"... how infuriating it had to be for Prowl to listen to Rodimus and Ultra Magnus go on about how Megatron 'isn't so bad when you get to know him' and try to bargain for lighter restrictions."
OMG OP, please I want to yap so much about this. Like, can you imagine Prowl, processor screaming, trying to hold himself together as these two wax poetic about the torturer of millions like he’s just a misunderstood poet? Can you imagine the words running through his head, the brainwashing, forcing him to combine with the Constructicons—all the dead, every single one who will never, ever get to voice their grief, their fury, their despair. And Prowl has to be the one sitting there, listening to absolute bullshit. He has to be the one to bite down on his rage while they paint Megatron as some goody two shoes.
AHHHHHHH Megatron saying 'I'm sorry' would be the moment the dam breaks. Like Prowl’s vision goes red. Dude probably has his hands locked around Megatron’s throat, screaming finally. All that grief, all that fury, all those ripped out of him in one violent, unrestrained explosion. I can imagine Prowl being so feral, animalistic, spitting venom and pain in Megatron’s face.
I know it must be pathetic of me to think so, like a wish-fulfillment but god, I need that. For once, can we have Prowl not as the fandom’s eternal punchline or scapegoat, but as a character allowed to rage, allowed to break, allowed to drag Megatron down into the blood and pain of what he really did. I want that catharsis. I want Prowl’s trauma given the same weight as everyone else’s.
I totally get it! And Megatron is making digs about him RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM! Megatron doesn't GET to make fun of Prowl after what he did to him!
Like, imagine hearing Dirge framed Bee trying to stop Megatron after he did all that to you in an attempt to raze Iacon as "getting revenge against a Decepticon"! I'd crash out pretty hard!
Prowl's traumas get minimized so much! Like, yes, Prowl made a lot of bad decisions and committed his own share of war crimes. You know something he never did? Commanded the genocide of multiple organic races. In fact, Prowl had a human he trusted (before that human then betrayed the trust--man, Spike's character assassination)! But Megatron is the misunderstood poet. Yeah, sure.
It's hard to characterize Prowl as uniquely bad in IDW1 because he's not. The Lost Light is full of pricks. (Some folks got pretty mad at me for calling Chromedome a dick for that seen where he criticizes Rewind's alt mode--something he was discriminated about. If the shoe fits, it fits.) Pretty much all of Megatron's development in MTMTE/LL is not shown to the audience, so sorry, I don't buy it. Prowl should get to choke him out. As a treat.
I think that MTMTE does not ever really manage to coherently bring together its ideas around things like functionism or the cold construct/forged idea, tbh. As ideas, it's very easy to latch onto in transformative fandom and try and do something with them- but on the flip side, I think that when you really try and just look at what the comic does with them in the text, they do not ever come together in a way that has a clear narrative goal, or is always well executed.
This feels weird to say when both concepts are incredibly necessary to the comic itself. They aren't superfluous elements you can take out and the comic is still what it is! Despite that, if you try and do a close read of the comic itself, it quickly feels apparent to me that a) in universe, diagetically, they are not very consistent and you often find yourself going 'wait, what?', and b) non-diagetically, in the realm of 'is this a stand in doing real world social commentary', it's straight up a mess much of the time. As worldbuilding, it's wishy-washy and inconsistent; as allegory or anything like it, you often wind up going 'hm. well. that doesn't really work'.
Is cold construction supposed to be a commentary on classism? Maybe- but the degree to which the text reinforces that a degree of real physical difference exists makes that touchy, frankly. Is it then using that to talk about class and disability as it relates to class? This would be an interesting angle- but the comic has too many issues around its treatment of the latter to invite uncritical use of that lens, in my opinion. Sometimes, racism gets invoked, but of that I can only say I think it is an ill-advised approach the comic does not explore well! Functionism, meanwhile, gestures at a lot of stuff, but never really convinces me the comic is quite sure what it's getting at there. Again, the question of classism comes to mind, and it's all clearly a response to the stuff set up early on in IDW1 by Megatron: Origin, which invites such commentary and critique. But there's just too many holes in its treatment of certain characters to make a lot of sense. The inconsistency means trying to do an actual read across the whole comic winds up maddening. (Source: I've tried.)
And if we justify this by saying 'not everything is allegory, sometimes worldbuilding is just worldbuilding'... well. It just still doesn't add up! In the moment, it seems to make sense, but attempting to extrapolate out into an actual consistent sense of how that world works, or worked pre-war, quickly falls apart for me. Which brings us back to the idea it's not literally consistent but is Doing Thematic Work, which... see above! We run into The Issues again!
This is not to say I think there's nothing interesting to be gained from engaging with this element, to be clear. But I find it's most productive for me when I engage with it from the baseline that it's a fairly muddled, inconsistent, and ultimately difficult to pin down element that, while very important to the comic, is not one of its narrative strengths. Very much a part of the comic where I think admitting the meat is in doing work as a reader to make it work for whatever reading you want to do is a good way to approach it, rather than assuming the comic itself has done that leg work. (And sometimes, that will mean being critical of it; I really do think there's stuff in there that deserves unpacking in how it's handled.)
I feel like a lot of criticism of TF One that goes along the lines of "blech Optimus is literally God's chosen best boy why are we believing in theocracies in Current Year" is missing the point of what that part of the movie was trying to convey symbolically bc of being tied too hard to how should the world be governed in real life and not what's symbolically significant in the concept of the story.
