Like, from what the wiki says, SG Sari isn't actually really malicious, but she was found by someone cruel and greedy who viewed her only as a tool and interesting test subject, and her personality got shaped differently from there? Which would be a fun thing to play with in a serious au.
SAME! I didn't even know how much I need this ;-; And robot uncles, too. Also, imagine Miko making music with Soundwave! Oh man, no one in the crew better have a Froidian slip or accidentally say anything that sounds silly or suggestive ever, because Miko will get Soundwave to make a remix of it, and it will forever live on in infamy. The only outward reaction Soundwave has to anyone trying to get him to delete one of those is a single emoji popping up on his face screen thingie: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (Well, :^) would also be hilarious but for me it's still too tainted by Ray's obnoxious overuse) OH MAN, I have been looking for that thing forever! Thank you so much for sharing your pirate booty with us ;u; Spoiler: Spotlight: Megatron spoilers just in case? Holy shit though, seeing Starscream straight up suicidal like that was pretty heartbreaking. No wonder he clings so much to the position he has now and freaked the fuck out when Megatron came back, and why he wanted him executed as soon as possible. Makes the whole ghost!Bumblebee thing sort of sad in hindsight too, since most of the time he seems to needle Starscream about his fuck ups. Even his imaginary friends talk shit to him, jeez. He's not even completely terrible as a leader, but he's sabotaging himself so much and just god damn, get your shit together, Starscream. You know, I think now I can soooorta see where the woobie!Scream thing is coming from. And woah, there's such a vast difference between the Megatron from back then and the charmingly grumpy grandpa who gives history lessons to rowdy nerd bots and seems to genuinely try to be better that we have now. Woohoo, character development! But yeah, it was pretty interesting/terrifying to see him basically use his eloquence/rhetoric skills as a weapon like that. Shit was br00tal. Also, I can't believe Big Meg talked negatively about Soundwave, or at least suspected him of just wanting to be perceived as helpful, even though he's so genuinely loyal and dedicated. Don't be rude to the ghettoblaster son, man, he's trying his best >:C In conclusion: I really want a physical copy of this. I mean, I love Starscream, but I also love seeing Starscream get the absolute shit beaten out of him, you feel? It's like on one side you're all D'8 but on the other side you have a boner. Okay, generally the boner and the face tend to be on the same side, but you know what I mean. I'm still kinkshaming Skywarp though. Also, I wanna read a few more of Spock's one-shots, so there will be proper replies/comments later! Gotta make use of the fic reading mojo as long as it's there!
@WinkWonk, one other story I have that seems like you might particularly enjoy is this one (it's a 7k standalone, so don't sweat it if the bite sized stories are what you're after right now). With accompanying art! I don't know if you read the prose accompaniments for Last Stand of the Wreckers, but I leveraged off a few throwaway comments about Rotorstorm (the obnoxious little twit who made a bad joke to Overlord and got his fool head blown off) (I love him) and the way he's got some major abuse in his past, and another character who turned out to be Whirl, and there were such lovely ugly hints about what went down, and I wanted to see if I could connect the dots and reconcile the Whirl we know with the Whirl that Rotorstorm knew in a satisfying way.
-flails in a ball of squee over spotlight: megatron- aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa it's canon whump i love it omggg poor starscream <3
Spoiler: ExRiD 56 I actually feel pretty bad for Blackrock/Sovereign and am interested in seeing how this plays out. It strikes me as weird people are talking about how persuasive Sentinal is when he's talking about how, like, 95% of the cybertronian species is trash that should be eliminated. Surely that would only be persuasive to less than 5% of people...?
