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Started experimenting with blackletter-type daedric calligraphy and have been loving the results. The tiny reference was so I could zoom in on it, heheh.

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Blades in Morrowind: Just the Nerevarine and a coked-up shirtless hermit.

Blades in Oblivion: The first thing they do in-game is fail at their one job.

Blades in Skyrim: Two paranoid weirdos who apparently forgot that their one job is serving the Dragonborn instead of telling them what to do.

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“N’wah wtf this is my city I didn’t say you could fly up here”

Ignore the fact that I’m wearing glass armor and no shirt.

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I love Morrowind, but what kind of monstrously evil game has a new area in a DLC that's a single, extremely large city by area, has only one single location from which you can return to the main world, and doesn't have a world scale map for this absurdly huge and complicated place.

Absolutely the most gorgeous town, but fuck Mournhold.

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Me: Morrowind is the best rpg I've played since Mass Effect 1

Morrowind:

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I doubt this is a reference enough people will get.

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Never before have I taken a screenshot that so perfectly encapsulates why I love Teldryn Sero.

We're traveling to go finish a half-completed quest. My objective is in a giant's camp, but as I start to approach, I realize I'm doing rock climbing to get there, and I'm probably missing a much easier route. Oh well.

I find myself standing at the rim of a large wall surrounding the camp. I sneak up, finding a giant within. I hit it with a dual-cast thunderbolt, and it starts to run away from me, presumably toward my followers who did not take the rock climbing route. Thinking the giant will lose track of me and come back to where it had been standing, I wait. But it doesn't come back. I jump down, still sneaking, expecting to find the giant the moment I round the corner.

Instead I find two dead giants, a quest follower who was not prepared to take them on, and Teldryn Sero, standing there as though nothing happened. The absence of a flame atronach tells me he killed them rather effortlessly.

"I'm glad that I'm finally traveling with someone who seems competent," he says. "My last patron was killed trying to tackle an entire fort of bandits alone."

He says this line all the time; so much so that it doesn't even register in my brain anymore... Except now, as I stare at him, his words take on a new meaning. Skyrim's denizens were never a match for him. His skill in combat has left him bored, at least until finally meeting another who can hold their own. Only the woefully incompetent would fall to a bandit camp.

Skyrim will never know the true power wielded by one otherwise unnotable dunmer.

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Stronger, Faster in a nutshell, sorta.

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(TFP) Optimus vs. Orion Pax vs. TFA Optimus: Compelling Optimuses

I kind of despise TFP Optimus. I think TFP Orion Pax is way more interesting. I love TFA Optimus. Find out why I think that is.

In short, I think the primary reason TFP Optimus is a blank slate of a character is because his purpose in the story is not to be a character, but to be a narrative tool.

I’ve gone at length multiple times in multiple places about why exactly I hate Optimus, although none of those places include tumblr so I guess I should recap.

Basically, I dislike Optimus as a character because he’s displayed as the pinnacle of moral justice despite his decisions in the show actively working against him on multiple occasions (for instance, sparing Megatron the number of times he does) and because he’s never shown to really have any flaws or struggles. He’s something of a Mary Sue, being shown as basically perfect from the outset and having no difficulties with any of the problems he faces.

But I think what makes him such a bland, uncompelling character more than this alone is that he’s only used in the narrative to be a vehicle for moral exposition (pun not intended.) His purpose in Transformers Prime is not to be a character, but to merely educate the other autobots in moral values and to be an opposing force to Megatron. What are his motivations? He led five other autobots to take refuge on Earth, but has never demonstrated much of a motivation beyond this. He has never advocated for retaking Cybertron (until that option is practically thrown at him,) nor for creating a new autobot society on Earth. He displays no initiative toward any end goal. He only ever reacts to events that occur in such a way as to display the most ethical option given the context.

Orion Pax, on the other hand, is a true character. I still don’t think he’s super compelling, but he clearly has a personality where Optimus doesn’t. What are Orion’s motivations? He’s well-educated and has read extensively about how unfair Cybertronian society is. He wants to change this and overhaul the caste system, but he’s also somewhat sheltered in that he doesn’t quite know how to go about this. He’s unsure of himself, but he truly believes in his vision for a just Cybertron and wants to achieve this peacefully.

But even more important than his motivations are his flaws, which Optimus entirely lacks (unless you count his backwards moral reasoning, but the show doesn’t imply that these are flawed so they don’t really count.) Optimus is never demonstrated as having any flaws, but as soon as he reverts back to being Orion, the main flaw that immediately becomes apparent is his naiveté. He trusts Megatron more than he should, and this is actively demonstrated as being a flaw by the mere fact that, because of this trust, he ultimately hinders the autobots.

