@reblogtransformers

Me when I convince a single person of the joys of ScorponOp:

I love Marvel Optimus, actually. Is he a good leader? Absolutely not, but I love him because I can never predict what he's going to do! I mean, just in the span of three stories, Optimus:

Feels the Autobots are too codependent so he fakes his death, ends up on Cybertron

Outback saves his life and is dying in his arms, Optimus responds by telling him this reminds him of a story... a long-winded story about how he tripped balls in the Void one time that in no way should remind him of anything. Literally the only similarity is that Optimus in the story ended up injured in the same place Outback was injured

Eventually Optimus decides he does want to live, actually, goes back to Earth and announces his death was fake in the middle of a funeral for him at the most dramatic moment possible

In the story immediately after this, he feels bad when he doesn't rescue some NPCs in a video game, so he blows himself to bits and dies for real

The experience is only enhanced by the fact that I've been reading the Skybound comics as they come out and it's like night and day LMAO

HEARTBREAKING: character actually mildly interesting to think about but I Dont like their fans

Hot take that nobody's gonna like hearing but I wish the transformers Fandom would actually ykno. Center and make content of all the female characters with the same passion they do for all the male ones instead of verbally raving about how cool and girlboss and slay they are without actually doing anything to engage with them as characters. I mean yeah I know, this is TRANSFORMERS so the bar is really really low already on the Canon front as well. But can we try a Little bit more, guys?

Arcee from the newest skybound comic

Previous anon left out of bit of context: Barber was actually the reason why Roberts couldn't use Bluestreak, he and the team working on RiD wanted to use the character and they didn't even end up using him! Although, to be honest looking at how Swerve faired as a stand-in for Bluestreak and Swerve's overall treatment in the narrative... I'm kind of thankful that Roberts didn't get to use Bluestreak however he intially planned to. I was utterly heartbroken over Red Alert and Trailbreaker, although it makes me feel slightly better that he at least regretted what he did to them

This doesn't surprise me! I often see people talking about the editorial decisions that caused the cast to change in MTMTE from what JRo originally intended like this, like how First Aid had to leave (because he was needed for a different event) right after Ratchet left (because Shane McCarthy wanted him for his Drift mini-series) or how Autobot Megatron had to be on the Lost Light because of editors wanting him there. I'm glad Bluestreak didn't get used in place of Swerve for the same reason you are, but I think it's really lazy of JRo that when he did get to add Bluestreak to the cast, he basically sanded off all his character traits to ensure Swerve wouldn't have a kindred spirit at that point? Even though Bluestreak's only real role initially was to be one of Swerve's friends?

There are positive and negative ways to respond to editorial input. There may be no buying your thing back when writing for a franchise like JRo was, which could be frustrating if you had a specific goal in-mind, but I really think he didn't handle these executive decisions well in many cases. One I will give him credit for though is that while awkward, Velocity's presence actually felt natural as the other medics left! Her arc worked with First Aid's arc, in which he was struggling a lot. That is a good way to deal with editorial intervention. But most of the time, I think he handled these situations poorly, like by disregarding all the character growth Drift made under Shane McCarthy, when it would've been more meaningful. The sense I get is that JRo had distinct roles he wanted filled in his story, and was going to force whoever he could get into those roles.

I'm glad JRo regretted what he did to Red Alert and Trailbreaker, the way they were handled was especially awful.

Swervegate is cute asf but also extremely funny when you remember that Swerve's role was originally intended for Bluestreak and Tailgate was meant to be Powerglide. The execution likely would've been different had the original plans gone ahead, but the sheer possibility that I could've ended up shipping Bluestreak and Powerglide makes me laugh because those two feel so random I can't even conceive it lol

Thank you for telling me this, because I'd heard Brainstorm was planned to be Wheeljack and Tailgate was planned to be Powerglide, but I didn't know Swerve was planned to be Bluestreak! That explains a lot. I've been frustrated during this reread because I've noticed all of Bluestreak's character traits seem to be missing? He doesn't seem to be traumatized, he doesn't seem to talk a ton constantly—even though he's friends with Swerve, it felt to me like JRo gave all his character traits to Swerve. ...So, I was right!!!

