I love world-building and I have tons of headcanons that have nothing to do with anything but are just funny and cool things I’d like to add. This post is about a sub-genre of Cybertronian novels that I named “gladiator romance”, where true love is priceless and the object of the hero’s affection has nothing else to give.
So given the confirmation that Starscream and the other Seekers were from a mass produced line of physically identical cold constructed bots, I wonder if Starscream’s desire to lead and have attention and adoration at all stems from feeling like an unremarkable one of many. If as individuals the Seekers were treated as identical and expendable, it would make sense that some of them would develop a desperate desire to be special, and have others recognise their uniqueness and importance.
I love it when we get a little more knowledge about the constructed cold process. So as we can see, Starscream was completely identical to who knows how many others. I think I see the arm blasters there on the left as well. And lastly…not a single splash of paint. Who wants to bet that if a constructed cold bot wanted ANY individuality they had to save up what little money they’d earn from a job they were forced into, just to afford a paint job. After cost of living and all that I’d be surprised if they had more than a couple of shanix to rub together. On a side note I wonder if there would be some body dysphoria from the knowledge that you aren’t in any way unique. That every single piece that comprises you could be tracked to an assembly line.
oh my god, planned obsolescence in cold constructed ‘bots.
every part of your frame comes from a template, all the parts are identical to the fifty other people in your batch…all of it built to some questionable standard and possibly built to eventually give out. they wind up constantly reliant on their manufacturers/the government/black market parts to replace important pieces that constantly break down. that’s just how they’re designed: to artificially break down, so their life span is limited on purpose unless they can find parts similar enough to make it work.
That’s what The Curator tells Nautica in this weeks Lost Light
The different symbols are for the “Five Clans”
Except
Some of those symbols
Have a very worryingly familliar shape
And it’s canon that Transformers basically suffer from memory degradation…as a side affect of living SO LONG, after a while they don’t remember things properly. So Transformers who had been alive when the Knights were around, their memories of the Knights by the time of the present day AREN’T RIGHT
The Knights were judges
The knights could judge the “Crimes” of Cybertronians
The Curator talks about how the five clans “Came together” to create “Cyberutopia” somewere
Five in one, in other words
Cybertronians remember the Knights as being five distinct personalities/views…united in one
Five voices, all acting as a judge
I don’t think the Autobots should want to find the Knights of Cybertron O.O;
And I really don’t think they should go to “Cyberutopia”
Because let’s not forget that back in issue thirteen, there was literally a discussion all about how the more idealised by people a “Utopia” is…the more horrifying it actually is in secret
Roberts has spent over fifty issues having characters talk about how perfect Cyberutopia must be
This phrase is hilariously wrong when taken to mean what it usually means. Birbs are hungry little things, since they have fast metabolisms and they burn a lot of calories when flying. Many birbs eat as much or more than their own weight each day. If humans ate like birds we would die.
The reason I was thinking about this is that was writing a headcanon about how Starscream can eat a hilariously large amount of Energon. I figure all Seekers carry and use more fuel than other frame types, because they burn it so fast and shoot it out the back of their engines when they fly. Military Seekers like Starscream fly a lot and refuel a lot.
So I looked up some numbers. Now the energy content of Energon seems like it would be higher than gas or jet fuel, so Cybertronians could carry less fuel than their Earthly equivalents, but lets just use these as ballpark figures for the sake of proportion. The results were hilarious.
An F16 weighs less than 10 tons, and carries 3.5 tons of fuel! By comparison a truck similar to Optimus’s style weighs over 17 tons without the trailer, and holds less than a ton of fuel. Their weight can more than double with a loaded trailer but at least in TFP, Optimus almost never pulls a trailer and it’s safe to assume most Cybertronian trucks don’t often do that.
It’s worth noting that Starscream is only about 60% the size of an F16, even in jet mode, so he’d weigh like 6 tons and carry 2.1 tons of fuel, fully fueled. Still, imagine him eating more than twice as much as a big bot like Optimus in one sitting.
Even an Abrams tank, which weighs a whopping 68 tons, carries a measly 2.1 tons of fuel, so Starscream could eat as much as Megatron in his old frame before he converted to a flyer. It’s probably safe to assume Megatron can carry a lot more fuel now, but he doesn’t have wings for auxiliary tanks and therefore probably has somewhere in between his old fuel capacity and that of an actual Seeker. Plus I doubt he weighs 68 tons anymore. If OP weighs around 17 tons, maybe Megs weighs somewhere in the mid 20s?
Anyway yeah, these numbers are only vague approximations when carried over into Cybertronian frames rather than Earth vehicles, and I’m sure the high energy content of Energon means they can all carry less weight in fuel, but it’s fun to think about. The gist of it is that Seekers are hungry little dudes XD Also big Seekers like Dreadwing and HUGE Seekers like Jetfire would be like bottomless pits and use so much fuel! I think even though they would eat a tremendous amount, it wouldn’t stand out as much somehow as a little wisp of the Seeker who’s all wings and legs sitting there and downing twice as much fuel as the giants sitting next to him. Somehow I think it also has to do with Starscream’s general shamelessness – bigger, more reserved Seekers like Jetfire might eat a similar amount to other people they’re eating with, and fuel themselves more throughout the rest of the day. Also, if they’re in a lab more and only fly a little, they could make their fuel last much longer than an active Air Command soldier or scout who flies all day, which is why Starscream would often be hungry and eat Jetfire’s food ^^ (The fact that he still did that even when he was working on science and not scouting or sparring is mighty suspicious though)
Do you hear that faint tink-tink-tink noise of violinists plucking instead of moving the bow? That’s the pulse of the piece. THAT IS OPTIMUS’ SOUL. That sound is present throughout the entire song. It’s the first thing you hear and the last thing you hear. It’s there, even when other instruments almost drown it out. It is still there.
