#but also megatron knows how to make him feel better obviously - like he clearly knows how to turn starscream's frown upside down akdj;flaja

[cosmicswritings]

so more reproductive but also body hate hcs for starscream. so he is a seeker, and seekers were created to be strong grade military bots, and when it comes to reproduction they were specifically created to sire. seekers themselves were not actually made to carry, they were seen as 'sires on demand' and it would be something that was expected of them because a sparkling sired by a seeker has extremely capable flight abilities and agility, but is also strong and sturdy.

starscream didn't like that, he didn't ever have the desire to be a sire or use his spike, but it was always something that was expected of him. so the whole thought that, due to his body type he had to be a certain way and it was expected of him, even by some romantic partners, made him really sick and it makes it difficult for him to get in romantic relationships or talk about starting a family. starscream only wants to exclusively carry but not a lot of people want that from him or expect that of him. he also had to go through procedures to get it done as well, to be able to carry and to completely remove siring capabilities/protocols from his system.

one of the many reasons he likes to change his body around so that he isn't associated with a seeker frame type when he gets into relationships.

[arandomaquarius]

Kay so before I get into this rant I just wanna say that I’m definitely back on my bullshit again and to take this post with a grain of salt lmao it’s late and insomnia has struck once again warnings in tags

So! I want to point out something I’ve noticed in Transformers: Prime. Specifically about Knock Out and his relationship with Megatron and Starscream. Specifically about the abuse he endured on the Nemesis.

Now, it’s common knowledge that Megatron was physically abusive towards Starscream. However, I’ve seen a few fan made things saying that he was abusive towards Knock Out. Now while we have canonical proof of this in the case of Starscream, we do not have any for Knock Out. The closest thing we get is that one scene where Megatron picks Knock Out up from underneath his chassis (much like you would pick someone up by their shirt). But that happened when dark energon was coursing through his body, changing his actions and thought patterns. There was also the time that he shot at Knock Out after he retrieved the shield, but I’m not sure if that counts. Otherwise, Megatron never laid a servo on Knock Out (as far as I can remember right now.)

Of course, physical abuse isn’t just hitting someone. It’s using your body to threaten and intimidate another being or to make them feel inferior. There are many examples of Megatron doing this to all of his troops (save the Waves and Predaking). So as for that part of being physically abusive, Megatron fits the bill!

The type of abuse that Megatron uses the most is verbal abuse. The demeaning remarks, the intentional mentions of past events that have clearly left a mental mark, insults, threats, everything. He is degrading Knock Out (because this post is mostly about Knock Out not Screamer sorry Screamer enjoyers) with his comments and he knows it. He’s doing it on purpose, and that’s what makes it abuse. This is a very common type of abuse, despite the media focusing on physical abuse the most. Megatron never lays a servo on KO, but his words do enough.

Starscream, however, does both. He insults and demeans Knock Out the first episode he appears in! He obviously learned this abusive behavior from Megatron after serving under him for so long, but he ramps it up. The way Starscream gets in KO’s personal space; the way he used the spark extractor to scare him more than once; the time he hurt Knock Out after he street raced; when he hit KO after the Omega Lock got destroyed; how he threatened him in Thirst; and more that I’ve probably missed.

Point is, out of the two, Megatron has treated Knock Out better. Starscream has been more manipulative and abusive towards him than Megatron was. Megatron very rarely got physical, while Starscream didn’t hesitate to get in Knock Out’s face and use his (not by a lot) superior height to intimidate and threaten him. Megatron made snide remarks and brought up painful reminders, and he was abusive in this way, but not really physically. And I say really because he was still shit, but he didn’t physically hurt KO as much as Starscream did.

This is important for their dynamics because Knock Out kept aligning himself with Starscream when it came to betraying Megatron. Despite Megatron not being as physical as Starscream. I dunno if it was ever explained why Knock Out did this, but I do know that abusive relationships are difficult to get out of and that many stay because it is familiar and they believe that they deserve it. I don’t think KO thinks he deserves all the pain he gets from Starscream: he just doesn’t strike me as that mech. However, I think Knock Out was comfortable where he was and felt he could correctly gauge whether or not he was in enough danger that he would need to leave the safety of the Decepticon ranks. The Decepticons were in control of the energon supply, therefore the winning team and where Knock Out was safest and most comfortable. He likes luxury, so it was a no brainer for him: security, a place to keep up his finish, and plenty of energon; or no security, no way to keep his finish flawless, and barely any energon?

Anyways, all this to say that Knock Out suffered abuse at the hands of Starscream and Megatron, although Megatron’s was less severe than Starscream’s. We need to talk about it more and acknowledge that Starscream, while being an abuse victim, is also an abuser. You can be both. Just because you are/were abused doesn’t excuse you if you are also abusive. Knock Out could have continued this cycle, but he didn’t. And as far as I’m concerned, post-Predacons Rising Knock Out is living his best goddamn life on Cybertron.

thanks for coming to my Ted talk! If you have any additions, feel free to add them

[minorisato]

all i think about is karma

transformers / tarnstreaker / wc: 2297 / warnings: references torture, minor manipulation / notes: the beggining of my djdstreaker au! reposted from my ao3 :3

“That’s another one done,” Kaon smirked, making a note of something on his datapad. “This one wasn’t very fun,” Tesarus complained. “He didn’t fight all too much.” Helex nodded along with him. Vos, next to him, made a comment in ancient Cybertronian, prompting Tarn to step forward.

“A traitor doesn’t really repent until they’ve died,” he explained, in that way where every word he said sounded like it’s own little speech. “Even so, they still know what their fate will be. That’s good in it’s own right, it means our message is spreading further.” He turned to Kaon. “Who’s next?”

The two began to converse as the Peaceful Tyranny approached, and Sunstreaker stared up at it, feeling… sort of bored. Tesarus was right, that one wasn’t very fulfilling. Sunstreaker felt hollow as he watched the traitor just accept what was happening, that he was going to die. They hardly had to do anything at all before he accepted his fate and gave in to whatever torture the division had planned- not nearly as much as usual, once they realized he clearly wasn’t fighting back. He, in Sunstreaker’s opinion, obviously didn’t care about whatever life he’d managed to garner separate from the Decepticons. Sunstreaker couldn’t imagine that this fate was better than sticking with the failed faction for the sake of it, but he didn’t know.

The Peaceful Tyranny landed, its doors opening to the mechs below. As soon as they did, a turbofox burst from the inside, running at Kaon. And then jumping at Kaon. And then mauling Kaon a bit. The electric chair merely laughed, though the laugh itself sounded like the laugh of a madman as he greeted his pet. Perhaps if The Pet was an actual turbofox, Sunstreaker wouldn’t mind the display, but knowing what he did, he just cringed away from it in disgust. They should get an actual pet, he found himself thinking, one that isn’t just a braindead mech who can’t transform.

Sunstreaker turned to get back on the ship, when Tarn suddenly called out to him. “A word?” He asked, and Sunstreaker let Kaon pass him with his trotting freak. “You don’t seem very happy.”

The yellow-gold mech scoffed. “Am I supposed to?”

Tarn seemed to consider him for a moment, which Sunstreaker had come to figure was a generally very bad thing, but eventually he began making his way to his ship. Sunstreaker trailed behind him, optics to the ground. “Everyone else gets some sort of fulfillment from this,” he explains, “be it by helping The Cause, or in another way. Everyone else is also a dedicated Decepticon, brought on by Lord Megatron himself.” Tarn paused, sparing another glance at Sunstreaker. “You are clearly an exception to that, but here you are anyway, having insisted on working with us.” Another pause. “I suppose I’m just curious what you stand to gain from being here. What, exactly, you’re getting out of it.”

Optics still to the ground, Sunstreaker replied, “Same thing as you are, probably.”

“This is a tentative alliance at best,” Tarn clarifies, which Sunstreaker knows. He’s known that since the beginning. “Any day now, this could change.” I could kill you. It goes unsaid, but the intention is there. The meaning of every word is clear.

“I know.”

Tarn lets out a vent, heavier than his others.

They board the ship.

~~~~

“Alright, you look fine,” Nickel tells him. Of course, Sunstreaker always looks fine- compared to the dirt and grime and energon constantly coating the rest of the D.J.D., he’s still up to par, consistently keeping up with being the best-looking mech in any given room. “How are you feeling, though?”

“Fine,” Sunstreaker tells her, referring to his physical health.

“Emotionally,” she clarifies.

“You aren’t a therapist.”

“No, I’m not,” Nickel agrees, gritting her dentae. “But I’m your doctor, and Tarn refuses to put any of our grave-robbed funding into getting a fragging therapist on the basis that no one here has expressed the need for one, which is absolutely ridiculous coming from him of all mechs-” She shakes her head, dialing back. “So I’m both, actually. Besides, if you start malfunctioning ‘cause you got too sad and didn’t wanna talk about it like a grown mech, that won’t exactly be helpful.”

Sunstreaker wasn’t certain that could actually happen, but he also didn’t know enough to call her out on it. “Fine,” he repeats.

Nickel sighs. “Really? Totally perfectly fine?” She squints at him. “The torture and maiming isn’t too much for your precious little Autobot sensibilities? You want me to believe that?”

He shrugs.

Again, Nickel sighs. “Alright, sure, fine. I’ll just go ahead and ask. What the pit are you doing here?” She sits down the datapad she’d been making notes on, and is now looking at him directly. It’s uncomfortable. “You practically begged to come with us and help. I was there. So why.”

Sunstreaker turns his head downwards, noticing the paint near his knee-joint has started to crack. He’ll need to repaint it later. “Same as everyone else.”

Nickel scoffs. “Wow, really? Didn’t know Autobots suddenly got complexes about defending the Decepticon cause. Oughta call the Prime too, ask how he feels about it.” Sunstreaker chances a glance back at her, and she looks some flavour of incredulous. “I’m not gonna tell Tarn, if that’s why you’re flipping out.” (Sunstreaker, in his own opinion, was not “flipping out.”) “I won’t tell Kaon either. Or Vos. Or anyone. They’d take away my license if I did that.”

Sunstreaker picks at the paint chipping on his knees. “Can you actually understand Vos?”

“No,” Nickel chuckles. “Normally Tarn will come in with him. Sometimes Kaon will, but usually Tarn. There’s some exceptions made to the confidentiality rule when the mech needs a translator present 90% of the time,” she explains, and Sunstreaker nods along.

A bit of the paint falls to the floor. “I don’t think it’s bad to want people to get what’s coming to them.”

Nickel raises an optical ridge. “Do you actually think all those ex-cons deserved it?” This prompts a shrug from Sunstreaker. “So you just like watching them die.”

“It’s more complicated than that,” he tries to explain, but Nickel just waves him off.

“Well, you’ll need to tell me just how complicated next time,” she resolved, “since you spent all the allotted time avoiding it, and I actually do follow some schedule here.” As she says this, a knock shakes the door from the outside. “Speak of the unmaker. I gotta take my next appointment now, get out.”

Sunstreaker is actually quite glad to do just that. As soon as the door opens, he’s met with Tarn on the other side.

He pushes past his boss- boss? Business partner?- nodding a curt greeting as he retreats from the medbay.

~~~~

The next stop is distinctly farther away, on the planet of Messatine. It acts as something of a base of operations, Kaon had explained to him, and Tarn had business to take care of on the snow planet before they could continue onto their real next destination. Business which he’d decided, for no apparent reason, to shove onto Sunstreaker.”It’ll be easy,” Kaon had assured him, “just walk in and ask to see Pharma. He knows it’s due.”

Sunstreaker was not entirely certain what Kaon was talking about, but he also knew better than to question it.

When he walked into Delphi medical facility, he first noticed just how run-down it had seemed. He also noticed that the person greeting him was distinctly not Pharma. Pharma was almost-kinda-half-famous as a surgeon, mostly for the fact he had studied under Ratchet, and the fact that he managed to be a jet and a doctor. The mech at the counter, exhaustedly filling out paperwork, Sunstreaker had never seen before. “I need to see Pharma,” he told the desk mech, who only glanced up for a second.

“He’s kinda busy.”

“Okay,” Sunstreaker started, “well I kinda really need to see him.”

Again, the desk mech glanced up at Sunstreaker, holding his gaze a bit longer. “You don’t look like the usual. You look like an Autobot.” He paused. “You are an Autobot.”

Sunstreaker isn’t arguing with a nobody.

He’s sort of saved when the mech he’s actually looking for walks through two swinging doors. Sunstreaker turns to him, and they both give each other a bit of a look-over before Pharma speaks. “We aren’t accepting any new patients at the moment.”

“Tarn sent me,” Sunstreaker replies simply, and the surgeon scoffs at him.

“You can’t expect me to believe that, Sunstreaker.”

Of course, because he’s also almost-kinda-half-famous. He readies his blaster, aiming nebulously for Pharma’s chassis, ending up pointing it close to his Autobrand. “I don’t give a slag if you believe me, he’s gonna be angry at both of us if I go back to that ship empty-handed.” Pharma is staring down at the gun, but the desk mech still just looks exhausted. Like this happens a lot. “I’m gonna go ahead and assume you don’t want that.”

Pharma clicked his glossa, turning to the desk mech. “When First Aid gets back, tell him to check room 36R,” he says simply, and then disappears behind the swinging doors again. This time, Sunstreaker follows him.

The walls of the hallway are just as bad as the walls of the entryway. They look like they’re actively decaying. It’s lined with doors, and Sunstreaker can hear a cacophony of mechs coughing and hacking behind each. Some are sobbing. The lights flicker overhead. This seems a lot less like a place to heal and recover, and a lot more like a place you could go when you’re just waiting to die. It was unnerving. It was worse here than on the Peaceful Tyranny.

At some point, Pharma stopped in front of a door that didn’t look any different than the rest. The only noticeable difference was a sign that read “STORAGE.” Unceremoniously, the surgeon lifted a metal crate out of the room, and then dropped it in front of Sunstreaker. “Take them and get out.”

The desk mech stared at Sunstreaker as he left. ~~~~ Sunstreaker never looked in the crate. Tarn seemed happy with it, and that was what mattered.

They could finally get on with their lives to their actual destination. Kaon had briefed them on who the traitor was, and what he’d done- generally, it was something along the lines of “ran away from battle” or “was enjoying life after the war ended” (though, of course, none of the D.J.D. really thought the war was over at all.) Sunstreaker wasn’t exactly paying attention, he didn’t care. Nickel wasn’t wrong- “defending the Decepticon cause” wasn’t why he was here. He himself wasn’t entirely sure why he was here. Why he needed to be here.

He still hadn’t gotten around to repainting his knee-joint. That bothered him.

Autobot traitors weren’t treated the same way Decepticons were. You were always allowed to come back if you were really really sorry, but not everyone believed you were sorry, and that was made worse when you weren’t really sorry. Almost no one would forgive, and no one ever forgot. Even if you swore up and down to not do it again, they’d never forget that you had done it at all. You were included technically, but in actuality you were ostracized. When you were an Autobot, you suffered, and when you were a Decepticon, you were killed. One felt so much more merciful than the other.

It felt wrong. To ally with the D.J.D. while being a traitor himself felt so wrong, but he needed to. Because the truth was that those Decepticon traitors had it so much easier than being an Autobot traitor- and still, people would look at the D.J.D. and think that they were the worst beings in the galaxy. Sunstreaker had seen worse. He’s been through worse. And all those stupid ex-cons, maybe they didn’t have it coming, but they sure had something good going for them. They sure didn’t appreciate it. Maybe that’s why he’s here. He’s so jealous. They all had it so much easier than him. When Helex shoves your brain module down your throat, you’re usually far too dead to notice.

From somewhere in the Peaceful Tyranny, music resounded. Sunstreaker felt himself carried towards it. He’s so jealous.

He’d already, even during his time still serving the Autobots, resigned himself to being hated for the rest of his existence, as long as his spark burned. He had accepted that his betrayal would follow him to his far-too-late grave, and the mechs he’d once considered his friends- his family- would never speak to him again. Of course he left. Of course he left. What was there for him, with the Autobots? He’d been through enough. He’d been through more than enough. Those idiotic Autobots and nobody ex-cons all had lives he could never have again, and they didn’t even appreciate it. Maybe they did deserve it.

The music got closer. It was so unfair. Sunstreaker could name a hundred Autobots who had done worse than him. It was so unfair. Optimus himself wasn’t perfect, but people followed him without a second thought, hinging on every word he said. It was so unfair.

Right on the other side of this door. The music was coming from here.

A traitor doesn’t really repent until they’ve died, a voice called, in the back of Sunstreaker’s helm. Tarn’s voice.

The same mech who was looking down at Sunstreaker now.

Sure feels like it.

“Sunstreaker,” Tarn began, reaching out to him. He just barely grasped the former Autobot’s servos, pulling him gently into the hab. “Do you want to come in?”

[soundwavereporting]

a coswave first date fic ft. miscommunication and cultural differences

“Hello Cosmos.”

“Uh, hi.” Cosmos looked down at his maybe-friend-slash-definitely-landlord, who was staring back at him, unreadable as always.

They lingered in silence for a moment.

“You called?” Cosmos managed, finally. While Soundwave’s hospitality certainly didn’t feel like a farce, this was the third time he had asked Cosmos to help him during his off-shift.

First, it had been installing an energon dispenser in one of the habsuite blocks. The next time, he and Soundwave had spent half the night planning the station’s duty roster for the next month.

“It is good to see you.”

“You too.” Already feeling uncomfortable, Cosmos shifted in place, feeling the sting of the finally-healed welds on his armor.  

“So…” Cosmos said, after another moment of awkward silence. “You needed help with something.”

Soundwave nodded. “Your assistance: greatly appreciated.”

“Sure.” Cosmos wasn’t entirely certain how much he believed Soundwave. He was happy enough to help out, but there was just something so strange in the way Soundwave looked at him, as though he expected him to do something other than pull up a seat next to Soundwave and pick up a datapad.

Soundwave pushed an energon cube over to Cosmos, who cracked the seal and gave it an experimental sniff.

“You got the refinery fixed?”

“Affirmative.” Soundwave seemed to sit up a little straighter. “However, there is now a shortage of spare parts.”

“I can make a trip to Cybertron,” Cosmos said, without thinking. It wasn’t like there was anyone left on Cybertron who would care one way or another if he showed up, but it also meant Cosmos wouldn’t be pressured to return to active duty with the Autobots—or worse, stay on Cybertron with King Starscream or whatever he was calling himself lording over everyone.

Besides, it would be good to get off the station. Even after the few short weeks he had spent recuperating from Galvatron’s attack, Cosmos had already begun to feel like the station’s walls were closing in on him. He didn’t think he would need to leave so soon, but…

“I haven’t been cleared for active duty yet,” Cosmos said, almost apologetically, but there wasn’t a reason for him to feel bad. Was there? Soundwave had told him he was welcome to stay as long as he wanted. Cosmos, riding on the heady combination of pain suppressors and adrenaline, had just nodded. He was very sure that once Optimus called him back to the Ark, the invitation would be rescinded.

But Optimus hadn’t called him back. Personally, Cosmos thought he had been doing a good job of ignoring that fact, and was immediately irritated with himself for thinking of it. He had hoped the relative quiet and tentative peace between the Autobots and the humans and the Decepticons would have

Or maybe he wanted Cosmos to reach out first. Which would be weird. He probably had other things to worry about. That was it. Cosmos archived the thought.

“You should not push yourself,” Soundwave said, as though he hadn’t asked Cosmos to help him install an energon dispenser in a habsuite just last week.

“Yeah,” Cosmos said. “About that.”

There was a quick beat of silence before Cosmos realized Soundwave wasn’t going to interrupt. He still hadn’t gotten used to the mech’s apparent willingness to listen to him. If he was being entirely honest, most of the Decepticons on the station were generally willing to listen to him—bad jokes from the birds aside.

“I’m a little confused about…this.” Cosmos gestured lamely to the datapads on Soundwave’s desk. “It’s not that I don’t mind helping you out—I really don’t. But, uh, why me? If I’m not doing enough around the station, I can pick up another shift, but I feel like you have better things to do with your time than spending your evening with me going through paperwork—not that I mind spending time with you. I just…don’t see the point?”

Soundwave stared at him.  

 Cosmos felt his spark sink, and he wasn’t sure why.

“Clearly, there was a misunderstanding.”

“Clearly.” Cosmos wished the itching on his welds would stop. “About what, though?”

“Soundwave thought…” Soundwave trailed off, gripping one datapad so tightly Cosmos feared the screen might crack. “Soundwave: believed these meetings were the start of courtship.”

