You know how sometimes is hard to find TF related stuff in the characters tags because most of them are named as objects and so on?
So! here is an idea! add a “TF” before the character name, so the tags would be exclusively related to them! So you have:
“#TF Velocity” instead of just #velocity, “#TF Whirl” instead of just “whirl”… you know the deal. I been tagging some original content as that so this is a, sort of recommendation.
for me cybertronian culture is by far the most interesting thing about transformers and subsequently its one of the least explored aspects in the whole damn franchise
me: Hey I wanna know about robot sociology and native culture pertaining to them as a species. I want to know about their writing system and their language and how that effects communication. I want to know more about their physiology and the extra senses they have like electromagnetism and how this helps them navigate their surroundings. I want to know about their music and what music for robots might sound like. I want to know what kind of art they produce given that they see on different wavelengths than we do. I want to know more about their religion and the different religious sects that they have and any of the inter-sectional disputes that may arise because of different beliefs. I want to know more.
hasbro: U want them to punch each other on earth????? gotcha
Transformers fanon: Cybertronians have 6 different methods of communication that are secondary to spoken language, there are 5 different types of bonding between groups, gestalt and trine dynamics are complex and we WILL explore them, there are differences between subspecies based on alt, distinct cultures between locations on Cybertron, and of course these are highly advanced aliens so we made the alien langauge complex and well-thought out; most ideas about reproduction, culture, and biology are agreed upon by fic writers even if they don’t know each other, and if stuff’s been changed it’s probably because the writer invented something totally bitchin’ and way more in-depth, maybe even to explain a plot hole in the canon series
Transformers canon: have a glowing crystal thing, that’s pretty alien-looking right? Here’s cybertronian biology stuff we totally didn’t make up for this episode and won’t totally be changing the next time it gets in the way of the new toy-driven plot direction. Sometimes we replace swears with robot words for a giggle
Starting with the big guy, the granddaddy of them all, G1 Optimus Prime. He’s like a father to me. I can’t in good conscience punch him, even if he sometimes deserves it for bad puns. 1/10 punchability I just can’t do it
Rodimus Prime ranks high in the punchability for some because when Optimus died in the original movie, it traumatized kids so much that all their negative feelings got channeled into unbridled rage towards the guy who replaced him. However, I hate those guys because they became insufferable as adults, so that really just lowers Roddy’s punchability for me personally. 4/10 punchability he still kind of deserves it though
Grimlock led the Autobots for a length of time I can’t remember after Optimus died in the Marvel comics. His was a reign of terror. I can’t decide if his jughead crown is kickin or if i want to kick it off him. 7/10 punchability he gets some lenience for his childlike innocence
Another Marvel comics leader was Fortress Maximus, who was also Cerebros. He was also the leader in the Headmasters anime after Rodimus flew off into space forever but I don’t think he actually had a personality in that. He’s a matryoshka of Autobot leaders with each getting smaller and more punchable than the last, ending in Moody College Student Spike Witwicky, who is thankfully the first one on this list who I don’t have to climb something to punch in the face. 9/10 punchability I’m a very short person so I might have to climb something anyways but that isn’t going to stop me
Last Marvel comics character, I swear. Captain Picard Hi-Q binary bonded with Optimus for a while, then Optimus died (this was about the third time), and Hi-Q eventually turned into Optimus so we just considered Optimus alive again. Don’t think too hard about it. 3/10 punchability I really like Star Trek TNG so I probably wouldn’t punch him
Ginrai’s robot self looks exactly like Optimus Prime, but he isn’t. Why he looks like him is sort of hand-waved away in the anime. The real-life reason, of course, is because he was just the Japanese release of Powermaster Optimus Prime. Ginrai is really good because he talks like an American teenager even when his robot form separated from his human self to become the Autobot commander at the end of Super-God Masterforce. 0/10 punchability I just can’t really punch a guy wearing converse, skinny jeans, and suspenders
Star Saber makes me forget that the Autobots were ever good guys. I don’t think he even has a personality outside of “noble and heroic leader.” He adopted a human son and tried to send him to a Catholic school but he doesn’t even buy him a uniform. The kid barely even goes to school in the end. 9/10 punchability don’t adopt a human if you’re not prepared to care for him
Optimus Primal is a good Autobot leader because he never even set out to be anything more than a captain on one ship but ended up sacrificing himself to bring life back to the planet, probably sparking a religious following. He won the “Power of the Primes” vote so he’s got to have a pretty low punchability, but he also looks like his malleble gorilla face would feel nice on my powerful fist. 5/10 punchability when POTP stuff starts coming will his name change to “optimus primal prime”?
