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earthstellar · 3 months

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Brave Bang Bravern!: A Review for Transformers Fans

I've seen so much about this on my dash that I had to give it a try, and I gotta say, as someone who hasn't watched any new anime series since around 2008 at the most recent and I also hate the fucking military, this is a pretty good show.

THERE WILL BE SOME MILD SPOILERS. Nothing major. I'm not gonna spoil anything critical or mention characters that are introduced later etc. At of time of writing, only 6 episodes have been released.

Understanding Genre: The Trailer is A Lie

Now, while there is a trailer here, I want you to largely disregard it.

Why is that? Well, we need to talk about the "big two" robot show genres in Japan, which are as follows:

Real Robot -- This refers to a typically military setting or other serious setting, in which robots are handled as realistically as possible in terms of how they work and how they are applied. There tend to be less individual/sentient robots and more "suit" type mechs right along side human-made, more realistic machinery and mech designs, although that isn't entirely unique to this genre. Usually this stuff is labelled as sci-fi/action outside of Japan.

Super Robot (THIS IS THE SHIT TRANSFORMERS FANS GENERALLY WANT) --Essentially borderline seemingly magical robots with their own rules and in universe backstory for how they work, which isn't necessarily tied to realism. Usually this stuff is labelled as sci-fi/fantasy or space fantasy outside of Japan, since a lot of these tend to be space robots. They can be "driven" by pilots or just straight up sentient robots who are vibing with some human companions, although it's not exclusively that. It can be both, it can be neither, but no matter what, Super Robot shows are less about strict realism and more about really cool shit with robots that are basically their own people and exist according to their own rules.

Now, the trailer for BBBB (the acronym for the show is based on the Japanese title, which is Bang Brave Bang Bravern) is a COMPLETE FUCKING LIE.

It wants you to think this is going to be some dumbass GI Joe shit.

While there are elements of dumbass GI Joe shit, this is largely just to set up the premise for why shit is happening in the first place, and to help introduce the main threat (alien space creatures with fucking light beam lasers) as well as bring in our main characters under the premise of everyone having to work together to address this alien threat to Earth.

What we care about here amongst Transformers freaks is gay space robots, and this show delivers.

Getting Into Bravern: First Episode, Mild Plot Spoiler Summary

It wants you to think this is a Real Robot show.

The first episode sets things up as though it will be a Real Robot show.

There is a threat to Earth, a mystery space alien mechanical enemy, and nobody knows what the fuck to do. A military exercise between multiple nations using Titanostriders (which look very much like Shiro Masamune Appleseed-style mechs, human made in nature) to practice battle drills who are now instructed to swap over to real ammunition and go to fucking town.

Nobody knows how to do that.

They're skilled with the Titanostriders, sure, but it turns into a shit show. The alien mechanical enemies are using fucking space laser shit, it's a disaster---

--And then Bravern drops in from the fucking sky and it IMMEDIATELY TURNS INTO A SUPER ROBOT SHOW.

There's a "get in the robot, Shiji" moment where one of the Titanostrider operators, Isami Ao, is encouraged by Bravern to get inside of him.

He does. And immediately has no idea what the fuck is going on, Bravern is largely in control, and starts to blast his own theme song inside his cockpit as diegetic music while Isami is generally losing his shit, as one might do.

Humanity's reaction to Bravern is Real Robot genre type, where it is handled seriously by all the characters and organisations involved in universe, however Bravern is very much a Super Robot genre character who brings more of a Super Robot energy to the show at large.

The serious elements are mostly balanced by how fucking silly Bravern is, and there are some excellent moments in this show (currently only 6 episodes have been released) which make it entirely worth a watch.

Fun Things About Bravern Himself

Braven is very, very, very gay for his pilot.

Chances are, you've seen the screenshots of some of these moments on Tumblr already, but the delivery of these lines is magnificent.

Bravern sings his own theme song. It's the voice actor for Bravern doing the vocals, and the song itself is reminiscent of 1970s orchestrated big band energy mecha themes. For Transformers fans, it has a very Transformers Victory theme kind of vibe to it.

You gotta hear it, it fucking rules. The album cover shows Bravern holding a giant microphone.

Bravern is generally light hearted, doing his best to motivate his pilot while not hesitating to enter the action and try to defend humanity.

