#whelp. the nerdery increases. nerdception.

[thenamesblurrito]

I’m so far down the SNAP rabbit hole I’m now interested in the fictional tv show in a fictional transformers continuity

Anyways, what kind of media is As The Kitchen Sinks? Who’s Thundercracker’s favourite character? Will he ever get his friends interested in the show?

hehehe WELCOME TO ROBOT MAHOU SHOuJO HELL WITH ME!!

ofc there's no real substance to it in canon, we only get that single bit in G1, so i completely made up everything except the title for SNAP! ATKS is kinda an in-universe species swapped standin for the role that actual the Transformers franchise plays? it's a much smaller franchise with far fewer tie-ins, but it has the same feel as the 80's cartoon. i could also compare it to iCarly, Wander Over Yonder, or the animated Barbie movies/show. it's an animated show, mostly for nymphs/younglings, following a broad, wacky cast of organics from a fictional species (that are uncannily similar to humans! but not actually humans, i am doing other things with humans in this universe) in a more episodic dilemma-of-the-day simplified soap opera plot structure rather than an overarching story with a specific climax to reach. there's a few smaller spinoff cartoons, a good chunk of comics, probably a couple novels, games, and direct-to-TV movies? a broad selection of toys and merch also. smallish but ongoing and respectable franchise with decent sized fandom

while it's similar in tone, it's not a one-to-one equivalent of Transformers, or any Earth media. Cybertron has a very different media/entertainment culture than humans do and their genres, production methods, and publishing forces don't act the same way (don't ask me to elaborate on this, i have nothing solid beyond "their civilization has been digital, interconnected, and interplanetary from the start, unlike our extremely recent information age, which would have shaped their media industry tremendously"). it's part of a general genre of specbio organic fiction, which is distinct from extant organic fiction (usually concerning actual organic aliens Cybertron once encountered, or their local organic lifeforms). a critical eye would note that this genre is usually infantilizing, demeaning, dismissive, or otherwise condescending about organic life, with an underlying attitude that they are simply inferior, stupider, incapable, etc in comparison to mecha. subtle and often unintentional propaganda wound up in otherwise average entertainment, despite the current absence of any known organic contact with Cybertron

resident nerd Thundercracker is something of a weeb for the very concept of organics, largely due to this show. TC's favorite character would be his OC, Buster, who is a "dog", a species he very carefully designed to plausibly fit into the world of ATKS, and who is absolutely the Mary Sue protagonist of his novel-length fanfiction. the Sweeps are modeled directly after Buster and Galvatron had to thump him a couple times to prevent Scourge from actually calling them that, because basic infosec even about ur OC could be the thing that keeps your secret identity safe. if he had to pick a favorite ATKS character, it would be a close tie between a cute little genius who gets around on wheels (Chip Chase standin) and a determined spitfire warrior he's written as one of Buster's best friends (Marissa Faireborn standin). his siblings and Megatron are pretty tired of hearing about ATKS, but now he's got a buncha new folks to preach to at the JAAT! folks like Powerglide simply cannot resist!

note that i'm never going to draw what ATKS looks like, or actually name the characters, etc. it's supposed to be a wink at the audience, a meta reference to canon Transformers humans without actually being them. enough that someone can go "is TC talking about Agent Fowler???" but never confirming it. mostly bc i don't want to figure out how mecha would perceive and design organic characters, and also i don't want to preclude using those human characters for real after SNAP's plot is done. Earth might be out there in the big wide universe, i don't want to confirm it only exists as the setting of ATKS and nerf myself that way