#he's already transforming i can sEE IT
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Okay I’m. Usually. Usually I don’t enjoy human aus and usually I hate drawing transformers as humans because it feels so wrong to my brain.
But then I stumbled upon Dream of something more by Gemma_Inkyboots and aaauuuhh fuck. Here’s the pile of the most vague and unspecific and undetailed fanart. Because I’m being torn between “I can’t drawing human designs” and “If don’t draw something for this fic I die”.
#maccadam#transformers#dratchet#ratchlock#drift#deadlock#ratchet#it’s kind of mermaid au#but I ….auuhh I can’t design mer Deadlock spare ne#*me#I’m struggling haha#at first I was like#oh okay I see. This is about mer falling in love with a human and then deciding that he needs to be a human too so he can be with his love#but something#SOMETHING was so interestingly off#and then I realised that….oh fuck#it’s not about ‘finding your love’#it’s about finding your way back to your love even though you have a fucking amnesia and don’t remember you are loved#Deadlock is so damn confused half of the time because he jUSt found Ratchet#but Ratchet already knows him and loves him and cares about him and he missed him so much and he thought Deadlock was dead???#………yeah….great fic#fic fanart#Deadlock thinking that Ratchet’s clothes smells like home and Ratchet’s food tastes like home is…..#*dies*#the fic is unfinished#there’s 2 chapters left I think? But it’s SO worth reading eheheh
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There’s a lot B-127 doesn’t know
He’s been down in sub-level 50 for Primus knows how long, so it’s certainly plausible that B doesn’t know certain words. By the Pits- B probably doesn’t even know what certain Cybertronian traditions are! Or even what there’re called (and probably even more-). He’s been down there that long.
Some words that he might have no clue of are:
Conjunx
Engex
Berth (there were nothing to sleep in down there)
Any vulgar words
Shanix (there’s no need for it down at sub-level 50)
Examine
Medical terms
Most likely emotional terms aswell
Sometimes B has to stop and remember what a certain items name is. But so far hes had no reason to, so he hasn’t had to ask anyone of what something is.
I imagine that he only knows certain word thanks to the data-pads that were thrown down to waste disposal. Although that doesn’t change the fact that many of those data-pads didn’t explain things such as a “Trine” or anything else. (Those are common terms to the regular Cybertronian, there’s no need for anyone to explain what they are)
But the word that I’ll focus on today is: Leader.
———
B-127 has heard of it, but not what it means. He ment to ask- he really did! But everyone got swept up with work and he found he couldn’t really find the time to ask.
So he guessed what it meant. And what did he think it meant?
A friend who many people knew and took advice from.
Did he confirm this? No. But did it sure look like one? Yes.
So he supposes Ori- Optimus and D-16 (or Megatron-?) will have to find themselves a new leader to help work through their troubles! And he’d be more than happy to help them, after all their all best friends aren’t they?
And best friends always have each others backs.
B just needs to find a way for them to talk to each other without fighting… Then they can finally all work together to rebuild Iacon together!
He bets it’ll be fun.
(Edit: I PUT B-126 INSTEAD OF 7 😭)
#transformers one#optimus prime#d 16#megatron#b 127#He doesn’t know what many common terms are#solely because he’s been down at sub level 50 for THAT long#I can bet you both Optimus and Megatron will have forgotten that their child has been isolated for Primus knows how long#but only cause their fighting ;)#and caught up in their emotions-#and having many things left unsaid between them-#and- Yk what B’s right#they should totaly talk without fighting for once 💀#I can already see a scene where B just asks#“why are you fighting? shouldn’t leaders take their own advice and talk things out?’#can just SEE some of the bots actually nodding to that and some wondering what the world has come too for B#the resident crazy bot to be the sensible one#I can bet you Megatron will be the first to be violently reminded that Yes. This B#his figurative child with Optimus has been acutely isolated for looooong before you met him#and that’ll just either fuel his rage or fuel him to make amends#just for B <3#And also yes. B is the resident crazy bot because no one can actually clearly understand him because he doesn’t know a lot of vocabulary#which only adds to him talking more cause he can’t describe what he’s trying to tell them#which comes off of a bunch of nonsense to everyone else#aka crazy talk
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I feel like we are all sleeping on the fan fiction potential given to us from Deadpool and Wolverine using their bodies to make a circuit with matter and anti-matter
Who knows what that could do to a person, you could write a fic where that caused anything your heart could think up.
