Episode 1 & 2 (mostly episode 2 because I didn't commit to liveblogging Episode 1)
Love the G1 animation that's so cool
Copying the first two posts I made before committing to this liveblog:
Just started watching Earthspark (finally) and:
A) It seems cute but I'm definitely not the target audience for this, so I'm very quickly re-adjusting my expectations
B) MEGATRON???? FIRST-NAME BASIS WITH A HUMAN MEGATRON??? Bro's talking about Optimus like every single one of those "The Autobots and Deceptions reconcile their differences" AU fanfics, I'm frickin cryin'
Optimus: Autobots, roll out!
[Long pause]
Megatron: [Sounding amused and fond] I can never tell if he means me [too].
Me: FALLS TO MY HANDS AND KNEES
What kind of ''Couple who broke up decades ago but recently got back together and are trying to make amends'' ass energy… /pos
The way I SCREAMED "WHIRL????!??!?!" seeing this, MY GIRL!!!!!!! MY BABY GIRL
TIDDY WIPERS........ I cannot believe he wiped his hand on his chest then casually wiped it off with his wipers, I'm frickin cryin, he's just like me fr
Love how Optimus and their mom are BOTH doing the "Disappointed parents hands on hips" stance, you can definitely tell there are some big TF fans in the production team lmao
THE TEXTING STYLES.... WEEPS....
I was about to compliment whoever did the explosion SFX because that looked sick as hell but immediately got distracted by this because YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY BOYS!!!!!!!!!
I'm so easy to please — put Optimus and Megatron on the same side fighting together and I'm jumping out of my seat whooping and hollering like a Superbowl fan
Ok I said I wasn't the target audience for Earthspark, and while that's still true, it's also true that there's so much stuff in here that got me shouting in delight
Megatron: By all means, resist! It's my favorite part.
Me, jumping out of my seat: THAT'S MY GUY!!!!!!!
THE FUSION CANON!!!!!! SICK AS HELL
The SFX explosions and fire and stuff really is incredible, gosh I love that. Cyberverse had some awesome effects too, I wonder if they have the same person (or one of them) working on this too.
I love the dad he's such a geek
"Alright minivan, if you're secretly an Autobot now is the time to let me know!" HES JUST LIKE ME
Episode 3
"Whirlybird" WEEPS.....
Bumblebee trying to call Optimus and Megatron picking up, what kind of fanfic is this I'm DYING I love it
Megatron and Elita are objectively the worst people to give advice on this pfttt
Oh nevermind Elita actually gave him great advice, I'm sorry for doubting you
"Got you!" Oh he's such an ass LMAO I love Optimus
"I'm busy hanging with my family"
> Implying Optimus isn't family
Ouch. RIP Optimus, shouldn't have ghosted him
Episode 4
I'm so sad this show doesn't have an opening animation
Belated note from Episode 1: I'm so glad the mom isn't a cop, I saw her in uniform in Episode 1 and I was like "Ugh" and then they said she was a ranger and I was like "Oh!!! Ok!" Also love that she has a prosthetic
Another Episode 1 note – I o think I called one of the bots "Swindle" in one of my first liveblog notes tags complimenting the New Yorker accent but that definitely wasn't Swindle lmao
Is that "The Pebble" instagram just Dwayne the Rock Johnson's alter with a wig??? LMAO
WAIT THAT WAS SWINDLE, IM NEVER WRONG!!!!!
"He disappeared while saving orphans during the war :(" I frickin SHOUT-laughed at that, pfttttt
"I feed off the thrill of victory" she's just like me, I'm so competitive
THE FRICKIN LIVE LAUGH LOVE MEGATRON PHOTO IM DYING
"I still think it's a bad idea, but somebody's gotta protect my little brother" Awwww
That's a good way to resolve the "No bots in the house" rule. I mean, the rule makes sense but it still feels kinda mean (especially since they put them in a TENT pftt)
Episode 5
"Playground chatter... saved my squad in the Knee Slapper Valley Incident" pftttt
"Are you two like, 'forever' mad, or 'need a snack' mad?" I love him
THE LITTLE CATCHPHRASES ON THE BROCHURES... CUTE....
OPTIMUS IS SUCH A DORK I LOVE HIM
UNICRON LEVEL 14.....
"Feel the steel of my third wheel!" is such a good line
"What does GHOST do with the Decepticons you catch?"
"That's... classified"
OMINOUS AS HELL??? OPTIMUS HELLO??? DO YOU NOT KNOW????
