In general I like to think it'd be funny if that's what dying and becoming one with the allspark is like. Oh yeah the mysterious artifact is Most Definitely eating people's souls after they die but it's okay it's natural and it's so the allspark can make more people, to the point it's completely socially normalized and expected
And when it's explained in detail to now horrified humans they have to do the big twisty dance of "oh when you put it like That it sounds worse than it is"
I love your Optimus/Sentinel AU, your headcanons and your art, please keep up the good work! Love to see some actual love for the Sentinel here.
You said in one of the posts that you got inspired by fic you can't find anymore. Does it happen to be any of angry_gremlin_commando's fics? Crossed Sparks is the main one, D16 POV but it has a ton of Sentinel. Hardware Failure is a Barricade/Sentinel side story from the same AU and I think he's working on another side story rn.
He's tcfactory here on tumblr, huge Sentinel fan and the custom-made tactician, starship/space shuttle Sentinel sounds a lot like some of his stuff. If it's him then you should hit him up, TC is super friendly, big on sharing creative headcanons and I'm 100% he'd be really flattered if he inspired your own take on our favorite blue disaster. (You should say hi anyway I think, he's been dying to talk to a fellow Sentinel fan.)
YES!!
YES YES YES HOLY MOLY THANK YOU YES IT'S THEM!!
You literally saved me anon. Hardware Failure had me glued to my screen for the entire innard descriptions sequences alone and MY DUMBASS LOST THE LINK INSTANTLY AFTER FINISHING IT!!
Thank you so incredibly much for the kindness AND the headsup! I'll 100% post more of this guy in the future because the more i think and the more i want to talk about, both in terms of characters and lore implications/possible developments of the TFOne continuity (since i highly doubt it will ever get a sequel at this point...)
On another note, @tcfactory i'm so deeply sorry for the suddent tag but i want to compliment you for miles and miles on your worldbuilding and fics!! Your descriptions and analysis in Hardware Failure really made everything click into place when i was trying to figure out what this guy was supposed to be, and HEAVILY inspired the au i'm occasionally posting about,,, (so incredibly sorry i just went and yoinked your bg lore without telling you, i hope you're not too mad about that Q-Q)
I need to scroll down your blog properly but i am so incredibly happy that i am not the only idiot around who saw Sentinel and went "what the fuck are you supposed to be??" Big agree on the "brawler made to take a hit and flee" thing, i remember discussing about this guy with a friend on another platform like, 2 weeks ago, and coming to pretty much conclusion lol
If you don't mind, i'd love to hear more about your analyses on this guy, so after i finish inhaling your blog, is it ok if i slip in your Dms? I promise i will behave and keep the conversation about the blue idiot :3
I did the main cast as classes from the 2024 Player's Handbook a while ago, but I'm getting more confident in my ability to talk about things I enjoy without getting crucified, so I'm here to expand on that.
In the tag of the class post, I went on a little tangent about the Kuan-Yin brothers being half tiefling and half aasimar. Now, you can homebrew that, but I'll be playing by the same rules as that post by sticking to things only kept in the PHB2024. So, while their backstory and character aesthetics might be flavored with mixing both, they will mechanically be sticking to one race.
Samiel: tiefling. subrace wise, I can see him going Chthonic, since the in-book description of this legacy uses words like "succubus" and "cadaverous", which is pretty Samielcore because there's no world where he's beating the vampire allegations. Chthonic tieflings also get resistance to Necrotic damage, which could be good flavor-wise since that resistance is shared with aasimar. However, since he's probably going to share a subrace with Zazriel, the Infernal legacy could also work since it has more traditional connections to the angel-demon theming. And it gets the spell Darkness at level five, so...
Michael: aasimar. While the subrace features in the PHB2024 (or even PHB 2014) don't have the titles most people are familiar with, I'll be using the common ones because they're basically the same as what's in the Handbook(s) and only add some flavor. In regards to Michael, he'd probably have the Inner Radiance/Scourge subrace that turns him into an beacon of Fuck You Take Radiant Damage (whether this also damages allies in his AoE and himself is up for the DM, but it's in-character for Michael to burn himself alive just to win a fight.) The Scourge subrace specifically comes with constantly wearing a mask, which matches up neatly with a paladin's helm and any distinctively tiefling features like solidly colored eyes or horns.
