TFs: DARE TO BE STUPID

Yyyyyyyyyyeah, so I still want to do a more thorough post on the recent tf issues that I've enjoyed, but I finally steeled myself and went to read TAAO Revolution 1, and OH MY GOD, there is not enough in the whole world.

So anyways, while I was all hopped up on outrage and disappointment and before I could anxiety myself out of it, I sent IDW feedback. Now I am just all tied up with anxiety that they will actually respond to my message in any way!! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Spoiler: long?

No reply to this is at all necessary, but I really wanted to reach out to you about the recent Revolution: Transformers: Till All Are One 01 issue. I've adored the work IDW has done on transformers, and even though I wasn't at all enthusiastic about the crossover Revolution event, I've been increasingly charmed by the whole thing. But I don't know what happened with this issue.

The story itself wasn't very comprehensible, which happens, I can deal with that. But I couldn't see much point of it at ALL except as a way to stick one of the franchise's few female leads into this subjugated, sexual role, and even then that role didn't seem to be meaningfully supported by the plot. It was jarring to see a robot suddenly sporting massive, inexplicable boobsocks (and from a plain artistic quality standpoint, they aren't even consistently sized). Especially since Pyra Magna looked just like normal, no robot boobs needed. Or heck, Windblade even had more proportional boobage than the humanoid ladies who feature. It was even more jarring to see these robot boobs flopping around with Windblade in not-exactly-justified BONDAGE out of nowhere.

I just don't understand why this franchise went there. It's such a... cheap shot. If people are reading transformers, I sincerely doubt they're here for the cheesecake. I really, sincerely doubt they're here to see a previously-unsexualized female lead suddenly tied up while a mysterious new villain lady puts her hands allllllllll over her and tortures her while Windblade arches all sexily (her face can show pain, but not her body! only sexy body language allowed!) for our pleasure(?).

(and honestly, the way that what's-her-face bland alien villainess lady was acting was awful tasteless too. Is there no way to show someone has bad intentions besides having them violate a woman's physical boundaries? Getting too touchy without QUITE crossing the line into something that could be labeled molestation? Weak lesbian-flavored villain teases (but not the full lesbian! she has a husband!) are so overdone and tired. Elita One was written to stand as an intimidating, dangerous leader figure in less space than this, and without any lazy, overused shortcuts like were used here)

It's just such a cheap shot that I never expected coming from the IDW franchise. I've been really pleasantly surprised by how the other Revolution comics have drawn their ladies, and I'd never expected to be hit with this kind of thing for one of the established robot characters. I mean, would anyone even have CONSIDERED drawing Megatron the same way when he was tied up and being shocked back in the Chaos Theory arc? It's practically the same situation, but the atmosphere between him and Optimus was a heckuva lot less forced than this atmosphere was, and honestly, it would have felt less out of place plot-wise there. Even from a plain art perspective, it looks... sloppy. Pyra Magna looks like normal, and like a robot, Windblade just has giant metal boob socks (that change size, but even at their smallest I'd still call those solid G cups) because I guess there's no way to draw a female lead unless you sexualize them to hell and back.

Between the way Windblade and the bland, unmemorable villain lady were written and drawn, it feels like... like there's no possible way to portray a woman without it devolving into exploitative physicality. It doesn't seem like the franchise has felt like it's needed to lean on this kind of thing before, and it's really disappointing to see it here. Even the outright-married couples in the wider continuity don't often seem to go beyond handholding and physical closeness, and the series has STILL managed to evoke strong emotions without needing more than that. Even when two women, Nautica and Velocity, were getting amica-married, there wasn't a shade of what this issue dove into. I can't lay blame on just the writer (and Mairghread Scott has written perfectly fine transformers women before) or the artist (though I'm sure going to be reluctant to buy anything Naoto Tsushima draws featuring any lady characters), and of course I can't say what kind of editorial direction these creators were given. But I am really, really disappointed to see a series I love so much take a turn into this kind of material.

But in other news, I've got this gr8 idea for a chaos theory megatron panel redraw as soon as I can slow down and focus for an afternoon.

Gahh, originally I came here to get all excited about functionist universe porn ideas characters, and then I read revolution and got upset instead :< One minute, maybe I will try to get a little happy momentum up before sleepiness catches up with me completely.

