#prowls-analysis

[catthepillarr]

"Soon, I lost all contact with Cybertron, and I know my mission to find you could not fail."

Call me crazy, but I have a theory.

I really like the theory that Tfes Prowl expresses affection through physical touch, which is proven by the multiple times he has hugged several people throughout season 3. (I think the most convincing argument would be the last episode in which Prowl hugs Megatron whilst saying "I appreciate you, Megatron." It can't be more blatant than that, really.) But it got me thinking, why? Why is this iteration of Prowl so comfortable with physical interactions? You can say, "the writers wanted to add some variety to his personality", or simply for shock value, but I think that's too surface-level.

In episode 4, Prowl is introduced. He says "Optimus Prime, I have been searching the galaxies for you." and "My departure from Cybertron was ages ago". I think from these two lines, it's pretty obvious Prowl has been isolated for a prolonged period of time (which is also emphasised by the large, empty troop transport ship). This is corroborated by the statement that he has "lost all contact with Cybertron". Hence, it really isn't hard to believe that the reason why Prowl is going around hugging people is simply because he's just touch-starved. Like seriously, it's not too far-fetched to make that inference. Solitary isolation has been scientifically proven to cause one to crave stimulation which is taken away from individuals who lack the opportunity to interact with others.

Of course, this is literally just a headcanon I'm vehemently trying to justify but isn't it entertaining to rotate the thought of Prowl, of all people, desperately craving contact because he has been deprived of it for so long?

Additionally, just for fun, isn't it also extremely entertaining to just theorise that the reason why Prowl is hugging the people he feels comfortable around is not solely because of his desperation but also because his prolonged solitude has warped his mind into believing physical interactions are now a priority?

Seriously, do you really understand just how entertaining it is to think about just how desperate Prowl was to find Optimus? The emotions long neglected reopening like old wounds when he finally sees his long lost allies?? Do you see the potential for angst??? Can you imagine how sad that little wet cat would be if someone had pushed him away when he tried to hug them jsjdfjfj????

Sorry guys I really like Prowl

[keferon]

Hey, with all of the recent Earthspark slander, I've noticed it's been a while since you talking abt Prowl form tfe.

I've only managed to watch ep1 from season 3 so HONEST QUESTION: How do you feel about his characterisation? (Especially compared to your version and/or the preestablished character) I mean, don't get me wrong his design is marvelous but character wise... I originally thought he was a skin-waker😶. No joke, I LOVED his introduction but when he started chatting all bubbly and confident, he was acting more like a Smokescreen or even Jazz! Like, what do you mean you act all friendly with Optimus and not professionally? Wdym you you dab up with all your fellow combatants like you're in college?? WdYM you arm restle with Arcee for funzies???

I really hope it's just first episode jitters and not as bad as I interpreted it💀. Does his characterisation become any different later on and if not is it explained or explored in the story at all? At this point, I'm so used to the usual Prowl fucked-up-ness that the whiplash was big with this one. I still haven't gotten spoiled for s3 though, as I still want to give it hope after whatever s2 was.

On no no that’s the fun part! He is still grumpy and serious and kind of a jerk. But to his enemies! So after sassing Megatron he turns to his friends and like. Hug! Wrestling! Playful fight!

And the fact that he absolutely sucks at both wrestling and fighting makes it even funnier. I wonder how that tradition even got established because everyone is so happy to grab this guy and he literally never wins. There must be some kind of story behind this haha

Generally. I find it very amusing how bad he is at almost every physical activity while it was clearly stated that he is REEEEALLY good at catching Decepticons. He is the best amongst all Autobots! And even Megatron knows that and really fucking offended by that ahahah I love it~

I don’t know man. He does act calm and collected and professional but he is also such a stupid goober and I find the contrast really entertaining. Also it’s nice to see Autobots being genuine friends with Prowl. Although..it’s a bit sus when the..wait can I throw spoilers at you? Um. Okay so he was in big fucking trouble at some point and all the Autobots were standing RIGHT there and none of them moved to help him. I still wonder if that was a storyboarding fuckup. It probably was. Season 3 had a lot of those🤔

[transformers-nerd-13]

As promised, here's my analysis of Transformers G1; More Than Meets the Eye; Part 1. (I'm posting my episode analyses of the three episodes separately for the sake of not making this an insanely long post because look at how long this thing already is).

We open with a narration giving us a brief overview of who the Autobots and Decepticons are.

We're introduced to Bumblebee and Wheeljack who've found some conductors (presumably energy conductors). They head back to Iacon, but are interrupted by a "Decepticon Welcoming Committee" aka the Seekers who all had different voices than the ones they end up with later for reasons that will never be explained.

Bumblebee is wounded in the battle, but we're going to ignore that because it never gets brought up again and he’s perfectly fine later. The Seekers go to report to Megatron while Wheeljack and Bumblebee make it back to Iacon. We're introduced to Soundwave and Laserbeak who are spying on the Autobots--Soundwave almost gets caught but luckily because Jazz is blind as a bat, Soundwave doesn't get caught.

Jazz reports to Optimus about a lack of energy on the planet and Optimus tells Prowl that they'll start the search mission for energy whenever Prowl is ready to launch. Cut to the Decepticons where Starscream is standing with the sassiest pose of all time and Megatron is doing the classic villain rant about how the Decepticons must find an energy source before the Autobots.

Soundwave enters and reports that the Autobots are ready to launch and Megatron says that they are also ready (I guess they had the same plan to go search for energy??). Megatron tells Shockwave that he is to stay behind and keep watch over Cybertron in the absence of literally every other Decepticon, but Shockwave assures Megatron that Cybertron will remain as he leaves it.

Starscream then decides now is a good time to whine about not being the leader of the Decepticons to which Megatron tells him that only a select few ever lead. Starscream tells Megatron that his time will come, but Megatron tells him "NEVER!!" before changing gears remarkably fast and tells...someone to prepare to blast off. (I'm assuming he was talking to Soundwave but he was looking at Starscream).