"I wasn't always a warrior, you know." AGH. My heart... Archivist Orion... :(
Episode 6
Awh it's so cool that they have an episode about heritage
Bee says he won drag races at the airport and I immediately thought of a different kind of drag race than the one he meant
WAIT DID THE DAD THINK THAT TOO? LMAO that's awesome
WHEELJACK??
IT IS WHEELJACK!!!!!
SHES SO LITTLE...
"You're kinda like... my dad! :D"
Wheeljack: God forbid
Nooo Twitch poor baby :(
I LOVE HERRRR
NOOO SHE WANTED A HUG AND HE WALKED AWAY BECAUSE HE DOESNT KNOW WHAT THAT IS, THATS SO SAD
Aww she got her hug after all :') Thank goodness
"It worked! I gotta spend more time with Alex" I LOVE HIM the VA's delivery of that line was frickin perfect
That episode had a really good discussion about identity and heritage, I loved that.
Episode 7
"Wow, our teacher is a HUGE jerk."
"What did you call me?" Pfttt
SOUNDWAVE WHAT?????
HE EXPLODED A CASSETTE INSIDE HIS CHEST??? HELLO??? THATS NOT A FUNNY STORY BUMBLEBEE
The smile that popped onto my face hearing Soundwave's name dropped SO fast wtf
Ok yeah I was really wondering about the energon situation, I didn't think they'd bring it up
Aww, Bee picking them up in a huge hug :') He was worried too
Me gasping and pointing at the screen to the spider symbol like I don't already know Tarantulas is in this show
Episode 8
RAVAGE??? RAVAGE??? IS THAT RAVAGE???
IT IS RAVAGE!!!!!!!!!
Ohhh so this implies that Soundwave is still a rogue Decepticon. Wait that's true, the only Decepticon that's been confirmed to be on the Autobot's side is Megatron
Oh my gosh that is tragic and juicy, all the Decepticons are still Decepticons except Megatron???
Wait does that mean STARSCREAM is in charge??? Are he and Soundwave gonna be in this show??? I hope so
Optimus running after Ravage like he's a cat that got ahold of some plastic and won't spit it out
LAZERBEAK!!! Or Buzzsaw.
OH MEGATRON IS THERE TOO
FRENZY?!?!?!?
FRENZY'S IN THIS SHOW!??!?!??!?! HOW THE FRICK DID THAT NOT GET SPOILED FOR ME
Optimus: Stop pulling your punches – these Decepticons are criminals
Optimus please, those are his kids by association
Megatron: These Decepticons simply want to live in peace.
Whoa who switched these guys' lines
Megatron: A childish prank, these Cassette Bots wouldn't hurt a fly
Oh my heart aches for Megatron being terribly fond of the little Cassettes, despite them all being little war criminal bastards like their papa
Megatron be like "These pranks aren't that bad, you should've seen what Starscream got up to on the daily" lmao
Optimus: You were saying?
Damn Optimus, stop being so salty about him still liking his ex's kids
THEYRE JUST KIDS LEAVE THEM ALONE OPTIMUS!!!!!!
"I miss adults" pfttt
"Megatron! Use your canon!" SHUT UP OPTIMUS WTF???
Soundwave can you please show up and kick Optimus' ass
"Hi Mr. Optimus! Are you calling to wish me a happy half-birthday?" I adore her
ARCEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!
Earthspark stop teasing me with that Soundwave on that comic book cover, you're making me worried he'll never be in this show
The cassettes are such bastards, I adore them
> Remembers how the show confirmed one of them died in Soundwave's chest
> HEART CRACKS A LITTLE BIT
I don't know if Megatron's expression was supposed to be funny, but it's ringing alarm bells for me. To me, he looks shocked and disgusted. It read like "Why do you have weapons like this?" or "Why do you still have weapons like this?"
Megatron: I will never touch those... things.
OH OK, I WAS RIGHT
Optimus: It's a means to an end, Megatron
HELLO???????? OPTIMUS????????? WTF???
AND HE'S RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's time for Cybertronian War: Part 2 baby!!!!!!!!!
Optimus: He's just doing his job!
And depending on Megatron's background in this show, he was at the mercy of bots who were "Just doing their jobs" for centuries
Bruh why is Optimus sounding like such a villain. Also how the hell did Megatron ever agree to peace if this is how things have been going
"Fealty" is an interesting word choice, hmm...
