Hi! For Scrapper🍇 (grapes coz green and purple ^^)
lol wow I keep going "huh, why is everyone sending me fruits alongside the names" and then I read that the original post mentions adding a fruit. To those two I sent asks to, pretend they have uh. Strawberries or something with them.
Okay... Scrapper... my beloved favorite. You're the only one to ask about him 🥺 I love him 🥺 so 🥺 much 🥺
off the top of your head: notes for characterization? what are the most essential traits of this character to you (personality traits, important connections/dynamics, voice)?
Humble, modest and never seeks praise for himself. He does want his team to be properly acknowledged and will fight for them being recognized, because his team is his world.
He always has that gravelly roughness of Michael Bell's voice, the cunning intelligence we see of him in Master Builders. The strength and fierceness demonstrated with him in Constructicons Rising. The homesickness he has in IDW2019, and the desire to make Cybertron accept the Constructicons once again is !!! I love what IDW2019 was exploring with him and wish we'd have him explored beyond just "turns into Devastator".
adjacently—do you think fandom does the above traits justice? why or why not?
No. To be frank, most of the fandom know his team through fanon, or cannot even distinguish the team apart, but they know Scrapper's dead in IDW and discard him.
I have seen him written as abusive to his team, that they were glad he was killed, that he was the helm of Devastator and not the right leg, have seen him killed and thrown to the wayside as if he's nothing to his team. He is disrespected so often, or written as dumb because of the T*F*A influence (ew. just. ew) from his depiction there, and it annoys me. And I blame canon and fanon for this. He's a fun character, an absolutely unique Decepticon!!
It hurts me always, and the times people actually do respect his person and what he means to his team makes me respect that person's views just a bit more.
throw this character at any other character of your choice to bounce off each other as outsider pov to each other— regardless of timeline or logistics (crossovers allowed if you're interesting about it). why this combination? what insights would they have on each other?
Always Hook and Scrapper, but that's because I write them as knowing each other to the point of not even needing the bond to know what the other thinks. They love each other (for me, I write them as platonic, with maybe some queerplatonic lean to them) and need each other, they are inseparable and respect and look up to the other. I have had a lot of thoughts for ages about them, and how Hook is someone Scrapper feels... drawn to. He wants to be near that brilliant crane, to listen to his sharp words and to see how his processor works...
And he would immortalize Hook's frame if his best friend ever died because he wants others to remember who Hook was... he can never see Hook forgotten...
ideal flavor of rotating for this character? crack them open and dissect them— do you want them tormented, pining, or being loved + comforted? do you have any specific scenarios you like to think about?
Everything. I want to see him yearning, pining, being loved and cherished, and also to see his faults. I want him to see the error of following Megatron far too late. I want to see him hurt. If he must be explored dead, I want it to hurt. I want him to mean the world to his team, and for them all to suffer.
I like Scrapper happy and suffering. I love him, and love writing him in every way I can...
weave a web of dynamics through the cast for this character: which dynamics are you most interested in? both canonically and through extrapolation/speculation— which dynamics are the richest to you, and why?
The dynamics I like best with him, aside from him and Hook, are ones that make him confront his normal behaviors, or generally mechs with opposite personalities to him. I like to have him interact with Onslaught, even without a ship in mind, because Ons is an exact opposite of him. I want to see him interacting with more Cons to show us how unique his method of leading is within that faction.
do you have particular niche takes on this character? defend those takes. (openly controversial takes are permitted, but also: hyper-specific headcanons which you believe in and no one else has considered enough to disagree with yet. pick a hill to die on.)
Technically, considering how forgotten he often is within the fandom, almost any idea could be niche with him. But in this case, not controversial at all, I don't think, but to me, Scrapper is a yearning.
Once someone truly catches his optic, he yearns and wants them. This yearning turns into him being awestruck over the mech who catches his interest. He watches them and draws them constantly, gets this yearning to be able to touch them, so he can know how their frame works so his art of them is an exact likeness.
I love Scrapper... so so much. It hurts me to see him pushed to the side because he isn't in popular works with the Constructicons or in their popular ship based off IDW because Scrapper is amazing!! He is such a fascinating mech and there is so much one could explore with him...