#as the Autobots said they have never seen them before in the first episodes which is weird since they are always with Megatron

[cursed-transformers-gifs]

[in1-nutshell]

ANOTHER EARTHSPARK REQUEST SINCE THERES NOT MUCH!

So, I wanted a terran bot buddy that kind of acts like Rumble, kind of- since I wanted to see Soundwave becoming their dad2 and the minicons being their adopted siblings unintentionally lol

And I meant unintentionally, maybe they met sometime before the “Decoy” episode, which leads a bit of an angst thing since I also wanted to see the minicons a bit shocked seeing Buddy being with the autobots

Oh!

Oh... this is going to be fun...

On a serious note though, where is Rumble? And where's Ratchet?!

Hope you enjoy!

Bot Buddy the Terran with the personality of Rumble meeting Soundwave and the minicons

SFW, Platonic, Slight Angst, Cybertronain (terran) reader

TFE

Buddy was one of the livelier Terrans between Twitch and Thrash. Defiantly the hardheaded one.

Having a mini rover as their alt mode, Buddy often liked riding around in the back blasting whatever tunes that were on the radio or on their playlist. And being the smallest Terran also had its perks.

“Have you seen Buddy yet?”--Robbie

“I’ve looked in the barn, and garage.”--Thrash

“I flew over by the cows, no sign of them.”--Twitch

Twitch looking at Bumblebee, who’s leaning against the barn door.

“Have you seen them?”--Twitch

“I don’t see them.”--Bumblebee

Twitch groans before looking back at the group.

“They couldn’t have gone that far, they know they aren’t supposed to go out of the fences.”--Mo

“…But what if they did?”--Twitch

“They wouldn’t do that… would they?”--Thrash

“We need to find them before dinner’s ready.”--Robbie

“How much time do we have for that?”--Twitch

“15 minutes.”--Mo

“…”—The Maltos

They all spread out to go look for Buddy.

Bumblebee looks around for a bit before tapping the barn floorboard.

Buddy pops out of there filled with dust and some cobwebs here and there.

“You know you should go and tell them where you are.”--Bumblebee

“Nah, this is revenge.”--Buddy

Bumblebee looked at them curious.

“Revenge?”--Bumblebee

Buddy picks off some of the cobwebs off their arm.

“Thrash didn’t catch me during our trust fall exercise and Twitch decided to take me flying. She knows I hate flying.”--Buddy

“What about Robbie and Mo? What did they do?”--Bumblebee

“I… I honestly don’t remember…”--Buddy

Buddy suddenly feels sad and extreme worry.

“…”—Bumblebee and Buddy

“…You should get back to them.”--Bumblebee

“I should get back to them. Hey guys! I’m here!”--Buddy

They definitely had a bit of an attitude, but they were fiercely protective of their family.

They were not afraid to throw their servos at anyone who decided to hurt their family in any way shape or form.

No one was going to mess with their brothers and sisters except them.

When they first met Autobots, he felt weirded out by their prolonged stares.

Especially Megatron’s.

Buddy wanted to ask, but they never got around to asking.

Mainly because they were looking after their siblings while also doing the stuff they liked.

Buddy accidentally dropkicks Thrash during training.

“Oh! Sorry Thrash!”--Buddy

Bumblebee coming to Thrash and Buddy.

“Rumble you can’t just dropkick—”--Bumblebee

“Rumble? Who’s Rumble?”--Buddy

Bee freezes a second.

“Forget what I said. Just no dropkicking during training.”--Bumblebee

Buddy raises an optic through their battle visor but lets it go.

Buddy had fallen behind the group when they were introduced to Arcee and went to go and find Bumblebee.

They blamed the speed of their alt mode for not being quicker.

Buddy came out of the woods transforming and landed in front of their siblings ready to fight the other minicon.

To their surprise, all three stopped at the same time.

They looked… shocked.

Buddy in battle stance.

“Listen I don’t know who you guys are, but you better leave me and my siblings alone.”--Buddy

“Rumble?”--Frenzy

Buddy falters their stance a bit.

“Who’s Rumble? I’m Buddy. You know what never mind. Just go away!”--Buddy

The three snap out of it and charge up a sonic scream at them all.

Thanks to a catchy tune the scream stopped.

Bumblebee came from the ridge and started fighting the minis.

Buddy saw one of them charging a scream at their teacher.

“Bee look out!”--Buddy

Buddy took the hit instead and flew off the ledge to the battle below.

“BUDDY!”—The Maltos and Bumblebee

Buddy hit a couple boulders on the way down and ended up falling on the side of the battle. Their pede got stuck on some rocks rendering them immobile.

Arcee went to go and see Buddy, but the rocks were still pinning her down.

Optimus tried to go but got tossed to the other side by Soundwave.

Soundwave and Megatron were now in a stale mate servo locked in place.

Megatron looked quickly where Buddy was. They were still trying to get their pede out from the larger rocks angrily muttering.

Soundwave looked were Megatron was looking and his grip nearly faltered.

The minibot rubbing their helm with a pede stuck on some rocks looked so much like…

The sound of rocks crumbling was heard above Buddy as huge chucks started falling.

Buddy looked up in fear at the rocks starting to come downwards.

They felt more fear from the link from their siblings.

Oh no their siblings…

What was going to happened to them?

What was going to happen to their family if they got squashed?

“BUDDY!”—Megatron and Optimus

Soundwave threw Megatron to the side and sprinted to the minbot, throwing the rock from their pede, snatching them, tucking them safely into his chest compartment and ran out.

A couple of larger rock did hit him, but he made sure to protect the compartment with his frame.

Soundwave heard the frightened screams from inside which pushed him to get out of there quicker.

The last big boulder made him trip onto another pile of rocks.

He landed on his back, servos crossed his chassis and laid there for a bit.

Everything was quiet.

Soundwave slowly sat up in pain and opened the chest compartment.

Buddy spilled out into his arms.

Buddy just stared, shivering from fear, at the larger Con that had just saved their life.

They noticed that Soundwave’s servos started to shake too.

They gently patted them as he set them down next to him.

“Thank you—”--Buddy

Megatron tried to snatch them up, but Soundwave grabbed Buddy’s servo tightly.

“Soundwave, while you’ve done an admirable—”--Megatron

“Rumble.”--Soundwave

The bots freeze a bit.

“Where is Rumble now Megatron?”—Soundwave

“Soundwave—”

“Where is he!?”--Soundwave

With That Megatron yanks Buddy out of his grip and Arcee kicks him in the face, falling unconscious.

“Buddy?”--Megatron

Buddy buried their face into Megatron’s neck cables shaking like a leaf.

“I—I want to go home now… I want Mom and—and Dad.”--Buddy

Megatron can only hold tighter as he walks them over to their siblings.

Later that day, Buddy would try brushing the feeling of fear for of the dents they were going to have to explain to Dot to their siblings.

Robbie and Mo seemed less convinced than Twitch and Thrash, but they didn’t press more on the matter.

Dot and Alex were more concern with Buddy nearly getting crushed, but Buddy reassured them that they were fine and now had a cool story to tell.

Truth though was that they were far from fine.

They were terrified.

They were terrified of that name.

The name that had been bouncing all around today.

The name that everyone seemed to associate them with, but they didn’t even know who they were.

The name.

Rumble.

[blueikeproductions]

Since I saw grifters being stupid about it, let’s go into the conceptual history of female Transformers.

Ladybots have a very … clumsy origin, but not as clunky as stuff like the Matrix or 13 Primes.

Transformers fiction started with the Marvel Comics, and when asked by Bob Budiansky, the main creator of the general lore, if female robots were a thing at all, and Hasbro said no.

So Budiansky and later Furman just accepted that with the American Marvel comics not including female robots.

Later on, taking advantage of the humanoid Pretenders, Budiansky wrote this above part clarifying Transformers don’t do the same things we humans do in romantic terms. The comics much earlier clarified Cybertronians reproduce using the ancient Creation Matrix, with the cartoon using the equally ancient super computer Vector Sigma.

Cloudburst’s comment about TFs not having men or women wound up creating a misconception that lingers to this day, that Transformers collectively are a genderless species.

It’s not in my wheelhouse to understand the logistics of how that works, but it’s something I’ve never really agreed with due to the species still using masculine pronouns, which suggests, at the time, they’re an all male species. Some modern material like Aligned and IDW unhelpfully tried using this also, claiming the Transformers had no concept of gender as we define it and only began implementing it after contact with organic species. This also led to the controversial IDW Trans Arcee, and IDW’s flimsy retcons about how gender DID exist on Cybertron but biological (technological?) females went… extinct (?), with trans women filling in the gap, while bio-technological females naturally existed on the various colony planets. IDW was not shy on Cybertron being a planet of gay men in its later years, so take that as you will, same with the fandom misconception of Caminus being the “Amazon woman” planet due to it bringing in other females in IDW.

All that said however, female characters were tinkered with in the early concepts of the series. Budiansky had tinkered with females, with his original intent for Ratchet being a ladybot, as he was meant to be a reference to Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

This is where the cartoon comes in, as female robots were meant to be part of the story from the start. A recently unearthed script and pitch bible for the cartoon reveals the Autobots were meant to include a girl named Firecycle. Firecycle as a female medic and mutual love interest to Optimus Prime, with her shtick being she took her medic role so seriously she’d stop to repair Decepticons who were clearly faking it. She also valued life above all else, so she didn’t like to walk/drive on grass, fearing she’d hurt it. It should be noted Firecycle originates from the early story bible and pitch episode “A Robot’s Best Friend is his Dog”, repurposed from the Car & Cable pitch that had Muffy instead of Bumblebee.

This pitch also included the human cast from Car & Cable Matt Conroy, Eddie and Wendy Fairchild, and their dog Burt, hence the dog part. Burt was able to sniff out Decepticons hiding in Vehicle Mode, with this early pitch also leaning into the idea of Autobots and Decepticons being genetically distinct, as surmised by Matt.

This pitch also included a Decepticon called Whirlpool but we don’t know their gender, personality or vehicle mode. I like to think they were the first female Decepticon, but we won’t know for sure unless more of the early concept work is unearthed.

In the end, Firecycle never made it through, Hasbro presumably still not wanting girls in the boys’ clubhouse. It wasn’t until the cartoon staff put their foot down later on, citing girls liked Transformers also, including their daughters, that Hasbro eased off on it.

From there we got Arcee, Elita-1, Beta, Chromia, etc.

The inclusion of ladybots later in the series did come off as something of a retcon, as to explain why we hadn’t seen them before, Shockwave would muse on thinking they were extinct this whole time, with the show later clarifying female robots were around from the start.

Most future cartoons would follow the G1 cartoon’s lead, not really dwelling on where ladies came from, but including them anyway. There was still a predominant male over female robot slant, with most females being generics that persisted in stuff like the Unicron Trilogy.

Some much later American retcons for the anime and toy line would state that several Mini-Cons, Alexis’ partner Sureshock among them, were female, with Galaxy Force’s Override, AKA Nitro Convoy, being gender bent from male in Japan to female in America to boost female presence in the show.

What’s interesting is the female robots pushed were exclusively Autobots, as the G1 cartoon never included female DECEPTICONS. It’s never been explained yet why this was, but I partly suspect that Hasbro was only ok with girls so long as they were Autobots, and didn’t want little girls being naughty due to girls in Megatron’s employ.

Japanese manga would surprisingly include the first female Decepticons for the Victory manga.

Though they were depicted as civilians, and never actually fought the Autobots.

Still the ball was slowly rolling from here to depict Ladycons, with Beast Wars BlackArachnia in particular as the more prominent representative for a while, with her inspiring the Decepticon Airachnid. Strika from Beast Machines also contributed to increased female presence among the Decepticons.

Interestingly Japanese media tried to split the difference, where while we did have BlackArachnia and Seacon Scylla…

…most of the female presence was limited to the Navi computers, who are similar to the Beast Machines Diagnostic Drone in being little side kicks that help the Maximals and Predacons for their missions.

