#Prowl Meta

[novafire-is-thinking]

“We want to be on your side.”

This scene is meant to be funny, but I see something more that provides insight into Prowl’s character.

The Constructicons Know

There are two things that stand out to me: Hook’s choice of words, and the nature of Prowl’s reaction.

Seeing as “your side” can easily be misunderstood as referring to the Autobot side, Hook could have said something more obvious, like, “Hey. We want to hang with you, Prowl.”

But Hook didn’t do that. He chose the phrase, “We want to be on your side.”

Why?

Well, Hook and the rest of the Constructicons were inside Prowl’s head as much as he was in theirs. They didn’t just know his thoughts. They had access to Prowl’s deepest desires.

And what was it that Prowl said to Arcee in Issue #1?

“I learned that nobody is on my side.”

Yes, Prowl wants peace. He wants order.

But just as much, he wants to know that someone will have his back—that there will be someone competent to fall back on when the world is going up in flames.

In spite of all his scheming and pushing people away, Prowl desperately wants to know that there is someone he can trust to do what needs to be done to work toward his ideal: Lasting peace.

When the Constructicons were in his head, they saw that. These five “vile” Decepticons understood Prowl better than any Autobot ever did.

And that scares the hell out of Prowl.

How NOT to accept a compliment

He knows the implications of what the Constructicons are saying. They’re basically telling him that they want what he wants. They’re also telling him, “We’ve seen what others consider to be the worst of you, and we think you’re awesome—not in spite of it, but BECAUSE of it.”

These Decepticons want to help him bring about his ideal, and this goes against all the preconceived ideas Prowl has about Decepticons.

But notice how Prowl stops himself from telling them that their admiration is crazy. It’s obvious that the Constructicons are more likely to listen to Prowl than anyone else, so why tell ‘Bee to answer for him?

Personally, I think he’s torn between agreeing with the Constructicons and telling them to get lost. Prowl wholeheartedly believes the way he thinks is great, but if he tells that to them in this moment, that would mean he’s allowing them into his life in some way, which he doesn’t want.

However, there’s a part of him that can’t tell the Constructicons their admiration is crazy, because this is all he’s ever wanted—to know that someone sees things his way and is willing to go along with his methods.

So, while he’s trying to sort out all the conflicting information and feelings, Prowl outsources the question to someone who does think his way of doing things can be…problematic at times. This way, he’s not technically saying no to something he’s always wanted, and he’s avoiding encouraging the Constructicons.

It’s the only way he knows how to override his internal conflict.

#idw transformers #maccadam #tf idw #idw1 #tf idw meta #tf idw character analysis #idw prowl #the wolf of petrex #nova reads exRiD #nova’s nerding out again

[lord-squiggletits]

The thing about Prowl is I don't really think canon was ever trying to frame him as a "necessary evil" or anything along the lines of "he's a shitty person but his work was necessary" like mmm.... That feels very much like something Prowl wants to believe about himself, not something that's actually factually true in reality.

I can't really make a good argument about it because I only remember like a handful of standout Prowl Moments in IDW1 but like... Prowl dropping a bomb on a neutral city and blaming it on the Decepticons is not "a necessary evil," that's a war crime. Prowl trying to destroy the space bridge to Caminus to keep Starscream from getting power over it, dooming the entire planet and its inhabitants to extinction by starvation, is not "a necessary evil," it's a fucking war crime. I feel like trying to frame such drastic measures as him "doing the dirty work of the Autobots" feels way too much like an excuse for actions that actually aren't justifiable. Especially since Prowl himself is far from being the 100% rational guy he thinks he is, considering how often he bases his decisions on things like his anti-Decepticon bias and his general refusal to follow any orders that contradict what he thinks is The Right Thing To Do (TM).

But also I think this is kind of the fault of the narrative of IDW1, since very few Autobots besides Prowl are given the chance to actually be morally gray even when the worldbuilding implicates them in some very morally gray things. Like, for example, JRO adding in the existence of MTOs which implies that the normally squeaky-clean leader Optimus was willing to approve the creation of new soldiers just to throw them into combat (and even the attempts to humanize the MTOs by giving them "an education" were eventually cut down to nothing but combat optimizations). And there's also the fact that Optimus knows about the Wreckers and has been known to call them on missions at least once (Stormbringer), meaning he's very much aware of the Wreckers and their tactics and is willing to call them in for fights when it's necessary.

I don't think you need to use Prowl as a crutch to make the Autobots morally gray. I think the Autobot leadership (or at least, Optimus, since few people besides him or Prowl seem to have major tactical command over the army as a whole) is plenty morally gray enough on its own, because the nature of war is inherently morally gray no matter how righteous your cause is. Reducing the lives of your own people into numbers on maps, harvesting resources, bringing MTOs to life just to die in a war they practically have no stake in, those things are enough.

And tbh it kind of bothers me when people try to saddle Prowl with the "dirty work of the Autobots", not just because it frames Prowl's blatantly evil actions as some sort of savior act taking the blame from the rest of the Autobots (which isn't even accurate, because the blame for war crimes falls on the entire army as an institution rather than one person), but because it downplays the moral grayness of the Autobots and pretends that no Autobot BESIDES Prowl ever participated in morally gray actions, which simply isn't true.