Now, why does Bravern care about humans so much? We don't know, but we'll talk about some mysteries in a later section below.

He is surprisingly insightful at times, while also fucking around and enjoying himself. (You may have seen screenshots going around Tumblr of Bravern with a loop of hot dogs strung around one of his chevron points on his forehead. This follows a scene in which he wants his pilot to take a break and associate with his peers for once, as a way to relieve stress. So they go to a bar, it turns out reception is positive and someone even brings weenies out for Bravern since he's too big to fit inside, lol.)

Generally, he's a very interesting mech, because we have so little information about him. He's fun, and clearly vibing, but he's also borderline if not outright obsessed with his pilot and has unknown origins, which has lead to some darker interpretations and audience discussion.

A lot of people have compared Bravern's energy to Rodimus, and generally I would agree with that. He has his high-energy silly moments, and his more serious personal moments (primarily with Isami, but also with Smith), and I think these aspects of his character work well to create a fun mech with the potential to be deep in a believable and effective way, with an equal capacity for being a doofus.

Bravern is obviously the number one reason to watch the show for most people, and I would say that if you're purely here for a giant gay space robot, then this is going to be a decent watch.

The Military Sucks: There Are Militaries Involved Yet Somehow This Is Still Watchable

I hate the fucking military, so at least the military here is depicted in an acceptable way (so far, at least). In episode 2, they waterboard Isami to interrogate him for information he doesn't have regarding Bravern, which is a realistically shitty and awful thing for the military to do-- They don't sugarcoat how fucked up the military is. These people very much have the capacity to harm their own staff, and they will do so if it means they might get an edge over the enemy.

At the same time, the actual characters in the military are depicted as primarily doing this shit out of a genuine personal desire to defeat these horrendously destructive space entities, which have attacked at least some of their home towns and home countries, so it's more personal rather than purely being a military directive that people are being forced to follow.

In this way, it's not really realistic, but everyone is on board for their own largely humanitarian aid type of reasons (there is a mission which is basically just locating survivors of an attack and then getting the fuck out) which makes the military context feel less oppressive and shitty.

Part of why this is more OK than other military depictions is because the military forces involved here are international (collaborating to defeat a global threat rather than kill each other's civilians) and because the military is clearly losing this war.

Because it's an international effort, this brings more diversity to the show-- There's a surprising amount of English interspersed between dialogue in Japanese here and there, and the military board consists of representatives from multiple nations, including some Germans who at first believe Bravern is some kind of secret American operation, lmao.

Bravern calls the military out on its shit, and essentially tells the military board to stop with the suspicious infighting bullshit and drop the internal tension because otherwise they'll all die to this mechanical nightmare creature threat.

They actually listen, which means this is an unrealistic portrayal of the military, lmao. I think they struck a good balance so far between showing that the military sucks and has problems, while also making sure that you're not really cheering for any given military force, but rather, you cheer for individual characters who just happen to be stuck doing this military shit as a premise for anything to be going on in the show at all.

So it's not the worst when it comes to the military shit; At least so far, it's watchable, which as someone who passionately hates the fucking military, is surprising to me.

It's less GI Joe and more "we just needed a reason for these characters to be involved in this situation".

Of course, your mileage may vary, but personally I found it easy to tune out or just skip through any military shit that got grating and I didn't miss anything important by doing so. At the very least, you can skip around and ignore a lot of this stuff and get right to the gay robot if that's all you want to do. It becomes clear pretty quickly what's going on if you skip around a bit, so no worries there.

Fun Speculation: What is Bravern?

Only 6 episodes are out at the moment, so there's tons of shit we don't know yet.

Bravern has a notable resemblance to a type of enemy in the show, called a Death-Drive.

Death-Drives are mecha who are distinct from the "minion" type enemies (which almost resemble flying saucers with laser gun arms and light shields), and have their own unique character designs and names.

Why these things are here, how they are here, why they are interested in Earth, and everything else is currently unknown.

Bravern looks like he could possibly be of the same mechanical species, although we don't know if that's true (yet). He has abilities that the other mecha don't seem to have, but how far this goes and what it might mean is not yet clear.

Bravern also seems to have knowledge of human media (he references The Abyss at one point and he likes 3D printing figures of sentai show characters lmao), and was immediately able to speak to the humans using language they would understand, so it's unclear if Bravern may have been studying Earth for some time before his arrival or why.

