#this isn't just an earthspark issue

[cosmics-beings]

ugh so many megatron thoughts that i am honestly just too afraid to post but i have so many meta about him that i wanna write but im just afraid of how people will take them.

[primus-why]

This gave me similar vibes to:

Bonus: glowy "cracks" forming on someone's face.... hmmmmmmmmm

[driftsart]

is there a decepticon/autobot you hate/dislike in transformers?

Here's a summary of the things I hate in Transformers:

Deeper explanations at here! ⬇️⬇️

Bayverse/humans:

The only thing I like about Bay verse movies are Optimus and Megatron, Starscream, and the autobots w/ Optimus in the first movie. The thing with Bayverse movies is that it barely focuses on the actual Robots and I just end up skipping 3/4 of the movies just to see robots fighting. I hate how it focuses mostly on Sam's life and girls, at that point they should just call the movies "Sam's Life: With a Side of Transformers."

I feel like my biggest issue when it comes to transformers is the humans. They haven't been able to figure out how to use human characters properly without them getting in the way/stealing the story. I ignore most human characters but Bayverse human characters are just too annoying for me.

I don't really have an extreme hate towards a certain Autobot or Decepticon, just a small few I may not like, such as the predacons in TFP, Megatron's design at the end of TFP, Arachnid from TFP, those two Bayverse autobots, etc.

Shows:

I don't HATE a specific show, just find it annoying, or not interesting. One show I don't really find interesting is Earthspark. It looks nice, but the only character I honestly like on the show is Megatron. I watched around the first two episodes and like two more in between, and honestly, I didn't enjoy them much. Sry <3

Rescue bots academy was a show I did like in the past, but it started to get a bit annoying later, idk.

Summary:

There really isn't much I can't tolerate in Transformers, just some few details here and there.

I do have a few asks asking about the humans in my au, and I've been brainstorming ideas for them, but I don't think they will have a super important role, and will not be main focus or anything.

I also have a few asks about the Earthspark terrains in my au, all I can say is that they will be getting a huge redesign if I decide to include them in my au, and their story will be a bit more interesting.

This was a lot of info, let me know if you have questions about anything, I hope this made sense lol :)

[cyberapid]

Earthspark Bumblebee x Cybertronian Reader

reader isn't gendered, brief description of a Terran bleeding

—•—•—

The yard of the Malto family is quiet, besides the gentle clanking of Bumblebees stray movements as he holds himself upright on one arm and the occasional sounds of the animals that live there.

“I wish to do a full bio-mechanic and diagnostic scan as soon as possible, Conjunx. Your file has shown that its been more than a year since your last, this dissatisfies me,”

His optics squint open just enough to allow you to see shining blue before they close again with a short huff, optical ridges pinching together and dermas shifting into a place to show his annoyance. “It's not that big of a deal. I run like a dream, but if it'll satisfy you– sure.”

A small whirl of excitement leaves you before you can think of suppressing the excitement coursing from your chassis to your vents, a noise that if you were looking at the yellow bot you’d see brought a small smile to his face plate.

You both fall quickly back to a comfortable silence enjoying the ‘weekend’ that the older Maltos children claimed needed to be without lessons where instead you relax or play in the case of the children, just as quick your calmness was suddenly interrupted by the barn door being slammed open by the twins, Hashtag, and Robby all looking panicked and quickly speaking over one another— Their rambling is cut short by Bumblebee slamming to the ground with a thud so loud it has Robby leave the ground for a moment.

“Slow down! Slow down. What happened?” Your Sparkmate’s quick to push himself back to his pedes as the small horde of the Maltos children nearly surround him— he tries desperately to calm their jumbled panic into something understandable for the pair of you as they drag the two of you towards the entrance of the barn.

A quick scan with your optics covers them in a blue hue, that comes up with no external or internal injuries on them. But the heartbeat of the small human holding your servo to drag you towards the barn is both faster and far more erratic than usual, showing his panic, although you can already tell that from his actions alone.

“It's Nightshade! It was an accident, we only wanted them to come play. Honest!” Robby is quick to give in explanation, seeming to be the calmest child in this situation even with his heightened state.

The two of you are rushed into the barn and then under where you're met with Mo and Jawbreaker fretting over Nightshade, who's clutching their lower tibulen in panic. A scan isn't necessary to see the main issue as Nightshades servos are covered in the familiar blue hue of energon leaks down their pede and is covering their servos.

Nevertheless you quickly scan the young bot, where its registered that one of their fuel lines have been sliced, thankfully not deadly and nothing notably serious,

“Would you remove your servos, Nightshade. I will be repositioning you,” the Maltos children move aside, tense, as you raise and place Nightshade with ease onto a tall workstation. Unlike the children who give you space to work— Bumblebee doesn't care much for the personal space of the young Terran or yourself as he leans forward inspecting your quick work to find the fuel line in question with a silent panic. “An easy fix but this will hurt, sparkling. I will be quick,” without much explanation after you begin work with pinching the affected line, which causes a yelp of pain from the young Terran whose servos snap to grab Bumblebees. The procedure is small and finished with a practiced ease and quickness as the afflicted line is wrapped in a sturdy tape– not new but better.

Twitch is the first to react with a strangled yell before wrapping her arms around her sibling, resting their helms against one another's, “I'm so sorry! We’ll never sneak up on you again, promise!” her affection is returned by her much taller sibling whose hug nearly engulfs her.

“You should cleanse your servos before- okay,” your suggestion is heard by none of the Maltos children as their excited chatter fills the once tense air but you're just as quickly distracted as you feel your Conjunx's servos creep around your mid-plating from behind before fully wrapping his arms around, sending your spark into a dizzying flutter, “i also have to cleanse mine– so don't, bumblebee,” blue stained servos are held just out of reach of his own wandering ones as a soft rumble from his vents sends vibrations down your back chest plate.

“I think I'll survive,” being behind you hides the cheeky grin he sports but not the warm air from his vents breathing on the back of your helm. “You did great,”

“It's something I've done countless times. I’d be worried if not- the energon, enough Bumblebee.”

[darkstarofchaos]

Spoilers for EarthSpark S2 below the cut.

The problem with Starscream isn't that he was evil. I have to lead with that because apparently if you complain about how he was handled, people are just going to assume you wanted him to be redeemed. I am not a Starscream redemptionist, nor am I a fan of "redemptions" where an evil character becomes a Good Guy. One of the biggest issues I have with Megatron redemptions is that he never actually has to address what he did to his own side, he just fucks off to join the other side/goes his own way. Suffice to say, I was not hoping for EarthSpark to "redeem" Starscream (unless it was in the more personal sense of trying to do better by his own people).

The problem with Starscream is not that he was evil. The problem is that, to make him the specific brand of evil the Powers That Be wanted, they had to completely ignore his previous characterization.

