Want to do a post-LL25 pseudo megarod/megop relationship where Optimus doesn’t die in the battle with Unicron but somehow gets spat out of the black hole with a reinstated body and matrix. Rodimus tries to save Megatron during the victory lap by persuading him into a sparkbond, b/c of that really common fanon trope of sparkbonds tying lives together so the death of one partner would mean automatic death for the other (it’s a myth but he’s grasping at straws here). Megatron refuses at first, saying that it’s Not A Good Idea and Rodimus would regret it. Eventually Rodimus wears him down but Megatron has no idea what he’s planning and thought it was just going to be a regular sparksharing for goodbye.
So Rodimus seizes his chance as soon as Megatron’s spark's open, plunging the bond really really deep (way deeper than is safe). It doesn’t work, obviously, he almost drowns in Megatron’s memories of anger and hate and loss, if not for Megatron breaking them out before it got too far. But not before he got to experience some real fucked up shit of Megatron being a sadistic genocidal psyco from a first person front seat pov. And seeing the way Optimus stands out as a constant among all those years of rage-clouded carnage, first as an anchoring point for hatred, then as a source of close companionship and comfort in the Functionalist universe. Megatron is quiet and gentle when he says see, I told you you’d regret it. Now you know why I deserve my fate.
And Rodimus can’t even reply b/c he’s so shaken by the slapping reminder of the true extent of Megatron’s guilt and crimes and the inconsequentiality of his own feelings in comparison.
Megatron leaves with Prowl but Rodimus can’t let go of him in his head. He keeps thinking obsessively over the sparksharing incident. Then he sees Optimus and has an immediate flashback to Megatron’s Functionalist universe memories. That’s when he realizes oh it’s not entirely the moral issues about Megatron’s past that’s got him all hung up. It’s jealousy.
Here’s where the megop part is pseudo b/c it’s all in Rodimus’ head lol. They don’t actually have romantic feelings about each other, at all, in any universe. Functionalist Orion was important to Megatron but they were never A Thing. But Rodimus doesn’t know that and he’s torn between jealousy and his own loyalty towards Optimus, his anger at Optimus for not doing anything to save Megatron who clearly loves him, his logically knowing the unfairness of that anger, his recognition of the well-deservedness of whatever Megatron’s fate and his own bias and just the absurdity of his own feelings in general. He tries to visit Megatron in prison to sort things out but megatron won't see him. He wants to leave Cybertron on Thunderclash’s ship but can’t bring himself to go without knowing what’s going to happen to Megatron.
Meanwhile Optimus is just disappointed that he survived yet again and is too tired to care about anything other than his job. Everyone else is super joyous and in awe at both his survival and the restoration of the matrix, he’s the only one who’s Not Happy with the way things turned out. But he can’t say anything, not when the miracle has everyone so hopeful and united. Bumblebee is the only one who notices that something’s wrong when he starts showing physical symptoms, but there’s no way Optimus is able to tell him the truth; by that point his accumulated mental barriers of guilt and denial and subconscious self-preservation are so thick that it’s next to impossible for him to ever open up to another.
Optimus busies himself with governance stuff. he doesn’t visit Megatron. He appoints new council members and new Senators, most of whom knew Megatron as the AVL leader. Rodimus is automatically granted a seat at the council but he never shows up. Nobody’s seen him in office since the Lost Light landed, except for an endless flow of charges for illegal engex consumption, drunken misconducts and truancies. Optimus tries to contact him, tries to get Ratchet and Magnus to keep an eye on him and set him up with therapists and the like, but Rodimus ignores every attempt at contact.
Deep down Optimus knows that those aren’t actual helpful solutions, Ratchet and Magnus haven’t been able to get Rodimus to listen forever and there isn’t a therapist left alive who can even begin to understand the stuff they’d been through, but most days he can barely bring himself to summon enough energy to do his duty as is. He can’t deal with Rodimus’ problems on top of his own. Bumblebee and Roller do the best they can but there are times when their care becomes a burden in and of itself. So he pays the fines and files away the charges, and with that also files Rodimus away to the back of his mind (as well as Megatron, he knows it has something to do with Megatron, Megatron’s always at the bottom of his grief one way or another, but that’s another thing he can’t deal with, not right now)
Eventually the Galactic Council demands for Megatron to be handed over as part of reparations. Everyone knows what’s going to happen to him if they do. Unlike the last time Optimus doesn’t have the will to make that arbitrary decision himself. He tosses it up to a senate vote.
