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artsy-hobbitses · 7 months ago

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Do you perhaps have any headcanons on the miscreant Starscream??

DO I EVER.

I'm gonna assume you're new here or at least have not seen all headcanons, so I'll collated into one document. RIP you're getting sandblasted with a horrible sky gremlin who has hidden heart of a hero (DON'T LET THEM HEAR YOU SAY THAT, HE HAS STREET CRED TO MAINTAIN).

Starscream/Stefan Scavarro got his codename from the shriek that his suit's engines made when he would divebomb opponents from the heavens. Combined with them seeing literal stars when he blindsided them and how much of a 'sky devil' he was with his red armor, a terrified senate guard described him as the rebellion's "(Azrael) Morningstar, screaming bloody vengeance as he swoops down from the heavens to hunt the wicked". Hence, 'Starscream' was born.

He wears his hair long to cover the Cold Construct barcode on the nape of his neck. Touch him there without his permission, and he will break your fingers.

He's the best cook on the team, and he'll say it's because he's rather eat barb wire (the taste of his blood would at least add some flavour) than be subjected to the military slop he lived with for twenty years. It's never too late to learn how to how to cook and eat well, though if you substitute fresh garlic for powdered garlic in something you're serving him, he's going to fight you across the dining room table after he's done eating it. Food should be respected, even if they were the product of a culinary crime.

He learned to tailor his own clothes during his college days, and has since become very proficient at it. He make most of his formal garments, and is considered the most fashion-centric member of the team.

He was very close to Senator Shockwave/Sharifuddin Waseem as a young politician, to the point of having an unrequited crush. Sharif accepted him as a part of the senate despite his status as a (freed) Cold Construct driving others away from him, and both spent most of their time together in the senate researching and drafting bills pushing for more rights and protections for the Manual Class and Cold Constructs

He has a personal dislike of Optimus Prime/Omar Parvez, and blames Omar for what happened to Sharif, as Sharif surrendered to Proteus on Omar's watch. He had earlier requested that Omar not leave Sharif's side before their mission began and he was assigned to another post, because he had a bad feeling about Proteus' plans for Sharif, and accused Omar of being too spineless to stop it. That Omar had to choose between saving Sharif or the men Sharif told him to keep safe was something he refused to consider. However, in time they do come to an understanding when he accepts that Omar was given a impossible choice and made the one that respected Sharif's last request and sacrifice.

While he can't bring himself to keep pets (he doesn't want to get attached amid a war), he does have a fondness for cats! He admires their beauty, grace, independence and low tolerance for bullshit. He eventually adopts an old and ornery female cat named Graymalkin post-war to keep him company while Windblade/Wariko Baisho is out at work

Stefan has a ridiculously high pain tolerance due to the abuse he was put through from childhood at the air base he grew up in. His eardrums have ruptured more times than he can recall from flight test chambers and high altitude barotrauma, and if he didn't stop crying, his handlers would give him something to really cry about before they dragged him off to the medics. He has an accelerated healing factor, they saw no issue with letting out their frustrations on him, as he was simply an asset in their eyes, even as a seven-year-old.

As such, he has very warped idea of what constitutes a 'major' injury on him---he can be running around cradling his disemboweled intestines in one arm without breaking a sweat. He offhandedly tells people that an injury doesn't register as 'major' to him unless it's a skull fracture where he can feel a section of his head caved in, or a direct shot to the heart.

Because of this, he also has a very skewed idea of what 'hurt' means to him personally and how he's meant to react to it. He's internalised his handlers' assertion that because he can heal, his pain does not matter. So what if people hurt him? It's what he was built to withstand. There is a weird sense of pride he has about this, he sees it as a mark of strength, and it's partly why he's as defiantly blasé as he is about Megatron's abuse when they get in each other's faces. At the same time, it's also deeply lonely for him and he oscillates wildly between shying away from physical contact and being starved for 'good' touch at the same time.

To add to this, while he grows to harbour unspoken attraction towards Wariko which he attempted to throttle multiple times in their early says interacting with each other, he stops icing her out when she becomes the first person to acknowledge his pain, and that him being able to heal and bearing no scars from his abuse doesn't make that pain any less real. She's also his first experience with 'good' touch, which he quickly finds he cannot get enough of.

He adores musicals. In particular are The Greatest Showman, Moulin Rouge and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

When he and Morgan are in one of their more civil moods, they play chess together in a weirdly companionable silence, as despite their mutual disdain, they understand each other the most. They're equally matched, and it's the only time where Morgan will sincerely compliment him about something, and he'd accept it without sneering or boasting. (He used to play with Sharif, who doesn't do so now as Shockwave, while Morgan used to play with Omar, so it also feels like a moment of bonding over shared loss)

He's an excellent dancer! Mostly ballroom-based which he picked up during his days as a young politician for big senate events, but he enjoys mixing things up a bit with tango or freestyle.

Has mastered walking in high heels.

He alternates between having a soft spot for Thundercracker/Teo Cortez, who he sometimes sees as a younger brother, and calling Teo out as being the 'weak link' of the Trine. He can one day be planning a heartfelt birthday party and baking a cake for Teo since Teo can no longer celebrate it with family, and the next day be screaming at Teo for messing up at target practice. He justifies this hot and cold by saying that someone like Teo isn't made for war, but since Teo insists on being here, he would rather have Teo sad or angry at him for being harsh over the work they have to do, than to have Teo dead from softness and carelessness. He was genuinely relieved when Teo finally left the Decepticons, and they do reconcile post-war.

Openly calls Tarn out for being a fanboy simp in bad Decepticon cosplay.