I honestly did not have a problem with most of his (admittedly few) scenes. His motivation for being Evil was disappointingly shallow, but him being grumpy-but-accepting of the new Terrans fit with his S1 characterization. The bit where Skywarp complains when he doesn't do anything to punish "Spitfire's" disrespect could easily have been spun as him trying to be a better leader after his talk with Hashtag. I liked that he isn't stingy with praise when someone accomplishes something. Even the painfully underdeveloped motivation could have been expanded into him trying to do what he thought was best for his faction. All the building blocks for a villainous-but-sympathetic Starscream were right there.

Which is why watching everything fall apart in the last 20 minutes felt like character assassination.

You cannot convince me that the Starscream who knew Hashtag for an hour and was ready to risk his life for her is the same Starscream who murdered two children without blinking. You cannot convince me that the Starscream who criticized Megatron's violent leadership would consider it a compliment when he's called more cruel than Megatron. I don't care what previous Starscreams were like, this one had an established characterization that does not work with what we see later. Not unless working with the Autobots briefly completely disillusioned him to the possibility of a lasting peace.

Also, love how the time skip allows them to just avoid any sort of fallout from having the people you were working with go back to trying to kill you. Love how there was no deeper reason to the war restarting than "they're Decepticons". Heaven forbid we get any sort of conflict with the two sides trying and failing to work together, and the falling out being a shared responsibility and not just "the Cons were actually still evil, lol". Can't have anyone grappling with how things went wrong and wishing they'd done something differently to maintain the peace. Megatron yells at Starscream to end the war like the Autobots played no part in it continuing. Which is obviously the intent, but it just feels like such a lazy copout to keep the Good Guys morally pure.

The Decepticons were being hunted down and locked up. They had no reason to think well of the Autobots or the humans, which means that if the Autobots wanted peace, it was their responsibility to reach out and prove that things could be different. Yes, the Decepticons would need to put in effort too, but they were not the ones - at least not the only ones - who needed to prove that they meant well. If the two sides worked together for a while and the Decepticons still unanimously rejected the possibility of ending the war, the Autobots share the blame for that decision.

I have plenty of other issues with how S2 is going so far (why was Nightshade the only Terran who got completely relegated to side character?), but I'll save my rant about the Chaos Terrans for later. It'll be huge, trust me.

[tarn-ation]

I'm so excited about earthspark Prowl honestly like, omg one of my favorites being on the screen ahhghgg. I just hope he doesn't die or smth like every other show he's in. Also lowkey kinda hope he's a bit of an antagonist like he was in idw. I think it'll be a great thing for the malto kids too for them to be able to learn that not every autobot is completely good, kinda like how they learned with tarantulas that not every decepticon is completely bad. He probably won't be an antagonist honestly but it would be a cool thing if he was, like how in idw he still had that fear of the decepticons uprising again when everyone's guards were down, it would honestly be a good plot point, adding another mental health point in the show too. Considering prowl is a war veteran (like basically every bot that isn't a Terran in the show), he's bound to have some sort of ptsd issue from the war. Also season 2 of earthspark is starting to lack in the villains considering they already defeated Mandroid, and making Starscream a villain again after his abuse victim arc in season 1 wasn't that great of a plot point. But it would be a cool thing if they made an autobot the new main antagonist. That's just me tho, anyway thats my rant. Thoughts?

[sonicasura]

Let's be honest with ourselves that Transformers Earthspark has its issues. It isn't uncommon for the series to have a few messy iterations throughout the years. However those at least have something going for them.

Bayverse is a junk pile yet there's a lot of material you can build off on and some pretty interesting concepts. RiD15 is an awful sequel to Prime but does decently well as a standalone although there are much needed changes to be had. Earthspark... Well, it's just there.

I can be lenient with the plot holes and poor pacing as Nickelodeon is notorious for interfering with any show that isn't SpongeBob to the point of cancellation. The issues truly land on the characters themselves. I'm gonna try to simplify it without devolving into a rant like the previous draft.

Edit: Gonna add some further edits as I wrote this in the middle of the night. Plus my simplified version skipped some key details.

Robby. Somehow they made a human character I actually dislike instead of be neutral about. In the official Transformers wiki, he's labeled as a big brother who cares for his siblings but his actions so far say otherwise. Robby literally ran away in the first episode because they moved then decided to try and hide the Terrans from his parents.

Yet he rarely gets enough consequences for his actions. I think we don't just need less Emberstone saves not just because of plot armor but force actual character growth on him. Like a life changing to one of his siblings as consequences for his actions and strained relationship until he gets his head outta his ass.

Edit: Yes, I know Robby is a teenager but that isn't a decent enough excuse for his behavior. Seen the trope about big brothers who do act closed off or at some points rude but they haven't done shit that put their family in serious danger. No, I didn't try to purposely forget the times he was injured badly.

There honestly needs to be less of those and his consequences be adjusted to it affects someone else badly. *

Next issue is lacking confrontation with Optimus choices alongside the obvious misplaced trust in the 13 Primes. Quintus Prime literally emotionally manipulated and scarred Mo through a fake bad ending reality because she doubted herself. No good person would do that, much less an actual ally. Even moreso on a child.

I seen this shit in Trollhunters but at least Jim, the main character, was a teenager. (It still was wrong though.) We also got remember that Liege Maximo and Megatronus/The Fallen are Primes. Yet somehow it is best to trust them.

Don't get me started with some of Optimus' choices when it comes to GHOST. He probably did it to protect his Autobots but what about the Decepticons who are locked away? Why are there so little of his companions with him especially since Bumblebee had fucking went into hiding before the show began.

There needs to be tension between Optimus with his Autobots. Someone is bound to snap and Bumblebee would have the biggest impact. The man clearly isn't okay as he's doing things that even Megatron admits ain't like him.

Mandroid needs to be written differently. He has the making of a sympathetic villain but oh boy. First off it is clear that his depiction is ableist aligned since the reason he doesn't like Cybertronians is because he lost his arm. Major thing to change right there.

Give him a narrative where his interest been genuine but slowly declines as the Autobot/Decepticon war increases the number of destroyed lives. Let him become a victim to this than just 'I lost my arm so death alongside experimentation to all Cybertronians'. Also don't make Mandroid ignore the obvious fact that the Transformers parts he puts into his body is slowly poisoning and instead come up with ways to fight the infection. Kinda like in Ironman 2 where Tony's arc reactor began to do the same thing.

Edit: Mandroid's negative views on Cybertronians are about the war and he's aware of the Energon poisoning. It is just that it is poorly portrayed to the point you rarely see it over his Arachnamechs/his ruined life.

Have the man present various evidence of destruction the war caused by both sides at the Malto children or anonymously spread such info around town to sew discontent with the townsfolk. 'These are the people who you consider heroes. Who you see as family and friends. Or should these tragedies be forgotten?'