#I might write one#I just feel like the options are limitless#everything from time travel to psychically connecting them#they can transported to the past and desperately look for eachother#they get transported to the future where they are married#they get a mental link and can hear each others every thought#poor Logan#the get transported to another timeline or reality#they get transported to the real world as Hugh jackman and Ryan Reynolds#deadpool is super chill because he already knew they were fictional characters#Logan is having the worst identity crisis ever though#maybe it makes them be able to see soulmates and they learn that they are soulmates#or it just gives them both super cool space powers#or it transports them in from of Loki god of time and stories#and he tells them that they are best friends in every other universe#endless possibilities#it’s literally matter and anti matter#we can say it did anything to them#transformed them both into their old bodies sexiest man alive 2008 and 2010#poolverine#deadpool and wolverine#deadclaws#time ripper
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I felt like ranting about TFP/RiD2015 starscream’s character since I feel like a lot of people mischaracterize him, but this turned out to be much longer than I thought it would sooooo click if you wanna see my essay about the most disloyal second-in-command ever :]
So when talking about tfp starscream I hear a lot of his fans mention how bad the show was for not addressing megatron’s abuse of him and for not giving him a redemption arc where he recovers from it and becomes a better person or something along those lines
I don’t want to seem rude, but where the fuck did you guys get the impression that the show was ever going to do something like that?? Or even that starscream was ever going to be viewed in a remotely sympathetic light??? Cuz it definitely wasn’t from the show I can tell you that much
Now I’m not denying that starscream was abused, I do agree with that — but did you guys forget the context of why Megatron feels the need to punish him so brutally? Cuz every single time he does so it’s cuz starscream is trying to take his place as leader of the decepticons and, more often than not, trying to kill him in the process — like did yall forget that one of the first things starscream did in the show was plan to leave megatron to die in space after taking the only thing keeping him alive from his chest and the only reason he didn’t was because he was being spied on by soundwave?
I’m not stating that to say “megatron was right to abuse starscream”, hell no, but I’m stating that to say there was a reason for it in-show and it wasn’t to show that starscream deserves sympathy but to show how ruthless megatron is, especially to people that cross him like starscream
The whole “redemption arc” idea that some people like to cling to is what confuses me the most because are we talking about the same character here?? Are we looking at the same guy because so matter how you look at starscream, he was never meant to be redeemed
This is the same character that, throughout the entire show, is the only one to have killed an autobot on screen — and he did this in his first scene in the first episode — and actively brags about it on several occasions afterwards throughout the show
This is the same character that, when the autobots gave him one chance to see if he could be seen as an ally, couldn’t help himself from mentioning his murdering of cliffjumper to arcee — cliffjumper’s partner — and then using her anger and grief as way to escape, effectively making it impossible that the autobots would ever truly trust him again
This is the same character that, even after leaving the decepticons, can’t help himself from trying to murder megatron (to take his place, not as revenge for his abuse) and getting in the autobots way of stopping the decepticons
The fact that starscream’s seemingly favorite pastime in the show is Attempted Murder so he can become a Worse Dictator is something I think his fans gloss over much too easily — especially since they’re typically the same people that hate megatron for abusing him because starscream *checks notes* keeps attempting to murder him
The only reason why megatron keeps starscream around is because he’s more useful to him alive and working under him than either dead or working against him — and considering how many times starscream has attempted to murder him and has actively ruined his plans, I’m surprised he hasn’t killed him already
Even after all of that happens and starscream finally says “fine, I won’t attempt to kill megatron anymore” in season 3, he’s still ruining his plans with his pettiness and jealousy towards others like shockwave —
no matter what happens to starscream, he refuses to grow and change
— which is why I can’t understand where this “I can fix him cuz the writers refused to” mentality came from
