#them are decepticons. but in the first movie only like seven guys show up to find megatron? and they just happen to find the cube as well

[sinecosinewheel]

i finished reading the 489 page transformers essay just now and i watched the first three movies over the last couple days. cinematic garbage. but it compels me

[afterspark-podcast]

(Extra!) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Transcript

Episode

[This can also be found on AO3!]

[Into Music]

O: Hi folks, we're back! Thanks for joining us. 

S: So, if we were going to make Revenge of the Fallen better, what would we do (aside from definitely not killing off Jetfire)?

O: Well, first, uh, let's establish some general rules for this thought exercise: The same basic skeleton of the movie must stay intact, since we are trying to fix it not redo it entirely, um, generally, the same characters should be involved but characters could return from the first one instead. Um, I know in the previous movie review we talked about doing it as a tv show or something but for right now let's pretend that the first movie happened as is.

S: Aside from Jazz surviving.

O: Yeah, because killing him off was really dumb and it happened at the end of the movie anyway, so it doesn't really change anything in the first movie.

S: Yep. So, first off: cast change! 

O: Uh, we're gonna remove Devastator, Grindor, Volt, Skids and Mudflap and add returning characters from the first movie, which would be Maggie, Glenn, John Keller, and Blackout by way of- they maybe resurrected him at the same time as Megatron, and Jazz.

S: Yep. Since we've removed Volt, Skids, and Mudflap, we're going to add in Sunstreaker this way we can still exploit the brotherly dynamic that people who are used to G1 would be used to and, you know, using an existing character and relationship dynamic.

O: Right, and Bee's voice box is still intact. He and Sam are actually friends. Sam does not treat him like a fucking dog or some weird possession. 

S: Mm-hmm. He comes with Sam to college because at this point Sam kind of does have a target on his back.

O: Yeah, which I think is fair. The Decepticons are still around, we established that pretty early so, yeah, why not?

S: Yeah, and at this point, I don't know, maybe treat it like Sam’s in, effectively, robot witness protection.

O: Yeah. Optimus does not die at any point in this because it would be completely pointless to the story we're trying to tell.

S: Yeah. Sector Seven has been folded into N.E.S.T. and some major retraining on, uh, how to treat the giant robots, maybe, has happened. Simmons has become significantly less of an asshole after getting to know the Autobots.

O: Or at least we would hope-

S: Yeah.

O: You know, because some mutual respect would probably have been earned since, you know, this movie started. Sector 7 did effectively imprison Megatron for decades successfully. They clearly have knowledge and skills that could be useful for, you know, both finding and capturing the remaining Decepticons.

S: Yeah, I feel like the Autobots would still be a bit skeeved out about some of the things Sector 7 did but-

O: They probably would and I think it would have to be handled really well and hence why Simmons needs to be less of a dick.

S: Yeah, though at this point probably all of the Autobot- let's just go with the whole “war criminals” thing.

O: Yeah.

S: Everyone's done things that they regretted in the war.

O: Mikaela is now training under Ratchet. She knows a lot about machines and showed promise at the end of the first movie so let's actually do something with that.

S: And make it so Sam isn't her only friend because that's sad. Like she has Maggie and Glenn-

O: And the Arcees.

S: Yeah.

O: Uh, Maggie and Glenn are now our two tech oriented people on the team.

S: Yup. Lennox and Epps are functionally in the same roles as the movie-

O: But now John Keller is the head of N.E.S.T. operations instead of some random guy. 

S: Yep. Then Simmons is their information guy and, I mean, actually John Keller- this could be his job after he retires from whatever the hell he was doing.

O: Right, because it was very much they said Obama in this movie, so it's clear Obama is now the president. He definitely wasn't in the first movie.

 S: Yeah. 

O: So, similar to Prime you could also pair our main human characters up with their partners. We had a whole breakdown on this but it wasn't really important to kind of everything else but, you know, aside from just Sam and Bumblebee, you could have the characters paired up, too. 

S: Ratchet and Optimus would not have partners and would live on base. Optimus runs Autobot operations and Ratchet is in charge of the med bay.

O: But the biggest and most important change is that everyone has friends, hobbies, relationships with each other, and they are an actual team. Yes, catching the Decepticons is important but they have to live, too.

