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lets-try-some-writing · 5 days

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The Qualities of a Leader

Heatwave struggles with knowing when to be firm as the leader of the Rescue Bots. Optimus gives him a few pointers.

Enjoy my contribution to the Rescue Bots zine! @turbofox-zines

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“Heatwave, is something troubling you?” Optimus came to stand beside him, startling Heatwave slightly as the far larger mech came to a stop.

“No Sir.” Heatwave answered simply as he watched his team and their human wards play a few feet away. From what Heatwave could see, they were fighting over what movie they wanted to watch that evening. A ridiculous waste of time in his opinion.

“There is no need to lie. What is concerning you?” Optimus looked down at him, the elder mech’s optics glowing in what could have been concern. Heatwave did not dare assume anything about the Prime, but he answered nonetheless.

“I don’t understand how they do it.” He replied as he gestured toward where Blades and Cody were laughing, the younger of the duo throwing a pillow at the helicopter’s helm. Boulder laughed and Chase chastised them both as Kade and Dani chuckled. Graham was out doing some sort of work, and so there was no one to serve as the mediator between the human young present. It was absolute chaos.

“What do you mean?” The Prime questioned gently, very nearly causing Heatwave to do a double take with how soft Optimus’s voice was. He still half expected Optimus to scream orders like every other soldier or commander Heatwave had the displeasure of meeting. Kindness was surprising.

“How can they sit and play around with the organics under our supervision? We are Rescue Bots, not newspark sitters.” Heatwave answered honestly, agitation lacing his tone as his plating flared in response to the group before him growing more rowdy. Did they forget they were at war? They had duties to fulfill.

“Is their mingling truly a detriment?” Optimus asked with the tone of a patient mentor questioning their ward.

“It wastes time. We could be doing other things, preparing to move out, or even training. But instead, they are… playing games and watching films.” Heatwave attempted to explain while doing his best to not be ruffled by the Prime’s choice of words. He was not a newspark, he did not need to be coddled.

“Heatwave, a soldier cannot always be on watch, nor can a Rescue Bot forever be at the ready. Rest is as essential as skill.” Optimus laid a servo on Heatwave’s shoulder, prompting the firetruck to pause in his brooding to look up in confusion. The Prime offered a kind smile before he continued.

“I have a feeling this is not entirely about the recreational activities of your companions.” The Prime met his gaze kindly, and Heatwave grumbled.

“I just don’t get it. Why do they even bother with these activities? The humans will never understand us, they will never be able to. It's always us who have to make the effort to understand them.” He gestured over to the humans again, his face set into a scowl even as his spark spun in longing. Why did he care about what they were doing? He was their leader. If they weren’t going to be serious, then he had to in their stead.

“We live in dark times, Heatwave. Our world is dead and war rages on all sides. This island is a small safe haven, a place of peace.” Optimus’s voice broke Heatwave from his brooding. He shuffled from pede to pede as the Prime gained a distant look in his optics, one Heatwave saw in Bumblebee too.

“The Rescue Bots may not be on the front lines, but you all feel the pressure of what looms in the future. There is no shame in seeking comfort where it is offered.” Wisdom seemed to emanate from Optimus as he smiled comfortingly, although it did little to ease Heatwave’s discomfort. Despite the way his plating felt too tight for his frame, he sighed and conceded.

“I can’t just go playing games, Sir. I have to lead and keep them in line.” Heatwave admitted softly, trying hard not to let his spark ache as he watched Boulder laugh at Chase tripping over something or other. He hated to admit it, but he wanted to be with them too.

“Yes, you are their leader. However, you are also a fellow Autobot. A leader must know when to be firm and when to mingle with those under his command.” The words registered, but Heatwave paused in uncertainty.

“What are you suggesting?” He questioned his superior officer somewhat hesitantly. Optimus again gained that faraway look before he patted Heatwave on the back in a friendly manner.

“Go and enjoy these moments while they are available. Come the dawn, you will need to bear the burden of leadership again, but for now, you can rest Heatwave. You are a fine leader, and there is no shame in allowing the mantle to fall for a while.” There was something so extremely tired in the way Optimus spoke. It left Heatwave reeling a bit as the Prime continued.

