#How to Draw a Background and Transforming Robots

[ukiyoebirds]

Megatron has him so fooled, guys. Trust me, there’s no way Orion will ever find out.

Click on the image for better quality.

Joke workshopped with @krazycat6167, my partner in crime and comedy. (I think we’re funny).

[windydrawallday]

GLOWING OUT

It's not goodbye my only friend Yesterday started over again

Circa 2021... three years in and it looks like yesterday indeed! This piece is extra special to me because it marks my first investment in making Transformers fanart and is usually my pic to go when presenting my portfolio for fanzines/artbooks x'D

The flowers shown are Magnolia Star Wars, known to be one of the oldest and first plants to bloom, and so, probably dinosaurs saw (and ate) them!

I will share some gif processes here because I'm not used to do a lot this type of complex rendering and is cool af to see it step by step!

[hatchet579]

First one was inspired by a yeti crab, I have no idea what to name him or what I'm doing with him but : D

I'm really happy with how Hatch and aurum came out. I think I finally figured out how to do visors so whoopie.

[notaeldritchmoth]

wow why can’t robots be real. I like robots

my waife…. Oh I love my waiiiiife. Wow I wish robots were real I would be the biggest threat to them because I’m too busy slobberin all over them makin them ruuussst. Anyway I like how in transformers one the designs are very similar to G1 it pleases my brain. Also! The like entirety of G1 S1 is just on YouTube and I just have it as my background noise. 10/10

I didn’t want to draw his face I felt like rendering the metal face would be hard

[spotsupstuff]

What do you think about iterators canonically being Rat sized now? Lil guys.

I mean technically... a.) it's not really The Iterators, it's just their puppets. (we all know that, though, yeah yeah. nerd emoji and all that. i like nerding.) b.) we have canonical Rain World patented rats now, too, and they are smaller than a slugcat (edible too), so rats are smaller than puppets still. c.) it isn't really a new information, either, it's just more clearer and certain (well the height scaling doesn't seem very consistent to me according to the backgrounds. e.g. the fountain in Outer Rim is strangely small, so are the stairs at the murals in Ancient Urban, compared with the table and shelf in the workshop, the pottery and the bed). Outside of the game it has been said before that slugcats are around 3 feet and arguments existed before that these kind of things-

-are ladders and for them to be proportionable to the Ancients, the Ancients would have to be quite a bit bigger than the Iterator puppets. (Alongside the fact that Echoes are probably exactly how big them pals were when they were alive.)

I was aware of that for a few years now. I didn't draw it as such purely 'cuz I just didn't wanna ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ And about all my drawing stuff has been in an AU that was originally refered to as ,,the Serotonin Take", so..

But genuine thoughts on small puppets: I think it's both funny and makes a lot of sense. I'm pretty sure canonically the only reason for the existence of the puppets is so the Iterators can look good and ,,human" to their citizens through a camera and nobody actually ever visited the puppet chambers except maybe technicians once in a hundred years or something. Essentially biorobo mascots.

They don't need to be big or overly complicated outside of emotative capability (eyes + antennas, shoulders, maybe hands and head movement) to serve their purpose.

My only issue with them is that I'm a transformers fan and I like big robots.

Genuine thought going thru my head while in Ancient Urban 'cuz I was actively thinking about slugcats = puppet sizes:

[synthient]

Matrix parallels aren't the only or primary lens to read this movie through. But I gotta do the special interest shuffle (spoilers for I Saw The TV Glow throughout):

We get at least one overt matrix reference, which is the bit where Owen's movie theater is showing a sci fi movie where humans have been driven underground after machines took over the surface

There's the obvious thematic overlap of "is reality real," "are my memories real," "to what extent is my reality shaped by information/entertainment technology," "is there an Outside to escape to," "would I want to if I could," etc.