He never really takes Bumblebee/Benjamin Bane seriously as a fellow combatant and is constantly breaking into Omar's comm signal on the field to yell at Omar to send "your son" back home, this is NO PLACE for a child playing DRESS-UP. (Ben's "I'M 18 YOU POMPOUS PRAT" is immediately met with Stefan's "DON'T YOU TALK TO ME LIKE THAT, STOP KICKING ME IS PRIME RAISING YOU IN A BARN")

That said, despite being on opposite sides of the fence, when Ben becomes a discorporated soul, he is drawn to Stefan, who can hear him because it is Stefan, rather than Omar or even Memo and Charlie, who unknowingly first truly heard him. This goes back to when Ben was nine, and had a chance to visit the Quintesson War Museum on his birthday; his father and mother however, had no interest in exploring the exhibits with him and left him to do so on alone. On a whim, he asked a passing man, a young politician Stefan who was visiting before a conference, to help him take a picture. Stefan wanted this to be a one and done, but after asking Ben about his parents and finding out they left him to celebrate his birthday alone, he decided to chaperone Ben through the entire time that Ben was there and listened to this boy talk about everything under the sun. He didn't put much thought into this after he left, it was just a few hours of making a child happy/feel less lonely on on their birthday (he's never celebrated one! what a novelty that is), he didn't even have the presence of mind to ask for the boy's name since he himself was not given one until he was 18, but Ben never forgot.

As vain as he is, Stefan hates seeing old pictures of himself, especially those taken of him during his old senate days. He hates the boyish way he used to smile, he hates the hopeful light in his eyes, he hates coming to terms with the part of himself he felt he had sacrificed to hate over humanity on the day they razed the Senate… and how he barely recognizes the man he used to be. Wariko eventually makes him see the truth; that the man he was is the man he still is deep down.

He loves collecting plane models. He does not love putting them together, however, and it's a task he often bribes Skywarp into with offerings of muttabaq fresh off the gridle.

Sharif's old nickname for him is "Pretty Bird", Wariko calls him "Uguisu" (Japanese Bush Warbler).

Extremely protective of his armored flight suit. It was a prototype made by Sharif years ago for him--it was his first taste of flying without a helmet or within a cockpit, and he's never been able to forget that feeling. He also sees it as the last gift Sharif ever gave him before becoming 'Shockwave'. He refuses to let Morgan touch it, and the one time he did approach Shockwave to make some amendments, Shockwave told him to rubbish it for a better upgrade. He declined, and has since learned how to fix and programme the suit on his own. He won't admit it, but it feels like keeping the last physical bit of Sharif's memory alive.

Deeply in love with sky and flying in general; he embraces it as the most free he ever feels. He's up early for morning flights to catch the sunrise, and when he feels like he needs to get away from it all, he flies up high enough that ice gnaws at his face and he can't breath before freefalling through the clouds. It helps him gain a sense of perspective.

Stefan and Wariko do eventually get married, and he settles into a Way Of The Househusband role to her Lady First Delegate. They end up adopting two Cold Construct kids, Suzume and Gabriele.

If you'd like more Winblade/Starscream headcanons (because they are my power couple!), you can find them here and here!

#inbox #humanformers #starscream #ttb #ties that bind #save for later #headcanons #long post

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popculturebuffet · 2 months ago

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Transformers: Windblade International Women's Day Special

Hello all you happy autobots and welcome to my international women's day special!

So last year as part of my ongoing retrospective of Transformers More than Meets the Eye, aka one of my faviorite comics ever, for patreon Brotoman.EXE, I took a look at it's sister series Robots in Disguise. And i'm fine.. just...

For those less familiar on paper RID was supposed to be a gritty political intrigue type series. Game of thrones with robots to More than Meets the Eye's combination of Star Trek and JLI also with robots. In practice... it's a bunch of assholes constantly squabbling while Starscream is the best. RID had a great premise, exploring a rebuilding cybertron fractured by centuries of war and the civilians who weren't exactly stoked about said war, but wasted it.

Thankfully after the dark cybertron crossover things got transformed: RID was now about Optimus and a group of autobots heading to earth for shenanigans, crossovers and a few title changes, leaving a gap open for a new cybertron set book. Enter Windblade.

Windblade was part of hasbro's "fan built bot" inittiave.. something I just found out exists. It allowed fans to help design a new character.. the team still clearly had ideas in mind, but select parts were voted on by us. It's a nice way to engage fans.

So her traits were slowly selected: An autobot with a jet alt mode, a sword, a red and black color scheme and a valiant personality. I would've prefered wild man (or wild woman in this case), but hey. A second round determined her name and gender. The last two selections would be reworked: Her home city was chosen.. but as a female transformer she was reworked to be from another planet as the bots on cybertron were all male at birth, while her generalized telepathy became a cityspeaker. Both are changes I have no issue with: the former fits into the unvierse better and the latter is just a cooler more speciality skill with a lot more intresting lore and character stuff attached. I find this whole concept fun and simple: a way to add a new character into the books but give writers and artists wiggle room. Her design was contriversal from what I can tell with a lot of fans fearing her kabuki look was another drift. Me I think it works, especially with the given context: Windblade's story is an immigrant story: she's new to cybertron, Starscream resents her alien status, so it fits she has a deisgn that's diffrent from most g1 designs, more elligant and ornate. It shows off her status as a Cityspeaker is a MASSIVE deal on their homeworld and crucial to cybertron's survival, but also her fish out of water status: she was absent for the war and now has to dive into a world that she HOPED would be helpful.. but instead is a cesspit of decption, intrigue and is barely holding on. I admitely don't know much about kabuki, but unlike drift it at least feels like the artists did their research instead of going off a 12 year old's scribblings about samurai.

Finally we unfortunatley have to talk about a transfomers Legend. Simon Furman is impossible to untangle from transformers legacy , creating Primus itself, finishign the marvel run of the book, continuing his run and ending it on his terms at idw, and launching this very continuity.

He also decided to make a massive ass of himself over this very book. See Simon has it in his head the Transformers are a genderless race. That they have no concept of it and thus are beyond it. As such he's ALWAYS hated the idea of female transformers. Can't stand them. When forced to use arcee in the uk comics he made it a stink of humans asking for a female transfomer then being offended at her design, while the autobots were confused why humanity cared about gender.