Pftttt
ARCEE'S REACTION TO TWITCH'S BACKTALK, OOOO GIRL
"You seem different in the comics" pfttt
Buddy her character's gone through a lot of changes the past few years
Arcee has such scary white girl energy I love her LMAO
Dude I frickin LOVE that Frenzy's alt mode is still a cassette, I love that they didn't change that.
HM. CONCERNING.
I love how they're all in alt modes and yet you can practically SEE the awkward tension
Megatron: At least I do not follow orders blindly, like a coward.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GET HIS ASS
The amount of times I've shouted "AND HES RIGHT!!!" every time Megatron speaks isn't new but this has got to be a new record
BABYY
ITS MY BOYYYYYYYYYYYYY
SOUNDWAVE MYF RICKIN BELOVED
KICK HIS ASS
OHHHH ITS ABOUT TO GET AWKWARD
"Attack Megatron" oof, how times have changed
Megatron: Do not make this personal, Soundwave!
Soundwave: It already is
Me: *pointing* Exes
The fact that he broke his speaking style for that too, OOF
That's so sad though — you follow this man's philosophy and ideology for thousands of years, you fight for him, you kill for him, you lose the people you love while fighting this war in his name, and then one day he decides to give it all up? Yeah. I'd say it's pretty personal too.
"Autobot sympathizer" I won't crack the joke I want to make here but
HE CAUGHT OPTIMUS' AX LIKE A FRICKIN BADASS, HELL YEAH!!!!!!!
I love that that's Arcee's alt mode, it suits her so well
OHHH THATS A SICK ALT MODE no wonder Soundwave has so many Gurren Lagan glasses-shaped things on his design, that's literally what his alt-mode is
"You left the kids alone up there?!" PFTTT I love that Bumblebee's character in Transformers media (in the last 10 years) has gone from him being "the kid" in all TF animated series to him having to be the one in charge of the kids now
Love how he looks at Optimus when he says "Well treated" like it's both a warning and a threat
Tbf Optimus does sorta nod in acknowledgment. I don't trust GHOST though and he's blindly putting a LOT of faith in them
OHHHHH HIT HIM BACK WITH HIS OWN WORDS, THATS MY BOY
"Ok, that's catchy" I love you Frenzy
Also I didn't mention it before, but idk if Frenzy's design is just sorta meant to be interpreted as whatever or if he's a girl in this show, but I love the design. Very queer
I love Arcee but her running on the wall and Soundwave just casually dropping a huge rock on her was very funny. Like, "None of your shonen protagonist ass bs today"
This frame literally only shows up for half a second but I frickin love it, the art direction and certain style choices are so cool
AGH THIS IS SO SAD
"Traitor."
AGH
AND MEGATRON'S REACTION, AGH!!!!!!!!!!!
Optimus: Megatron is a better protector of our kind than you will ever be!
This would sound so much stronger if you weren't frickin working with an organization who was doing who knows what with captured Decepticons, Optimus
Agh but Megatron being painted as someone who does things for the sake of Cybertronians, not for one side or the other, is a good characterization. That's not necessarily what Optimus is saying here (it is a bit) but that's what the show's been saying.
Netflix's subtitles are so bad even on a good day but it's astonishing that they can't even subtitle a show in English correctly. Embarrassing
"What even is a cassette anyways?" BRUH.
That's so awkward, Optimus and Megatron are talking and Soundwave is just. There. Sitting on the other side of the truck.
Megatron: I said some things you might not have appreciated today.
BUT YOU WERE RIGHT!!!!!
Optimus: I needed to hear them
YOU DID!!!
Oh wow Optimus saying he'll look the other way if Megatron vouches for the Cassettes (and Soundwave too? Sounds like it might just be the cassettes)
I'm so glad he crushed those things that locked them in their alt modes, but something tells me this won't be the last we'll be seeing of those things
Oh nvm, guess Soundwave doesn't get to be free
Frenzy: We're free now! You don't have to follow him anymore!
AGH. THATS SO SAD WTF
Why is everything surrounding Soundwave the saddest thing about this show BRUH
Have they always felt this way? Is it merely a difference of opinion? The Cassettes (or at least some of them) being willing to let go but not Soundwave? Or does this have to do with one of the Cassettes dying because of Soundwave, because he was running so low on energon he malfunctioned? Frickin hell man...
If they didn't always feel this way, and this was brought on by one of the Cassettes dying, I wonder if that's what sorta spurred this change in opinions. Like, Soundwave and his Cassettes were all very loyal to the Decepticon cause and Megatron, but when their sibling died and Megatron defected, (some of) the Cassettes saw a way out of this war. A way out of this thing that starved their host and led to their sibling's death. But Soundwave refuses to let it go, and they're stuck in that same cycle.