The pods and the coffin. "What if I was something powerful and beautiful, suffocating"

There's also some interesting overlap with matrix 4 specifically re "what's the line between transition and suicide," "to what extent is transition a kind of death," to what extent is not transitioning a kind of death." Along with the general stuff around nostalgia and mythologized source materials and hauntology (a term Schoenbrun has used in interviews & that I first heard in a matrix 4 podcast, lmao)

The pods and the heart/luna juice sequence both posit Being Made To Live Like This as a visceral bodily violation

Tv glow is maybe more cynical about the possibility of a true Outside/alternative to the system. Though Zion turns out to not be fully "outside." And Maddy's vision (of a slightly more magical suburbia that still can't escape the confines of "the county") is probably supposed to be less The Only Vision, and more filtered through the lens of someone young and very early transition. Generally though, tv glow is much more focused on interiorty and personal transformation (or lack thereof) than overt politics, although a critique of capitalist suburbia is certainly the background radiation

Also interesting, I think, that "how does kitsch and 'bad art' shape our identity formation" becomes a central question of the later Wachowski oeuvre. And something that's always been present in their work--and has maybe been one of the most polarizing things for viewers--is the combo of "we want to make serious art, And we want to make the kitsch we adored growing up. at the same time." The pink opaque conceit perhaps manages to draw enough of a boundry between The Art and The Kitsch to head off some of the confusion and frustration re "how much of the kitsch is intentional, and how much is an attempt at serious art that failed"

The Family (and the whole concept of having loved ones to leave behind) is basically nonexistent in the matrix trilogy, and Just Evil Robots Don't Worry About It in 4. Tv glow gets much more into this. Though both the saintly mother & and the monstrous father equally serve to keep you trapped, in the end

Anyway. Perhaps the matrix has shaped the entire concept of "trans cinema" to the extent that you kind of have to engage with it on some level. Perhaps it's simply that We Are All Having The Same Thematic/Philosophical Preoccupations. All very interesting regardless, to me

[duskffyart]

Voter Doodles Info (November 2024)

I will be doing FREE doodles for those of you who participate in this November's election! It's a very big and very important election for reasons I think we all already know, but i want to encourage voting the best i can.

If you're voting early or by mail you can send in your requests before Nov 5th! Just follow the rules below!

☆How to redeem your FREE DOODLE:☆

1) Vote

2) Send me an ask or private message here or on discord (@duskffyart) with a picture of one of the following:

- An "I Voted" sticker

- Selfie Station (does not have to include you in it, can just be a picture of the decorative background) something like this

- Something similar to the above.

**DO NOT SEND ME A PICTURE OF YOUR ACTUAL BALLOT THAT YOU FILLED OUT!!! YOU CAN GET IN TROUBLE FOR THIS!!!!**

3) Send me a reference image for the ONE character or similar that you would like me to draw for you. This selection can be:

- an OC

- A video game or show/anime character

- human/humanoid/gijinka

- animal/furry/anthro

- magical creatures (dragons, mermaids, etc)

- rl pets (dogs, cats, reptiles, rodents, etc)

* Basically I'll do pretty much most characters or something but please nothing super mechanical like complex robots (transformers, gundam, similar)

* Feel free to ask if you're unsure about what I can draw for you!

☆Doodles will be completed within the next few days or so depending on how many requests I get, but also I'm going to be working as a poll worker on election day so I won't be able to get to them immediately as it's an all day job.☆

Completed Doodles will be under the tag #voterdoodles1124 and will be styled like below!

[ck-17088]

Similarities between Transformers One and the Aligned Continuity (aka Transformers: Prime) 

Watching the trailers and reading the interviews made me realize that there are many similarities between TF One and the Aligned Continuity. As a reminder (or for those who don't know)- the Aligned Continuity consisted of the War for Cybertron games, Transformers: Prime, Robots in Disguise, Rescue Bots, etc.

Transformers: Prime got me into the fandom, so it's interesting to see a multi-million-dollar movie use elements from the continuity it is a part of.

