#the senator

[koroa]

[vivificanousprime]

I saw the ask talking about Shockwave's brain damage being exploited earlier today and just now I was rereading chapter 6 and i'd gotten to the part where Soundwave and Megatron fail miserably at communication. Where Megatron tells Soundwave "you and Shockwave are the most steadfast in your loyalties" and then suddenly changes the topic to Shockwaves mental state, calling his so-called tangents "tedious". Like listening to the guy is done out of some kind of weird moral obligation rather than actually recognizing anything he has to say as coherent or important.

I've never really thought about it since there's so much else happening in that conversation, just kinda brushed it off as "You are aware the guys a crazy scientist, right?" But thinking about it now... Megatron really just sees Shockwave as this 'poor, batshit insane senator who can't think for himself anymore' doesn't he?

That's kinda fucked, man.

**Nods excitedly** I'm SO happy you made the connection!!!

Yes, a side theme with Shockwave since the beginning of the fic has been people viewing him as in some way mentally broken by empurata. Namely Megatron.

Firstly, it's important to note for Megatron's defense that empurata is seen as a mind-altering procedure that does more than wipe memories, which is a widely debated claim. So far as Megatron can tell, this claim is 100% true in Shockwave's case. The Senator was a much more flamboyant presence than our Shockwave is, albeit due to an exhausting amount of masking that Megatron would have little to no knowledge of. He legitimately believes the person who bought his and Soundwave's (and Ravage's by proxy) freedom was arrested, tortured, and permanently changed. Him humoring Shockwave is, to him, a moral obligation to pay his dues to a person who paid for him to have a voice. It is also noteworthy that Megatron didn't really even like the Senator and has an even harder time liking Shockwave, so this moral obligation really emphasizes the obligation part. There's no love in it, only tolerance until he finds a use for Shockwave as his executioner of insane feats of science.

Secondly, let's look at the times Megatron references "having to" listen to Shockwave because I agree they're fucked up and worth analyzing. Here's the conversation in chapter 6 (from the initial miscommunication to Soundwave's reactions to Megatron's statement):

I want to quickly pair this with an earlier moment in the same chapter where I included this internal struggle Soundwave has in an interaction with Shockwave:

This is here in the opening scene of the chapter to establish that, yes, interacting with Shockwave can be a "tedious" endeavor even to Soundwave. The difference between Soundwave and Megatron is that Soundwave does not see interacting with Shockwave as anything noble. Soundwave loves Shockwave and therefore adores even the labors of love. Megatron feels indebted to a perceived dead mech and therefore feels obligated to worship the rotting of his corpse. Which is an insane perception to have of a mech who is not dead and just wants to infodump about wet plants and molecules.

Case in point, here's a comment Megatron makes after Shockwave leaves the room in chapter 2:

Shockwave is a chore, an obligation, a drain who cannot seem to realize the obviousness of how little anyone wants to talk to him. That's Megatron's perception and, unfortunately, the perception of most empurata victims.

I want to be careful, here, in drawing connections between neurodivergence and empurata. Shockwave has always been like this. As the Senator, he longed to infodump and walk away from unpleasant conversations and tell people they were being stupid when they were. But the Senator was raised in a society that employed social rules forbidding him from acting in his version of normal. He couldn't take several minutes to quietly process something, he couldn't stop smiling, he couldn't speak at length about whatever thing was on his mind. Our Shockwave had no such social stigma and so operated in his version of normal as though it was normal. I've thrown Shockwave into social situations throughout the fic for both comedy and commentary. Because as wonderfully humorous as it is seeing him walk away from people he no longer wants to talk to or tuning out when listening isn't worth his time, it is equally interesting to see how other characters bring their own socially programed stigmas into interactions with him. Soundwave is unique in that he refused a lot of the social rules imposed on him since he neither abided by them nor saw their value. Megatron believed he needed to comply with as many as he could to be accepted into a world he was not born into during his time as an activist in Iacon. Both Starscream and Knock Out know what's it's like to be an outsider unable to adequately comply no matter how hard they tried, so the worst they'd do to Shockwave is manipulate him (Starscream, see chapter 18) or tease him (Knock Out on countless occasions). And far too many Autobots are too entrenched in these very social norms to not see deviance as anything but an indication of immorality or loss of mental facilities.

Megatron has this terrible blend of perceiving Shockwave as deviant, permanently maimed, and a moral burden. It's no wonder he gets as jealous as he does when the cassettes show so much interest in Shockwave compared to him or when he sees Soundwave becoming close friends with Shockwave. Why would these people he considers family want to hang out with an inconvenient, "tedious" burden instead of him? This eats at his already waning securities until he's prepared to force separate the Waves in chapters 37 and 38.

And, unfortunately for the Waves, the Autobots are only better than Megatron in this regard for their lack of jealous insecurity.

[haveyouseenthisqueerfilm]

Have you seen The Senator (2024)?

Yes

No

I've never heard of this film

Voting ended onMay 22, 2025

[dummy-dot-exe]

by bamman@bamman12

[mobi-gg]

Some Bicycle Boy fanart

tumblr better not kill the quality

[queenlakiefer]

Watched The Cowboy Way (1994) last night and I can’t get this scene out of my head…the smut possibilities are endless 😩😍🥵❤️

Never wrote smut fanfiction before but might have to make an exception…don’t know if I will be any good at it but will give it ago 😅😍

[bicycleboyblog]

Hi! Could I ask if you have any fascinating tidbits to share about the Senator's design? It's interesting how she strikes a balance between tactical wear (the cargo pants, the jacket, the gloves) and more posh choices (the red ascot stands out the most). I think the most interesting thing about her design are the red shades she shares with her soldiers - to me they seem to function as a tool of depersonalization, a way to put a barrier between themselves and others. I just love a good villain, that's all. (You don't have to answer this ask if it's too spoiler-y.)

The Senator is very particular about appearances. Mostly I wanted to hint that she's a fancy lady who comes from a wealthy family (also involved in politics / warfare) and had a stupid amount of money before the apocalypse. She's dressed to the nines her whole life. She has so many outfits that her whole wardrobe remains in excellent condition. She must look perfect and powerful. Ever striving to exude the utmost, maximum masculinity, she favors men's clothes, and jackets that alter her silhouette to give her bigger shoulders. Or just make her bigger in general. The Senator is tall, but lean under her many layers of clothes.

Still, practicality is key. If she goes out on a mission with her men, she will dress in more practical military garb.

She expects her soldiers to conduct themselves the same way, but of course, being their leader, she razzes it up the most. To her if you are beautiful, you are simply worth more. Those who aren't must always strive to be more beautiful. This of course deeply fucks with the people of Fort Anne - they squabble and fall into starkly different classes due to varying levels of perceived "beauty" and "usefulness" (ability to work). Soldiers and leader are worshiped above all.

Her followers admire the fuck out of her, though. So, early on in all this, they got copying her mannerisms, her flowery language, the glasses thing, just clamoring for her approval. She was annoyed at first but came to appreciate it as a powerful tool for control. We haven't seen these guys interact when there isn't a prisoner or outsider present, so. I'll let the comic expand on the glasses.

Related to the role model thing, though -- a common twist in conversation for the soldiers is to battle each other's wits by seeing who can spin the fanciest poetry on the spot, lol. Now you know why they talk silly.