TLDR: Prowl isn't as much of a hero as he thinks he is because committing atrocities in the name of your cause doesn't change the fact that they're atrocities (and may not have even been justified). However, painting Prowl as the "token evil teammate" of sorts also places too much blame for the atrocities of war on him in particular, when in reality that's a burden shared by Optimus Prime and any other members of the Autobot military command structure.

#squiggposting #meta #prowl feels like one of those characters where people trust what he says at face value when like. he's very much not a reliable narrator #prowl SAYS that he does the dirty work no one else is willing to do but. is it really dirty work? #or is it just him authorizing dirty work and hiding it on his own and justifying it in the name of 'it's for the autobots'? #to draw on an old fandom of mine: 'what is the difference between you and the decepticons now?' #'isn't it obvious prime? i serve the autobots' #but also this is kind of the fault of JRO because like he's the main idw writer that explores what things were like during the war #while still being unwilling to part from the ideal of OP as the best prime and the all good and loving leader #barber gets into morally gray OP but it almost entirely concerns post war stuff so i wouldnt really count it

[honorarycassowary]

in which Prowl and Wheeljack complain that toy gimmicks have RUINED TRANSFORMERS FOREVER

#GEEWUN #transformers #maccadam #prowl #wheeljack #its delightfully meta lol

[blitznut]

Prowl x Reader Headcanons ✨️❤️

Headcanons under the cut 😍🤗

He leaves you for a man.

#transformers animated #meta #tfa prowl #tfa prowl x reader #prowl x reader #THIS IS ALSO SATIRE

[decepti-thots]

as we're talking about how tarantulas views prowl re: his behaviour towards others, this is going a little off on a tangent so i'll put it in its own post, but i was thinking the other day about the positive reinforcement prison and what it tells us about mesothulas and prowl in terms of what they were doing together.

mesothulas got told to make a perfect prison. so he created a perfect prison. the positive reinforcement prison is clearly a fucking fantastic way to ensure you reduce the likelihood of escape to near-zero. it completely disincentivizes any resistance. it keeps a threat pretty close to perfectly contained. it's clearly horribly immoral, for a start it LITERALLY brainwashes people- but prowl asked for a perfect prison and he got a perfect prison, courtesy of mesothulas.

prowl's objection to the prison is notably not like his objection to the noisemaze; it's not one of ethics. no, mesothulas mentions offhandedly that prowl felt that it was an issue because it didn't punish the prisoners enough. it rendered them completely harmless and secure, but that wasn't what prowl wanted, apparently. what's the point of punishing prisoners who are at no risk of escaping and therefore need no dissuading? well… prowl presumably just feels they 'ought' to, because they 'deserve it'. his sense of morality is one where you punish people who 'deserve it' regardless of whether it serves any actual purpose.

mesothulas has absolutely no moral compass. but the thing is, that really is no moral compass. he will do what he wants to do and it does not matter if it hurts other people doing it; but he doesn't have any active desire to hurt other people either. they're just irrelevant. he'll torture roadbuster if it gets him what he wants, but he doesn't tell himself roadbuster 'deserves it', even just in the sense of 'he's beneath me' or whatever. he just sees it as a way to get from point a to point b. hence the positive reinforcement prison: it's not that he wants to spare anyone suffering, he just wants to find the most efficient solution to the problem.

prowl has a moral compass, unlike mesothulas. he thinks that evil exists and must be defeated, he thinks harm to others is bad in the abstract, he thinks he has a righteous cause, all that. this pretty much universally results in him doing much more harm than mesothulas overall, because no moral compass is bad, but a sense of morality and therefore drive which is turned to bad ends in the name of 'justice' is often worse. mesothulas doesn't care about the war and never gave a shit about making weapons to fight it. prowl, in his desire to end the war at any cost, gets him to make a bomb and nukes a refugee city. mesothulas didn't care about that, but it never would have occurred to him to do that if prowl hadn't incentivized it. mesothulas doesn't care about 'bad guys' getting what they 'deserve', so he's happy to make a perfect prison that doesn't punish anyone if that's not a required part of making it work. prowl, who needs the 'bad guys' to be punished to satisfy his sense of morality, insists upon shelving it in favour of something less inadvertently merciful. (spark extraction doesn't seem to be torture, but it's clearly not actively pleasant.)

and mesothulas makes stuff! he doesn't do it for altruistic reasons. but he makes things; he makes a whole person, in fact, just to do the making part. he makes ostaros! and sure, his original motivation there was almost certainly pure fascination… but that doesn't change that fact that he is capable of creating something wonderful just because he wants to do so.

meanwhile, prowl tosses mesothulas in the noisemaze because his sense of moral injury gets too great… and then that sense of guilt doesn't stop him from trying incredibly fucking hard to kill ostaros, the absolute most innocent person it's possible to be. he KNOWS he shouldn't, and so he tries to get around his own inability to do so by sending impactor. it's not a. subtle difference between them.