S: It's heavily implied Optimus considers Earth their new home in the movies and that they should be trying to make it home. So Sam still goes to college on the east coast but perhaps somewhere closer to D.C.

O: The where isn't really important just as long as it works out geographically for some of the stuff we mention later and is reasonably prestigious.

S: I mean, considering that we don't even know what the hell Sam is even going for I'm not sure what prestige even matters.

O: I don't even know either but I'm just sort of operating under the assumption of he seems to want to go to a prestigious school. 

S: Yeah, so Leo's the only roommate as the others are hardly in the movie at all and don't add anything to it.

O: Now that Simmons is involved in N.E.S.T. there is no reason for Leo to be running the website but if we do really want to drag him along in all this he could be a big conspiracy buff.

S: Yeah, he may be wrong about a lot of things but damn if he's right about those giant robots. This is probably super awkward for Sam and Bee. The bit with the AllSpark still happens at the beginning. Sam still downloads a bunch of junk into his brain but now he hands the fragment off to Mikaela to give to the Autobots.

O: The Wheelie bit is mostly intact, as well, but less horny and more Mikaela's a warrior goddess.

S: Yep, considering that she can kick his ass, she can kick anyone's ass. Sam has his freakout in class but now his professor or someone sitting in nabs him for an internship at the air and space museum because he's- I don't know! Sam- he somehow manages to solve some sort of impossible equation or something.

O: Yeah, uh, Leo maybe can already be an intern by doing something more marketing or advertising based. 

S: This will allow them access to the museum without the whole underpants bit.

O: Which was completely pointless.

S: Yup.

S: Alice is now also another intern. She attempts to flirt with Sam but gets nowhere cause Sam is in a committed fucking relationship.

S: Yeah. Alice can now copy other people's appearances and does so with Mikaela based on, uh, seeing her or hearing her and Sam on a video call to each other.

O: Now the movie really splits between the A-plot and the B-plot. 

S: The A-plot remains functionally similar to the main movie: The Misadventures of Sam and Co.

O: The B-plot is now the Decepticons are wreaking havoc and the Autobots are spread very thin trying to mitigate as much damage as possible.

S: We're told in the movie that several thousand people have been killed but it doesn't really affect the plot in a meaningful way. Like, it mostly seems like these are just the people who, like, military people.

O: Yeah, not that they don't matter but, again, it just doesn't affect the plot.

S: Yeah.

O: Like, it doesn't change how the Autobots are behaving.

S: Yeah, because the stuff that happens on a ship. That's very contained, that's one ship where as stuff happening in a city center-

O: Several cities. Yeah-

S: Yes, this is a bit wide- bit more widespread and, you know, you're not able to hush that up.

O: But now that's the main reason the group is split up and why Sam doesn't have backup in Egypt initially.

S: Yep, out of the remaining team members Mikaela, Simmons, and Wheelie are the ones who head to D.C. because everyone else is headed somewhere else.

O: But now instead of walking in on Sam kissing another woman, he's kissing “Mikaela” [disguised Alice].

S: Naturally, we get the Mikaela versus Alice showdown that we deserve.

O: The Con's actions during all this stay relatively the same except now it's Soundwave who's in charge of the mission to revive Megatron, still in space, still a satellite.

S: They're still searching for Sam to get the information out of his head.

O: But the Fallen is now the thing they're trying to activate instead of the Star Harvester. 

S: To beat a Prime they need a Prime after all.

O: And the Fallen's locked in stasis or sort of, kind of dead or something,

S: Yeah, whatever it is they need the Matrix of Leadership to revive him and they also still need Sam to find both the Fallen's location and the Matrix's location. 

O: Same thing happens where Sam's group realizes they need to talk to a very old Cybertronian because neither Bee nor Wheelie can read the text that is stuck in his head.

S: The equivalent of asking someone who speaks French or, I don't know, Esperanto to speak Latin. French would be too close. Wheelie points out Jetfire in a picture. Sam realizes that Jetfire is in the museum and he's, like, walked by this five dozen times-

O: [Laughter]

S: And they all go to revive him.

O: The AllSpark fragment reacts before they see the now very well hidden Decepticon badge.