He was never meant to be “fix”-able, at best he was meant to be a doomed character, a cautionary tale and/or a tragic villain — because no matter what happens, he keeps ruining things for himself and refuses to accept that, putting the blame for his failures and feelings of inadequacy on others like megatron or optimus when, in reality, it’s always him who is reason why he can’t be happy
And this carries over into Robots In Disguise 2015 as well, when he returns to be the villain of season 3 (or 2.5, it’s complicated)
He returns to earth so he can find all of the 7 weaponizer mini-cons and link them to himself to become all powerful so he can kill megatron and conquer the galaxy
I’ve seen some people say that “the writers had to add on the ‘conquer the galaxy’ part to starscream’s plan because then it would be hard to justify why the heroes would want to stop a victim of abuse from killing his abuser” and just —tell me you don’t understand starscream’s character without telling me you don’t understand starscream’s character
My Sibling in Primus, starscream has been wanting to do that since the beginning of Transformers: Prime, that’s literally his main reason for constantly wanting to kill megatron all the time — so he can take his place as leader of the decepticons, defeat the autobots, and then become the ruler of Cybertron
While I do agree that starscream wanting megatron dead for all of the pain he caused him is definitely part of his motive here, this type of revenge is never going to shown as a good thing, nor should it
Even after its been several years since megatron left the decepticons after being used by unicron, even after all of cybertron seems to have moved on from the war, starscream can’t let his obsession with killing megatron go — and that isn’t a good thing
Bumblebee confirms that starscream has been assumed dead this entire time, meaning nobody was chasing or hunting him down, nobody was trying to turn him over to the new cybertronian government for his crimes — he could’ve used this as a way to escape it all and finally start anew, find other ways to make himself better and happier after having to deal with megatron looming over him for so long
But he didn’t
He stumbled upon an old megatron plan for gaining power and couldn’t help himself, he couldn’t let it go, he refused to break the cycle and he has no one to blame for continuing it but himself
When he finds the Dark Star Saber and uses it, the sword resists him, with him saying that it’s because the sword doesn’t find him worthy enough to weld it since it can tell he isn’t megatron, but he tries to weld it anyways
I’ve seen one person try to interpret this as a way to say that “this means he isn’t evil since the sword that was made for evil is rejecting him” which is the dumbest take ever, but here’s my interpretation of what the Dark Star Saber’s rejection means
Ever since his first appearance on screen, starscream has been trying to be the leader of the decepticons, the most powerful, the most feared, the most respected — he wants to be megatron so bad it’s painful — and everything that happens to him is telling him that he isn’t
But he refuses to accept that — of course he doesn’t, he’s starscream, megatron’s most disloyal second-in-command — and that’s all he’ll ever amount to as long as he walks his road of selfishness, anger, and revenge
And that’s what he does until he’s defeated again by Bumblebee and his team, because if there’s one thing that remains constant for starscream that isn’t his favorite hobby of Attempted Murder it’s his refusal to grow and change as a person
#can’t wait to blocked by every single tfp/rid2015 starscream fan ever <3#‘I can fix him’ ‘I can make him worse’ he’s already at his worse & I like him like that it’s other people that try to make him seem better#writing this post actually made me understand the appeal of megastar (megatron x starscream)#I still don’t like it but I can see the incredibly toxic one-sided yaoi of it all that others like#tfp#transformers prime#rid 15#rid 2015#rid15#rid2015#tf rid 2015#tf rid15#transformers rid2015#transformers robots in disguise#robots in disguise 2015#transformers robots in disguise 2015#god why does rid2015 have so many tags 0(-(#tfp starscream#rid starscream#im sorry but I can’t not tag this as starscream since its an essay about him sorry starscream fans </3
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baby boy acquired
#see i do love him no matter how much i make fun of him#no pictures because I've already transformed him and I refuse to be humbled by the age on the box again by trying to change him back#like im sorry but what 7 year old can transform these (i pulled his entire arm off thrice while doing so)#he looks like an elongated roomba im so fucking sorry what is that alt mode#transformers#tf one#b 127#tf bumblebee#bumblebee#tf one b127#tf one bumblebee#transformers one#Also his box art is really pretty I can't bring myself to throw it away
