#but like. it feels like with Starscream Specifically it just got Worse.

[earthspark-shockwaves-reduction]

when i'm in a Character Development Fumbling Competition and my opponent is whatever fucking writers handled earthspark starscream after season one

[velvetwyrme]

which deception would have an sti AND fuck cars?

in reference to: https://www.tumblr.com/penny-anna/767952128217104384/imagine-youre-a-mechanic-in-the-transformers?source=share

okay. so. first off. anon, thank you for sending me this because the idea that you read that post and just went- "hey, you know who i should pose this question to?" and sent it to me- is hysterical and i lvoe u.

anyway theres also a Texty answer under the cut if you want to read that, because i genuinely DO have thoughts about this, but i wanted to draw that comic because this ask made me laugh very hard when i saw it in my inbox.

also, the thrilling conclusion of the comic answer:

he fucked that car!!!!!!!

hi! Texty time. I think a lot of them would have/be one but not the other (either has a STI or is a Carfucker) but i included some of those here anyway because i think my thought process was funny for some of them. this is all purely my own opinions etc. etc. no basis for anything only vibes. i went through a lot of options and came to a lot of conclusions.

to reiterate the Chart for claritys sake:

Soundwave: No STI and no Carfucking. This is true across all versions of Soundwave imo. Rumble and Frenzy are a solid no on the STI front and a solid yes on the Carfucking.

Starscream: no STI, no Carfucking (despite what Soundwave thinks). TFP!Starscream specifically might have an STI though. Sorry man. Skywarp definitely has/had a STI but gets it treated on account of his trinemates. No Carfucking. Thundercracker would fuck a car but doesn't have an STI.

Shockwave: ??? - I'm not sure I want to know. "Once, as part of an experiment" was the original thing I wrote for his answer lol. True across continuities as well.

Anyway. moving on...

My actual answer for Megatron: REALLY depends on continuity. Here's a sample:

G1? Yeah, probably both. I can see it.

IDW/MTMTE? Nah. Maybe? ... Nah. I feel like if he had an STI it'd have been back when he was a miner. Would not fuck a car.

Earthspark? I feel like no STI but yes to the Carfucking. Except he feels really guilty about it after. I still haven't watched ES but this is the impression I get from him.

TFA? oh god. i don't know... i don't know....... he probably fucks cars. No STI.

TFP? Yeah absolutely are u kidding me? Yes to both.

Constructicons: I feel like they'd be a yes to both, but not at the same time, so they wouldn't have been the one/s to transmit a STI to a car. Also Hook would be ON TOP of treatment. Once they ALL got infected after combining into Devastator, and that was miserable for everyone. Nobody has fessed up to being the one who had it in the first place, but now they have treatment on hand just in case.

Also while on the topic of combiners... I think some of the Stunticons are also pretty good candidates for STI/Carfucking. Motormaster, Drag Strip and Wildrider in particular shfkgbekfbk

I considered Tarn/The DJD and Overlord just because of how freaky them guys can get, but I think Tarn runs too tight a ship for that to happen, and Overlord is preoccupied with. worse things. The Scavengers on the other hand... sorry to Misfire, I can see him giving a car a STI. Relatedly, Grimlock would fuck a car but not have an STI.

Who else................................ wait.

Astrotrain. I can see it. Okay bye im going to sleep this took me too long to reply to fhfjfbrmfbdj

[singingcicadas]

Megatron's Opposite Day

"I free slaves"

This is Soundwave binding Ratbat but seeing as Megatron did the same thing to Pentius by putting his spark into Trypticon and reformatted Rumble and Frenzy into cassettes against their will I think he approves a lot of this practice

Megatron on Optimus and humans, after his defeat in All Hail Megatron ⬇️

he really salty

"I implant ideology" aka brainwashing

Decepticon cause = Megatron. nuff said.

"I liberate cities" says the person who let Nyon burn to make a point

Cities are too small, think bigger

Holding New York hostage.

"Like Autobots, they believe in the sanctity of life" which he doesn't. Kudos for being honest.

Allowing troops to do free-rein massacre is a reward for conquest. Nothing like some easy murder for de-stressing.

The Simanzi massacre which halved the Cybertronian population is off-screen so it doesn't deserve its own pic

"The revolution"

"We only feel good when we stand with a blade in one hand and a throat in another" "Let's make the entire face of the planet into our new gladiator arena"

What nice, confidence-inspiring revolutionaries. I'm sure they'll rule the population with benevolence after they've killed all the Necessary People with Necessary Violence. Final interpretation of what constitutes as Necessary is reserved for the sole discretion of Megatron, ofc.

Good goals.

Sentinel might be an absolute asshole but at least he's got one thing right: they're literally a gang of thugs who gets high off murder.

"The people are my utmost concern"

'The people': ................

"Battling for freedom"

Freedom of what? Function? Autonomy?

Religion?

the ability to choose whether to fight? on which side to fight?

Idk why they used the word "pogrom" for this, it's way too specific

Anyways it doesn't matter, they won't be missed.

Good for Bumblebee for calling him out. Screenshotted this just to appreciate Megatron's bitchy face ⬇️

Other urban legends:

"Megatron loves Cybertron" let's just burrrrn it

He did fight to save Cybertron in Chaos Theory but also made it pretty clear why he did it. It's not out of the goodness of his heart or any sentimental reasons like that. It's an ego/dominance thing.

Plus his wording when he's trying to convince Optimus to let him go with the Lost Light: "I broke the planet. And that, Optimus, is why I owe it to you - to everyone - to find a replacement."

Replacement.

In other words: I made a mess and can't be bothered to clean it up, so I want to get away from it and find somewhere new to start clean.

I don't think Optimus appreciates the favour.

"Megatron tore down a corrupt government" which is true, just too bad that he's worse

He's also, um, a closeted Zeta admirer?

"Megatron advocates equality" ???

Megatron x dictatorship is literally his OTP. They were inseparable for four million years. A lot of people died trying.

"Megatron cares about the Decepticons" no he doesn't. Not his troops nor its cause.

Like for one thing he treats them with complete scorn

Admits that the most useful thing about keeping Starscream around is that he can bully underlings into line

Wants to use the humans' nuke to get rid of his troops and reformat them into peaceful drones after they outlive their use because they were "too ruthless" for his perfect peaceful society

Has zero scruples about fighting Deceptigod, just affronted that his own soldiers are being used against him

And basically just drops the Decepticons like a bag of vermin after he surrenders. He never once mentions them of his own accord, other than to insist he has nothing to do with them. Even his surrender speech is something Optimus makes him do as exchange b/c he wants to go on parole. He wasn't planning on making a public address otherwise, he was just going to leave them hanging.

Looking at the publication timeline, Megatron started out as an established Evil McEvilson-type villain similar to how he is in G1 and it's not until Chaos Theory in 2011 that JRo really gave him a sympathetic backstory that drew his characterization away from the bloodthirsty pugno ergo sum warlord into someone who once held ideals about societal reform and remains convinced of his own moral supremacy throughout the 4 mill years of death and war, adding worldbuilding such as Functionism/oppression/government corruption as justification for the beginning of the Decepticon movement. But because the start of the Decepticons was already written in Megatron Origins and every evil thing he'd done up till Chaos Theory can't be retracted and they had to keep Megatron as a villain until his story was no longer central to the Autobot-Decepticon war line, and JRo didn't try to downplay the atrocities he'd committed (some of the most sadistically disturbing things Megatron did were exclusively in MTMTE flashbacks), but rather tried to distance him from them and placed the focus on the juxtapositions to emphasize change, this as a whole just resulted in Evil McEvilson getting turned into Hyper McHypocrite.

[dezmolad]

ES Starscream: What they took from him (last minute!)

I can't stop thinking about season 2 of Earthspark so I'm at it again. Overall I was mostly unbothered to the very last 10 minutes of the last episode, this last minutes made me so mad it's unbelievable. So what I'm gonna do now is list all the things that got screwed up in this short time, particulary how Starscream character got absolutely butchered.

