#transformers paragon

[thestitchesarchive]

woah hey what's this I found in the missing G1 Season 4 bin? Why if it isn't the Decepticon superweapon himself, Paragon! It was quite brave of the writers to try adding gay representation in 1986 with him and that Cyclonus romance subplot-

(perhaps one may consider this a very overdue addendum to this post by @bloodilymerry because why not, I already G1'd Provoke, might as well slowly work the rest of the gang in.)

[thestitchesarchive]

in the very end, the only thing that can free you (from art block) is the power of true love

(and maybe the desire to see more cyclonusxparagon on one's dash)

+ bonus flats because I'm quite proud of the shading.

[thestitchesarchive]

Shout out to Guido Guidi, a short storytime:

Drawing robots is a pain. Much moreso a pain when said robots are dead and have no full-body, full-color references because they are extremely small side characters who also are in various states of death and decay.

I was somewhere in the middle of trying to make a full-body reference Paragon particularly because I'm sewing a doll of him right now and need designs for his turnaround which warranted combing through IDW2 and screenshotting every single instance of his appearance in panel, which already isn't a lot. From there, I could take his various appearances and cobble together a design for him like I had for his other dead comrades. However, there were a few problems: 1. he never appears in full-body on panel, most of the time he's behind someone or cut off by a speech bubble/panel border, and 2. Anna Malkova and Guido Guidi seem to have drawn him with 2 different designs throughout the series, which means my reference would probably be pretty inaccurate. Being the canon-compliant stickler I am, this made me very angry. (Also, I didn't have his full colors, which also made me sad.)

In a moment of desperation and fuck-it-we-have-nothing-to-lose energy, I decided hey, maybe I can ask the actual artist, Guido Guidi, if he still has the un-scanned panels of Transformers #37, where the color reference of Paragon is- it was my best chance at a full color body shot of him. (For reference, the panel I'm referring to had Paragon's full front shot in view but most of it was obscured by a speech bubble. I figured speech bubbles were added in post, so the unobscured OG art had to be lying around somewhere.)

So I reached out to the guy on Twitter. I didn't really expect a response, because he'd done this work a solid 5 years in the past and didin't seem particularly online, and also I was kind of a guy with zero followers looking for pictures of an extremely particular piece of paper that he probably threw out ages ago.

To my surprise, THE MADLAD RESPONDED.

He didn't give me the original page I was looking for, without the speech bubbles. But he DID give me PARAGON'S ORIGINAL MODEL SHEET.

I felt like I struck gold. To say I was over the moon would be an understatement, because now I didn't just have his full front reference, but a back reference of his tank kibble that I would not have ever gotten from the comics in a million years. I got a front view, side view, back view, literally everything I would've ever needed (except the colors, but I was plenty happy to accept this gift from literal art God that I didn't need them that badly.)

And that's the story of how I got my hands on solid gold. Guido Guidi, if you're out there on tumblr, thank you again a million times. You're so cool and awesome for having the extremely niche character that I was looking for and for going out of your way to find said character when I solicited you. I hope you sleep on a cool pillow every night and never stub your toe. You're my hero.

PS. For those wondering, here's the reference. I don't suppose I ever got explicit permission from Guidi to share this online, but given that he gave a random online fan the sheet, I figure it's probably okay to spread the wealth...

thanks again guido guidi you're awesome and cool and amazing and wonderful love youuuuuuu

[thestitchesarchive]

Paragon, the individual, and anti-function: backstory and ideology for So, What Now?

Rant partially inspired by some thoughts about modern art and my lack of understanding of it (only to realize that may have been the point). That and capitalism. (all this for a fic on ao3 that I haven't worked on in 3 months, but trust me this is me working on it)

Some character context: Canonically, Paragon is relatively good-hearted, described as a romantic. He fought in the War of the Threefold Spark alongside Cyclonus, and kibble suggests he turns into a tank. That and my headcanon that he would’ve been an artist by trade, which contrasts his soldier background, sets a pretty interesting basis for a character.

“Sentimental and empathetic in contrast with the more reserved Cyclonus, Paragon cared deeply for his partner's mental well-being.” (from TFwiki). 

Now for backstory/character development: Paragon, in a loose definition, lives up to his name: he is the precedent, a golden standard. Early on, it was pretty evident that he was going to be good at pretty much anything he put his mind to (through a combo of a good work ethic and mindset, and good ol’ fashioned Mary Sue talent). He was conscripted as a colonist in the Age of Expansion early in his life by his mentor, who convinced him that it would be the best use of his talents. At the time, being on the frontiers of the Age of Expansion and expanding Cybertron’s influence was considered the most honorable and useful thing one could do with their life. Young and inexperienced, he signed on with the project and worked under his mentor for some years before finally going solo on his first ride onto the frontier: Elstus III.

This (made-up) colony world is living hell. And without going too far into details, it is a high-risk, high-reward resource-harvesting world with a projected lifespan of maybe a few months at best due to its conditions. It’s the place where he learns to fight, and designated a lost cause a few years after its founding, at which point the colony titan and remaining settlers are recalled back to Cybertron. Paragon is at least a mid-ranking officer going into the project, but comes out as one of high command solely on the precedent of chain of surviving command. The entire experience is not a good one: but ultimately, upon return to Cybertron, he and his fellow colonists have stretched what was projected to be an 6-month failure into years of data collection, resource gathering, research and homeworld morale. He and his fellow survivors are lauded for their mettle on the worst part of the frontier- and immediately signed onto their next projects (following some heavy promotions).

