#hasbro know too much

[ask-a-bot]

Sorry, Megs, I’m siding with everyone else with this one. Let.👏🏼 Them.👏🏼Help.👏🏼 You!

It takes more strength to accept help than to go it alone. So allow me to challenge you. Do you, Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, have that kind of strength?

I understand you’re upset, Prime, I remember you mentioning that your talk with Ironhide about the whole Prowl/Hasbro left you very upset and confused. Are you ready to talk about what you learned?

Snf.

Hey, Megs. We're on your side here. I know it's hard not to instinctively act like a dying cat and go away to die or recover alone, but you're not a cat. You're my best friend and I want you to get better.

I know. My apologies.

Nothing to apologise for. Rest now.

How did you get through to him like that?

Megatron is reasonable when you meet him where he's at.

So much for being reasonable... Megatron, stay in berth.

Don't give me that defiant look! Stay where you are.

It's for your own good.

I have been prisoner here since I awoke, Prime. I would like, if you will only give me permission, to... uh... stretch my legs. Wash.

OP, I really don't think it's too much to ask...

No, it isn't. My apologies, Megatron. I hadn't realised you'd not moved at all yet. Let me help you; your infections might make you feel a bit... a little dizzy. Wait here, Kup. Please.

Thank you. What is all this about Ironhide?

Really want to hear about that now?

Why not? Might as well have a distraction, while you are assisting me.

Well... OK.

I found out that Ironhide has been covering for Jazz, who was covering for Prowl.

We've found our security breach.

Prowl sold false information to Hasbro about a number of things: our physiology and needs: he said we don't get hungry, thirsty, sick or tired – and we don't rust. We feel pain and you enjoy hurting people for fun.

How nice...

There's a lot more, but I'm gonna wait outside until you want me. We'll talk more later.

Thank you.

[mudzdale]

tnt please please please neomail me back

[eldritchamy]

I have owned Baldur's Gate 3 for exactly 38 hours and I have played 29.7 hours of it on steam

[quetzalpapalotl]

I saw they're making a shockwave/orion two pack and immediately thought 'I bet Barboe will be thrilled', ngl. You seen these lads yet?

I saw!!!!!!!!

It is very thrilling!!!! But I'm side-eyeing the fact that we get Senator Ratbat, Miner Megs, Senator Shockwave, IDW1 backstory pack and then Orion is labeled as a data clerk. Hasbro, you will look at my boy in the eyes and accept that he is a cop and he sucks lmao. The design is still based on the comics, that's a very characteristic chest.

I wish I could get the Shockwave on his own because I already have the MMC Optus and that fulfills my IDW1 Orion needs (he's perfect, so, even the alt), so I don't want to spend extra to get a lesser version. But oh my god, it's a Orion-Shockwave pack, they're in love. Hasbro, have mercy, I don't have money.

Every day we get closer to a Zeta toy (it will never happen, Barbi)

[keferon]

Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst yea?

Found this speculation on twitter from the trailer-

PLEASEEEEE I'm on my hands and knees begging, PLEASE let this be Prowl

And Jazz speculation, too????

Yall think I'm feral now just wait-

[bruhstation]

hello tumbled er

greetings and salutation. it is I, senja heterocaine, speaking to you through your favorite home screens. now you might be wondering: where on earth has senja heterocaine disappeared to these past 5 months? well the answer is as simple as it gets

I focused on my studies.

well yes that is the main reason. but that's like the nerd "obvious" answer. there’s other reasons too. some of which includes me getting into new interests, revisiting my old, hibernating interests, getting involved in university organizations and events, getting more involved in big family stuff since I'm the oldest and the only of-age grandchild of grandma from mom's side.... lots of stuff

so I just finished the third semester of premed school right. honestly speaking, with how I was losing motivation on drawing, the art block post-art fight, and lack of time, I decided to well, take a break. and it’s pretty convenient too since it was early on in the third semester. during the entirety of it I was feeling pretty proud of myself like "oh I've been studying a lot. I've taken a break from drawing and blog stuff. surely things will get better" and it did! not immensely but it's significant enough that for once I don't feel an indescribable sense of terror after the semester ends. the focus of this semester was about reproduction systems and growth and development which is pretty fun? we get to use models and medical phantoms hands-on and poke them with needles and other rube goldberg contraptions. I did miss breeding bacterias in petri dishes and seeing my friends burn the microbiology lab’s ceiling like last semester though. my grades are also improving… slowly but surely

(aftermath not pictured: me lounging on the couch scrolling through quora to see if there are people currently in college wanting to drop out)

maybe I was aiming too high. at least my grades are better than the previous two semesters and my social life is much better than it was back in high school. speaking of exams -- I went through my first osce exam around a week ago (practical exam to see if you can actually perform the skills labs lessons from the entire semester like you're a real physician). it was the most terrifying day of the month. my dentist said I have a big tongue and that’s why I can’t speak properly if I’m being too fast. ntm I WAS NERVOUS!!! MY FIRST OSCE!!! with how I memorized everything I needed, I was pretty confident that I'd pass, though. I didn't and retook the exam the next day. the prelude was the worst crash out ever

ah ptooey. I'll just take it like a champ. my tutor who's 3 years older than me and currently in the anesthetic rotation of co-ass told me that things will get easier but that's very subjective. he's a medical olympiad student after all. my parents are pretty happy though with how my academic life is becoming better so that's that

LETS MOVE ON TO SOMETHING LIGHTER. section B: what I've been getting into ever since bruhstation was put on cryostasis

you know Transformers One (2024)? the transformers movie directed by josh cooley? based on the Transformers(tm) franchise by Takara Tomy and Hasbro? most tragic break up movie of the decade? I watched it twice, squealed once, and left me broken and inconsolable for weeks on end. it made me revisit my dormant transformers interest after 5 years. I've reread the idw comics (mtmte, LL, taao, main transformers comic), and is currently checking out more (reading the wreckers saga right now). god it made me miss rodimus and friends' zany space opera adventures. I've always envisioned casa tidmouth to have the same tone as mtmte... the oftentimes dark humor, fridge horror stuff, weird magic/science, the roller coaster of emotions, confronting the past... its crazy good.

stories where misfits and knuckleheads band together in a confined space while having crazy doctor who-like adventures am I right. like I want casa tidmouth to be like that. remind me to thank 14 year old me for this trip down memory lane. and as usual, I tend to make self-indulgent crossovers of any interest I'm thinking about at the moment with casa tidmouth

a terrifying sneak peak on what's to come.

I've been working on my oc projects too. you may have seen some of them on artfight (graciela, saudade, altair, etc) but I've been focusing the most on graciela and saudade's universe, children's heterotopia. it has the largest amount of characters in any story I've created (not counting casa tidmouth), the most effort put into planning the stories and weaving in its themes about capitalism, patriarchy, period-typical bigotry, etc. there's human experimentation and they're given powers that range from punching super hard to time and space displacement. I also inserted whatever I wanted into the story. sure, yes, there's a lesbians-only organization of which its members are named off the knights of the round table, theres a mafia that focuses more on the family drama and attempted parricide from all angles, and tragic assassin maids of which their names are wuthering heights references. also if you've been following my main tumblr hajimedics for a while, you might've seen my three fairly oddparents ocs. well I've given them the tezuka star system treatment and inserted them into children's heterotopia as well.

