sapphiclegion

[sapphiclegion]

Hello! I recently discovered this blog and have spent hours looking over your amazing art! I know you're very busy but do you think you could draw human tfp soundwave one more time ? Doing soundwave stuff ?He's my favorite and your style makes me love him 10000x more!! (Your laser beak is amazing btw)

[sapphiclegion]

First print of 2018, Windblade! Available here 

[sapphiclegion]

This honestly has me in shock. At first I wasn’t sure if I could actually believe it; while Starscream has certainly been undergoing a lot of character development lately, it’s been very organic and gradual, so this seemed like a sudden jump to me. Even backed into a nearly impossible corner as he was here, Starscream’s been vying for power for up to 4 million years; I thought he would do anything he could to maintain his grip on it. And yet…from the get go, it almost seems as though Starscream’s been trying to sabotage himself with the same gusto with which he’s been trying to hold onto power. Taking Rattrap on as a SiC is the most obvious thing that he did (he even outright complained that Rattrap wasn’t putting in enough effort to sabotage him at one point), and is also the thing that ultimately led to his downfall. It’s not just Rattrap though; throughout the series he’s done so many risky, shady things, and I just kept thinking, “How do you think this is sustainable? You must know at least one of these secrets will come back to bite you in the ass. How can you possibly live with so many swords dangling precariously above you?” I suppose you could put it down to overconfidence or incompetence, but what if part of him wanted to fail? 

He came to power via the murder of Metalhawk, an act he honestly didn’t seem to realise would make him feel quite so guilty at the time. Yet, he did feel guilt, and as his conscience has grown over the course of the series, this guilt, and the guilt for so many of the other things he’s done, must have only increased in turn. In addition to the guilt, there’s the fear and stress both of failing as a leader and of having his secrets exposed that must have been eating away at him. After all, we saw how things panned out in Spotlight: Megatron, and I can’t help but think that the terror of such a scenario playing out once more has been haunting him this entire time. By giving up power, he gives into his guilt, and alleviates the stress of failure by not giving it a chance to occur.

Furthermore, while Starscream has been seeking power seemingly forever, what if that wasn’t the thing he was ultimately after? Could it be that a large part of why he wanted to be a leader was because leadership was a means of proving himself as someone of value? What if leadership was the one path he knew to some sort of self-affirmation/actualisation, but he recently came to the realisation that there were other roads he could take towards that fulfilment? So he didn’t give up the thing he’s been seeking for aeons, but rather found another means to that end.

[sapphiclegion]

Starscream, the Lonely Leader.

I’m REALLY going to miss this comic.

[sapphiclegion]

The empress, the lord, the geisha.

[sapphiclegion]

universal #catguardianproblems

[sapphiclegion]

Hugging Starscream is the only way to guarantee peace.

[sapphiclegion]

A crappy fem megs doodle

I’m sorry I didn’t post my drawings for a long time… I just couldn’t do anything related to drawing any more, I’m on my progress of giving up on art in general. I don’t see any point to continue since they looks terrible anyways. 

[sapphiclegion]

Windblade by Makotron

[sapphiclegion]

It’s moments like these that I realize I’m Starscream.

[sapphiclegion]

1) Btw, I was looking at the Arcee tag in your blog, and I came across the posts that were throwing around the idea of having Arcee revert back to identifying as male. I just want to say that, as a transgendered woman, I'd be open to the idea. The fact is, Arcee's origin in the IDWverse is downright icky. Even though it was later retconned to her volunteering for the operation due to gender dysphoria, originally, it was nonconsentual, and thus basically rape.

2) It’s one of those things that have some DEEPLY disturbing implications once you give any thought to it. So if IDW wanted to develop her character by questioning her identity further, on her own terms, I’d be fine with that. In real life, trans persons often have their gender identities change over time. Have Arcee change her identity, try out new ones, new frames, and have her self reflect on who she is, rather than who the world forced her to be. That could lead to interesting character bits

3) And it wouldn’t really be LGBT erasure, since being genderfluid is a thing. And while I love Arcee to bits and pieces, we do have plenty of equally or more awesome ‘conventional’ transgendered ladies among this sprawling robotic pantheon. Windblade, Nautica, Lug, Anode, Victorion, ect!

It’s interesting that there’s such a range of opinions on this; as you no doubt saw, I’ve posted a lot of commentary from different points of view.  Your take is really intriguing, and I think it’s the first time I’ve seen the possibility of a genderfluid Arcee floated.

Thanks for weighing in!

[sapphiclegion]

Megaempress headshot

[sapphiclegion]

Found a cute Megatron I did earlier this year

[sapphiclegion]

Windblade!

Bonus:

[sapphiclegion]

But I think we can all agree that IDW Soundwave, Starscream and Megatron are better leaders than either Optimus or Rodimus. :P

Can… we…?

I mean, Soundwave’s a surprisingly awesome ruler of his little Cyberutopia, I grant you, but the other two are a hot mess.

[sapphiclegion]

Yes. But all five people involved are hot messes. We be talking about decrees of hot messes. :P Honestly, the Transformers species would do a lot better to just elect Windblade as Supreme Ruler of the Hot Mess That Is This Species.