it makes me think of that bit in OP #25, the epilogue issue post-Unicron... where prowl talks to shockwave about how he understands now that it's not what you think that matters ('our hopes'), but what you do. prowl thinks of himself as inherently more moral than mesothulas no matter what he does because he has the ability to feel the way you're 'supposed' to about things. sure, he only ever destroyed, whereas mesothulas could make things. but mesothulas is selfish, and prowl cares about other people. sure, prowl did terrible things that killed people, and mesothulas in large part only helped because prowl enabled him to. but prowl feels bad about nuking that city, and mesothulas only wouldn't have done it on his own because he doesn't care. sure, mesothulas also, you know. wouldn't have done it. but prowl thinks that an important part of being Good is following a certain set of moral rules as dictated by society, and he sees himself as achieving that where mesothulas fails, so he must be better in a moral sense. that's why he thinks getting rid of mesothulas will fix what he's done, stop him doing bad stuff. he thinks mesothulas is just fundamentally a worse person because there's something wrong with him, and prowl is fundamentally a good person because he has what mesothulas lacks, and when it turns out to be more complicated than that he has no idea how to fix it. and he cannot conceive of the idea that he made mesothulas more dangerous at least as much as the reverse is true, because he can't imagine anything being worse than not having a sense of morality.

#this is very disorganized sorry #i just think it's really interesting to look at characters as being worse because they have these traits #how they're not inherently redemptive the way they're often assumed to be #similarly: the idea love is not an inherently good thing which is always 'worth it' #meta #tarantulas #prowl #taraprowl

[grimlocks-noodle]

Tumblr NERFED me the last time I tried to write this so clearly I just need to think about it

But one day I will write something about Sins of the Wreckers, and how I like to think that Tarantulas curing Verity from her radiation sickness was both a Massive Snub at Prowl for seemingly tossing away everyone once they're no longer useful to him, (including this wonderful organic who is risking her life to fix his mistakes) and also a Huge peacocking thing (aka Look Prowl, aren't I still so smart and clever?? Look, I fixed your useful organic, remember when I was useful??)

The whole thing boils down to Tarantulas, essentially bringing a bouquet of roses back from the dead for Prowl. Unfortunately for him, Prowl has the emotional availability and intelligence of an amoeba, thus rendering it a Moot Point.

#echiesechos #idw transformers #prowl #tarantulas #verity carlo #of course this involves me MASSIVELY going into the sheer heroics and bravery of Verity as well because she is one of my favorite humans #and deserves that meta As Well #i could also be massively off base im just going off what i remember i definitely need to do a reread #and THEN go off #also got the phrase about Prowl being as emotionally intelligent as an amoeba stuck in my head and had to get it out into the world #via meta about the messiest divorce i have ever seen next to megatron and Optimus

[quetzalpapalotl]

your take on hf prowl is so great and perfect actually. he's definitely the excatholic who thinks 'religion' is bad and dumb but they had a point about all the other stuff. 'believes in original sin but also nobody can be redeemed' is really only two steps away from canon where he straight up thinks the cybertronian species dying is overall not the WORST outcome.

Thank you! I'm glad this is making sense to other people because I was very much projecting and yes! I did think of that scene!

Prowl has this misanthopy that makes sense in the context of the Cybertronian race, but if you ask me to translate that to a human, my gut reaction is to make him someone who has not yet deconstructed the underlying Catholic ideas that permeat his vision because, well, those are my experiences. I think he should come from a town with a really strong Opus Dei or Legionaries of Christ influence to really stress the point. He still carries the belief that everyone sucks and he needs to be better and suffering is either deserved or a virtue. You know, the kind of stuff that's not as easy to shake as just saying "I don't believe in the holy trinity".

#actually this reminds me that arcee and prowl have a similar hatred for the world mixed with slef hatred #and that i have unfinished meta on my drafts #anyway thanks anon #quetzal rambles tf

[autisticthassarian]

ok the difference between prowl. and dirk. is like. ok not to be like dirk being in his own head too much never hurts him or anyone around him bc it absolutely does. but like if he stopped scheming and went on vibes he'd still have to put in a lot of work to not be a bad friend or a bad person. like yknow to some extent we all do but dirk has developed a lot of impulses and behaviors that just arent conducive to healthy relationships and not hurting people. and i think he very often has to check himself, like he wants to be decent and he has to try hard to be decent and he knows it. he has to consider his actions carefully and determine whether he's doing something harmful or not. he doesnt always do it and he doesnt always succeed. but it's there. and much as he could stand to relax, if he didnt do that kind of thinking then he would be worse off than he is now. whereas if prowl stopped trying to puzzle out the mathematics of good and evil in order to choose the most moral course of action in every situation and instead just did the first thing he thought of it would already be a significant improvement

#homestuck #transformers #will likely be prowl trash because of who i am as a person #ok i'm done. sorry someone reblogged an old prowl meta post

[gorbalsvampire]

V:tM at the Movies: a film rec list

THE UR–EXAMPLES

The Hunger is about as close to the Platonic ideal of Vampire: the Masquerade as you can get. Nightclubs! Gratuitous Bauhaus! Lesbian kiss! The aesthetic is spot on: it looks and feels like early Vampire art, or rather early Vampire art looks and feels like this film. V:tM may have come out in 1991 but it's rooted firmly in the 1980s and the vampire chic this film defined. The Hunger will dump the vibe of the game right between the eyes and it's as close as I dare come to "must-watch."

V:tM's Gehenna concept is heavily mirrored/inspired by the novel Queen of the Damned, which was filmed around the time Gehenna was actually happening and the line was coming to a close. The Hunger defines where V:tM came from, all Eighties post-punk writhing - this chuggy post-industrial apocalypse-glam perfectly sums up where it's going.

