#Earthspark analysis

[vihattu-thethoroughbredofsin]

EarthSpark: When the script is not your strong suit. Part 3.

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

10. The obvious favoritism of the authors towards the Decepticons.

Our beloved favoritism towards the Decepticons. The authors absolutely do not hide who their favorite characters are, and emphasize this through narrative. And it is emphasized by the number of characters, Autobots are shown 6, and Decepticons are shown as many as 17.

For example, the attitude towards Optimus. Optimus is shown as a leader who made a forced compromise. Because of this, Megatron regularly condemns him, almost bluntly saying that Optimus drove the Cybertronians into an almost servile position. In addition, he is obviously disrespected by Croft, but this is understandable. Dot doesn't like Optimus, and in Robbie's nightmares, Optimus is the frightening image. That is, they are trying to show us that Optimus is an incompetent weak-willed leader who is not trusted by one of our main characters and one of the obviously positive characters treats him negatively.

What else did the authors do? During the battle with Skywarp and Novastorm, Optimus did not show himself in any way and almost lost. During the episode "Decoy", he could not object anything intelligible to Megatron and released two cassettes, who had previously intended to harm children, and as a result were involved in underground battles. Great decision, leader! And also, having been in contact with people for much longer, he is shown as not oriented in social interaction with people! Maybe it was worth giving Optimus at least some positive aspects besides the fact that a walking story exposition and an unfunny clown?

Bumblebee. In principle, everything is fine with him, it's just strange that children often treat him disrespectfully, but after all, he is their father's idol, couldn't Alex have increased their respect in any way? This is some kind of gap between the premise and the plot.

Elita-1. There's not much to say about her, we only had one episode where she talked about herself, and it worked for the development of another character.

Arcee and Wheeljack? Appeared on a little more than one episode, and, in general, that's it.

But Grimlock is shown interestingly for such a small timekeeping. But that's for now.

But since the authors love Decepticons, did they show them better? Well…

Let's start with Megatron. Here he is, the authors'favorite. The viewer should sympathize with him, perceive him as the right side and agree. This is one of the transformer characters who are given a sufficient amount of timekeeping, in addition to Terrans. So he was well worked out in the plot?

Let's skip the fact that Megatron was the leader of the Decepticons and, in theory, he should bear most of the responsibility for what happened. Apparently not. But why? Because he's a favorite character, that's why.

Megatron is also a bad leader. How can he be a good leader if none of the Decepticons supported his decision? In addition, Megatron most likely did not try to convince any of them to adapt to new conditions, as we saw from the episode "Decoy", his best solution is to beat up his former supporters.

Yes, he constantly scolds Optimus for allowing the GHOST to capture and imprison Decepticons. But what has Megatron himself done in 15 years to change the situation? Was he arguing with a GHOST? Maybe he was trying to convince his soldiers? Maybe he was trying to change people's minds about the Decepticons? They didn't show it to us and, most likely, he didn't do it.

But he annoyed Optimus with "restraining bolts", which are a variation of handcuffs, these things don't even cause pain. And, since Megatron is so displeased, maybe he would have transported the cassettes himself without these bolts? But no, the dirty work should be thrown at Optimus, while condemning him. Although we saw how simply the cassettes escaped without these bolts. Maybe Megatron suspected this and didn't want any problems for himself?

As a result, the authors wanted to show Megatron to us as a repentant war criminal, but did not show his background with Dot so that the audience would see the reason for his change. The authors wanted to show us a fighter against injustice, but instead they showed a bad ally and a duplicitous leader who abandoned his soldiers.

It would be an interesting plot move if the Terrans, having learned his backstory, would be disappointed in him at some point, because now they just see him as a friend of their mother, not knowing who he really was. Let's hope for this in the future.

The authors wanted to show the rest of the Decepticons more as hostages of the situation, persecuted and suffering from the repression of the GHOST. But is the GHOST's attitude towards the Decepticons really unfair? We are not shown that the Decepticons are trying to integrate into society, or repent in any way for what they have done. After all, since almost every Decepticon is a soldier, then most likely they killed people. Accordingly, people don't really want to see them walking freely. Moreover, some of the Decepticons shown are quite ready to harm people. And, given all these conditions, the GHOST simply puts them in cells, we were not shown any torture, experiments, or humiliation. There was some strange moment with the Skullcruncher, but the authors didn't even explain what was happening. So everything seems fair, control in response to aggression.

Let's take a closer look at those whom we should feel sorry for.

Swindle. Yes, he wants to rescue his brother and all that, but why did they get caught in the first place? In addition, if the authors really wanted to show the Decepticons' dislike of the GHOST, then it was worth doing a scene of an attack on the organization's truck somewhere in the forest, and not in the city, where regular people could suffer. And Swindle was absolutely not against harming Mo, who could not pose any threat to him.

Frenzy and Laserbeak. They were going to hurt Robby and Mo, too. And as a result, they turned out to be associated with criminal underground battles. Was it worth letting them go?

Skywarp and Novastorm. Okay, they were having fun attacking GHOST agents, but with no less fun they blew up the cave where Robby, Mo and Alex were. And if not for the appearance of new Terrans, all three of them would have died there. Are these the kind of characters you want to see walking free?

Breakdown. Should I talk about how it can be dangerous for people to race with a Cybertronian because he doesn't need to be extra careful and he will survive most accidents? Besides, we don't know what exactly he did during the war and how many people he killed. Or how many people could have been injured in the races with his participation. Maybe the GHOST is hunting him justifiably, how do we know?

Tarantulas. Oh, this one came up with a great excuse for himself. Since he is a scientist and not a soldier, it means that he should not be responsible for anything and can walk wherever he wants. But he is not just a scientist, but a scientist who worked for his Decepticon faction, and most likely carried out orders and assignments for inventions used to carry out military conflict. What, still shouldn't be responsible for anything? Well, the laws won't agree with that.

There will be a separate paragraph about Starscream.

Shockwave. It's interesting here, because after the episode "Warzone", many thought that in the future he would be the main villain. He regarded Terrans as some kind of hybrids and treated them with obvious contempt, and besides, he planned the genocide of mankind during the war. But the authors apparently wanted to change something, so they decided to improve the viewer's opinion of the Shockwave. With the help of what techniques in the narrative? Firstly, Mo calls him "Mr. Shockwave", thus showing him some respect (although he was going to blow up all her siblings. A little strange on her part). Then there was the scene where Fluffy Ears licked him. Showing the animal's good attitude towards the character is the easiest way to endear the viewer to him. Why do the authors do this, why? Unclear.

If the authors wanted to show us the unfair treatment towards the Decepticons, they should have made the plot prerequisites for this. To show that at least some of the Decepticons tried to live peacefully and establish relations with humans and Autobots, but met with misunderstanding and aggression due to all the years of military conflict. Or to show that Decepticons are aggressive only to GHOST agents, and not to small children. Or to show that the Decepticons are having a hard time in prison, that something is being done to them there. But none of this was shown to us, and the authors expect the viewer to empathize with the characters without all this. The authors do not understand that forgiveness must be earned, that Decepticons or Cybertronians, in principle, should try to do this, not only people.

11. No, Starscream is not a victim of abuse. Does anyone on this site understand what abuse is?

Every time someone says that Starscream is a "victim of abuse" here, somewhere in the world one psychologist (including me) is writhing by a cringe.

Let's put it this way, abuse or abusive relationships are relationships with a clearly traceable role model of "aggressor"-"victim". The aggressor violates the personal boundaries of the victim, primarily in order to exert psychological pressure and suppression of will, using emotional, physical and other types of violence. And most often, the aggressor combines the types of abuse in order to suppress the will, devalue, destroy self-esteem, form control over the victim and the dependent position of the victim. The methods most often used are: emotional swings, quibbles, manipulations of guilt, blackmail and threats, economic abuse, physical violence. At the same time, abuse is most often committed according to a cyclical scheme: a positive impression — peace — routine — forcing the atmosphere — trigger — the  direct rough form of abuse — excuses and forgiveness. And the cycle starts all over again.

What of this is shown to us in the relationship between Megatron and Starscream? A hint of physical, most likely systematic violence, which led to a kind of PTSD (shown, by the way, is also very bad).