Without further ado, that's the list: > Starscream lost any agenda. His agenda in this season wasn't good anyway ofc, but it was ANYTHING at the end of final episode he's just. gone. and that's it woohoo. > Starscream lost his respect among the Decepticons. It was interesting for me how we could see how obedient towards him they were, a bit in season 1 but mostly in season 2. Even Shockwave didn't dare to question him most of the time. I was waiting to discover why is that so. Maybe they knew he was capable of pulling a stunt like the one he did at the end of season 2 so far? But yea we will never know bc noone from Decepticons is going to stick around him now, and now Shockwave is the leader so gap has been filled. so fun. > He also lost his mission, his care for anything! cyberforming Earth was ment to serve the Decepticons, his fellow cybertronians. But first in the dialogue with Hashtag Starscream says he's doing it just for himself and then he just. Lost his mind i guess. > Speaking of Hashtag. Starscream in this dialogue with her twists his own words from "What Dwells Within" from season one. His words coming from genuine care we saw developing in that episode here are shown as somehow mischievious, as some stupid foreshadowing. Its completely insane how the show retrospectively is erasing everything that could make Starscream redeemable later on. Awful, absolutely awful. > Hashtag also says that his actions will make him worse than Megatron, and he accepts that. The intention of this specific line is super clear. It makes his relationship in simplistic reality of the cartoon somewhat less of a problem. Starscream is bad right, even worse than Megatron, so why bother. I fear that's the way this series closes the problem of Megatron's and Starscream's relationship, expecially with how earlier on in season 2 Megatron is framed as reasonable and the one trying to speak to him before the fight. I'm afraid we will never hear anything about them that makes sense in this show. And it's just so disappointing. > Starscream murdering two children (that's what Chaos Terrans are ok) which is. Oh my god. It's such a cheap move to make the character unredeemable. Not to mention how deaths of Aftermath and Spitfire were kiiiiiinda convenient for our protagonists. "uh oh how sad they are dead how could you Starscream :(((((( ok now lets get the Emberstone that is now complete thanks to them being dead :))))))" > About that scene. I hate it from different reason, too. Because the way Starscream treated Chaos Terrans, expecially Spitfire was a beacon of hope for me in this season. The way he was never violent towards them (even Breakdown kicked Aftermath! And Starscream never did anything like that, even when Twitch in Spitfire's body made a mess and ruined the equipment!). The way we could kinda see him getting closer with Spitfire, in the way that reminded me how kind he could be for Hashtag in season 1. And all of this absolutely ruined, none of this was relevant.

So that's all I've gathered, if you have something more feel free to add your observations! Starscream's character in season 1 is very dear to me, even if "What Dwells Within" isn't perfect I still loved it so I feel personally robbed by season 2.

[smokescreenimusprime]

I saw you posted and all my feeling regarding this blog came right back hsidbduhrjr

Im defo doing a reading binge sometime soon.

Rn though, my biggest fav is early crash. What happens next? Does KOBD deflect to the bots way sooner? Do they just leave the cons and become neutrals who sometimes help the bots and possibly adopt the youngest member? I gotta knowwwwww

Also Ko would definitely teach Smokey about self-care. Like what's the best polish for his plating, how to get rid of stones and twigs from his seams, the best car washes around. He'd give our lil boi a whole essay.

W e l l :)

It takes a long time for them to decide. Of going back and forth, making plans and scrapping them, hushed whispers off the ship where they pray Soundwave won't hear

they're fairly confident that leaving the Decepticons is their best option, but there is of course the fear of what comes after. Earth is far from the safest place to be with all manner of dangers waiting around every corner. But Megatron's mental state is slipping by the day, Airachnid is in some ways worse than Starscream ever was, and it's only a matter of time before someone decides the pair have outlived their usefulness

(privately, Knockout is more worried about Breakdown than himself. He's a medic after all, despite his dubious credentials, and they're in short supply. Despite the threats, the damage to his paint job, even the occasional injuries, he doubts that unless pushed very far Megatron would have him killed

Breakdown on the other hand... Breakdown is just another warrior, simply a big mech with a big hammer, and Megatron's already made it obvious how much he truly values him)

still, they prepare as best they can. Their time on Earth, with Smokescreen specifically, gave them wiggle room to plan and have safe places. They've got a few caches of energon stored, enough to let them lay low for a while before needing to find more

they slip out quietly without any fanfare when things start to get hectic the day Megatron begins to lose himself to Unicron. When the planet is wracked with disaster after disaster since at this point, either the Autobots will fail and no matter where they go or what they do they'll be doomed, or they succeed and Megatron won't know until far too late what they've done

they stay largely underground after that, keeping their ears to the radio and stay quiet. They stay away from both sides and out of their business, just trying to survive

they do keep a close ear out for Smokescreen. Sightings, chatter, whatever, it's just nice having reminders that the kid is still out there kicking

they do join up with the Autobots eventually, though I'm not sure when or how. And a potential maybe is them teaming up with Starscream and drag him down a path of Maybe Not Redemption But Kinda Domestication

Smokescreen does get a very nice surprise of meeting them again, for once not on the opposite end of a blaster, and they manage to slide back into the routine they once had but all the more sweet since keeping the other at arms length is no longer needed

[cosmics-beings]

EarthSpark Starscream as an 'apology' to TFP Starscream thoughts.

And maybe, grieving TFP Starscream as well for the pain he went through.

Last thing I'm going to say about episode 21 starscream (save for reblogging people's points) because I legitimately wanted to take a break and write/draw, is that I wonder if the ES crew was looking specifically at how TFP starscream was treated and saying 'we don't wanna do that again'. because not only was tfp star's abuse laughed at but it was justified, not just by the writing but the fans. even though, at least I, could see that starscream didn't deserve half of the shit he got in tfp. But he was always intentionally made to be a joke or comic relief, and it was really upsetting when trying to discuss that, having people dissuade points or saying he deserved his abuse because he 'betrayed megatron'. when canonically in TFP, Starscream didn't betray megatron until megatrons started physically mistreating him.

GOING back to ES. I just think that ES Starscream is supposed to be like an apology, or even a love-letter to TFP Starscream. Because TFP Starscream and by extension RID Starscream never got to find happiness, he never got to get that redemption or that support system. he was always seen as inexplicitly evil, EVEN when he tried to help the autobots, even when he tried to do good. I will never forgive tfp for making Starscream the only decepticon who didn't get redemption when he did more than all of them to help the autobots. Like he tried so hard at moment and was essentially treated worse than garbage by the writing.

More of what im trying to say is that it's extremely fitting but also refreshing to hear Blum's starscream, who we previously just knew from TFP who was a clear victim of trauma, treated like shit, finally getting the happiess and the nuance he deserves. It is so nice to not see the pain he goes through being justified or made a joke. Because if someone told tfp starscream what hashtag told ES Starscream, then there would've been an actual change. But no one did, not even the autobots. Most people ridiculed him. But can you imagine if someone protected tfp star, how he'd react? how he'd change?

SO ES starscream is just, to me at least an 'i'm sorry you were treated this way, it was never funny' to TFP starscream because even if tfp is done and over, you can't help but feel TFP Starscream is getting justice as well. And of course this isn't to take away from the victory that ES Starscream has, and it's not taking away from his narrative nor decentering him. Seeing him not be just a victim but a survivor of abuse and smiling at the end, and being happy and living on his own terms is nice for once. And even tho we'll never get that with TFP Starscream, i can't help but feel he can finally rest easy.

I can't help but grieve Prime Starscream, because he never got this, and his story ended with him being inexplicitly seen as evil and deserving of his abuse. But this is a step in the right direction.

