#tailgate confession

[transformersconfessions]

https://www.tumblr.com/transformersconfessions/802836207679700992/jro-isnt-a-good-writer-but-yall-arent-ready?source=share

I did not say he was a bad writer for any of those reasons. Am I glad for more female characters? Of course. But that was nothing crazy in IDW. There's lots of cool female characters outside of MTMTE. The production challenges he faced? A shame, but it's no excuse for his bad writing, only for the rushed aspect. Now, the reasons why I consider him a bad writer are:

- Infantilization: Tailgate is not only naive, missed millions of years of his life and small, but he has the holoform of a baby which is NOT a funny joke, and the term "grooming" is used for his character. How is this not intentional? The way he treats his character is gross. And yet, the fans are attacked for calling it out.

- Mockery/dismissal of sexual assault: As an asexual species, "sexual assault" may be loosely used, but the way Chromedome attacked Prowl in that one scene was very predatory, and it was an assault, regardless of it was sexual or not. Was this ever addressed? No, because Prowl sucks and so it's okay to treat him like less. The second case ALSO involves Chromedome, and this one is much more straightforward. Do we all remember that one scene with Roller, where Rewind and Chromedome were "canoodling" inside of him without his consent? And when he felt violated and tried to speak up about it, his concerns were dismissed because JRO felt like making it into a joke? Very funny.

- Mockery of religion/believers: Take a shot everytime a religious character is ridiculed, made extravagant or not taken seriously for their beliefs. JRO is not considerate of these themes. He thinks it's so funny to make the religious character look like a naive idiot when they're following their faith.

- Weak characterization: If he's not making everything into a joke, he's turning flashed out characters into yet another version of the same character with the same humour and same reactions. Why is every character sarcastic? Why is every character incredulous? Why is every character quippy? It just depends on the moment, but most of their dialogues sound the same without context. Every character is just an extension of himself and that makes his writing feel flat.

- Megatron: Yes, he gets his own section. I don't care if Megatron wasn't part of his plan, as a professional writer, you have no excuse to turn a deep, controversial and appealing character into a joke of himself. MTMTE Megatron has NOTHING in common with what was previously introduced in IDW. Should he act differently? Yes, this is the arc where Megatron makes the greatest turn in his life when he realises the error of his ways. But nothing about his redemption felt organic, and JRO didn't help once by making Megatron seem inoffensive so often. He acts like he was lobotomized (which is ironic within the story, but we're not here to talk about that), and I can barely get a sense of the old Megatron in IDW. And it's not just his characterization! JRO couldn't bother to make a redemption arc that had Megatron dealing with real consequences, and instead everything went pretty smoothly except for the Getaway arc where everyone suffered the consequences for him, and then ended the conflict with the DJD by glazing Megatron through a dying Ravage. A few other things happen in between, but here comes the cherry on top: the Functionist Universe. Now, how can you redeem a tyrant that has destroyed worlds, extinguishes species, tortured and experimented on his own kin, and groomed the now worst members of the Decepticons? Easy! OFF-PAGE you make him save a whole other universe, going through an eight hundred years "development" and coming back a hero that, when he dares doubt himself, is quickly reassured by randos that owe him his life. Awesome! What a great redemption! Brought me to tears. It's almost like it was yesterday when he was still just starting his redemption arc... Oh, wait.

JRO sucks at writing characters and he sucks at writing lasting and touching consequences. Is there anything good in his writing? Sure. But the bad outweighs the good for me, and I could never recognize JRO as a good writer. I don't care if there's anyone that's "worse", it does not make him better.

tumblr has decided I can't reblog responses for some reason. I am so sorry this has been attempted to be posted like 4 times. trying to figure it out </3

[transformersconfessions]

Getaway was never genuinely attracted to Tailgate, he didn't give a damn about him other than he was easy to manipulate and would get Megatron off the ship. The reputation he gets for being some creepy stalker perv is just wrong and unfair, also deeming him this pedo predator is one, wrong, and two, basically infantilising Tailgate.

I think if JRO used any character other than Tailgate and used a different word other than "grooming" (even though that word does not always have sexual connotations) he would probably not be given the reputation he has. I don't care if people hate him, not everyone's going to like a character and he is a villain after all but people brushing him off as a character just for that reason/misunderstanding just kind of bugged me.

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[transformersconfessions]

I honestly think that Getaway is treated like a predator because of how infantilized Tailgate is (by the story and the fandom). I'm not saying that what he did wasn't wrong and it does constitute as grooming, but Getaway has a lot of nuance in his story and the fandom boils him down to a child diddler. If I saw mecha space hitler get away with a slap on the wrist I'd groom someone in my plan to get rid of him too lmfao.

