WinkWonk and the Cling Clongs - A TF Thread

I was in a similar boat when I watched the show! I did have the advantage of having read through the mtmte comics before then, but there wasn't much overlap between the main casts and the designs weren't quite the same, and it's way different seeing everyone in motion. And also same on my feelings about the animation! I used to be super against this style, but green lantern (which I still haven't actually watched) softened my heart, and this series dealt the final blow.

The backstory of TFA and TFP is that TFA came out in 2007 and was doing its own thing, but when the Michael Bay movies happened, they canceled it to make way for TFP. I hear that TFA fans still mourn the fourth season they never got, though I also hear that since they knew they were getting canceled, the creators were just like WHATEVER, SCREW IT, and didn't bother to play it safe with season 3.

So the TFP designs definitely draw a lot from the bayverse movies! I actually really love the balance they stroke between the Alien Mechanical Being and Attractive Robot design aesthetics. I think the only big character thing that carried over was Bumblebee's lack of voice. Probably because there wasn't much character carry over from the bayverse movies at all? :V

And man, I was all set to go off gushing about my favorite characters, but it's really hard when I love them ALL. This is my favorite animated Starscream, by a long shot. (I'm on mobile, but insert that Tyra Banks gif of 'we were all cheering for you!'). Bumblebee was completely precious, oh my god. And I definitely didn't expect to love Bulkhead as much as I did, but by the time he was encouraging Miko to study so she'd have more options in life than he did, I was like *ugly crying over how Bulkhead is too good for this sinful world*. And this Wheeljack has different characterization from standard-issue Wheeljack, but I fricking adore him.

And Ratchet!! Oh my GOD do I love Ratchet. JRO, the guy who writes mtmte, says that he thinks this version of the character is the definitive version. Soundwave's design is way different than it usually is, but HE'S SO COOL, MY HEART ALMOST EXPLODED FROM HOW COOL HE IS! His one spoken line, 'Soundwave: superior. Autobots: inferior' is a callback to the original eighties cartoon. And I don't recall if it was ever said in the show, but his backstory is that he was a gladiator just like Megatron. And Shockwave........ On that day, mankind received a grim, SEXY reminder.... God, I'm still not over his voice and design. So hot. So excellent.

 

Yes, the comic definitely plays it safer! The robots tend to look more humanoid, especially in the face bits. You don't see too much machinery except in the joints, most of the time. I think that works really well on the page, because you still get pretty complicated designs where it can still be a little hard to tell people apart. But then the Bayverse movies went to the opposite extreme, and designed the robots so that when they transformed, all the parts TRANSFORMED. Everything on the robots corresponds to part of the vehicle. Which is a really awesome feat of animation, and really got me excited at the time, but... it doesn't make for hugely attractive robots.

The evolution of Bumblebee! Skipping some continuities because oh god so many. Eighties cartoon -> TFA -> Bayverse -> TFP -> IDW comics



And the Green Lantern series was the first time I really warmed up to the idea of CGI cartoon shows being maybe, maybe not the worst thing ever created! I was in the Legend of Korra fandom at the time, and some of the people I followed were REALLY into Green Lantern and kept posting about the show and characters. I originally dismissed it out of hand, because I thought the CGI was ugly and dumb and 2-D animation is so much better guys, come onnnnnnn. I only watched the first two episodes before my lack of attention span kicked me in the brain, and while I... did not care for how they animated things on earth, once they were out in space and 90% of the cast was cool-looking aliens, I was like 'okay. MAYBE this is kind of cool.' I own the dvds for Green Lantern, though I still haven't actually watched them :P But I remember making fun of the look of TFP when it was airing originally, and then like four years,it was like 'what? it totally looks good! when did I ever say anything differently?????' (my parents made fun of me ;_; )

There's definitely some interesting stuff!! I don't want to go into too much detail, but there's a lot of quietly dark worldbuilding going on in the background. I have to sort out what I know that's fanon and what's actually from the extra materials/talks by the creators at conventions, but when you starting hitting that part of the series, I have so many cool things to talk about! :DDDD

Oh man, I didn't see that coming either, I thought he was super dead, and it was SO AWESOME SEEING HIM TALK!! I was so happy for him and Ratchet. The part of the series where he was missing his t-cog and felt extra worthless was so sad, it was great to see him get a victory like this.

