I'm trying to write a fic in which I've highly implied and built up that a pair of characters have some pivitol confrontation (in addition to any gradual or creeping conflict), but now I'm trying to write a flashback to that moment, the characters are not easily provoked. Like this one wants to keep gaslighting and demeaning the other in such a calm manner.
I need to really think what can make them upset.
Like, yes, yes, these are both intelligent characters who can be manipulative, but they also both very likely have "buttons" one can push that will make them show their fangs, so to say.
I'm just not sure right now which buttons they each push.
"mtmte's writing has MCU disease" listen i'll be the first to poke fun at some of the tendencies of mtmte's dialogue and how Of Their Time they are especially certain styles of joke etc. i promise. but if you say this you have your timeline all wrong. it's whedonesque. the avengers wasn't even out yet iirc, lol. you have to go further back. your culprit is the incredibly huge influence Buffy and its antecedents had on All Of Nerd Culture for like a decade and a half my friends
A personal example of this kind of thing would be me, circa 2010- 2015, writing fanfic for Transformers Animated which aired 2007-2009, but having my fic continuity frequently "jossed" by new contradicting canon introduced by the Almanacs and other related media all the way up through 2015 and simultaneously drawing allusion (remember that whole tastes sweet = compatibility?) in those fics to other media such as Farscape which originally aired 1999-2003 but had it's epilogue movie released in 2007. So, even writing in 2015, I was drawing on influences from 16 years before, or in some cases falling back on G1 characters from the 1980s.
And at some point it was just a lot to keep track of and frustrating that so much was out of continuity. For example, recall that Ion Storm and Nova Storm were suddenly named in 2015 after decades of fans (like me) making up names for them.
And I tried switching to writing for IDW 2005 continuity, but the Combiner Wars portion such as it was went way different than I thought and another fic went way out of continuity.
So, that's why I write "Continuity Soup" now. I can just be like, "Nope, not this version, mine is different, and I was clear about that."
Example: Skywarp's photovolatic filaments which I still (2023-2026) headcanon him having are highly inspired by Farscape's Chiana.
Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”
So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”
Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.
Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.
Who would be an entertaining/interesting rival, adversary, or antagonist for Skywarp and/or Mirage?
Swindle the racing businessmech
Clench the flashy lanista
Baron Nova the cryo tech bro
Bombshell the psy-op Insecticon
Thunderclash the wayward Mini-Con
Thunder Clash of the School of Heroic Arts
Onslaught the anti-improvisationist
Senator [TBD]
[TBD] Prime
??? who is behind Impetus
Boss Tyrest the Mayor of Tyrest
Flame the gender-critical cleric
Voting ended onJun 2
They don't have to be a "Big Bad", just the most fun sounding antagonist to either be an adversary to both these characters or to attempt to come between them.
These are all soup versions of these characters.
I don't think I can "character assassinate" Flame, because his history across continuties is to be character assassinated.
Bombshell who in G1 cartoon has some antagonism with Mirage and was alongside Skywarp in being reformatted by Unicron gets no votes.
But, Swindle and Onslaught, two Combaticons, are leading contenders according to poll.
I think, when I finally get chapter 6 of Back on Track posted (working on it, promise) it will be clear why both Swindle and Onslaught were even on this menu. (Swindle already was serving as a sort of rival in Mirage's POV fics and was more a questionable ally in Skywarp's POV.)
Then it looks like Thunder Clash and Tyrest got some support. I believe I can get around to Tyrest sooner and need to think about where Thunder Clash fits.
Then there was a little interest in Mini-Con Thunderclash (who in the whole vague Unicron Trilogy continuity is canonically both Skywarp's partner and antagonist), in Flame, and in some bot from the Senate being antagonizing.
In this soupy continuity, Flame briefly appeared as the cleric from Our Lady of Tarn shrine to Solus who made assumptions about the gender of young "Damus" who went on to be the page of the gladiator Megatronus of Tarn, *also* called Megatronus of Tarn.
