blueskyscribe

I hope the 2nd season of Earthspark has a little more, idk, grit? Which is NOT to say grimdark. It's just, they seem so reluctant to let the good-guy role model characters be anything other than wholesome, and even a lot of their character flaws come from a place where they're trying their best. (Like Optimus being too naive and idealistic to realize how corrupt GHOST is.)

As opposed to, like, Rattrap being sooo prejudiced against Predacons (who, reminder, the Maximals are NOT at war with on Cybertron) that he nearly blows Dinobot's head clean off ten minutes after Dinobot joins the Maximals. Now THAT'S a character flaw. And since he started from that, it really meant something when he and Dinobot became friends.

I agree! The writers for S1 shy away from making characters have a negative side.

When they show it through the children and Terrans, it treated as "Hey, they're just kids being kids." Children can be awful on purpose. Everyone has either been an awful child or knows an awful one they can't forget. Children learning from their awful actions is how growth works, realistically and in fiction.

When it comes to Megatron specifically it's "He used to be the big bad. Remember that." It was as if every other Decepticon hasn't done evil on their own volition (look at how they handled Starscream). Mandroid even mentioned the friendly fire committed by the Autobots that can highlight the atrocities done by the good guys but that was pushed aside, too.

Dot and Alex are way too relaxed as 'super' parents. Dot wanted nothing to do with Transformers anymore only to get roped back in and cannot go out thanks to the Terrans. She should be more strict and reluctant to take the Terrans in while Alex is open but still strict. Just because they're married does not mean they don't have different opinions.

The biggest problem in this case is Robby and Thrash. They lack the protective big brother vibe. For a 14 year old, Robby is never annoyed by his new siblings or occasionally Mo. I second that Thrash should've been more rebellious, and he should be distrustful of Cons after the Swindle episode. His lack of development despite being Twitch's twin shows the writers' favouritism towards her which leads the season to fail in balancing out the cast's character development.

I wonder if this is part of a bigger industry trend of shying away from characters ever being interesting "problematic", as I just learned the producers of the new live action Avatar The Last Airbender were like: "We fixed Sokka! He's not sexist anymore. :)" Like??? Did they think the original ATLA crew put that element in there because they think sexism is cool? It's to illustrate how it's wrong and dumb.

Anyway, I love your idea about Thrash doing a 180. Imagine if after the Swindle Incident he's like "You can't trust a 'Con, any 'Con" and Bumblebee is in the awkward position of not wanting Thrash to think like that but also kind of agreeing and maybe that spurs some self-reflection in him . . . Also how would Thrash react to Megatron and vice versa? Would he be like "Of course I know YOU'RE One of the Good Ones :)"? Might be a good setup for Megatron to explain why the war started (which they never do in the show afaik, but some supplemental interviews indicate it's similar to MTMTE.)

And it could set up a fundamental disagreement between Thrash and Nightshade (who is more trusting of 'Cons), and the two of them could clash over that from time to time. With Thrash flexing a "I'm your big brother and I know better" attitude.

About the super-parents thing, yeah, the show is not consistent with them. Like does Dot mind her kids being pals with Decepticons or not? Does it actually make sense for her to tell Nightshade "Well, not all Decepticons are bad", even if that's what she believes in her heart, after a charismatic 'Con tricked and nearly killed Mo and Thrash? I would expect her to tell Nightshade to assume every Decepticon (except Megatron) is bad, even if she herself knows it's more nuanced than that.

*scottish voice* is this figurine an appropriate representation of my might? Why are you laughing. My cannon is not this big

Thank you Benni Latham for voicing this:

Some drawings of Dotty and Megatron. 

I always hated the idea of Megatron befriending a human. Even with Autobot Megatron in MTMTE, I always thought It would ruin his character. 

Except Dotty is the best possible character match for him, so I adore their relationship! Seeing him have a genuine, badass girl boss friend is actually beautiful. 

My two cents.

Just some doodles

"How to love without a trace of dissent, I'll buy the torture 'cos you pay for the rent. Tied high with a broken command, you're all alone to the promised land!"

I find it frightening that the Deceptions' actions seem to be driven exclusively by hunger for Energon and that GHOST seems to be able to supply an endless amount of it. I think this show has a deadly resource war in the background, one that seems to have killed Rumble in a horrific way, as well as many others.

A war that Dot is very experienced in and afraid of. I wonder how her and Megatron are going to handle it in the coming seasons, because she seems to empathize more with where he is coming from and that makes me super interested. She's my fav character.

The cool mom who works for the cool secret organization with cool aliens

So 2 things.

Dot Malto dislikes Optimus Prime to some degree

Dot Malto is good enough friends with Megatron that they have some sort of saying together

This is immensely funny to me