#but back to wfc - i like it and it makes a lot of sense as to why starscream does try his best to 'rescue' megatron in wfc because they are

[cosmics-beings]

"You think that's funny you animal, no one gets to laugh at me. I have survived millions of years of abuse and humiliation, I am meant to rule"

I like that starscream's push for wanting to be ruler isn't necessarily stemming from power but more so, he doesn't want to be stuck in the same position he was ever again. it is stemmed from the abuse and humiliation he's gone through over the years and that has made him a cold and selfish person.

i like how he actually references abuse that he goes through in WFC because he honestly never does.

it makes me wonder of sentinel had abused him in the past idk

[blueikeproductions]

Y’know thinking it over, I think one of the reasons TFONE failed, after looking at other comments, is it ultimately did nothing new. The marketing didn’t help, but I���ve noticed a lot of people be irritated at the modern 13 Prime concept and the more modern political bent (no longer Cold War inspired, but instead some mild identity politics and heavier ideological differences that modern audiences have notably struggled with) persisting, and this movie does little to change that.

The Bayformers films, love ‘em or hate ‘em, ultimately tried new things: The Allspark, reinventing the Prime mythology for its canon, Sentinel Prime as the best villain the series had, a group of ancient Autobot Knights that Optimus was apparently part of alongside the Dinobots, and so forth.

What did TFONE actually offer that was new?

Well.

Not much.

It was a complete retreading of the Aligned backstory we’ve been given for the past decade or so: Optimus and Megatron were former friends that overthrew a corrupt system that Megatron kept rebelling against, starting the Great War.

The same story that Prime did, that Cyberverse did, that IDW did, that Netflix WFC did, sure a few things were reshuffled but it’s the same, slagging story. TFONE even recycled Sentinel Prime as the main antagonist again, his motives not that dissimilar from his Spock adjacent counterpart.

People complain about the Great War being over done, but that’s clearly not stopping people eagerly tuning into Skybound’s version of it as of typing. General audiences, like it or not, vastly prefer the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, they don’t care about Grunkle Vegeta Megatron, his younger years as D-16 and his tumultuous friendship with Orion Pax.

The only thing new TFONE technically did was better establish Optimus and Megatron as being good friends originally. Aligned and the other series did a terrible job with this, with it ping pinging between Megatron already being power hungry and insane, he just hid it better, to him and Optimus being written as a couple who had a bad break up but can’t get over each other. TFONE still leans towards the later, not helping current situations but at least you do legitimately feel bad this time the friendship fell apart. The friendship was actually believable, that was the strength, but alas most people don’t really like the idea of Prime and Megs being friends.

It’s why I still feel the upcoming Age of Primes toy line will struggle, because once again, the 13 Primes are not a well known aspect of the lore, and modern shows haven’t done a great job at fleshing out Solus or Quintus, and stuff often falls back on Alpha Trion, a character from the old cartoon that people simply are more familiar with.

We desperately need to flesh these characters out better, we need to go back to a Vector Prime befriends the modern kids and Autobots plot for each Prime to make sense of them going forward. That’s the only way new fans will get to know them better and actually care.

As for TFONE, with current problems at Hasbro and Paramount, it’s not looking likely this story continues, but whether it inspires cartoons and comics after EarthSpark anyway we don’t know. Clearly the plan was to use TFONE as a springboard for future content, but it simply didn’t make money to justify it. If Hasbro is satisfied with it doing well on Paramount+, then maybe it evens out, but I legitimately believe the core problem has been trying to make the Aligned canon stick to most modern media when it clearly isn’t. I think we need a new approach, keep the Primes if you want, but don’t slavishly have it be the EXACT same story with them in each movie, comic or cartoon. TFONE DID modify the Prime backstory so that’s a good step, but whether they take that for future cartoons we don’t know.

[skelltan]

a proposal for shockwave's new alt mode

my last transformers post did wild so i guess i should post more about transformers

i feel like 3 quarters of the og major decepticons are always into question, "what should their new alt mode be?" due to toy laws not allowing guns and some people thinking soundwave's og form is outdated - i disagree, but that's not what we're here to talk about

i wanted to focus on everyone's favorite logical, scheming decepticon - shockwave. i don't know if it's just me but it feels like out of the 3 guys mentioned, shockwave always gets the short end of the stick.

megatron has a few accepted alternatives, most commonly accepted to be a tank. soundwave often is just a land vehicle like a van. shockwave i feel hasn't really settled on anything. the best we have is the crab turret thing and its alright but i dunno. doesn't feel the best. so what else can we do?

stealth fighters aren't used a lot in transformers and i think it fits the sort of logical tactician type and the "decepticons as flyers" thing - the only problem is you'd have to radically alter shockwave's bot mode. which would be fine if we wanted a radically different take, but what about something more in line with the classic look?

a spaceship? it allows him to stay in space like most incarnations and be more in line with his cybertronian roots. well, we already have that with wfc trilogy and probably others and i don't know about you but i don't love it. i'm not totally opposed to spaceship shockwave, but i don't like any of the official designs we've gotten - and it still feels like it's missing something.

so... how about a satellite/orbital cannon? we retain the space aspect, and it makes even more sense for him to constantly be in space, observing the scene below and making plans while staying out of immediate battle - but if he does need to fight, he can have a giant space laser, which calls back to his original laser gun form.

there's also the fact we have had a satellite decepticon before - soundwave. i get what they were going for, but i feel like for the reasons mentioned, it fits shockwave much better.

i also feel like it wouldn't impede on his botmode design too much - at worst there might be some kibble for the satellite mode but i think you could make it look weird and alien, like armor maybe. you could also keep his laser arm as the bottom of the satellite.

so, what do you think? do you agree? disagree? do you have a different form in mind? any ideas for other bots that could have better updated alt modes? feel free to reply >:)

[blueikeproductions]

I’m not sure what I expected, but this exceeded it. I couldn’t articulate what it reminds me of, but @horror-lady00 said it reminded her of the 3D He-Man cartoon and yeah that’s a pretty apt comparison! Taking the base material started from Aligned and going its own direction with it which is so much better than Cyberverse and WFC having near identical backstories on the origins of the war and loss of the Allspark. So very dull & uninspired. This on the other hand is superior in every way.

For starters the main conflict appears to be the invasion of the Quintessons.

This dude about to choke slam Sentinel has serious G2 Liege Maximo vibes and I want MORE. Also I like that Sentinel is blue, has a chin and isn’t orange. I wonder if the TFWiki’s Trump jokes on IDW G1 Sentinel made Hasbro go “Eeeh, let’s go with the TFA Sentinel for this one just to be safe.” Aligned also featured its Sentinel (Zeta) as being inspired by TFA Sentinel, so they may be just relying more on Aligned for some ideas, than the relatively boring orange Optimus design he had in IDW.

I think most of us just expected the film to be Megatron’s rise to power, and while a scene later on shows Megatron as he typically is with a Decepticon badge, the inclusion of the Quintessons throws a wrench in things. If it does well, another movie or cartoon series will probably go more in depth on Megatron’s rise to power, because I don’t see the movie handling Quintessons AND Megatron’s baby steps at the same time well.

One thing that sticks out the most is how Cybertron on its surface is depicted.