I'm still not sure who all the surviving Senators are post Age of Wrath, but there's time to think about that. I need to get Skywarp's Ascent out of Unitrex and through Tyrest, Tetrahex, and Rodion before they end up in Iacon.
So, I need to further research Tyrest, The Powermasters, possibly some bounty hunters, Cyclonus' 2019 friends, and decide if/when Dratchet may or may not be a thing in this continuity. (Noting that our Wing is different, but the (or a) Wing of this continuity *being* a sword could allow for an interaction with a distressed Ronin who doesn't have a warlord and who hasn't developed any particular attraction to guns, especially if he's susceptible to suggestions to find work and purpose supporting the Seekers secretly building a space station over Vos.)
I have this idea of Tarn as a cassette carrier except he’s a gramophone and the rest of the DJD are his records (Helex and Tesaurus twelve inches, Kaon and Vos 10 inches, The Pet and Nickel 7 inches)
The other cassettes probably are for spy recording but I like the idea that these records can play actual music.
Tesaurus is grindcore (real genre)
Helex is uhhhhhh
Kaon is some type of electronic music, that or electric guitars
i want to do this right now before i forget. below is a list of neocities sites dedicated in whole or part to fandom history. please share if you know any more !
CRAZY to think abt the overtly Jewish themes in early comics, I mean superman is Moses, diana is a Golem, and Batman just straight up a matrilineal jew. All written by Jewish writers. And people just IGNORE that.
when i was making this post, i was only focusing on dc, since it is in relation to these comics that i have seen and experienced the most antisemitism. but as this reaches a broader audience, yeah! lets talk about it all!
lets talk about how captain america, an irish immigrant who grew up poor and ill, channeled his experiences into empathy and understanding and positive action, was made by jewish men to dunk on hitler.
lets talk about how the first marvel and dc comics were mocked up in "yinglish," a mix of yiddish and english commonly spoken in jewish quarters. lets talk about how the format of the graphic novel as we know it was pioneered by an Auschwitz survivor
lets talk about how the first superman comics were clark picking up hitler and stalin, and dumping them at the united nations to be prosecuted for his treatment of defenceless and downtrodden people the world over
let's talk about why x-men resonated with so many people who fundamentally share an understanding of oppression by discriminatory systems, across time and cultures. written by the sons of jewish immigrants.
lets talk about how comics by their very nature were crafted to imbue empathy and understanding, and challenge the very foundation of unjust institutions. and lets talk about the fact that this is a jewish art form. blending the power of language with the impact of visual elements. made that way by jewish people who had something to say.
not to mention the fact that the reason jews built the comic book industry from the ground up was because american traditional publishing, marketing, and newspaper companies often had antisemitic quota policies and wouldn't hire jews.
so jewish people looked at a new, avante garde, fun, different kind of entertainment that had even been founded by a jew, and saw potential. jewish artists and writers positively flocked to the burgeoning comic book industry because they were quite literally blocked out of everywhere else.
so of course they wrote about fighting oppression, fighting those who willfully discriminate against others, fighting against hate and prejudice and ignorance. all of those things are what spurred on the comic book industry in the first place.
So a fun fact about me is that just this week I lectured on this very topic, and as much as all of the points here are very important, I actually had a much wider claim.
In short, superheroes are prophets.
No, like, legit. Prophets.
The rambam talks about the principles of prophecy in Guide to the Perplexed, and there are several orders of prophecy. The first order is shared by all of them, and it is, in short, the fact that a prophet must be someone who sees evil and feels the need to stop it. God is on their side, that's vital, but they don't need to talk directly to God, they don't need to have visions, all they need to do is save someone. Prophecy is not a talent, according to the rambam. It is an action.
The first of the degrees of prophecy consists in the fact that an individual receives a divine help that moves and activates him to a great, righteous, and important action - such as the deliverance of a community of virtuous people from a community of wicked people, or the deliverance of a virtuous and great man, or the inspiring of greatness.
(this is a somewhat edited paragraph, as I'm contrasting the english translation with the Hebrew translation with my dad's knowledge of the original Arabic text and finding it lacking.)