Do a Baxter Stockman where you frequently see him try to fix the Energon poisoning than just simple dialogue. Even have testing on organic subjects to see how they react and find ways to counter it. Don't keep these key points as simple dialogue. *

I don't think Karen needs much changes either. 'But her taking over Cybertron doesn't make sense!' It actually does for one reason: hubris. Have you ever seen what happens when you give a control freak power? Their behavior becomes more erratic as they begin to think they deserve more. She is xenophobic in nature so imprisoning Decepticons and ordering around the Autobots is a drug to her.

Karen wants to treat them like slaves so the next step in her mind is Cybertron. Her death is well deserved and well played. Just like Icarus, the bitch flew too close to the sun.

I think the last major issue, other than out of character racist Shockwave, is the Terrans. No offense but they need a bit less screentime so the rest of the cast can shine. We barely see Alex and there's unclarified issues involving Bumblebee with Arcee if he's uncomfortable around her.

I also want their flaws to be at the forefront. Thrash is the only one who gotten such character development from his encounter with Swindle. We need more of that! Like Hashtag's overreliance on the Internet biting her back as she is forced to use real world skills.

Edit: I accidentally put in Terrans when I really meant Twitch. The screentime for everyone needs to be balanced mainly for the Malto family. Alex alongside the three younger Terrans rarely get involved or their characters further build upon. Twitch needs to get benched more.

Also the Dad Number 2 should really be addressed. Wheeljack was clearly uncomfortable when it been brought up. Plus it is way too fast to even consider such ideas unless you plan to have it addressed properly. Like 'Kid. We barely know each other yet somehow I became a father figure in an instant? It's best not to do that until you truly certain "Dad Number 2" doesn't mean harm or feels comfortable with it.' *

Earthspark clearly has potential but these problems need to be handled better. Addong the deleted scenes help add some clarification but canon needs to present it. We are supposed to get a second season so hopefully some of these are addressed.

[stunticonbreakdown]

I think the reason I don't like Knock Out that much isn't because of his character itself but rather how he affected fan interpretation of Breakdown's character which has potentially ruined the character forever for future media. All people want for Breakdown in Earthspark is to have Knock Out show up so they can be together again, completely failing to see that he is not the same as TFP or IDW Breakdown. He is a different character.

I wish people could see that. G1 Breakdown isn't TFP Breakdown. He doesn't need to be with G1 Knockout (who TFP KO isn't even based on). Earthspark Breakdown isn't TFP Breakdown. He doesn't need to have an Earthspark Knock Out in order to make him a "complete" character. Breakdown predates any character named Knockout or Knock Out in transformers by 5 years.

It's so obvious that this is how people see Breakdown most of the time. When Breakdown was in the Earthspark part 2 trailer, everyone just assumed Knock Out would be there and that KOBD would be canon in the show. Plus in the Windblade comics even, the TFP is watered down to nothing but a slow, bulky guy married to his abelist husband Knock Out.

When I saw Breakdown in TFP for the first time I felt represented. I have very bad sensory issues and I saw that in Breakdown. I then watched some G1 episodes with him in it and related to his paranoia, and then found out G1 and Prime Breakdown have more in common than it seems at first glance. TFP Breakdown is just as paranoid as G1 Breakdown. They both have agoraphobia (which I could relate to as well!!), and then later on I discovered that TFP Breakdown had upgraded his body from a small muscle car, and had a similar engine-vibration ability as G1 Breakdown too. Breakdown has so much character depth but it gets ignored because no one seems to care about him, only the character relationships they want him in, whether it be romantically with some character, or his rivalry with Bulkhead- which I'd love to go on more about how Breakdown joined the war immediately on the side of the Deceptions, and not the Autobot wreckers, but I'll keep it all for another post.

Earthspark Breakdown likes racing because he likes racing. That's it. It's not a code for "Knock Out is back." TFP Breakdown gave up his speed to fight Bulkhead evenly. Earthspark Breakdown might think that'd be so crazy, and he could never give up such a thing.

Sorry for ranting have a good day y'all!!

[icyrambles]

one of the things i find consistently weird about transformers as a piece of media is how the decepticons keep being the bad guys without any really attempt at reworking them as a faction

pretty much every continuity that exists has the decepticons filling the role as the primary antagonists. here's a list of the tf media i've consumed over the past year; g1, animated, prime, cyberverse, earthspark, rotb, first 2 bayverse movies, idw1 + idw2, the first 5 issues of tf skybound, shattered glass, the first 10 episodes of rid15, and a few episodes of armada and beast wars. and literally all of those have the decepticons fulfilling the role of antagonists.

now i'm specifically not taking issue with the fact that the decepticons are the bad guys. that's not my problem here. my problem is that the franchise as a whole seems to have a problem with actually developing the decepticon characters and the faction as characters/concepts worth being antagonists

this isn't a dash on the existing pieces of transformers media just to be clear, i enjoy cartoonishly evil shenanigans as much as the next person (my favourite character is fucking tarn for goodness sake). instead please read through the rest of this post as a single person's critique of a tonal inconsistency throughout the franchise of transformers

with the more recent pieces of transformers media attempting to paint the decepticons in a more sympathetic light (see cyberverse and earthspark) i noticed a core writing flaw with how the teams behind these works tackled making the decepticons more morally grey characters.

and that's the fact that they decepticons are still just as evil as they are in the original g1 cartoon, just with a little more grey paint thrown over their war crimes. it's one of the main writing flaws i have with both idw1/2 and earthspark.

because those writing teams really want you to view the decepticons as less evil. they really want you to watch/read through their content and see the decepticons as a group of individuals who, while not right in their actions, still deserve to be treated as more than a villain of the week.

and i agree with this sentiment. i think the decepticons should be more than villains of the week who need to be defeated at all costs. i think the decepticons should get the opportunity to be fully developed characters with hopes, dreams, aspirations, flaws, and emotions just like their autobot counterparts.

but there's a problem with how these writing teams interact with the decepticons. and it's the fact that they're still the bad guys. even if you give megatron a redemption arc in earthspark, there's still the looming implication that he, along with an army, invaded a random planet and potentially killed millions. (it's a kid show i'm not expecting them to go into detail with all of megan's war crimes, but earthspark does imply that megatron did fuck up a lot of earth's shit)

idw does a slightly better job with this, showing that the autobots have their fair share of war crimes, but the decepticons are still the primary antagonists throughout the comic's run.

even shows that paint the decepticons as purely the bad guys have tonal issues with how they're written

taken animated for example. the autobots get to be fully developed characters with personality traits outside of just being the good guys. bumblebee is impulsive, he likes video games and racing and being a little shit, he's not a beacon of virtue. prowl is antisocial, he doesn't like communicating with his team, but he fucking love nature, he loves meditating. he has a whole backstory about wanting to avoid being drafted into a war for fucks sake.