Lio Convoy being a cat makes me not want to punch him so much. However, he isn’t a good father. Don’t worry about the kid not really being his son in any sense of the term. Why is ineptitude at fatherhood a recurring theme for Autobot leaders? 8/10 punchability Lio Junior deserved better
I’ll admit that Beast Wars Neo is the only thing on this list that I haven’t seen or read any of, so Big Convoy is mostly here for completion’s sake. Hence I’m rating him entirely on his appearance. Mostly I wouldn’t want to punch a mammoth, because they’re extinct, but I think he could take it. It would be a good workout for both of us. 10/10 punchability no hard feelings, we’re just two dudes lovingly punching each other
In Japan, he’s known as Fire Convoy, continuing their tradition of Autobot leader names, but in the west he’s the first-ever reboot of Optimus Prime. I don’t have a lot of opinions on him as a person or leader, but his existence opened the floodgates of Optimus Primes to come, which I have mixed feelings on. 5/10 punchability I can’t think of a reason to punch him, but I also can’t think of a reason not to
Armada Optimus Prime suffers from being Armada Optimus Prime. I think this was when they really managed to distill “Optimus Prime” down into its truest form. No longer was Optimus Prime a character, but a concept that extended beyond fiction and into our world. Optimus Prime means something. Optimus Prime is a figure for justice, honor, and liberty. 8/10 punchability I still can’t forget Energon though
Do I have to say anything. I’m not even somebody who vehemently dislikes Hot Shot, but for the love of god, why did he ever get to be a leader. 6/10 punchability I’d punch him but I wouldn’t put a lot of force into it, he’s not even worth it
Movie Optimus Prime is. uh. something else, all right. I can admire the movie taking the idea of Optimus Prime and going “okay, but what if he was also a murderbeast?” because I think that’s something we all really wanted to see play out. In practice it kind of scares me. 2/10 punchability I’m worried if I went for his face I’d no longer have mine
Animated Optimus Prime is a good boy. A baby boy. He’s trying his best in a world that seems against him. We all love him. 0/10 punchability I simply can’t bring myself to mar those luscious lips
I’m sure Animated Ultra Magnus did some great things during the war, but, yunno, seeing how Cybertron under him during peacetime is sort of a Stratocracy, I question his fitness to be the leader of a planet. They really gonna let the government run experiments on civilians? Okay. Alright. 4/10 I don’t want to punch him per se but I do sort of want to lead an armed rebellion against him
Hhh. HHHH. HOOGH. HHHAAAHH. HEH. HHhhhHHH. Just seeing Sentinel Prime’s face fills me with anger. If let loose, this rage could level mountains, sink continents, and incinerate entire solar systems. If there is any good in the cosmos, Sentinel Prime will not go unpunched. His face will be shattered into pieces with the sheer power of my unbridled fury. 10,000/10 punchability I have already punched him, spiritually, and I will do it again
I mean, alright. Prime Optimus Prime is kind of the distilled essence of Optimus Prime. If you took all the other Optimus Primes, and took all the things they had in common, and then took out a little bit of the anger because let’s be real here all the other Optimus Primes are quite a bit angrier than this one, you’d get Aligned Optimus Prime. Which is kind of how the Aligned continuity as a whole works. So, yeah, That Sure Is Optimus Prime. 3/10 punchability his soft-spoken words of wisdom would calm me down before I ever even raised my fist
Heatwave is the quintessential non-Optimus Autobot leader. He’s noble and courageous with a good sense of justice, but he was thrust into leadership without being the best and it and is a bit of a hothead. You can use that exact sentence to describe so many of the bots on this list. 4/10 punchability I don’t want to use violent methods when it comes to Rescue Bots but sometimes Heatwave’s personality warrants it
I honestly can’t believe it took 30 years for a Bumblebee to be leader for reals. It happened so gradually that nobody was surprised when it happened, and yet it also feels like nobody can really accept it. I know I can’t. He doesn’t even look like any Bumblebee. Is this how longtime G1 fans felt when the Unicron trilogy started reusing names for different-but-not-wholly-different characters to keep the trademarks? 8/10 punchability we know you stole your schtick from Hot Rod via Hot Shot so stop trying to act like you’re so special
What people in the fandom are saying:but the Autobots are just as evil, if not MORE evil, than the Decepticons! It’s an abhorrence that Megatron now wears the Autobot symbol! How dare Megatron do that to the Decepticons!