But the fact is that this is not abuse, this is hazing. Hazing in the army. Hazing is one of the varieties of non-statutory relationships, namely an informal hierarchical system maintained through systematic, mainly physical and psychological violence. Hazing is directed towards recruits and is usually carried out by soldiers of earlier conscripts. But there are also frequent cases of hazing among senior army ranks against soldiers of lower ranks.

And now it's more like what's going on between Megatron and Starscream. And there are hints of this at the beginning of the season, when in the episode "Moo-ving In" Megatron recommended Bumblebee to apply and demonstrate strength as a method of education. From which we can draw two conclusions. Firstly, intimidation and physical violence are part of Megatron's leadership style, that is, he led his soldiers through hazing. Secondly, Starscream is apparently not the exclusive victim of such an attitude.

All these facts indicate that this was not an abuse manifested in the direction of Starscream, since its key features, such as cyclicity and coupling with other control methods, are missing.

In addition, the relationship between Starscream and Megatron is shown very poorly in the plot. We do not have a background to their relationship, we cannot say how things really were, because we are not given full-fledged flashbacks or explanations of the situation from both sides.

But the authors pretend that all these prerequisites already exist, that we know the nature of the relationship between Starscream and Megatron. But this is not the case, the viewer does not know anything! We do not know if Megatron showed physical violence to Starscream more often than to others, what were the reasons for this. Maybe he didn't like Starscream, maybe Megatron doesn't know how to control his anger, maybe Starscream betrayed him, and Megatron took revenge in this way, maybe Starscream was a fitting  example for others. We don't have information, how can we fully empathize with a character without knowing anything about the background of his situation? Because the authors told us to empathize with him?

The authors very much expect that the viewer will be oriented towards the relationship between Starscream and Megatron from other media. But here's the problem, every media had its own prerequisites for such a relationship. And, surprise again, in none of the cases was Starscream a victim of abuse. Because abuse is an "aggressor"-"victim" relationship, and the relationship between Megatron and Starscream is an "aggressor"-"aggressor". Let's not forget that Starscream almost always tried to kill Megatron and seize power, and in response Megatron beat him up. It was a scripted device to show the dysfunctional relationships within the team in contrast to the Autobots.

The image of Starscream as a victim of abuse is typical for fanfiction, for many reasons, some fans of this character love this trope. And, apparently, the screenwriter of the episode "What Dwells Within" too, which can be identified by several signs. Firstly, blue optics, a very common technique in fanfiction, usually used for pre-war Starscream, thus showing his innocence before he was influenced by the war and Megatron. Secondly, the obligatory conversation with another character, through which we are shown that Starscream is not bad, he treats others badly because of the trauma usually caused by Megatron.

It would be an interesting plot move if Hashtag made a mistake, transferring her experience to everyone else, and Starscream behaved badly with the rest, not because of the trauma, but because it was his choice to behave like that. But considering that the same screenwriter from the Cyberverse works here, who wanted to make an arch of redemption for Starscream after he wanted to destroy the universe, we are most likely waiting for endless pity for him here. And logic is not waiting for us.

12. The problem of unequal plot development of Terrans.

The problem is not that they develop one after the other in the course of the plot, the problem is that this is not the case. The development of some Terrans is simply skipped and looks very superficial. Some kind of "abandoned children" effect.

Twitch is the only Terran who goes through some kind of arch and encounters most emotional difficulties and changes after that. Everything is fine here.

Thrash — seriously, for the whole season, appearing at the same time as Twitch, what kind of development and what kind of arch did he go through? Have learned not to trust strangers after meeting Swindle? And what else? What distinguishes him at all, except that he is cheerful and chatty? Again for the second season?

Hashtag — her entire development is a strange ability and a occasion when she was under Meridian's control. And this being under control should have had a stronger effect on her in the plot. But all it was needed for in subsequent episodes was to find excuses for Starscream's behavior. Again for the second season?

Jawbreaker is interesting here, because there was development, but... the fans didn't like it. The episode "A Stygi Situation" is when we come across an interesting situation. Jawbreaker still can't find the altmod when everyone has found it, wants to be useful, is kind of jealous to his siblings and doesn't want to be a burden in battle, and he doesn't like the fact that everyone sees only that he is kind, but not other emotions that he may experience. And besides, it is well shown that, let me remind you, the child, receiving power, does not know how to control it, plays around and does not understand Grimlock's reactions well. Because he's a kid and that's what was supposed to happen with all these prerequisites. But the fans are unhappy, because if a character is declared as kind, he has the right to be only kind. Apparently, only villains have the right to be deep and multilateral? It's just funny that even the character expressed a desire not to be a cardboard, and the fandom, on the contrary, votes for a cardboard.

Nightshade — what can I say… I'll call Nightshade "let's skip character development completely". Because, as far as I understand, the authors decided to just give the character as many features as possible, but not develop it. So, Nightshade, apparently, is a genius and an ingenious inventor. And then the problems begin. As far as we understood from all the other Terrans, abilities need to be learned, even basic ones. But is Nightshade a genius right away? To make an invention, it is not enough to be a genius, knowledge is needed. Where does this come from if there are no physicists or inventors in the family, and most likely there is no required literature, and Nightshade does not have the ability to connect to the Internet? It would be much more logical if Nightshade had the makings for this, some kind of craving for invention, which parents would notice and ask autobots, such as Wheeljack, to help develop it and teach Nightshade something. This would be both control and the use of Wheeljack in the plot, and would match what we already know about the functioning of Terrans. But why, really.

And Nightshade is also non-binary. Okay, why? Let me remind you that in a work, any characteristic must serve some purpose, and also be understandable within the story. For example, there is no such phenomenon in my language and culture, I am unfamiliar with it and look at a character without extra knowledge, almost on a par with a child who may not know it either.

We have conditions, Robby and Mo are a boy and a girl, they led to the creation of Twitch and Thrash, which are also conditionally male and female. The viewer thinks that because of their connection, Twitch and Trash are a kind of reflection. Then the Hashtag and Jawbreaker appear, also conditional male and female, confirming the first impression of the process of creating Terrans and the connection with Mo and Robby. But along with them, a non-binary Nightshade appears, breaking the formula. What does it mean? Is the connection with Mo and Robbie gradually decreasing because Nightshade already had a name? Is it just an accident? Is this related to Cybertronians' identity? Is it related to people's identity? Does this show a connection with Cybertronians, humans, or indicates a feature of Terrans? What did the author put into it? Considering that we were shown a conversation with a non-binary person, did this come from humans, do the Cybertronians not have this? Or does everyone have this common feature that does not distinguish Terrans?

There could be two ways. To make the non-binarity of people and Nightshade based on different reasons. Then it was possible to make a connection between Terrans and humans in that they came to the same thing in different ways, and even though they are different, they can understand each other with the help of such intersecting points. Thus, we distinguish Terrans as a different species from humans and cybertronians.

Another solution would be to leave the first option still from the production bible, when Nightshade was planned to define as a Terran, drawing a dividing line with humans and Cybertronians even easier. In addition, the first design option worked for this idea, as it showed a more androgynous appearance. Because in the final version, Nightshade has a male physique and voice, which does not suit the idea of the character in the work, where the visual image and the fitting sound are primarily important, so that there is no dissonance with the idea of the character that the authors want to show us. A work of art is not real life, it is important to observe the laws of the image. For example, because of this dissonance, at some point I completely forgot that Nightshade is non-binary, and I was not the only one who forgot. Yes, I understand that a toy that was decided to be made with such a design, rather than the original one, also has a great influence, but there was already a mismatch of models and toys in the series, so it was possible to change the model in the series. In addition, the toy is already different due to the presence of wings.

But why delve into the work of the world you created, right, the authors? We'll just throw in something, as long as it's special and cool. Sometimes it seems that Nightshade was created simply based on the "fifth is special" trope, without any thought formed behind it.

From all of the above, a question arises. And when did the authors intend to develop all Terrans? Or have they forgotten that modern TV shows are very often canceled? Or did they forget that transformers series almost never got more than three seasons? What did they hope for without even starting to develop some Terrans or skipping the development of others?

