One of my favorite parts of phase 2 (and indeed one of the few moments I resonated with IDW Prowl) was when the neutrals were coming back to Cybertron and Prowl said that he refused to let Autobots be pushed aside and overruled after they were the ones who fought for freedom for 4 million years (the exact wording escapes me atm).
And I mean, that resentment still holds true even once the colonists come on bc like. As much as it's true that Cybertron's culture is fucked up, and as funny as it can be to paint Cybertronians as a bunch of weirdos who consider trying to kill someone as a common greeting not important enough to hold a grudge over.... The colonists POV kind of pissed me off a lot of times, as did the narrative tone/implications that Cybertronians are forever warlike and doomed to die by their own hands bc it just strikes me as an extremely judgemental and unsympathetic way to deal with a huge group of people with massive war PTSD and political/social tensions that were rampant even before the war?
Like, imagine living in a society rife with bigotry and discrimination where you get locked into certain occupations and social strata based on how you were born. The political tension is so bad there's a string of assassinations of politicians and leaders. The whole planet erupts into an outright war that leads (even unintentionally) to famine and chemical/biological warfare that destroys your planet. Both sides of the war are so entrenched in their pre-war sides and resentment for each other that this war lasts 4 million years and you don't even have a home planet any more. Then your home planet gets restored and a bunch of sheltered fucks come home and go "ewww why are you so violent?? You're a bunch of freaks just go live in the wilderness so that our home can belong to The Pure People Who Weren't Stupid And Evil Enough To Be Trapped In War" and then a bunch of colonists from places that know nothing about your history go "lol you people are so weird?? 🤣🤣 I don't get why y'all are fighting can't you just like, stop??? Oh okay you people are just fucked up and evil and stupid then" ((their planets are based on colonialism where their Primes wiped out the native populations btw whereas the Autobots and OP in particular fought to save organics. But that never gets brought up as a point in their favor)) as if the damage of a lifetime of war and a society that was broken even before the war can just magically go away now that the war is over.
Prowl fucking sucks but he was basically the only person that pointed out the injustice of that.
And then from then on out most of the characters from other colonies like Caminus and wherever else are going "i fucking hate you and your conflicts" w/ people like literal-nobody Slide and various Camiens getting to just sit there lecturing Optimus about how Cybertronians are too violent for their own good and how their conflicts are stupid, with only brief sympathetic moments where the Cybertronians get to be recognized as their own ppl who deserve sympathy before going right back to being lambasted.
Like I literally struggled to enjoy the story at multiple points because there was only so much I could take of the characters I knew and loved being raked over coals constantly while barely getting to defend themselves or be defended by the narrative so like. It was just fucking depressing and a little infuriating to read exRID/OP
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Well damn, Mumbo was back.
Evil Xisuma didn't have a comms device of their own. They figured this out because the man himself flew up to them asking about diamonds.
"Uhh, hello, X?"
"What?" they asked, turning around to see a very nervous Mumbo (oh, who were they kidding, he was always nervous) standing behind them, holding a shulker box.
"Oh, you're not- my bad," he said, stepping backwards. "Sorry. I thought you were Xisuma."
"That's a first," muttered EX. "How the Hels did you fuck up that badly?"
"Right, you can swear," sighed Mumbo. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I just- do you know where X is?"
"Nope."
"Okay," said Mumbo. "Do you think you'd be able to help me with-" [he waved his free hand vaguely] "diamond stuff?"
EX had zero idea how this man found them, or what the hell he wanted, or even why he was talking to them at all. Most Hermits just avoided this part of the Nether, and let them do their thing. But here Mumbo was, just standing there, diamonds in hand. Sure. Why not.
"Elaborate," they said, leaning back against the wall.
"Okay," started Mumbo. "I left the server a few months back to go on a trip, right?"
"Allegedly."
"When I- when I left, I was the richest Hermit. And then I got back, and I thought well I'm definitely not the richest Hermit anymore, but then I checked in my vault and there was substantially more diamonds in there than I remember?"
"What does any of this have to do with me or X?" asked EX flatly. At this point, they were just considering telling him to shove off and let them continue building this wall. This was a waste of time.
"I was wondering," said Mumbo, looking anywhere but their face (did this man go to therapy for anxiety? EX sure hoped he did. This was embarrasing.), "if you had perhaps lost any?"
What the fuck?
"I know you haven't been around," said Mumbo with a sigh, "but this is why I was looking for X first, and I just got really lost on my way there, and maybe there might be a chance that you-"
EX paused him with a wave of their hand. "You are smoking warped mushrooms if you think I have been anywhere close to the Overworld," they said, walking closer. "If this had been any other person, or any other situation, I would have said that oh yeah, I took your puny little diamonds, but this? I'm not even going to pretend that I have. Come on. Seriously, how did you get all the way out here?"
"I thought it was worth a shot," said Mumbo, stepping back two paces and almost tripping over a dint in the netherrack. "Since, y'know, that was sort of your whole thing in season 8-"
EX sighed. "We don't talk about season 8."
"Sorry."
There was a dead silence of about 10 seconds in which EX turned back around and continued building the wall. Hearing no footsteps or rockets, they turned back around and raised an eyebrow. "X's portal is about three thousand blocks southwest of here. If you want to make it before the sun goes down in the Overworld- maybe it's already set, who knows- you should probably get on it."
Mumbo cleared his throat. "Uh. Yeah that'd be good. Thanks?"
"Do you go to therapy for anxiety?"
"What?"
"You need therapy. Get out of my swamp."
Mumbo nodded and, almost dropping the shulker box, flew off in the direction that EX had specified.
They watched him go for a while longer, hands on hips. What a guy. What a weird fucking guy.
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Did you not watch miss Americana? She spoke tons about how she was no longer going to be silenced and how she was going to speak out about important things... then you know. Didn't.
So idk where you get 'she never claimed to be an activist' from
Also for the boting thing she just v occasionally says 'vote!'. She hasn't even mentioned the reasons why it's not that simple (disenfranchisement, purposely making it harder in POC communities, the fact that voting in the two party system means voting for two candidates who are going to oppress you etc). Saying 'vote!' Is not that helpful (nor obviously is working with abusers, dating racists, being friends / friendly with all sorts of really awful people). But yeah all completely at odds with all the miss Americana stuff
as for your first point, imo, she very clearly meant speaking when she wants to not speaking for every issue (for example: in 2016 she wanted to specifically speak against trump, but she was stopped, but if the same thing were happening now in 2023, she would speak). she is not an activist by any means, not even close to one. i have to laugh like im genuinely ??? by the notion that people think that.
as for your second point, i agree, i would love if she went into those issues and talked about them. but that’s solely because she would bring attention to them (same is the case with infinite other things), not because i want to learn about this stuff from her. it’s not her job to educate people - i want real political people to talk about this because they don’t and they actively benefit from it, not a fucking popstar. her job is to aid, which she very much does. where i am gonna counter you is that you may think her “vote!” posts are whatever, but real people involved in politics value them because they are amazingly impactful. go see the nvrd tweet about her recent one.
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