Done! I’m insanely exited to see this big guy in Earthspark and you fucking BET I’m gonna get the toy if they do one.

BUT WHY THOUGH ?! I JUST WANTED TO SEE MY SPIDER BOY OK

I'm really disappointed to know that 2 major scenes would have explained alot. Having tarantulas instead of Soundwave would make sense SOUNDWAVE IS STILL UPSET and maybe didn't wanna help. Now I have no idea the status of Soundwave for whats gonna be set up for next season cause all points seem to be at Soundwave still being upset and not being ok with any of this.

His lack of presence at the end of the season would have made sense cause mayne he'd be the next antagonist. Everything has kinda pointed to that. Including when he was captured and had ravage pop out.

Which btw WAS explained in another deleted scene

Kitty ravage (she/her) and Soundwave!! She has a purpose and it explained how and why she popped out. It also gave staracream more time to show "yeah star is still a schemer and not the best guy" not taking away from his trauma but it is starscream we are talking about. Making his character a bit more established and his moment with Hashtag more earned. Given if I had no prior idea to who staracream is , I'd have no idea why ppl domt like staravream and just assumed he was bad.

Also Soundwave character stuff with ravage. The story board arits sound itvwas a good choice to cut it since it took attention away from the episode 14. But??? It didn't???? Like it explained how Shockwave got out, why ravage popped out and more of Starscream's character. I dont know why they didn't go with it because it makes Soundwave and Ravage whole thing so purposeless and makes no sense.

I'm a bit frustrated with it all. It was still amazing. First season. Still a wonderful show. But makes no sense to cut these things out when it laid a better understanding and it left things in that now have no purpose being there and probs won't be mentioned of expanded upon. Because no there is no point to. We're past that point.

what really gets me is the episode the Ravage would have been in (Warzone) had two near-identical flashbacks AND a long segment of the kids LARP-ing. Like, there was a lot of fat that could have been trimmed.

As it was, I was like "There must be Clues as to why these two war flashbacks are included, the slight differences must be Important!" And, uh, they weren't. lol

In hindsight they must have copy and pasted the scene because someone (the director? Paramount? we don't know) made them remove a big chunk of the script.

imagining like.what if all the scientist alien war criminal dads tried to at the same time

when the earth is spark

EarthSpark Tarantulas: I just want to be free of GHOST's oppression.

Beast Wars Tarantulas: My only regret about almost eating Cheetor is that I didn't.

Secure Own Oxygen Mask

Chapter 30

Shockwave not only lends his scientific expertise, he even becomes somewhat enthusiastic.  You will say this for Shockwave, intellectual challenges motivate him by their mere existence. 

You cache the modified blueprints and subroutines he sends you and thank him for his time.  Manners cost nothing.  A lesson some bots could stand to learn. (Starscream.)

Tarantulas stares resentfully after you as you leave. You ignore him.

Now all you need is a ride.  That is no great difficulty.

"Astrotrain," you comm, "respond." 

He owes you a favor.  Nearly everybody does.

It's helpful to remind them of this from time to time.

Secure Own Oxygen Mask

Chapter 29

You go downstairs, Laserbeak still tucked safely in your chest.  The lights are on in the lab. Every week you draw up carefully crafted shifts for the scientists, and every week they fail to adhere to them.  

It is annoying, but tonight it works to your advantage.  No less than three mecha are puttering over half-finished projects: Sinthesis, Tarantulas, and the head of the Science Division, Shockwave.  Sinthesis is pointing out the inner workings of some kind of gun, which Shockwave is looking over with a critical eye—the only one he has, in more than one sense.

Tarantulas takes the chance to sidle over, held aloft by four of his scuttling spider legs.  Nor are the others left idle; in his various limbs he carries a vial of green liquid, an eyedropper, and a clipboard, while his hands are clasped around a large beaker of some pale pink, gelatinous material.  "Lieutenant Soundwave? What are you doing here at this late hour?"

"Seeking Shockwave."  As Tarantulas' legs shift and tilt, smoke wafts out of the vial and its contents tip towards the rim. "Reminder: safety protocols mandatory."

He follows your pointed stare as a single drop spills out—accompanied by a smell so acrid that even you can taste it—and begins eating through the floor.  

"Ah." Hastily he brings the vial level. "Well, since you're here perhaps I can interest you in a demonstration of what I've been working on."

You are Soundwave, Third-in-Command; you tend to all the matters which Starscream thinks are beneath his notice, and which actually are beneath Megatron's. Yet as you stand there, feeling tired and compressed, you long to say no.

You make a gesture. "Continue."

"I've been studying the natural defenses of creatures native to this planet, and their offensive mechanisms as well.  This," he taps one claw against the beaker of pink goop, "is but one of the transorganic compounds I've developed. You see, when I add the correct portion of proteins . . ." 

Using the eyedropper, he adds three sizzling green drops to the beaker.  Tarantulas encourages the chemical reaction by stirring vigorously with a glass stick; it meets growing resistance as the concoction changes to a milky hue and takes on a semi-solid state; when he finally pulls the stick free, it is trailing thin, white, tacky threads.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Tarantulas' mandibles clatter excitedly. "A totally new substance!"