It's annoying to me how JRo kept taking other characters' traits and giving them to other people, but then still kept the older characters around as like, furniture. Bluestreak still gets to be Swerve's friend, but Swerve has all his traits. Powerglide was still part of the crew. Although they are distinct characters, it's pretty clear that Rung was heavily inspired by Emirate Xaaron, but Xaaron is still there as a background character who doesn't get to speak until IIRC issue #40! Though to be fair, Powerglide in place of Tailgate does seem funny because they're really different despite both being braggart minibots who want to show off.

I know there are tons of "X MTMTE character should be in Earthspark" posts and that I've been really negative about MTMTE so far, but one thing this reread has convinced me of is that I'd love to see Nautica in Earthspark! She would get along so well with Mo, Nightshade, and Hashtag that it's unreal! I think it's time for Nautica to appear outside of the IDW comics series—she was a highlight of both of them.

Spoilers!! for Marvel's TF Continutity

Scorponok's unlikely alliance with Optimus Prime nearing Unicrons arrival. I'm splitting this into two parts so it doesn't get too long. I've always liked Scorponok but I adored Marvel's depiction of him, especially in these last issues. I hope he is depicted like this more in the future.

This is from Transformers #75 (1991, Marvel Comics)

I'm reading MTME/LL for the first time and my god this is some of the most ableist shit I've seen in Transformers

Thinking a lot about how while Orion Pax and Dion admired the Decepticons, Ariel was the only one out who was reluctant about them and even mentioned rumours that they were attacking cities! Ariel was more wary of possible threats, I've always headcanoned that she heard the rumour through her good friend Chromia (gotta sneak chromlita in there hehe). I think it says a lot about her character that she listened to what was going on around her and didn't dismiss it immediately, nor was she blinded by the power/might of the Decepticons at least not to the extent that Dion and Orion Pax were

This isn't intended to be ragging on Orion Pax or Dion! I thoroughly enjoy their characterization and role they serve in War Dawn. I just can't help but notice that Ariel's character gets lost in people regarding War Dawn as ONLY a sad origin story for Optimus, when it touches base on many things including how blindly admiring power and dismissing growing threats as a non-civilian concern can lead to the tragic loss of innocent life such as Orion Pax, Ariel and more namely Dion who was confirmed to have never been rebuilt into another bot and likely died

Ariel was a lot of things but bland and lacking in personality character is not one of them. She had a sense of humour, confidence and was brave; and again the only one who was cautious/wary of the Decepticons!

This is all true! I love Elita-1 and even I'd forgotten that it was only Ariel who'd mentioned the "rumors" (truth) about the Decepticon army! I also don't see see Elita's characterization mentioned that often either, like she's evenhanded and self-sacrificial like you'd expect from Optimus Prime's counterpart, but she's not the same person.

I think it's also not really mentioned much that Elita didn't know Optimus was alive—so when she took on all the Decepticons at once and got captured to make sure her team survived, she didn't know Optimus would try to save her. Her plan actually worked, because her team live and was able to save the other Autobots who'd come to help Optimus! It's actually Optimus who decided to leave to help Elita without having told anyone, even knowing it was a trap, and he got his friends into trouble. The female Autobots had to save them! In a way, Orion/Optimus is still the gullible one and Ariel/Elita is still the clever one lol

Hi lesbians and sapphics, have a gander at the most buff Chromia mold officially made by early 2024. lovers of torquey butch bodyguard technicians are winning this year

[yes to us ironhide is usually an equivalent of butch too (fun fact she actually was a gal in the Unicron Trilogy toyline!! has a tragic story though) and we ship chromeblade so]

when we have the spoons we will get a similar edit of our photo of this chromia holding legacy Windblade's hand done for now we have this instead:

this image didn't even need any background editing

@shining-lalah This is exactly how I'd want to see that relationship explored!