So when adding Arcee to IDW he made one of the most infamous stories in all of transformers... on the level of otptimus prime making out with a human to unlock his power, devistator's literal truk nuts or.. these guys

So in IDW continuity Arcee was forcibly switched from Male to Female and torturned into insanity by the evil scientest Jhiaxus. Just reading that sentence you the astute reader can proably see the mountain of issues: Equating being a woman with torture, being trans with a mad scientst experiment, either of the above with mental illness and ptsd. It's.. ti's bad. I've read the issue and while it has been a while it wasn't great. This wasn't the INTENTION, Furman jsut wanted to explore what would happen if a genderless race was forced into a gender.

The problem Furman ignores and later would gripe about in the comments section, is that the transformers.. are male coded. They use male pronouns and cybetron made their bots traditionally masculine. It was concived as a toyline for boys in the 80's. Of course the bulk of characters are male coded. As many a commentor tried in vain to point out to furman, they are not non binary (Andrgnys was the term used), they have a concept of gender. It's why James Roberts was able to make a cast load of gay later: If the race is all male, then of course most of the relationships would be male and thus allowed him to throw in gay characters after he realized Chromedome and Rewind were less "good buddies" and more "husbands". Hence the invention of Condjux Endura and Prowl being Chromedome's bitter ex. As Roberts shows you CAN play with this gloriously, but he accepted transformers are male coded. It's why Rebecca Sugar made the Gem race in steven universe female: in addition to making a female mostly warrior race, something rare in fiction beyond sterotypes, it allowed her to easily make most of the main cast gay or pan without the censors getting pissy at first. They did eventually but the alien thing helped slide it on by.

You CAN have aliens who are genderfluid or genderless.. but the transformers just aren't. He could've made them that way, tried having the desgins tweaked, but because he can't disgnuish between a mono gender and non binary, the transformers wound up being male and the easy fix to make more cisgender female transformers was just have other cybertronian colonies. Most of transformerdom is at most mildly puzzled at the concept of a new gender and moves on. Simple.

Now as for why all this matters to windblade for those unaware Scott had a tumblr at the time , as this platform was popular at the time, and answered questions as I do. Instead of talking about various animated series from various networks, she answered questions about the upcoming book before everyone properly debuted in dark cybertron, since these things get announced months in advance. She then was asked the question: What did she think about ARcee's idw origin. Her exact response

What are your thoughts on the IDW Arcee origin that Furman made?

Okay, this question has come up a lot and it’s time to finally answer.

In a vacuum, Furman’s story is completely legitimate. The idea that someone is fundamentally changed against their will and struggles/rages against that is a really interesting idea. In fact, I wrote a very similar thing with the Dinobots. It taps into a deep human fear that God exists and is apathetic to/causes our pain.

Also dealing with characters that are literally alien naturally leads writers to play with/explore what aspects of humanity do and do not translate: are they alive? does Primus really equate to God if they have concrete knowledge of his existance? what does it mean to be male/female in a non-reproductive species?

The issues I have with Furman’s choice is that we don’t exist in a vacuum and the suggestion that 1. women only exist in aberration 2. being a women is inherently traumatic 3. being a women has any correlation to mental illness are extremely upsetting. Do I think Furman was trying to make a statement about human women with Arcee’s origins? No. In fact, the largest share of blame lies with the tokenization of women in the brand in general. If Arcee was one of many women transformers and she became female in this manner, it would not be an issue for women writ large (although still troubling for the transgender community). It is because she is the ONLY women (and that this story ensures that she will ALWAYS BE the only woman) that Arcee’s story becomes untenable.

Hopefully John, James and I have come up with a way around this Gordian Knot that will satisfy the fan-base, but satisfying-or-no, the most immediate imperative is to ENSURE this story does not continue to keep women readers, fans and characters at arm’s length from the brand. I’ve often said that everyone should feel that they are allowed to like Transformers and it is my complete and utter privilege to take this next step to make that happen.

TLDR version: Arcee’s origin is offensive because we don’t have any other female origins to balance it. We’re working on it, stay tuned.

PS To fans that still claim Transformers are asexual: Academically, you have legitimate standing, but practically, ask yourself this: Jazz has been voice by actors from three different races over the years. If, in the next video game, Jazz was voiced by a woman, would you feel the character had been changed at all? If so, you do not perceive Transformers to be asexual. If not, you are a rare, rare bird indeed.

I quoted it in full to illustrate a few things: Scott is nothing but respectful and even in 2014 was keenly aware of the needs of the trans community. She even started using cisgender when informed it was the proper term for Windblade. It's a very small bar but given the society we live in, it's nice a writer clears it at all. She also does not directly attack furman. She gets why he made the mistake, points it out and makes the valid point that the issue is largely that transformers barely cares about it's female fans and is working to fix that. It is a rational, well thought out response and something necessary to adress given what a clusterfuck spotlight arcee is. She responded to all of this like a rational adult. Furman's response to her

Yeah Simon Furman's response to this is one of the most painful, defensive and mind boggling essays I have ever read. Furman INSISITS the transformers are genderless, cannot grasp that his work does not exist in a vaccum, and that he is not right and any mentions of the cartoon by scott or the comics irk him. He also somehow bafflingly thinks the relationships in MTMTE are metaphors

"James’ run is being rightly lauded and it had been done by using metaphors not direct correlations. Cyclonus and Tailgate’s early relationship can be viewed as a metaphor for a domestic violence situation but it is not literally that. "

... it.. it is literally that. They have romantic feelings and Cyclonus beats Tailgate at one point. It's domestic abuse. They grow past it but the way Cyclonus can treat tailgate is abusive. They.. .they can have relationships Simon. Being genderless or non binary does not = asexual or aromantic.

Mr Furman just.. genuinely DOES not get that and refuses to get that. The contrast is night and day: Scott was polite, wasn't trying to be conforntational to a colleuge, asked other communities for their imput and made a persuasive argument. Furman just cherry picks the sections of her answer that bothered him and hammers the same dumb argument again and again and onto the comments which yes I did read the bulk of.