[extrahorribledynne]

mmkay, so, digesting the latest episode batch of earthspark. a question i had within the first 10 episodes was ‘HOW antagonistic will GHOST be’ and the answer turned out to be: VERY!

lots of thoughts and theories floating around, i’m gonna add to the pile. putting on my wild mass guessing hat. this is gonna be disorganized.

i feel pretty confident in saying optimus is definitely aware of, on some level, what GHOST is doing. mandroid calls grimlock ‘your’ dinosaur problem when croft confronts him. bee says grimlock was on a mission and they lost contact with him for months. i’m inclined to think he was smuggling energon and/or decepticons out of bot brawl, providing them an out, until he was discovered or perhaps got a little too close to the truth. after all, GHOST turns out to have been aware bumblebee was likely not dead at all. who’s to say they’re not keeping tabs on mechs like wheeljack, arcee, and the other ‘bots we saw who were on earth during the g1 flashback? optimus is clearly trying to keep cards in his deck and appease GHOST to the best of his ability. i’m definitely concerned for his safety ngl. my guess is he’s likely the target for mandroid’s next mind control project honestly.

related, i believe while megatron is definitely aware of the stockades, i think either he doesn’t LIKE going down there, or GHOST won’t let him specifically be there without supervision. after all, even though starscream dislikes him, i’ve got no doubt in my mind he’d happily air the dirty laundry of GHOST’s activities involving the incarcerated cons as soon as he laid optics on megatron.

another thing i think earthspark has been demonstrating through repetition is the idea that the cybertronians are pretty difficult to actually kill. being drained of energon seems to merely put them in torpor until they’re refueled. brawl shows a few signs of life when bee is examining him. hardtop gets a limb removed while awake and is no worse for wear. starscream has clearly survived a major explosion at point blank range and is completely fine. i have no doubt in my mind that GHOST is likely trying to engineer a weapon that can pierce sentio metallica. honestly thought thats what croft’s gun during bee and breakdown’s escape was going to be; and maybe i’m not too far off as breakdown was actually taking some pretty significant damage from it. we’ll definitely see a cybertronian die by GHOST’s hands. i just feel that in my jellies.

one last disjointed thought, it was very interesting that mo found the emberstone’s power in episode 18 ‘scary’. robbie agrees. since the emberstone and quintus prime has connections to quintessons by association, i’ve got to wonder if it’s related.

[transingthoseformers]

I really like the idea of Drift and Minimus bonding because Drift is older and knows about reinventing himself and dealing with his own issues which may be different than Minimus's literally seeming to think he has to cosplay a dead guy to be valued and that could have been interesting especially as Magnus is one of the people who definitely know Drift was Deadlock specifically not just a former Con and who gives us an idea of just how deadly and dangerous Deadlock was with his risk assessment.

Rodimus may understand a lot about self worth issues but Drift also understands making a new persona to fit in and loses some of his defense mechanism +100 happy hippy not a threat around Magnus to be more sincere with him.

First Aid is so pissed because now he is conflating Rodimus's betrayal with his complicated feelings on Pharma as he went from one boss betraying them caught up with Decepticons to the next boss even though the situations are completely different. He is very angry and messed up about everything.

I like the idea of Tyrest slowly getting worse because we don't know how long his retirement was or he was planning the kill CC thing.

But he was also the guy who thought the Ultra Magnus Cosplay Lineage was a Sane and Measured decision and I feel like he may have preyed a bit on Minimus's on insecurities to encourage him to completely allow himself to be the Perfect Ultra Magnus. Or at least he did in this verse. Sometimes, I make him base nicer.

In this, though, he was not a great mentor to Minimus and definitely jumped to snap him up during a vulnerable time and encouraged his more negative thoughts to "remold him".

I like the wiggle room with characters.

Also I love Sunstreaker and liked his storyline in IDW but wished there was more of it. He was literally one of the five people who went with Rodimus on his becoming a Prime adventure and they had some siginifcant connections in Phase 1 with Rodimus being not a dick about the thing with Starscream and rescuing him. Rodimus literally helped Sunstreaker return tonthe Autobots. I feel like that left a significant impact.

I also think Cyclonus would be an interesting person to play off Sunstreaker since they are both very combat focused people woth unexpected softer side for those closer to them, have a lot of trauma they are working through, and enjoy quieter passtimes.

Drift meanwhile is really trying to be the best Captain he can but is very worried about his visions and missing Rodimus. Ratchet once he pauses starts reaching out and they have their silly not fights and stumble into romance on the Lost Light. Drift has his own character growth going on because he becomes very focused on finishing the quest, obsessively until Ratchet and Magnus remind him that they (and Rodimus) were also supposed to help people and he relaxes it making a choice to help some people nearby and rescue stranded Cons or Bots which leads to different new people joining the crew and Fort Max dealing with his All Cons Should Die trauma as well. I'm thinking maybe a pacifist like Glit getting taken on at Drift's discretion which leads to tension in the Medbay with First Aid.

Skids as well because in the scenes of Grindcore it shows what could be Glit there in the background and I headcanon he was forced there as punishment for helping injured Autobots too and saw Skids there. Skids's memories come back and he unpacks that trauma with Glit and Rung and we get talk about Tarn being a monster and personal accounting from Skids/Glit who both benefit from working through their trauma about it as Glit only got out of there because Ravage called in a favor to get him out and he never quite recovered.

I feel like a lot of dynamics would be different here, and strange or new friendships form while they have different adventures.

Exactly exactly, he's gonna try his damnest to help out Minimus and that requires he drops some of the mask he has built up

First Aid having some very strong feelings here, him associating Pharma with Rodimus won't end well.

In my opinion and considering my observations, I personally believe that no yeah it was Tyrest getting worse over time. I like to think his Killswitch idea was a tipping point mental health wise, I don't think it was Planned planned™️, this feels like a slap-dash plan. The plan with the Magnus Armor though that one is a longer term plan that most definitely had fucked up consequences, so methinks even before the Aequitas trials he had issues™️

Also mood on the "sometimes I make him base nicer" thing he's a fun character to play around with and I don't think about him enough, wiggle room is very fun with characters (after all look at the variety Megatron has between his many iterations)

oh mins.

Fr we do not think enough about IDW Sunstreaker, and you're entirely right about him and Cyc possibly getting along

awww yes Ratty cares about Drift and this time we get to see this front and center considering how Drift is being the captain of the LL

Oooo? New people joining the crew?? Cool?

medbay troublessssss

Oh shit Glit and Skids having connected trauma, shit. But cool that we're getting more info on Tarn based on the living accounts of mecha affected by him, especially so on the Grindcore situation which was so so fucked up

You're right on dynamics being different here as well as the adventures, and that's exactly why I suggested the idea!

[theribthatgrewback]

SPEAK YOUR TRUTH ABOUT THE NEW EARTHSPARK SEASON. GO 🫵

GETS SCARED. WHO IS THIS.

ok so i think that making starscream the villain was a Good Call.

lots of ppl were disappointed that starscream was the villain this season after he was the sympathetic one last season and i do see where they're coming from but i also see what the showrunners were going for. hes doing this because he doesnt have anywhere else to go. he isn't welcome on earth. he's only ever been attacked or locked up by humans, never made to feel like he could have an actual home coexisting with them. he only wants to carve out a place for himself where he can live without being attacked, but in his mind, that means he has to kill everyone in order to get that. it makes sense to me why he would do all that considering who he is and what he's experienced. i think they kind of rushed that too though because its definitely like... ppl with worse media literacy are just gonna be like "they threw out all his character development!" no they didnt. they just sort of paced it weird

most of the shit i was praising in season 1 (the autobots (unwittingly) being the bad guys, and the decepticons actually (mostly) being the sympathetic ones, explores the issues of oppression via incarceration) kind of got almost entirely thrown aside. starscream talks about oppression a couple times but they dont dig into the meat of it. they needed to get more into the specifics of that in order for it to be done well, but that's just because it's clumsy writing, not because the idea is inherently bad.

i know ppl are mad as hell about it though because season 1 earthspark starscream got woobified to the ends of the universe simply for having ptsd. i just think the message theyre going for is something about the cycle of abuse and how having trauma doesnt absolve you of wrongdoing but again, the pacing makes it feel awkward. like hashtag literally says something like "why would you do this to people after what was done to you" THEY ARE ACKNOWLEDGING IT. THEY AREN'T IGNORING IT. IT'S A CYCLE OF ABUSE STORY. theyre not doing "megatron was right actually" theyre doing "starscream needs more consistent help still"

i still think hes going to be better by the end also they literally made his eyes blue and everything. it's just that it TAKES MORE THAN ONE CONVERSATION AND A HUG TO MAKE SOMEONE TURN THEIR LIFE AROUND

[brandwhorestarscream]

Reincarnation AU thought:

Megatron growing three chonky jets. And Skywarp is the first person to notice. Megatron has to deal with Skywarp just fusing over him lika benevolent gossipy whirlwind.