Orion isn’t the most profound character in fiction, but he at least has motivations and character flaws; two things which are basic requirements for having a character at all.

Optimus, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have motivations toward anything but punching decepticons, and doesn’t seem to have any flaws, given that he doesn’t fail or really struggle with anything. (Okay so there’s that one scene where Starscream escapes with the omega keys and Optimus angrily yells into the sky and I will give that scene a point just because it’s actually a case where he shows emotion like a real character.)

I hadn’t thought about it until writing that parenthetical, but the utter lack of emotion doesn’t help Optimus’ case either. Granted, there are characters like Soundwave who also don’t display emotion, but he still displays motivations and... not really any flaws but he does at least have some struggles and failures to make him imperfect.

Optimus’ role in TFP is simply to be an expositor of moral and ethical thought. He does not serve as a leader, or a downtrodden rebel fighter, or a strategic tactician, or even as a person.

Contrast this with TFA Optimus, which is actually the only one I even like. He, as a character above all else, serves as all of these. He coordinates strategies using the different autobots’ unique skills. He does what he thinks is right even when Sentinel or the Elite Guard push him aside. He makes mistakes, he has flaws, he even has emotional outbursts at times as any real person does. TFA Optimus starts out at the beginning of the show as a well-meaning Elite Guard trainee who was condemned to a mundane life of space bridge repair. He and his vastly underprepared crew are very suddenly thrown directly into the front lines of the war with the decepticons, and Optimus is forced to step up as a leader. By the end of the show, he (and the other autobots) cements himself as a hero, not because he was chosen by Primus to be perfect, but because he worked his skidplate off fighting the decepticons when no one was around to help him, and he did what he knew was right even when no one else would.

His character is what makes him good, not his endowment of a magical artifact by a higher power. He struggles and fails but ultimately rises to greatness because it’s what his motivations drove him to do.

This is something TFP Optimus utterly lacks. I think I’ll end on that note. I kind of want to watch TFA again, damn.

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Is it unfortunate or an amazing coincidence that the decepticon ship in RID2001 is named Megastar? In one of the only continuities not to contain Starscream? I... I'm not sure how to feel about this...

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Fanfiction yet again. This is supposed to be a luminoth "gunplane", as I call it.

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Another fanfiction-based drawing, of J-Syr in Ingsmasher armor.

Edit: Didn’t expect anyone to notice this, so I might as well provide some context. The fanfiction in question is actually a Transformers/Metroid crossover where the decepticons end up on Aether. J-Syr is an original character who will eventually end up marrying U-Mos, at which point I’ll refer to her as J-Mos. I had the Ingsmasher armor concept because of all those little busts of luminoth where they have that glowing line across their eyes and a horn. It made me think of stag beetle armor, so I’ve wanted to draw this for a while. I’m still not super happy with it; I feel like it should be bulkier. I figured if the Ingsmashers carried big orbs for smashing, that the hammer with this suit should be round as well.

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I've wanted to post this for a while. This is the evolution of my drawing of Aftershock.

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Drew this because of ideas from my fanfiction. Without a war to fight, Arcee has to find something else to do, and for some reason I imagine that she would like and thus become good at playing the lyre.

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Transformers Prime episodes summed up in one sentence: Season 3

Darkmount, NV: The autobots and their humans, having been separated and sent to random places conveniently within the United States, wander around aimlessly while Megatron enjoys his bitchin' new fortress.

Scattered: Shockwave conveniently already had a robot dragon ready to send out to hunt Wheeljack.

Prey: Ultra Magnus and Arcee find Bulkhead and Wheeljack and then get attacked by robot dragon.

Rebellion: Ultra Magnus gets the band back together and they go trash a fortress, also Optimus gets macguffined out of imminent death.

Project Predacon: Shockwave devises a project to clone more predacons.

Chain of Command: That episode where Miko beats up Starscream.

Plus One: This show ships Arcee with Wheeljack and Agent Fowler with June Darby.

Thirst: Starscream and Knockout run away from zombies for an entire episode, which is a much better episode than it sounds.

Evolution: Robot dragon learns to speak and transform and turns out to be a pretty swell guy.

Minus One: The autobots capture Soundwave so Soundwave captures Ratchet.

Persuasion: Megatron persuades Ratchet to help him build a new magic laser device to save Cybertron.