What a sad frickin episode oh my gosh. Me pulling up the writer's list for this episode and the other episode that mentioned Soundwave like "WHOSE FAULT IS THIS"
Bruh I'm gonna have to pull up my own dang fic after this to heal my aching heart.
> Remembers that most of the cassettes canonically died in that fic too
FRICK
We'd better get an answer about this whole Soundwave and Cassette situation someday
OHOHOHO SOUNDWAVE GOT CAUGHT ON PURPOSE, ATTABOY!!! THERE'S MY SPYMASTER, HEAD OF DECEPTICON INTELLIGENCE!!!
How the frick did Ravage manage to get back to him without them noticing
Is that frickin Stars– IT IS STARSCREAM I KNEW IT!!
Frickin villain laugh, I missed him
I SAID I WAS ONLY GONNA WATCH ONE LAST EPISODE BUT FRICK DUDE. WHAT AN EPISODE TO END ON o(-(
A) It seems cute but I'm definitely not the target audience for this, so I'm very quickly re-adjusting my expectations
B) MEGATRON???? FIRST-NAME BASIS WITH A HUMAN MEGATRON??? Bro's talking about Optimus like every single one of those "The Autobots and Deceptions reconcile their differences" AU fanfics, I'm frickin cryin'
TELL ME ABOUT THE TRANSFORMERS ARC WHERE SOMEONE TRUSTS THE WRONG PERSON PLEASE I LOVE THAT SHIT BUT I DONT HAVE THE ENERGY TO READ COMICS ;-; I love the robots!!! I’m slowly learning about them! I love Jazz because it looks like he has bear ears. I love every time Starscream is a huge goober. Just a total nerd. Some of them turn into ANIMALS too I love it
@startrekrenegades *RUBS MY HANDS TOGETHER GLEEFULLY* OHOHO, WITH PLEASURE
The incident I mentioned actually doesn’t take place in the comics! It's from the Transformers Prime cartoon.
A fun bit of backstory to preface this: in the TFP continuity, Megatron and Optimus actually used to be friends! Back then, Optimus Prime went by the name “Orion Pax” and Megatron was “Megatronus”. They worked together in the hopes that they could change their world for the better, but ultimately, their different ideologies created a rift between them (and Megatron essentially dumped him). Eventually they were forced to face each other as enemies, and it’s been that way ever since.
...With one exception.
At the end of Season 1, Megatron and Optimus had to team up in order to take down Unicron (the equivalent of a big bad pseudo-god that got banished from their homeworld eons ago). They succeed at great cost — Optimus completely depleted his energy sealing away Unicron, and it leaves him temporarily incapacitated. Seeing this, Megatron figures their truce is over and tries to get back his title of “World’s Biggest Bastard”.
HOWEVER!!! Not only was Optimus’ energy depleted, his memories were also reset back to the time before he became a Prime. As Megatron stands over him with his sword raised, "Optimus” (who is no longer Optimus) just blinks at him in confusion and calls his ex-friend by his old name — Megatronus — and it’s enough to stop Megatron dead in his tracks.
IT’S JUST SO NARRATIVELY SATISFYING AND DELICIOUS because we get to see Megatron spend the entire first chunk of Season 2 trying to justify WHY he brought Optimus with him rather than killing him, and it’s also sad to see him utterly frick up the one chance he has to make up with Orion / Optimus. Of course, Orion / Optimus eventually figures out what's up and EVENTUALLY he gets his memory back, but there’s a lot of heartbreak and missed opportunities involved before then and it’s WONDERFUL.
Also YOUR TASTE IN ROBOTS IS IMPECCABLE Jazz is an UTTER DELIGHT and Starscream is a very lovable bastard, lmao. (AND YES SOME DO TURN INTO ANIMALS IT”S SO FUN!!!! TRANSFORMERS IS SUCH A FUN GOOFY SERIES I LOVE IT)
And I FEEL YOU reading takes too much time and energy HOWEVER, if you need an extra nudge or if you ever decided to read it but don’t know where to start, I’m happy to help! Transformers MTMTE (More Than Meets The Eye) is the best starting point (best story, best writing, lots of good canon gay rep, and a group of people voice acted the first two volumes, which is the only reason I started reading it). As far as cartoons go, Transformers Prime and Transformers Cyberverse are the best ones.