Maybe in Vos care of sparklings and carriers was very much a community thing. So wether or not Starscream knows it's his whole airforce is basically trying to body guard SIC Megatron. If they realize it's Starscream's the pampering and body guarding is even worse.

Also i have the image of sparklings being born as eggs/balls that unfold into sparklings. Not just seekers all Cybertronians because pretty much all kibble would make it hard to give birth. Lay egg that unfolds onto into baby. Megatron pushes out three competitive beachballs that unfold three perfectly formed heavy bomber jets.

Idk if I'm sleep deprived or high but. Uh. I think something got lost in communication. Translation. The reincarnation AU is referring specifically to an AU concept wherein certain characters die in TFA and are reincarnated in another tf universe

This bit with Megatron being the SIC for Starscream defo feels like that place swap idea someone sent, right? I'm super down to talk about lil bb bombers, I just. Don't think it's actually connected to the reincarnation stuff? That's my bad for not sticking a title to it beforehand

[kryptonitecore]

Re-Read: Megatron: Origin

I came into this having read Megatron: Origin during a past attempt a full read-through, the one that was felled by the Costa run and the looming menace of Heart of Darkness. I remembered this book quite fondly as, following all the Furman stuff, I think I appreciated something a little longer and more decisive in its characterisation.

I can see why I remembered it fondly - it’s a fairly quick and brutal introduction to one of the franchise’s major characters, not prone to the subtlest characterisation, but at least it’s there. It’s much more sparsely written than the later stuff from IDW1, but that makes sense, considering this comic goes about a mile a minute. Seriously, my big issues with this mini-series are the art (dark and sometimes confusing) and the pacing (so, so fast). I suspect some of my issues with the art are made worse by the pacing and probably vice versa. I had to rely on the wiki to help me work out what was going on in some of the gladiator scenes.

If our Lord and Saviour TFwiki is to be believed, this was originally intended to be 6 issues long, then was shortened to 4, plus was punted over from Dreamwave to IDW, which might explain why the pacing and breaking up of the issues sometimes feels a bit odd. Similarly, there was once going to be a mentor character (à la Terminus, supposedly), which could have been useful in smoothing Megatron’s character development over, but alas, the cruel hands of editing.

The comic plays very deliberately on your expectations for characters (Starscream’s probably the most obvious example), so that’s an interesting feature, but it could probably have done with those few more issues or even being a more extended mini-series. That, or it needed a laser-focus on Megatron’s perspective in order to give it a natural limit within which to work. The big, glaring elephant in the room here is the jump from Megatron as frustrated Miner who accidentally kills a Senator’s guard to hesitant gladiator to insurgency leader who kills unrepentantly and is openly motivated by a desire for revenge. Those… are some pretty big leaps in character, but most of the transition between them takes place off-panel, which is a pity, because I like what the author does overall.

On the other hand, I appreciated the way the Decepticon cause is introduced here, specifically in that it is shaped by its early leadership - not just Megatron, but Soundwave, and Starscream, too. I also like Sentinel’s set up here, where he has that ‘when all you’ve got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail’ mindset - he literally compares his security forces to a hammer at one point. Although the series leans quite hard on edge it still sets up some important parts of the continuity going forward, such as the attention paid to Megatron’s perspective and the idea of functionism, with the Senator Decimus’ comments about all having their role or being a cog in a larger machine.

 A long-standing bugbear of mine, however: how do they have ‘Houses’? As in the House of Decimus, which is referred to here, but later series do the same, like Minimus talking about him and Dominus being part of the ‘House of Ambus’. I mean, Minimus and Dominus are brothers, but how else do you have ‘Houses’ when there is no generational aspect, unless there is some kind of adult adoption or vassal position? Ah, it just always drove me up the wall.

Overall, though, not a bad way to start this read-through!

[darkstarofchaos]

Glad I could help! Though I wish I'd had better news for you.

Yeah, unfortunately the name of the game in S2 so far has been Evil Just Because. There's one episode Jawbreaker spends bonding with Aftermath (which pretty much means talking his ear off and joining in some pointless destruction), but in the end, Aftermath betrays his trust. And like, there could be a nature vs nurture question there, because Aftermath has been living with the Cons and has picked up their lifestyle, except a) that's reducing the Cons to just a bad influence, and b) Aftermath was already written off as Born Bad.

(I'm also really uncomfortable with the way Jawbreaker was written in that episode, because he has exactly zero awareness that he's annoying Aftermath, and he also just jumps right in trying to treat him like family without a hint of wariness. And then gets punished for being too trusting. It feels really infantilizing).

But honestly, the way they handled Spitfire (second Chaos Terran) was worse. Because she starts off with the Autobots instead of the Decepticons, but Twitch and Dot are the only ones willing to give her a chance, just because she's a Chaos Terran. But she also thinks she's better than Twitch, so after Twitch gets chosen to join an Autobot mission, Spitfire instantly thinks she should get to go. And instead of any bot present being an adult and explaining to the hours-old child that she needs training before she can join missions, they set up a whole obstacle course that the entire Malto clan minus Dot take part in. Which makes no sense because the specifics of the mission mean the only individuals who have the skillset (flight, mostly) are Twitch, Spitfire, and Nightshade.

Anyway, Spitfire won by cheating and almost killing Alex, and she got disqualified for it. And when she got rightfully angry because no one explained the rules to her, Twitch just got mad right back (and the adults proceeded to be useless while they fought, because "they need to work this out themselves").

Honestly, the Born Evil thing aside, my biggest problem with the Chaos Terrans is that they were fully developed right from the start. Like, the other Terrans needed time to find altmodes and learn to be people and stuff, but the Chaos Terrans were just, boom, here's your altmodes, enjoy having opinions about things you shouldn't even know exist. Aside from being inconsistent with the previous season, it allows for contrivances like the above with Spitfire to happen. No one ever explained morality to her, but she's the bad guy because she didn't come with an innate sense of right and wrong. She's been alive for a day, she shouldn't even know death is a thing, much less that killing people for personal gain is wrong. But because she can carry on a conversation, people treat her like this stuff should be obvious. And like she's bad for not knowing it.

And then, of course, since the Decepticons are evil just because, the Chaos Terrans don't have a chance to learn anything positive from the people who accept them, either. Starscream actually almost manages to look like a good guardian because he doesn't lash out when goaded (Skywarp even calls him out for letting "Spitfire" - who is actually Twitch - get away with disrespect), and he even has a sweet moment with Spitfire. But nope. He betrays both of the Chaos Terrans in the end. Because Evil. And in the same scene, he twists the meaning of the "take care of yourself" message he gave Hashtag so it's "take care of yourself and screw everyone else".

Like. I actually enjoyed Starscream's scenes, even if his motivation was disappointing, because his attitude towards the Chaos Terrans was pretty much "grumpy but tolerant" (and unlike the purported Good Guys, he actually acknowledged them as children). But all of that got ruined in the last 20 minutes, and I hate it.

Just watched Ep 1 of Earthspark S2. And I'm furious.

