A concept: Henry Masterson is exactly the kind of person to believe in the really boring end of the speculative aliens / “humans are space orcs” content where people presume that us humans are just infinitely more mysterious and complex and funny than all other aliens, especially since just in his debut episode alone he dismissively referred to the autobots as “toys” and thought nothing of literally decapitating Bulkhead.
On the flipside, while we see that cybertronians can be somewhat confused by certain aspects of Earth culture, overwhelmingly they’re exactly as savvy, complex, and quick on the uptake as you would expect from a spacefaring civilization that vastly predates ours.
In that sense: please consider Henry making a big deal out of trying to convince Starscream that dabbing is a Traditional Human Gesture Of Respect and Starscream, who knows perfectly well what the internet is, does basic amounts of research, and is generally as a career soldier Someone Who Knows When Someone Else Is Giving Him Shit, playing along right up until he thoughtfully responds in kind with the Ancient, Traditional Decepticon Greeting of flipping the bird.
So, Megatron. Giant robot, one-time warlord, new adopter of pacifism, explicit Stalin analogue. We all know that. But also – a reflection of Brutalist ideals! Bet that one was new to you. And not just in his design – his actual character works with this as well, and the design reinforces all that we know about the character. It’s a beautiful two-way street.
If you’re asking yourself, “where the hell did this come from? What on earth is Brutalism? Why should I even care?”, then friend, I have some cool knowledge for you.
I can’t believe that the first two parts of Transwarped have confirmed that of the entire bridge crew, including wartime field medic Ratchet, actual engineering genius Bulkhead, student of an incredibly illustrious school Optimus, and nearly-got-in-the-elite-guard Bumblebee…
Prowl is literally the only one who knows anything about babies. And I’m not talking human babies because Sari clearly gave Optimus the eight-year-old version of the talk, but like. their own species. He’s the only one who recognizes Isaac’s description as talking about a protoform and he reacts like that nigh instantaneously.
Because first, you just have this entire assembly of competent people boggling in total confusion over a protoform and Prowl is the one desperately shouldering his way in like “Bumblebee that is not how you hold a baby!”*
But see the other side of it is… where did Prowl get this knowledge? He’s not terribly old- seemingly he’s about Optimus’s age and I feel like both of them are either early twenties or late teens, even- given how cybertronians seem to be culturally considered adults as soon as they’re past “puberty” and settled into their mature body, it’s likely from a human perspective we’d overestimate the proportionate ages of them.
So that just gives me the image of like… Prowl as the equivalent of a thirteen-year-old who just for one reason or another was surrounded by babies. My friends with more Transformers savvy than me tells me that protoforms are generally depicted as just sorta autonomously bubbling out of pools of liquid metal so my present headcanon is wherever he grew up was close to one and sometimes the planet just, y’know, decided you were gonna have twenty babies whether or not you had twenty adults in a position to care for them so just, everybody who was capable of carrying a baby around was put on baby duty.
* admittedly he’d be a little off the hook since even newborn cybertronians would probably have about the motor dexterity of a toddler, but that’s another subject that I like to call “Isaac Sumdac probably had so much fun babyproofing his lab in response to his new completely unexpected alien hybrid bundle of joy”
I’m a big fan of the G1 Cartoon (specifically, Five Faces of Darkness) origins of the Autobots and the Decepticons, that is:
Both of them were created by the Quintessons. The Autobots were a the civilian product line, basically robots servants. The Decepticons were war robots.
The reason I like this so much – and of course this was never explored explicitly in G1 – is that it explains and problematizes the tendency for Autobots to value other species’ lives and interests over their own.
They were built to serve other species, so of course they protect human lives above their own. Whether or not this is a more ‘moral’ choice objectively, it’s a bias wired deep inside of them. So you get things like Skyfire, seeing humans for the first time and coming to a screeching halt – he can’t hurt them even if Starscream tells him they’re the enemy.
Meanwhile, Decepticons were built to fight other species (and probably different factions of Quintessons as well) so their relative xenophobia – and tendency to fight for what they want rather than negotiate or make friends – makes perfect sense.
So I watched Autoboot Camp and as much as I’m kinda losing my shit at the revelation Bulkhead is a farm boy this just… makes me think, in context here.
Space in Transformers Animated is just a wee bit horrifying, given, y’know, the vampiric space barnacles that must be killed with fire are just a common nuisance. And there is an implication certain features are deliberately selected (Bee’s comment to Wasp about ‘molds’)
I always kinda figured if Bulkhead was tailored for a purpose physically he was something heavy-industrial, but, the fact that he towers over basically all other ‘conventional’ city autobots we see kinda raises the implication that there are things a lot worse than barnacles out there and Bee was, as of the bridge posting, totally unused to dealing with them.
The implication that most ‘countryside’ bots are just, people who can casually bench most of their closer-to-cybertron contemporaries because they need to be because it’s probably southern gothic populated with various lovecraftian space horrors out there.
I’m just saying in a human AU Bulkhead would be the kinda guy who takes on a camel spider armed with a single flip flop, without blinking, while Bee, who has never seen a bug larger than a fruit fly in person, climbs the table screaming in horror.
Look TFA Optimus is absolutely a middle class maybe lower-middle class kid who joined the army out of misplaced patriotism from propaganda and also bc it was one of his best choices
TFA Megatron maybe started with fuck all but he’s now the equivalent of new money. He’s Jay Gatsby. He likes the finer things but also has no fucking idea of the REALLY good stuff that like the Tower nobles deal with. He’s learned manners and speech but he’s still “horrifyingly” plebian
What I’m saying is, if they take over Cybertron together they ducking horrify the old elite bc like. They do the robo equivalent of wearing their shoes inside. Their outside shoes. They have awful kitsch knick-knacks instead of graceful minimalism (Megatron is a hoarder fight me). They garden WITHOUT gloves and plant hodgepodge awful arrangements that are a riot of colors.