Here is a list of similarities I have found so far. 

Note: I'll also be mentioning IDW1 briefly since the Aligned continuity and IDW1 comics have similar concepts and have constantly exchanged ideas with each other.

Megatron's name: D-16

In TF One, D-16 will become Megatron. D-16 is a name directly taken from the Aligned Continuity and has been solely associated with it until now. Even though Prime Megatron and IDW1 Megatron have very similar backstories—both being miners and then revolutionaries—only Aligned Megatron was also known as D-16.

Caste system/Social Inequality (hinted)

In both the Aligned and IDW1 continuities, pre-war Cybertronian society had a rigid caste system where one's role in society, thus their life, was determined by their alternate mode (Functionism in IDW1). In Aligned, Orion Pax's desire to learn more about this system, specifically the corruption and inequality it created, leads him to find Megatron (as described in Exodus and TF: Prime). The two become friends who desire change for their society. The interviews with Josh Cooley (the director) hint that something similar exists on Cybertron and is the main cause of their fallout.

 

The thing that starts the wedge between him [D-16] and Orion Pax is that the world is not what they thought it was, and they then start to form two different views on how to solve the problem.

 (Entertainment, Comic-Con 2024 Issue) 

In addition, someone on Twitter -who saw an early screening-said that the movie was "very in-line with IDW's ideas for how the war started," so it's safe to say it draws heavily from Aligned/IDW.  

Extra note: Another interview with Cooley revealed that in an early version of the film, Megatron was supposed to be a gladiator. He and Orion Pax were also supposed to have "very different backgrounds" - which sounds very similar to the data clerk and gladiator origins of the Aligned continuity.  

 Unfortunately, the limited runtime meant Cooley had to limit how much of the characters' origins to show on screen, including changing part of Megatron's accepted story. "If we had all the time in the world, it would've been fun to show Megatron as a gladiator and have the two characters come from very different backgrounds," Cooley added. "We actually had a gladiator scene that alluded to this origin that was cut out." Instead, Orion and D-16 are reimagined as bunkmates working as miners to bring Energon back to the planet after a years-long drought.

(IndieWire)

Cooley also mentioned being given a "bible" of the franchise's entire lore, which reminds me of the Binder of Revelation Hasbro made, or the source material for the Aligned Continuity...

The 13 Primes 

The 13 Primes will appear in the movie (you can spot them in both trailers). The idea of the 13 Primes isn't new, but this particular group version is heavily inspired by the Aligned Continuity. In Aligned, Alpha Trion is canonically one of the 13 Primes (aka the Covenant Primes, who also include Prima, Solus, and Megatronus). He wasn't considered a Prime in other stories before TF: Prime. The Covenant Primes also appear in Cyberverse and Earthspark, and TF One continues the trend. 

Below (in order):

Onyx Prime design from the Covenant of Primus

A mysterious statue (being?) from the trailer that looks very much like the Aligned Onyx Prime

Mysterious beings (Primes?) behind Optimus

Airachnid

 The design for Airachnid in TF One is very similar to the design in TF: Prime. Both have the "arms" on their backs and similar head shapes.

Vehicons 

Some Cybertronians look like the Vehicons. Looks like we're getting multiple Steves…. 

Extra: Brian Tyler 

Not directly related to the story, but the composer for Transformers: Prime (aka the genius who made the ionic Prime theme) is back and composing the music for the movie. If I hear the Prime theme in the movie theater, I might start screaming. 😂

I think it's so cool to see how much influence one continuity can have on the franchise, so much so that its elements are used in a movie that'll soon be seen by millions of people and future generations.

[magnimoon]

Optimus x "Heather" (OC)

I got another commission about my ship!!! This time made by Bel Lucilfer on Facebook

Look at them!!! They look so adorable!!