Don't read this if you don't want spoilers. Or if you think the showrunners can still do no wrong, and are unprepared for the level of Incandescent Fury of which I am capable. But if you DO have spoilers for the whole season and understand my particular vibe, PLEASE read this and reblog with answers (but use the cut for the sake of my followers)...

Reasons why I'm mad:

A year goes by in which all of the stuff I was actually interested in presumably happened: dealing with GHOST, the Decepticons and Autobots cooperating, Mo and Robby getting cool mech suits.

Then for no reason other than "Decepticons huh" the Decepticons apparently forgot their alliance, turned on Our Designated Good Guys (tm) and just randomly started trying to conquer and/or kill everything again. Or were they screwed over, yet again? I really hope so but I don't have a good feeling about it given the contemptuous attitudes displayed by Bee (as usual, because ES Bee is a fucking asshole) and Robby (disappointing, he wasn't like that before).

And we never did get to find out what the fuck was up with GHOST or why the Decepticons were all in jail (and no, "Decepticons huh" is not an acceptable reason--they have every reason to hate us.)

Breakdown is a terrible parent for no reason? BREAKDOWN?

The Chaos Terrans thing gives me the same willies that the Orcs in Tolkien (I am not a Tolkien fan) used to do. I am not comfortable with the eugenicist/ableist notion that people can be born corrupt and innately evil, especially not if it has something to do with HOW they were born.

Soooo... if you've finished the season (I know you've been posting a bit about it) is there any reason for me to continue?

Reasons I would continue:

Ravage continues to be basically the same Ravage I write, only much smaller.

RavWave (as a ship, not just platonic interaction, mostly because I would watch anything for that no matter how messed up)

Explanation that there actually is a reason why the Cons turned on everyone, and what that reason is. Did they want to put them back in jail? Did they want them to do forced labour? Did Megatron start whaling on Starscream again? I note Tara isn't around Con HQ, what does Tara know?

Quints are interesting and not just scary (the Quints in Cyberverse scared me more than many adult horror movie villains did, BUT they are also just kinda evil and mean and we have no idea why, which would not have been particularly interesting at all except for the fun of watching Hot Rod and Soundwave become the faction leaders while OP and Megatron were unable to be)

Chaos Terrans are not innately bad or do not need some mystical power of nuclear heteronormative family to make them good

The Decepticons get something out of the ending other than screwed

We find out more about Dot and Megs

Some Cons are good parents

More Tarantulas and Nightshade content

Hashtag continues to have a relationship with Starscream that affects the plot as it develops

We are actually told what happened during the year they missed

Reasons I would not continue:

Cons are just bad because cons are bad.

Ravage is Soundwave's daughter or pet or in some other way not actually a grown-ass adult Decepticon officer, making Soundwave a father who raises child soldiers or a guy who runs dogfights, which is not cute even if he is snatched af

(they don't have to be lovers though my shipping heart was pleased when their PDA in the deleted scenes embarrassed Starscream, but she has to be a Real Independent Person who could be someone's partner if not his)

Chaos Terrans are innately bad until "saved" by the Power of Love And the Nuclear Family (or just innately bad)

Emberstone continues to be Allspark Mark II so why even change the name?

Bee's incredible assholery is never called out (it's not funny when a starving person accidentally kills their starving teammate due to a mistake they made because they were starving)

Only Autobots and people who form nuclear families can be good parents

Everyone being friends with the cows goes to the PETA place

Cons get nothing but screwed

Please tell me this series hasn't gone where I was afraid it would. Or let me know that it has so I can decide if it's going to be so bad I'll be mad the whole time like I was in Ep 1.

Warning: anyone who clowns on this post to be a RavWave anti or say "The Decepticons are supposed to be pure evil, duh!" will get blocked.

[lets-try-some-writing]

Starscream but he's blind, kinda fights like toph from avatar and has the same sassiness, how do you think the bots and cons might react to him?

Oh! A fun au idea! Starscream is already terrifying with vision, there is no doubt in my mind that he will be triple as chaotic without sight.

Blindness

How did Starscream lose his sight? Simple. He got a little too cocky and underestimated his enemy severely.

Back on Cybertron he decided that Megatron's continued failure to kill Optimus was beyond irritating, and so he came to the conclusion that he needed to end the Prime himself. Not long after he made his choice, he took to the skies during a skirmish and recklessly dove straight at Optimus.

Expecting assassinating the Prime to be relatively easy with a well placed strike, Starscream transformed mid fall with a missile ready to launch into Optimus's face. Unfortunately for Starscream, Optimus was quick to react and grabbed a piece of shrapnel to shield himself with. The explosion then rebounded as Starscream fell through the air, the blast melting a good portion of his face but not damaging his internals. He would have been fine if it weren't for the shards of Optimus's makeshift shield which tore into Starscream's optics.

Starscream managed to crawl away from the Prime while he was distracted and was picked up by his trine. However upon arriving back at Decepticon command, Megatron refused to give him replacement optics, stating that it was a punishment for defying orders. At the time Starscream scoffed and got his face fixed up, polished, and returned to it's previous luster. He assumed that the punishment would be temporary.

It was not.

As the war reached new heights, there simply wasn't any time or resources to spare for Starscream's destroyed optics. When Starscream pushed the matter he was brushed off and told that if he couldn't be useful without sight he would lose his position as Air Commander. Not one to take anything laying down, Starscream grit his denta and got to work figuring out how to make his blindness a strength rather than a weakness.

He got the upgrades necessary to reroute processing power previously used to collect visual data and instead connect it to his other senses. His hearing and field sensitivity were improved, but most of the upgrades were to his sense of touch. As a flight frame he was already more sensitive so as to account for changes in the air. As such, improving upon the already present sensory capabilities was not difficult.

It took several months for him to adjust, with Starscream falling, becoming overwhelmed with sensory data, and crash-landing more times than he will ever care to admit. But he quickly began using his newfound abilities, more specifically his heightened ability to feel changes in the area with his wings, to get back into work as though nothing happened.

Of course being blind did make him feel far more vulnerable, and as such he developed an even worse personality as well as an extreme sense of caution to top it all off.

The Cons Reactions

The Decepticons (mainly Vehicons) are fragging terrified of blind Starscream as a general rule. He gives off the same predatory vibe as Soundwave, with his lightless optics gazing into the very sparks of those around him. And his ability to sense just about everything going on around him is downright frightening, especially when he silently appears and verbally destroys whoever it was that irritated him.

Megatron knows how dangerous the seeker is and does his best to keep him at arms length away. Starscream only grew more bold after losing his sight, no longer caring to suck up to Megatron and instead doing everything in his power to be an annoying prick when around the Warlord. Starscream regularly questions Megatron, even going so far as to insult him right to his face when he does something questionable or fails to kill any Autobots. The blind seeker will often attempt to drive a blade through Megatron's spark on occasion like some form of twisted game. Usually he will use his blindness as a get out of jail free card and blame his lack of vision for the attempted murder.

As much as he would like to kill him, Megatron tolerates Starscream because he is fantastic at his job and does well keeping the crew in order, but he does not mistake Starscream's blindness for weakness. He knows the moment he lets his guard down the seeker will pick up on it and not hesitate to end him.

Soundwave and Starscream have a tense agreement. As there is physically no way to stop him from trying to kill Megatron, Soundwave has put forward a contract that Starscream has dubiously consented to.

Starscream can make all the attempts on Megatron's life that he wants as long as the Warlord is capable of fighting back. But Starscream is not allowed to do anything to Megatron while he is injured or otherwise impaired. In return for keeping this agreement, Soundwave doesn't try to kill Starscream, rat Starscream out when he leaves the nemesis, or tell Megatron when he defies minor orders. Outside of their occasional passing's in the halls or discussions on the matters of war, neither associate with the other.

Shockwave sees Starscream as an interesting specimen and likes to check up on him randomly to look at his adapted coding. The scientist finds it downright fascinating to see how Starscream's entire code has shifted better accommodated his disability. Starscream tolerates his checkups because sometimes it results in improved software for him. But when it comes to anything not related to his blindness, neither get along on anything, especially with how vocal Starscream is about his scientific beliefs.