I hope this helps! Thanks for giving me an excuse to ramble about Transformers! :’D
Here’s a neater version of some key Q&A responses from Mae Catt’s Cyberverse stream.
Please note: not everything is verbatim, and also note that Mae Catt said “Don’t take things I say as the end-all be-all.” She’s a big supporter of fanfic writers!
This Q&A session contains spoilers for Season 3 of Cyberverse. For a (somewhat) more comprehensive transcript, please refer to this post.
Q: Megop rights?
“Oh absolutely, duh.”
Q: What does Optimus do when he’s not giving speeches / being a leader when they were all hanging out on the ARK?
I think he reads, he seems like a heavy reader. It’d be cute if he read really bad Earth romance novels. He seems like a guy who needs a break from everything.
Q: Does Optimus have hobbies?
Not to borrow from Rung, but doesn’t it seem like Optimus would make model ships? Very quiet, very focused detail-oriented hobby. *pauses* Oh duh, he also plays basketball.
Q: How did the Decepticons learn to stream?
Because they’re deceptive! Megatron knew he should dedicate some time to winning the hearts and minds of humans. Starscreams’ funeral was not the first time they streamed. Optimus would use the official media channels (like the news), not a streaming service. Megatron would try to speak more directly to the people.
Q: Is Optimus the type of streamer who would take 10 minutes to figure out how to un-mute his microphone?
Optimus is a dad. He has no idea what’s going on with streaming. Optimus would say embarrassing things while Bee and Hot Rod were in the middle of streaming something.
Q: Is Megatron dead?
In discussions we wanted to kill him. We wanted to do a reverse Optimus death. However, in the final product, I kinda enjoy the ambiguity rather than the final decision. Can’t remember if we were decisive about that in the script.
Q: Did the Titan mind Decepticons living in them?
The Titans want to be cities. They want citizens. They want to be lived in, that brings them joy.
Q: Does Megatron do anything for fun or is he too angry?
I want to say he’s too angry, he has fun beating people down but I don’t think he’s had fun for a long time.
Q: How would you feel about a female Optimus Prime?
[GAY LAUGHTER]
The question is: do you turn Optimus Prime into a woman, or do you take characters like Elita One and uplift her? I would want to lean more into giving Elita One more oomph, I do love how Optimus doubts himself and if he’s worthy of being a Prime.
(Mae Catt talked a lot about representation and later mentioned how there's more pressure to write the girl characters well, especially because of the need for better representation. They wanted more girls in the show, and they planned to have Jazz be a girl).
Q: Elita prime when?
All the time, in my heart!
Q: Did you plan to have ___ character in the show?
Almost every character was discussed at least once.
She really regrets that they didn’t get to have Beast Machine Obsidian or Rumble and Frenzy in the show, and says she would’ve loved a MTMTE-style Ultra Magnus / Minimus and Transmutate. She didn’t know what Obsidian’s personality would be, it was just a “Look how cool he is!” sort of thing.
(Note: We have Mae Catt to thank for Whirl getting into Cyberverse)
Q: What was your favorite episode?
“I Am the AllSpark” because of the Megatron and Starscream dialogue (which she wrote). Also S2 04 Soundwave and Shockwave.
I enjoyed writing Starscream most, Clobber and Hot Rod became a joy, S2 E4 was my first episode, and it was fun getting into Hot Rod’s voice. It was hard doing Optimus’ voice, I’d always pass it off to someone to look at it.
Q: Did you ever plan to have Hot Rod become Rodimus?
Rodimus was never considered for the show because Optimus dying has been covered to death, but we were adamant about portraying Hot Rod as someone who wanted to be a leader. Hot Rod is someone who is learning to be a leader.
(On that note, when someone asked if she thought Bee would ever become Prime, Mae Catt said:)
I don’t think Bee would be a Prime. Windblade and Hot Rod would be a better Prime. He wouldn’t want to be a Prime. He’s the #2 to Primes!
Q: Did Megatron always plan to return to Cybertron?
Megatron’s priorities changed when he saw his doppelganger. Realizing he was a horrible tyrant, that scared him enough to return and not kill Optimus and make peace no matter what.
Q: Which death hurt you the most?
Starscream. (Slipstream’s hurt too).
We didn’t want to kill people off willy-nilly for shock value, but in certain instances it made sense. Like, the audience will fall in love with Slipstream because she’s becoming good, so she has to die. (She apologized for that sounding harsh). We killed Prowl because it was Shadow Striker doing the killing and he’s a self-sacrificing lieutenant. I almost wanted Starscream to emerge from the Judge’s head untouched, but I’m ultimately glad that idea got shot down.