While I was fine with it back in Beast Machines & Galaxy Force, I’ve always been a little iffy on making Cybertron (partly) organic outside of that. It’s way too easy just to make Cybertron into Earth but Robots!, and it’s something Cyberverse in particular did very lazily. These at least look visually interesting. The still mostly metal surface having (mechanical?) plant life stubbornly growing on it. It certainly implies either way this version of Cybertron may have had organic origins like in Beast Machines, which I find interesting. The scenery is also well done even though I feel like these environments make more sense of them being on Earth and navigating it with Spike, Chip & Carly.

Also we get a look at what appears to be Airachnid, Starscream & The Waves.

And they look magnificent. No idea what role Airachnid has to play, but it’s nice to see she’s included.

Also these guys crop up a lot. Cybertron security I presume. They heavily resemble the silver Vehicons from Prime mixed with the Badgeless from IDW. I assume they Transform into jets because of the wings.

One thing that comes to mind is the base concept of lowly workerbots fighting to get to the surface. It’s surprisingly reminiscent of the original Bomberman storyline, though Orion and Megs have a far better go at it than Shirobom did.

This is shaping up to be a very fun film, but my main gripe is I don’t like this Bumblebee.

They’re trying WAAAAY too hard to make him funny, and he’s irritating, not endearing in the trailer. If this take on Bee fails to resonate, it’d be funny if this forces him to retire for awhile vs Bayformers bringing Bee back on the map. It also doesn’t really work having Bumblebee be the same age as Orion, as his whole schtick is being the plucky son/kid brother of the Autobots. It would actually make far more sense if this was Dion. If RotB managed to make Mirage popular and likable, this could be the case for Dion too, but he makes a heroic sacrifice, dies, and his Cog recovered and passed on to a young bot in B-127 Optimus rescues for the sequels.

I think the only deterrent here besides it being a cartoon movie, as adult fans expected an adult animated movie on par with IDW’s political bents and the WFC game duology, it’s pretty clear this is 110% made with children in mind. Transformers has struggled somewhat in getting kids to resonate with it after Rescue Bots & Robots in Disguise 2015. They largely were uninterested in Cyberverse & EarthSpark, they did show up for Bumblebee but I’m not sure on Rise of the Beasts, but I imagine they were more interested in it than EarthSpark.

This is the last shot for many reasons. Skybound won back the audiences IDW lost, and this has to be the thing that wins back kids and teens. It also has to be a win for a dying Paramount because Turtles & Sonic, like IDW, is the best they got, and they know it. This is Transformers’ Mutant Mayhem if all goes well, lest it joins EarthSpark as being the Rise of the TMNT of the brand (and I say that being a fan of Rise).

Hey everybody, it's the Transformers: One trailer! Basically a massive screen test to see who will replace numerous voices in the franchise, and an origin story that involves two miner buddies named Orion Pax and D-17 journeying to the surface to launch a rebellion against the Quintessons. The film hits theaters on September 20th.

[needs-to-stop-looking-at-valves]

Transformers Siege (WFC) character review!(2/2)

Red Alert!!;

He was more involved with Elita’s team towards the end of season two. I wasn’t gonna talk about him, but looking back- Red Alert is not only a FINE piece of ass, not only does he get a good one liner involving his own name, but this dude just fucks. Like he's got that vibe. 7/10 for sexy doctor vibes and contributing to shit to the team.

Ultra Magnus!!;

Okay, Ultra Magnus kinda swapped roles in the same way Skyfire does. As in, his relationship with Megatron is a LOT like Optimus’s and Megatron’s relationship in tfp. As in, Ultra Magnus still cares for Megatron so much, he becomes Megatron’s prisoner, and even refuses to shoot him. He’s stubborn, but in a noble sense. 7/10, because he gave Megatron such a middle finger before he died, and I love it when a character does that.

Sound Blaster!!;

This dude was in ONE episode. And I loved him in it. You kidding? Big boss dude that has a Soundwave complex from being one of his clones? Loved him. Good colors, pretty good voice, and I kinda wished he was a recurring bad guy, because mob boss characters just fucking get to me. 7/10.

Peg leg!!;

Not his official name, and he’s a minor character. But I still wanna talk about him, because of the ark he plays in Megatron’s story. To cut it short, Peg Leg was a bot who worked at one of the power plants for Megatron, and he was SO devoted to him. Like he REALLY felt the cause with him, felt as if Megatron was some sort of savior to him. Seriously, this episode, this CHARACTER, gave me so much angst, it really, REALLY hurt to see him essentially be killed off for Megatron’s plan. He’s cute, I love him, he’s IMPORTANT to Megatron’s story, 8/10, still not fucking over it.

Skylynx!!;

Another character that only came out in one episode, I still wanted to address him and his ark for Optimus. He wanted to carry the Matrix, but because he was acting the hell up, Alpha Trion sent him to unspace, where he spent who knows how long reflecting on his actions. Because of this, he was able to help Optimus think, reflect, and make his way out of unspace in order to find the allspark. The episode in question was honestly kinda huge for Optimus, and I really appreciate a proud character being made to be so humble for this situation. 7/10.

Dinobot!!;

The guy we were ALL fucking excited about when he was teased at the end of season 2. This dinobot, instead of switching sides like in beast wars, stayed primarily with the predacons, up until his dying moments, and they handled his process in a very unique, and kinda fascinating way. They had Airrazor sort of talk to him about making his own choices, and I really appreciated that. I think my only complaint about his character is the fact that unless you’ve seen beast wars, you can’t fully appreciate this character as much. His VA is a bit different (not that it’s bad, I just miss the snarling), and his ending, while it did do something to me, wasn’t NEARLY as powerful as the beast wars version. At least they didn’t revive him in this one, I’ll give them props for that. 7/10. Not bad, but I prefer beast wars by a landslide (though DAMN they make him look good in this show).

Blackarachnia!!;

Sneaky fem fatale gone LESBIAN on our asses. Seriously, girl comes off as almost SCARED of hetero relationships, and while I did ship Blackarachnia and Silverbolt back in the day, I REALLY appreciate seeing her not only calling Arcee cute, but SMOOCHING Airrazor. Tigatron’s gf now has a gf, and everyone is okay with this. We love it, she’s sneaky, she’s gay, she’s kinky, and we WISH we could look as she does. 10/10, LOVE watching her on screen, and I wished she could smooch on the lips like she deserves.

[baebeyza]

Kingdom thoughts - Bae edition

Not gonna make individual posts this time, I watched the show at 1-3 am after sitting in a tight space for 30 hours with almost no sleep.

Just gonna share my bingo card and my thoughts under the cut! ~

No spoiler thoughts: show overall gets a 8/10 from me!

A little loose with the definition of personality for Unicron, but I did like the few scenes he had :D

Thoughts:

1. BW Megatron

Honestly? He worked. Good character, understandable motivations, nice use of references, you could really feel his affections for the Silver Megatron and how desperate he was about winning the future he fought for.

10/10, good german voice work, epic design, nice shows of the fact that he is still kind of an ass, he was STRONG, showed that he can be boss when needed, nothing to complain about, also YES, T-REX HEADPAT! xD

2. Dinobot

My brain-deprived head had trouble making sense of his actions, but overall it was fine, they could have needed more time for him though. And unlike most other BW references, I didn't like them with his character - the refs they used from "Code of Hero"...ike, that BW episode has a lot of build-up plot-wise and character-wise. The quotes matter a lot in that episode.

It just doesn't fit or have the same amount of weight as they thought they would in Kingdom. The honour quote didn't even make much sense context-wise.