Not gonna go too into detail bc I'm saving the full rant for a future video essay on this topic, but my quick jotted down thoughts in a nutshell are basically this:
It's a fictional story. The aim of it (especially something that's meant to be kid-friendly or all-ages accessible) isn't to be some sort of political manifesto on how society should be run. The authors are allowed to have worldbuilding where the Matrix is given by Primus himself without having people jumping on them about how they're endorsing oppressive theocracies.
A worldbuilding setting where a society's Main God literally exists as a sentient planet that they all live on who has demonstrable influence tied to the well-being of society is necessarily going to have different religion-related ethics to our world, where the question of "does the divine exist" is subjective/impossible to scientifically prove and thus theocracies/other forms of divinely appointed rule are far more controversial/potentially harmful.
Re: the previous point, people just aren't going into the story with open minds detached from real-life sensibilities or are imposing overly literal religious messages that the story wasn't conveying at all, i.e. "Optimus is rewarded with leadership by God therefore the story is saying that to be a good leader you have to be religiously appointed/divinely mandated" even though OP was demonstrating signs of being a good leader/caring person long before him having the Matrix ever happened.
Also some cultural Christianity issues where people are imposing the assumption of "Primus is just the Transformers version of Christianity's God" and therefore assuming that the in-universe religious customs are equally as problematic / oppressive as IRL Christianity, but more on that some other time.
Not considering the mythological allusions of Optimus Prime as basically a King Arthur figure where the death/loss of the natural energon springs coincides with the fall of the planet's culture to lies and tyranny, and Cybertron's rejuvenation corresponding with Optimus' rise as leader where he leads through selflessness and restraints, e.g. "the land and the king are as one."
Not considering contextual worldbuilding (again tied to imposing IRL views of religion as a dominant hegemony) where, perhaps, in a world where the oppressive government was caused by a despot who murdered the previous council of leaders and made himself a false prophet using religious titles/iconography to justify himself..... it might actually be morally good that the "chosen hero" of Cybertron is someone who was personally blessed by the previous Primes/the living god whose body IS the planet. Because it's important that the leader of a culture should actually embody that culture's beliefs and live in accordance with what their ancestors would have wanted, and in narrative shorthand, the original Primes are clearly the designated Cultural Moral Paragons that represent Cybertron's cultural and spiritual heritage.
Feel like I didn't really convey everything I want to convey but that about sums up my thoughts. People are just either failing to recognize narrative shorthand and mythological allusions/symbolism as deliberate plot devices, or they do see them but just go "I think it's stupid because that's not how society should work in real life" not understanding that fictional stories are meant to be met halfway under the premise of "IF the world was like this."
And also maybe people yet again being unwilling to let go of MTMTE/IDW1 and going "but religion/the Primacy was bad and functionist in THIS continuity so how come religion gets to be good THIS time?" Again, people not meeting the story halfway and willing to accept that a fictional story may have different worldbuilding/philosophical/existential premises from real life.
I think it says something that idw fans cant look at criticism of the comics without calling people bigots.
I say this as a huge idw fan, mtmte was my introduction into reading comics, bur i can still recognize that it is a DEEPLY flawed work of fiction.
There are also concepts i like in idw, but that i don't think should be the baseline. It's especially annoying because while yes, i am also a Skybound Fan, it sucks to have people going "you hate gay people" because 1. Im trans and pansexual, and 2. Skybound is actively more queer for the timeframe its been released in than idw 1 was. Please just actually do some research into early idw 1 and recognize that it DID NOT START with good queer rep, skybound meanwhile introduced a nonbinary character by ISSUE 17 of its run.
Mainly with the ones that come closer to him and overshadowing him.
I mean: he can be a minner, a gladiator, a warlord, revolutionary leader, an ex-slave, a mad tyran...
But all those appeal to his life deeds, not his personality traits.
And it happens in every incarnation of his, even if he can be different in each, he behaves like an abuser.
He abuses of Starscream almost for fun (he admits that in certain incarnation of his). But He also kills everybody that taunts him in some degree in all continuities... But even when he got a redemption arc in MTMTE, he clearly keeps abusing of HotRod/Rodimus, gaslighting him and abusing of him verbally again and again.
If he truly redeemed himself, he would had been respectful with The Lost Light Capitan.
I did not say he was a bad writer for any of those reasons. Am I glad for more female characters? Of course. But that was nothing crazy in IDW. There's lots of cool female characters outside of MTMTE. The production challenges he faced? A shame, but it's no excuse for his bad writing, only for the rushed aspect. Now, the reasons why I consider him a bad writer are:
- Infantilization: Tailgate is not only naive, missed millions of years of his life and small, but he has the holoform of a baby which is NOT a funny joke, and the term "grooming" is used for his character. How is this not intentional? The way he treats his character is gross. And yet, the fans are attacked for calling it out.
- Mockery/dismissal of sexual assault: As an asexual species, "sexual assault" may be loosely used, but the way Chromedome attacked Prowl in that one scene was very predatory, and it was an assault, regardless of it was sexual or not. Was this ever addressed? No, because Prowl sucks and so it's okay to treat him like less. The second case ALSO involves Chromedome, and this one is much more straightforward. Do we all remember that one scene with Roller, where Rewind and Chromedome were "canoodling" inside of him without his consent? And when he felt violated and tried to speak up about it, his concerns were dismissed because JRO felt like making it into a joke? Very funny.
- Mockery of religion/believers: Take a shot everytime a religious character is ridiculed, made extravagant or not taken seriously for their beliefs. JRO is not considerate of these themes. He thinks it's so funny to make the religious character look like a naive idiot when they're following their faith.
