blueikeproductions

[blueikeproductions]

Yeah so while Hasbro just recolored CV Hot Rod into Prowl for some reason…

Takara just did what we were all thinking.

This line continues to be a mystery and while such a thing isn’t unheard of, Cyberverse had RiD15 Blurr and Bee plugged in for its Blurr & Bee, but it still doesn’t make it any less lazy.

Some fans have gone on to affectionately name the Hasbro Prowl “Checkpont” after the Energon character.

At least doing so gives the toy more of its own identity and if they had an ongoing EarthSpark comic, no chance of that now, I could see the staff playfully reconcile the two as Prowl & Checkpoint to reference the gag. It’s how Vehicon Steve became “canon”.

#blueike #transformers #maccadam #transformers earthspark

[blueikeproductions]

My JD: What’s going on WHOA WHAT THE FUCK.

Dan: …You know what, still not the weirdest thing I’ve woken up to. -gives JD the side eye-

My JD: What? I was cold and your bed was right there…

Dan: You were on top of me. I thought you were a bottom anyway. -wiggles eyebrows playfully-

My JD: Shaddup!

My Martha: Aw, JD has a sister! -tilts her head- So that’s what it’s like in your family.

My JD: Nooooooooo.

My Veronica: -playfully pokes My JD’s cheek- See? I toldja you need to practice self love.

My JD: We both know that’s NOT what you meant, darling! -gets his in the face with FemJD’s pants and OtherJD’s boxers-

some kind of selfcest? I dunno 👀

#heathers the musical #heathers au #howverysalty #blueike productions #heathers #heathers oc

[blueikeproductions]

So browsing Dollar General I found another copy of the new Pokémon magazine, but included on the bottom rack is a digest version of the magazine.

It had different content and a different cover, focusing on Eevee, but once again no HZ only Journeys.

The marketing for Paldea and HZ in the states continues to baffle me. Like the bigger magazine the only thing related to Paldea itself is a one page about books, and that’s it. Are they relying on kids being on YouTube or Instagram in particular because that’s where I’ve seen the bulk of any acknowledgement of HZ. And Instagram posts in particular are still doing a general meme thing about different Pokémon that tries to crop OUT the humans in the anime be they Ash’s friends or Liko’s friends…

Like I understand wanting to focus on the Pokémon themselves but trying to remove the humans who are also vital to the series is bizarre, and that they continue to avoid using Liko unless they HAVE to feels contrary to advertising your new lead.

The continued use of Ash & Team Rocket in the magazines so far makes me feel Liko isn’t testing well and they’re relying on Ash to get kids to buy it. Again I don’t know how far in advance these rags were made but surely they had to have had access to HZ to make coloring pages, quizzes and the like.

How hard is it to make a generic maze activity with Liko needing to find Terapagos or Sprigatito. Where’s the Friede Pokémon Quiz about certain Paradox Pokémon? This is so baffling to me just from a marketing perspective, this is anti marketing, and only fuels my feelings Liko will be forgotten and Ash will return because it’s looking more apparent they feel more confident in him. Case in point, a Life magazine about Pokémon only features Ash when talking about the anime, no sign of HZ (though in fairness it may have been briefly mentioned in text, but no pictures of the new anime appeared. Just Ash). It doesn’t help audiences have largely admitted neither she or Roy are going anywhere, and accept Dot as the true star of HZ, as she’s the only one with a character arc. The problem remains she’s still mostly a background character that wound up being a happy accident as I don’t think the writers intended much for Dot, and they needed a third to have Quaxly.

Truly the best thing they can do if Ash returns after HZ is have him and Dot become traveling companions: the best of both worlds because I don’t see Ash meeting Liko otherwise unless they’re desperate and need to invoke The Doofenschmirtz Principle. (Nobody was watching Milo Murphy’s Law so they stuck Dr. Doofenschmirtz in it and later Pheneas & Ferb to get people to watch. It didn’t work as intended).

It also doesn’t help HZ has a poor review grade (with room for improvement), Liko lost another proper gym battle but won anyway (to be fair, in context the idea was just to see if she could use Tera, and she did, but people were still pissed she lost), the show has constant internal problems, with a complete tonal shift from airship adventure to school that clearly wasn’t planned originally with its main hook, Terapagos, now being relegated to backpack padding. Heck people are complaining that the show is doing its plot backwards: Liko should’ve been at the Paldea school first for awhile and THEN the main plot kicks off, not the other way around with main plot and then she’s banished to school…. Sprigatito is weird in that regard too. It makes more sense to have Sprig has the pet sidekick in a school setting, and with the adventurer arc gradually settling in Sprig evolves to FloraGato, complete with her own Indiana Jones whip to whip Ceruledge and the others. But no, complete reverse.