I've also gotten into UTAU production! I've made a number of UTAU covers but haven't uploaded them to youtube. only shared them around with my friends on priv twitter. a good friend of mine assisted in the creation of my own UTAU voicebank! their name is TORKA (like "torque"), their voice bank has a slight accent when singing in japanese (because I'm their voice lol) and CV-only, their in-universe lore is that they're an intergalactic train conductor picking up wayfarers and outcasts trying to find a place in the vast universe, and I love them dearly

moving on! this is a thomas the engine and company blog THIS IS A LIFE UPDATE POST

I'd rather not discuss about how I'm doing mentally in deep detail BUT what I'll say is that I can't confidently say "I'm doing better" or "I'm doing worse" because it always depends on the days. things are okay-ish nowadays. some days are scary. some days are boring. I still experience delusions, (ironically) worried about my anhedonia, and believe that certain bouts of confidence will trigger a jinx, but I think I've been controlling myself well? at least? I keep internalizing the belief that I'm an adult. 20 years old. I have to act accordingly and my life in real life is ten times more important than the internet. things are going to change more and more once I graduate premed and began the co-ass program. I have to think 10 steps into the future. building successful connections before you turn 30. sigma grindset and all that. sorry that was my father using my body as a spirit medium

AND ALSO. ALSO. BACK TO THE BLOG DO YOU GUYS REMEMBER THAT ONE TIME I PROMISED TO MAKE A COMIC BASED ON THE RESULTS OF THE 1000 FOLLOWERS POLL AND NEVER DID UNTIL NOW. I'm terribly sorry. I promise I will get into it I SWEAR procrastination is kicking my ass. I have to plan the dialogue and script and stuff AND DRAW BUT

BUT HERE’S THE FUNNY THING

THE BLOG REACHED 2000+ FOLLOWERS A FEW MONTHS AGO

NOW WHAT DO I DO TO CELEBRATE?

I don’t know honestly. I haven’t done the 1000+ followers celebratory comic, and NOW I HAVE 2000+ FOLLOWERS. THERES 2000+ OF YOU NOW!!!!! THAT’S CRAZY (IN A GOOD WAY)!!!! I thank you all for sticking with bruhstation through thick and thin for around 2 and a half years. I’m glad for all your support, fanarts, asks, and such truly. like wow. 2k. in such a short time too! thanks guys. admittedly, I feel kind of guilty to leave everyone hanging for months with nothing to give, especially with such a high follower number. and realistically? I don’t think I’ll be able to draw as much as I used to. like I’ve said earlier, I’ve been busy with my personal life and oc projects. it’s not like I’m abandoning this blog any time soon? I’m just speaking from a logical perspective, given my status as a student and (possibly, hopefully) future doctor too. I don't want to burn myself out posting like thrice a week, answering asks daily, I want to take things slow. at my own pace. maybe I'll focus on designing side characters as well and thinking about their roles in the story! but that's for another day. I’m just glad everyone’s still sticking around and enjoying my silly stuff

I do want to draw more for this blog! I want to put thomas and co. in more situations. make them dance for all our entertainments. but when you’re an adult, you realize that you have your own priorities. you can’t always do the things you wanna do. you can’t just drop something you don’t like out of the blue. sometimes you have to sigh, scratch the back of your neck, and brave it while saying “I sure am getting old”

oh and also I'm a butch lesbian now. still he/they (heavy preference on he/him), still preferring masculine terms like "mr", "sir", "guy", still as crazy as ever. still aroace too and not interested in dating, something that's been a constant in my identity ever since I'm in early high school. little have changed I can assure you this. I am still senja. senja heterocaine from the net.

and thus concludes senja’s life update post! what will the next post after this be about? something gordon-centric again? serious colored art? old men yaoi? silent hill UK localization? place your bets. everyone loves a good laugh

[vorthosjay]

Hi Jay. Not wanting to sound mean, but I really think it must be commented and that there's no softer way of doing that: the company's statement of Thunder Junction being an inhabitated plane prior to MoM is not a honest way of capitalizing on a sellable trope without touching its uncomfortable issues. It's even disrespectful. They have done it in a less flagrant way with Kaladesh and both Ixalan iterations, but now they've gotten too far with Thunder Junction. Colonialism is too big an issue to simply being put under the carpet as it never existed and we could just enjoy the sunny part of the history. I really hope Hasbro as a company acknowledges this and changes its way of dealing with the theme. Thanks for letting me pointing this.

Look, you caught me on a bad day, so I'm going to be as polite as possible but let's start with the foundation that this is not a complaint to direct at me. I have no control over any of this. Mark Rosewater exists and takes feedback on Tumblr.

But, let's talk about it, because I've seen some folks take this to extremes.

First off, I've seen a lot of well meaning folks speaking up on behalf of hypothetical indigenous americans, but I'd love to get takes from folks this actually impacts. I'd love for Wizards to post something about their work with cultural consultants, for sure. But the only actual thing I've seen so far is a great story from Magic's first indigenous american author. And when you're speaking on someone else's behalf, you tend to miss things. Like, Kaladesh is not the great representation of south asian culture that you might think when you jumped to it, and it's okay if you didn't know that, but it sort of proves the point that it's very difficult to actually protest on someone else's behalf. And I just haven't heard from anyone who has also mentioned they speak from authority or are impacted by this. That doesn't mean you're wrong, necessarily.

But here's the thing. Thunder Junction isn't history. It takes cues from the American West, sure, but it's a fake world. And sometimes it's okay for a fake world to ignore the bad things that happens in real life and create something more aspirational. Magic does this all the time. Magic doesn't have homophobia, but that isn't really realistic or representative of the real world, is it?

No one, and I mean literally no one, came to me and said that people of color needed to be ostracized and not allowed to work alongside the white people in the demon mob families of New Capenna. That racism was real, it was systemic, and it was violent. But did it need to be tackled in a fantasy crime drama based on america in the 20s? Should it have been? I don't think anyone would have enjoyed it as much. Sometimes it's just fun to play gangster.

Similarly, the colonization and manifest destiny that was the reality of the American West was tragic, but does that need to be our only depiction of indigenous peoples - being colonized? If they were erased completely from the narrative, that would be awful, but can't they just have fun being cool thunder slingers? The Atiin were developed with a consultant, and if you want answers ask Wizards to talk about it.

There's a reason the Oltec were depicted as being sealed off from the Immortal Sun drama that had happened on the surface. To have an aspirational mesoamerican culture that wasn't affected by the Dusk Legion and Azor and all that.

To put it in another perspective, does every period piece featuring black americans need to feature systemic racism to be respectful? Is Bridgerton disrespectful (I mean probably but not for that reason)?

The reason I've framed a lot of this as questions is because I don't necessarily think I know the right answer, especially not for a fantasy card game. I've worked with tribal governments in my emergency management career and spent a week on the Navajo Nation, and talked a lot about perspective on things, and I would not presume to know what the right answer to all of this is.

Edit: to be clear, Could it have been handled better? Probably. I will never deny that. But also it’s a complicated and fraught topic and I’d love to hear from the people wizards contracted who actually know what they’re talking about.

[primussavethesemechs]

I want the human/cybertronian life difference to be talked about more in canon

Cuz I mean. it’s RIGHT THERE.

