Jan 24
Lost in the Storm's Shadow
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Lost in the Storm's Shadow
Scream King - Miguel A. Nuñez Jr.
fic: What happens in the shadowzone stays in the shadowzone
When banishing Soundwave back to the shadowzone, Bumblebee gets stranded there with him. Timely escape requires a special kind of teamwork. RID Soundbee, rated M, 5k, humor
Bumblebee ate the ground.
Literally.
Soundwave knocked him down so hard that he could taste bits of dirt and metal between his dentae. Gross.
Why had he thought he could charge at Soundwave guns blazing and expect any other result? Hadn’t he just explained to his team that they couldn’t beat Soundwave and Laserbeak head on? Soundwave could outthink and outpower just about anybot. Ratchet’s words echoed in his processor: Soundwave is no ordinary Cybertronian, inside or out. And it seemed Soundwave’s exile in the shadowzone hadn’t weakened him in the slightest.
Bumblebee needed to get creative. He also needed to get back on his pedes.
“Soundwave, stop!”
Soundwave ignored him. He continued to fling Bee’s compatriots around with his tentacles like some kind of deep-space wraith. Bee needed to get the dangerous bot’s attention back on himself.
“Grimlock, here!”
At Bee’s signal, Grimlock threw an immobilized Laserbeak at Bee like a boomerang.
Bee caught the minicon and held him up. “Hey, Sounders! I’ve got Laserbeak! I’ve got–!”
Soundwave tackled him.
Oomph. The Decepticon’s sleek plating was heavier than it looked.
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An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
I wrote a Transformers Prime fic.
Transformers: Prime Season 1, Episode 15: "Shadowzone" Original Airdate: May 14, 2011 2023 TFP Rerun Airdate: May 14, 2024 [Watch on YouTube] Synopsis, courtesy of Apple: The kids accidentally become stuck inside an alternate dimension during a GroundBridge malfunction. To make matters worse, they’re trapped with a reanimated Skyquake!
Shadowzone by J. S. Cardone.
Dat’s right, people, it’s time for ‘Keef watches TFP and you just get the notes!’
This is for season 1, episode 15: Shadowzone
I write down the timestamps, but I watch Transformers Prime on Stan (an Australian streaming service) so they may be slightly off.
ALSO! I try my best to note points for every character, but tend to get a little caught up by Bee (although I think I do a pretty good job with the notes regardless) so do be warned.
~~~~Transition~~~~
00:12 - parallel between Megatron in the last episodes and Starscream now.
00:46 - Megatron noticed the parallel too.
01:10 - one of those moments where being a smexy bicth comes second to his job as a doctor.
01:19 - honestly, Knockout not pushing it shows just how well he knows Starscream.
01:33 - I thought the dark energon was necessary because Megatron needed energon, but his body was no longer comparable to accept anything other than dark.
~intro~
03:04 - I hardly even noticed Bee was there.
03:10 - the thinker.
03:16 - But Megatron was dead during the Skyquake episode. He wouldn’t know that Skyquake would require dark energon. Understandable why they’d assume it’s Megatron, but why would they assume Megatron’s there for Skyquake?
04:03 - this girl is on fiiiireeeeee + giving off ‘friends on the other side’ rn
04:18 - shut up, the way way Bee looks at Optimus and the cheetah meme have the same energy.
04:22 - so they truly are skipping over that angst? It appears I have a future project.
04:23 - Ratchet is the only one who doesn’t put on a game face when he’s addressed. We know why, but it’s nice to note.
04:30 - there’s something so perfect about the way Optimus jumps straight to explaining his decision and turns around to face Ratchet while doing so rather than pulling a classic ‘yes, because we need you’
04:35 - Once again, refreshing to see a character assigned to a position they’re not traditionally assigned to, but still showing passion and respect.
04:39 - How did Bulkhead not realise Miko was up to something?
04:42 - She’s drawing Optimus fighting Megatron.
04:46 - Glad to know someone’s paying attention.
04:52 - I love the way the bots walk, especially Optimus and Bee. There’s something so proper and powerful about it.
05:06 - LMAO
05:14 - Let’s pretend that Arcee couldn’t hear them.. why wouldn’t they yell out to her so she could stop Miko or close the ground bridge before Miko got there?
05:22 - Miko, Miko, Miko… frustrating af.
05:44 - they all have similar walk cycles, but none sync up.
05:53 - Bee dropping back as they walk along could be multiple things, him getting protected, acting as rear support, could also be because he’s the smallest but is walking at a similar pace to the others, meaning he’s covering less ground. Obviously I could be overthinking it too, but if we go that route these notes are completely useless.
05:55 - If you pause it at the right time Ratchet’s head makes it look like Optimus has a huge ass. (Unfortunately I did not screenshot it at the right time)
06:06 - my dude didn’t think to even ONCE call out to the bots and go ‘just so you know, we’re here’
06:18 - that would be my worst nightmare. Don’t have FOMO, just care about my phone.
06:25 - HO MAMMA
06:34 - the fading between the red and purple is so seemless and a nice detail
06:41 - I just need this screenshot to be witnessed. Why is he standing like that?? WHY DOES HE STAND LIKE THAT FOR SO LONG?
06:52 - this line’s so confusing when you forget that his arms are apart of his wings when he’s in his vehicle mode.