- Weak characterization: If he's not making everything into a joke, he's turning flashed out characters into yet another version of the same character with the same humour and same reactions. Why is every character sarcastic? Why is every character incredulous? Why is every character quippy? It just depends on the moment, but most of their dialogues sound the same without context. Every character is just an extension of himself and that makes his writing feel flat.
- Megatron: Yes, he gets his own section. I don't care if Megatron wasn't part of his plan, as a professional writer, you have no excuse to turn a deep, controversial and appealing character into a joke of himself. MTMTE Megatron has NOTHING in common with what was previously introduced in IDW. Should he act differently? Yes, this is the arc where Megatron makes the greatest turn in his life when he realises the error of his ways. But nothing about his redemption felt organic, and JRO didn't help once by making Megatron seem inoffensive so often. He acts like he was lobotomized (which is ironic within the story, but we're not here to talk about that), and I can barely get a sense of the old Megatron in IDW. And it's not just his characterization! JRO couldn't bother to make a redemption arc that had Megatron dealing with real consequences, and instead everything went pretty smoothly except for the Getaway arc where everyone suffered the consequences for him, and then ended the conflict with the DJD by glazing Megatron through a dying Ravage. A few other things happen in between, but here comes the cherry on top: the Functionist Universe. Now, how can you redeem a tyrant that has destroyed worlds, extinguishes species, tortured and experimented on his own kin, and groomed the now worst members of the Decepticons? Easy! OFF-PAGE you make him save a whole other universe, going through an eight hundred years "development" and coming back a hero that, when he dares doubt himself, is quickly reassured by randos that owe him his life. Awesome! What a great redemption! Brought me to tears. It's almost like it was yesterday when he was still just starting his redemption arc... Oh, wait.
JRO sucks at writing characters and he sucks at writing lasting and touching consequences. Is there anything good in his writing? Sure. But the bad outweighs the good for me, and I could never recognize JRO as a good writer. I don't care if there's anyone that's "worse", it does not make him better.
tumblr has decided I can't reblog responses for some reason. I am so sorry this has been attempted to be posted like 4 times. trying to figure it out </3
I thought I'd already be done with this discussion after my second confession, but reading the comments, I feel the need to clarify one thing:
I am very much aware that the term "grooming" is not a word only applied to children. That is not what I meant to imply. I only mentioned that as a "cherry on top" factor, atop of everything else that makes Tailgate overly childish, and not because he's autistic coded or a joyful adult. Hell, I don't even view him as a child, and I think the Cygate pairing had potential, but I just can't ignore the very blatant Infantilization that I'm surprised so many of you are willing to excuse as a "joke". What's the joke here? I read somebody say that it's to mock the fans that infantilize Tailgate, and I don't know if the fans infantilized Tailgate before the holoform "joke", but if JRO thought that would fix anything, it obviously didn't. No, in fact, it only gave the fans more reason to view Tailgate as a child, regardless of whether he is or not.
It doesn't matter if JRO thinks of Tailgate as an adult if he can't write him seriously and make us, the fans, be sure of his maturity. Do I know he's not a child? Yes. Am I given reasons not to doubt it? Oh, no, I have many reasons to be unsure of his mental age. But unlike JRO, I don't wish to infantilize an adult and I try to reimagine certain aspects of his character.
My final thought is: admitting that a character is canonically infantilized does not mean admitting they're a child, for all the fans out there afraid of acknowledging it because you associate these two concepts to the point of not distinguishing them from each other.
I love IDW1 but as more time goes on I can't interact with other fans because so many people act like MTMTE/LL is the only comic in the entire continuity. There's so many other interesting stories being told that nobody ever reads and I feel so alone in being someone who actually read and liked the whole thing.
I'm similarly sick and tired of seeing people say it's alright to skip all of Phase 1 because "it doesn't matter". Maybe it's different if you're just here for the fandom (stupid btw) and don't actually care about the story and characters, but I listened to this advice and felt so lost my first time reading MTMTE.
And so many people don't even read MTMTE!!! They just feed off the endless loop of fanon slop and now all IDW1 fanfic is OOC garbage. I try my hardest to combat this with my own works but it's exhausting to want to read fanfic and not being able to find anything. It's all just somebody's OC dressed as my favorite characters.
I've been reading through all of idw and man. MTMTE is losing me. Well technically it's revolution that's losing me bc it's some hot steaming shit from ass but I'm not enjoying MTMTE either and it's almost solely because of Megatron.
They should have killed him or kept him locked up in prison, and it sucks that they didn't because Starscream said something. This guy founded the decepticon ss, eradicated who knows how many organic races for giggles, made death camps, let his phase sixers make death camps, just to name a few things... Then gets put in a leadership position of the ship he's technically the prisoner of? Then everyone should be okay with that bc he's not evil anymore? Getaway was right idc. Mythical level woobifcation. This shits supposed to be peak?
Rodimus Ultra Magnus kill Megatron now and be reincarnated as a lotus flower
I really want to like him(because morals are fun, and I mean Optimus was a cop so sure, people can get better!) but im reading mtmte and admittedly i do kind of want to throw Megatron off a cliff.
‘Now that you’ve seen the worst of the decepticons do you want to go back?’ Thats literally your guys? You made a murder squad, they do that. Thats what you made them to do. They murder people. See the error of your ways, please see the error, but you can’t act like you left that behind when all you’re doing is trying to pretend it’s not yours.
Like yeah, it is your fault Trailcutter died don’t try to get snarky with it. It’s his fault too in a way, but also that is your murder squad yknow.
And what you punching Perceptor for when he’s literally doing everything he can for you. You’ve heard multiple times why you can’t go back, but no, you’ve got to throw a fit. Be angry all you want but you can’t be punching people fella.
