Character Bashing - Blog Posts

shout-out to that episode of Spongebob where he gets amnesia and becomes mayor of a completely different town and that family guy fanfic i read years ago where meg gets paralyzed bc of peter and gets placed in a foster while the rest of the griffins are on a public trial, yall are the reasons I grew up to love bashing/groveling fics

This, this is what I would also say to Setinal. 

@gritsandbrits thank you for this wonderful speech.

The Reason You Suck Speech ~ Sentinel Prime Edition.

After being fed up with the way Optimus Prime gets treated by his so-called friend, GritsandBrits finally reads Sentinel the riot act. Sentinel Prime Bashing, Optimus Defense Club. Warning for any Sentinel stans this is very negative towards him and tbh he needed that.

Tv Tropes: Someone delivers a speech to another character on all the reasons why that other character sucks or is a horrible person. There are several contexts in which this can happen.

In this context, it's giving 10yo me the chance to finally say what she wanted to say about Sentinel. He may have gotten off easy in canon but we aren't in canon are we? 

Okay. I have had enough of you badmouthing Optimus! Now I'm not saying he's perfect - who gives a damn! Perfection is boring and the way I see it trying to achieve it only leads to more problems! And I have never seen a more clear example than you Sentinel Prime! You like to rub everyone else's failures in their faces yet do nothing to help them grow. You strut around like Primus's given gift to the universe expecting people to like you yet barely have a good word to say about anyone. Even the few bots who do give a damn about you you treat with contempt.

The show may have let you off the hook then but it's been over for twelve years now and nothing is holding me back from calling you out. Even years later I'm still mad no one actually called out you for being an asshole, save for that one time Optimus told you to take your attitude and stuff it. That part made me laugh. And deserved.

You went around making everyone feel bad about themselves. You nearly put your own team in danger when you bribed Decepticons, said an ageist statement towards your boss In the Almanac, and would've endangered both planets has that fourth season been made! All the hurt you caused you got away with it... Not this time! Nobody ever talked to you like that? Good. Perk up those antennae I got more. 

You are part of one of the most powerful defenders in the universe. You are a candidate for what is the most powerful position on your planet. You're like almost royalty to your people yet here you are acting like you part of a school clique talking shit about people behind their backs. Ever since you came to earth you been carping and sniping at Optimus more than usual. For what? Because he's a college dropout? Or is it because he made something of himself with being a dropout and without you! Him being happy ticks you off, so you gotta cling on to what little control you have left by undermining his work. Bad enough he had to drop his things to bail you out and having to waste precious time and energy foolin' up with you!

His job was to maintain the space bridges not be your personal lapdog! Just because he's a janitor doesn't give you the right to make messes for him on purpose. It's basic courtesy. Then again, you wouldn't understand courtesy if it hit you in the chin!

It's not just the way you treat Optimus it's also how you treat everyone else. You make fun of Bee and Bulkhead, they told me about how you were at boot camp by the way. You pick on Jazz and the Twins for expressing interest in our planet. You even had the gall to insult Prowl's memory when he was the one who gave his life to save Earth AND your world! If not for him you wouldn't be here now bullying the way you do. 

Yeah I said it! You're a bully! A prime bully who throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way. Who likes to make everyone else miserable! Who bullied his way into positions of power! We're all happy and content with our lives with all its faults and follies and fun and freakiness. Even you with your lack of courtesy, we still accept you, so why can't you accept us? Do you have to destroy everyone to make your life worthwhile? The worse part is you don't own up or express remorse. Rather, you blame other people for suffering the consequences of YOUR actions!

You complained about Optimus lying to you about Miss Spider, well what about the other times he told you the truth? When he warned you about the Decepticons' presence on Earth, or Wasp's innocence, or organics not being a threat, all you said was: you're lying, I don't believe you, you're just a dropout, arrest them all! Not a 'let's settle down and figure this out together', nope! Just straight up threatened them with prison! He tries to be honest with you but you refuse to hear him out! 

You complain about a lack of communication but how can we when you go around insulting everyone! The rare times you do speak positively it always come out so backhanded, like you have to point out something negative no matter how inconsequential it is. Everyone's forced to walk on eggshells around you. Why? Because we know you got a negative remark loaded on your tongue. That and you like to brag. Loose lips sink ships as they say.