S: Jetfire's bit is still pretty much the same: they're all teleported to Egypt, the tomb is made out of the Prime bodies possibly in Petra again, still.

O: Yeah the location of it doesn't necessarily- isn't necessarily important.

S: Yeah.

O: Only now the Primes have sealed the Fallen way somewhere else before sealing the Matrix away with themselves to keep him from being reactivated.

S: The race is on for Sam's group to try and find the Matrix while the rest of the Autobots are attempting to deal with the Decepticon attacks and still somehow support Sam's group who only has Bumblebee with them for defense.

O: All without drawing the Cons attention to what they're actually doing.

S: Sam retrieves the Matrix from Petra but it doesn't crumble away into sweaty sock dust this time. 

O: Uh, the Autobots and Sam's group converge on the Fallen's tomb planning on destroying him before the Decepticons can revive him, somehow. Maybe it's that Optimus could destroy him. I don't know.

S: But surprise! Soundwave's been monitoring communications and they've been followed so before the rest of the Autobots can get there Megatron gets his hands on the Matrix and resurrects the Fallen.

O: And we discussed going a couple of different ways with this but ultimately we thought it would be interesting if combiners were still important to the final battle, kind of like how Optimus and Jetfire combined. Sort of.

S: It could also be used to differentiate toys from the previous movie and this one.

O: The Autobots arrive! A fight ensues.

S: In order to defeat Optimus, Megatron is willing to make a somewhat literal deal with the devil and combines with the Fallen, so Optimus can be defeated by his or their own hand. 

O: Optimus is losing until Jetfire shows up. 

S: Seekers, as we mentioned, are absolutely ancient Cybertronians, younger only than the original Primes.

O: And in the novels Jetfire and the Fallen had previously worked together.

S: So to fight the Fallen/Megatron combiner Jetfire and Optimus must- must combine, as well, so now we can still have nifty air fights and, god, I keep wanting to make a joke about plane pants or something.

O: [Laughter] Uh, this all plays out about how you'd expect.

S: Yup. Optimus and Jetfire are better at working together and relying on each other's strengths and knowledge of their opponents. Megatron and the Fallen begin trying to wrestle control back and forth from each other.

O: In the end, Optimus and Jetfire are willing to risk everything to stop the Fallen and Megatron from destroying earth but Megatron is not willing to get himself killed because of the Fallen's mistakes and abandons him. 

S: Yep, fleeing with himself, Starscream, and any remaining Decepticons.

O: And the Fallen is killed by, frankly, any other method than having his fucking face ripped off. 

S: Yep, the heroes are victorious, the earth is saved, and with a renewed vow protecting the planet from the Decepticons the credits roll.

O: And, yes, I know we didn't really develop the B-plot very much but, again, working with what happened in the movie proper and seeing how we'd improve it. Ideally somebody who actually writes scripts would be able to kind of think of an interesting b plot and tie all of this together. That would be both interesting and a way to further the characters or- and/or the relationships with each other.

S: Yeah, like it would be kind of hilarious if they ended up all being like inter- if the humans all ended up being internet buddies and not actually realizing it. 

O: But, yeah, that's our summary of how we would try to fix this movie. Take it as you will we're not even saying we're amazing, we just really did not like the original film.

S: Yep, I mean would this be an improvement? It's a “your mileage would vary” thing. 

O: And it also kind of depends on what you like. If you like giant action scenes you probably would like Revenge of the Fallen, I don't know.

S: Yeah.

O: But, uh, join us next time when we kind of get back to our normal G1 shtick otherwise, you know, hopefully we'll see you, like, a year from now and do Dark of the Moon and, uh, uh oh. Wow, I have feelings.

S: Mm-hm. Toodles.

[Outro Music]

[timothy-z3r0]

Who really killed Optimus Prime?!

It's August 8,1986. I am twelve years old. I am walking into the theater with my idiot cousin to go see The Transformers: The Movie. It's just him and me, without our parents. I call him my idiot cousin because he was shackled to the mainstream. He only moonlighted as a geek. And besides, seven years later, he would arrange to have his truck that his parents bought him, to be stolen, stripped, and the frameset on fire somewhere in the shady side of Memphis, all because his parent wouldn't buy him a new truck. So you understand what kind of person he was. I had to hang out with him. When you live in the country and your cousin lives next door, you tend to hand out with him, whether you like it or not.