This will change probably when the the new batch drops but HZ in the search for Pokémon on Netflix ranks surprisingly low as of typing, with OG series and Journeys out ranking it 1 & 2. Concierge, the better show between HZ, is also ranked very low and just under HZ… So the new direction in animation hasn’t worked, and with Pokémon Go under fire for its own problems with the avatars, it just feels like things will eventually reset. The only course of action is back to Ash (with Dot) or they try again with another new kid, and as much as I think a new kid is possible, going back to Ash after all the flailing around might be more likely…

#blueike #pokemon

[blueikeproductions]

So here’s the thing.

Looooong before we even knew the Quintessons were going to be the main threat in ONE, most people had already assumed EarthSpark was going to use the Quintessons due to the Emberstone and Quintus Prime’s roles here.

…The problem is we still don’t actually know, as of typing, if they WILL. The first season completely botched its primary ideas and wasted its two main villains. Whatever was bring set up was often tossed aside for more butterfly chasing, so if they were setting up the Quintessons, I don’t trust them to go through with it due to poor story editing and if they do, they’ll likely be poorly utilized like Mandroid and Croft.

Considering one alleged leak is another “after school special” pause in the momentum about Hashtag being gay like they did to stop and explain Nightshade being non-binary, I still think this stuff will still be more important than the actual plot, whatever that intends to be. The problem remains performative diversity first, story second, when it always should be cool story with a few fun characters who do cool things who happen to be gay & what have you. If younger generations are calling this performative diversity stupid now, you know it’s coming to an end. Which means we can get Nightshade to be seen as a fun character and not a shield as they tend to be unfortunately.

Some of the modern plots lately have been the Autobots & Decepticons working together to fight a common enemy: D-Void & Unicron in IDW, Exharcon in IDW2, most… everyone in Cyberverse frankly but the Quintessons in particular, so having both factions fight against something in the final season sounds about right. I don’t really count Mandroid because most of the time he was fought by the Autobots anyway (and yes I include Megatron as an Autobot).

While he’s right there has been brand synergy (kinda) with other projects in the past, most notably the Rescue Bots becoming Dinobots and Grimlock’s inclusion in RiD15 were influenced by Age of Extinction, with The Last Knight having RiD15 synergy with Cade and the Autobots living in a junkyard at the start of the film, I’m not sure I believe EarthSpark is intended to have synergy with ONE anyway.

For starters, I believe One has been in development SINCE RiD15, if it came out then instead it would’ve made more sense for Bumblebee and crew to fight the Quintessons over a special relic then; RiD was loose enough it could’ve pulled that off. Cyberverse included Quintessons late in its run, but they were visually so far removed from the OGs, closer to the machines in The Matrix and more like trans dimensional Dr. Who villains, that they didn’t really synergize at all with WFC’s toy line which used the G1 designs (and used the Quints worse somehow).

The One designs go for an original look for the Quintessons again, but skewing more closer to G1 and Aligned versions with a mix of the techno organic look of G2 Liege Maximo which is curious, but more visually striking than Cyberverse just copying The Matrix.

I don’t see EarthSpark making the Quintessons dimensional beings like Cyberverse at all because that goes against the modern story they’re creations of Quintus Prime (not that Hasbro really utilizes it anyway since WFC and Skybound imply the 80’s cartoon Quintesson origins for the Transformers), as well as diluting their genetic relationship to the Terrans. It’s certainly not because Hasbro has disavowed the multiverse because Legacy is still chugging along, with its replacement set to continue the trend.

I remain convinced the original intention was for EarthSpark and ReActivate to be released together and have a similar concept in Autobots, Decepticons and humans brought together because of the Quintessons doing something stupid, but clearly that didn’t happen as intended. ReActivate is stuck in development hell still last I heard with toys trickling out but no one’s buying them. EarthSpark has been a commercial failure from the word go sadly and it’s only sticking around a bit longer to help celebrate the 40th anniversary. Had that not been the case, it would’ve been scrapped I wager going by all the other Paramount+ shows that got the axe. Heck it probably would’ve gotten the axe after Nightshade’s debut episode like Ridley Jones’ non-binary calf episode killed it. The difference here is Ridley got five seasons at least, but at the expensive of becoming a laughing stock by adults comparing it to their childhood cartoons… Hmm it’s not really a pretty picture either way tho’…

Still whatever synergy EarthSpark may have had is gone or was never there. I don’t really see the start of the war brought up in a satisfactory way, as I doubt the writers want to make Megatron look bad. It would dilute Megatron being friends with Dot among other things. Again not the flex the writers think it is. It’ll be another last gasp at IDW’s post war ideas at best, just written a bit more like a proper kids cartoon at best, second verse same as the first at worst. Either way the Terrans are in the rear view window, with TFONE as the next thing along with Skybound. That they’re moving forward with the GI Joe crossover tease from RotB also shows Hasbro having faith in the Energon Universe and wanting to use its ideas going forward in other things. I want Cobra-La to be where Movie Megatron is. Project Iceman but with a twist!

#blueike #maccadam #transformers #Youtube

[blueikeproductions]

JD: Danny-boy, why are you shaking me?!? Braverman: I don’t know it’s out of love I think!!!!