You look at the white threads.  "Purpose?"

"The possible applications are endless!" he says, suspiciously vague.  "Look over here, I've been using the webbing, as I call it, (the temptation was too great to do otherwise, ha ha ha,) to hold all my tools—" 

Sometimes the scientists forget that the purpose of their research is not to satisfy their own curiosity, but to win a war.  "Query: military applications?  Webbing: can restrain Autobots?"

He hesitates.  "Not yet, per se, but with more research and development that is certainly a possibility.  Its tensile strength is already significant compared to its diameter, here, let me show you—"

And with a forward jerk of his head he opens his mandibles and spits a mess of thin white threads into his waiting hands.

You recoil.  Your hands jerk upward and you must resist the instinct to activate your subsonics to push away a threat, perhaps a carrier of disease.  From within you feel Laserbeak's incredulity and disgust mirroring yours, although there is a note of delight too; he can't wait to send a video to the other cassettes and force them to witness this.

"Query . . ."  But the only query that springs to mind is That was intentional? You put that in your chassis? And you already know the answer to that.

Your reaction has not gone unnoticed. Tarantulas wilts, his spider legs curling towards his body and his long, thin fingers twitching as he alternately stretches the white threads thin and scrunches them into a ball.  He stutters something incoherent about the practicality of transporting work materials as you look at the beaker.  Its contents have mostly been converted into a wad of white, but traces of the original solution roll along the bottom of the glass.  The pink coloration strikes you as familiar.

"Query." This time your voice is firm. "Production of material: requires energon?"

"Er, of course.  It's such a highly reactive substance, almost any experiment uses—"

"Energon: precious.  Experiment: nonessential. Results: unusable.  Tarantulas: will cease."

Tarantulas' legs pull him back.  "You can't be serious!  Science does not come with a timetable! Please, if you'll just let me bring this project to fruition—"

An unfamiliar anger flares within you, starting in your spark and burning outward. Laserbeak agrees; he lends control and focus as you step forward.  Your vocalizer thrums with uncontrolled reverb.  "Energon: PRECIOUS."

Though Tarantulas cowers back, you read the resentment on his face.  "But—"

You issue him ten demerits.  Not all at once.  Individually, at increments of two seconds.  His legs twitch erratically, his hands fold to his chest, still full of white string.  It smears over his biolights, tacky and half-hardened.  Disgusting.  You half hope he keeps arguing.  He has already lost privileges to the recreation room, flavor additives, and 'the good seats' in Astrotrain.  If he chooses to lose more, so be it.  Experiments are not the only things that can be denied energon.

"Soundwave!  How good to see you." Shockwave is suddenly hovering at your elbow, either having noticed the altercation or having been pinged that one of his underlings is racking up demerits. "And what brings you to my humble domain tonight?"

He puts the slightest emphasis on my.  No doubt he is rankled that you punished one of his mecha, but he has enough sense not to express it directly.  You tamp down your anger;  Shockwave does not deserve demerits, even if his subordinates are lacking, even if he has ignored the work schedule (again).  It is his nature to be jealous—he is a mech who has lost much—but he does his best.  You are both professionals, at least.

And truly, he is brilliant.

"Soundwave: requires assistance.  Requests Shockwave: examine blueprint, make alterations."

"Certainly!  Anything for our illustrious Third-in-Command."  His tone is jovial, leaving you the option to take this remark as a joke or seriously.  (You do not care much either way.)  "I can pencil you in next week for fifteen minutes, or for an hour in two weeks.  I apologize for the wait, but I'm simply swamped . . ."

That won't do. "Affirmative.  Soundwave: will assist Shockwave.  Soundwave: will conduct census of experiments. Soundwave: will locate excess energon use.  Soundwave: will—"

Shockwave interrupts your droning. "On the other hand, there's no time like the present, is there?"  He puts a hand under your elbow and gestures with his gun-arm.  "Please, join me in the privacy of my office."

He sweeps you past Sinthesis, who keeps their head studiously close to their work, and away from Tarantulas, who is swelling like he might explode.

You pay them no mind, though you do access Tarantulas' file and add a damning tag:  Not a Team Player.

Don’t worry, guys. His ethics scale is off the charts.

Staring at them with my huge autistic eyes

I like thinking about their pre war lives

i know i've made the same jokes every other idw1 fan did about it, lmao, but i do think the thing i like about the earthspark tarantulas-nightshade dynamic is that it's NOT actually a "familial" one, really, but it's still an important one.

I keep seeing people say things like "well of course tara is toned down from the comics for adults you couldn't put all that in a kids show" I desperately need you to understand that the fucked up cannibalistic cackling freak is the one from the 90s cartoon. the idw comics version is toned down from the original(not by much, but hey), and tfes' tara is drawing way more from him than from bw. no beef this is extremely funny to me

kitty time

Suggestions from twitter :^DD

i was supposed to post this on Valentine’s Day.

Oh well~