oh! I wanted to draw the design after some time when I'm free, but you @piggyback-of-nutzone beat me to it! I really really like the design and colors, so I decided to slightly correct and add (I think I have the right..?) and add more references and details to the original tfp designg!! (there was also ventilation in an interesting place, but due to the peculiarities of my style, I couldn't draw it.. cry)
SO GET TO KNOW
It's drawn quickly and I'm not sure how to label it correctly, so let's have a combo of tfp tailgate & othet child (FUCK) cygate 💀✌✌
(He paints it under the visor to highlight it. Like the eyes, but the visor...YK)
±alt mode
if you look at his height in cygatess, I think that this bro would be an average height or maybe a little lower than a bot.
again based on tfp!! cool and responsible and loves extreme (cool guy. love rock /j). umm, don't know any further, think it over for yourself..
made a tfp au tailgate that’s based more on his mtmte version!!
(backstory under the cut)
Born with a condition that makes it so that he can’t scan or transform, Tailgate had to endure years of discrimination from peers for his disability, often feeling isolated or ashamed of himself. The treatment persists to this day on Earth with Team Prime. They shelter him due to a multitude of reasons such as protection and fear of being discovered. More than anything, Tailgate wishes to be treated like everyone else.
So it was only natural that Tailgate would seize opportunities to sneak off base to escape the crushing atmosphere of Outpost Omega One. It was during one of these excursions that he ran into the Decepticon Cyclonus.
Rather than deactivating him, Cyclonus was more flabbergasted on why Tailgate doesn’t even know basic self-defense. So, he proposes an idea: he’ll train him so that he can actually pose a challenge when they meet on the battlefield (his actual reason is so that when the time comes, he would be able to deactivate him without regret). And out of pure desperation, Tailgate accepted, thus starting an odd… acquaintanceship.
Bits of info:
- NOT RELATED IN ANY WAY TO THE TAILGATE ALREADY IN TFP
- Actually physically strong but doesn’t know how to use his strength
- Panics a lot
- His condition isn’t fatal
- Can’t be cured
- It’s not as simple as replacing the T-Cog as its also linked to a bot’s coding and their spark
Rewatching s01e12 "Predatory" and this realization is destroying me.
Just imagine that hundreds of years ago you watched someone you loved get brutally murdered in front of you.
Then, when you're fresh off losing someone else—who convinced you to start caring again after closing yourself off for centuries—you're suddenly responsible for protecting this incredibly fragile little creature, and every time he opens his mouth it's like you're hearing a ghost.
Autobot TFP Dragonformers designs as of midway through season 1
Individuals + notes under the cut
OPTIMUS PRIME
- Old man energy- big and tired
- definitely a departure from his days as Orion Pax
- Constantly tired, but doesn’t have as severe eyebags as Megatron because if sleep deprivation won’t kill him Ratchet will
- uses his bandana as a face mask- but less than you’d think
ARCEE
- I drew her angry because she deserves to kick someone in the face repeatedly
- “False Prime Horn” Helmet given as a gift by Optimus/Ratchet after Tailgate died, a symbol of her leaderly qualities and strong will (much closer to Airachnid’s in structural integrity)
- smallest in her family, but also the most agile
RATCHET
- another big old man
- can’t sleep won’t sleep (absolute hypocrite)
- the “heart monitor” pattern along his scales flashes when alarmed, but he’s learned to control it as he’s gotten older
- long, floppy ears to mimic the design of his helm in the actual show
- he gets green eyes because they deserve more eye color diversity (EDIT: I MADE THIS BEFORE WATCHING THE SYNTHEN EPISODE- MY DESIGN FOR HIM LIKELY WILL NOT HAVE GREEN EYES IN THE FUTURE)
BUMBLEBEE
- IGNORE HIS WEIRD ASS SKULL I’M SO SORRY
- facemask + bandana to hide scars from when he lost his voice box
- Bandana was a gift from Optimus after the incident
- Best thing he has at his disposal is his smarts (doesn’t have the brute force of Bulkhead or speed/agility of Arcee)
BULKHEAD
- gentle giant who will fuck someone up
- second largest in the family, still smaller than Optimus
- sheer strength and a fair amount of muscle mass
- does- in fact- have a thick skull. Can and use that thick skull to fatally headbutt somebody
WHEELJACK
- I need you guys to understand how hard coming up with a design I liked for him was. He’s a fucking 7-11 gremlin with no neck.