Just a smidgen of true acknowledgment I BEG YOU HASBRO‼️

i mean come on all it takes is someone mentioning how long the wars been going for one of the humans to go “4 MILLION YEARS???? WHAT THE FUCK HOW OLD ARE YOU???”

And optimus or ratchet to be like “…5/7 million?” And all of the humans to have a break down CUZ WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUVE BEEN ALIVE SINCE BEFORE THE HUMAN SPECIES EXISTED??? WE WERE MONKEYS WHEN YOU WERE BORN???

And the (woefully uniformed) cybertronians to be like “??? What do YOU mean your species was still evolving when I onlined, how long do you guys live?? A thousand?? A few hundred??”

And the gobsmacked humans to be like “??? NO WE HARDLY LIVE OVER A HUNDRED ITS CONSIDERED AN ACCOMPLISHMENT?? AVERAGE OLD AGE DEATH IS LIKE MID 80s!! TECHNICALLY THE AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IS 72 OR SOMETHING???”

Cue the autobots being like “😨 72??? THATS A CHILD WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT⁉️”

the more attached/emotional bots looking at their charges and realizing that not only are they sparklings compared to them but they’ll die as sparklings too in just a few decades, causing them to straight up have a mini meltdown.

Yeah they’re in a war and they’ve lost plenty of friends, but never to anything as predictable and inescapable as old age.

It’s the seeing-it-coming part that gets to them, the slow dread of knowing that even if they do everything right and keep them out of danger and they stay healthy there’s nothing they can do to stop them from withering away in a couple of decades.

Most versions of bumblebee looking at their charge/friend and realizing his assumptions about the fact that since they’re both still young that they’ll have plenty of time to just. Live together and have fun- are wrong?? Immediately tears. Even if cybertronians can’t cry tears he’s doing whatever the equivalent is and running away to cry in his room. And then running back to snatch them and take them with him cuz HE CANT WASTE A SECOND IF THEIR LIFESPANS ARE REALLY THAT SHORT HES GONNA JUST HAVE TO SPEND 24/7 WITH THEM

This whole concept ESPECIALLY applies to TFP since all of them got their own little human buddy and there’s only like 5 autobots to begin with (of the main season 1 crew) they’ve lost so many of their own so recently, their numbers are already dwindling down to nothing, they’re losing the war and the kids are what’s given them a major morale boost. To continue fighting they need hope, and the kids have kind of become their hope for the future- to know they’ll die off in under a century despite how young they still are is a shot to the spark.

Look me in the eye and tell me bee wouldnt panic hearing that Raf only has 70-80 years to live. LOOK ME IN THE EYE AND TELL ME HE WOULDNT HAVE SOME KIND OF FIT OVER BEING TOLD THAT HIS LITTLE BUDDY (from a cybertronian perspective) HAS A LIFESPAN EQUIVALENT TO A LATE STAGE TERMINAL ILLNESS DIAGNOSIS. Bee would start treating Raf like a kid with stage 4 cancer 😭

I just KNOW bulkhead would have the worst reaction other than bee, maybe even worse cuz he looks at miko and realizes she’s used up basically a fifth of her entire lifespan already and she’s Still So Little and straight up starts weeping. That’s his DAUGHTER you can’t take her from him so soon it’s not FAIR! He might have to go destroy a canyon wall or something to let some of the anger and grief out

Arcee is Not taking it well either.

She JUST got attached to this one, just got used to a new partner and your telling her that no matter what she does he’s never going to last as long as tailgate of cliff jumper did?? Even if both he and she do everything they’re supposed to do to protect him and extended his life?? Depression time baby

Optimus and ratchet don’t react as much outwardly to the news as the others but inside they’re both 💔💥

These kids have brought optimus a level of contentment he hasn’t felt in vorns, and he sees how bright their spirits shine- Only to now know those precious spirits will burn out in less than a century- it gnaws at him inside, yet another strike from the cruelty of fate

Ratchet is devastated but refuses to acknowledge it, these kids- yes even miko- have become his pseudo grandkids and he’s not ready, nor will he ever be ready, to outlive them. Jacks reminds him too much of a younger optimus, still learning and still hopeful. Miko is… well she has a fire to her that ratchet can appreciate (when she’s not actively annoying him) she’s determined enough to make anything happen which he does begrudgingly respect even if he wishes she wouldn’t just throw herself into any and every situation just for fun.

And Raf…

Raf is his apprentice, the only one of the kids to understand him and listen intently to his stories of cybertron. To show appreciation for his work and his ideas, to Listen and Learn and Improve his inventions. He harbors the most fondness for Raf since he sees so much potential in him, and has taken him under his wing in teaching him cybertronian language and biology.

He feels almost like he’s training a student to take his place- only for the ground to be ripped out from under him to know that Raf will never have the chance to succeed him, will never even outlive him.

A parent should never have to bury their child, and ratchet already feels that he has.

-

TLDR the autobots find out humans have fruit fly lifespans next to them and become one big soggy mess of tears, optimus and ratchet included although they try to have a stiff upper lip about it (and fail to varying extents)

I swear this was supposed to be about any and all continuities but TFP took over completely😭 idk it just fits the best since they focus so much on how attached the bots get to the kids

Edit: btw this was inspired from the fact I found out that the cybertronian equivalent to a year (yes I know technically they have solar cycles which are roughly a human year but what they consider a year vs their lifespan/time perception is different) is a vorn. A vorn is 80 HUMAN YEARS. I saw that and went “oh wow a vorn is like a whole human lifespan!😃” and then I went “OH A VORN IS A WHOLE HUMAN LIFESPAN 😀“

[physalian]

Transformers Prime Appreciation Post

You know what. You know what?? This show has featured in so much of my writing advice, it deserves its own “This show is amazing and has amazing writing and shit you can learn from it to be a better writer” post. It’s streamable on Netflix at the time of this post. I own it on DVD. I have all three seasons on actual, physical discs that I bought new for my DVD collection. That’s how much I love this show.

What is TFP? TFP aired on The Hub network, the joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Channel that died after MLP ended, I think. We lost cable before that happened. TFP was probably single-handedly sustained by MLP money for a while, like the rest of HBO on GOT.

This show came out when I entered high school and I have extremely vivid memories of some of the constant previews they showed of the season 1 finale 3-parter, to the point where whenever I watch the scenes that were in those teasers, I still get a physical reaction from being bludgeoned over the head with those lines of dialogue.

I used to scroll ahead in the TV guide as far as the scheduled programming allowed, just to catch snippets of what episodes were slated to air within the next month. This show was the shit.

But it was too expensive and its budget got eaten by Friendship is Magic. The bronies ruin everything I guess.

It’s 3 seasons (technically 2.5 since 3 was only greenlit for half its episode count) of near-perfection and a tv-movie. There are a few weak episodes, sure, and one absolute dud of a clipshow episode, but there are no awful episodes. There ain’t no “Great Divide” for this show.

Why you should watch it:

1. A “kids” show that absolutely takes itself seriously

One of the Autobots dies 5 minutes into the series and it’s the inciting incident for the entire story. He gets blown up, taken prisoner, and then stabbed through his chest by a Decepticon’s fist without warning. He then gets brought back as a zombie, killed again, infects his partner with the zombie juice when she’s trying to save him, and dies for good.

