I actually think Trans in transformers makes 100% perfect sense. Hear me out. In transformers, the thing that doesn't make sense is teh existence of male and female transformers. Transformers don't reproduce sexually, they are created from the all-spark, asexually. They don't have intercourse, and therefore it doesn't make sense to have two sexes. Two sexes are found on earth becasue we partake in sexual reproduction, the use of two animals within a species with different genetic code to come together to produce a child. Transformers have no use for that. They don't have sexual intercourse, as far as I know they don't have X and Y chromosomes. Transformers do not have sexes, in any biological sense. Male transformers aren't biologically male, and female transformers aren't biologically female. So what does it mean to be a male or female transformer? I mean, honestly, it means taking on the male or female social status and pronouns. That's literally it. They also do have secondary sex characteristics, like breasts (or breast shaped chasis), more feminine voices, curvier bodies, but these are all things that are changeable pretty easily in the transformers world. It isn't super uncommon for bodies to change in general as characters get upgraded, given new bodies, rebuilt, etc. None of those features are particularly fixed. So in transformers, all they have is gender, no sex. The notion that a transformer would wish to change gender would be as trivial a notion as basically any other upgrade a transformer may take on. The fact that transgender transformers is weird or out of place is purely because of our own biases, and not because of any in-universe logic.
Lug/Anode don't really feel like a gimmick to me. They gave an insight into how Cybertronians perceive gender and introduced to concept of blacksmithing. They added to the story instead of being cheap pandering, IMO.
The "bully" in this situation is probably the one making a sarcastic and homo/transphobic remark implying that its a bad thing to have LGBT characters in media, not actually the one sarcastically making a jab at what a douche-y remark that was. After all, Primal or Rhinox being gay wouldn't actually matter much, would it? Neither character was portrayed as straight in the show, even though we know for a fact that relationships exist in this universe. Unless of course the problem stems from the fact that they would be gay and you're brandishing the pretty homophobic opinion that any LGBT representation is automatically pandering and therefore a negative thing or simply that any LGBT representation is bad no matter what. And can people stop with the Twitter BS? I know a lot of you don't actually use social media, but Twitter isn't exactly considered a progressive environment.
Now, I question why we’re getting a character right out the gate. Surely out of the tons of BW toys who never got to be on the show, they could have found someone existing instead of having to create a new character? Ah well, it is what it is. Still looking forward to this.
Wait... I'm confused... a) They shouldn't change existing characters. Existing characters should be left alone. If they want representation, they should do so with new characters. b) Why are they adding new characters? Surely they could have used an existing character. Now, I'm not saying that they are introducing this new character for representation, I have no idea. But these two points seem to be in conflict with one another.
I would love a female bat transformer figure. Sounds unique. And we can always use more fem-bots aren't the same mold with some retooling.
Frankly if I had it my way, when Dawn of X ends, it'll reset the X-Men status quo / timeline all the way back to just before the Morrison era. Back to the most iconic Blue and Gold team version. Everything that happened after with just with the New X-men era (which I really liked), with the Decimation era, with Utopia with Schism and so forth just got so messy and often not very good. Part of that is because the comics have been through so many different writers hands since 2003. Dozens. All wanting to tell their own story. Before that, X-Men was essentially in one writers hands (Chris Claremont) from 1975-1992, and that status quo carried up to the Morrison era. And all those characters had more or less a cohesive, consistent characterization and linear history from 1975 forward. But 2003? I know it's 17 years ago at this point, but every reboot, revamp, and disruption just made it worse. Take Wolverine, for instance. The vague hints at his origin and the intrinsic mystery of the character gave way to a little revelation. Then a little more. Than a lot more. And it's a convluted mess that is lousy. Oh also Wolverine has a kid, and at least two clones, Hopefully Hickman's run ends with a meat cleaver to just cut back X-Men history to the last time it was reasonably consistent, which is seriously at this point, 2003. And with this new character in the Beast Wars book, it's really the same thing. Writers don't like playing with other people's toys. They probably don't want to be handcuffed to writing Gary Chalks Optimus Primal and friends, and rather have a character whose voice they can shape on their own. Which means just like the IDW reboot books, we're gonna get a lot of issues focusing on the creations of the writer or blank slates they appropriate, rather than core franchise characters. At the same time, me even saying that is kind of a double standard. Back in the 1970s Christ Claremont wrote out all the pre-Giant Size X-Men #1 X-Men except Cyclops in this first regular issue he got. Jean Grey and Beast made guest appearances later on. But he had no interest in retelling stories of the original 5, and focused on his creations. And then as we move deeper into the 80s, it becomes entirely about his creations (of which he kept adding more like Rogue, Gambit, Forge and Psylocke) with shuffling out Cyclops and bringing in Havok. So really by the time he's off the franchise in 1992 he's done 16 years of stories largely about the X-Men characters he created and largely nothing about the original 5 as central players past a certain point. So it might be unfair to begrudge this BW writer similar latitude, but then again, few comic writers have the creative energies Christ Claremont did at his peak.