He is obsessed with his pilot and cares for him so much that he extends some care towards others purely based on their relation to Isami as co-workers; Why? What makes Isami special?

How does Bravern know seemingly every human language? How does his piloting system work? How similar is he to the Death-Drives-- Are organic beings critical to them in some way? If so, why are the other mechs killing so many of us? (These are big questions especially by the end of episode 6, due to some spoilers and a spoiler character who shows up later.)

We know little to nothing about a lot of the key elements of the show, including any motivations for the Death-Drives or what they are, what's up with the fucking UFO looking laser things, etc.

There's more to speculate on, but that would be getting into deeper spoiler territory so I'm gonna hold back on that for now.

Summary: It's Gay and Cool and Has Interesting Ideas

Bravern's not the sole source of gay vibes in this show, but it's fun that he is also a source of gay vibes in this show.

The designs are great, the Titanostriders remind me of Appleseed style mechanical suit designs which is nice, the Death-Drives are super interesting, Bravern is fucking fabulous but he's not too goofy to take seriously, and the military is unfortunately present but it's clear that they suck and are generally losing (and since the conflict is not between different groups of humans but rather is about human collaboration to defeat a non-human shared threat to our entire planet, this goes a long way to make the military shit tolerable).

It pretends to be a Real Robot show but has so much Super Robot show sprinkled in that you might as well consider it a little bit of both which the show balances pretty well.

I haven't watched an anime since around 2008 at the very latest, so I don't know how this might compare to any other robot animes since then and I am certainly not an anime expert by any means LOL, but this has been a fun show to watch so far.

It does have its problems, of course, but if you can get past the setup for the first episode (when it's still pretending to be a Real Robot show), from the moment Bravern arrives towards the end of that first episode, the show gains momentum and starts to get interesting very quickly.

It has some issues. But we're only 6 episodes in, so at the moment, they have plenty of time to potentially address those issues and we'll see where things go.

I'd recommend it if you want to give it a try!

I think there's enough here to appeal to the usual Transformers crowd and you might end up liking it, or at least having fun while watching it in the background.

If you end up wanting to to tap out then no worries-- I think it's worth giving it a shot and if it's not your thing, no problem.

Each episode is around 25 - 30 minutes, so while the first episode might feel like a slog to get through because fuck the military, once Bravern shows up the show actually gets started and I wouldn't blame anyone for just skipping to that point in the first episode and going from there, because there's nothing in that opening that you won't be reminded of or be able to figure out. It mostly just sets up the intro to the human characters and the collaboration training session, introduces the Titanostriders as a thing, and you can always go back and watch that part later if you want to.

All in all, pretty decent! Obviously we're Transformers people so we're here for the robots, and the robots are interesting and fun, and that's all I need to have a good time.

Hopefully this was a useful summary if you're interested or have seen Bravern stuff on your dash! :)

Thanks for reading!

BONUS: I forgot to mention this somehow, but there's a lot of overlap between Transformers and other Brave shows involving actual Transformers re-used in Japan for these shows; There's a good video about it here on YouTube which explains some of this, but if anyone's wondering, yes Bravern has a grounder alt-mode and it's pretty cool. Will we get a transforming Bravern figure??? We can hope!

There's another video here which mentions some of the Transformers elements in other Brave shows/Yuusha, which might be interesting for those of you who are unaware. :)

#maccadams #maccadam #bravern #bbbb #ba #bang brave bang bravern #long post #bravern review #transformers