The Autobots and Decepticons launch their respective ships. But two asteroids collide causing an asteroid shower (yeah that's definitely how that works) causing all sorts of chaos including the Decepticons somehow losing their power and Jazz falling out of his chair. They get through the now suddenly very still asteroid field by using the Ark's laser gun and the Decepticons follow them. Starscream says that they should just blow the Autobots away since they've seen them, but Megatron says that he "wants to know what they're after." Um...sir? They're after energy, just like you?? I thought you knew this???

Jazz--who has gotten back into the pilot's seat off screen--reports that the cons have made a magnetic junction to the Ark and that he can't shake them. They try to use their weapons but their power is somehow already used up. The cons board the Ark where a (simply put) chaotic battle takes place. Somehow they lose control of the Ark within less than ten seconds of the cons boarding and crash into the side of a volcano and die.

Yep, they were dead.

For Four Million years.

Mhm.

Somehow the volcano erupting woke up Teletraan One and it sent out the Sky Spy (a little probe thing) that scanned some earth vehicles while the Ark rebuilt the Decepticons first (for some reason—literally no idea why it did this). Skywarp is revived first, and he revives the other Decepticons. The cons leave the Ark and Megatron declares that much time has passed and they're on a planet far from Cybertron (oh y'think? Also, how do you know? You've been dead for 4 million years!! Not to mention it took less than two minutes for you to get into space and crash on this random planet so it can't be THAT far) but their mission hasn't changed.

Skywarp asks how they know Cybertron still exists (fair question but unprompted) and Megatron says that Cybertron must exist (Lot of faith you've got in Shockwave there bub, I mean, yes, this is Shockwave we're talking about but he's just one bot--you literally left ONE Decepticon on Cybertron dude and he doesn't even know you're still alive! And how do you know that he's still alive??) and that they would gather energy from this planet to conquer Cybertron followed by the universe.

Starscream (for some reason) shoots at the Ark. Megatron tells him to save his energy, but Starscream fires a few more shots anyway, this time hitting some rocks on the side of the cliff they've been standing on that fall onto the Ark. This jostles the ship and causes Optimus to finally be noticed by Teletraan One and Teletraan is like "Oh scrap I forgot to fix the Autobots, WHOOPS" and fixes Optimus who gives Teletraan a thumbs up and a quick "Thanks".

Dunno if I'd be that chipper after being revived from death, I mean, I'd be panicking, and then I'd see my dead friends and see that the cons were gone and consider myself in some seriously deep slag so, Idk props to you for being optimistic?--Pun intended.

The cons set up a base by some tall rocks in the desert that are literally RIGHT NEXT TO A ROAD. Robots in disguise my boron compressor! Soundwave prepares plans for a new space cruiser (I guess in addition to being the communications officer Soundwave is also an aerospace engineer??) while Starscream is told to convert the area for construction and is told to "use his imagination" when it came to materials.

Starscream does NOT however use his imagination, he uses Soundwave's. He asks Soundwave if he has any ideas, and Soundwave points out a conveniently placed...radio tower? Power station? Truly have no idea what this is. We're introduced to Rumble and Soundwave instructs him to activate his pile-drivers, but Rumble doesn't do that because Starscream takes off for the radio-power plant thing.

Cut back over to the Autobots who have all been revived off screen. Optimus tells them that this planet is rich with sources of energy but that the Decepticons must already know this because Teletraan One woke them up first (thanks a lot Teletraan), so they must find the cons and stop them. Prime sends Hound and CliffJumper to go find the cons even though Cliffjumper wants to "boot some Decepticon right in his turbocharger" (whatever that means; probably ‘kick some con’s butt’). Cut back over to the cons where we see Starscream, Rumble and Soundwave landing at the power-radio tower thing and Starscream (unprompted) tells Rumble that some day he'll be the one calling the shots, but Rumble basically says "ha ha yeah right" and Starscream tells him that he will find a way to beat Megatron but Rumble is doubtful of that. Rumble then finally activates his pile-drivers and splits the ground a bit causing some of the machinery at the plant to fall into it halfway and Starscream says that he's impressed by this. You must be very easily impressed sir.

Cut over to CliffJumper and Hound. Hound says that he smells something and that he thinks he's just found the Decepticons (so you weren't following a scent trail before this?? You were just driving around praying you found something?? Also do the Decepticons smell different than Autobots?? How do you know it's the Decepticons and not other Autobots???) and tells CliffJumper to follow him but they stop literally two seconds later (the "follow me" was unnecessary, you could've left it at "I think we've just found the cons" and it would've been completely fine lol) having stumbled upon the Decepticon's half constructed base? Space cruiser? Really not clear what this is meant to be here. CliffJumper wants to fight but Hound reminds him that Prime just told them to find the cons. Right now the cons think the bots are dead; it's better to have them think that they're dead at the moment for the sake of the element of surprise.

Hound uses a little satellite dish in his arm to listen in on the cons who are conveniently monologuing their whole evil plan about plundering earth's resources for energy and turning that energy into energon cubes (which were a Decepticon invention in G1) and the new space cruiser.

Off screen, Cliffjumper has assembled a giant gun (where the hell was he storing that?? I'm just gonna say it was in his subspace) and says that he's "Got Megatron dead center in his viewfinder." And fires. And misses.

Dead center huh?

The cons wonder who could be firing on them and Starscream immediately says that the Autobots could be the only ones firing on them. Starscream. Buddy. As far as you know, the bots are dead. How is this the first logical conclusion you come to??

Soundwave sends Laserbeak to investigate and Cliff and Hound make a run--or, more accurately, roll--for it. Good job Cliff. Apparently neither CliffJumper nor Hound have ever seen Laserbeak before?? Cliff asks Hound “What is that thing up there?” And Hound replies that he doesn’t know. I feel like they would've seen him at some point when the war was still on Cybertron? Idk.

