headcannon: I do remember a post where you say that Hot Rod is Bee's younger brother, but I like to imagine Hot Rod as Bee's older brother (and Rody loves reminding him that) and a mama'boy 🥰 The brothers tease each other constantly, but are always ready to protect and kill for each other. Hot Rod becomes extra protective of his little brother after the 'Tiger Pax' incident, which Bee hates very much, and that lead to a lot of arguments between the two. (Just a personal headcannon that I wanted to share🤭😅)

I can't find the post where I said it now great UHHH-- Y'know, I actually do not mind this??? And I would LOVE to actually implement something like this?? Sooooo I may y o i n k if you do not mind--

As for Hot Rod's relationship with Optimus and Elita!

Optimus: He feels like he is under a bit of pressure of being the son of a Prime, one of the last Primes to boot. But he noticed, even from the early days where he volunteered within the Archives ,that Optimus never wished to burden anyone with great expectations.

He would listen to Hot Rod happily ramble about the stories he'd learned from Albanoct, and Optimus listened with patience, and would find the moment to pipe in and mention the facts he knew of these same stories.

When he first showed Rodi the Star Saber, he was sure his son was gonna fry a circuit from how excited he was.

Rodi is an extrovert, and Optimus is the introvert dad who helps him calm down when needed.

Elita: Extrovert and Extrovert connection, Elita will notice how Rodi feels antsy and energetic and take him out to spar, drive, anything to get his energy going and out as her son needs. She's tried to also teach him things about her own line of work in Cybertron's government, and she's noticed how he can be quite interested, if a bit hyperactive within the halls.

But she loves that about her son, because there's too much silence in the government, that his lack of filter helps make folks realize some ideas aren't good as they thought them to be.

[fictional-love-is-my-life]

Hey, how would bayverse autobots act with an ex boyfriend/girlfriend? Like they broke up with them for no big reason but they still like their s/o?

Going to answer this with the newer bots. But if you would like different characters let me know and I can do this prompt again for the older Bayverse bots.

~

Optimus:

He's very civil and polite. They broke up because they had different plans for their future, and nothing is wrong with that.

When they were dating he did give them a bit of special treatment. But now they have broken up he treats them the same as the others, they no longer get special treatment or relaxed duties.

He'll still be friends with them and they can share nice talks or shared interests. He still enjoys their company and sees them as a good friend, so he doesn't plan on pushing them away just because they broke up. But he doesn't get as vulnerable anymore. He doesn't delve too deeply, because only someone really close to his spark gets access to his deepest and true feelings.

Hound:

At first it was a little awkward. He was unsure how to treat them. He didn't know if he should still be sweet to them, or if he should treat them like the other bots. It took him a while, but eventually he just began acting normal around them. He would talk to them just how he would a good friend, and they could enjoy each others company without anything being awkward.

He still gives them special treatment over the other bots. It's a habit from their relationship and he can't really break it. And he probably won't. They were really close, and if he decides to do nice things for them more than others then so be it.

Drift:

He becomes detached pretty quick. Able to see them as friend and treat them as such almost straight after. He still has a soft spot for them, and he will for a while. But out of everyone, he's the quickest to recover from the break up.

He can still hang out with them, and he likes to. But now that he isn't bound to them by a relationship, he's free to do what he wants. He goes back to spending more time by himself or with crosshairs rather than with his ex.

Crosshairs:

He likes them still sure. But it's different after a break up. They were so close, he was vulnerable around them. So now it's just a little weird. At first he just avoided them, he didn't want any awkward encounters.

After a while he could be around them but he'd tease them. If they asked him for a favor he'd say 'I would if we were still dating, but we aren't, so no.'

If his ex started getting close to someone else he'd feel a little pang of jealousy. But he'd get over it pretty quick, just because it means he can find someone else as well.

Bumblebee:

Bee finds the break up the hardest. Even if it was a mutual break. He always gives relationships his all, he goes in deep, being vulnerable and soft with his partner. So when he splits from them he feels a little lost.

He switches from wanting to be around them all the time, trying to keep the friendship going, to wanting to avoid them at all cost. Sometimes taking trips away for days to be away from them.

It takes him some time, and some one on one friendship time with Hot Rod, but eventually he gets over it and becomes himself again. Then he is able to hang out with his ex and treat them normally, just like any other bot.

Hot Rod:

If it's a mutual break up then he has no problem with still hanging around them. He enjoys their company and they get along well, he doesn't see why they have to stop interacting just because they are no longer together.