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jd07201990 · 4 months

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Did you know the Military has a few specialized forces, in their Marketing and PR divisions? Sure, there are the Psyops agents working in Gaming Studios, ensuring impressionable minds are drilled with how exciting and fun war and fighting battles are. But then there are the Recruiters. You ever notice the are no unattractive recruiters? Even more so, the Jarheads that stomp around Schools, riling up future cannon-fodder, are always massive, aesthetic wonders. GI-Joe’s right out of Basic, pumped full of Redbull and creatine, reeking of testosterone. They grunt and yell, challenging Football Players to pullup contests, or holding pens in our hands, arms stretched out. Then at the end of the year, they snag a few meatheads, sign them up, and off they go, to the be broken down, emptied out, and rebuilt into Fighting Bulls, who’s only goal in life is to travel from base to base, all over the Country, playing with big-boy toys, and leaving pretty women with a 9-month US Army Issued time-bomb, and a lifetime reminder of the true purpose of the Military. Numbers. Why am I telling you this? Because by tomorrow, I won’t know any difference. I’m a designated Recruiter, my family’s classic good looks a curse when the Marines showed up at school Senior year. I wasn’t stupid enough to fall for their tricks, but that doesn’t matter when it’s the US Army’s word, against a Mathlete. Well, ex-mathlete. The only numbers I can think about now, are how many reps to break my personal record, and how many bellies are out there, swelling with future cannon-fodder. It’s only been 6 months since they got me, I dunno what they put in that canteen food, but as you can see… I’m built to Sell 1-way tickets to Dog-Tag University, to impressionable meatheads. They look at me and want this. But hey! They said I’d get to spend 6 months with my Big brother in Las-Vegas. He’s been there for a year, snagging drunk Frat-Boys tourists as they leave their hotels to go home.

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cowboythighs · 9 months

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When Wayne took Eddie in, his biggest worry was that he was going to screw the poor kid up even more than his parents already had. After all, what did he know about taking care of a kid? How would he know what his nephew didn’t know- what Wayne needed to teach him? And how was he going to manage raising a whole little human and provide for them both? But to his surprise, Wayne soon found out that Eddie was shockingly self-sufficient. That he’d had to learn how to cook and clean and do laundry for himself, because his parents were too caught up in themselves and their own issues to take care of him.

Wayne’s momentary relief that he wasn’t starting from ground zero was soon replaced by a level of resentment towards Eddie’s parents. It wasn’t fair that Eddie had been forced to rely on himself so much. It hurt Wayne to see someone so young worrying the way he did about not using too much water; hurt watching Eddie silently going behind Wayne to turn off unused lights because he worried about the bills being too high to pay.

When he figured out Eddie's lemonade stand wasn’t set up to fund a new comic or toy, but rather to try and pay his share for room and board, Wayne took Eddie to the local thrift store and headed straight for the toys section. He was stern when he told Eddie to keep his money, and that they were not leaving until Eddie had an armful of his own toys because Wayne was determined to make sure Eddie had the chance to be a kid.

He watched as Eddie slowly pursued through the selection of toys- inspecting them carefully. When Wayne caught on that Eddie was looking at the price tags he gently admonished him; told him these are used toys; they’re cheap enough and that Eddie didn’t have to worry about money with him.

Eddie tried to argue, insisted that he knows how this goes and appreciates the thought, he really does think it’s nice that Uncle Wayne wants him to have fun stuff to play with, but he knew that just because they have money now it didn’t mean they won’t somehow come up short later, and how he’d much rather have heat than a GI Joe.

Wayne tried to be patient, to not to be as gruff as was his nature as he told Eddie “I may not be your daddy, but you're my boy and I’m gonna take care of you”. Wayne told him it was time to stop fussing and enjoy being a kid. Wayne allowed himself a smile when Eddie relented and picked out a handful of toys.

When they passed the book display as they walked towards the register Wayne stopped. “You like readin’?'' he asks. Eddie looks longingly at the books but only shrugs.

“Don’t know, never had any books to read”. Eddie says it like it doesn’t matter, but his face betrays him.

“They had books in school, didn’t they?” Wayne asked. Eddie just gave another shrug.

“Guess so. I didn't get to go to school very often. Mom and dad were almost always too tired or too sick in the mornings to take me. and we moved around a lot. When we lived close I could walk to school by myself as long as I had clean clothes. If you go to school dirty, teachers get too nosey," Eddie stated like it was common knowledge, “and then they call your parents and you get in trouble and have to move again. But mostly it was too far to walk so I couldn’t go anyways.”

Wayne’s heart felt like it was breaking anew with each detail of casual neglect his nephew had to endure. It wasn’t right for a kid so young to have gone through so much and be so nonchalant about it. Making up his mind he directed Eddie over to the books and told him he can have whatever he wants. There's a slim selection of children’s books to choose from, but it's a place to start.

