@Petra Ok so, on the danger of outing my main/not-owlet blog, here goes nothing, have my terrible headcanon: Spoiler So essentially I'm a big fan of the spark model of robot reproduction (mostly because robot pregnancies don't make a lot of sense to me, at least not in the 'literally assembling a small robot inside yourself' version). Anyhow, I was spitballing that maybe carriers are an evolutionary pretty old frametype that their original 'purpose' for lack of a better word is the incubation of weak sparks. They can essentially carry them inside their own frame and supply a sort of live support until the spark is strong enough to support a frame of its own. Now over the course of robot evolution that became a less relevant thing for them and instead they gained deployers/symbionts as A Thing. Now to tie back into the earlier thing, each carrier spark has like a 'optimal number' of other sparks connected to it, read an ideal number of symbionts that feels right to them. If they lose one, they're compelled to try and replace them, either by adopting another mini orrr (and here's more spitballing) if that's not an option for some reason, they may get a spark split and incubate that split into a fully grown spark of its own that then gets implanted into a minibot frame. If a carrier is missing more than one symbiont at once, that split may splice into two again, resulting in what's essentially twin sparks. The more symbionts a carrierspark wants around, the faster such a split could happen. I'd imagine that carrying around extra spark might also come with higher energon needs and/or a higher baseline coretemperature. How we take a nosedive into the terribly sad: under functionalist rule, carriers would have basically been used as spark factories, removing *all* their symbionts and then collecting the resulting splitsparks the moment they were viable, maybe treating them in a special way to ensure they could support a fullsized frame basically until the carrier's spark failed. And for a bit of Soundwave specific pain, because I am the worst: since depending on continuity he's missing several symbionts he would be splitting quite a lot, and in tfp continuity would probably have a manually terminate a splitspark inside himself pretty often since he's in the middle of a war, in a spaceship and there are neither the time nor the resources for him to attempt and get a functional minibot frame and get back to his intended symbiont number. Wow that was more word vomit than intended. ETA: i have very little background knowledge of the many many continuities because I'm still pretty fresh to the fandom but that has never stopped me.
@mizushimo myself to go back and read that bitchn headcanon about carriers when I'm not several flavors of Dead.
Spoiler: Lost Light 4 spoilers I'm even more worried. Someone (I think the soundwav podcast?) pointed out that Cyclonus and Tailgate's current problems could be an allegory for domestic abuse. This seems to fit, Tailgate has been aggressive and dismissive in the comic, and he has repeatedly hurt Cyclonus without meaning to, while Cyclonus keeps silent about this for Tailgate's sake. Noooo, my ship, water you doing Jro?? Please stop tormenting Cyclonus, that guy has been through enough.
Spoiler: LL4 spoilers I don't think it's really a domestic abuse allegory, though. Tailgate has been hurting Cyclonus, yeah, but it's in his recharge. He's been aggressive and dismissive, but that's after all the trauma that went on with Getaway and the fight with the DJD. Mostly I think... Tailgate's been traumatized before, but he tended to seemingly bounce back pretty fast, but given his anxious personality, I don't think he was really bouncing back. I think that shit was stewing. And then the one-two punch of being abandoned AGAIN by someone who was supposed to care for him (even if Getaway had already proven himself a fraud on that count and Tailgate wasn't his target here) and his first real, major participation in a huge battle where the enemy just keeps coming has finally put him at a place where he can't 'bounce back' anymore, and he doesn't HAVE any other coping mechanisms. On the other hand, I think this might be a good thing for him long-term that he can't cover it up anymore, because problems just fester when they're shoved down in the darkness, as we've seen so many times in MTMTE. Tailgate's struggling with things CYCLONUS has struggled with, but Cyclonus is not very great at coping with them either, since his coping mechanism is... literally just ironcast repression. Which brings me around to the fact that both Cyclonus and Tailgate are avoident as hell! Now that things are finally reaching a point that they can't both repress things, something is going to change, and that might be good or bad.