He stops being physical with them after the split. When in a relationship that was something personal for him, so when they break up he is unable to touch them. Even a hug or handshake, because he knows if he went to touch them he'd miss them. So he doesn't touch them for a long time.

After the break he often puts himself into his other friendships. He has emotions he no longer gets from a relationship, so he tries to fill that hole with his friends. Most of the time, he goes straight back to Bee, and he's able to feel at ease.

[fivzen]

Okay, Choice Reasonings

Optimus and Megatron- Kind of the obvious choices, y'know? It's Op's and Meg's. Biggest change is how Megatron doesn't much mind Organic life. Earth isn't Cybertron, he doesn't care about it much other than the energon there, but neither leaders want to drag humans in if they can help it (Optimus to protect the humans, Megatron to protect the Cybertronians). Other than that it's Old Men as always.

Hot Rod- Listen Bee, I love you, but I want something else in my life. And Hot Rod has always been among my favorites, and having a show to explore who he is beyond Rodimus is nice. (Hi Cyberverse, yes your influence is here in both Hot Rod and Soundwave.) He's the hot shot (not that one) of the group with something to prove and lessons to learn.

Soundwave- Another favorite, Soundwave is also inspired by his Cyberverse incarnation, with his relationship with Hot Rod, and his sound powers. In this show he'd also be a Triple Changer! Allowing for Vehicle and Music Player/Smartphone mode.

Arcee- Became a much more prominent character to me after seeing Rise of the Beasts, but I also want to take some other inspirations for her. Taking a little bit from Animated, I'd say she's an ex-teacher who picked up a sword and hasn't looked back. She still has a habit of going into educator mode, but she doesn't hate it.

Airachnid- Would more likely be closer to Black Arachnia Animated in a way by having her be an ex-autobot mutated to have more Spider-Like features, while still keeping a little hint of "cruelty" in a way, as well as a Helicopter alt-mode. She has a past with Arcee neither really like to talk about.

Springer- Resident friendly, goofy, jock guy, Springer retains his Wrecker membership despite being assigned to Op's team. He stays a triple changer with his Car and Copter modes. He's the big green guy that everyone loves, probably because he also has anxiety.

Thundercracker- A decepticon team needs a Seeker, and I would have other plans for Starscream if I were to use him. My first choice was Skywarp, but I remembered Thundercracker's love of cinema from the comics and thought that would be more interesting in the TV setting. Imagine Thundercracker getting into vlogs.

Red Alert- The team needs a medic, and while I love Ratchet (old man Ratchet especially) I want Red Alert to be a student of the old field medic doing his best to live up to a Legacy that he doesn't really Need to live up to at all. Plus how often is Red Alert actually used? He'd be an ex-fighter like his Unicorn Trilogy self, missing hand and all.

Knockout- Because the team needs a medic, and Knockout is loved. Would love to see him outside of the Aligned universe too. He and Soundwave get along well, both having Ground modes.

Windblade- Beloved city speaker, she's done well in the shows she's shown up in, but I haven't really seen her in a full team I feel. I think she'd be a bit of a loner at first, but start warming up to everyone.

SteelJaw- SteelJaw? Really? Yeah, really. Starscream isn't here, so we need a treacherous role to be filled, and why not give him a second chance at the villain? He'd retain his wolf-like features of course, but he'd be given a new flight based vehicle mode. He'd be far more sneaky in his efforts to undermine Megatron, but still have some attempts foiled. Unlike the leader he outright despises the humans, and the Decepticon Human Ally kind of hates him too.

You know I've been doing something and I believe I've got down pat my own cast of who's who in a Transformers show if I were to make one. I'd love to talk more about these choices later (and the traits unique to them in this series), but for now-

Autobots- Optimus Prime, Hot Rod, Arcee, Red Alert, Springer, Windblade, and a Human Friend.

Decepticons- Megatron, Soundwave (Laserbeak and Ravage included), Thundercracker, Knockout, Airachnid, SteelJaw... And their own Human Friend.