So yes, we went and saw the movie.

I enjoyed it! Although I wasn't prepared for all the Autobot casualties in it. Including the Elephant in every geek's room. The fall of Optimus Prime! Now we all know what happens. Megatron mortally wounds Prime with laser blasts to an exposed waist wound caused by the Decepticon leader and a large piece of shrapnel. But bear with me while I set up the scene okay?

What I want to do now is break everything down for those that don't remember well. Let's start at the part where the Dinobots dispatched to bring a beatdown on Devastator and the Autobot shuttle lands.

Optimus see the squad of Decepticons led by Megatron and utters the words, “Megatron must be stopped, no matter the cost…” Prime transforms and rolls out alone. No one follows. They know what he must do. Optimus has finally been pushed as far you can push him.

Cue amazing song by Stan Bush, "you got the touch" which was supposed to be used in the Stallone film, "Cobra".

Now we see Megatron, Soundwave, and Ramjet running, and then Thundercracker, Blitzwing, Shrapnel and Thrust bringing up the rear. The camera pans to the right to show a red1970's Freightliner FL86 coming at them full tilt.

Ohhhh Shhh.....

Thrust is the first to feel Primes wrath.

Then Shrapnel, Prime's next target takes a glancing blow but still a powerful hit. The Insecticon is thrown forcefully to the ground.

Prime tries to get Blitzwing in his sights but he dodges the semi truck and takes to the sky for a hasty retreat. At this point, the rest, save Megatron, has turned to open fire on Prime. He propels himself into the air in mid-transformation.

Insert Eagle shriek here.

Ramjet is the next to feel defeat by Prime’s Ion Blaster.

Quickly and deadly, Thundercracker and Soundwave are dispatched by Optimus who doesn't use trigger discipline anymore. He makes sure that they stay down. (note that Ramjet turns into Dirge in the next scene.)

Also, Kickback seems to join in as targets.

Prime hunts down Megatron who is in a corridor. The Decepticon leader turns to face Optimus.

"Prime!" He almost sounds joyous to see his old foe.

Optimus utters the now famous words, "One shall stand, one shall fall."

"Why throw your life away so recklessly? Megatron asks, with a hint of arrogance in his voice.

"That's a question you should ask yourself Megatron," Prime says, with cold certainty.

Enraged, Megatron goes for his fusion cannon, but then he shakes off the lust to end him so soon.

"No!, I'll crush you with my bare hands!" He shouts, leaping at Prime, knowing this battle will be different. Just as Prime predicted.

Prime takes a piece of debris to the waist. It hardly slows him down.

Megatron means to finish his opponent no matter what!

Another strike, causing more damage to Optimus.

“I’ll rip out your optics!” he screams, only to get overtaken by the strength of the Autobot leader.

It would seem that cruel tyrant will get his way, but Optimus uses his seemingly exhausted supply of strength to send Megatron flying.

"Finish him off Prime! Do it now!" Kup shouts.

Now prime walks slowly over to his ion blaster as if he's about to dispatch a wounded creature. You see that he takes no joy in doing it. Yet it must be done.

Megatron finds possible salvation, spotting a blaster in the rubble and pleads for mercy from Optimus.

"You, who are with mercy, now plead for it? I thought you were made of sterner stuff." Prime says with a hint of disappointment.

Megatron takes advantage of the situation to reach for the blaster.

Hot Rod tries to help.

Knowing that Optimus will not fire and desperate to end the fight. Megatron fires multiple times, aiming at Prime's wound.

“FALL!  FALL!”  Megatron fanatically shouts! His words drip with vile hatred.

(And yes, all this was new to us! Because of the FCC, you could say in a cartoon, "I'll kill you!", or "Kill them!" So words like "kill" became "destroy". Somehow the FCC was chill with that. Also, the FCC wouldn't let the Decepticons win, ever! So the bad guys seemed to be just hooligans running around kicking over tables and such. The never got to actually win anything, that's why all the death scenes were such a shocking thing to the viewers. We were used to the weak threats of, "Next time!" or something like that.)