Two main characters get straight-up murdered, long-running characters whose deaths have lofty consequences for the narrative. There’s betrayals, double-agents, robot torture, robots getting eaten alive by scraplets, gaslighting of an amnesiac, near-murders of POWs, near-murders of fan-favorites who get so hurt, their recovery spans 4 whole episodes, attempted child murder, terrorism, and mad science.

But there is also some heavy emotional shit. The surviving partner of the zombie is damaged by his loss for the entire show because she can’t properly manage her grief. There’s characters going on suicide missions to avenge their dead/dying friends, getting beat to shit while a child watches helplessly on the sidelines screaming at them to get up and run through tears. There’s war flashbacks to dead friends and comrades and the terror and fallout of being eons-old soldiers.

There’s quiet moments, too, about grief and loss and living with disability and disfigurement from battlefield wounds. There’s the machinations of a tragic villain, openly and explicitly abused in front of his whole team and who keeps crawling back and groveling at his master’s feet and his internal identity crisis over who he is, if he’s not with his abuser. There’s the fallout of an extremely divisive trolley problem where a normally calm and collected character loses their shit with grief over the decision that was made. There’s the quiet rumblings of dissent and rebellion in the ranks and all the backstabbing that follows.

And there’s clever moments. Rogues and rebels orchestrating complex and interwoven plots to further their agendas. A POW who no one would ever expect to be captured absolutely trouncing their captives and laughing all the while while they free themselves. Characters who always have a backup plan to force others into awful predicaments.

The first episode after the 5-episode mini-movie that opens the show features an A-plot about school science projects, and a B-plot about waking a loyal ‘Con from stasis and trying to convince him to bow down to the ‘Cons’ temp leader, Starscream, while Megatron is elsewhere. It does not end well for him. The very next episode features robots getting eaten alive by alien metal termites.

2. Depth of Character

Beyond the actual plot, the villains might be more compelling characters than the heroes across many arcs and episodes. You’ve got five main autobots for most of the show that generally fit the 5-man band:

Optimus: Leader

Ratchet: Smart Guy

Bulkhead: Tough Guy

Arcee: Lancer

Bumblebee: Heart

Also guest starring the Alien Robot Cowboy Samurai known as Wheeljack, he’s amazing.

These characters have some really rich episodes and arcs, and moments where they have to put their own values, wants, and agendas aside for the greater good or the problem at hand. They feel like real people, for lack of a better word. They laugh, they cry, they rage, they grieve, and since the show is one long storyline, what happens seemingly inconsequentially in season 1 will come back to haunt them in season 3.

But then you have the villains, an extremely dysfunctional team of “every man for himself, we’re all not here because we like each other, but because we hate the Autobots,” and I can tell from the fanfic that the ‘Cons are the much more popular characters to write about.

Megatron: The fascist narcissist warlord

Starscream: His scheming SIC both too smart and too dumb for his own good

Soundwave: The utterly badass TIC comms chief who never loses and is insanely, fiercely loyal to the cause

KnockOut: The absolutely gay-as-fuck cosmedic surgeon/chief of medical voiced by Daran Norris, who’s only design requirement was to make him a sexy sportscar, and they ended up with a cherry red Aston Martin. One of his first lines in the show is "*whistle* Sweet rims” at Optimus in truck mode.

Breakdown: KO’s himbo, canon* boyfriend with some of the best, cringey puns

Airachnid: Arcee’s arch nemesis, the only other female transformer, a “love to loathe her” type

And others down the line for both teams.

*Canon insofar as a kids show on a kids network allows a la “we’ve given you as much subtext as we can, do the rest”.

KO is technically my favorite but it’s a tossup between many and that is a feat, especially when they’re the villains. They are all extremely compelling characters.

3. The Story

With some exceptions, episodes don’t happen in isolation. Most of season 1 is a bit random with a foggy throughline, but season 2 is utterly amazing, sans that one clipshow the producers probably insisted on.

Season 2 is the show’s finest hour and without spoiling anything: The end of season 1 sees this database that had been in the ‘Cons possession suddenly now with the means to decode and decrypt whatever’s locked behind it. The database contains coordinates on Earth of a myriad of confiscated weapons, ancient relics, and the like and the entire season is one big fetch quest with both sides racing and beating the shit out of each other to decode coordinates and retrieve the relics before the other side.

The macguffins are pretty cool in their own right (alien mustard gas, a giant Final Fantasy sword, an alien nuke, a phase-shifter) but it’s the intensity of the story and the action and drama that happens around the various quests that is so amazing.

At one point, the show takes four episodes to tackle a fetch quest across four separate relics that involves the entire cast on both sides and the two rogues all gunning for their targets at the same time, ending with one character critically injured that grinds the whole plot to a stop.

The show is one long story, as I mentioned, where something that happens in episode 2 shows up again as critically important in episode 40 and that’s a heck of an achievement on the writers’ part, making it all feel like it was planned that way from the start, even though it wasn’t.

Season 3 is… lesser, mostly because it has half as many episodes because the show was canceled. However, the writers knew about the cancellation early enough to still deliver a satisfying story, and wrap up loose ends with a tv-movie that is also pretty good.

Episode-to-episode there’s definitely a mixed bag of what kind of tone you’ll get. It’s still a kids show and there are human characters so there are some lesser episodes with the humans’ lives as the focus and the Autobots running support. Then you’ll have small-screen perfection, but like I said, there’s never a single episode of story (not clipshow) that I skip upon rewatch, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. The second “clipshow” episode is far and gone above the first, told through the eyes of a character as they’re on trial, only their scenes through the story, as they await judgment that might see them executed.

4. The Production Value

The majority of the animation budget rightfully went to the transformers themselves, which left the environments and the human characters a little rough around the edges. But you came for alien robots and before I got this show on DVD, I streamed crap quality episodes online. Once I saw these characters in full HD color, for the first time since it aired on TV, I was blown away. The reflections are, bar none, the best part. Which seems like a strange hill to die on but these are shiny metal giants. There’s some shots where you can see the reactions of other characters reflected hazily in the chest plates of the speaking character, and this is kids animated TV.

Some episodes do stand out, possibly because they changed studios, but some do have some off-kilter coloring or shadows, but you wouldn’t notice if you’re not like me and have picked some scenes apart frame by frame.

The music, also, is amazing. It’s grand and epic and far and gone from the 80s synthesizers, with a few choir tracks thrown in. The foley and sound design can get a little gratuitous with the metal-on-metal squeals, but none of it ever feels out of place.

I bought the directors’ commentary without knowing it for seasons 1 and 3 and they talked about having all the digital screens in the backgrounds of both bases constantly moving and showing data, not just static, blank images, and it really ups the feel of the quality and care put into the show when there’s always something cool to look at in every frame.

There are also some money shots. At one point there’s a fight that demands Optimus and Megatron join forces and with zero dialogue between them, only choreography in the span of about 25 seconds of animation shows you that these two really were old friends, old allies, old confidants. Their moves are mirrored, back to back, showing that Megatron clearly taught Optimus how to fight and this shot, the one at the top of the post, is too good to not spoil.

5. The Writing

Beyond the overall arcs, I mentioned in my “How to make your writing less stiff” post that the dialogue in this show is stellar. Due to animation budgets, they didn’t have the means to fully render a huge variety of environments, and that includes anything on Cybertron. So, when necessary, outside of when characters actually go to Cybertron later in the show, they use some beautiful matte paintings and voiceover narration by Ratchet, absolutely dumping exposition on the audience in spectacular fashion.

