#also what the hell @ rid megatron

[djinn-ale]

me thinking i liked taao and then realizing that i only thought it was good because i focused on the parts i liked about it and skipped over literally everything else

[littlemisstfc]

What Transformers Earthspark Teaches About Abuse:

TW: I will be discussing the topic of abuse, specifically how abuse is treated in Transformers media. If you’re sensitive to this topic, I highly encourage you to skip out on this post. Take care of yourself and stay safe. 

National Domestic Abuse Hotline: 800-799-7233

National Hotlines: https://victimconnect.org/resources/national-hotlines/

Hello, Hola, こんにちは。

Welcome back to this side of the Hundred Acre Woods, and we’re back back back again with another Transformers writing. I was just randomly hanging out in my college’s LGBTQ+ space, eating my Hot Cheetos and enjoying the H2O in my Hello Kitty hydro, when I began to have thoughts about Earthspark again. If you know me by now, you know that I adore Transformers Earthspark. Easy 9/10, among the top five best Transformers shows if all well goes according to plan. Like Cyberverse, it aims to subvert the Transformers formula through putting a fresh new coat of paint onto various Transformers tropes as well as bringing new and interesting characters and concepts to the table. When it comes to the former aspect of Earthspark, there is one trope that is not only brilliantly deconstructed, but is also treated with the respect and grace it should have from the beginning. As to what this trope is, let’s start with everyone’s favorite evil twink girlfailure: Starscream.

So…

The 21st century has not been kind to our skrunkly king. Sure, from the beginning, he is designed to be the ultimate girlfailure of Transformers. He’s cunning and sneaky, but his plans go easily astray because of his arrogance and ego getting in the way. It also doesn’t help that he’s often Megatron’s favorite punching bag whenever his plans to overthrow him go wrong. It’s a pure hate filled relationship that is dark comedy galore…if you approach it with the right angle. Part of the reason why TFA Starscream’s hate relationship with Megatron works is that Starscream doesn’t take Megatron’s crap at all. He will fight back, and it feels right whenever he has the upper hand over ol buckethead. Sure, their relationship is quite odd when you think about it. However, their dynamic is compelling as well as being like I said, dark comedy galore.

Then, Transformers Prime came in and proceeded to make it all so horribly wrong. Like I mentioned in my TFP essay, TFP Starscream deserves so much fucking better. Megatron’s treatment of him is just downright despicable. True, Screamer ain’t no saint and he only has himself to blame for his flaws and behavior. But…I’m sorry, the way Megatron speaks to him and how he gets so physically aggressive towards him is neither funny nor justified. It’s uncomfortable to see him reduce Starscream to a whimpering and fearful mess whenever the latter fucks up royally. Is this really what the showrunners think is good for the audience at home? Even if you see nothing wrong with it, you cannot deny how depressing it feels whenever Starscream and Megatron are on screen together. By having Screamer be the countless target of abuse throughout the show, it only made me want to help him leave the Decepticons for good.

It also doesn’t help that in RID 2015, Starscream’s vendetta against Megatron is portrayed in a negative light. Nah, fuck this shit. HE DOESN’T OWE FUCKING SHIT TO MEGATRON. He has every right to feel angry and hurt at how Megatron treated him throughout Transformers Prime. Hell, this is why I hate Megatron’s redemption arc in Predacons Rising so fucking much. He was never held accountable for how he treated his second in command, and for that, I only wish the uttermost hell for him. Fuck TFP Megatron. Fucking shark douchebag. 

Same for Transformers Cyberverse. Like I love you, queen, but how Starscream is treated in that show ain’t it. I’ve talked about this aspect in depth in my Cyberverse retrospective video, so feel free to check that out here. 

In a nutshell, there’s an uncomfortable trend of Transformers shows that straight up treats Megatron’s treatment of Starscream with only a slap on the wrist. Like, how does any normal person find any of this acceptable? Just…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

However…then, something miraculous happened in Earthspark. Something that manages to deconstruct this trope on its head by straight up telling the audience: “Nah, we’re not gonna do that treating Megatron abusing Starscream as a joke bullshit. We’re gonna be 100% honest with y’all.”

For context, Transformers Earthspark takes place after the Great War is over. Megatron became a good guy again and Transformers on Earth is a part of everyday life. However, for the Decepticons, many feel very salty about Megatron turning good and becoming mischievous gremlins. This resulted in G.H.O.S.T. imprisoning them in cells, including Starscream. Eventually, in the episode, “What Dwells Within,” Starscream and the Seeker lesbians broke out of prison and went on the run in some catacombs. The Malto kids also got trapped in here, and they had to teamup to escape the caves and a vore monster. When Starscream is being Starscream while trying to escape the vore monster, Twitch and Thrash bring up his flaws and believe that he should go back to Megatron, since they spend time with old buckethead and see him as the changed man we see here. However…then this bombshell drops:

Twitch: “Yeah, you should go back to following Megatron. He wouldn't leave anyone behind like that!" Starscream: “Oh, naïve child. Is locking Decepticons in prison while he walks free not "leaving us behind"? You don't know the real Megatron, the ruthless tyrant who ruled over us with fear and intimidation."

Me:

While the others were distracted by the monster’s growls, we see Hashtag’s expression. Just, the way her entire perspective has changed when Starscream brought up the man Megatron used to be. Mmmmm, LAYERS. A few more monster shenanigans happen and the two of them get stuck together in the control hub. Up to this point, we see how much Megatron’s treatment of him has affected Starscream deeply. Even after being technically free of him…he still remembers that awful time in his life. It also doesn’t help that he is The Starscream, the skrunkly backstabbing mean girl whose entire life goal is to be the leader of the Decepticons. He was never taken seriously and the universe determines that he will not succeed. I highly recommend Comodin Cam’s video on the topic about this if you wanna get into the details. Bottom line is that Starscream doesn’t have the best luck in being himself.

Back to the control hub, it seems like there was gonna be a discussion of Starscream being Starscream. However, to Starscream’s surprise, Hashtag believes him. When she called him out for trying to save his own skin while everyone else is gonna die because of the vore monster, she asks him this question:

“When bad things happen, it isn’t always our fault.”

Since July, I’ve struggled to convey my thoughts about this moment in the episode, especially as someone who has been in Starscream’s place at one point in my life. In Hashtag believing him and being ready to listen to him had the monster not acted a fool, Starscream’s pain and trauma has been validated. For the first in his life, he’s not treated as a joke. Someone realized that he was a victim of abuse and recognizes his feelings, not talking down to him nor trying to argue against it. Hashtag is a young child, but even she recognizes that what Megatron did to Starscream is not okay at all. This resulted in her gaining his trust and loyalty and she even told off Megatron when the latter and Starscream were ready to duke it out. Eventually, the day is saved and both Screamer and the Seeker girlies venture off into the unknown. But before that, he rejected Megatron’s offer of safety and yeah…after a long time of being Megatron’s chew toy, he doesn’t owe shit to Megatron. He has every right to not trust him again, and even though we saw Megatron changing for the better in Earthspark, he has indeed hurt a lot of people. 

Honestly, the bond Hashtag formed with Starscream and how the episode treated Starscream’s trauma with the grace and respect it deserves is a great lesson for kids to learn when it comes to helping out a friend who is in Starscream’s shoes. Hell, it could even teach kids to recognize the signs of abuse in their own homes and seek out the help they need. That’s what I love about Transformers shows like Earthspark: it recognizes that the audience is smart enough to pick up on the clues and details as well as entertaining them.

Transformers Earthspark aims to fix what shows like Transformers Prime has started, and it’s only fitting to have Steve Blum as Starscream here, as if its own way of saying, “We know, folks. Starscream deserves better.”

Conclusion: It's never the victim's fault.

If anything, Earthspark manages to excel in ways that many Transformers shows wishes they can do, especially those in the 2010s. It treats Starscream’s trauma from being The Starscream with the gravity and care it needs, and I appreciate it all the more as time goes on. I highly recommend that y’all watch this show. It has a complex story, likable and enduring characters, great animation, and it breathes new life in Transformers. Most importantly of all, it gave Starscream the justice he deserves, and I hope it stays that way with this incredible show.