And back on lying, honey he never lied to you. If anything he was protecting you! He didn't want to hurt the both of you so he had to make a hard decision at the cost of his own wellbeing. When you did learn the truth, instead showing the poor thing a bit of compassion, you tell her that she was better off dead! What is that to say about someone? Especially someone who was your girlfriend? 

She probably didn't have much of a choice, and you know good and well how slick Megatron is! But besides that, you were hurt yes, but you have the time to seek closure. Instead you denied your ex a chance to heal from her traumas. You continue using Optimus's own trauma against him.

You plot and scheme to further your ambitions not caring who gets hurt. You try to inflict trauma on every organic on this Earth. Tell me, are we really a threat? Or are you just venting your anger over not being told about Blackarachnia? Given your past behavior I would not be surprised if it ends up being the latter. 

That's another thing every time you faced with a difficult situation you immediately lash out. Optimus has been your biggest victim. When it's not dumping your the responsibility on him, it's sneering or picking on him. You ever stopped to think how Optimus might've felt? The guilt he feels over not saving her? The fear that someone could hurt her, or that she might hurt innocent beings. How he has to shoulder not just his own grief but yours as well. How he has to deal with your hatred. 

You say you don't haye him yet that doesn't stop you from treating him like a tool. Do you ask him how he feels? Did you offer him comfort in his time of need? Or are you the only one ever allowed to feel sad? Maybe you can learn his side of the story if you bothered to give him a chance! You claim it's too late for apologies but the thing is, that's not a reason for you treating everyone like junk. When others make mistakes they at least try to fix them, or move on and take steps to do better in the future. Even if it's not verbal, there's other ways to apologize and grow. 

You could've worked with Detroit. You could stop calling Optimus that awful name. You could've open you heart - excuse me - your SPARK to others and learn about our planet. Sure you can't change the past but that don't mean you can work on yourself now. Everyone even in the fandom been nothing but patient and kind to you, and you returned it with spite. You can't fathom being happy with yourself so you hafta drag everyone down with you. 

But yet Despite all the garbage you hurl at Optimus you know he never spoke badly about you? Sure an exasperated sigh here and there but never slander. He never went out of his way to hurt your career, hell he gave up his future for you! Yet you still treat him like a threat to the point of attacking his teammates to get at him. All the harm you've inflicted on him, he still helps you out! He could've left you at the mercy of Headmaster but helped you get your body back. He could've let you get killed or hurt but he comes to your aid like a real friend should. He saw something worth salvaging.

Are you willing to toss all that away for temporary catharsis? 

You let one tragic mistake sour your worldview so you project that onto others. They make a mistake you don't give them grace. You don't give it yourself. You expect everyone else to think and act exactly like you, selfish and mean, yet you see the opposite. Bee and Bulkhead try new things and has hobbies. Jazz plays our music, Ratchet studies our medicine, Prowl loved our wildlife, and Optimus loves everyone. Even you, you hateful self-centered jerk. He cares so much about you though I can't see what it is that makes you worth saving. 

Every day they go out to help the city not expecting to be rewarded or even thanked, but because it's the right thing to do. Meanwhile you're just standing around huffing and puffing, refusing to lend a hand. Stubbornly clinging on to that cynical mindset that being flawed is inherently evil and that nobody can be good. We fought things bigger than you, yet you treat us like a bunch of idiots who don't know anything no it's you who don't know anything! But even those aren't a good enough reason to carry on acting like that.

Your whole life has been challenged, and now that everyone seen you for the sad, scared soul you truly are, they stopped entertaining you. You lied to yourself, you're stuck with that lie and nobody is around for you to dump your frustrations on.  You can't keep living off lies you know. You can't force everyone else to live in them either.

Now I know what I just said won't get you to change your mind and honestly, I've stopped waiting for you to have an epiphany a long time ago. It's clear you're content with the path you're going down but you will have to walk it alone. The rest of us will continue to enjoy ourselves. We'll love our flaws and freaky grossness. You? You be all alone with only your crown for company. It's sad it has to be that way. But I hope you take it as the time to reflect on the choices you've made and will make. That when you do eventually become the Primer Prime, those choices had better be worth it.