RiD01 had a similar concept in T-Ai, the friendly AI that was pals with Koji and helped Optimus lead the Autobots against the Predacons.

Slowly but surely though, steps were being taken to include female Transformers on top of the female rep in humans like Carly, Sari, Miko, Kelly and so forth. Animated and RiD15 saw a particular increase in female Autobots AND Decepticons both as major toys and fun background/in-show only characters like Lightyear, Glyph, Filch and Glowstrike among others.

And then Aligned and IDW happened.

The creation of Solus Prime on the surface somewhat muddled things, as she’s the defacto female robot of which all female Transformers are descended from in the same way animal types and Mini-Cons descend from Onyx and Micronus. On top of being The Fallen’s girlfriend who fell to his (unintentional) domestic violence, early concepts also state she helped birth the entire Cybertronian race, so yeah none of that helps. Some more recent stuff seemed to catch on this mild stereotype and focused more on her forager status, being the inventor and gadget gal of the group. That didn’t stop her in modern times from becoming an exclamation/swear word in RiD15 and Cyberverse in “Sweet Solus Prime!” Her biggest contribution was primarily her giant Fixit Felix hammer, which was a reoccurring relic in Prime wielded by both sides, with Megatron using it in a scheme to build his own weapon.

Solus was also credited with building the Star Saber and Apex Armor, though the later in Prime was said to be built by Decepticon scientists, conflicting with the Solus claim…

IDW didn’t help either, as mirroring Marvel, Arcee was the first female robot, born from a forced gender transition reformatting by Jhiaxus for skud and giggles just to see what would happen if gender as defined by organics, was suddenly introduced into the Transformer species. Arcee was understandably none too happy about this, her identity being violated and viscously hunting down Jhiaxus to exact revenge.

She would finally get her revenge thanks to Dead Universe shenanigans, getting to kill the undead scientist over and over again until she was satisfied.

Furman penned this story way before the modern social justice warrior/grifter stuff took root, with most agreeing Furman’s more sci-fi way to create females in a robotic species didn’t work, and mostly ignored it. It wasn’t until the modern hoopla we’ve been stuck in kicked in did IDW writers try to fix the problem. My issue with it is they wound up over correcting it, continually drawing attention to a matter most would rather have left ignored until the end of the original IDW run.

The retcon ultimately became that Arcee was an ancient Transformer from its prehistory, who was a mighty warrior alongside his brother Galvatron. At some point, Arcee wanted to be reformatted into a female body, and out of desperation sought out Jhiaxus intentionally rather than being captured at random. The earlier anger and rage was reinterpreted as Arcee instead being loopy from bad software used in her reconstruction.

Not helped either was a slip up confusing the matter if other ladybots existed on Cybertron pre-Arcee, with MTMTE, TAAO, & OP explaining them as trans ladybots also, and that Cybertron’s females either way left the planet or became extinct. Whatever the case, the planet became populated by male robots who were unfamiliar with females, creating a Vandread situation when Ladybots were shown to still exist on colony planets I don’t think was at all intentional…

Simply put it was a mess.

A mess IDW and later Skybound sought not to repeat by just having Ladybots of all makes and models exist from the start, no mental gymnastics needed.

It’s this heavy insistence though on trying to make trans woman rep, good intentioned but hopelessly flawed, that got grifters and some veteran fans cheesed off. On top of the bizarre situation with Arcee, the main trans rep besides her were Anode and Lug, new characters for MTMTE/LL who were met with revulsion because most readers found them incredibly annoying (though some were mad at them for being trans also, let’s not dance around that). It doesn’t help at the height of the feminism stuff in the mid 2010’s saw news outlets claim female Transformers were being introduced into the franchise by IDW, a horrible misunderstanding, and shows that most weren’t really aware of Arcee, Elita, Firestar, Blackarachnia, Thunderblast, Airrazor, and more from older material…

Another frowned upon thing from this era that persisted to EarthSpark was the habit of gender bending legacy bots into females, with Skywarp, Frenzy, Ravage, Swoop, and Jazz as particular standouts, alongside Nova Storm (a generic in the scheme of things but still noteworthy). There was also a peculiar push from modern cartoon writers to make Thundercracker a girl, but Hasbro put their foot down on him specifically. This is partly why Nova Storm occupies the modern Jet trio, to make up for the lack of a lady Thundercracker. It’s this modern flippant gender swapping that annoys people, as it comes off as an artificial attempt to boost female robots in a time when we have plenty more preexisting ladies to choose from. (And I say that aware of the era Override came from.) Clearly it doesn’t matter unless it’s a popular male character turned female, which is why I’m surprised Hot Rod, Grimlock or Soundwave haven’t gotten gender bent yet. It’s also why I side eye Mae Catt’s sole lament on ES being unable to bring back trans Arcee, the one thing everyone just wants to escape from… Read the room, Mae. There was room for a trans robot, but Arcee wasn’t it.

Still, despite the very bumpy ride getting there, female Transformers did start becoming more common place, with the Autobots typically having Arcee, Windblade or Elita-1 as the token chick of the team, while the Decepticons were a toss up. As of typing, they still haven’t settled on a defacto female Decepticon, despite experimenting with Airachnid, Nightbird, and Shadow Striker in those roles.

Still let it be known the next time a grifter starts trouble, female Transformers were supposed to exist from the start, it just took them a little longer to drive by was all.

[gengar-pixel-2]

Transformers animated liveblog: Season three, part 2: SPOILER WARNING!

ONTO PART TWO OF THE BEGINNING OF SEASON THREE BABYYY- LET'S GOOO-

Fight with the headmaster was kinda fun to watch, optimus calling him a noob made me giggle lol. ALSO YAYY!!! The family bond is mending! I continue to have mixed feelings about isaac sumdac, but his character moments in this episode were really nice, and I liked them a lot.

RATCHET TRAUMA YET AGAIN! LORE TIME! and I have to say

the origin of omega supreme is like?? realllly fucked up?? They made him to be nothing but a weapon, and made him HAVE to rely on others for commands, so he doesn't think about the destruction he's causing?? holy shit?? okay like. i know i know, the whole point is with the decepticons and autobots is that it's not black and white. I know. it's not "oh the autobots are perfect saints never do anything wrong and every decepticon ever is cruel and heartless and irredeemable" like. i understand. thats a big thing in transformers and all. I also know ultra magnus's whole character is that he's a good leader but a flawed one. Which is very interesting to me and a good thing for my brain to crunch on, love this kinda stuff. I'M JUST SAYING! thats! realllly fucked up! I'M just pointing out the obvious. ...Much like ratchet calling them out for this! This entire backstory makes the relationship between him and ratchet all the more sweet to me. the fact that he says "Friend" not "Mentor," how far he went to get omega back online, how he said "I'm not gonna lose you a second time!" AND HOW HE TREATED THE SHIP BEFORE ALL THIS?? BEFORE WE LEARN THE SHIP IS ALIVE?? LIKE?? AT FIRST I THOUGHT HE WAS DOING THE SAILOR THING YKNOW. TALKING TO THE SHIP. BUT NO HE WAS LITERALLY DOING IT BECAUSE THE SHIP IS ALIVE AND HE CARES ABOUT HIM DEEPLY. HE DOESN'T VIEW HIM AS A WEAPON, HE VIEWS HIM AS A FRIEND. HE SEES THE SPARK, THE LIFE IN THEM. AUUUGHHH-

on a less serious note. PERCEPTOR HAVING THE TEXT-TO-SPEECH VOICE?? me and my sister were giggling LIKE!! PLEEEASE GIVE ME MORE CHARACTERS THAT SOUND LIKE THAT AAHAHAHHAAFD,,

there's. another thing about this episode. something special. (dialog in alt-text btw.)

...So this is it. And then, to my horror, even though I knew this was coming. I knew it was gonna happen. I knew at some point, blurr's demise would be shown, I knew about it before me and my sister started watching. My burden...

It didn't make this any less horrifying.

The look of horror as he realizes there is no escape, the desperation, the sickening crunch, the sounds of blurr struggling, the sound of pain?

And to know what happens after, in the next episode. The state they find him in, the state my sister doesn't know. As if it couldn't get any worse. Seeing this actual scene further cements why this death, in anything I've seen from this franchise so far, show wise, feels so.. visceral to me. ..So yes, if you are asking, i find this disturbing.

That being said, things just kept getting worse. Megatron has control over omega supreme, and while they found bumblebee, they brought monsters with him. Not to mention, sari.

Also, even though it was obvious, me and my sisters theory was.. correct! She was a cybertronian protoform, and how she got her organic shell was from sumdac's touch, because he accidentally molded her into his image!

also this entire plot of her upgrades being getting older and more powers, reminds me of ninjago except. that was like, life or death no choice and they didn't even address it until the soft reboot so. ..No it really isn't never mind- ANYWAY

She's probably been eight like, her whole life. this is the first time i've seen a sci-fi show that gives an explanation for how the robot child character grows up and all, so I'm content with this. She gets a magical girl transformation AND a cool new suit?? Man! wish I got those when I got older.. /silly

anyway, however, as though it couldn't get worse it. it did, actually. I got scared when sari couldn't control her new powers and then uh!! oops!!

BUMBLEBEE. KINDA IS OFFLINE RIGHT NOW. THIS IS HORRIFYING AND WON'T BE TRAUMATIC TO BOTH SARI AND BEE. NO. NOT AT ALL. TOTALLY NOT. HOW DOES IT KEEP GETTING WORSE?? I DUNNO DON'T ASK ME!

Anyway, with that cliffhanger, I'm excited for part three! expect liveblogs to come a bit slower and longer since stakes are really being raised and I'm only liveblogging certain episodes! ..Also, to cope, I made this.

[fanficmaniatic]

Cyberverse Movie Quick Reaction(?):

I’ve never done this before but OMP I just watched the 1st movie and I want to put my thoughts out.

Spoilers below.

- Is so nice seeing a peace treaty ending the war? I know there is plentiful of TF content I have yet to watch, But I have never seen both autobots and decepticons being happy?? singing a treaty for peace? This was odly satisfying and it made me feel really happy Cyberverse exists.

- NIGHTBIRD IS HERE!? Has she appeared in a cartoon outside of G1??? (I am almost certain some japanese cartoons had her tho) BUT LIKE IS SO NICE SEEING HER HERE AS CYBERTRONIAN!!!

- Okey Swoop is my favorite autobot, I like that they made Swoop a girl, I dont mind that, is nice I love her. I am just kinda meh they made her the smart girl, (WHY CAN A GIRL JUST BE DUMB???) I feel like if you wanted to go have an smart dinobo you could have gone with Sludge or Snarl :/

- ON A SIDE NOTE SWOOP MY GIRL HAS BEEN TELLING THEM THE ANSWERS ALL ALONG

- Okey, to backtrack. If I had a dollar for every time Arcee and Grimlock went to an adventure and then returned to find all their friends frozen, I’ll had two dollars, which isn’t a lot, but is weird that it happened twice.

- GRIMLOCKS LITTLE PAT PAT TO ARCEE’S HEAD IS EVERYTHING TO ME. is just the fact that they are besties and he wanted to keep her safe… I 🥺… This movie realy said “Arcee and Grim are besties and I was serious about that” AND THANK YOU FOR THAT.

- BUG BITE IS AWESOME, is the unhinged dumbass energy for me. SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LET CHARACTERS BE FUNNY WFC TRILOGY??? THEY BECOME LIKABLE... NOW if you allow me, i’ll buy his toy, unlike wfc bug bite that can die in hell.

- PLASE I AM BEGGING HASBRO, NIGHTBIRD TOY. PLEEEEEEAAAASE!!! I am not mad she is an Arcee recolor, please I’ll buy her. PLEASE. (She honestly works pretty well as a recolor, but I would have remolded the face a bit more, nothing I can’t fix on the figure myself)

- Soundblaster‘s voice is really cool and not at all what I expected. I like it, but that is how Blaster sounds in my mind, I am not sure if this is taking or adding points.