[scalproie]

hot rod....

until I finally rewatch the movie and because you specified hot rod im going with the most fresh in my mind aka cyberverse roddy. Btw did you know that the only reason hot rod was absent from tv shows for so long until recently and was replaced by both bumblebee and smokescreen as the "reckless young bot who is lowkey the successor to optimus prime" character was because hasbro couldnt secure his name for toys. crazy.

favorite thing about them: love love LOVE his voice and his design, his laugh is unbelievably cute and his usual red is sooo good but the black-ish red has a special flavor to it. Love his flamethrower gimmick. His characterization is also very... cool, not a single obnoxious bone in him which you MIGHT expect from characters like him but NO, just a really cool good guy with big brother vibes. That's why he's also a bit more "mature" than you'd expect. Then there's him being a lot of the focus during the most interesting part of the show and having a really compelling arc about being put in a leadership position and how to handle it, and the show handle it really well. I'm always happy when he's on screen.

least favorite thing about them: this is literally not his fault, and this will forever be my grievance, but GOD I wish he was still a major player after the quintesson arc was done. If only cyberverse had been allowed to go on for longer.

favorite line: HDKSHDLS IT'S NOT EVEN A LINE PER SAY BUT IM ALWAYS THINKING OF THAT LITTLE "... oh." HE SAYS JUST AFTER BEING STABBED. IT SOUNDS SO GENUINE.

brOTP: aw man with bee, they have massive brothers vibes. And they work amazingly well on trios too so you can add cheetor to that list. I also love his relationships with the quintesson squad, if only there were more time dedicated to them and seeing them interact, but special mention to my girl clobber because now that was an unforeseen friendship that they managed to sell in little time, their dynamic was really fun.

OTP: take a wild guess it's with soundwave. Idk I feel Ive made my case enough already. I really felt that one.

nOTP: lol okay I dont. Downright hate anything here, its either not my thing and I'll dont care for it and ignore it. BUT if Im allowed to be mean for a second... because back in the mtmte days I was SO unimpressed with drift and with driftrod... I know it was sad/bad/whatever for comics fan but I really was like [WHEEZE] at that whole situation with drift. cyberverse really was for me I'll miss it so much.

random headcanon: he doesnt NEED to do the cartwheels to transform, we've seen him transform without the cartwheels, but he just really likes doing those. Also, post-finale, I think he would continue on his journey and become as popular a leader optimus was, and be one of the best autobot/decepticon ambassador, and encourage bots and cons cube players to mix to make new city teams. I also think he would listen much more to music, and naturally, supervise soundwave's memorial statue, even buff it every once in a while with the help of willing clones, and laugh at the situation.

unpopular opinion: I know he was never planned at all since the beginning and I know Hot Rod didnt need him and I liked that Hot Rod did his leadership journey without needing the matrix BUT cyberverse Hot Rod was extremely deserving of the matrix and I wouldve liked to see him... Rodimus...

song i associate with them: this is a bit harder to think about for cyberverse Hot Rod but "The Phoenix" by Fall Out Boys, "A Star Is Born" by Cheryl Freeman, and "Interplanetary Spark" from sega sound team

favorite picture of them: there is A LOT but. look at my boy just hanging out :)

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Mae Catt’s Cyberverse Q&A

Here’s a neater version of some key Q&A responses from Mae Catt’s Cyberverse stream. 

Please note: not everything is verbatim, and also note that Mae Catt said “Don’t take things I say as the end-all be-all.” She’s a big supporter of fanfic writers!

This Q&A session contains spoilers for Season 3 of Cyberverse. For a (somewhat) more comprehensive transcript, please refer to this post.

Q: Megop rights?

“Oh absolutely, duh.”

Q: What does Optimus do when he’s not giving speeches / being a leader when they were all hanging out on the ARK?

I think he reads, he seems like a heavy reader. It’d be cute if he read really bad Earth romance novels. He seems like a guy who needs a break from everything.

Q: Does Optimus have hobbies?

Not to borrow from Rung, but doesn’t it seem like Optimus would make model ships? Very quiet, very focused detail-oriented hobby. *pauses* Oh duh, he also plays basketball.

Q: How did the Decepticons learn to stream? 

Because they’re deceptive! Megatron knew he should dedicate some time to winning the hearts and minds of humans. Starscreams’ funeral was not the first time they streamed. Optimus would use the official media channels (like the news), not a streaming service. Megatron would try to speak more directly to the people.

Q: Is Optimus the type of streamer who would take 10 minutes to figure out how to un-mute his microphone?

Optimus is a dad. He has no idea what’s going on with streaming. Optimus would say embarrassing things while Bee and Hot Rod were in the middle of streaming something.

Q: Is Megatron dead?

In discussions we wanted to kill him. We wanted to do a reverse Optimus death. However, in the final product, I kinda enjoy the ambiguity rather than the final decision. Can’t remember if we were decisive about that in the script.

Q: Did the Titan mind Decepticons living in them?

The Titans want to be cities. They want citizens. They want to be lived in, that brings them joy.

Q: Does Megatron do anything for fun or is he too angry?

I want to say he’s too angry, he has fun beating people down but I don’t think he’s had fun for a long time.

