#rad white

[margaret-97]

[whose is your fav transformer?]

I’ll make the full colour one when I get home

upd: added their eye colours and made the lineart more thick

[thesleepyfable]

~ The Mini-Cons ~

I have finally, after nearly a month, completed Mini-Con designs for Alexis, Brad and Carlos, for my TF Armada Remake/AU fan fic [x]

For context, TF Animated is my favourite art style from the franchise, so I used a lot of character sheets for reference points, as I'm still not good at drawing robots. And, sticking to my Studio Trigger redesigns, Carlos' optics are shut, but they are an electric yellow. He usually opens them when he's scared or shocked by something.

Alexis is honestly my favourite out of the trio. Meanwhile, Brad, despite having the easiest design on paper, went through three redraws, because whenever I tried to include handlebars or mirrors, it just didn't sit right with me. I haven't drawn their alt-forms, but Carlos' is the best in my head, because, to memory, I've never seen a canon character be a hoverboard.

And, sorry for so much free space on Brad and Carlos' sheet, but Alexis' wings had to be first priority for canvas size.

[angelfishcake]

in reference to this poll I made

[awesome-normal-heroes]

Transformers AU, where these kids/teens all exist in the same world (and Sari is a normal yet genius teen in battle armor)...

[stephemcd]

If the human characters in Transformers Armada/Energon use social media, these might their preferred platforms.

[thescreaminghat]

ok ok but despite all its flaws as a show tf armada had a pretty meaningful scene (at least in my opinion) that ties together the ideas it was exploring re "fathers and sons". on the one hand you have starscream struggling to earn a single ounce of recognition and respect from megatron, in a way that is so painfully reminiscent of a neglected child trying to gain affection and approval from a shitty parent because that's all they've been taught to look up to. starscream is beaten and humiliated for even making suggestions in the interests of the decepticons, despite following every order and trying his best to fight for "the cause" even though it no longer makes sense to him. he returns to megatron despite declaring that he no longer cares about what megatron thinks about him, because he does still care---megatron literally blames starscream for having a "conscience." all megatron wants is to hammer down the nail that is sticking up, the "problem child" who can't just take a few hits and move on, and all starscream wants is megatron to just acknowledge him as a person, just once.

on the other hand, you have the scene that i want to talk about: rad waking up his parents in the middle of the night to tell them about the existence of cybertronians and their civil war, and looking like a crazy person as he's rattling off about how he needs to go with the autobots into space while standing in his jammies. and the fallout of that interaction ends up being that his father (at least how im understanding this scene), while not necessarily believing in the substance of what rad says, believes in his son. he sees his child's determination and optimism and he knows that rad is being truthful. he reminisces about his own childhood, about having to give up on his own dreams and excitement about the universe in order to move on in life, and understands where his son is coming from. all he asks is that rad comes home safely.

it reminds me a lot of a scene in madoka magica, when walpurgisnacht is attacking the city, and madoka confesses to her mom, junko, that she needs to leave the emergency shelter in order to save homura, and that only she can do this. even though madoka's mother is confused and distressed at the idea of letting her only daughter follow through with her plan (she even slaps madoka, something that is shocking to see knowing how much the two love each other), she ultimately puts her faith in madoka and lets her go. i don't think that situation was meant to be taken in a literal sense (i.e. that the show was literally trying to say that parents should just let their children do crazy shit like run into a natural disaster), but rather, i think the point was that the relationship between child and parent must be formed out of trust, and that even when the urge to "govern" a child arises out of genuine affection and a desire to protect what the parent believes are the child's best interests, it must be balanced with the parent's trust of that child's capabilities and good intentions, something that can only be done when there is acceptance of the child's autonomy as a person and recognition of their beliefs, attitudes, and values. the central conflict for junko leading up to that confrontation was her sense of gradual alienation from madoka---despite being a "girlboss" role model and an emotionally nurturing figurehead for her daughter, junko implicitly expresses the fear that she no longer understands madoka or is as connected to her, at a period when madoka is developing and becoming her own person. in a few scenes, junko resembles a traditionally overworked father figure, similar to rad's father (who literally looks like he has lost a lot of his passion and interest outside of his work). thus, when junko agrees to let madoka go into the storm, she is essentially telling madoka, "i do trust you, and i see you, and i hear you, and i love you. though i will always be your parent---and therefore will do everything to protect you---i cherish your trust in me as a parent more than i cherish whatever authority i have and my own sense of pride in that role. i believe you."

so when rad's father ultimately accepts that his son's wild story that he needs to go somewhere far, far away to help the autobots, i see his reaction not as a plot device (because why include the scene anyways if rad's parents don't show up for the other 99% of the series?) but as a parent coming to terms with what they also need to do in order to preserve and develop their bond with their child. and, idk, the whole scene is very touching to me while keeping a level of nuance in the interaction (compared to an equivalent, but less nuanced, scene in tf cybertron where the human protagonists literally need the autobots to physically reveal themselves before their parents can believe them), and it makes sense why rad displays that sense of empathy and trust in the minicons later in the time loop.

overall, i think this scene was very bittersweet knowing that this parallel could be drawn between rad's interaction with his father and starscream's desire to have that kind of trust placed in him (making his interaction with alexis, whom he thanks for trusting him despite his betrayal, all the more impactful). idk armada might be goofy but sometimes it gets the emotional beats in a way that just isn't there in the rest of the unicron trilogy.

[nielsthecat]

[ID: a tweet from "that's rad" @/ratto reading, "I don't know ANY cis people. Just my lying, probably transsexual "father"" end ID.]

[messymerr]

Been meaning to make this when I was reading Fun Pub's Shattered Glass

He's only mentioned and his name is Brad