Of all the spotlight issues, I think Megatron's is definitely my favorite! It's so brutal! Spoiler: spotlight: megatron And oh my god, suicidal Starscream. That's when my heart just fucking broke. I made it through mtmte, all of phase one, and the non-spotlight issues of exrid/etc before I got my hands on this spotlight, and it threw everything else I'd read into just the saddest context. And add to the emotional mess that Cybertronians have a really, really hard time killing themselves. They're just too durable. That's why Chromedome tried to go to the relinquishment clinic, and why Red Alert and Sunstreaker made it out of their respective messes alive. And you've got Starscream here, flat-out asking Megatron to kill him, probably without any way at hand to do it for himself, and Megatron is basically like 'no, it's crueler to keep you alive' Plus, the context for this spotlight issue from phase one is that the Decepticons were farting around New York City for months, doing nothing in particular, and Starscream finally got pissed that they were wasting their time on a worthless nothing world like this, and decided to stage a coup. That did not go so well. Someone ratted him out to Megatron immediately, and Megatron humiliated him and slapped him down, first. But then he was like 'someday, I will fall, and your time will come to lead the Decepticons. Just wait for that day.' And then! Megatron (apparently) dies! And Starscream steps up and takes charge! This is exactly the thing Megatron told him to do, and there was nothing underhanded or dishonest about it. But then nobody, nobody respects his authority, he's unable to magically transform 'stranded on a barren asteroid' into 'galaxy-conquering success.' And Megatron is brought back to life behind his back, and immediately starts beating his face for fun, and shaming him for taking charge of the Decepticons. Even though Megatron told him to do it. Just breaks my heart, man. Someone commented yesterday on my ao3 kink bingo file asking if I'd write any megastar. I... do ship it, but I'd feel real guilty about writing it happy and healthy for the IDW universe, and somehow I doubt they were hoping I'd go write melancholy abuse porn :P That being said, I do have some nice ideas about either Megatron playing outwardly nice with Starscream right after the spotlight issue (maybe even in a topping from the bottom context? bondage? hmm, gotta think about that) or MTMTE-era dorky dad Megatron ending up back in a room with Starscream, and both of them slipping back into the old toxic patterns they've been trying to escape. Spoiler: taao 3 And also, TAAO #3. I... am still not over ghost Bumblebee saying that shit about 'hurr hurr maybe the titan's blessing is gone because you didn't BELIEVE in yourself.' Like, FUCK YOU, BEE. As much of a douchenozzle as Starscream is being, he's being a douchenozzle acting for the theoretical betterment of Cybertron, and he's come off this nasty history with Megatron, that easily would have lasted for millennia. In the spotlight, Megatron talks about Starscream's self-hatred, and all his raw, bloody emotional wounds. He's spent a hideous number of years being beat up emotionally and physically, and he's still somehow come out of this with the willpower to keep struggling upward. And he's done so well. If he doesn't have any real confidence in himself at this point, then gosh!! I wonder whose fault that is! And also kudos to Starscream for faking confidence so well, good for you, baby, you are an excellent actor and deserve a nice moirail to pap your face. That whole everything about 'I guess the titan ditched you for Optimus because he believes in himself more than you do' leaves the worst taste in my mouth. I really hope Sentinel keep spouting toxic theocratic colonial bullshit and approving of things Optimus does, because I want Optimus to take a legitimate humbling fall, for fuck's sake, and maybe move your giant ass out of the way a little so maybe Rodimus and Starscream can have some sunlight to grow.
