#end up manipulating megatron and/or going to kill him and all the decepticons

[brandwhorestarscream]

Imagine if all the Megatrons swapped Starscreams like g1 Starscream ended up in tfp armada starscream ending up in tfa and tfp Starscream ended up in g1

Oh boy-

G1 Starscream is dead within 20 minutes. He tries to kill TFP Megatron and unlike the one he's used to, this Megatron does not tolerate insubordination of any kind. His Starscream gets away with it because he's got a bangin body and purrs the word, "Masteeer~" very appealingly. He also doesn't have any attachment to this Starscream. Blasts him straight through the spark with his fusion canon and rolls his optics, leaving the vehicons to clean up the corpse

Armada in TFA is... weird. This Megatron is a lot less, how do I put it? Mouthy? Verbally abusive? He's not going to ridicule this new Starscream and dress him down publicly like the Megatron he's used to. This Megatron actually treats him really well, compared to what he's used to? He doesn't hit him nor make him out to be worthless and an easy target for all kinds of smacktalk. This Megatron is much quieter and more calculating, definitely more manipulative, but his soft voice and patient nature make Starscream putty in his hands. He's not at all opposed to more forces, and this seeker is obedient and seems to openly crave his praise and validation. It's very easy for TFA Megatron to get him under his control, and they're both happy with that arrangement

TFP Starscream legitimately takes over the decepticons in less than 24 hours. These clowns don't have to hide from humans and do the exact, same, thing, every single day without fail. Their plans are always the same, they don't even seem to have any overarching goals aside from annoying the autobots. Plus, they're tiny compared to him (the g1 bots are like?? Between 15 and 20 feet tall, TFP Scream clocks in at over 30). Their armor is thin and he has much heavier weaponry. Killing off or defeating Megatron is laughably easy after everything he's endured with his own. Whether he keeps him alive as a trophy or just kills him to take his throne is up to you, but the decepticons have a new boss. A boss with more grand ideas than just endless energon raids. He does a complete overhaul of their security system (the amount of times that autobota get in here is alarming. How they've not just been blown to smithereens yet is beyond him), upgrades their weapons and battle plans, and most importantly: starts working on an actual longterm plan to fix this shit. He runs an incredibly tight ship and even Soundwave is hard pressed to deny that he's lethally efficient.

[emperor-kumquat]

Hello Emperor Kumkuat!

This is the next part of last month's questions. I didn't want to overload you, so I split it into several parts. There will be at least five more questions in May:

Which character do you think you changed the most compared to the original?

What diseases do you plan to include in the stories besides the zombie virus (e.g. Hate Plague)?

According to morality, who is the best and worst per faction (According to Actual and Mercy Canon)?

If the previous Bosses fought each other (Overlord, Sunder, Tarn and Kremzeek) who would win (but no body/mind control)?

What ideas do you plan to take from Transformers One, e.g. (miners' life, robot deer, Airacnid as an assassin who worked for Sentinel)? I look forward to your answer.

Thank you for the specific questions, it's always nice to get some of those!

Which character changed the most from the original? Ohhhh I really need to think. So many had slight changes but I think Imperious and Kremzeek had the biggest changes. "Lord Imperious Delirious" is a Transformers character I still know zip about. I took one look at the design and made him a giant spawn of Unicron like Thunderwing of the TFP game. Imperious travels the universe looking for inhabited planets to raze with demonic rainbow light. But Kremzeek goes from a pokemon lil shit to a highly intelligent, manipulative, body-possessing, agender sun alien created by the Emberstone. They can not only speak now, they gaslight!

The only contagious virus in Mercy is the one carried by Airachnid. Otherwise, the Rust Plague now has a vaccine and spray to defeat it. When Cybertronians return to Cybertron, they are supposed to go straight to medical to check for other viruses they might be carrying. The Hate Plague will not be included. Now, Mercy has invented many genetic diseases to allow me to represent some disabilities. Froid has "ventilation system failure" which causes him to overheat easily and die, so he has to refrain from exercise and stress. Kaon has an optic nerve disease which causes his blindness. Characters mistakenly thought Overlord had a fatal brain disease called "regulatory region failure". I would also like to write in more to explain "why can't they just replace their organs with other organs to fix the problem?". A genetic disease means that no matter how many times a part is replaced, eventually, it starts to malfunction because the body isn't equipped to support it. This is why Bludgeon will be deaf and the Minicons like Fix-It unable to have legs.

Oh fun, let's talk about morality in Mercy! I'll pick some of the badies.... Airachnid is just plain cruel. Shockwave did way too many horrible experiments on bots and is the cause of Tarn & co's trauma. Megatron was pretty bad too (though you can justify him more as a former slave). Altero the Vehicon mafia boss will get way too genocidal. Necrose the Vehicon is way too fascinated with death and does messed up things like wear human skulls and bones as a necklace (campers he claims to have killed). I also wanted to include Coldstar as a minor but very cruel scientist in someone's past.

Bad Autobots! Fortress Maximus before the War had the job of deciding which newly forged Cybertronians went into slavery. Slingshot, one of the Aerialbots, is very discriminatory and has an ableist scene against Froid. Silverbolt absorbed those attitudes and becomes an offensive member of the council (he will display the Cybertronian equivalent of transphobia too). Devcon is very in your face discriminatory and the type who wants all Decepticons dead, end of story. Prowl isn't evil exactly, he has goodness in him, but he believes every racial bias (like red eyes=evil) and tries to teach them to the player.

When it comes to the Autobots, their badness usually shows in the form of being very discriminatory. Some of them are still classist, still racist, still ableist, etc. I write more Autobots this way than Decepticons. But not all Autobots—it is still very important to me that this is not what Optimus Prime stood for and anyone truly dedicated to his cause knows better. Characters like Bumblebee, Dominus Ambus, Metalhawk, Star Saber, and Dr. Cogwheel are/were incredibly kindhearted and open-minded.

4. Ok so if all the bosses had to fight each other with no mind- or body-control?? Overlord, easy win. The bot turned his own skin into the same material as the Apex Armor basically. Dude's absolutely jacked and has 41 weapons. Sunder is not strong without his mind-control powers at all. His second resort is flinging his own dark energon blood at you to try to nauseate you. Third resort is starting a zombie apocalypse distraction, but Overlord wouldn't be bothered. Overlord would also destroy every member of Loyalty (Tarn, Vos, Kaon, Helex, Tesarus) because he is immune to their powers. Loyalty would also destroy Sunder without his mind-control powers. If he had them, he could stand a change against Tarn & co at close-range but fall to Vos and Kaon who normally attack beyond his range. Kremzeek would just watch it all happen I guess! No one can really physically hurt Kremzeek without the right tools. But Kremzeek can't really hurt you either without the right tools.

5. Yes haha I do want to use the deer robots from Transformers: One and stick them in the background somewhere. Apart from that, there isn't really anything else I was planning to use at this moment in time. Maybe a Vehicon can be golden as a reference!

[theoceanoasis]

Rodimus being a surrogate for drift and ratchet. He loves them but knows it’ll always be a secret one sided love.

He ends up conjunxed to soundwave. They both just take such good care of each other in all aspects

Holding a box of candy in one hand he knocked with the other feeling his spark pound in his chest. Recently Ratchet and Drift had been spending a lot of time with him. Going on what seemed like dates and now they were inviting him over because they wanted to ask him something.

He was practically vibrating with excitement. He'd always loved Drift and he'd found himself falling for Ratchet. He thought they felt the same way and were going to ask him if he would be interested in dating them.

Ratchet opened the door happy to see him and quickly pulled him inside. Drift was already inside giving him a nervous smile as he was guided to sit across from them.

"There is something we want to ask you..."

He nodded shifting with excitement.

"We want you to be our surrogate."

He gave them a confused look.

"We've always wanted a family but neither of us can carry."

"Don't you have to have carried in the past to be considered?"

"Yes and from the exams I've given you over the years I know you've carried in the past."

His energon froze and he stiffened trying to hide his distress.

"Let me think about it."

Even though he tried to hide it from him, Drift could still tell something was wrong.

"Roddy?"

Feeling boxed in he began to panic and before Drift could touch him he ran back to his room where he collapsed onto the floor.