Megatron throws Hotrod into the winds like he was mere trash and triumphantly stands over a weakened and mortally wounded Prime. But Prime throws one last punch sending the evil leader skyward, landing on the ground and not moving.

So, I got carried away with the descriptions and the play by play didn't I? But that's okay, It's my blog. Deal with it.

Prime's death didn't traumatize me, I was never one of those people to be deeply bothered by the death of their hero. (I watched Cowboys and The Champ at a very early age. I think my Parents were sadists.) I knew that death would eventually happen, but who will be the next leader to step up? That's what I more interested in.

Hot Rod got the matrix in the end and was changed into Rodimus Prime. I don't understand all the hate he gets. They say he was just a young reckless soldier. Just a dumb kid so to speak.

After coming for Hot Rod for that. Then why not come for Optimus Prime or should I say, Orin Pax for being a data Clerk!

The point of the story is this.

Where in the blazes did that blaster come from?

Some say it was Shrapnel's gun, which is wrong.

Others say was Scavenger's. He wasn't even in that fight!

Others even say that it was Blitzwing's. But he carries a large rifle!

Fear not, my two readers! For I have found out just who the blaster belongs to! No, it wasn't a deus ex machina that the writers lazily have thrown in.

Here! Here is the truth that you seek! The blaster belonged to no one. Because the blaster was none other than!.....

Now, who's the crappy rip-off? Now, who's the poor man's Transformers?!  

Seriously though. (man did I put a long tail on this kite) It and the sword that Megatron used were from the armory in Autobot city.

I had fun writing this piece. I hope you enjoyed it and if you did, leave a comment down below about how you felt about this part of the movie. I'd love to hear from you.

[brandxspandex]

How and when did you get into Transformers? What are your favorite characters and pairings so far?

I was always vaguely aware that Transformers existed viacultural osmosis; I saw the toys and car decals and the like around the placeoften enough. When I was a teen I had some friends who were getting into G1,Beast Wars and Armada at the time, and would tell me stuff about it that got meintrigued. The information I got about Armada Starscream was particularlyinteresting to me because this was at the point where I had started to developa fascination with redeemable villains. I saw the first couple of episodes ofG1 with these friends when their older sister took us to her university towatch a screening by the sci-fi club there. It was fricking hilarious; by thescene where some Autobot was rubbing a guy’s back, looking like he was drillinghim from behind, everyone had lost it. I had already lost it by the bit where twoasteroids improbably crashed into each other right near the beginning; for some reason thatwas really funny to me at the time. This was all shortly before the firstBayformers film came out, so I was getting pretty pumped to see it and get aproper introduction to the modern franchise. I went to see the film with the aforementionedfriends, pretty excited to see interesting robot characters embedded infascinating sci-fi space fantasy lore. Then I left having more or less lost myinterest in the franchise.

Seven years later I had another good friend who was gettinginto Transformers who told me some stuff about Transformers Prime and the IDWcomics here and there. It occasionally sounded vaguely interesting but notenough to make me want to investigate it any further. Then that friend hosted amovie night where they insisted on showing the G1 Transformers film, which Iwas actually pretty pumped for because I was keen to relive thatmagical night watching G1 with a bunch of rowdy uni students from all those years ago. Ohboy, the G1 movie did not disappoint on that front. Everything about it wasjust a glorious succession of 80s-flavoured wut.My favourite part was how the 80s power ballads were absolutely non-stopthroughout the entire damn thing. Just…glorious.

My friend took my enthusiasm over the utter ridiculousness ofthe film to be enthusiasm for the franchise itself, so they decided to make mewatch Transformers Prime, which I was initially kinda grumpy about because Iwanted to keep watching Space Dandy, but then that first Vechicon appeared and Iwas just “oh well hello there 👀”.Then Starscream showed up with that voice, and those legs, and heels,and claws, and that scene where he transforms mid swan dive, and thoseexpressive animations (which only got better when they started making his wingsemote), and his general ridiculousness interspersed with moments of genuinely cool/terrifyingbadassery and hints of character depth. I loved him. I think I was somewhatpredisposed towards being interested in Starscream from the get go because of theseeds of intrigue that were planted when I was a teen, but even though myfriend told me that this version of Starscream didn’t go through the redemptionarc of his Armada counterpart, he happened to hit pretty much every other villaintrope I loved anyway. Also, he may have remained a villain, but he did havesome interesting moments that suggested that there was more to his character.