Then you get this flute to establish the melody. I think it’s a flute, but it could be an oboe. They sound very similar to me. Anyway, why is it so sad? Because his Spark is sad. He watched his world die, and he’s part of the reason it had to die. He’s watching his war spread to another world that is totally unprepared. He can’t let that world die, too. But he feels alone, because who do you look up to when you are the one at the top? To be a Prime is to feel alone.
And suddenly that flute changes. Now there’s strings and brass playing the melody and voices come in as a bit of “coloration” that makes me think of light. That is the courage coming out. That is the Prime in Optimus Prime. That is where he is looking ahead and deciding he will do whatever it takes to protect other worlds from the same fate as Cybertron. That is hope. That is Optimus standing up and saying “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.”
Here comes the percussion. The same melodic line played in the previous section repeats, but now it has percussion behind it. What is that? It’s Optimus charging into battle. It’s his determination to protect, to sacrifice and to fight for what is right. The voices rise and that is glow of his Spark brightening into his optics as he stands up for what he believes in.
Even Optimus’ beliefs can be shaken. Sometimes he loses sight of his goals. But, in the ruin of his doubts, he always rises again and again to fight for freedom.
And THAT is what is in his Spark and THAT is what his theme sounds like.
Optimus and Bumblebee, who together formed a major component of the heart of the Autobots, were united with the philosophy “we’re stronger together than apart”, while Starscream, who’s probably been a Decepticon the majority of his life, cringed at the same phrase and asked who the hell talks like that. While Megatron laid the groundwork for Decepticon philosophy as a miner, he refined it in the gladiatorial pits where strength and domination were rewarded with survival. Megatron emphasised the importance of dominance a lot after that, such as when he ordered Starscream to torture Bumblebee for the sake of exercising dominance over him, rather than for the purpose of gathering any useful information. He also removed the dedication to Terminus from Towards Peace so as not to display emotional attachments. Hell, the Decepticon motto “Peace Through Tyranny” is basically all about elevating one individual – Megatron – as an ubermensch god-emperor figure who brings salvation to Cybertron by exercising absolute control over it. So yeah, I’d agree that while the Autobots place more emphasis on cooperation and unity, the Decepticons are all about the supreme dominance of a powerful individual.
Something that isn’t really acknowledged is the fact that ‘Longarm Prime’ as the Chief/Head of the Autobot Intelligence Division is literally part of the governing council of Cybertron. Shockwave himself has much to say on the fact he’s sat next to Perceptor (The head of the science guild) during council meetings.
What I also find interesting is that Blurr, an amazing agent to be sure, but an Agent, is rarely far from his side. And perhaps there is some allowance given that Longarm is a young mech, protoformed after the war, thrust into his position when his predecessor unexpectedly disappeared. Surely having the top agent near by during meetings with the Magnus-
At hand for highly classified intelligence that even one’s self has questionable clearance for-
And by your side during a … Funeral…?
Makes perfect sense. He’s a young bot. Blurr is a dutiful agent and member of the elite guard. They are just mech’s that are pals that are friends and co-workers. Only Longarm Prime is one of the advisers to the Leader of the Autobots and a guild head. Blurr why the hell are you even there.
Crush aside, I think Fanzone’s kind of an underrated character
Like….they could have just made him the bumbling cop trope, or worse, the stick in the mud, by-the-book cop trope who’s only there to serve as an antagonist for the main characters…..
…But they didn’t. Sure he’s comic relief, but he’s just a genuinely good guy and a great character.
He’s like a big papa-bear to Sari, despite the fact that she’s constantly teasing him and he doesn’t even like kids.
He’s smart enough to not only remember that Cybertronians fear organic germs, but to also seek out the local sleezeball and use that fear against him.
He cares about protecting his city so much that he’s willing to go up against GIANT ALIEN ROBOTS to do his job.
And he can put aside his machine-hate whenever the Autobots need him, or vise-versa.
Plus, HE PUNCHED A FUCKING MUTATED BAT-MONSTER A LEAST 10 FEET TALLER THAN HIM IN THE FUCKING FACE.
And yeah, I DO love the fact that he IS prejudice against the bots at first (which is slightly justified, since they DO wreck his city on a daily basis)…but ya’know what? He gets over it. And I LIKE that in this show literally EVERYONE has their own mini character arc where they start out one way and end up another.
Also, he has a thick Canadian accent for some reason and…okay, yeah, how many tough, badass Canadian characters in American cartoons can YOU think of?
like tell me ratchet didnt have some kind of chronic pain issues… “old war wound’s actin’ up”…. it correlates with his Post Traumatic Stress… like that would be a big reason why hes so grumpy and snappy for seemingly no reason
Cybertronian Database 