He began to uncontrollably sob as he thought about his sparkling who was gone. They'd died in the fall of Nyon and having Drift and Ratchet bring up carrying, brought back a flood of memories and emotions he'd tried to forget.

Breaking down he was despondent for days. He knew everyone was worried about him. Drift and Ratchet had come by apologizing Ratchet admitting that he'd been insensitive.

He should have realized there was a reason he never brought up having a sparkling.

He'd clawed at his belly right where his tank was. All it ever did was cause him grief. He thought Drift and Ratchet liked him but all they wanted was a surrogate.

Megatron was able to piece together what happened and knew why he was upset. He'd been there after all watching him break down and sob with Soundwave holding him.

The grief had torn them apart. Soundwave wanted to kill the high council and make them suffer as revenge. He wanted to burn Cybertron to the ground. However Hot Rod didn't want anyone else to suffer the same pain he did.

Soundwave chose the Decepticons and Hot Rod chose the Autobots and both of them liked to pretend that was it. Even though their sparks desperately reached for each other every time they were near. On the anniversary and birthday of their sparkling they would always get together. To mourn and to celebrate the life gone too soon.

Megatron knew Soundwave would be the only one who could help him and he was right.

When he heard a knock on the door he was going to ignore it until it was their secret knock. He'd gasped opening the door in shock to find Soundwave.

"Rodimus."

He broke down sobbing and Soundwave held him. Their sparks swelled and their fields desperately mixed together.

Soundwave pulled him inside before anyone could see him break down. Knowing he wouldn't want his crew to see him like that.

They clung to each other as he told Soundwave everything. He was pissed. How dare they try and use him?

They made him believe they liked him only to be manipulating him into giving them a sparkling. Ratchet especially should have known better and shouldn't have said that.

He felt violated and helpless. Soundwave suggested a new medic which was a start but he didn't know if he could trust them anymore.

"I feel my entire life has been destroyed and I don't know how to start over again. It hurt too much the first time."

"I'm sorry Rodimus. I promise you won't be alone this time I'm not leaving you."

Nodding he cuddled closer and Soundwave held him as they grieved.

[mistermalaprop]

About the AU by the way, I made it to fuel my absolute hatred for Sentinel Prime.

I was like “ok since he created robot racism in tf one, how do I make it worse?”

And so I made him the driving force behind Sky-Byte’s backstory.

Sky-Byte never got his revenge, but after being captured and placed face to face with the fearsome Megatron, the warlord decided to manipulate him into his ranks, telling him all about how he was the one who stood up and killed Sentinel Prime for his injustices…

…while Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, did nothing. The Autobots were nothing more than “Sentinel sympathisers” who wanted to return Cybertron to how it was, to how Sentinel wanted it to be.

“The Autobots don’t care about you. Us Decepticons do. Join us and fight against the ones that stole your land, that ones that massacred your people, the ones who will make sure it happens again.“

(Mini Megatron speech lol.)

There’s also JetByte angst in this AU because Jetfire knew Sky-Byte before the war and before Sentinel’s extermination plan. After being dragged to a night market far down by the Argon Sea (by Hot Rod lol), he ended up falling in love with Sky-Byte upon bumping into him (typical love at first sight lol jetfire’s a loverboy). Jetfire would go back each time to see him, but he never told him that he loved him.

After the genocide, he never got to see Sky-Byte again until the war in which both of them were surprised to see each other on opposing sides.

So basically, Jetfire has no choice but to watch the mech he loves spiral out of pure grief and vengeance.

Anyways, I got more but this ask is too long already. I’ma make a full-length post about it when I feel better :).

*SLAMS FISTS ON TABLE*

YOU.

YOU’RE COOKING.

I need 100k words 50 chapters slow burn on my desk NYEEEOOOOWWW /j

[vodid]

Pleasseeee talk about Bay Megatron being a tragic hero 🙏 I yearn for bayverse character depth (Lord High Protector Megatron my beloved)

u got it o7 anti-villain might be a more appropriate term, but in his own story he's the tragic hero i'm sure

in every single movie, megatron is purely and solely concerned with saving his planet or his people. he doesn't care who gets in the way or who can get him there; the ends justify the means and he will take any and every opportunity. despite his heroic intentions, the movies heavily portray him as an unreasonably evil guy, which just isn't fitting for his goals i feel. or rather — not surprising from bayverse — they failed to portray it correctly and in an impactful way. we had his goals, but we did not have the right presentation or emphasis for how he felt about those goals (dotm may be the only slight exception of this as it was far closer to showing the emotions of our cybertronians than the other movies) but generally, he was shown to hold a lot of resentment for optimus and sought to destroy everything, with only hints of his actual end goal there.

the first movie, he was presented as wanting to use the allspark "for evil" and killing every autobot in the process. here, he's just straight up an evil guy, having been seeking the allspark for ages, but after the destruction of his planet and their numbers depleting due to war, i'm sure fixing that became his goal. also with the addition of hating humans, because they were also getting in the way <3 they had him frozen and were using his potential babies for their menial tasks! /hj (which they created using reverse-engineered technology from him; they literally handed it to him on a silver platter. we'll see this again in a few movies)

however, the second movie (which leads me to believe what his intentions were in the first ^) he was concerned about getting energon for their youth, starving before they're even hatched, and went for the most tried and tested method of obliterating a sun for energon that i'm sure would last them for ages and through the development of their baby decepticons. optimus has to die in the process? a massive bonus! humans have to die in the process? huuuuge bonus. he gets to feed their young in the end and gain a new army of decepticons to help revive cybertron and establish a new generation? biggest bonus. no one will be able to get in his way.

the third movie, the guy lost almost everything. left with only a few of their young, he just wanted to go home and have it be fixed. this was his final chance. he went as far as to lower himself to be "equal" with an autobot prime for his major advantage over everything: the spacebridge. and with what little energy and mental coherency he had left, he went for the most extreme option of not only enslaving billions of humans, but bringing cybertron into earth's orbit. when his plan begins to succeed, he is already losing energy but feels massive relief of finally seeing his planet once more. he could finally fulfill his life's goal. sentinel got him there, but he was also about to take it from him (teehee A+ carly manipulation). and we know how megatron feels about people getting in his way !

fourth movie, he worked with what was handed to him. literally handed to him. humans made a grave mistake not only creating a bot that will essentially function like megatron, but once again, an entire array of bots (this time all activated and functioning independently!) ready for directions. the seed that would turn biological material into transformium was his ticket to creating more of these ksi bots. his ticket to reviving their species. it was a little sad how back-burnered he got in this movie tho lol he got demoted to second-rate villain harder than the first two movies combined! so again, his goals were muddied.

fifth movie, we attempt to bring cybertron back. again. and judging by the red mark upon megatron's face, he had made a deal with quintessa. or she had taken over him in some way but we know how megatron feels about mind control. but having a common goal, there was probably little resistance to quintessa and was merely marked. he is again, rather low on energy methinks and understands, with the years humans have spent living with cybertronians, they have actually become highly dangerous. he's not stupid. he learned from his past and will lay back and let quintessa do the work if that meant it would work out in the end for him. this movie was a bit more sloppy with its writing but megatron is still concerned about their home.

it's to such a severe degree, that the autobots' goal is no longer to bring back their home like many other iterations; it's to stop the decepticons from getting there first. from getting there at all. they'd rather sacrifice their home and race than to let the decepticons have it, and it's for that reason megatron had been pushed so far so many times in each movie, with increasingly dangerous and unconventional methods. call him mr. grasping at straws, but he wouldn't let the autobots goal of stopping decepticons — thus giving the decepticons a goal of destroying autobots — get too much in his way. his end goal was ALWAYS to save their planet and people.

doesn't mean megatron is good. he is still unequivocally a villain who became corrupt by the failures he endured at the hands of the autobots bent on stopping him. it just makes you wonder

[lord-squiggletits]

Actually I have something to get off my chest, I really hate Prowl meta posts that argue that his one merit compared to the other Autobots of high command is that he's "not a hypocrite" and he at least admits that he's willing to get his hands dirty and knows he has blood on his hands or whatever, unlike the other Autobots who supposedly pretend to be righteous while still being willing to commit violence or whatever.

The problem with this line of thinking is that it's literally not true lmao???