 

Spoiler: thbbptppbpptpt functionism let's do this bro

Well because I'm a massive sucker for angst, I'm definitely not going to be gravitating towards the happiest possibilities, that's for sure. It's too bad the characters don't have the same universe-spanning pov readers have (and we don't even have a complete view), because I'd love to know how many characters just never existed period in this universe. Someone like Ambulon would be right out for sure, though I was also trying to think about whether we'd get another post-mortem reunion with Trailcutter, and... I don't think his odds of survival were great in this universe. On the upside, Roller probably never got him started on the strong beverages! On the downside, he's got outlier powers and an irreverent attitude, and that seems like a very dangerous combination under that government.

Even if Shockwave was around and doing his protection thing back in the day, even without the decepticon movement to set off that last big nose-dive into shadowplay and empurata, I don't think the guy had long left as himself period. He already seemed like a marked man, the heist was just a convenient excuse. And especially since the functionists get stronger and more controlling without the decepticons there as a disrupting influence, I don't think there's any way they'd let a dissenting voice stand (I'd still really love to write a thing for ye olde shockwave, but those kind of depression+exhaustion stories are so exhaustion :( see also: dominus ambus). Now, without Megatron, I'm not sure there'd be any force to really pull Shockwave away from his role as a senator. And he seems like the IDEAL functionist senator, tbh. If he was a successful test case, I think the council moving to an entire senate of shadowplay'd government offficials would be reasonable, buuuuuut also really boring to write, so.

On the other hand, hey, I wonder what is up with Glitch these days. That seems like a useful power of his if it was under proper government control, and he was a sweet kid, seemed pretty biddable. My personal favorite headcanon is that he was tortured+stockholmed into becoming who he was in the regular universe, but it would sure be interesting to see what became of him in a functionist setting. And we know from shockwave that shadowplay doesn't TOTALLY wipe out your emotions. And I'd say that shockwave's decepticon-supporting, functionist-government-destroying actions suggest pretty strongly that desire for revenge is one not-quite-an-emotion that you might have left, even if you can't remember what 'resentment' feels like. I'm curious to see a functionist version of Tarn. There are parallels that are complicated to articulate between the not-my-face of empurata and the not-my-face of the mask, plus the way both those things also are his face, and the potential dysphoria of having a face put back on you that isn't yours, and not knowing whether the empurata face or the someone-else's-face is worse. That's a complicated character knot that was more interesting than I thought it would be. I might have to poke at that more later.

Functionist Pharma and original flavor Ratchet, THAT'S a dynamic I am dyinggggg to see. I want SO BADLY to reconcile the Pharma who catches himself off-guard and hates what he's become with the flashes we see of who Pharma used to be. First of all, I'm going to go right ahead and say that Ratchet and Pharma had better be kissing in the functionist universe, because I neeeeeeed this boyfriend subtext to become text-text. I'm just going to work under the assumption that they've totally been kissing for millions of years. Now, imagine how jarring it is to see your husband of manymany millennia-- okay, not YOUR husband exactly, but they must basically be the same person, right? And he... doesn't trust you. He doesn't want to talk to you, he doesn't want to look at you, and the way he's behaving, it's almost like you've hurt him somehow. That can't be right, can it? But how else are you supposed to read this? Why doesn't he want to tell you anything about who you are in the other universe? And this isn't just him acting like you've hurt him, he's acting like he feels guilty over something too. You know him too well, he can't hide the way he's feeling from you, what's hurting him so much that he isn't telling you?

And oh hey, speaking of aching not-relationships, PROWL AND CHROMEDOME. Now, ooooh, I can't stop messing with this silly thing, because I feel like there could almost be a story in here if I got it from the right direction (and found an excuse to get everyone in the same room, but that's the easy part). Functionist Prowl and Chromedome, happily married for millions of years, and... happy because they've let themselves be reshaped into people who are allowed to exist in this functionist society. Maybe Prowl is still a beat cop, maybe he's higher up in the ranks, I still can't decide what the best way of getting him to compromise his principles in favor of The Government Is Always Right (honestly, he's the problem child where I can't quick lock down the Perfect situation for him to be in :T). If Chromedome did go off and learn mnemosurgery, Trepan is probably a fantastic functionist tool because haha, morals, what morals? Unless he Knew Too Much and had to be disposed of or something. But imagine all the awful things Chromedome has been forced to do to people's minds, where he wasn't FORCED because he said yes, didn't he? Saying no wasn't an option, okay. But he still said yes. It's probably going too far into angst land to say that the government made him tweak Prowl's brain to make him more willing to be compliant (though it also is the kind of very personal punishment the functionists seemed to enjoy giving to people who crossed them).