Shaking him by the shoulders. My predisposition to enjoy characters is making me find this all really funny as I’m reading. I’m cracking up, I’m smiling, but I’m shaking my head to let you know it’s against my will I want him dead.
If there's one thing I hate about MTMTE/LL, is the hardcore atheist approach it has.
I'm not religious myself, but it gets tiring and even irritating when JRO is in a constant need to remind us that anything mythical about Transformers are misunderstandings, lies or overexaggerations.
Ratchet is basically his self-insert to mock every religious character and idea, and it gets to a point...
Another one of the reasons why this is annoying, aside from the fact that it can come off as disrespectful towards those with similar beliefs, is because it's such a novel concept to mix technology (literal living robots from space whose whole existence is based on advanced technology) with religion/mysticism (Primus, Unicron, the Thirteen Primes...).
Personally, I have never seen this concept anywhere else.
I just wish everything was left ambiguous instead of throwing an "Actually 🤓☝️" for every possible evidence of these myths to be real.
"... how infuriating it had to be for Prowl to listen to Rodimus and Ultra Magnus go on about how Megatron 'isn't so bad when you get to know him' and try to bargain for lighter restrictions."
OMG OP, please I want to yap so much about this. Like, can you imagine Prowl, processor screaming, trying to hold himself together as these two wax poetic about the torturer of millions like he’s just a misunderstood poet? Can you imagine the words running through his head, the brainwashing, forcing him to combine with the Constructicons—all the dead, every single one who will never, ever get to voice their grief, their fury, their despair. And Prowl has to be the one sitting there, listening to absolute bullshit. He has to be the one to bite down on his rage while they paint Megatron as some goody two shoes.
AHHHHHHH Megatron saying 'I'm sorry' would be the moment the dam breaks. Like Prowl’s vision goes red. Dude probably has his hands locked around Megatron’s throat, screaming finally. All that grief, all that fury, all those ripped out of him in one violent, unrestrained explosion. I can imagine Prowl being so feral, animalistic, spitting venom and pain in Megatron’s face.
I know it must be pathetic of me to think so, like a wish-fulfillment but god, I need that. For once, can we have Prowl not as the fandom’s eternal punchline or scapegoat, but as a character allowed to rage, allowed to break, allowed to drag Megatron down into the blood and pain of what he really did. I want that catharsis. I want Prowl’s trauma given the same weight as everyone else’s.
I totally get it! And Megatron is making digs about him RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM! Megatron doesn't GET to make fun of Prowl after what he did to him!
Like, imagine hearing Dirge framed Bee trying to stop Megatron after he did all that to you in an attempt to raze Iacon as "getting revenge against a Decepticon"! I'd crash out pretty hard!
Prowl's traumas get minimized so much! Like, yes, Prowl made a lot of bad decisions and committed his own share of war crimes. You know something he never did? Commanded the genocide of multiple organic races. In fact, Prowl had a human he trusted (before that human then betrayed the trust--man, Spike's character assassination)! But Megatron is the misunderstood poet. Yeah, sure.
It's hard to characterize Prowl as uniquely bad in IDW1 because he's not. The Lost Light is full of pricks. (Some folks got pretty mad at me for calling Chromedome a dick for that seen where he criticizes Rewind's alt mode--something he was discriminated about. If the shoe fits, it fits.) Pretty much all of Megatron's development in MTMTE/LL is not shown to the audience, so sorry, I don't buy it. Prowl should get to choke him out. As a treat.
I've been dwelling on some Thoughts about RID/exRID Bumblebee, in relation to this tag I left on someone else's post:
Prefacing with a disclaimer: Bumblebee is my all-time favourite character in the history of characters lol. He's my special interest within the special interest, for those familiar with autistic experience. Any time I engage with Transformers, it's because Bumblebee is there, and I'm very interested in how writers choose to portray him. The vast majority of the time, I'm very happy with how he's portrayed. I just have some complaints...
I don't really have a whole lot of criticism about John Barber's plotting. I think he did what he could in a sea of Hasbro property tie-ins and crossover events, and I can't even say that Bumblebee was written out of character either (in the context of what was established about him in IDW before the RID/MTMTE split).
I just think he deserved better.
My actual problem with IDW Transformers - and this isn't even a Barber-specific problem because Robots in Disguise (2015) pulled the same shit - is the inconsistency in emotional depth, not just for Bumblebee, but other characters as well. And the missed opportunity to give real, positive messaging around emotions, feelings, and seeking help after traumatic experiences especially in the context of masculine-presenting people.
The Transformers Annual (2017) is just one example of IDW succeeding with that kind of messaging, fwiw, so I'm not trying to imply everything they did sucked. I love IDW05 for the most part.
I also just did not like the "leader" plotline for Bumblebee in IDW. Hot take number one in this long-ass meta I don't think anyone is gonna read: RID15 did it better. They start off strong with the, "I'm not Optimus!" line, and then make us all sit through the discomfort of that Season 2 conclusion where a terribly written, out-of-character Optimus (who presumably can't show an emotion because he's Big Strong Man), tries to muscle his way to the front again because "I've always been the leader".
I can write a whole essay about that alone. But to stay on topic.
With IDW05, I'm not a fan of it being made very clear from Bumblebee's self-titled, four-part mini-series that he's in mental/emotional distress about the burden of leadership, only for the narrative to refuse to address it in a satisfying way.