Like, for one, there's a difference between ordering soldiers to fight and kill because it's your job as the commander and not doing so would lead to the enemy army conquering you and the rest of the galaxy (Optimus). There's also a difference between engaging with an enemy army in sanctioned combat versus committing war crimes and other illegal undercover operations. Such as, for example, bombing a neutral city using a bomb disguised as a Decepticon bomb to get neutrals to join the Autobots.

Prowl saying "at least he's honest about who he is" is a fucking lie considering how often Prowl literally LIES and COVERS UP HIS OWN FUCKING WAR CRIMES because if Prowl was actually "honest" about his culpability, and if the rest of the Autobots really WERE as bad as he was, then Prowl wouldn't HAVE to hide his shitty war crimes in the first place! Except he did, because he's a schemer and a liar and he knows that no one else in high command (least of all Optimus) would sanction or approve of what he's done.

And it's really rich for Prowl to accuse other Autobots of being hypocrites unable to admit to their own flaws/violence/etc considering that one of Prowl's TRADEMARK traits is how arrogant he is and how he's convinced that unless the war ends according to HIS plans and HIS ideas of who should win, the war isn't actually over and he should be able to continue scheming and doing underhanded things to manipulate events going into his way. Like, this guy was literally willing to destroy the spacebridge to Caminus and doom that entire colony to a death by energy crisis/famine just because he thought Starscream MIGHT start an empire out of it. Literally he was going to doom millions of people to death just because of his own paranoia and he has the balls to say that EVERY OTHER AUTOBOT are hypocrites unable to fess up to their own shitty actions?

I swear, it seems like there's way too much Prowl meta out there that takes Prowl entirely at face value and assumes that just because he says something means it's actual truth. Like I don't know how many people read through stuff like the Wreckers trilogy and exRID and came to the conclusion that Prowl was ever meant to be seen as "right" or "morally gray" he's literally just an evil asshole whose crimes are comparable to Megatron's and the only thing holding him back from committing AS MANY crimes was that he was second-in-command, didn't have unfettered power and a bunch of yes-men supporting him, and he was kept somewhat on a leash by wanting Optimus' approval and having to at least publicly follow the Autobot Code. He's a fucked up pathetic guy, not some sort of Machiavellian genius who's a mistreated/misunderstood morally gray hero lmao

[fantasyinvader]

I feel like Byleth becoming the Bodhisattva is a good arc for his character. They start off as the Ashen Demon, a mercenary who kills without emotion, but over the course of the game become more of an all-loving hero (see Kamen Rider Ghost for another example of a MC being a Bodhisattva-type). They become more confident as well, earning their spot as a leader of Fodlan. This is in direct contrast to Flower, where Byleth follows the animal path Edelgard set out for them, becomes distant once again as they mow down everyone in Edelgard’s way because they believe something different (according to the game’s creators),  don’t become a leader and instead follow whatever their spouse does post-war. They let their attachment to Edelgard blind them, their understanding of the world is one of delusion, and taking out everything Edelgard hates.

Not the path of good karma.

But, if we look at the Bodhisattva thing… Just think about it. Edelgard lies and tries to manipulate Byleth, turning them into her pawn. FEH even backs this up, yet we’re not supposed to hate Edelgard. Edelgard contributes to Flayn’s kidnapping, which leads to the experiments in Remire and people literally being turned into monsters yet we’re not supposed to hate her. She basically wants to do whatever the fuck she wants and will order the deaths of anyone who tries to oppose her, be they Byleth or her former classmates, yet we’re not supposed to hate her. Edelgard starves her citizens, conscripts them to fight in a war they don’t believe in so that she can enact reforms that “coddle” the nobility and oppress the masses, all while trashing the Empire’s economy and feeding her people misinformation (even including propping up her own Church), yet we’re not supposed to hate her even as she says her goal is simply conquest and elimination of all who would oppose her.

I’m reminded of a scene from Beast Wars, where BW!Megatron kills OG!Optimus (he gets better). He talks about how the Decepticons lost the Great War, were ruled over by the Autobots and their descendants the Maximals. He makes the whole thing out to be him fighting for his people, but then at the end he talks about how Cybertron is his to rule and later how evil triumphed.

If we’re not supposed to hate Edelgard, what are we supposed to feel? Pity? Pity for someone so toxic, who turns their head away from anything that contradicts their delusions? Whose rule is backed by violence, and will try to kill someone for offering her mercy? Someone willing to sacrifice as many people as it takes until she gets what she wants and get rid of what she hates?

I’m sorry, but it’s hard to see Edelgard as anything other than a villain from a Saturday morning cartoon. If Byleth is supposed to grow into a humble, all loving hero who was willing to forgive Edelgard’s transgressions if she would have repented, fine. He’s just like Kamen Rider Ghost then, who does try to forgive his father’s murderer.

And if I’m not supposed to hate her, than all I can do is pity her. But that means I’m pitying someone who is willingly ignorant, whose ambitions lay waste to the continent and who was crafted into a weapon against her tormentors hated enemies. Someone who is following the animal path, acting on impulse and instinct according to the symbolism, preying on others. Someone willing to turn herself into a monster for her twisted views on what it means to be human.

Yet despite all this, she needs to be stopped.

(Kinda makes me want to go back and rewatch Beast Machines and see if it was just bullshit mysticism or there was actually something to it beyond "extremism on any side is bad")

[supernova1us]

So I had a really weird, random transformers concept idea pop up

So I had this idea that i just got yesterday and kept thinking about. similar to RID2015's motif of all the decepticons being animal themed, this series would have the theme of the Decepticons be based off the universal classic monsters. literally this whole idea came from a pic where someone showed that wfc megatrons arm could be swapped with primes because of the weapon gimmick. and i was like, oh megatron with a different arm is cool, what if he had many salvaged parts, like frankenstein. so yeah i just rolled with and kept developing that concept, fell down the rabbit hole a bit and so here's what i have so far.

the plot is that at the height of the war, shockwave tricks megatron into leading a crew of cons mostly loyal to him on a fools errand looking for an energy source, so he can gain command of the deceptions. ending up marooned on earth in the scheme, they spend years there, attempting to first conquer humanity, then hide from them after being repeatedly overwhelmed and many killed, and finally to simply survive. badly damaged and no longer caring for their goals, infighting finally causes them to all go rogue to survive in their own ways. after the end of the war, optimus leads a crew of autobots to investigate and possibly capture megatron after learning of his fate when shockwave was defeated. the autobots role then would basically be monster hunters, attempting to remain in hiding on earth, with the help of Mikaela Banes, to hunt down the now monstrous decepticons

megatron-primarily based on the Frankenstein monster, he'd be surviving now as a grotesque patchwork of parts from his fallen warriors to stay alive(also partially based on DOTM design). he still maintains his drive to dominate and cunning and continues to manipulate events from the shadows, also sorta making him a bit of dr frankenstein as well. bots he'd def have parts incorporated from would include thundercracker, blackout, demolishor, flamewar.

nightbird would be based on the bride of frankestein, owing to her original origin, she will have been made by megatron from parts scavenged from shadow striker, slipstream and flamewar.

barricade would be based on igor, having been badly crippled and still faithfully aiding megatron as his crony. he secretly has the statsis locked bodies of rumble and frenzy hidden away, which he has one-sided conversations with.

starscream would play up his g1 trait and be a spark ghost, frequently haunting/tormenting megatron but also keeping tabs on the other cons and watching/harassing the autobots.

soundwave would be based on the phantom of the opera, with half his head being melted/badly damaged, he now hides in the sewers and composes his own music which he anonymously broadcasts to the human city above. he is also going insane as his damage means his mind reading abilities are always active and hearing all the humans minds. he also refuses to free his cassettes from his chest out of paranoia that they may either betray or abandon him.

skywarp would be based on the invisible man, his body having been rendered virtually nonexistent by previously being overloaded when attempting to teleport, he wears makeshift armor(made from jet parts and based on the armada version) to be seen and hold together his barely existing physical form.

reflector would be based on the classic zombie horde; he/they created far too many copies/clones at once, spreading the shared consciousness too thin until it snapped, leaving them all bereft of any higher consciousness, only barely living functions like stunted mobility and desire to find energy, as well as brain modules from other bots to potentially restore their own mind.

shatter, would be based on dracula, after a failed experiment in augmenting the decpeticons energy processing abilities, became a ravenous energy vampire, compulsively sucking off raw energy sources to survive, including other bots.

sixshot would be based on a werewolf, having lost control of his savage and now independent wolf mode, which he cannot resist switching to at random times.

spittor would be based on the creature of the black lagoon, with his look and traits based off his tfa version but to a greater extent. he now also has a proper frog alt mode, though a grotesque one.

cyclonus would be based on the mummy, having been supposedly killed by the humans and bound in titanium wrapping and dumped underground to be forgotten. he eventually stirs from statsis lock, his mind deteriorated and his body barely functioning and only held together by the bindings, and goes out to seek warped revenge on humans and transformers alike.