So, this artist doesn't know how to draw robots (even thought she made the cutest Optimus in the background, she added it just because :'1). So I just told her to draw the human version seen in Animated. I wanted to support her and it was worth the effort waiting.

This will be art I'll be using to promote my ship and as well my fanfic in which the couple will appear. "Heather" is the romantic interest of Optimus in my fanfic Transformers: Synthesis Wars.

Her name is in quotation marks since that's not her real name. She states from the beginning that she's using a fake name due to her not fully trusting the Autobots. Eventually she'll reveal her real name, but you'll have to wait for that one!

Her character will take time to appear, as well as her participation in the story. I'm saving the best for later!

You can read the fic here:

I also have a NSFW commission right here, deeply buried in my PC, I'm unsure on whether reveal it or not. I know I can't full show it here on Tumblr so maybe just the cropped version.

Gotta continue drawing and designing more characters. More updates soon! Feel free to ask anything!

[deepdreamnights]

More video tinkering with Vidu 1.5

Vidu hit 1.5 this morning for testing, which I get access to as part of the artist's program. While making raw material for a "Big Professor" project-

(Shown here to establish a 1.0 baseline)

-I nuked most of my credits, I've still got enough to try out the new features and give you all a rundown of them.

First major change is resolution options. Fast, 720, or 1080. Shown here is my first attempt at a 1080 gen, using the same prompt as above. While most vids in this post will be gifs for ease of use, this one is an MP4 to provide full evaluation.

Ignore the odd playback speed, since that's something you'd fix in post. The gif at the start was one of my most stable renderings of Big Professor under v1. Got some minor wonk in the details, little distortion around the prof's claw and the kid in the first half second, but otherwise well above the average of the 1.0 versions I've been working with, especially the clarity on the button text.

The second one is a re-run of the same prompt, minus some detail issues with one shin, the level of consistency is promising.

720 can go up to 8 seconds, 1080 tops off at 4. At present, 1.5 does not have an upscale function. If you're not tinkering to test out prompts I'd generally recommend 1080, even for lower-res projects, for the purposes of being able to crop and/pan.

For most of these, assume I'm using either 720 or 1080 gens.

Multi-Subject Reference-to-Video

THIS is the big winner of the setup. Previously, ref-to-video only could handle a single referenced subject image. The current setup now allows you to reference up to three per generation.

Those can be characters, props, or settings, and it can be used for morphing effects. This is good, because first-frame-last-frame is more finnicky than reference-to-video. The obvious use is to create multi-character scenes, and it works well for that:

But it has other uses. For example, here I used:

And while this one was reversed and trimmed, it displays the potential for using the feature for transformation sequences. The backgrounds are especially helpful, since Vidu's internally-generated toon backgrounds are very modern and digital-painting-looking (the gif of Mrs. Nice turning back and forth into Mrs. Nautilus at the top of the section didn't use a background image reference) and as always, I like it retro.

To that point, using the more comic-booky Mrs. Nice control drawing didn't work near as well as the more period-accurate one:

And while I'll personally be cutting out frames to produce a more accurate 1980s TV animation look, the raw fluidity is bound to appeal to the majority of users, and minor issues like the color of Mrs. Nice's blouse changing mid-transformation are easy enough to fix manually (though if a flaw looks enough like a traditional animation screwup, I might just leave it in)

And another fun feature? Movement amplitude control.

In my last post about it, I said Vidu likes to move, and if you need a more subtle shot, like this one, setting the movement amplitude control to small is your move. (Funny how the robot interpreted the book binding as a mouth.) If something's too static you can up the movement as well, but I haven't had that problem much.

In terms of generation quality, 1.5 is a good but not huge leap up from 1.0. at least in terms of what I've made so far. Aesthetics are very similar, but issues of tearing, distortion, and wonky action are lessened.

And it's way better at understanding triceratops, so thumbs up there.

This is one of my wonk-tests, but man, check that walk cycle. This is why the movement controls are important, sometimes when set to auto a dialog scene becomes a weird chase.