13. Changing the gender of the characters is a mistake.

This problem started back in the Cyberverse, but has reached its climax here. So why is this a problem? Everything is simple. The genderswap of famous characters is a sign of incredible laziness and disrespect. I do not know how I should feel joy when looking at characters that no one has tried to work on? If the authors wanted to add female characters so much, and I would be glad to this, they would try and create new ones! Oh, won't the new ones attract an audience? So there are many existing female characters among the transformers! What only the Elita-1 team is worth, it would be a good chance to remind about these characters and develop them. If they wanted to make one of the Soundwave cassettes a female, then they could take the canonical Rosanna and just change her faction! She could have been given the same design as in the series, why not? (Thanks at least for the fact that the female Ravage was cut out). And therefore no, because it is necessary to think about it, it is necessary to try to do it. And so, the viewer will independently think of everything based on the characteristics of these characters in other media, and nothing needs to be invented. How convenient.

And they're also not "cool" enough. But many people really want to associate themselves with cool characters with cool abilities, like Skywarp, right? Someone wants to narcissistically see their mirror in everything they like.

It is precisely because of such trends that we have very few new female characters among transformers in many media. It is because of such desires that almost every female character among toys is a repaint, a retool and a remold. Those who support all this and want more ("Let Jazz be a female!", "What a pity that Starscream is not a female!") only indulge Hasbro's laziness, because of which we do not get any new characters or good new toys, because the viewer wants a girl-Swoop, a girl-Skywarp. And the company will not spend money on characters that the buyer will not pay for. And as a result, like yard dogs, we get only gnawed bones from the table, we are given old worn-out clothes after the boys, unwanted toys that we are allowed to play with. Well done, wonderful support for female viewers, nothing is better than this!

And I will never believe that the company insisted on this, no, it can be seen here that this is the idea of the authors following their narcissistic desires or the same desires of some part of the fandom.

The epilogue was written too late to mean anything.

Looking at all the criticism, you might think that I hate this series, but I don't. If I hated it, I would gloat over all these problems and mistakes of the show. And I'm not happy, I feel disappointed. Because the cartoon has a very interesting idea, they finally wanted to show us something new. And if the cartoon fails, we are unlikely to see such an idea anywhere else, history has shown that if an interesting idea does not pay off, they will forget about it and return to the standard. This has happened many times in the franchise.

But despite the fact that I don't want the series to be prematurely closed, I don't want to turn a blind eye to the problems that the show has. The cartoon is failing.

I understand it's a very comfortable and comforting thought for fans that the show is failing only because of those who don't like Nightshade. But the fandom needs to realize that this is not the case. The fandom needs to realize that the ratings they are fighting so hard for are of the last importance to producers in principle. Yes, many platforms do not take into account reviews with 1 star and 10, by the way, too! Streaming services are looking at views and subscriptions to the service, whether they will merge with another studio, Hasbro is looking at selling toys and whether they have enough money to continue the show. And here, in both cases, Hasbro framed themselves, terribly organizing marketing, communication with the audience, the time and form of the season's release and the toyline.

But that's not even the main thing. The show is framed by its own authors and screenwriters, who pick up ideas and cannot adequately write it. They put the desire to show a particular scene or idea above the logic of the plot. They skip development and don't expand the setting. And this causes the viewer to have a feeling of emptiness, a feeling of falsehood. And the viewer, especially if it is a child, feels this falsehood very well. And the viewer does not forgive this. Because of this, interest is lost, and people do not give high marks to the series, because the series, unfortunately, does not deserve these marks.

And it's sad, because it's clear that people worked on this cartoon with an idea and inspiration, it has good moments, good development of some characters, really cool animation and staging scenes. But it feels like then someone else comes along, inexperienced or with a very superficial worldview of a sheltered child, and just spoils all the good work with unprofessional screenwriting! I do not know how to explain it otherwise.

And you give the cartoon 10 stars out of 10? No one looks at these ratings except the viewers themselves and, possibly, the authors. And by making such ratings, you tell the authors that they are doing well, that they are doing a good job when it is not true. By silencing criticism and problems in this way, we do not give authors honest feedback, we do not give them the opportunity to take another look at their work and improve it.

I do not know what to say, it's just a shame that a good idea can become nothing with such a bad realization. After the series, there is an unpleasant aftertaste, and bitterness and sand on the teeth. I would like to believe that the series will get better. But it's hard to believe.

The conversation is open, you can debate my conclusions, agree or disagree with it, add something. This is an invitation to a discussion, if anyone is interested.

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

[gritsandbrits]

If the 4chan leaks are to be believed!...

Spoilers for earthspark/possible episodes...

The end of the season showing Meridian becoming a complete cyborg and with Shark bots Fills my little character development loving heart with glee.

COME ON seeing a character becoming the very thing they hate for reasons in & out their control is pretty sick! Especially juxtaposed against a similar character who chose love and avoided going down a similar path (Dot)

A normal man caught in the crossfire of a war he didn't ask for, didn't want. Slowly modifying his body beyond recognition as a literal visual of how his hatred towards Cybertronians outweighed his love for fellow humanity.

He and Dot having the same beginning but different endings because the latter choose love and healing. How Dot ended up renewing her friendship with the Cybertronians both Autobots and Decepticons, and a growing family with her own & the Terrans. But all Meridian has is himself and his minions because he can't see Cybertronians as anything but war machines or tools to be manipulated. How his goal to protect humanity led him to losing his own in the process. And all of it coulda been avoided had he learned to opened himself up again Just...

[transformers-earthspark]

TF: EARTHSPARK - SEASON 2 TRAILER

New episodes (presumably 1-10) will be released on Paramount+ June 7th.

[arceespinkgun]

People can not like a show for any reason, obviously, but it's been bizarre seeing multiple people claiming things that are just literally not true like "Nightshade was pushed to the side" or "the animation is bad" or "the Decepticons and/or Chaos Terrans were portrayed as wholly and inherently evil" and these statements barely getting any pushback at all.

It's annoying too when there's so much uncritical gushing over the trailers for the upcoming TF movie—what I mean is that whenever I see anyone even saying they think that it looks mildly cringe or whatever, I also see other people chiming in to say why they disagree. But I rarely see anyone defend Earthspark even when the criticism leveled at it is blatantly unfounded! The treatment is just so clearly unbalanced.

[earthstellar]

TF Earthspark S1 Episode 21: What it Means to Be Believed -- An Analysis Post

Putting this analysis behind a spoiler cut, as these episodes came out today!

The conversation between Hashtag and Starscream here immediately reminded me of the times I've spoken with abuse victims.

Hashtag: Is this how Megatron treated you?

Starscream: ...You believe me?

Hashtag: I believe he hurt you.

Starscream: You don't know me! You couldn't possibly understand what I've been through!

Hashtag: Then tell me. When bad things happen, it isn't always our fault. There was this Mandroid guy, and he hacked my systems! And I...

So, let's talk about this exchange.

Starscream starts out aggressively just before this conversation, attempting to order Hashtag around.

She declines, and immediately identifies that Starscream's behaviour has likely been informed by prior abuse.

She highlights this in the moment and gets Starscream to notice his verbally aggressive approach by making him realise that he is behaving how Megatron used to treat him-- She does this by using questioning, not by using accusatory language.

This is REALLY IMPORTANT, and is a good approach. When someone is behaving poorly or offensively, encourage them to reflect in the moment by posing a question. It prevents any sense of being challenged, as they are now set up to challenge themselves. "Is my behaviour actually negative? Am I being hurtful?"

This approach is successful, and stops Starscream outright.

It shocks him, to be given the leeway of genuine understanding. This catches him off guard so severely, that we actually get a totally honest reply from him. "You believe me?"

Which is a really significant moment, because Starscream is constantly subject to being, essentially, assumed evil. The other bots often see his negative behaviour and lashing out in a very surface-level kind of way; They don't further investigate or try to think about why, exactly, Starscream is like this.

We don't know how he used to be, before the war or during the war, in this continuity quite yet. But it is heavily implied that a lot of his current behaviour is informed by trauma, and some of that trauma very clearly stems from his prior relationship with Megatron.

Starscream is genuinely surprised that anyone is willing to look past that surface level and actually think: Why is he like this? Where is this behaviour coming from?

Hashtag rightly identifies that what Starscream is saying and how he is saying it is very reminiscent of commanding language; She knows Megatron was his superior officer during the war. She knows Starscream has a poor relationship with Megatron. She knows that as a lower ranked Decepticon, he likely was subject to at least some mistreatment, and that mistreatment is echoed in his "taking command" approach here.

