Latest Posts by axolartandfics - Page 3

No thoughts just them

Minimegs forever

Prowl does not want to be with Tarantulas

I like projecting happiness onto Starscream (primus knows canon doesn’t) so here’s TFP Screamer with the true self color palette from IDW :) REFERENCE:

Gonna start actually posting my animatics on here

Have some silly Pharma

Sunder is so silly <3

FR YES HE’S SO COOL. He needs swords more often

I need to say this. Starscream with swords is criminally underrated.

Like seriously imagine being an Autobot and you saw a seeker with swords diving towards you.

I’m not the first person to say this, but mischaracterization of Bumblebee in the TFONE fandom is honestly kind of crazy.

The infantilization aspect of it is really problematic, because it treats a full-grown man like the “kid” of the group. Bumblebee’s been slotted into this role because he’s often depicted as playing a son-like role to Optimus, which I of course *love,* generally speaking, but that’s not the role they went with in this movie, and B is still getting slotted into this role.

But in TFONE, B is actually quite possibly older than Orion Pax and D-16. We don’t know, but he’s been in Sublevel 50 for so long, he very well could be, and there’s nothing at all suggesting he’s younger than them.

Unlike in other iterations, B isn’t an “apprentice” to Optimus, either. He’s been at his side since *before* the Autobots were founded, which, since the Autobots will no doubt continue for millions of years, establishes him as a senior Autobot, not the “new kid” role he usually plays, either.

Then there’s B’s personality. B is talkative and energetic and eager to make new friends. He’s the comic relief character, which casts him in a less serious tone, but certainly not that he’s a kid. Orion doesn’t play a mentoring role to him throughout the movie, nor do any of them try to manage or babysit him. He’s an equal part of the group, even if he feels less “mature” because of his talkative personality.

B can also be read as neurodivergent, which makes the infantilisation of him in the fandom more problematic, since it treats hyperactivity and other traits found in neurodivergent *adults* as “kid” traits.

Like, why is B interpreted as the kid of the dynamic? He’s the weird uncle they found in the basement, obviously.

Not to mention, B’s primary trait as the movie goes on is his violent tendencies. Based on the fandom, you’d guess he was the most innocent lil guy, when in the movie, he actively takes joy in creating chaos and going on violent outbursts.

While his violence is made out to be a joke in the movie, in a potential sequel I would *love* to see it taken seriously as a character flaw. B is unpredictable and chaotic, and this could make him hard to work with in the Autobot cause.

B’s violent tendencies are genuinely concerning; the amount of joy he gets from slicing drones in half and holding the security team at knife point is uncharacteristic of your usual Autobot hero, and I wish people would talk about that aspect of his character instead of downplaying it when he gets turned into a lil baby in the fandom.

It reminds me of the infantilization of Tailgate in the MTMTE fandom. He’s treated like a lil baby because he’s small and emotional. This sucks because

1) I’m short and I *hate* seeing physically small characters babified to an extent I know they never would be if they were the same height as the rest of the cast around them

2) it treats being emotionally vulnerable as “child-like,” when MTMTE literally makes a point about the fact that Tailgate is one of the only people who can healthily process his feelings, since he doesn’t have war PTSD, and crying and having other big shows of emotion aren’t childlike, it’s healthy.

3) not to mention that Tailgate was a victim of emotional manipulation. Infantilizing him treats him like he was “gullible” for being tricked when Getaway was literally painstakingly planning a longterm relationship to groom him. Don’t infantilize victims, it’s treats it was their fault for being manipulated and not the abuser… you know, manipulating them.

Tailgate also is powerful/violent like Bumblebee, and this similarity gets downplayed. I haven’t been in as much of the MTMTE fandom (I’m still reading Lost Light, and I’m trying to avoid spoilers) but I have seen the Tailgate infantilization to an extent, and the B infantilization is literally the only way I ever see B being treated by the fandom.

STOP TREATING GROWN MEN LIKE KIDS PLEEASSSEEE

My favorite scene from today’s chapter of “The Trials of Optimus Prime”

Oh Starscream

Link:

✨husbands✨

The result of this post! I had such a good time drawing these two, I love them so much!

