aghhh i just pinned down why the bayverse designs bother me so much: they emphasize the alt mode over the root mode. the car is more important than the robot. the only exceptions are OP and megatron since they're the faces of the franchise, so they have to be somewhat recognizable in their root modes. for everyone else it's like they just picked a car and said fuck it, that's what this robot looks like now >:T
The entire cybercrosis plot line becomes a huge misunderstanding. Tailgate has the horrorterror equivalent of a molt and 'dies,' while Cyclonus is over here in a corner having an existential crisis ...He'd probably think Starscream was the most sensible mech alive because he changes his frame so often to achieve peak aesthetic. Finally, someone around here who molts often enough for good hygiene and a healthy interdimensional physique! Cyclonus not wanting to replace extraneous body parts is blasphemy >:O Spoiler: Casual 55 spoilers Tailgate: /points at Rodimus/ Hot Rod! /points at Ultra Magnus/ Minimus! /points at the Pet/ Dominus! /points at Tarn/ Damus! /points at Getaway/ ...Jerk B[
You´re right, they do. What bothers me is how BUSY they are, and how they´re all mostly the same metallic grey colour. They look more like a guy in a magnetic suit walked through a scrapyard.
I saw some fan specultion that the Bayverse robots were what normal transformers look like without most of their outer plating/armor - grey with lots of exposed wires.
oh yeah that's sort of what i meant!! like how the individual designs are all basically the same because the design standard is 'pick a car, stick external car bits to robot skeleton, okay you're done that's fine' SO EVERYBODY'S JUST. A WALKING ROBOSKELETON because. hmm i'm having trouble articulating this!! because they refuse to tweak the root mode design in any way that would suggest any components that you would not find inside AN AVERAGE EARTH CAR!! for?? realism i guess?? except they are not average earth cars they are fucking alien robots and the devotion to """realism""" means that we have walking scrapheaps that look nothing like our beloved robutts. because the car is more important than the robot. sorry i am brainfogging!! I Am Frustration
...so like. One of these? Spoiler: kinda gross idk? except robots? ...wait wouldn't that just be a RoboTitan?
Okay okay okay but just imagine Tailgate being the one talking to Ultra Magnus on Hedonia, and innocently being like 'Minimus!' and accidentally sending Ultra Magnus careening further down the path to his existential crisis. Because wow, on top of his existing anxiety and other issues, he's sure failed extra as the duly appointed enforcer of the tyrest accord. Imagine Tailgate fretting over Cyclonus, because he has to molt eventually, it's basic hygiene, cyclonus, you're going to make yourself sick if you keep being a baby about this! And ahhhhhh, that's why he made the horn for him! Or or or, imagine Tailgate and Starscream totally bonding over #aesthetic together, because nobody else GETS it like they do. Also because Tailgate has none of the Starscream baggage related to the war that pretty much everyone else has and he initially latched onto the decepticon ideals, the way Starscream must have done when he was a wee little Starscream. And Tailgate is always willing to admire Starscream's new upgrades and talk about the benefits of this or that tweak to his frame, and debate the merits of different color schemes. Also Tailgate is inclined to be sweet and take people at face value, and even if Starscream is naturally slimy, he's trying so hard. And Starscream needs a friend already, gotdamn. And you can't find a friend who is more pure, more too good for this sinful world. (I think I'm going to have to add that rarepair into the list of things I am absolutely positively going to write. If I could make Tailgate/Megatron work, I can make Tailgate/Starscream work. I'm gonna do it) Bonus: Tailgate doesn't out any of these other key spoiler identities, because? He doesn't get it? Isn't it obvious, just looking at them? Did... did everyone else miss that? Double bonus: He finally gets over his naming-related struggles just so he can reclassify Getaway as [long string of curse words] in his head
I think the biggest issue I personally have with the Bayverse designs is that they locked themselves down too hard by limiting themselves to having every part transform perfectly between models. And there's just not enough plating on the cars to bring the robots around to designs that look like they do in cartoons or comics. Like, if you compacted a skinless human down into a sphere, covered that sphere with skin, then expanded back into a human -- but with only as much skin as you needed for the sphere -- well. It wouldn't look very pretty is what. I think Ravage looks relatively pretty in Bayverse because this isn't as much of an issue for him, it's an issue for the transformers with the fancy vehicle sponsorships constraining their designs.