Zazriel: tiefling. As mentioned with Samiel, the most obvious subrace for him is Infernal, both because of the very demonic coding of these tieflings specifically and the inescapable red theming. I wouldn't be surprised if he did smell like sulfur. He could also go Chthonic, since they can appear more ghoulish than the others, but it would probably come down to flavor since both he and Samiel (and Mirela, if that would be a factor) would share a subrace.
Custodian: this one was the hardest to nail down, but I think the most interesting answer here is gnome. Not only because it's funny to put the Custodian's attitude three feet beneath the rest of the cast (can you imagine the Kuan-Yins getting yelled at by someone who comes up to their hip? Can you imagine how flustered they'd be that it works?) but because gnomes are clever and often associated with mechanics and clockwork. That's the real trick here, they'd be a gnome because Arius is a gnome. Bro was three feet tall and building elaborate fortune-telling clocks, and Alethea was also there. Another good answer for them is halfling due to the focus on family and community (and what it means to be without that), but they don't have Darkvision.
Ilyian: elf. i'm caught between Drow because I love Drow, although I know Wood Elf is probably more accurate. He's very outdoorsy, whether he wanted to be or not, and older versions of the Wood Elf even included proficiencies with bows. On the other hand, since so much of Drow culture comes back to being underground and therefore usually in darkness, there's something very silly about Michael being his love interest. Guy who was raised never seeing the sun x Guy who literally explodes with light if he gets too into a battle. I'm sure that would add no complication to a relationship stalled by awkwardness as it is.
Carys: human. c'mon, you know why. keeps consistent with the core of what his character is about (adaptability, perseverance, insane and anomalous amounts of charisma) even in a setting where there isn't the mortal-divine dynamic at play. While there have been human subraces, they're not in the PHB2024 (and don't really matter imo, since they just change the stat spreads). It's not a mistake that he's the only race without Darkvision, because I think I'm funny.
Making my OCs as Transformers was a mistake o_o (jk jk but in a silly way) because now I can't stop gushing over them and sketching them! And having my silly blog means I get to gush over them even moreee <3
[Update: Renamed SolBlade to NovaBlade since it fits hehe :D]
So have more Nova/Novablade and Artemis/Moonwing sketches and extra lore, featuring Wingflare! :D
The amica endura duo EVER (OH also, Moonwing's alt mode is an attack helicopter now, still thinking what kind of car for Soblade)!!
Appreciating Wingflare’s new design <3! She has extra wing-like finials :D And her alt mode will also be an attack helicopter :D?
Moonwing, Wingflare, and Novablade—a happy family!
I love sketching Moonwing as the expressive silly one and Novablade as the confused but puts up with it one :3!
ALSOO more lore on the visor and mouthguard because I'm silly: Despite being very expressive and energetic, Moonwing struggles with optic contact/staring at another's optics directly when speaking. So, she uses a visor all the time to speak more confidently! Meanwhile, Novablade has very sharp, fanged dentas, which she is very self conscious about, so she uses a mouthguard all the time.
Wingflare likes using a visor and mouthguard when fighting and now that I think about it…yeaaah she’s giving Soundwave vibes BUT that's okay she's epic :D
I love contrasting/opposite personalities sooo:
With her bright paint and name referencing the sun, others assume Novablade is friendly and bubbly, like the sun. She isn’t (at least not at first). She’s reserved, quiet, alert, even emotionless at times. She represents the other part of the sun: being unable to look directly at the harsh brightness.
I didn't show it well, but Moonwing's paint has more darker tones of purple, alternating with slightly more light purple. Others assume she is more serious. She isn’t—but she can be if the situation arises. She’s bubbly, outgoing, friendly, quippy, very much emotional. She is associated with the moon: moonlight illuminating the dark.
Aand finally, their relationship!