But overall, nice enough. 8/10

3. Primal

10/10, loved him so much. Every scene with him was epic, the way he was written was great - Snarky, sarcastic at times, far less patient and calm than Prime, still a great leader who cares and doesn't take any shit! <3

4. Prime

I do love his story of WFC overall - he made one mistake that he admits to, goes through a lot to fix it and he did fix it and came out with a better future for it. Loved his last moment with Elita, loved the moments with the Allspark, and I loved his dynamic with Primal! 8/10

5. Megatron

He went unhinged as fuck, was still regal and sweet, loved a lot about him! As always, the angst he has about doing what he does was great! I especially loved the scene in the forest when the disk told him that he got lost, tried to go back to look a the road he took from another angle, but he refused to do it.

He went his way until he got defeated, and Starscream being the one who finally got him out of his one-way route was so sweet! 15/10

6. Goddamn disappointments

So, coming back to Megatron...I think I explained my problem well on discord:

7. Mainly comes to my problem with MAGNUS...yall know I am a MagsMegs shipper, but they could have fixed the problem with Megatron's angst coming to a closure with having him have a last moment with Magnus, just like Prime had with Elita.

It is clear that he feels guilty and horrible for the Death of Magnus, similar to how Prime felt responsible for everything else.

And Prime got closure at the end, while Megatron did not.

He should have had a moment of choosing to fight Galvs and Nemesis because he realised that his past deeds were wrong, and doing that with Magnus would have been a good representation of it all.

Like, I get that he might have gotten over his pride and selfishness which is representated by him choosing to save Cybertron over saving his own future, but still...!

They gave him such amazing angst, but just didn't end it in a satisfying way! Let him have peace with it in some way!

Oof.

7. Six episodes are not enough

I've been saying this since Siege - plot is good, characters are good, but in neither season have six episodes been enough to really flesh it out real good.

WFC is plot upon plot with no filler, and filler is usually needed to show give the characters more personality and show-case them in some way. Show us what makes them the character they are, what makes them unique.

WFC didn't have that, and you are left with having to draw the characterisations out of their plot relevance. And if you aint plot-relevant, you almost got no personality at all.

As far as I know, this isn't a WFC-specific problem though, as many shows have decided that 5-8 episodes are enough and we don't need more.

And I guess some stories manage with that limited time - WFC did not.

I still loved it, but they could have made it much better if they had more time.

Anyway, expect some art and stupid comics in the future - I will defend this show's and my own honour by contributing to it with content! <3

[earthstellar]

Cybertron’s Colony Worlds: Paradron

So, if you’re a toy collector, you probably saw the Ratchet and Lifeline Paradron Medics pack as part of the War for Cybertron releases: 

But what is Paradron, and who is Lifeline (the mint Arcee repaint on the left above)? 

Lifeline: Paradron Medic 

We see her first in G1; I will go over her key episode in more detail below. 

Generally, the Paradon medics seem to be femme bots, with the same frame type and paint job across each of them for a more uniform look. They are based on Arcee’s animation model, so the toy being a re-paint of the same model makes sense. 

In the War for Cybertron background information, Lifeline is a Cybertronian refugee who fled to Paradron at the beginning of the war.  She is one of the last surviving members of the Paradron Medic Corps by this time, and doesn’t trust Ratchet until he works with her to care for a few patients; She then provides him with the energon supply he was looking for. 

Paradron’s Planetary Cultural Background

In the G1 episode Fight or Flee, we’re introduced to Paradon as Pacifist society; They have a significant abundance of energon, partially owing to the fact that they never had to deplete their resources for war. 

Their planet is stated to run on a Democratic principle of government, which contrasts significantly to most depictions of Cybertron, which leans from Traditional Monarchy (a Prime as a spiritually appointed leader in a lineage of holy Primal figures) to Functionism (a class/caste system based around alt-mode ranking). 

They do have a carceral (prison) system, despite a seemingly more peaceful society and culture, so there are likely some unseen social issues. 

They are staunch Pacifists, which means they do not engage in conflict/combat regardless of circumstance; This is unfortunately the usual take on Pacifists that we see in media, when in reality Pacifism can be manifested as a complex ideology based on contextual circumstance and wider influences, which is a bit shallow, but I know this is an 80s kid’s cartoon. 

Fight or Flee Episode Key Points: The One Episode Where Rodimus Genuinely Made Horrific Decisions

Due to this staunch Pacifism, the Decepticons invade by force and start to use the population as an unwilling labour force/slaves. 

The Autobots, with centuries of war and a lack of nuance, force weapons on the Paradons (who have never handled weapons before), and don’t bother with addressing their cultural ideology before encouraging them to join the battle. 

(I understand that this is a children’s show in the 80s and they only have 30 minutes per episode to have a self-contained story unfold, but as a Quaker with Pacifist beliefs, it still irritates me a bit that none of the Autobots ever discuss what could be learned from Paradron’s successes and failures, and they make no effort to engage with local bots to discuss Pacifism and philosophical tenants that may prevent further or future harm from coming to Paradron. But this is fully just my perspective on this.)  

The most egregious part of this episode is when Rodimus orders Ultra Magnus to destroy the planet, to prevent it from falling under Decepticon control. 

The logic they use to justify this action is that “Paradrons are Cybertronians, and can live on Cybertron”, but this reeks of coloniser energy-- especially as this planet is already a direct colony of Cybertron-- and it’s really, really rough to watch. The planet is vaporised; It vanishes from among the stars. 

The Paradronians were not asked their opinion on whether or not this option would be worth it to them; They lost their homeworld and will be forced into a culture based around war. 

Sandstorm has regrets, and calls the planet beautiful even as it dies. Rodimus replies with an oddly vicious statement: “Cybertron is better, anyway.” Yikes.

Conclusion: 

I like the idea of Cybertron’s colony worlds; There are many, and each one is very distinct. In IDW, we get Caminus, which seemed to use some of the ideas for Paradron in that they generally avoided the war entirely as well. 

There’s a lot of potential to use the existence of these colony worlds to discus some pretty interesting stuff, or some pretty deep concepts. Given that TF is a franchise ostensibly for children, we rarely see this covered much outside of the IDW 2005 comics, but it’s fascinating that there are so many colonised planets out there. 

The implications of these colonies existing, the reasons for their abandonment or lack of contact (which varies from series to series), and the difference in planetary cultures is even more interesting in contrast with Cybertron and what we see of the main characters-- And how they react to the differences between themselves and their colony counterparts. 

I think Paradron has a lot of potential to be re-visited, and I was thrilled to see WFC form a little duo with Lifeline and Ratchet. 

Even if they don’t go back to Paradron, given the way the above episode ended, it would be interesting to see the Paradronian people afterwards; Trying to cope with the aftermath, how they were received on Cybertron, whether or not they are able or willing to engage with Cybertronian society given what happened to their planet, etc. 

[gogogobarry]

[originally from here] Anonymous asked: To the Mun, what do you think about the Sinnoh remakes/prequels?

Thanks for the question, anon!! Before offering my two Pokedollars, I’ll offer this disclaimer: Pokemon’s fourth generation is my favorite in the series. And yes, there’s nostalgia tied in with that–I’ll never forget using Nintendo WFC (no more cables!) to battle with my friends, raid the GTS, and fool around in the Underground. Diamond and Pearl introduced me to EV training, shiny hunting, and Shoddy Battle (now Showdown.) It turned my enjoyment of Pokemon into a near-obsession, and I still haven’t looked back!