Anyway, CliffJumper and Hound split up because Laserbeak can only follow one of them, right? WRONG. Apparently Laserbeak can detach his guns from his body and still be in control of them??? So he sends one of his blasters after Cliff, who defeats the blaster with some mockery and the fumes from his exhaust which make the blaster explode for some reason.

Laserbeak shoots Hound and causes him to tumble down a cliff in the most dramatic way possible.

During the commercial break, CliffJumper apparently found Hound at the bottom of the ravine/cliff and went back to the Ark to get help in the form of Ratchet and Grapple, who would never again be referred to as "Hauler". Cliff apologizes to Hound for firing on the cons and getting them caught, but Hound tells him "You shouldn't have missed you mean" with a good natured laugh which makes Cliff feel better about the situation.

Yes, this is a nice moment, but Hound is unknowingly supporting CliffJumper’s reckless nature in the future. Cliff directly disobeyed an order from Prime and one of his teammates got hurt because of it. This would've been a learning opportunity for Cliff if Hound hadn't laughed it off.

Cut over to Thundercracker and the Reflector triplets talking about how they couldn't believe the Autobots survived before Thundercracker spots something out in the desert which just looks like a dust cloud. Somehow Thundercracker changes positions to be on the ground almost right in front of the van/truck so that it’s driving directly at him when he's taking a picture of the van/truck using Reflector's camera Alt Mode (how three bots transform and combine to form ONE camera that fits in the palm of a Transformer I will never know; I guess mass shifting?) instead of on the cliff he was on seconds before when taking the picture of it and after he takes the picture he's suddenly back on the cliff?? Thundercracker reports the vehicle to Soundwave saying it might be an Autobot. Soundwave sends Ravage to investigate for some reason even though Thundercracker and the Reflector triplets are right there.

The vehicle belongs to two guys in matching outfits with yellow hard hats so what exactly their jobs are remain ambiguous. The two men go to the radio/power plant thing that Rumble wrecked earlier, and they comment on how it looks like a tornado hit the place and that something feels wrong.

That's when Ravage attacks them for seemingly no reason and sends them running, and we never see those two guys again.

Cut to the Ark where Hound has just finished reporting what he and Cliff found to Prime as Ratchet fixes him up. Jazz and Sideswipe are also in the scene for some reason. Optimus tells Jazz to organize a battle unit and Jazz takes that to mean 'get every Autobot'. This is the cartoon's way of introducing the other Autobots to the viewer as Jazz calls out their names as they Transform and Roll out. This is a good way to introduce the characters, but it would've been more effective if each bot got their own shot so that it’s clear that the name being called belonged to the autobot on screen. But it was the 80’s so I’m not gonna harp on this too much.

Cut over to the Decepticons where Soundwave is reporting to Megatron that Laserbeak found a source of energy (apparently he sent Laserbeak to go find energy sources off screen).

Cut over to an oil rig where we meet Spike, Sparkplug, and a handful of other unnamed humans who are all wearing the same outfit of a white button up, blue jeans and yellow hard hats that we won't see again until Dr. Archevil (no idea how you spell his name; that weird cyborg scientist) shows up. The Decepticons land on the oil rig and all the humans decide to start throwing random stuff at them which proves ineffective (like seriously what did they think throwing tiny pipes and wrenches at giant robots was going to do??) and Megatron calmly picks up a giant metal tube and tosses it at four of the unnamed humans, and all of those humans end up in the ocean below, never to be seen again.

Rumble pins Sparkplug to the wall (I had no other way to say that, get your minds out of the gutter) and Spike punches Rumble in the back which does nothing but annoy Rumble who shoves him away in response (I'm betting that hitting Rumble hurt Spike more than it hurt Rumble). I guess Sparkplug must have some super strength because he kicks Rumble off him and dives after Spike who apparently ended up in the ocean after Rumble hit him.

The Decepticons make some energon cubes that really look like folded towels out of some of the oil stored in the rig.

Starscream gets all excited saying that they can go back to Cybertron, but Megatron bursts his bubble by telling him that this is only a fraction of the energy they need. The Autobots (who could fly I guess) show up. The bots land and everyone is firing at each other with the aim of a Stormtrooper.

The bots and cons duke it out on the oil rig and I guess someone knocked out Ratchet at some point because he's just...on the ground?? The cons get away with their Energon cubes/towels, shooting the oil rig to send the Autobots into the ocean below, and Megatron shoots two of the oil containers on the sinking rig which blow up and now the ocean is on fire?? (If someone knows the science behind this please tell me in the comments because I don't know if this is actually plausible or not) as they make their getaway.

After the cons leave, Prime hears Spike and Sparplug calling for help because they got trapped behind some debris and goes to rescue them. 

And that was Episode One of the Transformers. Overall a very silly episode but it's an 80's cartoon so what're you gonna do? It’s definitely the episode of G1 that I’ve watched the most and while it doesn’t always make sense, it’s a very fun watch.

Anyways, I hope this was enjoyable! I’ll probably be posting my analysis on More Than Meets the Eye Part 2 sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, stay tuned!

[novafire-is-thinking]

“We want to be on your side.”

This scene is meant to be funny, but I see something more that provides insight into Prowl’s character.

The Constructicons Know

There are two things that stand out to me: Hook’s choice of words, and the nature of Prowl’s reaction.

Seeing as “your side” can easily be misunderstood as referring to the Autobot side, Hook could have said something more obvious, like, “Hey. We want to hang with you, Prowl.”

But Hook didn’t do that. He chose the phrase, “We want to be on your side.”

Why?

Well, Hook and the rest of the Constructicons were inside Prowl’s head as much as he was in theirs. They didn’t just know his thoughts. They had access to Prowl’s deepest desires.

And what was it that Prowl said to Arcee in Issue #1?

“I learned that nobody is on my side.”

Yes, Prowl wants peace. He wants order.

But just as much, he wants to know that someone will have his back—that there will be someone competent to fall back on when the world is going up in flames.

