#but at least I can have fanon

[quibbs126]

Okay but I love this dynamic of Megatron being the team baby and the Waves plus Starscream basically parenting him now

Give me more of it actually

[tubbytarchia]

Missed drawing these two too

Bonuses

[snowballthekitteninwonderland]

Mwahahaha, now that that disgusting Ratman is getting cancelled and reviled by what once was his blindly adoring fans, I can actually actively interact with GO stuff the way I want (that is, as something I adore to bits yet not devoid of criticism) instead of passively enjoying it w/o receiving uncalled for hate from people defending him!

More about my designs under the cut

While I don't *hate* the tv series nor do I think it's bad by itself at the same time I do despise it as an adaptation and what it did to mainstream audiences and fandom perception of everything GO related. I think that is reflected in my designs, as people familiar with older fanworks or with a preference for book & radio omens will immediately notice my designs take cues from there + the general older fandom consensus pre-prime series. Also my Zira's hair is meant to be white, albeit not a pure one, he's not blonde. My design for him has his eyes closed for 2 reasons, both forms of hiding his true nature: as a non-human and as his true personality, in a similar way that Crowley does with the sunglasses. While not pictured here, my Zira's eyes are pure unnatural black including the sclera and golden irises that are just. Plain good ol' fire, like his flaming sword(altho I'm very tempted to change it into stars, that's pretty nice imagery coined by TV Omens fandom), to both hint at his status as an angel and as a contrast to Crowley's yellow snake eyes. Meant to be unsettling and uncanny whenever he opens them.

Since the very first time I read the book back in middle school I always pictured everything like a relatively simplistic looking cartoon, with the most cartoonish sfx and everything, idk it happens the exact same with the Discworld books, I think it's just how my brain visualizes STP's pen or something.

Noodle Doodle Crowley! He was always Funny Pathetic Noodle Doodle Uncool Man™ in my mind, pure gangly limbs and awkwardness. I generally do not like to depict him with snake traits bc of his dysmorphia, but precisely bc of that I can't help but give him a lil' something he cannot control about his body and that he hates about himself, hence the forked tongue. Once he reaches True Peace ™ and Self-Acceptance™, he will be able to finally will it away, his is case of a classic Penelope (2006)/Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle deal.

I also have Many Thoughts ™ about the differences between the iterations of the GO cast, including their visual designs, but that goes on an analysis post, not a fanart one.

[falmerbrook]

I love seeing people's characterizations of Nerevar because the fella is so important, but he also functionally isn't a character. He has almost no characterization to speak of. You can pull some tidbits out about how he might of been, but he's basically a plot device--a backstory for all the important people. The only accounts we hear about him are from the most biased and untrustworthy sources in the whole game. So it's so fun to see what people do with those scraps. At this point he's Morrowind fans' collectively owned OC

[allthegothihopgirls]

screaming. "stop the 'quirked up gay-boy tim drake' propaganda" at the top of my lungs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lord-squiggletits]

On the MegOP fandom trend of saying "Optimus should apologize to Megatron"

(Speaking specifically for IDW1, though it applies to a lot of MegOP especially ones that do continuity soup with heavy reference to IDW1)

I was talking to a friend in DMs and they mentioned a common headcanon/fanfic trope that I also concurred with, and both of us said it's something that bothers us: a common take in the MegOP fandom goes basically along the lines of "If Optimus had just apologized to Megatron, the war would've ended" (or other variants including "if he'd tried harder to understand Megatron/work in collaboration with him").

And firstly, this is incorrect for a number of reasons:

There were attempts at peace negotiations during the war, but they fell through. So Optimus WAS trying to work with Megatron to the point of participating in formal diplomatic meetings.

Optimus tried multiple times on page to convince Megatron to just stop fighting and work with him for peace (Autocracy, Chaos Theory) that Megatron rejected. Given that these on-page examples take place at the start of the war and at the end of the war respectively, it makes sense that Optimus asking Megatron for collaboration is something he was trying/willing to do the entire time. So again, Optimus was always willing AND ATTEMPTING to work with Megatron and find a joint solution

Even before the war when Optimus was still Orion, he was very explicitly inspired by Megatron's writing and names Megatron as one of the people who "opened his eyes" to the wrongs of Cybertronian society. So how is it that people claim "the war went on for too long because Optimus never tried to understand Megatron" when OP literally named Megatron as one of his biggest idols, thus implying that OP does understand Megatron's ideals

But the primary purpose of this post wasn't to defend Optimus, actually. Even though I personally think Optimus did plenty (dare I say, everything) to try to end the war, there are some who may still think otherwise, so instead of arguing about whether Optimus did "enough", or who should apologize to whom, or who "deserves the blame" for starting/continuing the war, I'd actually rather talk about this:

No matter who is most "to blame" for the war, it's my firm belief that neither Megatron nor Optimus would even expect/demand the other to apologize to them at all.

On Megatron's side, he would never seek to judge Optimus negatively for the decisions to the point of saying "you wronged me, apologize." Whether it's evil Megatron who doesn't care about atrocities and revels in an opportunity to expose Optimus as a hypocrite, or post-war/Autobot Megatron who knows that his own evil actions are irredeemable, the idea of Megatron judging Optimus and demanding an apology for the war specifically strikes me as out-of-character. Why would Megatron demand or even want an apology from Optimus when Megatron knows fully well that he has his own sins to bear, he prolonged the war for his own selfish/material gain, and that he is responsible for an untold amount of suffering? Demanding an apology would imply that Megatron sees himself as the wronged party and Optimus as the wrongdoer, but by the end of the war, Megatron is too aware of his own part in the war to ever demand such a thing of Optimus. Even if he DID think that Optimus was "equally to blame" for the war (which he doesn't/wouldn't, btw), Megatron's own feelings of guilt would prevent him from trying to seek the petty satisfaction of the moral high ground or making Optimus beg for his forgiveness.