Starscream is definitely my favourite character in TFP but Ilove pretty much all the Decepticons. The Autobots are good too, but man, Ilove me dem ‘cons; they look evilly gorgeous, all have magnificent voices, andare all their own special flavour of ridiculous. My favourite stories are usuallythose with complex characters and plots, that stray far away from black andwhite portrayals of morality, but I’ve gotta be honest, sometimes I just reallywant a completely ridiculous, over-the-top tale featuring utterly absurd andnutty villains, and that’s the main button TFP hit for me (that and thosegorgeous robot designs). That being said, like TFP Starscream, TFP itselfshowed a lot of hints at a potential to be more complex and interesting than itwas, which was both super intriguing and super frustrating. Ultimately there area lot of things I loved about TFP, but I could never bring myself to call it a great show overall, because it wastedway too many great opportunities in terms of both plot and character development.If it had taken half of those chances it could have been amazing.

My favourite ship in TFP is Megatron/Starscream, initiallyfor the same primary reason I enjoyed the TFP Decepticons in general - just theridiculous, campy, over-the-top villainy of their dynamic. If you view theirrelationship through a lens of realism, then yeah, it’s absolutely horrendousrather than entertaining, but if you view them as villainous archetypesinhabiting crazy vaudevilleland rather than realistic people, then it takes ona very different flavour. That being said, again there were suggestions of amore complex element to their relationship that once more got me more deeply intriguedwhilst leaving me frustrated at canon’s failure to plumb these depths. I alsoreally enjoyed Knock Out and Starscream’s relationship, although I think I’multimately more interested in it as it as was portrayed in canon, rather thanas a ship. The show itself laid groundwork between Megatron and Optimus that Ibecame interested in when it was explored in fanfic, and I gotta admit thatAirachnid and Arcee’s relationship intrigued me if only for how thoroughlyfucked up it was and how pretty they both were. But honestly, if there’s a TFP shipthat involves Decepticons being ridiculous then I’d probably be somewhatinterested in it.

After I finished TFP I was hungry for more Transformerscontent, which I went looking for on tumblr, and I think that’s how I ended up comingacross panels from the IDW comics. My reaction was pretty much, “Wait, these are the comics? They’re modern?And that’s not edited? That’s actuallyhappening??? What the hell I gotta readthe shit outta these!!!” So I did, and suddenly everything I’d wantedfrom the Transformers franchise since I’d developed my first preconceptions asa teenager was mine. The complex characters, the trippy space fantasy, the deepworldbuilding and lore, it was everything I could have hoped for. What asatisfying experience, my god.

My favourite character in IDW is Starscream, who is also myfavourite Transformer overall now, and with his recent development thatassociation that was implanted in my teenage brain between Starscream andredemption arcs is finally paying off (to some extent anyway). Megatron is alsoespecially interesting to me in IDW since he’s such a multilayered character(even if those layers don’t always synergise as well as I feel they could).Starscream and Megatron’s relationship is again deeply fascinating to me in IDW,although since they’re in what to me feels like a more serious setting I can’tenjoy it so much on the “haha campy villains” level, rather it’s much more about how darkly complex their dynamic is. Megatron’s relationship with Optimusis also especially engrossing to me in this setting since they’re very much anexample of really intense and obsessive arch-nemeses. Speaking of Optimus,whilst I wouldn’t go quite so far to call him a favourite of mine at thispoint, I do like the direction he’s being taken in the comics at the moment, where he’s making really contentious decisions for the greater good.

I would go so far to call Thundercracker a favourite of minethough; not only was he a villain with a redemption arc, but he became anendearing dork with a comical misunderstanding of humanity. I love everythingabout all of those things. I also love his relationship with Marissa; I wouldwatch the hell out a sitcom featuring such an odd couple. I also really lovethe IDW take on Shockwave; most Shockwaves are pretty great, but this one’s reallymessed up backstory, together with his batshit insane plan in Dark Cybertron,made him amazing. Arcee became an unexpected favourite of mine after she calmedthe hell down to become hilariously awkward and matter-of-fact under the pen ofJohn Barber.