Cover for my Transformers fic “The Trials of Optimus Prime”

SUMMARY:

Megatron finds an unfortunate legal loophole that allows him to accuse Optimus Prime of a crime- and soon Optimus is going to court, with Megatron as the prosecutor, Elita-1 as his defense attorney, and Starscream of all people as the judge. Autobots and Decepticons alike go up to the witness stand to tell Cybertron about who Optimus Prime is. Can Optimus prove his innocence? *Should* he? And for Primus' sake, can everyone please STOP embarrassing themselves?

Chapters: 2/7 Fandom: Transformers - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Megatron/Optimus Prime Characters: Optimus Prime, Megatron (Transformers), Elita One (Transformers), Starscream (Transformers), Prowl (Transformers), Bumblebee (Transformers), Ratchet (Transformers), Arcee (Transformers), Rodimus | Rodimus Prime Additional Tags: Comedy, Moral Dilemmas Summary:

Megatron finds an unfortunate legal loophole that allows him to accuse Optimus Prime of a crime- and soon Optimus is going to court, with Megatron as the prosecutor, Elita-1 as his defense attorney, and Starscream of all people as the judge. Autobots and Decepticons alike go up to the witness stand to tell Cybertron about who Optimus Prime is. Can Optimus prove his innocence? *Should* he? And for Primus' sake, can everyone please STOP embarrassing themselves?

Some Transformers Ships I like! Which should I draw next?

Ships: Starscream x Skyfire, Optimus/Orion Pax x Megatron/D-16, Optimus x Elita, Knockout x Breakdown, Tailgate x Cyclonus, Megatron x Minimus, Windblade x Slipstream, Ironhide x Chromia, Soundwave x Shockwave, Chromedome x Rewind

also feel free to specify series- I showed TFONE megOp but I could Earthspark instead, either way

WHICH ONE SHOULD I DRAW AHH!!! :D

This does apply in both directions.

Intro Post!

I’m finally making a proper blog intro post :P

This is my blog where I post my art for transformers series and transformers fics and AUs. I’m Axol and my pronouns are she/they.

Links:

My YouTube channel

My AO3

I may post or reblog art that is violent/gorey so be aware of that

My transformers opinions bc y not:

Favorite series: MTMTE

All-time favorite character: Starscream

Favorite ships: Skystar

Yeah that’s all I got thanks chill

Prowl art dump because he sucks so much he’s such a problematic mess it makes me want to draw him

I LOVE THEMMMM

🩷🤍

super rush job because I wanted to be able to put something out before midnight (I failed oh well)

happy Valentine’s!

There’s an infinite universe out there, but they’ve already found the only Star and the only Sky they ever needed

(Inspired by “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt, character designs from my transformers fanverse, Sparksong)

Tarn wants one thing and it’s your organ

(Yeah his eyes are red but I already colored it and I don’t feel like changing it)

OK WHAT THAT CATCHPHRASE

They’re so cute 😭

I think it is my civil duty to tell you guys that in the LatamSpanish dub for TF ONE, Orion tells D16 that he loves him (although sarcastically, and he uses the ambiguous/platonic term for it.) Also their catchphrase is a lot sweeter. I made a little video to show.

Two old men on a spaceship

I made this post into an extended YouTube video essay

Transformers Sparksong Chapter Four

This chapter took forever because it’s like ten pages long but I love drawing Starscream’s expressions and just because this chapter is about him it gets a little bit extra color because he’s my favorite

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this is beautiful and so sad

I won’t leave you behind (lying)

TRANSFORMERS PRIME RANT

content warning: discussions of physical/psychological abuse

I’m going to try to write a rant but we’ll see how good I am at stringing my words together.

I love Transformers Prime with my whole heart, particularly Starscream, and despite and because of this, I don’t like the way his character plays out in season three.

After Starscream rejoins the decepticons at the end of season two, the abuse he receives from Megatron gets way worse. Megatron physically beat Starscream quite often in season one, and as season three progresses, this treatment is on full display and gets so much worse. And these abuse scenes are genuinely horrible and upsetting. Megatron physically dominates Starscream, who is much smaller and thinner, and the show spends a lot of time emphasizing his fear and screams as Megatron beats him.