Bonecrusher, based on his movie version, would just be like a wild engine of destruction, very much a jason vorhees type.

blackarachnia, with a tfa design, would be also mutated into a technorganic which is treated more as her being this biomechanical abomination, somewhat inspired by the Metaluna Mutant.

snapdragon and apeface would be based on godzilla and king kong respectively, and be like mini kaiju who consistently feud in beast mode and destroy the same city over and over.

the insecticons are now feral insect types who have built a large underground hive.

the autobots would consist of optimus prime, ironhide(movieverse based), red alert(tfa based), jazz, bulkhead, mirage, hashtag(earthspark based), bumblebee, cliffjumper, whirl, knockout(rotf based) and wheeljack(dotm body design and personality, but with typical colors and head design). optimus, jazz, bee and cliff would have overall design and traits based on their wfc/foc designs, simply just if they now had earth mode features.

so, what are thoughts on this admittedly weird concept?

[lexicorp]

Okay so like--

Main examples imma have are gonna include TFP, Armada, and a bit of Earthspark [so warning for prob spoilers]

In both Armada and TFP, you can see thru the seasons of Star being relatively loyal, to salty from the shit and thus lashes out, to coming back to the corrupted reliance/attachment to Megatron despite it all

In Transformers Prime, Starscream ended up leaving the decepticons and was rogue for a large chunk of the show. The lead up was: Megatron being off tryna find some space rock while star lead the cons on earth, and did a smooth ass job, but as /soon/ as Meg got back he immediately began his downplaying and backhanding of Starscream's rank and accomplishments. So it's like, when Meg nukes himself, why would Star give a damn. Buuut of course Megatron ends up being alive cuz of dark energon, and eventually gets rezzed thru a stream of shenanigans, to then /immediately/ beat the shit outta Starscream for tryna keep him dead. In summary, it's just Starscream constantly being belittled and beat up as usual, until Megatron then nearly off lines him in a cave. Then replaces him with some sus ass spider, who immediately betrays star and leaves him to the bots.

But I digress, the whole bs that goes down that relates to our primary topic, is the fact of how screwy their relationship is. How Star ends up rogue and scrounging on his own for a long ass time, before eventually not being able to take starving in a broken down ship anymore, and comes back to Megatron with bargaining chips. Meg almost murders him again, but instead kills dreadwing in a false show of faith (even tho meg was already sus of dreadwing and prob woulda done it anyway) so then Star gets some life debt mentality and heavy fear of leaving the decepticons given the poor states he experienced before. /Thus/ the being stuck in the situation and trying rlly gd hard to please the bitch that uses him as a constant scapegoat. Enter unhealthy attachment to where Star actually later is absolutely distraught at Megatron's death instead. Which seems absurd but it just goes to show how much Megatron fucked up his psyche.

Then a good example of TFP star mirroring Megatron is most clear involving the Predacons. Star is terrified of them, but constantly uses violence to belittlement to try and get them to listen. To feel some semblance of power/control. Even if it doesn't always work. And of course, that behavior is unfair towards the Predacons and they didn't deserve it either. Then it perpetuated the cycle with said Predacons mirroring the behavior themselves.

Megatron's projection of the violence he learned as a gladiator, or D-16's breakdown over sentinel, lead him to do fucked up things. The situation he endured was screwed up, but that doesn't excuse his actions. It can only explain them. And if people can be happy for redemption arc Meg, there's no Primus damned reason why anyone should be against a Starscream redemption.

In Armada, Starscream was sparked into the war, and knew jack shit else. Megatron and him had this fucked up father son relationship in my eyes, and I'm sure you can see how that could go. Star desperately wants to impress Meg and prove himself capable, and sometimes went out of line with the air of a teenager. And often due to Megatron being a selfish lying bich. There's a lot of star getting beat up for shit that isn't his fault but told it is, and people constantly manipulating and gaslighting him and he questions his whole ass life but then even after leaving after a particularly wack incident. Then he again gets roped back next to Meg by some other guy. And in the end, as he's pulling his kamakazi stunt to /show/ Megatron's stubborn ass Unicron is real; he expresses how he came to realize that nothing he ever did was ever enough.

Then in Earthspark, you have that iconic S1 line when Megatron asks star "what if you could go somewhere safe?" After Star had just escaped a prison and Meg had shot/tossed him around intent on being him back minutes ago; star responds with: "nowhere is safe if it's with /you/." And that shit hits hella hard to me, especially with just how Meg reacts with having like, subtle surprise. Cuz Meg doesn't fully understand his own actions.

Megatron in Earthspark is constantly held accountable. Dunked on my bots and cons alike, and he takes it like a champ all things considered. And the pain around S2/3 Earthspark is that it was set up so much for them to allow Starscream to have some positive influences and work thru stuff as well, but they just didn't commit to that angle of it, and instead made Star the villain again for barely a good reason and not touching the trauma lore after that. Which was so dumb.

They could clearly do a good redemption lore bs with Megs, so they should have been able to equally with Star. They've both done shit things. To each other and others. Many people can debate on who did worse things (even if imo Star gets fucked up objectively more), but the fact in my mind is that the most important part is how a person/character can recognize their own behavior, and correct it and heal to be able to become a better person for themself and others. And be allowed to have moments of weakness and be met with understanding and soft correction from their peers.

Like, it's stupid to blame Starscream for Megatron beating the shit out of him. oOh bUt StArScReAm TrIeD tO kILl MeG oMG-- like bitch it's 99.9 percent of the time a behavior on Star's part born /from/ the abuse. Starscream wouldn't have even started following Megatron in the beginning if he didn't have some sort of respect for the guy! It's just all so insanely wack to me, and it's so /hard/ to clearly articulate my mental process about the whole thing.

Star lashes out as a defensive measure, as a learned means of "yeah this is totally how you are supposed to interact with people", and just out of straight warped perception based on the fact that he was so heavily shaped by his environment to the point that people being chill or nice or something feels uncomfortable.

Basically, I'm jus like-- Star has done questionable things, and can be a jerk, but that doesn't mean it's his fault he endured what he did. It's only his fault for his /own/ actions of hurting someone else as a result. And that doesn't exempt someone from being able to become better and deserve better.

I just had a huge realisation yesterday and I wanted to share this after going through some pretty horrible stuff over the weekend: Something I've always asked myself ever since getting into G1 Transformers was "why do you like Starscream so much even though he's a narcissistic bully? Why are you, someone who is a victim of narcissistic abuse, taking comfort in a narcissistic character?" Well, I think I finally figured it out. Because Starscream is also a victim of that very same abuse. I mean, he's beaten, called names, bullied, unappreciated, abused, and put through the wringer…and he internalised all that abuse because he knew no other way. He had no one to turn to, and the few bots who did support him, he treated like dirt. Once he had that freedom and power, he abused it and became the very thing that abused him. I have no doubt he was always self-centred, selfish, had a huge ego, etc. before all that but honestly? I think Megatron's abuse caused him to turn out the way he did. I could have turned out that way and it's a little scary, some of the parallels I'm drawing with him.

