#transformers flatline

[hysterical-random-things]

Mermay Day 3- Yellowstripe Neon Goby Flatline

[tacticianpigeon]

Ive got the lineart down for art requests

we’ve got bayverse starscream and flatline, these two do NOT get enough love and I tweaked their designs because I do what I want

fun fact: I didnt know flatline existed before this request. Apparently he’s a decepticon medic! neat!

[cassette-cryptid]

So, with a recent TJ Omega video bringing up one of my favorite massively underutilized transformers, I felt like I should share my head canon for him!

Flatline!

Flatline was a medic for the 'Cons first introduced in the comics circa RotF. He didn't really get to do much unfortunately

He then showed up in IDW, where he was a repaint of Hoist/Trailbreaker, and he did fuck all once again

He showed up in Earth Wars as well, but there's not much info of note there.

So he's basically a blank slate as far as characterization

What I imagine is a necromancer medic hearse.

He's a medic, who can't heal living bots. You might be asking, how does he heal bots then? He kills them. He kills the bots and then resurrects them.

His personality would be evil, slimy, uncomfortably insect-like and really uncanny. When not locked away in his lab or "healing" his teammates he's just awkwardly standing in the corner making DIRECT eye contact with whoever is near by. Conversation with him is very difficult because Flatline starts ranting about whatever morbid or rabbit-hole esque concepts are on his mind while making aggressively blankly staring.

He's still got the hunched goblin vibe from RotF but has the chest setup of IDW (made out of front of hearse) and the fold out arms made out of Landau Bars (usually tucked away into body). He usually wears a battle mask (except ironically in battle) to cover up his maw (see pic 1 at top) with mandibles like an insect or arachnid

On Cybertron he turns into an ambulance/hearse type vehicle

On earth he transforms into a 1970 Cadillac hearse

(red tinted windows)

All of this was started because according to the original creator, if he was in G1 he would've transformed into a 1960 Cadillac hearse (I love that body style but thinks it's over done with the 1959 from the Ecto-1)

[blighted-lights]

@novafire-is-thinking gave me the idea of glit hanging out on pharma's engine nozzle and i decided to draw it <3

pharma is SO hard to draw for no reason, forgive me. this is pre-war so i wanted to make pharma look a bit softer but i think it backfired 😔. anyways will b drawing much more of these two soon, i think of them so much.

[novafire-is-thinking]

I’ve been scrutinizing the badges and medical symbols (or lack thereof) of the medics of IDW, and speculating about what these might say about each of them.

Out of all the medics, Flatline’s badge(less) arrangement stood out to me, so it’s time to make this way deeper than the writers and artists intended.

To wear a badge, or not to wear a badge…

Thanks to Alex Milne, the Autobots got their own medical cross:

This is worn by Pharma and First Aid, and by Ratchet before the war and during the earliest days of the conflict. He later removes the cross, but switches between a couple of different symbols and no symbol throughout the course of the war—his time spent on Earth having a lot to do with that, I suspect. Even so, after the war, he chooses not to wear any indication of his status as a medic—only an Autobot badge.

Meanwhile, the Decepticons have no universally recognized symbol for their medics. Instead, they each have their own unique symbol, or none at all. Glit has a vaguely medical-looking cross that differs from the Autobot medical cross, and Flatline has a symbol resembling the pulse of a spark:

…which I can only assume is meant to be the Cybertronian version of the following, but with a circle for the spark instead of a heart:

Meanwhile, Spinister and Nickel have nothing. Just their Decepticon badges.

Now, to combine these with faction badges:

Badge + medical symbol: Pharma, First Aid

Badge + no medical symbol: Ratchet, Fixit, Velocity, Spinister, Nickel

No badge + medical symbol: Flatline, Glit

No badge + no medical symbol: Ambulon

There are three medics who don’t wear badges; all of them are or were Decepticons. This is interesting on its own, but I’m more interested in how this may correlate to their attitudes towards treating Autobots:

Even though Glit’s KP version is willing to treat people regardless of faction, this is never confirmed for his IDW version. There isn’t enough evidence to infer how he feels about Autobots, or treating them. Yes, he was at Grindcore, but that says nothing about how he treated Autobot prisoners behind the scenes.

As for Ambulon, he switched sides and underwent the Act of Affiliation, but—evidently—not the Rite of the Autobrand. I could speculate all day about why, but that’s not important because, whatever the case, he treats patients of both factions without hesitation. Because he’s been on both sides, he has an externally observable reason to do so.

This leaves Flatline as the only badgeless—and only Decepticon—medic who’s proven to uphold a moral value of treating people regardless of faction. Unlike Ambulon, he has no externally obvious reason to do so, but he does it anyway because it’s personally important to him.