Because to Starscream, "taking command" means being aggressive and controlling. It means using intimidation and belittlement to stay on top.

And Hashtag rightly assumes that this is likely because this is how Megatron did it.

This is how Megatron treated him.

Of course, Starscream responds defensively, as anyone might expect.

It hurts to become aware that you are mirroring harmful behaviour, that you are acting out your hurt on others in a way that hurt was inflicted upon you, and Starscream understandably retorts by claiming that of course, Hashtag doesn't know him-- Or, it is implied, his past.

He is trying to protect himself or instil a sense of control over the conversation by creating distance, while also trying to work up some defensive anger in himself-- How presumptuous of her, to assume!

Except, she's right. And he knows that.

So instead of throwing a fit, he listens when she continues.

Hashtag does two very correct things here:

First, she lets Starscream know that she encourages him to talk about it. She's willing to listen.

Second, she offers some support by starting to talk about her own experience of being abused-- When Mandroid took away her self-agency and assumed control of her.

This is a good and fairly common way that abuse victims tend to offer support to one another; It's often encouraged in certain types of group therapy or support sessions for people to share similar experiences, or experiences that evoked similar feelings, when it's appropriate and beneficial for those present (including the speaker) to do so.

She is attempting to reinforce to Starscream that even though she might not know his pain, she knows her own-- By sharing that trauma with him and being vulnerable herself, that might provide a connection point for them both and could possibly encourage Starscream to open up a bit to her.

This is roughly where the conversation is interrupted, so we don't get to hear Starscream's response.

But I think Hashtag intuitively had a very good approach here: She identified a traumatised person lashing out in a way that was familiar to them but harmful to others, in a way that is indicative of potential prior abuse, and made an effort to provide a safe opportunity for Starscream to talk it out without any fear of repercussions.

She made sure Starscream knows that she is listening and paying attention to him.

She made sure Starscream knows that she believes him, that he does have someone willing to hear his side of the story and genuinely take him at his word.

And that is immensely important; It is common for abuse victims and traumatised people to attempt to self-isolate or lash out, and she saw through Starscream's behaviour here for what it was: An abused person lashing out, trying to close off, behaving in hurtful ways that reflect the hurtful ways they were treated as a defence mechanism.

Starscream needs someone like Hashtag, who won't judge him based on preconceived notions of who he was as a Decepticon, who is willing to listen and give him an opportunity, who is willing to counter his withdrawal by providing honesty and letting him know that she wants to keep the conversation open and give him the space to speak freely about his hurt.

I also especially like that she makes a point of mentioning that we are not at fault for how we are hurt by others. We're not always in control of how we feel, or how we express our feelings.

She doesn't blame Starscream for lashing out. She gets it.

Alleviating Shame: It Is Not Your Fault

Hashtag had her autonomy violated in a very serious way, and although it's not the same thing, Starscream as part of a militarised faction and command structure lost a lot of his autonomy to his service under Megatron-- You don't get to walk away if you're second in command, assuming he held that same position in this continuity for most if not all of the war.

Hashtag is forced to deal with what Mandroid did to her, and Starscream is forced to deal with how Megatron treated him.

Neither of them had any say in what happened to them, or what was done to them, or how it hurts afterwards.

Hashtag knows she has support from her family, but who does Starscream really have? The other fliers, sure, but to what degree? How much support does Starscream really get from anyone, ever?

By letting him know she's been hurt too, even though she didn't get to finish her sentence, she's let him know that he's not entirely alone.

By making the point that nobody can be responsible for what others do to them, Starscream is told outright-- possibly for the first time--that the way Megatron treated him is not his fault.

Internalised Blame: Guilt and Failure Under Megatron's Command

Starscream may very well blame himself, to some degree; We don't know exactly how he's internalised anything, but we do know that Starscream was reasonably high ranking, and was in that command structure for most of the war.

In most militarised ranking structures, it is often the case that officers are considered responsible for errors, mistakes, losses etc. that may fall under a branch of their command which are many times realistically somewhat beyond their ability to control.

This can be a significant source of internalised blame for a lot of former military officers or even military personnel in general; "We lost X soldiers/civilians/etc. and it was my fault" is not an uncommon sentiment, even when realistically it is no single individual's fault and certain circumstances or occurrences are beyond anyone's control.

Megatron likely came down hard on Starscream for any losses, whether it was territory, soldiers, or anything else. He likely came down hard on Starscream for just about anything, after a certain point.

It's entirely possible that Starscream started to internalise these situations as personal blame, as both a result of serving in a war where officers are held ultimately accountable, and as a result of Megatron's treatment of him in general.

He may not have been able to separate "challenges experienced as a commander" and "personal failings" after a while.

And any further/prolonged abuse from Megatron would have only compounded that trend of internalising anything and everything as blame, failure, his own fault-- Not as an officer, but as a person-- Even if it explicitly could not have been.

Emulating Harmful Behaviours: Identify, Understand, Address

This would go some way to partially explaining why Starscream starts to exhibit this aggressive, commanding behaviour; He ends up likely unintentionally emulating Megatron's harmful leadership style, because he sees Megatron as being successful and powerful and in control, while he feels as though he is the opposite in every way.

Abuse has a tendency to make people feel less-than. It can remove people's sense of agency and confidence. It can make people think that their personal traits or inherent elements of their self are suddenly no good, that they could have done something or should have done something, if they were "better".

This is one way that abused people can sometimes start copying or reflecting harmful behaviours from their abusers; They don't know what else they can do. They may be disconnected from themselves to the degree that adopting these behaviours seems like the only "right" option, because it's the only thing that makes people back off, that makes them have that sense of strength or control that their abuser has stripped from them.

I say this a lot in some of my posts, but it's important to remember that while a behaviour may not be OK, we do need to understand.

It's important to recognise this type of repeating back prior experienced abuse, and to not dismiss people who may be hurt when they are lashing out or copying abusive behaviour-- It's important when safe and appropriate to do so to identify this is happening, to make an effort to understand it, and help the person do the same. That's when addressing internalised abusive behaviours can start.

This can take a lot of work, therapy, support, etc. to start identifying, let alone start addressing it-- But it's very possible for abuse victims to restore their sense of self and regain confidence in their capability and identity.

When abused people reflect back prior abusive behaviours that they have experienced, this does not make them a bad person. It means they have been abused, and they may need help to realise they are doing this, and may need help to identify why in a safe way, and may need help to start actually processing trauma in a healthier way for themselves and others.

Hashtag has opened a door for Starscream in more than one way, in this episode.

She's giving him a chance to do this.

She's helping him identify his harmful behaviours, she's acknowledging that he feels bad, that he was made to feel less-than, in ways that she might not have experienced herself-- But she's experienced similar feelings if not the same exact situations, and she's willing to share her own trauma with him. Hopefully he feels he can share with her, too.

I've spoken with plenty of abuse victims, and it's common to hear "You weren't there, you don't know!" or similar retorts when attempting to encourage conversation around some sensitive or traumatising memories or experiences.

It's not always appropriate to provide one's own traumatic experiences in response, but in cases where it is safe and appropriate to do so, I have rolled up my own sleeves and shown my own scars. I have talked about my own traumas as a way of showing support and as a way of showing someone that even if their individual experiences were unique, the feelings they experienced were not, and those feelings can provide a common ground and help provide a point around which to help build rapport. It can also help provide perspective, external to themselves, which can be ultimately positive.

It can also be a show of good faith: I'm not going to judge you. I believe you. I have been hurt, too. Our situations are different, but the way we were made to feel at times was similar.

When appropriate, this can be a pretty effective way to help someone open up about things that are potentially very hard to talk about, or to discuss feelings that are very complex or "tangled" in a way that takes some work to sort out in a healthier, safer way.

Hashtag offered her own traumatic experience to Starscream here, as a way of hopefully meeting Starscream halfway.

And hopefully, it was at least to some degree successful.

So I think Hashtag did a great job in this scene, and I hope we see Starscream take this opportunity that has been afforded to him to give the Malto Bots a chance...

...And to give himself a chance, as well.