Silly moment but I see their relationship being like IDW KoBd and Prime KoBd at the same time. They are canon conjunx endura (like IDW KoBd) and hehe yeah, Moonwing will definitely call Novablade “darling”, and the two exchange cheek kisses and are always side by side and care for the other. But also, they can be seen as amica endura/secretly conjunx endura/very close (the latter being like Prime KoBd, as it’s not explicitly said how close KoBd are in Prime sob) since there are moments that show they care deeply for the other, and even refer to each other as their partner.
They may become conjunx endura purely for the benefits of co-parenting Wingflare—the two care deeply for the other, and they cuddle, so becoming conjunx, why not, they can exchange cheek kisses, but spending their lives together is epic!
Anywaays yeah I just had a bunch more OC lore to share because why not (and I had to add a gif of Knockout of coursee <3)!
Well here’s this week’s drawings finished now, trying to make more ZX AU designs with mixed results. Or at least, I think they could be better
I will now ramble about each one, which may take a while
Suppose we should start out with Skyfire/Jetfire, who I started with but ultimately had to leave as he is because I couldn't figure out what to do for the rest of his helmet or for the longest time, his jacket. Jetstorm was supposed to be there too, but because Jetfire never got farther, I never made him either
You can probably guess that I went the Animated route for Jetfire here, and that's mainly because Starscream got aged down here, so I thought that if I were to do skystar, they'd probably have a very different dynamic than usual, so I wanted to age Skyfire down too. And Animated is the continuity with young Sky/Jetfire, so that was my basis. Though in the process of making him, I figured that I should probably draw on more than just Animated, and probably make him and Jetstorm more distinct as well, since in TFA they're largely interchangeable personality wise. But I'll need to do more work to see where they end up
At this point the twins are young soldiers (not Autobot soldiers, but presumably the government's), and in my head their stuck-up attitude can make them a thorn in some Autobots' sides, but they're ultimately no real threat, just annoying teenagers
Then after Jetfire wasn't going well, I decided to try making Alchemist, as some concepts for her character came to me one night (and she too is a woman now bc TFO Alchemist looks like one to me). She's finished, but I'm not very satisfied with her, and the longer I look at her, the worse she feels
Also she's supposed to have a different name, since there's no "Prime as a special type of Transformer" thing here, and just "Alchemist" is too plain, but Macaddam is too masculine sounding as well. But I never ended up making one, best I have is maybe Alchemax
But as for dissatisfaction, for starters I think her face looks a bit weird, even if I was going for her having a more unconventional face. Mainly though, the issue is that she just doesn't really look like Alchemist other than her helmet vaguely alluding to it (and the helmet isn't even very good either), and I feel this is a problem with a number of these ZX AU designs
Because the designs are trying to follow the Zero/ZX clothes and especially jackets, a lot of distinct design elements are lost between the original bots and their designs here, outside of their helmets and colors, and honestly it makes the helmets stick out even more. I'm sure there's a way to get the two design styles to blend together better--the characters looking reasonably like characters in the MMZX style while also looking like a direct translation of the Transformers--but I haven't quite gotten there yet. I'm trying to figure out how to change that, but I just don't know yet. Maybe drawing more MMZX characters will help? I don't really have that much experience with this style yet
Oh and one last thing about Alchemist's design, but I really wanted her to be green like her One counterpart. However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the colors to look right. I then tried out the Cyberverse color palette since I had CV Alchemist as a reference, and suddenly colors are properly working, and ultimately, I had to bite the bullet and just stick with the better color palette. I want her to be green so bad though
As for her story, unfortunately she's predominantly based on Cyberverse Alchemist, another reason to not want to use the color palette. So far what I have is that she had participated in the devastating conflict in the past, and while her comrades died, she ended up surviving and just had to continue on after it was over. Eventually she ended up making her oil house, though I don't know exactly what led to that yet. In present day, very few people actually know how old she is or what she used to do; they think of her just as the jolly and a bit odd bartender. But people also know that at least in the oil house, her authority reigns supreme if it ever comes to it, no matter who you are
