Spoiler: TGWP Also note how horribly abusive Megatron is to everyone in this fic. He's hyperfocused on Starscream, yes, but between Soundwave's unquestioning compliance, his extremely off understanding of social relationships, and the fact that you need to read between the lines to pick up a lot of his emotions in this fic and his interactions with Megatron are weird, it... paints a bad picture. Everyone talks about how Soundwave is Megatron's favorite, but that's just because Soundwave never fights back. Megatron doesn't even see him as a person anymore, he'll tentatively stick out some mollifying stuff because he sees everything as a power struggle, but Soundwave always turns it down and then Megatron goes right back to talking over Soundwave and demanding Soundwave produce results of a quality which causes literal pain to Soundwave to produce. Like, it's blatantly clear to me that Soundwave is the victim of long-term abuse-of-boundaries-and-identity by Megatron with sporadic physical abuse whenever Soundwave stops being 'perfect' enough, but Soundwave can't think of it in those terms. And he justifies this with 'well carrier protocols say loyalty is absolute once given', but he also says carrier protocols explain the fact that he kept Ravage locked up for centuries before Ravage consented to a bond, and surprise! Blaster wasn't like that! Basically, uh. Who hurt you, Soundwave. Who hurt you when you were young and taught you this model of relationships that Megatron took advantage of to re-victimize you.
I think I will hold off on gushing about this fic for a little longer! There are some REALLY great plot points ahead for you to hit, and it would be a shame to leave them out right now. But! It's definitely going to happen >:D
@Petra I think its g1 tv series origins really shine through. None of the decepticons seemed nuanced. Megs and starscream fight like children. The major players are all uniformly horrible. This is not based in anything with shades of grey, at least for megs and starscream (i was dead wrong about soundwave so this idea could get debunked later).
vehicle theft? he's a plane by himself, what does he honestly need to steal? did he kidnap someone in their alt mode? (unless it's like. a spaceship? but that's less funny)
I was actually wondering about that...and kidnapping is on that list of Crimes, so. Starscream hijacking/literally kidnapping a Senate transport ship(former), spraypainting the poor guy his colors, and then careening through the city at top speed robbing people while claiming to be a state official before crashing it spectacularly into the side of a government building would be absolutely hilarious Also, I tried those cute grab bags again at Target, and got a new Wheeljack for a full Wheeljack Wheeljack Wheeljack complement, another Shockwave from Prime, and a brand new slightly darker purple Shockwave to be the centerpiece Edit for name fail
I finally got that far in RiD and I'm so proud of myself. DONT TELL ME WHO THUNDERCRACKER HAS YET. I love that feeling of horror every time one is introed. The author almost never reveals their name right away, so I get a little moment of 'oh god oh god who is it THIS time' whenever a new slave shows up. ...ooooooh I hope it's someone else I know from mtmte. Wait, isn't Shockwave the guy with one eye? Just making sure, because sometimes I get them badly mixed up.
So this panel happened in RiD The blue square text is actually Prowl, but it's run over Jazz and Soundwave having a showdown. What do you think, coincidence or very subtle TGWP sendup? It would be great if it was a reference, imagine all the other really obscure fanfiction references buried in the recent idw comics.
Maybe! Also Jazz makes me laugh because wow is he not as lithe as TGWP had me picturing him. I was picturing him as, hmmm... more like Rodimus in general build?
yeah wheeljack is....distressingly common. @meowtini on the rocks makes noses of despair and rage every time we get another.
Yeah, he's really barrel chested most of the time? But he was lithe and moe in all the shipping fanart I could find of him and Soundwave (there wasn't much and I was disappointed). I imagined that his build was one of the reason Soundwave was so surprised by his stealthiness, he does not look the part. I think he was shorter in the cartoon, because in RiD, he's not much smaller than soundwave. Spoiler: tgwp AGUH early mtmte NO WHY IS REWIND DEAD A-FUCKING-GAIN?? I forgot he must have been one of Blaster's cassettes in gen 1. Two sentences after I stopped reading earlier and another one retroactively dies >>;;;;;;. Ironically, this was written before Rewind was had been a canon slave in MTMTE *just rip my heart and stomp on it, why don'tcha Jazz?
Spoiler: TGWP 20-onwards *organizes every song that jazz plays in his head over memories of soundwave into a playlist* *listens to the playlist* o-oh....... jazz....... oh dear...... (no but for real it's so fucking sad/funny that soundwave is all 'ah my training is working, i had every confidence that it would pay off' when in reality jazz has been observing the fact that soundwave is Not A Monster and he Loves His Family So Much and that plus his isolation and exhaustion and a billion other things are what have been tipping him into 'oh god i am developing Feelings aBORT ABORT ABORT', not fucking. handfeeding and bath time soundwave you idiot) (the ten minute long prog rock song was particularly telling) (but holy shit y'all should listen to the song he plays in the club scene if you have not done so. jazz is not nearly as chill as we sometimes give him credit for) anyway
Isn't that series of Starscream panels from when he like... purposefully got arrested so that Megs could make a huge entrance and take over Kaon as the first of the Five Cities? And I feel like they bombed the Senate there too. There was a lot going on. (Love that horrible jet boy. Love him.)
Starscream, flying a hundred miles an hour over the air speed limit, at least 89% drunk, possibly using a weapon to graffiti the Decepticon symbol onto the wall of every building he goes by, launching propaganda brochures at anyone who gets in his way, using his feet to turn the steering wheel while the transport shipformer begs for the sweet release of death: All according to keikaku* *keikaku means plan
Though now I've made myself sad because imagine that poor shipformer's life working under the Functionist leaning Senate. It makes me think TGWP!Skyfire thoughts, of being locked in his alt mode permanently because that's his function, why would he want to do anything else with his life? :^) I changed my mind, the shipformer is now an accomplice. His slave name Senate designation is Commute, now he goes by Wildride and he's living life on the edge
@mizushimo Have some TGWP art commissioned from Alex Milne, the MTMTE artist. Spoiler: Large image Source
@Petra thats definitely one of the things that got me to read tgwp in the first place. I love that pic. Does anyone know if there are good fics inspired by tgwp? I poked around ao3 but couldnt find any. Y'see, TGWP is rated teen, so theres going to be, er, *coughcoughsmutcough* things that will be...mentioned but never described, particularly with bluestreak/perceptor/first aid and there masters. I wish the fic had been moved to ao3, it would be so much easier to find 'inspired by' fics that way Aside from that, i'd love some to see anything from a different pov (i hope we get a few sections from Jazz's pov at least).
Sadly I don't. I'd like to see some stuff from different POVs and relationships too, even though stuff from Jazz's POV would break the whole 'Soundwave has no fucking idea what Jazz is up to and the audience has a better idea but not a complete one' thing.
I don't know if there's anything inspired by it in particular, though the LJ comments would probably be a better place to hunt for links to that. Slavecoding is a whole Thing in the TF community though, so if you're interested in other types of slave-y type fics, there's bound to be at least a few good ones.