The following roams into headcanon territory, but based on what can be inferred from Flatline’s few appearances, I like to think his choice to not wear a Decepticon badge serves two purposes:

It’s his way of signaling to potential patients: “I don’t see you through the lenses of your faction and ideology, but as a person.”

It’s a personal reminder for himself of his commitment to being blind to factions when treating people; it’s a way of reminding himself he’s committed to the preservation of life first—not to any group or “order” of medical personnel.

This is not to say medics who do wear badges and belong to an order of medics don’t also treat patients based on similar values—as we see First Aid and Ratchet treating people of the opposing faction.

This is just me playing around with the possibility of inferring something deeper about Flatline’s character—what he values, how he sees himself and the world, what sets him apart from others “like him,” etc.

And besides, Autobot medics are expected to uphold their medical oaths. Decepticon medics—perhaps unfairly—are assumed to be lax in that area, so it means more to have a Decepticon medic who holds to their personal moral values despite the general attitude towards the enemy seen in many of their comrades.

On that note, I would love to know how Tarn sees Flatline…

A Decepticon who refused the Rite of the Deceptibrand.

A Decepticon who refused to cut into his spark casing to signify his commitment to the Cause.

A Decepticon who values commitment to his personal morals above adhering to any external ideology.

[candychameleon]

Also preview for the merch I made for the @medicalgradezine !! :D I made both a lanyard (which will come with a rubber charm) AND a charm of Hook!

[pluralsword]

tempted to make a short fic out of this it would be funny.

also it kills us that three out of ten of these have harmed Arcee in awful scientist capacities in some way (Animated Shockwave with his interrogation techniques that involved taking her head apart, IDW1 Jhiaxus by being a transmedicalist shit instead of listening to her when it came to her gender affirming journey, and Flatline forcing her spark to power two other bodies), and she in turn mostly trashed them (while she did trash Prime Shockwave at least once iirc she didn't get the chance to take down Animated Shockwave, but sure gave him a hard time), and a fourth hasn't but was her arch-rival (Airachnid) before acquiring the mad scientist archetype in other continuities. Considering that Prime Ser-Ket is concurrent with Prime Airachnid and Arcee was on Cybertron for a long time in that continuity one has to wonder if she would have run into and fought Ser-Ket and the Forged before coming to Earth.... ....gaaaaaah feels like seeing the time knife is contemplating the transformers multiverse just the time knife, haha XD

also before you choose Shockwave as the winner because of IDW1 time travel shenanigans we want to point out there's a funny causal loop wherein that Shockwave's ideology originates from (and largely copies) Jhiaxus, who is maybe the only person he's shown any true loyalty to in the events leading up to Dark Cybertron. the counterpoint of course is that in Jhiaxus's opinion, Shockwave surpassed him by then in the sciences and he was but Shockwave's minion, so given that Shockwave is the only person Jhiaxus has ever truly cared for without also blatantly betraying, he'd probably just let Shockwave shoot him.

[morikeifemme]

Update on some more shattered earth designs!!

In order we have Rumble, Frenzy, Flatline, Swindle, Soundwave, Arcee, and Nautica!

[brawlsbigbadonkers]

I will now be using my poll evilness. Get y’all posters ready because!!

I won’t be voting. But y’all can!! Let’s see who you guys thinks is the hottest transformer medic ! Have fun everyone remember this is for fun!

[in-the-airducts]

A little busy right now Rodimus-

(Congrats on your milestone avoidghost!)

[mountain-ghouls]

Quick 6 character request challenge!

[scribe-of-hael]

NGL the most attractive type of characters in transformers got to be the medics

They got ungodly amount of beauty to them

I'm a bit bias to Flatline, Pharma and OFC Knockout ~

But Rachet is a beautiful old grumpy medic, first aid is just bad ass and adorable. Honestly I also wish we can to see more Decpeticon medics Really Flatline and Knockout (i suppose Breakdown as helping nurse) are really the only ones I know.

They both are so ...Different? Like they kinda care about their patients. Which is cool!

[transingthoseformers]

Anon is so right too. Look at him. The surprise Megaratch kid

Wait

That's what Flatline looks like?

Surprise megaratch material indeeeeed

[blighted-lights]

sketch im never gonna finish so i thought i'd share it lmao

the fact that these two have ZERO interactions in idw where they're not duking it out in some form is so funny 2 me. no solidarity amongst the trans community it seems.

(sketch requests are open!! feel free to send me a request, you don't have to be a mutual or a follower 🌸)

[i-th-ink-am]

forgot I existed for a minute, alive again 😎👍

[cyber54prime]

Sketch of flatline