It was Cosmos’ turn to stare.

His systems stalled as his processor struggled to make sense of what his audio receptors had clearly heard.

“Misunderstanding,” Soundwave repeated, clearly desperate for Cosmos to say something. “Clearly. Soundwave: apologizes.”

Cosmos hadn’t failed to notice the flood of unease that teeked Soundwave’s field—and he had no doubt that Soundwave could feel his shock.

“Autobots do not date?” Soundwave sounded genuinely surprised.

“Not like this.” Cosmos tried to think back to the few dates he had been on over the course of the war. There had been stops at the dispensary, a kiss in a hallway that had been ruined because someone had noticed them, awkward flirtations between him and his on-ship contact that ran their course a year before he ever returned to base. “You thought we were dating?”

Soundwave nodded glumly. “My assumption was clearly incorrect.”

Cosmos laughed. He forced himself to set down the cube.

“Dating?” He said. “Me?”

“Affirmative.”

“Is this a Decepticon thing?” Cosmos asked. “Like how every Decepticon is required to memorize Megatron’s poetry before they receive their badge? We sit down and do paperwork together?”

“Laserbeak, Buzzsaw: lying.” Soundwave said, but continued before Cosmos could feel properly irritated at the birds. “Soundwave: made incorrect assumption that Cosmos was familiar with c—” Soundwave stopped, and didn’t seem to be able to say the word a second time. “Precursors to romantic relationships.”

“Excuse me for not thinking organizing a schedule was very romantic,” Cosmos said, then immediately regretted it when Soundwave winced.

“Apologies.” Soundwave looked like he was one wrong word away from running out of his own office.

“No—wait.” Before he could move, Cosmos reached out and grabbed Soundwave’s arm. He felt Soundwave stiffen under his touch. “Crap. I’m sorry for saying that. I was just, uh, surprised. It was rude. But you were asking me out on a date? Really?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Okay. Look, I’m not—I’m not upset?” Cosmos didn’t think he was upset. Irritated, yes, at not noticing it earlier, irritated that Soundwave hadn’t brought it up until now, but not…upset. Probably. “It’s a little flattering, I guess.”

Was it? Entirely aware that Soundwave was pointedly staring anywhere but him, Cosmos studied Soundwave. The mech wasn’t bad looking, and if he was being honest, it wasn’t as though Cosmos hadn’t thought about it. It was just very, very far down on the list of possibilities.

And he liked spending time with Soundwave—not just because Soundwave apparently liked listening to him talk. He had seen hints of a quiet, earnest energy hidden beneath Soundwave’s normally stoic nature that surfaced on the rare occasions he strung more than two sentences together.

“Why don’t we go out for drinks?” The words were out before Cosmos could think about them properly. “You know. To get to know each other better.”

“Romantic…drinks?” Soundwave spoke as though the idea was entirely foreign to him.

“Yeah.”

Wordlessly, Soundwave gestured to the cube resting in front of Cosmos.

“Oh. Oh.” He hadn’t thought himself prone to nervous laughter, but for the second time that day, Cosmos laughed. “Yeah, I guess that counts.”

Before he could second guess himself, Cosmos removed his battlemask and downed the cube in one go, desperate to buy a minute to think. He set down the empty cube.

“Tell me about yourself.”

“Soundwave…is Soundwave.”

Cosmos waited.

“Third in command of the Deceptico—” He imagined Soundwave frowning before correcting himself. “Former third in command of the Decepticons. Founder of Sanctuary Station.”

Cosmos supposed he shouldn’t have expected anything else.

“Request: Cosmos shares information.”

“Right. Uh, I’m…Cosmos, obviously. Currently serving directly under…Arcee, I guess, since Prowl’s gone. No one ever really cleared that up. Um. That’s…about it.”

“Unfortunate.”

“Hah. Yeah. I bet you guys didn’t have people up and leaving your side unexpectedly.”

“You would be surprised.” Soundwave indicated his head at the datapads. He seemed to relax incrementally, and Cosmos found himself doing the same.

“So.” Cosmos said a moment later. “When we first met…you said you had good hearing.”

“You remembered that.”

“It wasn’t exactly forgettable,” Cosmos admitted. “What did you mean by that?”

 The ensuing moment of silence was awkward but…not as awkward as it had been earlier. Cosmos decided to count that as a win.

“Soundwave requests…” Soundwave trailed off. “Explanation be rescheduled to the second date.”

“Second date, huh.” Despite himself, Cosmos felt the hint of a smile beneath his faceplate. “Since the first one went so well?”

“If Cosmos is willing.”

 “I think I am. Maybe after I get back from Cybertron?”

“Soundwave: would like that.”

Besides, Cosmos thought with a small amount of relief, there was something comforting about dating someone who also had a battlemask.

[zombieheroine]

TFP: the backstory of the war and some points

This is more about my pet peeves than anything else, but still I think some of my points might be of interest.

Basically, there are popular takes and headcanons and interpretations in fandom about the backstory Ratchet tells Jack, Miko and Raf during the finale of the first season, and sometimes I have different ones I really haven’t seen much elsewhere.

I think it’s really interesting to note that the flashback is told through an unreliable narrator, Ratchet, who has multiple reasons to let’s say adapt the truth: He wants it to be short, so he simplifies, he is telling it to the children, so he includes things he thinks they need to know and excludes things he doesn’t want to mention, he is summing up not only the politics but also Megatron and Optimus’ past, some of which he wasn’t there for and only knows what Optimus has told him, and finally his own personal feelings about the events and the people involved in them.

There’s also the visuals of the story, how the medium changes the animation style into 2D-like, almost still frames and includes emotionally charged visuals like characters just posing, changing colours, and a ball of fire consuming the picture. These elements aren’t meant to be taken literally.

So, pet peeves:

Megatron started out good and later lost his path.

I don’t buy this. There’s nothing tragic or confused about Megatron’s character. He was aiming for an authoritarian state led by him from the start, he simply lacked the means at first. I’m not saying that he didn’t have any central ideology, he clearly did as he is clearly driven by it and he has followers loyal to the cause (Skyquake, Dreadwing, Soundwave), but I think to say he must have been a great and noble philosopher greatly overestimates how much it takes to rally suffering and oppressed masses into revolution.

Also, he sure had an organized and functional military force behind him, fully armed and ready to fight. That kind of a force isn’t built, trained or armed overnight. He was prepared.

The Council saw Orion Pax as worthy and noble

This is my theory about it, because yeah, no they didn’t. This is just Ratchet simplifying or even buying into the story.

Something like this would be plausible in a fantasy story or a fairy tale, and even though TF: Prime is aimed for children, its overall tone and how seriously it takes its story and themes doesn’t fit the trope. It’s not an adaptation of “here are Decepticons, they are evil because they are evil”. Instead of fun or wacky adventure, it takes time to talk about war as a devastating conflict with political motives as well as horrible concequences like death and destruction of civilization and infrastructure. Instead of simple “evil” and “darkness”, there are politics, ideas and ambitions.

So, the Council, what are they all about? Trying to pacify restless and protesting people and prevent violence and their own power grumbling. I don’t think it’s so much Orion’s “worthiness” as much as his “let’s change stuff and not kill anyone”-ness. Megatron was too dangerous, too radical and too powerhungry, and obviously prepared for violence.

Naming a Prime was the Council’s last effort for settlement, to let the people on the verge of open revolution to have a Prime of their own and take their grievances up with him. They knew they would have to give up something and change, and they didn’t want a revolution or violence. They were simply too late: The crisis was too ripe, things gone too far, too much anger and too many guns in the game, and so war was inevitable.

(Not that Orion wasn’t worthy, since Primus approved of him, but that had nothing to do with the Council.)

Megatron used to have blue optics

This is a small pet peeve compared to the ones above, but it still bothers me and goes together with the first point.

Megatron is showed with blue optics when he’s friends with Orion and preaching his ideology, then comes the point in the story where he “reveals his true nature”, leaves the Council without Primacy and decided on open war, and his optics turn red.

That is not literal. He doesn’t change the optics, they flash into red at a dramatic point in the story, and the story element works because of the audience’s associations with the colours. 

Then again, the colour of the optics is those elements that are clearly design choices to make the bad guys looks scary and the good guys look friendly, and obviously it also ends up being a feature in-universe. We could talk about the optics and what they mean, but I’m just concerned with Megatron here. The only indication that he had blue optics is that one story-telling element.

(Not that I have anything against artists drawing him with blue optics, mind you.)

Ratchet speaks the truth.

I’d just like to point out that the backstory is told to us by Ratchet all of. It’s interesting how Ratchet is simultanously the best and the worst source of information: It’s implied that he’s the only one of Team Prime who’s known Optimus before he became Prime, but as such he’s also one with most emotional investment, and that’s not even mentioning his personal beliefs that he demonstrates across the series.

Ratchet was there, yes, and has a close perspective, but Optimus and Megatron have a lot of private history, and much of it is so sensitive Optimus probably hasn’t shared it. We know Optimus has many mixed feelings about Megatron, like how he hesitates to kill him, mourns him alone, and doesn’t join in speaking about his character or deeds in emotional moments. So Ratchet doesn’t know the whole story.

Then again, I’d argue he sanitizes it for the children. We know Ratchet hates Megatron perhaps the most of them all (he’s the only one who strongly opposes to allying with him against Unicron, for example), but still the story about his origins is fairly clean. Multiple times through the series a history of horrific violence is implied, but there’s very little of it in the backstory. Even though the theme of bloodless but oppressed peace versus destructive and bloody freedom in war is an interesting one, I think it’s more likely that Ratchet leaves things out, for better or worse.

So in conclusion, I think it’s a really interesting scene and I love that the origins of the conflict are so murky. I also really like how the series pulls ambitious things like this, such as an unreliable narrator, and the style and how the truth is multifaced and unclear.

So many things in Prime are worth a deeper look.

[justawayninja]

Why IDW Starscream deserved his redemption arc (Pt. 2)

Pt. 1: A small hint of ‘goodness’

Pt. 2: The different IDW Starscreams

In the last part I talked about how the original G1 cartoon left us with a hanging question about Starscream’s moral capacity for ‘goodness’, the possibility of a little ‘something more’. 

In this part, I want to talk about: actual, ‘good’ traits of Starscream. 

Obviously, Starscream is a well-established bad guy of the franchise, whatever the continuity. 

The traits most easily associated with him are also largely, if not all, negative. Traitorous. Cowardly. Self-centred. Egotistical. Brash. Opportunistic. And that’s only what distinguishes him from the other Transformers villains. Add on the standard Decepticon ‘values’ of ‘cruel, ruthless warmonger’ and a sadistic penchant for violence and murdering people... 

Yeah. Not a good guy. Tick. 

But just because a person has bad morals or values, does NOT invalidate any of their strengths, competences, or positive traits in general. Just because they use their strengths to further a bad cause does NOT mean those traits are now invaluable, or useless, or ‘evil’. 

Writers who are able to take this into consideration, who can recognise that not all personality traits need to be portrayed as purely ‘good’ or ‘bad’, are writers who can create interesting, perhaps even likeable bad guys - despite, or even because of their badness. 

And, here, I would argue that, for most writers of an IDW G1 Starscream, there is an acknowledgement of Starscream’s actual competences and ‘positive’ traits - even though interpretations of these ‘positive’ traits do differ somewhat between writers. 

And if we are able to build on these interpretations, we will find ourselves with an image of Starscream that feels much more hopeful, and is certainly much more nuanced and complex than... others. (*cough cough John Barber cough*)

(Spoiler alert: Transformers: All Hail Megatron, Transformers: ‘Til All Are One, The Transformers (2009))

Shane McCarthy’s Starscream (Transformers: All Hail Megatron, 2008-2009)

Without outright portraying Starscream as a character worthy of moral redemption or sympathy, Shane McCarthy’s Starscream is one of the more positive portrayals of the character. 

While this Starscream exhibits the same petty, almost childish competitiveness reminiscent of the original G1 Starscream - getting very riled up when Skywarp suggests he’s unable to inspire as much fear and destruction as Megatron could - he is also highly competent. 

Firstly, he challenges Megatron with valid, meaningful criticisms of his plans after conquering Earth. He correctly points out that Megatron has lost his sense of purpose, and his vision for the future. They are questions to which Megatron has no answers.

And once Megatron failed to step up to the bar, Starscream organises a coup which poses an actual threat to Megatron’s position as leader of the Decepticons.

If it wasn’t for the Autobots’ arrival, I believe the Starscream VS Megatron coup could at least have a 50-50 chance of success. Not only did he manage to sway a significant number of Decepticons to his side, but he also surprised Megatron by taking over Devastator, Megatron’s then most powerful soldiers and the only Combiner team (I believe). 

What’s more, his capabilities and power are openly acknowledged and respected by Megatron. 

This respect for Starscream is something which very few later IDW writers choose to incorporate into their interpretations of Megatron. Many, instead, favour the more G1-esque Megatron-Starscream dynamic of bickering and insulting with a darker twist which borders abuse. (In later parts, I will also explore how re-interpretations of the G1 Megatron and Starscream dynamic affects the interpretation of both characters). 

And, indeed, there is something honourable about McCarthy’s Starscream, who, in issue 12 of All Hail Megatron, chooses to save Megatron from the Autobots so that he may earn his leadership of the Decepticons. 

Granted, I think this happens more out of plot convenience, so that Megatron can continue as the leader of the Decepticons in later series. But still, this has important implications for our understanding of Starscream’s character - and Shane McCarthy’s Starscream is a respectable character, even if he is on the ‘wrong side’. 

Mike Costa’s Starscream (The Transformers, 2009-2011)

The first thing Mike Costa’s Starscream does is... Throw Shane McCarthy’s Starscream’s sense of honour out of the window. Almost immediately, he’s torn between keeping Megatron’s husk alive and repairing him to function, or snatching Decepticon leadership during the power vacuum and killing Megatron off in the process. Which makes you wonder why he saved Megatron in the first place. 

But despite the inconsistency, Costa’s Starscream forms an interesting, tragic character. Although his Starscream does not necessarily exhibit competence or positive strengths in the same way as McCarthy’s Starscream, he certainly experiences and goes through feelings which readers can be sympathetic towards. 

One of which is guilt. 

This is Starscream in issue 13 of All Hail Megatron, shortly after lying to the other Decepticons that the Autobot’s Matrix of Leadership has chosen him as a leader. It’s a valid political move, using religion to aid your support.  

But here, you get the sense that this a Starscream who does not enjoy the deception. He does not blindly rejoice in power, and he feels no joy despite finally obtaining what he has desired for so many millions of years. 

Instead, he is filled with fear, paranoia, doubt, feelings of inadequacy, and a horrible, horrible sense of disappointment. 

This is a Starscream who recognises his own incompetence. 

In contrast to the original G1 Starscream, who is something of a bumbling fool too happy to self-indulge in his power for his own ego rather than actually using it to practical purpose, this is a Starscream who is finally confronted with the realisation that he cannot lead, cannot fulfil his grand ambitions in the way Megatron could. 

And it crushes him. 

This is NOT a fear that would occur to a shallower, simple-minded character who cared only about titles, egos, and their own glory. A Starscream like that would never even consider it. 

Because both McCarthy and Costa’s Starscream are legitimately, and reasonably, disappointed in Megatron’s reign. Both aspire for power not for the sake of power, but for a higher purpose. 

The Decepticon cause. 

And if we remember that, in the IDW-verse, the Decepticons are depicted as activists responding to genuine oppression who gradually lose their way in bloodbath and war, then Starscream’s determination to remember and return to the original Decepticon ideals definitely highlights something more than ‘just’ a sadistic, self-centred, sociopath. 

(Of course, there is no guarantee that Starscream’s own visions of the Decepticon ideals haven’t been skewed by war and bloodshed. The important thing is that he still remembers that their brutality should serve a purpose, which most other Decepticons rarely ever consider). 

Costa’s Starscream is tragic - tragic because he must face the reality that he is the reason that he cannot achieve his dream. Because he is not Megatron. Because he lacks the charisma. The ability. The determination. The strength. 

And that is something readers can sympathise with. Dreams being crushed. Ideals turning to ash. Fantasy morphing into bitter reality. This is the story of Costa’s Starscream - a broken idealist, someone who could have been something better than Megatron, but ultimately wasn’t. 

Mairghread Scott’s Starscream (Transformers: ‘Til All Are One, 2016-2017)

Scott’s Starscream offers a very interesting, brave interpretation of his character - because it is her Starscream, after all, who takes the journey of redemption. 

A lot of it comes down to the mechs Starscream is mainly surrounded by, as Supreme Leader of Cybertron. Bumblebee, Windblade, Ironhide, Wheeljack, and delegates from different colonies. Autobots, or else people who never knew him as the ruthless Decepticon Second-in-Command he once was. He has a chance to start with a clean slate. 

And this is when things get interesting. Whereas most Starscreams pretend to have compassion, and sympathy, and morality, in order to profit from the latest scandal or betrayal, Scott’s Starscream is the complete reverse. (Particularly in TAAO).

Similar to Mike Costa, in TAAO, we see a Starscream who plots and schemes not because he necessarily enjoys behaving this way, but because when everything happens exactly the way he wants things to, when he has a chance to start completely anew with his legally established power, he realises that deception, violence, and manipulation are all he knows. 

It’s what he expects of himself, and what others expects of him. 

Look at that expression. That is NOT the expression of someone who is proud of what he has done, or the expression of someone who feels no remorse. It’s bitter. It’s ironic. It’s a look of self-loathing. 

Scott’s Starscream has given up on himself. He carries on the despair of Costa’s Starscream, albeit with a subtle difference. Because while Costa’s Starscream despaired over the realisation that he cannot fulfil his dream as leader of the Decepticon Empire. Scott’s Starscream despaired over his inability to do good, to be a better person. 

Scott’s Starscream, in short, has a conscience. 

At some point, his plotting and scheming have become farcical. A ‘mask’, as Bumblebee puts it, which he can no longer put down. 

This can be seen most clearly when he releases Chromia from prison. Note how all his ‘official’, surface excuses for freeing her are all to do with establishing his own political power and influence. Entirely self-serving, as most people would expect. 

And yet, when Chromia sees through all of this, and asks him for the real reason, he answers with this: 

Unlike most other carnations, the self-serving, power-hungry Starscream had become the mask. Underneath it all, is a true Starscream who is attempting to atone, in some way, for his earlier faults (such as convicting an innocent Badgeless). 

It’s funny how things can work out sometimes. How an innocent, almost naive faith can produce the greatest change in a way which violence and power never could. 

Scott’s Starscream lives a tragedy, much like Costa’s Starscream, his story full of the could-have-beens and the sadness of someone who has lost themselves in the painful turns of war and its deceit. But it is in Scott’s Starscream where we see the greatest possibility for goodness - an awareness of right and wrong, a feeling of guilt, doubt, and conflict. And it is Scott’s Starscream who ultimately, chooses what would have been otherwise unthinkable for any other Starscream. He sacrifices himself, his ambitions, and his dreams - so that the world can do better without him. 

To summarise, while most writers show Starscream to be manipulative, deceptive, and conniving - they rarely depict him as someone who enjoys these betrayals. What’s more, he is not usually depicted as self-centred purely for the sake of being self-centred. Self-preservation, and the need to come out on top, are certainly a large part to his motivations, but they are never his sole motivations. They are usually accompanied by a genuine ambition to fulfil a certain ideology or vision of leadership, visions which are ultimately hampered by his own insecurities and inadequacies in the face of overwhelming responsibility. From this, we can see that IDW’s Starscream is a fairly nuanced, complex character, who is much more morally grey, much more competent, with a much greater capacity for good, than the G1 counterpart from whom he is inspired. 

........ Aaaaand then John Barber came along with Robots in Disguise, smashed a sledgehammer into all those subtleties and character development, called him a ‘sociopath’, and created the least likeable, redeemable version of IDW Starscream possible. 

Which brings me on to Part 3: Barber’s Biased Starscream

[poptimus-prime]

Here is what the kids call my highly disorganized, half-baked list of stuff that could have been done with Jack to make him a better character.

@yeetmetothehell I am sorry if you are disappointed by my ideas.

“Optimus was more like...Jack.” OK…so show us that.

In my opinion...Jack seems like he was intended to be written to be almost a parallel to Orion’s journey to becoming Optimus Prime, at least how he is used in the plot. Jack is described as “smart and responsible”, which can also be read as “hardworking and responsible” and really this can be achieved in narratively using a few points, IMO:

Long hours in his room/the library studying outside of work and school. 

