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.
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”
relatable scenario: subconsciously staring at lord megatrons aft as he walks past in hallway; catching own faux pas at last second and jerking gaze away on reflex, even though lord megatron was not directing optical attentions towards self in the first place
heres lugnut picking up swindle like a puppy by its scruff, but im not really sure whats hes grabbing swindle by,,, (also that sigh/grunt lugnut does at the end is a big mood)
SWIN’S FUCKING FACE WHEN LUGNUT PUTS HIM DOWN ADHFASD
Optimus stops Ratchet with a frown when the medic offers to cut Soundwave open; they are Autobots, and although they are desperate, Optimus doesn’t want to condone this, an action fitting a Decepticon.
“Soundwave”, he speaks quiety, “I do not wish to apply such drastic measures, but you’re leaving us no choice. Are you really that loyal to your cause?“
There is tired annoyance in his voice; he has never understood how could anyone be loyal to such a devastating and ruinous cause, and he has never understood Soundwave, who was most unnerving in his silent stubborness.
Soundwave lifts his head a little, so that his blank visor faces Optimus, and there is a voice – the Autobot’s own voice, but higher and younger, filled with hope and joy Optimus has long forgotten, a little cracking because the recording is old, so old…
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”
Cybertronian Database 