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[transformersconfessions]

I don't like it when people criticize something in fandom but then don't apply that to canon.

"Fans need to stop infantilizing IDW Tailgate!" Okay, but you do realize that trend stemmed from how the author treated him, right? That he'd only had two-weeks of lived experience before falling underground, and his holoform was a baby, and his partner calls him "little one" as a nickname etc. That's all pretty egregious, so shouldn't we start by criticizing the author's decisions?

"Fans use racist tropes when they write about Jazz!" ...said by people who also say they love the IDW arc about Jazz having once been a beat cop who is abandoned by his comrades and then aggressively hunted by police and the military for having once killed a cop to save his friend.

"The way fans write about Drift and sex work plays into Orientalism!" It does, but you know the author is the one who made him rent out his body parts and once joked that Drift "rented out his thighs" right? This trend started with canon and with him.

"Can people stop reducing TF One Elita-1 to a mom figure when she wasn't in canon?" That is very annoying and she wasn't a mom in canon, but it's strange to me when people who say this never mention how Elita-1 being ignored compared to the male characters was also a trend in the film itself? We should probably start there, shouldn't we? SHE ISN'T EVEN IN THE THEME SONG WHEN ALPHA TRION IS

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[transformersconfessions]

Shaking my head at whatever awful thing getaway does to tailgate (he should have done worse)

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[transformersconfessions]

Okay, accusing me of being bigoted just because I appreciated post-Earthspark TF media diverging away from IDW storylines is a reach. I dont like it when writers are trying to make IDW as THE bible of Transformers lore and worldbuilding and trying to unify continuities when continuities being inconsistent with one another wasn't an issue before. I dont like IDWs senate/politics-centered comics because they sometimes break the flow of the plot unless it has tragic yaoi due to functionalism like ShockOp. I think Megatrons repentance arc is the weakest part of MTMTE and LL since I prefer the other crew's stories way more and how they suffered under functionalism and the war which then gets shoehorned by Megatrons 'oh woe is me' attitude when all I wanted was more Cywhirlgate. And I appreciate DWJs absolute disinterest in making Skybound Megatrons backstory sympathetic and making his backstory the weakest issue in his run. I literally thought we were all gay in this site, which is why I didnt explain as to WHY I didnt like IDW.

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[transformersconfessions]

My most controversial opinion is that CyGate is an age gap relationship, and what makes it special is that Cyclonus doesn't take advantage of his greater experience over Tailgate.

I really don't like it when people genuinely mean stuff like "Tailgate is older than Ratchet". Now don't get me wrong, joking that he's an old fart is really fucking funny, but some people say it to justify shipping CyGate as if that's gonna make it okay ? Guys it's already a healthy relationship, they have a whole development arc where Cyclonus realises he can't hover over Tailgate all the time and Tailgate realises he should stop pretending that he's more knowledgeable than he is because it's getting him hurt. They literally learn to be more than their difference in age and experience.

Yes, Tailgate is a grown adult by Cybertronian standards, yes, his holoform doesn't mean he's an actual child, but no, he's not "older" than everyone else on the ship. Tailgate simply hit the pause button. He's not profusely lying about everything to everyone for shits and giggles, he does that to compensate for being young and unexperienced. Cyclonus is the only one who cares enough to see through the lies and not judge him for it, which is why they end up paired together. Both of their bodies are old but only one of them has lived through all that time. Genuinely pisses me off when people shallowly make age-related power imbalances all about physical appearance, when the real source of power is in the mind and that's where you should be looking for disparities.

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[transformersconfessions]

Sometimes it can feel incredibly difficult as a fan of the franchise to embrace specific concepts. There's a culture around the status quo that worsens character dynamics over time.

Part of what i mean is the idea of Ratchet or Breakdown, fans will immediately go "where is his husband" if they show up in a new series, speaking of coursw about drift and knockout. Its this insistence upon idw/prime being the source material for all new art, and it sucks.

If i were to write about Swerve or Brainstorm or Drift, i cant doso without knowing people will view those depictions as "wrong" due to not being idw.

I feel like i cant write Brainstorm as a Christian biochemist despite the fact thats an established aspect of his character

I cant write swerve as being the scientist he is beceause people want him to be the Bluestreak duplicate that was in IDW

Drift has this whole thing around needing to be slapped onto ratchet/being an autobot which leads to a concern with focusing on his time as a decepticon/his sins.

The same goes for whirl being chaotic or incorporating tailgates original gimmick. I can physically write it but there's a culture that makes it feel unacceptable or outside the bounds of what can be.

Hell, magnus even has this with the whole "rules man" thing that prime and idw did [i like writing him more as the idw 2 soldier who demands a lack of formality]

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