I have the director’s commentary. I know Ratchet’s monologues were a thing of beauty. They also had the cast all recording their dialogue at once, standing in a big U for more natural line deliveries.

The actual writing though, from the different ways the characters speak to the lore, the backstories, how the show can be a horror trip one minute and a kids’ science fair the next, showed incredible variety and flexibility in the writers’ room.

Optimus’ lines remain my favorite because they’re just that juicy, but then you have characters like Starscream, a perpetual schemer who loves to hear himself talk, pontificating whenever he can about his plans and how much he hates Megatron and how self-important he is. Or other righteous characters who use Big Words like Optimus that don’t feel out of place against somebody like KnockOut who says stuff like “I like the way I look in steel-belted radials” or Wheeljack who clearly learned English from watching Clint Eastwood movies.

Or, a later character, Shockwave, the most “robotic” of the robots and very poncy and scientific with the way he talks and interprets the world, with most of his lines including whether or not a character’s choices were “logical”.

This show is fantastic at creating tension out of mundanity and keeping you on the edge of your seat for nail-biting action scenes. You feel the anguish and the grief with the characters. Their rage and elation and devastation.

Some faults, because I love this show and I can recognize them

The human characters are… well, teenagers. Miko is pretty divisive, you’ve got the camp of “wah she’s a girl and she’s annoying” and just people who don’t find them as compelling. Which, fair. Their animation is a bit gummy and sometimes they disappear for entire episodes and their human world arcs are kind of abandoned. They’re not the best, but this isn’t about humans, it’s about transformers.

Due to probably time constraints with the show being canceled, some transformers’ arcs also felt abandoned or not given their due time to shine (of which fanfic has made painfully clear and rectified). It’s a very tight plot, but there are some dangling loose ends.

Sometimes it is incredibly in-your-face that this is a show meant to sell toys, particularly in season 3 with the whole uh, “we must become beast hunters” and the soft rebrand.

There exists a subplot of C-list villains, human militants who want to dissect cybertronian biology and make weapons. While some of their episodes are absolute bangers, you can tell the writers were getting sick of them before they’re finally written out of the show.

And a few awkward lines here and there.

Other cool shit if nothing else has convinced you

No love triangle or romantic subplot for the two female robots and one of the female humans. You can read one of Arcee’s relationships as romantic or platonic, but she is far beyond just “the girl” of the group, she’s a badass. The other romantic subplot is between a mom who’s deadbeat ex-husband is inexplicably missing, and a pot-bellied Army vet, and it’s really sweet and healthy.

(I think) incredible representation of characters with disability, in Bumblebee’s various war scars and his mutism.

The Gays. I swear there’s a page in the art book (of which I am desperate to find a copy of) for KnockOut and the caption of his art legit says something like “we made him too sexy, oops”.

So. Many. Puns. Puns that know they’re awful and relish in it. Dad jokes, too.

Ratchet losing his mind over how human children can get “twisted limbs and metal burn” if they do a dangerous thing before realizing the latter does not apply. Ratchet losing his mind in general. Just all of the cranky medic. Jeffrey Combs can make a phone book entertaining.

One of the last times we’ll probably get Peter Cullen and Frank Welker together doing Optimus and Megatron, the OGs. And also, one tiny moment where Frank has to say “treasure” and he still flubs it just like he does for Fred in Scooby Doo.

Consistency between character injuries. If Optimus’ sword breaks in a battle, whenever he summons it before he can have time to fix it, it’s still broken in ensuing shots.

An episode of zombies infecting the Decepticons’ ship and Starscream and KnockOut accidentally admitting they love each other while cowering in terror, while also calling back to a different pair of characters they did not witness saying the exact same lines.

Optimus transforming, ramming Megatron in the chest in truck mode, booting him off a cliff, and using his tires to melt rubber in Megatron’s face once they land because he is pissed.

All of Starscream’s immensely satisfying comeuppance for situations he gets himself into.

Using the murder termites for good in a rather horrifying death of a random goon.

Megatron’s hate boner for Optimus that clearly shows how badly these two don’t actually want to kill each other, despite having a million chances to do so, because like Batman and the Joker, “you and I are destined to do this for eternity,” and killing one would leave the other alone, after eons of fighting.

The gorgeous matte paintings.

—

Somebody on here once drew KnockOut with Autobot blue eyes and I have not been able to find that post since. If anyone sees it, please send it to me, it was gorgeous.

Now go watch this show. You can do it in a weekend.

[transformers-earthspark]

Hey all. 👋 Two things I should talk about.

First, I've been getting a lot of messages about the recent rumors regarding Earthspark's cancellation after Season 2 in favor of a new animated TF series. I get it, people are scared that Hasbro will shut Earthspark down after only two seasons. I'm nervous too, considering the backlash from things like Fox News last year.

Right now I don't know anything more than the rest of you, and I really don't know which way it's going to turn out. We'll have to wait and see. As of now though, we still have all of Season 2 to look forward to, and we can do our best to show support for the show. And if it does end up being cancelled-- at least it happened, and it was great. Plus, I'm sure if the creators think it's not being renewed they will have a good conclusive ending to the story at the end of this season, even if it wasn't everything we or they wanted.

Second thing I want to quickly address; whatever happened about Starscream the second the trailer came out. Does this small fandom really need this kind of divisiveness over a 30-second trailer that shows only the very surface level of the plot? I guarantee there will be more to this season than "Starscream is evil again!". Earthspark's plot revolves around the idea that nobody is inherently evil, and that everyone can change for the better. They're not going to throw away all the character development that happened in Episode 21.

That's all. I'm on vacation so I won't be active much this week. Take care <3

[ask-a-bot]

Hi, Optimus, how did talking with Ironhide and Jazz about Prowl go? Did you find anything out?

I found out that Jazz and Prowl are good friends. Didn't get anywhere much with Jazz, but Ironhide told me a few things.

Interesting things...

I'd like to go over what I've found with Megatron but I take it he's still deaf.

[steelthroat]

Guys guys guys- "trial and error" OH MY GOD live reaction because omg

Edit: I know it's fanmade. But shhhhhjhh I'm still not okay

I've said this before and I'll say that again, Megatron has never been told by some grandma "close your legs sweetie, it's not ladylike"

I swear to God comic-artists love drawing him like that. And please don't stop.

Sir, Ma'am, Lord, I need to marry you. Please Megan marry me. I want you, you, and your shit-eating grin. Please.

Oh if only I could be in the Allspark's place rn... I swear animated Megatron is too fine and we'll never see him again I can't. PLEASE HASBRO.

Yoooooo so that's why many tfa fanfictions start with this trope. No way guys I get it now. Also... HI JAZZZ HAAAAAAAYYYY (/^w^)/ 💕💖✨️

First of all HIIIIII RODDY! Glad you didn't die sweetie<3 hiiii Jettwins, you're gonna die(or get hurt) brutally here :(

Megatron, honey, what's the name of your lip gloss? And what about your eyeliner? V jealous pls let me know. Also woweeee there's some tension here. Whooooooh.

BWAAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHA

Poor oppy, his job as a lawyer is not easy with these clients ahshdhhfhg. Best panel ever omg

Also hi decepticon high command<3

"And that's the moment he knew he fucked up"

Obsessed with this moment, God my inner essayist is itching- aaaaaaargh

Also seriously Megatron, the lip gloss. Stop it, you're seducing everyone, it's not fair.

