Bots with upgraded frames
Bots with upgraded frames bumping into, knocking over things because they’re not used to their changed shape
Bots with upgraded frames getting hungry because their systems use more energy
Bots whose partners are slightly exasperated because they now take ¾ of the berth
Bots who keep forgetting about their upgrades
Bots who get randomly dizzy because their main processor still hasn’t caught up with the frame modifications
Bots who get cold because their new frame burns out the fuel too quickly
Pouting big bots who have to be fed, patched up and hugged by their – thankfully! – smaller partners
Big bots!
Also, hitting their heads on things that used to be taller than them.
Or thinking they can still fit through somewhere and finding out the hard way that they cant.
XD
yup
I am imagining all this with TFP Optimus.
And Ratchet going to Agent Fowler. “Agent Fowler, I require these additional materials.”
“Huh. That’s a lot of foam padding. What exactly is this for?”
“A bigger berth.”
“Okay? Why do you need a bigger berth?”
Ratchet glances sidelong at Optimus.
Fowler: “Oh.”
Tag: ref
Because someone just mentioned bravery… and because as I see the Dauntless, they’re not all that different from how I see the (good parts of the) Decepticons.
Blood
In human culture, red is a very intense color. It symbolizes incredible passion for something, but that passion can be either love or anger/hatred.
My theory is that this is because of our blood. You may have heard this before, or maybe you haven’t. Either way I’m going to explain my version of it for those of you who haven’t heard of it.
Our blood has iron in it which makes it red. When we experience love, or see something rather erotic, blood rushes to different places in our body and turns our skin varying shades of red. If visible, this sends the signal to other people that we are aroused or appreciative.
Conversely, when we experience anger, embarrassment, or even hatred, our heart pumps faster and we can blush out of anger (in stories, when writers describe someone angry, they might mention that the character’s face turned “beet red” and that they were “fuming”). For some of us, when we are hurt by someone, we want revenge. Our primal instinct is to lash out and inflict bodily harm with the intent is to draw blood. (However, you might not be like this. A lot of this is based upon things I’ve seen and heard) Upon seeing blood, we become more excited and continue attacking.
Both beautiful women at fancy outings (💃) and crazy warriors on the battlefield (😈) can often be depicted in red to draw your attention. A woman dressed in red can be seen as bold and attractive. The warrior who wears red face paint and/or red armor, can be seen as intimidating.
In conclusion, if the color of our blood is red, then we will associate red with the ideas of intense emotion.
Now to the point I would like to discuss…
Aliens.
I’m going to go with Transformers for now. In the original series our large Autobots and Decepticons bleed pink energon. PINK. Freaking PINK.
How many of them have pink armor?
Most famously, Elita One/Ariel and Arcee.
If we take the previous argument about red and apply it here, and replace “red” with “pink”, you get a different perspective AND possibly begin to understand what colors might mean for different species.
In human culture, we perceive pink as a very feminine color, representing innocence and youth in girls.
In the G1 continuity, pink is technically a bold color for cybertronians.
(Now imagine Megatron in hot pink. You laugh, but for cybertronians he’d been considered terrifying)
In the Aligned Continuity (I’m thinking of Prime in particular), energon is blue. Now bots and cons painted blue would be perceived as dangerous/bold. (In order of the amount of blue on them, Arcee, Breakdown, Dreadwing, Ultra Magnus, Optimus, and Smokescreen).
Now into other universes, such as Star Trek.
Vulcans have green blood. Now while they currently keep their emotions in check, a long time ago they didn’t. Wearing green might have been a very bold thing to do.
(For all of you Spirk shippers out there, think of Kirk wearing that green shirt. You guys could probably work this into your argument of “How to tell if a Vulcan is attracted to you”)
So for anyone who writes fanfiction or original stories, you don’t have to take me seriously, but you could take this idea I’ve brought up and use it. I know I’m going to.
More musings, this time on architecture and design
So, Autobot and Decepticon architecture. But mostly Decepticon.