In spite of all his scheming and pushing people away, Prowl desperately wants to know that there is someone he can trust to do what needs to be done to work toward his ideal: Lasting peace.

When the Constructicons were in his head, they saw that. These five “vile” Decepticons understood Prowl better than any Autobot ever did.

And that scares the hell out of Prowl.

How NOT to accept a compliment

He knows the implications of what the Constructicons are saying. They’re basically telling him that they want what he wants. They’re also telling him, “We’ve seen what others consider to be the worst of you, and we think you’re awesome—not in spite of it, but BECAUSE of it.”

These Decepticons want to help him bring about his ideal, and this goes against all the preconceived ideas Prowl has about Decepticons.

But notice how Prowl stops himself from telling them that their admiration is crazy. It’s obvious that the Constructicons are more likely to listen to Prowl than anyone else, so why tell ‘Bee to answer for him?

Personally, I think he’s torn between agreeing with the Constructicons and telling them to get lost. Prowl wholeheartedly believes the way he thinks is great, but if he tells that to them in this moment, that would mean he’s allowing them into his life in some way, which he doesn’t want.

However, there’s a part of him that can’t tell the Constructicons their admiration is crazy, because this is all he’s ever wanted—to know that someone sees things his way and is willing to go along with his methods.

So, while he’s trying to sort out all the conflicting information and feelings, Prowl outsources the question to someone who does think his way of doing things can be…problematic at times. This way, he’s not technically saying no to something he’s always wanted, and he’s avoiding encouraging the Constructicons.

It’s the only way he knows how to override his internal conflict.

[anghelcode]

thinking abt prowl and bumblebees dynamic in show, like silly x serious happens to be one trope i get sucked into but beeprowl is kind of complex

yk prowls a little shit himself, i imagine he always gets this opportunity to prank bee back (hence pouncing on him, bonking on the head and "apparently so is his fuse" comment) whenever he gets, they r on each others throats and are rivals, bee is a huge brat and doesnt hide it, prowl is a sneaky little shit and smirks secretly when bee gets pranked

its so interesting, they dont even realize they have feelings they just think that rivalry is fun

they fit each others types, like puzzles, esp bc you remember prowl wasnt different from bee pre cyberninja, he just matured, while bee yet has to come to senses, they bring out each others hidden traits, they fit and mold to each other

one of dynamics i might start to explore even if i did kind off stupid shitposts like these before (i just got sucked onto married timeline for some reasons this is what romance repulsion does to a mf /silly)

[paci-transformers]

I know people take issue with IDW Prowl and think he's just some angry, almost villainously evil guy, but.

I think, if you were brought up on the idea that you're only worth something if you serve a purpose (as it was in Petrex), you would also eventually turn to violence if you spent four million years trying to fulfill the purpose of being the voice of reason, only to get:

Brushed aside (almost every time he makes a suggestion)

Punched or attacked by your own faction (it happens on-panel several times, and even Optimus does it to him at a time when Prowl is clearly in a mental health crisis)

Blamed for things that were out of your control, or that you had no way of preventing (the Garrus-9 and Bombshell incidents)

Treated as nothing but a means to an end, even during traumatic experiences (most of the pre- and early war through Thunderwing timeline, RID, Sins of the Wreckers)

Seen as a horrible person even by people you thought were friends, to the point they don't think twice when "you" start acting violently while under mind control (especially in RID/exRID)

Forced into a combiner against your will, and never mentally / physically checked on after despite showing clear signs of health issues (seriously, it was pretty obvious he was spiralling mentally, and at least one person should've probably been concerned that he kept getting nosebleeds / eventually had a broken optic and other injuries that went unfixed)

Like... IDW Prowl is a product of his environment. Maybe if the people around him bothered to care or pay attention to him at least once in a while, he might have less of a difficult time processing things properly. As time goes on, you see Prowl go from being caring but pragmatic, to repressing every sign he cares, and then being the cold, emotionally unresponsive person everyone around him believes him to be.

From a psychological standpoint, it's often the ones under the most stress that end up lashing out. Prowl had that frustration build up for four million years, but it was likely tempered by the thought that people actually cared about him in some regard, and that he shouldn't do anything to lash out against them. When he realized people didn't care like he thought-- to the point they didn't question his mind-controlled actions for even a second-- that pushed him over the edge. It's hard to pull yourself back from the brink like that, especially when everything is falling apart around you, and there's no one you feel you can trust with the vulnerability of asking for help.

Maybe I'm just reading too much into it, sure, but maybe other people aren't reading into it enough.

[hmmimavillager]

the Prowl treatment in Earthspark??

I don't know if it was just me that was irked by this when watching Transformers ES Season 3 Episode 4, but the expectation that everyone had for Prowl to adapt to sudden change in an instant and get disappointed when he didn't is crazy. No, they will not just "get along" after years and years of being at war, and with Prowl still partially thinking they're at war with Megatron, of course they will not get along. What I found even more crazy is the fact that they'd go as far as to call him "rude", and Megatron himself calling Prowl "ignorant" as if he was supposed to know there was no war anymore?? The entirety of episode four is basically just Prowl getting berated by the cast for not immediately adapting to change. Everyone getting upset because Prowl is antsy around the guy he's been at war against for years now is insane. Is he brunt with the terrans sometimes? Yes, but as Prowl himself said, merely accepting them and humans along with the autobots is a FAR change from what he's used to.

[barrenclan]

ooouuggghhhh i love the deepdark comparison between the story and the real thing it is so cool and kind of sweet how nice he is to his actors. he is kind to them he asks them to join and not to chase. its so interesting how prowl and spike worship him and act with him as his devoted worshippers while years ago they wanted to kill him for ruining their lives. it is so cool and so interesting how the thing he says after he kills longest claws is to invite them on the chase he despises. "come and fucking get me" he doesnt ask them to join he asks them to do what they where born too and hunt him.

OUGH... you're making me feel things about the guy that I wrote.

Haha, don't feel bad for Prowl or Spike. They know the whole story and they're exactly where they want to be.