My lecture went into great detail showing parallels between different comic book characters and people from Jewish history (specifically moses and superman, david and captain america, and my personal favorite, "Other One"/Elisha Ben Abuya and magneto). But beyond that is my claim that we learn something very important from the first Hebrew - Abraham himself. Because his task is not only to create a people and teach them what is righteous and to deal justice (again, an action), but also that all people may learn from his example - see above, "inspiring of greatness". The prophet must not only serve his own people, but also the whole world.
This is why superman's motto includes not only the "american way", but also "truth" and "justice". This is why captain america becomes nomad when he is disillusioned post watergate/rebels against his own government in the winter soldier. Because there is a universalism inherent to the Jewish hero that requires that we not only help ourselves but also everyone we could possibly help (this is in the mishnah as well).
And with magneto, I claimed that what makes him a villain (an anti-villain, but a villain nonetheless) is the very fact of his interest in his own people alone. He cares for mutants and mutants alone, and even though his interests at times align with those of all of humanity/the marvel universe, if they don't he does not hesitate to turn on those he might have teamed up with previously.
I didn't say this in the lecture because I didn't have enough time to research it properly, but I don't think it's possible to imagine a world in which we have comic book heroes that in any way resemble our own in an alternate history where Jews weren't the people behind the concept of the superhero. Whereas christians value speech, self-sacrifice, and forgiveness, Jews value action and change.
It's not just that our superheroes are Jewish.
It's that they can't not be Jewish.
And this is why any time somebody turns superman into a christ figure I look at them crooked. You think that superman is in any way the type to sacrifice himself? He is the savior not because of his powers of speech or getting people to follow him. It is because he inspires greatness in others, and above all else, because he gets shit done.
Who would be an entertaining/interesting rival, adversary, or antagonist for Skywarp and/or Mirage?
Swindle the racing businessmech
Clench the flashy lanista
Baron Nova the cryo tech bro
Bombshell the psy-op Insecticon
Thunderclash the wayward Mini-Con
Thunder Clash of the School of Heroic Arts
Onslaught the anti-improvisationist
Senator [TBD]
[TBD] Prime
??? who is behind Impetus
Boss Tyrest the Mayor of Tyrest
Flame the gender-critical cleric
Voting ended onJun 2
They don't have to be a "Big Bad", just the most fun sounding antagonist to either be an adversary to both these characters or to attempt to come between them.
These are all soup versions of these characters.
I don't think I can "character assassinate" Flame, because his history across continuties is to be character assassinated.
Just me committing plans to writing here. Possible spoilers for The Life and Times of Skywarp and The Ages and Faces of Mirage fics if you have not read them.
My fic The Life and Times of Skywarp is not abandoned. I may or may not have communicated that last year I had wanted to have a certain chapter written and released for Pride Month. But, I missed that goal. And it demotivated me a bit to not meet my own arbitrary goal. But, I very much want to continue it. I have a lot of ideas down the timeline, but what gets me stuck at times is the connecting bits.
But, as some know, last summer is when I switched to a writing companion series The Ages and Faces of Mirage pretty much in the same continuity. (Yes, I may have in notes said it might not be 100% in continuity, but I think I just need to make the timelines match going forward, which is why I've also been vague about what Skywarp has been doing when not appearing in Mirage's POV, even though in-universe, they probably update each other a lot.)
So, right now, I think what I want to do is try to see if in May, possibly into June I can finish TAaFoM, and then go back to TLaToS and start writing the parts of Skywarp's POV that lead up to the point in the timeline where the current TAaFoM events have been written up to.
The point, for me, is not to write the same story or events from both POVS. There are definitely events that are more suited to either Skywarp or Mirage's story. And, for me, TLaToS in which Mirage is an important relationship character, is the "main" fic for the continuity. But, that said, there may be specific events that end up covered by both POVs just to make each separate work function.
There have been and could be other POVs in the whole family of fics. For example, both Dirge and Hotlink each got a side story fic already (Dead Sparks are Everywhere and Hotlink Needs to Chill, respectively). And some characters, like Slipstream in one notable example, get a sample of their POV within Skywarp's fic as he receives their story from them in-universe.
