Curate, connect, and discover
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