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CALLING ALL JURE GIRLYS/gn 4 THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK~ @da-proti-toku-grem @c28hunter @king-krisu @nyx-aira (I think that’s all of y’all srry if I forgor 2 tag someone 😅) with a new AU that I’m working it’s only fair a new series of moodboards come with it N since I can’t pick just one of y’all 2 see his first ALL OF U CAN :DD
*🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁*
BlUE/TURQUOISE MAGICAL GIRL! JURE MY GORGEOUS GF :))
The making of a magical girl goes like this,the brooch which gets put into his transformation pact that makes the whole thing happen,the transformation sequence that plays out in the top left N bottom right picture,the dress which closes up the sequence,he truly is an Angel so it’s only fair his powers aline with one N what’s left after defeating the villains is a shirtless Jurcek who doesn’t know how 2 feel about everything that just went down✨✨✨
#joker out#jure maček#magical girl JO my beloveds#Kris N Jan’s are on the way soo if I can pick one of y’all then you’ll be the first 2 see what a magical girl version of our gorgeous boys#I already looking 4 a transformation pact 4 Jan so he N Nace can match :3#like the husbands they are ☺️#i am cringe but i am free
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déjà vu
#thinking abt riooooo#her reactions#the way agatha threatens first 'if you do this i will hate you forever' and rio just nods. tears in her eyes but she nods#she already knew this would be the reaction and shes already decided#agatha hating her forever hurts but it's a price shes willing to pay for her duty#but then agatha /begs/#and while her own is not; agathas pain /is/ something shes willing to bend the rules for#time is everything. theres nothing else she can offer. time is what agatha asks for and she gets it. but that threat also still stands#and im sure rio knows that#shes not only buying agatha and nicky 6 years but herself too#and then the now. on the road. surprise.#i doubt it's the depth of agathas emotions shes surprised by bc shes kind of already seen enough to draw her conclusions#i wonder if shes surprised by the question. i wonder if shes a little bit insulted by the question#i dont think rio can extend lives. thats not in the job description. she cant kill. she cant un-kill. thats beyond her. before her#shes the transformation. what kills or doesnt isnt part of what she does or is.#i think she could only give nicky time bc he was theirs#nicky needed those deaths like rio. he was fed by the combination of agathas and rios powers#so the surprise when agatha asks her not to take billy could be that agatha in her super triggered state apparently really really#believes it's nicky. bc rio couldnt do anything otherwise#other option is that agatha doesnt actually understand this part#which i think would work too for me bc agatha not being able to see what rio is and does in her entirety is part of the whole Situation#anyway the surprise summed i think would be 'really? you think you can ask me that?'#which works for both options
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spawn shri’iia constantly walking on the ceiling makes me laugh tho like what is she doing up there….who knows…..god forbid women have hobbies
#too bad she can’t transform into a bat but that’d ruin the spider aesthetic so it’s not for her anyway 😔#but I like the idea of astarion’s new beau visiting the manor for the first time and she’s just stalking them from some corner of the#ceiling. imagine if she starts carving through the walls so she can have her own route inside the walls#and she likes to watch people through the gaps / the paintings#esp in their fallout era where she’s making herself scarce bc he’s sick of her face and she’s quietly scheming her own plan#they both live in the manor but don’t see each other anymore. he only hears about her when he gets reports of a group of people getting#drained and left in some corner. sewer. and then he’ll find her and tell her off for being reckless and she’ll laugh and laugh at him and#he’ll hate her more. considers about locking her up bc she told him abt that particular fear before she got turned into a spawn. erases the#thought bc she’ll probably enjoy it now (she’s a freak) and he’ll spend the whole afternoon thinking of ways to torture her but is too#prideful to mimic what cazador has done bc he’s BETTER. so him and his new beau spends the afternoon brainstorming torture methods#and she watches from some portrait already planning to eat the new meat#then rinse repeat 🫶😋
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Now that I realize it, tfp au Megatron is actually a very anxious carrier. Plus, you can argue that he's sorta anxious as in general a baseline, and it's probably because a lot of his life has been spent in dangerous situations and he's become wired over the kilovorns to think worst case scenario.
