Tfp - Blog Posts

Original:

I love drawing on paper it’s good for the soul

working on starscream’s backstory for To Earth and Back Again, my poor guy 🙏😔 In my fic he used to be the literal Decepticon poster boy and was very idealistic and eager to be involved in the cause, before he and Megatron began to develop their whole situation and Starscream’s life took a turn for the worse

(BUT IT’S OK IT’S GONNA GET BETTER)

tfp autobutts gain a new recruit...

part 2

I drew the mosquito and the fish again because I love them

Does Breakdown live in your au?

No, since a lot of the story is going to revolve around Knockout coming to terms with Breakdown’s death, he doesn’t come back to life and he stays dead. At least that’s how I’ve currently planned it.

That being said, given that I’m writing a backstory for Knockout, I’m writing lots of flashback Breakdown stuff. I’m super excited to explore their past muahaha

Thanks for the ask! :D

Reactions to getting in trouble with Ratchet (he is not paid enough for this)

Art for my wip TFP fic To Earth and Back Again

Knockout is sending mixed messages

Guess who’s writing a new fic >:)

It’s called “To Earth and Back Again” and follows Knockout because he is *such* a fascinating character to write through the perspective of. The story’s a huge wip at the moment. While I’m writing it I’ll be posting art for it in the meantime.

I totally started this project on a whim but it’s grown so much as I’ve planned it and I am having so much fun writing all the angst, horror, and drama that it entails. So much Knockout and Starscream content because I love them. Writing is so fun. Anyway have this cover art to look at with your eyes

WE ARE FEELING SO YES

THIS IS AMAZING

THIS IS MY FAVORITE

HOW ARE WE FEELING ABOUT SEEKERS IN CARDIGANS.. ON CHILLI SPRING DAYS…. GETTING MATCHA.. FROM A CUTE BARISTA… IN AUTOBUCKS

Transformers and Female Body Types (Rant/Essay)

(I wanted more images in this, but tumblr has a limit and it was a lot of pictures anyway)

Anyone who complains about female transformers having “robot boobs” needs to shut up. Unless it’s a case of critiquing a design that’s genuinely caricatured, this complaint only serves to protest against robots looking too feminine, as if all robots by default should have broad, masculine shoulders and flat chests instead. The problem is that people look at a masculine transformer and say, “Ah yes, an anthropomorphised robot.” But the moment it’s one of the female transformers, it’s “why do robots need boobs?” as if a male-looking body type is anthropomorphizing, but a female-looking body time is suddenly “too human” or “too much.” As if all humanoid robot aliens should look male by default.

That being said, for a long time transformers did have a glaring issue of their female transformers having a generic, Barbie-doll like body type. This especially became problematic as male characters appeared with several different and varying heights and builds, while female characters all looked the same.

This eventually improved with newer media. I’m going to go through different transformers series, giving my opinions on various female Cybertronians designs.

Transformers Animated and Transformers Prime are the cases where we see the very few female characters that there are being designed with this more Barbie doll look, especially in comparison to the male cast, who each have strikingly different silhouettes. I maintain that there’s nothing wrong with having this stereotypically feminine figure as long as it’s not caricatured or designed to sxualize the character (in TFA’s case, Black Airachnid was extremely sexualized, but Arcee wasn’t at least) it’s just the lack of variety that makes it painful. If all female characters were designed with a stocky, square body type, it would be just as bad; the problem is the lack of diversity in representing how each woman is different.

I think Arcee from Transformers Prime gets some of the most comments about how she has breasts and hips and is most often faced with the question “why should robots have boobs?” In response to this question, I propose: why shouldn’t they? The shape of their chassis really doesn’t matter in the end. I like Arcee’s design and acting like she’s inherently caricatured for looking like a woman is just a way of alienating femininity.

TFP Arcee is also unfortunately sexualized a lot by the fandom. Primus forbid a woman exist in peace.