Filling out the background of the garage more with sketches/print outs of motorcycle blueprints (to keep the idea that Jack really wants a motorcycle and show hints of extreme dedication, but they’re kept in the garage rather than his room to metaphorically show that distance he’s put between himself and what he wants)

“Man of the House”/”Grew up too fast” (This will be discussed more later but TL;DR “I’ll handle the electric bill this month, Mom”)

Somewhat fragile work/school/life balance that Jack somehow perfectly maintained before meeting the team

Orion was very physically passive. Jack seems to be intended to be written as passive but it comes off as an apathetic reluctance that Orion doesn’t possess (Orion may not believe in violence but he clearly wasn’t unwilling to communicate his thoughts; it’s how he got the title of Prime in the first place.) However, Orion had to learn to become more outspoken over time probably, so we can keep him as being aloof/reluctant at the start of the series.

“Man of the House”/”Grew up too Fast”

It’s no secret Jack came from a nonconventional home; June is very explicitly portrayed as a single mother with a dad nowhere in the picture. However the situation surrounding Mr. Darby is unknown. The way June talks about it makes me personally feel like Jack’s dad either ran out or divorced June and doesn’t bother with his kid. Dysfunction in the family really just goddamn changes you TBH. (can confirm bc hi, I come from a dysfunctional home) Sometimes you just grow up super fast. Jack probably spent his childhood missing his mom as she worked shifts at the hospital and seeing how lonely and hurt she was. He maybe went out and got a job the first day he could and helps with smaller bills (“I’ll handle the electric bill this month.”), or maybe other expenses like groceries and his own phone bill. June probably makes enough to comfortably support her and her son, especially given her job and the cost of living in rural ass desert Nevada. But Jack still does this anyways--it’s how he copes with his issues after what happened with his dad. Doubling down and trying to be what he thinks is the bigger man because his dad couldn’t be fucked. 

This would make the disruption him letting the bots into his life creates more staggering; June doesn’t expect her son to pay bills, but the sudden change in behavior (skipping out on work) would be a cause for concern because sudden shifts like that are Usually Signs that Something is Very Wrong. Especially because Jack is usually responsible and open with his mom; he would have told her if he was gonna cut hours at work, theoretically.

Jack feels like he has to constantly put his own wants aside to contribute to his household. Even if June doesn’t force this expectation upon him, it’s a feeling that he will have, especially if he watched his dad just abandon him and June. Maybe he has resentment towards his dad for this and that is causing some anger he’s keeping tightly under wraps? And maybe the bots give him an excuse to do something he actually wants to do for once or some excitement in his life and that’s why he goes along with it? Lots of options, people!

Clothing Choices: The Hoodie™

You are going to have to deal with me being a whore for costuming choices and what they can mean. The show has a problem with the humans wearing the same shit every time they’re on screen and I’d love to rant about all of them (yeah yeah I get it saving money) but I’m focusing on Jack right now. Give Jack a hoodie 2020. A grey one or some other dull and drab color. And make him actually always wear the hood (except like in scenes where he is working bc workplace dress codes obviously) As time progresses, the drab hoodie is changed to a more vibrant color, but he still always has the hood over his head. And then, at a pivotal moment, the boy takes the hood off. (You could even throw in Miko cracking a joke about Jack actually having hair if you really wanted TBH.) Why this? The narrative is that Jack is constantly holding himself under wraps because of his self-imposed responsibilities. As he starts to become more into his own, he decides to express himself more with brighter colors, but still has some reservations. When he takes the hoodie off, that’s when he’s fully realized himself in this process and thus completes the parallel.

Actually make him interact with Optimus in a meaningful manner.

Arcee can still be his guardian in the field and I think working on strengthening their relationship is vital. But also, if you’re gonna make Jack the confidante holding the key to Vector Sigma, there actually has to be...meaningful interaction. Optimus asking Jack what he’s so engrossed in reading and Jack explaining the book he’s got with passion before shutting himself up and saying “it’s kinda dumb though” or something. And Optimus just responds “I don’t think it’s dumb, tell me more.” Coaxing him towards more self-discovery and expression. Optimus maybe sees more of his old self in Jack and starts attempting to be a quasi-paternal figure without really thinking about it because he is, after all, Dadimus. Jack maybe lashes out about how he doesn’t need Optimus to be his dad and that makes the space between them tense for a while. Eventually Jack comes to apologize and maybe there’s an important Talk.. Just a few ideas I will expand on later. I feel like forgiveness and lack thereof is a good theme--I know I was held back for a long time because of how convoluted the concept of forgiveness is with family.

The Character Arc

 So, what would Jack’s character development throughout the events of season 1 be? My basic idea for a Jack arc that mirrors Orion’s self-realization and coming into Prime-hood without being a carbon copy is essentially: 

Jack is portrayed as a responsible, hardworking, studious teenager who constantly turns down chances for fun and excitement to handle his responsibilities. Has clear dreams for after high school and for his own personal life; but he’s constantly contemplating and changing his mind about whether he will or not because he’s extremely dedicated to helping his mom and all that. However, he still gets super curious about Arcee and gets swept up by her in the Vehicon chase, and he still has whispers of courage and protects Raf during the altercation. He first tries to ditch Team Prime because he’s concerned about his responsibilities, but eventually returns because he’s drawn to the opportunity to finally go buck wild for once in his life (even if he spends his time being hesitant about everything.) His hesitancy and dedication to severe self-imposed responsibility is a result of his inability to move on from what his dad did to him and his mom; he’s under the impression that he 1) Has to forgive someone to move on, and thus 2) He cannot move on because his dad isn’t there to bother to say sorry and take on his position as Dad. In essence, he becomes less the character telling Miko to stop and more the character being pushed by Miko to be more adventurous. In lulls in action, Optimus starts to take interest in him when he notices his constant hesitance to express himself and is just being dragged along rather than going willingly. Has a conversation with him about a book Jack’s reading, which Jack attempts to shut down because it’s “dumb and childish,” but Optimus urges him to continue. The idea that June knows about Arcee as a bike and Jack explaining that he bought a motorcycle as a fixer-upper for dirt cheap can stay. (He probably still is saving up for his motorcycle.)

The longest portion, after Optimus starts interacting with Jack on a level of bonding and gently coaxing him to be himself— Jack becomes more outspoken and he’s shown as curious, analytical, quick witted, and has a deep sense of justice. Being young and craving a childhood lost to his trauma and self-imposed obligations to help his mom with running the household, he suddenly starts spending more time at the base pursuing hobbies and going on missions rather than studying and work, which concerns June. She tries to press Jack, and is met with what can be described as typical teenage headbutting that gets progressively worse. She grounds Jack after the fight, MECH takes her, the rescue happens. (That makes sense to stay in this narrative IMO.) Around this time, Optimus has effectively started becoming Jack’s own Alpha Trion—teaching him things that he’s picked up that he may feel apply to Jack. Jack interprets one of these lessons as Optimus trying to be “dad” and he’s not having it. Makes it VERY clear that he does not need a dad (“didn’t need one before and sure as fuck don’t need one now”) and definitely snaps at Optimus, which then pushes his progress in the arc closer to the end. He eventually comes back to apologize, and Optimus forgives him. He and Optimus have a heart-to-heart about one of the hardest lessons Optimus has had to learn—how to let go of the past without forgiving those who have hurt you and refuse to make amends, so that you may determine your own future. It’s very clear he’s talking about Megatron, even though he never says his name. Jack takes this lesson to heart.

His final bit of development before the hood removal thing probably happens during the events of “Rock Bottom” and reinforces that hard lesson, right when he’s faced with the option to off Megatron. Maybe there’s some taunting about how Optimus preaches softness and forgiveness too much when Jack refuses to kill him. Jack gets angry, and he’s about to fucking do it. But then he stops, takes a breath, and says “Optimus doesn’t preach forgiveness, he preaches moving on from those who refuse to move on themselves. He will never forgive you, but he’s learned to live on despite what you’ve done.” Soon after this, when Megatron comes to the base, Jack takes off his hood, stares Megatron right in the face, and says “This is not forgiveness, Megatron. Don’t you forget that.” Later, when Optimus gives him the key, he tells him something along the lines of “you have grown since we’ve met, Jack, and even though there is still a long way for you to go...” he hands Jack the key. “...Remember that even I am a work in progress.”

Anyways this is again, half-baked. And needs lots of polishing. But it’s something.

[starvonnie]

That Wasn’t An Option

Day 2 of Megarod Week

Prompt: Misunderstanding

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Fandoms: The Transformers (IDW Generation One),Transformers - All Media Types Relationship: Megatron/Rodimus | Rodimus Prime Characters: Megatron (Transformers), Rodimus | Rodimus Prime, Ravage (Transformers) Additional Tags: Kissing, Love Confessions, Misunderstandings

Also on AO3

Oh.

That’s his first thought when he finally puts all the pieces together.

Oh no.

That’s his next thought.

Rodimus walks off the bridge, and the smile that had just disappeared from view was what finally clued him in.  How dense had he been?  Had it really been that long since someone flirted with him? And the more he looked back, the longer he’d realized it had been.  Far too long to shut it down.  At least, not without some sparkbreak.

Megatron did his best to carry on business as usual, but every smile, every brush of fingers… was it intentional?  Did he mean to just touch his shoulder with his spoiler?  

It was torture.

“You’re working too much again,” Ravage said as he entered the office.

Megatron lifted tired optics from the reports. And it was no wonder, given what time it was.  

“I lost track of time,” he half-lied.  While he had lost track of time, that had been his intention.  To tire himself out to the point that he immediately fell into recharge, lest he have time to stew in all these new thoughts and feelings.

“Uh huh.  Nothing to do with your co-captain?”

Megatron threw an almost-glare his way.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m not stupid, Megatron.  I can understand how a bunch of Autobots haven’t noticed, but it’s painfully obvious.  I’m sick of you moping around your habsuite, sighing and writing poetry.  It’s bad enough that you fell in love with him.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Yes you do.  Just tell him you like him already.”  Ravage jumped up on the desk and sat on Megatron’s work.  “He’s clearly into you.”

“I can’t be with a mech like Rodimus, Ravage.”

“Why not?”

Megatron sighed.  “Would you like an itemized list?”

“That would be helpful, yes.”

“Well, for one, he’s—”

They both looked up when they heard pedesteps coming from the hall.

“Let’s continue this conversation in my habsuite,” Megatron said.

“And then you get some recharge.  You look terrible.”

“Thank you, Ravage,” Megatron said, growling the words out.

 Rodimus didn’t smile at him that morning. Odd.  It hurt more than he cared to admit.  

“Good morning, Rodimus,” he greeted him.

“Yeah, whatever.”  Rodimus trudged past him without so much as a glance.

Megatron followed him, trying to be inconspicuous. He made a beeline for the captain’s chair and slumped down into it.  Megatron pretended to be interested in some star charts before leaning towards him and asking quietly, “Are you alright?”

“What do you care?” Rodimus shot back, not even attempting to keep his voice down.

Megatron paused, feeling some of the crew’s optics on him.  “You’re my co-captain,” he said a little too fondly.  He leaned down to lower his voice further.  “I just want to make sure nothing’s troubling you.”

Rodimus smacked him with his spoiler. Intentional or not, he didn’t apologize.

Megatron decided it was best to leave him be, despite how his spark ached.  At least this solved his problem.  If Rodimus hated him for some reason, all he had to deal with was his own feelings.

Simple enough.

Or it should have been.

Every time he saw Rodimus, instead of a smile, he got a scowl.  He never initiated conversations anymore, and he’d overheard him beg Ultra Magnus to switch shifts with him enough times.

It hurt.  Even though he knew he couldn’t—shouldn’t—act on his feelings, it didn’t stop the longing. He had to stop himself from staring. From lingering in his field.  From watching him out of the corner of his optic, because that was the only way he ever got to see him smile anymore.  Hell, he was warmer with Thunderclash.

The worst part, though, was that first time they were both stuck late after a shift.  The rest of the crew had been dismissed, and it was just him, Rodimus, and a pile of data pads that nearly reached the ceiling.

Rodimus scowled down at them.  He angrily tapped the screen and scratched them as he scrolled. When he was finished, he tossed it. At least half of them ended up on the floor, and a few of them broke.

“Rodimus,” Megatron scolded when he basically threw the latest data pad on the floor.  It shattered, spilling bits of glass across the floor.

“What?” he snapped.

Megatron forced his hackles down and softened his gaze. “It’s been weeks, Rodimus.  What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.  I just fucking hate paperwork.”

“Something’s clearly wrong.  And it was obviously something I did, since I’ve been the only one on the receiving end of this new attitude.  So, you can either tell me what’s wrong and I’ll finish what’s left, or I leave so you don’t have to be around me, but then you’ll have double the work.  What’s it going to be, Rodimus?”

“Fuck you.”

“That wasn’t an option.”

Rodimus’ face turned bright red.  “It’s not like you’d want to anyways!”

“I—excuse me?”

“Don’t play dumb.  I heard what you said.”  Rodimus crossed his arms and turned away.  “Not that I care.”

Megatron sighed.  “Rodimus, I assure you, I have no idea what you’re getting at.  This will be a lot easier if you just talk to me.”

Rodimus ran his hands down his face.  “Can you just leave me alone?”

“I can…”  Megatron carefully placed the report on the table.  “I will if that’s what you want.  We can have a strictly professional relationship and only talk about work, but…”

Rodimus’ spoiler perked up.  He turned back slightly, one curious optic finding Megatron. “… But?”

Megatron sighed again.  “I just want to know what I did.  And I know it was something I did, since you’re only treating me differently.”

Rodimus was silent for a while.  Eventually, he said, “I overheard what you said to Ravage.”

“What do you mean?”

Rodimus growled.  “There’s no way you’re this fucking dense… when you said you could never be with a mech like me!”

A tense silence followed his words.

“Rodimus, that was—”

“You don’t need to explain yourself.  I get it, okay?  I wouldn’t want to be with me either.”

“I do want to be with you.”

Rodimus scoffed.  “I don’t need your pity!  I know what I heard!”

“That is what I said, but what I meant was—”

“Can you just shut up?  I don’t want to waste anymore time on you if you’re—”

Megatron kissed him.  It was simultaneously the stupidest thing he’d ever down and the best thing he’d ever done.  He made it quick, though.  As much as he wanted to linger and pull him close, he stopped himself.  He had to tell Rodimus the truth, first.

“Please.  Let me explain.”

Rodimus just stared, his optics cycled wide.

“When I said I can’t be with a mech like you, I meant that I don’t want to bring you down.  I don’t want to give myself to you, because I don’t have nearly enough time to give you.  It’s not fair to you.”

Rodimus furrowed his brow.  “Says you.”

“Rodimus, it’s what’s best for—”

Rodimus interrupted his excuses with another kiss. And this time, he hooked his arms around Megatron and made it hard to escape him.  Not that he wanted to.  In fact, he pulled Rodimus closer.  Deepened the kiss.  Parted his lips to let his glossa slide along Rodimus’.  He even went so far as to pull Rodimus into his lap.  

When they finally parted, Rodimus, his lips still close enough to brush, asked, “Do you really wanna be with me, Megs?”

“Yes.”

“Then be with me.  Idiot.  I want you, too.”

“But—”

“No buts!  All that matters is that we want to be together.  You’re not saving me by staying away you’re just pissing me off.”

Rodimus’ pout was endearing.

Megatron relaxed, chuckling.  “Alright, Rodimus.”  He cupped his cheek and gently stroked his finials.  

He smiled.  “Good.  Now, when you’re done with all of this,” he gestured to the pile of data pads, “you can come to my room and we can get better acquainted.”  He hopped off of Megatron’s lap.

“Where are you going?”

Rodimus turned, smiling.  “You said if I told you what was wrong, you would finish the work.”

“You didn’t tell me, I had to wring it out of you!”

Rodimus shrugged.  “Shoulda put that in the fine print.  See you in a few hours, Megs.”  He stopped just before the door, turning back to add, “After all that work, I’m sure you’ll need a little… stress relief.”  

Megatron was a little embarrassed by how quickly he finished.

[nonbinarybrainstorm]

How's your weekend? Thoughts on the WFC trailer?

Hey! My weekend’s been ok. Really I’ve just been playing catch up because everything is so chaotic with the grad students striking that it’s been a bit of time trying to figure out how I can keep up with my school work. It’s also been stressful that the director essentially threatened to fire all 200 grad students if they didn’t release grades by Friday. So yeah it’s been a bit of a time.

ANYWAY WFC... (long post, undercut)

I’m honestly very excited for WFC! I do have a few things I’m not super stoked about but I’m gonna talk about what I liked first.

It’s this one moment of Optimus that made me go OOOOOO because his freaking optics dilated when Ultra Magnus said “not winning a war...” the attention to detail in their expressions is so wonderful not mention the little nicks and scratches in their armor that makes them look (for lack of a better phrase) lived in. Like they’ve actually been fighting a war. (You can clearly see deep gouges in Megatron’s armor.) The colors used in the show are a bit dark but the characters don’t feel washed out which is usually a problem from shows that try to darken the colors to show that the situation is grim. If anything, the characters pop out against the darker background.

Like, in this moment, the world around Elita is really dark and gloomy but she’s not blending in the background (and looks like a total badass). Not super stoked about Elita’s specific design because I think she could be bigger and a lil more on par with Optimus but I do appreciate that at the very least they don't make her specifically too uh “hyper-female”. Her design and many of the other designs feel more like an homage to G1 which I like a lot. The overall style of animation they use for the character models fits the stiffer blockier bodies of Transformers but they still manage to let their movements be fluid and natural.

I personally really like Chromia’s design in this series, she’s my favorite design-wise thus far. She just looks so cool and they light her beautifully especially in this shot. From what clips we see of her, it looks like she’s going to play a significant role too which is also fun.

Wheeljack!!!!!!!!

Another interesting bit that they’re doing in this show is the clear symbology that they use to better emphasize the major story elements right away.

I found the flags here really interesting. They clearly copy very similar, recognizable flag styles used right here on earth, specifically ones around Europe (yknow where christianity is a big deal hence the cross). It doesn’t specifically refer to any, one country but it does imply the idea that in this case, the Decepticons are more of a national power than just a military faction. A militaristic state if you will. This is interesting because in this case, that would make Autobots more of a kind of resistance. If this holds true that would be an interesting tweak to the normal story.

Megatron’s last supper anyone? It’s really clear that that is what this is supposed to be, if nothing else, a parody of. Megatron here is being depicted as an almost divine savior to the masses he’s talking to. Albeit the symbology has been twisted just a bit in that Megatron is on more of a throne. Also, note the “mysterious figure” who is obviously Ultra Magnus coming up to kill Megatron as a kind of Judas thus displaying that Megatron believes he’s wholly in the right and is being (betrayed) defied unjustifiably. Also yay! Skyfire! (And it’s definitely a “they’re sure standing next to each other” case with lil starscream standing right next to him, so cute) Also, Megatron’s voice is very tasty.

I mean come on it’s totally Ultra Magnus. Look at those shoulders and head dealies. Also, I know everyone is already commenting on Megatron’s dick sucking lips which is why I didn’t add that on here (Overlord had to get them from somewhere I guess) but can we appreciate Ultra Magnus’s very kissable lips in this shot? Whoever modeled him clearly loves him and wanted to make him hot as hell. (They succeeded)

Seriously, you’re not fooling anyone Ultra Magnus.

Now for a few things I’m not stoked about...

In this series at least, I don’t think we’re going to be getting much lgbt rep, especially not from the big man himself. The creators of this show seem to be big G1 fans which I can get behind but that also means they’re attached to the original narrative that Optimus and Elita were yknow in love and stuff. That can really be felt from Elita’s line “This is not the life I imagined for us” with deep and meaningful intonation that “us” clearly means the two of them and not the Autobots. 

I’m not really sure how they’d be able to balance the grim situation with the normal humor you get from og transformers without it coming off as offbeat or stilted. I’m also worried they may not try in the first place and go full grimdark which is not really the kind of show I’d want to watch. I am very interested in the drama but if it’s all darkness and without hope all the time, my little heart won’t be able to take it and it’s a real possibility that this may be the path it goes down.

It may be just me but I’m really worried about what voice they give Starscream. With how I think they’re big G1 heads, they’ll probably want a really screechy Starscream and that can go sour really fast if the voice actor tries to go over the top with it.

Endnote: Despite my worries, I am still very hopeful for all of it and I think at the very least it will be shot of nostalgia and an interesting new take on transformers. 