Dreadwing and Starscream hate one another with a passion, but Dreadwing also has a begrudging respect for the blind seeker. He is a honor bound warrior first and foremost, as such he sees Starscream's incredible combat capabilities highly impressive considering his lack of vision. While not fond of Starscream's personality or general disposition in the slightest, he recognizes his power and respects it. Sometimes he even asks Starscream for a spar, partially to take out his anger but also to learn from the seekers graceful yet brutal fighting style.

Breakdown is in a similar boat. He really does appreciate Starscream's capabilities and skill, but by Primus, Starscream's endless snark is the worst. Day in and day out Starscream goes around picking at every little thing and making bemoaning the world at large. The seeker has moments of incredible wisdom and intelligence which never fail to make Breakdown think for a moment that maybe he can be friends with him. But then the moment is always ruined when Starscream goes on to say something incredibly vain or demeaning, once again leaving Breakdown to wonder if he misheard.

However there have been occasions where Breakdown has caught Starscream having trouble. Sometimes when the seeker is extra tired or has just come out of an intense battle, he is unable to sense things as well as he usually does. This leads him to stumble, fall, misplace something and become unable to find it again, or in one rather hilarious case, walk right off the command platform. In those instances Breakdown assists and after enduring a slew of swearing from the Starscream, the seeker always ends up thanking him quietly before sauntering off like nothing happened. Breakdown takes great pride in receiving those muttered 'thank you's' from the blind seeker.

Knockout loves to hang around with Starscream, for two main reasons. He likes that Starscream speaks his mind and isn't afraid to stand up to Megatron. And he also really likes how often Starscream comes to him for a paintjob where they always end up talking scrap about everyone on the nemesis and swap gossip. To Knockout it is liberating to have someone equally sassy to chat with, especially since Starscream trusts him of all mecha to pretty him up since he can't exactly see his own paintjob.

Knockout makes it a point to always ensure Starscream looks downright stunning in return for the seeker's continued friendship and free gossip.

Predaking is not quite sure how to handle Starscream. On one hand, Starscream is very irritating, constantly gazing at him with empty optics as though he is a valuable tool to be used while also having a healthy dose of fear. On the other hand, Starscream is very reasonable when it comes to dealing with Predaking, even after he revealed his sentience. While likely due to the terror of possibly being eaten and not being able to see it coming, Starscream always treats Predaking respectfully. For that at least, Predaking is willing to tolerate him, even offer some form of protection when the need arises.

The Bots Reactions

Optimus may or may not have a minor fear of Starscream. He feels somewhat guilty for blinding the mech, but after seeing the terror that is blind Starscream, the guilt has taken a backseat for the most part. Starscream has not forgotten that Optimus played a part in his loss of vision, and he is vicious when he meets Optimus on the battlefield.

Starscream fears Optimus, and as such, is incredibly cautious. But he also hates Optimus with the burning passion of a thousand suns and will not hesitate to try and kill him when the opportunity presents itself. After nearly having been blown up, torn apart, shredded, crushed, and otherwise injured every single time he has met Starscream on the battlefield, Optimus has made it a point to steer clear of him. In response to this, Starscream has resolved to taunt and drop explosives on Optimus during battle just to be a pain before retreating. When they are forced to engage in combat, Optimus tries to get things over with as quick as possible, usually by tossing liquids at Starscream to screw up his senses before moving on or fleeing. The team have long since stopped questioning Optimus when he puts a jug of water in his passenger seat before a battle, they know its for Starscream.

Ratchet doesn't care about Starscream being blind. In his mind the Decepticon is just that, a Decepticon, nothing more and nothing less. If given the chance he would beat Starscream just as badly as he would any other enemy. He literally does not give a frag. However he does take sick joy in knowing that Starscream is paying for his sins through the loss of his optics. When on the battlefield Ratchet will even mock Starscream for it, stating that maybe if he were a better mech he wouldn't have lost his sight to Primus's vessel.

Bulkhead and Wheeljack are torn between genuinely fearing Starscream and hating him. They find it disturbing to fight a mech who can't even look them in the optics while also despising him for all he has done and his constant attempts to humiliate Optimus. They prefer to not fight him as his haunting ability to move silently and not be affected by any environmental issues that block out vision is... somewhat terrifying and difficult to deal with. Being in a dark cave and suddenly having the Decepticon Air Commander pop out of no where and launch a missile at their faces has left them cautious. And having the blind seeker pick them out immediately within the woods during an escape has left them even more unnerved. Overall they like to avoid him.

Ultra Magnus is like Ratchet in that he just does not care. He knows Starscream is dangerous and so treats him as he would any other foe. However as he is not quite sure what Starscream's limits are, he also carries around a jug of water when going into combat on the off chance he encounters the Air Commander. He also will never admit it to anyone, but he keeps a small file in his personal database which would allow Starscream to get a lighter sentence if and when he is put on trial for his crimes. He is aware that Starscream largely joined Megatron out of the desire to protect his people, and he also pities the seeker to a degree and as such is willing to put up some form of defense for him should the need arise.

Bumblebee admires Starscream for his incredible skill despite his blindness and looks up to him, though he will never say so. He does not allow it to distract him during missions, but when the opportunity arises he will watch Starscream in awe as he maneuvers himself through the air with utmost skill and grace. When Starscream was in their custody temporarily, Bumblebee sneakily asked him for an autograph and about how he handled his blindness so well. Starscream humored him and explained with no small amount of ego and snark that he became so amazing through his own perfection. Bumblebee was slightly disappointed at the answer but hasn't stopped admiring the seeker despite it all.

Smokescreen thinks Starscream is cool due to his genius battle strategies and skill, however he hates the seeker's guts. Starscream has disrespected Optimus Prime the great and mighty leader of the Autobots, avatar of Primus, protector of Cybertron, and last of the Primes too many times for Smokescreen to have any sort of affection for him. In fact, he takes it personally when Starscream taunts or pokes fun at Optimus, even going so far as to abandon whatever it was he was doing in favor of beating the seeker into scrap. He has yet to succeed and is always reprimanded for his efforts, but still he tries.

[primus-why]

Conjux Idea/ Storybeats

Yo what if there was a thing with conjuxes wherein if one of them dies, the other also dies? Which is why becoming conjux endura more or less fell out of fashion during the war times... considering the constant danger everyone was in every day, it was only logical that you wouldn't want your Cause to lose 2 mechs at a time.

But then, imagine this if you will... at a moment of mutual weakness, Megatron proposes that he and Optimus merge their sparks and become conjux endura. He reasoned that it would ensure mutual destruction-- if the Decepticons won, Megatron wouldn't be the one to rule them once the Prime was defeated; if the Autobots won, Optimus wouldn't be able to rule as Prime either.

Really, it was a selfish gambit on Megatron's part. See, he wasn't confident that the Decepticons were going to win at that point in time, so at the very least he wanted to ensure the end of the Primacy. But he knew that his own demise (in the event that the Decepticons pull out of their rut and defeat the Autobots) would be too tempting an offer for the Prime to not at least consider.

And Optimus took the bait.

... but fast forward to present day, and Megatron feels like an idiot. See, neither had considered the possibility that they would actually enter a time of peace and cohabitation between their factions and returning neutrals. (You know the drill by how-- some external threat showed up and the Bots and Cons had to band together to defeat them, but ended up just sticking it out and forging a new era of peace).

So now that things at going back to normal, people are bonding again! And, naturally, being living legends they are often the center of celebrity gossip... some of which dips into the question: "Who will the old faction leaders settle down with during peace time, if anyone??"

Maybe some rumors even start to fly about Megatron seeking medical council on whether or not a conjux bond could be safely severed (leading some folks to think he had been bonded to Starscream-- who vehemently denys that rumor-- since he put up with all his betrayals during the war).