The problem with these ‘Barbie doll’ designs isn’t that they are oversexualized— while this may have been a problem with Black Airachnia, the true problem, as seen especially with the treatment of TFP Arcee, is the concept that any female body traits are inherently sexual, which both creators and fandom spaces feed into.

It’s not as prominent, but I’ve also seen a trend of attempting to give female transformers more diverse body types by giving them… male body types.

In Transformers Cyberverse, the Seekers all have the same body type, whether they are male, female, or genderfluid, the only differences being that the female models have lips and the male ones have facial-hair like chin stubs (and Acid Storm switches back and forth). However I would hardly call this progress, because the body type is more male-leaning, not truly gender neutral.

Often to make something appear gender neutral, people will just remove anything too obviously feminine. This treats masculine traits as the “default” and female traits as a deviance from this. A truly gender-neutral design would incorporate both masculine and feminine traits at the same time.

(What if we just made all the Seekers look like women and gave the dudes chins. What if we did that. Huh.)

Shadowstriker from Cyberverse is a better example of this, having a female body type but a chin stub and generally gender neutral face.

I like the look of Alpha Strike as well, she feels actually gender neutral and isn’t too exaggerated like most muscular (and especially muscular female) characters are.

For example, Clobber’s design is good, but I do think her lips were strangely exaggerated.

Once the IDW run of the Transformers comics actually introduced female characters, they eventually gained a large cast with a variety of different body types. Take Windblade, Nautica, Pyra Magna, the Mistress of Flame, and Aileron.

These aren’t all examples, but IDW certainly had a unique design for each of their female characters, with different heights, width, mixing and matching the proportions of their bodies and displaying diverse body types. Aileron is also a stand-out character design for me, as one of the few heavy-set transformers to be designed in a way that looks more rounded than bulky, implying weight over muscle. We need more weighted transformers in general.

I have many positive feelings about Transformers Earthspark’s choice of character design for their female characters.

Earthspark has the most consistently diverse character design for its female characters.

And it shows that the key to designing actually good female Cybertronians isn’t necessarily to make them not feminine, but to show diverse depictions of femininity. All of the female characters in this show are pretty feminine, but they all look different. Twitch is small and slight, Hashtag is tall and boxy. Each one has different proportions and are easy to tell apart by body type alone. Even better, they each have drastically different facial structures. Twitch has large eyes, Hashtag has a strong chin, Elita-1 has a straight nose and pronounced lips, Arcee has small eyes and a very slight nose, et cetera. Earthspark is definitely a win in this department.

My point with all of this is to say that femininity isn’t a one-size fits all. Every woman is different and everyone should get to express their gender in whatever way they see fit. Transformers gradually diversifying the look of their female characters represents this, and I hope they continue improving as the franchise continues.

No thoughts just them

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:

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.

A little collection of shattered glass tfp edits I've made over time (part 1/?, I won't chill until I redraw all of them)

Just me studying on how to draw ratchet

The Tyrant

<<not the official design of the au just a fanfic fanart

I love isekai fics and this fic has delivered it just right to my taste The gorgeous writing and descriptions are a plus too

The fic: Action! By @lets-try-some-writing

alternative versions here

What happens when I draw with my fingers

(I forgot my digital pen at the time))

Brace my finger drawn cringe in its full glory

Bonus normal art

I find humor in the weirdest things

Shoving my favorite character into memes: this post

Or characters in this case? There's so many optimus primes..

Just a bunch of stuff I drew in the holidays

LMAO

Oh my god I can't believe I forgot to post this old shitpost I did

Human knockout in a dress cause why not

They’re not even together this was just too funny not to do

Technically the lore behind my tfp oc, Patchwork (haven’t posted abt her yet, though) (yet)

TFP Soundwave on my Art class Material box

Soo... I made a little something based on my TFP AU in the Post-war Phase.