[shatteredglassanimated]

Shattered Glass Animated Season 1 Episode 3 - Transform and Rise Up!, Part 3

The Decepticons get to know their new allies a little more, but introductions are cut short when they discover they were not the only Cybertronians who crashed on earth and Overlord Sumdac is far from done with the Resistance...

“Failures! The whole lot of them!” Sumdac snarled, hauling his wrench at the wall next to the unfazed secretary-bot who had just reported to him. That was perhaps the only downside to having a non-human assistant, Sumdac thought. Machines might be more reliable, but they also lacked the satisfying utter fear in their eyes. They would not flinch, no matter how much his wrath flared up and that irked him. Everything he owned ought to fear him. Oh well. At least the robots were obedient. Not like that resistance-scum that had yet again managed to elude him. How they’d managed to somehow completely destroy that techno-organic abomination that some of his finest scientists had failed to contain or control was completely beside him. He’d been so sure that had them this time! So sure he had retreated to his laboratory for two days and had ordered the secretary-bot not to disturb him until his return. Clearly they’d had help. Perhaps even from the inside? Now here was something to consider. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. The high-tech weaponry, advanced enough to rival his toughest police-drones. The way his camera-bots seemed to mysteriously malfunction whenever a fight ensued between the resistance fighters and his own forces. Sumdac stroked his chin in thought. Yes, it seemed like the only logical conclusion. But who? It had to be someone high up, a human, obviously, intelligent enough to counter-engineer Sumdac-drones. Perhaps-

The comm on his desk sprang to life, interrupting his thought process. Sumdac growled and brought his fist down on the answer button, activating the small monitor. Seeing just who it was that had called him did nothing to improve his mood. A sturdy blond man with a much too eager look in his eye and a shiny badge pinned to his shirt. “What is it, Captain Fanzone?” Sumdac asked, in a tone that would have made a snow storm feel warm. “I am quite busy.” “Good morning, Overlord Sumdac,” Fanzone chattered giddily, either ignoring or not noticing his employers foul mood. “Me and the crew did a bit of clean-up in downtown, y’know, bringing back the drones that got shattered before the scavengers got to ‘em. We found a camera-bot and retrieved it’s footage - which is crispy clean, by the way. You couldn’t find a human making pictures like that in that situation! This is why I love machines-” “What did the footage show?” Sumdac interrupted, before Fanzone was able to descend into one of his unbearable gushing fits. He’d appreciated the man’s complete and utter loyalty and devotion to all things technological back when he’d hired him as his chief of police, but after soon thirty years of listening to his endless drivel, Sumdac wondered if perhaps he should have gone through with making his personal police force a hundred percent non-organic. At least robots had an off-switch. “Right, right! Well, I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t just seen it myself, to be honest I still don’t believe it. It’s amazin’, it’s groundbreakin’, it’s-” “Just send me the footage,” Sumdac groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. He felt a headache coming up. “Right away, sir!” A file popped up on his computer and Sumdac send the data over to the flat-screen facing his desk. As much as Fanzone liked to overstate, he had been right about the quality of the material the camera-bot had carried. The picture was sharp as could be. And what it showed raised Sumdac’s interest. Four gigantic robots, apparently able to transform into flying vehicles at will battled with his monster, each displaying a different set of skill and powers. The footage cut off when one of the beasts’ tentacles grabbed and crushed it in mid-air, but Sumdac had seen enough. He’d been right after all. The resistance had had help. Help from above. No wonder they had disabled his cameras. If he’d discovered their little secret earlier...although ‘little’ was perhaps not an apt descriptor for it. A sense of nostalgia overcame him as he thought back to that fateful evening fifty years ago. At that time he’d thought of his find as a once in a life-time occurrence. He wasn’t particularly angry to be proven wrong, though. Without knowing it, the resistance had possibly handed him just what he needed to sniff them out. He turned to switch on his computer, went through some files until he found what he was searching for, then contacted Fanzone again. “I am about to send you a probe of an energy signature. Do not attempt to find out what it belongs to, it is extremely rare and way over your head. You will feed it to a regiment of your police drones. And then you will dispatch them and let them search.” “So we’ve got a lead, sir?” Fanzone asked. Sumdac smirked. “Indeed we have. Tell the drones they have orders to take any robots they find and bring them to me, undamaged. And if they find any humans accompanying them, they are authorized to use lethal force.” ______________________________________________________________ A lean, great figure, raised it’s hand away from it’s head and left it’s hiding place outside the Terrordrome’s main tower to drop down onto and automated aircraft and onto the street. Transforming into a standard motorcycle and racing towards Downtown. ______________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, in an old abandoned factory on the outskirts of Detroit, the resistance in question were up to face another day. It had been a rather quiet two days since the incident and they’d gotten to know each other a little better. Currently, Amicable Archer had settled himself on Blitzwing’s shoulder and was rather enthusiastically explaining all the things that placed a bow above a regular plasma gun. The Decepticon listened and nodded politely after every second word or so, although he couldn’t for the spark of him understand what this conversation was actually about. But it was still fascinating to listen to a being that was so small and so vulnerable compared to him and his fellow ‘Cons, yet still threw himself into battle against opponents so much bigger and more lethal than himself to protect other humans. Lugnut and Cyrus were sitting side by side on an old assembly line, watching their respective partner and wishing desperately for them to break off and return. Neither of them knew how to talk to each other. Cyrus had mostly gotten over his discomfort after he realized the Decepticons were in no way associated with Sumdac, but they still unnerved him to a certain degree. So much so that he had forbidden Penny to interact with them until further notice. And although she had sulked quite a bit about his decision, she’d ultimately agreed to stay hidden in her room in their side of the factory, much to his relief. Lugnut felt much the same about the humans. He was by no means an organo-phobe, it was more that he’d never had the faintest idea what he was supposed to do with them. Most of the organic life he’d encountered in his life-cycle hadn’t really been intelligent enough to communicate in a way that he could understand and with how squishy and fragile organics were he’d always felt a mere touch with his giant metal claws was enough to make them wither away and/or break. True, this Cyrus looked a lot more put-together than his smaller companion, but still just as soft. The uncomfortable silence between them stretched out with every second, only highlighted by Archers’ and Blitzwing’s light-hearted chattering. Eventually, Cyrus gave an awkward cough and turned to Lugnut. “Umm, so. This ‘Cybertron’...is it...far away from earth?” “Very. Though without a proper star  map, I will be unable to tell you the exact distance.” “Ah. And, err...where did you guys say you came from again?” “New Kaon. It is the main capital of our colonies, a safe haven from the Autobots and their tyranny.” “Huh. Kinda like our factory’s a hideout from Overlord Sour-puss out there?” “...You could say that. Although New Kaon is much superior in size.” “I mean, if it’s supposed to host a whole bunch of you guys, I’d imagine it’d have to be.” Cyrus lifted one corner of his mouth in an uneasy smirk. Lugnut made a noise that could have been a laugh, but Cyrus couldn’t be entirely sure. The behemoths’ face wasn’t exactly what you’d call expressive. He came to the conclusion that, if Lugnut hadn’t been at least a bit amused by his comment, he’d have moved away by now and decided to leave it at that. The two of them continued to sit together in silence, though there was an air of comfort to it now. At the same time, Megatron and Blackarachnia were standing in the repair room. The techno-organic was checking the monitors showing  Starscream’s vital signs. He was still in stand-by, his condition having neither worsened nor bettered since her last check-up a few megacycles ago. Blackarachnia wasn’t sure how to feel about that. She supposed she should be glad he wasn’t going off-line at least. Megatrons was silent beside her, his optics firmly set on his second-in-command. She didn’t have the spark to tell him to leave and to be quite honest, there was no real need for her to do so either. It wasn’t like he was peeking over her shoulder non-stop. When Megatron hadn’t spend time getting to know their new human friends better, he had been in their makeshift med-bay, not saying or doing anything, just waiting for Starscream to wake up. Every time she came in, he would just mutely make room for her. The only time he had asked if she could tell him anything about his condition had been when he had entered the med-bay the morning after she had operated on Starscream to get his arm fixed on her behest. “We’ll just have to wait,” Blackarachnia had told him, trying hard to avoid his gaze by stubbornly busying herself with patching up his mangled servo. And that had been that. She finished her check on the monitor showing Starscream’s sparkbeats and ex-vented a little, turning to face Megatron. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but some time we have to discuss our next move. Particularly how we’re going to contact New Kaon.” She looked him right in the optics. “If what the humans say is to be believed, our crash-landing happened 50 of their years ago. And if my translations are correct, that means-” “We have been missing for 50 stellar cycles,” Megatron finished her sentence. There was fatigue in his voice. “I know. And you are right. Our main objective as of now should be to get in contact with our people. They need to know we haven’t perished. And that our expedition has been successful.” He ex-vented heavily, throwing one last look at Starscream and then turning towards the door. “Perhaps the humans can be of help. Their technology may not be as advanced as ours, but it has proven useful once already. If not communication, maybe we will at least be able to send a message.” Blackarachnia nodded, following him outside. When they entered the main hall they found themselves confronted by a very eager Blitzwing and not much less eager Amicable Archer standing on his shoulder. “Amicable Archer has just offered me to accompany him on one of his ‘patrols,” Blitzwing said, a wide smile on his face plate. “I feel that would help me learn more about the locals and their situation. With your permission, I would take him up on that offer.” Amicable Archer nodded. “Indeed! Methinks the metal knight would make a fine companion against Sumdac’s forces of evil.” Blackarachnia threw a cautious glance at Megatron. She knew he was usually more than capable of handling sudden requests, but it was safe to say the last few solar-cycles hadn’t really gone well for him. To her surprise, Megatron gave Blitzwing a soft smile with no trace of irritability or fatigue in it. “A good idea, Blitzwing. But do make sure to stay in contact. If this Sumdac is really as dangerous as our new friends say, he might well have something unpleasant waiting for us.” Blitzwing beamed. “I will! We will be back in about 2 megacycles.” “I doeth not know what that meaneth, but our watchful march should take no less than two hours,” Archer chimed in, putting his hands on his hips and striking a confident pose. __________________________________________________________ The two took off, Blitzwing transforming into jet mode in order to be less conspicuous. As Cyrus had told them in a rather bitter tone, drones flying their routes above Downtown wasn’t really anything special to the citizens and since everyone would be too busy keeping their head down and avoiding directly looking at whatever Sumdac aircraft was currently hovering over them, no one would notice that the jet was, in fact carrying someone. During their flight, Archer would occasionally point out places in which the resistance had fought (and won, as he never got tired to proudly proclaim) particularly tough battles against Sumdac’s forces. Ironically, the overlord’s stubborn refusal to use humans as well as robots in his newly instated police had made things a lot easier on the rebellion when it came to armed conflict. Since they weren’t in any danger of seriously harming some poor innocent sap who was forced to attack them they didn’t have to hold back and could use their bestowed weapons and abilities to their hearts’ content. As long as they made sure the civilians were evacuated first, of course. “After all, ‘tis our noble creed to protect the good people of Downtown from harm, not causeth them harm,” Archer said, crossing his arms and smiling proudly. “Funny,” Blitzwing mused. “We Decepticons have a similar ‘creed’, as you would say. We are programmed to respect and protect life at all costs. Before we came here, that usually meant the AllSpark. But you humans are life as well, which means we must protect you, too.” He paused for a second, before continuing: “Your little planet is so strange to me. You humans are so much smaller and so much more fragile than us and life has dealt you a heavy hand. Yet you just keep going and fighting the force that oppresses you, risking your life every time. It’s admirable, really.” “Oh, thou dost flatter, sir knight,” Archer chuckled, scratching the back of his head. “We doeth our best, but alas ‘tis not nearly enough to fully tame Overlord Sumdac’s forces, sadly. There art times I doth wish-” Archer suddenly interrupted himself and leaned forward to get a better look at the city passing below them. “Do I seeth smoke there?” A grey column rose in the distance before them, accompanied by a warm orange glow. “You humans have rather curious traditions,” Blitzwing said, chuckling nervously. Archer’s eyes widened. “Those arenst any traditions, friend! I knoweth these old factories, they have been shut down long ago when the tyrant Sumdac retreated the assembly of his armies into his fortress. Some of it’s old machinery musteth malfunctioned!” “But if I understand correctly, those buildings have long since been vacated. Why is it an issue if they get destroyed?” Blitzwing asked confused. “The fire couldeth take over to the city! Sumdac cares naught for the people who live here, so he will not send pawns to extinguish it in time if ever. We needeth to act!” Archer said, already fumbling for a particular arrow in his quiver. “Understood. Hang on tight, Archer.” Blitzwing turned towards the burning factory and put his thrusters to full power. Archer yelped as the sudden increase in velocity pressed him back into his seat. The two of them arrived and touched down a few meters away from the factory, Blitzwing transforming back into robot-mode as soon as the surrounding buildings hid them from sight. “Thankfully, our noble benefactor hast prepared me for this kind of calamity,” Archer beamed. He raised his hand to pull down a gas mask from a hidden pocket in his hat. The two took off into the fire. Blitzwing lowered his cannons, shooting ice beams into the highest fire walls. Ice crystals solidified in the spots the beams hit, suffocating the fire nigh instantly. Archer aimed arrows at the flames at his partner’s blind side, the tips of the projectiles releasing fire extinguishing foam upon exploding. In less than half an hour the fire was mostly under control, though Archer insisted on checking for any smaller flames they might have missed. They went deeper into the empty building, Archer lighting the way with yet another arrow. The ash and grime on the walls seemed to swallow the light as it hit them. The slowly melting ice created a steady background dripping. After the crackling and roaring of flames only a short time prior this place now seemed entirely too quiet. Archer had never liked places that were too quiet. It reminded him of... Cutting the memory off before it could fully form, Archer cleared his throat and stopped to turn to Blitzwing. “Well, it seemeth our work here is done. Shall we-” A quiet noise coming from the darkness interrupted him. It was a quiet, high-pitched sob, echoing from the high walls in an eerie manner. Blitzwing frowned. “It sounds like someone’s vocalizer is malfunctioning. Quite badly, in fact.” “We calleth that ‘crying’,” Archer said, slowly following the noise. “‘Tis a sign of distress and sadness among us humans. Though our youngest ones also often useth it to obtain things they doeth desire.” Not sure he entirely understood, Blitzwing followed the human. The light of the glowing arrow came upon a small human boy, curled up in the middle of the factory’s hall. His head was buried in his hands and he didn’t seem to have noticed them yet. Archer smiled warmly and approached the boy, extending a hand towards him. “Now what is a young one like you doing in a dismal place such as this? Didst thou get lost?” Blitzwing narrowed his optics. Something seemed off about this small organic. Archer had told him that humans were very susceptible to smoke and heat, to the point where it was impossible for them to function in an environment that had both aplenty. How had this little one be able to survive in here this long? And then the boy raised his head. It was only for a split-second and an organic eye wouldn’t have been able to catch it, but for a Cybertronians advanced optic it was visible enough. A flicker, like on a faulty monitor. Blitzwing’s optics widened. He jumped forward, servos closing around Archer’s body, just before an ear-shattering explosion blasted out the factory’s windows. ___________________________________________________________ Cyrus hated waiting. Especially if he had to wait alone. Sitting down and smelling the roses had never been his thing, not since Overlord Sumdac’s machines had overrun the city. Not that there had been many roses to smell after that. Aaron and Blitzwing had been gone for far too long for his liking now. And judging by the uneasy way Lugnut shifted beside him, he wasn’t the only one to think so. “Cyrus, was it not?” The voice startled him out of his thoughts and he jumped, looking upwards to meet Megatron’s worried blue....eyes? Lights? He wasn’t sure what they called it. It took him awhile to process what had been said to him. “Er, yeah. Yeah, that’s me.” “I do not mean to offend, but your human companion and Blitzwing have been gone for quite a while now. This patrol of yours, how long does it usually take?” Cyrus frowned. “Not that long actually. And seeing as they were doing it from a bird’s eye view it should’ve taken even less time today.” “I see,” Megatron answered. He seemed about as unsettled by this answer as Cyrus was. “Hey, um...you said you can stay in contact with each other, right?” Cyrus asked. Megatron nodded. “Maybe you should, y’know...contact him? Blitzwing? Just to be safe, I mean.” A penetrative beeping noise sprang up from Cyrus’ belt, making hism jump for the second time. “Sounds like somebody needs a check-up,” Blackarachnia pointed out. Cyrus looked down at the source of the noise, a small round device with a sleek white surface, his frown deepening. “No, that’s a distress signal. Archer, me and Pe- everyone else in the resistance has one of these communicators. We use it to call out to each other when we’re in a pinch.” He took the deice of the belt and tapped a button. “You okay, Archer? We’re all kind of starting to worry over here.” “As you should,” a metallic sounding voice responded. Megatron, Blackarachnia and Lugnut tensed up at hearing it, Blackarachnia even hissing slightly. “I must say, I never would have thought organics capable of constructing such a neat little communication device. It is remarkable primitive, but for your kind even that can be considered impressive.” Cyrus’ hand tightened around the communicator. “Who are you? What did you do with Archer?” “Nothing. Yet. And as for who I am...I am sure your new ‘allies’ can tell you more about that. We have met once before, after all,” the voice responded. Cyrus felt like he could hear the smug grin of its’ owner. He grit his teeth. “What do you want?” “First of all, I want to make sure that this is heard by the rest of the Decepticon-scum. Are they present?” “We are all here, Autobot,” Megatron answered, spitting out the word ‘Autobot’ like an insult. “I assume Blitzwing is with you as well?” “And you’d assume right,” the voice chuckled. “He is a bit worse for wear, but he’ll live...probably. Since you already deduced who I am, I will skip the introductions and get straight to the point. I know you are in possession of the AllSpark. And if you want your comrade and your precious little organic pet back, you will give it to me.” Megatron glared at the communicator in Cyrus’ hand. “We will need time to think about your offer. Give us a megacycle to debate.” “Stalling won’t help you, Decepticon-scum,” the voice spat. “But if you insist on wasting your friends’ time, you shall have your megacycle. And when it has passed, I expect to see you at these coordinates, with the AllSpark.” A light in the device flickered and it went out. Cyrus pressed another button on the surface, hurrying over to a control panel attached to a monitor and connecting the communicator with it. The screen flared to life, showing a map of Downtown with a small red dot flaring up to mark a specific spot. “I know that place,” Cyrus said, leaning forward. “It’s one of the abandoned factories on the other side of the city.” He turned back to the Decepticons, face hard. “If we hurry, we can make it there in under half an hour. We have to leave, now.” “Cyrus, it is not that simple,” Megatron said calmly. “We cannot rush into this without thinking. If this Autobot gets the AllSpark into his servos, this entire planet will be at risk.” “You’re not seriously suggesting that we’re refusing, are you?” Blackarachnia asked incredulously. “He’s got Blitzwing! And who knows what he’ll do to that human!” “Yeah, what she said!” Cyrus spoke up. “I’m not leaving Aaron with some crazy alien murder machine! I thought you Decepticons were the good guys and now you’re actually considering letting two hostages get who knows what done to them?” “You are both far too emotional.” Lugnut had stood up from his place on the assembly line and was now glaring at both Cyrus and Blackarachnia. “For once, I agree with Megatron. Handing the AllSpark over to the Autobot Empire is certain death. Two lives are not worth the prize of billions.” “So that’s it?” Blackarachnia asked, narrowing her optics at him. “We just let Blitzwing and the human die?” “We all must make sacrifices for the greater good,” Lugnut said gravely. “Do you think this is easy for me, Blackarachnia?” “I don’t know,” she hissed. “Isn’t it?” “Enough, both of you,” Megatron cut her off. “This is no time to argue amongst ourselves. Lugnut, I agree that the AllSpark must be kept from the wrong servos at all costs.” The big Decepticon straightened himself and opened his mouth to say something, but Megatron wasn’t finished. “However, I also share Blackarachnia’s feelings on the matter. We have already almost lost a fellow Decepticon yesterday. I do not wish to experience that again. Neither should an innocent human become victim of our wars.” Megatron turned and walked over to Cyrus, kneeling down in front of him. “Cyrus. You have stated that you know the place the Autobot has chosen for the exchange. Do you know it well enough to show one of us the ways around and inside it?” Cyrus nodded. “Yes, I think so. Aaron and I used to scout out these buildings regularly, in case we needed another hideout.” “Good,” Megatron said. “Then I would ask you to help us to prepare a nasty little surprise for our Autobot-friend. Though I must warn you, it won’t be without risk.” “Eh, what else is new?” Cyrus answered, giving a grin. “If it’ll knock that kidnapper down a few pegs, count me in!” Megatron smirked. “Oh, I should hope that it does. Here is what I need you to do...” ______________________________________________________________ Hothead rebooted to a a voice frantically calling Blitzwing’s name. In his processor he identified it as belonging to the organic who called himself Amicable Archer and whom Blitzwing had, apparently successfully, tried to protect from a booby trapped hologram. He groaned in annoyance, forcing the rest of his systems to reboot so he could access the situation and more importantly get Archer to stop yelling at him. His optical sensors reactivated slowly and he lifted his helm to see Archer standing on his chest, only a few centimeters away from his face-plate. Hothead quickly scanned the human’s body for any damage. Aside from a few tears in his costume and some grime on his face, Archer seemed unharmed. “Will you stop yelling at me, human?” Hothead snapped, still only half rebooted vocalizer making his voice sound hoarse. “My audials are functioning quite nicely.” Archer blinked in confusion and took a few steps backwards, but then shook his head as if recovering from some kind of stupor. “My apologies, friend. Thou seemeth to be rendered unconscious from that explosion and with the way the ghastly shadow knight treated thou, I wasnth sure you wouldeth make it.” He paused for a moment, as if uncertain about what to say next. “I couldeth not stop noticing that thine visage seemeth to have changed, along with thine manner of speech and demeanor. Artst thou truly not hurt?” Hothead ex-vented slightly. “No, I am alright. It is a long story. I am not the Blitzwing you know.. Let us leave it at that for now.” Suddenly remembering Archer’s earlier words, he frowned. “Who did you mean by ghastly knight? What-?” He tried to sit up and found that he couldn’t move his arms. A hastly look downward, revealed that someone had wound a thick metal cable tightly around his upper body, pinning his arms to his sides and keeping his cannons from lowering. Archer looked at him miserably. “I tried to stop him, but he tooketh my weapons and threatened to hurt thee.” “Not that he would have been able to stop me even with them. But I wanted to stay on the safe side. You never know with organics.” Hothead and Archer turned their head towards the source of the voice. A slender-looking Autobot with white armor-plating and a red triangular visor covering both of his optics was leaning on against the opposite wall with his servos crossed, giving a smug smirk. “I see you’ve finally decided to join us.” Hothead growled, trying to break his bonds. “You! I remember you, you cowardish, puny Autobot! Release me at once!” The Autobot chuckled. “So you can slag me like you almost did last time? I think not. And I’d advise you to behave.” He lowered his helm, so his line of sight now aligned with Archer. “You wouldn’t want anything to happen to the organic, would you?” “Touch him and you’ll burn, Autobot!” Hothead snarled. “Always so barbaric. You Decepticon-scum really are just mindless war machines,” the Autobot ex-vented in mock disappointment. “The only thing your kind is good for is destruction. Yet here you are, pretending like you’re actually capable of protecting anything.” Hothead flinched and grit his denta, lowering his helm. “Thou art wrong!” Both Hothead and the Autobot turned to look at Archer in surprise, who had lifted himself up to his full height and was now glaring at the Autobot. “Mine companion mayeth possess fearsome battle prowess, but that doeseth not make him less of a knight! He didst protect me from thy nefarious trap after all, didst he not?” For a moment, neither of the two Cybertronians said a word. Then the Autobot laughed. “You’ve certainly trained him well! If he was a little bigger he’d probably be easier to take seriously too, don’t you think?” Before Hothead could answer, the Autobot raised his helm as if listening for something, then put a digit to his auidal and smirked. “I’d love to stay and chat, but it looks like your friends just arrived with my AllSpark.” He walked out of the room, pressing a button on the other side of the entrance. A metal door slowly closed on cue. The Autobot grinned at them before it closed fully. “Don’t go anywhere.” _______________________________________________________ Megatron and Blackarachnia made their way into the burnt out building, carrying the AllSpark between them. Blackarachnia grimaced at the heavy smoke-smell in the air. It wasn’t bad enough to have a negative impact on her organic half but still strong enough to make her a bit uncomfortable. “Are you alright, Blackarachnia?” Megatron asked, giving her a worried look. “I can carry the AllSpark by myself, if you feel unwell.” Blackarachnia shook her helm. “I’m good. We should focus on getting Blitzwing and Archer back.” They stopped in the center of the hall, carefully lowering their cargo to the ground. “I see you’ve used your time well.” Blackarachnia and Megatron whirled around, taking defensive positions. Behind them stood an Autobot, servos crossed and an extremely smug expression on his face plate. Blackarachnia’s optics widened. “I know him! He was one of the ‘bots who boarded the ‘Nemesis’.” The Autobot laughed. “So you remember me? I’m flattered.” “I remember you getting your sorry soulanoid kicked by us,” Blackarachnia sneered. “Figures a spineless wimp like you would result to taking hostages.” The Autobot gave a derisive huff and put a hand on his hip, looking both of them over. “The name is Prowl. Though after this is over I won’t stay here long enough to get more acquainted.” His visor set itself on the AllSpark. “Leave it here and retreat.” “I think not, Autobot,” Megatron said coolly, stepping forward and drawing his sword. “Let us see the hostages first.” Prowl gave him an irritated look. “You will see them once I have the AllSpark. Now step away.” Instead of answering, Megatron gestured Blackarachnia to step aside, raising his sword over the AllSpark. “I do not like to repeat myself, Prowl. Release the hostages or I will destroy the AllSpark.” Prowl stiffened. “You wouldn’t dare.” “Wouldn’t I?” Megatron responded coldly, returning Prowl’s glare with steady optics. The Autobot hesitated, standing in place. Time seemed to stand still as the three Cybertronians stood off against each other, trying to figure out the enemy’s next move. _________________________________________________________ “Are you certain this is the right place?” Lugnut asked, optic trained on the wall in front of him. Cyrus was currently feeling said wall with both of his hands, teeth grit in frustration. “Give me a break, I haven’t been here in weeks! Ah, there we go.” He peeled off a part of the wall, revealing a hidden panel and pressed one of the buttons. Cyrus stepped back and watched nervously as the seemingly solid steel folded in on itself to form an entrance about Lugnut’s size. “Gotta be honest with you, I had no idea if this old  delivery gate even still worked. We found it some time during our second or third visit here and noted it as a possible emergency exit, if we ever decided to camp here. Guess I’m glad we didn’t now.” They entered the building together, treading carefully. After a while, Lugnut suddenly grabbed Cyrus carefully with his claw, making him yelp in surprise and placed him on his shoulder. “It is dark in here. I do not wish to step on you by accident,”he stated, when Cyrus gave him a confused look. “Er..thanks.” Cyrus stood up and balanced himself on the side of Lugnut’s helm. “Though maybe give a little warning next time.” Lugnut nodded. “Understood.” They made their way through the halls, Lugnut’s searchlights showing them the way. “Pick anything up yet?” Cyrus asked, stretching to look ahead into the darkness. “A faint Decepticon-signal, but it is dampened. Blitzwing must be damaged to some capacity.” Lugnut’s optic shrunk, an expression Cyrus had learned to identify as his version of a scowl. “The Autobot-filth will regret this.” “I hear ya,” Cyrus growled. “Still got a bone to pick with that guy for kidnapping Aaron.” Lugnut and Cyrus followed the signal until they came to a locked heavy metal door, not unlike the hidden one Cyrus had used to get them in. “The signal is clearest here,” Lugnut said, eyeing the door up and down. “They must be close.” “Great! Put me down, so I can-” Before Cyrus had the chance to finish his sentence, Lugnut retracted his right arm and rammed it into the door full-force. A loud crash, amplified by the echo of the empty hallway rung through the air. ______________________________________________________________ As soon as the sound reached the hall, Prowl whirled around. “What the-?” Blackarachnia lunged for him before he could run - only for her servos to close around nothing as the hologram of Prowl disappeared into thin air. She caught herself, cursing. “Slag! Of course he’d use that trick again.” “That was a mistake, Decepticon,” Prowl’s voice came from the shadows around them, impossible to pin down. “Your friends will not appreciate this.” Blackarachnia and Megatron positioned themselves back to back, searching the darkness for some hint of their opponent. “He has us pinned,” Megatron said through grit denta. “If we move he will either attack or flee without us even seeing him.” “Yeah, he- wait, seeing?” Blackarachnia’s optics widened. “That’s it! How was he able to react us in exactly the right way, if he was never really here? He has to have been close by. It was the same on the ‘Nemesis’! He attacked Lugnut right after his hologram was destroyed, as if he was just a few steps away.” She turned her helm to Megatron. “Fire your cannon about a few mechanometers to the right!” Megatron raised his free arm and fired at the spot she had pointed out. A startled yell came from the area the shot had hit and a heavy ‘clunk!’ filled the hall. The Decepticons turned, Megatron aiming his searchlight towards the sound. Prowl lay on the floor, glaring up at them and holding his left servo. It was almost entirely shot off, only a fracture of a base skeleton and a few sparking cables remaining. “You’ll regret this,” he growled, pushing himself to his pedes and taking a shaky step towards them. Before either of the three could do anything further, the door behind him was blown open, shrouding the room in smoke. When it cleared again, Lugnut stepped into the room, Cyrus and Archer riding on his right shoulder, while he supported a limping Hothead on his left. “Where is that  Autobot-filth?” Hothead shouted, trying and failing to push himself away from Lugnut and stand on his own servos. “I will incinerate him! Let me go!” “Thou art barely able to stand, friend,” Archer chuckled. “Perhaps thy vengeance can waiteth until a time thou art well again?” “Listen to the human, Hothead,” Lugnut said. Hothead growled, but he stopped struggling. “Hey guys,” Cyrus called to Blackarachnia and Megatron. “Where is that Autobot?” Megatron looked around, frowning. “It appears he has gotten away.” “And he didn’t exactly leave us with good wishes,” Blackarachnia added grimly. “We should go after him.” Megatron thought for a moment, then shook his helm. “We should get Blitzwing and the AllSpark to safety first. The Autobot was hurt. He will not come far.” After gathering up the AllSpark and Blackarachnia doing a quick patching up of Hothead’s wounds, the group took off in vehicle mode, Cyrus and Blackarachnia riding on Lugnut, while Archer remained with Hothead. When they arrived back at the resistance’s base, they were greeted by a bust-in entrance. Rubble from the door was strewn about and destroyed Sumdac-drones littered the area. “What the spark happened here?” Blackarachnia exclaimed. “Oh nothing to worry about really,” a familiar voice answered her. Megatron perked up upon hearing it, hope and joy filling his optics. Could it be-? It was. Starscream stepped out from the base’s entrance, smiling. “It is good to see you all again. Though we did have everything under control.” He turned his helm and raised his hand to give a (very gentle and disproportionate) high-five to a small girl with short pink hair who had made herself comfortable on his shoulder plate. “Hi Cyrus, hi Aaron,” she beamed, waving a wand-like object with a glowing tip at the two other humans. “I made a new friend!” _________________________________________________________ Prowl dragged himself through the empty narrow side streets, flinching every time his ripped off arm emitted a spark. This solar cycle had not gone at all like he imagined. As if waking up on this primitive planet wasn’t bad enough, that disgusting techno-organic had actually managed to see through his technique and now he would have to spend precious time to find a repair shop. At least things couldn’t possibly get any worse. A metallic noise sounded to his right and he turned his helm. A large assembly of drones, a sinister-looking ‘S’ engraved on their torsos stood there. “Energy signature match,” they chanted in unison. “Retrieve subject. Return to base. Retrieve subject. Return to base. Retrieve-”