Mirage got a whole little spin-off series of his/their own. That TAaFoM series now encompasses Cog Cramps, Back on Track, and a one-shot prequel I think is going to be titled Argument for the Defense??
Because, what happened was, I was trying to wrap up Back on Track, but Chapter 6 involves some flashbacks. And the process of worldbuilding and establishing enough to make the fragmentary flashbacks feasible, I ended up writing more than necessary, making that one chapter already twice as long as the other long chapters, and still having scenes that didn't fit. So, I moved the non-fitting event into its own side-side-fic.
So, I'm going to finish the prequel/flashback for AftD, first. Soon, I hope. It involves a certain bot Mirage does know but who hasn't shown up in any of the fics so far. (Something I need to think about is where this bot is in the story-present and why they haven't shown up, yet. They'd be a viable candidate for another Cog Cramps chapter, for example.)
Then, knowing the events from AftD, finish writing Chapter 6 for Back on Track, which makes reference to that event. Then, write Chapter 8 of Back on Track?? Questionmark?
Because there is a possibility that I hold Chapter 8 of Back on Track until I have written the parts of TLaToS up to that point, to make sure I know where the characters are at for that chapter which kinda, I think, introduces certain possible antagonists for Skywarp and/or Mirage.
There's also another possible antagonist (not one implied in Back on Track) which relates back to the events in Helex in TLaToS, but which I just haven't figured out how to really cement into the plot?? And, thinking about that, there's a possibility (unconfirmed!) that there could be another side-fic in which Cyberwarp and Mirage cooperate on a mission that does not involve Skywarp because he's doing something else. And that might even be a Cyberwarp POV story.
I'm maybe not super great with writing certain types of conflict. Like, I feel like I can write combat scenes in a "Transformers" way. But, like, I'm not always great at committing to characters being at odds? Or, maybe I am. Like, The Red Wizard was an antagonist, because he wanted to conquer Menonia and use a Seeker under servility programming to do part of that, so it made them enough of an antagonist that characters like Skywarp and Mirage who just don't have highly heroic goals for themselves to have a "greater evil".
And I think, Clench and Motormaster function as antagonists for Dirge in his DSaE fic, without being necessarily super evil. But actually, I wrote that so vaguely and mysteriously because I have no idea what Clench's ultimate goals or allegiances are. (But probably some Senator or Baron or other is a supporter of Clench because they believe keeping masses entertained and distracted contributes to their own goals.)
And Hotlink implies that some of the Barons of industries in Polyhex, like Nova (white truck-bot) are persons of interest if not confirmed antagonists. But, other than some form of expansion that may or may not jive with the Seekers own goals for their own brand of agency and expansion, I'm not sure how much they are really at odds.
But I think there's an antagonist Mirage may quietly be acquiring. Or, if not antagonist exactly, more like an unwanted type of focus has been drawn.
And I think there's an antagonist involved in Helex that won't view Mirage or any Seekers as their specific adversaries unless they do decide to investigate and interfere.
But also, I think there's the non-personified conflict that comes from societal changes. And that's also difficult to write. Because like what specifically are any senators going to do to make themselves targets?
Is the war going to happen?
If so, why?
Our future Megatron has been introduced, as well as Eriel/Elita for this continuity. And there's hints she knows some archivists including an older one who was mentoring a couple of bots Eriel's age. (As well, Chromia, (Moon)racer, and Lancer have all appeared.) We know where one of the 'Waves is, and I have an idea where the other is. Starscream has been mentioned and he does have a combo science/exploratory background here.
No mentions of Bee at all, yet. Not that there needs to be at this pre-war stage of the timeline, I'm just thinking about the usual main-cast tier TF characters and, even if they aren't the main character in a story that's Skywarp centric and Skywarp POV, where they are existing in the world and whether that means Skywarp's path would lead him to even encounter them.