JD: Cut it out, you’re making me sick! I can feel my brain rattling in my skull! Braverman: Uh I did, Heather took over…

Green Heather: -incomprehensible screaming as she shakes JD harder-

2 genres of fanfiction:

1) put that guy into situations

2) take that guy OUT of situations for the love of GOD let them REST 

#heathers #heathers au

[blueikeproductions]

So let’s try to guess TFONE’s story for kicks.

The movie opens with how we expect Optimus & Megatron to be, but jump cuts to then stuck in the cramped room when they were in their “twenties” as Orion & D-16.

We get the worker bot bit with them, B-127 and Elita, until they get the bright idea to go to the surface of Cybertron. They’re on the run from the Vehicons mostly because they bounced from their positions and that’s a no-no.

The group stumble upon Alpha Trion and get their own T-Cogs, and then stumble on the Quintessons talking to Sentinel Prime. The whole thing is orchestrated by Starscream, forcing the Quints to come and “take care” of their benefactor, so Starscream’s group can shake things up on Cybertron and do things HIS (and to a lesser extent The Waves’) way.

Cybertron is well off but has its hierarchy due to the ruling Prime cooperating with the Quintessons. When Sentinel can no longer comply, they kill him and set forth what is functionally the start of the Great War, using the Vehicons, warrior Quints & other troopers related to the government to start a take over of Cybertron.

Orion and D-16 have differing opinions on how to deal with the Quintessons and their ties to their planet’s government, with a frustrated and betrayed D-16 storming off and being absorbed into Starscream’s group. Orion obtains the Matrix meanwhile and becomes Optimus, with him, Bee and Elita becoming the first Autobots.

Things come to a head where Megatron beats the slag out of Starscream, takes over what is now the Decepticons, and kills an important figure (Alpha Trion maybe?) to prove how far he’s willing to go to defeat the Quintessons and set Cybertron under a better order, HIS order, an order Orion couldn’t grasp and Starscream would just screw up.

Optimus and Megatron’s factions do defeat the Quintessons, but now Cybertron is at a cross roads with the Quintessons & Sentinel gone, and Megatron looking to settle scores, and a somewhat reluctant Optimus ready to stop Megatron when things will eventually get hairy for TFTWO.

#blueike productions #blueike #maccadam #transformers #transformers one

[blueikeproductions]

I do actually really like the idea of rebuilding Jetfire into the Aerialbots (alongside whatever else they have lying around).

The thing is I don’t think it’s still been made clear if the Matrix in Skybound is a life giving relic like it was in Marvel (and to a lesser extent IDW). So I’m not sure if whatever they intend to do will revive him or make new life.

They could rebuild his body into a Sky Spy maybe?

Though the most likely thing…

As a nod to Armada and RotF…

Though if they do it might be closer to these:

Incidentally the jet armor in CV does somewhat look like Jetfire, though he was both still alive and used a tank as armor…

My rationale for the jet armor for Optimus in CV fanon is it served as an aerial drone, albeit not a very subtle one, for reconnaissance. It’s usually stored in his trailer, which due to a running gag I had in mind, is usually blown up once the jet is launched for Optimus to combine with it.

Still barring some third idea neither of us are thinking of, I think we’re sooner gonna see Optimus go Burn Bravern using Jetfire’s body, possibly evoking Gilthor since he already has Megatron’s arm.

Skybound Transformers #7 (Spoilers!)

The future return of Skyfire?

It's great that Optimus is going to revive Skyfire, and not use his parts or body to build a vehicle, right?

…

Right?..

RIGHT?!

What if…

#Transformers #maccadam #skybound #blueike #blueike productions

[blueikeproductions]

I can tell you right now, if this actually happened it’d be suicide. This Chinese spin off couldn’t even get off the ground when Cyberverse was on, coupled with political tensions at the time, what makes you think this is gonna work now?

The Cyberverse toys barely sold as it was. They went to clearance immediately when it came out during Christmas, and Japan cancelled the line outright it did so poorly. Japanese stores were STILL clogged with unsold merchandise after the show ended in America!

So no, until Hasbro actually says so, I don’t believe for an instant they’d be THAT stupid to pseudo revive one of their worst selling toy lines to buy time for a post EarthSpark kids cartoon. They’d have better luck dubbing and repackaging Transformers Go!, the Braves meets Beast Hunters Prime continuation Japan got when Prime was cancelled down there.

I don’t think partnering with Nick or Cartoon Network matters anymore anyway. Nick is so neck deep in controversy it has fully become The Sponge Network: All SpongeBob, All The Time. Cartoon Network has nothing new except Ivandoe, which is just Gumball again like the incredibly short lived Elliot From Earth was, so that’s not helping. Tiny Toons Looniversity sure, but that’s on borrowed time, as that only appeals to Animation Twitter Stans and curious Millenials who grew up with Adventures, and the later has mostly abandoned it.

In my experience, modern kids hate most modern cartoons anyway and are either watching web shows, trendy anime or older cartoons like Tom & Jerry.