but the animated decepticons don't get that. there's nothing about blitzwing or lugnut or starscream that makes them uniquely suited to being in the decepticon cast. none of them get to have defining character traits outside of being decepticons who need to be beaten.

the same can be said for prime.

while i don't particularly think that any of the tfp characters are written well, at least the autobots have reasons for their personalities. arcee is a jaded bitch because she watched both of her partners die right in front of her. optimus is distant because he lost his best friend to differing ideologies. ratchet is grouchy all the time because he's constantly running low on fuel and is probably worried about his only family dying horribly in a war while he sits on the sidelines.

but the decepticons. they're just evil. megatron gets so addicted to power that he hypes himself up on the space equivalent of hard drugs for most of the series. soundwave.... he's there i guess? shockwave decided to violate the laws of nature for shits and giggles because the series never decided to expand upon his character except for evil scientist. starscream gets to be a sniveling coward who gets beat up whenever he appears and we never learn why he acts this way.

time and time again, transformers has an issue with writing decepticons as anything more than the bad guys.

and the reason why i take issue with this, isn't just because it's "bad writing" it's because the decepticons have a habit of having backstories that involve being discriminated against and it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth when the group of people who are more than often classified as second class citizens on their own planet get lumped into the role of "bad guys who want to steal and murder and pillage" when they want to change the system that is actively discriminating against them

and this all sounds like a lot of complaining. and it is. but i do have a method of trying to remedy this mess. two ways actually

#1: the hard way. (aka, this is the harder of the writing solutions because it requires viewing the decepticons as more than villains)

instead of having the decepticons being a group of revolutionaries who loose their way and become evil and genocidal seemingly for no reason other than "oh well revolutions don't really work and anyone who starts one just wants to cause problems against the system" why don't writers actually try and view the decepticon faction for what it is in most cases a group of people who were heavily discriminated against and who want to change their planet to actually treat them more than objects.

cybertron is shown to be a shitty planet to live on in more continuity, i can find it perfectly believable that people would want to change the system through radial reform.

show me why the decepticons became the way that they are. don't just tell me that megatron was always a bad person who wanted to become a dictator. that's stupid and highly uncreative after it's been done 15 times in a row in every single continuity

i would highly prefer a series that takes place from the decepticon perspective. i wanna know more about them. why is starscream constantly trying to overthrow megatron? is it because he thinks megatron is a bad leader? does he have a plan for how he would change things if he did become leader? if he's just doing it because he's egotistical, does he have a backstory that made him the way that he is?

give me decepticons with hobbies and personalities outside of wanting to kill everything.

#2: the easy way (this is easier because it doesn't require radical re-imagining of the decepticons as a whole)

just make the decepticons the ruling class. genuinely, just make the decepticons the people in charge from the beginning. you wouldn't have to imagine that many changes. megatron can still be a warlord intent on conquering the galaxy (it's just re-framed through the lens of him always being this way instead of having to learn violence is a solution), starscream constantly vying for the throne is now much easier to understand because the faction isn't rising up from the lower class, they were always in power and starscream wants more of it.

it even works out for the autobots because them being the lower class rising up against a tyrannical force re-contextualizes their desperate want to defend planets being attack by the decepticons. they're not just doing it because it's the right thing, they're doing it because they know what it's like. and that makes their motivations seem more sympathetic than a fucking god complex of saving the "tiny pathetic humans who can't defend themselves"

the decepticons being purely the bad guys is actually the reason why i'm not gonna read the rest of the skybound comics. i have no interest in another comic that is functionally (at least from the five issues i've read) just a bloodier, more violent g1. it's disappointing that instead of trying to explore the existing transformers characters through a different lens other than "evil" tf writers keep making the decepticons the same old bad guys.

this franchise has so much potential for interesting stories, cyberverse proved that to me when they allowed the autobots to team up with clobber, dead end, and soundwave, but it's being held back by the pervasive trope of the decepticons being the bad guys in every single story

[artobotsrollout]

I have a lot of thoughts about season 2 Earthspark but I'll save them for when I finish the episodes that are out. My main thing is that it isn't wowing me nearly as much as season 1 did but at the same time it's not a... Bad season. Compared to other TF media it's still good. The first season was just pretty fantastic imo. It has it's issues of course but I loved season 1 so much that it's given itself a higher bar. I'll explain what I mean more later.

Also it's such a shame that so many of the Earthspark toys are either low quality or repaints of cyberverse molds. 😔. There are good ones, don't get me wrong, like the Twitch one is lovely and the nightshade one looks high quality but what about my girl Hashtag???? Where’s soundwave? Or a new Starscream and shockwave toy that isn't just reusing cyberverse toy molds. I want to buy ALL the toys, Earthspark, but so many of the toys just aren't what I want. Maybe that's a me problem but idk.

[cityzenshark]

How to fix certain things in Earthspark

The dugout,

Dorothy,

Alex,

the triplet's relationship with their family

This is my own take, no hard feelings

1. The dugout.

Have the parents plan the dugout with Wheeljack while Nightshade, JB and Thrash eagerly joins building it.

No one should be 100% okay if their dopted child builds an underground bunker on their own and without telling them at all. What if the barn collapsed?

The security systems Hashtag and Nightshade install are done without guidance from Wheeljack, hence why the siblings get stuck inside for ten hours in 'Security Protocols'.

They could've called Wheeljack for help in that episode.

TLDR; anyting regarding the bunker should've involve Wheeljack. It makes his character more relevant than being just Twitch's Dad-2.

2. Dot should be a more strict mother.

Please know the difference between strict and abusive.

She's a veteran who wants a normal life as a forest ranger only to get roped back into Transformers issues without her consent. On the same day, her kids found newborn Transformers and want them to be family from the get go?

Have her relunctant about it and have Alex talked her out. Have her warm up to the twins gradually. She just found out her dream job is bait for GHOST. If I were her, I'd be angry for a week.

After she fully warms up to twins, the warmth is then immediate to the triplets.

She shows actual concern about the kids' cyber-sleeves. Have Dot monitor the sleeves herself every episode until she's assured they are harmless. Then have her and Alex be worried triple time after 'Disarmed'.

She knows about the events of 'Home' and have the kids grounded while worrying about Hashtag's mental condition. They were in the city for heavens sake -- Dot and Alex were bound to know!

Think about June Darby. June is rightfully concerned about the kids being involved with the Autobots. Raf nearly died to something normal medicine can't cure, Miko is impulsive around soldiers, her own son went to a desolate alien planet. As a teenager, I find June annoying. Now as an adult, I find the kids even more annoying. Dorothy should've been more strict than June and Fowler combined because she was directly involved in the Cybertronian war.

It makes more sense if she doesn't want her children involved directly with Cybertronians at all. With the Terrans, there isn't much of a choice but to rely on Cybertronians so the Terrans could learn about themselves.

3. Alex is the person the kids and Terrans first get info about the 'Bots and 'Cons & he's the family's reassurer (idk the suitable word to use here).