Now, in terms of generation costs (and this can always change), 1.5 seems more expensive but in the end it works out more or less the same.

A 1.0 quality 8-second gen upscaled to max res would be 24 points (16 for the quality 8-seconds, 8 for the upscale), and an 8-second 720 render is also 24 points (as is a 4-second 1080).

Yeah, you don't want to use "Fast" in most cases. While both the 720 and fast versions here both have flaws (Bruce's disappearing popcorn bucket, etc), the 720 res version is substantially more on-model for both characters.

To close out, a bit of fun wonk. To try out the effect, I prompted using a "Specialist Matt Trakker" G.I.Joe/M.A.S.K. crossover figure as a character reference, to see if it could translate a character from toy to live action. And it can-

Though it is very, very literal.

The combination of live action-esq person and accurate G.I.Joe joints is harrowing, but there's potential there for some wild variants on the Toy Story/A Christmas Toy/'Wynona's Big Brown Beaver'-Music-Video-by-Primus concept.

[skettchyartendevours]

Have y'all heard of a show called "Spheriks"

I had no idea it existed, until about two weeks ago when I found this guy at a thrift store

Soon as I saw him, I thought he looked like he could be a character from some early 2000's kids show. Upon looking it up, I was very much correct!

Main point is, I developed a fixation on this show practically that same day which now has me in a chokehold (I have decided to illustrate my brain's current state)

The Gobots and Transformers haven't fully left my brain space yet, but I would very much like to yap about these new guys for a bit

[which I will do under the cut, because this is going to get a bit long-winded]

So! A bit of background for the show itself: Spheriks was a show commissioned by FIFA to promote their new mascots for the 2002 World Cup, which took place in South Korea and Japan. It was the only show its' animation studio (Slave Studios, based in the UK) ever produced due to how badly it flopped, likely suffering from a short run time in both broadcasting and home video releases.

The overarching plot of the show consists of two alien races, the Atmospheriks and the Nulmospheriks, competing against each other in a football-like sport known as "Spherikball" in order to see who gets to control the atmosphere at the FIFA World Cup. The Atmospheriks represent positive energy, The Nulmospheriks represent negative energy, we have a very clear theme of "Good vs Evil."

In terms of characters, the show mainly focuses on four main characters from each team: The Atmospheriks have Ato, Kaz (the guy I found at the thrift store), Nik and Rhea. The Nulmospheriks have Roth, Viro, Null and Void. There are also a handful of non-Atmo/Nulmo side characters that regularly appear, such as the two announcers. I guess the rest of the teams as well, but they don't really seem to have dialogue or much of a stake in the plot.

Finally, here are a handful off messy sketches I did while trying to figure out how to draw a few of the characters!

So far I've really only tried drawing the Nulmos (villain fixation bias goes brrrr) but I'll probably attempt some of the Atmos soon

Their head shapes are proving to be very tricky to to translate from 3D models to 2D drawings, especially after a decent period of almost exclusively drawing blocky robots from the 80's

Well Uhhh..

Thank you if you made it this far! I don't usually do big rambling posts like this very often, so hopefully it wasn't too unbearable ^^"

[gamebird]

In a way, all fanworks are transformative. No matter how canon-compliant you want to be, even the act of choosing what to highlight from canon uses the lens of the fan to decide what's worth drawing attention to.

Some fanworks is very transformative. Maybe the fully human character is re-envisioned as a merman. Maybe the half robot construct is re-envisioned as having a digestive system*. Maybe the entire cast from a future setting is now in the past. Or vice versa. Or we have a crossover. Or someone gets a dog. Or they fall in love. Or they're a different age/race/religion/sexual orientation/gender presentation/national background/etc.

Every one of these transformative takes deserves to be listed in the main fandom tag. Even the ones that aren't popular and trendy and don't have a lot of support. It's never cool to tell someone their way of enjoying fandom shouldn't be seen.