Like, for example, it's possible Skywarp has very little awareness of an Orion or Optimus unless/until Eriel or future-Megatron, whom Skywarp knows, make their own connections with that character obvious enough.
So, yeah, there's thinking about who are the main characters in a Skywarp POV? But also, which characters typically in a main cast does Skywarp know and what are they like here?
Also, this is kinda SPOILER...
What's the intersection of 1985 Autobot Cars, characters who may at any point be involved with an institute of any kind, and those who Skywarp has met Pre Cybertronian Civil War? I'm afraid there may be a plotline investigating that question.
Anyway, I think, when I go back to the main TLaToS fic, I think one thing that is tripping me up on current chapters is I'm not sure how and when the Titansparks are obtained. Like, I think it is inevitable that a certain amount of the Titans will come to exist. That's an ongoing plot the characters are aware of that has implications for their respective city states and other organizations. And I think we can all guess that a space-station version of Trypticon is among them, for how much it's already intentionally forshadowed. And I even have a idea for when/how in the timeline that first activation or reveal takes place. But, at what point Skywarp is aware they actually got the necessary Titanspark or whether he's involved in obtaining it (with Ramjet who is very seriously trying to complete that mission for the Seekers) I'm not sure about.
I think the whole Titan plotline continues across a lot of chapters as background world events while Skywarp goes and does other specific things.
But, Skywarp in his POV is not unaware of it, because he is acquainted with Ramjet, Eriel and other acolytes of Solus, some members of the Circle of Light, and some amount of construction bots (who are not quite yet formally Constructicons or otherwise), and those are all, along with Senate forces, parties likely to gather the sparks.
I'm still trying to think how to separate Skywarp from the co-mission with Ramjet and get his team moving north again to do other story arc things.
I think he next encounters a place and bot known as Tyrest, at least briefly. Some kind of "Mayor's Court" plot is involved and possible bounty hunters?? And I think he will do some stuff in Tetrahex (Cyclonus is still traveling with him). And then they go to Rodion. And then another thing that may be distressing happens. But then Skywarp eventually goes to Iacon with his team for the first time. (He was briefly there alone with Mirage already).
I'm, as of now, quite close to finishing Chapter 6 of Back on Track, which is the extra-long chapter which involves a bunch of flashbacks. I'm towards the end of the chapter in a sort of "pivotal scene" where an injury Mirage has been described as having first was sustained. It just difficult to write a scene in which POV character gets hurt and which I feel like I have inadvertently hyped or made important.
And then, as we're almost in June, I'm going to try to go on so many walks and listen to some much music so my brain will let me jump back to writing the main The Life and Times of Skywarp fic during Pride Month. It's soon going to be time for Skywarp to move onto the next city-state and leg of his mission, but first, I have to resolve what happens for the current guest star characters. Does Moonracer find a new bot or place to continue her studies? Does the newspark Inferno has a claim on sucessfully enter the protoforming stage? And does Roadfire stick around with him or move on as Circle of Light duties demand? Will Ramjet find that Titanspark? Will Mirror Response Mode involve everyone in another dance battle?
Then, once I can get going with that fic, I'll need to continue events up to and around the events established in The Ages and Faces of Mirage. For example, Mirage has told us in their POV that Skywarp has met and has been hanging out with Barricade, yet in Skywarp's POV that hasn't happened yet.
And then, at some point, I can drop back into Mirage's POV to write Chapter 8 of TAaFoM (which is the last planned chapter, though theoretically that could be expanded if I still have unused prompts.)
And then I continue TLaToS more, becaue I have so many ideas for the timeline that I just haven't gotten to, yet. They haven't ended up at an academy. Skywarp's 'brother' hasn't called for help with a heist, yet. They haven't been involved in any "State Games". They haven't faced the possibility of a Cybertronian Civil War. They haven't had to take action against Cosmic Rust. They haven't witnessed any Titans come online. They haven't left Cybertron on any quest and/or exodus. They haven't been visited by alternate-universe versions of themself. They haven't gotten to Earth and/or the planet Jetfire got lost on.