I love the way Sari is drawn in this comic omg. Also I'm gonna fucking cry, I miss Prowl so much 🥺💕

Also I know I'm just thirsting in this post but I swear I'm actually reading ahdhfhhgjgj. But my need to shitpost is stronger.

I. AM. NOT. OKAY. OKAY??????

Holy fkn shit look at this. Look at this??????

Bang. Bang. Bang. Beep-beep and then aver with the drop: Kaboom. How musical~

Ah shit I reached my image limit I'll make another post

[asherxz]

Omg it's Hasbro manager (trust) hi guys

Anyway, pls, Sideswipe romantic hcs with a s/o being a wheelchair user.... I need my dose before sleep ty very much :b

RID Sideswipe with an S/O in wheelchair HCS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is my boss yall, im literally the Hasbro mascot (trust) ASFDSA anyway this is literally Sideswipes husband, i was at their wedding TEEHEE. It iss specified somewhere else its bc of chronic pain, so it'll be focused around that but i'll try not to make it too obvious!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-VERY confused when he first meets you. Humans have wheels too?

-At first, he doesnt know how to be around you. He's scared he'll knock you over or something, but he quickly learns.

-He asks a lot of questions at first, he's very curious.

-You are Russels elder sibling, and you lived at the graveyard with your dad, so you were quite used to small obstacles with your wheelchair.

-He's quite impressed by that. He's quite impressed by you as a whole.

-When you grow closer and form a relationship, he's gotten a new obsession. He loves carrying you around. He's your personal wheelchair, just very big and lively. He just loves having you in his arms while walking around.

-If you're self conscious about being in a wheelchair or anything even remotely related to that, he'll lay with you for HOURS just trying his best to comfort you.

-He will absolutely love it if you let him decorate it. Even if it's just the smallest trinket.

-Will just randomly pick you out of it and carry you away from everybody else. He takes his cuddle time VERY seriously.

-Loves to lay down by your side, just looking lovingly at you as he runs his digits through your hair.

-Looots of forehead kisses from him. Kisses to the hair and everything around that is a must for him.

-Sideswipe may or may not be absolutely horrified by the thoughts that one day you two may not be together.

-He wants to talk to you about it... but he doesn't have the courage to. Why say I out loud when you can just bottle it up?(/J)

-Sometimes he gets a bit jealous when he sees you having fun with other people. He has a need to prove himself to you. Or well, prove to himself, he's worthy of dating you.

-Russel will find that whole relationship very weird it fist. But he'll warm up to it.

-Denny on the other hand? Nuhuh, he ain't having none of this.

-He's quite protective over you. He doesn't exactly care that you're dating a giant bot, it's more so the fact you're... Well, dating.

-Of course, Denny ends up being quite supportive of the relationship... so horray!

-Bee certainly doesn't trust the fact Sideswipe is dating you. He keeps a strict optic on him almost all the time.

-Other than that, he's a great one to date. Small jealousy problems and such, but other than that, he's great!

So sorry if this is ooc or short! I'm not thaaat far into RID!

[kaontic]

*Long Post*

*Checks Decepticon emails* Oh, here we go. (¬_¬") 💻

*Reads* You forgot my builtday?! What kind of human slave are you if you can’t even remember this important date? (¬_¬)

*Types back* One that wanted to celebrate their mom’s 55th birthday? 🤨

Yeah. What a shame, right? That she’s gotta share the day she entered this universe with the likes of you. # ⸨◺_◿⸩ #

(Cool fact I guess but still, why? 😭)

Tho I guess I should thank you for remindin’ me, cuz here’s my late builtday present: i’m gonna expose ya once and for all. >:D *Sends*

*Closes* Aaaaaaaaaaaand, I got less than 24 hours left to live, so… :/

You know how everyone always argues about his OG alt mode, that I surprisingly got obsessed with (by reason of insanity bein’ a concept that allows for SO MUCH creativity in a franchise that encourages it via lore + toys), and wanna copy paste everywhere?

Reflector: Yeah. No scrap. Don't say anythi— 📷

Me: *Tosses into chute* Right. Ok— 👏 

Million Shanix question: Why does Megatron, of all TF characters, in his alt mode have to literally put his fate into another’s servos/hands?

Well, that’s the thing.

He doesn’t. (•᷄- •᷅ ;)

It's the same case with Shockwave (who interestingly, I never see anyone criticize despite them both bein' laser guns, but whatever, this ain't about him tonight 🙂‍↔️)

Furthermore, if Megatron can fly in his robot mode, then flying/levitating as a gun shouldn't sound as implausible, right? (ᵕŏᴗŏ)

(I mean it sure does sound funny, but also terrifying, since he can freeze midair, aim with near-perfect accuracy and fire at will)

Oh yeah, and Soundwave's still capable of flight too as a microcassette recorder.

Megatron: Soundwave! WTH!? Come back!

(Ok, at least with him it's just funny. Maybe he can blast [insert appropriate music here] while he's at it)

So knowin' this, why does Megatron still pull this damn stunt, if he's quite capable of doin' it all on his own?

People also wonder why Starscream can't just "accidentally" drop Megs, and then stomp him out like a bug that's not as innocent.

Well, good fraggin’ luck Star, cuz as soon you let him go, he’s gonna go, and if you didn’t wanna let him go, and he wants to go?

He will go.

If you manage to grab hold of his stock, that’s detachable (and the same goes for his silencer), so he's just gonna end up whoopin’ your aft for that with his stock.

But fine, let's say that Megs is on the ground unconscious, and you somehow sneak up on him with heated thrusters via your afterburners.

Still not gonna work, my guy… I think.

(Like look at his face plate here, he knows there’s no point in tossin’ Megs under all those fallin' rocks 😂)

He's a metal cockroach (which is an insult to cockroaches, and for that I apologize), but then again, with the way he takes on damage inconsistently in G1, I don't even fraggin' know guys. (-_-)ゞ

(This bitch survived an explosion powerful enough to move Cybertron, yet panicked over “antimatter” energon)

(He also didn’t give a frag over the same concern in “War of the Dinobots”—)

Um...maybe cuz his alt mode is a denser state to be in, he's more durable and can withstand harder impacts?

My brain: Wait, so shouldn’t he be heavier after all or—?

My heart: Shuddup, it’s science fiction. Enjoy it. We don’t need to get lectured on physics.

Brain: But this is my way of enjoying it—

Heart: SHUSH!

I mean he transformed into his alt mode to save himself when he fell off a cliff in the Marvel comics…and still sustained brain damage. :/

Yeah, we ain't half-battlin' scrap with that info, Duke, and that's why we pick our battles. Wisely.

*Proceeds to list gun mode advantages in no particular order*

Ok, this? This is the creative/fun alt mode s**t I wanna see more of, Hasbro!

You wanna know the reasons/ways in which the alt mode Teletraan I bestowed upon him can be strategic/useful/just plain fun, dammit? (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ 📷❗️

1.

He shouldn’t need to worry about wastin’ the valuable energy he’s savin’ for a fight with Op, since his Seekers can easily fly him to wherever they gotta go in their cockpits (along with the rest of the High Command who also have small alt modes excluding Star, what a coincidence)

Yeah, with the way he tires out during crucial moments in this war (with it bein’ an energy crisis, and oh, the human allies providin’ energy to the Autobots), if he just stayed in his alt mode as much as possible, and continued orderin' everyone around that way, “only the idiots would question” him, as he can put it

In short, the less he can do in order to conserve energy, the more of a chance he’ll have to win for once lol

That indeed means someone else with high-quality optical sensors, who’s committed to the cause, aimin’ and pullin’ the trigger for him

2.

