I dont think this is worth any hate or even a fraction of the negative two way attention this has gotten. It\'s a cutesy, feelgood valentine\'s day comic. If you like it get it. If you dont, then dont. If your pissed there is romance in transformers, have a productive conversation. If you are a champion for love in all shapes and sizes, dont shove you desires on others. Or just be like me. Utterly confused as to why we are making Robots that CANT procreate have romantic feelings. And yes, I\'m fishing for someone to have a productive conversation with.
I'll get this comic. Looks cute! I've never had a problem with Transformers having romantic relationships with each other -- it's been baked into the lore since G1, just like their gender identity has been.
I'll bite. It makes sense that Transformers can have relationships because they are social lifeforms. They form friendships and connections with each other all the time, so there's no reason to believe they can't also feel a deep love for one another. It's not based on a sexual urge, since in most continuities, they are without biological sex. When you take that framework and apply it to IDW1 continuity, it explains things. It even explains the prevalence of "same sex" pairings. Before the colony worlds were found, every bot on Cybertron was basically a dude by self-identification (even if they didn't know it). They've had millions of years to form bonds with other dudes and potentially develop romantic feelings. Now, the real world explanation for this may in fact be the personal politics of the creative team, but the in-universe cause works fine on its own.
Agreed. Besides, I've never understood those who think hate and rage are perfectly acceptable, understandable emotions for a robot to have but the second that same robot shows *love* it's like EWWWWW that's so unrealistic!!! Like...wut. I don't see how hate and rage and a desire for revenge are anymore "natural" to a robot than love and kindness are. They're all human emotions we place on robots. And if the only emotions you like in your robots is GRRRR SMASH HATE that is totally ok, but one does not need to hate on those who like some "love" or "happiness" with their robots. And it looks like there's plenty of room for both in the TFs fandom, which is awesome. As for myself, I can't wait for that Valentine's issue and especially Sara Pitre-Durocher's art and story (isn't this her first time writing? I already love her art so I look forward to seeing and reading this).
Yup there was no way, considering how the Blast Off/Onslaught romance from a few years ago got people yelling at each other, that having Blast Off on the cover of a Valentines Day Special with another malebot was not gonna get two particular factions angry at each other again. Oh well, time to sit back and watch the show I guess.
Well theyre using a couple of nobodies. Glyph and Tapout are almost blank slates, right? So theyre going to get together, obviously, but if they imbue the two with enough real personality as INDIVIDUALS, such that their relationship seems natural then Im here for that. If they both turn out shallow with their only notable traits being related to EACH OTHER, Ill be disappointed.
First off, thank you guys. I didnt think I'd get anybody to talk to so I appreciate it. I mostly agree with you both and Lore keeper explained you point very well. This is an oversimplification, but the reason we have "romance" is because of sex. Transformers as a species never had sex so in my opinion they should have a type of relationship that mimics a romantic one. A super deep and loving friendship they totally should have. Obviously we have to humanize them in order for us to empathize and connect to them, most things make sense or they do a good explanation, so far not a good explanation for a relationship that is intended to be a parallel to a romantic sexual relationship on our part. I know the real world reason they have genders and romance. To sell more product to more people basically. To clarify I generally like the romantic stories in transformers and enjoy watching those episodes in the cartoons, I'm just overanalitical. Hope to hear more for you guys. Thanks again.
A lot of human behaviour that we see replicated in Transformers fiction is based on sex. There's no evolutionary point to two characters squaring up against each other, eye to eye, and chest to chest, to determine who is the stronger and more leaderly, unless the leader has their pick of mates. Asexual species don't have leaders or factions or a sense of aesthetics. (I'm not expert, but that's certainly my impression). Everything we do to distinguish ourselves and cultivate a homely environment ultimately stems from the drive to mate and raise young, however deeply interred. (I'm not saying that this means everyone who is aromatic or asexual secretly wants to have sex and children - but that on a wider species level, this is why we evolved to strive, compete and nest). On the other hand, if we were to imagine an advanced asexual species, it might well be the case that their evolutionary survival strategy depends heavily on emotional bonding, in which case you might expect Cybertronians to be in a constant state of romantic orgy.
eye to eye, and chest to chest, to determine who is the stronger and more leaderly, unless the leader has their pick of mates. Asexual species don't have leaders or factions or a sense of aesthetics. (I'm not expert, but that's certainly my impression). Everything we do to distinguish ourselves and cultivate a homely environment ultimately stems from the drive to mate and raise young, however deeply interred. (I'm not saying that this means everyone who is aromatic or On the other hand, if we were to imagine an advanced asexual species, it might well be the case that their evolutionary survival strategy depends heavily on emotional bonding, in which case you might expect Cybertronians to be in a constant state of romantic orgy.[/QUOTE] And now I will never look at transformers the same. Lol. I think your point is valid. Man it would be so much simpler if someday they say Primus or the allspark or whatever life giver they pick that week based the transformers species off of the common biological patter. It would just smooth over these issues.
Interesting viewpoint! I think it can get down to the fact that deep bonds will always take place between those of a species, whether the species is sexual or not. I think in the case of Transformers, the point you made about deep friendships is incredibly valid; why not just have that instead it making it romantic? I think the answer lies in what makes a relationship platonic and what makes it romantic. Romance in an asexual Transformer could be about just the fact that the two want to be wholly committed to one another for the rest of their life, theyll always love each other and they won't decide to have this level of commitment with anyone else. That's a concept that could potentially sprout up in a non sexual society, they dont have the "evolutionary" need for it, they created the desire for it based on many other factors, including societal, environmental, or the desire to just simply stay alive with someone they care deeply about.
That is very good insight. I agree. Cliffjumper and arcee from prime makes perfect sense on all sides to me. If you look closely at Optimus and blackarachnia/elita 1, things get weird.
IDW explicitly confirmed that Transformers could not have sex. It was actually a plot point a couple of times.
Oh I'm not saying they cant, I just from a purely analytical point why would they? Transformers dont even reproduce, they are created by a macguffin, so why would they develop romace? Deep friendships I get, but something that viewed through our eyes is only missing an R rated sene does quite add up to me. Now if budding would be brought back it would be different.
No confirmation from IDW comics, just a brief mention that Chromedome and Rewind got physical inside of Roller (it was meant to be taken as a laugh).