Transformers’ best bet now is becoming a Netflix series like Pokémon has become in the west. Paramount+ is a glass house waiting to crumble, that so far most rocks thrown at it have been terrible aims.

And as much as some don’t want to hear it, the best type of show Transformers can be now is pure anime like RiD01 & the Unicron Trilogy. Anime is bigger now than its original boom in the 90’s and 2000’s, and a new kid oriented toyetic Transformers anime is the best thing they can do now.

What that would be I don’t know beyond classic Autobots vs Decepticons with Optimus & Megatron as the hero & villain we know them to be, not shady moronic uncle and still somehow slightly racist but repentant great uncle they are in EarthSpark. (I’ve said once I’ll say it again, MEGATRON palling around with the lead black-Asian family is not the flex people think it is.)

I would also accept Autobots vs Terrorcons as the gimmick of a kids anime, but we need proper hero and villain characters again. Skybound is proving head over heels this is what people want.

If Hasbro has the audacity to revive Cyberverse and force what many outside China will probably think is Astro Boy in heelies, the series outside of Skybound will be even more worse off.

The only thing they can reasonably be tinkering with is a kids cartoon based on ONE, and that can either be telling the story of what happened after the Quintessons on Cybertron, or more likely, they’re on Earth with an original story about the Decepticons & Quintessons doing something, while Optimus and Elita tell vague stories to Spike (white), Carly (Asian), and Chip (black) about what happened on Cybertron relating to the problem of the day so as not to overshadow an eventual TFTWO. And best case scenario that won’t be ready until summer of next year at the earliest.

Bottom line: Cyberverse no, TFONE the Animated Series on Earth yes. Energon Universe anime is preferable but we’re not there yet.

#blueike productions #blueike #transformers #transformers one #maccadam #Youtube

[blueikeproductions]

The two movies I’m looking forward to seeing this year~! Besides Planet of the Apes and Sonic that is.

#blueike productions #blueike #transformers #maccadam #transformers one #garfield #the garfield movie

[blueikeproductions]

Dan, Kurt, Veronica at that moment:

Martha: Whatcha guys up to? Oh hey! Free slushee! -takes it and walks off, exposing JD-

Dan, Veronica, Kurt:

Green: Eh. I’ve seen bigger….

Decided to draw a censored version xd

#heathers

[blueikeproductions]

Unfortunately that’s pretty much Hasbro’s fault. Some permutation of Bee, Prime, Megs & The Waves are always the headliners, the Devil with anyone else. That Elita wasn’t included probably means they had no interest in including her for the giant toys, or more accurately they just didn’t have a mold to recolor it into her.

It doesn’t help Elita is something of a shelf warmer, with all her toys languishing on clearance shelves, a fate I’m not sure will be better in TFONE. I believe she has a toy coming regardless but I agree it’s very bizarre she is otherwise replaced with Starscream in this first wave.

I stand by B-127 is in a similar situation. He narratively doesn’t fit when it makes more sense to put Dion in the role ala 80’s cartoon G1, or having other old friends in the role like Jazz, Ironhide or Ratchet. I’m not super sure how Ratchet would fit here, over worked dock medic I guess , but he’s still better than the painfully obnoxious B-127.

So they’ve officially revealed some of the TFONE toys and uh…

Hmmm.

They didn’t even try.

Stewie voice: This is a bad start to whatever it is we’re doing…

They keep trying to push this evergreen toy into other lines like Bumblebee & RotB, but it languishes on toy shelves all the same as it does for Evergreen. These are guaranteed shelf warmers, as giant toys like these in TF absolutely do not sell. It was two years until my local stores finally clearance’d out the shelf-warming giant CV Grimlock toys and CV was practically over then. It’s at least good they made new molds for Orion and B-127.

These on the other hand look superior, and more what we should be getting! Most notably Alpha Trion has the biggest departure by having a Beast Mode when he either doesn’t Transform at all or is usually a spacecraft. It seems to be a reference to an unused Wreckers/Beast Machines idea, which I’m all for.

Really my question is are we getting proper toys of these guys:

The antelopebot is essential!

#blueike productions #transformers #maccadam #transformers one

[blueikeproductions]

So they’ve officially revealed some of the TFONE toys and uh…

Hmmm.

They didn’t even try.

Stewie voice: This is a bad start to whatever it is we’re doing…

They keep trying to push this evergreen toy into other lines like Bumblebee & RotB, but it languishes on toy shelves all the same as it does for Evergreen. These are guaranteed shelf warmers, as giant toys like these in TF absolutely do not sell. It was two years until my local stores finally clearance’d out the shelf-warming giant CV Grimlock toys and CV was practically over then. It’s at least good they made new molds for Orion and B-127.

These on the other hand look superior, and more what we should be getting! Most notably Alpha Trion has the biggest departure by having a Beast Mode when he either doesn’t Transform at all or is usually a spacecraft. It seems to be a reference to an unused Wreckers/Beast Machines idea, which I’m all for.