The point of his profession in Cybertronian history is only shown in episode 1. That's it. He should be the first person the kids go to when they want to know about a Bot or a Con and anything Cybertronian related.

Have him be more open about Cybertronians than Dot. Sure Dot is shown to be positive with Cons changing their ways because she's friends with a redeemed Megatron, but she's also seen the Cons' heinous actions so she's likely reluctant to talk about them/double standards.

Things like these can be offscreen by having dialogues mentioning them: "Dad says Optimus used to--" / "Dad told us--" bla bla bla

Mention his past connections with Meridian clearly. I have no idea about that until @monocle-teacup mentioned it.

3. Aside from each other, the triplets are closer to the parents than their older siblings.

Hashtag is close to Twitch but after 'Home', perhaps it's best to see her going to Dot for help and get a bit clingy.

Nightshade and Alex should have more screentime togather. Alex did introduced NS the book that lead him to the author's grave where NS gets their alt mode.

NS is essentric by copying the main character of said book. Kids often copy their favourite fictional character, so why not? And when they get into character, Alex plays along.

JB can be ruled out from this as he is close to Mo but something feels missing... I can't pinpoint where though.

to e continued maybe

[cosmics-beings]

okay so finally my unpopular opinions on the starscream es episode.i liked the starscream episode as you know, because it was nice and important for his abuse to be validated. and it was even more libearting to see a Steve Blum voiced starscream get his justice because of how poorly tfp starscream was abused and it was made into a joke and seen as something he 'deserved'.

but I've been wanting to also just share my critique on it for some time! it's a little critical, so just putting that out there if you don't like earthspark or starscream critique you should skip over this. I've spoken a lot of positive things about the episode so these are just my thoughts. so warning, heavy critique.

my main issues are fandom's treatment of hashtag, and people using the episode to perpetuate the 'perfect victim' mentality on starscream and forget that he's flawed and nuanced.

starting with hashtag, i really don't like how a lot of fans make hashtag "mother" starscream and act almost as if she's supposed to be his caretaker, when she is a minor, who is facing her own trauma. i think she was needed to validate starscream and to make him feel that his own abuse is real and that it isn't his fault for getting abused.

but i also think people took that and decided to a.) make hashtag his mother figure and b.) use it to excuse the way he treated and was borderline abusive to others (i.e him kicking his trine mates when they were on the ground, and since they were female character no one actually cared).

i think hashtag was needed as a completely neutral source to make starscream's own trauma's validated and to show the viewers that his abuse isn't funny, and that just because megatron is 'good' doesn't mean that it's excusable and that starscream has to like him. moreso, it's important to show that children can also call out and understand abuse. that was why hashtag needed to do it. it doesn't matter how much megatron was a part of her family and practically an uncle figure to her, he still abused someone and she still recognized that.

BUT at the same time, i don't like the idea that the fandom props his emotional trauma and responsibility on HER. in a lot of fics, aus, etc, hashtag is usually made to be starscream's caretaker without any sort of care for her or her trauma. and i think people forget hashtag is a child, shit some people ship them (ew) because they like to make her the one to care for him. Hashtag is a child, and is completely innocent and he own trauma should be validated and honestly, discussed as much as starscream's. People don't really see her or let her exist outside of Starscream. Her trauma is at large, ignored by the fandom and if people care about it, it's only to validate what starscream went through, and never to have him actually caring about her. that's why i like to write fics where HE helps her, because she is still a child and he is an adult.

ths isn't talking about fan content where starscream is literally hashtag's father figure, which i enjoy. i like when content portrays hashtag being a kid, and starscream being a parental figure to her, but that tends to be a small majority of hashtag and starscream content.

and this brings me to the perfect victim mentality that is harmful in fandom spaces but i see it's impacting starscream.

the perfect victim mentality is this idea that in order for an abuse victim's abuse to be validated, they have to be perfect and innocent. they can do no wrong and even their own actions need to be pacified or excused because if they are one bit of flawed or problematic, then that ruins their victim status.

this is why tfp wasn't seen as a victim, because he was evil, he was abusive, he was dangerous, and the writers made a choice to perpetrate the thought that all abuse victims MUST be perfect and if they aren't, then they deserve their abuse.

this is what's happening to es starscream, but the opposite way.

starscream isn't responsible at all for the abuse megatron put him through, and no amount of think pieces are going to change that. but hashtag telling starscream that his abuse isn't his fault, isn't an excuse for how he's treated and abused others. he was a fascist, a war criminal, committed multiple genocides, and in various continuities abused others both before and after he met megatron.

again he was even physically kicking his trine mates and that implies that it's a common occurrence and it's happened before. hashtag also pretty much confirmed it. i know BCS skywarp and nova are women you guys don't really care about them, but the way starscream was treating them wasn't okay.

he is still an abuse victim, but that doesn't excuse his treatment of others.

A lot of people tend to use megatron's treatment of starscream to excuse Starscream's abusive action toward others. Meaning there is this idea that because Megatron abused Starscream, then we can't really hold him (starscream) accountable for his actions toward others, and that is false. Yes, Megatron abused starscream but that doesn't give him a slap on the wrist or an excuse for things he did! And if you are trying to excuse Starscream's actions because of how megatron treated him, then you are also saying that we can't hold megatron accountable for how he treated starscream.

because megatron abuses starscream in response to his own trauma and abuse. and even if he does, he still needs to be called out for it. JUST as starscream should be held accountable for his actions.

Starscream still is a villain, he still did terrible awful things that i hope earthspark addresses. He still caused genocide, because he could, he still killed, because he wanted to! again, it was implied that he was abusive to his crew, if hashtag didn't call him out, he would've been abusive to her because he was going to use her as a hostage. earlier i saw someone trying to explain and excuse that starscream wasn't a problematic person because 'the other seekers are following him' but they had no choice. and then this person really tried to act as if him being 'toxic' to them isn't problematic and that's the issue. you can't cherry pick what is and what isn't abusive because it's a character you like, even if that character is a victim.

the perfect victim mentality skews people's perspective on abuse and makes it seem like you have to be innocent to be an abuse victim. and it scares me because a lot of people have tricked themselves into believing that starscream is a good person who doesn't need redemption and hasn't done anything wrong. and I'm terrified because when he actually starts to act like Starscream, fandom is either gonna turn on him or try to excuse his villainous actions.

So that said, those are my main two critiques with the starscream earthspark episode.

hashtag isn't starscream's mother but it seems the majority of the fandom went with it. and ties her worth and her importance to him.

and likewise, starscream is an abusive victim but he isn't perfect, and that's okay. abuse victims don't have to be perfect to have their abuse taken seriously and i don't think that's realized enough in fandom spaces.