I feel like I had some brilliant idea as I was falling asleep yesterday about mnemosurgery between the two of them as some kind of scene thing, though now I am blanking on it. Deactivating sensory suites that way? That might have been it, thought I think that would have to be for the two of them being very young and innocent, no matter which universe. Hmm, wish I could remember better :P

But then you've got original flavor Prowl and Chromedome, where they aren't together, and that colors so much of the mess between them, and Chromedome has been married four times, and loved his first three husbands so much he wiped his own mind because he couldn't handle how hard he was grieving for them. You've got Prowl who knew him first and knew him longest, who always thought they were going to get married someday, no rush, who never stopped loving him no matter how hard he resented him sometimes. You've got Chromedome who's head over heels for Rewind, who was ready to die just to give Rewind back his first husband, because he thought Rewind would be happier like that, and he'd do anything for him. And you've got all the damage Prowl and Chromedome took from the way, you've got Prowl who's driven everyone away even while he was fighting to protect them, because he can't tell what's controlling and what's reasonable, and whose sense of responsibility/prerogative/morality is all out of whack, who's maybe got something miswired in his brain because he tried to blackmail Chromedome and provoked him beyond his limits, who's driven away everyone he cares about and doesn't know how to bridge those gaps even if people were willing to listen. And Chromedome, that lovely, depressed mess, who seems to rely on other people to give him a sense of self, who's a people-pleaser even at the expense of his own safety, who falls completely apart when the central (mortal, fragile) pillar of his life is taken away. And who's so much faster than Rewind II to devote himself to his alternate quantum spouse, even though his husband still died, and this isn't the same person. Basically, canon :V

But what is original Chromedome going to think looking at functionist Prowl? It's this history that might have made him happy-- would have, the proof is right here, and he gets this fresh reminder of what things were like between him and Prowl before all the poison crept in. This Prowl isn't a young innocent, but he's so much less... angry is a mild word, but so many of the adjectives he wants to use are so ugly. But that's not fair to who Prowl is now, everything that's happened to him since. Chromedome knows that the war damaged everyone, and it isn't fair to compare his-- to compare original Prowl to this one who never had to fight through that same history. Original Prowl sees what he almost had, what he wanted to have, the relationship he never wanted to give up, and here's the proof that it would have worked out between them. And his first instinctive read is that his Chromedome is worn out and exhausted and beat down, and wouldn't things have been better if they'd just stayed together? But-- that isn't quite right. This Chromedome is tired too, he's worn into a groove that's too deep for him to escape, and it's momentum keeping him going more than anything else. The relationship might be happy and comfortable, but everything around it is dead, and it's choking Chromedome out too. His Chromedome isn't his, but he has air and sunlight, and is that... better?

Plus functionist Prowl and Chromedome looking at how ugly and poisonous and loaded things are between the other versions of them, and being completely baffled and horrified at how things could have ever gotten to that point, and the way they quietly, instinctively seek reassurance in each other hurts original Chromedome and Prowl in a way they'd never expected. Plus the two of them looking at the alternate versions of their partner and seeing how fragile and brittle and worn down the war has left them, and only being able to grasp the bare edges of how the person they love must have been hurt to turn them into the person they're looking at. And Rewind too, who's getting this firsthand look at the dynamic he's been jealously defending his relationship against from the start. And seeing his Chromedome looking at these two and knowing he's thinking about everything he could have had with someone else, and imagining his life married to a different mech. And knowing Prowl is imagining the same thing, and knowing Prowl never stopped wanting Chromedome, and being the outsider and not being able to intrude, because where even are the boundaries between reasonable behavior and spiteful jealousy at this point?

Honestly, I'd love to wrangle some kind of foursome between chromedome, chromedome, prowl, and prowl (with rewind on the side observing), but oh my goodness, the name/pronoun pileup would be AWFUL. Even with second person to cut one person cleanly out of the mix, I'm not sure how manageable it is. If I did Chromedome POV, there's Prowl. Then... not-you and not-Prowl? Other-you and other-Prowl? Calling the other version of yourself by your own name.... nnnnno, I don't think that will work well. Maybe not-you with careful use of he/his, instead of seocnd person pronouns, but I can't tell if talking about not-Prowl would be silly at the height of a sex scene. HMMM. There are so many emotions, but also it would be SO hard to get them all across from one pov. But there are so many emotions! And I want to avoid making myself sad, because functionist Prowl and Chromedome can seek comfort with each other, original Chromedome can go to Rewind, but I need to make sure original Prowl isn't left out in the cold, because then I'll make myself sad. Gahhhh, I need to keep poking at this idea, because it's all my favorite points of pain with cdprowl, but it would be such a hard story to work with ;u;

