#tf onslaught

[emperor-kumquat]

This may be an April Fools' video read by Keyan Carlile, but it's the same informative piece you can expect from my In A Minute series!

Today a few Transformers YouTubers did "identity theft" videos in which we all posted fairly regular content on our channels except someone else modified and read the scripts!

[bignoseagenda]

Virgencita Onslaught

[rayo1-productions]

I had wanted to post this after I saw that DOPE Combaticons pilot that Keyan Charlie and his amazing team made. Loved it front to back, and even if it was a one-and-done pilot, I would love to see more stories from that universe.

But while you guys wait for that, uh...here’re my combaticons being cringe.

[lightandspark]

The Combaticons are here.

From left to right; Vortex, Brawl, Onslaught, Swindle, and Blast Off.

Just a team military based that enjoy getting their hands dirty. Whether it’s fucking someone up or from Swindle’s scheming dealings, so far they don’t have the cleanest plate but could there be any redeeming qualities in any of them?

(I changed a bit of my Swindle’s design.)

[helicrazy]

Beautiful commissions I got from the one and only Alex Milne at TF Toronto <3

He also told me, and yes his actual words, 'Enjoyed drawing Vortex molesting Whirl.'

A little something for @polyhexianchicken since the copter boys have been a joy to write together. :3c

[nxtequal]

gestalt time (02/21). honestly this was before i realised momo and ons would have a homoerotic rivalry

[suranet]

last combiner cuddle piles doodles, done for the month!

[brawlsbigbadonkers]

We forgive the gay war criminals

[transformersbrainrot]

EVERYBODY WAIT!!

...Are they called OnOff?

[marshall-comics]

TRANSFORMERS REFORM CH. 3+EXTRAS (fan comics)

CH. 4

CH. 2

[theshockwave48]

Combaticons (2022) Last year i decided to redo designs for two combiner teams i had designs for and the Combaticons were one of em! Vortex ended up being my favourite of the bunch

[sharkkstudioart]

A night out on Cybertron

[capn-rikshu]

Blast Off/Onslaught is a very interesting pair to me. Blast Off's love for his leader was a weakness that Starscream easily exploited. Getting Airachnid to edit their memories. But Starscream's wording makes me wonder: how much of Onslaught's feelings were actually manipulated?

A "nudge" he said, you can either believe if he's being honest with that promise or not but there is evidence he is. Onslaught is obsessed with fighting and war, that's all his life is. His mind is so focused on it you can expect that he won't notice Blast Off's subtle hints of infatuation. That's why I believe that Starscream is being true to his words. In my reading it really was just a "nudge", Onslaught even says:

Mind you, I am aware that this is still manipulation with the whole tampering of memories, making this a highly dubiously consensual relationship. But I think the seeds of a potential romance had always been present, just never had a chance to sprout before Starscream's scheme.

Even though Starscream "helped" them to blossom a relationship-he also doomed it. Everything gets revealed in the Annual. And the last we see of the Combaticons they are thrown in prison. Blast Off sitting far away, alone, wounded by (assumed) Onslaught...

I really wish we got to see more of the Combaticons and Onslaught/Blast Off. There is so much there to be explored with them even after post-annual! "Will they ever repair the relationship between them? Is there still love between them? Is it forever a doomed romance?" Maaan...

On the side note:

Listening to: 'You Don't Have to Say You Love Me - Lynn Anderson' on my record while thinking about Onslaught and Blast Off really making me feel things...

[kell-eramis]

post onslaught/ajax analysis please

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I wanted to do it justice so I reread the tragedy, but basically Ajax is a figure in Greek Mythology who is present in the Trojan War and Iliad, and his titular tragedy, Ajax, originally written by Sophocles. (He’s also in Odysseus’ katabasis in the Odyssey) He’s considered the second strongest (next to Achilles), and is an extremely competent soldier.

Ajax’s tragedy takes place after a contest of who should take Achilles’ armor after his death—Menelaus and Agamemnon give it to Odysseus, the only other candidate. Ajax is incredibly angry about this, and wishes to slaughter Menelaus, Agamemnon, and Odysseus in particular. Athena clouds his vision, and he instead kills animals taken from Troy to be divided up amongst the men. Upon finding out what he has done, the other Greeks see it as a transgressive crime, and upon returning to lucidity Ajax becomes despondent, not seeing a way to live in a peaceful world after this, and kills himself.