So, I’m naturally excited for the remakes and the Legends prequel. I’m not the biggest fan of the graphics for either game, but I’m also determined to keep an open mind as we learn more about their development. Heck, my favorite region is coming to Switch, and who can say no to open world Pokemon? I’m so in for both games.

While I do love DPPt, I know that the games aren’t perfect–it can be a slow, sometimes frustrating journey through Sinnoh (snow/mud patches, the fog mechanic, saving a lot of data, Blissey’s health bar, etc.). I hope the remakes plan to streamline some of that slog. And for both games, I really, really hope that we will have access to a complete Pokedex again. Having unavailable slots in SwSh was…weird.

Also, I’m (somewhat) naively looking forward to these new games because I’m hoping to recapture even some of those wonderful memories growing up…and, if I’m being honest, I know these games won’t bring my childhood roaring back. Pokemon feels like it’s being powered exclusively by nostalgia lately–just look at any of their trailers, videos, or intros to every Pokemon Presents. There’s a reason why Charizard is in every game. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went hard on those Black/White memories next…it’s coming.

I think people–and even the Pokemon Company, until recently–forget that Pokemon is one of the most valuable media franchises in the world. It makes sense that TPC is finally getting their bag and cashing in with the waves of content lately. It almost feels like the end of an era. I already feel kind of overwhelmed just thinking about going abruptly from New Snap, to Brilliant Diamond, to Legends…

Sometimes, on lazy afternoons, I just want to flip open my cracked DS, pop in Diamond, and get lost in Sinnoh all over again. I can’t wait to experience even a moment of that feeling later this year. :)    

[shikai-the-storyteller]

I changed my mind, and decided I want to share some thoughts and initial impressions while I still have this show fresh on my mind, so here we go:

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Transformers War for Cybertron - Siege

The Good:

The transformation sequences, particularly the first ones we see, are so reminiscent of the stop-motion videos people do of their Transformer toys transforming, and I think that’s rather charming! I wonder if that was intentional or a coincidental side-effect of the animation style they went for.

Character traits aren’t set in stone. Although we, as a fandom, prefer certain portrayals (Starscream being a terrible gremlin, Skyfire/Jetfire being sweet, Bumblebee being a charming young lad, etc.) sometimes it’s nice to see something new! Both Cyberverse and WFC: Siege took a different direction with Jetfire’s character. Although it’s disappointing that we don’t get to see the Jetfire / Starscream friendship most of us expected, I think Jetfire’s growth throughout the season was interesting.

I also like that the colonies (Velocitron and Caminus, anyways) were confirmed to exist in this continuity. It was nice to see Chromia, Moonracer, Elita, and Arcee together in the same show too. That being said, Moonracer’s model looked exactly like Chromia’s so I was a little confused at first. The narrative also didn’t really endear her to me, so despite loving her in the comics, my thoughts were “Oh. That sucks but whatever I guess” when she died, which leads me to my next point:

The Bad:

The writing. 

This is particularly evident in the first three episodes; in fact, I almost stopped watching after Episode One. Siege lacks the soul and personality I’ve come to expect from the Transformers series as a whole. 

The script, particularly in the first few episodes, felt like it was written by people who aren’t familiar with these characters, so they’re writing Optimus, Elita, and everyone else how they EXPECT them to sound, not writing them as they actually are.

I don’t like to judge fellow writers too harshly because I know that often times, they don’t get a final say in a lot of things, but there were unfortunately a lot of things that could’ve been done better. 

As a Transformers fan, I’m already inclined to like the characters, but the show didn’t do much to make me really care about them or their problems* (with one exception, which I’ll circle back to). As much as I’d like to blame the 6 episode time-crunch, there was a lot of wasted dialogue time that could’ve been used to charm the audience. 

TLDR: There’s a lot of talking in the show but the dialogue doesn’t actually say a lot. It doesn’t reveal much about the characters, or tell me who they are, or why I should care about them.

* The one area where Siege actually did put in the footwork to make me care was in regards to Impactor and Ratchet (one of the few characters whose personality we really get a sense for despite not having too much screen-time). Immediately, we’re shown how Ratchet earned Impactor’s trust, and we see why Impactor is loyal to him. They built up that relationship, so when Impactor dies protecting Ratchet, we get to feel that payoff and actually feel bad about his death! (Unlike some of the other deaths in the show, which I just shrugged at.). Because of that scene, I’m hopeful that Siege will start focusing on building relationships between their characters more. The series got better as time went on, so I’m inclined to keep giving it the benefit of the doubt despite my initial misgivings.

I try not to compare different series too much because there are a lot of outside forces that determine what a show winds up being, but re: writing with a time crunch, I think it’s important to talk about a show that did use their time well: Transformers Cyberverse.

Cyberverse got me invested in its characters within the first episode. They only had 10 minutes to tell a story, yet they made good use of their time and wove a tight narrative while also giving their characters the opportunity to charm the audience. 

Although we can argue Cyberverse had more time to do this since they had more seasons, even one-off characters, such as Media Fire or Wild Wheel, had more of a personality by the end of the episode than some Siege characters did by the end of the season.

The stakes aren’t really clear. Why should we care about one side losing or winning? We’re given some reasons why it would be “bad” if the Autobots lose since Shockwave convinced Megatron to use something that will change their base programming (or whatever, even that was a little bit vague) but ultimately we don’t have clear motivation for Megatron OR Optimus, the two faction leaders! Although they imply that Megatron / the Decepticon’s roots were based in a civil rights revolution (a-la IDW1) even that is inconsistent. As a friend put it, “Megatron and Optimus are both huge idiots, why root for either of them?”

This is a minor thing, but as a writer it really bugged me so I’m making a note of it anyways: it was really annoying when characters kept pausing while talking. (Ex:  “I………*long pause* [the rest of their sentence]”). Characters also kept saying things, only to let their sentences trail off. The cadence of their voices felt unnaturally slow and scripted, so it was a little difficult not to zone out while they were speaking. Perhaps this wasn’t a problem for other people, but it really took me out of the moment. That being said, this wasn’t as much of an issue in later episodes, which I greatly appreciated.

Another minor detail: this show felt like a barren wasteland of comedy. There were one or two moments I chuckled at (and one I really laughed at---Shockwave and Soundwave’s reaction to Megatron telling Starscream “You’ve proven your worth to the Decepticon cause”) but for the most part, I would’ve appreciated a little bit more humor. I mean, I know this series is aimed at an older audience, but it’s a show about robots that can transform into cars. The entire premise is goofy if you think too hard about it, so a joke here or there isn’t going to ruin your vibe.

The Ugly

Decepticons and Autobots are two different races.

Even within the first few episodes, we know the foundation of the war started because of issues of oppression and slavery. This isn’t subtle---Megatron clearly spells this out for us on several occasions. This topic isn’t new, we’ve seen most other Transformers continuities parrot the same thing. So why is it different here? It’s a bit of a complex issue, but as a gal of color, it really rubbed me the wrong way, and I feel like it’s important to talk about.

The show implies many times that Autobots and Decepticons are inherently different. It’s not a matter of your allegiance or your beliefs---it’s what you’re born as. (Functionism, anyone?) 

Functionism itself was a very interesting Transformers-specific way to discuss prejudice and oppression, but to suddenly make it race-based feels a little...Hmm. More than a little uncomfortable.