- THE COMEDY WAS SO WELL DONE! Idk if this was a 1st time eximent thing, but my mom was in the room as I watched the movie and I didn’t cringe once (unlike with s1 or the entire wfc trilogy).

- Volcanicus visor/head reminds me too much to RID2015 Jazz. I have decided that it may have been intentional. I am dying for Jazz crumbs.

-Is it just me or that one Volcanicus transformation was an Angry Birds Transformers Reference?????????

- sounblaster is hella cool. BUT BITCH CAN DIE IF HE TOUCHES LAZERBEAK AGAIN.

- On a side note: “I’ll take away the only thing you care about” THE BITCH TOUCHES LAZERBEAK!;!;@:’ Dadwave at his prime.

- HOW COME THIS MOVIE MADE COMBINERS MORE INTERESING THAN THE ENTIRE COMBINER WARS SERIES!? (to be fair those were only 5 min long but still...)

- I REALLY enjoyed Tripticon. Not just was him my favory Titan already… Seeing an interesting version of him on screen that is not being controlled by Starscream‘s ghost was great! His “Fair but strick” boss my but. Love volcanicus but I totally expected Tripticon to win 🤷���‍♀️

- CALL ME CRAZY BUT THAT WAS JAZZ COREOGRAPHY FROM WFC!! I KNOW IT !! THIS IS NOT ME REACHING FOR JAZZ CONTENT!! THAT WAS A REFERENCE I. KNOW. IT!! I AM PICKING UP WHAT THEY ARE PUTTING DOWN! THEY REFERENCED MY BOY IN THE DANCE MOVES.

Hasbro please, let Jazz be in a show? in something? I am begging you here, I can’t rewatch the same two episodes of RID2015, I can’t live like this.

- Wheeljack took time to match his inventions with his paint job… I… Him and Swoop builded it together… His child…

- THE FACT THAT SHADOW STREAKER LOOKED BACK BEFORE SINGING, LOOKING FOR HER BESTIE SOUNDERS DJDJJD I-

—OP TOOK ONE LOOK AT TRIPTICON AND SAID THAT IT WAS NOT HIS PROBLEM, and I respect him for that.

- I really loved the first move. Can’t wait for more. (I really hope this opinion remai and is not just my exitement of the first watch, but man, this was good!!)

That’s it for now :)

[megadoomingir]

I’m rereading stop me and just noticed a line that made me laugh “Don't you dare post that selfie on Instagram, Knockout'!” When did he have time to learn about Instagram and other social media’s.

Eee~! I love when someone points out the little details~! ^^

The Decepticons have been on Earth for a long time! As have the Autobots! Here, look, look!

I have, in my possession, the Transformers: Prime IDW comics from January 2011 (this is relevant, I swear!) and in the #3 issue, we have this LOVELY picture I just took of my copy:

(Sorry for the poor quality!)

If you haven’t had the chance to read these, it’s basically a comic version of TF:P season 2 episode 17 ‘Out of the Past’ where Arcee remembers back to when she first met Cliffjumper- yes! I swear, the relevancy- Anyway, the page! Starscream! What he says! He’s BACK, baby! On Earth! And his judgmental digit pointing at that ENORMOUS RABBIT (I said I owned a set of the comics, I never said they were well done XD)- What I’m basically trying to say, in so many useless tangents and words, is that Cybertronians are not unfamiliar with Earth. And not just from this moment, but before when stores of energon and priceless relics were cast to the planet. And what do you do when you’re in foreign lands? You learn about it. What can hurt you? What is something well enough to be avoided? Why did both the Autobots and Decepticons have this strange understanding that getting humans involved was against best insterest? I know! Another tanget! But I WILL get to the core of your question! I promise!

Human interference would have been problematic. Not just for the Decepticons but the Autobots as well. For the Cons, it meant that humans aren’t as frail as most of the faction sees them. They are capable of so much damage. This is well noticed. For the Bots, it was the guilt of dragging another species into their fight. The loss of life on their conscience. This, too, is well noticed. Humans, at least the ones who knew, also had a voice on the matter. They didn’t want to get the planet riled up in an alien war. The key here? Humans, and all that they are, are noticed. And they worth studying and watching and keeping tabs on, aren’t they? Which, by some miraculous miracle of my mumbled and jumbled mind, brings us back to the question you asked: When did [Knockout] have time to learn about Instagram and social media? Well, I’ll tell you~

It’s already canonly seen that KO and BD immersed themselves into human culture, albeit in disguise. Knockout would race with them. He would actively drive around cities and from town to town looking for his next thrill. He spent actual amounts of time with humans. Breakdown’s note on ‘time spent’ isn’t well catalogued, but it can easily be assumed that he stuck close by with Knockout. This would have begun their interests in ‘researching’ humans further.

Not everyone needs a doctor on the Nemesis. Most of his patients are actually without the need of his expertise as they are corpses on the battlefield. Harsh? Yes. But true. This would have given Knockout so much ‘research’ time. We also have to take note that some episodes span a couple of days, sometimes weeks- or months, as seen in the episodes ‘Orion Pax 1-3’ which had Optimus gone for over two months. Some days, Knockout would have nothing to do... but dedicate his time to the ‘gram.

I’ve seen other people interpret Cybertronians as ‘human illiterate’; unable to understand basic to complex metaphors or sayings, unable to understand basic human needs, unable to understand certain words pertaining specifically human attributes, unable to- I suppose continuing the explanation would be redundant. But why do people think this? Why do they believe Cybertronians don’t have a basic level of common sense and intelligence? Cybertronians have met other organic life. They’ve been to Earth before. They have the resources to more intricately monitor the inhabitants of the planet... and download a few apps for purely research purposes! And how could Megatron dare to tell Knockout not to share his beauty online?

In summary, Knockout would already have had a basic interest in humans as a whole. He’s a very intelligent mech; flirty, too. He would have been interested in knowing more about the world he races through. He would definitely have a small datapad modeled after a smartphone to handle those small human apps. He would expertly create an email address to achieve this. Most of the posts he likes are of cars.

But I ask you now, what else does this mean? My brain has come to this conclusion: with the Bots and Cons having been on Earth multiple times, taking note of the humans as something worth keeping an optic on, needing to be watched and observed and monitored closely, this would be best achieved by having access to the human’s archives, known as the ‘Internet’. And they have seen things. All the things. All. Of. Them. Cybertronians aren’t human illiterate. They don’t want to talk about those things. And Knockout deserves to be able to post his wonderful selfie. Megatron just lacks taste.

[definitely-not-karen]

My unnecessary and irrelevant reviews about the transformers media I have consumed.

Please let me have this. I was doom scrolling and transformers is my comfort fandom.

G1: I have not watched all of it, I do plan on doing so but I did watch it when I was younger and does invoke nostolgia. I watched it on Teletoon Retro (does that even exist anymore?) ((just googled it, rip teletoon retro)). For some reason I really like the episode The Ultimate Weapon. I am a huge fan of First Aid and it was because of this episode and I have no idea why. Rodimus is the main character of that episode with First Aid just having a very prominent role in the side story of that episode. I really liked the Aerialbots and their storyline with the time traveling and the not knowing if they’re on the right side was really cool. Honestly the animation errors and weird inconsistent story are part of the charm I guess.

RID 2001: another show I’ve only seen tidbits of. I watched this one via random episodes illegally uploaded to YouTube in the early to mid 2010s and now all those videos are taken down. As a lover of camp, this is camp. I love it. Transformers as a concept is pretty camp (which is why I adore it) and I definitely will watch all of this one day. Though Sideburn is cool and all, I do wish he didn’t chase a red sports car every episode. Otherwise he’s one of my favourites cause himbo rights I guess.

Transformers IDW 2005: So... I read the entirety of the idw comics purely because I found out Thundercracker was a screenplay writer and I wanted to read the entire story so I got the complete context of his development from scary fighter jet to an Oscar winner. I was not disappointed, I was met with queer and trans representation of all sorts, a diverse storyline with action filled parts, comedy elements, slice of life, political drama, adventure, horror, and the best road trip through space. Honestly I was not expecting transformers of all things to have queerness represented so casually and quite well in my opinion (though technically they are guilty of bury your gays, I don’t count it cause there was a clear reason for that death) Thundercracker was marked as one of my favourites cause of this series. I did experience a wonderful story because I wanted to see how he got his happy ending. My biggest criticism of idw transformers is that I love their interpretations of characters and sadly I know I’ll probably never get to seen them like that again. But if I want to experience those characters like that, I’ll just re read it I guess.

Transformers Animated: I have watched the entirety of this great show twice and it still love it. Funny characters, a human character that has a purpose, and a fun change to the formula, Transformers Animated has one of my favourite Optimus and made a Bumblebee so lovably loud they had to take away his voice so he wouldn’t become too powerful. Loved all of the characters except the human villains, Headmaster did not age well and I wasn’t in love with Ratchet’s design but his personality more than made up for it. If you want more animated, I love Transformers ReAnimated the void is filled by that series and channel. While I wish it got another season, it’s ending was satisfying enough I guess.

Transformers Prime: Smokescreen is great and was underutilizes -100/10. Just kidding, kind of I really enjoyed Prime. I’ve only watched through it completely once cause when I was a child I did not like the designs since apparently as a child I was a G1 loyalist I guess. Though now Prime has one of my favourite styles that still holds up today. Dramatic story with actual character development, I can over look that the plots a tad slow. I wish Breakdown was utilized more and it also could have benefited from an extra season but the movie wrapped it up much better than animated’s ending. Knockout is an amazing character and I was spoiled while I was watching it that he turns Autobot though I didn’t realize that wasn’t until the literal end of the series. Would’ve like a completely fleshed out Breakdown and Knockout or at least Knockout redemption arc but there’s always fanfiction I guess.

Robots in Disguise 2015: I didn’t hate it? It definitely helped that I watched this before Prime for some reason. I liked the designs, Sideswipe... himbo rights. Biggest flaw is the lack of character growth. I just want nice things for Sideswipe, Strongarm and Fixit. Grimlock was fun, I like Bumblebee trying to be a good leader and Optimus should have stayed dead. The crossover and referenced to Rescue Bots was fun and Blurr and Sideswipe was the rivalry I didn’t know I needed. But the one I really needed was Smokescreen in there too. The ending arc was interesting though not executed the best and Steeljaw did a lot of the heavy lifting for the villain side to a point where they over utilized him and his character suffered as a result. Windblade was not as bad as people online said she was, splitting the group up into two was stupid cause I’m bitter and still don’t want Optimus there. Also long list of underutilization: Denny and Russel Clay, Jazz, all the characters from prime except Optimus and Bee, Jetfire and Jetstorm, More Rescue bots, and many more! Like that girl that’s Russel’s friend that I literally don’t remember because I’m pretty sure the writers forgot about her! Anyways, in retrospect the show probably wasn’t great but I liked it I guess.

Rescue Bots: This show is way better than it needed to be. I actually love the no Decelticons and war. I’m a sucker for slice of life and especially slice of life with a twist. Human villains that were actually interesting, actual character development, continuity (somewhat), great human characters all while being target for children. I’m so happy I watched this show while I was kind of the target age and rewatching it for the third time was great cause some of the science jargon actually made sense to me. Satisfying ending too and honestly it can just appeal to everyone. Love all four of the main rescue bots and constantly wish they made evergreen designs and toys for them so they could at least make cameos in other transformers media. Sometimes it’s nice to have transformers being wholesome I guess.

Rescue Bots Academy: ... I was not the age democratic for this show and I somehow still liked it? Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been gravitating to more wholesome content due to current events but it was actually good? Love all the students, I do miss the old crew and characters like Doc Green and Frankie are under utilized and the Burns family is almost nowhere to be found :(. Once again there’s some actual character development and Hot Shot’s mentor relationship with Heatwave is super sweet. Also actually having positive post war Decepticon and Autobot relationships in this children’s show? Woah. Biggest issue is like RID 2015; the lack of continuity and characters completely disappearing. Perceptor was fun and I was not expecting him to appear. And I love me some microscope dude. It was a good send off for the aligned continuity I guess.