#maccadam#tfp au#transformers#... ... ...#i also feel like a lot of the soarkling stuff especially exacerbates this#after all he han no goddamn idea he had been carrying SL so a lot of the ''oh fuck i put both of us in danger. what have i done?''s#there's also the fact that it Had to bring the already waning war to a screeching halt#plus all of the tarn stuff and the second sparklet...#he's got so damn many reasonable reasons to be anxious and overprotective of hell#tfp Megatron#Silverlight#i can see June and Rung identifying this fairly on#will he be less anxious over it one of these days? yes.#will that be wayyyy toooop goddamn long in the future? yes#is this because me remembering mtmte Megatron canonically has anxiety? yes
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MOTW NPC Rach Lombardi, Mark's toxic ex who got ripped to shreds by dogman and then whose revenant ghost latched onto someone else who was on their own dogman revenge quest (player character Tatara)
she's fun.
#ragsycon exclusive#ragsymakes#artists on tumblr#oc art#monster of the week#oc rach#she's conniving and self-serving and manipulative#which means she's very fun to play in game. love to rp an absolute garbage person#she and mark dated for awhile in their early to mid twenties#it was all around a really terrible relationship but he didn't really know it until well afterwards.#the entire time what he thought was positive attention was really just her using him to get what she wanted#up to and including using him as leverage to get to his brother stuart who she was seeing behind mark's back for a while#and he found out by complete chance. walked in on them after getting home from work early#and to mark's shock and disgust at this betrayal she just said 'eh that's fine. i was done with you anyway' and kicked him out right there#mark had a fairly significant breakdown over it and just. left town. ghosted everybody and got a job at a watchtower deep in the woods#didnt talk to anyone for years. became an unwitting forest cryptid (different can of worms). let all of his baggage fester for way too long#until stuart managed to get a hold of him and invited him on a Brotherly Reconciliation Camping Trip And Rach Is There Too#and rach did what she's good at which was needling mark's insecurities and insisting he's overreacting when he got upset#but at this point mark was possessed by an evil spirit that turned him into a feral dogman when angry (again. different can of worms)#and the dogman came out and attacked and killed her. total carnage. stuart was away getting firewood when it happened.#mark at this point had no memory of any of this dogman transformations so he woke up covered in blood next to rach's corpse and freaked out#as did stuart#so this Brotherly Reconciliation Camping Trip was kinda the last time they've seen each other since#and later on rach's earthbound ghost finds someone who is on a revenge quest for several other deaths at the hands (paws?) of the dogman#and this other person is already being guided by the spirits of her deceased loved ones#and rach. ever the opportunist. latches onto the other person to maybe get vengeance for her own death#sapping away the strength from the other spirits to make herself strong enough to DO anything#to say 'how fucking dare you' when the other person chooses to offer mark mercy instead of outright killing him#to decide she can finally take matters into her own hands and take over the other person's body and do the dirty work herself
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Oh that sheet metal eating little fish should be dead by now
#he is on usopps bodies list on my head that was brutal#with chopper looking like a teen with hia horn point i just keep getting more conviced that they will do chopper like the fishmen#but like a kid with reindeer prosthetics on#and after the time skip he will be a teenager do you see my vision#they dont think they will use cgi for like characters bc the sets and all look quite expensive already. tbh its better this way imo#the zonai fruit turned him into a human like creature idk.... maybe they use cgi in his transformations. its not like chopper looks like an#actual reindeer so.... like just when he is on his reindeer form and he doesnt use it that often#nami is against some random fishmen???? and where is robin my girl robin....#do you think robin can save the day with her gigantic hands#where does this man keep getting gigantic axes who keeps seling them to him they are branded even#luffy screaming he will protect them all... my beautiful boy with a disorder.....#he cant fucking throw the axe what a useless piece of man#its going down....#and sugar we're going down swinging#at least the sucker is dead.... small blesings#PUSH IT REAL HARD!!!#cant shirihoshi call on surume or smth to move the boat... like please call the beasts#talking tag#watching one piece#episide 561
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I JUST HAD AN IDEA
Imagine Mischa, but with a S/O that can transform themselves into a snake. How cool would be that???