But! Starscream and Tailgate hanging out and chatting about combiners, and Tailgate's like "combining is just a cheap tactic to make singular beings stronger ohhh, your species's first attempts at achieving a hivemind! You should meet my great-aunt Nrub'yiglith - now that's a hivemind!" And Starscream's like "!!! Do go on...*wink wonk*" But by the end of Tailgate's description he's got a full-body migraine and desperately wants to never contemplate the horrors of combination ever, ever again Edit Cyclonus: Tailgate...what is this replacement horn made of? Tailgate: ;3c
On second thought, if Arcee took the role of Asuka all the Angels would be dead, along with all of Tokyo. She's the hardest motherfucker there is in the IDW comics. 'Arcee, my god, you've destroyed Japan!' 'Okay but... I saved the Earth. Do I get a raise?'
Oh god, now I'm working on valves. I'm modeling how reliable these valves are. So many valves. so many sizes of valve. So many nodes to attach these valves to. How often do these valves fail? ;) How long does it take to repair them? How many valves can fail before everything goes pear-shaped? Is your valve a single point of failure? I'm sorry, I am loopy and naturally immature besides. But if any spikes show up before the night as over, I may die of laughter Edit: no spikes, but we sure do have coolant hoses
OH BUT The replacement horn would totally be made of... Tailgate. It's just the kind of thing that someone without any conception of body horror would think was cute and sweet, and where Cyclonus would be like '....... that's pretty fucking weird, bro. but I'm. honored.' Slash Tailgate thinks it's a courting gift on a level that Cyclonus isn't aware of (I gave you part of my body to graft onto yours! It's so romantic!), and Cyclonus thinks it's a courting gift on a level Tailgate isn't aware of. And Whirl would be all jealous 'hey Tailgate my whole arm totally just disappeared the other day funny how that happens gosh I sure hope someone is able to replace it soon wink wink WINK WIIIIINK
Yeeah, kinda! The form underneath is called a protoform in transformers-speak. It's a very foggy area in canon. Either their outer plating is more like armor, or it's like skin, or there's no human equivilent depending on what fanfic you are reading. Exactly, I think when the first movie came out, they needed that level of 'realism' in order to sell the concept (kind of like how the xmen were stuck with matching black jumpsuits in the first couple of movies). They can't really change the aesthetic now unless they completely reboot the franchise. I hope we get a really cool movie with familiar designs someday. I can't believe the Evas got even bigger somehow. Pfft.
Oh GODDD, that combiner web series started a few days ago.. https://www.go90.com/profiles/va_0a41e9fb10434ab4a483fc2c60e07885 All I can say is that Windblade's voice actress is on point.
I just realized something. Spoiler: Functionalist Timeline MTMTE Quark survives to the present day in the Functionalist Timeline, and he seems to be in a relatively high social position if the fact that he's granted access to a member of the Council is any indication. Is he happy? No way to tell, he shows up for like two panels, but he's willing to give up a reward so that it goes to the person who actually solved the problem of Rung's alt-mode, which indicates he's either not-desperate or unusually honest. So the irony is, Brainstorm could have saved Quark - by sacrificing everything else. Rewind, Rung, Nautica and Velocity because Caminus would still be in an energon crisis, everyone else who would have gotten mass recalled, everyone who would have been disappeared, everyone who would have been tortured and murdered and stepped on. And Brainstorm isn't willing to do that.
Spoiler: Then again Since the time machine created split-off timelines, I guess he sort of saved Quark... in a weird way? Petition for Quark to fall through a dimensional hole and join the Lost Light.
Spoiler Rewind set the first precedent. Roller et al have established the pattern as a Thing That Continues To Happen ...Well shit.