“View it as a team building exercise if you must, but allow yourself a moment to vent. Even the strongest leaders require rest and companionship.” There was wisdom in his words, wisdom that Heatwave had next to no time to process before the Prime wandered off, waving to him as he did so. Heatwave stood there dumbly for a while, his processor thrown into overdrive as he contemplated.

Perhaps… Optimus was right.

“Team building exercise…” Heatwave mumbled as he took a deep vent and stepped closer to his rambunctious team and human wards. They were bickering over a film of some sort. Chase was holding up what looked to admittedly be an incredibly dull documentary, Boulder had a cartoon on DVD that he was advocating for, and Blades was quick to hold up another case with cheap looking monsters on the cover.

“Heatwave! We are going to watch a horror film! Could you sit with me please?” Blades asked timidly as Cody took the film and threw it into the DVD player before anyone else could get a word in. Chase grumbled, Dani pouted, and Kade laughed. Heatwave for his part sighed as Blades looked up at him pleadingly.

“You are a real crybaby sometimes, you know that, Blades?” Dani, ever the jester, prodded playfully from where she had chosen to drape herself on a nearby platform, blankets and pillows galore.

“Horror movies are scary!” The helicopter insisted as the film began to play the opening sequences. Blades jumped as a cheap looking zombie wandered on screen alongside the title of the film, prompting Kade to laugh.

“The blood is all fake, and you can clearly see the editing software effects-” Chase attempted to point out the lack of any real scare factor in the film as Heatwave edged closer subconsciously. The desire to be involved along with the all encompassing urge to stop any fights before they could start had him drawing nearer to the mess of blankets and other soft cushioning strewn about before he knew it.

“Way to ruin the mood.” Cody pouted as he settled down on Chase’s lap. The police car for his part did not react beyond pulling up a blanket for the youngest of their human wards as the movie began to roll.

“Half the fun of horror movies is laughing at the bad effects.” Kade remarked as he too settled in around Boulder’s pedes. The usually brash fireman seemed completely at ease as he snacked on some popcorn.

“Blades has a point, though. The jump scares can be a bit much.” Boulder added before Cody shushed him.

“Enough. I will sit with you Blades.” Heatwave, realizing he was practically wrapped up in the blankets, sat down beside his skittish teammate. There was no point trying to wander off with dignity now. Besides, what could be the harm in staying? Patrols were done and work for the next cycle was already completed. By staying, he could keep an optic on his team and settle his spark’s anxious spin.

“Really?! I didn’t think-” Blades looked up at him with starry optics, to which Heatwave rolled his own in a fond manner.

“Yeah, yeah now be quiet so we can watch this film.” Heatwave grumbled without any true agitation lacing his tone. To the humans he must have sounded as gruff as always, but to his fellows it was quite clear that his glyphs had no true bite.

He was content, and so was his team.

“Thank you, Heatwave.” Blades whispered as the movie began and horribly cheap special effects assaulted their vision. It was such a ridiculous activity, but Heatwave found himself enjoying it all the same. On a planet not their own and in a structure not made by their kind, they were watching a stupid movie and all was right with the world.

Maybe Optimus was right. A little downtime couldn’t hurt. Team building exercises were essential, after all.

“You’re welcome.” Heatwave murmured as he felt himself calm for the first time in weeks. He was safe, and he was home, at least for now.

#rescue bots zine #transformers #maccadam #heatwave #blades #boulder #chase #cody burns #kade burns #dani burns #optimus prime #rescue bots

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earthstellar · 11 months

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what are some other nice moments from Rescue bots?

This show is loaded with them!!! :)

Here we go, some nice moments in Rescue Bots!!

I'm going to write this with the assumption that some people reading this may not have ever seen Rescue Bots or might only be somewhat familiar, as I realise the target audience skews much younger than most Transformers media does, so I'm not 100% sure how popular it was outside of that demographic in total.

Off the top of my head:

-There is an in-universe VR game called Element Quest that has a couple really good episodes, the design is cute and there are tons of meme references. Blades, at one point, goes "I used to like video games. Then I took an arrow to the knee." LOL

-I think it's cool how they actually do tie in their continuity with TFP's continuity. For example, "What Rises Above" (RB) canonically comes before "Nemesis Prime" (TFP), and this is directly referenced in the dialogue in TFP when Optimus says that he is late arriving to the base as he was exploring an underground energon deposit-- This is the deposit he explores with the Rescue Bots.

