#because you know cyberverse had gay intent

[pluralsword]

Windblade in Transformers: Cyberverse is so good at fighting that she defeated sword wielding Slipstream by using her two turbine fans as melee/throwing weapons.

Obviously there is a comparison/nod to be made to the martial arts/historical warfare use of Japanese 鉄扇 (てっせん, romanized: tessen, meaning iron fan) because they’re fans and because Windblade’s design is inspired by onna musha (Japan has quite a history of pre-Meiji period women warriors, we actually wrote about this for a paper years ago back in undergrad on women warrior groups and individuals prior to the Cold War but anyway). From what little we know of tessenjutsu (definitely not something familiar, when it comes to hand-to-hand we are more familiar with e.g. taekwondo and longswords, so if anyone wants to comment please do) the fighting techniques of an iron fan are rather different due to being able to use the fan folded for e.g. stabbing and the fact they aren’t round when unfolded... so this is also Windblade using her transforming robot plane anatomy to fight in a way human bodied people don’t (do you have a return to thrower buckler shield at home that also is an engine for flying and can blow away opponents when attached to your wings?). 

This is a long way of saying that in martial arts terms; Windblade is extremely badass.

We wanna see her and jetpack using dual wielding sword Arcee spar in a duel it would be so beautifully gay equivalent...

ID: an image from Transformers: Cyberverse Season 1 Episode 14, “Siloed,” of a combat focused Windblade from the chest up with wings out, in a duel with Slipstream, who isn’t visible in this shot, only the pink curved energy sword Stormfall (Windblade’s) that Slipstream stole is visible, clashing against one of Windblade’s turbine fans she’s holding in her right hand, just as she is holding one in her left. The background is dramatically streaking lines of green, which started earlier in the fight when the two were running in parallel, waiting for someone to make the next move. End ID.

[blueikeproductions]

So here’s the thing.

Looooong before we even knew the Quintessons were going to be the main threat in ONE, most people had already assumed EarthSpark was going to use the Quintessons due to the Emberstone and Quintus Prime’s roles here.

…The problem is we still don’t actually know, as of typing, if they WILL. The first season completely botched its primary ideas and wasted its two main villains. Whatever was bring set up was often tossed aside for more butterfly chasing, so if they were setting up the Quintessons, I don’t trust them to go through with it due to poor story editing and if they do, they’ll likely be poorly utilized like Mandroid and Croft.

Considering one alleged leak is another “after school special” pause in the momentum about Hashtag being gay like they did to stop and explain Nightshade being non-binary, I still think this stuff will still be more important than the actual plot, whatever that intends to be. The problem remains performative diversity first, story second, when it always should be cool story with a few fun characters who do cool things who happen to be gay & what have you. If younger generations are calling this performative diversity stupid now, you know it’s coming to an end. Which means we can get Nightshade to be seen as a fun character and not a shield as they tend to be unfortunately.

Some of the modern plots lately have been the Autobots & Decepticons working together to fight a common enemy: D-Void & Unicron in IDW, Exharcon in IDW2, most… everyone in Cyberverse frankly but the Quintessons in particular, so having both factions fight against something in the final season sounds about right. I don’t really count Mandroid because most of the time he was fought by the Autobots anyway (and yes I include Megatron as an Autobot).

While he’s right there has been brand synergy (kinda) with other projects in the past, most notably the Rescue Bots becoming Dinobots and Grimlock’s inclusion in RiD15 were influenced by Age of Extinction, with The Last Knight having RiD15 synergy with Cade and the Autobots living in a junkyard at the start of the film, I’m not sure I believe EarthSpark is intended to have synergy with ONE anyway.

For starters, I believe One has been in development SINCE RiD15, if it came out then instead it would’ve made more sense for Bumblebee and crew to fight the Quintessons over a special relic then; RiD was loose enough it could’ve pulled that off. Cyberverse included Quintessons late in its run, but they were visually so far removed from the OGs, closer to the machines in The Matrix and more like trans dimensional Dr. Who villains, that they didn’t really synergize at all with WFC’s toy line which used the G1 designs (and used the Quints worse somehow).

The One designs go for an original look for the Quintessons again, but skewing more closer to G1 and Aligned versions with a mix of the techno organic look of G2 Liege Maximo which is curious, but more visually striking than Cyberverse just copying The Matrix.

I don’t see EarthSpark making the Quintessons dimensional beings like Cyberverse at all because that goes against the modern story they’re creations of Quintus Prime (not that Hasbro really utilizes it anyway since WFC and Skybound imply the 80’s cartoon Quintesson origins for the Transformers), as well as diluting their genetic relationship to the Terrans. It’s certainly not because Hasbro has disavowed the multiverse because Legacy is still chugging along, with its replacement set to continue the trend.

I remain convinced the original intention was for EarthSpark and ReActivate to be released together and have a similar concept in Autobots, Decepticons and humans brought together because of the Quintessons doing something stupid, but clearly that didn’t happen as intended. ReActivate is stuck in development hell still last I heard with toys trickling out but no one’s buying them. EarthSpark has been a commercial failure from the word go sadly and it’s only sticking around a bit longer to help celebrate the 40th anniversary. Had that not been the case, it would’ve been scrapped I wager going by all the other Paramount+ shows that got the axe. Heck it probably would’ve gotten the axe after Nightshade’s debut episode like Ridley Jones’ non-binary calf episode killed it. The difference here is Ridley got five seasons at least, but at the expensive of becoming a laughing stock by adults comparing it to their childhood cartoons… Hmm it’s not really a pretty picture either way tho’…

Still whatever synergy EarthSpark may have had is gone or was never there. I don’t really see the start of the war brought up in a satisfactory way, as I doubt the writers want to make Megatron look bad. It would dilute Megatron being friends with Dot among other things. Again not the flex the writers think it is. It’ll be another last gasp at IDW’s post war ideas at best, just written a bit more like a proper kids cartoon at best, second verse same as the first at worst. Either way the Terrans are in the rear view window, with TFONE as the next thing along with Skybound. That they’re moving forward with the GI Joe crossover tease from RotB also shows Hasbro having faith in the Energon Universe and wanting to use its ideas going forward in other things. I want Cobra-La to be where Movie Megatron is. Project Iceman but with a twist!