Q: How would you feel about a female Optimus Prime? 

[GAY LAUGHTER] 

The question is: do you turn Optimus Prime into a woman, or do you take characters like Elita One and uplift her? I would want to lean more into giving Elita One more oomph, I do love how Optimus doubts himself and if he’s worthy of being a Prime.

(Mae Catt talked a lot about representation and later mentioned how there's more pressure to write the girl characters well, especially because of the need for better representation. They wanted more girls in the show, and they planned to have Jazz be a girl).

Q: Elita prime when?

All the time, in my heart!

Q: Did you plan to have ___ character in the show?

Almost every character was discussed at least once. 

She really regrets that they didn’t get to have Beast Machine Obsidian or Rumble and Frenzy in the show, and says she would’ve loved a MTMTE-style Ultra Magnus / Minimus and Transmutate. She didn’t know what Obsidian’s personality would be, it was just a “Look how cool he is!” sort of thing.

(Note: We have Mae Catt to thank for Whirl getting into Cyberverse)

Q: What was your favorite episode?

“I Am the AllSpark” because of the Megatron and Starscream dialogue (which she wrote). Also S2 04 Soundwave and Shockwave.

I enjoyed writing Starscream most, Clobber and Hot Rod became a joy, S2 E4 was my first episode, and it was fun getting into Hot Rod’s voice. It was hard doing Optimus’ voice, I’d always pass it off to someone to look at it.

Q: Did you ever plan to have Hot Rod become Rodimus?

Rodimus was never considered for the show because Optimus dying has been covered to death, but we were adamant about portraying Hot Rod as someone who wanted to be a leader. Hot Rod is someone who is learning to be a leader.

(On that note, when someone asked if she thought Bee would ever become Prime, Mae Catt said:)

I don’t think Bee would be a Prime. Windblade and Hot Rod would be a better Prime. He wouldn’t want to be a Prime. He’s the #2 to Primes!

Q: Did Megatron always plan to return to Cybertron?

Megatron’s priorities changed when he saw his doppelganger. Realizing he was a horrible tyrant, that scared him enough to return and not kill Optimus and make peace no matter what.

Q: Which death hurt you the most?

Starscream. (Slipstream’s hurt too).

We didn’t want to kill people off willy-nilly for shock value, but in certain instances it made sense. Like, the audience will fall in love with Slipstream because she’s becoming good, so she has to die. (She apologized for that sounding harsh). We killed Prowl because it was Shadow Striker doing the killing and he’s a self-sacrificing lieutenant. I almost wanted Starscream to emerge from the Judge’s head untouched, but I’m ultimately glad that idea got shot down.

(She circles back to this comment later, so I’m making note of that here since it wasn’t a direct response to a question)

When I was desperately trying to save Starscream’s life even though I brutally murdered Slipstream, I wanted Starscream to have amnesia and have a redeption arc. I wanted him to have a Windblade shard and have it be kind of like Castaway, where the only person he talked to was that (and the shard only had 5 phrases it could say). Eventually Bee would befriend him and he’d wind up with the Autobots.

I wanted to write Starscream kind of like an abuse victim who expects the worst of the Autobots, but I wanted him to warm up slowly to them. I wanted to have a Starscream and Optimus episode where Starscream messes up on something and Optimus is like “you did your best and that’s what counts”, a response which is totally new to Starscream. But obviously we didn’t have time for that.

Regarding redemption arcs (a continuation from the previous question, and a huge highlight from the stream):

Re: the potential for Starscream’s redemption arc “A redemption arc needs to be facilitated by a character acknowledging that what they did was wrong. He would have had a laundry list of excuses for it, even if there was all that evidence to the contrary, but the character needs to acknowledge that reasons don’t matter because people got hurt [by their actions]. [The character] needs to intend to do better. Let them try and let them fail, they don’t need to do a 180, it’s hard work to be a better person.”

NOTE: Mae Catt also made a few more comments re: the idea of a Starscream redemption arc on her Tumblr page.

Q: Did Megatron really kill Starscream?

The Starscream beatdown was super severe and they were like “holy frick they’re really going for it” when they saw the storyboards. According to Maecatt, Megatron didn’t kill Starscream when he slammed him down (which is a bit confusing since the show definitely made it seem like Starscream died). 

Q: Did Drift die? Why was he a double-agent?

According to us, Drift did not make it, but I fully endorse whatever you want. We needed a double-agent, someone who would (seemingly) kill Hot Rod. (She says they went with Drift because of his history in the comics).

