Tbh i dont know much about nautica but i absolutely adore the way you draw her :D your art style is so edible,,, and your dedication to draw transformers daily is super impressive!! Seeing the lil guys on my feed always makes me just a little bit happier :]
You're so sweet and kind thank you!! ;;;; I love this silly blog so much and i hope i get to continue making art and learning along side so many amazing people like you <3
phipthere my love, best of all phipthere, i come to you with an ask game...
I simply HAVE to ask. for the ship bingo: ShockOP?
HELLO MOTH BEST OF ALL MOTHS. IT IS TIME TO TALK ABOUT THEM!!!
ANALYSIS UNDER THE CUT!!!
Okay so here’s the deal. Shockop as a ship is very based off of a single continuity, with two very specific versions of the characters, and it’s not something that is easily transplanted into other Transformers stories. Like in order to make it work elsewhere you kind of have to transplant elements of the characters in idw1 elsewhere (most specifically empurata, which does not work in every continuity as an idea, and sometimes shockwave is better if he doesn’t have that backstory). This is a ship that needs elements of idw1 to work, which is great if whatever canon soup you’re cooking up has it, but if not i don’t think it’s the same ship at all.
I also think this is a ship that has a very common pitfall, which is people look at Senator Shockwave and are like “he’s so nice, he would be horrified at what he’s become” and so then endgame shockop has him reverting back to his pre-shadowplayed state with some angst involved. THAT’S BORING, and more importantly THAT’S NOT SENATOR SHOCKWAVE! Senator Shockwave is so insane. He’s generally on the right side of things, politically, I guess, but he’s not afraid to do morally dubious things to achieve his goals (LIKE PHYSICALLY MODIFYING ORION PAX TO HOLD THE MATRIX OF LEADERSHIP WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION). I think the number one thing about Senator Shockwave is he’s just Decepticon Shockwave, but he cares about things like “being liked” and “being a moral member of society”. Decepticon Shockwave is just Senator Shockwave but now he has no pesky feelings telling him he shouldn’t be doing batshit insane things all the time for the love of the game.
Post-shadowplay Shockwave, in my opinion, is canonically someone who felt badly briefly about his actions (for one panel) and then decided to even more insane things because his motivations are not tied to his emotions. Shockwave is an obsessive, dramatic person who is able to see crises (primarily resource shortages) that can harm Cybertronians as a whole, and then decides to manipulate time and space around his will because obviously that’s the solution here. He’s ultimately always the same person, the only thing that changes is how unhinged he is when enacting his goals. Any fan continuity that doesn’t understand this makes me sad, because they’re missing out on one of the funniest characters ever created. I love him.
Optimus, in idw1, on the other hand has his own thing going with his relationship to authority, and the insane things he does for the love of the game that are probably well intentioned but still insane (like annexing Earth). His story is very intentionally done in the RiD series where it’s kind of deconstructing what it means to be a prime, and whether he is doing good, etc. etc. It works very well for the story, and thematically is great, but also it’s not my #1 Optimus depiction (which would probably go to Skybound Optimus).
But phipthere! If Shockop is your favorite ship, and it requires idw1 to work, but idw1 Optimus isn’t your favorite Optimus, then what do you do?
Again, I still think it’s possible to pull off some variety of continuity soup shockop, but it needs these core tenets:
1. You absolutely need the empurata and shadowplay storyline, and probably need Shockwave to be a senator. The empurata and shadowplay does add a really good layer of angst, but also there’s nothing like Orion finding Shockwave soon after its done and having his heart ripped out as Shockwave doesn’t even want to talk to him any more. Having zero recognition from one of the most important people in his life is just such a good emotional beat and you can’t get that feeling anywhere else. And also the senator thing is important bc of the weird power dynamic thing they’ve got going on, trust. It adds extra seasoning to the sauce.