Wayne watched Eddie's eyes as they kept wandering back to a boxed set with dragons and wizards on the spine. Wayne picked up the set of the Lord of the Rings books without a word and took the set up to the register with Eddie trailing behind. They were far too advanced for a kid his age, especially one as far behind as Eddie, but Wayne decided he would read to him every night. would read aloud the stories of Bilbo and Frodo and Middle Earth and watch Eddie's love for learning grow.

Wayne was proud when time passed and Eddie started leaving dirty dishes in the sink and letting his room get messy. He didn’t mind when Eddie took a long shower or stayed up late writing his own stories. Wasn’t disappointed when he got held back in school, or spent his free time playing games of make believe with his friends. Because he knew better than anyone that Eddie had a rough start in life and had been playing catch up for a long while. And besides, it gave him a chance to be a kid just a little longer, and there was nothing Wayne wanted more than that.

#cw child neglect #cowboythighs #wayne munson #eddie munson #ficlet #crossposted (and slightly edited) from my twt #also ik the books pictured aren’t the lotr trilogy but i mentioned dragons on the spine and this is the closest i could find so we’re using #✨imagination ✨

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smallgodseries · 1 year

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[image description: A tall thin (and sumptuously gorgeous) blonde doll, with a rakish eye patch and military uniform worn with no socks and low black heels carries a huge green duffel and a smaller bright red suitcase. Pink target sights appear all around her, and the ginchy floral pattern with swirls behind her has been repeatedly attacked, revealing the metal around the bullet holes. Text reads, “263 FREDERIQUE BARBAROSSA - SMALL GOD OF ACTION FIGURES.”]

•••••

“What’s that, kid? You want to know the difference between a doll and an action figure? Oh, you’ll get lots of stories from lots of sources on that one. People who’ll say brushable hair or changeable clothing makes something a doll, and ignore all those full-size GI Joes with both. People who’ll say possibility makes an action figure—and here comes Made to Move Barbie, and fuck, is Barbie an action figure now? Lots of people telling you lots of things, and those things don’t match up, but it doesn’t matter, because they got to have an opinion, loudly, and where they come from, the louder an opinion is, the more true it is. They call this ‘debate.’ I say they need to buy a dictionary. But come closer, and I’ll tell you the difference. You listening?

“Marketing. It’s all marketing. Because see, some clever Charlies so far removed from their own childhoods that they didn’t remember what it was like to look at a teddy bear and see it prowling through the primal forests, those assholes decided that boys wouldn’t play with dolls. That dolls had been so conceptually tainted with the essence of girlhood that boys would sit idle and bored before they’d play with a doll. Never mind that actual patterns of play didn’t support that—never mind that it was parents who refused to buy dolls for their precious little men, because their own ideas about gender were so rigidly-set that they couldn’t imagine anyone disagreeing with them. The people in charge needed a way to sell toys to boys, and kids like to play with tiny people. Gender’s got nothing to do with it.

“So the people who run the markets decided that some dolls were action figures now, and defined the category so loosely that almost no one could tell what they meant. Now ‘doll’ and ‘action figure’ are more of a vibe than anything else, and you can learn a lot about a person by how they identify the things around them. Is Barbie a doll? Is He-Man an action figure? In the end, when they’re both up to their chins in mud, saving the world from an evil mastermind from the planet of the Care Bears, is anybody going to say it really matters?

“Are you?”

#smallgodseries #Small Gods #Seanan McGuire #Lee Moyer #icons and stories

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tomodachi-to-koibito · 18 days

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at the very core of my person I am more than willing to eat crow, beg for forgiveness and say "Beau deMayo you weren't leading us on after all!"

buuuuut-

the shitty way Jean has been mishandled aside (and the snipped and rushed storylines for a few things)

I just can't get over the show runner saying baiting stuff like how Gambit x Rogue is the otp of the series and then proceeds to bring in the worst love triangle of the x men run and rub it in the noses of Gambit fans let alone Romy fans.

the fact that he's gleeful about perma killing Remy and says bullshit like how he needed to give him a crop top to make him likeable!???

HAH.

Gambit is always likeable and x men the animated series made him a fan favorite!

like-

It's okay for deMayo to have SOME favorites and boost em a little (that's a bonus of running a show right?) but with how some of these storylines have converged just to get to this point has been done so badly it's hurting my brain and now when somebody asks him what his five year plan was he brings up that HORRIBLE arc for Rogue where she marries Magneto and gives him a baby???

i mean-

my dude, my guy,

you're clearly super freaking biased to Magneto and for some reason ship him with Rogue to the point of torpedoing what was happening in the original series and is currently canon in the comics!???