(Later on in the stream)

Maybe Drift is alive, maybe he’s rethinking his decision and he’ll come back later. Drift would’ve been helpful in S3 for sure, maybe he’d come back with Repugnis or something.

Q: Why are you so mean to Percy? 

He's so mature and pragmatic that he can take it, and is willing to take one for the team bc he understands that it's what he needs to do. (In response to someone’s comment about his personality) Yes, he’s calmly feral.

Q: Is Skullcruncher Percy's bouncer now that he's running Maccadam's? 

Oh totally.

(She later mentions that Percy has permanently taken over Maccadam’s. Also: Skullcruncher is a lady! She misses Mac, but Percy takes good care of her).

Q: If Tarn is the perfect Decepticon who's the perfect Autobot? 

A firetruck alt mode, and an Autobot insignia as a face. Nat (her fiance) and I talked about it a lot. Optimus SHOULD be a fire truck, it makes the relationship between him and Ratchet a little more fun since Ratchet is an ambulance, and Optimus has an ax. It just makes sense! 

(She agreed that the perfect Autobot would be Thunderclash after the chat said that).

On that note, Mae Catt said they used Tarn for the show because: “OBVIOUSLY (the perfect decepticon) should look like this guy. A faceless mindless Decepticon that only serves Megatron”.

Q:  What sort of documents DID Optimus work on in the archives? 

Probably historical archives and working on stuff about all the Primes. Something like the French / American revolution equivalent, which informed his speech writing for Megatron and his own ethics.

Q: Did you always plan to make Optimus socially awkward? 

We “found” the social awkwardness for Optimus. Optimus was depicted as a father figure in S1 (implying it’s because S1 is from Bee’s perspective), S2 / S3 we were able to explore more and found the limits [writing him] and found it was hard to maintain that level of heroic dialogue. Optimus would feel awkward about it too. Randolph did an impression of Optimus’ speech for the Party Down episode. “[Optimus] can’t not be in war-mode.”

Q: Were Optimus and Megatron ever friends, or did they just work together on the speech stuff? 

Oh hell yes, I think [the story] is always enhanced when they’re friends and when Optimus really believes in what Megatron was working on. Optimus’ rejection of Megatron is what pushes him over the edge, his best friend rejecting him pushes him into a place where he becomes a tyrannical person.

Q: Does Maccadam know we love him? 

Mae Catt: *puts hand over hear heart and looks off into the distance dramatically* Yes.

Q:  What’s the best selfie Arcee’s ever taken? 

I like the one with the giraffe. Or maybe a selfie with some humans. I like the idea of Arcee having a bunch of human friends. 

Q: What do the Transformers think of the Florida Man? 

They can’t really tell the difference between humans, they don’t really get it. It just sorta looks like all the normal stuff they see on Earth (or something). 

Q: Who’s the Florida Man of the Transformers? 

Rack ‘n Ruin. But he’s too nice. Hmmm.

Q: What was most important to you personally to put out in each episode? Like humor/characterization/arcs 

I wanted to make sure I didn’t write dialogue that was condescending to kids, wanted to be true about the character. Dialogue needs to be true to the characters, and gay. (Laughs)

Q: Do Transformers know what memes are?

They know what they ARE, but they don’t get it. We wanted Hot Rod to be super into Earth culture (winning races and driving off before humans could realize no one was in the car), but we never had time to really get into that.

Q: What music does Soundwave like?

We had a cut joke from S2 E5 [where Megatron and Optimus are popping through portals all around the world trying to find the All Spark] . Soundwave pops into Brazil where there’s a music festival and he crashes the concert and hang out. He likes EDM the most? 

His favorite song is Despacito. He thinks its so sad.

Q: Were you surprised that Jake Tillman was in his 20s listening to his Optimus voice the first time?

She apparently listened to his vines a lot when he was in his teens so meeting up again like that was a cool coincidence. 

Q: What other dimensions or places did you want to be in the show?

I would’ve liked to have the other Transformers series show up (TFP, TFA, G1, Shattered Glass) but we don’t have those assets or budget. 

“This will quickly become unclear to audiences who aren’t (you people).” They couldn’t have all these references when some of their audience wouldn’t get it. 

Q: What about ____ ship?

Mae Catt says she doesn’t want to yuck anybody’s yums. For example, someone asked about Arcee/Grimlock, and while she said she sees them more as friends, she didn’t say they can’t be in a relationship. (Mae Catt also said she doesn’t ship Bee with anyone because she sees him as a little brother).

As she said several times in the stream, “Don’t take things I say as the end-all be-all”!

