Wanderer's Rest

Starscream: Who is your favorite incarnation of Starscream?

Terrorsaur.

*poker face*

I’m told that I write a great G1 Starscream *coughshamelessplugcough*, but to be honest I’ve always been weirdly fond of Armadascream, Japanese-soap-opera fangirl magnet that he was. You never forget your first, I guess. ;) Never saw him as a woobie, but I do think he was kind of jerked around by his circumstances more than other incarnations. With G1Scream his misfortunes are generally his own fault, and it’s a little harder to empathize. Same for PrimeScream, though they do hit him with the abuse hammer a little harder than necessary.

(Terrorsaur's fun to watch, I kind of wish the writers had kept him around, but only one writer has ever managed to make him empathetic to me. I suspect dark magic was involved.)

Optimus: Who is your favorite incarnation of Optimus?

I think it’s a toss-up between G1 Optimus and Optimus Primal. As much as I rag on G1!Op for not being quite as perfect as he’s painted in canon (and for being the stick the fandom beats Rodimus with), I legitimately love the guy. I love that he’s prone to speechifying and cowboying and father-knows-besting. I love those moments where he loses his cool or loses a fight, and I love when he just throws everything he has into protecting people or pulls victory from the jaws of defeat. I love his pride and when it gets dented. I love when he’s actually smart and cunning. I love that he can actually relax and joke and do stuff like play basketball or stage races for charity. That’s something he doesn’t share with his Bayverse and Prime counterparts - there’s a reason why he’s the most sane of the bunch. (Does anyone else want to kidnap TF:P Optimus and make him get some goddamn rest? He just sounds so tired all the time.)

I love what great foils he and Megatron are for each other too, it must be said. How they bicker like an old married couple and how easily they cooperate with each other when the plot calls for it. Is it any wonder I’m so freaking fascinated by Op/Megs? They could be the greatest power couple ever if things had been different, but they just can’t get there anymore.

Optimus Primal, I like for some of the same reasons I like Rodimus. He goes from this guy who’s basically still feeling his way through command to someone who would probably be on equal footing with Prime, if they ever met. But of course he’s not Prime, he’s got his own style and his own priorities and his own battles to fight. I think the two of them would get along though. And you get to follow him as he gains that strength and confidence. His predecessor had to have gone through a similar process before Earth, so it's really fascinating especially with the weird connection they end up sharing.

And he’s snarky and clever and adorable and sweet in his own way, and he's got this Steve Rogers-esque 'plant his feet and tell the universe No, YOU Move' about him. Probably the best boyfriend in the franchise. ;)

(TF:A Optimus has a similar appeal and a similar journey, but the way he lets himself get dicked around by his own government kinda drops him out of the running for me.)

(Skipped yesterday because I went to a fair and was too tired to fangirl after.)

Like my last entry, I have a lot of feels about this. Not gonna cut it though, because AFAIK I won't be harshing on anyone's squee.

Love: Who is your favorite character from any series?

Do I even have to say it? Generation 1 Rodimus Prime/Hot Rod. Because he’s basically me, only amazing.

He carries around this heavy burden of grief and guilt and Imposter Syndrome, but what he doesn’t see is that he is actually the best freaking thing to happen to Cybertron in a long time. He negotiates alliances on Earth! He brokers peace agreements between other species! He’s spearheading the rebuilding process on Cybertron! He gallivants around the galaxy discovering new things! He supports and encourages his fellow Autobots! He turns his thinking around re: Decepticons and offers asylum and friendship to the ones who break off from the current pack! He's this perfect mix of practical and idealistic and he doesn't put up with bullshit. AND he’s as badass a warrior as his predecessor on top of all that. I mean, when does he sleep?

And then sometimes he wants to run away from it all. Every once in a while he actually does. He humbles himself. He learns from people whom lesser leaders might think didn’t have anything to teach him. He’s childish sometimes and he loses his temper and he’s harder on himself than even his worst enemies, to the point where he can’t see what a difference he’s making, and that is why my heart goes out to him every damn time. I think, if this amazing, caring, strong person can feel about himself the way I constantly feel about myself, then maybe I'm not as hopeless as I think I am. And it makes me feel a little better.

(I really get angry about this sometimes, and I'm not going to apologize because I'm a depression sufferer and it fills me with unspeakable rage when people imply that Rodimus's occasional struggles with depression make him weak or annoying. Like, if that's how you're going to feel about me when I'm going through a rough patch, we honestly can't be friends.)

Also, Roddy is best because snark. All the adorable snark. <3

(Side note: TBH I think a lot of the G1 Roddy hate smacks of misogyny. He’s constantly compared to Optimus, but G1 Optimus was a cowboy - his strengths lay largely on the battlefield, and his charisma was mostly about inspiring the Autobots to fight, and we never, EVER see him depressed. Most of the strongest emotional responses we see from him are anger. Rodimus is no slouch in battle but his greatest strength is in communication and leading the way in building connections with people. Coupled with how he visibly struggles with his emotions far more than Optimus did, he flies right in the face of what a ‘man’ is supposed to be in this culture. So Optimus gets to be universally beloved and held up by canon as basically flawless, because Robot Masculinity; Rodimus reads more ‘feminine’ in nature, just enough to trigger a misogynist gag reflex.)

Look at this, I poked Tumblr with a stick and a meme fell out. Whaddya say I do one of these a day? :D

Watch This!: Out of all the Transformers series you've watched, which is your favorite?

My go-to fanfic playground is G1, always.* It's good-natured and fun and silly and easy to get lost in. Other series tend to get crushed under the weight of the premise, but nope, G1 is all "we've been fighting a war for millions of years, but today we're going to play basketball with Optimus Prime!" It’s like Lego - lots of little pieces to take apart and put back together, and just enough worldbuilding to make it interesting while leaving me space to make up my own backstories and characters and cultures and everything. (Ask me about Megatron’s backstory sometime.) Also most of my favorite ships are in it, so there you go.

For sheer comfort-watching - Beast Wars. I basically lived and breathed Beast Wars all through high school, so revisiting it is like coming home to my messy, dysfunctional family of death robots. For sheer character development, nothing comes close. I really want to play more in this ‘verse in fic/skibblecomic - maybe I should give Beast Wars another rewatch and see if it jump-starts anything. XD

(Shout out to TF:A for being the only series to put me on Team Decepticon.)

*Can't in good conscience go without saying this, so: G1 has skanky race and sex issues out the wazoo. Those things absolutely deserved to be talked about, and condemned, and mocked. They don't keep me from loving G1, overall, but I'm not going to close my eyes to those things to make myself more comfortable. Hell, sometimes those skanky issues are a jumping off point for fanfic/fanart.