[bibibbon]

It's just infuriating seeing media after media doing the same mistake! All because the folks in charge of creating these medias keep favoring these horrible characters so much, that they rather make EVERYBODY suffer than to hold them accountable! It's turning into propaganda at this point! Enable the abusers/jerk*sses/monsters, but condemn/lash out/hate the victims, kind people, and people who fight back! Ps, Transformers Earthspark had a MHA Easter egg in one of the human kid's room, making how the show handle abuse and racism/immigration themes feel like they took a book from MHA but watered it down. 5/5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 part 4 part 5

There are many shows and pieces of media that handle and present the topic of abuse differently.

Abuse comes in many forms and can effect others in different ways meaning that there are a lot of different ways it can be explored in shows.

A lot of the shows can ineffectively explore abuse in a horrible way and make their shows messaging sound awful and while ONE of the reasons is character favouritism there are many other reasons like simply not giving the issue enough screentime to develop or not narratively highlighting the issue of abuse and more

I think a great example of a show that has some trouble dealing effectively with abuse (but it's not because the author favours the abuser character) is tokyo revengers

The way tokyo revengers handles abuse is well interesting (I do have some critiques that are mainly surrounding the akashi family and Shiba family)

I understand that due to the manga publishers cancelling the manga and making Ken wakui wrap it up at chapter 278 combined with wakui's own health issues that he wasn't able to delve deeper into the unhealthy and dysfunctional dynamic of the akashi family. The unequal treatment of sanzu and senju by takemoi or the neglect that they all went through or the straight up hate that sanzu has for senju and takemoi ETC ETC. However, I still feel like it's important to bring this up since it seemed like there was potential for them to be developed and portrayed in an interesting light.

Moving on to the Shiba family. I think that the Shiba family and their arc was written well! My problem lies with the friendship that mitusya and taiju fromed and more specifically the lack of screentime when it came to the aftermath of the black dragon for the Shiba family. We are told that taiju changes his ways but it's not shown specifically with the way he Interacts with his siblings. I also have a problem with how yuhza an important character in all of this isn't actively present here at all especially when it comes to her brothers 'change'.

Now the Shiba family dynamic is interesting to me. You have taiju the older brother who is viewed and introduced as the primary caregiver of yuhza and hakai since neither their mother or father is in the picture. We never learn much about their parents since the story is told from hakai and yuhza's prespectives. It can be argued that the eldest sibling taiju maybe aware of what happend to his parents and that they may have influenced his behaviour well we know that their absence within the family definitely did since there was no one to correct taiju's aggressive behaviour and it maybe from the absence of his parents within his life that he started to develop such a twisted idea of family and using it to manipulate his siblings.

We actively see the consequences of taiju's actions whether that be hakkai and yuhaza growing afraid and distant towards taiju because of his manipulative and abusive behaviour or hakkai developing a twisted idea of love and saying that he always though that "love was supposed to be painful" until he met mitsuya. We even see a young hakkai start to mimic taiju's aggressive behaviour in beating kids up but all of that changed when hakkai met mitsuya.

The narrative goes out of its way to clearly contrast mitsuya and taiju. They are direct foils to each other and show two vastly different ideas. This is best shown during their fight when we see their beliefs clash with mitsuya making a grand entrance and saying that to be a big brother you need to forgive and be kind to your family whereas in taiju's case we see him try to murder and belittle his siblings.

The narrative (thankfully) frames mitsuya in the right. Going on a tangent, but the way mitsuya and taiju are framed is interesting to me. We clearly see that taiju is depicted as the much more muscular and stronger looking one whereas mitsuya is the shorter and less muscular character. I think its interesting that this view can be framed in a way where we see that mitsuya is the little tiny sliver of hope within the black dragon arc and this specific fight.

Mitsuya represents both his belief of family and becomes the embodiment of hope and courage for hakkai, taking hits and matching taiju's strength punch for punch (kind of reminds me of the interpretation of hope. Hope isn't some strong dude or girl but just an incredibly resilient being whose covered in mud and blood and would still get up and shine because that's them:hope).

Mitsuya influences hakkai and both him and takemichi end up influencing him to stand up for himself and him sister. Mitsuya influences hakkai to stand up and tell the truth while takemichi and his actions help hakkai come to an understanding that even with his fear and cowardice towards his older brother he needs to and will stand up to taiju. The fight ultimately ends with taiju defeated by Mikey and the siblings leaving taiju behind.

Now I do like this ending of the fight as I think it showed:

Hakkai and yuhaza are no longer connected or associate with taiju

They have both developed and managed to overcome taiju (their abuser)

Hakkai has overcome his cowardice and his inferiority of not being able to be a man and be the one to take the hits for yuhaza

Yuhaza finally receives acknowledgement for what she sacrificed and is no longer bound to be taiju's punching bag, neither is she bound to protect hakkai from taiju

Taiju is the one that loses everything that ranges from his family, to his gang, power and even money (that he used koko to gain)

There's a hint of hypocrisy and irony in Taiju's arc here as he is a religious Christian who went to pray in a church during Christmas eve. Taiju went to pray which is seen as a form if religious practice yet he doesn't follow his religion properly, I am not Christian but iam pretty sure that abusing, manipulating and beating your siblings is a sin. Ultimately, taiju ends up losing everything and his family on Christmas eve which in Japan is am incredibly important day as its spent with your loved ones to share and spread joy yet the complete opposite occurs.

My main problem with taiju's arc is how wakui involves him in the story later on. We see fromba tiny flashback that mitsuya and taiju are in contact and they seem to be friendly. We also are shown and somewhat told that taiju has changed but the thing that annoys me is that we don't see that change, we don't see or get to know why and how it happend. Finally, we don't even get to truly see hakkai's and yuhaza's reactions to all of this (at least with hakkai we got to see a shocked face but even that is too little and they robbed yuhaza of screentime)

The fascinating thing is that while abusive, unhealthy and toxic family dynamics within tokyo revengers play a big role in the story, there is also focus on individual characters who have been abused.

What I mean is that tokyo revengers also focuses on characters personal abuse without the families of those characters being active fleshed our characters. The two primary characters of this are takemichi and kazutora.

Takemichi's experience from the first timeline specifically his life experience between middle school to his adult life are what shaped him as a character. The reason why takemichi is so weak willed and such a bad fighter in the beginning of the manga all adds up to what happend to him with kiyomasa and him running away. Takemichi is in a sense a haunted character because even after creating and altering the timelines so much that they aren't recognisable he still is very much effected by kiyomasa and the manga takes it time dealing with the effects of that (while kiyomasa's name is never directly stated to be the cause its kind of obvious it is) however, more focus on kiyomasa and takemichi specifically would of been interesting and needed in my opinion. While kiyomasa and takemichi do interact and takemichi does try and fight against kiyomasa just to fail and return to square one remembering just how much kiyomasa and his abuse truly effected and haunted him. Overall, I do think that later on in the series we should of gotten a chapter where takemichi meets kiyomasa again and contrast chapter 1 takemichi with the now developed, stronger and currently healing takemichi.