Very cool!
theyre. yknow. as snakes. And as humans. More options.
they can tie themselves into a literal knot, that's really cute. Full moon shedding sessions;;;; be reborn anew ,,,, very symbolic <3
Much to think about,,,,,,,,,
#with the bodysharing thing mischas human body remains as it is though#not that transformation into an animal is out of the question magically but i doubt he'll see the point of that since he can inhabit#his snakes' bodies so completely already#anon#ask#mischa: 🐍
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well and anyway did i articulate the feeling of the plot being like. metatextually resigned/resentful that daniel had world builing revelant preestablished living parents who would logically, actually be responsible for and capable of seeing to his well being.
second series/show. new kid, new parent. episode two. ✅️ got that squared away
#some shit#its not called cisformers#it makes me chuckle what can i say.#they WENT out of their way to say TWICE already. no no. he sees that transformer as is big brother. NOT parent or uncle or whatever.#which. considering. i think their about to be putting kids in the war machines. eh...#but no yeah HE HAD . a dad.
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i will not be gaslit by my youtube recommendation feed into thinking transformers one was good
#fun? enjoyable? would watch again? for sure#good? absolutely not#i cannot express to you that the first ~5 are almost entirely exposition#only for the protagonist to then go ' i already knew all of that '#not to mention the pacing is actually insane i was checking my watch repeatedly to see how much more of the movie was left#because it felt like the movie was ending for like half an hour#and the dialogue in the end credit scene actually makes me laugh just thinking about it#but i do want to say that when starscream showed up i did get excited#bc he's one of like five transformers characters i can recognize on sight#and i was like oh my god!!! its the guy!!!1 and he's steve buscemi#i speak
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If you're seeing this in fandom tags despite the fact that I didn't tag it just ignore me, not trying to be a buzzkill here
One of my fandom pet peeves for Danny phantom (that I see most often in DC crossovers) is acting like it's completely stupid that no one puts together that Danny Fenton is Danny phantom based on looks alone.
Listen. I know he looks the same except for a palette swap. It's called a visual cue for the audience. This isn't Clark Kent taking off his glasses, Danny has a full ass transformation sequence! It's the same way magical girls aren't recognized as their alter egos, and those often have less change than Danny does (looking at you sailor moon).
It's a narrative device! He has a magical girl transformation and thus we're supposed to understand he looks different now.
(What would give Danny away is how he acts and talks and that he uses the name Danny openly in both forms)
Not to mention that he's also relying on the halfa status, Phantom is very openly a ghost, no one is going to suspect their living classmate who gets shoved into lockers during passing periods of being a ghost hero.
#even clark kent and superman isn't as stupid as it appears at first glance but this post isn't about that#I see this most often with Wes who is entirely fanon#and in dc crossovers#listen I'm not saying his identity isn't find out able#especially when you get actual detectives in the mix#but I am so annoyed every time all it takes is seeing him#Especially when Danny isn't actually good at keeping a secret identity! He transforms while hiding behind his friends all the time#there's so many things that can give his id away this one just annoys me personally#this has been in my drafts for a bit and I feel like I have more thoughts or that it can be worded better but I wanna post it already.
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New AO3 Tag Wrangling Policy and the Transformers Fandom
Edit in the event people come back to the original post: Please do not email AO3 about this issue. See their response about this issue!
(This is a long one, folks, but I think it's important.)
A new tag-wrangling policy on AO3 has the potential to create some massive confusion and chaos in the Transformers fanfic community, with regards to fandom tags. There is a Reddit post about it here with a focus on anime fandoms, but I want to give some concrete examples for the Transformers fandom on why we DO NOT WANT this, and why I think it's a horrible idea.
The Problem
Basically, AO3 is looking to get rid of the "All Media Types" fandom tag across the board, either by dismantling them or just not maintaining them. The Transformers - All Media Types tag has been an all-purpose tag that you could select when your story doesn't fall into any one specific continuity. Additionally, all most (see below) TF continuities on AO3 are considered a subtag of the Transformers - All Media Types tag. For example, if you look at the link above for all works in the All Media Types tag, you will see fics that are also tagged ONLY with Transformers: Animated, because it falls under the All Media Types tag.