@ichbinmeltdown wrote a great analysis on Starscream that I want to share here:

"Megatron was abusive as hell to Starscream. He treated him horribly, and I legitimately almost cried a few times watching it. There's an episode called Starscream's Brigade that introduces the Combaticons, and I think that perfectly demonstrates the cycle of abuse. The entire world is against Starscream at pretty much every turn throughout the series, but none more so than Megatron. Every word out of his speech synthesizer to Starscream is to berate him, and he's constantly throwing him around, beating him, even ripping out his speech synthesizer in a scene from a previous episode (Hoist Goes Hollywood, IIRC). His own teammates don't like him, and even his brothers- Skywarp and Thundercracker, going off of the idea they're brothers- just... allow Megatron to abuse him. (Not to get into headcanons here, but I personally believe that Megatron's abuse fractured the Elite Trine's family dynamic. They are still brothers and love each other, but they're all too afraid of Megatron to really... stand up for each other as they did in the past.) And Starscream seemed to just snap in this episode. He treated the Combaticons poorly, and even when teaming up with Shockwave, he subjected him to a lot of the same ridicule and torment that Megatron put him through. He failed to realize Shockwave was the one of the only bots who would give him a chance- and unfortunately lashed out at him, which ruined his chances of Shockwave ever being a true friend and ally to him. Once Starscream had finally gotten a taste of power and not being under another bot's boot, he too became the very thing that he lived in fear of. And that really is how the cycle goes- when you're finally free from abuse, it can be tempting to overcompensate and take back all the power you were robbed of, at any cost whatsoever. Starscream, like D16 in Transformers One, snapped up this opportunity."

And the sad thing is, I've seen this in real life and I've internalised some of the abuse I've dealt with too. I'm not proud of it. Like the Seeker Trine, my own family dynamic has been fractured by similar abuse. I know there's traces of narcissism in my behaviour too, and I'm NOT proud of it. Maybe this is why I can forgive Starscream for being a narc, because I can see a little bit of my own personality/attitude/behaviour in him. Maybe it's because I know where it came from, I get why he acts that way and it's not just random and out of the blue. Maybe it's because--and I know this is a bold statement--I don't think he would do some of the stuff my own family did to me (blah blah blah he's a fictional character).

I didn't mean for this to turn into a long rant, so

TLDR: I finally figured out that part of the reason I love and relate to Starscream so much despite him internalising some of the abuse I went through, is because he was the victim of that same abuse.

[the-mang0tree]

an old, retired warrior

[darkstarofchaos]

Time for another Unpopular Opinion. Let’s say you have two mechs from IDW. They are similar in a lot of ways: both have trauma around mental violation, have directly opposed multiple Primes, desired to create super soldiers, committed war crimes, yet had no initial interest in war. They’re both manipulative and willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. There are also some notable differences between them: One is charismatic and physically powerful, the other is blunt and unimposing. One had soldiers created specifically to serve as cannon fodder, the other found needless deaths frustrating. One took pleasure in killing, the other just wanted to win the war.

One is Megatron, the other is Prowl.

Now, I see a lot of people argue that Prowl deserves everything that happens to him. They enjoy him getting punched, they make jokes about it, etc. But I have rarely, if ever, seen someone claim that Megatron deserves anything bad that happens to him. Therein lies my question: why is Megatron, the genocidal warlord, so beloved by the fandom when Prowl, an objectively better person, is reviled?

And no, “Megatron became a better person” is not an acceptable answer. Megatron got therapy and a support system, even if that support was sometimes just being called out when he fell back on old behaviors. Prowl was never even permitted an ally who stuck by him. Additionally, Megatron’s environment wasn’t compatible with his old way of thinking: no one trusted or liked him at first and conquering had no appeal anymore, so he couldn’t do whatever he wanted without retaliation and there was less motivation to act out. But Prowl remained stuck in the same situation. No matter what he wanted for himself, the war still needed to be fought, and he could only change his approach so much before the costs outweighed the benefits.

Becoming a better person when you have no support and your environment doesn’t allow for change is almost impossible. So no, moral growth is not an acceptable answer.

“I like Megatron and I don’t like Prowl” is an honest answer, and I can respect that. But it also implies that the hated character is being judged more harshly and “deserves” worse than the preferred character, regardless of whose crimes were actually worse. So this answer isn’t ideal either.

Perhaps it’s about real-world politics, then: Prowl was a cop and Megatron was a victim of police brutality. I rather doubt it, though, because many people favor Optimus or Chromedome - both ex-enforcers - over Prowl. And while you could argue that’s a case of them being better people, I’m not going to give Optimus Annexation Prime the benefit of doubt on that one.

At the end of the day, though, I think the answer is pretty obvious: people like Megatron and hate Prowl because the narrative told them to. The narrative promised an adventure-filled redemption arc for the Leader of the Decepticons himself, and fans ate it right up. The narrative said that Prowl is a jerk and even his allies hate him, and the fans jumped right on board the bandwagon. The narrative gave Megatron every chance to succeed and took everything Prowl had to lose, and the fans decided nothing was wrong with this state of affairs.

I’ll grant that the concept of a Megatron redemption was interesting the first time. I rather disliked it, but I can’t fault anyone for enjoying the change of pace. But all things being equal, I would much rather have seen Prowl in the therapist’s chair.

Also, if you’re someone who thinks they both did horrible things and they both deserved to be punished, I appreciate your fairness.

[smoked-salmon-official]

"he's my favorite war criminal" literally transformers in a nut shell

hrnghhhhhhh MY TURN !!!! [all this lore has been told much better elsewhere this is just for the sillies and the fun and the whimsy and the joy]

Victory lives in a fan continuity called Transformers: Dying Light that was originally developed as just a typical FC - until Victory fell into my life (the result of some bad things happening in my life and the need for a little fuck to project onto). They were born as the result of Megatron and Optimus both trying to get the capsule the Allspark is in to harmonize with their sparks. Unknowingly, the energy from their sparks was sucked into the Allspark which did what it did best - create life. And thus little Victory was born.

What happens next is both funny and sad. They get treated like a political pawn by Megatron, who sees this kid who comes directly from the Allspark aka Primus and uses them as proof that Primus decrees the Decepticons to win the war. I mean, look, I have the magic Allspark kid right next to me and part of my spark energy is in them too! However Megatron sees an heir and a means to an end for political propaganda, not someone he has to raise and love.

Meanwhile Victory gets caught in a constant tug of war where they get stolen from and by the cons and bots. Divorced parents final boss. So thats how they grow up...

The Autobots are not much better, Optimus never has time for them and is pressured by his High Command to use them as a political tool as well. There are very, very few bots that actually care about Victory beyond as a tool. And many use them as a stand in for megatron and optimus even though they're just a little kid.

Eventually they have enough and run away, traumatized and mentally ill and scared. In space, they meet and grow up around such wonderful influences like TFA Lockdown (installs their fore arm blades for them), ROTB Scourge, and Soundblaster (older brother figure yippee).

And then they meet Tarn and the DJD, have a fun little romance with Vos, and they go to earth to fucking kill their parents.

That's the short version it gets so much longer and convuluted.

On earth many things can happen depending on the chosen ending - vicky and the djd vs bot and con alliance is how the war ends. Tarn gets killed by Megatron with a fusion cannon to the back (heh heh he got his back blown out by megatron) and everyone else gets yeaagh taken prisoner (look at my recent comic for more). On the ship back vicky gets trial by a very traumatizing military tribunal where some fucking how Starscream is the one looking out for them (and Ultra Magnus to some degree).

This is where things diverge. If they die in the final battle on earth, their ghost haunts Optimus, who has gone off on his own not knowing what to do without the matrix (gave it to rodimus to be the new matrix bearer) and the war and Megatron who went off on the Lost Light which is basically Rodimus's silly mid life crisis post war adventure he invites everyone he knows to

If they take Optimus's offered up second chance they manipulate him and end up killng megatron

If the DJD gets execueted they go a little bit crazy

Aaaaaaand THEN they bust themself and the djd out of prison, rebuild their frame to have the tarn frame (like in my banner) and head to earth to fucking try to kill their parents AGAIN

this may happen in time for earthspark depending on the au

reiwjodsojiewsxzjiokwes there is so much more but my brain feels like scrambled eggs there is so much better versions on my profile along with more context and art to go along w everything

and you witnessed the birth of tarmac in real time so theres not much more lore to elaborate on that i havent come up w already

I'm sitting here laughing my ass off about Victory Tarmac and my still unnamed MutePledge kid.

Imagine your family tree being the opposing leaders in the ongoing civil war destroying your planet, the pissed off bird they decided they liked when they were younger, an uptight statistician, an obsessive brutal mess molding himself after the tyrant in charge of his side, and a doctor who only ever does malpractice.

Oh and the other two matrix holders that are only a little closer to your age. They're also not okay. One's mute and the other went AWOL ages ago.