(She circles back to this comment later, so I’m making note of that here since it wasn’t a direct response to a question)
When I was desperately trying to save Starscream’s life even though I brutally murdered Slipstream, I wanted Starscream to have amnesia and have a redeption arc. I wanted him to have a Windblade shard and have it be kind of like Castaway, where the only person he talked to was that (and the shard only had 5 phrases it could say). Eventually Bee would befriend him and he’d wind up with the Autobots.
I wanted to write Starscream kind of like an abuse victim who expects the worst of the Autobots, but I wanted him to warm up slowly to them. I wanted to have a Starscream and Optimus episode where Starscream messes up on something and Optimus is like “you did your best and that’s what counts”, a response which is totally new to Starscream. But obviously we didn’t have time for that.
Regarding redemption arcs (a continuation from the previous question, and a huge highlight from the stream):
Re: the potential for Starscream’s redemption arc
“A redemption arc needs to be facilitated by a character acknowledging that what they did was wrong. He would have had a laundry list of excuses for it, even if there was all that evidence to the contrary, but the character needs to acknowledge that reasons don’t matter because people got hurt [by their actions]. [The character] needs to intend to do better. Let them try and let them fail, they don’t need to do a 180, it’s hard work to be a better person.”
NOTE: Mae Catt also made a few more comments re: the idea of a Starscream redemption arc on her Tumblr page.
Q: Did Megatron really kill Starscream?
The Starscream beatdown was super severe and they were like “holy frick they’re really going for it” when they saw the storyboards. According to Maecatt, Megatron didn’t kill Starscream when he slammed him down (which is a bit confusing since the show definitely made it seem like Starscream died).
Q: Did Drift die? Why was he a double-agent?
According to us, Drift did not make it, but I fully endorse whatever you want. We needed a double-agent, someone who would (seemingly) kill Hot Rod. (She says they went with Drift because of his history in the comics).
(Later on in the stream)
Maybe Drift is alive, maybe he’s rethinking his decision and he’ll come back later. Drift would’ve been helpful in S3 for sure, maybe he’d come back with Repugnis or something.
Q: Why are you so mean to Percy?
He's so mature and pragmatic that he can take it, and is willing to take one for the team bc he understands that it's what he needs to do. (In response to someone’s comment about his personality) Yes, he’s calmly feral.
Q: Is Skullcruncher Percy's bouncer now that he's running Maccadam's?
Oh totally.
(She later mentions that Percy has permanently taken over Maccadam’s. Also: Skullcruncher is a lady! She misses Mac, but Percy takes good care of her).
Q: If Tarn is the perfect Decepticon who's the perfect Autobot?
A firetruck alt mode, and an Autobot insignia as a face. Nat (her fiance) and I talked about it a lot. Optimus SHOULD be a fire truck, it makes the relationship between him and Ratchet a little more fun since Ratchet is an ambulance, and Optimus has an ax. It just makes sense!
(She agreed that the perfect Autobot would be Thunderclash after the chat said that).
On that note, Mae Catt said they used Tarn for the show because: “OBVIOUSLY (the perfect decepticon) should look like this guy. A faceless mindless Decepticon that only serves Megatron”.
Q: What sort of documents DID Optimus work on in the archives?
Probably historical archives and working on stuff about all the Primes. Something like the French / American revolution equivalent, which informed his speech writing for Megatron and his own ethics.
Q: Did you always plan to make Optimus socially awkward?
We “found” the social awkwardness for Optimus. Optimus was depicted as a father figure in S1 (implying it’s because S1 is from Bee’s perspective), S2 / S3 we were able to explore more and found the limits [writing him] and found it was hard to maintain that level of heroic dialogue. Optimus would feel awkward about it too. Randolph did an impression of Optimus’ speech for the Party Down episode. “[Optimus] can’t not be in war-mode.”
Q: Were Optimus and Megatron ever friends, or did they just work together on the speech stuff?
Oh hell yes, I think [the story] is always enhanced when they’re friends and when Optimus really believes in what Megatron was working on. Optimus’ rejection of Megatron is what pushes him over the edge, his best friend rejecting him pushes him into a place where he becomes a tyrannical person.
Q: Does Maccadam know we love him?
Mae Catt: *puts hand over hear heart and looks off into the distance dramatically* Yes.
