Table of Contents

This post contains heavy spoilers for Transformers: Animated, but the spoilers have been properly spoiler-marked!

- Post-TFA Thoughts -

// I didn't binge-watch Animated which was odd

Before I say anything else, I would like to state that:

I think Transformers: Animated is AWESOME. It's one of the best Transformers shows.

However, like the title of this post says, I wish I liked it more. Did I enjoy watching it? Yes. Did it have a grip on me the same way that Prime and EarthSpark did? No, but I wish it did. Animated has a reputation of being one of the best, arguably the best Transformers shows. Even before watching the show I knew it was gonna be good just from how popular it seems to be among all corners of the fandom, which I guess that sort of set my expectations high. Was I disappointed? No! I think it lives up to the hype! Which makes me even more sad that it didn't connect with me on a "Oh my god it's taking over my brain" kind of level :( When I watched Transformers: Prime, I binged that show in like three days and couldn't tear myself away from the screen. I was completely captured, enthralled even. (Maybeeee a tad bit dramatic but I did binge it at the expense of my sleep schedule. Granted it was my first Transformers show.) Afterwards, I felt the urge to consume other media in the Aligned continuity because God knows my mind has not been satiated. Same thing happened to me with EarthSpark; it started as a casual watch and quickly turned into a "wait why is this good let me watch just one more episode". Going into TFA, I expected a similar level of obsession. When that didn't happen, well, I can't help but feel a little bit empty.

By the time that I got to the end of the first season of Animated, I knew it was over for me because I still didn't have the urge to binge-watch it... which was really weird! Like, WDYM I was able to just Stop Watching it and will myself to do other things. What do you mean I didn't have trouble putting it on pause like I'm watching some random youtube video that showed up on my feed?!

At the end of the day, it's not like I can force myself to be emotionally invested in Animated more than I actually am. What did C.S. Peirce say? You can't will yourself into doubt. I guess it's the same thing for (hyper)fixations—some unconscious part of my brain controls it, not me.

// A list of things I liked about TFA:

  • The cast feels huge and I like the pace that new characters are introduced!
  • The scope of the war isn't limited to Earth. Worldbuilding-wise I like my Transformers story to be intergalactic and grandiose. (Early IDW did well in this regards.) (I say early because that's all I've read so far lmao.) I liked the use of space bridges as a plot device.
  • I feel like this is a given but the Autobot/Decepticon main cast are really solid. They all have unique personalities that play off each other well :D
  • I HATED Sentinel Prime which means the writers did their job LOL.
  • The sound effects that plays when the bots make facial expressions. Makes them feel more alive and metal.
  • The intro is PEAKKK I never skip it.
  • Literally all of the voice actors; loved all of their performances. I like how some characters have accents and/or unique cadence.
  • The humans in this world being so nonchalant about alien sentient transforming robots.
  • Captain Fanzone - top tier human charcter in TF #that's my goat

// Maybe I should've gone into Animated completely blind

I hate getting spoilers about a show/movie I want to watch going in blind sometime down the line. Not a hot take, I know. For me, Animated falls into a separate category of "I got spoiled before I even thought about watching the show, but now that I've decided I'm gonna watch it anyway I don't really care if I get spoiled even more." With this mindset, by the time that I started actually watching the show, I got pretty much all the major events/plot twists spoiled for me: Sari not being a human, Blurr cube, Prowl's sacrifice, Shockwave as Longarm Prime, the whole situation between Elita-1/Blackarachnia/Optimus/Sentinel, Wasp and Bumblebee's rivalry... and probably more, but those are the major ones I could think of off the top of my head. I just sort of learned of them through fandom osmisis, which was kinda inevitable with the way that I was scrolling through Twitter and AO3 every other day. Did the spoilers take away my enjoyment of the show? I don't think so, but it probably took away some of the fun and shock values. Since I was already familiar with most of the characters' dynamics, watching the show felt more like filling in the blanks, rather than engaging in something new and exciting. Plus, I watched most of the episodes while doing something else, and since my brain can't handle multi-tasking that well I definitely didn't get the full experience.

I read way more TFA megop fics than I probably should've before watching the show. I knew it was a bad idea—fanon interpretations/portrayals are never the most reliable—but I did it anyway because damn it I want to read fanfics. Oh I probably should've mentioned that while watching the show I was reading an Animated Autobot-crew-turned-Decepticons AU fic which definitely made for an interesting viewing/reading experience.

Lesson of the day: maybe don't read fanfics before consuming the canon media LOL.

// One more show done, what's next?