One exception: With the upcoming Transformers: One movie coming out imminently, there will likely be a big influx of stories tagged with Transformers: One. In fact, there are several already. However, it hasn't been linked to the larger Transformers - All Media Types tag yet. I wasn't worrying about it though, because I know these things can take time.
With information about this new tagging policy, however, I'm now wondering whether it'll EVER get linked to the All Media Types tag. If that happens, and when more continuities are developed in the coming years (since you know Hasbro loves creating new universes) this has the potential to cause massive confusion when looking for stories to read.
Searching for Stories with the New Tagging System
So let's say the All Media Types fandom tag isn't accurate anymore, because it no longer includes ALL of the continuities (such as TF:One). You will need to include ALL the Transformers continuities when browsing for TF fics.
How many tags is that? Well, here are all of the tags currently listed under the Transformers - All Media Types tag:
Note that this doesn't include Transformers: One since it hasn't been categorized yet.
You will potentially have to have 40 or more different fandom tags in your search, just in case the author tagged their story with something you weren't expecting.
This massively decreases the findability of a story.
Tagging with the New System
The email response from the Tag Wrangling group (see the linked Reddit post above) seems to be a bit flip in the response to the user's concern. "...encourages creators to tag with the media they intend."
While I appreciate what they are attempting to do, this policy change feels like a solution in search of a problem, especially in larger fandoms with multiple continuities, versions, and media types that are all cross-pollinated in both canon and fanon. While I'm focusing on Transformers fandom, imagine a creator in the DC comic universe writing a story that incorporates bits and pieces from a dozen different reboots.
For example, let's say that I am writing a fic about Ratchet. I am using the setting of the original G1 episodes, but I also am using the characterization of him as a bit of an old man grump. That characterization originated in the Animated continuity, but I want to incorporate bits of pieces of his other characterizations as well (old friend of Optimus from TFP, Ratchet ran a faction-free clinic like he did in the War for Cybertron series, he's got a Decepticon boyfriend like in IDW1 - or maybe even Cyberverse, etc.)
With this new tagging structure, I might potentially have to tag the story with ALL of those continuities. So instead of just slapping down the "All Media Types" tag (and maybe one other fandom tag that matches the characters as best I can), I'll have to analyze my story and try to figure out how best to tag for the characters I used.
And what if you're doing a completely AU version of the story? For example, a humanformers story, or merformers? Using the All Media Types tag along with a Alternate Universe - Human or Alternate Universe - Mermaid tag worked perfectly, since you weren't writing the story to fit into one specific continuity. But now, that might not be an option.
What To Do??
The first thing I would suggest is to contact AO3 (using the Feedback and Support page) and let them know (nicely) that you think this is a horrible idea. Give them some examples on how you use the All Media Types tag to find stories to read, or to help you tag a story. People outside of the Transformers fandom don't always appreciate how absolutely tangled the continuities can be with each other, and providing examples might help them see why this would be a really messy change.
Readers: Be aware that when you are looking in the All Media Types tag, it will no longer show newer continuities. And if AO3 starts dismantling that tag like they suggested they are doing, be aware that some stories won't show up in that tag like they used to. You can also create and then bookmark a custom search page that includes all 40+ continuities. REALLY annoying, but it's a workaround.
Writers: Until they start dismantling the All Media Types tag, ALWAYS ALWAYS tag your stories using Transformers - All Media Types... Especially for newer continuities. This will be especially important if you are writing a Transformers: One story. Right now, anyone who is only browsing the All Media Types tag will not see a story tagged only with Transformers: One. Make sure you're aware of how tags work and how they can affect the visibility and findability of your story.
Epilogue
Ugh. That's a lot of words for a long-weekend Saturday. And maybe I'm overreacting a tiny bit. But my work involves information architecture, and this change just absolutely baffles me. It's almost as though they want to make it harder to find stories. Considering that AO3 won a Hugo partially because of its fantastic tagging system, this change seems like AO3 is doing its best to shoot itself in the foot.
When you have a square hole, a round hole, and a rectangular hole… Yeah, you DO want each peg to go in the "right" hole. But if all of the pegs fit in the square hole, who cares? You got the job done.
I love you @ao3org, but please reconsider this change... Especially for IPs that are as old and are as varied as Transformers.
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