#but that stopped working when mtmte revealed that tailpipe was a guy that existed

[robotsprinkles]

It's been somewhere around eleven years and I still have no idea where I first got the idea that tailgate was a girl.

Logically it's most likely something to do with the MTMTE "the ingenue" thing, but that doesn't feel right. If nothing else because,

a) I didn't start reading about mtmte on tfwiki until some time in 2013-2014 (I say "about" because I didn't manage to actually read anything more than tfwiki articles and previews and pinterest/google images panel and page excerpts until around 2015-2016) so I'm pretty certain I never saw the promo that called him "the ingenue" (I've no memory of seeing it prior)

b) I didn't know "ingenue" was feminine until I saw the tfwiki article about it

c) I have concrete memories that when I did start reading the tfwiki articles I was like. "wait what? why are they saying tailgate's a guy? tailgate's a girl. she's a girl. where did they get the idea she's a guy?"

having just checked my copies of the dreamwave transformers universe profiles (which were in chinese because I got them as a gift when I was a kid for I think lunar new year), which was my main theory for where I got the idea that Tailgate was a girl (that the translators might've switched some of the characters' genders since that's a thing that happens), I can say that unless I misread something, the chinese translations of the dw tf universe profiles were not what gave me the idea

(and the art used for tg in the book looks like this so I don't think it was a case of kid me seeing the art and going "yeah that looks like a girl")

(on the other hand I still get "tailgate is a girl name" vibes in my head when I see it written down/think about it)

(I know this isn't a case of me misremembering or confusing myself or anything because up until like. 2020 I still had a thing in my brain that would try to automatically correct every instance of tailgate being referred to with he/him to she/her)

my current theories are that I either got the idea from youtube comments under a random video (which I think is unlikely considering that tailgate basically didn't exist to most people prior to 2012 and I mostly watched toy reviews and clips/episodes of tfa, cybertron, and armada)

or that I somehow stumbled on a forum where people were discussing the ingenue thing and got the takeaway that tailgate was a girl (possible, but I didn't really browse anything other than youtube prior to 2013)

or that I read about or saw the tfp arcee backstory about arcee and tailgate and somehow misinterpreted it as arcee and tailgate being lesbians (possible, but I think I remember getting annoyed at tfp for making tailgate a guy/cliffjumper repaint. though if this theory is right it might've been a case of "reads tfwiki article about tfp arcee's backstory and seeing the tailgate bit, somehow getting 'tailgate is a girl' out of it, then later seeing the actual episode or going to the tfp tailgate article and seeing that he was a cliffjumper repaint and being annoyed". I still don't think that's the case though)