What people in the fandom should realize:
–Megatron’s redemption arc isn’t about the Decepticons. It’s about him recognizing he was wrong. It’s about him removing himself from something which only enables his terrible behavior. The struggles the Decepticons are facing now will never outweigh the slaughter of BILLIONSwhich Megatron carried out with no remorse as the faction’s leader.
–Megatron was never what this fandom positively associates as a ‘revolutionist miner.’ He wanted to be a revolutionist, and at one time his ideas and writings were his protests, but his anger and hatred led to his own corruption. Instead, Megatron was a terrorist who used unlawful force and violence to coerce others and governmental powers to follow his social and political objectives. Destruction and murder became an appropriate way to get what he wanted. Megatron and his Decepticons didn’t attempt to liberate their species from an oppressive government;Megatron went beyond fighting for the freedom of everyone to instead wanting to punish, to destroy, to be the oppression and ruled as a tyrant. He didn’t fight for the rights he once thought Cybertronians deserved, and rather, rose to be a force nearly as bad as the Senate.
–The word ‘Autobot’ was reclaimed from off-worlders by Orion Pax and later again by Optimus Prime after Zeta Prime’s failed leadership. The true Autobot cause didn’t exist before the war; it came to be during the revolution as Optimus amassed an army large enough only for the sake of defeating Megatron’s Decepticon terrorist movement. Instead of being used as a slur referring to their species as ‘automatons’ because they seemingly never changed, it evolved to mean ‘autonomous’ as Orion Pax suggested it should mean. The word became unpopular because of Zeta Prime’s ruthlessness and neglect of the citizens of Cybertron. However, it was canonically established that Optimus Prime wasn’t corrupt like the Primes who preceded him. He turned the Autobots into a cause for morality and freedom, one which would ensure justice to those who threatened the sanctity of others, their world, and every other world. Optimus has never strayed from those ideals, even though others attempted to bring out the worst in him.
Most importantly, the choices and actions of a few do not represent the cause as a whole. For instance, Decepticons such as Thundercracker who opted to adopt a dog, spend his time writing screenplays, and gets along relatively peaceably with others do not lessen the atrocities of the Decepticon cause. And, the Autobots who slip up, who act more violent or make questionable choices do not lessen what the Autobot cause stands for or what it has accomplished in protecting the lives and freedoms of others.
Although this is technically correct, I think one of the reasons people like imagining Megatron as the revolutionist miner is because they might feel there is something wrong with the general message of the TF storyline. Protest coming from oppressed people? No, that thing is dangerous. Only the god-chosen leader and his followers can be good!
Because divine right!
Those common people can only turn to violence and evil.
Yes, in the transformers universe this is what happened. But the fact that it’s written this way can definitely lead to fans opposing this idea in their own way.
Personally I think the whole “Optimus reclaimed the Autobots from being the brutal police force of the Senate to being ~good and just~” is pure BS. It makes no sense in-universe. Why would someone join the secret police / enforcers of an oppressive regime if they sympathized with the people crushed by that regime? A group that would inevitably be full of Functionists?
Optimus is a noble character and an idealist. It wouldn’t make sense for him to even want to rub elbows with these assholes, and it wouldn’t make sense for them to agree “Gee golly, Optimus, you’re right! Let’s help the oppressed!”
The weird message of the comics canon seems to be that you MUST have the blessing of or a connection to the current government to be legitimate. Even when the government has a caste literally called “Disposables”, when it disappears and brainwashes political foes, when it is oppressive and unjust. And that is bullshit.
How it should have gone: Optimus and Megatron bro it up as Decepticons. But then Optimus thinks Megatron is going too far with violence, so he (and many other Decepticons) split off and create their own faction called the Autobots. Which has no relation to the Senate because the Senate’s army was never called the Autobots.
Cybertronian Database 