Maybe things only get worse when the new council floats an idea to Optimus-- political marriage. They figure that while he's still highly revered as a Prime and respected as a war hero, since he isn't bonded to a Lord High Protector like in the old days-- plus he has been shown to be tolerant towards other factions and even other species-- he seems like a perfect candidate to participate in a symbolic union. There's even talk of him bonding with someone from a species with high acclaim on the Galactic Council, thus bolstering Cybertron's reintroduction to it.

Cue the press storm. "The Prime might be courting soon! Who will it be?" Megatron is privately fuming but he doesn't dwell on why, waving it off as simply being annoying celebrity gossip grating on his nerves.

Fast-forward to some event where Cybertron is hosting some gala for visiting dignitaries from various planets on the Galactic Council. It makes Megatron's tanks roil-- all the pomp and circumstance is incredibly surface level, masking the rebuilding efforts still underway with whatever glitz and glam could be scraped together. It's such a waste of resources, and he can feel the Prime agrees. Megatron was asked to attend as yet another sign of peace and goodwill, but no one dared tell him to be polite.

The same couldn't be said for the Prime, whom Megatron felt some pity for. He had been tasked with wining and dining some of their guests, specifically to see if they would be suitable for a potential political marriage. All Megatron could do was knock back some high grade and watch.

It was rare to feel anything from Optimus' side of the bond, so when the Prime's agitation flared up enough for him to feel it, it got Megatron's full attention. When he finally found the Prime, Megatron's own agitation flared-- some slimy slagger was trying to grope Optimus and no one was doing a damned thing about it!!! Prime was clearly getting agitated from dodging every attempt!

Clearly Optimus had been instructed not to rock the boat with this creature, and it looked like they understood their standing and fully intended to take advantage. Which explained Optimus' rising frustration. In the end, Megatron took another swig of high grade, marched over, and told them to keep their appendages to themselves and the unfortunate places he'd put them if they didn't. The night was deemed a disaster.

The following morning, Megatron convinced the council he only did it because "any entity that cannot even respect the bodily autonomy of one Cybertronian, will never respect Cybertronians as a whole"-- and also convinced HIMSELF he also just wanted to silence Optimus' end of the bond-- all while nursing a hangover.

The move of course gets more gossip buzzing. "Megatron comes to the Prime's rescue? Could he be vying for a new role as Lord High Protector??" Soundwave sends him a ping to discuss the incident in private, but Megatron pushes it off until tomorrow so he can collect himself.

Maybe that visiting dignitary gets mad and comes to seek justice for their treatment, demanding they get to punish Megatron themselves. Some of their soldiers try to haul him away-- Megatron of course fighting them the entire time. One finally gets the jump on him and he's captured in stasis cuffs, about to be dragged off, when Optimus shows up with Soundwave and his old energon battle axe.

"Get your hands off my conjux." He says, before leaping at the soldiers and chopping off their arms to release Megatron, whom Soundwave goes to collect. Eventually the invaders are chased off.

So while the council has to duke it out with the Galactic Council over the blatant breach in treaty, the whole planet goes absolutely buck wild with the news that Optimus and Megatron are sparkmates. :)

[transformers-fan-continuities]

Spotlight: Ties That Bind

This one’s a doozy folks! If you missed the last spotlight you can go read it here, but strap in for The Ties That Bind, an absolutely brilliant take on humanformers. It’s hosted here at @tiesthatbind-tf​ created by @artsy-hobbitses​!

Q) Give us a run down of your cont! What's it about, what's it called, what's it like?

Ties That Bind is a humanformers-based original continuity which is part Science Fiction and part Alternate History where the invasion of Quintessons and introduction of their technology to Earth in 1920 sets the world and humankind on a completely different trajectory. The active narrative spans a period from 1920 to 2070, covering the First and Second Quintesson Wars, the interplanetary Antillan War (leading to the creation of Unicron on Mars) and the Great War which involves the Autobots, Decepticons and Functionist stalwarts, and how it affects the characters.

The cast is pretty sprawling and the narrative is mostly centred around human drama with bits of humor interspaced and a dash of horror (mostly centred around how the previous government often chose to utilize the technology left behind from the Quintesson Wars to create new systems of oppression, which affected many of the characters, in the name of worldwide rebuilding efforts).

Q) What characters take the lead here? Any personal favorites?

I will admit to this continuity being very much heavy on the relationship between Old Bastards  Optimus Prime and Megatron, which is given considerable weight as they were best friends who had known each other since childhood and were deeply intrinsic to each other’s growths as individuals, which makes it all the worse when guilt and betrayal enter the party. Despite being captains in two corners of this battle, there’s a part of them that just cannot let go of their pasts together and they need to reconcile with how this will affect their agenda (Megatron) and how they lead their team (Optimus) who don’t necessarily share their history.

Other characters with significant development include:

Starscream, a Cold Construct in a toxic working relationship with Megatron with whom he is hiding a dark secret, who struggles to balance the underhanded viciousness he believes he needs to gain power and his innate desire from his Senate days to make the world a better place. 

Windblade, a Camien native who fights her government’s apathy concerning the situation on Earth which they see as unsalvageable compared to their more Utopian society. 

Prowl, a Cold Construct raised from childhood to be a cop in a police state, who finds out that he was brainwashed several times  to ensure his obedience and efficacy as a government asset and is now working to reclaim some semblance of the humanity he was never allowed to feel and figure out how much of him is who he really is and how much is programming.

Hound, a sheltered Beastman who joined the fight to ensure that Beastmen the world over would have the same rights he did in his homeland of Shetland Isle, but is forcefully stripped of his humanity and faced with his animal side during the war and has to relearn what personhood means amid his trauma.

Q) Is there a bigger point to this, like a theme or some catharsis? Or is it just fluffy fun?

God with the amount of time I spent sleepless trying to figure out how the logistics of this or the semantics of that were supposed to work in universe, I cannot for the life of me say it’s fluffy fun, but I can’t exactly say it hasn’t been pretty engaging either!

There’s elements of war being messy for everyone involved where there doesn’t seem to be a clear line between friend and foe at times, but I think for most part it prescribes to  Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s belief that people are inherently good, but are corrupted by the evils of society. Despite its dark themes (Including but not limited to child abuse, torture, illegal experimenation  and brainwashing), love and friendships do prevail, kindness does beget kindness, found families are made, even the smallest actions matter, and things do get better because there are people on both sides who genuinely want to, and strive to make it better.

With Cold Constructs and Beastmen, it also delves heavily into what it means to be human; to have agency and personhood.

There’s also a strong undercurrent of taking responsibility for one’s actions, even if they were made with the best of intentions (Avoidance of this is what eats up Starscream and Megatron from the inside, and what Starscream eventually embraces).

Q) How long have you been working on it?

There’s two answers to this!

I’ve had a Humanformers-related universe going all the way back to 2007 around the time the first Bayformers came out---basically I had a choice between learning to draw cars or draw people (I was an anthro artist back then) and I immediately chose people.

The 2007 draft however had no worldbuilding or connective storylines and was mostly a fun little venture into character design and practice which were actually instrumental to me experimenting and learning how to draw humans properly.

I left the fandom for about a decade and when I came back to it in late 2020 around September via the War for Cybertron series on Netflix, I immediately got hooked on the 2005 IDW comics I missed out on and wanted to get around to updating my old designs as well find a way to translate several of the concepts I wanted to explore in a human sense, so the 2020 update became its own full-fledged original continuity with detailed worldbuilding and history.

You can see the artistic evolution of several characters from their original incarnation below!

Q) It’s incredible to see your artistic improvement too! Give us a behind-the-scenes look! Show us a secret ;))

Say hello to my workspace! I’ve been working exclusively on the Ipad Pro since late 2016, which is fantastic because I can basically whip up concepts and sketches on the go anywhere. Nowhere is too out of bounds to work on TTB!

Also, do enjoy this sneak peek at true!form Rung, whose synthezoid human body took years to perfect.