Q: What’s the best selfie Arcee’s ever taken?
I like the one with the giraffe. Or maybe a selfie with some humans. I like the idea of Arcee having a bunch of human friends.
Q: What do the Transformers think of the Florida Man?
They can’t really tell the difference between humans, they don’t really get it. It just sorta looks like all the normal stuff they see on Earth (or something).
Q: Who’s the Florida Man of the Transformers?
Rack ‘n Ruin. But he’s too nice. Hmmm.
Q: What was most important to you personally to put out in each episode? Like humor/characterization/arcs
I wanted to make sure I didn’t write dialogue that was condescending to kids, wanted to be true about the character. Dialogue needs to be true to the characters, and gay. (Laughs)
Q: Do Transformers know what memes are?
They know what they ARE, but they don’t get it. We wanted Hot Rod to be super into Earth culture (winning races and driving off before humans could realize no one was in the car), but we never had time to really get into that.
Q: What music does Soundwave like?
We had a cut joke from S2 E5 [where Megatron and Optimus are popping through portals all around the world trying to find the All Spark] . Soundwave pops into Brazil where there’s a music festival and he crashes the concert and hang out. He likes EDM the most?
His favorite song is Despacito. He thinks its so sad.
Q: Were you surprised that Jake Tillman was in his 20s listening to his Optimus voice the first time?
She apparently listened to his vines a lot when he was in his teens so meeting up again like that was a cool coincidence.
Q: What other dimensions or places did you want to be in the show?
I would’ve liked to have the other Transformers series show up (TFP, TFA, G1, Shattered Glass) but we don’t have those assets or budget.
“This will quickly become unclear to audiences who aren’t (you people).” They couldn’t have all these references when some of their audience wouldn’t get it.
Q: What about ____ ship?
Mae Catt says she doesn’t want to yuck anybody’s yums. For example, someone asked about Arcee/Grimlock, and while she said she sees them more as friends, she didn’t say they can’t be in a relationship. (Mae Catt also said she doesn’t ship Bee with anyone because she sees him as a little brother).
As she said several times in the stream, “Don’t take things I say as the end-all be-all”!
That being said, she did say she likes Dead End / Perceptor and Windblade / Slipstream.
Q: Why are there no humans in the show?
From the show’s conception, there were no plans to include any humans. They didn’t want humans distracting from the Transformers.
Q: Why did the Scientist collect Soundwaves?
He collects Soundwave because Soundwave is COOL! Wouldn’t you collect a single father of 5 who carries them around in his chest?
Why does anyone collect what they collect? “That’s a really angry dad who’s got five children he carries around in him and he plays music. Gotta have that!”
(Later on, she circles back to this question)
All the Other Universe Soundwaves the Scientist collected also had their own Laserbeaks. I wonder if the scientist would’ve taken them out. He might’ve just gotten rid of them.
(And of course, here are the boyfriend questions from the stream:)
Q: Is Dead End a good boyfriend?
Dead End is a work in progress, but maybe Percy is patient enough to get him there
(Mae Catt says she really loves the Deadceptor ship. She knew people would ship it, but she didn’t ship it herself until she saw the fanart for it).
Q: Is Astrotrain a good boyfriend?
No, no...he’s not a good person, really.
Q: Is Percy a good boyfriend?
Absolutely--WAIT HOLD ON. He’s very blunt, he doesn’t mince words, if you can handle his bluntness then you’re good. He is what he is and you have to deal with him.
Q: Is Soundwave a good boyfriend?
Soundwave is not a good boyfriend. He’s a good casual romance but he’s not a good boyfriend. Soundwave would be a terrible listener. He hears a lot but he’d tune you out.
Other information tidbits:
- If Thunderclash was in the show he and Jetfire would HATE each other. Thunderclash would be a rival reality star (maybe) to Media Fire.
- Mae Catt said “A lot of intelligent life is inherently mechanical” in space, explaining why so much of the non-Cybertronian life we saw in the show were robots.
- Knock Out was considered for the show, but every Transformer under the sun was discussed at some point in the writer’s room. (Ex: “Rumble and Frenzy are always considered in my heart, but there wasn’t enough time or space or assets to do so”).
- “The brand team had grown up on the toys as we had grown up on the ‘toons, so we just wanted to make the best thing imaginable.”
- They decided Optimus would be in the Other Universe’s Matrix and have a plinth because they wanted to show he was dead. “Logical backflips because he needed to be among the 13 to talk to Windblade.”
