#cybertronian civil war

[gardenofchrome]

I’m am dying for more combiners to be shown in Transformers media. But not just any combiners- I would like to see combiners with a sibling like relationship. Who panic in their combined form if a limb gets ripped off because they know that one of their siblings got hurt and seek revenge for it, kind of what Thundercracker is doing for Skywarp in the Skybound comics. Even in their uncombined form they take care of each other.

[pluralsword]

Arcee once said that "ferocity without compassion is brutality." We think this is a clear case of Slipstream engaging in brutality, gods. Omega Supreme's poor brain module… ;-;

So we did this video this way with the death included to demonstrate that you can still die to Omega Supreme while playing as a flier in Chapter V on normal (though it is substantially harder to do so than as a grounder) for the dub we might play it on hard or just- use the second half of the video. Honestly a bit terrified (in both a generally sapphic but in this case very concerned in the context of the mod's plot way) of Slipstream's alt-mode guns hereafter.

For those who don't know what this mod is, it's a campaign mod for War for Cybertron that lets you play Slipstream and Arcee in various parts of the campaign! It's subtitles only because we couldn't port in new audio for Slipstream or characters talking to her. You can read more about it here

[huli-jinx]

The Astral Express makes a brief stop at a destroyed Cybertron.

[lets-try-some-writing]

I swear I would die for a fanfic or writing of Alpha Trion experience with feral bitey Orion who has no respect for his ancient ways or scrolls and like the experience of finding him.

Coming right up my dear anon! I may have messed with your prompt just a little bit. Sorry for how short this is.

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"Orion Pax." Alpha Trion put down his quill with a sigh as he looked over his shoulder. The feral monstrosity was at it yet again.

"Primus below, give me strength." He knew exactly what to expect, but it still prompted him to sigh as he looked at the hole in Orion's crib. He had, yet again, bitten his way through the metal bars and clambered his way to freedom. Alpha Trion would need to get a cyber-hound kennel or get a custom crib made from something far more sturdy than whatever the crib was currently made of.

This was the third crib just this stellar cycle.

"Archivists, be on the lookout for Orion Pax. He has escaped his designated space yet again." He sent the message over the private channel used by the Archives. He could almost feel the collective groan of his students as they put down whatever they were doing to find the wayward sparkling traversing the Archives.

He wandered the halls while rubbing his face in exhaustion. Ever since taking in Pax, there had been no peace in his once restful workspace. Orion cried throughout most of his recharge cycle, and barring that, he was plotting yet another escape attempt. It was draining on body and spark alike. Especially when Orion was found chewing on a record dating back to the early Quintesson era.

"Sir, we've located him?" He perked up at the voice coming across his commlink, but he frowned at the almost questioning tone. Was the archivist not sure?

"You do not sound confident." He remarked simply as he strode in the general direction of the archivist's signal.

"Well, we have found him, but he's... in the ceiling?" That was not a good sign. Alpha Trion all but sprinted until he found the archivist and a few others crowded around the base of a huge pillar. It held up the fifth archival level and extended more than sixty feet into the air. Looking up, Alpha Trion wanted to bang his helm against the nearest wall.

"Do we get a ladder?" The question hung in the air as Orion Pax clung to the very top of the pillar, his little clawed digits digging into the metal as he chewed on a datapad. Why he climbed up the pillar and why he was eating a datapad was beyond Alpha Trion. He stopped bothering to ask questions after a certain point.

"Yes, get the ladder." Alpha Trion sighed and died a little inside as, before he knew it, he was teetering precariously on a ladder with the aid of more than a few archivists as he reached out to grab his ward. The feral sparkling purposefully kept scooting around the pillar to avoid his grasp, growing as he did so. Alpha Trion had half the mind to shoot him with a dart gun just to make him loosen up. However, he was not fond of the idea of actually hurting the little monster.

A half groon and more than a few scratches later, Alpha Trion held his screeching ward by the leg upside down as he carefully worked back down the ladder. The archivists vented in relief and one was quick to grab an energon crystal for the screaming sparkling to chew on. The moment Alpha Trion put it in his intake, Orion's optics cycled down and he contented himself by crunching his way through the crystal.

It was a momentary break from what was likely to be a long few cycles of chasing Orion down while a new crib was made.

[witchofthesouls]

Story idea of a take "human fell into media and took over a character's body."