*Yes, this post is about that other post from last night. Let's hold each other up instead of knocking each other down.

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 12

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Story - Curt Lunsford Art - S.R. Ayers Letters - HdE

deviantART

wada sez: See below for the original script.

Page 12

Panel One

(Shot of the massing horde of Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drones coming out of Tarantulus‘s lair).  The drones are in a very disorganized state, some in beast mode, some in robot mode, some even dancing or making lewd gestures if the artist wishes.  The main point is that the horde is trying to draw attention to themselves)

TEXT BOX:  The enemy forces are mounting.  

TEXT BOX:  But something is wrong.

TEXT BOX:  Their formation is scattered, their movements chaotic.  It looks as if their only goal is to draw attention upon themselves.

Panel Two

(Close-up of Dinobot II’s face.  His cyborg eye is now glowing blue)

Dinobot II:  Hmm…

Panel Three

(Basically an X-ray view of the horde.  We can see Tarantulus’s lair in the background, and we can see, through the X-ray vision, a very large, shallow tunnel going from that, underneath the horde)

TEXT BOX:  What’s that, a tunnel?

Panel Four

(Continued X-Ray shot, showing the tunnel leading up to Mt. St. Hilary‘s)

TEXT BOX:  And it leads…there?  But the only thing there is…

Panel Five

(Shot of Dinobot with a “Eureaka” look on his face)

Dinobot:  This battle is a sham.

Waspinator:  Eh?  Why lizzard-bot think that?

Dinobot II:  One lifetime of experience is hard to ignore, much less two.  Tarantulas has no interest in your protohumans.  That’s just a smokescreen to distract us from his true target.

Waspinator:  True target?

Panel Six

(Shot still similar to last panel)

Dinobot II:  The Ark.

Panel Seven

(Shot of Dinobot transforming and beginning to run away from Waspinator.  If there‘s not enough room, we can just have him run away in robot mode)

Waspinator:  Wait, where you going?

Dinobot:  To meet my destiny.

Panel Eight (Shot of Dinobot stopping, and looking back toward Waspinator)

Dinobot:  Do you think you can hold the line until Depth Charge and the others return?

Waspinator:  Waszzpinator…muszzt.  Thiszz home and Waszzpinator will defend it, no matter how many timeszz get blown up.

Panel Nine

(Shot of Dinobot walking away, he has a somewhat pained look on his face.  He knows Waspinator won‘t be able to hold out for long)

Dinbot:  Good luck, comrade.

[bumblebee-enjoyer]

The season one ending for Robots in Disguise 2015 was WEAK AS HELL

Through the entire season from episode 3 onwards, Steeljaw was being set up to be to main villain. A cunning, manipulative villain that you could kinda sympathize with if he's being genuine about wanting to live on Earth in peace (but its difficult to tell if he is being genuine or if he's simply being manipulative to get what he wants)

He was getting more and more members in his pack, he was becoming outright dangerous.

Only for all of that to get COMPLETELY UNDERMINED WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF MEGATRONUS.

Which happened in the last few minutes of episode TWENTY ONE OUT OF TWENTY SIX

It came out of complete nowhere and had practically no build up.

Yes Optimus was training in the realm of the Primes to eventually fight Megatronus, but that wasnt *mentioned* it was only said that a "great evil" was coming to Earth.

Which realistically could be *anything.*

Maybe Megatron abandoned his exile at the end of predacons rising and is getting a second wind (or maybe he was reborn into Galvatron which is a thing that could happen)

Maybe its Starscream rebuilding the decepticons

Maybe its fucking UNICRON again because that fucker is harder to get rid of than a roach

This is especially bad because if this is someone's first time watching anything transformers related they wont even know who Megatronus IS so it will feel like it came even MORE out of nowhere for those new to the transformers franchise.