That’s when Rodimus bursts into the room screaming
Stuff Happens and they get Megatron out on parole, Somewhere along the middle of that Rodimus’ megop misconception gets cleared. But Megatron’s time’s still ticking down cuz idk the Galactic Council really really hates his guts. Rodimus insists that it doesn’t matter, he’s determined to make the most of whatever time he can get. Megatron thinks this is just going to make it more painful for Rodimus for both of them when the time comes but after ten thousand words of angst finally decides to go along to make him happy.
Optimus would sometimes unconsciously pause to watch them with each other, the playing, the banter, the easy affection. The sometimes-exasperation and good-natured tolerence. He'd feel happy for them but also envious, not because he wants to break their ship to do megop or rodiop (is that even a ship name) but because he's wistful for the affection between them knowing it's something he'd never have for himself. Worse, he knows that he could have it in an instant if he wants to, with someone who cares for him deeply and he cares back, it's just one step away from his fingertips—but it's a step that he knows in his heart that he's too weary to take, at least in this lifetime
He swears to himself that he would find a way to ensure that their happiness lasts.
weirdest fake love triangle i have come up with ever
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My apologies for being absent!
/cracks knuckles, but I'm in the midst of typing about fear and with it, hope to make it up to you guys a little. I don't remember the last time that I've been so motivated to write meta of any kind, but Kafka makes me never want to shut up, and honestly— I feel bad when I'm sitting in Discord, with someone's DMs open and I'm sitting on my hands to prevent myself from hypothesizing, because when I don't, it's twelve paragraphs at least. So here we go, let's take my hypothesizing to the dashboard.
Can I also just... say how much two instrumental tracks scream Kafka to me and I lose my mind? I need to stop losing my mind. But this character is just everything I've craved to write for much too long, her premise, dynamics, her goal, the references and symbolism, it's so delightful and thrilling and absolute chef's kiss. Any way, in case anyone may want to know what's playing over and over and over again without stop. The romanticism of Kafka:
— Table for Two
— The Field
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not to be overthinking doctor who again but sacha dhawan's phenomenal performance as the master, particularly in his final moments and in his grand plan to "become" the doctor (which seems contradictory to his whole reason for anticlimactically re-murdering the gallifreyan race but that's a Whole Other Thing) implied heavily to be that dhawan!master's driving motivation may have been a desperation to not be lonely, and to achieve that through literally supplanting the doctor - who always had friends, who always has companions, who has always been the master's closest friend and enemy (and how much closer can you get to someone than becoming them???) - and you can really see this in the way he speaks to yaz after forcing the doctor to regenerate into himself, reassuring her in a fucked up way that they can still travel together, and in the despair in his face when he realises he failed and that he's one again alone
and it's low-key maddening that this interpretation is barely (if at all) carried in the actual text of the episode and ESPECIALLY maddening that dhawan!master is so heavily disconnected from gomez!master (in that, the show never even tries to address the jump from gomez!master betraying themself for the doctor's sake and dying because of it, to dhawan!master showing up as a power-hungry unhinged antagonist again) who underwent such a dramatic character shift in her arc that could have really enriched and deepened dhawan!master's own arc even as an antagonist, because what if, when the master (somehow) survived dying on that battlefield, entirely alone after just going through so much to not be alone again, he became maddened by the realisation that rediscovering that friendship with the one person in the universe who deeply understood them only made the return of their old loneliness that much more painful. and that is why dhawan!master returns to villainy, and pursues power/subordinates/the doctor's life specifically but with a new edge of manic desperation
and what if any of this had been considered in the writing of dhawan!master as a villain instead of being my generous/wishful interpretation based mostly on previous eras + sacha dhawan putting his ENTIRE pussy into that performance, i mean he was chewing that scenery up and going back for seconds
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just discovered this obscurely underrated david character named martin lamb from a tv show back in 2018.
tell me how this fella's the prettiest guy i've ever seen in my life. he looks (and acts, just watch his scenes) like a (cute) little freak. but tell me how i fell in love with him the SECOND i saw his face. i had a whole menty b realizing how underrated he is. it genuinely hurts. and he only got like, 2 minutes in the whole show. what the hell.
he's like this perfect combination of cale, alec, and that driving instructor guy from learners, chris. what an insane combo. i am so done for. WHY DO I HAVE TO KEEP FALLING FOR SUCH OBSCURE CHARACTERS. GOD. HELP ME.
ALSO ALSO ALSO. i haven't watched the entirety of his scenes because i'm saving it for later but he seems socially anxious. HUGE social anxiety sufferer vibe. which makes this all the more personal to me. you don't get it. he's literally me i'm afraid. (actually maybe not because i haven't watched all of him yet.. he could literally be some really effed up guy so yeah maybe not..) but SO FAR, the first few minutes of his scenes have showed that he's literally just like me fr.
stay tuned for updates.
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