The criticisms (beyond blatant misogyny) surrounding Elita One typically trace back to the fact that she's JUST Optimus Prime's love interest– except this argument itself is a flimsy argument because she's appeared more times NOT as a love interest! In fact, Elita One's most consistent character trait has and continues to be that she's a LEADER! Whether it be the resistance leader on Cybertron, the leader of a Quintesson elite team, the second-in-command of the Autobot's etc. It's people themselves who refuse to see her as anything other than a love interest but her origins as just a love interest aren't exactly black and white to begin with? Ariel and Elita One were originally separate characters, Ariel was going to be Orion Pax's friend and girlfriend that was killed by Megatron while Elita One was a separate character who was coincidentally similar in design. Elita One was always intended to be the character she was in The Search for Alpha Trion. We were always going to get Cybertronian Autobot resistance leader Elita One, she just happened to be conflated with Ariel which in turn saved Ariel's character from being a killed off love interests ultimately sparing the world from one less completely avoidable female character death

Yeah... I was thinking about this, too. With iterations of her that were romantically involved with Optimus, I see people say, "She's bad because she only exists to be his love interest!" but then when there are iterations of her that aren't, people say, "She's just a flat girlboss stereotype!" And you're right—more versions of her weren't romantically involved with Optimus than were, and even the ones that were never really seemed to end up with him? I swear, people just make up reasons to hate her no matter what. Sadly, even her role as a leader I've seen derided. I've seen people saying, "She doesn't deserve to be a leader like Optimus!" as if Ariel and Orion didn't behave basically exactly the same in that one episode. As if Elita-1 and Optimus didn't both save each other in the cartoon, as if they weren't equally competent. It's like for some people, Elita can never be worthy enough, or fun enough, or deep enough... it's sad.

I wonder if people resent Elita because she is a female character who is aspirational the way Optimus Prime is usually aspirational. I'm not saying they don't have relatable traits, too, but usually they are people who are role models, who are authorities. And not only that, but there's often a paternal element to Optimus and a maternal element to Elita-1. I often see people saying, "*insert other female character here* is better than Elita, Elita shouldn't be used anymore!" but there are actually very few maternal authority figures among the female characters in this franchise. Arcee is often someone who has to grow into that sort of role over time, and not as often an equal to Optimus in terms of authority.

Elita-1's original bio in the script

Also, while I totally understand wanting the female Autobots from the Sunbow cartoon to be more than parallels to various male characters, I feel like they've already moved away from that over time? Chromia especially. I get people disliking Oplita in the Sunbow cartoon specifically because Ariel and Elita-1 definitely did feel very much like "the girl counterpart to boy Orion/Optimus" (although she does not actually have the same personality as him! People rarely comment on that) but I genuinely do not get the literal dread at the thought of Elita and Optimus being together that certain people on Tumblr seem to express every time Elita is going to show up???

I mean, my preferred Elita ship would be with Chromia, but that's not because Elita can't be a good love interest to Optimus—it's because I want an "old friend" sort of relationship between a leader and her bodyguard. It's more because I feel like Optimus hasn't been there for Elita enough in my liking, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be in a new story, like in the Skybound comics or something. And my preferred ships for Optimus are Ironhide (G1 cartoon) or Scorponok (G1 comics)... so... strong people who can protect him and can be close friends with him and would sacrifice themselves for him? That literally also perfectly describes Elita-1!!!

It's shocking to me any time people say they hate Elita-1. Like there are so many other characters you could hate in this franchise and it's her? lol

The criticisms (beyond blatant misogyny) surrounding Elita One typically trace back to the fact that she's JUST Optimus Prime's love interest– except this argument itself is a flimsy argument because she's appeared more times NOT as a love interest! In fact, Elita One's most consistent character trait has and continues to be that she's a LEADER! Whether it be the resistance leader on Cybertron, the leader of a Quintesson elite team, the second-in-command of the Autobot's etc. It's people themselves who refuse to see her as anything other than a love interest but her origins as just a love interest aren't exactly black and white to begin with? Ariel and Elita One were originally separate characters, Ariel was going to be Orion Pax's friend and girlfriend that was killed by Megatron while Elita One was a separate character who was coincidentally similar in design. Elita One was always intended to be the character she was in The Search for Alpha Trion. We were always going to get Cybertronian Autobot resistance leader Elita One, she just happened to be conflated with Ariel which in turn saved Ariel's character from being a killed off love interests ultimately sparing the world from one less completely avoidable female character death