None of these kids are okay somebody call Rung holy SHIT ISJDKSKKDKDK

this is so fucking funny the family tree is fucked already and if you factor in other peoples OCs it just gets worse and even funnier because technically they ARE related

i dont know any abt your OCs but i would love to know more omfg i need to understand

[artobotsrollout]

Skdjfkg oh that is A MOOD, I leave sentence bits all the time. What are Thundercracker and Skywarp like? What are some things they like and dislike? I'm so so SO happy you're bringing Star's trine in!!

[I am so so sorry this has taken me so long to answer. I was so pumped to answer then I over thought my answer then I was worried because I wasn't sure if some things I said about them were going to be canon or not and then other drafts overtook it and made it hard to navigate to. 😢 I seriously appreciate your asks.]

Woo for half forgotten sentence bits!

And I'm so glad that you and other peeps are excited about the inclusion of Thundercracker and Skywarp in The Harbingers AU!!

Things may change as more of the story is developed but have my current thoughts on them.

Answers to your questions and a WIP sneak peak at Skywarp's design below the Readmore.

------------------------------------------------------

Before I begin I'm gonna get the obligatory 'This is not canon compliant nor other continuity compliant' general warning out of the way. (It's not aimed at anyone specifically I'm just covering my bases here. Also cause I'm ignoring fanon and a lot of canon unless I think it fits and like it. )

ONTO THE QUESTIONS!

------------------------------------------------------

What are Thundercracker and Skywarp like?

What are some things they like/dislike?

Skywarp and Thundercracker play a pretty big role in the Harbingers storyline so I'm P excited about em.

-Starscream is resilient, adaptive, cunning, unpredictable, brilliant, regal, precise, and dangerous. Hard to kill. Stubborn. He's not Megatron's second in command for a large chunk of time for kicks.

-Thundercracker is diplomatic, creative, hard to read, reliable, heavy hitter, perceptive, and a touch eccentric.

-Skywarp is mischievous, fast, a glass canon, hard to hit, hard to pin down, chaotic, intuitive, clever, and ruthless.

Thundercracker

A mech of few words and lacking in many exuberant expressions, many wonder what mysteries said mech hides. Some people pity him for Starscream and Skywarp 'stealing the spotlight'. Some think he's the real 'brains behind it all' and is too busy 'reigning in' his trine mates to live up to his true potential. Truth is that Thundercracker actually dislikes the spotlight and loves the energy that Skywarp and Starscream have (even if he gripes about it sometimes). Starscream is the brains, but he does run some things by TC when he needs another opinion. He really wishes that people would stop coming to him and putting his trine mates down just because they are energetic and expressive! He loves their energy and personalities! No one needs 'reigning in' and saying otherwise isn't alright. Those who work closely with the lead trine usually learn real fast not to disrespect any of the trine. Except Ramjet. Ramjet is stubborn and refuses to stop being a little shit about everyone even though he's punished with terrible duties every time he does so. The only ones allowed to insult his trinemates are him and his trinemates.

Many assume Thundercracker must be the straight man to Skywarp's nonsense upon acquaintance but they would all be very wrong. TC just gives off less of an outward obvious energy compared to Skywarp and Starscream. Between the three of them he's basically the best with people and most diplomatic. Can be manipulative if a situation requires it. Kinda has Grimlock from Cyberverse energy. (my headcanon Grimlock in my AU is the Grimlock that's in RiD15 because that's peak him IMO) For a Decepticon he's considered rather polite. The fact that he's the one people usually approaches first annoys TC to no end.

He limits how much he talks, outside of the company of mechs he actually likes to talk to, to save energy. Helping Starscream keep the mechs who follow him happy and helping to find solutions for arguments requires a lot of diplomatic skills and patience which can sometimes leave him exhausted. On his off time he usually sticks close to his trine or hides in his quarters.

He frequently plays the moral centre when situations get outta hand. Closet theatre kid. Some people have made the mistake of calling him "soft". But the whole Trine holds such a high rank in the Decepticons for a reason. And Starscream would not have trined with just anyone.

I'm still kinda figuring TC out so the above may change as time goes on. His personality and deeper motivations are just not coming to me quite like Skywarp's, Ironhide's, and Jazz's did. I think I need to write some head trine shenanigans to really figure his whole deal out.

Likes

Stories in any form. (He comes to really enjoy cartoons, comics, and musicals.)

Watching awful movies and shows with Skywarp and Starscream and mocking it mercilessly.

Writing and art

Cute things

Earth animals

Discussing nerd art and literature stuff with Starscream

Helping Skywarp plan his pranks

Dislikes

Megatron

Having nothing to do/boredom

When Skywarp and Starscream argue about something small and unimportant.

Headcanon Voiceactor Potentials:

Markiplier or ProZD

Notes:

Has a small superstitious streak that Skywarp has been known to abuse with his pranking.

A closet theatre nerd

Has a great singing voice and secretly wishes someone would break into song with him.

Skywarp

Lil sneak peek of my Harbingers Skywarp design!!

I've been tweaking things about his design for awhile now and I'm still tweaking but I'm finally getting somewhere sncjek. Fun fact about his design!! For some of his proportions I'm referencing ferret anatomy.

Does a lot of cackling while he fights. Switches between rough front line scrapper to sneaky stealth attacks.

Skywarp is the sort of person who is more than meets the eye. I'm sorry I HAD to 😂.

Skywarp is very high energy with a mischievous streak a mile long. He is unapologetically himself and gives exactly zero frags about what most others think of him. Besides the whole cackling like a gremlin at everything and causing problems on purpose thing, Skywarp is pretty easygoing temperament wise. He isn't afraid of change or the new and unusual. He let's things go quickly so he's almost impossible to prank or insult back in any satisfying way since he really isn't bothered by much. He really doesn't care that he has a reputation of not being the smartest cause it means people underestimate him. He's more patient and skilled than he lets on. He and Thundercracker are two of Starscream's closest right hand mechs for a reason. But he's not self conscious about this perception and sometimes will actively play into it. An enemy who underestimates you is a more easily beatable one. Skywarp is still loveably head empty no thoughts though. He reserves his patience and smarts for pranks and the battlefield. He has zero brain to mouth filter and is impulsive 70% of the time. Oddly drops wisdom bombs on occasion.

Skywarp's hijinks also kind of puts him in a role similar to a court jester. He acts goofy because that's just who he is a person but the upside of that is some people don't take him as seriously as they should. So he overhears a LOT of conversations from mechs who assume he's not listening. This makes it handy to give Starscream inside information.

Another upside of people underestimating him is it makes it almost laughably easy to get the drop on people. Don't be fooled by his goofiness this mech can be dangerously patient. His impressive agility, surprising patience, and ridiculously good hand eye coordination make him unpredictably deadly for foe and prankable ally alike. He can play the long game.

Likes

Pranks

Dumb dad jokes and puns.

Watching awful movies and shows with Thundercracker and Starscream and mocking it mercilessly.

Copying stunts he saw in a movie once

Saying or doing things wrong on purpose purely to annoy his trine mates

Watching horror movies and laughing every time someone dies an easily preventable death. Is frequently overheard whispering "Get em!" at the monster/serial killer.

Dancing

Dislikes

Starscream and Thundercracker having loud philosophical arguments discussions when he's trying to sleep

Being nitpicked

Musicals

Headcanon Voiceactor Potentials:

Bradley Cooper (Similar voice he does for Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy)

Again I'm so sorry this took so long!! I was actually planning on waiting till I finished their rough references but I'm STILL struggling with TC and I don't want to postpone this any longer so Ill just post the refs when I finish them. Thank you so much again for the questions you send in! I love and appreciate them and they are always a blast to answer.

[saltysaltdog]

As a Megatron (aligned/tfp) fan, I have to say, I'm not a big fan of fics where Megatron beats up Starscream for literally no reason.

Yes, Megatron is completely unhinged, but he's not a monster. He's a paranoid drug addict who jumps to the worst conclusions and uses that to justify violence.

(Which, admittedly, with enough imagination any situation requires violence.)

People make fun of him for shoving the Nemesis full of Dark Energon, but what was the alternative? The autobots had the spark extracter (he knew this, they stole it from him) and the Nemesis couldn't hide itself. If he didn't, everyone would die. The only alternative would be calling for everyone to evacuate, leaving however many dead with no centralized system to contact other bases, no ground bridge, no maps, with all his forces scattered, leading to more deaths from starvation or autobot intervention. So you know, only most of them die. Not a great alternative, right?