-THERE IS A MUSICAL EPISODE. IT IS EXTREMELY GOOD

-Woodrow Burns, the Chief's brother, is kind of an idiot asshole, although he's not actively malicious. But he is great with the kids and for whatever reason the only thing I can ever remember about this character is when he goes up to Cody after it's been a long time since he saw him last and says "You've grown a whole foot since the last time I saw you-- Now you'll need three socks!" IDK I just think that's a real cute dad joke thing to say to a little kid lol :')

-There is an episode where they explore the local folklore of Griffin Rock, and TL;DR the local lore is that their island is where literal griffins used to nest seasonally. So throughout the episode, there's this kind of vibe of "OK are these electrical magnetic pulses or whatever like a science problem or a magic problem" and it's actually a very cute and fun vibe, especially since Cody is talking about the lore in the first place as part of his work towards a Scouts badge and Blades is very cute in this episode, the bots are all like "okay magic isn't real but uhhh what if magic's real?" for a minute and it's great :')

-Doc Greene/Green creates a ton of fun science devices throughout the show, but the names of some are just so doofy and fun. I love the "Torna-Don't", which is a thing designed to dispel tornados. Of course. lmao

-All the weird small town local events are also very silly and cute, and weirdly realistic for those of us who are familiar with this kind of local event thing, lmao. One of my favourite concepts is one of what seems to be several crawdad-related festivals, in which there is apparently a televised crawdad race. It's a bunch of shrimps put on a tiny racetrack, like Olympic runners. LOL

-At one point, Blurr shows up, and when the Rescue Bots are trying to acclimate him to working with humans, Chase is like "Humans seem to have two genders, which are defined by how many cooties they have." This implies that as far as the Rescue Bots are aware, 1) cooties are real and 2) human gender is defined solely by how many cooties a person has, and not by anything else, thus leaving their understanding of human gender fairly open (and it is also clear they have solely learned about gender from young kids in a small town which is likely why they state there are two genders but then make it clear that gender is a cooties thing and not an inherently physical thing, which makes sense in context and is kind of great because it gives more leeway for gender diversity than I expected) and I love this a lot. What is human gender? Cooties. That's all. So someone with a particularly high number of cooties could be another gender altogether, because why not?

-There is a body swap episode, which treats us to Blades in Dani's body trying on dresses in her room. He picks an orange and white one, which matches his paint job. I also love this a lot.

-Heatwave is gruff as hell especially at the start of the series and constantly starts shit or perpetuates shit with Kade, which is super funny. Just this centuries old Cybertronian fucking with this doofus boy who keeps leaving donuts in his cab. God dammit Kade, lmao.

-There is an episode where Cody is aged up via Science Device, and we get to see an older Cody, who more closely resembles his father than his older brother does. It's cute that he'll look like his dad when he's older. :')

During this episode, he assists in a rescue, and the girl his brother has a crush on tries to hit on him, but he clearly doesn't get what's happening and thinks it's icky because of course he does, he's a kid. I just think this scene is handled well and it's cute that his reaction to being hit on is still "ewww girls" but his brother is still absolutely pissed off about it anyway LMAO like jesus Kade, relax

-Kade's mostly an asshole but he's shown to be a really good rescuer who genuinely cares about people, and he has moments where he really comes through for his family and realises on his own that he should shut up and back down on his bullshit, thus making him a better developed and more realistic asshole brother character than 99% of asshole brother characters in most shows. I think this is pretty solid because it does lead to effective character development here and there, and it makes his positive moments with his family and the bots that much nicer. :)

-Cody is such a good kid. He is often willing to give people or ideas a chance when nobody else will, and even though he's too young to actively participate in most missions, he stays involved by helping at their dispatch centre. He's a smart little dude, who has a lot of heart and a ton of potential. One of the few child characters in anything that I actually like, because I think they write him extremely well: He is young, but he is not stupid. He is not treated like an accessory or like the property of his family, he's his own person with a distinct personality within his family, with a reasonable amount of autonomy. And he's a person who is still learning and has valuable contributions while also needing guidance or support at times. 10/10

-Dani gradually gets better at helping Blades deal with his flight anxiety (and sticks up for him when the others might mock him a little for it), and this is not only inherently very nice and cute, but it also makes a lot of sense as she is a first responder/medic and we see her offer the same reassurances towards the people she helps to rescue.