Cyberverse: ending too soon. I was about to be upset that bumblebee didn’t have his voice but he had his voice in his head which was great. Episodes like the velocitron one was really good and it definitely got better with each season and peaked in the Quintesson arc and then rolled to the cancellation date. Thundercracker shouldn’t have been killed off but I’m very biased. Seeing the rebuilding of Cybertron was cool. Windblade and Bumblebee had a fun relationship. I really liked this iteration of Grimlock. Perceptor was super interesting but then they did nothing with him after the Quintesson arc which was a shame and I would have liked to see better relationships between the Autobots and Decepticons after the team up. Also wholesome Whirl was fun. Honestly this needed one more season so bad. I just think it could have been great if it got one. But it’s still good I guess.

War for Cybertron: ...let’s see how I feel after Kingdom comes out but right now, meh. For me my favourite transformers characters usually end up being side characters due to me wishing they had more screen time so in this case, Red Alert is great please show me more of Red Alert. I get what all the people are saying about the voice acting and whatever but I can look past it (though please give us Peter Cullen or let the current VC make his own Optimus voice). But one thing is that all the YouTube reviewers be saying that I completely agree with is that it’s dark. Like lighting wise. I occasionally had trouble making out what was happening because it was dark. Honestly my biggest issue isn’t a fault of the show. I like development of multiple characters to be shown so I can fall in love with a multitude of characters but due to short seasons, it makes sense to focus in completely on one character at a time. Siege in my opinion at least let me see more of the background characters rather than Earthrise but I’d probably like Earthwise more if I was a bigger fan of Optimus. I’m going to watch Kingdom but I’m not expecting to be wowed I guess.

In conclusion, I should watch Beast Wars, I’m going to re read the ending of Lost Light again and revel in the melancholic ending I adore and I really like Thundercracker and First Aid. One great thing about transformers and other franchises that have been around for awhile, if you don’t like the current thing, there’s plenty of last media and you probably won’t need to wait too long for the next piece of media you’ll hopefully like.

Please be good idw 2019, I’ve read a bit of you and I have a scrap of hope. Oh please please please be good. Give some characters the Thundercracker treatment.

[mk-wizard]

What happened to Ratchet’s family?

Hello, Transformer fans.

I wanted to do a fan theory that relates to one of the most iconic bots in Transformers so I have selected Ratchet as he is a personal favourite of mine as well. As I have said in several posts, in most continuities and even in the rewritten sort-of-G1-version, it is hinted that Ratchet was married, is a father and happens to be a grandfather. This unseen family of his was expanded even further as he is revealed to be Medix’s uncle hinting that Medix is the son of either a first cousin or sibling who survived the war, but whatever happened to the wife, kids and grandkids we never saw? Well, I am afraid the theorised answer to this is not a happy one.

As we all know, the most trademark trait about Ratchet is his personality in how he carries a lot of emotional baggage and personal loss due to what the war between the Autobots and Decepticons which keeps reoccurring has done to him. I hate saying this, but judging how Ratchet acts and how he chooses to stay on Earth at the end of Prime... I think it’s very likely that his family were killed in the war. Think about it. Ratchet has a lot of anger towards the Decepticon faction on a personal level, so it makes sense that the loss he felt was a very personal one and goes far beyond just the loss of Cybertron. Every bot lost Cybertron, but Ratchet most likely lost something greater. Something irreplaceable and that was most likely his family.

The reason I say this is because Ratchet never talks about himself though it is obvious he is in a deep state of mourning. Moreover, Ratchet never liked the idea of involving humans especially children in the war which is the reaction you would expect of a guy who lost his kids. And judging by many media personalities, Ratchet does fit the profile of the guy who lost it all as he deals with his feelings by not opening up, not letting people get too close, getting buried in work and when he gets the opportunity to have his restrictions down due to the synthetic energon, he goes on a rampage. Another thing I should mention was the episode where Ratchet helped the kids with their homework. And once he started helping, we saw a different side of himself and he absolutely wanted to finish what he started. I don’t think this was a simple case of the medic wanting to build something because he’s not a mad scientist. I think he did it because it made him happy and it was like reconnecting with his own lost children. Another instance which backs up that Ratchet lost it all was when everyone thought Optimus died and it nearly broke him. A person can only take so much loss before they crack and Ratchet came close to it.

By the time Rescue Bots Academy occurs, Ratchet seems to have recovered a lot and judging by how close Medix is with him, I think being around him so much helped him recover emotionally. Also, I can’t help, but notice how good Ratchet is with the kids and how different he is with them. It’s like a night and day difference. He is patient, kind, encouraging, pleasant and likes being around them. This not only backs up that he must have been a parent at least, but also that being around children makes him happy and is kind therapeutic for him. It is not uncommon for people who have lost their kids to find comfort in caring for other kids afterwards and if done right, it does help them.

Sadly, it doesn’t change the fact that Ratchet’s own sparkmate, kids and grandkids are most likely gone due to the war. Beyond Wheelie, I haven’t seen any other Transformer kids or babies even though it has been confirmed that they exist which backs up that they didn’t make it after Cybertron was destroyed. I really hate saying this because I am a mother, but it does make sense. Moreover, no successful births could happen until the planet was fully repaired. Without a spark (soul) to make each new life whole, every birth would result in a stillborn.

There is a slim possibility that maybe his family did survive as maybe femmes and children escaped the planet first, but that is still a stretch because if Medix is as close with Ratchet as he appears to be and sees him so often, he would also be close to his aunt (the femme Ratchet is married to), but he never mentions an aunt. Now, I can accept that maybe he is closer with Ratchet than his auntie, but wouldn’t he still mention her? Wouldn’t Ratchet bring her up to tell Medix “auntie says hi” or to say that his little femme is waiting for him at home? It is not uncommon for some characters to be unseen, but when they are unmentioned and treated as though they don’t exist even though we know they do, it normally means that this character has passed on. Also, Medix doesn’t mention cousins, nieces or nephews either except for a single second cousin Wrench who is maybe the one surviving child of Ratchet, but this is really up in the air. Moreover, if they were the child of Ratchet, wouldn’t they be especially close and work together?

So as heartbreaking as it is, I think it’s pretty clear that they are all with the allspark. If I am wrong, please feel free to prove me so with other evidence and maybe even facts because honestly, this is one time where I don’t want to be right.

If you have a Transformers fan theory you want me discuss and back up, please let me know in my ask box.

[gladrial]

War for Cybertron: Siege

I wasn't expecting much but the show made the mistake of getting my hopes up in the first episode.

SPOILERS AHEAD: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

So we open on Wheeljack and Bumblebee, which is a really clever nod to the G1 series, as they're the first two characters we see in that show. And they're evading seekers, again just like the first G1 episode. But the set up is very different with Bumblebee being factionless and simply hired to scout out energon. I'm already hooked as I'm being shown that the creators care about the roots without wanting to rehash old territory. I like that.

Wheeljack and Bumblebee have a bit of banter between themselves, giving exposition to the audience in a fun way. I immediately like these characters and care what happens to them.

And Megatron not wanting to kill an enemy outright? He wants to try to talk to them first? See if this can be resolved peacefully? Now we're talking! Give me some more of that nuance!

Optimus eventually enters the picture and he's given something of a personality which is always important to me because no one seems to want him to have one anymore. That's just the way we like our heroes these days, I guess: boring.

So I'm onboard and while it isn't anything magical, for a Transformers fan, it might as well be. We don't usually get the money and effort applied to our fandom.

Unfortunately...it kinda all goes downhill from there.

By that I don't mean I hated it. I've certainly seen worse in this fandom. But the first episode showed a potential that wasn't delivered on. The dialogue tended to be stilted and repetitive. I swear, if one more character said the words 'end the war' or 'finish the war' one more time*deep breath* WE GET IT! WAR IS BAD!

Character motivations were not developed and seemed all over the place. 'Decepticons kill people! Why whatever do you mean?! That doesn't seem very nice! I'm defecting! To the Autobots! ...Who totally never kill anyone!'

The core plot was about the allspark, each faction trying to get it before the other. Okay, fine. Megatron plans to use it as a weapon and Optimus Prime plans to...do something with it... This is the main focus of the story and it's never made clear what he's trying to accomplish. We're told that if the allspark leaves Cybertron that it will destroy the planet. Optimus says something about not letting that happen without explaining how. Then, at the end, Megatron calls him out on it. Like, my dude, you're going to genocide us all doing this. And Optimus is basically...okay with this... WHAT?! WHY?! If you have a plan, fine, but I need to know what it is because you basically said 'I prefer genocide than losing this war'. Our hero everyone. AND THEN, they do manage to get the allspark off planet and this ‘genocide’ just doesn't happen and no one seems shocked by it. Your worldbuilding has to make sense!

At the end of the day, the first episode gave us fun character moments, that should have led to character development. This gives the audience a deeper investment into those characters, which leads into investment of the story itself. But those moments dissipated quickly and my interest with it. The story devolved into 'character goes here now to do x thing' and I'm left wondering why I should care.

Quick notes:

- They tried to copy Soundwave’s voice from G1 (which I love) but it was too distorted and hard to understand.

- The few 'jokes' there were fell flat.

- More Optimus and Elita One without the constant bickering, please and thank you.

- Ultra Magnus would never surrender himself like that. No. *sprays with water bottle* Bad.

- They killed Ultra Magnus and Skywarp. My boy Warp! Despicable!

- Red Alert is not a doctor. You had a million other characters to choose from. What? Because he's red and white? *shakes head*

- Megatron being resigned that Shockwave is just gonna do what Shockwave's gonna do. A+

- The characters do not have to be so exactly on model with the toys. It looks like someone playing with a bunch of action figures.

- Robots with expressive faces! Good job!

- I surprisingly really like Soundblaster's whole deal. More of that guy.

- Ironhide's voice...bad...wrong.

- Wheeljacks's voice...good...correct.

- Ratchet... You know what? I've got a whole separate tangent to do on that. Don't worry. It's a-comin'.

I know this all comes across as negative, but it's not a bad show. It's just not all that entertaining. If you are already a Transformers fan, you'll find something in it to enjoy. If not...I wouldn't recommend starting here. I like that it's trying to be a serious, more 'adult' show. It's a step in the right direction to be sure, but I know we can do a lot better.

[cy-fi-theansweris42]

Auto Berserk Rambling Pt.1

Alright what I’m rambling about today is the Transformers G1 episode Auto Berserk, aka the episode that introduced me to Red Alert and got me absolutely hooked on his character! This rambling will include me talking about little details, my thoughts on the episode and what happens during it, and, as always, pictures!!! Fair warning, this is a very long post so I’m putting a Read More line on it so you guys don’t have to scroll through this all (also a 2 parter because it’s too long for a single post, lol). Now let’s begin!

First off…Soundwave. My dude. My cassetticon-carrying man.The Decepticon logo on the front gives away your disguise.

.

Like I have no idea how this fooled anyone but go off, I guess.

Dude looks so shook after going to grab a tape recorder that wasn’t even his and it turned into a giant robot in front of his eyes, like this is what you get for trying to claim some random tape recorder as your own, no mixtapes for you.

Moving on.

Red Alert that is one serious light show you’ve got going on. Now we know those are sensors for him (he mentions it in Blaster Blues before getting shot at by the Decepticons I’m pretty sure) and I remember reading somewhere that he has enhanced sensors (I know for sure in MTMTE he has enhanced hearing, I don’t entirely know about his other senses though), and I like the idea that the little sensory horns he’s got spark when either an alarm is being tripped or he’s detecting danger of some kind, or when he’s dealing with sensory overload. Here it would be the first for sure since Soundwave’s just hanging out.

Alright, oh boy, we’re about to get into part of what causes the main conflict of the episode.

Inferno leaving Red Alert when he was supposed to be his backup.