[cybertron-after-dark]

oooo kimmie, can you tell us about the tfa and rb overlap?

Everyone prepare yourselves bc the floodgates are opened and now I'm never going to shut up about this

In a meta context, there's SO much overlap between the shows. A lot of the same people worked on it, especially the writers, and it 100% shows. Mr. Marty Isenberg you are not slick.

In terms of the actual content of the shows though, the similarities are overflowing.

First and foremost, the emphasis on cultural differences and exchanges with the human-bot relationships. TFA had a good bit of it and it was very very fun every time it happened (bots not really knowing what level of self defense is appropriate to teach a child, being very confused about what exactly humans eat, bee picking up video games, bulkhead picking up art, ALL that good shit), but you don't always get to focus on it with all the action and political intrigue going on. And while rescue bots has its share of intensity, there's a lot more space for the mundane interactions. Blades being tv obsessed, the bots celebrating Allspark day, boulder's love of just Everything on earth. They had a whole episode just about teaching the bots to fish.

There's also the fact that everyone on griffin rock is a little bit Unhinged in a lot of the same ways the humans kicking around Detroit are. Just. Vaguely Weird Vibes in very funny ways. And the same tendency to switch from revering the emergency services which they may or may not know the bots are part of to wildly distrusting them on a dime. Optimus would not leave an encounter with Mrs Nederlander unscathed bro. I don't know if any of the bots could.

Speaking of humans, the villains in rescue bots feel like what the tfa human villains could have been if not for being wildly overshadowed by the decepticons. Evan and Myles? I think you mean Henry Masterson's shitty cousins he only interacts with through the CoD lobby. Madelyne Pynch? That's just girlboss Porter C. Powell. Quint Quarry? Sir that is Master Disaster if he existed for more than like two minutes of a singular episode and bagged more than one bot. Dr. Morocco? Meltdown but better at, like, everything (especially lab safety).

Then there's the constant state of both teams grilling the hell out of each other All The Time. Chaotic. Absolute Creechurs. They love each other so much but they also all live in close contact and see each other all the time and thus they are So Mean To Each Other (though they're a bit meaner in tfa just bc older audience)

The Sumdacs and the Greenes being two duos of an absentminded but well meaning technological genius and his intelligent and Highly Cool pigtailed daughter who both have to deal with the dad's tech going completely out of control is pretty on the nose too. (Oh God now I'm just imagining an au where tfp starscream successfully gets rid of Megatron after the space bridge explosion and sends him hurtling towards earth and crashlanding right on griffin rock whee doc green finds his head. Can you imagine. The misery of tfp Megatron having to deal with a human. He's having several mental breakdowns, 100%)

Even Cody and Sari have a lot of similarity as characters. Cody is a lot more mild mannered compared to the absolute Gremlin that is Sari, but they both still struggle a lot with wanting to help but feeling too small to make an impact, even though they matter so much more than they could ever know. They're surrounded by heros, giants, and it's hard for them not to feel like they're fading into the background. And when both their families realize how they've been making those kids feel they put so much effort to make sure they're loved and feel like their efforts matter. It's the same arc in different forms. And it's so good both ways.

Overall they're both shows that feel like they're trying to say similar things to different audiences. That Earth is wonderful and worth protecting. That any effort can make massive differences, even if you don't feel like you can do enough. That a hero can come from somewhere humble, and the best ones usually do. That people deserve kindness and a genuine effort at understanding. That nobody is without value.

And honestly? That what I love most about both of them.

[lets-try-some-writing]

I love what your doing with your writing and how your properly fleshing out the bots and legit doing fabulous world lore. I’m so sick of TF media ether making bots dumb and humans superior or just really missing out on the content they could get heck we have barely seen cybertronian and there is a hell of a lot of potential that could be introduced e.g. cybertronian culture.

In programs such as RID other then it’s horrendous art style and writing it really just ruins all characters. I saw you mention it the other day and I wholeheartedly agree. I wish we got to see a trope of humans realising how utterly fucked they are when these supposedly gentle giants are actual observant as fuck and can can fuck them up and are not just robots. I don’t know if you’ve seen that’s there’s going to be a show that’s pre war 👀 might see some Young Orion and Megatron.

Keep up your lovely writing and stay hydrated.

YOU GET IT.

You have my complete and total agreement on this front. I am SICK of the ALIENS FROM SPACE WHO ARE FUNCTIONALLY IMMORTAL being treated like children or otherwise being ignored in modern TF media. It's driving me mad. Humans aint all that special in comparison to them. I came for the robots, not the squishies.

I heard about the upcoming show. Honestly, I am not too hopeful. ROTB wasn't all that good. Too much human and TERRIBLE writing. But I want to hope that sometime in the near future SOMEONE will make a good TF show.

No I am not particularly fond of Earthspark. Again, too much emphasis on the squishies. Also Optimus looks weird, almost like he got his Botox botched up.

But yes, I stand with you on this front. I will do my best to stay healthy to continue to write for yall :)

[themanwhovibez]

Alright, well, I fucking hate Tumblr, lemme tell you that! I've tried posting this about 7 times and I don't understand why it won't work. So now, unfortunately, no photos or videos are on this post, even though I really wanted to include them. I'll try on a different post ig

But either way, Transformers: One was SOOOOOO fucking good. I had a lot of worries about TFOne and how they were gonna do things within the story, especially in such a short time frame. But most of my worries were cleared up during the showing. Now, I still do have issues with the movie, but frankly I can over look all of that to focus on how much I loved. I can rant about it in a different post.

The friendship between Orion and D-16 was so sweet, I was ready to cry 3 minutes in simply because of how wholesome they were. You will be depressed by the end of this movie, I fear that's a guarantee as this movie was genuinely a break-up movie 😭

This movie was also breathtaking to look at, it was genuinely so gorgeous. There were moments where I was no longer watching what was happening within the story, but focusing on the actual scenery of the movie. Cybertron was shown in such a beautiful light, one that we really haven't gotten to see and I want to see so much more of that. I wanna see more about the plants and the life, how these things work!

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend that you watch this movie and make your own opinion. Personally, it has become one of my new favorite TF movies to come out and I'm already ready for a sequel. Hell, I even have ideas for that but I'll get into it more about with a different post.

Oh and I was able to grab an Orion poster + an extra Elita poster!!

Under the cut will be spoilers. Please don't go past if you don't wanna be spoiled!

Two of my favorite images from the movie, which I unfortunately can't include, is Orion flying towards the center of Cybertron AND the closeup of his graying body with the original Primes behind him.

I know, saying that Orion's dead body is one of my favorite images is probably a bit wild, but the image of his graying body with the original Primes behind him. The whole scene in general is so amazing to watch as both Orion and D-16 transform. Transforming into their new forms for such different reasons, where Orion is gifted The Matrix for being seen as worthy while Megatron steals Sentinel Prime's t-cog that he had originally stolen in the first place.

I was also genuinely so shocked at seeing Orion stepping in front of Sentinel Prime and taking the shot from D-16 canon. Being taken down by the very friend he came to save. The way he tumbled off the ledge, so similar during the race where D-16 was knocked off and Orion pulled him back because "We have each other's backs." D-16 muttering in such a panicked way, that small "no no no why?!" was so heartbreaking but actually seeing that betrayal was so much worse. The way D-16 only stared down at Orion, like he was realizing that if he wanted to achieve his goal, he needed to get rid of his only friend. The very thing that was holding him back. The thing that was making him soft and distracting him. God and just seeing Orion's sad expression paired with that soft "D, no.." GOD IM SO OBSESSED

I'm actually so obsessed with this movie and I'm already planning to try & go back again to see LMFAO

[melishade]

So you know how in RiD the Primes send Optimus back to Earth to fight The Fallen? I think it would be funny if Optimus was just going about his day on Paradis and then just popped out of existence for like a week and everyone was freaking out about it. And then he just reappears, dusts himself off, and tells the very concerned Survey Corps “sorry about that, I had to go kill a demigod with my son.”