I definitely wanna look into other canon media related to TFA. Considering that there's A LOT to dig through, it feels a little intimidating to start... Oh well, I'm sure I'll get to it at some point! Hey this reminds me, I haven't 100% Aligned and Bayverse yet. Still need to read Retribution and look through the recently leaked Aligned bible. I don't think I'm gonna read the Bayverse novels. The tie-in game (games?) seem fun though; will probably watch some playthroughs. I'm two episodes into Beast Wars and I like it so far! The soundtrack is fireee I love how the music blasts during fights. One little trouble I'm facing is that since it's all new characters (to me), I don't feel particularly attached to the show yet... hopefully it'll grow on me. Cheetor's my favorite rn. And Megatron of course by virtue of his name and taking on a similar role as his namesake. I'll probably skip Beast Machines though. I wanna watch the Netflix Trilogy after Beast Wars.

Literally as I was writing this I was looking through TFWiki, clicking through links because I wanted to double check that BW Megatron named himself after the Decepticon Megatron, and guess what? I GOT FUCKING SPOILED BY TFWIKI. DINOBOT FUCKING DIES????????????????? BRO I CAN'T EVEN BE MAD THAT'S 100% ON ME. I'm banning myself from reading anything related to Beast Wars on TFWiki except specific episode pages until I finish the show 😭😭

- Fanon vs. Canon -

I think given what I knew about Transformers: Animated prior to watching the show is entirely based on fan-interpretations, it provides an interesting perspective on what the fans find fascinating about the canon vs what the canon actually says.

// The Characters

  • I totally thought Strika and Soundwave would play a bigger role in the show! The former being present in almost every fic I read, my guess being that the fic writers just need someone to fill the role of a Competent Decepticon^TM. (Given I exclusively read megop fics there's probably some sort of fanon-consensus-bias going on.) I was so hyped when Strika showed up because I thought that's gonna jump start another sidestory, WDYM THAT'S THE ONLY EPISODE SHE SHOWS UP?? I'm crying man she really showed up for 5 minutes, aura-farmed, and that was it. As for Soundwave, I'm sorry to say that I feel like his character is a nothingburger in this show, mostly because he just doesn't show up a whole lot. His character felt self-contained: he shows up, plays his role as the Villain of the Episode, and then just fucks off. Overall minimal interactions with other characters :/
  • I'm surprised that the Animated incarnation of Blurr is so popular! Don't get me wrong I like the character, his design and all his quirks, but really I'm just like... that's it? I feel like his character is more interesting in his IDW spotlight issue than in all of the Animated episodes he's appeared in combined lol. His death didn't feel tragic/impactful at all because of the way it's been meme-ed to death in the fandom. Welp.
  • A character that I'm surprised isn't more popular is Sari! She does kinda start off as the "annoying human kid who wants to tag along on dangerous missions" trope that is done to death in Transformers, but she's sooo much more than that! I grew to really like her πŸ₯Ίβ€οΈ I feel like this applies to human characters in TF in general: no one really cares about them outside of the dynamic they have with the bot they're paired with, which is a shame. Though I feel like her character kinda got stagnant and side-lined after she got her upgrade and learned to control her Cybertronian powers... but you could also say it's because her character development arc was "completed".
  • I've seen people say that what makes the Animated incarnation of Megatron special is that he is calculated and cunning, yet ruthless, to which I fully agree. He has this air of competence and class and I like that ❀️ Congratulations to TFA Megatron for being one of the few Megatrons to successfully permanently offline StarscreamπŸŽ‰ Going in I knew that the scene where Megatron calls Optimus by his name for the first time would be a big deal because it characterizes him as someone who truly sees the Autobot crew as insignificant stepping stones beneath him, and damn was it such a good detail.
  • I see why people are down bad for TFA Optimus because DAMN I am too 😍😍 Need more of this flavor of tired late 20s-early 30s Optimus Prime who got put into a shitty situation against his will, is lowkey a little fed up with the world, but is trying his best and ultimately remains a gentle and compassionate soul πŸ’™ I think it's nice that this incarnation of him is a little less idealistic and optimistic (heh).
  • I remember seeing people say that Blackarachnia as a character was much wasted potetial, and after her last episode yeah I can see why. The conclusion of her story arc is... ok, but leaves room for improvement. A whole lotta set-up and not a lotta resolutions. Compared to how Sentinel and Optimus were able to sort of come to a mutual understanding and move on from the past, Blackrania and Optimus never got the chance to fully resolve the rift between them. Plus, she's still stuck in the same shitty predicament by the end of the show as she did at the start... Under-utilized! That's the word I was looking for! She definitely deserved better (both from the in-universe characters and the show's writers, I supposed).
  • I'm ngl I feel like this Starscream deserved to have his ass beat. I'm all for Starscream redemption (RIP EarthSpark you could've been amazing πŸ’”) but TFA? Nahhh I don't see it. I didn't know Slipstream is a clone of Starscream, specifically an aspect of his personality... the implication of transfem Starscream being canon is something I did NOT expect lmao.