[fentyloverr]

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

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

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

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

ON MY MIND for probably obvious reasons: do the wardens participate in whatever festivities their clans hold? bc like, yanking EVERYONE away from their duties in the other areas of hisui probably doesn't feel like a very good idea. otoh, maybe it's one of their like 3 mandated days off per year and one of the only times where it's culturally permissible to just up and leave so they can go home and have some fun for once.

[fluffywuffle]

Ok so I have seen zero discussion of this movie because it's a mediocre film from 2010 but I want to talk about Prowl. Specifically about its very obvious queer themes.

Let's start with a basic plot synopsis of the film because not a lot of y'all will have seen this film. Amber is a small town girl who wants to escape her life and live in the big city of Chicago. She has disturbing dreams of what is later revealed to be -- spoiler alert -- about being a vampire. Not to be dismissive of the film, which never uses the term, but we're gonna call them vampires because the "creatures" in the film are basically your run of the mill feral vampire (even though they can exist in the sun).

Sorry, we're getting off track. So, Amber and her friends, hatch a plan to leave the small town. Their car breaks down, they are picked up by a truck driver who claims to be heading to Chicago, then they are brought to an abandoned warehouse which hosts a nest of vampires, and are all picked off one-by-one, with the exception of Amber and her friend Susie. Amber and Susie try to escape the warehouse, Susie is caught by the vampires (led by a matron named Veronica) while the two are hiding. Amber runs and runs and runs, miraculously fighting off the superhumanly strong vampires, until she is cornered by basically the whole nest, where she crawls up a pillar like one of the vampires to reach safety. Then Veronica walks up to her, tells her she's a vampire, gives her a blood bag (from which Amber drinks), and then drags out the captured Susie to offer to Amber to drink. Amber then blows up a bunch of gas cans, jumps out the window holding Susie, and the two run away. Eventually, in Chicago, Amber leaves Susie alone for approximately two seconds where she is accosted by a homeless person (*sigh*), then Amber comes back, kills and drinks from the homeless person, then comforts Susie. Fade to black.

Phew, that was a lot, and we skipped over some crucial moments for this analysis, but we'll get back to that. Let's start with analyzing our basic plot synopsis.

Vampires and wanting to escape the small town for the big city are pretty typical queer symbols and themes. Vampires have been queer as long as there have been vampires, and escaping the small town for the big city is straightforward coming-of-age which, when combined with other facts, is clear language for escaping your straight life for your queer life (see movies like Midnight Cowboy). But if that were it I wouldn't be writing this analysis. Let's go to some plot points that we missed:

Near the beginning of the plot we have one big moment that stands out. Eric, one of Amber's guy friends, has a heart-to-heart with Amber, where she talks about her desire to get out of town. Eric tells her that Amber should live for herself, to be true to herself, then leans in to kiss Amber, which she rebukes. The combination of "be true to yourself" then rejecting a heterosexual advance is a clear double meaning on how one can "be true to oneself."

Next we have an almost textual example of lesbianism. While in the back of the truck, Amber and her friends (minus Eric, who is in the front of the truck), are playing truth or dare. Peter (the jock), dares Amber to kiss Susie. And Amber is straight up like, "Ok." No rejection, no apprehension, nothing. Straight acceptance of the idea. And they almost do kiss, until the truck coincidentally swerves and they get distracted by the ongoing plot.

Our next moment comes after a bit of setup. So, Amber and Susie are the last survivors of the whole "getting eaten by vampires" thing, and they have spent the past however long being each others' crutches. Literally in that they help each other run, and figuratively in that they provide each other emotional support. Ok, that's besties shit, no undertones there. I mean they did literally just almost kiss in the back of a murder truck but who cares. What happens is that Amber spots Eric's almost dead body, and goes to check on him, leaving Susie vulnerable. This may seem antithetical to my point but then Eric is fully thrown off of a fire escape by a vampire and plummets to his death. The destruction of a possibly heterosexual interaction by a queer-themed villain is a statement. The statement being, "You are queer a vampire. You cannot be with this hetero human."

Now we could keep going moment-by-moment but to be honest, I'd rather not. I think I've made my case that this movie subtextually (and almost textually) represents a queer narrative. The themes of monstrosity, running away from home, finding yourself in the identity of what is considered monstrous, and making out sloppy style with your bestie in the back of a truck, all point towards a queer story. I hope you can watch this 7/10 movie and enjoy it how I did. Happy late Halloween.

[arceespinkgun]

Is it strange that I kind of want to see G1 Prowl be plopped into IDW to contrast how different he is to his counterpart and how others react to it?? The whole thing with G1 Prowl and IDW Prowl is fascinating

I think you can basically just look at the IDW comics themselves to have this experience! I think Shane McCarthy's Prowl is basically G1 Prowl:

He's 1) trying to be logical, 2) stressed out and saying rude things but with good intentions, and 3) the rude statements are hilarious. I love that he's literally like, we're the transformers, by definition we change LMAO I also love that he's clearly trying to explain to Ironhide that they shouldn't be jumping to conclusions about who betrayed the Autobots (Ironhide here is convinced it's Mirage, who is innocent) but Prowl does this in such an ill-conceived way by pointing out it could've been Ironhide himself XD

When not angry, we could see this version of Prowl trying to be kind and supportive... awkwardly:

Looking at All Hail Megatron is a really effective way to see the difference between the Prowl characterizations because in the story written by Nick Roche and James Roberts, we see the start of the IDW Phase 2 characterization. So like, the moment I put above in which Prowl is trying to make this a smooth transition reads very very differently once JRo and Roche establish that actually, before this, Prowl had Kup mentally violated and turned into a mouthpiece to use. In fact, the cy-gars he smokes were intended to keep him dependent on the substance to keep him mentally stable enough for Prowl to use when he wanted to:

I think the readers are supposed to believe that were we to have seen Prowl's inner monologue in other issues, he would've been as clearly manipulative the whole time, but I just don't buy it. Later, in Sins of the Wreckers, Roche would try to paper over how drastically different the different characterizations of Prowl were by having Tarantulas say Prowl goes through phases in which he tries to be more morally scrupulous and then fails again:

I know a lot of fans love this, but as an IDW Prowl hater who thinks he is a terribly written character, my personal perspective on this is that it's an embarrassingly transparent ploy on the part of the writer to be like, "No, trust me guys, actually my vision made total sense the whole time."