At which point, Paragon realizes that this is an endless cycle: working hard, to be promoted, to work yet more. He has a path in front of him: to keep living through hell and the grind of the Expansion for Cybertron’s benefit, and for what benefit to himself? He has been told a thousand times that this is what is best for him to apply himself to, but what of his own (unrealized) passions and desires? So he drops himself from his position and resigns immediately. For the first time in his life, his talents aren’t being put towards anything as he leaves the Expansion program with zero plan to find himself for once in his life.

This is where he comes across the homeworld art scene- and really gets into it. In the wake of the Age of Expansion, of a pretty much never-ending growth where everyone’s talents are needed, there is a specific, relatively controversial sect of art-makers who refuse talent. As more and more resources funnel into factories, shipbuilding, forging and mining, the humanities and arts start to slip and become commodities in themselves. And it is this sect that refuses to let themselves become products to a society that obsesses over having more. 

(This is the part that ends up aligning with IRL capitalism, sorry lol.) Paragon realizes how strongly he aligns with their ideals. These mechs create art that is uncomfortable, unsettling, and completely unprofitable- deemed useless by the status quo. They make no profit off of it other than shock factor. Much like modern art today: think the very “random smudges of paint on a canvas” that seem arbitrary at best, and surrealist performance art that doesn’t create anything resembling an actual painting rather than smears on a wall. It’s not a pretty form of art, seems like a waste of both supplies and talent and time, but that is exactly the point. The art doesn’t serve a function to the world.

Because in a world where beauty and digestibility seems to dictate “artistic value” in a piece, and therefore monetary value/incentive to consume such media, a lot gets thrown to the side. Things start being simplified, following a formula to increase engagement. I’d argue that boldness/experimentation goes out the window unless it has visual appeal. Artists talk of losing their spark in the industry after years of bad working conditions and turning their passions into work- a commodity, a series of deadlines and corporate control. But this sect puts their own talent and passion to as much use as they dictate, which is to say they create without any monetary incentive but their own desire to send a message or to make something exist. And that becomes Paragon’s little rebellion against the system: to put his talents towards nothing that benefits the whole of the industrial colonist complex. To create useless art that he enjoys, even if for no use or profit to anybody else. (end of evil capitalism segue)

It’s here in this artist movement where he develops his own identity and love for life, redeveloping himself as a sentimental, interacting with others and getting to know the world that he spent years on the frontier working for. As an individual, he does love Cybertron- just not its pressure on the individual to throw themselves headlong into a system built to perpetuate its own growth or a status quo. He loves the people he meets and who they are, who they can be without the pressure of the world forcing a meaning on them, and their persistence in spite of all of this. This is part of the reason he chooses to enlist to fight in the war when Exarchon threatens the homeworld: not out of love for the colonies he worked on, but for his fellow mech. He goes to boot camp, meets Cyclonus and the squad, and the rest is history. Ish.

See, in this AU where he survives he’s now gone through the second cataclysmic event in his life and now has some choices to make. The end of the war basically brings a fresh start to society as a whole, save for Nominus and his senate calling the shots- but otherwise, the old regime of endless expansion is all but over. Unfortunately, with the Nominus Edict/other Nominus restrictions on the world, this new status quo seems to be the opposite side of the same coin: instead of encouraging societal growth (as unhealthy long-term as that might’ve been), it seems to suppress it altogether. Which is why Paragon falls in with Termagax’s teachings and the early Ascenticon movement, which at the time was relatively peaceful and believed strongly in self-determination. (Don’t have enough context on early Ascenticonism yet but will find some more sources.)

“Your life is yours to shape. In doing so, you owe nothing to those who came before you. But you owe everything to those as yet unforged. Let no shaping of yours, limit what they, in their turn, might yet be and achieve.” -Termagax (from TFwiki)

His path into the future in this fic is still kind of blurry (as this essay was mostly to sent grounds to plan out the rest of his arcs), but I think a lot of it is based in community and communal aid in a society where so much has been lost, and finding a balance between the radical rejection of his function and talents and working with the new status quo to make a better world for everybody living in it. By the end of the story, he’s going to run for a senate position as an Ascenticon, as a sort of foil to Megatron’s increasingly radical position on the movement. That much is for sure. (And that also sets a fun precedent for a modern IDW2 AU as well but we’re not that far along yet.) 

That’s all I’ve got on Paragon as of now. When I do some more delving into the rest of his squad’s backstories/ideologies I’ll maybe tie them together a little bit more, I definitely want to do an essay about him and Cyclonus (as a pair, and as individuals) but that will be down the line…

[thestitchesarchive]

Posting this here early because I don't think I am physically capable of shutting up about them at this time in this space. I love these doomed lovers so much.

On another note, if anyone has colored full-body references of IDW2 Paragon please hit me up because I HAVE NO REFERENCES OF HIM WHATSOEVER

[thestitchesarchive]

Paragon would totally be the Mom Friend™ of the group. And by extension, of course he definitely has pretty much everything and anything helpful (or just random) stored somewhere in his subspace. Spare wires? Check. Extra signal flares? He's got four. Duct tape to shut Grudge's sarcastic motor mouth for once? Oh, for sure. Hell, he's probably pulled an (open) bucket of paint out of his robot pockets at some point, to the great surprise of his unit. Well, never hurts to be prepared, right?

[thestitchesarchive]

voice hc

Paragon sounds like the lead singer to this song in my head:

No particular reason for it- I've just been listening to this song on repeat for some weeks and thinking about IDW2 and now this song is synonymous with Cyclonus's Dead Wife(tm)