Synthesis: Ratchet helps build a new magic laser device to save Cybertron.

Deadlock: The magic laser device gives Bumblebee his voice back, he kills Megatron, and the autobots fire the magic laser into the giant magic hole on Cybertron.

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Transformers Prime episodes summed up in one sentence: Season 2

Orion Pax 1-3: Megatron keeps Orion Pax as a pet until Jack macguffins him his memory back.

Operation Bumblebee 1-2: Humans operate on Bumblebee and steal his T-Cog but he gets it back at the expense of Starscream's.

Loose Cannons: Wheeljack is a loose cannon but Dreadwing is a... tight cannon?

Crossfire: Several people try to kill several other people but Breakdown is the only one who dies.

Nemesis Prime: The prime nemesis, Nemesis Prime, is a nemesis to Prime.

Grill: Recap episode narrated by Agent Fowler.

Armada: Starscream clones himself and that goes about as well as you'd expect, which is to say, not well at all.

Flying Mind: The Nemesis (from Prime) becomes sentient after Megatron infuses it with dark energon, so it paralyzes all the decepticons and the humans go save them.

Tunnel Vision: Stuff happens in tunnels.

Triangulation: That episode where Starscream, Dreadwing and Optimus are in antarctica.

Triage: Ratchet and Wheeljack plant a virus in Laserbeak.

Toxicity: Bulkhead discovers the toxicity of toxic energon.

Hurt: Miko pushes a button and somehow that means she killed an insecticon.

Out of the Past: The animators put a lot of effort into their Cliffjumper model so they're sure as shit going to use him in more than one episode.

New Recruit: The autobots get a new recruit.

Human Factor: Silas infuses his own body into Breakdown's dead body and becomes a weird techno-organic thing and tries to win Megatron's approval by using a satellite death laser to kill some children but fails so Knockout keeps him as a prisoner and unwilling test subject... Wow, this show is fucked up sometimes.

Legacy: Jack teaches Smokescreen about earth-ooh magic sword!

Alpha Omega: No, it's Alpha Trion.

Hard Knocks: There are four magic keys and everyone is frantically looking for them.

Inside Job: Starscream has better drugs than Ratchet because he manages to snag all four magic keys.

Patch: In exchange for the four magic keys, Megatron mind links with Starscream in a futile attempt to figure out what the hell goes on in there.

Regeneration: When everyone gets to cybertron, the decepticons use the magic keys to shoot a magic laser at earth so Optimus destroys the magic laser device.

Darkest Hour: The decepticons (awesomely) find and destroy the autobot base.

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Transformers Prime episodes summed up in one sentence: Season 1

Darkness Rising 1-5: Cliffjumper is introduced and then dies, humans meet autobots, Megatron comes back, tries to raise a planet full of zombies, and gets exploded.

Masters and Students: Skyquake is introduced and then dies, Starscream discovers that Megatron is still alive.

Scrapheap: Flying robot lampreys.

Con Job: The title is self-explanatory.

Convoy: The title is self-explanatory.

Deus Ex Machina: Museum heist which is made completely pointless when Bulkhead destroys the very thing they heisted for.

Speed Metal: Jack gets peer pressured into street racing with a decepticon.

Predatory: Jack runs through a forest all night and blows up a spaceship.

Sick Mind: Optimus gets the plague so Bumblebee mind links with comatose Megatron to find the cure.

Out of His Head: Megatron possesses Bumblebee and uses him to stab himself full of dark energon, and after successfully coming out of his coma, beats the shit out of Starscream.

Shadowzone: Starscream stabs himself full of dark energon and raises Skyquake as a zombie who then chases the humans around in a parallel dimension.

Operation Breakdown: Humans decide to operate on Breakdown.

Crisscross: I don't recall much significance to this episode other than the fact that Jack's mom learns about robot fight club.

Metal Attraction: The episode where Bulkhead and Arcee get stuck to each other.

Rock Bottom: The humans, autobots, and decepticons get stuck in a mine collapse and Jack stupidly does NOT kill Megatron when he has the opportunity.

Partners: Megatron dumps Starscream for Airachnid so Starscream decides to leave.

TMI: Bulkhead is possessed by science.

Stronger, Faster: Ratchet does drugs (and despite what Optimus says, his judgement is solid up until the moment he decides to challenge Megatron, because no amount of drugs can help you win that fight.)

One Shall Fall + One Shall Rise 1-3: Turns out Earth is Unicron and he starts to wake up until Optimus macguffins him and loses his memory.