2. I don’t think you necessarily need the coptimus backstory, but you do absolutely need Orion going along with Shockwave’s… Shockwaveness. Like again, idw1 Orion was pretty okay with the non-consensual body modification Shockwave did to him. That’s crazy, and also something like that is needed bc u need to establish that Optimus is kind of in to that to establish why he still might want to be with Shockwave, even as he does increasingly terrible things for the love of the game.
3. The real sauce is in the post-shadowplay, as they both kind of realize the other person is a massive freak. Smthng smthng theyre both characters who have gone through dramatic changes, but also are still fundamentally the same people they were at the start. Ideal post war shockop for me is Shockwave keeps trying to get away with things that Optimus would probably disapprove of (he does care about what optimus thinks, but also Optimus cant tell him to cut it out if he doesnt know whats going on) while Optimus finds it mildly distressing how much he is into Shockwave (he is aroace to me) and also being very happy that they’re in love again. and also shockwave is really obnoxiously smug whenever they’re around anyone else (everyone else disapproves of whatever they’ve got going on).
I think this is one of those ships for me where it’s like. There’s some sauce there, and I think it could be good, but I’ve never seen it done effectively and so I think I need a little extra convincing to get me over the finish line there.
On paper I think it’s got some good things going for it. Firstly, Jazz and Optimus (continuity agnostic) are both characters who care deeply about other people and learning about them. I think they both have a good appreciation for human culture, and can bond a lot over that kind of stuff.
Despite this, they’re also characters who despite being friendly with people kind of keep them at arms length. (Smthng smthng similar trauma responses to, you know, THE WAR). I think they both have issues with being vulnerable with others, in ways that would allow for deeper connections.
They’re also characters who would rather be doing anything else than fighting in a war, but feel strongly about their cause and stopping the Decepticons. The war trauma expresses slightly differently in both of them though, because I think it’s pretty obvious with Optimus how the weight of his duty is making him severely depressed, while with Jazz it’s a little bit more under wraps that he’s not doing so well.
Overall, I think the core of this ship for me would be the dynamic of “I trust this person more than anyone else in the world, but if I talked about my feelings beyond a surface level I would probably die.” And also they’re both aroace. To me, personally.
hello moth of hot summer fame. i fear i have made a critical error in ask game, in the fact that i cannot shut the fuck up.
im putting this under a cut bc nobody should be forced to scroll through the sheer amount of bullshit im about to write
OKAY. First and foremost you have to understand that megop is one of those ships that just kind of exists in the background for me until i am violently reminded that those two freaks are actually really weird about each other.
I feel like megop is THE transformers ship, just the ship of all time, and is therefore absolutely every. Despite this, I feel like a lot of fandom interpretations of them don't really capture what is interesting about them and so I don't actively think about them until I'm engaging with some canon piece of media and then have to stop everything bc my god are they weird.
Look at this shit. You'll be reading a comic and then BOOM freakatron shows up. Like in most continuities there's an 85% chance they'll have a sexually charged interaction that is so weird you just have to be like yeah these bitches gay. And also they want to kill each other.
For the most part, I feel like I don't engage with a lot of fan content about them bc they nail the homoeroticism of it all, but miss out on the they fucking hate each other part.
I think that, from a continuity agnostic perspective, it makes sense for Optimus to be someone who really does want the best in people and hopes for a world in which the Decepticons change their ways. I also think that it's really good when he is a smug asshole to Megatron, bc it adds such an interesting layer to him. Like yeah I think that Optimus would be overjoyed if Megatron changed his ways and decided to stop the war tomorrow, but also that's not going to happen and so Optimus is fine with fighting him to the death right now. Some of my favorite Optimus moments are when he is taunting Megatron, like in the 86 movie ("You who are without mercy now plead for it? I thought you were made of sterner stuff") or in the Bayverse movies (despite how bad they are, "Who would you be without me" "Time to find out" is an absolutely killer moment). Optimus should get frustrated with Megatron (partially because he refuses to change and live up to Optimus's hopes), and so he should be trying to throw him in the dumpster now. At some point when you've been at war with someone for millions of years you should just be trying to kill them (while also feeling bad about trying to kill them. he contains multitudes).