- Dead End’s eyes are white.
- The team wanted Jazz to be a lady (!!!!!!!)
- These characters have their own lives that we don’t see. Lots of stuff happening between episodes that we don’t always necessarily see.
- Developing Sky-Byte’s character was simultaneous with Jetfire’s character. “We knew we wanted Sky-Byte to be a poet, and we wanted him and Megatron to be chummy”.
- Percy did permanently take over Mac’s bar.
- Her favorite VA is Jeremy Levy, he’s a really cool guy.
- She thinks Starscream and Cheetor could become (not necessarily friends, but connected?) because of their connection to the All Spark. Mentions how Starscream acknowledge Cheetor as the “Guardian of the Allspark”.
- Mae Catt describes Starscream as an “Awful gremlin” several times.
- Astrotrain and the Insecticons are from Megatron X’s universe.
- She thinks Cliffjumper and Bee wouldn’t get along, solely because of the IDW2 comic stuff. (They had a cut joke about someone telling Bee he should paint himself red and Bee saying, “But then everyone will think I’m Cliffjumper!”).
- Cyberverse got 26 episodes for season 3 because they had the 4-part episode movies.
- Megatron cares about his troops, but not in a way that we would notice that care.
- AcidStorm is genderfluid.
- Cold Construction doesn’t exist in this show. When asked why all the Seekers look the same then, Mae Catt says “Maybe there’s one jet mode all the seekers really like”.
- She loves the idea of Wild Wheel robbing Astrotrain in train-mode, totally Wild West-style.
- One of the things she’s proudest of was turning Lugnut into a gal (and having so much body diversity and gender-neutral designs for a lot of characters). They wanted to include many more girls in Cyberverse (Nickel and Lightbright among them). She also mentioned that Shadow Striker is taller than Optimus or is his height.
- She describes Cosmos as “R2D2, but a Transformer!”
- Maccadam looking like a buff Rung was just a strange coincidence.
- Blurr really was the fastest.
- Mae Catt says we absolutely SHOULD write fanfic. Fanfiction made her into the writer she is today. She wrote non-stop Matrix fanfic from the age of 12-20 years old. It helped her learn a lot about writing.
- She uses “They” pronouns for Rack ‘n Ruin when referring to both of them, but says that individually they both use “he”.
- She’s really sad that Skywarp didn’t get a speaking line.
- Mae Catt won’t say whether Ratchet finished medical school or not. (She laughed when someone commented "I don’t believe that man has ever been to medical school”). She also says she wants “I choose to believe Ratchet has never been to medical school” on a T-shirt.
- When asked why Rack ‘n Ruin were captains of the Ark in one universe, she says they’re probably the Prime in that one weird universe (lmao).
- She loves the idea that Transformers have siblings / families.
- In a world where they had an unlimited budget, it’d be fun if Cybertronians were constantly shape-shifting and changing their forms. Example: she’d like having Transformers who “grew a beard” and decided to “shave it”.
- She doesn’t understand cycles or astrocycles, she doesn’t understand the weird Transformers time stuff. (mood)
- She loved Beast Wars Inferno, she loved that Inferno called Megatron a Queen. It was played as a joke because the 90s weren’t very socially conscious, but she liked that Megatron never corrected him or beat him down.
- Shockwave altered his spark to have maximum bad vibes to destroy the All Spark.
- She said it’s hard talking about writing a show because you’re designing the experience and you have to make sometimes what sounds like cold and pragmatic decisions (eg: "we need a cold and spunky female”) which sucks, but they need to balance out the show. She says she’d never do that just for the sake of doing it, but it’s part of something that they do need to be aware of while working on a show. “It starts from a weirdly cold pragmatic place, but we try and put truth in it”.
- They didn’t want to have Unicron in the show since he’s the default “big bad”, but if he was in the show, Mae Catt says “If you put the proverbial budget-gun to my head, I’d keep Unicron in planet-mode because it’s more mysterious, but I want both alt modes”.
- Her favorite Megatron is Beast Wars Megatron.
- She doesn’t like Sky Lnxy’s design, it’s creepy. “He talks in the G1 episodes and the voice makes it worse.” She can’t get over his face.
- “I’d love to see more jets [who aren’t our usual gang] and find out all jets are kinda snobby, which explains why Starscream’s the way he is”.
- Everyone on the Autobot side are friends with each other.
Thanks for your time Mae Catt! We’re lucky to have you. Thank you for all your hard work on this amazing show.