----

This is entirely unedited as I continue to watch the episode, as I just got home from work, but I hope it was interesting to someone! :)

[monocle-teacup]

Rewatching Age of Evolution Part 1 when Mandroid's first talking to Dot. He says:

"Partner to Megatron, guardian of the Terrans. Optimus Prime clearly trusts you."

This is coming from a guy who views TFs as powerful monsters. It's like he's listing off achievements since his tone sounds legit impressed. And then there's his reaction to Dot just completely ignoring what he says:

He's not angry, but surprised that she doesn't think what he said is a big deal. It's a nice bit of character writing for both him and Dot.

[the-derpy-duck]

Ok here’s my long ass post about Earthspark Starscream.

None of this is even getting into the final episode of season one because I can’t right now. This show really did body horror and I love it so much.

I love him so so much. I love that the show doesn’t make an excuse for the way Megatron treated him and I like that he was nice. He does bad things and is selfish but also he’s not at the same time? Like horrible friend no doubt but when he was trying to escape he helped his seekers. He lead a jailbreak and he cares at least a bit about the other seekers.

He puts himself first always but also Skywarp was angry at him for not helping. Which would almost imply that at some point he used to help. He shoved her out of his way but he also pushes her out of the way do the energon monster. Was it intentional? Idk. But he did do it. And later in the episode he proves that he can be selfless. He responds well to people showing him kindness. He’s willing to work with the Maltos and follows there plans. He doesn’t even attack them at the end.

Also the fact that no one is like “yeah but you did shitty things so you deserved to be abused” is nice. ‘We’ll obviously no one would say it like that’ have you ever read a transformers YT video comment section? People like finding a way to justify the abuse others go through if they are attempting to fight back and this show says ‘no we aren’t gonna do that. Megaton was wrong to treat his subordinates the way he did.’ Starscream is a bad person, but honestly Megatron is too. His advice to bumblebee on teaching was to use fear because that’s what he did. Optimus tells him ‘don’t use unnecessary force with Starscream’ and guess what he does! I mean you could argue that he technically wasn’t using excessive force but the fact that OP felt the need to tell him not to do that shows something. Like I love this Megatron so much but he still was the leader of a glorified terrorist group. He had good intentions, but it still ended with him leading a group of terrorists.

And the bit where Megatron says he’ll take Starscream somewhere that’s safe and Starscream says ‘no where is safe with you’ is the most thing ever. I love that bit so much. Even if he’s wrong he’s still right because how could he ever feel safe near Megatron or if he knew where he was? The fact that he also automatically assumes the worst in others and is so surprised when Hashtag believed him is so sad to me. Like he’s awful and terrible but he’s also a person who has been hurt by someone who is, from his point of view, helping lock up himself and his subordinates. Starscream is a selfish traitor but Megatron has also betrayed him, his cause (typically, not that applicable to this Megatron), and his people. Also Starscream is telling Megaton to fuck off which I love.

He has the ability to emphasize with Hashtag and he doesn’t want the others to die but he’s spent so much time in an environment that fosters betrayal and constant lying that he can’t just go back for them even if he wanted to. I don’t think he cares either way, but Starscream’s backstabbing nature probably only got as bad as it did BECAUSE he was forced into situations where he could either throw someone else under the bus or be run over. He doesn’t respond as warmly to Skywarp or Novastrom when they showed up (compared to Hashtag) but he had a response. He’s almost apathetic to them but he relaxes slightly and has an almost positive reaction.

Hashtag telling Starscream that bad things happen and it isn’t always their fault was just— AHGHH! I love this episode so much. It’s looking you in the face and saying “hey. that thing you do, where you say this person deserved the abuse they got? Yeah that’s messed up and wrong.” Because people DONT deserve to be abused and no one ever does. ‘Starscream tried to kill Megatron multiple times’ then just imprison, exile, or kill him. And I know that it’s not that simple but if you try to simplify Starscream’s actions then I’m gonna simply Megatron’s possible responses. They both did bad things, we don’t see them doing the bad things in this episode so making an actual judgement is kind of hard but the episode is strongly implying that Megatron abused SS or otherwise unfairly hurt him. I mean SS kind of says it.

Starscream manages to be a really nuanced and complex character without taking away from the others around him. Like Hashtag telling Megatron to leave Starscream alone and Megatron almost shooting Starscream gives all of them more character. Megatron isn’t really WRONG for attacking SS IN THE CAVE. Because if I was Megatron I would assume he would attack the terrains. Hashtag is also a character I didn’t think I’d like as much as I do (her fake evil bit was fun). She cares so much about the people around her and is able to feel empathy for people she shouldn’t and that probably sucks a lot. It’s not a good feeling to feel bad for people and Hashtag is empathetic.

I hope he (SS) will show up more in season two as a neutral force almost like TFP. Because I don’t see him going after the terrains just because they sided with Megatron but he’s also not gonna just join the Maltos. Also Thundercracker pls pls pls. Even if he’s just like ‘fuck this noise’ and then leaves and never shows up again. Just put the Blue guy in.

Twitch trying to recruit more decepticons to Megatron is funny I love her so much.

[torpedopickle]

I finally watched Transformers Earthspark Season 2 today. I have a lot of thoughts and I wrote some paragraphs for every episode. As you can see I wrote a LOT, enjoy my way too long cartoon analysis:

Episode 1: the cracks are showing but it hasn't crumbled yet

The animation feels less alive than in season 1 even if strong storyboarding still carries some scenes, as I know several of the season 1 storyboarders did work on this episode. It has a couple good sequences, a couple incredibly stilted ones. The overreliance on slowmo feels weird, and the animation struggles to properly convey things, like how we're supposed to take Hashtag's injury very seriously, but it just looked like she got bumped lightly.

the Decepticons are butchered and watered down into "evil because they're Decepticons". Chaos Terrans is an interesting concept and the way they're executing Aftermath would provide a foundation for exploring topics such as delinquent youth, but knowing how the series will go on to treat them in later episodes, I'm not hopeful.

the Maltos feel like they're sleepwalking. They have a lot of screentime but for some reason they don't feel present at all, it's like I'm watching their shadows move around on screen without the things that made them feel alive shining through.

If I didn't know beforehand what this season would eventually stagnate into, I could see myself being fooled into thinking the gripes I have with this episode are just growing pains, however i'm not so hopeful.

Episode 2: Improved in some ways but not in others. The episode premise is decent, and the narrower focus compared to episode 1 does help make the focus characters feel a bit more like themselves again. Unfortunately i just don't think the premise was utilized well at all. Introducing quintessons to the conflict is kind of a big development, but it doesn't flesh them out well IMO. They treat them like wild animals with no characterization for a majority of it, and then hint at some deeper conflicts at the very 3nd before promptly disposingof them. So ultimately it feels unsatisfying (although we do get some expositon in episode 9, but it doesn't add up to much).

And once again i must comment on the character acting on the humans especially being severely lacking.

Robbie and Mo having helmets for like half their screentime definitely feels like a cut corner not to animate their faces

Episode 3 review: some well animated sequences this time around, i'd seen the storyboards for them on twitter and they're really well done, but then there's some others that really werent as decent, so big ups and down in animation quality. Most of the episode did feel like a slight return to formula for Earthspark tho, with how it felt like it was actually making a point about something for once, which so far has been rare in season 2, although the conclusion wasn't the most satisfying with the whole "you can't have everything" message but then hashtag kinda gets most of what she wanted anyway.

Episode 4 is like.... baffling.

Like the fact that they swapped to a wholly different and much cheaper animation studio was so far just somewhat shining through, but now it's impossible to unsee. The animation here feels BEYOND stilted, in every way. Like not even the 2D FX animation looked convincing this time. That clip of Robbie dropping a cake is the weirdest animated thing i've ever seen. It's like it gets sucked out of his hands by a magnet.

The Faire Maestro is a type of character I feel like would have been handled really well in Transformers Animated but was just kinda nothing here, super ugly design too and very odd voice direction. Lots of just bizarre and mindboggling things in this episode, like them seeing faire maestro having an emberstone shard, and then deciding to steal it right in front of his face for absolutely no reason even though they think he's a normal guy and not a villain. And tiny inconsistencies like Mo knowing his name even though he never said it. Bizarre episode all around, Weird Al cameo is cute but then he's gone.