Shockingly for early 2010's internet comments: their civil. Theirs some assholery and Furman apparently removed full on bigots. But it's a LONG stream of people telling furman he's wrong while he plugs his ears and goes THEY DON'T HAVE GENDER, OTHER MEDIA DOSEN'T MATER TO THIS VERSION EVEN THOUGH IT REFLECTS HOW PEOPLE SEE THESE CHARACTERS, I'M RIGHT JUST LET ME BE RIGHT, AT LEAST ONE WOMAN AGREED WITH ME

It's a case of a creator getting so caught up in his ego he can't see other perspectives and refuses to alter his. Furman was never my hero, but I know he was a hero to many a transformers fan and it's sad he had to tank his own reputation being a defensive asshole. It's not the worst public blowup of one's rep i've seen. He isn't parading around half assed oversexualized art of women like it's some great victory like frank cho or writing heroic comics about Q of Quanon like chuck dixon. He just kinda sucks and refused to admit he was wrong and we sadly had to spend a LOT of this review talking about that.

Thankfully sad old man time is older and we can talk about how good this book is. While Windblade apparently got an eh from most I find it to be one of the best idw transformers books out of the pile i've read. While that isnt' the highest bar the fact it even nears the quality of MTMTE is praise alone. It's an excellent book about a genuinely kind and decent person with pure motives enterting a world where such a thing has been lost in a sea of war and deception. It's a wonderful four issue series that to two sequels: a decent one and an utterly fantastic one and it's under the cut.

We begin with a narration telling us it's the dawn of the new era. It's something I skipped over with MTMTE sumarizing the three pillars of this new ear: Optimus for RID, Megatron for MTMTE and Windblade for take a wild guess.

So quick catchup for those who didn't read the previous reviews or arent' as familiar with IDW Comics: The War is Over. The Autobots won.. but got nothing out of it: Cybertron is free.. but the final fight left it in a dangerous state that left Iacon the last safe harbor and all the various neutrals blaming the autobots for something that genuinely wasn't their fault. The autobots then split: Bumblebee wanted to stay and work things out, Rodimus wanted to go on a grand quest to prove his deep seated self loathing and inferority complex wrong. Optimus opted out enteriely to help with the healing.

This left cybertron in the hands of bumblebee.. who fumbled his time as leader, spending most of it getting bitched out by what were essentailly his seconds in command: Prowl, who had turned into an authortarian shithead over the years and is only going to get worse having already manipualted the lost light's command into taking a serial killer on board as prisoner, something that went about as well as you'd expect, and was such a bad person no one noticed he got mind controlled or fully bought he was. The other was Metalhawk, a self righteous asshole who constantly blamed the Autobots for fighting a war that gave him the freedom to be a self righteous asshole.

This left Cybertron with leadership no one on it wanted who bickered constantly instead of doing things. So instead.. they got Starscream. Starscream did Trumps bit before trumps: he manipulated assholes with actual problems into aiming their anger at whatever he wanted. The only differnce is Starscream has actual style. He easily slid into leadership and after Megatrons return used that to exile most of the autbots to the wilderness to die. Not in those words, unlike trump he has subtly: it was give up being an autobot or leave. Add in a giant robot picking him as robot jesus and it was pretty easy.

Starscream's reign wasn't all sunshine lollypops and rainbow cherry drops as Dark Cybertron nearly dethroned him: the reveal the prophecy of him as a god king also meant cybertron's destruction didn't go well. But since huge horrifying disasters haven't stopped politicans before, and the apocalypse was canceled, Starscream was able to skate by. He still had the NAILS and with the Autbots having saved the world, made an uneasy peace with them. None of them LIKED him but they couldnt' just dethrone him and expect cybertron to not devolve into another war.

So the autobots reluctantly left Starscream in charge and went off to do their own thing.. with a few left behind to try and live their lives and hope he dosen't blow up the planet which sounds.. totally.. t..totally unfamilar

As for our heroine, Windblade was introduced during the crossover. She was sent by everyone's faviorite ace rimmer cosplayer Thunderclash along with her best friends Chromia and Nautica. These three come from Caminus. Long ago when it was an empire Cybertron spread out, sending out titans, transformers the size of cities. The concept of city sized transformers isn't new, Metroplex has existed for some time, but I like what these comics do with it, making them unfathomable giant beings. They think and feel like any bots.. but their thoughts are so massive, dense and complicated their hard to speak to.

Hence the cityspeakers, specialized transformers who can telepathically communicate with titans. It's why Windblade has her kabuki makeup: to pay homage to caminus and why Thunderclash called on her. Windblade managed to save metroplex during the crossover with the help of the lost light and her own skills, turning the tide against Shockwaves own titan.. but leaving him a badly damaged wreck. Nautica went with the lost light while Windblade stayed behind to be the voice of a city. Chromia stayed behind for windblade.

The series slowly fleshes out Windblade and Scott does so wonderfully: Windblade is an optimist, badly wanting the best for people and having come expecting cybertron to be this kind, wonderful new empire finally free from war that could help her own people. As we find out in an excellent swerve at the end of the first issue.. Caminus is not doing well. As we find out later their resources are so stretched they'll only last a hundred years if lucky.

As you can tell... that didn't happen. Windblade's story is of an idealist, a genuinely good person who has pure goals: heal metroplex, heal cybetron and hopefully in turn get Caminus better. In most other transformers works she'd be the protaganist, working with optimus and co to save the world no matter the cost even if things got murky.

But that's not the world she gets. She gets a cybetron badly damaged by the war and everything after, barely holding on, a titan that's barely functioning despite his best efforts, and a leader who openly threatens and accuses her twice not because she did anything wrong but because he can't share the spotlight. Starscream blames her for power outages and a series of bombings.

She's the perfect foil for starscream: both are jets, both are red, but both could not be more diffrent. Windblade only wants to help. She's kind compassionate and empathetic. She wants a better world for cybertron and caminus and will do what it takes. When hunting down waspinator for a lead later, her friend Chromia just.. chases after the poor guy after he bolts, who it turn sout only bolted because EVERYONE beats him up. Her response? Be genuinely contrite, kind yet firm. She gets exactly the info she needs and an ally, if one who will flee at the first time of danger.