Oh, well, no question that Windblade would be the best of the lot. :)

I guess if I were making a Good Leadership Scale, though, I’d probably put Roddy at the top (good leader with some blind spots who makes mistakes), then Optimus and Megatron around the centre (talented leaders who do care about their people, but who are also frequently selfish and sometimes experience failures of courage), and Starscream at the bottom.

[sapphiclegion]

Idw Megatron for character ask?

Why I like them

I actually really love IDW’s backstory for Megatron, up to a point.  While I prefer him as a sort of Megatron Origin-esque natural warrior, as opposed to MTMTE’s poet-who-made-himself-become-a-warrior, I definitely like that he started out standing up to an oppressive system, and I love the concept of the Autobots and Decepticons as two sides of the same coin - two responses to the same injustice, one progressive and working to transform the system, one radical and ready to violently tear it down (which, of course, would go on to become the foundation of the Aligned continuity and TFP).

As for Megatron himself, I love that he’s brilliant both as an orator and a strategist.  I love that there’s this real physicality to him (which he definitely shares with TFP Megs).  The Autobot leader is held in place by a variety of structures and systems; the Decepticon leader, at the end of the day, has nothing but sheer strength and cunning to keep them alive and in the top job, and IDW Megs always gives off a vibe like he’s fully capable of defending his throne.  I love how massive and terrifying he is in comparison to (especially) the rank-and-file Autobots.  I love - how do I explain this?  I love that he largely embraces his passions, his emotions - he’s not controlled by them, but he doesn’t deny himself, either.  He doesn’t spend his energy desperately trying to be impartial about things (like Prowl or Optimus or, hell, Tarn).  He has these outsized passions, but they’re - hmmm, integrated, I suppose?  It’s kind of Sith-like.  He doesn’t try to get away from what he feels for Starscream, or Optimus, even.  And I love that he’s able to use that to manipulate them.

Why I don’t

I don’t like his redemption as an arc, and I don’t like the navel-gazing, selfish focus of his redemption.  I feel like that’s where he lost that sense of integration I describe above, and started being very much controlled by his moods and his self-image.  He’s often much more fixated on feeling like he’s being good, or on protecting himself, than on having a positive impact on the world.

But!

At the same time, I kind of feel like - not necessarily a redemption arc, but something, was necessary to continue telling interesting stories about Megatron after the war ended.  So I get why they wanted to go there.  Neither Megatron nor Optimus as they were entirely fit within a gritty, realistic post-war political world.  Which is another thing I dislike about IDW Megatron overall.  I feel like there’s only so much you can do with him as he originally was - this epic-level, magnificent, fatal legend - before you kind of have to shuffle him offstage for a bit to be able to tell a wide range of stories.  Original Flavour IDW Megs may be great to watch, but there’s a limit to what you can do WITH him and there’s a limit to what you can do AROUND him while he’s there.

Favorite episode (scene if movie)

Probably Chaos Theory, even if it does introduce the “softer” take on his backstory.  It’s just so damned good, and the way Megatron plays cat and mouse with Optimus in the present day - while also occasionally opening up to him, only to turn around and use that, too - is a treat to read.

Favorite season/movie

Megatron Origin, for everything I love best about IDW Megatron.

Favorite line

An ironic one, in light of his own later arc.  To Optimus in All Hail Megatron:  “So you’ve grown a conscience?  Well, bad timing!”

Favorite outfit

I do love his Origin facepaint.

OTP

STARSCREAM (possibly tied with Optimus).  Other faves include Drift, Soundwave, Tarn (this one’s a bit on the sad side), Prowl (dark dark DARK), Whirl (did I mention DARK?), and the Command Trine.

Brotp

Soundwave, Ravage, Orion Pax, Shockwave (pre- and post-empurata), Impactor

Head Canon

Megatron has a small commando unit (for strikes against infrastructure and to rescue prisoners, mostly) in the Functionist Universe, using his vast strategic knowledge to make them virtually uncatchable.  It’s led by Anode, with Lug on logistical support, and its members include that universe’s versions of Drift, Glitch, Skids… and Hot Rod.

Unpopular opinion

I actually really liked the ending of Autobot Megatron’s arc.  I thought it was fitting.

A wish

I’d love more flashbacks to the early days of the war, especially featuring Megatron and his key lieutenants (Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave), with massive amounts of political infighting and intrigue.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen

I really hope that when IDW decides they want Decepticon Megatron back (and I’m sure they will), they make him an entirely different character.  An AU version crossing over into our universe?  You could even revive Galvatron and rebuild him as Megatron, in an interesting reversal of the norm.  I just feel like trying to hit the reset button on current Megatron would be disrespectful both to those who liked his change of faction and to those who hated it.  Let Poet Megs have his happy ending.

5 words to best describe them

Wrathful, bold, selfish, brilliant, patient

My nickname for them

Megs.  Also, I coined “Cranky Grandpa Deceptidouche” as Rodimus’s nickname for him and I like it.