Episode 5 review: Finally Jawbreaker gets to be in it. Except now he feels like a baby. Just a big stomping juvenile baby.

And speaking of big stomping babies, Aftermath is one too. He feels like he's supposed to be a representation of troubled/delinquent youth who don't get along with their peers and who don't have positive role models or a support network, but he really comes off as being just... chaotic, no real sense of interiority to him other than "I'm mean and I enjoy being mean and I can't help it". He's entertaining on a surface level vibes basis, but it doesn't feel like any attempts are being made at making a point. He's barely been in the show so pretty much anything that could make his character interesting is completely missing. Like there's no development of how the decepticons are raising him other than the basic assumption of "bad role models", and the decepticons barely get to be characters this season either. Aftermath feels like an Afterthought, as Chaos Terrans have basically been less than a footnote, and the series has attempted to do no form of storytelling with them beyond surface level observations that honestly feel insulting to the other characters like how the decepticons are just evil now, and the autobots/terrans have lost all nuanced expressions of empathy and solidarity in favor of just "they're generally friendly"

oh and also the evil mushrooms are boring.

Episode 6 review: Man this episode just *feels* wrong, like viscerally.

The show's handling of the chaos terrans just keeps getting worse. There's absolutely NOTHING about spitfire that compels any form of empathy. Like there's not even a mote of her being a troubled and misguided youth, she's just straight up ontologically cruel, like nothing about the conflict in this episode regards a failure to understand, communicate, or empathise with each other, it's just a straight up rejection of those things on both sides. For this chaos terran delinquent analogy thing to work you NEED there to be a sense of humanity or waywardness to them. You NEED to be able to conceive of them as being capable of more than just anger. This just feels meanspirited, especially the way the Maltos have no desire for Spitfire to be better. They just wholeheartedly accept that she's ontologically evil, and honestly, the way she's presented in this episode you'd think they were right, but they're not SUPPOSED to be right.

It sucks too cuz chaos terrans are a great idea

season 1's terrans were all representations of good natured minority kids, particularly third culture kids, who despite their best intentions and kindness end up having to fight for acceptance.

The chaos terrans are a natural progression of that, with depicting kids who end up on the fringe of society because they're inherently different from others and have a harder time being understood, and who don't have a support network to set them straight.

So it starts out in a place where they'd easily be able to build on it, but it's squandered imo. And for several reasons:

1. the Decepticons are 1 dimensional bad guys this season so they fail to capitalize on any potential storytelling they could have done with how their generational resentment might be passed down to the younger generation. They also fail to build any sort of relationship between the Chaos Terrans and the decepticons, so any obligation to stay or debt of gratitude that they might feel is just not there. You get no sense of why they'd want to be decepticons other than wanting to be enabled and encouraged for cruel behavior. They could have given breakdown an actual father son dynamic with aftermath but instead undercut it and play it for laughs.

2. Because the malto's solidarity have been completely watered down into just being "good guys", and never really get to articulate any sort of deeper point in their attempt to appeal to the chaos terrans, so you don't get a sense of how they might help them if they were allowed.

and 3. because the chaos terrans themselves don't really feel like they have much of an inner struggle, interiority, or conflict, it doesn't really feel like there's much of a foothold for

Anyone to latch onto to get through to them. Which makes them feel unredeemable.

so to reiterate and summarize these 3 points; 1. there's no sense of how the chaos terrans are being given negative reinforcement, 2. there's no sense of how the Maltos might help undo this, and 3. there's no sense of how the chaos terrans might want to be helped or not helped.

I understand that like part of the point is that they don't understand the chaos terrans, which supposedly makes them feel more alienated and further pushed towards anger, but there's no nuance or attempt at solidarity to the way these misunderstandings occur. Like there's no hint of Twitch and the Maltos trying their best to reach out to spitfire in meaningful ways. There's no sense of there being some fundamental difference in perspective or circumstance that make them able to understand eachother's point of view, it's just straight up "i tried to be nice but you were mean so now i won't be nice anymore" and it never goes beyond that. It's insulting how easily the Maltos give up on them.

Episode 7: serving as a direct followup to the last, it continues a lot of the same flaws. It squanders any chance of giving Spitfire some depth, like they could have spun her obsessive competitiveness into a deep-seated need for approval or validation or something, but no, she's as one dimensional as her behavior would suggest. Her behavior just becomes more and more destructive to a cartoonish degree where it no longer becomes possible to feel empathy for her.

the whole freaky friday misunderstanding thing too also feels super forced, which isn't helped by the animation failing to convey a lot of ideas.

Comparing this season to season 1 so far, man it just really sucks at juggling the characters. We've had practically 0 focus or development for any of the autobots and decepticons, and the maltos for that matter, despite their overwhelming screentime.

This is likely a casting budget thing. Which is why bumblebee has been demoted from main cast member to a guy who maybe says 2 lines every 3 episodes.

The quality of season 1's writing would go up and down quite drastically between episodes, but so far season 2 has consistently been on par with some of season 1's worse entries. It's juvenile and it has next to nothing to say about anything. Barely even any basic surface level messages, just mostly meaningless antics with next to no focus on exploring characters.

Episode 8 review: it's fine. No notes. It's a competent comedy episode. Fun premise with the whole "thing getting continuously stolen by different people" trope. Basing an episode around optimus's trailer is funny. Animation isn't stellar. Overall it's just an ok episode. I have nothing to say about it other than it's well executed even if it's not very ambitious.

Episode 9/10: okay! End of the season. The finale's mixed for me. In a different universe, this would have been an OK finale for the most part, but the fact that the season has tarnished every single character and plotline from season 1 and made no successful attempt at building anything new of value makes it lack any impact it could have had.

Interesting angle to flip the quintesson creator race narrative that transformers fans are used to. Although they too were an afterthought for this season. Aftermath and Spitfire getting killed really was the rotten cherry on top of their miserable cake. First they're treated like dirt by the story and handled as poorly as they could possibly be, squandering the excellent potential they had, but then they just kill them. Just so starscream's heelturn is even more evil. It honestly feels sad to me that they even bothered to acknowledge the fact that starscream was redeemble in season 1. Just makes it feel even more annoying that they conciously gave up trying to make him nuanced. Some of the animation was good. The shots of terratronus rising were very well composited and communicated the scale extremely well. As for the actual climax, it felt pretty lacking.

Overall a dissapointing season. A shadow of what earthspark was. Most of the characters are completely sidelined (likely for lack of a casting budget), and the few who aren't don't get a single story that feels reminiscent of that immensely strong sense of confident identity that season 1 had.

Hasbro cannot help themselves can they

[hydemind]

Earthspark season 2.

[cityzenshark]

Messages "Home - Part 1" tried to convey:

You can't judge an entire group based on actions of certain individuals from that group

You aren't alone than you think you are (I guess??) (Nightshade & the person they rescued)

Some people can be terrible so be careful around strangers.

What they end up implying:

Humanity has no right to hate the alien robots who invaded and brought their war on Earth, but said alien robots are free to hate Earth and humans just because we have the natural resentment of invaders.

You CAN judge an entire species/race based on a single hate display as long as they're humans.

Dismiss all your worries on a stranger (even if they technically kidnapped you) just because said stranger is the same gender identity as you.

Again, humanity sucks. Why bother giving them the benefit of the doubt because of the actions of certain people.

[grody-cosplay-n-crap]

[vihattu-thethoroughbredofsin]

EarthSpark: When the script is not your strong suit. Part 2.

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

6. The authors do not understand the consequences of war and racism and cannot work qualitatively with these topics.

Now I'm going to be really emotional for certain reasons, but I'm going to try to bring constructive criticism.

The authors absolutely do not understand and cannot adequately show either the consequences of the war conflict or the problems of racism.

Let's start with what the conditions of the world are in the series. As far as we know, at some point in time, the Cybertronians ended up on Earth and continued their war conflict, which lasted an indefinite amount of time and ended about 15 years ago. As far as we know, humans participated in the conflict on the side of the Autobots, the Decepticons fought against humans as well as against the Autobots, which we learned from the episode "Warzone".

We know that it was a protracted conflict with the death of many people and the destruction of human cities. And we also know that the Decepticons planned the genocide of mankind.