Especially when the cause of his distress is because he is belittled, pushed, and pressured by Wheeljack, and lowkey manipulated by Ratchet, to be someone he's not. All the Autobots voted him as their leader because of who he is, and all we get afterwards, forever, is everyone being disappointed that he's not Optimus Prime's clone. And instead of being given any ability to complain about that, or push back against these hideously unrealistic standards, he gets stuck in this loop of having to "prove" he's big and strong enough to call the shots.
Like, we get this plotline twice in a very short space of time: Autobot suddenly (and uncharacteristically) decides Bumblebee sucks as a leader. Bumblebee has to nearly get himself killed to prove himself. And bizarrely, everyone loved that!
Forever sad that the only vindication Bumblebee will ever see in the IDW05 continuity is this line from Thundercracker:
[Image Description: Optimus Prime tells Thundercracker, "[Bumblebee] died saving the Universe, if that matters." To which Thundercracker replies, "Hm. No, it doesn't. The universe... the universe is overrated. Stupid little yellow guy should've looked out for himself.]
Like, hot take number two, I find it really uncomfortable that that's the plotline given to a character who is meant to appeal to people who might feel like they can't quite meet the unrealistic ideal Optimus Prime represents. Especially when you consider that Optimus Prime is written to embody a masculine standard, for a male audience, and Bumblebee is the youthful counterpart to that (as in, he's meant to appeal to the "little guys" of the world, he's supposed to be optimistic, and positive representation).
With that in mind, I think it's also pretty telling how many older cisgender men absolutely despise Bumblebee as a character, and how that hatred originated once Robots in Disguise hit. These are the fans who celebrate Skybound's first issue. And rub it in your face if you happen to let on Bumblebee is your favourite character (this actually happened to me in real life, when I was buying a blindbox and said I would like Bumblebee to be in it - cue 40+ year old dude asking me if I'd read Skybound, complete with shit-eating grin).
I can already hear the "It's not that deep" echoing into all eternity, but it is to me. It's that deep to me. If you don't want to get deep about Transformers, then I advise you stop reading because you're going to find me insufferable (which is totally okay, but like, go rant about it in your drafts or to your friends or something and let me be insane on my own blog lmao).
When Bumblebee starts acting out (not realising Prowl was under Decepticon mind control, "detonating" the inhibiter chip in Horri-Bull's head, etc), literally none of his so-called "friends" are there to support or help him, but they're all historically reaaal quick to point out what they perceive as faults and mistakes in him. In fact, it becomes a Point from his Spotlight issue, to The Death of Optimus Prime, that nobody will offer him emotional comfort, instead favouring tactless comments and open criticism. By the time Robots in Disguise rolled around, I was just fucking sick of how tone-deaf everyone (whether from the Watsonian or Doylist perspective) was around his whole situation.
I mean, Zander Cannon established this in 2009:
[Image Description: Whilst wiping his hands with a rag, Ratchet talks about Bumblebee's condition after his latest fight with Skywarp. He says, "[Bumblebee is] better, now. Wheeljack's fine-tuning his perception array. I think that EMP knocked him out even worse than we anticipated. He came through for us with flying colors, but... Well, he just seems rattled by the whole event."]
The next panel reads, "He says he feels like he needs to be stronger - bigger - to fill the roles he's given. I don't know..."
What do you mean, you don't know, Ratchet? Did you not just watch Wheeljack bully him into involving the Autobots with the humans? Did this (uncharacteristic, fwiw) impulsivity from your resident-mechanic not land you all in a situation where Bumblebee had to betray his own morals to get everyone free? Did you not listen in as Wheeljack complained about him having feelings instead of being able to coldly and effectively get the job done? Were you not there the entire time, encouraging him to be this big, strong leader you all wanted so bad, but didn't want to be yourselves?
And then Ratchet has the audacity to leave with the Lost Light crew and act like he had nothing to hang around on Cybertron for lmfao. And as much as I love James Roberts, my God, are those panels the most bitter, miserable way that conversation could have happened. Which I gather is the point, but ugghhhh. Grim. Whilst Rodimus "You can't EXILE Optimus!" Prime jets off into space to go be silly and quippy with all his friends, leaving Bumblebee behind as the miserable, bitter loser in the equation.
And I mean, like, okay, fine. Ratchet and Rodimus and whoever else can do whatever they want and MTMTE was good. What pisses me off is that the impact the Autobots themselves are having on Bumblebee - and each other, really - isn't ever explored or addressed.
There was the perfect opportunity for it in Bumblebee's Spotlight issue:
[Image Description: Hot Spot insensitively blunders through a conversation with Bumblebee, saying, "I wonder why [Prowl] didn't want me with him, though. I mean, you, I get it - you're still pretty badly damaged from that hit you took a few weeks back, right? Gotta use that cane of yours." Appearing hurt, Bumblebee replies, "Uh... I think I need some time alone." Instead of apologising, Hot Spot continues, "Oh, yeah. Sure. I mean, I know you'll get all repaired up soon! But it's, uh, good to get some alone-time, Bee."]
So, to clarify for those who might not know, this scene is the catalyst for Bumblebee seeking Thundercracker out.
What frustrates me is that it's the word "alone" that is used as the prompt for that. When actually, what's happening in the scene is that Bumblebee is being belittled about his injury by a friend and comrade.
Sub-textually, it is very telling that Bumblebee seeks Thundercracker out after this. After all, Thundercracker has also been betrayed and abused by his friends and comrades.
But textually, according to John Barber, Bumblebee is only going to see Thundercracker because he needs information, and it's him associating the Seeker with the word "alone" that is the driver for that.