Although they have no real connection to each other besides parallel evolution, Night Teeth absolutely nails the "rival conspiracies" energy of Hunter: the Reckoning and Vampire: the Masquerade, as well as the burnout, the irony, the neon and the party-at-the-end-of-the-world vibe of V5.

THE META TAKE

Shadow of the Vampire is about a vampire playing a vampire in the first vampire movie ever made. In a weird way I think that's perfect for the sense of the Masquerade, hiding in plain sight, preying on the worst instincts of humanity and encouraging them to let you get away with all the awful things you want to do. In microcosm, it's the perfect analogy for the "vampires secretly run society" vibe.

YOUR FLAVOUR OF BASTARD

Depending on what type of vampire you want to be (and I'm going with V5's categories here), I recommend at least one of the following:

Thinbloods lend themselves well to the What We Do In The Shadows conceit of vampire flatmates (or The Carmilla Movie, I guess, but I haven't seen that one). They're millennial vampires; all the power and resources are concentrated in the hands of previous generations, so they pretty much have to bind together and find something else to enjoy in life, 'cause they're never going to be powerful in the conventional sense. Thinblood games are low power, a bit domestic, and often the closest to "normal life but we happen to be vampires and bigger vampires try to kick our heads in occasionally."

Neonates are your classic Gen X eighties/nineties vampire movie - The Lost Boys. Still weak enough that they're better off standing together, strong enough that they can afford to be a bit cocky around humans. Probably share a sire, mentor, authority figure of some sort and should probably be working on his agenda once they've finished prowling the boardwalks and clubland at night. They're a step further removed from society, but they can pretend to be human for an hour or two if they really try. Also, this is the other one that was in the air and influential when V:tM first came to be - along with The Hunger, I'd recommend it as the closest to a must-watch.

Ancillae (the upper reaches of age and power offered by the V5 corebook) are more your Interview With The Vampire  kind of deal. You've lived a long life, your adventuring days are behind you, and now you're something of a mover and a shaker - you're probably permitted or at least not prevented from siring and you're looking to give someone the choice you never had. Modernity gives you a headache but at least you can work a smartphone four times out of five. Ancillae games are a nice balance between "you're powerful" and "you still have to answer to someone".

If you're extending into Elder territory, settle down with a small glass of something and enjoy one of my favourite films ever, Only Lovers Left Alive. It's a slow story, and not a lot happens, but that's elders for you. They become introverted. They fall into a groove. They keep to each others' company. It's beautiful and haunting until some clueless childe comes along and screws it all up for them and they have to admit what they really are.

Want to figure out the Sabbat? Watch 30 Days of Night and thank me later. The vampires there are getting away with something horrible because they've fallen through the cracks in the world. They act alpha-predator but they still live on the fringe or civilisation, the little savages. (I am told that Near Dark is basically Sabbat: the Movie, but I haven't seen it, so I'm going to have to take that on trust.)

REFLEXIVE ACTION

It would be deeply remiss of me not to talk about Underworld, the film series transparently inspired by V:tM,.to the point where White Wolf as was took the producers of the original to court over it. Underworld reflects V:tM at its most "gamery" – all custom weapons, trenchcoats and corsets, fighting werewolves in the dark, flashing back to the Middle/Dark Ages and preoccupied with impenetrable why-does-this-matter world-building. It sits at the end of that unfortunate tendency toward Desert Eagles, katanas, Dragonsbreath rounds and C4 appearing on every character sheet that found its way into V:tM's DNA from Shadowrun, along with the penchant for double handfuls of d10s and wearing sunglasses indoors. I dislike that sort of game and I'm not mad keen on Underworld either, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that this sort of thing is also peak Vampire.

WAIT, THIS ISN'T VAMPIRES!

V:tM is synonymous with politics and backstabbing, and there isn't in my opinion a vampire movie that really hits that. Thing is, Rein-Hagen also loves Mafia movie and cites them as an influence. Vampires exist as organised criminals, after all, and the concept of omerta is atomic to that of the Masquerade. This is why, to grasp how a Prince or Baron holds court and influences people, you really should just sit down and watch The Godfather. Pretty basic recommendation, granted, but I don't know if anyone else is here for my "Guy Ritchie's V:tM" style of action storytelling...

YOUR OWN PERSONAL JESUS TASTE

What are your top three movies? Why? That'll give you an idea of what you, as Storyteller, are most interested in running. Now grab some friends and ask them the same question. Wherever you find an overlap in your tastes, that's something that's worth focusing on in your actual game. Try to make sure there's a couple of vampire-themed answers in there, but also something else, because "being a vampire" in and of itself doesn't make a story (unless it's a quiet, short one like Only Lovers Left Alive, but that's a one-off, not a chronicle). 

People often expect an RPG to come ready-made and ready-to-go ("We're playing the Lost Mines of Phandelver") and Vampire, at its best, is a bit more bespoke. Asking players about their taste in media is one way to start that tailoring process, making your V:tM something a bit different from everyone else's and getting into that transformative stuff that makes RPGs so gosh-darn amazing.