Really my question is are we getting proper toys of these guys:

The antelopebot is essential!

#blueike productions #transformers #maccadam #transformers one

[blueikeproductions]

I’m not sure what I expected, but this exceeded it. I couldn’t articulate what it reminds me of, but @horror-lady00 said it reminded her of the 3D He-Man cartoon and yeah that’s a pretty apt comparison! Taking the base material started from Aligned and going its own direction with it which is so much better than Cyberverse and WFC having near identical backstories on the origins of the war and loss of the Allspark. So very dull & uninspired. This on the other hand is superior in every way.

For starters the main conflict appears to be the invasion of the Quintessons.

This dude about to choke slam Sentinel has serious G2 Liege Maximo vibes and I want MORE. Also I like that Sentinel is blue, has a chin and isn’t orange. I wonder if the TFWiki’s Trump jokes on IDW G1 Sentinel made Hasbro go “Eeeh, let’s go with the TFA Sentinel for this one just to be safe.” Aligned also featured its Sentinel (Zeta) as being inspired by TFA Sentinel, so they may be just relying more on Aligned for some ideas, than the relatively boring orange Optimus design he had in IDW.

I think most of us just expected the film to be Megatron’s rise to power, and while a scene later on shows Megatron as he typically is with a Decepticon badge, the inclusion of the Quintessons throws a wrench in things. If it does well, another movie or cartoon series will probably go more in depth on Megatron’s rise to power, because I don’t see the movie handling Quintessons AND Megatron’s baby steps at the same time well.

One thing that sticks out the most is how Cybertron on its surface is depicted.

While I was fine with it back in Beast Machines & Galaxy Force, I’ve always been a little iffy on making Cybertron (partly) organic outside of that. It’s way too easy just to make Cybertron into Earth but Robots!, and it’s something Cyberverse in particular did very lazily. These at least look visually interesting. The still mostly metal surface having (mechanical?) plant life stubbornly growing on it. It certainly implies either way this version of Cybertron may have had organic origins like in Beast Machines, which I find interesting. The scenery is also well done even though I feel like these environments make more sense of them being on Earth and navigating it with Spike, Chip & Carly.

Also we get a look at what appears to be Airachnid, Starscream & The Waves.

And they look magnificent. No idea what role Airachnid has to play, but it’s nice to see she’s included.

Also these guys crop up a lot. Cybertron security I presume. They heavily resemble the silver Vehicons from Prime mixed with the Badgeless from IDW. I assume they Transform into jets because of the wings.

One thing that comes to mind is the base concept of lowly workerbots fighting to get to the surface. It’s surprisingly reminiscent of the original Bomberman storyline, though Orion and Megs have a far better go at it than Shirobom did.

This is shaping up to be a very fun film, but my main gripe is I don’t like this Bumblebee.

They’re trying WAAAAY too hard to make him funny, and he’s irritating, not endearing in the trailer. If this take on Bee fails to resonate, it’d be funny if this forces him to retire for awhile vs Bayformers bringing Bee back on the map. It also doesn’t really work having Bumblebee be the same age as Orion, as his whole schtick is being the plucky son/kid brother of the Autobots. It would actually make far more sense if this was Dion. If RotB managed to make Mirage popular and likable, this could be the case for Dion too, but he makes a heroic sacrifice, dies, and his Cog recovered and passed on to a young bot in B-127 Optimus rescues for the sequels.

I think the only deterrent here besides it being a cartoon movie, as adult fans expected an adult animated movie on par with IDW’s political bents and the WFC game duology, it’s pretty clear this is 110% made with children in mind. Transformers has struggled somewhat in getting kids to resonate with it after Rescue Bots & Robots in Disguise 2015. They largely were uninterested in Cyberverse & EarthSpark, they did show up for Bumblebee but I’m not sure on Rise of the Beasts, but I imagine they were more interested in it than EarthSpark.

This is the last shot for many reasons. Skybound won back the audiences IDW lost, and this has to be the thing that wins back kids and teens. It also has to be a win for a dying Paramount because Turtles & Sonic, like IDW, is the best they got, and they know it. This is Transformers’ Mutant Mayhem if all goes well, lest it joins EarthSpark as being the Rise of the TMNT of the brand (and I say that being a fan of Rise).

Hey everybody, it's the Transformers: One trailer! Basically a massive screen test to see who will replace numerous voices in the franchise, and an origin story that involves two miner buddies named Orion Pax and D-17 journeying to the surface to launch a rebellion against the Quintessons. The film hits theaters on September 20th.

#transformers #transformers one #maccadam #blueike productions

[blueikeproductions]

And even then, I don’t blame Furman. Hasbro were the ones who said no lady bots originally because it was a boy’s brand, despite Bob Budiansky tinkering with female characters when he asked. Thus it led to Bob being the one to spell out Transformers don’t have gender and sex like we do as humans when an Autobot Pretender was put in a position to get sweet snu-snu with a hot alien woman. She understood but was disappointed lol.