And the Scouts are very confused because one, “what do you mean you have a son?” And two, “sorry, you killed a WHAT?”

And Megatron’s just in the background like “was he cool?” Because y’know, he named himself after that guy!

RID2015 may be non-canon in AOP but this would be so hilarious in hindsight. Because Micronus can astral project in real time. He used Grimlock to astral project his head to tell Optimus ‘oh we need to take the powers we gave you back since Megatronus is dead.’

So just imagine Optimus and Eren are training one day and all the humans panic when they see Micronus’ head directly on Eren’s chest. All the humans aim their weapons and Levi full blown attacks but Micronus locks him in a sphere of energy in response. He then turns to Optimus, tells the Prime that his presence is needed and locks him in a sphere before teleporting him somewhere else. Micronus disappears, dropping Levi in the process and the Ackerman face plants on the ground. There’s silence before everyone starts freaking the fuck out!

Meanwhile, Megatron returns to the island from his surveillance in Marley and everyone is swarming him and telling him what happened. Megatron thinks they’ve all lost it until he heard that Optimus was locked in a sphere and taken somewhere. Megatron has to ask just how small that head on Eren’s chest was.

Hanji: Why the fuck should that matter?!

Megatron annoyed: It does matter! Just answer the question!

Armin is the one who makes the estimated guess and Megatron is defeated. He explains that it was Micronus Prime that just took him. And everyone is floored! Another Prime?! And with that kind of power?! Why didn’t he say anything?!

Megatron: Look the Primes are elusive and demanding. If they took Optimus, it probably means that there’s some universal threat coming soon.

Eren: So what the hell are we supposed to do?! Just wait?! Are they even going to give him back?!

Megatron gives an expression of doubt. Because Optimus has cheated death quite a few times, but if the Primes want something there’s probably no room for their minds to be swayed. Their only options are to wait for Optimus to come back or to proceed without him.

Everyone ends up working double time and making contingencies for the worst case scenario. But a month later, Optimus is dropped off by the orphanage without warning scaring all the kids.

The Survey Corps are alerted and immediately swarm Optimus, grateful he is alive and demand to know what the hell happened. Optimus explained that another Prime, Megatronus Prime, aka the Fallen, always breaking out of his prison and he needed to help eliminate him with the help of the other Primes and Bumblebee, who’s on Earth. Optimus only agreed to do it if he was brought back, and they complied. However the Primes refused to help Optimus and Paradis, despite his insistence that they do. So Optimus tells Bumblebee as much as he knew about their world before the Primes brought him back here. And they also took all of his upgrades while he was at it.

Levi:…the Primes are dicks.

Optimus: Levi!

Levi: Look me in the eye and tell me I’m wrong.

And yes, Megatron would ask what the Fallen is like. Leading to probing from the Survey Corps.

Hanji to Megatron: You named yourself after someone titled ‘The Fallen’?

Megatron: I don’t need explain my reasoning to you!

Levi: You became evil, just like that guy.

It’s some dramatic irony if they ever saw it.

Six months later, Bumblebee and his team manage to get a space bridge to Paradis and Bumblebee tackles Optimus into a hug.

[transingthoseformers]

Breeding Shockwave anon here I had to divide in two cus it got so long :') i had to put a lot of exposition for things to be in character im sorry @_@ (also looked up ladybug conception just cus I can't get rid of TFP Shockers being an half insecticon it just feels logical

A TFP AU I have (as an excuse for my sins) is that because the omegalock is no longer operable and the Allspark is deep in space, Becauseprimus' creative ability was stretched so thin and the planet is so badly damaged, when the Allspark is retrieved it can only slowly heal the planet, but is unviable for creating newsparks now The remaining cybertronians on earth unknowingly adapt to have reproduction methods like humans (this is even a thing in G1 with the Insecticons that I think has been forgotten cus I've never seen anything like that anywhere so why not bring it back through shameless excuses for robot smut? :3) No one noticed until Shockwave comes in the planet and scans himself one day for routine maintenance. the scanner shows that something is different in his frame and he investigates what these new components are Shockwave completes his investigation and does scans on everyone he can (Knockout and Soundwave being the easiest with a simple excuse of inspiration for vehicon upgrades). He realises everyone he scanned has similar equipment as him and makes a theoretical guess that anyone who'd been on earth has this equipment, cus Skylynx and Darksteel don't have the anomalous equipment while practically everyone else including Predaking does Shockwave looks into the human internet to understand whether such equipment is present in human biology and he delves into the rabbit hole of reproduction and sexual pleasure Shockwave uses his newly dubbed spike and valve more often as the thought of creating life within your body entices his thicc science brain When he FINALLY tells Optimus, ratchet, Knockout and Megatron of the interesting news (with Soundwave as record keeper for this interaction) theyre all perplexed and confused and unsure BUT once Shockers reminds them of the fact that the allspark is weak and no newsparks are yet to be made they reconsider the idea and an agreement is made that a test is done to see the results of this discovery Shockwave ask Soundwave as tribute for the first ever trial of coupling and Soundwave accepts with no hesitation (which Megatron is sus of) shockwave is Soundwave's first ever handjob and Soundwave gets to leave early while Shockwave takes the liquid that came from his new piece Soundwave is too curious and he tunes in to the lab's security camera to see Shockwave three knuckles deep and moaning for is life in a secluded part of the lab it takes a couple decacycles (weeks) but soundwave points it out that Shockwave has been acting out of the usual (and just the previous cycle he tried to take a bite of out of a vehicon) so he does scans according to human research in pregnancy and lo and behold he's concieved three sparklings

In this case it was Unicron who saved their species tbh

Shockwave finds the internet, and his life will never be the same ever again

Megs is right to be suspicious of that but hey at this point it's beneficial

Fdshkhhbj dIDN'T EXPECT THAT DID HE

This has potential to be quite interesting as hell

[megapwnus]

Saw tf one tonight and LOVED ITTTT

-spoilers below, bewaaaaare-

It was so pretty! Amazing lighting and color palettes!! Loved the world building and designs of the cybertronian fauna and landscape!! ObSESSED w the quintessons being like. Organic crab guys.

Also this is maybe my favorite Optimus ever??

And omg. Megatron’s slow descent… chef’s kiss.

Also just LOVED the general plot and lore for this iteration.

It’s funny because I shouldn’t give myself credit for this because 1) sentinel is like always the Bad Guy and 2) Quintessons are always the extra planetary Bad Guys but literally as soon as I saw Sentinel my thoughts were “okay so he is a quintesson puppet somehow” and. CALLED IT!

What I was pleasantly surprised by:

- no romance between elita and OP (thank god I was worried about a hiccup and Astrid situation. Still am for future films tbh)

- bumblebee was insane?? I expected him being the comedic relief but I didn’t expect him to be half crazed making fake friends and canonically very unhinged and annoying. Good shit. ADHD realness. They sent him to the 50th level of hell for his ADHD!

- airachnid…. Wow. Though I got so excited bc I thought the eyes on the back of her head were “baby” “spider” bombs. Was sad when they were simply MORE eyes. Tho it was funny.

I could go on but I shouldn’t write an essay I should go to bed but. Hell yeah babeye!!!!