Ummm, closing additional thoughts that deserve more future attention. Tailgate being extra off-balance and/or at-risk, because he's such a sweetheart and expects kindness from others, and he only had two weeks of (unremarkable, lonely) life on Cybertron before pure functionism kicked in, compared to life on the lost light. Cyclonus reeling, because Cybertron! Beautiful and intact! And in the present day! But also with the life and soul and art drained out of it. From a distance the cities may be beautiful, until you get in close enough to see it's just a hollow, shambling corpse compared to what it should have been, and it reminds him enough of what his friends and crewmates became in the dead universe to make his fuel tank turn. That would actually be a lovely excuse for Tailgate to take charge and give him comfort, if it was handled delicately. Cywhirlgate, even?? :O Because Whirl understands how ugly functionism is than any of them, and he's already lived that pain up close and personal, he understands how awful it is, especially in contrast to an artistic ideal.

Also, functionist Whirl and Brainstorm should totally be making out like heck in the aerial corps, I'M JUST SAYING. They're doing a creator-type double disney princess 'I want something more' dance, and especially in late-era functionism, it seems totally reasonable that finding like-minded people would be difficult/dangerous enough that they'd cling to each other :3c Thiiiiis is a dynamic I am suddenly interested in beyond platonic weaponbuddies. And also they both need their breathing room to function, and get this excellent, interesting combination of ridiculous+dangerous when someone tries to smother/restrain them. (and also @coldstars, Whirl definitely needs a gun that was turned into a watch that was turned into a watch that shoots like a gun). This is a ship that absolutely deserves some further attention.

 

sHRIEKS!!!!

Ohmigod, would you object if I tried to write the thing? If you want it, it's yours, but holy shit, I was just idly into it and now I burn with feelings

(and regardless, I am absolutely going to draw the thing OuO)

 

I'mmmmmmm also thinking that this is a situation just begging for four acts to happen somewhere along the way :3c Though I'm not sure who should kick things off, or who will have the present, or how big the present should be, but two creators in a situation like this, practically tailor-made to push them together and get them emotionally intimate? It's gotta happen.

 

A thought! So, Whirl talks about being in the autobots in terms of 'optimus staking his claim,' but that isn't exactly a fair picture is it. The autobots started out defending the council, etc. from (decepticon) violence. Isn't it INTERESTING that Whirl would voluntarily take a position that involved protecting functionists? Sure, he might have technically been working for the government already, and maybe Optimus might have been semi-decent to him but those aren't really compelling reasons for him to do the thing. Why didn't the watchmaker immediately defect to the faction telling people that there want any reason their form should dictate their function?

Because he couldn't. Megatron had already made it widely, widely known exactly who was responsible for beating him up in that jail cell. Decepticon sympathizers had been getting themselves arrested just to maybe have a shot at roughing him up. Megatron's bff had nearly killed him. There isn't a chance in hell these guys would have welcomed him with open arms, not when their leader, the core of their movement, already personally blamed Whirl for that moment of government-sponsored injustice. Even if Whirl somehow had spoken to Megatron himself and made his case, I don't think he would have found a very sympathetic ear. Megatron credits Whirl and that moment as being his turning point for realizing that violence was the only answer, and he was so set on dealing with Whirl himself that Whirl didn't get a true, all-out fight through all of the war.

That's actually pretty tragic, that someone with that kind of painful, personal experience with the injustices and flaws of functionist was shut so completely out of the movement with the core philosophy that form should not dictate function. Optimus didn't shake a claim on Whirl so much as Megatron shut him completely out.

 

An EXCELLENT choice of husbando!! God do I love him. You're in for a wild ride, because things with him will keep getting even more intense, plus there are crossover emotions about him that will come from mtmte via chromedome :3c

 

!!!!! DJD WHIRL, I WOULD KILL FOR THAT AU!

Those descriptions are where I got my confirmation of adhd misfire, so I am absolutely taking them as canon! :D

And one line of Whirl's that's been sticking in my head, but that I couldn't work into that post was when he was talking about 'if I still want to be an autobot-- and I think I do, at least for the moment--'

I don't know if there are any conclusions to draw from that except that people are complicated and brains and emotions and desires are messy, but that line does keep nagging at me.