Yeah... I was thinking about this, too. With iterations of her that were romantically involved with Optimus, I see people say, "She's bad because she only exists to be his love interest!" but then when there are iterations of her that aren't, people say, "She's just a flat girlboss stereotype!" And you're right—more versions of her weren't romantically involved with Optimus than were, and even the ones that were never really seemed to end up with him? I swear, people just make up reasons to hate her no matter what. Sadly, even her role as a leader I've seen derided. I've seen people saying, "She doesn't deserve to be a leader like Optimus!" as if Ariel and Orion didn't behave basically exactly the same in that one episode. As if Elita-1 and Optimus didn't both save each other in the cartoon, as if they weren't equally competent. It's like for some people, Elita can never be worthy enough, or fun enough, or deep enough... it's sad.

I wonder if people resent Elita because she is a female character who is aspirational the way Optimus Prime is usually aspirational. I'm not saying they don't have relatable traits, too, but usually they are people who are role models, who are authorities. And not only that, but there's often a paternal element to Optimus and a maternal element to Elita-1. I often see people saying, "*insert other female character here* is better than Elita, Elita shouldn't be used anymore!" but there are actually very few maternal authority figures among the female characters in this franchise. Arcee is often someone who has to grow into that sort of role over time, and not as often an equal to Optimus in terms of authority.

Elita-1's original bio in the script

Also, while I totally understand wanting the female Autobots from the Sunbow cartoon to be more than parallels to various male characters, I feel like they've already moved away from that over time? Chromia especially. I get people disliking Oplita in the Sunbow cartoon specifically because Ariel and Elita-1 definitely did feel very much like "the girl counterpart to boy Orion/Optimus" (although she does not actually have the same personality as him! People rarely comment on that) but I genuinely do not get the literal dread at the thought of Elita and Optimus being together that certain people on Tumblr seem to express every time Elita is going to show up???

I mean, my preferred Elita ship would be with Chromia, but that's not because Elita can't be a good love interest to Optimus—it's because I want an "old friend" sort of relationship between a leader and her bodyguard. It's more because I feel like Optimus hasn't been there for Elita enough in my liking, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be in a new story, like in the Skybound comics or something. And my preferred ships for Optimus are Ironhide (G1 cartoon) or Scorponok (G1 comics)... so... strong people who can protect him and can be close friends with him and would sacrifice themselves for him? That literally also perfectly describes Elita-1!!!

It's shocking to me any time people say they hate Elita-1. Like there are so many other characters you could hate in this franchise and it's her? lol

What is going on... I've seen like five different people hating on Elita-1 in the tags in the past few days? Are people suddenly saying this because she'll be in that new movie? Because she's in the Skybound comics? I guess now is a good time to say that I've been a fan of every Elita I've seen so far. Even when some of them have been portrayed using problematic tropes, like how TFA Elita was fridged for the sake of male characters' development or how Elita in the first IDW run was repeatedly pitted against other women, I've always loved their characterizations and abilities. Honestly, when looking at the original IDW comics as a whole and not as individual series, Elita might be my favorite character from it overall—she was so badass!

As soon as I saw her in "The Search for Alpha Trion" in the Sunbow cartoon I wanted to see more of her and wished she hadn't been in only two episodes, so I'm really happy she's in Earthspark and Skybound and the Go! Go! manga now. Honestly, she was strangely ignored by a lot of media until right after I joined this fandom and started this blog? Lucky me!