Spoiler: LL4 Definitely seconding that I don't think it's meant to be an abuse allegory! Tailgate has no clue that he's hurt Cyclonus at all, and I'm pretty sure that the reason Cyclonus is keeping it from him is because he knows how distraught Tailgate would be if he realized. I agree with what Petra is saying about Tailgate not actually bouncing back, but also I think a lot of his issues have tied back to being inexperienced/weak/clueless, not keeping up, not knowing the things everyone knows (and embarrassing himself because of it), feeling left out or left behind, feeling inadequate, feeling like he's not good enough. A lot of it goes back to fairly little things that the story didn't linger over, like the lies about his past, and the 'I wanna be a decepticon!' humiliation. But then with the Getaway thing, like... Tailgate realizes that Getaway chose him because he was a sucker. He's gullible and clueless and easy to lie to, he's easy to exploit, and if Cyclonus hadn't come to save him, he probably would have died, because he's weak. But even more than that, he didn't get himself killed. When he had his spark spasm, he thought he'd gotten Cyclonus killed, he's so weak and useless and stupid that the person he loved got killed trying to save him from his own stupidity (and shortly afterwards, the thing the guilt ray hit him with was Cyclonus in pain, screaming). Which isn't a fair representation of that situation, and probably isn't the way most people are seeing it. But Tailgate's self-loathing has been a part of his character since his first scene in the comic. I do wish we'd gotten to see a little more of how he was doing on the Lost Light, because underneath the good ol' layer of avoidance, I... don't think he was doing well at all. When he wakes up after his spark spasm, when Sunder is doing his thing, he has that one confrontation with Getaway. Honestly... I'm glad Getaway was restrained so well and in that prison. Because Tailgate is way overpowered, doesn't have a good grasp of how to cope with strength period, and he's so furious, and so hurt. He punches the wall and takes out a bunch of glass and doesn't even notice. If Getaway had been within reach, I really don't know if he would have survived that conversation, I don't think Tailgate would have been very sorry about that, and I think it would have been such an awful thing for him to have experienced in the long run. There's also some cool (sad) thematic stuff going on in the dying of the light, where a bunch of the least violent mechs in the whole comic are shoved into this situation where they have to personally kill a whole lot of people, fast. Tailgate, Nautica, and Ten (Velocity too, though she stayed out of the fighting) didn't experience the war everyone else has been through. Ten had done violence as a Legislator, but since his brain had gotten reprogrammed, he hadn't. Nautica fought the ammonites, but killing aliens, still isn't quite the same as killing your own kind. Tailgate's only real experiences with fighting were trying to defuse a bomb, at the risk of his own life, and trying to stop Tyrest, where he outright told Rodimus to not worry about protecting him, he was dying anyways. And Brainstorm is mister super weapons engineer, but there was the time travel arc where he was going to kill Hitler Megatron as a baby, he had the gun, he had the shot... and he just couldn't do it, he'd never killed someone with his own hands, and he wasn't able to force himself to do it even for those stakes. And all of those characters, we see some really D: moments of violence. We see Nautica wielding a giant gun, Brainstorm fighting hand to hand, Ten gets out there and oh right, his mouth is one giant-ass gun, and we see Tailgate taking a guy's head off, complete with snappy one-liner. Like, it's good that they're surviving, it's good they're not just getting killed. But the last time they were on Necroworld, Censere said 'all of you are killers' and that's varying levels of true for Brainstorm (yes, only untrue by strict literalism), Nautica (yes, but just aliens), and Ten (yes, but before he was an autonomous person). But it wasn't true of Tailgate. And now it's unambiguously true for all of them. They didn't have many options, and I'm glad they made the choices they did, but that's pretty sad, from a character standpoint. And after it's over, Nautica is doing... not great. Brainstorm is maybe okay, maybe avoidant, maybe just chemically suppressing the heck out of his emotions. Ten is ????? (I badly want to know what's going to happen with him and Swerve), but I doubt he's doing well. And Tailgate is doing... disconcertingly well. He's joking around with Roller about how he killed these guys and it was totally awesome, he's showing off, he's getting all up in arms and protective of Cyclonus. It wasn't all that long ago when he was flipping out because Ultra Magnus was dying and nobody is upset? Is this a war thing? Don't you do upset anymore?? But now Skids is dead, and there's more tonal dissonance between his actions and that fact than there is for anyone else. It's such a jarring mismatch that I'm pretty sure it's 1) intentional, and 2) a stage for future development. Plus when I look at this as... hm. Words. Given the violent, unstable setting this story universe is, what Tailgate is going through feels like a tragic, but necessary part of growing up. Necessary isn't really the right word. But he's more sheltered than just about anyone else, and I get the feeling that Cyclonus for sure really values that Tailgate hasn't known the same war, violence, etc. as everyone else. When Cyclonus says the thing about Tailgate being kind and thinking well of others and the way Tailgate towers over him, and that he's going to protect him no matter what, I don't think he means in a physical sense. Well, given his conversation with Whirl, he definitely doesn't