I always liked the idea of Shockwave being a scientist, which first originated in the second volume of the Dreamwave comics in 2003 (year of my birth, fun fact!) It differentiates himself from Soundwave, who is more of a spy/black mail character. Plus, it makes him look more scary as a character to have him experiment on Transformers against their will.
I like the rebellious Shockwave too, especially when Simon Furman is writing him.

 

I was never a fan of scientist Shockwave because it's just a bastardization of the idea that he's cold and analytical. "OMG he says "LOGICAL" so he's super smart and just acts like Dr. Frankenstein all the time, right??"

I wouldn't mind but they never do anything interesting with it, it just turns him into a walking plot device and hinders the original intent which created interpersonal conflict for the upper Decepticons.

 

Personally, I feel I prefer the military strategist from the original Marvel comics. He was cold, calculating and honestly, he was a better leader than Megatron would ever be. So yeah, I honestly want to see that version of Shockwave again.

 

This. I would like the idea of scientist Shockwave if it was done right.

 

Mad Scientist. Makes him unique among the other head honcho Decepticons and never cared either of his G1 incarnations.

 

one of my favorites as scientist

 

I'd rather Starscream be the Decepticons' main scientist, honestly. It would give him something to do other than (badly) scheme against Megatron. I like Shockwave as a strategist with a predilection for logic. And should that logic dictate he'd be the best leader, so be it.

 

Shockwave has always been a Decepticon scientist. Though I don't know about rebellious.

While I don't think he'd be directly loyal to Megatron, I'm sure he would understand and play to the ethical laxity they provide which enable him to be free to experiment without regard to anyone's lives but his own.

 

Agreed, but I wish he was more rebellious, like he's only a Decepticon becusce they let him do what he wants.

 

"Cold, brutal, scientific approach to war." That's the first line from the original 1985 toy's bio.

 

Marvel Shockwave is my personal favorite Shockwave, and he wasn't a scientist, but I don't actually mind Shockwave as a scientist. That being said, I do agree that "Scientist Shockwave" isn't always handled particularly well (IDW Shockwave was a big offender here, since it eventually felt like he was just an excuse for anything the writers couldn't explain).

To be fair, having a scientific approach to war wouldn't automatically make him a scientist. It could just imply that he uses logic, reason, and analysis in his military efforts.

I wonder if the idea of "scientist Shockwave" was influenced by the fact that he apparently invented the space bridge in the G1 cartoon.

 

Yeah,......I like Shockwave as a scientist cause that's what he was in the G1 show. So to me hes on cybertron doing science stuff. So basically he's trying to figure out how Megatron can take down Optimus Prime.

 

I do like Shockwave as a scientist. His logical approach to life only helps to reinforce the image of one. Though I would like to see Shockwave as a person who keeps Megatron's bloodlust in check, being a military officer who wouldn't hesitate to usurp him should his course of actions prove to be illogical and detrimental to cybertronian species as a whole. G1 is too obedient for my tastes.
Though I can appreciate Prime Shockwave who, while loyal and "logical" is also rather prideful and that skews his logic.

I must say THAT would be an interesting development. I do find that Starscream's background as scientist is underutilized, though it's understandable as he's really talented as both a scientist and a warrior. It would also for once give a legit reason for Megatron to withstand Starscream aside from their toxic relationship - Stasrscream's scientific expertise would make him irreplacable.
And it would make sense that in this case Shockwave, as the second-in-command (and, curiously, a solid foil to Autobot strategist Prowl) would have no problem establishing his leadership as a direct successor to Megatron in military hierarchy.

...really, we need more strategist Shockwave and scientist Starscream, why didn't anyone think of that yet?

 

Nah. Shocky as scientist is trite and overdone. No newer version of him ever got even remotely close to the coolness that was the Marvel G1 one.

Technically, strategy and logistics are sciences too.

 

That's falling for the exact same trap most writers do, that just because it says "science" in the bio he's a madman building death rays and shit.

 

I wanna see an animated takeon the marvel/dreamwave Shockwave were he tries to takeover leadership of the decepticons. Dreamwave had a whole story arc were he not so much creates but kind of discovers triplechangers and creates duocons as a failed attempt at artificially recreating their abilities in decepticons so maybe astrotrain blitzwing Skytread and Battletrap could be his top ranking henchmen

 

I don't mind the idea of Shockwave being a scientist but I think it's weird that he's depicted as this mad scientist type. Like, there's nothing remotely logical about giving some guy two heads or whatever. I'd rather him be somebody who's pragmatic, cold, and logical instead of somebody who's just nuts. I do like his Marvel incarnation, but I find that he's a lot more emotional than you'd expect Shockwave to be.

 

I actually prefer Shockwave being labeled a "mad scientist". Again "labeled". I like the idea of while Autobots and other Cons can see him as a "mad scientist" and having no morals or limit to how far he would go to see an experiment to its fruition. But to Shockwave himself, he does not see himself as mad but only a normal scientist who is simply conducting an experiment to it's logical conclusion with a cold calculating mind with no consideration how it may seem to others or what may stand in his way.

 

I'm seeing some similarities to the idw comics characters the netflix show. Anyone else get that impression?

 

I never understood the flat approach on matters that recent media are taking.
Why Shockwave has to be ONLY a scientist and not a strategist as well? After all the duality was his role.

Why Starscream has to be a schemer weakling only when his original character was supposed to be a (x) scientist and one of the most skilled Decepticon air warriors and so on and so forth.

Making characters one dimensional is silly and doesnt make good character development.

Yeah ok, sometimes it might make one overlap on to the other but so what?

Most characters in the netflix show have ingrained traits of their appearances across many (if not all) media.