You know, instead of the emotional crux of the scene, which is that this is just the latest in a long line of instances where Bumblebee is treated like total shit by the people who are supposed to be his friends. Which is something Bumblebee even perpetuates himself. The way the Autobots deal with Jazz is just another bullet-point on my list of why the way IDW approaches the Autobot culture pisses me off so bad, but I digress.
So, like, to get back on track, in comes the perfect space for Bumblebee to dwell on his emotions, and whilst I can acknowledge there's some half-hearted attempt from Barber, what he actually achieves is a complete nothing conversation to kick the story to where it needs to go next:
[Image Description: Pursuing Thundercracker (who is flying, in jet mode) as a car, Bumblebee states, "Well, I command the Autobots now -"]
[Image Description: When Thundercracker laughs at the notion of Bumblebee being in command of the Autobots, he clarifies, "The Autobots are loyal to Optimus Prime, not you. I mean, how many followed him back to Cybertron? And you want to command me?" In direct contradiction of what he has literally just said, Bumblebee responds, "I'm not looking to command anybody."]
This is also in direct contradiction to the argument he has just had with Prowl by the way, in which he tries to assert command:
[Image Description: With an angry expression, and pointing his cane, Bumblebee tries to remind Prowl of who is in charge.]
And his behaviour in Chaos Theory, where he frets about losing his position as leader when Rodimus arrives.
And then again when he tries to defend his role as Autobot leader in The Death of Optimus Prime, which Rodimus, you guessed it, makes fun of him about ("I don't think anybody expected it to be permanent!" You big fucking loser! You idiot! Nobody likes you as leader! Go back to being the subordinate scout! Leader-ing in Optimus's stead is my thing! What do you mean the narrative won't let you - )
[Image description: Now transformed into their robot modes, Bumblebee and Thundercracker are on the ground, and talk without really listening to each other. Even though Bumblebee made no mention of a space bridge, Thundercracker thinks it pertinent to remind him that: "...Prime Destroyed [their] space bridge, so it's not like [they] can just teleport back home." Then when Bumblebee mentions even if they could, "all [they'd] find is Prime leading a ton of Autobots with Megatron locked up in a cell," Thundercracker continues to dwell on space bridge technology because that's the point of the scene, damn it!]
Sorry to shit on Transformers writing God, John Barber, but this is a very blatant example of a writer putting down what needs to happen, without narratively justifying any of it. Maybe that isn't something he had any control over because the notion is there, even if the concrete scene work isn't, but, like.
Ugh.
In case you doubt my point, let's do a quick re-cap of the situation: Bumblebee has to investigate the Decepticon threat by himself. Hot Spot reminds him he's disabled and useless. Before Bumblebee can think about that too hard, he remembers Thundercracker is a Decepticon, and might be amenable to a conversation. So he goes to try and initiate one, clearly stating the help he needs:
[Image Description: A speech bubble attributed to Bumblebee. He asks Thundercracker, "...But do you know where [the Decepticons] might be? Did they have any plans...?]
And Thundercracker is like, (I'm paraphrasing) "I don't know, I don't talk to those guys anymore."
Thinking that's not true, and in trying to sway his loyalty back to the Autobot side, Bumblebee reminds Thundercracker that he once said, "...if every Autobot was like [him], he'd think twice about his allegiance," further indicating that he leads the Autobots now, which implies the Autobots are as close to being "like him" than ever before. He's saying, "You can trust me to do good with whatever you can tell me."
Instead of showing any emotional vulnerability about that, Thundercracker makes fun of him. Which is exactly what Hot Spot did a few pages ago. Interesting!
Do you see what I'm getting at? No? OK. I'll be as direct as Bumblebee was in his request for Thundercracker's help:
So much of IDW05 appears to be allergic to the robots talking to each other about their feelings.
Am I alone in this, or is there infinitely more interesting scenes to be had if a conversation (featuring an admittance of the emotional current running through the scene) is allowed to happen? Are we really satisfied with, "If Character A says this, Character B will then say this, which will prompt Character A to say this, and then Character B has to say this...", throughout which we just have to assume there's some emotion going on, but nobody is ever allowed to openly state it...?
That's why I resent the later events of IDW, and why I hate StarBee, which I've talked a little about here, but.
To be clear, I don't dislike Starscream and Bumblebee together in general (RID15 episode Mini-Con Madness springs to mind), I just don't like IDW Starscream and Bumblebee together.
To continue what is fast becoming a convoluted list of insane takes nobody but me will agree with probably, I feel like the only people who like StarBee must be predominantly Starscream fans. Because if you like Bumblebee as a character, I can't fathom why you weren't foaming at the mouth with rage at how little agency he had the entire time he was a ghost. Or why you would want to project yourself into a relationship where you have to give all of the emotional comfort and therapy, and get absolutely nothing in return.
Especially when it's later revealed that Bumblebee is not even dead! He's alive and walking around the Crystal City in infraspace. Yeah, yeah, the IDW05 continuity had to quickly wrap-up, blah, blah, blah, but sigh, I dunno, it's wild to me that anyone would want to conclude what has already been a fucking miserable character arc for this one guy with, "And he spent all that time he was chronically alone and stuck in another dimension, counselling someone who tortured him at the start of the war, because he's just that kind, and so driven, he'll always aim to be the bigger person..."
Ugghhhhh, I'm gonna throw up.
Because, in my opinion, this is all written on the basis of the writers not understanding why Bumblebee started trusting Decepticons (Thundercracker, that is) in the first place.