Q) YESSSSS alright I must admit this is one of my favorite Rungs, and certainly my fave within TTB. Amazing. Phew, anyway. Where did you draw inspiration from? What canons, what other fiction, what parts of real life?

TTB was initially conceived as a faithful retelling of the IDW 2005 narrative before it was transformed into its own continuity and as such, it borrows heavily from concepts and mirrored plot lines introduced in that run! I chose to have the series inspired off it specifically for the amount of history and worldbuilding it introduced to the franchise.

Anime like Gunslinger Girl and Beastars inspired the depictions of Cold Constructs, especially the more harrowing aspects of their upbringing as government assets instead of children, and Beastmen (Beastformers) in TTB.

I haven’t depicted the world itself in my art all too much, but the architecture from Tiger and Bunny, which has sort of a futuristic Art Deco feel to it, is what you’d usually see in major cities. There is an in-universe reason for that---with a Point Of Divergence set in 1920 followed by 25 years (an entire generation) of progress basically being kicked to the curb due to the Quintesson wars, mankind was basically in a time-locked bubble until the end of the wars, and by then their heroes were 1920s-style rebellion leaders, which lead to 1920s fashion (especially among the Manual Working Class---Megatron, Jazz and Optimus all rock 1920s fashion at some point of their lives) and architecture being celebrated and retained as sort of a reminder of how things were before The Invasion. This anime’s background design is also where I adopted the tiered system TTB’s major metropolises are often built on (with each tier being designated to a different working class) from.

The main artistic style itself is a love letter to 90s cartoons, in particular Gargoyles’ deep and drama-driven character narratives and designs as well as The Centurions’ take on body armor logistics.

I also take inspiration, especially armor-wise, from the characters’ given heritage and background. As an example, Hotrod who is depicted as Irish has the flames on his armor done up with Celtic knots. Welsh aristocrat Mirage’s armor bears olden knight-style filigree and has his Autobot logo designed as a coat of arms. Indonesian Soundwave’s armor and Decepticon logo takes cues from Batik and Wayang Kulit while their mask is based off the Barong.

Q) They are absolutely gorgeous! Show off something you're really proud of, a particular favorite part of your cont.

The worldbuilding in general! Most Humanformers I’ve seen tend to treat it like a fun exercise which it is and is definitely valid, but I found myself wanting a full-fledged world to lose myself in and I sought to try and make that world myself by drafting a detailed history and timeline of events which would affect ongoing narratives, having indepth worldbuilding to include almost all societal aspects of the universe and  expanding on the concept of Beastmen and Cold Constructs existing in a human setting.

I’m not so secretly proud of the research and diversity included to make the cast look like the multicultural, globally-based team that they were meant to be instead of being locked to a single region! My original draft from 2007 was, to put it simply, quite culturally monolithic and I wanted to improve on that aspect with TTB.

I’m also proud that I’ve kept to it this far! I’m a notoriously flaky person jumping from one idea/fandom to another and to have kept at this continuity for the better part of ten months is honestly a personal feat.

Art-wise, this scene depicting a young Megatron working alongside Terminus and Impactor (cameo by @weapon-up-wallflower​‘s OC Missit!)  is definitely one of my favorites since it helps build up the world they live in and plays to familial bonds and comfort found in one another despite their less than ideal circumstances.

Q) Everything has come together so beautifully, you absolutely should be proud. What other fan canons do you love and why? Would you like to see them interviewed?

I am dying to hear more from @iscaredspider​’s Sparkpulse continuity! Her designs are MIND-BLOWINGLY GORGEOUS and I want to hear more about what inspired her to work on it!

Also YOU. Yes YOU BLURRITO. LET ME HEAR MORE ABOUT SNAP.

Q) [wails and squirms away in the mortifying ordeal of being known but in a very flattered way] I WILL SOMEDAY I PROMISE aflghsdjg thank you QwQ

Well that was fantastic, Oni, thank you muchly! A magnificent continuity with so much to look forward to! Coming up next is another personal fave of mine, the first inspiration for SNAP, so stick around...

[smokescreenimusprime]

so I saw this reblog and decided to combine it with another one from a different reblog chain because they go so well together

like. A couple months/years or so before everyone else showed up, Smokescreen got wind of some rumors of Ghost Cars and the like, and ended up tracking them down. It's a lot of back and forth for months, since He's An Autobot And They're Decepticons, but there's also a weird....... almost truce going on

Sure he's loyal to the cause and all but well....... Smokescreen's lonely man. It's been several decades at this point, he hasn't fully figured out his holoform, and to make things worse other than Fowler he's got some major trust issues with a majority of the humans he now has to interact with

Knockout and Breakdown may be Decepticons, but they're also Cybertronians, his own species, and he trusts they won't dissect him like a lab experiment

there's a silent understanding that neither Optimus or Megatron are here, or even any other Bots and Cons. Knockout and Breakdown's only mission is to wait for the Decepticon's arrival, and Smokescreen doesn't have a mission at all, so they technically aren't going against orders

so they coexist. Sometimes they talk. Never about the war or the current state of things, but instead an Earth movie that recently came out, or about a racing circuit they found, or about the latest car trends. Hell, maybe down the line Knockout even gives Smokescreen some medical care in return for him pointing them in the direction of a small mine, or Smokescreen warns them about MECH's traps and they in turn warn him about a plague ship that supposedly crashed somewhere on planet

it's tense and they keep each other at arm's reach but..... it's something. Sometimes it's even nice. Sometimes they forget who it is they're talking to and can just...... be happy

But both sides also always knew that someday it would eventually come to an end. That the war would find them and this little charade would end. And it did. They don't hide their past relationship per say but....... well if nobody asked, they weren't going to bring it up

the day Optimus arrives on planet, Smokescreen stops visiting, and three years later when Megatron comes the fighting begins. They're enemies now. They can't help each other

..........at least...... that's what they thought. But then Smokescreen rescues Breakdown from MECH when even the Decepticons weren't going to come for him, and old feelings start to rise up

Breakdown still goes back with the Cons. He can't afford to spare him, not with Bulkhead and Starscream right there, but if he specifically doesn't go after the kid....... well, nobody seems to have noticed

and Breakdown thinks. He talks to Knockout and they talk together. What this means, what they're doing, what's going to happen going forward

and they don't know. But there's a little seed of doubt that's been planted and who knows, maybe that'll change things later :)

so I was thinking about Early Crash and

what if Smokescreen doesn't actually know how long he was in stasis for

Like. He knows he was probably asleep for decent while given how far away he is from Cybertron and how the stars all look completely different, but he doesn't know that he'd been asleep for millions upon millions of years. He doesn't know what's happened to Cybertron or the state of the war or even confirmation that Alpha Trion is dead

and for years, he’s not going to know. He has no real reason to suspect anything or think he was in stasis for longer than a year or two

then the Autobots arrive

and of course, Smokescreen’s absolutely ecstatic when he first hears the rumors about online. More Cybertronians!! More people to talk to!!!! He’s not alone on Earth anymore!!!!!!

the following days are a rush of investigation and scouting as Smokey quite literally scours the planet for his fellow Autobots. Maybe he finds them, maybe he finds some Cons instead, who knows, but after weeks of trying to find them he succeeds

And if course, things only get more complicated from there. Introductions and explanations all happen in a blur amongst near constant meetings with higher ups as Smokey does his best to ensure the other Autobots will be treated well and that the humans understand just how dangerous the Decepticons are as well as preparing possible defenses just in case

Hell, when the truth does come out…… it’s probably going to be an offhand mention in conversation. The Autobots reminiscing about Cybertron, Smokescreen talking about the Archives, both sides realizing that something isn’t quite adding up here

and of course, Smokescreen’s reaction

This fact is already painful for the Autobots. They’ve lived through it and known it for thousands of years, and while it’s painful the pain has dulled slightly

But for Smokey? Who’s been clinging to the hope that someday human tech would advance enough or that Cybertronians would show up on Earth so that he could finally go home???

this is devastating