[transformers-nerd-13]

And here it is; the final part in my analysis of the first three episodes of season one of G1! The analyses of the first two episodes can be found on my page so go check those out if you're so inclined (I'm still learning tumblr so I don't know how to link posts yet lol). This post will be a bit long, so be warned of that. With that out of the way, let's get into it!

We start with a recap of what happened in the last two episodes to remind the viewer of the events that have taken place.

We're right where we left off with Optimus dramatically rolling down the cliff in awkward slow motion. Once he finally stops rolling, the other Autobots help him up onto his wheels. Optimus isn't worried about himself however; he's more worried about Roller who, incidentally, shows no sign of having been involved in an explosion. Prime struggles to transform back into his bot mode for a few seconds but eventually gets there with some encouragement from his fellow bots. After he transforms, he seems entirely fine, so we're not gonna talk about the blast he took seconds prior. Ratchet comments that "That was some blast you took", reminding Optimus that Bee and Sparkplug are still in the remains of the mines.

After a bit of digging, Jazz finds the two and gets them out with the help of Prowl.

(can we talk about how cute the above screenshots are??) Optimus congratulates Bee and Sparkplug on burying the Decepticons for good. Oh hey, guess what?

The cons are completely fine, their energon cubes are still functional, and they fly out of the mines unscathed. Good job guys.

Ironhide gets (understandably) frustrated and goes after the cons because the Autobots could still fly at this point. Bluestreak goes after Ironhide to stop him, but when Ironhide makes it clear that he's not backing down, Bluestreak joins him in his fight.

Ironhide fires on Skywarp (whether he actually hit him or not I have no clue) and Skywarp teleports behind Ironhide and Bluestreak, firing a missile at them but missing. Bluestreak says "It's like fighting a shadow!" I feel like this is an easily fixable problem--y'all can hover midair; we've seen you do this; you could just turn around and fire back at him??

Skywarp fires and he misses, he fires and he misses, this goes on for several minutes (if anyone gets the reference put it in the comments) until he finally manages to hit Ironhide, who falls from the sky into a conveniently located lake.

Bluestreak goes to rescue Ironhide and all of the other Autobots appear from the void to gawk at the rescue from the shore. Jazz uses his grappling hook like a rescue line once again to reel Bluestreak and Ironhide to shore. Ironhide says that he can't move, but Optimus points out "At least you can still talk old buddy." Despite saying that he can't move, Ironhide moves his arm just fine to emphasize his words while he's telling Ratchet what got damaged on his body. Ratchet transforms into his ambulance mode and Bluestreak and Jazz put Ironhide in the back of Ratchet's alt mode.

Ironhide and Ratchet are the same height with virtually the same alt mode; their toys were just recolors of each other; so how the heck did he fit back there?? Ironhide starts to tell an old war story, but Optimus tells him to "Save the war stories hot shot. Just remember that there's a thin line between being a hero, and being a memory." Which is just a great line. Jazz jokes that maybe Ironhide is ready for a cushy office job (idk how he would even obtain an office job in the middle of a war, let alone on Earth, I doubt he'd even fit in an office building) but Ironhide says he'll be back in action after Ratchet fixes him up. The bots start driving (presumably back to the ark) before we cut to Spike writing in his diary again, this time about how Optimus Prime would make a neat president and honestly? I agree.

Awkward cut to Hound sort of teasing Ravage by holding the key to his cage just out of Ravage's reach. Hound comments that he doesn't think Ravage likes being a prisoner; Mirage says that he can't blame him and that he's surprised that the cons haven't come to rescue him. Hound isn't surprised; the cons don't care about anyone; not even their own. He makes a hologram of Megatron, but it just seems to piss Ravage off. Mirage asks Hound to make him a hologram of a big house with a four car garage when they get back to Cybertron; the holograms look so real that nobody'll know the difference. Mirage. You turn into an F1 racing car. Why do you need a 4 car garage?? Are you going to host a lot of sleepovers when you get back to Cybertron?? And yeah nobody'll know the difference until they try to open a door or go upstairs and their body phases through the hologram.

This gives Hound an idea however; to make a big hologram of a rocket fuel base to trick the cons into coming to the bots on their terms. He shares the idea with autobot high command (aka Prime, Prowl and Jazz) who all agree to it. Hound goes back to tell Mirage about a (fake) secret stash of rocket fuel 140 kilometers due west, telling him that there's enough rocket fuel at that base to make four trips to Cybertron. The two go to tell Ironhide about the base to make him feel better. The two leave but Hound drops the keys to Ravage's cage. Ravage gets ahold of the key, unlocks his cage, and escapes. Hound, Mirage, Prowl and Jazz who were hiding behind a rock (for some reason) see Ravage getting away at the speed of ZOOM. The four go after Ravage but he ends up escaping. The four go back to just outside the Ark where Optimus and Cliffjumper are standing for some reason.

The four tell Optimus that Ravage got away and all look like the shocked Pikachu meme.

It's kind of unclear if they wanted Ravage to escape to trick the cons or not, it's kind of like the writers didn't know either and just never went back to clear it up.

Cut to the cons where Ravage reports back to Megatron about the rocket base Hound was talking about earlier. And we never hear Ravage speak again. Megatron commends Ravage for a job well done. Starscream and Megatron get into it again about Starscream wanting to be leader of the cons. Starscream says that "Now is the time for action, not words! I am the leader of the future!"

Megatron isn't using words though; so far he's only been using action, so this line doesn't make much sense.