That being said, she did say she likes Dead End / Perceptor and Windblade / Slipstream.

Q: Why are there no humans in the show?

From the show’s conception, there were no plans to include any humans. They didn’t want humans distracting from the Transformers.

Q: Why did the Scientist collect Soundwaves?

He collects Soundwave because Soundwave is COOL! Wouldn’t you collect a single father of 5 who carries them around in his chest?

Why does anyone collect what they collect? “That’s a really angry dad who’s got five children he carries around in him and he plays music. Gotta have that!”

(Later on, she circles back to this question)

All the Other Universe Soundwaves the Scientist collected also had their own Laserbeaks. I wonder if the scientist would’ve taken them out. He might’ve just gotten rid of them.

(And of course, here are the boyfriend questions from the stream:)

Q: Is Dead End a good boyfriend?

Dead End is a work in progress, but maybe Percy is patient enough to get him there

(Mae Catt says she really loves the Deadceptor ship. She knew people would ship it, but she didn’t ship it herself until she saw the fanart for it).

Q: Is Astrotrain a good boyfriend?

No, no...he’s not a good person, really.

Q: Is Percy a good boyfriend?

Absolutely--WAIT HOLD ON. He’s very blunt, he doesn’t mince words, if you can handle his bluntness then you’re good. He is what he is and you have to deal with him.

Q: Is Soundwave a good boyfriend?

Soundwave is not a good boyfriend. He’s a good casual romance but he’s not a good boyfriend. Soundwave would be a terrible listener. He hears a lot but he’d tune you out.

Other information tidbits:

- If Thunderclash was in the show he and Jetfire would HATE each other. Thunderclash would be a rival reality star (maybe) to Media Fire.

- Mae Catt said “A lot of intelligent life is inherently mechanical” in space, explaining why so much of the non-Cybertronian life we saw in the show were robots.

- Knock Out was considered for the show, but every Transformer under the sun was discussed at some point in the writer’s room. (Ex: “Rumble and Frenzy are always considered in my heart, but there wasn’t enough time or space or assets to do so”).

- “The brand team had grown up on the toys as we had grown up on the ‘toons, so we just wanted to make the best thing imaginable.”

- They decided Optimus would be in the Other Universe’s Matrix and have a plinth because they wanted to show he was dead. “Logical backflips because he needed to be among the 13 to talk to Windblade.” 

- Dead End’s eyes are white.

- The team wanted Jazz to be a lady (!!!!!!!)  

- These characters have their own lives that we don’t see. Lots of stuff happening between episodes that we don’t always necessarily see.

- Developing Sky-Byte’s character was simultaneous with Jetfire’s character. “We knew we wanted Sky-Byte to be a poet, and we wanted him and Megatron to be chummy”.

- Percy did permanently take over Mac’s bar.  

- Her favorite VA is Jeremy Levy, he’s a really cool guy.

- She thinks Starscream and Cheetor could become (not necessarily friends, but connected?) because of their connection to the All Spark. Mentions how Starscream acknowledge Cheetor as the “Guardian of the Allspark”.

- Mae Catt describes Starscream as an “Awful gremlin” several times.

- Astrotrain and the Insecticons are from Megatron X’s universe.

- She thinks Cliffjumper and Bee wouldn’t get along, solely because of the IDW2 comic stuff. (They had a cut joke about someone telling Bee he should paint himself red and Bee saying, “But then everyone will think I’m Cliffjumper!”).

- Cyberverse got 26 episodes for season 3 because they had the 4-part episode movies.

- Megatron cares about his troops, but not in a way that we would notice that care. 

- AcidStorm is genderfluid. 

-  Cold Construction doesn’t exist in this show. When asked why all the Seekers look the same then, Mae Catt says “Maybe there’s one jet mode all the seekers really like”.

- She loves the idea of Wild Wheel robbing Astrotrain in train-mode, totally Wild West-style.

- One of the things she’s proudest of was turning Lugnut into a gal (and having so much body diversity and gender-neutral designs for a lot of characters). They wanted to include many more girls in Cyberverse (Nickel and Lightbright among them). She also mentioned that  Shadow Striker is taller than Optimus or is his height.

- She describes Cosmos as “R2D2, but a Transformer!”

- Maccadam looking like a buff Rung was just a strange coincidence.

- Blurr really was the fastest.

- Mae Catt says we absolutely SHOULD write fanfic. Fanfiction made her into the writer she is today. She wrote non-stop Matrix fanfic from the age of 12-20 years old. It helped her learn a lot about writing.

- She uses “They” pronouns for Rack ‘n Ruin when referring to both of them, but says that individually they both use “he”.