Starscream.. well after some interviews Windblade herself puts it best

Starscream is at his most evil so far here. Previously I rooted for him in RiD. He was a scumbag sure.. but he was the only COMPITENT scumbag. Prowl was a facist both with and without brainwashing, Bumblebee focused more on internal politics than helping anyone, and Metalhawk was a self righteous ass. There were other characters who were likeable, Blurr, Ironhide, Wheeljack, but none of them had any power to do anything about the world around them. It's hard not to vote for the bad guy when he's the only one actually trying. Sure he wasn't really solving cybetron's issues either, but at least he was playing the game.

Here since he's largely not gesturing for the public or metalhawk... he's a cold monster. There was a CHANCE he could've changed.. but killing metalhawk, public service or not, was the tippping point: killing the only person who for some unknown reason belivied him in was it. Winblade GENUINELY hoped he wasn't as bad as his rep or his actions.. starscream could've played her... but he dosen't want to. Starscream spent so long clawing to the top, trying to overthrow megatron, trying to worm his way to the kingship, getting declared the chosen one, he finally has everything... and he can't let himself enjoy it. Because suddenly there's a charasmatic bot who he can't just kill or banish, one who makes friends easy, and has nothing but pure motives. She's another optimus.. and he can't let that exist.

He's not so hard on windblade because he couldn't play her but because he knows the longer she's around, the more power she gets. If he can pick her off NOW while she's just a naive visitor, then he wins. And that's what fucks him over: before he played the long game, slowly earning public sympathy, getting the public's support, doing what a politican, even a complete monster whose hollowed out inside, does. He played the game. But now becaues he dosen't want to play again he's just trying to break everything he wants or sees as a remote threat.

He's still a threat himself, still easily outmaneuvers our hero at first: She finds his illicit mine? He sends goons. They survive the ambush? He throws everyone in prison and plans to frame them for his crimes. What makes starscream fascinating here is even when throwing a tantrum because baby not getting enough attention.. he's still fucking terrifying. He has windblade fucking tortured, only stopping when he realizes "No she really didn't blow herself up to get points that's a you thing". He CAN maneuver things and as seen in the climax easily fights off most of the cast and nearly kills windblade till she plugs herself into the city itself. This book does a fantastic job making starscream terrifying and despite his complexity not showing as much.. he's still engaging.

He's also what helps windblade slowly develop: She starts just trying to do the right thing.. but quickly proves to be far more capable, far more badass and far more of a fighter and manipulator than Starscream could've imagined. The second she realizes he's actively trying to kill her... she stops seeing the best in him. I mean think about it.. all it took was one day of her taking him seriously as a threat and she finds out he has a mining operation to find an ore tha twould make him invincible, makes allies easy because no one like starscream and easily revolts even escaping jail. He still comes CLOSE to beating her.. but in a day she has proof off his crimes, has proven she can protect that proof. It's a throughly engaging back and forth: Windblade may be mildly outnumbered.. but she's not giving up. She may speak for the city.. but she can damn well fight for it. She still has lessons to learn like her foes can fly, but she learns them as she goes.

She also gets a hard truth in the big twist.. and it's one I have mixed feelings on. Starscream is not behind the bombings. Nor is his minion rattrap and since we're on the topic I do like IDW rattrap to a point, but I liked him more when he was more weasely and spineless, as it fit early beast wars rattrap's characterization than a torturing monster. I also questoin why IDW only trickled in two beast wars characters at all. Glad to have them but it's still just.. why. You have a massive franchise to mine why are you like this.

Back on topic this brings us to our third lead.. and our secondary Villian, Chromia. Chromia is seemingly windblade's only friend besides ironhide at first, her bodyguard, her best friend and perhaps more. I do TRY not to pair up every remotely romantic friendship I see.. but int his ecase.. Chormia tries to open a space bridge, endagering all or cybetron... to save Windblade> She also talks about seeing enough of her tail fans, aka her ass. There.. isn't a straight explination for either thing.

Chromia is a mixed bag mostly because the series bein gshort.. dosent' really have time to unpack it and I don't remember the followups really doing much to do so. Windblade's best freind betrays her in a horrific way and we just.. don't get time to process it. Maybe when I revisit the other series, as I intend to, we'll get a better arc.

I do like the position it puts windblade in for the climax. It complete's the journey she's been on.. as she plays starscream. His silence and stopping the mining shit.. and in exchange.. other worlds. Caminus isn't the ONLY colony and when theyf ind them.. he can have the credit. It's her using her good nature.. to play his game. She geninely just wants a better world. CYbetron won't last, caminus won't last... so who cares who the fuck gets the credit. It also gives her time WITHOUT him trying to murder her. She takes the blame for Chromia not to save her entirely, but because it puts her in a better positoin: Starscream THINKS he has dirt on her, and while she'd take the fall if it happens, she has dirt on him. It's sneaky, underhanded.. but it feels way more organic than the supposdely "grey" actions of the autbots last series. Windblade is doing something shady.. but it's the only way to buy herself and caminus time. She can deal with starscream later. Right now she just wants a better world. And it's a question of CAN she keep up with this kind of thing and if so what will that make her? And it's a question we'll answer eventually.

So some scatterd thoughts. The art by sarah stone is fucking gorgeous. Truly amazing stuff. Nice digital work. It's expressive and cartoony but the line work and ink make it feel raw and real: it let's the transfromers be bold nad colorful.. but the skethciness helps underline how dark the story is.

I love the idea of the titans, them being these big larger than life beings.. and of metroplex, being a kind friend who adores his speaker and in her darkest hour helps pull her out. I also like the message of this: speakers are supposed to subsume themselves, be one with the city and answer only to others.. but windblade wins by being herself and selfless. By being a person, not consumed by duty but still bound to it. Being a cityspeaker is part of her.. but she is not metroplex. She is his friend. And she will fight for him.

Windblade.. is a masterpiece. Going over it again three times, ocne to read it, once for the first draft and again when that draft mostly done got ate by tumblr, it shows off just what a fantastic book this is. The pacing probably coudl've been slowed down a tad, but I get it. This was the pilot. The series would sadly always get punched with pacing, with the next one opening on a crossover we'll get to, the one after having to bridge series fast and till all are one having to wrap up quicker because IDW impulsively decided to reboot everything. Despite all this windblade is excellent and you should go find it in some corner of the internet while we wait for IDW to republish it. I"m pulling for you, we're all in this together.