[captaincharpen]

Movie Optimus and Megatron are actually really deep guys, seriously

You know what, screw it, I’m dropping all of my thoughts on why I think Bayverse Optimus and Megatron are tragically underrated here. So buckle up kids, here we go

So everyone seems to think that the Optimus Prime and Megatron of Michael Bay’s movie series are either terribly shallow husks of their classic characterizations at best, or atrocious bastardizations of sacred childhood icons at worst.

However I, an intellectual, have unwisely spent several hours of my life poring over every detail of them to come to the conclusion that there’s actually a lot going on with them. So I’m going to drag you, kicking and screaming, into my head and break down exactly what makes these two tick. Starting with Megatron.

Now most people see this guy and think “generic movie bad guy. Makes evil plan, screws up evil plan, slinks away to return in sequel with a more messed up face”. But this Megatron actually has so much going on for him that I think he could almost be seen as a would-be hero in his own way.

While starting a war that effectively killed his planet does dock him quite a few sympathy points, one thing that can’t be denied is that he truly cared about Cybertron when all’s said and done.

While his plots to destroy Earth to restore Cybertron can easily come off as bog-standard bad guy scheming, looking at it from his perspective, he’s fought for centuries to reform his home for, what he thinks, is the greater good. And now that he’s done so much damage to it for that goal, he’s determined to fix it, no matter what it takes.

That’s why he risked stranding himself on an alien planet to find the Allspark when, arguably, it would’ve been easier to simply press on with the war he was winning and find another planet to colonize when the dust settled. It’s also why, no matter how many times he’s left for dead or forced to work with people who’s ideals he’d normally hate, he still chases every chance to restore life to Cybertron anyway. Because that genuinely is the most important thing to him, and he’s perfectly willing to give his life as many times as necessary to save it

And even though his negligence of human life seems terrible from our perspective, in his eyes it’s a necessary evil to sacrifice a bunch of tiny aliens to finally bring his home back from the brink of a death that he’s effectively responsible for. Of course that doesn’t make it okay, but it’s not like he’s a cackling villain who wants to screw over humanity for fun. From his perspective, Optimus abandoned the planet they’d waged thousands of years of war over for the sake of some random alien planet he decided he liked better. And the thing is, he’s kind of right

The Optimus Prime of the movies is usually seen as either a noble, if bland, hero or a psychotic maniac who’s prone to chronic bloodlust. But honestly, he can be, and very much is, a little bit of both

So it’s obvious that this Optimus is a little cracked in the head, and it’s hard to see how he could NOT be after having his figurative and/or literal brother turn on him and failing to stop him from nearly destroying their homeworld and killing millions of people, all of whom Optimus was responsible for protecting. Not to mention being forced to willingly seal his planet’s fate by throwing the Allspark, the one thing that could save it, into the far reaches of who-knows-where.

And through all of this, he HAS to maintain a stoic, optimistic appearance. He can’t show any doubt, hesitation, grief, or even the effects of the general stress of the job, because he’s the one pillar holding up what’s left of the Autobots. They’ve lost literally everything else, and if their perfect leader who’ll get them through any crisis were to ever show that he’s vulnerable, the last thing they could really believe in would effectively be shattered.

So instead he dedicates himself to an, admittedly very unhealthy, black-and-white view of “Autobots and humans good, Decepticons bad”. He’s tried pleading, negotiating and showing mercy to the Decepticons and it got his planet nearly destroyed and him and his loyal friends stranded light-years away. So he’s essentially lost faith in himself and allowed himself to go further than he ever would otherwise just to see an end to the Decepticons for good

I think the best character to compare him to would be, believe it or not, Batman. No matter how far he goes, he’ll always hold onto his one rule. And for Optimus, that “one rule” is humanity. He clearly sees humanity as a reflection of what the Cybertronians used to be and as a result, projects his guilt over his failures and desire to see Cybertron start over, and do things right this time, onto them.

When he makes the decision to sacrifice himself and the Allspark to save Earth from Megatron, it’s arguable that he was effectively running away from what he sees as his failed legacy and giving a new chance to humanity in its place. Now obviously that’s an incredibly short-sighted idea, which even Sam could see, but by that point Optimus had effectively given up on Cybertron and adopted Earth as his “new Cybertron”. In his final speech at the end of the first movie, he seems incredibly dismissive of the loss of Cybertron and seems totally fine to just chill on Earth forever.

And no matter how many times the Decepticons uncover new ways to fix Cybertron, at the expense of the humans, he immediately shoots them down, while never trying to find a more mutually beneficial solution of his own. Even when the cracks start to show in the Autobots’ alliance with the humans and his own mentor and father figure seemingly comes back from the dead to tell him he’s given up on Cybertron, he still gives an optimistic speech at the end of DOTM and says that he’ll never turn his back on humanity. Even after seeing his old world right in from of him, he seems to feel no affinity for it anymore.

That is, until he has his mid-life crisis after the soft reboot of the last two movies. Humanity outright betrays him, almost all of the last of his loyal followers and friends are dead because of it, he could’ve seen the obvious signs of this coming, but he didn’t.

He decides to break his one rule and kill whoever’s responsible for all of it, but still clings onto his black-and-white defense mechanism of convincing himself that this one human is the SOLE instigator of their betrayal, as he’s still unwilling to admit that his new favorite aliens could be just as terrible as his own people can. And when he does finally kill him it’s only when his new human friend would die if he didn’t act immediately.

But once that line was finally crossed, he hits rock bottom. Sure, he goes back on his threat to abandon Earth and commands his Autobots to protect yet another special human friend, essentially falling back on his old ways of having maybe a little too much faith in humans. But once he leaves to find his creators, to “find himself” essentially. He’s forced to confront his failures yet again, this time in front of someone claiming to be his creator and, by extension, the supposed authority on what he should and shouldn’t be. And, in his vulnerable state, he allows himself to become corrupted into “Nemesis Prime”.

Now one could argue this was just simple brainwashing, but I could argue, have you SEEN this Prime? This is essentially what he’s like all the time, only now he’s stripped of the tenuous limits he’s placed on himself. In keeping with the Batman comparison, he’s “lived long enough to see himself become the villain”.

But the thing that brings him back from the brink isn’t one of his precious humans, it’s the voice of the one Autobot who stuck by his side all this time and is still there believing in him even at his worst. When he’s finally reminded of what he’s really fighting for, the Autobots who pledged their loyalty to him, knowing that he could lead them to victory, his faith in himself is restored. Maybe not completely yet, but he’s remembered that the awe inspiring leader that his Autobots see isn’t just a facade. Which is why his “did you forget who I am” scene is one of the most underrated badass moments in the entire movie series. Even without my painstaking overanalysis in your head to back it up.

And with that, I think I’ve rambled long enough that your brain has been reduced to a fine paste, so if you’ve really soldiered on this far, total props to you on that and I appreciate you caring this much about my mad rambling. Obviously, I’ve romanticized both characters here quite a bit, but I kind of had to for the sake of the argument. In practice, both of them are unstable, single-minded and admittedly kind of selfish. But I just wanted to point out that both of them have their own reasons for being the way they are, that could have easily gone deeper and made them into truly iconic takes on these characters if the movies had only run with the concepts they set up.

And so my only solution was to amend that with a hastily slapped together essay on my Tumblr blog that nobody reads. Anyway thank you for coming to my TED talk

[afterspark-podcast]

G1 Episode 39: Transcript

[This can also be found on AO3!]

[Stinger]

S: I didn't say it was calming. It's just, like, whale noises didn't work. 

O: [Laughter]

[Intro Music] 

O: Hello and welcome to the Afterspark Podcast, an episode by episode recap of the Generation 1 Transformers cartoon. I'm Owls.

S: And I'm Specs.

O: And today we're going to be talking about episode number 39: The God Gambit. Let's talk about giant robots today, shall we?

S: Yep.

O: And today IN SPACE!!!

S: Aliens. Multicolored aliens, even. 

O: One group of aliens seems to be controlling a giant idol- I mean, a god??? 

S: It looks pretty rocky. The high priest yells at a twink as other not priest-like aliens offer their harvest offerings to the so-called god.

O: We see a stylishly dressed pink lady running around behind the scenes, spying on the shenanigans before she and her diverse cadre destroy the giant stone god.

S: Apparently to join this group you must be either: a woman or ‘mustache’ some extremely fancy facial hair.

O: Those aliens had magnificent mustaches.

S: Yes, yes they did. The pink lady yells at the high priest for being a dick.

O: I like her already but then again I like most women who look like they can yeet me into the sun.

S: Oh, and she very much looks like she could do that to like everyone she comes across.

O: Pretty much. Probably not the giant robots but that's a sheer size thing not because I don't believe in her power.

S: Yep. You know, I almost like the high priest’s ceremonial robes but he apparently likes the breeze because there's very little leg coverage.

O: It is all business at the top and party on the bottom. 

S: The high priest, whose name is Jero, rants about punishment from ‘sky gods’ to Talaria who is our badass pink lady.

O: But Talaria tells him, “There are no ‘sky gods’!” Oh my, I wonder how giant transforming robots from the sky are going to come into this?

S: Hint, hint. Now about those giant robots.