07:16 - AHHH THE HEAD TILT!!! Seeing that we’re looking at them from an angle, Bee’s most likely behind Bulkhead, meaning he cannot actually see the humans, but can hear them. + everyone else’s reactions tooooo!
07:27 - While everyone else looks at the ground bridge, Bee looks at the others before the bridge.
07:30 - Ratchet looking fabulous rn.
07:33 - 1. The way his voice echos is a really nice touch. 2. Ratchet using the same tone a parent would rn has me cryin.
08:06 - Starscream went into the ground bridge around the same time the kids did. Why wasn’t he caught?
08:14 - the longer that shot went for, the more I laughed.
08:26 - As soon as Starscream pulls out the dark energon it plays Arcee screaming ‘Tailgate’. Starscream has nothing to do with what happened to Tailgate. I think they were just reusing the sound from when Airachnid killed Tailgate and forgot to edit out the voice line. Upon evaluation, I do believe they’re different sounds. I don’t know why her voice line plays.
08:51 - Bee’s so cute until he breaks the fourth wall. + height difference my beloved.
09:03 - I don’t understand how the bots weren’t affected. Let’s say Starscream got to the otherside, but they kids didn’t, fine. But the bots were still caught in the explosion?
09:26 - You know that would be absolutely traumatising.
10:09 - … what was the point of insulting him?
10:14 - This is what makes it really confusing. How did Skyquake get caught in the shadow zone, but the other bots didn’t??
11:16 - Karma’s a bicth, ain’t she? Jack and Raf didn’t deserve it, but Miko totally did.
12:00 - God do I hate Miko rn. + Aw, Raf’s reaction
12:45 - Yes. In the rocks that are apparently not with you in the Shadowzone.
12:51 - you can hear Optimus trying not to show his panic and worry… and failing.
12:56 - Father and Son right here.
12:58 - with mild Confidence ‘what if you (or we) call them?’
13:35 - Not ‘nothing’. He picked up. He’s alive. It’s that there was no response.
14:05 - kinda disappointed that they didn’t have any other way to message the bots. Feels like there should be a way for the bots to message them and they message the bots, especially for situations where silence is necessary or Bee has to tell Miko or Jack something.
15:38 - Decepticons have parts to spare.
16:10 - Starscream’s arm is enormous compared to the kids.
17:23 - how does he get it open??
17:27 - *mwah* beautiful line delivery.
17:40 - god these line deliveries are stunning.
17:44 - It’s like the shot at the start.
17:46 - why does Starscream have the Crystal out?? What if Knockout saw?
18:35 - Love how either thought the other would be able to tell what Ratchet was saying.
18:47 - saying that as if common sense wouldn’t tell us that if they changed any part of it something would go wrong.
19:02 - aren’t they in a canyon? Isn’t that like one long strip??
19:31 - why would it be yours??
20:15 - glad the plan worked so seamlessly.
20:18 - Why wasn’t Bee sent? He’s Raf’s guardian after all.
20:31 - HOLY SCRAP LOOK AT HOW PRETTY IT IS!
20:34 - There’s literally no reason for Bee not to be(e) present.
20:39 - agreed. Repeat that and also apologise.
20:45 - Optimus smilinggggg
21:04 - a logical assumption.
21:10 - hc is that Knockout promotes self care for everyone (autobots included, but he’s careful when he does it.)
21:18 - I know Skyquake’s a zombie and all, but I feel bad for him.
———————
And that was Shadowzone!
It was alright. I’m not one for the human focused episodes, but it’s alright and a good way to introduce the Shadow Realm (despite how confusing it may have been.)
I thought the way Optimus was portrayed in the episode was good, showing how he cared for the children despite not really being allowed to express worry for their safety. I will admit that Bulkhead, Arcee and especially Bumblebee’s reactions to their charge’s going missing were too weak from any standpoint.
I thought that the Starscream plot line was quite weak as well and I don’t really understand what they were going for.
Dear Vector Prime
In the Aligned Continuity, there exists an alternate dimension known as The Shadow Zone, which is accessed when two Space Bridge Portals overlap.
However, outside of only a handful of occasions (such as when Miko, Jack, Raf, Soundwave and Bumblebee were all imprisoned there), very little is explained regarding its general existence.
To this end, I humbly ask; What is the Shadow Zone's purpose and how does it function?
Getting as much detail as possible to finally solve this mystery of a realm would bring me some much needed closure, I can assure you.
Dear Shadowz One,
In this case, it might help to think of a universe as being a cloud of associated dimensions, orthogonal but intersecting to varying degrees—and those associations may not hold both ways. The Shadowzone is intruded on by many of the more central layers, but does not necessarily itself intrude on those layers in turn (unless an intersection is induced artificially, as with conflicting Groundbridges); thus, the strange mode of interaction one experiences while trapped in the Shadowzone.
Fortunately for those in such a predicament, both the Shadowzone and your typical spatiotemporal reference frame are mutually overlapped by what scientists and philosophers have variably called the noösphere, the astral plane, or infraspace. They all refer to the same thing: the dimension of pure thought and information. This allows for signals to pass freely between the dimensions, a fact exploited by Miko, Raf, and Jack via a mobile telecommunications device, although any nearby psychic would have worked just as well.
As to the Shadowzone's purpose—if any dimension can be said to have such a thing, we can only speculate on Primus' designs.