It felt a little bit like they were saying: "Yes, we're tackling the topic of oppression! Yes, we're saying these two groups are inherently different, and therefore that excuses prejudice and supremacy arguments both the good guys AND the bad guys are making!" 

Big Yikes

The subject of genocide and eugenics-adjacent arguments came up several times, and while we saw aspects of that in IDW’s run, making it race-based puts it in a different light. An ugly light.

One final thing on that note: the entire thing with Prowl. "Prisoners outnumbered law enforcement so the council created core override implants as a deterrent. [...] It means we can remotely trigger brain detonation."

I’m sorry, what?

The entire concept of “Core override” was INCREDIBLE fricked up. Yes, they had the decency to make Prowl sound ashamed of it, and the rest of the Autobots sounded appalled, but the fact that they proceed to install it on Jetfire despite their initial repulsion was frankly disturbing, especially because Optimus (Optimus PRIME) agreed to it. It felt incredibly out of character for him, and it went against the Autobot code as a whole. Everything about that, and the race-division, made me really uncomfortable, and I’m not sure how well Siege is going to handle this moving forward.

As a whole, I feel like War for Cybertron: Siege has a lot of work to do. Although the last few episodes were definitely an improvement, there’s still significant room to grow and they need to work harder to create a compelling narrative with lovable characters.

In the meantime, what were your thoughts on the series? I’d love to know how other people reacted, particularly regarding the last bit.

[curiosiccusarchived]

So I just finished watching WFC and I have some mixed feelings in regards to Jetfire / Skyfire. I’ll put them under a readmore since it’ll contain spoilers and not everyone has seen the show yet!

All right, I think a lot of people (including myself) were hoping that Jetfire was going to be the same as he was in G1 or at least, stem somewhat to his old roots in that he’s a Scientist and whatnot and while that is what I wanted as well, I’m not going to lie... I did find myself enjoying this version of Jetfire very much. It’s rare we get to see him be a bad-ass, but like in a good way? If that makes sense. Which makes you wonder why I didn’t enjoy Cyberverse Jetfire then.. I’m not sure. There was just something off about him I guess. Either-way, moving on.

I liked the fact that he was the leader this time around instead of just on the side, which they’ve never done before.. which kind of surprised me. In previous versions, he was always just sort of in the background or he was just old lab partners with Starscream or vice-versa, but this time, he was a leader of an entire squad. Well.. besides him becoming leader of the Aerial Bots in G1 (did that happen or was.. not a thing? I can’t remember. I don’t think so). So anyways, he was in charge for once! Way to go baby! He was also with Megatron a good portion of the time, which meant that Megatron relied on him a lot and considered him a good ally (before he became a traitor of course...) so.. that’s awesome! I also liked the fact he was a bad ass! For once, he’s a bad ass! Like don’t get me wrong, I love when my shuttle baby is sweet, kind and gentle, but I also love when others think that just because he’s those things, he can’t kick your ass into next Tuesday. He can, he just chooses not to. So him putting Starscream in his place time and time again when he would get out of line thrilled me! I was yes! You tell him baby! Go!

I’m glad that he eventually went to the Autobots in the end. I had a feeling that was going to happen eventually because of how things were going along in the story. I’m glad he was able to prove himself to Prowl and the others that he really meant his word, that he really did want to join and protect them and reclaim Cybertron, their home, and bring back peace for everyone. 

Yeah.. I know some people are a little disappointed how things turned out. I’m so sadden that Ultra Magnus died. I legit fucking cried. I kid you not, but.. all in all, I’m really excited for this series. I’m glad to see my baby back on screen. If he dies though >8I Imma be hella pissed! I like this characterization so far. It’s not perfect, but.. I like it. So, here’s to more! Also the femmes were totally badass as well, especially Elita and Chromia! You go gals! :D

[archosaur-automaton]

Astro-Second Helpings, Episode 1: The Magnificent Six

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[blueikeproductions]

Cyberverse remains a fascinating little isolation to me. It doesn't appear to be that popular at all, outside of its budding fan base, heck it seems to be outright failing in Japan, and yet I see people parading it around as if it's the next Beast Wars. I don't particularly understand why. I can see it was a show made with love, but the story telling is all over the place. Character motivations don't make sense, pacing is all off, the weird obsession with trying (and failing) to make Megatron a hero fallen from grace like IDW? It all feels very amateurish, but devoid of the charm of a fan made product.

I do kinda feel bad for the staff as they tried their best, but were saddled with half of a half of a shoestring budget. On top of being way too ambitious, Cyberverse feels bloated with big ideas that barely go anywhere but horribly rushed to fit the 10 minute mark.

To their credit I think they did manage to tell a decent story with the Quintesson arc, as it feels like that's what they wanted to do in the first place. The lack of interest in the usual Autobot/Decepticon conflict is apparent up until now, as they clearly wanted an IDW style Anti-Vocationist League vs Functionists thing instead. It works, but it feels a bit clunky. Hot Rod and Soundwave as the Bot/Con leaders during the conflict was neat though and refreshing.

On top of a lot of post war stuff that just... kind of happens rather than feeling meaningful.

Cyberverse feels like yet another kids show trying desperately to appeal to adults despite saying for its for kids and it shows. Kids largely want nothing to do with. I see more kids look at Studio Series or Bakugan instead. Toys are constantly on clearance or are peg warming. Even discount stores like TJ Max couldn't get rid of them. The Alpha Trions had a sizable layer of dust on them! Despite Hasbro trying to capitalize on the apparent adult audience CV cultivated with the BAF line, general reports I get point to it shelf warming hard too. Those weird sets with the Quintessons and Monsterbots at Target we're whittled down to three bucks! No one is buying the toys, I'm sorry. Despite trying to trick kids by making Bumblebee the focus in the third phase, it's laughable because the yellow guy isn't even in the show much by that point. It's like Beast Hunters and Combiner Force all over again. And I imagine that will repeat itself in the next thing since it appears to be a trend now.

The only people I saw actively buying them were the show creators, and the same staff had to practically BEG the fans to support the show leagally back when people were pirating the final season. I don't think many listened and most who loved or hated it pirated the show and moved on to Siege, barely looking back.

while I do appreciate the show for trying some new spins here and there, (I rather liked how Maccadam/Alchemist Prime was a fun character, and Quintesson Starscream was neat to name a few) I think the cons outweigh the pros, and I think the fan base is slowly starting to forget about CV now that Netflix WFC is underway (mind you the general attitude is mixed to negative there too, but people seem much more happy with it than CV by leaps and bounds).

I can only hope for the moving forward, but despite the show/toys' reception being Meh to lukewarm at best, there's a rumor the next show is going to still be helmed by largely the same crew. I hope you like losing money, HasTak, because you're gonna be strapped for it if you keep going this route. (And I say this about Netflix WFC too).

with tighter writing, a better end goal, and giving the staff an ACTUAL BUDGET, Cyberverse really could've been great and worthy of its praise. Same with the toyline.

So I can only hope the toy quality improves for the next kid show thing, and offers a plot and characters kids actually WANT. Kids are sticking to the movies and RiD15 from what I saw when it comes to Transformers, so maybe combine aspects of those two if you want your target audience back.