Ultimately, Ajax’s story, and other ancient works like The Iliad, The Odyssey, and the Oresteia, represent a shift in the Athenian conscious of constant war and battle, where a person’s strength is based on their glory, to one of sophistry and wisdom, of a democracy. Figures like Ajax and Achilles die because their characters are prominent heroes, claiming great glory for themselves and their men, but that is no longer what Athens is. They cannot survive in a “peaceful” world. Odysseus, on the other hand, who represents a more “rational” and moderate perspective, makes a journey to go from the Odysseus that fights in Troy, to the Odysseus that fights for his family upon his return to Ithaca.

Now, moving on to Onslaught: Onslaught in Phase 2 (especially Till All Are One), is someone who can’t move on from the war. Whose purpose for millions of years was to fight, and he did this well! What then, is there, as she transitions from someone incredibly respected in wartime, to someone who he and his comrades are barely scraping by? Megatron has left her and her cause, Galvatron was… Galvatron, and Starscream both betrayed them and killed Swindle! Unable to cope in a peaceful world, he strives for purpose—for another war, and sets her eyes on Starscream. Where he was an excellent fighter, she is now cast to the side by the old faction leaders and the new Cybertronian leaders.

In the beginning of Till All Are One, we see Onslaught decide to refuse to ingratiate himself into the new peaceful society, choosing instead to hunt down Swindle, not for justice, but to use her to get at Starscream. To bring her Cybertron crumbling down, and find purpose in a new fight. Those who Starscream refers to as "monsters"--those who find purpose in conflict and feel lost without it, Brawl and Vortex, go along with this, and Blast Off, whose purpose isn't to fight, who has been trying to help the others persist in this society without Swindle, is the only one reluctant to do so. He knows Onslaught 1. needs a purpose 2. gets fixated on a conflict/an enemy and 3. is lost during peace time.

This focus, exacerbated by anti Starscream protests and Rattrap's leaks, culminates in Onslaught and the other Combaticons combining into Bruticus, with one goal: to burn everything. This is seen as a transgressive act of violence, to figures such as Blast Off's peers from Ironhide's new security program, and to colonists, who've for the most part only known peace. This is a similar act to Ajax's slaughter of the animal trophies from Troy. Both Iacon and the animals are the results of the fighting both Ajax and Onslaught did, and excelled in, but as a transition to peace occurs in both settings, Ajax and Onslaught, unable to cope with being left behind by it, destroy those results, or try to. Everyone is horrified by it, further pushing these characters away, so they can't adjust to peacetime.

Afterwards, Starscream, who also can't adjust to peace time and is looking for any form of power to hold onto in case war happens once again (whether it be with one of the colonies, or Optimus, or Decepticons, or Sentinel Prime, or Unicron), (remind me to talk about this also at some point) convinces Blast Off to help deceive the other Combaticons to be loyal to her. Blast Off does this to help Onslaught not destroy himself in pursuit of conflict and vengeance, but Starscream is once more using Onslaught as a soldier. And ultimately, at the end of Till All Are One, once Starscream confesses to his crimes, Onslaught and the other Combaticons are also sent to jail, and aren't mentioned again, left behind because they no longer served as soldiers.

I personally like to think that 1. they survive through Unicron 2. they are able to live better lives post Unicron, and 3. Blast Off and the other Combaticons (including Onslaught) do make up (I still need to read Escape Velocity...). I don't think any of this is easy, but to me phase 2 is about hope, about being able to embrace the peace they were all fighting for, and find their place in and with each other, especially as Onslaught and the others have their gestalt bond. This doesn't take away from the fact that Onslaught, to me, is very Ajax-coded, but rather that he, through people like Blast Off and the other Combaticons, are able to be given the chances and the love that someone like Ajax didn't have, having dishonored himself in a world that he saw as still prioritizing honor and glory above everything.

[geekcentre]

The combatacons!

these goobers are all from different combiner teams but they meet up in prison and decided the best way to get out was by becoming a new team! Might have taken some inspo from keyan’s combatacon animation, something about wimpy blast off spoke to me.

(Click for better quality)

[nxtequal]

onsmm again... (05/21)