Gambit and Rogue are McMarried, BEAU. and while you might NOT be McLoving it a LOT of people do

matter of fact-

WAY MORE PEOPLE THEN THE FEW WHO WANT ROGUE TO BE THE TROPHY WAIFU OF A MAN MORE THAN TWICE HER AGE IN A SHIP THAT IS WEIRD AND MAKES HER ACT LIKE A FROSTY BOSSY ASSHOLE

I read Age of Apocalypse! It had some really insane and cool stuff but it was also horrible for me as a Rogue fan!

She doesn't have to BE with Remy but for the love of GOD stop trying to make her into a stoic gurl boss. She's much more human then that.

i don't trust you, demayo. at all. and I'll gladly apologize (a little) if I'm super duper wrong and you aren't trying to force Rogue to make out with your favorite weathered GI Joe dolly. 🤡

#x men 97 #x men 97 spoilers?#u u i hope not #x men #rogue #romy #anti magneto #sorry boys he and i are on the outs rn #gambit x rogue

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skidblast · 8 months

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Here we go again.

Image Comics, under the imprint Skybound Entertainment, now has the mantle which the IDW Publishing had for thirteen years. Which means it is time for new stories.

Or a reboot that feels rather familiar.

The thing is, Transformers has a very rich history. While the premise itself can be summarized in 1-2 sentences, there is still nearly forty years of media to draw from.

So, why do we always end up in 1984?

Because it is familiar. It is what we are used to. It is the simpler time where we know what happens, where we are in the familiarity of the franchise and we can call it our comfort. While there is certainly transformers stories that took the big leap, such as Beast Wars and Transformers Animated, those still took their cue from the original cartoon.

So what can we expect from this new comic series?

First of all, there is the obvious. Art references and references to old plots that were once seen Saturday mornings in front of the TV. While building on the true and trusted bare-bones of the cartoon series that started it all.

And secondly, we know there is going to be GI Joe comics, with the main cover of the upcoming "Duke" comic showing a fighter jet that is very familiar. And as the "Energon Universe" is its own imprint, and we have "Void Rivals", four issues already out with four characters in them from the original G1 transformers cartoon. All before this comic issue came out. So it is not only Transformers, but they are going to be alongside Duke, Marissa and Cobra Commander and with few original characters and concept in as well.

And despite all the familiarity, there is a deviation. A significant one but familiar. Grim? Mature? For grownups? No matter what, it is a deviation that's very familiar to everyone. That this medium to tell the story is not aimed at the age group that was the target audience for the cartoon, but for the same kids that watched the cartoon in its infancy, now all grown up and there is no need to sugarcoat anything. Gone are the days of thinly sanitised references to bleaker things which are expanded upon in a PSA before the credits roll. Here they are, out in the open for dissemination or to really hammer home that this is something that can't be seen on the TV during your Saturday mornings.

It's going to be interesting to see how this develops. Is this just going to be a dark adult version of the old G1 cartoon? Are they going to go for the "realism" excuse as of why such a dark turn was taken? Or will there be growth to the more hopeful and peppy? Will this comic have the space for the Optimus Prime that is "strong enough to be gentle"?

#maccadam #energon universe #transformers #transformers comic #spike witwicky #sparkplug witwicky #optimus prime #starscream #skyfire #jetfire #STUPID SPECULATION #I'm getting tired of gritty “realism”#and I'm hoping this won't stay that way for too long #spoilers

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spencethebence · 4 months

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Vee Doll Version 1!

This is the first doll I’ve actually finished. I'd like to talk about my process, because I’ve learned a lot going through with it!

I was very much inspired by the doll making of @strangegutz I’d been wanting to try and make my own for the longest time. I had also picked up a custom Harpy Eda doll from thecosmicdolls on etsy, so I really wanted to give it a try on my own.

I started with the head using super sculpey and painting it afterwards. It’s the first time I’ve used super sculpey instead of colored sculpey. It's sooo much easier than trying to mix color through combining clay. I like the sculpt I did, but I did it before I even had an idea what I’d do with the body. I used craft paper for the hair, a method it used for the other doll I never finished, and overall I think it turned out well. I like the cartoon-y look the paper gives the definition of the hair but it was a process to figure out how to fold and glue it into the shapes I like. For the facial features I also used pieces of paper with sticky tack so I could change the expressions if I wanted to.