Megatron absolutely knows he’s horrifying the elite and why and finds it goddamn hilarious. Optimus is just like “why r people upset that I used the same fork for the salad and the meat”
Actually, y’know what? I lied. Running on exactly one episode of season 2 and its lone appearance of Sentinel outside of flashbacks or a forgettable phone call, I’m metaing about this slightly ridiculous chin man.
So I really enjoy Transformers Animated and the weapon choices it gives each character. They speak very meaningfully about the characters- the distant yet deeply emotional Prowl wielding incredibly sharp throwing weapons that allow him to engage intensely at a distance, the powerful and sensitive Bulkhead wielding huge, clunky-looking wrecking maces with impressive precision and finesse- the frugal and less bloodthirsty than she wants to admit Arachnia wielding power-copying with a side order of immobilizing venom.
So naturally, all the way back in Along Came A Spider, Sentinel’s shield stood out to me. It’s still standing out to me as of The Elite Guard and his formal introduction as a character.
Maximals vs Predacons, the new names for Autobots and Decepticons in the series Beast Wars, got me thinking.
Every Predacon I have seen so far has been based on a non-mammal animal or creature. Raptors, scorpions, spiders, wasps – none of these creatures ( as far as I know) are capable of producing oxytocin and in nature they are solitary and do not take care of others of their group. From a evolutionary perspective this makes sense; by letting everyone fend for themselves only the best adapted/luckiest/strongest specimens can pass on their genes – making the species grow slowly but rapidly building their strength.
Maximals, in contrast, are all based on mammals. Gorilla’s, rats and rhino’s all have vibrant social groups that they need to survive and thrive. Cheetahs and Tigers are solitary, but they take care of their young and have forms of communication and dependence between them. By helping each other the Maximals easily outpace the Predacons in numbers, but leaves them more vulnerable to hostage situations and emotional pain when a close member of the group passes away.
How odd would it be for a Predacon like Dinobot to suddenly be in a group of Maximals?
They touch so much more often, trading small gestures that are just a superfluous way of accentuating what they already communicated using words. They go out of their way to perform small menial tasks for others, expecting those mecha to return the same gestures at different times, and they make horrible strategic choices simply because they like someone and don’t want them to offline – even when it is that mech’s fault they were in danger!
Initially it’s something that makes him feel superior to the Maximals; capable of pointing out flawed strategies and suggesting more useful approaches where they are held back by their own defects. As time passes, the feeling of superiority is replaced with protectiveness; he wants to shield the Maximals from their own stupidity wherever he is capable of it. Finally, his protectiveness turns into appreciation. The way that Rattrap will sometimes help with picking debris and shrapnel out of his hide, and the confidence that the Maximals will come to help him even if he finds himself wounded because of his own lacking.
Dinobot never quite understands why they feel the need to touch him and each other and he never learns to reciprocate or enjoy the smaller gestures, but he learns to like their recharge-piles. Maximal frames run a lot warmer than Predacon frames.
Haha well I don’t really have much of an opinion on Unicron beyond “Welp, he’s out there somewhere I guess?” because generally like IDW!Shockwave- he’s used as a plot point rather than a character in most TFS narratives. I’ve seen the fan theories about how Unicron’s responsible for almost every shitty thing that happens- but he’s kinda like Hitler or Voldermort y’know?
I mean- he’s there, but you don’t really know him as a “person” more than a “concept” so you just go about your shipping and squeeing with barely a “yeah Unicron end of the world, Voldermort whatever.” because ultimately for a fan- Unicron isn’t really relatable beyond his representation as “THE BIG BAD END”.
So unless things change or Unicron’s character is expanded in some meaningful way beyond his role as “Robo-Hitler-Voldermort-Satan”, I doubt there’d be much interest in him as a character.
Can’t recall if it’s a canon somewhere or if it was fanon/ read in a fic once, but there’s been those ideas floating around of Unicron/Primus being necessary parts of death/life cycle. And that… just like the grim reaper in western human lore… people just don’t like him cuz they fear death/ the end of existence. But to that end, Unicron would defend his purpose by saying “nothing can or should live forever, for things must end so that others may begin”. He just… has a tendency to be violent/big/abrupt about said end, haha.
It could be cool to see a convo between Unicron and Primus in which Unicron admits it’s strange to harbor signs of life on his body, when all his existence his purpose had been for death, and how Primus, once buzzing with activity, sits hollowed and lifeless after centuries of war…
fuzz has a better answer here~ (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ
(Although I honestly think that the only reason why they make Unicron our Earth- is to explain to the audience why the Cybertronians would want to come to our mudball lol. But there are meaningful ways of expanding on that “plot point” and to make it more than just a convenient excuse- which tbh in canon is taken for granted most times.)
But yeah, I would love to have an actual conversation between Unicron and Primus the way that canon material has OP and Megs interacting. In that through their long history of conflict/interaction their outwardly antagonistic relationship had somehow morphed into something deeper and more complicated than simple hate or opposition. <– this is the sort of meaningful expansion of “character” that would probably generate more interest in Unicron.
Rather than having Unicron just yelling down at whatever poor sod/crazy idiot who thought it’d be a good idea to sell their soul to Unicron lol. They could actually make him more appealing as a character- more Lord Vetinari/Mephistopheles rather than Voldermort/Satan.
(Wouldn’t it be interesting if Unicron approaches OP and seduces him to the “Dark Side” in the guise of greater good and plays him off Megs instead? Rather than having Megs be Galvatron-ized again…)
Cybertronian Database 