Sidebar: I was hopeful for future hot rod but due to the manner in which Orion became OP and the fact that he got flame throwers… maaaan we are never getting Roddy 😭

Overall?? 10/10 minor issues w the pacing towards the end but totally minor. LOVED the verisimilitude between OP and Megs. Making their divergence a choice made from the same playing field really adds weight (and gets rid of the problematic violent revolutionary narrative… lol)

[autobot-ratchet]

Dark Cybertron Volume 1

Dark Cybertron Volume 1

I was gonna do this arc issue by issue but about three issues in, I realized I was reading a volume that just had all of the Dark Cybertron arc in it without having to jump between MTMTE and RID so lmAO that's fine it's honestly better this way but that does mean I'm gonna do this by volume, so basically half of this arc in one volume, the other half in the next

Galvatron sucks but he was so right to defend Cyclonus from Jhiaxus. No words, just a “shut your fuck” arm gesture, hell yeah

also I just realized this is a little glimpse of the ship Tailgate said he was gonna be a part of just before he fell underground, nice

god. I don't want to do a reread of MTMTE's sister series (or at least not a complete reread, I might reread certain bits) but like. Remember Rattrap lmfAO I remember so much fucking buildup like “ooh he's being so sneaky he's gonna betray Starscream, he's gonna betray him so hard just you wait” and then that guy straight up disappeared without ever actually doing anything at all. And I don't mean that he disappeared within the story like for plot reasons, I mean that Barber just stopped including him in his writing and I'm gonna be real I deadass didn't notice for a long time lmFAO

oh that's right, I vaguely remember this orc dude, Garnak, he was a friend of Roddy's

fdjasksl Swerve just immediately embarrassing Rodimus in front of Optimus

aww you hug that bot, Garnak, god knows he needs a good hug after all the shit that's gone down

interesting that Perceptor brings up that the Lost Light isn't technically an Autobot ship, it's a neutral ship

“Mostly I thought about Megatron.” I bet you did, gayass

oh fuck I knew Cyclonus had been trapped in the dead universe before but I didn't realize he spent six million years in there. Wasn't that as long as Tailgate spent trapped underground??? no wonder they were drawn to each other, they are each the only fuckin person who could possibly understand what the other has been through

ooh, so Roddy's told everyone the truth about the Overlord project at this point, he's got the numbers carved into his hand

I also forgot that the dead universe is where we meet Nightbeat. The fuck is he doing here lmfAO he's just in here chilling I guess

I'm not gonna lie my eyes glaze over so hard whenever anything RID related is on my screen lmAO I tune in just enough to get the plot relevant bits and then just... schoop... rats trap........ metal hawking............ omg Ultra Magnus!!! hi ❤️❤️❤️ like rip to everyone who was really invested in all the non-MTMTE goings on but god. Could not be me lmfAO and I tried! I did read all of the transformers comics in the first IDW run at one point! And my final verdict is that MTMTE/Lost Light is the cream of the crop and there were like. A handful of other comics that were worth a shit lmAO some mini series, some spotlight issues

hell yeah, love the crew deciding to do their own thing to go find Metroplex. “We can't do our own thing anymore,” yes you can, actually lmAO you can do whatever you want forever. Also I find it interesting that it's Ratchet who's trying so hard to argue that their hands are tied. Maybe moments like this were what put the idea in his head to go find Drift later

awww this is the first instance of simpatico!!! Percy and Brainstorm really are cute together

the fuckin Rod Pod........

oh fuckin right there was a whole thing about Nightbeat getting shot in the head, god I really did not retain shit about all the other transformers comics I read lmfAO whatever it's fine

Nightbeat really does just lay out Cyclonus's whole entire life in front of everyone, damn

fgdhsjk Galvatron just casually rips Megatron in half god damn

Getaway getting caught up in just how ridiculous this fuckin series is, simultaneously loving and hating it

aww Skids has Swerve's number, there are so many little moments of bonding or just like casual indicators of closeness sprinkled throughout this series, I've been noticing it with Brainstorm and Perceptor too, they have a lot of small moments of banter that are really good. Like people portray Perceptor as no-nonsense in the fandom but he does get just a little silly with it when it comes to Brainstorm, it's very cute

rip Rod Pod

rip Hardhead also, he was kind of a bitch, good riddance

[bumblecow]

for the ship bingo: megastar and chopit (chop shop x fixit)

(also hi again :D)

Another bingo!

My current obsession... I fell in love with them after Megatron Origin. Pre-war Megastar is so good...seeing them now (especially in idw Megatron Spotlight: I was unfortunate to read these two in this exact order with nothing else in between.) I fell from fluffy clouds straight to hell of melancholic angst. But I do enjoy a messy dysfunctional ship!! They belong together because for the sake of Cybertron, whatever is going on with them must be contained and quarantined for all of eternity.

My fav versions include WFC, idw and g1. I was surprised WFC could fit the transformation of their early relationship to what I call "classic g1 mess" and I see some hints of idw in them too, which I really like!

I consider SG!mss cute, though overall I categorise mss as sexy more than cute ⁄⁠(⁠⁄⁠ ⁠⁄⁠•⁠⁄⁠-⁠⁄⁠•⁠⁄⁠ ⁠⁄⁠)⁠⁄

Unfortunately I don't know anything about RID. I'm now on my 12th episode on Tfp...very slow watching. But ...I can easily be convinced to ship something I barely know anything of. Give me a propaganda and you can try and sway me? Lol

(and hello again, fellow mss-kiss-sign-stickman XD)

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Retrospective Issue 6: Interiors

Hello all you happy autbots and welcome back aboard the lost light. So there's a few bits of buisness to attend to before we hop back on board after our detour with the Wreckers for some needed context, something i'm glad we did as I forgot this issue is essentially a direct sequel to last stand. While Lost Light follows up on some plot points, this one directly follows up on Fort Max and what he went through… and also ties some other threads into it, one being why Whirl is in court mandated therapy in the first place, the other i'll save as if you have context, it's one hell of a cliffhanger. If your me and you didn't, you just scratch your head a bit.

The first is some great news: Brotoman.exe in addition to paying for the wreckers review is now doubling down on patreon, being my first 10 dollar patreon in some time and thus we'll be covering the issues 2 at a time instead of 1.. and sometimes more if he feels like it. While I have something of a schedule ready, it's flexible, so you can expect AT LEAST two issues a month and sometimes more from here on out. We also plan to thread in the two drift mini series, the second wreckers mini series, and the final wreckers one shot as we go.

Threading things in also leads to the second announcment which is a story thing: As a result of how we're doing this the next two months are going to be a bit different barring Brotoman adding any issues as the next three sets of issues are all something diffrent: We'll be covering the two spotlight issues next month. During Phase 1 of IDW Transformers, they frequently did issues like this, little issues to spotlight one character and help widen the story outside of ongoings, the central mini series and what have you. I liked that system a lot, and it's something IDW was really great at and did later again with TMNT, though with Microseries instead (i.e. a one shot with a neat name). There were only two made for the Lost Light side of things and after this phase they stopped doing them, likely both due to both series being so plot dense it was hard to squeeze them in and the addition of Windblade as a third ongoing likely making it finacially tough. We'd still get a few one shots later on with a christmas special and a revolution tie in, but both are more fun side stories.

Then while MTMTE returns in March, it's for our first Scavengers arc. If you haven't read the series, buckle up and if you had, then you know it means our heroes will take a breather so a new bunch of screw ups from the other side of the forever war can take stage. Finally we'll be covering Chaos Theory, which while intended as a prequel to the Chaos arc that ended the Carey era of transformers and ushered in the MTMTE and RID era, it also serves as one ot this series as it sets up cybertron's past, something that will become heavily important to the series and also stealth introduces Whirl. T

So before things change, we've got a hostage situation to deal with so join me as we spend a lot of time in a therapists office under the cut

We open in Rung's office where Fort Max is in therapy. He's not exactly opening up about G9 despite rung prodding, not wanting to relive his trauma… which as we see had Overlord planning to murder someone every second he didn't reveal the truth. We also find out why Overlord was intrested in Aquetius and thus had max plugged in, as in hindsight , and I kick myself for not thinking of this he had no reason to other than to be a dick, which was probable but didn't seem right. Why would a rogue decpticon care about airing the autobots dirty laundry? That wouldn't get megatron to notice him and fufill his death wish any faster. No he wanted something UNDER IT. There was something else there and having forgotten what i'm chomping at the bit to find out. Point is he's not opening up.