- The red stripes are green on the other side
- Bigass ears and he is actually no better hearing than the average bot (maybe even worse, given close quarters combat)
- bandana is really just a way to hide his lack of a neck why does he not have a neck
CLIFFJUMPER
- definitely liked some bits of jewelry during his lifetime
- eyebags are more a show of age than tiredness- he’s generally well-rested
- he has the same splatter pattern Tailgate does, but gold and on his rear half instead of his front
Optimus listens to classical music rarely, usually just white noise to distract himself from the ever encroaching thought of death
Bumblebee listens to early 2010 pop music (so like Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Charlie XCX, etc.) Because he's girlie pop and it's about the time that TFP came out
Arcee is a punk girl. As in she's probably sat outside concerts wishing she could be in there, so she records the songs to listen to later on and enjoys herself
Ratchet in secret listens to a LOT of (and I mean a lot) Beatles. If he's caught listening to human music, he denies it adamantly.
Bulkhead (thanks to Miko) listens to scream-o and a lot of heavy metal as we've seen in the actual show
Ultra Magnus doesn't.
Wheeljack listens to classic rock so like 70s to 90s rock. Sometimes grunge if he's feeling like being emo that day
Cliffjumper listens to My Chemical Romance in secret, absolutely having the time of his life
Theres like no info on Tailgate, so I have zero idea what he'd listen to
Decepticon time :]
Megatron thinks the sounds of screaming is music, it isn't, but nobody has told him otherwise
Starscream will refuse to listen to human music for a bit but ends up becoming addicted to like weird core music idfk
Knock Out is a fake swiftie. He listens to Taylor Swift for the sole purpose of pissing everyone off (he actually likes Rock)
Soundwave listens to mostly white noise, occasionally dark techno music alone when nobody else is close enough to hear
Steve is Steve. He listens to a lot of genres. No genre is safe from Steve.
Breakdown listens to rock with Knock Out and they will go on hour long debates on whose the best band. However if anyone else enters, Taylor Swift will be put on. (Its good repellent)
Airachnid pirates most the songs she listens to, and has yet to tell anyone that she is the true Swiftie, not Knock Out whose in reality a fake swiftie.
Hardshell definitely listens to Baby Metal. There's no way in hell he wouldn't.
Shockwave doesn't listen to music and thinks it's illogical to distract himself with such nonsense.
Predaking discovered the Godzilla soundtrack and refuses to listen to anything else despite pleas from most of the other decepticons
Dreadwing listens to death metal. Specifically when he's fighting/fucking slaughtering autobots he's sent to dispose of. When he isnt destroying families and lives, he secretly listens to 90s pop music
Skyquake wasn't alive long enough to find out what music was. Poor guy.
I’ve always felt angry about Arcee and Airachnid’s rivalry. Not the rivalry itself but how it started. I like their dynamic, it’s fun, but the reason behind it just never clicked for me and always made me feel anger for it. And it all ties to my hatred for TFP Tailgate
Now him dying sure, that’s its own thing. But due to design, lack of anything beyond his one flashback appearance, and no real mentions being just a prop. He’s just so stuffed in the fridge that when Airachnid killed him and that was the overarching reason behind Arcee’s hatred of the spider, it just …never hit home for me.
Like if there was more flashbacks, moments, just something to show what and who he was to Arcee. Something to just get to know how deeply his death felt for her by giving what made him such a good person and partner. And the fact I didn’t even realize he was Tailgate cause as far as I remember I just thought he was still random insert character and not that he had a much bigger presence in the comics with more personality and fun things to watch.
And due to the hatred I have for even the concept of his existence, it made me dislike the rivalry at its base level. Which is why in All Systems Normal that ain’t how it started. Tailgate is not in the equation for Airachnid and Arcee’s rivalry and I have a different plan for how their hatred started
Also Cliffjumper won’t be dying, at least not forever, he has his own thing that will happen in the TFP side for ASN
So yeah this was my short ramble about something I had issues with the show. I love the show for all my heart, it’s one of the main ones I grew up watching and got me into transformers. But I still have my beef with stuff in it that I could ramble on for a long time.
I have this very specific headcanon about tfp Tailgate (which is actually just me mashing the aligned continuity and MTMTE together while hoping for the best)