Megatron, on the other hand, is someone who is defined by his relationship to power. He wants to have absolute authority and control, and he wants to flaunt it over others, and he is obsessed at getting it no matter the cost. So when someone like Optimus shows up, who refuses to submit to that authority that Megatron feels he should rightly have, he wants to put them in their place. More importantly though, Optimus is someone who rivals Megatron in power, so he can't really be put in his place. And that's where Megatron's psychosexual obsession with Optimus comes from, bc that's the one guy who opposes him and is actually effective at it.
At some point the war just becomes deeply personal in weird ways for these two, and that's what more people should be tapping into. I feel like most fandom interpretations I've seen tap into the longing (friends/lovers to enemies, this person is not who i once knew, and I miss them for it) but miss out on the resentment (this person is no longer who i once knew and i hate them for it) (side note: i don't think them knowing each other pre-war is required for them to work, but it does add another layer to an already fucked-up-mess that i deeply enjoy). Unfortunately I do think they are at their best when they are about to kill each other.
I think that in any post-war scenario where they didn't manage to kill each other they should have a really weird energy about them. I don't think you can return to whatever you had before after trying for millions of years to kill another person. This doesn't mean that they can't get into a relationship, it just means that nobody else is really comfortable with it and it's just theyre so weird around each other. Ideally they'd have the same sexually charged nonsense, but this time instead of trying to kill each other they'd just fuck (whether this is an upgrade or a downgrade for eroticism is up to you).
Hi phipthere whatever could you be doing here phipthere. phipthere who i didn't just talk to in my dms about this ten minutes ago phipthere. :]
OH STARTIN OFF STRONG. You already know windstar is my fave <3 So we almost got a bingo here but I am opposed to the idea of them being exes bc they don't have that vibe and i am nothing if not committed to the most accurate interpretation of canon i can have.
WindStar is The Ship to me for transformers bc Windblade is my favoritest character and Starscream is my favoritest character and when I saw people shipping them I was blown to bits from the dopamine rush. HOWEVER. As much as I like them specifically due to who these characters are in canon and that includes the bad as much as it does the good, I do think it is VERY critical to maintain Windblade's agency and independence while portraying this ship, otherwise it is slop. (Speaking in terms of IDW/RID) Starscream is terrible and actively trying to disarm her for most of their onscreen interactions, and his habit of sabotage and general violence is critical to remember. He is a grown man, do not excuse his shittyness, PLEASE. Windblade is a very strong character in her own right, though! She is kind where Star is cruel, and they are both so stubborn and headstrong when it comes to their own opposite ways of doing things that it means they have a very compelling dynamic.
The way I like to describe these two is that they make each other better by making each other worse. Windblade learns that Cybertron cannot be handled with hopefulness alone, and that keeping her cards close and operating with a healthy amount of suspicion works better than she wishes it to. She still operates foremost with kindness, at the end of everything, and that is what makes her so powerful. (She is so hopecore to me tbh!!)
This in contrast with Starscream, whose whole life philosophy is built on the fact that violence and cruelty are the only things that get you anywhere in life, it means that Windblade's actions are proof that kindness and hope can get you places just as well, if not better than, violence. Ideally, he is inspired by this. Being nicer is how he 'gets worse' lol. He doesn't wanna be nice! But being nice is what's working, and the war is over, and he's so tired of being suspicious and cruel all the time. This is the positive core of WindStar to me.
Personally, i don't care if they're romantic or platonic. Most importantly, they are narrative/thematic contrasts to each other!!!! And also my top faves of all time. Sometimes its just fun to make my faves kiss and hug and cuddle. And it's even more fun when their cuddling is backed up by canon!
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