-The writing for the Burns Family in general is some of the best family group character writing in anything tbh, they handle the family dynamic so well in this show, and it's extra cute as the Rescue Bots all learn a lot from observing how the family takes care of one another and the townspeople they rescue. :')

-Blades has anxiety. I also have anxiety, so I am biased and clearly love this dude, lmao. He's so fucking relatable and even though sometimes the others rip on him, it is clear that they're also very proud of him for trying his best to deal with a situation which for him is particularly difficult (he was forced to take a flight capable alt-mode when this is something he is explicitly not comfortable with) and his team mates do support him, even though Heatwave is a douche sometimes (although it is clear this is usually due to stress or something else and that the actual problem isn't Blades). Over the course of the series, Blades does develop a little more confidence, and it's very cute and nice to see him puffing himself up a little more. :)

-The overall attitudes the bots have towards humans in this show is sweet. It's clear they don't really understand humanity or humans as a whole, but it also doesn't really matter because they are so specifically oriented to their local population on the island and their focus is a relatively small community of humans. They take their duties seriously and will protect this population, even if they don't really understand the people outright. They gradually start to respect the locals (and the Burns Family) more and more as they work with them, and get acclimated to Earth. They love their dumbass weird little humans :')

This leads to a lot of fun shenanigans with the bots not understanding things, or only understanding things as they have been explained by the children, which is hilarious.

-There is an episode where local thieves steal Chase, and inspired by Cody's school drama project, he decides to go undercover after watching a bunch of old detective movies. This includes him narrating things to himself, which he is called on when Dani enters the garage and asks him "Why are the lights off? Are you talking to yourself?" lmao

-Although it isn't explicitly canonical, it's easy to interpret both Chase and Blades as being neurodivergent. Both of them display various behaviours and traits which can potentially be understood in this way, and I'm just glad that there's a show for kids where two of the main characters, who are rescue workers, are shown to be competent and skilled at their jobs and accepted by the community for who they are while also being neurodivergent. <3 It's such a good vibe when the other characters support or defend these two in particular, especially when Chase or Blades might be confused or upset about something. Chief Burns is especially great working with Chase.

-Any episode where Optimus shows up in Rescue Bots usually has some gems of cuteness/silliness. The Elvis line still takes me out, LMAO. "You're bigger than Elvis!" "I have not met this Elvis, and I am unaware of his size." 10/10 writing, I fucking love Rescue Bots

-The bots constantly call out a bunch of details that are entirely appropriate for robots from space to notice and recognise as somewhat weird, whereas a lot of the human characters are so used to 1) being human and 2) living on this incredibly weird little technologically advanced island that nothing really phases them anymore. So we can actually identify more with the bots at time, despite the fact that they are also providing an outsider point of view, which is really clever! :)

-The theme song is a fucking banger. It's so good. I love this song so much. I wish we got a full version of it, but this is the best extended version of it that I've been able to find. Enjoy!!!

-There's a lot of fairly adult stuff in the show, more than I think people realise! The tone can never get too dark outright as it is intended for young kids as the primary demographic, but there's a lot of situations, conversations, etc. that are genuinely engaging and interesting from an adult perspective, which is a large part of what makes it a great watch for all ages.

Some situational examples include scenarios where children are imperilled in natural disasters, accidents, even kidnapping at one point.

Non-kid related situations include risks and threat to civilians from AI development and the dangers that uncontrolled or poorly thought out technology can cause or exacerbate, which is significant in context and also interesting to think about given our current relationship IRL with rapid tech development and concerns around how that technology is being made and applied, either in reality or in theory.

Some dialogue examples include scenes where the bots mention their grief over being unable to save Cybertron, a sense of guilt that they were in stasis for so long even though this was beyond their control, awareness that they may be the last Rescue Bots team in operation on Earth or anywhere else in the universe (a sense of loneliness and a responsibility as the last upholders of their specific creed), struggles with their sense of duty and concerns around their ability to fulfil their expectations for themselves and meet the expectations of others while rising to the demands of their unique situation, and so on.

this is already pretty long lmao, there's a ton of stuff I really like about Rescue Bots, but I hope this might encourage others to check out the show if you haven't before, it's well worth a watch! :)

#maccadam #maccadams #reply #long post #rescue bots #tf rescue bots #tf heatwave #tf blades #burns family #chief burns #cody burns #kade burns #dani burns

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