When you’re in a battle, and it’s chaotic as hell, what are your optics gonna draw to? The weapon? Or the enemy that’s holdin’ the weapon?

Oh, most Cybertronian laser weapons come in neutral colors?

Well scrap, good luck spottin’ him

I think it gets even worse when he mass shifts to scale with a human’s hand, as the smaller he gets, the harder it’ll become to locate/hit him as a target. Then you gotta worry about human civilians, and oh boy—

3.

Apparently, all the energy that’s in his barrel ends up bein’ more concentrated, precise and deadly than in his scope (the fusion cannon), which is also detachable

Yeah, a barrel def ain’t fraggin’ detachable lmao

4.

If Starscream starts actin’ up, once again, Megs can just go into a Seeker’s cockpit and conduct business in there

Nova Storm would be a damn good choice too, since if they can survive the chromosphere, it could mean that (in order to get to that layer) they can survive the much hotter corona of the Sun

We're talkin' millions of degrees Fahrenheit/over 200,000 degrees Celsius here, so maybe take advantage of that sometime 😑

Yeah, Star couldn’t any give less of a scrap about other Seekers (or anyone) the same way Megs couldn’t, but neither of ‘em wanna make it that obvious, ya know?

5.

Eh, I guess his alt mode is a good way for him to sharpen his stealth skills

(Obviously it’s not his style, but it’s like swimmin’. Even if you aren’t a fan of pools/the ocean, you should still know how to swim if given the chance, just in case)

Like seein’ a camera, or a microcassette recorder (in the 80s) is normal, even neat, but if there’s one thing you never wanna see, it’s a gun. So humans conceal them

I think that’s a good enough motivator for Megs (who loves a challenge, don cha know?) to finally suck it up and start takin’ that s*** seriously

Cuz idk, if human militaries start armin’ themselves with Cybertronian tech (*sighs* as if nukes weren’t enough), he’s gonna need to know how to hide from humanity’s wrath, just sayin’

Can’t hide a tank as easily no matter how much ya camouflage ‘em (still love that alt mode tho, so triple changer Megs all the fraggin' way y'all)

Oh in that situation, every Decepticon with a large alt mode would be screwed, huh? 😂

6.

He can try and lure a human without an amplified voice in order to… best case scenario have Reflector steal all their MLP merch

Or he can choose to indulge in the art of scarin' the absolute s**t outta people (can't easily sneak up on a human as a giant robot, can ya?)

7.

If Megs is for whatever reason merely incapacitated during a battle, someone can flip him over the same way Prime did in "The Insecticon Syndrome" to transform him—and either hightail it outta there (once again, smaller target to hit), or use him, well, as a goddamn weapon

Trust me, he won't mind

This also works for when he gets drunk and passes out

Cuz gettin' severely injured instead, means that flippin' him over might be too risky, hence why Soundwave carried him in robot mode in the movie (if Megs can't move his limbs, that's a bad sign)

8.

Enemies: So, the rumors are true: your leader really is smaller than a minicon. (Lol he must be weak—) *Continue makin’ a bunch of assumptions*

Skywarp: *Looks around* I give it 20 astroseconds. *Tosses Megs + teleports away*

Enemies: What—? *Get mercilessly demolished cuz they let their guard down/got distracted smh*

Skywarp: *Teleports back* Mmm, 20…3.

*Gets lightly hit in the arm* Ow—

Megatron: You count too fast.

/ Y'all, if Skywarp was a better fighter/gunslinger combined with his teleportation... he would cook fr

9.

Nervous turned super confused new recruit: *Stops bowing* Wait, he’s the gun? The leader of the Decepticons?

Skywarp: *Holding Megs* Mm-hmm. Here, take him.

New recruit: *Stares* That’s Megatron?

Skywarp: Yep, in the metal. Take him. Just don’t shoot yet, got it?

New recruit: Yet? Is that allowed? Can he—? Are you sure, or is this some kind of trick?

Skywarp: Yep, yep and soon, yep—I-I mean no—I mean—

Just say “test” next time. *Stuffs him into their arms + adjusts* There.

New recruit: ( ´･_･`)

Skywarp: Feel different?

New recruit: *Looking down* I don’t understand.

Skywarp: See, that’s the best part: you don’t need to understand anything, just that if you do as he says, and you have good aim, you’ll stay in one piece. Isn’t that great? :D

He needs us just as much as we need him. Simple as that.

New recruit: *Thoughtful + in awe* Yeah… (人´∀`)

I-I’m sorry sir, this is just such a huge honor—

Megatron: Oh no, the honor's all yours.

New recruit: Really? (Oh right—) Sir?

Megatron: Why, of course. You should be commended for making such a wise decision.

Many do not, and for that our planet bears the brunt of their weakness.

New recruit: How many?

Megatron: Don’t worry, they will repent in time, for the fate of Cybertron is in your very servos.

Skywarp: *Ruining it* Well not just your servos, but the many servos of…um…“like-minded individuals”. :D

Megatron: Skywarp.

Skywarp: You’re gonna be fine.

I should go, I’ll just go, you know, with…things to do, and… Peace. *Teleports*

Megatron: We can get things done too, yes?

New recruit: Yessir.

Megatron: *Slips away from their hands + transforms* Good, we'll start now.

New recruit: *Gets led away* O_O

/ Aw, what a nice, smart and humble leader who just wants to save his home planet from all the stupid robots 🥺

Hey, when you get to know him, you’ll realize that he’s actually so down-to-earth, and he'll even literally give himself to you because he cares that much and doesn't want you to be so helpless

He fights and works so hard for everyone and our home, that it's only fair for us to do the same, right? How can he possibly be a bad guy?

Yeah, he can get angry and touchy sometimes, and make costly mistakes sometimes, but he's just stressed, everyone gets stressed

They just don't get it and refuse to even try, and everyone is suffering as a result :(

They're the problem, not us, and they keep getting in our way

Our way is the only way that matters. Their ways are scrap

They. Are. Scrap. And should be treated as such

They should suffer, just as much as they’ve made us suffer

And that, my friends, is how your spark/soul becomes his to handle 😄

(Frag yeah, peace through tyranny! ( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و)

10. Like this. ‘Nuff said

No seriously, ‘nuff said—this post’s long enough as it is. 😅

I know I’ll come up with more gun mode s***, but for now, I’m just gonna arm myself with an eraser and await the death stick.

PS: You know what? Tank mode's funnier.

[tiny-tf-faces]

Hello again! :D I've come back to offer you another batch of barely recognisable colourful blobs, specifically ones selected from the G1 cartoon

In order of appearance, we have: Brawn, Windcharger, Skyfire/Jetfire, Bumblebee, Jazz, Prowl, Spike, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Dirge, Ramjet, Thrust, Rumble, Hoist, and Grapple

Also I'm not entirely sure if you'd allow it, but I've decided to include some hilariously off-model Gobots in the mix as a little self indulgent bonus:

In order of these guy's appearance, we have: Smallfoot, Turbo, Scooter, and Crasher

(Fun fact: The first three Gobot pictures were all taken from the same shot, and the other two were from the same episode as that shot as well. The episode Ring Of Fire had a whole host of off-model moments jhgfdghjh)

Wow, that's so many! I'm gonna get lazy in the tags for this one. Thanks for sharing your collection!