Moving on, we have at the bottom left Star Rodimus, aka this version of Rodimus Prime, and one of my favorites for the pose alone. I actually put it on a separate page to make into a more detailed standalone piece, but that's for another time
I don't think his design is as great as it could be, but he's granted a lot more leeway because his pose is more complicated, especially with the head. His design is mostly MMZ Zero and maybe a bit of Hidden Phantom, with his colors coming from Energon Hot Rod and a dash of Star Convoy (at least with the chest star) since they share a name. He definitely needs refinement, but that's for when he has a simpler pose
As for lore, I had the idea of Rodimus being the one to ultimately end that previous devastating conflict, to give him something unique but also because if the Model W counterpart is going to be Unicron related, having Rodimus be the one to originally defeat him would be a neat callback to the 86 movie. So yeah, Star Rodimus is a big respected hero for his part in the war, though he ended up dying in the process. Hot Rod's technically not in the AU yet, but I had imagined him somewhere, so if he's here, he's either Rodimus' descendant or reincarnation, I'm not sure which
Also the blue orb thing is a potential design for the Matrix, looking like Cyber Elf X, but I don't know if that's final yet, just something needed for the sketch
Also also, I had the strong desire to give him long flowing hair, but because Transformers aren't meant to have hair I ultimately didn't. But I wanted to, and lowkey I think the pose would look better with it, so maybe I'll use it for that other piece
And then finally we get to today's work, in which I decided to create a mother for Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus, since the concept had been floating around my head, and I needed something to draw while on break
Unfortunately though, I'm not very far in crafting a name for her. I know that she'd follow her sons' patterns of "2 Latin/Latin based words that indicate greatness", and I have Latin knowledge to make this a more feasible task, it's just a matter of finding words that sound good and have a good meaning. I'll come up with something eventually
I think her design is fine, and she definitely gave me the least amount of trouble, likely because she has bases in the AU with Optimus and Magnus, and the two have near identical facial features, so she gets them too. Though as a result, I feel like maybe she looks too much like them and not distinct enough. The color placement was another hassle, since I figured switching color placements would help her feel more distinct, with white being her dominant color, and while the final product looks good enough, I have no idea where all these colors translate to in a hypothetical proper Transformer form. Yet another reason to try and mesh these two styles together
I think she may have looked better in sketch form, when I didn't have to worry about colors
But I at least have some concepts for her. I know that Optimus and Magnus were born sometime after the war (originally soon after, but idk if I'll keep that bc it shortens the length of time between the two more than I'd like, seeing how they're only middle aged), meaning that she likely lived through that time, which probably colors her personality and relationship with her kids in some way. I also know she's very strong (likely still a truck in proper Transformer form), and with the rebuilding of society she probably went into construction. I also like to think that she was fiercely protective of her kids, at least when they were younger; not so much now when they're grown men. I don't know if the brothers have another creator, but currently I imagine it as just her
I like the idea of her at least, so I may end up drawing more of her, hopefully fleshing her out in the process
And that about wraps up what I had to say here. Like I mentioned somewhere else, my game plan right now is to just take Transformers characters and place them into the ZX AU, with this being how I expand the story and lore. It's just a matter of remembering characters and gaining a desire to draw them here. And as stated, I definitely need to work on the design aesthetics of the AU itself, but hopefully it'll improve as I go
(Edit: forgot to put a link to my AU I'm weeping here it is)
Shameless AU posting on main or smth
I promise more plot concepts are gonna be posted but I gotta finalize these bitches first lasjdflajlsdkf
I'm slow bc school is STRESSING me tf out and it's only been like;; 3 weeks since it started hhhhh I regret taking these classes but I'mma power through for them credits so 3rd year will be a breeze
Please take these concepts in the mean time 🥂
Also unrelated but I got bands with my retainers so now I'm a weird mix of braces and mouthpieces and I look like a cyborg it's so fun!!! my teeth are itchy but if any of y'all are scared of getting y'all's teeth aligned it'll be alright I promise 👍 (sincerely, someone who's getting their teeth fixed in their 20s)