Additionally, Megatron knows Optimus very well as a person: he knows that the position of leadership is full of "loneliness [and] agonizing self-doubt" for Optimus (Chaos Theory) and that "when Optimus hurts others, he hurts himself" (MTMTE). Another reason that Megatron wouldn't demand nor want an apology from Optimus is because Megatron knows Optimus so well that he already knows that being a war leader fills Optimus with immense guilt and suffering. Given that Megatron knows about Optimus' self-doubt and guilt, why would he even need an apology when he already knows how much Optimus regrets the war and desperately wishes/wished for it to end?

Then, as established in the previous paragraphs, Optimus is too full of guilt for his part in the war (both before it started and in being unable to stop it sooner) to demand an apology from Megatron. Again, demanding an apology would put Optimus in an implied position of moral superiority and/or victimhood, but Optimus doesn't see himself as morally superior or as a victim (or rather, he sees himself as being responsible for these bad things happening and internalizes this as a duty to do better/fix wrongdoings). In other words, Megatron and Optimus both share this view of themselves and each other: Their hands are so dirty, and they both feel such guilt over this, and they know each other well enough to know that the other feels this way as well. Because both of them feel blame for the war and are acutely aware of their own flaws/part in suffering, both of them feel far too responsible for the war happening for them to ever blame their archnemesis for "not trying harder" or "being responsible for the war."

Hell, if you even look at the socio-political climate of Cybertron before the war started, neither Megatron nor Optimus were the ones who put this conflict into motion. The corrupt legacy of the Primes, Functionism, class issues-- all of these things existed before Megatron and Optimus did. Even once they started doing things like writing about social issues (M) or fighting against the Senate (OP), both of them were "underlings" in sense that they weren't leaders:

Megatron's writings may have inspired the Decepticon movement, but that movement existed as an independent entity with its own leaders and speakers long before Megatron became the "official" ruler of the Decepticons. He wasn't even the leader of the 'Cons until he took control of the gladiator arena and the nonviolent sections of the Decepticons were (presumably) subsumed into the underground, exploitative battle culture that Megatron created.

Optimus-as-Orion was a police officer to start, but even once he started going against the Senate, he mainly worked in collaboration with others like Senator Shockwave and Zeta (later Zeta Prime), who he either saw as his idols or who were literally superior to him in rank due to government/military structures.

So with this in mind, even from a social level, while Megatron and Optimus may have been "catalysts" of a sort that caused the war to escalate to an outright planetary/galactic level, the scenario is too complex to solely lay the blame for the war at either of their feet. I'm not confident in saying that Megatron/Optimus would explicitly think of this when talking to each other, but what I'm trying to say is that M/OP were just catalysts in a long chain of brewing tension that exploded into a war. Even if one could claim that one of them "started" or "escalated" the war, the social issues that caused the war and the positions of power that allowed them to become leaders in the first place were falling into place before either of them actually BECAME leaders.

In other words, this shared fate of being the final reaction that exploded a societal conflict into outright war... Megatron and Optimus both have that in common. And because of this, I really don't think either of them would even think to ask the other to apologize because they're both in such similar positions, with such similar feelings of guilt and responsibility, that they understand each other's feelings without words. To demand an apology would be akin to taking that shared vulnerability/guilt and stepping on it, attempting to claim that one is right/superior and the other is wrong/inferior, and that the inferior one needs to grovel and take responsibility for the bad things that happened.

[remusawoooo]

the most tolerable way to interact with "mainstream" wolfstar is to literally just read the characters in reverse, sometimes.

[redpasserines]

I am real tired of the constant girl bossification of Cassandra Cain, who deserves to be a genuine character in her own right with hopes and dreams and FLAWS instead of “the best” which is all yall seem to be able to see her as. Her character traits are: Bruce’s favorite child because she’s perfect! Everyone’s favorite sibling because she’s sensible! The best fighter ever, so much better than all of these could take on all of them at the same time and crush them! That’s it!

edit: this is mostly about fanon Cass, and also the fight thing isn’t denying she’s the best out of all of them. It’s that it’s over exaggerated to a point that’s so wildly unrealistic it makes everything frankly boring.

[triglycercule]

"finally, mine. heh, and it looks better than both of yours."

"uhhh, mine and dust's are both in the same style, same everything. like, there's not even that much different about yours, horror."

"yeah, but it's me."

"i hope an alternate version of you gets severely mischaracterized irreparably."

"... damn."

💜/💙/❤️

[lemongogo]

why do i love the conflict more than anything else . the misery . the incompatibility that spreads like oil slick . wanting so desperately for resolution that never comes . hmmm

[potatodotpng]

⭐Sketches⭐

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

3l!grian is frequently depicted as a tragic figure and sometimes i wonder if we even watched the same series

[waterberry-strawmelon]

just gonna go ahead and say this in advance—

if Riz does indeed come out in junior year, and he says, “I’m ace” or “I’m asexual” when referring specifically to his lack of romantic attraction, aromantic people are allowed to be upset about it.

[loving-jack-kelly]

i think spot admires jack very deeply and looks up to him a lot but would rather be stabbed to death than ever say that out loud. btw. i think jack respects spot and everything that he's done more than almost anybody else in the world but would rather be set on fire than admit it. also.

[jayninjago]

Good mid-season finale, however I'll be sitting here biting my nails rocking back and forth hoping that jay actually gets to be silly and isn't just a memory less guy who fights the ninja once and then remembers everything and they're besties again

[dragondoodling]

It’s my first time drawing killer and murder/dust so sorry if I didn’t capture them quite right