First thing that gets one’s attention is colour scheme. Autobots like light or bright colours, golden being their primary peference. Decepticons’ favourite colour is purple (duh). I wonder why. I mean, it’s the colour of the insignia, but somebody chose it…
Seeing how the D-con insignia is designed after Soundwave’s head, purple is probably related to his paintjob as well. Somebody seems to like Soundwave way too much. *coughMegatroncough*
Decepticons’ mania for gigantism (you know, huge towers, halls, statues) is the result of their past. Most of Decepticons were used to being confined in small spaces before the war: mines, barracks, you name it. This is why after they got a chance to organise space around them, they… went a bit overboard with it. For most of them, it seemed like an amazing luxury: look, vast hallways! Tall ceilings! All of this room just for us?!
The lack of light on the Nemesis is a result of Decepticon mentality too. The ‘cons are obsessed with gathering energon; most of them were nearly running on empty in the past, and the fear of hunger is one of the strongest among them. Decepticons spare no expence on rations and fuel for their weapons; however, they strive to conserve energon in every other way – including lights inside the ships or buildings. After all, they can always calibrate their optic sensors to see in the dimly lit areas.
When it comes to architecture, Autobots like soft, firm lines; their buildings look sturdy, close to the ground, solid. Favourite shapes for them would be square and circle. Decepticons, on the other hand, fancy sharp angles and tall towers. They took a lot from Seeker traditional architecture, as seen in the city of Vos, including the love for open balconies and terraces with no railings. Because what use are railings for a faction mostly consisting of flyers? (This is where the upper throne terrace of Darkmount came from.)
Autobots’ ideal architectural feature is a dome; for Decepticons it’s a spire. The same goes for their standards of beauty: Autobots like curves and round forms, Decepticons find spiky lines and angles attractive.
No information on this family of giants, so you’ll have to speculate.
Why did Cybertronians evolve to have alt-modes in the first place?
Brilliant question friend! This question has been debated
about by Cybertronian philosophers, scholars, and scientists for millennias!
No really though can we get a really manly-looking transformer and just cast a female VA for them and have no one ever comment on it in the whole show, that voice isn’t ‘inappropriate’, the VA doesn’t throw their voice to be androgynous or boyish, that’s just the bot’s voice, no one even remarks on it or questions it, not even the human characters, no one calls them he or she, just ‘they’
or the other way around, a femme with a masculine voice
or just one that doesn’t even have a gendered body at all, and speaks in more than one voice
like come on guys for a species that doesn’t ‘have’ genders you suspiciously seem to have only two genders (barely)
You know what I want to see more of in the Transformers fandom? More non-earth Cybertronian wildlife. Everything I’ve seen so far is based off what we have on Earth with a name that makes it sound like a robot, like turbo fox.
I want to see more animals that don’t look like Earth’s critters and that don’t have names altered to make them sound like robots. I want giant creatures that the TFs legitimately fear and weird little critters that creep them out the way spiders scare us. Give me animals that can’t be passed off as something off Earth. I want unique things that belong on an alien planet made of metal.
Give me alien animals!
Bayverse of all things has been the best at this so far, tbh. The Driller from DotM, whatever the heck Reedman is, can we count that? Cybertronian wildlife that looks like shit from the Cambrian Explosion, can we have this?
Oh, and scraplets.
Imagine pre-war Cybertronians using non-verbal comms and EM field messages to transmit news of a cave-in or other dangerous accident to everyone in the mine faster than sound. And, a second message that’s used as an All Clear.
Imagine the culture where re-transmitting that message is seen as selfish, and in some cases, unforgivable.
Imagine Megatron trying to teach the Decepticons to do this – so that the moment a ‘con falls in battle, the entire force knows instantly and can protect their fallen comrade.
Except, for cons, “protect” means “blast and pound the opponent until they offline.”
The Decepticons aren’t big on an-optic-for-an-optic against their foes. More… a-spark-for-an-optic.
But this method gave distinct advantages to the ‘cons – first, a very fast (albeit rough) estimate of how their forces were doing. Second, as the messages are non-verbal and occasionally hard to read if you aren’t on the right comms, it was information that Autobots had a harder time reading in the heat of battle.
After all, by the time we have Autobots and Decepticons, the vast majority of miners would join the Decepticons.
Cybertronian Database 