Megatron insults Starscream's nonexistent leadership skills and Starscream takes that personally. He tries to shoot Megatron, but Soundwave (who's also there btw) calls out to his leader. Megatron uses a shield that we never see again to block the shot and somehow that one shot made Starscream run out of ammo (I guess he forgot to reload after the fight with the bots??). Megatron threatens to shoot Starscream while Starscream begs Megatron not to shoot him. Megatron shoots him anyway before declaring that the Decepticons would attack the base at sunrise. What is it with the Decepticons and attacking places at sunrise??

Cut to the next day at sunrise when Hound makes the hologram of the rocket base (how he knows what a human rocket base looks like I will never know) and the Decepticons show up immediately after the hologram is made (did they not see him make the hologram??)

The cons attack the hologram rocket base where the Autobots have appeared from the void during the commercial break all wearing lab coats which they quickly ditch to better fight the cons (where did they find such big lab coats and why??).

Not long into the fight, the bots realize that the cons they're fighting are decoys made by the cons out of scrap metal and junk (impressive engineering I guess but how did that work??) and the real Megatron reveals that he was onto the autobot's scheme from the beginning (how. Just how) and that the real cons have been at the real rocket base gathering fuel to make Energon cubes.

But in the next shot we see the cons just arriving at the rocket base. (I guess Megatron overestimated the speed of his soldiers). The humans at the base try to defend themselves but their weapons are completely useless against the cons. The cons get the energon they need and Megatron tells the cons to prepare for blast off.

Cut to the Autobots who have decided to attack the cons directly. Optimus asks for volunteers for the battle ahead and literally every Autobot steps forward; even Spike and Sparkplug volunteer. The bots transform and roll out.

Quick cut to the cons where Megatron talks about how close they are to conquest.

Cut back to the bots who encircle the con's base as the cons board their space cruiser. Before the cons can board, the bots make their presence known and the bots and cons duke it out once again.

Somewhere in the fight, Spike throws a rock at Starscream's blaster hard enough to knock the blaster off his arm (how did he do that??) and Prowl runs over Starscream's blaster rendering it useless. The cons gain a temporary victory over the bots and board the space cruiser while the bots shoot at them but miss horribly because once again everyone in this show has the aim of an absolute Stormtrooper. The cons take off in their new space cruiser. Jazz tells Prime that it's over; they've lost, but Prime says that it's not over yet. He borrows Sideswipe's rocket pack (that we never see again) to go after the con's ship.

Cut to the cons where Megatron says that they've seen the last of the Autobots and Optimus Prime, but Starscream says "Not yet we haven't" as he spots Optimus flying after their ship.

The cons fire on Optimus and actually manage to hit him, sending the Autobot leader plummeting back to earth. He hits the ground pretty hard but claims that he's alright when Prowl and Jazz help him up. The bots then notice that Mirage is missing and seem pretty calm about his not being there.

Cut to the cons where Starscream is trying once again to usurp Megatron (oh hey his blaster is back), who warns Starscream that once he becomes the leader, there will always be someone trying to take leadership from him, which makes me think Megatron is speaking from personal experience here; that’d be interesting. Maybe Megatron was once like Starscream, but he actually succeeded in taking leadership of the cons and regrets it on some level because now there’s a constant target on his back. It's revealed that Mirage snuck aboard the space cruiser and shoots the computers, causing the space cruiser to crash into the ocean. Mirage escapes before it crashes. He makes it back to the bots who congratulate him on defeating the cons.

Optimus commends Mirage for a job well done and Jazz says that they'd better get back to the ship since it still needs repairing. Spike (unprompted) asks Optimus if he can go to Cybertron with the bots when they go back. Optimus basically says "ask your dad" and Sparkplug says that Spike can go so long as he can go too. (Responsible parenting 101. Also how do they know that they’d survive on Cybertron?? Or is NASA getting involved and giving them space suits and food??) The bots transform and roll out.

Cut to later where Spike tells us while he's once again writing in his diary that since the Autobots prevented the Decepticons from stealing earth's resources (did they though? Cause it seems to me the cons got away with that), the governments of the world agreed to give the bots the energy they need to revitalize Cybertron, and that it was probably the first time that all the governments agreed on anything. (Since this was 1984, this was true. The only time--that I'm aware of--that all of the governments of the world ever actually agreed on anything in real life was in 1987; the Montreal Protocol; three years later, so at least that's accurate.)

Optimus tells Spike that they're ready to launch and Spike tells him that he'll be right there. Spike adds one more note in his diary that he's glad they don't have to worry about the cons anymore.

Cut to a shot of the ocean which fades into an underwater shot, showing us the Decepticon space cruiser that shows no sign of having crashed at the bottom of the ocean, as well as Megatron who leaves the cruiser and heads for the surface, leaving us with another cliffhanger.

Spike, you jinxed it.

And that was part three of Transformers; More than Meets the Eye. Just like the other two parts of More than Meets the Eye, it crams a lot into one episode, and a lot of it doesn't really make sense, but it's still a very fun watch. I feel like that's just the way it is when it comes to 80's cartoons.

Anyways, I hope this was enjoyable! My analysis of Fire in the Sky will probably be posted some time in the next few days, so stay tuned!

[arceespinkgun]

Thank you for encouraging me to finally make this GIF

It's so interesting to me that in this show, Bumblebee and Prowl are just two people who are coworkers and treat each other with respect. I wouldn't think their interactions would hold any significance, since they're just two people. When Bumblebee threw a fit, Prowl was just worried about him and all the Autobots who were infected... since Prowl is so loyal, he didn't hold anything against them even before it became clear it was a contagion causing the issues. And yet, this dynamic does have some importance because this is how Bumblebee really wanted to be treated by his fellow Autobots... his expectations were so low, but I think because of his long mission and how ingrained certain dynamics became among the Earth Autobots, he wasn't getting this treatment. Alex and Dot are very compassionate to Bumblebee, opened their home to him, and checked in on him, but I think Bumblebee also really, really desired to feel respected and immediately taken seriously and seen as an authority figure by a fellow Autobot. I agree especially that given how Optimus acts regarding Bumblebee that he probably wouldn't have responded well to criticism.