- She’s really sad that Skywarp didn’t get a speaking line.

- Mae Catt won’t say whether Ratchet finished medical school or not. (She laughed when someone commented "I don’t believe that man has ever been to medical school”). She also says she wants “I choose to believe Ratchet has never been to medical school” on a T-shirt.

- When asked why Rack ‘n Ruin were captains of the Ark in one universe, she says they’re probably the Prime in that one weird universe (lmao).

- She loves the idea that Transformers have siblings / families.

- In a world where they had an unlimited budget, it’d be fun if Cybertronians were constantly shape-shifting and changing their forms. Example: she’d like having Transformers who “grew a beard” and decided to “shave it”.

- She doesn’t understand cycles or astrocycles, she doesn’t understand the weird Transformers time stuff. (mood)

- She loved Beast Wars Inferno, she loved that Inferno called Megatron a Queen. It was played as a joke because the 90s weren’t very socially conscious, but she liked that Megatron never corrected him or beat him down.

- Shockwave altered his spark to have maximum bad vibes to destroy the All Spark.

- She said it’s hard talking about writing a show because you’re designing the experience and you have to make sometimes what sounds like cold and pragmatic decisions (eg: "we need a cold and spunky female”) which sucks, but they need to balance out the show. She says she’d never do that just for the sake of doing it, but it’s part of something that they do need to be aware of while working on a show. “It starts from a weirdly cold pragmatic place, but we try and put truth in it”.

- They didn’t want to have Unicron in the show since he’s the default “big bad”, but if he was in the show, Mae Catt says “If you put the proverbial budget-gun to my head, I’d keep Unicron in planet-mode because it’s more mysterious, but I want both alt modes”.

- Her favorite Megatron is Beast Wars Megatron.

- She doesn’t like Sky Lnxy’s design, it’s creepy. “He talks in the G1 episodes and the voice makes it worse.” She can’t get over his face.

- “I’d love to see more jets [who aren’t our usual gang] and find out all jets are kinda snobby, which explains why Starscream’s the way he is”.

- Everyone on the Autobot side are friends with each other.

Thanks for your time Mae Catt! We’re lucky to have you. Thank you for all your hard work on this amazing show.

[blueikeproductions]