Now, I’ve got mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, Inferno saves Optimus and gets Rumble out of the Negavator, which helps them win the fight. He also didn’t want to stay in the bunker, he wanted to go out and fight, but Red had him stay. On the other hand, he literally left Red alone in there, to guard a bunker and the controls for the Negavator by himself, and him leaving Red is what leads to Red thinking Inferno betrayed him once his logic chips aren’t working anymore, which lead to the idea that the other Autobots were out to get him. Inferno couldn’t have known that would happen though, so we can’t really blame him for that part. Personally I think Inferno should have stayed, but it’s a complicated situation.

They argue about it for a bit but eventually Inferno just leaves. Maybe he should have yelled out that he was leaving as he was leaving, or did something so Red knew for sure that he was leaving, but instead Red was just left confused as to where Inferno was after getting injured by the missile, which sucks.

Press F to pay respects.

Ok theory time: So Red’s sensors are sparking like mad here, probably since he was just caught in an explosion it’s a combination of malfunctioning and being in a dangerous situation. They’re sparking like mad and he was just caught in a literal explosion, which no doubt caused damage, so I think it’s a combination of his sensory horns sparking too much and the damage from the explosion that fried his logic chips. Plus there’s the red effect underneath his eyes that starts up just after the screenshot above.

(I’m sorry if you can’t see it too well, it’s the episode quality but I swear it’s there.) I think that might have been a visual representation that at that point, his logic chips were toast, so it wasn’t the initial blast that took them offline, it was something afterwards, so the idea of it being a combination of the blast and his sensory horns sparking too much could work.

And then everything goes downhill from there.

Ok there is just….so much I have to say about this bit. First off, it’s when Red’s delusions start. He feels like Inferno betrayed him, ok, that’s valid considering Inferno just left, but then he says “why can’t anyone see it, Inferno wants my job!” which…doesn’t make a lot of sense, but his logic chips are toast at this point, there’s going to be leaps in logic and delusions don’t make sense a lot of the time (I could be wrong, my own knowledge of delusions is limited to what I’ve learned on my own over the years). Then when Optimus says that “it’s too dangerous to remain here”, Red’s convinced that “Optimus wants me out of the way too, it’s a plot!”, so now instead of just thinking Inferno’s out to get him, so does Optimus, and there’s an entire plot to get rid of him, which we know isn’t true, but it’s what Red believes.

This is when things start to get worse for Red.

Now let’s talk about why the heckity-heck Optimus doesn’t push for Red to see Hoist or any other medical bot we’ve seen on the show (Hoist is the only one in the episode though). Like Red was just caught in a literal explosion, Optimus saw Red Alert’s sensory horns spark just because he was getting worked up (cue my headcanon that when Red has panic attacks his can cause his sensory horns to spark), and heard Red say “it’s just an electro-glitch that comes and goes, comes and goes”, the last part of which was said in the exact same tone and cadence as the first time he said that! Like there’s multiple signs that something could be wrong, and at the very least since he was caught in an explosion, Red should be getting checked over.

But no. Instead things get worse. I’m just saying, if Red had gotten checked over, maybe they could have discovered that his logic chips were damaged before they nearly exploded.

Ok. Moving on.

:( This is also the only time where we see that his sensory horns sparking can actually cause him pain, like it might be a combination of them sparking on how his logic chips are damaged, but I think that sometimes when he’s overwhelmed or convinced there’s danger, they can spark to the point of causing him pain. Either way, it’s still a :( moment.

Ok. Here’s another bit that bugs me.

Optimus: Red Alert, analyze that noise. Red Alert: Noise? What noise? All clear.

Like. COME ON YOU GUYS, YOU JUST SAW THE ROCKS HIT THE GROUND IN FRONT OF YOU AND IT’S WHY YOU STOPPED, YOU HEARD THE NOISE, WHY AREN’T YOU QUESTIONING WHY RED’S JUST LIKE “Noise? There was a noise? Idk what you’re talking about, I didn’t hear anything.” WHEN RED ALERT POSSIBLY HAS THE BEST HEARING OUT OF ALL OF YOU. COME ON, WHY AREN’T YOU QUESTIONING THIS????? (Also, for context if you haven’t seen the episode, while Red’s saying his bit, there’s more of those sparks and we hear electrical noises, so I think it’s implied that the damage made it so he either didn’t hear the noise or just made him forget about it immediately.)

F to Optimus and Ironhide, RIP in pieces my dudes.

Anyways, Decepticons attack, there’s confusion, and Red gets hit, which damages him even further, and he’s basically stuck halfway transformed with smoke coming from him for part of the battle and then I guess stunned during the rest since we just see him sitting on the ground at one point.

This is just the Red Alert Suffers Episode, huh.

The battle itself is hilarious though, like you’ve got Decepticons saying nonsense (Smokescreen lands some shots at them so they’re saying stuff like “hey, my circuits electric blew just out” “too mine, I’m blind flying” “away move, before collide we—” (….I have that memorized. Why do I have that memorized?), Smokescreen living up to his name, and Megatron realizing that “I’ve got morons on my team!” (we’re in season 2 of the show my dude, it’s about time you realized that. Also I remember the episode where you got drunk with the rest of them and proceeded to pass the heck out, you ain’t special. Edit: Ok that’s literally in the next episode, lol, I guess Megatron realized “hey, we’re all morons here, yolo”)

And now…oh man do I have a lot to say about this bit. I’m going to include dialogue too.

Optimus (talking about the Decepticon attack): Red Alert, why didn’t you warn us? Red, backing away: You want to get rid of me, just like the others do. Optimus: Hmmm, you’re more damaged than I thought. Red, still backing away: There’s nothing wrong with me. Optimus: Red Alert needs a complete overhaul. [Hoist and Inferno begin to approach Red, Red’s still backing away and now his horns are sparking] Hoist: Your logic and reason circuits are fried. Inferno: You need immediate repairs! Red: Don’t give me any of that, you just want to disassemble me for spare parts! [backs up into the wall] Never! I won’t let you! [runs at them, knocking Hoist and Inferno to the ground, and runs off] Inferno: Wait! Hoist: We’re your friends! Optimus: Quickly, we must rescue him before he makes his condition worse! [Autobots chase after Red, calling after him]

So it’s just like…man, they just…really didn’t handle this situation well. The entire time, throughout this entire exchange, Red is scared. He’s backing away from the others the entire time, trying to put some distance between them because he doesn’t feel safe. When Inferno and Hoist start approaching him, his horns start sparking because he’s detecting danger and that danger is Hoist and Inferno. He’s absolutely terrified that they’re going to hurt him, to get rid of him, to “disassemble him for spare parts”, and what do they do? They keep approaching, talk about how “he needs to be fixed”, and don’t listen to him or see how scared he is at all.

Now, if you don’t get why Red’s so scared, don’t get why he’s running from his friends and should “just realize he’s not thinking straight” or something like that, let me put it this way: Say you’re playing a video game, you’ve got allies, you’ve got bad guys, and you’ve made a lot of progress in this game and trust your allies to help you out. But then! Surprise plot twist! Your allies are actually planning on betraying you, so now you have to escape before they catch you! You’d feel betrayed, right? While playing this level you’d feel scared, or at least nervous, whenever any of them started to get close to catching you, right? You’d want to get away as quickly as possible, right? Well that’s kinda what it’s like for Red right now. Only it’s not a game, for him it’s real, and that makes it absolutely terrifying. (It’s not a perfect metaphor or whatever but it’s the best I’ve got, hopefully you get the point). Anyways, just the way they handled this situation wasn’t very good. They didn’t listen to Red at all, they continuously mentioned how “he needed to be fixed”, continued to approach him, and when he ran off they chased after him, still yelling about “how he needs help”. There’s multiple things they did wrong here, and all of it led to Red running off. Also, I just want to note that Red was trying to keep his distance from them the entire time, and the only reason why he ran at Hoist and Inferno before running off was because he had literally backed into a wall and they still kept approaching. At that point he felt trapped and that’s when he felt he had to run. Now, I’m not entirely sure if the situation could have been de-escalated enough that Red wouldn’t have run off, but I can make suggestions for what they could have done better. 1) Gave Red his space. Literally he was backing away the entire time so he wanted space, and potentially this could have stopped him from running off since if they did this then maybe he wouldn’t have backed into the wall and felt cornered. 2) Had some of the other Autobots drive back to the bunker, or just somewhere else. Red Alert was seriously outnumbered and he thought they were all against him, if I was outnumbered about 7-to-1, I’d be scared too, especially with one of those bots being Optimus-freaking-Prime. Honestly having like, just Hoist, or just one single bot (not Optimus or Inferno though, they were the first few he thought were against him so that might not have worked well) try to talk calmly to Red might have made a huge difference. 3) Stop talking about fixing him. While they were right about him needing help, all that was doing was making him more and more upset, so they needed to stop talking about that and listen to what he was saying more. There’s honestly probably more stuff but I can’t think of it.

Oh my god that was a ramble and a half MOVING ON.

I feel like this could be a meme format. I don’t know what kind, but it has meme vibes. Feel free to meme, lol, just make it memeingful.

Ok we’re about halfway through so I’m cutting it off here and putting the rest in another post, it should be up shortly!

[baebeyza]

Lemme just talk about characters I have lots of feels for - Sixshot edition

So this is mostly for characters who are not in much stuff and/or don’t get much fandom love either, but I love them and wanna talk about what potential they have ~ And because I have such feels for many characters, I’ll just go with just my sweetie Sixshot today :D

So SAY GO! ~

Sixshot has 40 seconds of screentime in the G1 cartoon and that’s pretty much it with his appearances in the american transformers shows. (yes he’s in IDW, I’ll get back to that)

But the japanese G1 continuity had plans for this guy, and DAMN, did I love them!

And I gotta talk a bit about his character first - he’s a killing machine, a one robot army. And that’s it. That’s how other people see him and it’s what he himself sees him as.

But that isn’t to say he’s without depth. Him being only seen as a ruthless, yet loyal killing machine is part of his story in the Headmasters cartoon.

Galvatron, despite being in good terms with him, only saw his as a loyal killing machine who would do anything for him, even sacrifise his own body for Galvatron’s advances. But what does Sixshot do? Betray Galvatron which led to Galvatron’s death by ice water.

So that shows us that Sixshot is not in fact just a loyal goon who does whatever he’s told, he does have his own agency and will not just let himself be treated like a mindless goon either. 

And the last four episodes show us even more about Sixshot:

First off, he and Megazarak have some tension which leads to Sixshot being stranded on a foreign planet and Megazarak leaving him behind, saying “wanted to dispose of him anyway.”

And when Daniel, my boi, got stranded on the same planet, we see that Sixshot really isn’t the ruthless killer he’s always made out to be, because he does not harm Danny.

In fact he saves him from the stone creatures of the planet!

So this is what he does when he has no orders from higher up’s to do bad stuff. He basically does every evil thing he’s told, because he’s loyal to his bosses like that, but his actual character isn’t ruthless.

There is a saying that one’s true colours only shine when they are alone or think they are alone - Sixshot is alone in this episode, no other decepticon is with him and like that he makes his own decisions, and his decision is to save and care for this one human boy.

And this is really what intrigues me about this character - he’s seen as one thing only, a killing machine, when in reality that’s not at all what he is.

But he has the abilities for mass destruction and that’s what he’s used as, and he doesn’t mind it for the most part.

Sure he went against Galvs when he wanted to sacrifise him and he actually said fuck you to Megazarak when that guy was being a dick to him, but he didn’t seem to mind the destruction the had caused for them, because he too saw himself as nothing but a weapon either.

And this kind of view of Sixshot exists in IDW1 as well btw - the way Megatron talks about him in #Devastation suggests as much. 

And while I didn’t read all the issues with Sixshot in it, I did read what happens in them and here I am disappointed that they didn’t take a similiar approach to his character like Headmasters did.

I mean “form doesnt dictate function” would have fit so damn well with him! 

The story you can write with Sixshot, the one Headmasters implied, is one of self-actualisation.