I’d be more fair to say Furman was working within those confines but still had his own thoughts independently, since the Autobot Pretender already spelled it out in story before Furman came along.

It was staff in the 80’s cartoon twisting Hasbro’s arm that saw Arcee, Elita & more come about, leading to the inclusion of female robots to this day. If anything it’s more bizarre that the 80’s cartoon didn’t include any female DECEPTICONS. I don’t know if the staff didn’t think of it or if they did but Hasbro said no for some reason.

There’s still hiccups. Solus Prime being the only female in the Primes, and the meta reason female characters don’t seem to be as plentiful. She’s also responsible for the chambers new life comes out of, so some have taken issue she’s a mother in that context. Arcee’s scrapped inclusion in the first Bayformers was also the result of reluctance in explaining why Cybertronians had females, let alone a tiny human sized one (because she was a bike). Arcee’s inclusion in RotF & RotB showed this wasn’t an issue, but Arcee still was tragically killed off in RotF, so baby steps. Gotta crawl before we can walk no matter what.

The reason why gender is such a mess in IDW is mainly because of Simon Furman stubbornly refusing to let go of his old Marvel G1 belief that the Transformers should be a genderless masculine presenting race. Which, I'm sorry Furman, but you can't put that genie back in the bottle. The girls exist, and it doesn't do you any favors to throw a tantrum and do weird shit with Acree's origin every time Hasbro forces you to write her.

Oh I’m acutely aware, I was there at ground zero, but my problem in IDW was less Furman, though he didn’t help by introducing Arcee as the result of a forced gender reassignment procedure, it was the countless retcons and asterisks other writers felt compelled to fix and only made it WORSE. It would’ve simply been better to just let Arcee’s trans roots be ignored and instead focus on having her become a better character, something IDW did at least attempt but I don’t know if they succeeded.

Like to Furman’s credit, the comical Prime’s Rib at least still showed Arcee to be strong, smart, and capable (what the feminists in story CLAIM they wanted), with most of the humor being Prime trying to appease stereotypical feminists and only making them angrier because they could only see Arcee just being pink and having an interest in men (because she did show an interest in Hot Rod). As much as some don’t want to hear it, the story aged all too well because of the current hyper political environment we’re stuck in now, with even stuff like IDW and EarthSpark being somewhat the result of appeasing radical groups rather than being entertaining to all ages and groups. And IDW lost the license, and EarthSpark had failed on all fronts, only sticking around out of a weak desire on Hasbro’s part to have something on for the 40th anniversary. They’ve otherwise moved on to TFONE and Arcee in Skybound is having a much better time.

I do think Furman may have let it go though, he wrote the Terrans just fine in EarthSpark’s tie in video game, and the tangibly related to Transformers in concept, Astrobots, that he writes, features several main female robots who are strong, capable and smart. Their origins in their race not being dwelled on beyond some handwaved human involvement if I recall correctly.

I do understand his confusion, why do a race of robotic beings who don’t sexually reproduce need females in THAT context, but having them in general doesn’t seem to be an issue beyond that to him. The problem remains is he dwelled on it too long, explained it in a jokey way in Marvel UK that honestly was pry the best way to explain it back then in THAT universe, then tried to explain it in a cooler sci-fi way in IDW and got backlash from EVERYONE that it seemed to have humbled him enough. That said, some ideas are still clung to via Earth Wars, where he gleefully makes fun of both Dreamwave & IDW, and kinda rightfully so in SOME areas. Deathsaurus, with the threat of being sent to Dreamwave’s universe, is horrified at the idea (probably didn’t want to be drawn by Pat Lee among other things). The Prime’s Rib story having a spiritual successor where the Autobots find Melody has written romantic fan fiction about Drift & Prowl, and while they say as a species they don’t romantically pair off and poke holes at the Conjux terminology they don’t even have, they don’t really have too much of an issue with what Melody was doing. If anything they were more confused why she paired Drift with Prowl, and then playfully teased a clueless Prowl about it. Melody is also the main Autobot ally in the game and she and the Autobots get along just fine too.

#transformers

[blueikeproductions]

The reason why gender is such a mess in IDW is mainly because of Simon Furman stubbornly refusing to let go of his old Marvel G1 belief that the Transformers should be a genderless masculine presenting race. Which, I'm sorry Furman, but you can't put that genie back in the bottle. The girls exist, and it doesn't do you any favors to throw a tantrum and do weird shit with Acree's origin every time Hasbro forces you to write her.

Oh I’m acutely aware, I was there at ground zero, but my problem in IDW was less Furman, though he didn’t help by introducing Arcee as the result of a forced gender reassignment procedure, it was the countless retcons and asterisks other writers felt compelled to fix and only made it WORSE. It would’ve simply been better to just let Arcee’s trans roots be ignored and instead focus on having her become a better character, something IDW did at least attempt but I don’t know if they succeeded.