It's not because he's this endless fount of compassion, or an emotionless, steel-hearted sounding board that never needs his empathy/vulnerability returned, it's because his distrust for the Decepticons was disproven three times by Thundercracker - Bumblebee directly witnessed him putting his moral conscience over his allegiance, and that's why he gave him a chance. Because that's what he does. Maybe nobody bothered reading early IDW05, but, like, Bumblebee is known to go against orders if he thinks it'll be for the greater good:
[Image Description: Bumblebee lends his support to Ratchet, who has been ordered by Prowl to abandon some humans he has just rescued. As Ratchet deliberates over what to do, Bumblebee appears from a darkened corridor, and says, "Couldn't help but overhear... Largely because I was lurking back here, where I had no real good reason to be... And, well, if there's another option, I don't see it." He then offers to go with Ratchet to Nebraska, against orders, as his back-up.]
Makes sense he'd admire that in a Decepticon, too. And that acts of morality like that would sway him to want to start trusting Decepticons more (despite how fucking mean he was to Drift in AHM, but if you know why he was that way about Drift, then you know, aka, if I explain it now, I'm gonna derail the point I'm currently talking about, but in short: ah, to be back when the character arcs in IDW were consistent...)
Anyway, yes, one of those instances I was just talking about was retroactively written (Thundercracker's Spotlight), but if they didn't want "Thundercracker proving to Bumblebee he's actually a decent guy despite being a Decepticon" to be a theme, they could have done literally anything else for his Spotlight, but they didn't.
What I really dislike is this plot beat then becoming the foundation any time the writers want Bumblebee to "give a Decepticon a chance", only for it to keep being applied inconsistently, and without considering Bumblebee's POV/motivation (i.e. why he would even bother).
I'm not unsympathetic to the IDW writers because honestly, Bumblebee is a difficult character to work with, given unrelenting optimism - and a dislike of "dwelling on the negative" as Optimus himself puts it - being so intrinsic to who he is. That kind of walls off a lot of the emotional vulnerability stuff, but it doesn't wall it off for other characters. Like Rodimus, Hot Spot, or Thundercracker, for example.
But anyway something, something, in conclusion, I'm sick of Bumblebee being portrayed as this die-hard loyalist who, despite having a low self-esteem and self-consciousness as core character traits, is narratively either always proven to be wrong about his misgivings, or otherwise has to take the high ground all of the time so that nobody ever has to take accountability for the way they treat him.
And I don't think I'm wrong to want better than that for him, even if I can't complain too much about what we did get.
Btw Megatron could totally have saved the people in Nyon if he wanted to; he knew about Zeta's plan beforehand. All he needed to do was give Hot Rod and the citizens an evacuation alert. But he didn't because he wanted to give Optimus a good emotional impact with all the deaths and who cares about the common lowlife anyway, all they're good for is getting bodily thrown at Zeta until his weapon overloads from draining too many people.
Kimia station in Chaos Theory:
Red text bubble is Optimus. He doesn't wait for Optimus to agree before directly giving Omega Supreme orders to shoot Kimia down.
Reaction after confirming that Doubledealer is a traitor:
Using Rung as bait for the sparkeater:
The last two panels also gives us something on how he views (his own) authority. Because while he's always held a position of authority in high command, the high command is still a council. On the ship his authority is absolute.
The next three scenarios form a pattern. It always starts with Rodimus telling someone to kill a comrade, the person tasked with the killing goes 'what I don't want to do that', and Rodimus tones down the order from death to wound.
Ordering Rewind and Swerve to shoot at Fort Max:
Ordering Swerve to hurt Ore:
Ordering Cyclonus to shoot Brainstorm:
Each of these scenarios is in response to a critical situation. Rodimus' first orders of 'aim to kill' are, while extreme, not disproportionate to the level of threat presented. They're within reason and authority. And ceding from kill to wound when protested is proof that he doesn't not care. But it also shows that his first instinctual reaction towards threats is to kill first ask questions later, even if the threat used to be his friend, comrade, or compatriot, he's able to weigh the lives on a scale and make that hard decision. He's also the type of person who's very comfortable with taking the fates other people into his own hands and deciding whether they should live or die (which is why him choosing to spare Getaway after retaking the Lost Light is a sign of character growth).
His characterization is fairly consistent throughout the comics, except for this:
Everything in Spotlight Hot Rod goes against his later presentations. In his spotlight he's said to repeatedly beat himself up over one failed mission and is averse to taking responsibility towards other people for fear that he'd get them killed but in later issues he has No Problems doing exactly that. He displays no preferences for 'going solo' aside from the mission to retrieve the matrix and that's because everyone else kicked him out. When he wanted to leave on the Lost Light he made speeches to convince other people to join him despite the fact the Autobots were already outnumbered on Cybertron and taking people away would make their situation worse. Whenever he went anywhere in mtmte he assembled a team to accompany him.
This scene especially contradicts Spotlight Hot Rod in every single way. The only consistent aspect of his character is the recklessness. He forces Optimus to authorize a rescue mission, of which he declares himself the team leader, ignores Optimus' caution about keeping it clandestine and tells everyone to barge through the front door, shuts Ironhide's objections down by pulling rank, then falls into a trap and gets Ironhide killed. Mission failed too obviously, they only got Prowl out. Optimus takes responsibility for the failure and surrenders to the humans, of which Rodimus' response is: "he freaked out because he couldn't hack it" and promptly also proceeds to drop everything and leave because yay there's no one to keep me on this stupid planet anymore and whoever wants to can come with. Where. is the guilt.
That and the whole fiasco with Swindle and Menasor were probably Rodimus' worst moments lol. Overall he's the type of leader good with stressful trolley problems but bad at considering the larger or long-term implications of his actions. His flippancy towards life and death and tendency to solve problems with the bluntest approach bleeds heavily into his leadership decisions and... just how his character is in general. Thank goodness there's only one of Drift and he's gone for most of the Lost Light voyage, Rodimus really doesn't work well with too many yes-men hanging around.