O: Cosmos is flying around in space, running away from Decepticons, evading laser beams. He calls the Ark.

S: No one's manning the computer- no, wait, they run in from screen left.

O: I really do think they would just have somebody who would stay there and keep an eye on things but no. Prime, Jazz, Perceptor, and Red Alert all run in and answer his coms.

S: We see Astrotrain is the one pursuing Cosmos.

O: Oh! A carryover from the last episode, perhaps? 

S: That would be a very rare instance of inter-episode continuity.

O: Probably not that, then.

S: Apparently the Cons are trying to get data from Cosmos, so Prime tells them to transmit the data but Red Alert stops them. 

O: Red Alert is the only one here considering cyber security.

S: Well, very fitting considering his job.

O: Makes sense. Thrust and Starscream are sitting shotgun in Astrotrain and overhear the Autobots’ transmissions.

S: Immediately proving Red Alerts fears absolutely correct because apparently Astrotrain can just tune in onto the Autobot comm signal with, uh, no problem whatsoever. And Thrust either cares about his comrade's well-being or has a healthy dose of self-preservation as he expresses some concern about Astrotrains’ dwindling energy levels. But Astrotrain says ‘fuck that’ and continues to shoot after Cosmos.

O: You know, considering Ramjet in the previous episode, are the Coneheads just a lot nicer than I gave them credit for?

S: Maybe? Maybe, maybe. Astrotrain manages to hit Cosmos and poor Cosmos bounces off an asteroid before hitting the planet that was in our episode opening. 

O: So, turns out that isn't a planet- it's one of Saturn's moons: Titan! Courtesy of the TFWiki, it seems like, uh, Titan having life on it wasn't too far out during the time frame [the episode was made in] considering it has a substantial atmosphere and it became somewhat prevalent in popular culture due to the Voyager spacecraft sending back a decent amount of data on it a few years earlier.

S: Fascinating!

O: The more you know. 

S: A bunch of aliens are sitting around outside as Talaria espouses that the ‘sky gods’ aren't real.

O: The high priests are all tied up, too, so she's clearly gotten shit done in the meantime.

S: Yep and in an unfortunate coincidence Talaria points at the sky and says, “Show me a ‘sky god,’” just as Cosmos is, ah, crash landing.

O: Jero's a dick about this, of course.

S: He knows when to take his opportunities with both hands and run with them. We cut to the Decepticons landing in front of the giant temple containing the idol from before. 

O: Starscream claps his hands together and goes, “Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the door, where's all the people?” Where the fuck did he learn this and why?? 

S: Oh, obviously they learned at the same time that they learned what a guinea pig was.

O: I love how proud of himself he looks here, too. I also feel like this lends credence to our toss away comment about Starscream actually making an attempt to learn something about Earth culture, which is super weird. 

S: It's Starscream, man.

O: He does what he wants.

S: Yup-

O: Which includes learning children's nursery rhymes or whatever the hell you want to call that.

S: Astrotrain tells Starscream to stop ranting.

O: Thrust points to the smoke in the distance as to where the people probably are.

S: Or where Cosmos might be, at least. 

O: The high priest who has been untied, of course, he proclaims: “Behold! A sky god!” over Cosmos' prone body.

S: This man is going to take what he's given and run with it. A true con artist. 

O: The other aliens, aside from Talaria, fall down in worship. 

S: She must be so done with everything.

O: I would be so done with everything. 

S: Astrotrain’s like, “Hey, they worship Transformers! I'll just tell them I'm in charge.” 

O: Starscream, unsurprisingly, does not like this plan.

S: He wants to be the boss.

O: Starscream never gets to be the boss.

S: Well, he always declares himself the boss and then he gets demoted right, like, immediately. 

O: This is why you should stop saying you're the boss while Megatron is still alive.

S: Yep. Astrotrain promptly goes for strangulation and then Starscream is just, like, “Okay, okay.”

O: That that'll usually do’er. Uh, Jero tells Talaria to bow down just as Astrotrain drives through the trees in train mode.

S: Choo-choo-cachoo?

O: Astrotrain then transforms and proclaims himself as the mightiest of the gods. 

S: Astrotrain has the other two carry Cosmos into the temple saying, “Prop up that hunk of junk over there.” 

O: Why does Cosmos just keep getting regulated to junk?

S: Because he's small, round, and full of love.

O: All the things Astrotrain hates. 

S: Yeah, Starscream whines about, “Why do they have to listen to Astrotrain?”

O: To which Thrust replies, “Because he'll vaporize us if we don't.” I'm serious, I'm really loving the Coneheads on this watch through. They're way more competent than I gave them credit for.

S: Yeah, well they care about not dying.

O: Which, honestly, counts for a lot in the show. 

S: Yeah, yeah. Astrotrain props Cosmos up as an idol for the people to worship and grabs the energy data off of him. 

O: He then sits there and talks really loudly about how if Cosmos could only reconnect one wire he'd be able to call for help. Thankfully, Talaria overhears this. 

S: Thrust points out that Astrotrain burned up most of his fuel chasing Cosmos and they had better call Megatron, you know, for help.

O: Astrotrain’s, like, “No! Not until I crack Cosmos's code!”

S: ‘I want to be king of this mud ball!’

O: Uh, he's going to be king of something. They walk off and Talaria does the smart thing and reconnects Cosmos's wire, allowing Optimus to communicate with her and activate Cosmos's signal beacon so, basically, the Autobots can find him.

S: Starscream shoots at her and then we cut to a commercial.

O: Starscream misses and, thankfully, Cosmos wakes up and shoots him, allowing Talaria to escape.

S: Astrotrain then shoots Cosmos and poor Cosmos collapses again.

O: He's taken a lot of abuse in this episode. On Earth, Perceptor and Jazz volunteer to go with Omega Supreme to save Cosmos. 

S: Unfortunately, once they get there Omega will not be able to transform and help them.

O: By- due to lack of energy, basically, he's not going to have enough energy to get there and back.

S: Mm-hmm. And back on the alien planet [Titan] Jero leads the Cons to the fire god's lair.

O: Which consists of giant ass crystals that are apparently full of energy. Like most giant crystal things in this show. 

S: One of Jero's followers is like, “Aaah! This is taboo,” Jero's like, “God's gonna do what a god's gonna do, who cares about your taboos?”

O: And Astrotrain wants energy.

S: Yep, never mind that it's the sort of energy that makes things go boom.

O: Hey, I mean, they are what they are. They are a chaotic explosive uh, faction. The Autobots arrive just as Omega runs out of energy and they crash land. 

S: They decide that they need Cosmos to move the poor crash-landed Omega and Jazz tells him to, “not move,” and Omega replies, “Sarcasm not appreciated.”

O: [laughter] Be careful there, buddy, you're making a joke and after the other two walk off the cliff they were on partially collapses leaving Omega balanced precariously on just the teeniest, tiniest bit of rock.

S: “Situation critical.” And frankly, Mr. Omega, that is an understatement. 

O: Yes, it is. In the cave, the Cons are now forcing the aliens to harvest the giant crystals for them.

S: Starscream confirms that they are quite unstable. 

O: Yeah but- I'm shocked, shocked to tell you, shocked.

S: Jazz and Perceptor are walking around outside when Talaria shoots arrows at them and then Jazz asks her to, “Hey, calm down,” and Talaria leads them to Cosmos-

O: While riding-

S: With a bit of explanation.

O: While riding on Jazz's shoulder, no less.

S: She has the best seat in the house.

O: She does, Jazz is a delight.

S: The Cons walk in on Jazz and Perceptor seeing to Cosmos and cue a firefight with a bunch of explosive crystals.

O: Like a sane person, Thrust wants backup.

S: Yep, but Starscream tells him to stand and fight because if Thrust doesn't then Starscream doesn't have anyone to stand behind.

O: Pretty much and it's Porche and rock versus warplane, as Jazz chucks the rock at Starscream, making him fall to the ground. 

S: [Sighs] Starscream yells for help but Thrust runs out and tells Astrotrain.

O: Astrotrain then has does the humans [aliens] shoot crystals at Jazz.

S: They've got them on the ends of, um, arrows. They're using them as arrowheads, I think. The aliens pull out a catapult and begin shooting huge chunks of crystals at Jazz and Perceptor, blasting them into a crevice.

O: Astrotrain captures Talaria and we cut to another commercial, you know, because a woman is in mortal peril and if we have an episode with a woman this is required.

S: We need all that suspense. Thrust, again, calls for common sense as he and Starscream fly over looking for the Autobots but Starscream laughs this off.

O: Naturally, Jazz and Perceptor are fine.

S: Back with the aliens, Astrotrain and Jero continue to be dicks. 

O: And then back to Jazz and Perceptor, because we can't focus for more than three seconds in this episode.

S: They don't have time to have to do all of this stuff in 23 minutes.

O: Of course. The two enter the cave with all the crystals. Perceptor examines them and realizes they're unstable crystallized energy. Jazz then bangs on one with a rock for some reason.

S: I think he might want a sample? 

O: Well, thankfully, Perceptor stops him before any explosions can happen.

S: Yeah. Meanwhile some of the natives are realizing their religion is a lie and confront Jazz.

O: Jazz is like, “We ain’t gods!” 

S: The aliens inform them that Talaria is about to be sacrificed so off Jazz goes to save her and he tells Perceptor to go refuel Omega with the crystals.

O: Which apparently don't need to be refined or anything.

S: Yeah, we just see Perceptor running through the forest with a bag of crystals.

O: Where did he even get a bag? 

S: Subspace? Maybe the aliens had something that he borrowed?

O: Maybe.

S: The natives- he finds Omega in his precarious situation and Perceptor tries to reach him by Indiana Jones-ing some shit. 

O: Back in the temple, Talaria is being tied up just as Jazz pops out of the floor.

S: The inexplicable hole in the middle of the floor leading down to the pit of doom.

O: You know, normal temple stuff in an 80’s cartoon.

S: Elsewhere, Perceptor is quickly shoving crystals into Omega Supreme as they're falling.

O: And Omega's able to take flight, saving both of their afts, with Perceptor hanging on for dear life.

S: Jazz goes in guns blazing to save Talaria, as they duck and cover from the Decepticon fire.

O: Jazz proves to be an excellent shot, too. 

S: Omega and Perceptor arrive in front of the temple.

O: Perceptor looking much worse for wear as he stumbles off from their wild ride.

S: His- Perceptor is just very done with today.

O: He's a scientist, not a- not an adventurer, damnit! 

S: I think a lot of people are very done with today. 

O: Omega punches through the wall and Starscream and Thrust flee.

S: Astrotrain falls down the pit- into the pit of doom, narrowly avoiding the electric lava at the bottom, and then the Cons and Jero meet up in the crystal cave, and realizing they can't fight Omega Supreme, instead decide to blow the crystals up, and fly off with the Decepticons leaving Jero to die.

O: Because, as previously mentioned, Astrotrain is a dick!

S: The volcano explodes or, I don't know, the electric lava explodes-

O: Something-

S: And the aliens are like, “Save- save us and we'll worship you.”

O: Jazz is like, for the thousandth time, “We're not gods,” but they do save the aliens using Omega's tracks.

S: Why didn't they just get in Omega and fly off, it would have been interesting if they just brought everybody to Earth.

O: Uh, the Prime Directive would have been broken?

S: Fair. 

O: The aliens are rebuilding as Perceptor is finally able to fix Cosmos.

S: Well, Cosmos just seems like he got a nap out of all of this.

O: Quite frankly, my poor boy deserves a break. He's got to do all the flying through space except for, periodically, when they grab, you know, Skyfire to do it.

S: Yeah.

O: So something I thought was funny that we found out after we watched the episode: This is actually the first episode- and it took 39 episodes- that Frank Welker does not voice a single character.

S: That's pretty funny.

O: Because, again, he voices like, oh, what? 70% of every single Decepticon and this just happened to be three Decepticons that he does not voice at all! Like, even in the- even in the last episode, he was voicing Rumble. I know Megatron was in there a little, but he was voicing Rumble that entire time, too. So I thought that was hilarious- took 39 episodes for that. But join us next time for: The Core! Megatron wants to journey to the center of the earth and the Autobots engage in a questionable amount of mind control.

S: Yep.

O: And we do have some fanfic for today.

S: So the first fanfic is “From A Distance” by PuraJazzBot, it's from the G1 cartoon continuity and it's rated K. It's gen, there's no pairings, and our lone character is Cosmos. And, in summary, “Being in outer space is not always as exciting as it sounds. Cosmos can personally attest.” And so it's Cosmos in space and it's a one-shot. And I believe you chose our other fic today.

O: Yes it's getting near Halloween so I thought this was appropriate! Our a wild card pick for today is: “Who's The Big Bad Wolf” by LittleMissSweetgrass. It is in the IDW continuity, is G, it is Gen, there are no pairings. Our characters are Verity, Springer, Ultra Magnus, and Minimus Ambus, and in summary: “Verity is trying to get Magnus to wear the costume she worked so hard on,” and it is a one-shot. And they're celebrating Halloween. I know that summary didn't say that but it felt relevant. I'm pretty sure this is going to go up in October- this will definitely go up in October so here's a Halloween fic for you!

S: Nice, that one sounds fun.

O: It's really cute, I like anything with Verity and Minimus in it and, like, quite frankly there's not enough of it. And I- our fan art recommendation for today is: Text from More Than Meets The Eye, which is a Tumblr and it is basically IDW comic edits. It is completely inaccurate text photoshopped into IDW comic panels. 

O: Uh, today is all Ratchet and Megatron. I would apologize for this but, uh, let's face it, we all know I'm not sorry. And these are quite frankly some of my favorite ones, um, which is basically, um, Ratchet is very sure he doesn't give a fuck. Megatron reserves his right to go outside and scream at 2 AM, and, uh, Ratchet hopes that one day he can afford the surgery to remove his head from the ass- from his ass. [Ratchet’s] talking about somebody else, not himself, obviously, but, uh, I love this blog. I- I don't think they've been posting recently, which is always a bit sad but- but definitely worth looking into because I laughed so hard at some of these, and they are great!

And, also, if the- especially with Ratchet, if that is not word for word things I think he would actually say in a, you know, um, more profanity ridden, um, circumstance, I don't know what to tell you because I think they're perfect.

S: That was nice, thank you.

O: Again, highly recommend, very funny. I always laugh my butt off.

S: Yeah, it's been a while since I've seen any of those but I do enjoy them too. And that about wraps it up for us today.  Remember to check us out on Tumblr or Pillowfort as Afterspark-Podcast for any additional information, show notes, or links we may have mentioned.  You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at AftersparkPod (all one word) and various other locations by searching for Afterspark Podcast such as AO3, iTunes, Spotify, and Youtube, just to name a few.  And feel free to send us questions on Tumblr, or Youtube, or AO3!  Till next time, I'm Specs.

O: I’m Owls.

S: Toodles.

[Outro Music]

[rorykillmore]

rachel amber, rory gilmore bc I exist to make you answer questions about her and uhhh bayformers!optimus

fine

FINE

rachel amber

How I feel about this character:  i love her....... honestly i have a weird thing for Dead Girl With Secrets narratives so she was one of the things about life is strange that always really really fascinated me. i’d been (tentatively, warily) looking forward to meeting her properly in before the storm and?? she’s great??? she’s charming and grounded and free-spirited and angry and fractured and sometimes even very troubled and destructive (oh and GAY) and i’m like... i’m literally here for all of these things.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: nathan

My non-romantic OTP for this character: even outside of a romantic context i’ve ofc always thought it would be interesting to see what her and max thought of each other. also maybe her and victoria, i feel like they have a weird and interesting dynamic even though we only ever really hear about it.

My unpopular opinion about this character:  there’s this part of the fandom that’s always trying to nitpick and find ways to prove that she was secretly the most evil person alive or some shit and i’m just like..... or you could relax

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:  i think we all know hahahaha

rory gilmore

How I feel about this character: obviously i am very skeptical and critical of a lot of the choices rory makes and sometimes i’m more frustrated with her than anything but?  i also do genuinely love her? in spite of all of that? i guess it’s just symptomatic of growing up with the show and her as a character, like she’s almost... familial to me. i can’t hate her. but i do find it really interesting to pick apart her character because there are so many unusual directions she goes in. they really aren’t afraid to tear down their protagonists in gilmore girls.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: i’m pretty infamously team jess although my feelings on it are. complicated? i really love jess as a character but i don’t think he and rory have a very... healthy relationship when they’re teenagers. when they’re adults they’re clearly much more well-suited for each other (although honestly at that point i sometimes feel that jess is too good for her, but i teeter back and forth between that and really loving their dynamic) so. shrugs.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: lorelai of course!! lane, paris, umm... emily and richard definitely always have a really interesting dynamic with her. i guess that’s probably it? rory doesn’t really have a lot of friends. it’s a weird thing that the gilmore guys podcast points out constantly.

My unpopular opinion about this character: idk man, the fandom is all kinds of split on their rory opinions from what i know so it’s hard to peg anything as “popular” although... team logan is a pretty prevalent thing and i’m of the opinion that that relationship is all kinds of shitty, if that counts.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: honestly like as much as i go on about how much of a wreck she is, the revival kind of did her dirty. like i’m not sitting here tryin’ to watch her regress through her earlier development. i could’ve worked with the whole “she’s kind of lost, doesn’t have a job atm, has to go home and live with her mom for awhile” thing because in our society that IS something that happens even to people in their thirties! but the stuff where she’s having an affair with logan (which shouldn’t even be a thing because a) she and logan broke up for pretty valid reasons at the end of the original series and b) there was already a plot where she HAD AN AFFAIR WITH DEAN and it ended horribly and she should realistically know better) and acting pretty selfish about wanting to write a book about lorelai without her consent is just... amy sherman-palladino, why. see you made me go off.

optimus

How I feel about this character: bayformers in general is so... dumb a lot of the time, but god do i enjoy optimus. there’s something so, idk, emotional about seeing him in live action. he has such gravitas even despite bayformers being... bayformers. i think if you already come from a place of loving his character, bayformers is at least somewhat rewarding to see him alone. also DAMN do they build up a lot of interesting potential with his anger and trauma that other iterations don’t; i’ll never not wish they explored that with more nuance.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:  no one i guess?? honestly megatron is the only person i ever really come close to “shipping” with optimus in any capacity but apparently in bayformers they’re ~brothers~ (somehow)

My non-romantic OTP for this character: him and all the autobots but especially bumblebee. also him and mikaela just because mikaela’s fuckin’ awesome!!!! and i’d love to see him bond a little more with a human that isn’t like. sam.

My unpopular opinion about this character:  i really have no solid grasp of bayformers opinions... i know a lot of fans are (rightfully) salty but i’m not sure how much that extends to optimus or his arc so???

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: JUST WRITE HIM BETTER JFC. there’s so much interesting shit you could do with an optimus who is slowly beginning to distrust humanity and question himself and i bet 0% of it is in the last knight. thanks michael bay,

[seriously-siri]

How would you describe megsies and roddy's relationship? As deep as yiu could make it would be appreciated ^^ thank you! - s

I ran a 10K today and basically spent the entire time thinking about this question. It’s… complicated.

Complicated at the very least. 

For me, it feels like watching a Shishi-odoshi fountain (those Japanese bamboo fountains that fill up and then tilt to the other side, empty, and repeat). There’s all this great stuff that happens; good words and actions and thoughts and decisions. Things that make it look like Megs is actually turning a new leaf and things that make it look like Rodimus won’t fuck up royally again.

And then it all shatters and flips and all that goodness is let loose like a flash flood streaming off the top of a cliff face. The aftermath is a sharp clank, a tidal splash of regrets, and a ripple of second guesses about each other. Then it all starts over again. 

The fall comes from both ends too. Megatron has a lot to “make up for”- really it’ll be impossible. He knows that; Rodimus knows that. Everyone does, but still, Rodimus watched and he yelled when Megatron was wrong and praised him when he was right. On the flip side, Megatron sees Rodimus and sees the outcomes of his snap rash decision and he does the same. Chastises him when he’s about to make a mistake and bows his head when he knows Rodimus is right. 

Let’s look at it from both sides:

Rodimus isn’t “young” and he’s not “inexperienced”, but that’s the way he is most often portrayed and seen by other characters and even the readers. He’s been around since before the war- never forget Nyon. He’s had more than his fair share of dark times, learning moments, and falls. He’s fucked up probably more times than anyone should, but he still goes forward and he still has his friends and supporters. You can chuck that up to his charisma or whatever, but I think it’s because of a number of other things.