Spoiler: exrid 56 Okay, still not a Ramondelli fan, but I like his underwater coloring effects a lot Also, Tracks and Needlenose working together oh man come on gimme a brotherly embrace right this moment guys it is very important But no, Ramondelli's art has gotten a lot better since he started. Good for him. Sentinel is so tiny! I love it! Talking shit about Alpha Trion! I love it even more!!!! Operation: Incineration If Soundwave stops being a main character, I will pitch a hissy fit !!!! Soundwave/Optimus team-up! Again! In the heat of battle you should probably share a passionate pitch embrace! .........okay not a fan of how Ramondelli draws human ladies. It's not as bad as Verity tended to be in LSOTW, but I am not a fan of director faireborn getting these blowjob lips and Generic Seductive Expression slapped on her Spike, stop being pissed that people don't want to give you positions of power. You should know why nobody wants to give you positions of power I guess faireborn looks better in person, but. still not a fan. Oh my god somebody help Skywarp before he dies already .......G.I. Joe. FUCK. Uhghhhhghghghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. But you know what, I will accept this with something approaching grace if it means that Spike gets cockblocked in his attempts to grab power. Ohhhhhhh, Blackrock is Sovereign? That would have been useful information to know before the latest mtmte came out. Or maybe it was in that stupid booklet they gave away at sdcc where they apparently hid actual important comic book information. Also the way they present this makes me think that Roadblock and Scarlet(t?) are supposed to be legacy GI Joe characters. I refuse on principle to look anything about them up. And the story has done nothing to make me care for them. Actually, Roadblock's name makes me kind of hate both of them. NOT A FAN. On the upside, I like this Blackrock much more than the original version who was Generic Friendly Businessman who owns all the types of business and is super special awesome best friends with the autobots. This is compelling. And I haven't forgotten the pre-robot-reveal stuff where he was lonely and dorky. I like him and I don't want him embeded involuntarily in a titan's brain, pls Is Alpha Trion dead???? OH MAN, this issue just got a lot better :D Snrrk, Blackrock saying he doesn't care about complicated backstories. Same, tbh, at least in this ongoing series Oh my god, are Sentinel and Sovereign teeny tiny human-sized cybertronian best buddies? They're so small!! SO ADORABLE!!! Arcee don't call Prowl. Prowl needs a vacation. Prowl just got done being a deceptive, amoral asshat in sins of the wreckers. Though I guess this is what sends him off to go harass Fort Max in mtmte? God, I wouldn't have minded a month's delay in mtmte publications if they could just get their fucking timelines sorted out. I don't think this storyline is especially gripping at face value, they aren't framing it in any compelling way, the pacing and writing are kinda sloppy, and the art is... not helping. And then they're publishing their stupid convoluted, over-complicated, under-explained thing in motherfucking backwards order. I'd... like to care. I enjoy caring about transformers. But they really aren't making it easy.
Anyone here watched "Rescue Bots"? It's apparently in the same continuity as TFP and airs at a time I usually have free, so if it's worth watching...
all I know about it is it has a hot older science lady who spent 30 years living on the bottom of the ocean and also a baby that is a prodigy with machines. It sounds amazingly wacky.
Rescue Bots is in continuity with tfp? I know Robots In Disguise is, but I'm not sure about Rescue Bots. The show is good in some ways, but also very much a children's show. I like the robots, I like... SOME of the humans. I temporarily rage-quit because the waaaaaacky scientist man is doing SHITTY, IRRESPONSIBLE SCIENCE so, so much of the time, and honestly I'll brush aside a lot of bad science for the sake of fun, but just... no. And also in the course of being an irresponsible scientist, he puts his adorable daughter in upsetting amounts of danger. Kids show, so y'know. I'm not invested in the stakes, I'm just sidelined by the clumsy writing leading to horrible sciencing/parenting. But when he's not involved, I enjoy the show a lot!
First source goes to... a synopsis of an interview? I could probably find the interview (with Steve Blum, who produces both TFP and TF:RB, and Jeff Kline, who's doing voice work in both series) if I went digging but I am not up for Reference Questing atm ETA: wiki link, apparently you can't link to sources in quote headers here? I will probably give it a watch, if I remember tomorrow! I trust "kid's series" to have... a bit less continuity lock-out and a bit more serialization than, say, the comics, I shouldn't be too lost... I will not attempt to binge four seasons of cartoon in one afternoon, I will not
It's definitely easy to jump into! As long as you have a basic understanding of who Optimus Prime is, you should be 100% fine.
YOU FINALLY READ IT :D!!! Spoiler: MEGS SPOTLIGHT that comic fucked me up. POOR STARSCREAM, nothing about it was OK, not at all! If you are interested, I found a really good explicit followup fiction that is painfully in character and abusive as all hell, but in a different way. Let me know if you (or others) are interested in the link. Sorry, I'm a little late with this. There's a wide canyon between spotlight Megatron megs and mtmte megs that I haven't been able to reconcile in my head... he is just so...argh. I would pay someone to write a really thoughtful fiction about autobot!megs and starscream being alone together for the first time since megs left. I really want some idea how it would go. REALLY BADLY. Doesn'the even have to be in a sex kind of way. Just wtf would megs say to him?