A character who is used for his powers for things he doesn’t actually desire to do, but does it anway, because that’s what he believes his function to be, not realising that it doesn’t have to be this way.

Someone who can have a journey that makes him come to the conclusion: “Wait a minute, I don’t wanna do all this destruction and my bosses don’t care about me, they just want me for their own gain!”

I guess that’s what they did in Transformers Legends, make him be friends with Daniel, leaving the decepticons, helping Star Saber, bring back the friends of Chromedome he killed and using a new identity as Greatshot to become a full on autobot. (PS: Greatshot appears in Victory, but if the writers of that show actually thought of him as a version of Sixshot is debatable)

 I did like Greatshot a lot, gotta say ~

So in a way the story I’d like to see with Sixshot has been done, but not a lot of people know about it, and damn, I would love to see this kind of story again, with more time invested in it (remember, most of this was just in the last 4 episodes of headmasters and Victory never said that Sixshot is Greatshot. Also he draws moe manga in Legends so I am not sure how serious those can be)

But you know, I guess there is one last thing about Sixshot I’d love to see:

HIS SON QUICKSWITCH!

Quickswitch is a character who appeared in commercials back in the day and was stated to be Sixshot’s son who joined the autobots and FFS WHY ISN’T THERE ANYTHING ABOUT THAT?

Quickswitch appears in almost nothing and while his japanese counterpart, Sixknight, was a nice character in Masterforce, he has no connection to Sixshot/Greatshot whatsoever.

Like COME ON, you have a evil dad with good boy son, you can make a story out of that!

Even more, you have evil dad who has some really good potential to turn good, because that’s what happened already!

Make it work with his son dammit! 

Like I dunno, maybe Quickswitch never let himself be used as a killing machine and joins the autobots before any decepticons has a chance to manipulate him.    Maybe he hates his father at first for being a killing machine, but realises that Sixshot just didn’t realise himself yet that he has can choose to not act as a weapon of mass destruction.

Instead of Danny making Sixshot realise that he does care for others, it could be his own son. A son he had repressed feelings for.

Ajshadksj so much oppurtunity for some great father/son drama, BUT nothing is there! >:(

What the fuck Hasbro and Takara, are yall afraid to explain how robots can have kids or what?

PS: I am planning to make this a series and talk about more characters I’d love to see more off or would love to see a specific story about. And I did something similiar with Cyclonus and Galvatron before, you can read it here ~ I’ll just tag it with fave character ranting :D ~

[spacebagfullofstars]

Have a short fic between Optimus and Hot Rod placed in Cyberverse season 3 episode 7

Fifty-seven loops.

Hot Rod spent fifty-seven loops trying to get Optimus out of his and everyone else's nighmare.

Try after try after try and he still wasn't there. It was getting tiresome, but the black Autobot kept trying.

And now, when he finally got his leader's attention, instead of thanks for not giving up he received a punch in the faceplates.

Hot Rod fell down the platform hitting his head against it's metal, letting out a painful groan.

"What are you doing?" Optimus Prime asked coldly, looking at him with a frown.

"Optimus!" The young Autobot cheered. Despite the way he was treated, he was overjoyed that he finally managed to get his leader's attention. "You remember me!"

"You are the one who keeps telling me the parade is not real."

"Yes! That's right! Exacly!" Hot Rod felt hope rising in his spark. After such a long time, he finally received a different response. His leader recognized him and even understood what he was saying. "But..." However this hope was quickly fading away during Optimus's silence. The older mech always was silent before answering with the same terrifyingly bland response. The young Autobot tried to stay positive. Maybe he succeeded this time. Maybe he snapped his leader out of his trans. Maybe, finally, he won't have to be alone in this. Unfortunately however...

"It is the perfect day for a para-"

"DON'T SAY THAT!"

Before Prime had a chance to finish his sentence, Hot Rod stopped him. The confused leader looked down and saw a broken expression on his young solider's faceplates.

"Don't. Say that... not again." Hot Rod whispered harshly, grunting his denta. That caught Optimus completely off guard. That caught everyone completely off guard. The crowd began murmuring, glancing at the two from time to time.

"Please, just don't..."

"Hot Rod, I..." Optimus walked down the platform, competely forgetting about the current event and kneeled before the fallen mech. "I'm sorry. Perhaps I shouldn't have punched you so har-"

"Why won't you just listen to me?!" The black Autobot felt metal crunching under his digits.

"Listen to yo-?"

"I'm trying to help you! I'm trying to help everyone! But I can't do this on my own!" Hot Rod's voice began cracking as he spoke. Optimus' expression softened with worry.

"Hot Rod..." The Prime helped the other on his knees, putting his servo on his shoulder. "I think we should discuss this after everything's over."

"This will never be over!" The Speedster furiously shook off Optimus' arm. "You're trapped in here! And I'm the only one who can help you! And I just... I just..." The young Autobot grabbed his head, trying to hold his sobs. "I don't know what to do!... I'm not a leader, Optimus!... I need you more than anything right now... I need you!..."

It was painful to watch Hot Rod like this during such perfect day. Optimus couldn't understand that. Why was he upset? What happened to him to bring him to such state? Why did he believe that they were trapped?

The older Autobot didn't understand it, but he wasn't going to let Hot Rod suffer like that.

Optimus lifted the black Speedster's chin so he could see him better.

"Is this about the conversation we had during the battle for Cybertron?" His voice was calm and comforting. Just like it used to be. If Hot Rod didn't know any better by now, he'd suspect that he made some progress. Nonethless, he really needed to release his pain. He spent too much time in here to just waste it.

The young warrior bowed his head, shutting down his optics as he ex vented heavily. "I did everything you asked me for. I tried to learn cautiousness. I learned it, but I'm still not a leader they need, nor deserve. I'm just not ready..."

Optimus listened patiently, bringing Hot Rod a bit closer, encouraging him to go on. The black Autobot looked up, optics painfully horrified.

"I need you, Optimus... Everyone is counting on me, and I just can't help them on my own... I need your guidance."

Considering that Hot Rod wished to speak with him then rather than later meant that he was being serious about this. Maybe even desperate.

"I see." Optimus responded thoughtfully. "I've been going through the same thing you know. Leadership comes with experience and requires a lot of responsibility. I've seen great potential in you for a long time."

"But... but I'm not... So far I've made only bad decisions which led to even worse situations."

"Have you gotten out of those situations?"

"Yes, but... if it wasn't for my friends, I wouldn't have made it."

"Friends are very important, even for leaders. You can learn from them and they can learn from you. Together, you can achieve your goal."

"I tried so many times by now... is it any worth continuing?"

"As one wise mech said, your goal might take you even thousands and thousands of attempts until it's achieved. During those attempts, you have to learn from your mistakes, and with time, you'll get there. I know that whatever you're struggling with is bothering you, and you can count on me to help you. On all of us."

When Optimus pulled him closer again, Hot Rod felt like he couldn't take it anymore. Without any warning, he jumped on Optimus, wrapping his arms around him and letting out all of his frustration and worry in form of lubricant streaming from his optics like an Energon waterfall. The Autobot leader was surprised at first, but slowly he embraced Hot Rod back, patting his yellow spoiler. Everyone was staring at them in shock.

"Wasn't Hot Rod red before?" Windblade noticed in the background.

"Well, yeah." Bumblebee replied, tilting his head. "Strange. I get a bit sad when I look at him for some reason..."

"I can't believe he made all this mess just to get a hug from Optimus!" Rock n' Ruin commented, picking up their fingers from the ground.

"I'm really happy that you see me Optimus..." Hot Rod sobbed softly. "I'm really really happy."

"I'm happy to see you too." Optimus couldn't help but chuckle. "And I'm glad I could help you. But now I'm afraid we have to clean up this little mess you've made. After all, it would be such a shame to let this perfect day for a parade go to waste." Suddenly, the young black Autobot's timer began beeping, informing that soon the next loop will begin. He gasped. Immediately, Hot Rod pulled back and looked at Optimus with widened optics.

"Optimus, you have to transform!"

"Transform?" The Autobot leader rose an optical ridge. "Why?"

"I'm going to explain it later! All of you have to transform now before everything will rese-!"

Suddenly, Hot Rod disappeared in a flash.

"Hot Rod?" Prime widened his optics, standing up. The crowd started looking around, searching for the mech. "Hot Rod?!"

"Incoming!" Just then, three yellow jets crossed the sky. And so, the new loop began.

[in1-nutshell]

Hi!

How would TFA team and elite guard react to buddy children?

(Like for example: Buddy adopted some children)

Ooohhh! This is going to be fun! Since you did not specify which characters specifically, I will be picking them at random.

Hope you enjoy!

Optimus, Ratchet, Jazz, and the Jettwins reaction to single parent Human Buddy

SFW, platonic, familial, Human reader

TFA

Buddy was Sari's babysitter.

Well, her human babysitter. Professors Sumdac thought it was important to at least have another person in Sari's life that wasn't him or a robot.

And they were a great babysitter. They had the job roughly 3 years before the Autobots came to Detroit.

That was roughly the time they had recently adopted a set of baby triplets. They had opened their door one night and a classic wicker basket filled with the babies. The note on the basket simply said to take care of them. Buddy's original plan was to take them to Fanzone in the morning.

But Buddy had gotten attached to them.

Buddy explained their new situation to the Professor which was met with understanding and a pay raise with additional medical insurance.

Buddy's friends had noticed their sudden absences and tired look on their face. Everyone was getting worried. So, an intervention was called.

"Why is everyone here?"--Buddy

"It's an intervention kid."--Ratchet

"For who?"--Buddy

"For you! You've been so sleepy and tired recently."--Bumblebee

"Not to mention you missed our game tournament."--Sari

"The gaming--Oooh! I forgot to tell you guys!"--Buddy

"Forgot to tell us what?"--Optimus

"I'll show you guys tomorrow! Make sure to bring the Elie Guard if you guys want!"--Buddy

The next day Buddy came into the base with a baby carrier and two in the stroller.

To say everyone was surprised was an understatement.

Optimus

Vietnam flashbacks to the first episode.

Optimus is surprised to find out that Buddy was taking care of new born children. Even more finding out they are triplets.

Twins are something that rarely happens on Cybertron. Even fewer after the war was over. Triplets were in a sense unheard of.

He is nervous to even touch the little ones. They looked so fragile and tiny! They were even smaller than Sari!

The babies on the other hand were enamored by the firetruck.

By the end of 15 minutes, Optimus had his servos with the triplets who were crawling around and hugging his digits.

He swears to protect these kids with his life.

"Gah!"--Baby 1

"Aw they like you Prime! Isn't that cute, wait are you crying?"--Buddy

Optimus sniffling and trying not to let the tears spill.

"...no-no... I'm fine..."--Optimus

Ratchet

At first Ratchet thinks the smaller humans are the equivalent of human minibots.

Then he finds out they are babies, he stops for a good couple of seconds.

Rebooting: Grampa mode activated.

As said before, it's rare to have twins on Cybertron. He had never seen triplets in all of his technical career.

He suddenly understands why Buddy has been acting the way they had for the past months. They were taking care of the kids.

Ratchet makes sure to brush up on his knowledge of babies to help Buddy out a bit. While Buddy takes a break or a much needed nap, he makes sure the kids are well taken care of.

"Aww. The Doc bot's gone soft!"--Bumblebee

"Hear that kiddo. That's the sound of a bot who's going to get strapped to the medical slab in 5 minutes if he doesn't quit."--Ratchet

"Bah!"--Baby 2

Jazz

Jazz is floored by the amount of cuteness these babies are.

He totally gets why Buddy would be tired from these kids.

It's bad enough trying to keep track of the Jettwins and they are at least old enough to be here. Those babies still have a long way to go before even walking!

Jazz handles the babies with the utmost care. Makes sure that the babies are having fun while being safe.

The babies themselves are enamored by Jazz's voice. He is the to go bot for nap time. The babies fall asleep in record time.