And now a logical question arises. Will most people treat Decepticons or Cybertronians generally well after that? If people were not guilty of the conflict, but suffered greatly from it, why should they just forgive Cybertronians? Why shouldn't people be afraid of Cybertronians after all that has happened? 15 years is a very short time for the wounds inflicted by the war to heal in the minds of the population. For many, a loved one may have died or suffered, perhaps killed by one of the Decepticons. So for what reason should people be against Decepticons being caught, especially if they are still dangerous (but more on that later, when we discuss the depiction of racism).

At the same time, the authors in the narrative are trying to impose the idea that people should treat Cybertronians well, and it is wrong to be afraid of them and be offended at them. The authors show this quite straightforwardly, through the image of the GHOST as evil, exposing Croft and Meridian as unambiguous villains, people in the city as cruel savages and Robbie's friend as malevolent from nowhere.

Although a good plot point could have been built on Robbie's friend, when they would have disagreed about how much their families had suffered from the war. For example, Dot lost her leg, but maybe she has a good pension, maybe she was given a good prosthesis. And Robbie's friend's mother could have died in the war, his father or someone else from his relatives could have suffered more, and his family could not receive any compensation. That's where the ambiguity and a deeper look at the consequences of the war conflict could be. Like, "Yes, Robbie, I'm very glad that Megatron is your mom's best friend, but because of him, my mom is gone!". Maybe it's a cliché, maybe it's too straightforward, but it's better than nothing.

What was shown to us in the series itself? One of the victims is Megatron's best friend (Megatron, the main culprit of all that happened), the other victim is a villain, and we don't see anything else and no one in the environment. Megatron tells us about the consequences in the episode " Warzone". And this episode was made so that we felt sorry for Megatron himself. No, there were a couple more goals — to show that the Terrans are not responsible for the mistakes of the Cybertronians (which is the right idea) and to make a reference to the blue flowers from the IDW comics.

So what does this episode tell us through narrative? Yes, the deaths of both Cybertronians and humans are mentioned, and images of the destruction of human cities are shown. But this is all said in passing, the main emphasis is on the fact that the Cybertronians may have lost the Allspark and the space bridge, which is why they cannot return home. Yes, it is tragic. But who is to blame for this? And are the deaths of people less serious consequences?

Against this background, it is very ironic that the names on the memorial are a meaningless set of letters. Yes, it is clear that it would be difficult to encrypt so many names. But this does not negate the irony.

I just don't understand how it was possible to write the topic of the consequences of the war so badly? Everything can be understood, a children's cartoon, a difficult topic. But if the author can't handle such a topic, the authors shouldn't have chosen it in the first place! The history of all world conflicts and any features of the post-war period is now available. Yes, even now there are several major military conflicts in the real world! Right here and right now! And such an attitude to such a difficult topic, which for many people is an everyday reality, feels like a spit in the face, a spit in the soul. And the authors just took this topic and threw it away for another one, thus saying that this topic is not as important as another one.

And this is the topic of racism. I'm not saying that it's less important, but you can't just replace one with the second one almost in the middle of the season!

And the funny thing is, the authors couldn't even handle the topic of racism and present it correctly.

The authors are obviously trying to present to us here an allusion to racism towards migrants and refugees. Unfortunately, such a narrative cannot work with all the prerequisites that we had in the plot.

Let's start with what racism is. To put it simply, this is a biased attitude towards representatives of other races (nationalities or cultures) based on human fear of the unknown / unlike / strangers, supported by a set of ideological views about cardinal physiological, intellectual, moral differences between races, assuming the superiority of one of them. Within the framework of these views, races are considered practically as different biological species. We know perfectly well that this is not the case and all races are equal in their characteristics and capabilities, since we are one biological species. That is why racism is exclusive and works as a definition only within one species.

And racism doesn't work towards Cybertronians in this series, because, surprise, Cybertronians are a different species. Yes, Thrash, transformers are not people, and people are not transformers. There are obvious differences between the two species. And in this case, they are objective, Cybertronians are physically very different from humans, at least by physical strength.

Therefore, people's fear of Cybertronians is justified. Each of them is a war machine, which, if something happens, a human will not be able to stop, will not be able to escape. And the realization of helplessness causes fear. This is the first reason.

Cybertronians fought on Earth, which led to many casualties, and people remember this. This also causes fear, because every Cybertronian on Earth has shown itself to be a killing and destruction machine.

Because of this, the allusion of refugees and migrants cannot be transferred to transformers. Because they are neither one nor the other in the plot. Let me remind you, every Cybertronian on Earth is either a soldier or working for the faction's army, accidentally stuck on Earth. Each of them participated in the conflict, almost every one of them is a soldier. And when we talk about migrants and refugees, we are talking about the peaceful civilian population, to whom prejudices are transferred, caused by one reason or another, but which are not characteristic of these individuals.

So the fear of transformers is justified, almost every one of them participated in a devastating war for the Earth, most likely almost every Decepticon killed people. And people probably remembered who killed their soldiers, what their names were and what they looked like, because, most likely, during the war there were warnings everywhere about who and what to be afraid of. So why should we be surprised again by people who want to catch runaway Decepticons? Especially when there is the following reason.

Cybertronians do not feel guilty and do not do anything to make Earth their home. They brought destruction here, they are stuck on this planet through their own fault. Maybe they helped people rebuild cities? We don't know. Maybe they shared their technology as payment for what they had done? We don't know. Maybe the Decepticons tried to establish relations with people, but their attempt was rejected? WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! All we were shown was a deliberately GHOST-filmed film about how Cybertronians help build a bridge. According to the narrative, it is clear that transformers usually do not do this. And some of them are still dangerous to society. So why should people accept them with open arms in principle? People also have to provide them with energon at their own expense!

Cybertronians are not migrants, because they did not move to Earth of their own free will. Cybertronians are not migrants because there are no civilians among them. Cybertronians are not migrants, because migrants do not come to destroy the place where they are going to live (or do the authors think otherwise?).

I don't even want to describe how dumb the scene was with the underground transformers fights. Just to remind you that in the real world, this is entertainment for very rich people, for obvious reasons. Because they can provide a very big prize, which is what the fighters are fighting for. Tell me, someone, where did common residents of the city get so much money for a prize energon? Where do they even get it, their own underground production in the basement of an old lady? The series tries to touch on serious topics, and then shows THAT. Or do the authors imagine the life of migrants exactly as survival on the run and in underground arenas? But aren't such ideas already racist?)))

7. People are bad again, and the authors lead to the fact that people are the main villains.

Based on the previous point, we have the trope "people are real monsters" here again. Which, under the conditions shown in the series, does not work. But something tells me that the authors are trying to bring the plot and morality to the fact that it is people who will be wrong, that people actually provoked the poor Decepticons to aggression, and in the end they will definitely realize this and apologize. Most likely, they will even kneel down to fully show their remorse.

And all of this in general gives a very strange message. Basically, everyone who didn't like transformers is shown to be bad people, and two even died a pretty terrible and painful death. And only those who like Cybertronians are shown to be good people.

It feels like the show is trying to send a message — accept transformers or die. And this is some kind of very painful message, because it literally says: "You either forgive these guys who have killed a lot of people, are stuck here and some of them continue to cause harm, or you are a terrible person and die altogether".

8. Meridian.

I would like to say that everything is fine here, and I will say it. Meridian is a really stand-out character, an ambiguous villain with understandable motivation, not just evil because evil. But there are also strange moments in his development.

The strange thing is that the authors never gave him a name. Like, what's the idea? One person suggested an interesting theory (I will not mention the nickname in case a person does not want to be associated with what I am writing here) that the authors wanted to show that anyone who lives with hatred and a desire for revenge can be a Mandroid. This is interesting, but it is unlikely that the authors have put such a deep thought into it. Moreover, he has too many characteristic features and moments of backstory that cannot serve as points of connection with the viewer.

It is also strange that the audience was not clearly shown his background. How exactly did he lose his arm, how was he saved by Arachnamechs, why does he have such an attitude towards Croft, how is he connected with Alex. We don't know anything for sure, if I'm not mistaken, we've never been shown any of his flashbacks. And since he's dead, there's no one to tell his story, so we won't know anything about him anymore.