During his time under kiyomasa takemichi was used as a tool. He and his friends had to become perfect bidding tools using their bodies fighting, winning and losing to entertain a crowd all while getting beat by kiyomasa if they didn't achieve the desired goal or effect. This continued on for approximately 3 years of takemichi's life being physically and emotionally beaten by kiyomasa to such a degree that the second he graduated from middle school he ran and never looked back. Kiyomasa's mistreatment was so bad and horrendous that takemichi thought his only escape was to move far away even if it meant sacrificing everything else like his friends, girlfriend, education and home. Ultimately, even though takemichi ran foolishly trying to achieve a sense of autonomy and agency he ends up having it robbed again by another thing: capitalism.

Due to the lack of education takemichi receives and the direction his life choices took him in, he ends up being a slave to the modern cooperate system (japan is also known for their work culture). In the end, takemichi can only bow down to others and ask for forgiveness if he ever did anything wrong. Due to the damage kiyomasa's abuse caused and the slowly pileling reasons of him accidently doing something wrong and peoples reactions start to all eat at him and effect him. Being told that you're incompetent and useless so many times that you also start to think so and become the embodiment of that as well. Takemichi's life was never free and so he couldn't run away from a job meaning that all he could do is apologise and mentally try and escape his miserable life devoid of loved ones.

In all of this running and avoidance takemichi forgets who he really is and forgets himself. This is exactly why we see him shocked to hear his ex girlfriends name or how he believed that middle school was his peak but when he sees himself he realises that he is wrong. This can also explain why takemichi physically forgot how he acted at that age or how he forgot how to fight. Takemichi was trained and toughened (forced to for survival) during the 3 years kiyomasa made him fight like a lab rat. In all of those years michi would of learnt the basics and even more so it makes sense he would of left that all behind and tired to forget everything in the end.

Even through out the series Takemichi's behaviour reflects this. He is always effected by that incident and it haunts him. Takemichi feels, acknowledges and even sobs that he is inferior that if he was a bit more like Mikey in terms of strength or a bit more like draken in terms of kindness or a bit more like baji in terms of courage he would of already solved everything, he would of already saved everyone and had the perfect life. Whenever anything goes wrong he blames himself and his flaws. This is mainly seen in chapter 134 and 135 when takemichi contemplates if he should just die since he believes that it was due to his incompetence that naoto died.

Evidently, through his own experiences loneliness and fear takemichi is able to understand and help other characters like hakkai and mikey even if it cost his life because takemichi has experienced loneliness, how painful it is, how haunting and scaring it is and he wouldn't wish it on anyone else especially people he cares about.

As the series progresses takemichi comes to terms with these aspects of himself and even if he beats himself up for it he comes to the understanding that these things are apart of him and that he can live surrounded with loved ones. He would do anything to achieve that goal even if it meant sacrificing his original ideal world the bonten arc because he understood and hated what mikey was going through.

In the end I definitely enjoy the way tokyo revengers handles abuse however, some of the cases wakui tries to tackle like the akashi family and South end up falling apart due to the lack of focus and development. There are good cases of how the story handles abuse like the Shiba family, takemichi and kazutora but they do end up being quite flawed and in my opinion need more development

[ck-17088]

OPINION: Why I think Transformers Earthspark will be remembered as one of the best Transformers shows of all time.

Long story short, Earthspark spoilers. Don't read if you don't want to be spoiled.

I'm delighted to say that Earthspark has again exceeded my expectations. Honestly, when the show was first announced, I expected it to be a TV show meant to pander to young children. It would either be silly or forgettable.

Nope.

The show has blown all expectations out of the water through its bold story-telling and animation. The characters all feel realistic- they have strengths and flaws, which are most apparent when they face difficult situations. Another strength is that this show is not afraid to tackle issues (war, moral issues- "how far are we willing to go for the sake of peace?", discrimination, etc) that have become a part of our society in the present and past several years.

In the new 8 episodes dropped, the central theme appears to be identity. Mainly about finding your identity (ex: finding an alt-mode), making up parts of your identity (ex: finding the right alt-mode that matches each character), and integrating new experiences into your identity (ex: Megatron's decision to gain an Earth-based alt-mode to earn the Autobots' trust)- those sort of topics. These are all important and wonderful topics to discuss and share in a show. However, what surprised me the most was that the writers were not afraid to show the ugly sides of identity-related topics.

The 17th and 18th episodes- "Home Part I" and "Home Part II"- subtly tackle racism and xenophobia. Robbie, Twitch, and Hashtag are visiting Robbie's friend in a skateboard park. While having fun, they stumble upon an anti-transformers graffiti- "Transformers go home". Twitch and Hashtags are shocked and upset over this. Twitch says "This just isn't okay" because they were born on Earth and have lived there for their entire existence. However, Robbie's friend insists that their existence on Earth isn't "okay" since "Invading the Earth wasn't okay either". He's essentially telling them that they exist because of the war, which was unwanted, so therefore, their existence "isn't okay".

That scene honestly emotionally destroyed me. Before I explain why let me say a few things.

I am Korean American. The experiences/feelings I will later talk about are my own and do not fully represent the Korean American and/or East Asian communities. Our community's experiences are varied; thus, one person’s is not enough to sum them all of them.

Throughout my life, especially in the past couple of years- during the COVID-19 pandemic, I have had all of these things happen to me:

- I have been called hateful slurs.

- People have made the slanted eyes gesture to me numerous times.

- A few people have greeted me with "ni hao". (This is offensive because they automatically assume I'm from China because I'm Asian. It supports the idea that AAPI communities are one monolith. Hint: They're not.)

- Many people have asked me if I eat dog meat… (I don't. Never have.)

- Too many times, I have been told to "go back home". (I don't even remember the exact number. That's an indicator of how many times it's happened)

- In college, I have had many academic and career advisors ask if I'm a foreign student. It doesn't appear be an offensive question, but if I were Caucasian, no one would have thought to ask me if I was a foreigner. But no, I am Asian, so there is a huge chance that I might not be American.

The fact that I am Asian, or Korean American, an ethnicity (Korean) not found in the Americas, is enough of an excuse to question my identity and my entire life - who I am, where I'm from, and my own habits. To many, it is an excellent excuse to ensure I feel like an outsider in my own home.

The "Transformers go home" scene destroyed me because it reminds me of the pain that comes from the fact that there will always be people who believe I do not belong in my own country- no matter how many experiences I have had and how ingrained they are in me.

These characters are experiencing that same pain, too, even when they shouldn't be. The insistence from Robbie's friend that their experiences aren't enough to explain their belonging to Earth because they are physically Cybertronian- or transformers- is especially heartbreaking.