[sternerstufftoys]

I Dream of Jeepy

There was no need for a new Hound. Or so I've heard, at least. I never managed to get my hands on a Universe (2008) Hound, for the simple reason that it was just that good that no-one ever wanted to sell them onto the secondary market. But I'm told the old one was pretty great, and even came with a matching Ravage to fill out the price point (wouldn't that have been nice, eh Cliffjumper?). And with no old Hounds to adopt from the great kennel that is eBay, anyone who missed out the first time around was kind of bereft until...

... until Combiner Wars painted Swindle green and stuck a more boring head on him, in a move hotly anticipated by nobody. Until...

Until Siege came along to give us our first dedicated Hound mould in (*checks sundial*) eleven years? Oh god, merciless passage of time, consume this aged form and let me become dust once more. After WFC has wrapped up though, obviously. But yeah, this was a strange thing to buy, fully aware as I was that I would definitely not be getting one if I'd already owned its old-enough-to-start-secondary-school cousin. But I didn't, so I did.

While a lot of the original 1984 line-up existed as a sort of indistinct blur to my infant brain, Hound was a character I actually owned as a kid! I know! Not, I should point out, the original die-cast toy from the good old days, oh no. Instead, I owned him as a horrible rubbery piece of shite known as a 'decoy'. Kids, do yourself a favour and read up on the decoys. They came packaged in with small, rubbish figures like the Throttlebots and existed just to infuriate you that a) you didn't own any of the cool characters and b) your regular toys were so gash they needed some other junk thrown in just to make them palatable. And so I learned about the cool guy who could make holograms and actually had arms and legs and stuff, rather than a broken pull-back motor and horrible flaps on either side of the torso. Throttlebots, we will get to you.

So thank god for a proper Hound. And even moreso than Sideswipe, Hound calls the whole 'Cybertronian' concept of Siege into serious question. I mean, it may not be a specific model of Jeep, but it's still a Jeep. Perhaps the Jeep of 2050 rather than 1980, but a Jeep nonetheless. The windscreen has some opaque plastic behind it, which I've elected to ignore, as it would make having a windscreen in the first place pretty pointless. And then, as soon as you start questioning one bit of Cybertronian design, the whole lot starts to get a little suspicious. Do they need tires? Do they need four wheels? Do they need to transform at all? Just let them be normal cars for goodness sake. Even back on Cybertron they must have known that they turned into the same types of cars and jets that other species already had. If Johnny Nebulon came round for tea, it'd be churlish not to let him have a ride back from the airport in your ample interior. What else is he going to do, walk? While you drive next to him? Come on Cybertronians, don't be dicks about this.

Um. Where was I? Oh yes, there was a robot mode as well. It looks nice! Very Houndy. I'd have liked a more expressive face, as the one he's been saddled with has a pretty blank stare, like he's just been told how babies are made and doesn't know how best to react. The transformation does a neat thing where both wheels fold up and end up on his calves, leaving a much cleaner and mostly kibble-free robot mode. Then of course you add kibble back on in the form of his shoulder launcher because of course you do. It was 1984. We all had silly fashion sense back then.

[rescuebot]

wfc opinions (spoilers)

-idk if this is just me but it kind of feels like i HIGH KEY have no clue what’s going on sometimes? it’s like the same problem that idw2 has where it’s lots of talking about stuff that the audience doesn’t understand the meaning behind? i feel like at the least they should have explained what the fuck the motivation for each faction is supposed to be because i’m literally so confused and i feel like as soon as i finished watching wfc all of my knowledge about what was going on plot wise got thrown directly out the window. it seems like they just throw things at u so fast that u don’t really have the time to process them but they’re also not really throwing u anything at all? maybe it’s because i’ve been a little distant from tfs recently and needed a refresher so that it would make more sense but also if i already know a bit about transformers and im feeling this way wtf is it like to have never consumed any tfs media at all and watch wfc? does this make sense to other people or has my brain just stopped making tfs make sense bc i thought we were all on the same page of idw2 not making any sense but now i feel the same way about wfc?

-i like the dynamic between jetfire and starscream tbh? i kno a lot of people are mad about it bc they would rather them have more of a g1 relationship but i think it’s interesting to see how starscream is resistant to any type of authority. since he’ll have jetfire’s job in the next season it’s going to be fun to see him then try to go after megatron’s job and i think it would be a good way to SHOW that starscream is ambitious instead of just having people say it. it’s also going to be interesting to see how megatron and starscream will interact with each other because of how megatron reacts to jetfire coming to him with starscream problems.

-some of the characters have fr no characterization whatsoever? and they also all sound really similar to each other? mirage in particular for me had a scene where he spoke to sideswipe and it kind of struck me that if i hadn’t been watching them talk to each other i would have no idea this was a conversation going on between two different characters. i feel like this is super unfortunate because those two characters especially have had very different characterizations in the past and here it feels like there’s no distinction between them.

-impactor’s death was so pointless and makes me so mad lmao. like his relationship with ratchet seemed so one sided and when he dies it seems to not even really effect ratchet at all, which could be a way to show how desensitized he is to war but up until this point ratchet doesn’t even really treat impactor differently from how he is shown and implied to treat everyone else so there’s no reason for ratchet to be super upset over impactor anyway because only impactor is the one shown to have any sort of deeper relationship with ratchet? impactor’s death loses all of the impact it could have had on the audience or on the characters because up until that point he isn’t shown to have any sort of strong relationship with any of the other characters. it would have been more meaningful to have ratchet have died in his place and use this in the next season as a reason to make impactor side more with the autobots. they fleshed impactor out more than probably any other character and then killed him without utilizing any of the work that they did. like. its only a 6 episode series and they have a pretty decently sized cast of characters that the time could have been given to in order to make the rest of the living cast more interesting but they used that time for a character they ended up killing instead? i hope this is making sense.

-it also kind of feels like they were hyping impactor up to be an eventual autobot and were giving him conflict with mirage that would later turn into like. respect but then they killed him and it’s like? why? their argument scene was the only real show of how the autobots think of themselves and how the decepticons view them and it also created conflict between the group because even though impactor is a decepticon he’s still hanging out with the autobots who aren’t shown to have any type of relationships with one another other than they are working together? there was nothing personal about them or their team at all but they also weren’t shown to have any internal conflicts within their faction and mirage and impactor having conflict with each other that spans between seasons would have been a good way to show the dynamic that exists between the autobots themselves and the one that exists between the autobots and decepticons? 

-love that decepticon high command are constantly disrespecting each other lmao. i hope we learn more about whatever is going on between soundwave and shockwave and if the cloning thing was something they both decided to do (and why) or if shockwave just decided to make soundwave clones without telling him. just the little interactions between the decepticons made me laugh

-also. i love how starscream really just gathers all the seekers together behind jetfire’s back to talk shit about him and i love the way skywarp, tc, and barricade walk away real fast when jetfire shows up and sees it. it makes u wonder what the seekers think of starscream and how well they will take his leadership.

-the mercenary thing. is really interesting and for some reason i kinda doubt it but i would love to see more about mercenaries in the show?

-i think next season will sadly focus more on bumblebee and him being apart of the autobots instead of exploring any of their other characters from this season. i think him not being an autobot is more interesting than his usual characterization but i would still like to see more from all these other characters they’ve introduced at the same time.

[chainofbeing]

Having recovered from his injuries, Adam goes to Dhara Jamina in the hopes that he will learn more about the foe he is pursuing. Unaware of what truly awaits him.