// The Ships

Disclaimer: I'm not a hater!! Out of this entire list the only ship I'm dead-set on shipping is MegOp/OpMeg, the rest I don't mind :P Time to take off my literary analysis lens and put on my shipper's lens 😍😍
Oh and also, I figured it'd be fun if I listed these by the number of fics they have on AO3.

Megatron/Optimus Prime (808)

You could probably start a Twitter discourse on how certain TFA MegOp (and specifically MegOp) artists/writers mischaracterize TFA OP as a damsel in distress. IYKYK. After watching the show I can confidently say that 90% of TFA MegOp shippers—including myself—like the idea of them (i.e., the fanon portrayal of the two) more than how these two actually are like in the show. I feel like a fraud for saying this but I kinda don't see the chemistry between canon TFA MegOp... gulp... OKOK HEAR ME OUT BEFORE YOU THROW TOMATOES AT ME!! What I mean is that if I wasn't a megop shipper already, watching the show probably wouldn't have made me one. Firstly, they barely share any screen time together! Secondly, they don't share ANY past history together, so all of the interactions they do have are extremely impersonal. The shared history is one of my favorite aspects of megop, and TFA not having that is like not putting ketchup in your spaghetti sauce. I'm always down for some post-canon fix-it megop, but these two developing feelings during the show's timeline? Nah, I don't see it. I do see the appeal though, and I'll continue to enjoy TFA megop fanfics/fanart, but it's not making into my top versions of megop lol.

Blurr/Shockwave (410)

Given that these two interact one (1) time in the show I'm genuinely impressed by the ship's popularity. And that one time being the time Shockwave kills Blurr LMAOOO holy shit I'm very amused if you couldn't tell. Impressed, but not shocked, because if there's one thing that's common across all fandoms, it's shipping two characters who barely interact in canon :P I think I understand why it's a popular ship though, it's got the classic toxic yaoi enemies to lovers set-up and characters who are polar opposites of each another (high-energy and sporadic vs calm and calculated). Lowkey wanna read some shockblurr fics now to see what the fuss is all about.

Blitzwing/Bumblebee (380)

HOW IS THIS SHIP SO POPULAR IM SHOCKED. IIRC THEY BARELY INTERACTED???? IF AT ALL??????? Shockwave and Blurr had a very memorable—albeit short—moment, so I get why that's a popular ship. Blitzebee though, I can't name a single one-to-one moment between the two characters that's anything more than a brief exchange in battle????? I think my confusion ties back to my own preference for characters who share a history together, or at the very least interact for an extended period of time where we get to see how their personalities mesh. Hmmm is blitzbee's appeal "guy who is crazy" and "guy who can handle his crazy/drives him even more crazy"? I need a blitzebee shipper to enlighten me.

Jazz/Prowl (190)

Jazzprowl's existence as a ship is very amusing to me because it's one of those crackships that got so popular that they stopped being a crackship and just became a commonly accepted fanon among shippers. Not surprised to see them here. Will I get beaten to death if I say I find jazzprowl in general a little bit boring D: TFA jazzprowl tho I see the potential... the potential for ANGST...πŸ˜‹πŸ˜‹

Megatron/Starscream (107)

Surprised that there's not MORE TFA Megastar fics considering how popular this ship is in general. I think TFA megastar gives off the same vibe as G1 megastar in the sense that it's a bog-standard Megatron vs his traitorous second Starscream relationship. Is it a crazy thing to say that I feel like there's not a lot to work with when it comes to TFA megastar? ES and TFP I see the potential. Might just be a me skill issue.

Optimus Prime/Sentinel Prime (105)

I feel nothing for this ship lol but I see the bitter exes appeal. IDK why I was a little surprised that TFA sentiop exists when I knew Bayverse sentiop is a thing.

Bumblebee/Prowl (101)

This ship genuinely did not even cross my mind while watching the show. I feel like this goes for any ship between the TFA main Autobot cast; I see them as family 🀷

Lockdown/Prowl (80)

I'm surprised that this ship isn't more popular! While watching that one episode where they had to work together I was like waittt I see the vision. Specifically the scene where Lockdown compliments Prowl (I don't remember the exact dialogue); that's prime shipping material right there.

- TFA MegOp Fic Recs -

I've talked about fanfics and ships so many times in this post that I feel like it is only right if I share some of my favorite TFA fics. They're all MegOp fics because that's literally all I've been reading the past year.