mean it in a purely physical sense. He's so closed off and restrained, even at his most open, but I think that he does want to preserve that innocence on Tailgate's part, and keep him from the things that will hurt and harden him the way most everyone else on the ship has experienced. And especially given what went down with Getaway, I think Cyclonus really, really wants to put a shield up around Tailgate's emotions and protect him from being hurt in a similar way again, the same way he's been protecting him physically. Which is kind of understandable, kind of smothering, and kind of unfeasible. Sheltered is a word that has a lot of innocence in it. But it's also got plenty of negative connotations. It suggests a lack of realism and experience, a lack of knowledge, it has the feeling of someone who's been too protected, someone who doesn't have the range of life experience you'd usually expect from them, that they don't know things they ought to know. I don't think Tailgate staying sheltered is a good thing. I think losing innocence is also pretty sad, and that this was really not the best way for it to happen. But Cyclonus's reaction of doubling down and protecting him from knowing painful things is not the best. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, this is a really interesting contrast to what Cyclonus said before about 'Getaway tells him what he wants to hear, I tell him what he needs to hear'. This doesn't contradict that, but it shows the negative side of that 'needs to hear' business. Because does Tailgate need to know that he's half-killing Cyclonus in his sleep? NOPE, he doesn't need to know that, and don't you dare tell him. Does he need to know what the repercussions are with this new strength and how it should affect the way he deals with others? Yes, he does need to know that, buuuuut also I don't want to upset him, so I'm going to take this very slow and gentle, and so what if he's ripping me half to pieces in his sleep, shut up, I'm telling him the parts he needs to know. Gradually. Like, contrary to this being a domestic abuse allegory, I feel like it's the flip side. They both care passionately about each other, they both badly want to project each other, they're both coming from a place of the best possible intentions and would be horrified to know that something they did is hurting the other one. But their personal failure modes are lining up in the worst ways, and its very romantic tension!!!, but also it's for very high, potentially tragic stakes. They're both avoidant, but then Cyclonus is emotionally repressed to hell and back and getting him to express his feelings is like pulling teeth, and his personal issues have him deciding that he's not good enough for Tailgate, so ain't nobody marrying nobody, it's better not to express these emotions, since he can't ever act on them, and everything is totally fine, he'll just keep protecting Tailgate this way and this is definitely a sustainable situation. Not to mention that he knows the weight of all the history of violence he's carrying, he's aware that it isn't something glamorous that people should aspire to. On the other hand, Tailgate's self-loathing issues have been stewing, and he's found a place where he badly, badly wants to belong and fit in and be cared about, but there are these regular little needling reminders that he isn't good enough, and he's not going to ask about those or get someone to reassure him that he's fine and his brain is lying to him, because umm, why would he want to get someone to confirm that yes, he's been right the whole time and he really is this worthless? And he might not be doing as well as he could, but he's getting by, he's happy. And then... Getaway. Hitting him right in all those weak spots that Tailgate hates about himself so much, and because Tailgate wasn't good enough, it almost got the person he loves killed. So now that he is strong? Never happening again! Tailgate is officially strong enough, thank you very much, he doesn't need to be protected, he's the one who's going to do the protecting. And stop telling him to reel it in, aren't you happy for him? Can't you be happy that he has something to fix What's Wrong With Him? He isn't weak anymore, he can take care of himself, he can take care of the people he cares about, he finally has something he can be proud of, and stop talking down to him! Oh dear, so many words :V Basically, I think they're both trying their very hardest to do right by each other, and they're both screwing up, but in non-malicious ways. Kind of like... their histories and mental health issues blind them to the issues with their own behavior. But also make it hard to recognize and discuss the issues with the other person's behavior. Cyclonus can recognize the weight that comes with strength and the power to end lives, but he thinks so well of Tailgate, and he doesn't have the background to really get why Tailgate would be so unhappy with the person he is. And Tailgate's been admiring and looking up to Cyclonus for so long, and comparing himself to people and coming up short, and also everybody knows the details of his latest humiliation with Getaway, why can't Cyclonus act just a little happy for him? My goodness, I'm working myself up into so many ship emotions. I'm pretty sure I'm missing some ground I wanted to cover wrt the nighttime violence and the ways they each have blind spots that make it so hard to recognize each other's failure modes. But I think the biggest source of trouble between them right now is how very determined they are to protect each other, and how badly they don't want to hurt each other. And those emotions will make it even harder for them to admit that they might be doing something harmful in the first place. Just... so many ship feelings, ask me if I'm not being clear about something, because I could talk about this stuff all day.
