hmmmm for the ask meme - Vigilem?
YEAHHH, VIGILEM!
First impression: Is this my first impression of him as Carcer, or once he woke up? Because when it was just Carcer, I didn’t react much at all, I was just focusing on the people who were living in him. But when he woke up as Vigilem I was like ‘ohhhhhhh WHAT THE FUCK, BUT HELL YES!!!!!!’
Impression now: Honestly? A lot of it is still the same XD But I’ve got a lot of extra respect now for some of the backstory where... I’m not actually sure how much is explicit canon now and how much is from fic, but how he was serving his prime, and that the history isn’t as cut-and-dried black-and-white as modern people want it to be, that’s all great stuff. I think perma-killing him for real was such a WASTE, because he’s got so much potential as an intact, awake, at least semi-hostile Titan. Metrotitan is tied up on Earth, Metroplex keeps getting broken, imagine Windblade and Starscream having to negotiate with an angry Titan fighter from pre-history without necessarily having firepower to back them up, just having to rely on the negotiation itself! That is choice!!!!
Favorite moment: He didn’t have enough moments, that is the saddest part :C I think... his whole waking up scene is fantastic, but the moment when Liege Maximo emerges at the end and says ‘loyal to the end and back, you will be avenged’, it really drives home the strength of vigilem’s character and the depth of the history behind him. There’s something about how that was done where I know it’s deliberately creating artificial depth by implying all sorts of history we won’t necessarily ever see, but something about how that was done there really, really clicks perfectly for me, so that I know it’s artificial, but it doesn’t feel artificial
Idea for a story: Hm. Hmmmmm. This is hard. Because the stories I want to see are the ones @sunderedstar keeps writing XD I guess if I had to deliberately break away from those, I’d be interested to see something for how the initial bond was formed between Liege Maximo and Vigilem, something to really drive home how and why they were close. Or in a modern setting, I’d want to see Vigilem, alive, still on Cybertron without Unicron there to send everyone packing. I want to see Vigilem as a semi-hostile, semi-friendly dangerous unknown quantity, who miiiiight be willing to be on good terms with Windblade... to contrast to the newly awakened Trypticon, who is another potentially hostile unknown quantity, but one who’s definitely not on the same side as Vigilem. I just want complicated, messy emotional dynamics starring Titans, what can I say :P
Unpopular opinion: I sure wish I knew what anyone’s opinion about anything was! Is it unpopular to say that he was killed too quickly? Because he was killed WAY TOO QUICKLY. There was so much potential there, with ‘the spark burns away everything but the truth’, where like... Liege Maximo’s whole Thing is diplomacy and manipulation, and part of that is lies, but part of it is using the truth to steer and control people! It would have been thematically consistent to have Vigilem survive in that way, where he’s not placing a direct load on Windblade’s processor, so she can handle carrying him long enough to put him into a real body again. But now I’m just talking The Triumph of Time, which I will undoubtedly do again before I’m done answering this ask XD
Favorite relationship: ...................Caminus. Or Windblade. Please read The Triumph Of Time. These relationships are so context-based that it’s really hard for me to do them justice on my own XD But you just need to know that when the Camiens were like ‘where are the backup thrusters? why don’t we have backup thrusters??’ and Vigilem came in to stabilize them, because he has the backup thrusters, I got so choked up. And when he helps Caminus stagger out of the ocean and onto land, I got even more choked up. It was so moving, guys. Please read this series.
Favorite headcanon: Ooh, okay. The Imperial Radch trilogy. I am in love with the way the ship/station AIs are written, where their attention is incredibly split and distributed across their whole self and/or all their bodies. I could read about those AIs for decades and not be satisfied. But it’s a scenario that’s really, really hard to replicate in any other setting. But you know what it’s an awesome fit for? TITANS. Titans are the best non-radch thing I’ve found to scratch the ancillary justice itch. This doesn’t apply to only Vigilem, but Vigilem does win points for being one of the Titans in best repair, and being in an amazing position to make use of that incredible awareness, where he’s made to track every single thing happening in an area the size of a Cybertronian city.