Like to Furman’s credit, the comical Prime’s Rib at least still showed Arcee to be strong, smart, and capable (what the feminists in story CLAIM they wanted), with most of the humor being Prime trying to appease stereotypical feminists and only making them angrier because they could only see Arcee just being pink and having an interest in men (because she did show an interest in Hot Rod). As much as some don’t want to hear it, the story aged all too well because of the current hyper political environment we’re stuck in now, with even stuff like IDW and EarthSpark being somewhat the result of appeasing radical groups rather than being entertaining to all ages and groups. And IDW lost the license, and EarthSpark had failed on all fronts, only sticking around out of a weak desire on Hasbro’s part to have something on for the 40th anniversary. They’ve otherwise moved on to TFONE and Arcee in Skybound is having a much better time.

I do think Furman may have let it go though, he wrote the Terrans just fine in EarthSpark’s tie in video game, and the tangibly related to Transformers in concept, Astrobots, that he writes, features several main female robots who are strong, capable and smart. Their origins in their race not being dwelled on beyond some handwaved human involvement if I recall correctly.

I do understand his confusion, why do a race of robotic beings who don’t sexually reproduce need females in THAT context, but having them in general doesn’t seem to be an issue beyond that to him. The problem remains is he dwelled on it too long, explained it in a jokey way in Marvel UK that honestly was pry the best way to explain it back then in THAT universe, then tried to explain it in a cooler sci-fi way in IDW and got backlash from EVERYONE that it seemed to have humbled him enough. That said, some ideas are still clung to via Earth Wars, where he gleefully makes fun of both Dreamwave & IDW, and kinda rightfully so in SOME areas. Deathsaurus, with the threat of being sent to Dreamwave’s universe, is horrified at the idea (probably didn’t want to be drawn by Pat Lee among other things). The Prime’s Rib story having a spiritual successor where the Autobots find Melody has written romantic fan fiction about Drift & Prowl, and while they say as a species they don’t romantically pair off and poke holes at the Conjux terminology they don’t even have, they don’t really have too much of an issue with what Melody was doing. If anything they were more confused why she paired Drift with Prowl, and then playfully teased a clueless Prowl about it. Melody is also the main Autobot ally in the game and she and the Autobots get along just fine too.

#transformers

[blueikeproductions]

Sometimes it seems to me that the problem with female characters in the transformers franchise is that in the end, few people need them? Sometimes, here and there on social media, you can see the dissatisfaction of individual fans who do not like the current or past state of things with regard to female characters, but there is very little response from the audience. Fans have little support for existing female characters or new ones. Fans don't actively rebel when Hasbro once again makes a bad toy of a female character. And a personal observation in a familiar to me, but not the smallest part of the fandom - many female fans are more interested in male characters anyway. And of course there is a part of the fans who want to change the gender of previously existing male characters. And again, it seems to me that there is more love for the characters here, rather than a desire to add a female character.

What should we do about it? Probably nothing, the audience of this franchise is quite established for any changes, so we can only be happy when one of the authors really tries to make a high-quality female character, namely, to make a character and personality first of all.

P.S. A separate camp of fans are those who argue about how to explain the presence of females among transformers and whether it is necessary in principle. Why didn't anyone figure out that you can just explain it through the main origin? There was a Primus - he created Cybertronians in the image and likeness of the alien races he liked, which would explain all the strange appearance in general. If we take the origin of the Quintessons, then it's even easier, they created a product that was convenient for them / customers wanted / in the image of some race that they had previously enslaved.

Yeah it’s a weird circle jerk. Theres nothing wrong with having gals like Elita, Carly, Botanica, Glowstrike, and Hashtag, but writers and fans have a bad habit of needing female bots explained leading to Shockwave’s back handed comment about thinking female Autobots were extinct and IDW’s own confusing over corrections “We never had gender until Jhiaxus rebuilt Arcee for sick kicks, no wait wait, lady bots were a thing, they’re just maybe extinct on Cybertron for some reason, no no wait we still had lady bots all along, they’re just trans women on Cybertron while biological (technological?) women exist on colony planets!” Good grief pick a lane and stick with it.

Not helped is Hasbro’s own stance now that female robots exist only because of Solus Prime, which itself is a little insulting from a “diversity” standpoint because she’s the only lady among the Primes. One could make the argument Amalgamus is gender fluid because of his (their?) ability to Transform into anything, so in a roundabout way there’s two women among the Primes if one wanted to look at it that way, with Adaptus in a similar position (as the Guiding Hand in IDW are all men otherwise).

It’s the same problem I have with modern “diversity” initiatives because all they keep doing is drawing attention to people who are female, ethnic races, or LGBT, but never organically making them actual characters people can relate to and enjoy.

Sari might’ve had Indian roots, but they never drew attention to it instead focusing on making a fun little girl character who was best buds with the Autobots. Sort of the Gosalyn to their Darkwing. They did however draw attention to her (still unresolved) Cybertronian heritage but only because it was important to her backstory and character development. I guarantee if Sari were made today, she’d be a surface level checkbox brat akin to Ironheart who waxes about her people’s hardships and her own perceived problems despite not having any because of her father’s successful company. She forces herself on the Autobots to prove a point that didn’t need to be made, creating an old Stockholm Syndrome where the Autobots love her despite not offering any reason for them to. (It’s worth noting Ironheart’s comics are at least self aware she’s kind of a dipstick because her classmates and her black teacher she goaded into treating her “poorly” were visibly confused at her behavior and hesitantly indulged her whims.)