Mine, discounting the one I've already gushed about up the line, are a nebulous "pick one from Guy Ritchie's early career" and Franklyn. My games run on generally have a couple of seemingly indestructible SPCs nobody likes and a dark secret that can absolutely take them down, someone WILL have an impenetrable regional accent, but there's also a layer of exaggerated Gothickry over everything, neuratypical characters will perceive the world very differently, vengeance and trauma will drive the major players and love may conquer all but you'll have to lose a lot to get there. None of this is essential to V:tM but it's what makes my V:tM different from A. N. Other Storyteller's.

#vampire: the masquerade #vtm #movie recs #reddit repost

[talxns]

omg just came across that post and pls pls share ur thoughts on 60s brudick

Don’t mind if I do!!!

Batman (1966-68) is such an odd little treasure-trove of content when you look at it with a particular lens. Of course there are meta aspects of the show that kind of support the subtle brudick reading– the addition of the Aunt Harriet character to create some kind of buffer between the two guys constantly being together, and the addition of Barbara Gordon in season 3 to try to add a (kind of?) consistent love interest for Bruce so he didn’t seem as bored with women as he kind of gave off since he barely spent any time with anyone who wasn’t Dick. And Dick’s actor Burt Ward supposedly stated in his autobiography that Bruce and Dick could be interpreted as lovers.

Compared to modern interpretations, the characters of Bruce and Dick themselves are lighter, which complements the “campy” humorous tone of the show. Reference to Bruce’s parents happens only once, and Dick’s backstory is never addressed. This Batman doesn’t prowl around every night, tormented by his demons and pushing his loved ones away. He only goes out as Batman when Commissioner Gordon rings for him, always brings along Robin, and a majority of Batman and Robin’s crime-fighting takes place during the day.

This Bruce Wayne is kind of a do-no-wrong character. He’s never rude, he’s insistently law-abiding, and he’s never shown doing anything truly debaucherous, and the implication is that he just… Never does anything debauched ever. He never smokes or drinks alcohol, but not as much as a virtue of control as it is upholding a strict moral code against it. (He will order juice or more commonly milk when any kind of drinking is expected). This Bruce is kind of insufferable in his insistence of upholding good moral standing, and will take precious time to teach a moral lesson to Dick whenever he can think of one. And basically Bruce Wayne and Brucie Wayne are one in the same in this universe. His demeanor in public is the same as his demeanor in private.

Dick is similarly one dimensional. He is a goody-two-shoes like his guardian, though he has his outbursts of frustration which Bruce immediately tamps down on with some good old fashioned moral instruction. Dick will never fight Bruce’s word, will instantly agree with everything Bruce tells him, and will stroke his ego afterwards (Gosh, Bruce, you’re right! x100). This Dick is an excellent student, has many different hobbies (some of which he is very much not good at but Bruce still insists that he practice them), but doesn’t seem to be very cool compared to his classmates. He’s actually rather awkward and embarrassing when he tries. It’s probably because he’s spending all his time with Bruce, like a vicious cycle of relying on Bruce because he can’t relate to the cool kids at school and not being a cool kid because he’s hanging out with Bruce all day lol.

In Bruce and Dick’s freetime, they are together. There are maybe 4 or 5 instances out of 120 episodes where Bruce and Dick are not spending their day together before Gordon calls. It’s delightfully absurd. It’s certainly for the reasons to ease the plot, so they can be in the same place to start the episode’s story, but it gives the impression that Bruce Wayne almost exclusively spends all his time with Dick Grayson.

The show does a good job illustrating just how incredibly loyal and devoted to one another these characters are.

In an episode taking place at Dick’s high school, the other students tease him for being the ward of a millionaire, and Dick gets pretty defensive over it. In one of the rare instances that Dick is not with Bruce (on a date with a classmate), he is called by him, and dumps a milkshake on his date so he can have an excuse to go to Bruce. (Instances of Dick not being afforded a normal dating life during his teens and young adulthood because Bruce needs him is kind of a long running theme with these characters, isn’t it.)

There are a couple episodes where Bruce refuses to fight against brainwashed Dick (though there is an episode where Dick doesn’t return the favor and punches a brainwashed Bruce after apologizing in advance for it lol)

Bruce is adamant about Dick’s place at his side. Two times, Catwoman feigns innocence and offers to work with Batman as a partner. Bruce always reminds her of Robin being his partner, to which she always offers to kill him, and it always unsurprisingly upsets Bruce.

Bruce states that he would give up his life for Dick and tries to swap places with him when he’s in danger.

Dick is willing to let a villian fall to her death if she doesn’t cure Bruce of a spell she put him under. He is willing to let her dangle on the ledge of a tall building if she doesn’t promise to make Bruce normal again. Savage.

In the series, Dick is around 15-16 years old, since at the start he doesn’t have his license and by the end he gets it, and Bruce gives him a shiny red convertible for passing his driving test. You can just tell that when this Dick goes off to college, Bruce is going to be a wreck without him. What is he going to do all day now!?

Basically, aside from the 1943 black and white Batman serial, this was the first time we see a live action Bruce and Dick. And they are shown in all their devoted glory. In my opinion, this is the best live action interpretation of Dick and Bruce together (Sorry Schumacher fans), even if it’s very silly and dated. Kinda sad that there aren’t many options to choose from.