#transformers windblade #windblade #chromia #starscream #rattrap #ironhide #waspinator #comics #marghreid scott #idw #transformers idw #idw publishing #robots #transformers

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smoked-salmon-official · 1 month ago

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autism final boss have fun

(if you can guess like… 15 of these dudes then I’ll draw whatever you want no questions asked)

oh, goodness...

*cracks knuckes*

i will be going from left to right from the first image,up to down by row.

btw this is an AWESOME collection with a ton of cool figures and thanks for sending me this! had a blast trying to name them all and i rlly like the toys

i didn't google anything, all of this is from my memory

ss86 galvatron (86 movie), legacy cloudcover (g2 i believe), legacy armada optimus (or somewhere from the unicron trilogy? not sure), cyberverse tarn from legacy (i THINK this is the cyberverse version but it could be the normal "comic universe" aka idw), no clue who that is, studio series tf one optimus, studio series tf one megatron, no clue who that is, i *think* that is twitch from earthspark (just the regular deluxe but cant see too clear), red alert from g1 (possibly legacy? ss86? not sure), g1 jazz that doesn't look like ss86 - dramatic capture? buzzworthy?, cliffjumper from tfp (legacy, possibly from that 4 or 5 pack? or maybe sold seperately not sure), chromia of some sort i believe legacy or wfc, ss86 bumblebee from g1, no clue who that is (maybe sideswipe or sunstreaker), no clue who that is but i think its a headmaster from power of the primes or titans return, rumble and frenzy from legacy united soundwave or masterpiece soundwave (g1, dont keep track of the blue or red tho), and another little headmaster guy idk from where or who

[onto image 2]

studio series gamer edition ratchet (only like 80% sure this is that one though, def a ratchet of some sort, from the wfc/foc games), legacy astrotrain, legacy blitzwing (nice to have the triple changers together btw), regular nightshade from earthspark, animated swindle and idk who the other ones in the row are , legacy cosmos right next to masterpeice ravage, masterpiece ratbat sort of hiding there (could be masterpiece or that cheap ko of the cassettes, not sure - or legacy united idk), no idea who that is + a little red and white headmaster from POP or titans return

[onto image 3]

legacy animated optimus (from animated), a constructicon probably from combiner wars (not too good on my combiners but i think thats hook), ss86 swoop from g1/86 movie, ss86 perceptor from g1/86 movie, legacy united soundwave (im pretty sure, too short to be masterpiece), a ratchet of some sort maybe gamer edition, siege impactor hiding in the back there (maybe wreck n rule one but idk, its a retool anyway), no clue who the gold one is, legacy knockout from tfp (hate how the g1-ified him, ugh), legacy shadowstriker from cyberverse, legacy strongarm from rid15, no clue who the blue and purple guy is, the reissue of g1 bumblebee i think or the retro version maybe OR missing link, no idea who the red and black guy is, tf one bumblebee of some kind from the movie toys (probably not the studio series one unless youve gotten it already), buzzsaw from the same cassette set as the others (masterpiece or KO of masterpiece), legacy beachcomber who i BELIEVE is the core class but im not sure of the scale so could be the regular size one as well, legacy animated bumblebee from tfa, AND i realize that i missed legacy windblade right next to impactor

onto photo 4!

the big guy is either a combiner of menasor or some kind of titan class, sitting on him is blackarachnia from beast wars (probably legacy), starting at his left foot is ss86 coronation starscream from g1/86 movie, a very very nice looking g1 megatron that is probably 3rd part - newage romulus?, armada megatron (legacy?), and you can barely see him but blokees thundercracker (probably?), above megatron is an optimus of some kind (have no guess as to from where), and gasp age of the primes solus prime? (stores near me have shit stock so havent gotten her yet), no idea who the two next to her are, little blokees hook and prowl, another g1 bumblebee (original toy, retro, reissue, or missing link), a variety of blokees constructicons (dont know the exact names - wow, i need to brush up on combiners!!),

onto pic 5! starting from the top this time

skybyte from rid 2001 (age of the primes? something else?), the optimus that i have no idea about, siege jetfire (could be a different jetfire though), armada starscream from legacy, ss86 hot rod/rodimus prime from 86/g1, blokees rotb scourge, blokees something i dont recognize, TWO blokees sentinel prime from tf one, blokees starscream holding gun mode megatron, brawn or gears or one of those guys from g1, blokees ironhide and optimus, alongside a great deal of headmasters from titans return or power of the primes that i do not know, a movie bumblebee from the bumblebee movie that i dont recognize, maybe blokees?, plus a blokees tf one optimus (own that one myself!)

onto pic 6

metroplex (MAYBE, i dont know, one of the titan classes or maybe a combiner except i dont think they make combiners that big), gasp haslab deathsaurus? (or maybe a 3rd party not sure), hot shot from unicron trilogy? but i think im wrong on that one (the guy next to tf one optimus), rattrap from beastwars, a beast wars guy but idk who, a combiner (bruticus? menasor? i really dont know...), blokees prowl and grimlock, maybe possibly optimus primal? (rlly dont know), another rattrap from beast wars, not sure who that is, two vehicle mode constructicons (prob hook but idk), and three vehicle modes that idk

pic 7 - just the head of the big guy

#kaz talks #transformers #maccadam #tf toys #tf figures

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groundrunner100 · 7 months ago

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Peak Character Design: Transformers: Autobot Edition

Optimus Prime - Michael Bay’s Transformers

Elita-1 - Transformers: Animated

Bumblebee - Transformers: Age Of Extinction

Glyph - Transformers: Animated

Jazz - Transformers 2007

Arcee - Transformers: Universe

Ultra Magnus - Transformers: War For Cybertron (Nintendo DS)

Windblade - Transformers: Robots In Disguise (2015)