Spotlight: Jazz is peak Prowl being able to comfort Jazz even though Jazz doesn't want to open up about how he's feeling and Prowl completely respects that
i love their dynamic so much here and in "all hail megatron", it's such a shame that their connection ended up being completely forgotten in the rest of idw series... reading "optimus prime" and coming across that one frame, observing what we have had and lost because the authors couldn't keep in mind how and who they were writing... it actually hurts
you guys. you guys! why are you doing this to us. why is it so hard for you to keep track on your story!! why do we have to see their relationship... fall apart?? without a decent look at it?? somewhere out there, in the background?? we're just left with the fact that they are over or maybe never even were there in the first place
prowl and jazz had so much potential at some point of idw history. the way how well they worked together despite all the difficulties, how sincerely prowl supported jazz even though he remained very closed off and aloof the whole time, how he really tried to be a good loyal friend, respected jazz's personal boundaries, didn't push, didn't go too far with his concern, didn't except anything in return and was just there to help... a rare bright moment for this version of my poor boy :'D
there were so many opportunities to develop this further, to show how they could exist in the new cybertronian future for which they had gone through so much hardship, how could they fight all the problems that were coming down on them, together, exactly as it was on earth. but, alas, we have to accept that they were quickly brushed aside and forgotten. a little time passes and they become strangers. forever. their entire bond is just erased. because that's how idw works with their characters...
Oh no, you've activated one of my blorbo trap cards lol.
It's less that the writers didn't care about continuity (Sometimes they really fucking don't though) and more that several of the official writers straight up hate shit the fandom likes. ESPECIALLY the fanfiction writing side of the fandom (Looking at you Furman).
They have gone out of their way to shit on character relationships and backgrounds just to spite the fandom. They are, a lot of them, and for lack of a better word, in their own 'boys club'. They fucking HATE shipping, and they deliberately stomp on any interactions between characters that are popularly shipped together by fanfic writers.
This is why I like McCarthy and Roberts, because they weren't dicks about shipping or character interactions. They both had their own writing flaws, true, but they weren't being contrarian assholes just to stick it to certain groups of fans. They were writing for the love of the story and characters.
And look how both of them gave us OC's that became absolute fan faves the moment they came out, like... they knew how to give us good new content.
And one of the reasons I fucking LOATHED Barber's RiD was because he did that thing where he took Prowl and shoved him back in the OG Marvel Characterisation box and made him a fucking ASSHOLE after McCarthy gave us such a good Prowl in AHM. It's true he did it in measures, it wasn't a direct switch from good character to shithead. But the justification was crap and the execution was lame.
And everyone after that just kept playing into that in the worst way possible. I know there are asshole Prowl enjoyers out there but man, I got introduced to him in the Bayverse comics and then TFA to begin with, and then G1. He was a great character in all of those and not an insufferable asshole, I cannot STAND that the IDW comics shunted him back to his OG Marvel personality.
Times Earthspark lacks common sense it's so funny, it's sometimes worrying (part 2/?)
Not in order of episode or season
No one is worried at all that Nightshade built the dugout by themselves. The barn could've collapsed and buried them alive.
With Bee not at the farm for most of that episode, it's just all the more reckless of them, and odd for Thrash and JB not questioning or joining their sibling building it.
The lack of environmental interactions as the episode and season goes. An old barn couldn't have been that sturdy to be able to bounce big bulky Jawbreaker off of it.
The lady Nightshade rescued only relaxed when they introduced themselves and admiring the stickers on her bag, not because they saved her from a mugger. (Huh???)
"I only feel safe around my friends and other non-binary people." Dismissing stranger danger. Being queer or have the same gender (identity) doesn't mean that individual is immune from doing bad things or being a bad person.
Nightshade committed kidnapping due to the scene carrying the woman away and putting her down on the rooftop being 7 minutes apart. Kid, you don't need to bring her to the other side of the city to save her from one mugger.
Did they even bring her back afterwards?
The anti-Transformers is told to be widespread yet there's only ONE hate display shown in the entire story.
"Humans despise Transformers." But why are there new merchandises about them?
Good thing the cartoon doesn't touch toilet issues. Robby & Mo getting stuck in the dugout for 10 hours must be rough.
Why in the world is a nine-year-old attending her brother's middle school for one class? "Because the teacher for her class is absent." Okay, what about her classmates?
Oddly, Hashtag herself never stumbled upon any anti-Transformers stuff online. It'd make sense if Robby actively hid them from his Terran siblings, but his Pikachu face reaction at the graffiti says otherwise.
Nova Storm could've sonic boom the Bot Brawl to smithereens but she didn't. Frenzy and Lazerbeak could've ran away but they seem to be having genuine fun commentating on their fellow Cons' misery. It doesn't look like they were trapped and forced to be in there...
Heck, even Bee voluntarily came and stayed there.
In "Bear Necessities", did the family clean up the trashed woods or nah?
The lack of mentioning of past events in further episodes as a whole. Swindle, Tarantulas, school, the S1 finale global death blast, etc -- making the characters' behaviours in further episodes seemingly came out of nowhere.
Who is the owner of the cows? Do they know the paddock is being used as a playground for giant child Transformers? Do the Maltos tell them they took a calf as their own pet?
With zero mentioning of the cows' owner, the Malto family basically stole Fluffy Ears.
Transformers has some problems… @problems-with-botsandcons - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