Megatron has an order to his violence.

Don't kill if you can maim.

Don't maim if you can hurt.

Don't hurt if you can threaten.

Don't threaten if you can manipulate.

And don't manipulate if you can just order it.

As Megatron is always intimidating it's hard to tell what is him threatening or just being him, but there are hints. The first stages we can mainly only see with Orion. After successful manipulation Megatron reverts to ordering him around, when manipulation fails he resorts to threats, and then those fail he resorts to physical violence.

With Starscream we see the higher end. After Starscream gets beaten for attempted murder, he continues to plot, leading Megatron to escalate to murder. With Starscream under a rock pleading for help and claiming he came to rescue Megatron it bumps with his scaling because (attempted) murder worked, now starscream is at (potential) maiming (bc of the rock), and letting him squirm is causing him pain (hurt).

Completely unintentionally Starscream has bumped himself back down into threaten territory as soon as Megatron saves him.

You can also see this with "Thirst". Megatron threatens the pair, starscream lies, Megatron escalates to hurting him.

However, I did imply Megatron has an actual reason for violence, and in this case he does. 1) Half his fighting force is dead. But not just that, because, well, war. Bad decisions getting lots of people killed happens all the time. It can't just be that. 2) the other half of it had to murder their own friends/coworkers. And that... that's a bit harder to fix. Assuming the worst case scenario: the vehicons lynch those responsible, they then go on to become more rebellious bc Starscream and Knockout are dead, leading to wasted time and the decepticons lose the war and everything sucks for them forever.

With that as our worst case, if beating the absolute hell out of someone saves them from dying Megatron will do it. So he does. Ideally the vehicons will be manipulated into thinking "slag, I couldn't beat up screamer that bad" and will return to following orders, forgetting the fact Knockout is right there and just as culpable. Knockout of course has to repair the vehicons and will regain thier goodwill that way.

In the other three occasions of death the Megatron scale of violence doesn't work so well but eh, nothing's perfect.

Dreadwing. Worst case scenario: Dreadwing knows everything. He is no longer loyal and is about to murder Starscream. He will betray the decepticons to the autobots and ruin everything forever. vs. Starscream has done something else to piss off Dreadwing and is tricking Megatron into killing him.

No contest, Dreadwing living has the worst potential outcome, he dies.

Airachnid. She's already abandoned the decepticons once before and suggested leaving him to die. Worst case scenario: Airachnid sabotaged the equipment that indicated Megatron was alive because she wants to take over herself. She's going to take all the decepticons off earth and leave Megatron to die. May or may not try to fight the autobots and just become a band of pirates. Autobots win the war, bad times forever.

Kill the spider.

Random flightless vehicon. Accidentally thought he was a flier, turns out he's a car.

Megatron apparently feels bad enough about this he starts painting the fliers silver/allowing alternate colour set ups.

Postscript: The exception is Optimus prime. I ain't touching that one.

[mocacheezy]

And the title of "Was so amusing I forgot he was supposed to represent a ruthless villain" goes to: ✨Beast Wars Megatron (1996)✨

[Show spoilers below, but you probably know that already.]

Extra note: I am a TF newbie. This is my opinion and I don't have all the details for the many continuities that exist. I just need to scream about a purple T-Rex.

As the shows main villain, he seems more comical than threatening, but during the second and third season he:

Cut out an immortal spark from a failed Maximal science experiment, and continuously used it to torture said experiment (both for his amusement AND practicality, since Rampage would destroy him otherwise)

Called a deformed protoform ugly, "with an ugly name to match its appearance", and called it useless since it is unable to transform.

(Yeah, the above doesn't sound bad or unusual by villain standards, but these are things that had me go "What the fuck, aren't you the theatre kid of a villain? What is this?!", so if it made me react like that it's on the list. The following things also contribute to my reaction)

Set up the before mentioned protoform to an impossible task of essentially killing all Maximals and bringing proof of their deactivation as a test of its competence (bring me their heads... Dramatic✨)

By calling it useless since "It can't even transform!", he is spitting on the name of his predecessor, the original Megatron

(I am atleast 90% certain that G1 Megatron (and any other Megatron really) would take a look at it, figure out if it can hold a gun/fight/be useful and let it fight. Can't even transform my ass, as long as it can be manipulated and/or fight for the Cons it doesn't matter if it can or can't transform you copper bitch!)

Decided to cut the Maximal science experiment's immortal spark in half to create a new Frankensteined transmetal super soldier.

In order to obtain more power he took the original Megatron's spark and "mingled" it with his. And by mingled, I mean he inserted it into his own spark chamber with his own spark and kept it there. Not intending to return it to the original frame most likely.

Until the very last episode of the third season, until the last 10 or so minutes, it looked like he was going to win. I am talking the whole "Are the good guys going to win?" kind of doubt on my end.

But the real kicker and the reason why I'm so shocked?

He was in character through all of this! He didn't get "more evil" or "crazier" or "ruthless" as the seasons progressed. He wasn't "meaner" or "less charismatic". He behaved precisely as he did in the first season, same dramatics in his movements and speech and all of that!

The only difference was that he was doing something actually threatening and villainous in front of us viewers!

That's what had me staring at the screen with wide eyes; the fact I got fooled by his personality and didn't perceive him as an actual threat.

From the 3 shows I finished watching so far (Prime, Animated, Beast Wars) he threw me in for the biggest fucking loop.

Because with other Megatrons it's very clear what kind of a villain they are from the start:

Prime Megatron looks like a threat, moves like a threat, and while he has charisma, we don't see it that often. And he has dramatics, but those are mostly reserved for fights with Optimus or Unicron-poprock-crystal-candy induced hallucinations. And even then it's more like grand, over the top speeches, not silliness.

Animated Megatron has class. He is charismatic and uses this to his advantage to the extreme. He manipulates everyone and anyone, his followers are ready to fight eachother for a crumb of his praise, and a chance to be called "most loyal". He has dramatics (more than just the fact he twists his oil barrels into goblets) and he has embarassing moments infront of his troops, but those are due to circumstances, not him being silly.

I am in the process of watching Cyberverse, and so far this Megatron is a threat, doesn't seem like much of a threat when fighting the autobots, and to my limited spoiler-fueled knowledge, will become a bigger threat later on.

Take another look at Beast Wars Megatron and tell me if you'd consider this guy a threat:

He monologues and laughs TheVillainLaugh so often, you start to expect it and just wait for it most episodes. At one point he laughs so hard he ends up choking on it. And after his coughing fit he resumes his plan monologue as if nothing happened. And it's not like the other Predacons don't acknowledge their boss' behaviour:

That doesn't mean he doesn't have some loyal Predacons; Scorponok, Waspinator and Inferno being the ones that come to mind (also the ones that crave his approval and praise the most), with the other Preds leaning more towards treachery. But how he handles treachery or disobedience or even talking back, where it seems like he's bantering, not threatening them,

His personality just doesn't fit with the traits and behaviours the other two Megatrons exibit, the kind of traits that I started to expect of Megatron as a character.

He doesn't fit my perception of a Megatron that is a threat.

Which, considering the narrative of transformers, says alot about me and the way I essentially placed the character into a mold and went "alright, angry, commands and demands attention, can be ruthless, is stupid enough to keep a guy as his SIC/ on his team, despite multiple murder attempts and scheming".

Now, if we get into actual details, Beast Wars Megatron wouldn't count as "an actual Megatron", since the show itself is set after the Great War between the autobots and decepticons, G1 timeline. This Megatron took his predecessors name, so for all we know his name could be Joe before he changed it.

But his actions and the "destroy and conquer and lay the groundwork for future plans while you're causing mayhem" thing he has going on? That is Megatron behaviour as far as I can see.

And, granted, Beast Wars is the oldest out of the three shows I've watched (Animated 2007, Prime 2011), and so he is older than both of them, his characterization might be much closer to G1 than both Prime and Animated!

But before this becomes a full on essay full of misinformation (and more spelling mistakes), I'll just give my thanks to each continuity being it's own thing, with enough variety to keep you on your toes, while expecting how the general plot might go.