Basically All this stuff has been building for literal out-of-comic years and in-comic years, and I am excited to see where things go from here, even though someone is going to have to rip the bandage off of 'I can't tell them this bc it'd hurt them' and that's going to SUCK. I am pretty sure the bandage-ripper will be Whirl.
Everyone, please join me in contemplating Cyclonus the bodyguard...with built in airbags for collisions. Any time Galvatron needs guarding, Cyclonus is there. When he steps in front of Rewind and protects Tailgate, his airbags all emerge at once and he turns into the robot from Big Hero 6. In times of extreme danger, he becomes the Cybertronian equivalent of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man He's just there. Poofy. Standing guard and staring out the window at space all night long. He has horns on his head because he's overcompensating Thank you 4 your time
Would anyone object to me plugging my angsty and/or fluffy TFP Knock Out/Breakdown fics? (Apparently that's all I know how to write these days.)
Alright you asked for it: Fluffy fluffy fluff feat. humans Angsty angst Slightly less angsty sequel to ^ Shippy backstory garbage
Important Forged To Fight upd8: Prowl remains a Problematic Asshat Spoiler: eighth story mission, the game's like two weeks old but does anyone here even care about spoilers? "literal mind control and torture is no excuse for aiding the enemy" apparently Apparently the premise of the game (so far) is a return of the Quintessons, who are feeding dark energon into every Cybertronian who crashes on this godforsaken rock and directly controlling various characters C2m2 features Mirage as a boss; he's been captured, directly brainfucked in a way confirmed in an earlier mission to cause excruciating pain, and had his (outlier? I forget exactly how he gets his fancy shit) invisibility and stealth powers reverse-engineered for use by more willing subjects. And Prowl is trying to paint Mirage as a willing accomplice to the Quintessons who tortured him. When he had no problem accepting Arcee back into the fold when she was mind-controlled. I. Stay classy, you absolute motherfucker. ETA: now that I think about it, this seems even more in poor taste given... everything that happened with Prowl in the comics. Game!Prowl is g1!Prowl, but... Windblade is here, I'm pretty sure the creators are aware of comic arcs. Edit the second: I shit you not the game ships Windblade and Sideswipe. Bots have various passive abilities to boost their teammates; one of Sides' is literally called "Romance," and gives Windblade an attack bonus if they're in the same adventuring party. Is this comics-supported or???
That "Romance" thing may actually be a reference to RID 2015, where Sideswipe and Windblade flirted back and forth for a season. It never went anywhere, but it was pretty cute. I need to play this game, does anyone know if Thundercracker makes an appearance?
I'm only a little ways in, but if he does it's probably g1 tc to go with the g1 screamer who is a recurring antagonist. Haven't seen one yet, though, even from higher-levelled players. ...To be fair, I have no idea what g1 TC looks like, and I still regularly mistake g1 Screamer's headshot for some disjointed permutation of Megatron, so. Maybe TC is out there somewhere and I'm just robot faceblind :P
Well yes :P but they are recolors and the headshot sprites are too smol for much color detail to distinguish them
I like to rewatch G1 sometimes and watch the animators forget which seeker is which multiple times per episode. Sometimes the animators just stop caring and the seekers change paintjobs mid scene!
we are going to start the Stream of Transformers: Dark of the Moon soon if anyone would like to watch that trainwreck. No need to have seen the other two movies, they speak for themselves. I encourage everyone to bring a beverage of your choice, we will be playing a drinking game to dull the pain (soda or whateves is fine) PLOT SO FAR: Autobots: Good Decepticons: Bad Humans: Goddawful Witwicky: Kill him with fire http://lets.rabb.it/886j/45UBy7kOyC
It's the bae Spoiler: large There's a windblade too. I wasn't going to do it, but.... I might have to do it (this is from the robots in diguise toy line. I already have the grimlock and really like the quality. I think this one is fairly new, but it was sold out on toys r us and I got too lazy to comb the rest of the net, so I bought it on ebay)