The body is made out of floral wire and foam, and the clothes are made from thrifted shirt fabric, a ripped pair of jeans and GI Joe boots. The process of making the underbody was a big learning experience for me. My first body I twisted the floral wire around a ton thinking I needed it to have a sturdy base, I realized it didn’t really need to have as much support as I thought with the wire especially if I’m the only one posing it, I can take my time to make it look the best. So the next step was gluing together a bunch of pieces of foam in the shape of the body that I was just going to shove a wire through, I spent a while trying to make the under body shape as perfect as I could, but when I finally went on to make the clothes I learned something important, the shape of the underbody didn’t matter too much, the only thing that really matters for body shape is how the fabric is sewn. The first shirt I did was way too small, but luckily I did the sleeves separate from the shirt because it would be easier to put them on the doll, so I didn’t have to remake those.

My biggest take away from this all is something simple and obvious but is still something that’s always been hard for me to do. If I do something wrong, if something doesn’t turn out right, It’s GOOD to go back and do it again and do it right! Duh right? Well, I’ve always been really stubborn when it comes to art, the steps I look forward too are never the ones I’m actually working on at the moment it feels like so I’m always rushing ahead, living with my mistakes and skipping over refinement. Sometimes it’s okay to take shortcuts, and your art can never be perfect of course, but it took a lot of willpower for me to follow through and redo parts of this doll and it really helped overall. The arms and legs were all individual parts at first, and this made it so difficult to dress and work with it. I took a step back, thought it over and refined it, redoing the arms and legs with a single long piece of foam for each that was easy to get the fabric over. This solidified the process for me, because I took the time to redo it. I've set myself up to work better next time.

I will be very honest, I don’t think this doll is that good, there’s a ton of things I think are off about it, I feel like the head style doesn’t make the rest of the doll. The proportions are off all over the place, and my sewing skills are still pretty mid after all these years. BUT I’ve never been prouder of myself actually following through and finishing and learning something from this process. I’ve figured out a lot of the process and I really want to go through and make another version of it.

#Vee :D #Vee Noceda #vee the owl house #vee the basilisk #vee toh #toh #the owl house #doll #ooak doll #art doll #myart

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lord-squiggletits · 3 months

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Really I just think it was kind of an odd writing choice to assign Optimus the white guilt "oh my race/predecessors were colonists that means I'm basically a tyrant too and all of us are cursed by our ancestors' sins" allegory when like. Out of the entire IDW1 cast he is far and away the character who has done the most to fight against colonialism. He fought for 4 million years trying to stop Megatron and then continued to help Earth even after the war was over. The man personally murdered Nova Prime and Galvatron with his bare hands even (aka two of the greatest leaders of the Golden Age, the era when all that colonialism OP gets shoved onto his shoulders actually fucking happened). And not only that, he's also one of the few Cybertronians who genuinely see human beings (and other organics) as equal species with no reservations whatsoever, which is a sentiment that pretty much only Rewind matched when he said "Megatron never existing would have sucked for Cybertron but it would've saved billions of lives in the rest of the galaxy and maybe that's more important." (And also Arcee, who was around for the Golden Age and literally participated in said colonialism, saying that was a shitty era she regrets taking part in.)

Like for fuck's sake, in the same GI Joe/Transformers crossover where Windblade is lecturing Optimus about how bad he is for going against the rulings of the government and taking the law into his own hands, almost literally the entire Council of Worlds was openly calling humans weaklings who couldn't possibly be a credible threat against Cybertron and saying shit like 'I mean, they only live a few decades, if a bunch of them die it's not like it's a big deal.'

Optimus was literally out there willing to trash his own reputation and be seen as a tyrant both in the eyes of humanity and his own people, just to do everything he could to protect Earth from one in a long line of invasions/exploitations/transgressions against Earth as well as organics across the galaxy in general. Like sorry, I'm not going to stop seeing that as admirable (if in a tragic/misguided/flawed way) no matter how many characters call Optimus a fascist manipulative liar, and I'm not going to ignore how Optimus is one of the most anti-racist characters in the whole story just bc someone wanted to slap him with the colonizer allegory.