Oh God, yeah, that's the hope. I don't even know though. Megs has faced what he did to the universe..sort of, but not what he did to individuals.
ohohohoho would that be the revenant? that fic walked a fine line between cold brutality and, like.... a disturbing sort of fucked up affection. A+ would read again
LOL, yes! Have read again, maybe five times? Megs falls into the trap of regarding other people as objects. Starscream is a game piece to be manipulated into behaving a certain way instead of a person with feelings. Equius put it best-
Spoiler: random rescue bots liveblog so apparently it's just that the new episodes at 830est, it's 745 and already on. I have no idea what I just walked into but something about broken cover and having to convince the local humans to keep the bots secret? And Blaze has a fanclub. (I only know Blaze's name cos they said it, I don't recognize any of these nerds.) okay the animation's decent BLURR NO ...is this Questionable Science Dad. Don't send kids through a wormhole on your second trial BLURR NO THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T SEND KIDS THROUGH ON THE SECOND TRIAL YA DINGUS ...why do robots have water reserves. Is "coolant" too complicated for a kids' show? Yes, fear the camel! That was the most convoluted way to say "I've got sand up my ass", thank you writers Heatwave is just CASUALLY A TRIPLECHANGER WTF "our mission is to serve and protect humans, even if they don't like us" ...I appreciate your dedication but dude, this did not go well in any other continuity, Vector Prime is disappoint Okay so we've got Blaze and Heatwave, can we get names on the other two please :| ...while I agree keeping the local press quiet is a good idea, somehow I don't think strong-arming the nerd journalist will help :c Spoiler: next ep ...wait shit his name's Blades not Blaze OTL Over-dramatic opening sequence eyyyy ...this is an interesting way to handle prejudice. (Someone hug the helicopter plx) (Blond kid is a good friend) Reinventing HMAs! :D Blades is alternately annoying as fuck and absolutely adorable IS THIS RANDOM BIT CHARACTER VOICED BY MABEL PINES OMFG "He doesn't look Swedish" Wow shut your face random redhead ...I kinda wanna know if he's speaking actual Swedish (...tangentially, because commercials, I kinda wanna catch up on MLP. Babby changeling looks adorable.) ...green rocks? Energon? Do we have another color of energon now? Thank you older friend for running interference (Parental interlude: "I thought transformers was marketed towards boys younger than 8" [Looks at comics] yeeeaaaah suuuure) Where the shit did this sideplot come from (I'm still thrown every time this chick talks but Evil Mabel Pines is a great voice) ...sweetheart, how do you expect to get them out of the cave when you blew up the entrance This is the Worst Cop, at least the bots have the excuse of not knowing how human law enforcement works ...why does he stand on his scoop Why Bro you're gonna fuck up your edges Spoiler: new ep those are some really well-rendered columbines Any bets they're gonna make up a fantasy name for em? "We're not sure what [the flower] even is" IT'S A FUCKIN COLUMBINE GODDAMN "Griffin Rock fairy bell" :| I'll take those winnings now Okay copbot is Chase? ...is this the fairy tale episode ...the kids' show writing is starting to get to me. I try to give any show 5 episodes but 1/3 is noooot a good record. Convenient footprints in dry dirt, when nine of the animated characters are leaving any. Does Blades not like flying? D8 baaaby Blades don't get in the middle of the lover's quarrel, it'll go badly ...how many alts do the rescue bots get. How do alts work in this world??? Blades is too precious for this world ...okay that's a nice turnaround but it was completely pointless Oh no, a sinkhole. How ever will the giant robots eacape. Just have Blades haul everyone out, goddamn. ...I was gonna be salty about fairies being real, but. Yeah. This is a universe with sapient robots from space. EYYYY SCIENCE ETA: I'm bad at flowers when I'm half-asleep, they weren't columbines but I can't remember enough about them to look up their actual name They're summer flowers up 'round where I used to live though, and the foliage and blooms were carefully-rendered enough that I'd believe the animators went and found reference