In the Bayverse movies I watched, Bumblebee tunes into the radio to semi-talk! I think the first Transformers movie is a decently fun thing. I enjoyed it a lot at the time, and I think I'd still enjoy it. There's a balance between 'boooo, where's this character's personality?' and 'oh my GODDDDD, LOOK AT SCORPONOK GO!!!!' So if you're so inclined, this is probably a decent time to watch the first movie, before you get too invested in many of the characters as fully-fleshed-out characters. The second movie was underwhelming, and had some racist caricature robots and also literal robot balls. Swinging back and forth. Clanging against each other in the breeze. In some ways it's a fun wtf-did-I-just-watch movie and there are definitely some epic effects. I did not watch the third movie, and I did not watch the fourth, though I have heard such things--

Spoiler: transformers 4 opening scene

MICHAEL BAY FUCKING KILLS RATCHET??? You don't do that. What the fuck is wrong with you?? Why would you kill Ratchet?????

Oh my god, Starscream is the bestworst thing, and I love him so much. Watching him, it's like... what an asshole. What a fucking asshole, you absolute douchecanoe, what the fuck are you doing??? Why can't I stop loving you??????? I wish I knew how to quit you!

And then he does something like that fancy flying when the cave was collapsing around him, and I'm all *swoon*. God, he's the worst, and I want to give him a comforting hug and also slap him upside his head.

He is sooooo adorable! Oh my gosh, when Raph got hit by the dark energon, and Ratchet was trying to save him, my heart just broke for him. MTMTE Ratchet is similar in a lot of ways to TFP! He's got the same attitude, where he's like, super gruff and fussy to hide how much he cares, because he cares so much. But even while he's caring so much, he is also so done with this bullshit. I don't know how to describe it right, but he's just... fantastic. He's one of my all-time favorite characters. And in the comics at one point, he even got his frame redesigned, and he even looks closer to his TFP look!

Oh! Also! You remember the thing with the synth-en, where Ratchet got all pumped up and went out to beat up Megatron? Well, I saw a post on tumblr suggesting that maybe it wasn't just the synth-en giving him that mood boost. The autobots in TFP are almost always running low on supplies, and they're on short rations. And Ratchet is generally a noncombatant, and also has that whole thing with taking care of people, so it's reasonable to think that he might be keeping himself on even shorter rations than everyone else. So maybe that burst of excitement after he fueled up on synth-en was partly from him not being starving for the first time in months.

Ahhhhhhhh, Soundwave's coolness levels were off the charts!!! Practically every time he was on screen, I was falling deeper in creepy love with him. His fight with Airachnid, that was SO GOOD. When he stepped on her head, it was just... TAKE ME NOW. And his last showdown with her, during the zombie thing, when he showed up in the corridor, space bridged her away, and just calmly walked away, I got so flappy and excited over how fucking cool he is.

Shockwave is one of the most consistent designs across continuities (fake edit: I tell a lie, he looks super different in TFA), but I was thinking about this, and I think this ins the only version I've seen who has so much WEIGHT. That's what really sends me into swoon town. He feels like impact when you see him move or hear him talk. The scene with that interrogation was the thing that finally tipped me into watching the series in the first place, so I'm gad you enjoyed it too :DDDD The one-eyed thing is indeed a trademark of his character, but I don't think it gets much explanation in any continuity until you get to the IDW comics. In there, he gets to be a major player and gets a backstory and story arc all of his very own! But even though the TFP version doesn't get much screen time, he's still my favorite Shockwave for sure. I could watch his scenes all day, he's just got so much OOMPH.