Set far before TFP, a human wakes up upon a slab inside a body that's not theirs. "Tell the Master, she lives!"

As much as I enjoy the "Sam Witwicky time travels to pre-war Cyberton," he had the approval and semi-guidance of Primes and the Allspark to work his way through Golden Age Cybertron.

What happens to a human who didn't have that protection? Only basic knowledge via the show and online discussions? Now, they need to navigate the treacherous waters of High-Caste society, the cultural and moral shocks, and the immense systematic pressures that allowed them to take over an empty frame.

Specifically, the exploration of an alien planet that has commonalities with Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, Victorian England, and Gilded Age America with space trade.

Much like the tragic Cassandra, warnings go ignored at the most crucial shatterpoint, and the war still happens.

[knight-says-rollout]

It is so important to me that people remember the difference between “pre-war” and “no war” AUs

No war is a civilian AU, that’s the dreamland on cybertron, that’s your happy ending where they work as musicians and clockmakers and all that!

Pre-war?? Pre-war is what caused the war. It’s a dystopia. That is not a silly little civilian AU those robots are in turmoil.

[transingthoseformers]

I once read a fic that basically had sparklings be omnivorous horseshoe crabs who'd eat anything, including other mechs, to get the necessary materials for growth.

So I'm kinda into the idea of sparklings as things that might haunt a normal person's nightmares! The bots are all cooing over how cute it is but the humans are going get it the fuck away from me.

Especially considering it could easily kill a human by just curiously poking at them.

... random idea for sparklings? You got it! Decided to go weird and a bit dark.

So. Cybertronians have large litters. 15-20 are the normal amount. The thing is, sparklings are very prone to dying. The parent(s) only ever really get involved in protecting them from other bots and providing the occasional energon.

Sparklings are not intelligent. They're basically only thinking about fuel and growing. So they get into accidents and die. Get eaten by wildlife. Randomly die because something was wrong from the start.

At the end of this "infant" period, when they've developed enough, it's like a switch is flipped. They start to notice the world around them. Start to think.

It's also at this point the parents' instincts tells them to seek out their surviving offspring, who'll likely only number 1-2. They locate them with the help of special sounds, resembling no other common sound.

Now they'll be properly taken care of and loved.

Damnnn

That's always a fascinating approach, because you always gotta wonder how as their species advances they approach this, as it makes sense as a species they'd eventually try to lessen infant mortality rate. After all, humans did that right?? And in general it makes sense that sparklings are born in cities they're less likely to run into wildlife. Unless there's some sort of ~thing~ about carriers stepping out of the city to have their sparklings??

[fandomunsexyman]

What is something that your OC would find incredibly hard to lie about? Even if they really wanted to do so...

For Saragan and Brickback?

For Saragan it would be their parents. Saragan does not talk about Iphan or Holris much, but when they do they're very frank about who their parents were. Iphan was a Bhaalspawn and as much as she worked to protect Saragan, Saragan was still aware that Iphan committed atrocities so that he would not kill them. Holris was a hero and Saragan looked up to him but they don't want to mythologize him because Holris was their father first and foremost. Saragan would want their fathers to be understood as people and not myths.

Brickback would have a hard time lying about their early life in general. They're proud of where they came from and refuse to minimize the impact it had on them. Brickback remembers that period of their life fondly as them when they were "better" and as such would be as truthful about it as possible. On a lighter note Brickback would also find it hard to lie about their medical history. Their first ever doctor was someone who could and did poison people which left them with the lasting impression that all medics did that at will.

[nameishname]

man the thing that always gets me the most about transformers is when they know each other by name. Like,, sure it hurts when they do because they knew each other pre war. But really when it's like,,, knowing someone by name because you've fought each other so many times in so many battles all during the same unending war that you know this person. Like, sometimes it's even more than just knowing their name sometimes you know this person. The characters that have playful relationships with each other that met for the first time on the battlefield. That are actively trying to kill each other, but will be sad about it and miss them when the other is gone. The ones that bond in unlikely situations just to go back to fighting as soon as the dust settles. Sometimes it's even at a time where the war has lost its point or contradicts what they were even fighting for in the first place. Where they're literally doomed to fight into extinction or.. stop. But they don't stop. Like, idk... The autobots and decepticons pretty much always end up fighting for an amount of time so large it's literally inconceivable. And at the end there's often so few of them left, and they mostly all know each other intimately and by name and like,,,

Idk this is really rambly and I'm having a bit of trouble articulating but sometimes I really stop and think about how many of them know each other specifically through fighting and it gets to me a little bit

[fawningoveradream]

one feeling I wish I could re-live over again? Relearning and processing transfromers lore and character backstories, per every series/continuity. Also Transformers Wiki is the best, hands down. Never ever ever been on a more helpful information site before. Its clearly made with love and passion for everything transformers related. And the distinct lack of ads blocking your view from deep dive reading also are huge pointers. 