And since this Batman works on kind of an on-call system and isn’t vehemently patrolling the streets every night, isn’t really tormented by guilt and grief and never-ending duty, it’s really easy to extrapolate lazy evenings where Bruce and Dick are just simply enjoying each other’s company. Drinking tea and milk, reading poetry, and not being able to stay away from each other. In this universe, Aunt Harriet would never catch on, but Alfred would know and give them his blessing. Dick would push for more physical affection, Bruce would chastise him and teach him some moral lesson about abstinence, Dick would immediately fold and they’d go back to their hand holding and closed mouth kisses. That’s just the way this Bruce and Dick are. And it’s kind of refreshing in a pure and soft way.

I urge anyone to give the 60s Batman series a shot. Yeah, it’s goofy, yeah, Bruce and Dick seem out of character compared to modern interpretations, but hey, they are still valid interpretations, and it’s easy to see just how transparently they care for each other.

#i was so excited to get this ask!!! #thank you so much!! #brudick #i love talking about the odd little moments in that show #batman 66

[celluloidrainbow]

MUERTE EN BUENOS AIRES (2014) dir. Natalia Meta Buenos Aires in the 1980s. At the scene of a murder of one of the city's high society figures, veteran police inspector Chavez runs into Gomez, a.k.a. “El Ganso” (The Goose), a handsome young rookie cop with dreams of rising in rank. When Chavez uncovers that the murder may be linked to a small-time hustler, and the gay nightclub La Manila, the detective sends the rookie undercover to pose as a gay newcomer on the prowl for an older benefactor. As they come close to luring out the killer, the erotic charge of their new surroundings triggers changes in both Chavez and Gomez. (link in title)

#lgbt cinema #gay cinema #muerte en buenos aires #death in buenos aires #argentinian cinema #lgbt #gay #argentina #lgbt movie #gay movies #argentinian movies #lgbt film #gay film #argentinian film #lgbt media #gay media #queer cinema #latin american cinema #latin cinema #natalia meta #demián bichir #chino darín #2014 #2010s #2010s movies #2010s films #2010s cinema

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Heyyyy Do U know any long fanfics about baby dick grayson ... His relationship with bruce being newly orphaned and...

i do indeed have a few babe! (tho i have to say, this is one genre of fic that i'm constantly prowling ao3 for bc it's one of my absolute favourites, so if anyone has any more i'd definitely want them)

weirdly enough, most of these are actually aus?? i mean they all deal with baby dick, his relationship with bruce, and him being newly orphaned, but most of them don't take place in canon. hopefully you'll enjoy them nontheless

declensions by dustorange: first of all, my all-time favourite bruce and dick fic ever, it makes me feel EMOTIONS. roma dick grayson, a lot more depth to dick's first few weeks in gotham, bruce learning how to be a dad, and some pretty beloved ocs.

roadtrip vigilantes by beabaseball: bruce never left the league of assassins after he trained with ra's, but he witnesses the graysons' murder on a trip to gotham, got himself a Dick Grayson attatched to him like a burr, and sets off on a road trip across america.

things kept hidden by emavee: dick first coming to gotham and to wayne manor, bruce learning how to be a parent, and dick keeping the fact that he's a meta hidden from everyone

deal with an exorcist by iselsis: dick's a baby demon haunting a circus, bruce is an exorcist sent to get rid of said baby demon. he does so by adopting it

lighting is the shine (but i been working on the thunder) by brandywine421: dick grayson when he first comes to gotham, except he's a bit more badass and a lot more emo

#dick grayson #robin #nightwing #bruce wayne #batman #dc #fic recs #dick grayson fic recs #robin fic recs #nightwing fic recs #bruce wayne fic recs #batman fic recs #dc fic recs

[blitznut]

Transformers animated characters as gay icons:

Lugnut - Cher

Starscream - Tiffany 'New York' Pollard

Blitzwing - Whitney Houston or Beyonce

Megatron - Marie Antoinette

Blackarachnia - Fiona Apple or Eartha Kitt

Optimus Prime - Dolores O'Riordan

Jazz - Chaka Khan or Prince

Bumblebee - Mariah Carey or Beyonce

Prowl - Björk

Bulkhead - David Bowie

Ratchet - Joan of Arc

Sentinel Prime - Sappho or Britney Spears

Jetfire - Donna Summer

Jetstorm - Ava Max

#blitzwing #meta #lugnut #transformers animated #optimus prime #bumblebee #tfa prowl #bulkhead #megatron

[decepti-thots]

i was talking to @satellitesoundwave about sotw on a post they made talking about how distinctive tarantulas' (and hubcap's!) dialogue "sounds" in the comic, because i was like YEAH, and it's neat how distinct it feels from mesothulas' dialogue too, actually. and they pointed out how interesting the division between those "two" is, given that it's emphasized repeatedly that the primary purpose of the noisemaze is to destroy a mech's internal sense of identity, and i went WOW, IT IS. i was immediately curious as to how tarantulas does talk about the change in identity he goes through in the comic itself with that angle in mind, so... i went back and skimmed through parts where I recalled him bringing it up.

and it turned out to be fascinating because... yep. in multiple ways he points not only to his becoming "tarantulas" as a kind of metamorphosis (one which above he holds over prowl very specifically as a kind of "i managed what you couldn't" flex), but also to the dissolution of his identity as "mesothulas" as a prerequisite to that, as a direct result both literally of the noisemaze and also figuratively what prowl did to him.