And the actual fight against Megatronus itself was so weak, why was it that easy to take down one of the ORIGINAL THIRTEEN PRIMES? It should've been a long brutal fight, literally only SURVIVING let alone winning by the skin of their teeth.

But it was so easy, Megatronus was literally taken down and everyone had either none or minimal injuries by the end.

Just add some fancy weapons and blow him up? (Those decepticon hunters are so fucking overpowered. Also thats a stupid name they really couldnt think of anything more creative?)

I cant even tell you how infuriating it was to hear Bumblebee talk about beating Megatronus so easily in the first episode of season 4

If the characters dont take a villain seriously why should the audience?

The twist of Megatronus being the season 1 big bad was a dumb twist. It came out of nowhere and had no time to properly build suspense and it completely took away Steeljaw's spot as the season one villain just so they could have a plot twist.

Im not even opposed to having Megatronus be a villain but he would be better off as a SERIES FINALE villain. The big final boss thats been haunting the narrative for so long, ending the series with a massive climatic battle that could even force Bumblebee and Steeljaw to team up and work together to protect their shared home.

That way there would be plenty of time to build suspense, add foreshadowing every now and then to keep the audience on the edge of their seats as Megatronus's return draws closer and closer. Its always a looming threat in the background even when dealing with other plot stuff.

The season one finale should've been all Steeljaw. In fact...let him win.

Let everything he's done come to a head leading to him triumphing over the Bee Team.

It would be an amazingly gutwrenching way to end the season.

The Bee Team, for the first time, loses.

Loses in such a way that they cant easily bounce back from.

They had such a long string of victories, everything was going right for them

Only for it all to come crashing down.

They arent invincible, their luck ran out, now they have to deal with the aftermath.

In fact I'm actually rewriting robots in disguise, making it more into a proper sequel to transformers prime and much darker. (Just writing it very very very slowly because adhd is a BITCH)

And in the revised season one finale, Steeljaw and his pack attack the scrapyard and completely drive the Bee Team out

It doesnt end like how it did in the show where the Bee Team manages to recapture the scrapyard at the end of a single episode. (Which sidenote, Steeljaw finding the scrapyard base shouldve been a MUCH bigger deal because thats where the Bee Team LIVES. That is the one place they have where they can relax, feel safe, take care of injuries and just straight up EXIST without having to hide. And now the most dangerous enemy they have knows where they LIVE)

Instead it ends with the Bee Team scattered to the wind, the scrapyard in FLAMES, and Fix It almost DYING because he stayed behind to hold the cons off for as long as he could to give the rest of the team a chance to escape.

Not only that but none of the team can contact each other because Steeljaw PURPOSEFULLY targeted their coms first and all communications in Crown City will be jammed.

Steeljaw planned everything down to the last detail, especially WHEN he decided to strike.

Because he made sure to strike when Bumblebee wasn't THERE. Bumblebee was picking Russel up from school when it happened.

And he couldn't even help because another part of Steeljaw's plan involved his new very strained alliance with the returning organization M.E.C.H who up till this point have been regrouping behind the scenes after Silas's betrayal.

Steeljaw told them to do whatever it took to take down Bumblebee, and if they wanted to capture him afterwards or dissect him, more power to them but to make sure that his com is taken out first and do NOT let him escape.

Which means that Bumblebee gets BADLY injured. Like near FATALLY injured with only a terrified Russel for help, they are too far away from the scrapyard, coms are down, Bumblebee is actively dying (Russel suddenly realizing that his big robot friends can DIE) they are both completely unaware of whats happening in the scrapyard this is truly the worst case scenario.

At least until Ratchet finds Bumblebee and Russel and takes them back with him to Nevada and calls the rest of Team Prime back to Earth to look for Bumblebee'a team.