What is open , for now anyways is swerve as they play a rousing game of guess who transformed, which Chromedome is great at though Rewind is usually better. Pipes.. is alive?!

Yeah I was floored by this. While I remember a lot about more than meets the eye, some details just slipped so i'd just.. assumed pipes was good and dead last time but other than being shaky about transforming, for obvious reasons, he's fine… for now. As for where Rewind is he's outside as Tailgate finds out when he sits down, having asked Cyclonus to join them and got the response you'd respect

We also get a hint of how the two met .. at a relinquishment clinic but that's all we ge tfor now

Ultra Magnus walks in… and as you'd expect yells at swerve before dragging him off in chains.. well handcuffs, Rodimus hid the chains for obvious reasons. Fort Max then comes in grumpy.. and just up and shoots pipes. Yeah I forgot about this part.. I knew what he did NEXT… but it's one of the only joys of my spotty memory: sometimes you forget a moment or something, and thus you get to be suprised all over again.

So things then went from bad to worse as we find out in the situation room later that day: Max didn't stop with just pipes, shooting 4 robots we've never heard of on his way out and now holding Rung hostage. Thanks to Blaster, Soundwaves sadly undeerultized autobot counterpart, they have visual. Magnus also stops in and naturally is very I told you so.. and has earned it as he's absoltuely right that the recently traumatized POW should NOT have been carring around his big old gun. HE still probably coudl've done what he's done so far WITHOUT one, granted, but it wouldn't be nearly as easy. Our heroes find a ray of hope though someone's in there with him who Rodimus hopes is a beacon of stablity and calm to help defuse this tense situa…

We also find out why he's doing this besides you know, clearly needing the therapy he's refused to actually take seriously

While what he's doing is not right he's holding an innocent man and whirl hostage to vent his anger is horrible… said anger is understandable. G9 went silent for years and while sure, we know part of it was Megatron's invasion left the autobots barely functoning due to a combination of their numbers being worn down to next to nothing and bad writing, he dosent know that and even if he did.. they stilll sent ONE SQUAD two years later. It's hard not to feel for the guy even as he's holding an innocent bot whose using his thumb microphone to broadcast the sound hostage… which backfires as soon as Fort Max catches on.. and immdeitly uses up said sympathy twice in a row. He assholishly demands Rodimus turn the ship around and refuses to talk to him or listen to the fact their FAR too far from cybertron for that to actually work anyway, and then rips out Rung's thumb.

One final touch i'll note from all this.. the fact Rodimus.. looked sad as he figured out what Fort Max meant. The guy has enough flaws to fill several more issues of this very comic, but it shows he does care and does feel horrible about what max went through.. even if he's not about to aquiese to his demands.

In the medbay for a thankful break Ratchet notices a pattern.. he'll say it later but all the victims.. look like overlord. Not exactly, pipes for instance has a cool visor thing, but they all have purple eyes and light blue and dark blue chasis.

Back at the hostage situation

Whirl just says to kill them already and be done with it, especially since as he put earlier, telling Rodimus to do something he dosen't want to do never works. This does get Fort Max curious.. why is HE in therapy and in the dog house and while Whirl being.. whirl refuses to answer at first, it's telling that when Max threatens to shoot rung he instantly complies. Whirl was kicked out of the wreckers, we'll find out why shortly, and took it "shoot up the place" badly, so hence the therapy. He also reveals a key part of his backstory for the first time

We'll get a more fleshed out version of this soon enough, but for now comnand notice rungs pointing at his model of the lost light.. specifically to where he is.. and to it's window.

Outside the unlikely duo of Swerve and Rewind are re-riviting the ship as punishment: Swirl for his bar, which he figures he'll keep since while Magnus naturally hates it, Rodimus will brush it off, and Rewind for those discs we saw him get back in issue 1, one of our first chekovs guns to get fired. I really should've been counting every time this series foreshadows something. Maybe next time. Point is we find out they were essentially snuff films: heavy casualty battles that sort of thing. Though rewind isn't a monster.. .he just wants to find someone. He dosent' open up who, yet another setup for later, but we will indeed find out. For now our heroes are useful as being outside they can reach the window and pull a gun on the guy pulling a gun.

Back at the office, Whirl continues his story…

This.. is where Whirl really grew on me. At first he just seems like a quippy, trigger happy robot dead pool but actually forced to get the therapy needs…. that's not bad.. but like wade himself finding out WHY he's like that and seeing the heart underneath really makes him more loveable. He just wanted to make watches, lost that, became a thug, and while he clearly again needs help… it's easy to see why he turned out like this. He was only an autobot because Prime saw good in him.. while Whirl dosen't phrase it that way.. that's really how I feel it. Optimus may be many things.. but he's a good bot and while i'm sure not letting megatron gain more followers was a tiny consideration, the fact is knowing him.. he just saw a bot who was lost and needed a better purpose and took him in for that. It's also likely why, however misguided, he tried to end springer: he saw a friend in pain. Granted it wasn't the best call and he shoudln't of done that, but given what Springer had been through emotinally and physically on garrus 9, you can understand why he might try to do a one flew over the cuckoos nest.

Him declaring rung his friend is also sweet and reframes his actions this whole issue. Sure on paper he's putting everyone at risk because he dosen't care if he nor anyone lives or dies.. but in practice, it's kept the gun AWAY from rung. It's kept Max, aside from the whole thumb incident, focused not on harming Whirl's friend.. but on Whirl himself, who can not only take the hit (He earlier took two punches to the face from Max, but likely figures if he gets shot, then it'll force the bots outside to rush in. He's trying to sacrifcie himself to save Whirl. Why he considers him a friend, to close this bit out… is also easy: Most people on the ship see Whirl as an unstable screwup and while it's mildly true… Rung so far is the only person to treat the guy with kindness, humanity and as a person and not just the mistakes that person made or his mental illness. He's someone trying to help who genuinely belives hin him and that's likely barely happened in the poor bots life.

Things then deteroiate fast as Fort notices they aren't moving and is somehow suprised Rodimus hasn't reverserd course because you know.. why would he? Swerve tries to take the shot, but with Fort max under a pillar Rewind is forced to use those snuff films to his advantage.. using footage of Garrus 9. We get a truly heartbreaking sequence afterwords: Rung manages to calm a freaked out max down.. but not wanting to take a chance Rodimus orders the shot. As a result rewind accidently hits poor Rung, while Whirl stabs Fort Max for causing all of this.

So we end rather grimly: Rodimus is clearly wracked with guilt, the art doing a nice amount of the lifting to show this, and wants Max locked down tight by Red Alert… while Drift is concerned as Red Alert's been acting paranoid hearing voices.. but as we learned last issue those voices are real.. and as we see at the close of this one we not only find out what he was hearing.. but just what Prowl had the duobots smuggle on board

I told you overlord would be important did i?

On that cliffhanger we close this issue. I'm pausing the soundtrack reviews for now both due to the increased workload a coming, and because they just haven't been clicking. They've felt like an afterthrought and it's better to just roll out when the issue does. So i'll see you next month for some Decpticon Shenanigans, and till all are one thanks for reading.

[redrosesartcabin]

The Exposing: Becoming A Robot in Disguise

Megatron x reader fanficition ( can be found here as well https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrosessoulcabin/works)

Link to the previous chapter: https://www.tumblr.com/redrosesartcabin/723581051037974528/the-exposing-14scenario-prologue?source=share

Link to the first post: https://www.tumblr.com/redrosesartcabin/722529797578833920/double-posting-my-fanfic-now

Link to the next chapter: (Will be inserted as soon as there is one)

And the adventure begins

--

Megatron was a bit worried again, thoughts about the past circulating wildly in his mind, so you took him out for a stroll through the woods since that always seemed to successfully calm him down… only to run into Miko again. And not just again as in ‘well she’s here from time to time because of the deal and because she’s become a friend’, again as in-

“Seriously? You again?”, Megatron asked, “This is the third time this week!” “Look this time it’s really important”, Miko said very quietly, almost whispering, “And I can’t stay for long. All I know is that I’ve been tracked. All these missions these past few weeks have been a diversion to find out where I’m going because they have caught on to us! I was able to shake them off a couple of miles back, but you don’t have much time, you have to leave, Megatron, you have to leave right now”, and with that Miko was gone as fast as she came, but nothing was the same anymore.