"So these little guys are all related?"--Jazz

"Yeah they are."--Buddy

"I wish you luck then. If the Jettwins were hard enough now..."--Jazz

"...I know Jazz, I know..."--Buddy

Jetfire and Jetstorm

The twins are freaking out!

In a good way!

They've never seen another set of twins back on Cybertron, much less human twins.

Now they know that they know that there can be triplets!...

Jazz has to calm them down before they can hold the babies. And they have to promise Buddy that they will not use their powers around the babies.

The twins once they have the babies are uncharacteristically quiet and still. They take in the tiniest details of the babies and how each one differs from the other.

They promise each other to look after them, even when they get older. Siblings have to stay together. The triplets are now the twins siblings now. Buddy has two more robo kids to take care of.

"Buddy! It's my turn to get 1 but Jetfire isn't letting them go!"--Jetstorm

"Jetfire, listen to your brother and pass your siblings to him, gently."--Buddy

"Please! Just a little longer!"--Jetfire

"You either pass your siblings or they come with me and you have to go back to Sentinel."--Buddy

"Here brother!"--Jetfire

Somewhere on the Steelhaven.

"...Someone just insulted me..."--Sentinel

[little-shiny-sharpies]

2, 5 and 12 with blitzwing 👀 and 7 for mccree! (@robotlover)

@selfshippinglover

Ok I'm gonna make a separate post for Mccree later bc theres a lot and I'm just gonna do a few with him. Thank y'all for waiting on this!

1) what’s a Hot Take you have about your f/o?

Blitzwing would absolutely hesitate to love someone because he has self esteem issues and everyone always throws that out the window when writing him in a romantic scenario. Only when he's the character that's gotta be uwu depressed and romanticizing it is anyone noticing that. This bot has gone through a horror show and he would feel like a burden to whoever he has feelings for because he's just the crazy triple changer that no one respects or likes.

2) on what do you disagree with other fans of your f/o?

Ok this is a bit lemony for my blog but Blitzwing isn't a sex crazed power top and y'all need to get that through your minds, he's Ace or Demi. Yes I'm projecting but I'm still right bc giant alien robots canon don't have that "equipment" boo me all you want I'm still right.

3) did you used to ship your f/o with anyone before realizing you wanted to ship them with yourself? 

No actually! I have honestly never actually like.. shipped characters that weren't cannon. I've rarely liked romance in media. I have faint memories of shipping Fluttercord though..

4) do you feel like you have to defend your f/o all the time? 

I feel like most folks project so much onto him theres nothing left but on the other end there's folks who just made the stupidest things of how he's an uwu feral boi and I wanna yell underwater. There are a few things I agree with fanon about but those are very few things.

5) what’s the dumbest thing you’ve heard about your f/o, either on the internet or irl? 

The dumbest thing I've seen in canon and fannon is that he's an idiot. That just doesn't make sense?? He's shown to be a really smart guy in his first episodes even getting Ratchet into a chokehold forcing the autobots into a standstill until Megs calls him off. (Idiot move there boi)

6) what are some tropes that fan art of your f/o tends to follow? 

That his "personalities" have separate bodies and bicker with each other. Which.. doesn't really make sense. If anything he'd be happy to have someone who understands him.

7) did your f/o deserve better?

He got used in an experiment that caused him severe psychological trauma and we don't even know if he was a willing patient. He was a deadly opponent in the first season that got nerfed into a henchman buffoon and shit talked anytime someone brought him up. My man was treated as a trophy in his final scenes to further the political career of an authoritarian xenophobic jerkwad. My mans deserved so much better..

8) do you even like the source your f/o comes from or do you only watch it for them & nothing else?

Oh I absolutely love Transformers animated!! It has such a unique personality compared to other iterations and it has the smartest megatron. Its also the show that got me into transformers (other than the first bay movies which I like much less)

9) do you distance yourself from other fans of your f/o or their source?

In the beginning? No. I was completely fine with all the weird fannon interpretation and ships (and we'll fucking get to that) but I didn't think about it. Nowadays I stay away from anybody that draws blitzwing because if I go to their blog to see more, it turns out they've got 20 other posts tagged as bli***ee or interact with those who do or don't bother tagging ns//fw things

10) how did you feel when you realized “oh of course i had to like That Character”?

(Ok so I didn't really understand this one so I kinda gave 2 answers)

It was when I realized that he had the same emotional issues as me. Having BPD and living with folks with BPD is quite a rollercoaster but I saw so much of me in blitzwing I just wanted to be his friend at first and chill and then the emotions got so much deeper and now I've made fankids and we're happily married ksjdaksj.

But when I realized that he had the traits of the 3 main tumblr sexymen I had a "oh no, people are gonna be weird about him aren't they?.." moment but my heart was set anyway.

11) do you think it’s better to have a copious amount of content for your f/o, even with the risk of finding a lot of ship art, or better to have a lot less?

Oh god this is a tricky one because either 1 when the art isn't a ship and just him he's looking sad or bored or he's insane and never a nice wholesome happy or 2 its ship art. So uh ima say quality over quantity.

12) aren’t you tired of being nice? this is an excuse to rant.

LET'S FUCKING GOOOO!! Listen. LISTEN. I get loving Blitzwing. I fully get it. I also understand having a childhood crush on Bumblebee. Because I had that, as a *child*. Because Bumblebee behaved like a child. Because as a child. I enjoyed his antics. See where I'm going here? It's not that I don't like seeing Blitzwing shipped with other characters! Its really not! It squicks me a bit but it's totally ok! It's the fact that it's with a character who's supposed to be a little brother to the bots and the same age as Sari! Really any ship with Bumblebee or Sari feels very fucking *Yikes*. Not to mention the fact that it's always painted Blitzwing as someone to be fixed, someone who needs to change who they are to fit the wants of someone who showed them the slightest iota of kindness that he's so desperate for and that said person is an irresponsible child that could rival Blue from Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, or it treats him like a beast that should be controlled by said child. It feels so ableist at best and pedophilia at worst and I'm so upset that more folks don't see it.

(Also want to add that the person who popularized the ship is known to draw porn of underage characters. Ya'll really love rose glasses to hide those red flags for the sake of "good" art huh?)

[skidblast]

The Villains of Transformers.

This seems like a basic non-question. We got Unicron as the world-ending threat, and various incarnations of Megatron doing the rest of the job to keep the threat going. However, there is another angle to it.

Often we hear the phrase “write what you know”. Which seems simple enough, that you got experience with something that you can write it pretty true. But what does one know about mechanical aliens that have been fighting a war for 4 million years?

But the various writers of the Transformers franchise throughout the years have written what they know. There is an overarching threat in each one of the transformers incarnations that is different from the Megatron the Tyrant or the Planet-eating Unicron. It’s more like background noise, providing the constant that is happening, a crutch when writing.

Unfortunately I won’t be touching on Japanese produced media, I haven’t studied the history of Japan to know the nuanced details of culture background noise or incidental historic events to comment on Headmaster, Victory, RID2001, Unicron Trilogy and any other that I have missed.

I will also skip the Marvel, Dreamwave and FunPub comics/media as I’ve not read them. Cyberverse and the second IDW release are skipped as they are pretty recent additions. Rescue Bots and Rescue Bots Academy is skipped as well due to simplicity.

The main theme of the G1 cartoon is energy shortage. Cybertron is out of Energon, they flee Cybertron to find more energy. The Decepticons set up base on Earth because the humans have begun to harness the energy of their planet, allowing easy access to said energy and to ship it home.

This doesn’t come out of nowhere. In fact, most people have heard of the precursor in passing. The time when cars were lined up at the gas stations.

1979 was a bad shock for the oil market. Iran revolted, causing oil production to shrink a bit and caused panic, which in turned caused the prices of oil to rise dramatically. This was also the year where the Three Mile Island Accident happened, so people got vary of nuclear power. Gas rationing was discussed, and in some states actually implemented. Then recession hit in the wake of this.

The effects of the oil crisis and the following recession were still felt, so a cartoon about an energy crisis was very easy to write.

Beast Wars is an odd one to analyse. It came as the Transformers franchise was dying, and Hasbro was desperate to reinvent Transformers for the new kids. The appeal of cars turning into robots was no longer around, but making them animals was the push Hasbro needed to refresh the Transformers.

So we end up with the beginning basically rehashing the Transformers cartoon, but when the overarching plot hits, when the threads get revealed after a whole season of basically filler, we find the inspiration that the writers had. This time, it is not energy crisis, in 1996 we had put that behind us.

We have Megatron leading a team trying to restore the Decepticons as rightful rulers via time travel. We then discover he had actually gone against the so-called Tripredacus Council, the fractured Predacon Alliance who were biding their time and see the usefulness of what Megatron is trying to accomplish. In order to gain more power without breaking the peace made with the Pax Cybertronia, they use secret agents and secret police.

This is very familiar to a lot of people who haven’t seen Beast Wars or heard of it. This is Russia.

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and with that the Cold War ended. Peace was had. But as Russia threw off the communism ties from them, the ruling body still needed to exert control over the nation, and to broaden their influence beyond their borders. Russia went from Communism to Mafia-like control, using secret police, subtle threats and various other shady things. People saw what was going on, and with the new fear they were facing, they made it known in the media.

Beast Machines is a bit easier to figure out compared to its predecessor. It’s mostly because the message of Beast Machines resonates strongly today. 

Beast Machines came shortly after Beast Wars, as the toyline was trying to go away from the purely animal transformers and going for more mechanical look. But how do you really bridge those together?

At the tail end of the 80ies, environmentalism was on the rise. There was an undercurrent of that happening in Beast Wars, but in Beast Machines it had much more weight to it. With Megatron wanting to stamp out any biological influences from Cybertron, ready to eradicate any traces of it and mass-producing purely mechanical beings to repopulate Cybertron. While Optimus Primal was embracing the biological side of it, becoming sort of a guru through the Oracle.

The rise of industrialism is frightening prospect, seeing the nature retreat into near nothingness, and seeing the callousness of the industry just ignore it completely in favour for profits. But there was no denying that industrialism was there to stay, so while it is the main fear of the series, the message of the series was not to abolish it but to tame it, not let it out of control and make sure that the environment was put on equal grounds to it.

Animated is a strong reboot like Beast Wars was, coming at the same time as the Michael Bay films. Japanese production had taken over after Beast Machines finished, but Hasbro sought to retake the American market with media that they controlled. Importing Anime and dubbing it was all and good, but if they had complete control, they would have better chance to make it appeal to the market they wanted, the Western one.

It’s 2007. Following 9/11 the USA goes to war. And it is still going, with a certain hopelessness attached to it as people are getting more and more jaded by it. But most people never really felt the impact, only heard about it. There was no draft, there was no conscription. People joined the military, and those who came back came back either just a little bit off, or really suffering, and couldn’t get proper help.

Transformers Animated touches on civilians being basically forced into the war, against foes that were thought to be defeated long ago. It touches on the hardship of those civilians as they are part of it, feeling both the elation of being thought as heroes, and feeling the terror of the situation that they are in. A highlight of this is the episode Thrill of the Hunt, which came rather early, and touched on themes that are not common to see in media aimed at children, looking at Ratchet going too far, and suffering from some form of PTSD as well.

While the actual war had never visited the US or the spacebridge repair crew, the impact of it was felt on them, with all the horrors that entails.

Transformers Animated and first Michael Bay Transformers film came out on the same year. Yet the themes of the film series is far from what Animated did. One part of it is that Hollywood movies are more constricted as they have to appeal to a whole lot of audience in order to gain any return from the production cost. So everything is analysed in detail, making sure that nothing would alienate the vast majority of the Western World. We are in fact seeing it more obviously as China is growing stronger as a consumer market for Hollywood movies, and we see how the movies are made to appeal to that market as well.

So doing a commentary on the Afghanistan war like Transformers Animated did was out of the question. But it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a fear in the movie like in anything else.

Technology is on rapid rise. The rule of CPU power doubling every 18 months was still holding. New technology comes before anyone can really adapt to what had been introduced not so long ago.