Its a devastating loss, one that will have consequences for a long time but it sets Steeljaw up as the dangerous villain he is. (It also parallels the season 2 finale of transformers prime)

And its also the perfect set up for Team Prime's return in season 2 because now the Bee Team has been beaten so badly that they have no chance of taking on Steeljaw without help (and such a massive victory would draw the attention of Starscream and Shockwave, who have been in hiding and carefully rebuilding the decepticon faction so Starscream could take control now that Megatron isnt in the picture)

Idk I just needed to rant and yap about my rewrite

(also this is not me bashing robots in disguise 2015, I actually think its a pretty decent show once you get into it, but this has bothered me since I saw the season one finale last month and I needed to get it out)

[heycerulean]

@st-peculiar . i started tf idw. this is all your fault (/pos)

live reactions:

used your advice of following the wise words of comicbookreadingorders.com. unfortunately, i could not for the life of me find the very first thing it said; Transformers #0. i'm not sure if it even exists at this point. i am starting with the next thing, Infiltration #1. please note i have never read a comic before. nor have any background knowledge about transformers. this is going to go splendidly. 1. the colors are splendid. never have i been more happy about well drawn planes and other vehicles. the little tiny mechanical details are food to my brain as much as tiny slivers of artisan cheese. it's wonderful. 2.

^ have NO idea who this man is but i saw their face and my brain autofilled "warren kepler." I about died. terrifying. let me tell you. terrifying.

again. RULE NUMBER 8, MR. JACOBI. next thing you know they're going to pull out the simple game of 'questions only'.

3.

did not realize this man was wearing a hat for a solid 10 seconds and thought they just had really, really bushy eyebrows. made me laugh harder than it should've.

4.

the power of friendship (car crashes) (i love them) (though they seem to be painted as evil) (but when has that stopped me) (let them make their music puns. everyone come choose your favorite war criminal)

5.

okay kepler man has a name. does this ratchet fella perhaps enjoy whiskey. specifically scotch. perhaps very expensive scotch. perhaps scotch from the brand Balvenie. p in other words they're very chill and i enjoy them as a character immensely. what a whimsical man. they look like they'd sit out on a balcony in one of those rich people silk robes with a cup of tea. they are the epitome of "today ☝️ i saw 👀 a balloon :) ❤️"

see? real as fuck. straight to the point. love them. 6.

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7. correction:

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8.

that one post about how if a hockey game goes into a 7th overtime they have to open the envelope that's never been opened before with the rules for it

9.

craziest line of dialogue ever actually. also beautiful though. it's both. bestie Was Lurking. the lurking man. they're currently oscillating between the vibes of "grandpa that's a little too into pickleball but goes easy if you play him and makes lemonade he shares with the neighborhood" and "little kid at a family function that's attached to your hip because you're nice and chill and everyone else is a violent ex-military conservative. you're playing Wii Sports Resort in the basement now." we'll see how that develops. 10.

changed my mind. this is not kepler. the new character sitting next to them on the mixed together media fixation brain couch:

this also makes bumblebee eiffel. i think they'd be friends :) okay i stopped reading at the end of that chapter. my main takeaways: - the characters are so lovely. my god - drawings!!! pretty!!! - will say that my one struggle is that i really just need a list of everyone's pronouns??? they don't talk about eachother enough??? i don't want to be rude to the cool robots. please help. overall it's wonderful and i plan to keep reading. thank you for transformerposting to the point it made me curious. I <3 new media

[ygoartreviews]

Mecha Ojama King Transformation

Ojama King gets his own magical girl transformation sequence! Except instead of looking more magical, he gets to turn into a robot, which is equally cool in my opinion. I love the framing of this, in that it's almost like Ojama King is dreaming of one day being a robot, with his vision being highlighted in full color while he himself is grayed (purpled?) out to draw your focus away. It's cool to get a side view of Mecha Ojama King, so that you can actually see how his mecha wings are connected to the rest of his body. The background effects are neat and the lightning bolts emphasize the mechanical nature of his magical transformation.

Rating: 7/10, Dream big, Ojama King!