Alongside Starscream’s abuse getting worse, he also gets significant Stockholm syndrome in season three, which makes the whole situation one thousand times ickier. While in season one Starscream tried to usurp and fight back against Megatron, now he looks up to the person who is actively and regularly beating him half to death.

But there’s nothing wrong with depicting a toxic character dynamic, it’s how the narrative frames it that matters.

Starscream gets treated worse by Megatron while thinking better of him as the show goes on. And the only people we get to see this ugly situation through the eyes of are Starscream and Megatron, who both think this is fine in one way or another.

We never get to see any other character acknowledge the abusive relationship. The autobots are totally oblivious or totally uncaring that it’s happening, and you can bet the other Decepticons aren’t going to do anything about it. Even after Megatron leaves behind his goal of oppression, he shows no regret of how he’d treated Starscream, the person who he had arguably made suffer the most. He just shouts at him and makes him flinch one last time then abandons him. He continues to mistreat him then leaves him behind. Leaves behind the person who he had physically and psychologically destroyed for thousands if not millions of years. Although I don’t expect Megatron to show sympathy for Starscream, since his ‘redemption’ was just him retiring and leaving everyone else to clean up the mess he made. (I have good and bad feelings on Megatron’s ending, but I don’t want to get too sidetracked)

What matters is, without Megatron acknowledging the horribleness of the situation, and without the autobots being aware of it, the only person who can acknowledge how toxic the situation was is Starscream.

But he doesn’t get this chance. His arc ends when the Predacons beat him up for revenge.

Starscream is an abuse victim, and he is never given a chance to heal. No character, himself included, ever fully acknowledges how problematic the situation is. He is never given a chance to be powerful. Over and over again he is forced to be weak and without agency. From the start of season three to the end of the movie, his character is a slow trickle into suffering more and more, being beaten down again and again until he doesn’t get back up.

When watching the show, I was fine with the amount of frightening abuse they were depicting on screen because I thought they would have some amount of healing from it. But it just gets worse and worse until the show ends and that’s it. It just feels like abuse for the sake of abuse at this point.

But the thing is, I’m not even opposed to Starscream having a bad ending. Let me explain.

I think it makes sense after him being conniving and evil and power hungry and cruel for his actions to catch up for him, and for him to be humbled in one way or another.

The thing is, they depicted Starscream’s fall to shame without ever giving him a moment of power. There’s no climax in season three where he takes control of his life again. There’s no moment where he gets to be more than humiliated and shamed.

Starscream is a victim, and he’s an abuser as well. He treats everyone around him horribly. He is a perpetuator of the cycle of abuse, where, after being abused by Megatron and others, he started to replicate their cruelty in order to have power.

The story needed to recognize him as both an abuser and a victim. It seemed to think these cancel out. That Starscream being beat by the Predacons in the end is the consequence of his abusive actions towards others coming back to haunt him. But just as a middle school bully doesn’t deserve to go home and be bullied by their sibling, an abuser does not deserve to be abused by another person. No one deserves to be abused.

Starscream being abused doesn’t pay for his crimes. And he isn’t just being humbled for treating the predacons badly; he’s being tortured.

As an abuser, Starscream deserved to see the consequences of his actions in some way, but as a victim, Starscream deserved any kind of moment of victory.

All this to say, this isn’t about wether or not Starscream deserved to be beat by the predacons (although I maintain that we should have better mindsets about paying for our crimes than “abusers deserve abuse”). This is about the fact that he deserved to see a shred of honor before his fall as well.

This is about the fact that as an abuse victim, he is given not a shred of dignity or an acknowledgment of his pain. His descent in season three isn’t even a character arc. There’s no growth, no resolution, no rising or falling climax. Like I said before, it’s just him suffering over and over, until the series ends.

Starscream is perhaps a good, although tragic, depiction of an abuser: a character who treats others poorly until it finally catches up to him. But he is a bad and problematic depiction of a victim: someone who never gets to be seen, even by himself.

Earthspark is um it’s really good

@vibinginthedreamlands

when i started watching g1 for the first time, i was NOT prepared for whatever the fuck its doing with Megatron's transformation😭😭

it gave me so much psychic damage

Transfomers Sparksong: Chapter Three

Properly introducing Sentinel and Alpha Trion!

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