And I think one thing I was thinking about was that it actually wasn't just about Bumblebee finally being validated for having mentored the Terrans, who are new transformer life. Robby and Mo were also Bumblebee's students just as much. I imagine part of why Prowl had concerns about Optimus relying too much on "adolescents" was because of what almost happened to Robby in particular when they fought Izzy. So I think that makes it extra nice in a way, given that Prowl knows basically nothing about humans whatsoever. It was cool to see them gain his respect so quickly after he made such a bad initial impression, and it's another sign that Prowl came to understand Bumblebee's situation quite fast.

Oh, you're interested in Bumblebee's and Prowl's dynamic? I have some thoughts about it! I really need to make a GIF of Prowl telling Bumblebee that his students have really become the masters in the season 3 finale. It's VERY sweet and Bumblebee deserves the praise SO DAMN MUCH after all the shit he went through in the show. As someone who really loves Earthspark's Bumblebee, it just feels so nice to me that he got to hear that, especially from someone who doesn't really know much about Earth at all and has basically no context whatsoever!

I wasn't sure what to expect when Prowl joined the cast of Earthspark and if I even wanted him to be in the show at first, but I'm really happy with how he's changed some of the dynamics in the cast. While there were some issues caused by the Hate Plague, it's nice that Bumblebee is finally getting to interact with somebody who is treating him professionally with a lot of respect. I liked the moment when Bumblebee criticized Prowl in the finale too, and Prowl said he never meant to insult anybody. ~arceespinkgun

YES I'VE BEEN MEANING TO MAKE A POST ABOUT THEM SO I GUESS THIS IS AS GOOD OF A TIME AS ANY LMAO

you should make that gif bcs that moment in particular makes me SOFT. no one really praised Bee for mentoring sparklings (and doing it WELL i might add), no one really checked with him to make sure he was okay, and here Prowl is, coming in full-swing, after such a bitter reunion too (i have been thinking about how they'd greet each other normally bcs????? they haven't seen each other before the whole hate plague situation??? AND EVERYONE GOT A REUNION SCENE EXCEPT BEE?????)

and yes its sooo great to have Prowl in the show because it's someone with a fresh perspective on their situation, he's an unbiased source who's words have value, he's also basically carrying a piece of history with him since he didn't even change his cybertronian alt-mode, and he honestly brings so much good perspective into the show (even if it sometimes doesn't know what to do with it, which i can't really blame anyone for)

what i love in a Bee and Prowl dynamic tho is how they seem to support each other and not afraid to be judged? like they both make mistakes, of course, but neither Prowl nor Bumblebee shy away from giving critique, and that seems to be EXACTLY what Bee needed. he's basically in such high pressure all the time that he can't really take or give any feedback without sounding like he disrespects authority, which he almost never does, he just needs some help and for people to ACTUALLY TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY, which Prowl does with flying colours. he gives Bee the space to complain and doesn't actually dismiss him, like you said, that scene in the finale has me bawling my eyes out BECAUSE Bee can just give someone slack like that and they don't?? shoo him away???? Prowl actually apologises and considers his words. i bet if that happened to someone like Optimus they'd just give Bee a "we'll talk later" and then they never actually will, but Prowl takes the problem right here and now and kinda. takes the L. from Bee. there's a lot to be valued here and i love it

their sort of shared episode together when they, Thrash and Robby were searching for the source of the hate plague, showed their dynamic in a very cool way, i just loved seeing them interact (and i definitely didn't forget about the comment Prowl made under the hate plague ("A supposed top scout who has let me into countless ambushes" ARGJRGHSRHJFS ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING MEEEE))

honestly they just make me wonder about the spec ops of tfe and the relationship other bots could have with each other. im so glad he's here tbh

[barrenclan]

okay hey its me (spotfurfan on main) back again reporting live on another fucking patfw issue

OKAY SOOO YOURE CRAZY. you. YOUUUU.

i just cant believe we're finally here like... it's finally happening. crazy. ugh so crazy and im so excited and horrified. this issue was so so good obviously i dont think i even gotta say that at the point but!!!!

OBSESSED with so many things about this. again, you NAILED the feeling of dread and horror so well. like actually making me feel sick GOOD JOB!!! everyone being so horrified is WONDERFUL. its all in the small things, like mallowstar panick-ly ordering everyone around as a last attempt to save them, and daffodilpaw crying. really good and heartbreaking details. im super interested about deepdarks... situation with wildrose. that man is up to Something. really interested to see how that will play out and if it will effect much.

ALSO im very much wondering if anyone will mention.. pinepaw. like recognizing him as that little blue cat. if anyone will spill about rainhaze. ugh WHATS GONNA HAPPEN I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!

and MALLOWSTAR. god, mallowstar. not even one of our main characters really and yet his death is so incredibly devastating. he just wanted to protect his clan. even when theres no fucking way he could have done anything. his death is quick, and i think that makes it even more upsetting somehow??? i figured he was gonna die but. man. MAN. pick on someone ur own size prowl

overall. good. very very good shit. poor corm. poor everyone. if they had just been a little bit earlier to leave.... just a little bit. fuckkk i really cannot see this ending well and i am so excited

YAY I love when people do live reactions at me! I love to hear your thoughts so so much.

Panic and action is always something that's been hard for me to get across in writing, so I'm always happy to hear that I've succeeded. I like this issue as it sets the tone for the 4 to follow and really establishes that this is not a force that BarrenClan can just fight their way out of, which was important to me.

I am personally very happy with the conclusion of this story so I am hoping everyone else likes it too... coming THIS SUMMER! And fall, and probably winter,

[keferon]

YOU KNOW WHAT. I WANT EARTHSPARK PROWL AND BEE TO BE LIKE THIS

AND THIS

AND THIS

Some of the images are taken from this analysis btw it's great