The prerequisites for a connection with Alex were not developed. In the early episodes, Meridian reacted quite emotionally to Alex, but when they met... nothing? They could have been friends or at least colleagues, it would have added depth to the characters, but this is another case of forgotten premises.

We were hinted that something had happened to him, he himself said that Arachnamechs had changed him in some way so that he would survive, and partly he was also technoorganic (?), but this information did not lead to anything.

No less strange is that the authors decided to go all the way with the idea of "you become what you hate." The problem is that Meridian has never become anything like a transformer. Yes, he replaced his hands at first, but then mutated into something else, but obviously organic or at least technoorganic. His final form is either a technical part, or just a shell that doesn't even transform. So Thrash's phrase in the finale doesn't make sense, because Meridian didn't become what he hates, he became something else. The authors could have changed their original plan and pointed out how much he lost himself, became unrecognizably unlike a human in him because of all this revenge, but they did not.

And, if we return to the argument with Thrash, transformers are really not people, so here the authors confuse the viewer, because the viewer must agree with Thrash. But how can you agree with him if he calls two different species by the same name? Or is it a feature of the English language? I don't understand.

Actually, that's enough. I believe that Meridian was right in principle that he wanted to rid the Earth of the cybertronians, since at that time they had done nothing good to the planet and humans. That's it, I declare the #DrMeridianWasRight movement.

9. What about Croft?

It turned out to be very strange with Croft. We absolutely don't know her motivation, why she doesn't like Cybertronians, what happened in her past to get her to the point of wanting to take over Cybertron. Maybe she lost someone in the war, or was she affected by this war? Does she want revenge or is she just ambitious? No, she's just an evil blonde (or gray-haired) woman.

And the choice of death is strange. This is very cruel for a character who has done almost nothing in front of the viewers. It's okay if she tortured the Decepticons, but they just sit in the cells, and what the GHOST did to the Decepticons during the Hashtag infiltration into the base in the episode "Hashtag: Oops" was not explained at all.

What is the backstory of her and Meridian? Why do they treat each other like that? Again, we don't know anything.

And that would be fine for a simpler show, but this cartoon has already shown that it's going to work out the characters and give them some motivation, but not in her case. Or did the authors think that it was enough for the audience that her name was Karen? I don't know. Someone said that she didn't need motivation because she was just evil and there wasn't always a reason to hate. But this is not the case, and any psychologist will tell you (including me) that there are always reasons for hatred, even subconscious and erratic ones, but they are there. There is no groundless hatred, in this case there may be an erratic reason that we do not know and will probably never know anymore.

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

[robotlcangel]

I’ve noticed that no one is talking about the fact that the cybertronian characters in earth spark are immigrants and refugees (and the Terrans being firt gen immigrants poc) and how that fits into the writing of season 2, because that was one of my favorite parts of es, especially how the Terrans struggle with their sense of belonging and identity and their discontent from their culture and people, it felt so real, and it really made me connect with the Terrans, it seems like this part of the narrative is forgotten by most people like I never see anyone talking about it, and that sucks because it’s a big part of es and the general world building for it, I hope we see more of this in season two both the negative and positive aspects of how it affects the transformers.

But I’m not really surprised like a good chunk of the fandom is white and this part of the transformers media is often left on the way side, especially how the autobots are literally cops, they better show in season two how the autobots also are terrible and there’s no “good side” of this war

Especially with prowl being introduced and he’s a cop squared, and tarantulus also being there

[arceespinkgun]

Has anybody said yet that the Starscream from Earthspark and the Starscream from the Skybound comics are both good takes on the character? To me, they both feel like reinterpretations that adapt the source material well while keeping the goals for their stories in-mind.

Earthspark is a family show with a major theme of coping under oppressive systems, so it draws on the uncomfortable history of Starscream being used as a punching bag across the franchise, and it also focuses on the side of the character that goes back as far as G1 but has been largely untapped—the Starscream who would point out practical issues but would often be ignored (usually by Megatron, some others were better about this).

The Skybound comics so far have been focusing on the gritty reality of war, so they draw on Starscream's cruelty and ferocity and depict how truly terrifying this would make him when juxtaposed with organic life. This Starscream as leader draws from other instances in G1, in which he was temporarily leader and his arrogance made him ineffective, selfish, and cruel.

And then both series still have him being an arrogant asshole who treats his underlings poorly while also being a capable warrior on the battlefield. I feel like now is a great time to be a Starscream fan, you literally have two different great flavors of the character.

[jaxamillion]

Expanding on my last post about Thrash's concept from the TFB.

While I was looking through his concept, I came across the words “Pure ID.”

..What does this mean?

It could mean two things.

1, His sense of ID is pure.

Or 2, He’s purely driven by ID.

Today I'm going to be focusing on the second option cause I wanna and it's the coolest

Okay, so let's take a step back. Thrash driven purely by ID. What is ID?

“The ID is the primitive, impulsive part of our psyche driven by instincts and desires.” So if you’re hungry, your ID will tell you to eat. If you want something, your ID will tell you to get it.

How does this fit into real people? There are generally 3 parts of your personality: ID, Ego, and Superego.

The ID is the impulse to have or do something (ID = Remember, Impulsivity driven by pleasure) while the superego is basically your conscience. (Superego = the morals you’ve learned from parents and teachers) The ego takes your instincts from your ID and the morals/information from your superego and finds a way to fit them together so you can get what you want without being morally incorrect (*depending on what your morals are. Most of our morals come from the oldest people closest to us though)

So to be driven purely by ID, purely by instincts and desire, would be really interesting. Imagine a Thrash who would put all morals aside to get what he wants. That's sick asf. (Even if technically he wouldn't have morals to begin with.)

He isn’t like this in the show of course, his morals are very present, like when he defends Mo from Swindle and has conflicting feelings between what he wants and what's right, like when he doubts breaking into the farmer's field. And he just loves his family unconditionally. So not Pure ID in the final show.

But in the TFB all of the terrans are given a defining ‘trait’

(This also leads to my combiner theory but I'll share that another day :3)

Thrash is described as Impulse. That's exactly what ID is, your impulsive thoughts and urges. This is why I think he's driven purely by ID instead of having a pure ID. It also says before the ID statement that he could care less how others see him, sooo... ya

The ID is, by definition, both completely disorganized and completely unconscious: no one is capable of intentionally acting on pure Id. The Id has no judgments of anything; there is no good or evil and no sense of morality at all. Again I think this would be awesome to see in a character.

It's interesting that Transformers would base a character off of Freud's theory of ID, Ego, and Superego in the first place though. A creative choice definetly, and Freud's theory itself is a good introduction to psychology but by no means explains personality and human psychology as a whole. It would be impossible to put the human mind in 3 categories, it's just too complex.

But Freud is also the same guy who said everyone was attracted to their mothers just because he had an incest problem, so yeah. Do what you will with that information.

Lmk if you want to read more on the topic of Thrash and ID, because I'd be happy to write more.

[monocle-teacup]

What is Mandroid talking about in episode 2 when he angrily says that he's part of two different worlds, and neither of them accepts him for who he is so he must be more?? I'm still entirely sure and i don't think it came up in any later episodes...

Tagging @ch1meraa and @vihattu-thethoroughbredofsin since I know they'll be interested in this post.

That line is actually what sold me on ES because there was so much potential for backstory. We all know how that went though. This post is part headcanon and arguably canon going by screenshots and dialogue.

In the ES Production Bible, it straight up calls Mandroid a tragic villain. Look at his face when he says the line:

Between the words and his expression, I'm thinking that he was treated poorly after becoming an amputee and that he actually tried living a normal life after his accident. Since he's a robotics genius, he probably also made an advanced prosthetic arm for himself but that added to the ridicule he received. In Age of Evolution, his conversation with Dot about his time in the War adds to how much his experiences affected him:

A lot of the fandom focuses on him being pissed he lost his arm when that's only part of his motivation. His main complaint is that it's screwed up how humanity got caught up in a war they had no business being in. Instead of being a helpless bystander, his "being more" is by becoming Earth's protector/hero/savior (these are all words he uses). The only time he ever smiles normally (meaning while he's not doing something villainous) is in response to Dot's "I judge a person by their actions, not their prosthetics."

He says, "Wise words." This tells me that he finds it refreshing that his status as an amputee isn't a big deal to Dot.