Cyberverse and EarthSpark are also horrible about this because they feel the need to gender bend most characters like Skywarp & Frenzy, rather than just use Slipstream (which CV did to be fair), create a brand NEW female jet, or in Frenzy’s case, just use Flip Sides.

Interestingly I’ve heard that Hasbro has limits on this, as the CV and ES teams wanted to make Thundercracker into a woman, but Hasbro said no, he’s a legacy player and has to remain a boy. (Or something to that extent.) Why Skywarp gets hit with the gender stick, I don’t know, but Skybound keeps the character male anyway, despite also being a legacy character. I imagine there’s more leeway with the Rainmakers because they were one off generics, and only recently-ish got names and expanded relevancy so it didn’t really matter if they were men or women. (That said, they appear to be still all male in IDW, with only Cyberverse and Earthspark making Nova Storm into a lady bot. Acid Storm was clearly meant to be male in CV, but an animation error and Catt speaking up led to the character being gender fluid unintentionally… who then died horribly. Organic representation, my actuator…) It’s nevertheless created an odd expectation perhaps, as the Seeker trio fluctuates in cartoons now, leading to the idea it’s now two ladies & a dude, with Nova Storm a permanent member in this idea. I don’t mind this in principle since Screamer, Cracker & Warpster were never really a cohesive trio anyway. Starscream was the star, the other two were just there and forgotten in most media. That Starscream/Slipstream, Thundercracker/Skywarp, & Nova Storm came about in modern stories as a group because of modern “diversity” soap boxing and muddled storytelling doesn’t help though.

There’s no real need to explain lady bots, they’re just there and if handled correctly you get awesome ones like BlackArachnia or memorable ones like Strika. Handle them poorly and you get Eren Jaeger Windblade, RiD Ultra Magnus wannabe Pyra Magna, and Primus forbid IDW Slide.

Primus and/or the Quintessons including ladies just because is acceptable because there’s no need to dwell on it, anymore than they decided to make LGBT bots. Live and let live, don’t dwell on it is my feeling. Just have said Transformers be cool and memorable and they happen to be this or that, I don’t know why that’s such a lost art anymore.

#transformers

[blueikeproductions]

I disagree because the comics are still accessible to children. The Dreamwave G1 comics weren’t aimed at children back then, but I was a kid who regularly got them with no problem. The IDW comics were also accessible to kids for the most part as it was still a traditional and easy to understand Autobots vs Decepticons plot, especially with the movie comics which while adult-ish were still technically aimed at children who bought the toys and became fans that way, but I’d argue the IDW G1 comics weren’t as accessible or interesting to children when the post war era began and was made more for “stereotypical Tumblr/Twitter users” for lack of a better term who view gender identity as more important than a coherent story.

Earthspark is still comparative because it’s using the mostly unpopular with normies and casuals post war IDW ideas, right down to repentant Autobot Megatron mixed with the preschool aimed Rescue Bots and they mix like oil and water. Frankly I’m more surprised in hindsight that Rodimus wasn’t the Autobot Leader, since he plays of Autobot Megatron way better than Optimus does. Optimus only works when Megatron is still evil. Kids aren’t going to be interested in Megatron waxing poetic about why war is bad, the Terrans being chased by an Energon bear, and mixed messaging “elder gay” Tarantulas when they’d rather go watch older cartoons (the kids my way LOVE classic cartoons like Looney Tunes), tune into the latest anime or play Mario & Pokemon.

Kids are also more into TMNT Mutant Mayhem, which is a bit more relatable to them as they are, vs the mostly terminally online relevant Terrans who mostly are just Twitch (who might be TOO hyperactive for kids) and whichever Terran is relevant to the writers that day. Usually not Thrash, who is left in the shadow of his sisters & Nightshade. If kids want gay rep, Heartstopper is right there, and is handled earnestly & organically vs late stage IDW & EarthSpark which tend to feel more like soapboxes and megaphones when it’s brought up.

TFOne is coming soon and that’s gonna make or break TF in general I feel, because kids went to TFA, the Bay films, Bumblebee, Prime, RiD15 & Rescue Bots, but abandoned Cyberverse and EarthSpark. The comics are all that’s left for kids interested in something that isn’t manga. If kids are watching the nihilistic Rick & Morty, they can perfectly handle Skybound TF which is far more tame in its violence by comparison.

You really can't be comparing the energon comics that are made for adults to earthspark a show made for children does earthspark have problems yes of course but trying to use comics made for adults as a comparison doesn't work you need to compare it to other children's shows if you want to try and make a point there's a big difference between something made for kids and something made for adults so trying to compare the two is disingenuous

#transformers