The fear in the Michael Bay films is the rampancy of technology. We have severely advanced alien race make contact, and in fact made most of the technology based on one of them, found at the turn of the previous century. Technology that wasn’t even fully understood, that people thought they could easily control. But it goes out of control.

This concept is called Technological Singularity, where technology eventually becomes uncontrollable and we get swept up in the wake of it, having to deal with the new reality that we are no longer the masters of the world we are in. Grey Goo is one of the better known representation of this idea. Another is the idea of an overlord AI that either seeks to exterminate humanity, rule it with iron fist, or simply think of humans as we think of ants, insignificant.

IDW Publishing was on the scene two years earlier, in 2005. However given how long the first G1 iteration of it ran it gets mentioned after TFA and the movies due to that, allowing for Aligned continuity to come after it.

While TFA showed how the Afghanistan War impacted US citizens, who had not really experienced being at war while being so interconnected with the world and able to receive so much information, the IDW comics went for the other angle, the other fear that ruled in the USA at that time.

9/11. The fear of terrorism happening, the fear of foreign infiltration. The Decepticons had a plan on how the infiltration happened, every step of it planned, making sure that they could make the residents of the planet do most of the work of disrupting the peace, making it easy for them to swoop in and destroy the rest.

While things didn’t go as planned as the Autobots intervened pretty early, the Decepticons went public on full force, taking over New York City and almost dropped an atomic bomb on it. The connection to 9/11 is pretty hard to miss.

And then Phase 2 hits. James Roberts becomes one of the more interesting writers in the series. And this is where things go slightly off. James Roberts is more of a writer that knows what he’s writing about, instead of being influenced by current events.

And James Roberts has made known he has major interest in politics as he worked with politicians before picking up the pen for IDW Publishing. Write what you know, and James Roberts know politics, and political history.

In Phase 2 there is increased focus on the actual motivations behind the war. While Megatron Origins did go into how Megatron became the leader of the Deceptioncs, it was James Roberts that made it into the communism reflection that it became in the comics. It isn’t really some overarching fear in the background of the comics, it’s known quantity woven into the narrative of the comic.

Transformers Prime came in 2010, after Transformers Animated, seeking to remove the stylised aesthetics of the former toyline and try to be more like the movies.

And it wasn’t the only thing it changed. What was changed as well was the work that was actually put behind the actual lore of the series, making a true production bible that was used not for just the TV series but the accompanying video games as well, War For Cybertron and Fall Of Cybertron. And there was also a clear message along with that, this was a new continuity, new setting. Aligned, seeking to mesh together all the good from the various franchises into one good package.

But with all that background done on it, it’s easy to point out how Megatron went from a revolutionary to a tyrant and that would be about that. But it is not that simple.

What colors Transformers Prime is subtle and easily overlooked. In 2007 we experienced a dire financial crisis. Unemployment shot up, investments plummeted, there was no good safety net for people and a lot of them fell through the cracks. But these things are hard to really put into a show like this without it being explicitly about it. But there is another side effect of the recession that wasn’t that apparent in 2010, is more obvious now, but with the Transformers lore from the 1984 cartoon being similar, it blends into the usual Transformers noise.

Refugees.

Optimus Prime and his small team are simply refugees. Cybertron did run out of fuel, but the plots of harvesting energon and fighting over resources is more rehashing of the old cartoon plots. The focus is more on the Autobot team as they deal with being literal aliens in the US, escaping the tyranny that they fled. How they are treated by the locals, how they deal with the isolation of being in a culture different from theirs. They simply try to survive. Like how most people hit by the recession felt.

Robots in Disguise was released after Transformers Prime, going away from the expensive production and to more cheaper look. But with the so-called Aligned continuty having been a strong reboot of the “TV cartoons” series, Hasbro was in no hurry to abandon it, making Robots in Disguise a sequel to Transformers Prime.

Though with the war over, a new kind of threat had to be made. And Steeljaw steps into the role, not only as the main antagonist of the series, but as the representation of the fear theme of the series.

What isn’t really that obvious in Robots in Disguise is just how powerful Steeljaw is. Steeljaw isn’t just some generic Decepticon villain who escapes just so they can reuse his model instead of having to create even more Decepticons. He has fighting prowess, he is able to outwit the Bumblebee team. And the most dangerous weapons he has are his personality and voice.

Steeljaw is able to talk himself out of trouble. He has major ambitions, he knows what to do in order to recruit others. He wants power and respect, and if left unchecked, he will have it. And he knows that if there is some that he can’t convince, he can fight, and he will fight dirty.

Steeljaw represents a fear that people have experienced for a long time, but it wasn’t until recently that it really put into the spotlight. He is the abuser, the person in power that will make your life miserable. He antagonises Bumblebee and his team by causing them trouble, drive them off their safe haven of Earth and later drives them from their safe space, forcing them to go on the run. He finds power by leading a pack of Decepticons, then later by allying himself to the new council until he realises that he will not achieve his goals with him.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this massive post of mine.

[archosaur-automaton]

Astro-Second Helpings, Episode 1: The Magnificent Six

As we promised so long ago, we will be reviewing Transformers as we acquire them and build our unstoppable army of Plastic Friends. Hence, I am pleased to announce the inaugural post for Astro-Second Helpings, the archosaur-automaton blog segment dedicated to reviewing Transformers toys as we buy them!  For Chanukkah 5780, or as it’s known elsewhere “December 22-30, 2019″ we’ll be reviewing our first ever Transformers acquisition: Six-Gun! (Technically Transmetal Optimal Optimus was our first acquisition as a young babby but that is a story for a different time). 

We acquired Six-Gun while doing errands at the local Target a few weeks ago and felt an irresistible urge to Buy Plastic, and a stroll through the toy aisle left our mouth watering. Overwhelmed with options, we chose the best-looking boy they had: this red-white-and-black little chap who needs a permit for *himself* before he’s allowed in the gun show! As our Transformers neophyte brain understands it, Six-Gun’s first (and only) cartoon appearance was in the G1 cartoon episode “Thief in the Night” and cannot be said to be a major character. Regardless of the canon involved, we’ve got cannons involved to review. We’ll be using a five-star rating system in six different categories, with an overall rating at the end. The categories are:  - Coloration - Overall Design - Quality of Manufacture - Loadout - Transformations - Transformability (how easy it is to transform) Our first stop is Coloration. Here’s a photo of Sixgun sitting on our desk. 

One of the things that most appealed to us just off the shelf was his color. That tasteful contrast of white and red,  with black accents: there’s something positively [chefkiss] about it all. However, as this Six-Gun is from the “Siege” subline, he has “cosmetic battle damage”, seen on his feet here. 

Since this battle damage is really only on his feet, it doesn’t really make sense to me to have it at all, so we definitely have to dock points for that. Coloration: 4.5/5 stars. Excellent overall but the ‘battle damage’ just doesn’t work.  Next up is Overall Body Design. As we can see here, Six-Gun’s head doesn’t have humanoid eyes or mouth.

As a Robo-Lover, this is a BIG plus. A human-looking face can be nice but sometimes you just want a head that screams “yup, that’s a Robot.” His shoulders are nice and big and sharp, a little like absurd WoW pauldrons, which is also a plus. His chest is beefy and has a built-in missile launcher and looks generally solid.  In the legs department, his calves are gorgeous but the overly skinny thighs leading to his bony hips are a little bit of a turn-off. It’s a bit of a Popeye the Sailor look, which only works if you’re actually Popeye.  There’s not much to complain about but I think there were ways in which they could have made him ‘pop’.  Overall Body Design: 4/5 Stars Quality of Manufacture is a little tricky on this boy. As I understand it, he is a “parts-former”, which means that he transforms via the detachment and reattachment of his various parts. This often, apparently, leads to things being too tight in some areas, too loose in others, in ways that a non-partsformer toy might not.  His legs come off pretty easily, which is sort of expected I guess but meh. Also, his feets are a little squirrely. 

The hinges on these are very loose and the feet in general just feel like an afterthought.  I don’t have much experience to judge, but for a partsformer I think he’s more or less okay.  Quality of Manufacture: 3.5 / 5 Now, we get into the good stuff. WEAPONS. And oh boy, this guy is literally ENTIRELY weapons. Like, did you not get the memo from the name??  Now, Six-Gun isn’t just an Autobot in and of himself: his constituent parts can be disassembled as part of the C.O.M.B.A.T system to provide armaments for other Transformers! The weapons he is composed of include: Two “MTX-M2 Anti-Gravity Cannons” (his legs)

One “MTX-S2A Missile Launcher” (his lower torso/hip section)

One “MTX-50 Dual-Flank Boost Launcher (the upper part of his torso)

Two “MTX-LR Ion Pulse Blasters” (his arms + black guns)

Two “W-5 Gyro Blasters” (the little red guns)

Here’s a shot of the tech spec / booklet explaining these parts and their apparent strength, accuracy, and range. 

Clearly, the MTX-S2A has the best of all three categories, so why would he ever use anything else? Well, as a loved one once said: “These are the two great lessons of the Transformers fandom: tech specs are bullshit, and Hasbro makes mistakes.” At any rate, this is an impressive loadout of weapons, not just for Six-Gun in his base form but for use in other toys. I especially like the Anti-Gravity Cannons; if you didn’t know any better, you’d never suspect they were someone’s legs! Loadout: 5/5 Stars (or alternately, six out of six guns) Next section is Transformability. This is about how easy it is to take the boy out of the package and turn him into his vehicle mode(s).  As a Partsformer, Sixgun is remarkably easy to transform. You just pop off his arms, flip down his red rocket launcher tubes, flip up the missile launchers on “dual pack boost launcher”, cover his face with his cockpit, pop the little white vehicle part into the other hole on the lower torso section, put the arms onto the sides, finagle his legs, and voila. A boy. You’ll see what that looks like in the next section. For now, I can safely say that I could transform this fellow in my sleep.  Transformability: 5/5  So now we get to Transformations. In his original incarnation, Six-Gun did not have an alt-mode, but for Siege he got one. And here it is.

As you can see, his arms have become some sort of twin hover/propulsion blades and his legs seem to be some sort of thruster jets. Slung underneath are the missile launchers and his Gyro Blasters are primed and at the ready. So he’s some sort of VTOL, right? WRONG. According to official Hasbro materials, The 5.5-inch Deluxe WFC-S22 Class AUTOBOT SIX-GUN WEAPONIZER figure stands at 5.5 inches in robot mode and converts into a CYBERTRONIAN tank. A tank. A tank. A TANK??? This futurespace hovering gunship looking thing is supposed to be a TANK??? Hwaet.  Meshugos aside, while there’s clearly something interesting happening here there isn’t enough for it to feel compelling. I like the cockpit and the ‘wings’ of the vehicle mode, along wit the missile launchers in the position they are, but the legs and the blocky underside just make it a sort of ‘meh’ design. I’m not sure how it could have been made better, given that he’s supposed to turn into guns for other boys, but...it just feels like an after-thought.  Transformations: 3/5  Wow, our first Astro-Second Helpings article! Or since it’s the inaugural article, would that make it the Astro-First Helpings? And then the next one would be the first Astro-Second Helpings article? You know, you probably could kill Blaine the Mono with a dumb puzzle like this.  To wrap up, Transformers Siege: War for Cybertron’s Six-Gun is a pretty looking boy who turns into a lot of shooty things for other Plastic Friends to use. He’s decently built, a little prone to things being a bit loose but overall okay. His vehicle mode, however, is lackluster both in execution and failing to resemble much of anything. Nonetheless, we were enormously happy to have him and he’ll always have a special place in our heart as the first Transformer we bought with our own money. (One day, we’ll get our actual first Transformer, Transmetal Optimal Optimus back, and avenge the five year old who had it stolen/broken by a malevolent stepsibling. One day). Mathematically, our overall rating for Six-Gun should be closer to 3.5/5 than 4, but we’re going to bump him up for sentimental reasons and because in his base form he does look pretty good.  Overall Rating: 4/5