Perceptor - Transformers: Universe

Warpath - Transformers: Dark Of The Moon: The Game

Ironhide - Transformers: Universe

Chromia - Transformers: Cyberverse

Mirage - Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

Jetfire - Transformers: Energon

Ratchet - Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

Cosmos - Transformers: Animated

Cliffjumper - Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron

Hound - Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron

Grimlock - Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron

Omega Supreme - Transformers: Animated

Drift - Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye (IDW Comics)

Alpha Trion - Transformers: Animated

Hot Shot - Transformers: Armada

Computron - Transformers: Combiner Wars (Machinima)

Volcanicus - Transformers: Cyberverse

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brandwhorestarscream · 8 months ago

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Reincarnation au

Oh my, Optimus, Prowl and Starscream?! 😂

I'm imagining the constructicons pampering their leader, and, considering that there are multiple sparklings, making little jokes about the "mini-gestalt"

Starscream has a lot of emotions about this, a lot. But he has the rest of the Aerie + Windblade, Wheeljack, Bumblebee to help(they are also discreetly taking precautions after the discovery). Cybertron's News media are going crazy

IDW Optimus is... reacting as well as can be expected of him, Ironhide (who is the only one I remember) by his side and helping as best he can.

The lost light is now setting up a mini daycare, of course megatron is still deciding (and talking to rung and ravange) but the triplets + drif and ratchet sparklings are still a small team

(Which of the triplets is pink and maroon?)

Im just gonna answer these point for point. Please note, singleton pregnancies for non-seeker mecha are the norm for this AU and Rodimus having triplets is an outlier. Everyone else is only expecting one

1. The constructicons certainly try to pamper Prowl, but he is not reciprocal. He's like a feral cat: he'll accept food and attention but if you try to touch him he'll hiss and bite you

2. Starscream kept the cycle under wraps for as long as he could, and he's not at all keen on letting anyone get too close. It takes a lot of pestering (and abusing Sky's warpdrive, let's be honest here) just for his trine to get into his quarters to look after him. Thundercracker lectures him on taking it easy and not working so hard as the carrying cycle progresses, and he + Skywarp have their servos full constantly running after their workaholic trine leader trying to get him to rest lmao

3. Optimus is... God, I don't even know. How would IDW OP react? It's not like he's opposed to having a sparkling, but it just feels too soon. It wasn't planned, and he's kind of overwhelmed by....... Everything. Sparklings are a lot, being a parent is a lot, and he's still got a crazy busy schedule despite not being an active political leader atm. Ironhide threatens to sit on him if he won't allow himself time to rest lmao

4. It takes a hunch of schedule shuffling but with Ultra Magnus on the case there's quickly an airtight schedule for bitty care that guarantees they'll all be supervised by at least 2 responsible adults at all times during the work day. It's a bit of a transition after the mamas finish with maternity leave (Ratchet only takes 2 days off before he's back in the medbay with bitty strapped to his back smh), but they make it work

4.5 Megatron is still having a crisis over his impending parenthood. This can go one of two ways: he's had sparklings before and lost contact with them thanks to the shitshow of Cybertron's system and it's a repressed trauma response, or he has first-time carrier jitters combined with infinite guilt about The War and worrying his sparkling won't be able to have a good life with his name attached to them 🤭

5. Roddy's triplets are G1 ("Pinky"), TFA ("Maroon"), and Cyberverse ("Lil Red"). Mama Rodimus hasn't given them names yet (aka idk what to call them lol) so for now they're just called their colors. Kinda like Nightprowler was dubbed Lil P for the longest time

#reincarnation au #prowl #starscream #megatron #rodimus

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royallogana · 4 months ago

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The royal court is now in session. Today's case Fashion in Elysian Roses.

Remember when I said the roses can act as capes or any other fabric? Hey so I made it official Uncanny (an original au in the makes(is the mother universe for Elysian Roses.

So before we get farther in today's case, let me give you a brief history of uncanny and how it came to be. Many years ago near the beginning of the A.D era. The Gods of all religions and species decided to walk amongst the humans but still let them know that they were not of them by making themselves look human but still not. But, every plan has a backfire plan, because of the gods walking amongst the humans some legends and stories came to life; many humans became legends, stories and even twisted amalgamations of the people they used to be. Energy sources of all sorts became contaminated of all types of magic, given humans and gods the ability to; hunt, walk and copy the gods and humans perfectly.

Ok back to the case, Fashion in Elysian Roses.

So because of them being in the world of Uncanny, they have the ability to look human but still maintain their own height if they want to.

Primus and Unicron

They are the only one all with the items about to be mentioned but mainly the cape.

Primes

Old or new the primes wear a veil (back or front), a crown, a slash. Only the reign primes wear a front and back veil with a crown this is while in human form, their hair grows to floor length but doesn't touch the ground it levitates an inch off the ground. While in Cybertronian form the roses with her vines are presently showing, the human form looks like more of an embroidery design. The only primes allowed to follow the reigning prime rule is Optimus because both Unicron and Primus give him the title of Peacemaker and Prima because he is the only biological child of Primus and Unicron (Yes I now this is incest but these are the only two that it and humans came from incest before they stopped and also I don't support incest.) Rodimus is also the only Prime that only wears the back veil and crown. Oh and the crown carries the number of gems equivalent to what number prime they are.

Chromiums

They wear everything as the prime but bear the horns of Unicron instead as a symbol of war and chaos. They are hand picked by Unicron himself except Megatron he gains the title of Chromium by being the only Cybertronian to maintain their sanity until death. Unicron officially named Megatron 'The Dominator, The Unmaker incarcerated, The Destroyer's Chosen and The Reaper.' Megatron is called his favourite adopted grandson from Prima. They're only 6 Chromiums, Megatron being the "last" and longest reigning one. Primus learn from your husband on how he keeps them alive please.

Kings and Queens

Kings only wear a crown and a cape but the cape has a symbol and colour of the national gem of the planet they rule. Starscream and Chromia are the ones who came up with this idea. Kings can be any gender, you can be a femme and still be a king.

Queens wears a front and back veil with a circlet bearing the national gem of the planet. Queens are the Conjunix Enduras (? I think that's what it's called) no matter the "gender".