first port of call: the way he narrates the experience of being trapped in the noisemaze to prowl.

so mesothulas had that failsafe to escape but he immediately broke down upon being shoved in there and couldn't even remember who he was, let alone that he could activate it. he did eventually come back to himself enough to trigger it, of course (and i find it interesting that the trigger is within his own body, so he very literally has to remember himself to do so), but not before a very long period of what basically seems to be a kind of ego death.

beyond just the 'mad science torture dimension Literally made me forget who i was' angle, though, when he teleports out it's back to the lab that prowl had destroyed. and he describes it as being something that prowl gave him and which allowed him to self-actualize into what he sees as the full, true version of himself. he calls it his lab but also his home, and he makes that delightfully melodramatic (in the truest and most classical sense of the word) comparison to his own spark being destroyed. the noisemaze broke down his sense of identity in a very immediate and literal way, but what prowl did also destroyed his sense of identity because mesothulas had built that identity up entirely around what he did within the environment prowl constructed for him. and, in a very real sense, to contain him. when prowl gave him that lab and an endless stream of resources and ideas and no contact whatsoever with anything outside, he created an environment in which mesothulas could exist perfectly removed from the world he wanted to study as an impassive observer, and he also helped mesothulas conceptualize himself in an environment made just for him and become... the most version of himself, for lack of a better phrase. like an echo chamber where all you ever hear is the increasingly loud sound of your own voice bouncing off the walls.

but he wasn't actually alone. that identity was completely, absolutely dependent on prowl as the structure it was built on, and prowl could collapse the entire artifice at a moment's notice. mesothulas' intense, disturbing codependence is completely by design and prowl's sweeping away of the whole foundation on which it's based completely destabilises not just their working relationship but the self-conception mesothulas has created for himself. by isolating him prowl had indeed made him the truest version of himself, but also one with no way to exist independently in a broader context. he had to stay exactly where he was, apart from what he studied, or it all fell down.

and that's really explicitly his own conception of events, too. see:

left me to crumble obviously refers to the fact prowl literally expected him to die in the noisemaze, but even though he survived, that's still to some extent what happened. not even getting out stopped it because just prowl doing it removed any framework mesothulas had for understanding who he was. mesothulas pretty much ceased to be in short order as a result. (sidenote: that he considers the loss of his lab to be the loss of his home, and then makes a new home in the noisemaze itself as the thing that is representative of his metaphorical death, is. a lot. did i mention melodrama applies to this guy in a very classical sense.)

the whole concept of what prowl did to him being worse than death comes up a couple times. it's why, if prowl refuses to come back to him, he wants to completely strip away everything prowl has, rather than just kill him. it's interesting to think about how he conceives of this, too. the data he's threatening to release canonically does not necessarily include stuff that is explicitly linked to crimes that prowl committed. (that was on the cards at one point, according to the sotw bonus material, but didn't make it in.) it's data from the aequitas trials, and prowl did not stand accused in those. what mesothulas is threatening to do is destroy the autobots and, in doing so, prowl's standing within them, not least by revealing him as one of the people covering things up re: other autobots' war crimes. a huge part of prowl's sense of identity is predicated on the idea that what he did and does is justified because it's for what he sees as 'the greater good' and, to him, that means furthering the goals of the institution he commits himself to. if that institution splits apart into chaos, if he loses his role in it because it can't support itself, that's the clearest parallel tarantulas can create to what was done to him. to find what prowl defines himself by externally, is reliant on for a sense of self, and destroy that.

tarantulas is basically what happens when he goes out and tries to find something to tether his identity to once his original one has been nuked. mesothulas is completely gone, both because the noisemaze irrevocably changed him and because mesothulas had come to only exist in the tiny little perfect bubble prowl crafted to keep him happy and, it turned out, could take away at a moment's notice. (it's really telling how prowl tries to act like mesothulas is pulling his strings somehow in the flashback when the power balance is so wildly uneven in his favour.) he changes himself so completely that he becomes about as close to a different species as it's possible to be, right down to the part where he stops being entirely mechanical. and i think that makes his adoption of an organic element make way more sense. because tarantulas doesn't... respect organics. he uses derogatory language towards verity because she's organic. but the furthest thing from a cybertronian is an organic, and tarantulas' entire new identity is one that divorces itself as much as possible from mesothulas. there's no sense of continuity there. this is also where the way he talks comes in. tarantulas just talks differently to other cybertronians. he uses these organic metaphors and dramatic turns of phrase nobody else does. he's uncanny when seen in contrast to them. and so, too, are the chimeracons he made more like him. (sidenote: this is why tarantulas being Weirdly Horny is, yes, funny, but also actually has a purpose. it marks him as 'other' to every cybertronian we ever see in a way they have no real context for. one day i will keep a straight face about Weird Horny Spider Robot Guy being a real thing to write actual meta about that.)

...well, mesothulas is completely gone in Sins except for one specific moment:

this is the only time prowl calls him mesothulas after being told his new identity. it's not something tarantulas rebuts, either. the one big thing he doesn't want to divorce from who he is now, post-"rebirth", is that he was still the person who made ostaros. (and no, i don't think his desire to rekindle his relationship with prowl counts; he wants to do it under distinctly different terms than before, and you can see why.) ostaros was the one thing he did as mesothulas that he doesn't want to let go of, that not even prowl (he assumes) killing ostaros actually erases. and it's funny, because mesothulas is so convinced he can't do anything like creating ostaros without prowl again, but it's also the thing that persists in his sense of self totally independent of prowl. he even goes out of his way to say that he isn't asking about ostaros' fate because of prowl. it's such a weird double bind he has mentally.