However, Robbie stands up for his family and breaks ties with his friend. He refuses to accept the blatant discrimination his siblings are facing and leaves instead. This is significant because while the writers show the ugly side of human society, they also show how to combat it- by refusing to stand by and accept it.

This scene is likely why Earthspark will become and will be remembered as one of the best Transformers shows ever.

It's not just the animation or the stories/plots. It is the show's willingness to tackle issues that are difficult to discuss in real life.

In a world where Anti- Asian, Anti- Latino, Anti- LGBTQIA sentiments and (basically) any hate toward minority groups are on the rise, Earthspark is not afraid to go head-on with these issues. They are willing to show scenes to demonstrate the harm these ideas and beliefs can cause, as well as solutions on how to fight them.

The show embraces the beautiful sides of humanity- friendship, family, love, and hope- but is also not afraid to fight the ugly parts of it too.

Written by: CK17088

[blueikeproductions]

I know you've said a few times that the most logical step for Transformers would be a new anime, but I don't think that's true. Don't get me wrong, a new TF anime would be cool, but there just isn't a big enough market over there to justify it. With how interlinked Hasbro and Takara are with the franchise, it'd have to be a joint collab like the Unicron Trilogy, and the issue with that is Transformers is not nearly as popular in Japan as it was back then. And even back then, it was only relatively niche compared to the West. There hasn't been a completed Japanese dub of a Transformers show since Animated, and I'm pretty sure the Earthspark dub is a web-exclusive. Why would Takara invest in a full-blown anime when they can't even get the existing shows to land over there?

Yeah that’s the tricky part.

Prime & Cyberverse utterly tanked, RiD15 seemed to do better (and honestly looking back the Starscream arc was pry the best place to stop anyway), and I have no idea how well EarthSpark is doing down there. I get the impression Japan doesn’t care much though.

Mostly I think an anime would do well in general after Bravern sorta reignited an interest in super robots, and anime is really the only thing doing well right now anyway, so it would make sense to try an anime again to capitalize on the new boom.

The problem is beyond returning to stuff like Optimus having a Super Mode, I don’t really know what you’d DO as a hook for toys.

Going by trends, it would probably be based on the 13 Primes’ relics, being collected by the Autobots & Decepticons and the relics having a Mini-Con/Cyber Key style power up, functionally being a spiritual successor to the Unicron Trilogy with bits of RiD01 included like its own relic hunt, Side Burn, Scourge and Sky-Byte.

Really I’m only focusing on how western kids would approach it because unless it’s anime or older cartoons, they largely don’t care. I don’t know if TF can really be saved in Japan and Prime & Cyberverse’s offering didn’t help at all. One was too serious, one was too Lol Random, I think RiD and Cyberverse are lucking out being a happy medium, though it’s no guarantee EarthSpark is gonna continue past its first season down their either, or even finish its season for that matter.

[darkstarofchaos]

Having seen some frankly irritating opinions from both sides of the aisle, I think some of y'all need to chill about the way the Decepticons were handled in EarthSpark.

Decepticon fans are allowed to be upset that the faction's depth and potential for development was tossed aside in favor of "Decepticons are just evil".

However, depth and potential doesn't mean the Decepticons have to be buddy-buddy with the Autobots. Depth is amoral, you can be a villain who resists "redemption" and still be a well-rounded character.

My issues with S2 vs S1 are as follows:

The lack of good explanation for why the sides are fighting again. I am not upset that the Cons are villains again. They have no reason to like or trust any human or Autobot, and gratitude for having your life saved only goes so far. My issue is that S2 literally opens by saying the Cons started the fight again just because that's what Cons do. Obviously the story is from the perspective of the main cast, and there are hints that they could be intentionally unreliable narrators (Starscream refers to them as oppressors, Breakdown challenges Bumblebee about giving up on Cybertron), but we aren't given enough time with the Cons to draw a solid conclusion about the intentions here.

The way the heroes treat Spitfire, i.e. a literal newborn. She was 100% in the right when she said that she didn't know the moral rules she was being expected to follow. But because she wasn't born with morals and an understanding of mortality preinstalled, the heroes condemned her instead of trying to de-escalate and take responsibility for their part in the situation (granted, Megatron was the only flight-capable adult present and he argued against de-escalation. Which tracks because he's Megatron. But someone should have pushed for a peaceful resolution).

How much depth do individual Decepticons still have? Who knows, Starscream, Shockwave, and Breakdown are the only ones with any focus. The others are only seen fighting, causing trouble for fun, or just standing around growling. Twitch - i.e. one of our main characters - literally spends an entire episode in the Con camp and we still manage to see nothing of Decepticon life when they're just hanging out. And yes, I know that the more characters you have in a scene, the harder it is to show their personalities. You can still show them playing cards or arm-wrestling or something. Anything to show that they're actually people and not just a hive mind that exists to fight.

Starscream. Specifically the last 20 minutes of the S2 finale, because everything else in his characterization fit S1 until that point. He literally calls the Autobots oppressors, so of course he's going to fight them. He wants Aftermath kept out of the way (that's a child, so that's perfectly reasonable) and he's frankly patient with Twitch-as-Spitfire, in spite of Skywarp's incredulity that he lets her "get away" with causing trouble (again, that is a child. Patience is the correct response). He even seems to like Spitfire after meeting the real her. The only issue I had with Starscream leading up to the second half of the finale was that his motivations didn't seem to be much deeper than "I want power" (I could be misremembering that point - there may have been an "Earth is going to be our home, let's make it better to live on" when he and Shockwave discussed Cybertron). And then the last 20 minutes happened and I can't see any logical extrapolation from S1 to that. It was just a generic "Starscream goes mad with power", and it came completely out of left field. Not even any remorse about what he "needed" to do or any attempt to justify himself, it was just, "Yeah, I'm worse than the people I called out for being oppressors, isn't it great?"

If there is some big plot twist where it turns out the heroes were unreliable narrators all along, some of my issues will actually be fixed. However, I find that extremely unlikely, for one major reason: all of the non-Decepticon characters who disagree with the heroes are either villains or they "come around". The Quintessons felt betrayed by Quintus? Nah, Quintus was a great guy, you can tell because he tortured a kid for wishing she had never been chosen by him. Prowl doesn't like the Autobots' reliance on children? Silly Prowl, those kids are special, we want them to fight. The narrative never, at any point, entertains the idea that those dissenting voices might have a point. Which means we're probably meant to take the heroes at face value on most, if not all things.

TL;DR: the Decepticons being villains makes perfect sense, even with the context of S1; it's the heroes acting like they're only fighting for power after we had several episodes about second chances and not all Decepticons being the same that makes it feel like a cop-out. And Decepticon fans are allowed to be upset that some of their favorite characters had interesting stuff going on only to be functionally relegated to Voiceless Grunt Number 3 (and yes, several Autobots have also been relegated to Voiceless Grunts. If one of your favorite characters has fallen victim to this affliction, regardless of faction, you have my sympathies).