For a couple of moments, you two stood there, frozen in place, unable to compute what just happened. “Ok then”, Megatron then said, “I guess this must be goodbye.” “No, no, no, not so fast”, you answered, your face scrouged into a determined visage, “I am coming with you! Alone, out there in the human world you will be lost and they’ll capture you in no time anyways.” “But my love”, Megatron started, “What about your life here? Your animals? Everything?-“ “I have an emergency contact for situations when I’m too sick to work. I’ll contact him immediately and then I’ll ask around for people to keep the farm going as soon as possible- What I’m saying is: None of that is unsolvable and remember this: I didn’t leave you back where I found you, so I sure as hell will leave you now. We are in this together for the long haul! When I said you won’t get rid of me anymore, I meant it”

When you went back to the farm you quickly packed a bag with only the most rudimental necessities and some clothes and after a quick call stating a family emergency had come up and you must go immediately, you ran out again. When you exited the entrance however, Megatron stood there, unmoving like a mountain, breathing heavily eyeing your pick-up truck.

“I must do, what must be done.”, he mumbled more to himself that to you, and you immediately understood. “Megatron we can just-“ “No”, he interrupted, “We don’t have time. It hurts my spark, but now that you have given me this life, I do not intend to lose it and for that, I will gladly make this sacrifice”. Megatron let in one last big in-vent, imagining one last time himself soaring through the sky in his original Cybetronian jet-form before scanning the car in front of him and transforming into it.

“A robot in disguise”, Megatron chuckled, still feeling very uncomfortable, “As the Autobots once were”. He opened the door for you, and you jumped in. “This is your last chance to let me go and be able to live a life without trouble”, Megatron warned, but you smiled. “Life is trouble, only death is not”, you cited. “Zorba the Greek”, Megatron said, remembering one of the many times you two had watched the movie at one of your movie nights and the times where you read to him from the original book. These times of comfort were over, but in turn a new adventure would begin, and somewhere deep inside his spark, so worried for your well being, he was also happy and exited that this adventure in his new life would continue with you.

 “Let’s go, drive!”, you exclaimed, voice commanding and more determined than ever before and Megatron drove wildly, trying to fly through the trees to anywhere where the road could take off to endless horizons.

*

When Ratchet and Fowler arrived at the location where the evidence led the house was deserted and the only evidence of a Cybetronian having been there were empty canisters of Energon.

“I can’t believe Miko actually found us out”, Fowler said, hands on his hips, “Though I’m even more surprised she hid this from us- where is she now anyways?”, he asked. “Being interrogated by the FBI”, Ratchet stated, “And I have contacted Cybertron about this. They may send some of the Autobots down here again to investigate this. We suspect from the information Miko and received and from the evidence currently found that is must have been a very important member of the Decepticon cause, perhaps Starscream. Though what seems curious is why the human living in this establishment was involved and how… Unfortunately, as you have already said, Miko seemed to have figured our scheme out in time and warned them.” “Should’ve known she was too clever for this”, Ratchet added after a while, “I had just hoped we could take the easy way.” “But I guess the hunt will go on”, Fowler added.

*

Back on Cybertron, the newly established, democratically chosen council were discussing the matter of Ratchets message and importance of the mission, but ultimately it was decided that the evidence was sufficient to believe this was of enough importance to send some autobots back to earth.

“Lieutenant Bumblebee, will you take on this mission?”, the council asked. “Gladly”, Bumblebee confirmed, “Whatever life-signal-cloaked Decepticon still roams the earth that has managed to somehow convince Miko to protect them will be captured! I shall be honored” “I’ll come too!”, Bumblebee suddenly heard Bulkhead say, entering the council hall, banging the doors too loudly. “Bulkhead! What in the world are you doing here? You’re not supposed to-“ “Listen here Bee: I love ya, you know that. But I was Miko’s guardian. And she still means so much to me! There were little beings, Cybertronian’s or humans alike, that understood me like she did. And yes: She was sometimes stupid or reckless, but her spark was always in the right place and when she fought for something, she fought for it because it was for something good. Whoever she is protecting is good and I will prove it! I’ll help, so I can prove you wrong about her”.

“We’ll allow it”, one of the councilmembers said, “Bulkhead was part of team prime as Bumblebee was and might be a very good asset. Will that be ok Lieutenant Bumblebee?” For a moment, Bumblebee could only sigh. On one hand he would of course be happy to bring a friend and former team member with him, but on the other hand it would be tough if this was the premise for this mission. And yet, it didn’t take Bee long to say, “Of course it’s ok: We will make a good team.”

[brandwhorestarscream]

Random thought for Cybermorphs and Orion unwillingly becoming Prime:

Imagine if some mecha associated with either the senate or the Primacy are the ones to bring the Matrix into the prohibited part of the planet to Orion. I say either because the senate thinks its a good way to get him dead and the Primacy because as far as they're concerned Orion is a baby Prime in all but name so surely once he gets the Matrix he'll come back to them and abandoned these cursed creatures.

So when Orion is given the Matrix and becomes Optimus, Megatron is half ready to attack him if he dares stray from the hive and the party that delivered the Matrix has a different reaction based on who dragged the Matrix out here (if senate-associated, they're like "oh shit", if the Primacy workers "Yay new Prime now come with us!"). Only for Optimus to immediately turn on the ones who brought the Matrix to this place and kill one of them. Megatron is proud while the rest of the other party runs away.

The Matrix does not make Optimus any less of a monsterfucker than Orion was. And maybe the Matrix just sees the Cybermorphs and all their variations as still part of Primus's children, since they are technically still Cybertronians.

But it's just an idea so feel free to get rid of this if you so wish.

Oooh this is very fun! Smuggling the matrix across the border genuinely isn't something I had thought of yet! That's ao interesting

I did have another idea for how Orion becomes Optimus (and yk, all the surrounding angst because I'm a sucker for that), but this is a fun what-if we can definitely explore

Maybe... ok. Consider: the Senate gets word that the matrix has been "stolen" and their new Prime is still tucked away in the monsters' Hive. They decide that enough is enough. They reach out to Vos to ask for support, Winglord Hurricane says No Way In Hell, and the Senate takes matters into their own hands. They bomb Vos at the same time as the Hive in Kaon, hoping to kill Optimus and Megatron and as many of their filthy monstrous spawn as possible, so they can reclaim the Matrix. In the rubble, Optimus disappears, dragged off to Iacon and subjected to some light mnemosurgery, changing all his memories to he's loyal to the Senate and willingly takes his place as the leader of the autobots

Megatron gets the double hit of losing so many of his children, perhaps even many unhatched eggs and newborns, and also losing one of his beloved mates. He's devestated, he's furious, and probably mobilizes what remains of his Hive and decepticons to destroy the borders' wall and rush Iacon (perhapd the rest of the north as well) in retaliation >:)

[theremharths]

Humanformers fanfics are completely uninteresting to me in general but when you bring that to the idw comics verse and mtmte specifically it’s deeply fucking funny and also translates even worse. Like, Megatron’s whole schtick really does depend on being an ex-warlord who killed sooooooooooooooooooooo many guys and is now very wet and sad about that, but is also still a space racist against non-robots and he gets executed-or-life-in-prison-but-probably-executed at the end of the comic despite how wet and sad he is. Even putting that aside his dynamic with Rodimus is still coloured by the fact that Rodimus is kind of a Starscream counterpart and Megatron spent ones billions years abusing Starscream. the bit early in Megatron’s mtmte run where he’s like “this is my personal hell being stuck co-captaining with an obnoxious, vain, egotistic dipso who made stupid pointless gold star rewards that look like his own face and somersaults onto the bridge” literally yes it is. He is stuck with Rodimus and he cannot harm him or he’s dead, and that is a crucial part of forcing him to grow. Putting that aside even, the entire transformers setting no matter what version it is hinges on the whole endless war thing, and mtmte/rid are specifically about what happens after that endless war... ends, and nobody knows what the fuck to do with themselves

My point here is like what is Megatron in a regular ass human au. Like is he still genocide guy? Just Rod’s sad old man boyfriend who gets exercuted for war crimes? In a coffee shop au?