(the next time he gets called mesothulas, btw, is when springer calls him that when acknowledging him during wrequiem, first referring to mesothulas, not tarantulas, being who made him, and then just before tarantulas' death. PAIN.JPG.)

this is LUDICRUOUSLY long so a final point. i think it's really interesting that tarantulas both sees mesothulas' "death" as an injustice and also his own "rebirth" as tarantulas as a triumph, and i don't think the narrative actually contradicts this at all. tarantulas is many a B-movie villain trope (and we love him for it), but one thing he never really is in Sins is pathetic or delusional. he did do what prowl never managed, just like he said. he changed. he changed into a literal monster, but he did do it, and he did it completely on his own. prowl destroying mesothulas after creating him according to his own wants and needs was awful; tarantulas creating himself in defiance of that is not good in the moral sense (see: b-movie monster villain) but it is legitimately impressive. and tarantulas doesn't even get properly defeated, certainly not by prowl but actually not by anyone. he runs off to go save springer, forgetting everything else he had cared about the second he realises he's there, the one thing he kept across both identities. the final climactic moment of sins for tarantulas is a kind of realization of his desire to craft an identity outside of prowl: in that sequence, he's not thinking about prowl at all.

#this got LONG #despite me literally being like NO we're not doing a tangent here #which. like. i am a PARODY of myself lol. <3 #idw #tarantulas #prowl #taraprowl #meta

[breakdownsbuttlights]

9, Mesothulas ^_^

9. Scene that first made you love (or hate) the character.

Mesothulas is in hardly any scenes, so it was mostly the lore surrounding him (e.g. that he was inspired by Aleister Crowley), @decepti-thots' writing (fic and meta), and @itonako's fanart (he's kitty!) that endeared him to me. Designing his HF version (which received the Nick Roche stamp of approval!!) also really helped me grok him.

But if pressed, I would also say any of the scenes in Sins where it becomes clear how much Mesothulas doted on Ostaros and adored Prowl. He's a loving parent and a hopeless romantic AS WELL AS an amoral mad scientist, what's not to love about that?!

#mesothulas #ask meme

[arceespinkgun]

Finally completed my read-through of the entire Marvel UK G1 comics run—I haven't read every annual story yet, but I've read several of the most important ones—and while there were massive ups and downs throughout, I think my biggest takeaway is surprise at the fact that many of the things with the most potential from this continuity haven't been explored further.

Some of the lore is fascinating. I think the origin of Primus being that he was essentially born of the crumbs from Unicron's mouth—what still existed of the previous universe Unicron had devoured—is incredible! These comics had a Decepticon chosen by the Matrix, whose villainy didn't taint it, no, instead he was mind-controlled by the Matrix's own childlike desire to experience the sensation of evil for the first time! Cassette transformers were once the bodyguards of the old overlords of the government, before the War began! In the future stories, Kup's love for Rodimus might have doomed all transformers! Galvatron always seems to have been made up of multiple guys, not just Megatron! There were also things that were just plain bizarre, too, like the first Space Bridge being a literal bridge made out of a guy who was tortured and is constantly in horrific pain?!

Many characters are the best versions of themselves out of any series. I used to have no strong opinions about Blaster and Jetfire, but in this continuity I loved them. Galvatron, Prowl, and Silverbolt I all disliked before I tried reading this, but I ended up loving all three of them in these stories, too. There are also plenty of characters I had no preconceptions about, like Emirate Xaaron and Thunderwing, who I also thought were great, of course. I thought many of the character dynamics were compelling, too, like the one between Optimus Prime and Scorponok—I consider it one of the best relationships between any two characters in the entire franchise, and the way they reached out to each other was so sweet. I also like how many dynamics that would be expected these days don't really exist in these stories, or are super de-emphasized.

Reading this series with a critical eye also really highlights why the Autobots are the heroes and the Decepticons are the villains—there are in fact good Decepticons and evil Autobots, but it's the overall values of each faction that make them what they are. Preserving life at all costs, vs. exploiting and destroying it. Even so, despite the ending sadly suggesting otherwise, there's a lot of evidence that peace is very possible and that a lot of the fighting is just automatic at this point. There are also flaws in how each faction runs things, with Decepticons being so eager to backstab each other they're often self-defeating (and the ones who are honorable get stuck in a state of paralyzing fear), and the Autobots for a long time were way too codependent, and these flaws add a lot of complexity.

There was also plenty of garbage in this continuity as well (tip: skip UK issues #182-187, you're not missing much, that story is heavily misogynistic) but given how this franchise iterates on G1 so much I would've hoped that some of the best elements would've been revisited by now. I also think that the published continuations of the US Marvel comics, like Regeneration One and the G2 comics, were lacking in comparison to the UK stories. And something about this continuity really inspires me to write meta, so if I'm up to it, I'll probably write more analysis posts about it.

Also, the letters pages are hilarious.

#transformers g1 #transformers marvel #my analysis #maccadam