[umbrakinetix]

Tf robot husbands poll is destroying friendships and ripping apart families on my dashboard rn

[gardenofchrome]

Foreshadowing at its finest

(Also can we talk about this scenery like 👀)

[pluralsword]

Warpath: "Look -- that's the outer shell of Cybertron's Core! Wow…"

Arcee: "The Core remade me when I asked, and now it aches, I- sobs.

Arcee: "You look sad, Optimus."

Optimus: "Sad for Core, you & all trans bots. The Core, the main conduit of energon and reforging to all on Cybertron, to see it defiled…"

Well, you all (at least some of you) knew this was coming! Sword Arcee, trans and all, with her story interwoven with that of many more transformer across generations- making the wounds the Core has suffered all the more bitter, and the fight one for an ecosystem/self that has affirmed transformation (pun intended) from the beginning. We find Core as a character interesting (it/it's pronouns!) because it's not a deity figure but is at the center of cybertronian life, transformer or no. Also there's something very satisfying about writing WFC Arcee as a trans character within the game itself since her bot and alt mode were the basis for IDW1 Arcee's look in 2012-2014 at the beginning of the Robots in Disguise/The Transformers comic…

This portion of the mod needs some editing, spotted a line where Arcee is referred to as Ironhide left over from the base game, and there are some cutscenes to remove Ironhide from (unfortunately Arcee can't be added to them in his place due to coding limitations of the game).

For those who don’t know what this mod is, it’s a campaign mod for War for Cybertron that lets you play Slipstream and Arcee in various parts of the campaign! It’s subtitles only because we couldn’t port in new audio for Slipstream or characters talking to her. You can read more about it here and see Slipstream attempt to yeet delete Omega Supreme here

[supremestarscream]

He’s also more than willing to feed the much more entertaining narrative that Megatron just had space rabies all along.

[yuukirita]

Thinking about how “entire-moral-backbone-of-the-decepticon-army” B-127 exists in the context of the cybertronian civil war and like

The Autobots are going to have a vested interest in keeping him alive.

Like yes Optimus Prime and Commander Elita-One would be very cross if something were to happen to him but there’s also looking at it from a logistical standpoint.

Most if not all of the Decepticon high command like the guy, they want to keep him safe AND happy. They pull themselves back from committing atrocities if they think it would upset him/make him disappointed in them.

Example:

Shockwave: Suggests war crime #1

Starscream: Counters with war crime #2

Soundwave: Logistics on making both things happen

B-127: *vague noises of being upset*

All Three: Pull back! Abort! Wrong course of action!

Intelligence is going to have a field day bc maybe War Crime #2 would have been a huge strategic advantage to the Decepticon but it didn’t happen bc of this yellow happy mess of a bot

And the worst/best part is he’s not even trying, he just wants his first friends to get along again

Yeah the war is going to be different thanks to Bee-

Everyone is glad he is there!

*looks at second Bee au*

yeah. Glad he's there.

[witchofthesouls]

This might be a weird thing to think about but I wonder what Cybertron’s armed forces were like during the caste era? I think that, it’s culture it’s internal workings etc, are pretty untapped wells of potential.

Exactly!

Transformers, both canon and fanon, gave us so many delicious morsels that I just want to take a stick and beat out more lore!

Especially when taking into consideration of popular tropes and/or personal headcanons to make it work or delve deeper into the implications.

Or even the basics like food across the different iterations since crossovers are getting popular. TFP is focused on a purely liquid diet, whereas G1 managed to get Energon from geothermal or nuclear soueces, and IDW/MTMTE expanded on the different forms of Energon and actual dishes.

It's fascinating because there's so many ways to explore the differences: an evolutionary divergence, adaptation due to lack of resources, an inherent biomechanical quirk of the species of a specific universe, intentional modifications via Quintessons or the High Council...

And that's with just one thing.