Basically everything is being rebuilt And bla bla but the cities have their own leaders And dont really Stand to each other until After a Attack against Cybertron (i aint quite sure who did it tho) And so on.

Sometimes my brain makes up random scenes in AU's where it will take ages to reach, And this is one of em.

The scene of Starscream's death.

(yes, i kill him off Post war for everything He has done including killing Skywarp. I will colour the small Comic once i got a replacement for my digital pen)

Aaaand the full scene i came up With below:

(English isnt my native language so i am sorry for any mistakes)

A battle had shaken all of Cybertron... All the leaders standing now United beneath the light of the distant Star that Gifted Cybertron it's light. The enemy was Finally slain... Leaving behind a Scar of death And destruction on the Planets once again Energon stained surface. The ones left were searching for their fallen, to wish their Sparks a Final farewell to join the Allspark.

A message reached the Airqueen of Vos, from a comm that was too familiar to her. Coordinates were the only thing written on them. She followed the lead to the Desert Mountains next to the battlefield, finding a crack that led deeper in to the Mountain. And there in the darkness, two Red eyes stared up at her, surrounded by the blue gloom of spilled Energon

"Look who.." A cough shook the Mechs Silver frame, Energon spluttering out of his mouth And on to his torn chestplate "Came..." A snarl layed in his deep And scratch voice, there was no fear in the Airprince's eyes, that reminded her of her long deceased Conjunx...

The Airqueen said nothing, looking down at the torn frame of her firstborn son, the shredded wings, the cables hanging loosely out of his frame.

"Got nothing to say, Heh..?" A laugh rose from his lips, who didnt had the strength to Form a smirk anymore. "It's for the better..." his deeply Red eyes flickered in the slowing rythm of his Spark, fading more from Minute to Minute "I've always been the Bastard of the 3.. The one that never fit in, the one who wanted..." A hiss came from his vents, his torn wings lowering And scratching against the Rock, as if they had lost any sensitivity. Nothing more than already dead weight on his back. "Power... Good old Starscream... Good for nothing then a fucking waste of fuel And time." A chocked groan escaped him, as Energon stared to drip down his chin, the streaks of blue feeling hot against his slowly cooling frame.

His mother didnt respond... The ice in her eyes hadn't melted at All, even as she was about to loose her last Child left. The Child, that had brought a And to her other two children, the one who somehow had always managed to escape And fool death in the worst ways possible. But now it seemed, Primus was done letting him astray... Stripping his soul away from this world, where He brought so much pain to many Different Sparks

His head slowly sank back against the cave wall, his eyelids closing half over his eyes as his Talons layed useless over his wounded stomach And sides. "I havent killed Thundercracker..." He whispered. "He got killed by a Bastard no longer alive... But as if this would... Change... A thing..." his sight slowly became blurry, starring up at the caves ceiling as if He would be able to See the skies again... Maybe spread his wings one more time to embrace the cool Winds of his home... But they were useless now... As useless as he had been all his life... "Dont let anyone mourn... It's not like i... Earned it anyways... To be... Forgotten... Is better... T-than..." His voice cracked, a static hiss taking it's place as his eyes moved once again to the Femme that had raised him... Raised And loved him... And He has payed it back With murder And betrayal. What a irony... With one last gaze to the light behind her, his features relaxed, letting his wings drip to the Hard floor With a loud thud. His head rollend to the side, Energon still dripping from his silvery lips, making a End to the tongue of Silver He had used all of his life..

As the Airqueen turned around, her eyes followed the last gaze of her son, seeing the bluish sky, that faded in to a purplish Red, as the dawn advanced... On this quiet, wakeless place...

Soooo, yeah this is my first ever thing on Here and i Just felt like yapping a bit about my own Transformers AU species.

Today i think i will tell y'all about the Stormseekers.