Rodimus was a servant to society before he got super involved in the war. He is said to have helped the homeless and lost in Nyon. Nyon was the place to go to “get away from the war”. It was probably overcrowded, underfed, dirty, sick, depressing and full of death and despair. Basically any refugee camp you see on the news nowadays. Hot Rod took it upon himself to do whatever he could to make it a little better. Any better. He learned to persevere and push through no matter what, because if he didn’t no one there would. This sort of mentality, this sort of dedication to work back when he was young I think made him grow up too fast. He didn’t have that “learning stage” in his life. He just sort of looked out his window and decided that it wasn’t the time.

Then the war happened. You don’t get to learn in war. You either grow up and survive or you don’t and die. So now? Welp, he’s learning things he didn’t even know he still had to learn and it looks childish and immature (and don’t get me wrong he has his purposeful moments, but it’s all part of his charm) but more often than not I think Rodimus is more surprised at how far he’s got to go to become something akin to a normal ‘adult’. Even though that is impossible for him and he knows it and most importantly:

Megatron knows of all this.  

Never forget Megatron knows pretty much everything about Rodimus. He had his eye on Hot Rod back in Nyon. He sent Starscream to recruit him. He knew what Rodimus was capable of. He got intel throughout the entire war on Hot Rod and what he did and who he killed and his crazy stunts. Hot Rod wasn’t just some punk who was good with a gun. He was practically high command. He carried the matrix.  To me, it seems like Megatron lets him mess up sometimes. Steps in when the consequences will be bad and gets disappointed when it happens again.

But also? I have no doubt in my mind that Megatron sits back at least once a day, looks at Rodimus, and wonders what would have happened if he had said yes to Starscream and put on a purple badge (I mean, we know purple doesn’t look bad on Rodimus now). Can you imagine? The prospect, the regret, and everything else whirling around as what ifs and could have beens and just how different everything would? That was then and this is now and Megatron dwells in the past too much and he knows it so I’m a firm believer that he’s using this as an opportunity to work with him- like he could have then. Just under different circumstances.  

Rodimus was also a Wrecker. This is so incredibly important. The Wreckers were there to do what no else wanted to- more often than not it was cleaning up someone else’s epic fuck up. He’s good at cleaning up mistakes. He can clean up his own.

He looked up to and learned from bots like Springer, Impactor, and Kup. Kup is so important. Kup’s mantra in life is about giving second (or third or fifth) chances. It’s about seeing the potential in someone and letting it blossom like a flower after the season has supposedly passed. With a mentor like this, Rodimus A. probably knows that learning through trial by fire isn’t always a bad thing (and most of the time the best way), but B. that he should also give second chances to everyone. They can prove themselves or not, but Rodimus always lets them try. There’s Drift, who he became good friends with and then there was… let’s say Optimus who disappointed him again and again and again.

The ex-Decepticon became a better example than his leader.

Megatron’s not so different, ya? Except unlike Optimus, Megatron hasn’t given up. He didn’t leave his people stranded on a hostile planet and turn himself in. He didn’t throw out his name and take off in a spaceship to do whatever he wanted. He didn’t disappoint a whole lot once he joined the Lost Light. Not until that moment on Censere’s world that Megatron fully and entirely made up for.

Starting out the second time with Megatron on board Rodimus, very obviously, wasn’t happy, but it didn’t last long. There were some pissing contests along the way, but Rodimus, I think, learned a lot more about Megatron than he probably wanted, but that surprised him more. Rodimus probably knew about as much as everyone else did about Megatron (except Prime). He’s read Towards Peace and he’s heard the stories and talked to those who knew him pretty well.

Then he went to that other dimension and saw it all. He saw it and realized what Megatron was, who he became, why he became, and who he has now become. Rodimus is a really good judge of character (most of the time) and he clearly sees something that others don’t. And something that some of the others also see.

The only bot that wasn’t exiled from the Lost Light that went to the Functionalist Universe was Riptide and we don’t know why he stayed behind because he’s been glaringly silent. Rodimus is in the company of bots who see the changes Megatron’s made and it probably makes him more comfortable with his choice to trust Megs- even though I think he’d make the decision regardless.

As far as forgiveness goes I don’t think Rodimus has that in him right now. Especially in light of recent events. I do think that Rodimus wants to be able to forgive Megatron. Because of that, he lets a lot slide.

Terminus taught Megatron not to get attached to anything, and that worked really well considering Meg’s attachment to him basically cause the war after his disappearance, so Megatron isn’t going to get overly attached to anyone again Rodimus included. He knows what he might do. What he has done. In a way, I think he’s trying to be what Terminus was to him; just from a different angle.

Rodimus treats Megatron the way he wants to be treated. He gives him all the chances he needs to make up for his mistakes- cause Rodimus knows what it is like to fuck up time and time again and have people turn away. He also knows what it’s like to make up for his mistakes and have people embrace him for it. Because if he can’t learn to forgive Megatron he won’t be able to forgive himself.

They really aren’t so different. Both stubborn and rash and full of both fantastic and abysmal ideas. They see it in each other and both respect and hate that fact.

Yeah, it’s complicated.

[afterspark-podcast]

G1 Episode 24: Transcript

Episode Show Notes

[This can also be found on AO3!]

[Stinger]

O: --Or Solus took a rib from Solus and genetically engineered his wife.

S: [laughing in the background]

[Intro Music]

O: Hello, and welcome to the Afterspark Podcast!  An episode by episode recap of the Generation 1 Transformers cartoon.  I'm Owls!

S: And I'm Specs.

O: And today we're gonna be talking about episode number 24, “A Prime Problem.”  Let's talk about giant robots today, shall we?

S: Um-hmm.  And today we open with the Decepticons next to a freshly created glowing ravine.

O: They had apparently detected some sort of rare energy on their sensors.

S: Starscream, is completely ready to dive in headfirst, but Megatron stops him, as he cites that the energy could be unstable.

O: Once bitten, twice shy, eh, Megs?

S: [sighs] Megatron's decided he cares about his subordinates today.

O: [laughs]

S: The Decepticons apparently have a- kind of an equivalent of Roller, called an Autoscout.

O: This is actually kind of fascinating to me.  Not only because the name, ‘Autoscout,’ sounds like it should be an Autobot thing, but also because this is another cassette that Soundwave sends out, that's weirdly colored like Rumble for some inexplicable reason.  But I like that the normal cassettes like Ravage, um, Rumble, Frenzy. etc, they're all considered valuable enough they aren't used for shit like this.

S: The scout descends into the ravine, revealing that the energy is coming from some very large crystals, while Megatron, Soundwave, and Starscream, you know, exposition things.

O: Yeah, I know, it actually was a reasonably good usage of you know, like, the audio and the visual storytelling.  Uh, these things are Korlonium- okay, so, I looked it up this thing has an ‘R’ in it but I swear to god they sound- it sounds like they're saying ‘Colonium’ crystals…

S: It could just be an accent thing.

O: So, these things are Korlonium crystals, apparently?

S: Megatron says that they're deadly, and then the scout blows up upon contact with it.

O: You know, right on time.  Starscream suggests luring the Autobots into the crystals to destroy them, but Megatron says that Optimus would never be so reckless.

S: Well, I mean the  real and I'm gonna emphasize REAL here-

O: [laughs]

S: -real Optimus wouldn't.

O: And then Megatron had a terrible, awful idea.

S: Megatron decides to wait in his new, temporary base until the Autobots show up.

O: It's a giant rock.  I know it's supposed to look like a mountain, but guys it's a ROCK.

S: And then we see the Autobots arrived with Spike in tow.

O: Oh good, I'm glad we brought the human to this weird energy source that's probably giving him cancer as we speak.

S: Do the robots even know what cancer is?

O: Uhh, good question! [laughs]

S: Then again, who knows if any of this is any more hazardous than the Ark on a normal day, let alone sitting in Bumblebee who may or may not be radiating who knows what.

O: Or- or being anywhere near- near Wheeljack?

S: Yeah.

O: And thus, Cliffjumper attempts to do what he does best, jumping off a cliff and into the crystals.

S: Well, I mean he has to live up to the prophecy that is his name, because it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

O: Indeed.

S: But Optimus advises caution, before Starscream shows up with several other Cons. Starscream here is super creative with his insults to Optimus.  Calling him Floptimus.

O: Why does that sound like a dick joke?  Better yet, why are you using a dick joke on Optimus?  Your boss is the one that turns into a phallic object.

S: He's jealous of their, um, relationship.

O: Obviously.  A fight breaks out, with Optimus almost immediately taking out the three Seekers.

S: He just dismisses them as opponents, while loudly declaring how bored he is to only be fighting three Decepticons.  And then Megatron has Soundwave reject Laserbeak to take out Optimus.

O: May one bird do what three Jets could not.

S: Upon seeing Laserbeak Optimus calls him a ‘tinfoil turkey’.

O: The bastard, be nice to my birb!

S: But Laserbeak shoots Optimus down a convenient adjacent ravine, free of electronic frying crystals.

O: Megatron then orders Laserbeak to take holographic scans of Optimus’s body, from  every  angle.  Megatron holds a perfect replica of Optimus Prime for  reasons.

S: And... Megatron also wants Optimus alive.

O: Oh lord, he wants a harem.

S: Maybe?

B: [laughs]

S: While Laserbeak is scanning Optimus, Megatron calls him um, photogenic.

O: Optimus is knocked out, ass up, and SOMEHOW that's photogenic!?!  Megs, buddy, NOOO!!!

S: [sighs]  A mere few button pushes later and Megatron now has an exact copy of Optimus Prime.

O: It fools Soundwave.  I have absolutely no idea why, it's not like Soundwave wasn't watching the monitors with the real Optimus on them at the same time is Megs.  He saw Laserbeak scan him!

S: To make this even sillier, Soundwave’s basically psychic.  Actually, I'm kind of wondering if he's performing surprise for Megatron's benefit.

O: Why though!?!  He shouldn't be surprised here! [dissolves into laughter]

S: Yes, but maybe it makes Megatron feel better to have his ego stroked?

O: I would believe that.

S: It's just to guess.  Megatron proudly proclaims that it's a clone.

O: We gonna talk about how Megs just uh, had this all ready to go or…?

S: I don’t know, it's the plot of the week.

O: Plot of the week, he’s got plans for it, I mean whatever...

S: He's just making use of stuff he already had.

O: [snorts]

S: He then puts on a silly helmet, that is of course purple, and now he can control everything the clone says or does.

O: Clone Optimus heads out to meet up with the Autobots.  The Cons retreat, and the Autobots head back to base.

S: Meanwhile, the real Optimus, who has apparently been left unsupervised, wakes up and climbs out of the ravine he was trapped in.  And at the Ark, Megatron apparently doesn't know anyone's name as he has the clone calling Ironhide, ‘Bumblebee’.

O: I really wish they got a bit farther with this gag.  Either having Megatron trying to impersonate Optimus Prime's voice or have Optimus try to have more of Megatron’s speech pattern.  Like, now I'm just wondering has anybody ever asked the two VA’s to do that? Because I would pay good money to see that! [laughs]

S: I'm kind of wondering how Megatron- how they don't have any goddamn information on any of like, their- the opposing faction because he should know.

O: He clearly know who Bumblebee is, in earlier episode.  That's the part that makes this make less sense.

S: Yeah. So, I mean, you think, you've been fighting a war against them, they're- like, their roster doesn't really change.

O: Yeah.

S: You’d think you'd know who the hell they are, if only so that you can properly you know, combat them.

O: Yeah, pretty much.

S: And yeah, Megatron also has absolutely no idea how to operate Teletraan I, despite the fact that he's had operatives going in and operating it and getting shit out of it, for how long?

O: At least a year.  The Autobots express worry about their leader but the clone uses the fall as an excuse for his ‘faulty memory’.

S: This seems like it would be a good reason for you know, Ratchet to open him up but apparently he's identical inside and out, through and through.

O: YUP, we’ll get to that! [laughs]

S: Yeah, and then the real Optimus shows up and the clone orders the others to shoot him.  But Ironhide stops them. Wanting to verify which one is the real one.

O: Which obviously the second one's the right one, because he doesn't even notice the other Optimus at first.  He's too busy expressing how happy he is that everyone made it back safe.

S: [sighs] The real Optimus.  Bumblebee has Teletraan I scan the two Optimi, but they come up as exactly the same.

O: [deadpan] Oh gee, if only sparks existed. [returns to speaking normally] I mean I’d assume that one of them wouldn't have one, right?

S: Well if it -if it did it would have weird implications for you know, their reproduction.

O: Uh, it has weird implications period, considering sparks are canonically a thing here, retroactively, by way of Beast Wars.

S: Yeah.

O: So, you know, that's the thing.  Apparently, we're going to do a series of tests to see which is the real Optimus out of these two.  Uh, the first of which is laser rifle skills.

S: Really guys, all you need to do is see which one knows how to use the damn computer.

O: [snorts] It's so true.  To make this dumber though, I'm not even sure which one is which in these scenes.

S: I'm not sure anyone is.

O: [laughs] The animators didn't know either!  The writers didn't know either! I believe it.

S: And instead of doing something sensible, like asking them questions, they decide to make the two Primes do a truck race next.  Oh, GODDDD-

O: Shockingly, these tests are inconclusive!

S: [sighs] But the Autobots have more important things to worry about.  The Korlonium crystals are about to explode and they've got to stop it!

O: This is apparently all going according to Megatron's plan, as the Cons are messing with Teletraan’s readings to lure the Autobots back to the crevice. Wait, one moment, he just said he didn't know how to use Teletraan but they know how to fool the fucking scanners?

S: I guess they can manipulate what Teletraan’s sensors are getting?  I don't know.

O: I suppose that's more likely.

S: Cuz I mean, Soundwave could probably do that.

O: Okay, I believe Soundwave could do that.

S: Megatron, Megatron, no.  Soundwave, probably yeah. Maybe Starscream could do something?  But apparently, he didn't know what the fuck they were so… I don't know.  Megatron is saying this while wearing the control helmet so does that mean the clone is saying all this shit out loud, as well?

O: Please, yes lord, please! [laughs]

S: I mean that would blow the cover like, really fast but apparent- unless everyone was super dumb, which I mean they are...

O: I MEAN, they do not have a good track record in this episode, let's be honest.

S: Sadly that would not appear to be the case, uh, with regard to talking out loud via clone.  Uh, when we get back to the Autobots, they are just about getting ready to roll out. But Ironhide tells the two Primes that until they're sorted out, he's the one giving orders around here.

O: So, still Peter Cullen? [laughs]

S: [laughing] Yes!

O: Peter Cullen does one other voice in this series regularly, it's Ironhide.  I do find this funny. When the Autobots arrive they are attacked by the Decepticons.

S: Megatron plans to have the clone order the Autobots into the deadly, deadly crystals, and of course the- in order to gain their trust he'll have to destroy one of the Cons.

O: Starscream doesn't just walk into this, he- he falls flat on his face into it.

S: [sighs] He swan dives.

O: [laughs]

S: Starscream is like, “I, Starscream!?!  The pride of the Cybertronian war academy!?!”

O: “This aft?  This aft, right here?  You want to offline this aft?”

S: And Starscream, you know, runs away, and flies out of the hideout, like a coward.

O: [snorts] I don't know if I really blame him, in all fairness.

S: True, I mean, considering how much he and Megatron fight, and how- how many times Megatron's probably told him he's gonna kill him and everything.

O: And vice versa. Megatron has Soundwave send Laserbeak after him.

S: While all this is going on, Spike and Windcharger find the entrance to the hidden base.

O: For being half Starscream's height, Laserbeak actually makes pretty quick work of him and just hauls him back into the base.

S: I am pretty sure Laserbeak is significantly smaller than Starscream, unless he was like mass shifted up here.

O: I- I don't know, I feel like when we saw it, it looked about half- like he was about half as tall or something but-

S: I don’t know, it’s- it’s weird.

O: -hell if I know.

S: Once Starscream’s dumped back in front of Megatron, Megatron says he intends to have the Optimus clone kill Starscream's clone, not Starscream himself.  This is important information that was left out.

O: And this is what you get for dicking around with people Megs, a squishy infestation.

S: Of course, once Starscream's been ah, cloned he sees something he finally loves more than himself, his clone!

O: Starscream gets his own dumb helmet to control his clone too!

S: Same hat!

O: [laughs] Spike and Windcharger attempt to get out after hearing Megatron's plan, but they are chased by Laserbeak.

S: Spike is, you know, captured accordingly and ah, Windcharger falls to his apparent doom.

O: Into the crystals, like, I feel that’s relevant.

S: Yeah.

O: Uh, Soundwave is now babysitting the squishy.

S: Spike calls Megatron a, ‘Mega-rat’.

O: Just once- just once I'd like to hear these idiots say an actual zinger.

S: Back outside, the two clones face off one-on-one, mano a mano.  With Megatron congratulating himself on being a  brilliant  playwright for choreographing all this nonsense.

O: All I can think is just see- see, you let him write shitty plays, this war wouldn’t have happened!

S: Oh god, hes’ doing- he’s pulling a Loki from-

O: [cracking up] OH MY GOD, that's the fic we want and deserve!  Is Megatron wins, and all he does is put on shi- is put on shitty plays!  Headcanon accepted.

S: Self-aggrandizing plays and poetry.

O: Mm-hmm!  And then Optimus kills Starscream in cold blood, in front of a bunch of witnesses.

S: Oh boy, are they gonna feel super silly when Starscream shows up in five minutes.

O: Five minutes I think you mean immediately!?!

S: As the wind is blowing the dust of Starscream's clone away, um, Starscream still standing there, in the shot, with the two other seekers.

O: [laughs] So animation error, but in all seriousness, Megatron and Starscream actually work really, really well together here.  Proving they can do it if they try!

S: Um-hmm.

O: The Autobots are dumb, dumb, dumb, mothafuckers, reaching the conclusion that this has to be the  real Prime, because he killed Megatron's second-in-command.

S: Would the real Optimus kill Starscream in cold blood?  I think we've established that, no he the fuck wouldn't.

O: He can't even kill Megatron in cold blood most continuities.

S: Yeah.

O: Clone Optimus orders the bots into the crevice and the real one tries to stop them, but no one listens to him.

S: You're all so DUMB!  So, so DUMB!!! Why didn't you ask about prior experiences that you would have had with him!?!

O: Because that would make too much sense! [laughs]

S: [sighs]  Why? So much sighing...

O: [laughs]

S: Windcharger proceeds to drive up out of the crevice and is like, “Hey guys.  Don't fucking go in there!”

O: [laughs] I wanna point out that he survived because he apparently transformed into his alt mode before hitting the ground.  I don't know why that helped, because clearly that doesn't seem to help- because the Scout still blew up and it had wheels, but whatever.

S: It might not have had rubber tires, that’s the thing.

O: Hmm, okay.

S: Cuz, I think it's specified that the rubber tires somehow insulated him?

O: You know, this is- this is like, on par with them defeating uh, what's-his-face’s lightning in that other episode by being in car mode, but sure!

S: Yeah, the clone attempts to get everyone ah, into the crevice again, but finally fucks up enough that the other Bots catch on.  And it's when he calls Spike, ‘unimportant’.

O: Megatron was so close, he just lost his patience, man.

S: The Autobots finally turn on the clone sending him into the crystal crevice.

O: The Decepticons are blasting off again, and as they make their escape they just chuck Spike out a window.

S: Powerglide proceeds to show up, um, and showboats that rescue.  Spike should really be dead at this point.

O: Critical velocity and all that, because while Powerglide was showing off they got really close to the ground with that catch.

S: Yeah, and even if Spike er, Skydive-Sky-

O: Skydive?  [laughs]

S: Wrong- I mean right season, wrong flying Autobot.

O: [continues laughing]

S: Ah, even if Powerglide managed to like, match velocities with him- yeah, but still- he'd still splat-

O: Yup.

S: -unfortunately for him.  Um, back on the ground, Spike asks Optimus if it's really him and uh, then Optimus offers a rather silly response, but it’s- you know, it's cute.

O: “Yes Spike.  This time I am definitely me... or I.  Myself. Oh, whoever I am.”

B: [laugh]

O: And that's it for today's episode, join us next time for, “Atlantis, Arise!”  Uhh, so did you guys ever want to see the lost city of Atlantis with giant robots, jets underwater, and um... Washington DC?

S: Megatron takes over um-

O: A lot of things.

S: -Lincoln’s chair.

O: [laughs]

S: Yeah.

O: Megatron finds the  perfect chair.

S: Yep, too bad you can't take it home.