Also, on the subject of Elita, when I first saw the episode of Earthspark in which Grimlock gets triggered by Jawbreaker and Elita attempts to stop him from rampaging, I was under the impression that Elita and Grimlock having been comrades (or interacting at all) was entirely new to that show. But now I know I was wrong! It seems like in the Fun Pub Classics comics, which refer to the US Marvel comics, Grimlock was her commander and potentially mentored her?

Her bio also reads:

Elita-1's origins are a mystery to everyone but Grimlock. In fact, no one in the Autobot ranks even knew she existed until Grimlock first brought his newly formed crew aboard the Graviton. There she was, quietly working behind one of the ships consoles, paying no attention to the inquisitive looks directed her way. Every member of the crew has a theory about her, but she isn't talking, and neither is Grimlock. A skilled fighter, Elita-1 is adept with the Circuit-Su form of combat. Her weapon of choice is a hyper concussive missile launcher that converts into an EMP scrambler. Mimetic alloy armor allows her to blend into her surroundings and can also refract laser weapons fire into blinding bursts of light. While confident in her abilities, she feels that she has yet to fully prove herself to others, leading her to take unnecessary risks.

Considering all this and that Elita-1's alt-mode is a pink battleship in this continuity, I wonder if she had a tie to the nucleon well on Hydrus IV that Grimlock used on himself and the other Dinobots.

The well of nucleon was on an island facility surrounded by a pink lake reached by raft, so a pink ship like Elita would fit right in there. If Grimlock did find her or create her somehow in that continuity, great, I guess I have to begrudgingly admit Marvel Grimlock did one thing I appreciate lol

From Transformers: Earthspark episode 12, "Outtakes"

One of my favorite scenes between transformers. I've been thinking about Elita-1 a lot, and I remembered how in this episode she did a whole workout routine leading up to this... as a pretense to make sure Jawbreaker had the privacy and space to be vulnerable (and to show him the view, a way to illustrate what the transformers fight to protect). It's so sweet!

Is there a specific route you'd like Skybound to take when it comes to potentially exploring Jazz's character? I think it would be cool if he befriended Chip Chase who played a mean saxophone

I thought about this ask for a while only to realize... I don't think I do? I just want the story to explore it, period. I don't think he needs a backstory as grim as the one in "The Magnificent Six!" (although since the Skybound comics seem to be mainly about the brutality of war and that kind of thing would fit with Arcee's and Cliffjumper's stories, maybe it would be appropriate), and I just want to see his deeper thoughts and feelings beyond Jazz being a cool, competent guy. It's true that Jazz doesn't really get to have close human friends often… maybe I could see bringing his friendship with Marissa Faireborn back, the one he had in the Dreamwave comics?

I guess I also hope it avoids the issues with Jazz's writing from like, the first IDW continuity, where he was really unjustly punished in a way that felt anti-Black and everyone he cared about most betrayed him with no satisfying conclusion, and he just stopped opening up entirely.

Just finished MTMTE issue #48 in my reread and this feeling has been building up in me from pretty much the beginning... I think Tailgate and Swerve would've been a way better and more obvious couple than Cyclonus and Tailgate.

I mean, Tailgate's happiest memory was movie night, specifically when Swerve was inelegantly stuffing his face?! It was even drawn like Tailgate was gazing fondly at Swerve—this feels like the very definition of love!

And when Tailgate was dying, he renounced his dreams of being a hero and instead longed for Swerve's and movie night! And speaking of Tailgate's illness, Swerve cured cybercrosis for Tailgate—it felt so contrived that it just had to be too late so Cyclonus could save Tailgate with a magic phallic sword instead. None of this is even getting into Swerve's desperate desire to be someone's number one for once... and how in his moment of crisis, Tailgate made a reference to the same moment pictured above in this post. I also felt bad for Swerve when he asked to room with Tailgate and got turned down for Cyclonus, who is someone who killed Swerve's comrades in the past.

A lot of the growing feelings in Cygate feel abrupt or like they've grown out of contrived situations that have forced the characters together, to the point that I don't really see how their desires and personalities and interpersonal history are supposed to be conducive to a relationship, whereas the friendship between Tailgate and Swerve has felt natural this whole time and their chemistry is great.