City speakers

They would wear a veil over the mouth. In human form they must carry some part of their hair in a bun of some sort. Elder speakers wear a fan-like crown. The only expectation of this is Windblade because she is surprisingly happily married (I will call it marry until I get the right name) to Starscream, she wears a combination of the back and mouth cover veil and both crowns.

Primes and Chromiums apprentices(inspired by @energ00n au)

The helpers mainly wear whatever they feel like but in their prime and chromium colours. They wear a sash and a crown-like hair piece. Prima's one is different, he got inspired by Hermes (yeah I headcannon those two are best friends always gossiping) and uses a wing headband but his feathers are closed up and Hermes is open and ready for flight

Army(Commanders and veterans)

They have special ribbons (including hair bows) as long as you were in a war you get a ribbon, similar to humans they have badges telling you the rank. Hair bows tell you what war and what faction you were in. For example Optimus has a Crimson Red ribbon with Morpheus Blue and Megatron has the same thing but only the red is Royal Purple.

Army (Soldiers)

They all must have their weapons close to so it would be gloves. Scouts would wear theirs as a belt any style belt.

Civilians

They wear theirs as a draped shawl with the rose on the top.

If you have any questions just ask and I will try my best to answer.

#royalspeaks #transformers #megop #tfp megop #maccadam #elysian roses #apprenticeship au by enegron

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pluralsword · 6 months ago

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youtube

hey y'all! we just finished a voice dub of one of our favorite issues of IDW1 especially for Arcee's (trans) narrative and arcs, and also it just has a really good plot of 'post-war' intrigue, and is the issue that introduced Aileron to the continuity, and Arcee's initial feelings towards her and newly arrived Camiens (after Windblade, Nautica, and Chromia, though her perspective probably applies to them too especially after the idealism she saw in Combiner Hunters), here you go :3 :

In this issue of Transformers' IDW1/IDW2005, "The Transgressors" (written by John Barber, edited by Carlos Guzman, Art by Andrew Griffith, colors by Josh Perez, letters by Tom B. Long), turmoil is afoot on Cybertron. The estranged brotherhood of Tracks & Needlenose is put to the test once more while Needlenose & the Decepticons allied with Galvatron vie for support from the ones in Iacon, tensely crossing paths with Way of Flame proselytizing Camiens Aileron, Sterling, & Swift who (currently) believe Optimus Prime to be a living god. Second in command of Autobots on Earth, Arcee, who provides the interior narration of this issue, continues her visit to Cybertron (after the Combiner Hunters one-shot) & is not particularly pleased with the current events, seeing the unrest & unhappiness of Decepticons whose dreams of conquest are easy to rekindle & the deification of her commander. She worries for the lost colony newcomers while struggling with taking a look back at her past from a tense exchange with Tracks, & the tumult that follows brings her to the governing halls of High Chancellor Starscream, elected leader of Cybertron who seems to be having a one-sided conversation with someone no one but he can see… & she pushes him to face the fact his authoritarianism will be his & Cybertron's undoing by bringing her conflict with one of the secret police to his doorstep. In the aftermath, wrangling wtih personal loss in the past & the bright hope she saw on the faces of the visiting Camiens, she resolves to make sure they never end up with the same pile of trouble & old wounds Cybertronians carry on average, much less herself…

Can't believe we're one of the first to voice dub Aileron! XD more than one of us definitely got a kick out of that.

"The Transformers" is an exclusive property of Hasbro. This video and the system who put together (us) & uploaded it make no claim therein to "The Transformers", (hence, the removal of nearly all of the dialogue from comic bubbles), & thus release this non-commercially with no monetary gain to be had (also some sounds from freesound.org credited at the end are only available on a non-commerical license).

This was video was just done to bring to life with sound a comic issue from the IDW1/IDW2005 run if for no other reason than for people who have struggled to read comics as text to be able to experience the story another way.CW Limb loss, minor robogore, occasional loud sound effects for typical transformer violence.

This dub for the sake of visual impact to the reader during Arcee's final pages of narration in this issue, draws on one panel each from The Transformers: Robots in Disguise #Annual 2012, "Primus: All Good Things", The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #26, "No Exit: Dark Cybertron Chapter 6", & The Transformers: Lost Light #1, "Dissolution Part 1: Some Other Cybertron" to show people from Arcee's past she was close to she knows or thinks are dead. Hardhead & Anode (& of course, Lug is present even though it's not established in The Transformers: Optimus Prime #25, "Post" if Arcee knew her, it was just easier to show the situation where Arcee thought Anode died by including her, & to be honest given how close the two transfem Conjunx Endura treasure hunters are we struggle to believe that Anode wouldn't have at least mentioned her to Arcee at all), & two people who betrayed her long ago, Jhiaxus (among other things by not listening to her desires for her gender affirming surgery & putting her through unnecessary procedures to conform to rigid ideals & then abandoning her including to the side effects, with a frame she sought help from Anode with & has since iterated away from across reformats of her own parameters) & Galvatron, who became estranged from her in his love of hierarchy and pursuit of power, getting deeply involved in the cause of imperial progress of the differing schemes of Nova Prime, Jhiaxus, & Shockwave before fully going his own way as a warrior ruler seeking to conquer after Dark Cybertron.

While Arcee was not actually present for the 'death' of Anode nor the death of Lug in 1516 CE (don't worry she gets resurrected by her wife & Kaput) & Hardhead in 2014 CE (no such luck), she was aware of both events, and while her friendship with & medical trust for Anode was not intended when this was written (Anode had yet to even appear in canon, MTMTE was still going), "Transgressors" is easily read in that context, as you just heard. It's all in the reasons & emotions you ascribe to Arcee's words from your knowledge and understanding of her story when you read it.

Endless thanks to the people who keep freesound.org alive & well, & a special thank you to our (as in our system's) friends & loved ones who supported the endeavour of doing this dub, & to everyone else who loves EXRID / Robots in Disguise 2012 + Dark Cybertron + Transformers (2014) + Transformers: Optimus Prime + Transformers: Unicron & trans gal (or parallel assemblage) alien robots be they transformers or other dear mechanoids!

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