Oh man, Knock Out's design is one of my favorite favorite things! He's so gorgeous! And I have a lot of affection for Breakdown and the way he and Knock Out play off each other too. So good. Even with the way it ended. That was a twist that shocked me with how dark it got, and then they REALLY upped the ante with the zombie business. But virtually any scene with Knock Out is solid gold. My favorite favorite is the subway fight, where I was just laughing my ass off at oh nooooo, my poor, vain baby, your poor everything. I love how much they scraped him up in the animation. I was just wincing and cackling the whole time. And then Megatron was like 'oh, you want to get fixed up, do you? Well take care of Soundwave first, because fuck you.' And his phone call to Megatron, where he was like 'come on, big M, tell me you love me more than Starscream!', that was one of my favorite moments too.s

And! Knock Out was created for TFP, so he didn't have a version of himself established in the comics. But the comics run is currently pulling in LOADS of transformers characters from all kinds of different continuities, and Knock Out and Breakdown made it into the mix! Neither of them has done too much lately, but they're in the mix!

 

Also! Reasons my kintsugijin is crying! Not right at this moment, but the first time I read it, this (nsfw) Soundwave comic made me tear up

 

Oh man, I don't know why, but transformers in lingerie is a thing. It makes me so happy that it exists, even if it makes less than zero sense, and it's so pretty and fun!! I'm DYING to draw some, but robots are hard :CCC It always looks so gorgeous, especially when you get delicate, lacy things all over these giant mechanical aliens, and it's one of my favorite kinds of transformers fanart.

The first movie is a lot of fun, in its own way! I would have liked more giant robots in my giant robot movie, instead of so, so many silly, squishy humans. But like... it's hard NOT to get excited when you're watching those action scenes. Megan Fox was actually probably one of my favorite humans in the movie, but in real life she talked shit about Michael Bay, and she got written out of the universe :P

The character with the robot balls is Devastator. In the original show, a big recurring plot thing was about combiners, or teams of five or six robots that could join together to make a BIGGER robot. The original cartoon is... a strange, strange thing, I can only consume it in small doses, so I'm not sure exactly how they explain it. But in a lot of the other continuities, having a combiner is a BIG advantage in battle. And I want to say that Devastator is the most iconic combiner in the franchise. He's got a really striking look too, all purple and green. Definitely without giant, swinging testicles. Like, when I saw the movie it was a pretty epic scene, but after I got to know the franchise a little better, it got really frustrating how thoroughly Michael Bay missed the mark.



Though one thing I will give Michael Bay a little credit for is his design on Soundwave. I can't tell the decepticons apart when they're in their root modes, but instead of being a cassette player, Soundwave's alt mode is a creepy alien satellite thing, so he's always up there, always listening. I like it a lot



Jazz is the character who got torn in two! At the time, I didn't care at all, though now I've gotten emotionally attached to his character :P He's awfully bland in the movie, and that was a nice one-liner from Megatron, so I was totally fine with it then. In most continuities, though, Jazz has loads of personality. He's a character in TFA, so you'll get to know him soon, hopefully! :D He's a bit different in that version than in the comics or eighties show, but he's still lots of fun. In the main TF thread, applechime dragged a bunch of people down into jazz/soundwave hell with this one amazing fic based on the eighties cartoon (basically, the decepticons won the war and the autobots are their slaves, with lots of emotions and complicated interpersonal dynamics, also the fic where I discovered the joys of wireplay porn), so now I'm REALLY invested in his character. Alex Milne, who's drawn a lot of MTMTE, was commissioned at one point to draw Jazz and Soundwave like they are in that story (Jazz is the one in the blue visor playing robochess). Even though it's just a still image and not getting to see him in action, his personality really shines through. He's also the character who plays accompaniment for a beat poet shark robot in the IDW comics (I love Jazz a lot)

I have a massive weakness for characters who could accomplish great things if they would just stop shooting themselves in the foot for two goddamn seconds. Starscream... yeah. My precious, horrible son. It was really interesting going into the animated transformers series, because I had watched the Nostalgia Chick's video, but since I didn't care about transformers at the time and it was a while ago, I didn't really remember anything that she actually said. And TFP hit me in the face with how much I loved Starscream, so then I went back and rewatched her video, and was like yeah! Starscream! And... completely failed to remember anything about the other animated versions besides TFP. So again, the TFA version of him was a complete surprise to me :P I love her breakdown of the character, though! I wish she'd read the comics, so we could have seen some of her thoughts there too, but. Oh well.