Bumblebee and Windblade have also really been growing on melately, largely through their association with Starscream, which has broughtout more and more interesting aspects of their characters. For instance, I lovethe snarky smugness Bee has around Starscream, but I love the fact that he hascome to feel seemingly genuine affection for someone he hated for so long evenmore. As for Windblade, I love how her increasing ruthlessness culminated inthat smirk of approval from Starscream as she laid out her plan to seize Carcer;I can’t get enough of utterly opposed characters who grow increasingly similar(and increasingly close) as they’re forced to work together. Honestly I ship Starscreamwith each of them more and more every time they interact.

So anyway, this has been my backstory episode.

[shadowsofmoonracer]

Spoilers for TF5 ahead!

So the thing I can honestly say that I hate the most about TF5 (after a few days of thinking) is how Lennox was portrayed in this movie. Honestly, when I saw that Josh Duhamel was gonna be in this movie I was SO excited, mainly because he's one of the 'old' actors who were in the original 3 movies that have now come into the fifth movie. Of course, I was utterly disappointed. I get that Lennox is part of the army, and I get that he probably didn't have a choice but to comply with orders (I'm assuming something to do with Sarah and Annabelle Lennox here) with regards to the transformers and why he joined TRF (probably because of his experience with them hence he could be a valuable ally). But I REFUSE to believe that Lennox 'lost faith' as Cade Yeager puts it. Yeah, I get it, Cade's a changed man after meeting Optimus and the autobots. He stands up for them and fights for their rights etc etc. But seriously, including Lennox into the group of people who lost faith in Optimus and the rest of the autobots? COME ON. That is UTTER bullshit. Lennox? Losing faith? In the autobots? Not happening. This is the guy who worked with the autobots side by side - trained with them and probably lived with them on Diego Garcia - for at least 7 years give or take. SEVEN. YEARS. That kind of bond doesn't just fucking disappear. Also. This is the same guy who - despite having to answer to his higher ups - mobilized the military, pushed a government official out of a plane, and flew across the whole damn continent purely on the WORD of a TEENAGER that Optimus could be revived and that there was a battle that was going to happen. Right. No faith my ass. So that entire scene on the ignition chamber where Lennox agreed with the other soldiers that Optimus wasn't coming? I call bullshit. I don't believe or accept that because the first three movies have only shown how much faith Lennox had in the autobots. (Especially ROTF even if it was a pretty bad movie by TF standards) I saw a post commenting on how Lennox should have been the one to stop Optimus' and Bumblebee's fight and I totally agree. He's been their friend for the above mentioned amount of time, and a respected ally of the autobots. I refuse to believe that he would betray them - clearly not when he still addressed Bumblebee as his nickname 'Bee'. I really really wanted to see more of Lennox interacting with the bots - that's what I was excited for, and there were practically no interactions AT ALL. Like come on, no offense to Cade, but look at the way he acts around the bots and the way Lennox acts around them. Care still retains wariness of them, he's shying away from Grimlock/Spike when talking to the Dino - which yeah, he has rows of super sharp teeth. But look at Lennox when he's facing down Megatron! He's one guy standing alone in front of the one bad guy he's had to deal with multiple times - the bad guy who he knows full well is powerful and strong and not at all afraid of killing fleshlings. And when Megatron throws a tantrum (-ish) and slams his gigantic, super sharp weapon into the ground? Lennox didn't. Flinch. At. All. He just gave off an exasperated air and continued the negotiation even when the lawyers were scared out of their wits. This here is a guy who is 110% comfortable with transformers, so why the hell did we not get any interactions between them? Also, again with the platform thing. In Chicago, Lennox and his team went in knowing that 1) it's a decepticon nest. 2) the autobots were gone (at the time) and yet they still went in knowing they could (and some of them did) die. But the whole team still geared up to fight the decepticons. And suddenly with the approximate same number of people who went into Chicago on that ignition chamber, suddenly Lennox decides that no he can't do it? Idgi at all. Really. Michael Bay, what the hell have you done to Lennox?? Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, I was just utterly utterly disappointed with Lennox's character in the show. Because he had so much potential and that potential was squandered. All he was was eye candy in the movie.