Nyx looks small enough that they could easily slip a core class figure of her into Kingdom or the next line. Here's hoping. Wait...was it confirmed that Nyx was a girl?
We’ll just have to agree to disagree then. I found it to be incredibly transparent pandering and a completely out of place concept in Transformers. Not every issue can or should be given an allegory, and I know a few people who are active in that community who found it demeaning. (I won’t even pretend to know what it’s like, but as I was told the actual struggle depicted was nothing like what actual trans people go through) Certain discussions need a time and a place, and need to be taken seriously. Transformers is not the vehicle for such subjects. It’s a toy franchise based on silly space robots, you have to know your limits, and it’s things like that which make IDW feel pretentious and out-of-touch. I’ll leave it at that.
Anode didn't really feel like pandering, it felt like a natural way to introduce a Transgender character into the Transformers mythos without the most problematic aspects of it (IDW Arcee). What happened towards the end of Lost Light though? Yeah, that felt like pandering.
Josh Burcham is one of the best TF colorists ever but his current drawing style I'm not as into, body types are too similar, and for a series with organic shapes like Beast Wars, his art style is among the blockiest. Having said that he seems like a big fan of Beast Wars in particular so you have to be happy for him
I’m just gonna point pointedly at the Dinobot shaped hole in that civer one day I’d actually like to do a moonbase 2 show on that idea. What role should franchise, particularly toy franchise, mediums aimed at adults take in such things. Do these things have a prescribed role eg silly toy robot or do we need to recognise that anything can serve as a medium for discussion if you portray it seriously. There’s a lot to unpack and debate in the last 15 years. Or when you look at just the general sci fi/comic spectrum and it’s perceived role by many eg the attitude that is not uncommon that it’s all silly nonsense with no depth. Turtles especially is a very interesting case. A parody comic turned into a goofy cartoon known primarily as a silly toy vehicle (id say the codifer in some ways) which in general has attempted since to either lean into maturity or just tells super adult stories, to the point where when they made an explicitly kid version it was frequently rejected for the tone. Been meaning to do something like this for ages. Might just take the plunge now you’ve put the idea in my head.
I initially hated the idea of a whole comic in this style but as soon as other images came in it won me over. Battle scenes should look incredible. Also, even though it’s not an official panel, it’s good to see the artist include the two moons of prehistoric Earth. Let’s delve more into the Vok! I’m also not remotely interested in the characters having their sexual preferences outlined. I don’t find romantic bonds interesting in a war-like scenario. The brotherly bond of camaraderie and a willingness to sacrifice all for one is far more compelling and moving to me. Rattrap and Dinobot’s love/hate bickering, Cheetor’s admiration of Optimus and their father/son dynamic, the deep respect and trust born out of a long friendship between Primal and Rhinox. Tigatron and Airazor’s romance was more a kinship of admiration from two very independent characters who’s sensibilities complimented each other. Plus Tigatron is one smooth talking kitty so I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole team wanted a piece of his tail. I just don’t think the show needs more relationships. The only viable same ‘sex‘ pairing would be Rhinox and Primal but all we’d get out of that would be a few scenes of Rhinox getting upset at Primal for overruling his advice. It wouldn’t add anything to the story. Maybe Waspinator and Scorponok could be together- Scorponok has to rebuild Waspinator so often that they end up forming a bond. Waspinator always has the comfort of his mad inventor to go home to after a busy day of getting his ass whooped. He knows he’ll always get out back together. Then he’d be the one to mourns and deal with the repercussions of Scorpinok’s death instead of it being utterly inconsequential. Who will now make Waspinator whole? At least there’s something to explore there. Explaining why Transformers have genders is already hard enough so trying to even define what a trans Transformer is just seems impossible. They can change their form any time they like so the human understanding of being trapped in the wrong body simply doesn’t apply. A gender fluid, androgynous or no sex bot makes more sense. But I don’t know how this subject has been approached elsewhere in the lore so maybe it has merit. I think there’s a difference in wanting an all positive echo chamber and wanting contributors in thread to simply contribute about the topic- negative views with an explanation are welcome. The ‘troll’ in question hasn’t offered a single view on the actual comic other than to question who asked for it and then proceeded to badmouth beast wars fans as a collective and trash the show’s visuals. Soley antagonising people is not an acceptable way to participate in any conversation. If I start talking about movie plot points in a toy appreciation thread I get redirected to a movie thread and mods are always telling people to STAY ON TOPIC so yes, if all you have to offer are provocative statements, complaints about your own perception of a fandom and comments with no relevance to the subject of the thread then you should not be here.
It looks like I’m conflicting my opinions... They shouldn’t take an established character with 45 years of heterosexual characterization and thought balloons into something they clearly were not. Sure, people say there were clues all along, but if you dig enough, the same argument can be said with any character. The BW thing... I was just questioning why, since there are sooooo many toys have that have little to no fiction, much less character development, and are basically blank slates, is there really a need to make NEW characters? Unless they plan on using the profiles from their BW Profiles books, they can do whatever they want with most of the characters. I’m not complaining. I’m just questioning why they felt the need to do it. I asked the same thing when IDW made new characters out the wazoo.