(also, in the comics, you do get to see Starscream actually accomplishing some impressive things, which is just! the best!!!! I love him so much and I want him to grow and succeed ;_; )

Oh, and I don't know if you've seen it before, but her video on the eighties animated movie is a really interesting watch (edit: ninja'd while I was writing the rest of my reply, whoops!). It's really old, so it didn't show up on her official channel the last time I looked, but there are versions of it out there. I'd known that review for years, but then I read all the IDW comics and went back and rewatched it, and oh my GOD, even in a review, it was upsetting seeing so many beloved characters die so unceremoniously! I'd been meaning to put it on as background while I cross-stitched, but I ended up watching the whole thing like 'NO, NOT HIM! Oh god, him too??? Stop killing everyone I love' (ironically, Jazz was one of the very few original autobots to survive that first movie)

Oh man, Airachnid was in such spades with Arcee!! I'm disappointed the show didn't give me any more sexual tension between them, but hey, I will absolutely take what I was given and run with it :DDD The ladies in this franchise tend to be outnumbered so badly that I'm not surprised they played the only two lady robots against each other, but I am very, very pleased that we got such a sexy pitch dynamic for them.

Also, I think the... Japanese dub of the show? Had Airachnid, like REALLY flirting with Jack. She didn't want him just to add to her collection because he was an alien and it would hurt Arcee, she wanted to add him to her collection because he was hot. I don't even know, man.

They did keep his design! And he looks so nice. Breakdown has his original design too, even though he's only shown up in like three panels so far. And they even went on a romantic Cybertronian honeymoon together.

Hhhhhhhholy shit, YES. I never even thought about that angle. Hmmm, I need to think about this :3333333

Eeee, thank you!! I really enjoyed working on that one. I've been thinking about reworking the premise a little to pull it a little farther away from the original, just far enough that it doesn't count as a remix anymore. I could probably draw out the uncomfortableness even more, put the tension on a slower burn. Because man, do I love exploring that dynamic. And oh oh oh, once you get into the comics, so there are ongoing series, and then there are occasional spotlight issues sprinkled about the place. I get the feeling you'll love Spotlight: Megatron. It's all about Megatron and Starscream and its one of the most upsetting things I've read in the whole series and I love it so, so, so much. Not to spoil anything, but you get to see Starscream make this face

THIS. FIC. I'm in the middle of re-reading it right now, and it's so good. So basically, you know how TFA got cancelled before its time? The ending we got was still pretty solid, I thought, but there was also a lot of unused potential in the worldbuilding and setting that the canon never got to actually use. So you get some really excellent fics (like this one) that expand on the most interesting parts of the setting. This one is set right after the end of the series, so after you're done, if you're ever in the mood for something to read, I really recommend it!

YESSSS, EXCELLENT. This is the best possible outcome >:D The first couple episodes have some moments that are a little frustratingly slow with their timing, but I think it really builds momentum fast!

The handwave of choice for this series is 'mass displacement'! That's how Soundwave can transform into a tiny cassette player, or how Megatron can transform into a tiny gun (in some continuities). Or going the other direction, Devastator is larger than just five transformers slapped together. I don't think there's ever any explanation for how people can shove their mass off into a secret pocket dimension, or generate extra mass from nowhere, but that's how it goes! Though ngl, it would be pretty hilarious if Soundwave weighed as much when he's tiny as he does when he's in his root mode.