So having watched the first season of Transformers Cyberverse, I’ve got some thoughts to express. Overall I thought it was boring and a bit uninspired in places, but I generally think that’s more on me as a veteran fan. The first season aims to tell the abridged origin of the Great War, which seems loosely based on the Aligned and IDW origins: the Decepticons came to power to overthrow a oppressive government. As such it doesn’t do much new, so it’s nothing I, or other veterans, haven’t heard before, but as an entry point for new fans, I think it serves its purpose to give them the general gist of things. Interwoven with the backstory is Bumblebee and Windblade’s exploits on Earth, as they dodge enemy Seekers, fix Bee’s memories (which is where the flashbacks come from), and locate The Ark to reunite with the other Autobots. Like the Bumblebee movie, the titular Autobot has lost his memories, and fumbles his way around in a child like manner, needing Windblade’s Cityspeaker skills to refresh his memory so he can tell her where the Ark is. This part of the story is a little better, as it offers more original material, with additional flashbacks as to how Bee and Windy met. Their friendship is rather touching, if mildly cliche from a teenage romcom scenario. Back on Cybertron, Bee was a charming dork while Windblade was the new girl in town (like in IDW, she’s from Caminus), and feel in with the popular clique: Starscream’s jets. Charmed by Bumblebee’s antics and disgusted by Starscream’s cruelty, Windy decides to hang with Bee and a friendship is born. The sparse prewar segments are generally the best parts, showing a simplified glimpse at what Cybertron was like. There’s a hint of mild Shapeism, in that the jet Transformers think they’re the cream of the crop, and look down on ground vehicles. Similarly, cars don’t have a high opinion of the smarmy jets either. Nevertheless, everyone seems to generally get along just fine at MacCadam’s Old Oil House, with Soundwave and other Seekers providing musical entertainment. MacCadam’s is probably the best episode of the first season, which shows the subtle collapse of Cybertronian society though small timeskips. Cities are reduced to rubble, tensions are high, but the Oil House stood firm for the longest time, helped by MacCadam’s strict no fighting policy. When Megatron intends to rip the place apart looking for Deadlock, owner Mac transforms into an unseen form to frighten the tyrant off, and lets the future Drift stay for as long as he likes. Also a new Cybertronian sport, Cube, is shown, which seems to be Quidditch mixed with football. It’s honestly not that interesting, but Bumblebee was such a big fan of the sport, he tries to sneak into the stadium to see it, ultimately interfering in a game (though at this point he was trying to stop a bored Starscream from ruining the game). Worth nothing Cyberverse’s sister series, Rescue Bots Academy, also includes Cube and it’s other biggest fan Hot Shot. The present day stories though do have their flaws. There’s really no point for the Autobots to be on Earth, as it feels obligatory more so than anything else because that’s what previous stories did. The Robots in Disguise factor seems largely abandoned as nobody bothers to scan Earth modes, and freely run around in their space forms. Grimlock seems to be the only one who scanned an Earth form however, though this wasn’t made immediately clear in flashbacks since he still had saurian like kibble. (Hindsight suggests he probably turned into a vaguely saurian tank however). Really, outside of Grimlock’s brief backstory and Shockwave’s plan to raze Earth in order to kill the Autobots and collect the Allspark, the Transformers could’ve been running around Pluto or Mars instead. Nobody interacts with or befriends humans, so there’s not much of a drive to defend Earth beyond it’s the right thing to do. And also the Ark, but still. Character work is probably the worst aspect of the show unfortunately. Outside of Grimlock, MacCadam and Teletraan X, nobody really has any interesting personality or quirks. Bee is transplanted from his Movie and Prime incarnation, while Windy seems mostly defined by her sisterly relationship with Bee. As such she doesn’t really work on her own, as she lacks any of the traits possessed by her earlier counterparts. At best I can say she’s loyal and a good fighter, but without someone to bounce off of, she’s uninteresting. Bee doesn’t have anything new going for him either. He still speaks with his radio and is the little buddy, but that���s about it. Oh, the Allspark apparently reacted to him on Cybertron, implying a greater destiny, but nothing else is said about this for the time being. The only other major presence are Slipstream’s Seekers, but they might as well have been Vehicons, as there’s little to no character development for any of them. They’re all little more than dumb thugs. At most, Slipstream wants to look good in front of high command, but this isn’t explored much. Really the only interesting Seeker is Acid Storm, who due to animation errors and, perhaps a lack of communication between the show runners and Hasbro, is said to be gender fluid to cover up the error. It’s actually a fun idea that could be fleshed out more, among other things, on how other Decepticons view it (Slip is fine with it, but Shockwave sees no combat value in it), but I fear they’ll not be allowed to do so. The other legacy Autobots and Decepticons seen have nothing new to offer, and are who they’ve been in the original G1 cartoon. Grimlock is an exception as he has a split personality, being prim and proper in robot mode, but his classic caveman brute in beast mode. In an example of telling, not showing, Grimlock was revealed to have reigned on Earth during the dinosaur age, allegedly creating an advanced dinosaur society. It’s another cool idea, but as we’re not really shown how this worked, it feels half baked at best. Many wish we would’ve gotten a spotlight episode of Grim and his dinosaur friends instead, but who knows, maybe a possible IDW Cyberverse comic might dip into that more. Because of the show’s 10 minute time frame, a lot of more emotional and impactful scenes are stunted pretty badly, most notably a flashback detailing a heroic sacrifice by Blurr, but it’s clear the writers are doing their best with what they’ve got to work with. Similarly new Decepticon Shadow Striker also gets the shaft in development. Characteriszed as a shortfused, competitive girl, Shadow was at one point the Decepticons’ top bounty hunter and sharpshooter, but an accident following the capture of Optimus left her severely crippled. Now having a mishmash body cobbled together by Shockwave, she’s no longer able to do a lot of what she was able to, and is driven by an insane fury to get revenge on Bumblebee, who played an admittedly minor role in her accident. They’re supposed to be arch enemies, but their limited interactions feel very forced. If anything she had more chemistry with fellow impulsive wreckloose Hot Rod. It does feel like there might be set up for her to switch sides, as Bee has been shown to cut her some slack that she partially acknowledges, but I might be looking too hard into it. Overall, Cyberverse repackages what came before it, but does very little new to innovate. The season finale ends with the Decepticon Battle Fleet zeroing in on Earth to wipe out the restored Autobots. This at least suggests a straight forward 80’s style clash between Bots and Cons next season. I’m hoping the second season has some better stories, but talk of killing off a lot of the characters (a jokey comment in particular says Optimus dies immediately in the second season, with another implying Bumblebee becomes Goldbug), makes me a bit skeptical of the show’s story going forward. I’m still gonna check it out though, and if the Goldbug thing is true, I wouldn’t mind seeing that side of Bee again.