I know pretty much nothing about Gobots, but it's interesting to have them on the blog! Valid too, since (if I remember correctly) they're Hasbro-owned car robots

[franki-lew-yo]

ALL my feelings towards Friendship is Magic could be so easily summed up as:

" -Twilight Sparkle should never have become an alicorn princess in season 3 of a series with 9 seasons - ''

She should have always had it in the books to eventually become an alicorn, but her becoming one in season 3 is where literally all (my own) problems with the show stem from and almost all of those problems are about the show in execution, NOT in theory. 

Everything about later seasons Friendship is Magic’s writing reeks of the writers trying to make their ideas, fan ideas, and Hasbro’s ideas work all at the same time with so little time. They were told to make Equestria Girls, Princess Twilight, Flurry Heart and the movie “work” while also juggling writing in Starlight and her whole arc (and the characters attached, like Sunburst), the CMC getting their cutie marks, the reformed changelings, griffons and dragons, their Starswirl the Bearded stuff; WHILE ALSO making sure Discord and the Princesses (mostly Luna) and the ‘fan fav’ characters worked on their own and come together.

In my opinion, it just didn’t.

There was always too much going on with little to no time to breathe or appreciate the characters -how far they’ve come, how much further they have to go- at all. And it made later bit of lore and characters feel frustrating. It made potentially great characters deeply unlikable. Starlight and Discord are the biggest victims.

I want to like them. I really do. I can’t though because Starlight is not only a ‘madeawittlemistake’(aka ran a cult)-villain redemption, BUT she has to share her stories with the main six. They underdeveloped her while also trying to make her important and it just made me dislike Starlight and Twilight so much. It made me get mad at Starlight for being in the way of a Twilight episode, it made me wanna scream at Twilight for getting in the way of what should be Starlight’s time to shine!

Discord now had to share his ‘redeemed baddie’ spotlight with Starlight and others meant he had no time for his development which, when it was done* (ALL of Season 4) was abysmally fast, badly paced and in my view insulting. It made Discord, even in episodes where he had a point to be there, feel useless because fundamentally was overall. Season 4 assassinated Discord’s character to me and I didn’t remotely like him. For years I thought I just didn’t like FiM simply because the show and the fandom clearly preferred Fluttercord to Dislestia and I was just butthurt. Which, to be clear, I am. My mega revelation regarding this show was realizing that, no- what I hated wasn’t Fluttercord, it was Discord himself. How he was being handled, how he was written from s4 onward (ALL THE EPISODES WHERE HE’S YANDRE TO FLUTTERSHY SHOULD HAVE BEEN BEFORE HIS BETRAYAL. ALL OF THEM. NO YOU WILL NOT CHANGE MY MIND IT’S FINAL) pissed me off so much as a person who really loved his potential character in season 2 and 3. Discord and Fluttershy being besties and possibly more could and should have been adorable...but it wasn't because the Discord we got was a horrid character. Fluttershy deserves better.

I know you guys don’t wanna hear this same old worn-out critique about FiM, but I’m sorry I have to agree: when they weren’t being crowbarred into stuff that didn’t need their stories, Starlight and Discord were both forgiven -by the show- WAAY too soon. The problem wasn’t that they had redemption arcs and/or that other characters didn’t. The problem was their redemptions were badly done. The show didn’t treat them like they had been redeemed from something hurtful, it acted like they had never done anything wrong. And that was bad because it made it so, when the three baddies at the end of the series were officially crowned "irredeemable", the show felt biased. It felt mean spirited towards Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy when their end should have actually felt fitting and funny. It’s not about ‘morals’ or ‘punishing’ fictional cartoon horses voiced by John DeLancie for warcrimes or whatever tf Lily Orchard goes on about-- it’s about how the show FELT LIKE IT FAVORED some characters more than others. That was a thing that I loved Friendship is Magic for not doing in seasons 1-3, what made it and it’s character’s endearing and wholesome to me, and it’s why the handling of the main cast in later seasons felt so mean.

But to get back to the alicorn in the room; Twilight could have graduated or something for season 3 and then the whole show could build up to her actually outdoing Starswirl’s wrongs as she does in the pony of shadows plot. THAT could have been her ‘upgraded to alicorn princess moment’; but it didn’t. As much as I wish it were that way, it isn’t and that’s not what the writer’s did because they didn’t have the time or foresight for that. Sadly, even though lots of flaws and problems were always baked into the loaf from the start (Celestia being useless or 'sinister', ponies being racist towards everything else, bad and/or basic friendship lessons) Twilight becoming an alicorn princess, which DID ultimately change her character, her role and her presence even amongst her friends and the rest of Ponyville, was the start of all the problems.

We’re stuck with what we got and what we got was a series that -to me- only ever kept adding more and MORE until it felt overstuffed, hectic, and unfortunately mean spirited when it wasn’t trying to be. There’s nothing we can do now. Personally, I highkey am annoyed at other adult bronies saying I “didn’t get” the show and its decisions which is why I didn’t like it. No. Trust me I get “it”; the problem is that “it” wasn’t well done which is why I didn’t like “it”. “It” deserved better.

Of course, I also get some of why those bronies are so defensive. After all I was there when the whole 'Twilight becoming a Princess'-controversy happened. I remember how ugly it got and how annoying and entitled you guys were about it and Equestria Girls' existence (don't even get me started on ur #savederpy).

Something I want to make especially clear whenever I criticize writers, especially of kids shows, is that a criticism IS NOT an attack. Ever. Boycotts and callouts should be reserved for stuff that's actually morally wrong and yes they also count for stuff I like, not just stuff I want to be mad at. Lookin at you, Didney.

There was never and still is never a reason to bother, hurt or ask the writers for MLP gen 4 why they did what they did. No, not even if you're being 'friendly' about it. Leave M.A. Larson alone.

Granted, fans being entitled to creator's attention and creator's being entitled to fans' affection is it's own rabbit hole, but I truly think that FiM set an ugly standard for that with animated shows today.

Besides still being too thin skinned and not liking that a thing they've divested so much real life time into could be bad, a thing about cartoon commentary and criticism in the 2010s-2020s is they're really parasocial and demanding of writers and artists behind a show. The was always the biggest, ugliest, most uncomfortable aspect of Friendship is Magic to me: because it's creators were online and fans knew they were listening, could approve of fan's creations, and especially because they felt 'responsible' for a show's success, they were really into @ing writers about everything. When critics would call something out for being badly written it somehow always made it's way into becoming a personal accusatory thing. People were blaming writers for being human and working within time constraints and network decisions. You didn't have to be like that TinyToons guy who stalked Tress MacNeille about sexualizing Fifi in the 90s to be a harasser. You could just be an aggressively oversupporting 'stan' or angry nitpicking critic to make a writer who's just doing their job, uncomfortable

tl;dr: I disliked the writing of the later Friendship is Magic. I think it was bad because it was bad. None of that is meant as an attack on the writers who were trying their best and don't need to be roped into any fandom nonsense, positive or negative, and never should have been in the first place.

Hopefully, that's one deadhorse finally beaten.