Narration and Inspiration-Besides-Death : David M. Sledge

Eikal: Erik Smith

Captain Anktares: Frances Gillard

Announcement: George Pritchard

Adam Delta 5, and Sound Design: Cai Gwilym Pritchard

Follow the podcast on twitter @/chainofbeing

Email us at chainofbeingofficial@gmail.com for enquires and stuff

Subscribe to the patreon for exclusive content and rewards!

[a deep voiced narrator speaks, the sounds of a creaking old wooden building]

It was immediately unsettling. Ghost had woken up and felt a sense of unease in their stomach but couldn't quite piece together what they were experiencing. it was only as they clunked down the hardwood stairs and persuaded the rehydration machine to actually work that they understood what was wrong. the sound of the waves had disappeared. instead of the ordinary rush of waves flinging themselves upon the scattering of unmoving and unwavering rocks there was a suffocating, deafening silence. It created a pressure in their ears which was worse than the static of thousands upon millions upon billions of water droplets falling. They had gotten used to that, they had accepted it as a daily occurrence, as anyone would do cope with monotony. They threw on their coat and swung open the lighthouse door, 

[the sound of a town can be heard lightly, wind and birds too]

 they could already feel the surface of their body begin to freeze. Ghost was 6-ft tall and fell into the third gender category of Malgaric. They had a great pair of glowing green eyes, their body criss-crossed with glowing lines of a similar colour in majestic patterns. Hovering around their head were decorations which adorned them as was customary for the Malgaric. Around their head silver horns hovered lightly above their temples and crescents followed their ears as they moved, bobbing up and down with each step. Their full name was "Ghost-of-Sunken-Dawn" however they found that their life was made much easier if they introduced themselves simply as Ghost. their full name is on their plaque of course, hung up by their sheriff's certificate and above their medals in service to the army.

Obviously they were not pondering their family name as they were charging down the semi frozen hill, their mind was preoccupied with the momentous task of trying to comprehend the unfathomable physics defying event that was taking place in front of them. Stood close to the edge of the cliff, puffer jacket zipped up to avoid the cold, Ghost stared deeply into the still wave and slowly began to feel a haze creep into their mind,

[the soft drone, permeated with shattering glass that plays forward and backward can be heard]

It toed the line between a physical and mental sensation, the strangely familiar haze seeped across their whole body as they felt themselves caught in the grip of something far greater and more complex than they could ever hope to understand. And as the birds cawed and the wind blew they felt a pulse travel from their stomach and ooze outwards to the rest of their body, a repeating pattern of four beats, and as the haze travelled outwards, ambling its way to their throat the pulses evolved, becoming incrementally more word-like, mutating from its true form into a shape far more cohesive with the reality around it. And as the haze enveloped Ghost completely, the pulses, now in the form of words, escaped their mouth and they spoke them out loud 

“Ovig Nadal!” 

and with that, Ghost was lost entirely 

[the hum of a ship interior, new and clean adam now speaks]

I stand and stare into the mirror inspecting the scar on my abdomen, the diamond shape a lighter tone then the rest of my skin. I take a moment to stare at the other scars, all manner of bumps and shapes covering my body, never quite having healed properly. I follow the trail of past fights and battles, a history of my conflicts etched into my body, my gaze eventually landing on my eyes, run through with matching lines. I stare at myself 

“you’re still human” 

I say, my warped voice and dark eyes tell a different story. All the Arcanists and scientists of the galaxy cannot explain why I look like this, my immortality is a punishment, for what I did in Eden, for learning what I did in Eden. Whatever that was. Perhaps my aberration is part of that punishment as well. “You are more than Eden,” I tell myself. 

That one I refuse to believe without any help. 

I head downstairs and In the lift, an announcement pings overhead “Could operative Adam Delta 5 please make his way to the quartermaster,” I go down an extra floor and enter the Inventory, rows and rows of shelves with all manner of equipment and supplies, there’s a row of tills each with a visored quartermaster behind it.

[the sound of an office, some light talking and typing]

 Waiting for me is what I imagine to be the captain of the ship, before she can introduce herself I interrupt her

 “I thought hospital ships didn’t have quartermasters?” the captain, a Veatorian, looks me up and down

“I am Captain Anktares, nice to meet you.” she says, annoyed but unsurprised “Recently the council felt it necessary to..” she pauses to search for the right word “elevate, certain facilities at risk to certain threats, this ship was in the way of something or other, beyond my paygrade unfortunately,”

“It’s only been a few weeks, yet you’ve already built an inventory,”

“And a fighter craft docking station in the hangar. what can I say?” she smirks “we’re Veatorians, we get things done,” 

“Careful, or you’ll start to sound like that Arestophsis Hand lot” I say half joking

she smiles tersely but says nothing and gestures to the quartermaster tills

“the council have issued you a fighter craft and a spear”

“A spear? What is this, the second dark ages?”

“It’s a very nice spear,” she reassures me. I look at her incredulously. “It’s extendable!”

[the sound of a hangar, maintenance on ships, clanging of metal, all reverberating around the space]

The fighter craft is so new it doesn't even have a name yet, the designation code is blank too. The chair screens and most surfaces are still wrapped in plastic and it hasn't been changed from the standard issue council blue and grey. I look back at the minimal storage space behind me, a bed, a few shelves of supplies and leaning against the wall, my new spear. I didn't want to admit it in front of the captain but it is a nice spear. Fully extended it reaches around 2 metres but right now it’s a nice manageable 70cm. I name the ship and the Ehedydd make its first spaceflight. It’s been a while since I’ve sat in a new ship so the lack of noise from the engine is a real surprise. 

[the engine spins up and goes silent before activating and entering the widening field]

The Ehedydd was fitted with a WFC drive so the journey should only take about an hour or two. Which gives me some time to have a look at my mission brief. I hate military procedure, all the needless jargon and detail only helps to confuse things. From what I could decipher there was a recently established colony on a small planet, just big enough to be qualified as such, by the name of  Dhāra jamīna. There wasn't a huge amount of space for the usual mega city to be constructed, due to most of the land being raised up to 7 miles above sea level, so instead most of the major settlements in the continent in question are towns with populations of around 30,000 each, each with their own sheriff. Also known as an administrative fucking nightmare. What had drawn my investigation here was the fact that the  7 mile tall waves that battered the cliffs holding up the small towns of Dhāra jamīna had stopped. They had not frozen, but had simply, paused. To add to this, there was a sheriff who was reported to be acting very strangely. An old Insistoris who was living there said it was similar to demonic possession but wrong, somehow. Sounds like what I’m looking for. The fact that he was still alive and hadn’t died or even transformed like Aiek Tubalcain meant he could be spoken to, and maybe, if i was lucky, he would speak back. 

 Dhāra jamīna is so new that it doesn't even have an Orbit to Land Transference Station, OLTraS for short, so instead I just transfer my clearance codes and go to land on a small pad at the edge of town. As I fly over the vast ocean I look into it, it’s stillness is unsettling and it amplifies the already quite strong anxiety I feel chasing after this thing. 

[the sound of a town in the distance, wind and birds]

standing at the edge of the landing pad is a Vint and a Malgaric, joint mayors of the town, the name of which I've forgotten. I take me spear and affix it to my hip 

“Welcome to Jalis,” the Vint says, offering both of his hands, I take them and we bow together, he has to bow his long spined neck quite a bit in order to match my level “I am Eikal, mayor of this small community”

“Joint mayor” the Malgaric reminds him, irritation apparent in his voice

[his voice is slightly robotic and gruff]

“I am Inspiration-Besides-Death, however for your ease of communication you may refer to me as Inspiration” in the dusk his blue light is just starting to illuminate the black soil grass at his feet.