O: [snorts]

S: Okay, we have two- two fanfic recommendations for today.  Would you like to talk about them or would you like me to?

O: Yep, I can do it.  Uh, so, uh basically, I did both of these because I will use any excuse to talk about Shattered Glass.  (I apologize for nothing!) So, our two fics for today, uh, the first one is, “Mathematical Manipulation” by Merfilly.  The continuity is Shattered Glass, it’s G, it’s Gen there are no pairings. Characters are: Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave, Frenzy, Optimus Prime, Rodimus Prime, and Thundercracker.  That is all of the Shattered Glass versions and in summary, “Megatron doesn't see the future, he just models it on probability.” The character or a rec this is based on is, ‘evil Optimus,’ and it's a one-shot.  Also, this makes more sense when you realize that Shattered Glass Megs is a math professor.

S: Which is indeed a fun thing.

O: Which I love immensely!  And our second one is, “Someone You Might Have Been,” by Astolot.  It's G1/Shattered Glass, it's rated T, it's definitely slash, uh, for Megatron/Optimus and our characters are: Shattered Glass Megatron, regular Megatron and Optimus.  The- in summary, “I didn't love him because he wasn't you.” And the character theme this is based on is again, ‘evil Optimus,’ but also Megatron and Optimus slash. It is a one shot.  It's also one of the only Astolot fics I can recommend, so I was like, we're gonna put that here! [Because we’ve been trying to keep all the fic recs at T and below for the most part. ~Owls]  And that's it for our fics today.

S: And that just about wraps it up for us today.  Remember to check us out on Tumblr or Pillowfort as a Afterspark-Podcast for any additional information, show notes, or links we may have mentioned.  You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter @AftersparkPod (all one word), and various other locations by searching for, “Afterspark Podcast,” such as AO3, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Youtube, just to name a few.  Until next time, I'm Specs.

O: And I'm Owls.

S: Toodles!

[Outro Music]

[afterspark-podcast]

G1 Episode 36: Transcript

[This can also be found on AO3!]

[Stinger]

O: I'm gonna say he's a cleric who has somehow aligned himself with the god of death.

[Intro Music]

O: Hello, and welcome to the Afterspark Podcast, an episode by episode recap of the generation 1 Transformers cartoon.  I'm Owls.

S: And I’m Specs.

O: And today we're gonna be talking about episode number 36: Desertion of the Dinobots, part 2. Let's talk about giant robots today, shall we?

S: Sure.

O: Welcome back to the Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2. If you'll remember, last time, in Part 1 the Autobots and Decepticons neglected to take their vitamins to disastrous effect and the Dinobots have run away from home to Cybertron.

S: Carly and Spike have followed behind in Carly's car and last we saw them they were being held at gunpoint by Shockwave.

O: Dual-wielding, no less! It's not enough that Shockwave has a gun for a hand but he's holding another one, too.

S: He's- he's compensating. Shockwave poofs Carly's car out from underneath them which. Yeah.

O: [Laughter] Goodbye pink convertible, we hardly knew ye!

S: Did he send it to another dimension? It just sort of, um, faded away. Cuz it didn't, like, poof, per se.

O: Uh, Shadow Realm? [Laughter] That exists in this universe, right?

S: Maybe? Carly's- [Laughter] Carly's response is great because she's effectively, like, “That was my car, not an Autobot, you dumbass!!”

O: And Spike and Carly flee from Shockwave who's apparently in no hurry, as he just sort of walks slowly after them.

S: He's [not] got better things to do here than pest control, I guess? Because he continues to shoot his disappearing gun at various things they're hiding behind so I guess he doesn't care if any of that stuff vanishes. 

O: I mean, yeah, cuz he's, like, what we assume in his own lab and he just does not seem to care?

S: I don't understand.

O: I don't understand many things about this show.

S: True. Spike seems to think they're safe be- hiding behind things even after Shockwave has, you know, done this- sending things to the shadow realm multiple times.

O: They duck into a narrow opening in the floor which Shockwave can't follow them into.

S: Yeah, he expresses his disappointment in about the same tone as someone who's been chasing down two mice and those two mice have escaped.

O: He is not happy about this human infestation. I'm sure not having to deal with organics on a daily basis is one of the highlights of him being posted in Cybertron.

S: Yeah, honestly, I don't- I feel like he would do very well on earth.

O: I don't think he would, either, and I legitimately think that's why he stays on Cybertron.

S: I don't think he would have really enjoyed it if the planet had actually ended up by Cybertron-

O: No.

S: Or by earth.

O: No. But if the planet had exploded like Megatron had intended, I suppose he wouldn't have needed to care. 

S: That's true. They would have had a lot of resources they could have used potentially.

O: Yeah.

S: I don't know. Spike and Carly look around the room that they found themselves in, which appears to have a glowy pool in some sort of recess in the center of the room.

O: And Carly seems to realize they're in Cybertron's master computer. I don't entirely know how she figures this out but all right.

S: She's a Technomancer, I don't know.

O: [Laughter] Carly is amazing. We already know that, I'm just saying, I don't really know how that thought process happened.

S: Same. Spike uses the silly thumb radio to call Teletraan 1.

O: And to the Ark!! All the Autobots are passed out on the floor.

S: They really look like they've had a super wild night.

O: Sounds like they got all of the hangovers and none of the fun.

S: Yeah, looks accurate. Sparkplug, however, is awake and manning Teletraan 1, which considering he's not a giant robot from outer space makes perfect sense.

O: [Laughter] Teletraan helpfully pulls up a diagram of this Decepticon computer brain Spike and Carly have found themselves in, Decepticon misspelled with a ‘K’, no less. 

S: The little pictures of Spike and Carly look, like, pretty awkward. Spike is super buff for some reason and the fact that Teletraan 1 just has these schematics is kind of... out there.

O: Well then- Carly so, like, demure in this little picture of her and I’m just like- that's not Carly. Have you met Carly? Carly's like I'm gonna go plant a bomb in the Decepticon base because I can.

S: Yeah, that's Carly. 

O: That's Carly. Carly attempts to gain control of the space bridge by going through the computer's wiring.

S: Breaking into the nearby panel in the wall with her car key because she is - she is a can do lady.

O: The pink convertible will have its revenge yet! 

S: Yeah. I imagine it hasn't quite hit her yet that it's gone and now she's going to have to buy a new car.

O: Yeah-

S: It kind of sucks. I wonder if the Autobots will finance it.

O: I wondered too, I mean, she did do it helping so maybe?

S: Yeah. But she's shocked when a big ball of energy travels through the wiring and hits her panel and then she's tossed backwards towards the glowy pool.

O: Epic music plays. 

S: Electrocution: not much fun.

O: [Laughter] 

S: And so the computer decides to throw a wild ass rave party and then explodes, and the glowy pool goes dark. And then Spike pulls a flashlight out of his ass that Wheeljack apparently gave them.

O: This information was important enough to tell the audience, apparently. That and it is brighter than any other flashlight on earth. Apparently. Again, why don’t any of you patent your shit?!

S: Yeah, they could make so much money. But, I mean, this was something just to sell toys.

O: I know, I know- we're attributing far more thought to this then the writers probably ever did.

S: I want- I want there to be plot and background and, you know, good writing and-

O: Ahhh, ahhh, that- that- that's what other shows are for in their franchise. It's okay. 

S: I- I know, I'm glad that the newer ones are getting better writing.

O: Me, too.

S: And, unfortunately, Carly has twisted an ankle sometime a- during this wild rave party and Spike jumps down into the recessed pit to- to help her except unfortunately now neither of them can get out.

O: You know, because Spike definitely thought this through. 

S: Yeah, and it's steep and, I mean, well, he could have pulled out wires, I guess-

O: Maybe-

S: And made a-

O: And could have gotten into the panels.

S: Yeah. Oh, well. Sparkplug calls in and says that there's a way out at the bottom of the area they've fallen into.

O: So right where that glowy liquid was.

S: Yaaay, um, good plan everyone. 

O: I'm sure it's perfectly safe. 

S: I have many concerns.

O: [Snicker] They go down a ladder.

S: Why is there a ladder there?

O: Why is it so small and, comparatively, human sized? Is it meant for Minibots? Do Minibots do all the computer repairs in this world?

S: Well, maybe-

O: We found Rumble and Frenzy’s actual function. [Snicker] I don’t feel like they'd be good at that.

S: Well, I feel like they'd end up pulling out wires to basically have an impromptu wire fight- like a snowball fight.

O: [Laughter] Yeah, that seems right. That seems right. 

S: Oh, and so Spike and Carly make it out to the hallway.

O: Meanwhile, in the space bridge room, Megatron calls and tells Shockwave to send their damn vitamins over.

S: But this is impossible because the space bridge is inoperable until the computer is fixed but, i mean, I guess- how did you call him Shockwave? Or how did Megatron call him?

O: He said the computer’s out, not the phones. This was the 80’s, perhaps they weren't synonymous at the time. I know they are now but, eh?

S: Maybe. I mean, they definitely weren't synonymous in the 90’s but I don't know about giant robots.

O: [Laughter] Yes, giant robots have different lines, or have different lines going for their computers and their phones obviously.

S: And, I mean, how is Megatron getting that camera angle? Did he set up a camera on the ground?

O: Ah, well, you see, it's the birb cam. Laserbeak, obviously, is also on the ground so he's just sort of propped him up to get the angle he wanted.

S: That is entirely conceivable, so yeah.

O: [Laughter] 

S: Megatron threatens to reprogram Shockwave for maintenance if he can't stop the humans. 

O: Not sure how he's gonna manage that if he's dead but okay.

S: Megatron will come back as a ghost and do it. He will totally do that- I mean, considering what Starscream does later. I feel like he'd go out of his way to do that.

O: I'm 100% ready to believe that Transformers can come back as ghosts later out of sheer spite.

S: Shockwave sends a giant ass robot of questionable sentience after the kids but they manage to shut a door on it and get outside, heading towards Wheeljack's lab. 

O: Carly's ankle is still giving her trouble.

S: They're doing a pretty good job of showing her limping throughout all this- and then Spike picks her up and carries her because-

O: [sings] Macho! Macho man! 

S: [Snicker] Yep, they wanted- wanted to do that. And then Carly spots a shadow nearby but it runs away.

O: It was clearly Swoop, guys. It was cleary Swoop.

S: Well, maybe Carly hasn't had enough interaction with them but Spike really should recognize their silhouettes.

O: Swoop saved their asses in the last episode when Grimlock tried to smash them, remember? 

S: That is true. Then again, she may not have a whole lot of- they're also on another planet and she may think that this is just another robot that may have a similar silhouette.

O: That's- that's fair, I mean, to be fair there's a lot going on right now. 

S: Yeah and when you're in pain you're not concentrating as well as you can- or you could otherwise.

O: Also true.

S: So, at this point, they reach Wheeljack's lab and Carly manages to get them in by using the control pad on the door. She is a super genius cuz alien languages.

O: I mean Chip managed it, she managed it- they're both geniuses.

S: Yep and so they hear something or someone banging on the ceiling from outside and Spike manages to grab a spare gun out of a closet.

O: And, yet again, we have the teenager with a giant robot sized weapon.

S: That is bigger than him.

O: And he shoots it before the commercial break.

S: [Laughter] We return and Spike shoots the mysterious shadow that's come through the ceiling because, of course, the- the ceiling is caving in.

O: And, naturally, the shadow is poor Swoop.

S: All Swoop wants is an adult.

O: Him and the rest of us. Uh, he tells Spike- by Spike, I mean, the audience- that the Dinobots were caught almost immediately after coming through the space bridge.

S: Yeah, Swoop was able to get away because he remembered that he could fucking fly and, unfortunately, the others didn't.

O: No, they did not. Teletraan 1 directs the group to the Cybertonium pits and they head out.

S: But not before a Spike realizes that Carly is no longer limping and she just replies, “I- I think it's better.”

O: That is not how any of this works.

S: They wanted to push that romance angle.

O: Ugh, through the power of love your ankle will heal itself. Through the power of having a man around, your ankle will heal itself! 

S: Well. I suppose it is kind of conceivable that not having her weight on it for a little bit of time might have made it feel a bit better but it shouldn't have helped that much.

O: Yeah, yeah, like if feeling better would be fine but she's walking normally after this, like the entire rest of the episode.

S: Yeah, cuz I remember when I screwed up my ankle earlier this year and it was like, “Ha, ha, ha- No!” That would not work. Once outside, Swoop scoops them up so they don't have to climb up some giant robot sized stairs.

O: Aww, Swoop you're a sweetie!

S: He is, indeed, the sweetest dude.

O: The three get on some sort of mass transit vehicle and head down a tube.

S: It's a surprisingly small mass transit vehicle for being a mass transit vehicle, and they get flipped around and they end up thinking though they're gonna go up.

O: Spike even makes a NASA reference. 

S: They go- vooooooo- down instead.

O: [Laughter]

S: Backwards. It sounds- it would honestly- it would be super unsettling, and Swoop is confused as to why the humans are upset.

O: Spike says it's because, “They've left their stomachs up there!”

S: And Swoop is quite happy to not have a stomach.

O: Understandable. They get stopped when the tube ahead of them is broken.

S: So, Swoop just- well, they get out and Swoop picks a direction and starts walking, and then they come across some inactive robots, and Carly makes the leap that they're the Autobots ancestors.

O: Or they could just be like the Sentinel drone thing Shockwave was using but okay and then after that five-second scene we move on.

S: And then they, apparently, set off some ancient booby traps that involve axes. 

O: Swoop gets clipped in the wing but is otherwise okay...

S: Foreshadowing!

O: [Laughter] 

S: Then they almost get smooshed because walls that start closing in on them but um, Swoop just smashes a hole through the wall and they walk right on out.

O: Then some heat-seeking missiles come after them.

S: Ooooh, Swoop transforms and attempts some fancy flying to get away from the missiles but they all end up crashing to the ground before he suddenly remembers he can transform.

O: Yes, I know he just transformed from robot mode but he didn't remember he could transform back into robot mode. Just- just don't ask. Just don't ask.

S: Like, he had some issues with his wing.

O: Yeah.

S: And then he just shoots the missiles with his own that pop out of his chest. 

O: Never mind that he has some on his arms but I guess that would be too obvious.

S: They didn't want to deal with having to animate them being gone, maybe? 

O: Just have them regenerate or something! Or pop back out after, I don't know.

S: Yeah, so they arrive at some sort of outdoor area before entering a room that has some sort of viewing screen that looks, weirdly, like Shockwave’s head. 

O: Then we get a mini history lesson that, I am utterly convinced, is also narrated by Frank Welker. Did Megatron moonlight as a documentary narrator at some point? 

S: Maybe.

O: Regardless, some of Shockwave’s Sentinel bots arrive and take the kids captive.

S: And they talk. That's a person!

O: Well, I guess that's our precedent for Vehicons in Prime, then.

S: I guess? Yeah. And, so, getting captured was somehow the best way they have for finding the Dinobots because they basically get escorted to them. Except something is clearly wrong as all of the Dinobots appear to be happily working for the Decepticons.

O: Carly manages to fix them by comparing their circuits to Swoops’ and realizing the Decepticons have bypassed their memory circuits.

S: They're also at the Cybertonium pits.

O: Yes, conveniently, of course. Plot contrivance.

S: Yes, yes, yes and due to Carly fixing the circuit issue they all thank her.

O: She's already an honorary Dinobot now. That's my headcanon, thank you, thank you very much!

S: Yep. Spike and Grimlock- So they come up with a sneaky, sneaky plan.

O: Of course!

S: Spike- Spike and Grimlock stage a fight to get the force field/fence dropped.

O: All the Dinobots then transform and melt the Sentinels.

S: They escape and head towards a tube with no car. 

O: When Spike points this out Grimlock says, “Me Grimlock need no car,” and picks Spike and Carly up as all the bots enter the tube.

S: Well, I mean, they can fly so-

O: I- yeah, they seem to just sort of be carried up to through the tube. I don't know if they're actually flying or not, or if the tube’s doing it, to be honest.

S: I don't know, but I wouldn't really trust the tube with a human. On their own.

O: Also true. 

S: Sparkplug and Teletraan have managed to hack into the Decepticon computer and changed the spacebridge’s destination, unbeknownst to Shockwave. I have a number of questions about this and I’m never going to get any answers.

O: I was about to say- Sparkplug, most interesting man in the world, knows how to hack computers! [Laughter] Unless that was completely all Teletraan!

S: Eh, could have been. I don't know.

O: And then, apparently, Shockwave this entire time was but a tube ride away from the Dinobots.

S: They took so long to get down there.

O: Obviously, the- the writers wanted us to see the scenic sites of Cybertron.

S: Well, we had to get some sort of exposition in here.

O: Hm-mmm.

S: Oh, the group arrives in Shockwave’s control room and Swoop knocks him over as they all get into the space bridge.

O: Poor Swoop loses part of his wing for the trouble but he does manage to get in with everybody else.

S: Oh, that's a relief. Well, not losing the wing, but him getting in with everyone else.

O: Yeah.

S: So they arrive back on- back at earth with a little trouble.

O: Well, a little additional trouble, anyway.

S: Yeah, afterwards Optimus makes Spike and Carly honorary Autobots and just tells the Dinobots, “Good job.”

O: Where's their medals? Why is he like this?

S: Poor kids. Optimus is not the best dad.

O: No, no. Wheeljack and Ratchet are reasonably good dads, though. They- I hope they gave their Dinobots some hugs after this.

S: Yeah. 

O: So, what's- what's our important takeaway for today, Specs?

S: Take your vitamins and eat your veggies, kids.

O: Otherwise, you, too, may fall from the sky and have to rely on a bunch of Dino babies to save your ass.

S: Maybe.

O: And join us next time for: Blaster Blues! It's one small step for bots, as everybody ends up on the goddamn moon and things get supreme. Omega Supreme. 

S: [Laughter] Yes, and we have some fanfic recommendations for today one from me and one from Owls. So my recommendation is: “The Light and the Smile” by KoiLungFish. It's in the G1 cartoon continuity, it's rated T, it's Gen because there aren't any pairings, uh, there's, yeah, no pairings, and it's entirely original characters, so your mileage may vary. In summary, “A group of failed Decepticons is sent to a remedial training base. Unfortunately, something has followed them.” 

S: It's an all OC cast and it's got some really interesting world building and, like, culture exploration for the Decepticons.

O: Which, quite frankly, there needs to be more of and there's like, none in a lot of continuities.

S: Yeah, this was actually one that I was planning on having as a fic rec for that episode where Megatron gets everyone's power rectifier chips.

O: Hmm.

S: Because that sort of thing is actually, like, relevant to the plot of this fic.

O: Oh, gotcha. 

S: And so the character/theme rec uh, or for why I chose it is like- remember that room with the bodies from the episode? It made me think of this.

O: Oh, that's, again, just not- that- that- that bodes well. That bodes well. That sounds healthy.

S: And, also, the power rectifier stuff but that's not especially relevant to this episode except that the Decepticon- or yeah, not really relevant. Well, it's also the fact that that Decepticon, sort of, grunt or whatever, that- the fact that was a person, also made me think of this, because that character I don't think anyone's explored. 

O: Yeah.

S: And it's the one shot. [It is not a one shot, it is a complete fic with four chapters, if I remember right. ~Specs] If there aren't any the- KoiLungFish didn't do anything else in- with these characters as far as I'm aware.

O: Gotcha.

S: It's a well-written, entertaining story and I would definitely recommend it. So let's go to Owl's pick.

O: My wildcard pick for today is “Confirmation” by Interstellar_Child. It is in the IDW continuity, it is G, it is slash, it is Minimus Ambus/Megatron, and they are our two characters for this. And, in summary, “The phrase, “Can you confirm it,” used over the different points of their relationship.” It's a one-shot, it's short, it's sweet. I just sort of picked it for my random ones because I like MiniMegs.

S: Okay, that sounds like it's neat.

O: I said, it's just sort of short, sweet, and quite frankly, sometimes, though, it's the only kind of fics I can focus on right now. 

S: Yeah, it's just like that sometimes.

O: It just be like that. Yep.

S: And that about wraps it up for us today.  Remember to check us out on Tumblr or Pillowfort as Afterspark-Podcast for any additional information, show notes, or links we may have mentioned.  You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at AftersparkPod (all one word) and various other locations by searching for Afterspark Podcast such as AO3, iTunes, Spotify, and Youtube, just to name a few.  And feel free to send us questions on Tumblr, or Youtube, or AO3!  Till next time, I'm Specs.

O: And I’m Owls.

S: Toodles

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