[talenlee]

MTG: TransMoremers, Part 3

That’s right, there’s a part three to this three parter!

Megatron presents some captivating stuff here. Particularly, he’s just a really high power creature — 7 power is one of the cutoff points for a commander clock. If Megatron deals combat damage to a player three times in this form, that player is out. You could build a version of this deck that wants to use, say, Aurelia, The Warleader and something for double strike to just delete opponents.

I wouldn’t, mind you: I think if you’re going to do that kind of thing in commander, you need to be able to do it repeatedly, and quickly, because otherwise you’re just telling one player they need to sit the game out. When you’re talking about an artifact creature, there are a lot of ways to blow him up.

What I like about Megatron is his means to turn a lot of leeching, or bleeding effects or just evasive creatures into a giant pile of mana. But that unbound mana production doesn’t just want to be poured into X-mana spells like Walking Ballista — because his back end cares about being able to cast spells with big mana costs to kill creatures and do excess damage to opponents.

I really like this because it creates a puzzle. You need artifacts you don’t mind sacrificing, you need them to have big mana values, but you don’t want to have them stranded in your hand. That means you need artifacts that you can cast for potentially big amounts but also don’t want them stranded in your hand waiting on other things, like say, Myr Enforcer. This is a pretty perfect space for the Prototype effect, where you can cast cards for cheap early on, but later on when you have large chunks of colourless mana available from Megatron, you can drop the bigger, more expensive versions. Prototype also pulls me towards playing with flicker and resurrection.

What I’d Look For: Artifact creatures with good mana values and price discounts, ways to recur or flicker creatures.

Examples: Autonomous Assembler, Phyrexian Fleshgorger, and weirdly, Far Traveler, Promise of Tomorrow and Teleportation Circle.

We have this already! Hey! Hey hang on a minute, we already have this! It’s Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit! What makes this better?

Oh it’s a five mana 6/8? Okay yeah that’s… probably a lot. And if it’s all you have to cast, it’s a 5 mana 8/10?! what the living hell? That’s incredible. And it self-recurs?!

Alright, Optimus Prime is a house, like an absurd beast of a card. I think this might be the most prepostrously big commander card I’ve ever seen and it has no green on it anywhere. When you look at Jeskai commanders, you normally are looking for tricky or evasive things, you’re not looking for things that can kill a player on their own like this. And I’m not kidding: Optimus on his own serves for 8, then 7, then 8 again – three attacks and he gets worse. He’s so tough too. Killing him resets the count, it doesn’t even get rid of him.

Optimus is huge.

I don’t feel like making him into a two-hit machine (like, say, giving him Double Strike) is a wise move. He’s so tough that if you put him alongside smaller creatures he’ll make your wider options better. Plus in those colours, there are cards that can spend counters, too. He can team up with Arcee and put counters on her, Arcbound Reclaimer can recur other robots, Etched Oracle and Mindless Automaton can draw cards. There’s also the Abzan counter boosters and Simic counter checkers, like Sapphire Drake and Abzan Falconer.

What I’d Look For: Combat! Stuff in these colours that wants to get on the board and attack. Counterspells and protection spells that just keep your things around and stop combo wins.

Examples: I uh already gave a bunch, but I particularly like Ingenious Prodigy and Twilight Drover.

Ultra Magnus has always been troubled as being the Bigger Dork in any given Transformers Story. Even in Animated, which addressed his character as an old, mentorly figure from a power structure that doesn’t have the flexibility to adapt to the current situation with the Decepticons, he was still always a narc’s narc. This version, depicted here from the G1 version of him, is, in my mind, voiced by Robert Stack, and has just such a Second In Command energy. It’s even a line in the movie – I’m not a leader, I’m a soldier.

Alright, then, that’s how Magnus doesn’t project a powerful personality. What’s his card do? Well heckadilly, he’s a 4/7 haste indestructible for 5.

That’s… that’s really good right?

Like just a 4/7 haste indestructible would be enough on his own. And he makes all your other creatures indestructible as well. And yeah, then there’s the other side of him, which lets you cheat creatures onto the battlefield, tapped and attacking, but then you don’t get the indestructible. Phew hard to say.

The indestructible and formidable combo makes me imagine wanting to attack with a bunch of small creatures – only three more power to keep Magnus from flipping – which also makes me think of deathtouchers, witherers, or infecters. Things that blocking them does cause a problem, but you don’t want to just let them serve forever.

A really twisted thought is to diminish Magnus’ power so that he can serve keeping more things safe, but that’s really silly. You can stack it though – so a card like Coastline marauders can attack, show Magnus a 0 power, then once his ability resolves, resolve its ability granting a giant amount of power. Or oh hell, you could run it along cards like Rasaad Yn Bashir, just smash people with toughness! That’s really cool!

Hm.

Lots of options here.

Still, Magnus is a green red white commander, and I personally think that that makes him a perfect place to play with big value. I mean all those greatest hit cards that are ‘just sweet,’ where Magnus can cheat them into play, or protect them in a big sweeping attack. I think my impulse here is fair Naya, head up by this sad soldier.

What I’d Look For: Two colour cards in this colour wedge that both enable building up mana and late-game high value plays. Ironically, there’s probably use for Prototype here too, since Magnus lets you cheat in big expensive cards.

Examples: Blight Mamba, Greater Tanuki, Shefet Monitor, Kogla and Yidaro

There! That’s all of the Transformers cards considered, and what I think I’ll do with them when I get started making decks about them!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[melishade]

Z-King: You know, we've been talking about what if the other Autobots and Decepticons came to the AOT world with Optimus and Megatron, but here is a question, what if Jack, Miko and Raf joined as well?

"Medieval Spiderman!" Miko shouts with joy.

"Miko, no!" Jack tells her.

"Miko, yes!" Miko replies back.

"This is going to be a long day," Raf grumbles to himself.

The three of them would definitely be older in this scenario, at least by two years, because that's where I am story wise in Attack on Prime. Jack and Miko are training to be agents while Raf is brushing up on his tech skills. Miko would have gotten rid of the pink streaks due to military protocol (and also Asian women having a streak of dyed hair as an act of defiance is a stereotype at this point. We're not doing that here)

So, how would they get there. Say the US government is trying their own experimental spacebridge, using information from both MECH and the Autobots. However, the calculations are off and it quickly turns into a wormhole. Jack and Miko help get others to safety, Miko using the Apex Armor, but Raf gets caught in the cross fire and gets sucked in. Miko and Jack quickly jump after him.

Only to land right in the middle of Historia and Ymir's orphanage, scaring the hell out of everyone. Because Miko's still in Apex Armor, Ymir sees an automatic threat, transforms into her Sharkticon titan form and jumps her, surprising Miko.

The Survey Corps and Optimus gets alerted by this, and arrive to see Jack pointing a gun at MP's who have their rifles trained on him while protecting Raf, and he's shouting at Miko to keep collateral to a minimum.

"The damn shark is making it super hard!" Miko shouts.

Optimus is stunned at the sight, and immediately calls out their names, causing everyone to pause and the kids to stare in shock, calling out Optimus' name and trying to process the fact that he's still alive. Unfortunately, military gets wind of this, so they are interrogated for a bit, even after Optimus explains who the hell they are. Everything does get cleared in that department, but now Jack, Miko, and Raf are bombarding Optimus with questions about HOW THE HELL HE'S ALIVE?!