I hate that I can't even fully hate him, because he is so incredibly entertaining, so I am stuck looking @ the screen, cursing the fucking prehistoric grape lizard fidget spinner of the future, because he is so vile but he does it in style.

Here's a flattering picture of him as I seethe.

🎉Congratulations you metal Barney on rollerskates!🎉 You are truly despicable, the worst! I hope you choke on a rubber ducky💕

[He also gets a smaller trophy for his Transmetal MegaMode (or whatever it is called officially), because its a fucking dragon. He went from a bubblegum T-rex, to a copper rollerskating T-rex that can fly, to a red and gold dragon that can breathe fire and ice. So yeah, drastic transformation wise, no competition here, as well as levels of drama that came with each alt.]

[whatudottu]

Because I've held this off for too long, once again it seems that @nukeli has beaten me to the punch with colour schemes. Damn my procrastination or whatever, but I only just realised that I didn't put any mention of the 'fodder' classes (Vehicons, Insecticons and I suppose Autotroopers since I'm including them) and wanted to put down my thoughts before writing this up.

An added bonus here is that certain character have different alts (based on character changes and even the heavier focus of 'robots in disguise' that these Decepticons are after) so it's not just me ranting about colour schemes.

Yes, this was why I was complaining about the wiki altmodes, so deal with the vehicles I found instead. May or may not be due to me using images as references haha.

The Autobots (you are here)

The Decepticons Part 1

The Decepticons Part 2

Going in order of my notes, we begin with Cliffjumper. He’s obviously a 1970 Dodge Challenger and what colours I’ve given him are on the image below. Nothing much to say about a definitely dead character other than I didn’t just wanna make him blue.

Next on the list is good old Doctor Ratchet. I’ve had it in my mind ever since Nuke’s one post that SG!Ratchet was like Medic from TF2, so I guess I took it and ran.

To play an opposite to regular Ratchet, he comes across as affable and friendly but is really just doing the things he loves to people he hates. Autobots, Decepticons, hates everyone. He despises Optimus Prime too, but he can’t do anything unless he wants to be cooped up in his berthroom reattaching his limbs for it. Believe him, he tried.

As for altmode and colours, I spent way too long finding that he resembles a Mercedes Benz G-Class ambulance that I was ticked to find out he wasn’t at all. I special looked for the green coloured ambulance because Synth-En, duh!

Breaking in after the Doctor comes our local wrecker Bulkhead. I don’t have much of a read on this guy, other than the fact that I thought it’d be a cool idea for him to lose a lot of his memories after ‘TMI’, ya know, from the Synth-En recipe? Certainly not set in stone, but it could very well contribute to my accidental theme of memory (which only has some small links in the posts I actually created).

With the help of my car enthused cousin I have given our not so loveable mech a Terradyne Gurkha, a little more military than the wiki’s off-roader Lamborghini that I’m too annoyed to bother to look at. I thought that the military origins and the black colour scheme sorta allude to something something mindless military man. yada yada.

Following him is our ever wonderful Optimus Prime, or maybe Lord Prime? Haven’t thought too much about that. What I have thought of is this master manipulator who mayhaps also be a little bit delusional idk we’ll decide in the car.

I always loved the idea of a smiling SG!Prime, as if there’s still hints of this benevolent leader that the original has, but it’s warped and meant to add fodder to the war, encouraging mechs to fight to their deaths all in the name of not only the Autobots, but their Prime. Also as a warped version of the original, I wanted Shattered Glass Optimus to be deluded in the fact that Megatron will change, change at least, to submit to the real leader. Ain’t happening. That’s sorta there with Ratchet too, but well, you read Ratchet’s piece didn’t you?

SG!Prime is consistently purple and black, and whilst I have found a Peterbilt Semi Truck with that wonderful colour, it comes with white instead. Think about it, this typically evil colour paired with often innocent white, that’s like perfect for what I’m going for.

Fitting that he’s next, it’s time for Prime’s Second In Command Ultra Magnus. I’ve... really got nothing for him. Maybe he’s still by-the-books but like he finds loopholes just to commit atrocities? I don’t know.

I’ve given this boy a Mack Trident alt instead of Prime’s Peterbilt, just for differences sake.

After Magnus, we got our little bug Bumblebee... or is it. Because I wanted to change his colours a bit without going into Beast Hunter territory, I wondered if bees come in different colours and, low and behold, they do!

As for the boy himself, I think he was one of the bots manipulated by Prime himself to join the cause and, given his almost rewritten personality, has only lived through to this point in the war by sheer luck. This mech is an absolute menace, feral and powered by the need for Prime’s approval, tearing others with denta and servo more often than with stingers and blasters.

Now you’ve noticed I haven’t been using his name? That’s because he’s now Blue Band (I just realised he’s still bb haha)! He gets his name from the Blue Banded bee, and I found a Chevrolet Camaro to match.

In line with BB’s younger status, feast your eyes on Shattered Glass Smokescreen! Oh boy isn’t he a delight. His hero worship has essentially turned him to a prime (pardon the pun) candidate for Optimus to form into his perfect super soldier, who already would die for this deranged mech even before laying optics on this grand Prime.

So, he’s an absolute suck up, a straight up spoiled brat that has it harder than Blue Band for Prime’s acknowledgement, and is actively showing off and bragging that he’s Optimus’ favourite (he’s not, he just encourages it because that’s the easiest way to get Smokey to do what he wants).

Almost to reflect that (perhaps another pun) I found this gaudy Chameleon Chevy Corvette that absolutely SCREAMS show off.

Regrettably partnered up with him after the passing of Cliffjumper, Arcee has run out of patience. Not everything she does is motivated by Airachnid (what kind of character would that be? not a fun one) but she does often enjoy killing those connected with her. After Tailgate, she’s gotten a little mad, but her effectiveness otherwise increased so others never bothered to ‘fix’ her.

Having lost both of her partners, when she absolutely hates another (read; Airachnid and Starscream because he still kills Cliff) the best kind of revenge is putting her opponents in her own pedes. Oh, that mech’s growing attached to one of his comrades? Slice and dice them before their optics. Oh, that femme is finally coming out of her shell and making friends? Gore out their spark and hope that humans don’t decide this would be the perfect time to practice what they preach and save the life of that same mech with a hard to perform surgery that may or may not have been lost to time.

Okay so she’s obviously a Kawasaki Ninja (haha that’s kind of fitting) and I was tempted to make her pink like other Arcee iterations, but look at this fancy stuff right here. He hoo glowy look pretty!

Almost in leu of an Airachnid archetype, Wheeljack comes in. Though still quite the wrecker and ever the bomb enthusiast, instead of actively celebrating his impacts and going solo to stop the rust settling in, he’d rather be offed whilst mechs are distracted by his pretty explosion and lay forgotten in the dirt.

I may have accidentally rooted the unintentional memory theme deeply with the wreckers (Breakdown included) and maybe just took it and ran, giving everyone else a little connection, but Wheeljack is probably the most explicit in this idea. He hates nicknames (which i super Ratchet uses to mock him here in Shattered Glass) because that’s like... naming something you’re going to keep to quote that specific fic which, honestly, I can’t remember. Wheeljack split from others to stop them from remembering him and put himself closer to a situation where he can die alone, as morbid as that sounds. No grand death, no stupid death and no straight up suicide (generally that’s a VERY impactful kind of death) so just a mediocre end is what he’s been looking for for a little bit too long.

As for his colours, I apparently have no taste and should not have a car because I really like what this image has going for it. This C3 Corvette is probably one of the few cars that fits the straight up box of a sports car that Jackie’s got, so I’m sticking to it, so no, don’t show me the wiki I’m ignoring it this was too painful to give up dang it!

Okay, finishing off the bots, I have the Autotroopers. Sure, I’m not using a reference of a car to show off the colours, mainly because there’s also going to be flier troopers too, maybe... surely... definitely. Most depictions of them are white, you know, goodie goodie, and I’m tempted to just laze around and do just that. Instead, I think a goldish colour would be fun.

Aside from sharing a key colour with Ultra Magnus, essentially a war lawyer, which is perfect for subjects made to obey, a nice glimmering finish almost feels like they’re all manipulated by Prime to believe in the Autobot cause. I suppose the special devision, if there is one, would be a nice Prime purple, sorta like if it’s Optimus’ personal guard if he actually had any belief they would do their jobs.

Oh boy this is so long...