“I thank you both,” I reply. Both mayors seem visibly uncomfortable speaking in Human, however I am physically incapable of speaking in Malgaric and my Vint is about 450 years outdated and I don’t want to seem like a weirdo. They lead me through the town,

[the town is quiet, some conversations can be heard through the walls of houses, somewhere someone is using a drill]

 the two mayors seem intent on outpacing each other, gradually getting faster and faster until I have to start jogging in order to keep up with the two who are considerably taller than me. The people seem, understandably, anxious. They were expecting a quiet life in a new colony away from the overcrowded societies of their people. It’s late in the day so most people are resting or attending to prayers. Religion has no place in the Council of Nimonea, it's not actively discouraged, but provisions aren’t really made to preserve or protect it either, it's one of the more major issues most species within the council have. Unusually for most council towns, the houses here are 2-3 stories high most likely to make up for the lack of sprawling land on which to build. The whole town is only about a mile wide. We reach the detainment building and pause outside. Eikal turns to me “I must warn you, the manifestation is quite…disturbing,”

“I have not witnessed anything quite like this, even in my military days,” Inspiration chimes in. Eikal shoots him a look, “did you not identify my assessment to be adequate?” Inspiration looks back at him, his expression unwavering “I have said my piece,”. As they argue I look off at the edge of the island at a wave, unmoving and unwavering, like a painting. 

[the ambience of a quiet office, some machines beep, overall though it is quite silent]

We enter the dimly lit building and find ourselves in an oval shaped room, the Vint draws a small tablet from within his robes and presses a few keys. The room elaborately rotates and shifts until we are face to face with the sheriff separated only by glass. They sat on a curved bench, their legs crossed. I can only tell this because the green light that covers their body pulses in beats of four, providing more illumination by which to get a sense of the room. “Why aren’t they moving?” I ask. They go to answer at the same time

“Well-”

“Well-”

They stare each other and Eikal takes advantage of the pause to speak before Inspiration can

“We placed them in a stasis field, for their own wellness you understand”  

“Why is it so dark in there?” Eikal and Inspiration turn to each other, a mild panic on their faces

“Apologies, we misplaced our realisation-” Eikal pauses and translates in his head before trying again “We forgot the humans light requirements, allow me to attend to your needs,” with a few more key presses the whole building lights up. With my newfound visibility I see what Eikal meant by ‘for their own health’ Ghost’s fingers are scratched and worn and the entire back wall of the cell has been etched into with that symbol that has brought me so much dread. Surrounding it are adornments which trace around its edges, criss cross around each other, play off of one anothers curves and angles, all centred, but never interacting with, that symbol in the middle.

[levelrazearts]

Now that some new transformers figures have been revealed, I think I'll go ahead and talk about all or most of it cause the more of it that I saw, the more interested I actually got.

Studio Series

Deluxe Tlk Drift, wow this guy looks good, from a paint standing. I still think the mold is kinda bad, and that they can definitely do better, but I'll admit they did a good job of making me want him, especially since he comes with BABY DINOS. I will for sure get him for those, and maybe update that custom voyager with the head of this guy if I want to. Otherwise I'll keep him on the secondary movie display. Also if the display is truely as big as it looks, then I'll be happy with that too.

War For Cybertron: Seige

Held off on talking about these cause I wanted to see if we would get any cons and low and behold, we got'em.

Deluxe:

Sideswipe, he looks good, a little to Earthy of a v-mode to convince me that it's Cybertronian, but I might get him. Damage paint is meh for me on all of these guys if I'll be honest so I'd probably paint them up to be not damage just saying.

Red Alert, cute boy, precious. Will get.

Hound, yes. He is a yes. Cause he looks awesome. And actually looks Cybertronian. Might get two just to show off that v-mode cause dang that's a good look.

Cog, I'll get him to stand with my Fortress Maximus, and that's it. I do think he looks great, just don't know to much about him and thus not overly excited I guess. Weapon ability thing is kinda cool.

Flywheels (Skytread), he lools good, might get him. Color scheme is very nice and he's different than the usual figure in that he has two seperate v-modes, and 1 bot mode kinda like Overlord. So yeah, maybe.

Chromia, can we please not use the Moonracer mold? It doesn't look good and needs to be reworked. Granted it's been retooled for her, namely in the feet, I still don't think having 3 rather iconic characters look the same aside from face and gun is a good idea. A skip for sure, would probably pick up the Thrilling 30 deluxe over this.

Ironhide, PLEASE GIVE ME A RATCHET RETOOL. Also YES. This guy is gorgeous, v-mode could use another panel or two but he's otherwise perfect. Definite yes on getting him.

Refraktor (Reflector), idk yet. On the one hand, get three and you can form the camera (cute) and army build, on the other, that would cost a lot just to do. We'll see what happens.

Brunt, OMG this guy is beautiful. Never heard of him but yes. He is a yes. Probably gonna army build with him.

Micro Masters:

All of them. They remind me of Minicons back from the days of Armada and that's true nostalgia for me so yes. Also Ravage and Laserbeak so cute.

Battle Masters: gonna add a note in that I'm not a fan of this kind of gimmick, even though I just said I love the minicons of the armada days, they at least combined to form the weapon with a true alt-mode still. These are just bleh.

Firedrive, no.

Lionizer, no.

Blowpipe, no.

Aimless, for the name alone, yes.

Voyager:

Optimus Prime, he looks really good, gotta say. Much better than recent attempts. Axe thing looks nice and he has his gun. Might pick him up, but also might not. Don't know yet.

Megatron, I really don't know. He looks good, but again, I don't know. Sword is a nice homage to the original figure.

Starscream, I might actually get this. He looks good, and the transformation looks intriguing in that the v-mode hides well. Also Tetrajet.

Soundwave, wow they got lazy with you bud, so sorry about that. I was hoping we'd get some kind of van of something similar to the first wfc Soundwave from the games, but nope, we get a walking cassette player that turns into a brick. Also he's covered in battle damage paint, which is a shame cause it covers the cassette holder as well and that's a clear piece. Will get him soley for Ravage and Laserbeak. Otherwise I'd pass on him.

There's a listing for Soundblaster on tfwiki, but since I haven't seen any official reveal I'm not gonna talk about him. Would probably pass on him anyways.

Leader:

Ultra Magnua, he keeps getting good figures. And he's not a retool of Optimus, what?! Downside imo is that he looks like he has to partsform to convert like the original toy so meh. Might get him as I missed out on the previous leader figure.

Shockwave........a voyager that turns into a leader with four arms? I guess I'll take him. Would probably keep the extra weapons off to the side but wow does he look good. Wished he transformers without the need of the extra weapons but hey, at least we got an actual Shockwave in the generations line that's a good size.

Titan Class

Omega Supreme, I'm waiting for you.

All in all, lot to talk about, whether I'll actually get any of these or not is yet tbd, but hey, this line looks promising. Being a fan of the cybertron games as well as the aesthetic and look as well, this is a good callback to them if more in a g1 cartoon sense. If any were to make it into my Cybertron game display, it'd probably be Brunt cause of the armybuilding look. Looking forward to see what they'll reveal next.