The Stormseekers are a Subspecies to the Regular Seekers we know, exeot that they are built to with stand strong Storms and even directly Hits of lighting, which resulted in heavier frames and usually thicker armour plates that isolate them quite well. Their wings are formed differently as well, describing more of a half moon shape that ends somewhere beneath their knees.

The Stormseekers are native to Thetrahex and arent that Rich in Population anymore due to the war and them Not really wanting to participate in it and usually fleeing.

Their anatomy is, as stated before, different to the one of a Regular Seeker. They tend to be quite tall and can be Born with different Mutations. The Femmes can be Born with a second pair of wings and would be called Splitwings. This Mutation is a rather rare one and does usually Not Show up on Mechs, but it has happend once or twice before. The drawback of this Mutation is that die to the second wings they get more stabalized during flights, yet it needs more energy to keep them in the air since their wings are quite Heavy to prevent them from being torn off by the Winds. This can cause a weaker Spark then average, which cant be cured.

The Mechs on the other Hand, can have a second pair of eyes in the reverse colour of their Regular ones. If closed, the second pair is Not visible for others which is usually kept this way since the eyes are very sensitive to sunlight and can easily get worse with too much direct contact. They See better in the dark, being able to grant some Kind of lesser effective nightvision.

Two Mutations known to occur on bith genders equally, is the different Form of the legs and having four fingers on each Hand instead of five. The four fingers on each Hand will be longer and sharper, sharper then the usual "claws" This Seekers have. The legs are more animal like, rather reminding of a Predacon then to a Seeker. It is unknown why this Mutation formed in the first place, but like all the others, they can be inherited. They may skip a Generation or two, but the Chance of inheritance is quite High.

Now moving on to their plating. The Stormseekers are usually Held in the colours of the sky on different Times of the Day and weathers, ranging from the reddish Orange of a sunset to the White, purplish and Green auroras seen on the poles of Cybertron. The most common colour for them are different shades of gray and/or blue. Their bodies are Covered in Black markings, which Start to occur when the Cybertronian reaches the adult age. First the unique markings beneath their eyes will form, which no other Stormseeker will have. The ones of siblings Look alike, but Not even the ones of Twins are the same.

This Seeker Subspecies has quite some differences from the genders. The Femmes' wings are more bent then the ones of the males and thinner, ending in sharpee edges then the rather softer and rounder wings of the Mechs. The Mechs on the other Hand tend to have more spikier helms, leaving them with what almost seem to be Horns. Both genders have a quite bendy structure at the side of their head, ressembling what almost seem to be feathers. Some have them rounded, others have them as sharp as a sword.

The wings of this Specie are quite sensitive, as all Seeker wings are. The outher edges are less sensitive for them tho, since those are regularly bumped against too narrow doors. The wings usually have Stripes on them in different forms per Individual, but all are sensitive. Exspecially the Part where they connect to the back and the Tips of their wings. The Rest is sensitive as well and can cause a Seeker to shudder, but it's usually quite calming to receive a little Massage there.

Their culture is quite similiar to the ones of the Regular Seekers, being quite Skybound their culture focuses more on the skies then the one of the grounders. They are also more Fond of air races then the Vosnian Seekers, having atleast one large race per year that is opend by a flight show, showing how well they can move through the air.

They can also have built in weapons, a variety of Blasters that hide in their hands, two Canons on their back which they can move forewards to shoot (Even tho this is mostly added as a defense, a few have them naturally) and also some Kind of a bent double blade which can Transform from their wrists and can be added to the already natural weapons.

... And yes, thay have heels.

So, this is probably everything i have for them right now, it's a large amount i know. But i like to think about my species and try to make everything reasonable.. Atleast a bit.

To whoever reads all this, please go to sleep this is probably some tired person at 2am that says "Just one more post..." XD

Anyways, Thanks for listening!

- Sturm

Humanized

Hello! Do you happen to have more drawings of a female Optimus? I think your artwork is amazing!

I do and tysmm! ^_^

Og x Sg megop (tfp)