Optimus does his best to explain what happened and what's going on now. He introduces them to the Survey Corps, explains Eren and Ymir's powers, and the unfortunate fact that Megatron is here (but he's in Marley right now). And Jack, Miko, and Raf cannot compute.

"This is a damn anime. I swear to god," Miko declared.

"The Autobots are going to kill General Bryce," Raf adds.

"Not unless my mom and Agent Fowler kill him first," Jack said.

*cuts to June and Agent Fowler chewing Bryce out*

So after the explanation goes down, the kids are relieved that Optimus is alive and hug, the bonding and the gushing begin between them and the Survey Corps because “Oh my god, Medieval Spidermen!” and “Oh my god, the Apex Armor!” and “Oh my god, titans!” and “Oh my god, you’re so advanced!” It is just back and forth banter, but they click. However, Jack and Levi take one look at Hanji and Miko before turning to each other and saying “You too?”

Now a lot of shit goes down after words. One:

It is so fucking awkward when Megatron shows up because it’s Megatron, but also why does he have a human form? Miko tries to flip him off, but Jack has to reign her in because he values her life. The kids ask the 104th if they’re really okay with that asshole being here.

“Look, it’s not like we have a lot of options,” Jean retorted.

“So you partner with the guy that kidnapped Optimus?” Miko questioned.

“Poisoned me with dark energon,” Raf adds.

“Tried to kill over 7 billion people on five occasions,” Jack adds.

“Really? Five?” Raf asks.

“Zombie-cons, Unicron, Omega Lock, Darkmount, Omega Lock 2,” Jack counted on his fingers, “Yeah, five.”

“God damn it!” Sasha swears.

Also, Jack, Miko, and Raf are aware of Soundwave’s loyalty and Megatron’s favoritism of the TIC, so they don’t bring up the fact that they sent him to the Shadowzone. They take it to the grave.

Two:

The Survey Corps definitely sees a massive advantage all three kids being there. Raf’s technological expertise, Jack and Miko’s training, the Apex Armor. Eren and Ymir are both able to train in titan forms against Miko in Apex. Now they have five titans to use for combat. And that armor is really fucking efficient. However, Hanji tries to use it once, and it results in both Megatron and Optimus nodding their heads at each other and tackling Hanji to the ground to get her to remove the armor. It’s a struggle that lasts for five minutes. Levi asks about it later, but Optimus states that he cannot trust Hanji with that kind of power. Considering her streak, Levi agrees. She has to earn it.

Three:

Jack, Miko, and Raf end up introducing a bunch of stuff to the Survey Corps. They still have their phones and show them pictures and all that stuff, but it takes a while for Raf to create makeshift portable chargers so the phones don’t die out. Like it is so overwhelming for everyone. They make references they don’t understand and sometimes they hate it.

“Jesus Christ!” Miko swears.

“Who the hell is Jesus Christ?” Sasha asks.

“Wait, are you serious?” Miko asks her.

“Different world, Miko,” Raf reminds her.

Four:

Raf’s technological knowledge leads to significant increases in advancements. Hanji tries to kidnap him. Jack and Miko gotta chase her down. Raf just accepts this.

Five:

Mikasa is so fucking shocked to see Miko because that’s another person that looks like her. Holy shit! Mikasa does approach her and introduces herself, and Miko’s like:

“Your parents named you after a battleship?” Miko asked her.

“Battleship?” Mikasa tilts her head in confusion.

“Yeah, you’re named after a battleship in Japan,” Miko explained, “So you’re Japanese, right?”

“Um...,” Mikasa begins to choke up, because there’s an identity. She’s not an anomaly in the Walls. There’s someone out there like her, “My father isn’t...can you...can you tell me what you know?”

Miko notices the longing look in Mikasa’s eyes and gets it. “No problem. What do you want to know?”

Mikasa’s never been this excited before.

Six:

The kids learn to use the 3D gear, because if they’re staying and they want to help, they gotta learn. Also, the fact of being Medieval Spiderman motivates them greatly. (They do show a video of Spiderman and they get the reference now.) Although they crash into shit a lot.

Seven:

Levi looks at how Miko and Jack are arguing and it reminds him of Farlan and Isabel. When Levi spots a picture of Miko as a teen with her pigtails and her dyed hair, it only enforces the similarities. 

Eight:

The Survey Corps are floored with the kids’ accomplishments with the Autobots during the war. For a little while, they thought they didn’t really get involved with the war because Optimus wanted to keep humans out of the line of fire. But the stories! Miko took out an Insection and stole the Apex Armor from Starscream before kicking the shit out of him. Rafael created a virus to steal the Iacon Database for the Autobots. Jack fucking went to Cybertron to help restore Optimus’ memories. They are so accomplished!

And Eren is thinking back on the fight he had with Megatron before the coup, how Megatron considered them more of a threat than him. Now, he fucking got it.

Nine: 

Jack, Miko, and Raf see the way Historia and Ymir interact and make a bet to see if they’re dating or not. Jack and Miko say ‘yes’, but Raf says that they’re married because they act the exact same way his tías’ do. There’s an accidental slip up on the Survey Corps’ part and:

“You two are married?!” Miko exclaimed in disbelief and excitement.

“Damn it, we owe Raf money!” Jack swears.

“Pay up,” Raf smirks with a hand out, and the two begrudgingly put money in there.

“Wait a minute! Why are you guys acting like this is normal?!” Ymir demands out of shock.

“It just became legal in all 50 states,” Raf explained, “It’s become widely accepted over time.”

“Eh,” Miko did a so-so gesture with her hands.

“Okay, there’s homophobia and transphobia, but people are more accepting of it there than here,” Raf explained.

“We’re called the LGBT community,” Miko explained.

“’We’?” Historia picked up on the phrasing.

“Oh, I’m bisexual,” Miko told her, “Means I think both guys and girls are hot. I’d be willing to date either.”

“Aromatic,” Raf explained, “I think. I don’t feel like I need to pursue a romantic relationship.”

“You have time to figure it out,” Miko said to him, “Could be something else.”

“The token straight,” Jack shrugged.

“Who is on thin ice,” Miko added with a smirk, causing Jack to shove his hand in her face, “This is a hate crime, Jack!”

Ymir and Historia are just shocked at the information. There’s a place...where they could live more openly and freely. The two agree that they need to visit Earth.

Ten:

Jack, Miko, and Raf are millennials/possibly gen z. I’m certain that they are. Which means they have the ability to be full blown menaces if they wanted to.

Enter Zeke and his war crimes!

Zeke grew tense, feeling the three, new, allies judgmental eyes on him. They had been staring at him for a while. He couldn’t take it anymore and faced them. “Is there something I can help you with?”

Miko looked the titan shifter up and down, clearly unimpressed by what she saw. “You look like someone who has daddy issues.”

Levi spit out his tea. Optimus stared with concern. Hanji covered her mouth while the rest of the Survey Corps watched on with baffled expressions. Megatron, meanwhile, was grinning.

“I-I!...don’t,” Zeke stumbled with his wording, turning his gaze away.

Jack tilted his head and replied sarcastically. “Spoken with the confidence of someone who doesn’t have daddy issue.”

“I never thought I’d meet associates of Optimus Prime that could be so immature,” Zeke tried to regain his composure and demean them.

“Buddy, that’s a compliment,” Miko crossed her arms, “We can go lower if you’d like~.”

“Excuse you?” Zeke glared.

Raf lifted his phone. “Hey Siri, play “Daddy Issues” by the Neighbourhood.”

The music plays, Jack and Miko dances to the song and sing the lyrics right in Zeke’s face, and it’s so dramatic. Zeke is flustered with embarrassment and orders them to stop but they don’t. The 104th’s eyes look like they’re going to pop out of their head. Optimus facepalms at their antics. Levi is holding in his laughter. Hanji and Megatron are both audibly laughing their asses off.

(The Autobots are still frantically trying to end up where the three are and chew Bryce out in the meantime. But there’s definitely a lot more that could happen that I’m missing in this scenario.)