#squiggposting #like idk OP did do bad things but it's more annoying when he gets blamed for shit #that either wasnt his fault or that he actively tried to prevent and just failed in doing #idw op love

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dynared · 10 days

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Random thoughts on the Earthspark cancelation and what comes next for the Transformers brand

What a week, huh? So, we got confirmation Earthspark was canceled, Hasbro put the absolute bare minimum effort into their 40th anniversary celebration leading to many people going to the movie theaters expecting Transformers the Movie and not DVD-quality episodes of the TV series with many demanding refunds, and some good news, Transformers from Skybound being nominated for several Eisner awards, the first time a Transformers comic has ever been nominated for the comic book world's Oscar equivalent.

So once again, the brand, the sole surviving Western mecha brand at this point unless that J-Lo movie next week somehow launches a new franchise (doubtful) is at a crossroads, especially with their enduring business partner Paramount in complete turmoil, with more senior executives jumping ship and an official NDA signed between Paramount and Sony yesterday which allows Sony access to Paramount's record-keeping in order to ascertain the value for a bid.

So with all that said, rambling about the franchise under the cut.

Earthspark is done after this season, and it's easy to see why. While many right-wing grifter types will point to the nebulous "wokeness", an ill-defined term at this point that means little besides "bad non-traditional thing", the reasons are pretty simple. Kids weren't interested, the toyline didn't sell, and the show, whether due to being distributed on a streaming service people only get for Sonic stuff and the occasional South Park special, had very poor ratings. If you're making a kids show and you bore the kids, you're done, no matter how "important" you think the stories are. The days of Ted Turner funding Captain Planet out of his own pocket are long gone.

Since Earthspark is dead, but another series is in development, it looks like Hasbro will not be letting the franchise rest for any set period of time. The most likely follow-up for Earthspark is a spin-off of Transformers One similar to what Tales of the TMNT is for Mutant Mayhem after the latter's box-office success. It's a pretty low-risk venture to boot, with the biggest issue being the usual problems with a movie spin-off (lower quality visuals, sound-alikes since you can't pay the celebrity actors to do the voices week in and week out) so long as the movie is a success. It also lets the franchise establish some needed distance from Earthspark's lack of success.

Now, the question of "What if One isn't a success?" definitely is one that Hasbro is contemplating. For all the ragging on Snake-Eyes GI Joe Origins as a box office bomb, Rise of the Beasts was widely viewed by Hollywood as a flop and the lowest-grossing film in the history of the franchise. While a lot of that may be due to the wishy-washy way the continuity has been handled and the inability to commit to a full reboot (Madame Web producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has been insistent that all the Michael Bay movies are still canon, even though that makes no real sense), if One isn't successful, the franchise may need to step back for a year or two.

Any other new concept for a series that fans have wanted is simply not feasible due to time and budget. With Hasbro joined at the hip with Paramount (apparently Hasbro board members own Paramount stock, hence their desire to keep the relationship going so long as Paramount exists), they don't have access to or funds for numerous studios. Studio Trigger have been asking to do a Transformers show for years now, hence all the shout-outs in stuff like SSSS.Gridman and even Panty and Stocking. Studio Orange's head took to the internet earlier in the week asking to be able to do a mecha show. Neither is getting the call from Hasbro because Paramount would rather use local Western studios and save money.

That of course leads to the final option for an adaptation, a 1:1 or similar of the Energon Universe. The problem with that is simply put, it's way too soon. While it would assuredly get a lot of attention just by putting down "From the creator of Invincible and The Walking Dead" in the promos, animation lead times mean that it would be impossible to do at this point without overtaking the entire stock of comics and either resulting in huge delays between seasons, or filler. Neither of which would be helpful.

So I guess tl:dr - Earthspark bombed not because of a non-binary owl, but because the kids were bored by it, with even the Fox News controversy failing to get the show any real positive attention with its main demographic of families. As horrible for Hollywood as it may be to see Paramount be sold for parts to Sony, it may actually be Hasbro's best bet at making its tie-in brands successful again on the big and small screens. And if One doesn't succeed, they are going to be in big trouble because nothing else is realistically ready yet.

#transformers #transformers one #transformers earthspark #paramount #rambles

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