#exarchon

[morethanmeetstheass]

i never posted this to tumblr but this was the third and final cover i did for idw before the license change. im so proud of it and i was so honored to get hired by them for a THIRD COVER. absolutely buckwild.

getting to play with sunstorm (technically exarchon possessing him but whatever) was so fun. his colors play to my usual color palette so well. im glad that my run with idw went out with a bang

#and whoever gets the license for tf comics next #hire me #LMAO #sunstorm #transformers #maccadam #my art #exarchon

[askvectorprime]

Is there an Exarchon in the Malgus cluster?

Dear Threefold Threat,

According to popular history, Exarchon was a Malignus warlord during the Second Cybertronian War. Claiming to be blessed by the tripartite god Vion-Lenja-Igern, contemporary records claim that Exarchon had a mutant mitotic spark, which allowed him to split his consciousness between three separate bodies—and, indeed, to take over the bodies of others that he had subjugated in battle. This made him functionally immortal, as even if one of his bodies was destroyed, he had two more to continue to spread his will.

These days, the understanding among academics is different. Lancer—a professor of archaeometallurgy at Drouhard University—argues that there is little direct evidence for Exarchon's supposed powers, which do not line up well with the modern scientific understanding of mitotic sparks; instead, she posits that it is more likely that the idea of Exarchon's "threefold spark" was a shared fiction created by the Malignus leadership through the use of public performance, puppetry and sleight of servo. The idea of an "immortal warlord" would, of course, be extremely useful as propaganda for a faction that rarely, if ever, found themselves with the edge in their war against the Guardians.

#ask vector prime #transformers #maccadam #transformers animated #exarchon #malignus #violen jiger #sparks #lancer #drouhard university #guardians

[transformers-villain-tournament]

#transformers villain tournament #polls #maccadam #transformers #spinister #exarchon #g1 #idw 2019

[cherrytimemachine]

Since you guys liked it so much last time, here’s some more headcanons for the senators, with some extra worldbuilding sprinkled in

- Dai Atlas is the son of Nova Prime and the heir of Crystal City

- The Zodiac from Zone is the Allspark Crystal, and Dai Atlas is the keeper of the All Spark, in charge of protecting it from the factions and from the leader of the Herald of Unicron, Violen Jiger

- Exarchon serves as the High Chancellor of the senate, the first one in a long time to be able to tamper down the arguing on the chamber floor

- Exarchon is strange in that no one knows what he really believes in, he just sits back and watches the senators spin their webs with interest

- Sentinel once had a Ronald Reagan moment where he heard a gunshot during a speech and his automatic reply was, “missed me.”

- Shockwave is a total femboy and we all know it

- Shockwave is the middle child of the Wave House, and the only one of his siblings who doesn’t cover up their face or limit their speech

- Shockwave’s personality reflects that of his father, who was a boisterous celebrity known for his ability to get along with people

- Unbeknownst to anyone around him, even himself, Exarchon was originally the God of Change known as Adaptus, having been reborn after Primus defeated him in battle

- His behavior is a lot more understandable once you factor in his past life as Adaptus. He believed that societies progress through conflict, and he is fascinated by watching the ways in which other senators fight against each other for their own benefit

- Sentinel’s reputation in the Elite Guard caught Proteus’s attention and the senator offered him a well paying job as his personal body guard

- While there is a general who leads the Elite Guard, the Prime still takes rank over the general and is more often than not considered the true head of the Elite Guard

- Dai Atlas and Star Saber were childhood friends in fencing classes together. Nova Prime eventually pulled her son out of fencing and forced him to take part in martial arts to further his proclaimed destiny as the next disciple of Primus (specifically for the processor-over-matter technique)

- Even after he changed classes, Dai Atlas continued to see his friend Star Saber, who would come in after classes and they would hang out past school hours. Dai Atlas told his mom he was getting extra practice instead

- Despite generally being a huge bitch, Nova Prime is widely revered in Cybertronian society as one of the great leaders of her time (and yes, my Nova is a woman)

- The only person who would (quietly) disagree is her own son, who worked tirelessly for her time and attention, only for her to be really detached and never showing him the love he so desperately wanted. He was disappointed with this relationship until the day his mother disappeared, and afterwards he’d finally given up

- When Shockwave went missing, Dai Atlas and him were amica endura and had spark bonded platonically. During the empurata, Dai Atlas could feel the mental pain and suffering Shockwave was going through, and it overwhelmed him so much his spark cracked. He never told anyone about the cracks, and he would live out the rest of the war with them before telling anyone.

#senator dai atlas #dai atlas #exarchon #sentinel prime #senator shockwave #tf ocs #transformers ocs #adaptus #grand architect #star saber #nova prime #tf headcanons #tf au #transformers au #transformers #cherry chats

[transingthoseformers]

Here is a good non-Unicron villain for the Autobots and Decepticons to team up against https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Exarchon

I know very little about Exarchon, but what I do know of him is horror movie shit and ultimately speaking a really cool dynamic that can seemingly bring three more obscure mecha into the bright and shiny front!

#maccadam #transformers #exarchon #unicron

[dustbunny105]

Do you suppose Exarchon has ever, in his life, known chill?

#transformers #idw2 #war's end #exarchon #devastator

[autoacafiles]

So technically it could be said that Exarchon's Talent is Consciousness Division Ultima?

I actually have that on his profile, and apparently I forgot to POST said profile until now. So, uh, today's got a special two-for-one-day thing.

But yesterday was dry, so. Yeah.

#Combatron #Exarchon #Conciousness Division Ultima #Autobot Academy #Transformers #Maccadam #Villain

[bloodilymerry]

Bird of Prey: Exarchon's Cult

In general Exarchon’s backstory is close to the one he’s got in IDW2: he’s out in space and gets captured by Quintessons. The Quintessons change him, so he can “infect” other Cybertronians with his spark. 

It diverges here: he returns to Cybertron and promptly starts a cult of Quintessons, whom he views as the gods that created Cybertronians and who have been spurned. His message did not find much resonance, given that at this point the fact that Quintessons built Cybertronians as slaves was common knowledge. Frustrated by this, eventually, he and his cult commit group suicide in an attempt to affect the All-Spark and through it future Cybertronians into worshipping Quintessons.

Notable members: Damus a.k.a Glitch a.k.a. never got to be Tarn

#transformers #maccadam #exarchon #fanfic #g1 au

[gayrobos]

okay I finished idw2 and I do actually like the ending much more than the middle. optimus did the smart thing! we love a world suffused with weariness, constantly fighting its own ghosts, choosing a demigod specifically BECAUSE of their unwillingness to fight! I got sidetracked from how funny this page is by the ephemeral beauty of a dying civilization hang on

megatron is sooooo horny for optimus to admit she was right!!! she’s such a loser!!!

#the worst part of the finale? they didn't give the cyclonus bits to malkova #she could have been SO much hotter but no. #I didn't get a single good screencap of her fighting exarchon #idw2

[templephoenix]

A thread of stuff I remember from Brian Ruckley's IDW2 retrospective panel from TFNation this weekend, in no particular order:

• Brian scoured the TFwiki for all the female TFs that he could use; he was very clear on presenting them as a normal part of TF society from the start, no weird 'explanations' needed

• He planned out the main story beats he wanted to hit in his head, but didn't make extensive notes or anything

• If it hadn't been truncated, the Exarchon plotline would have - pending Hasbro approval - dealt with the Quintessons and their region of space, cut off from the rest of the universe. They wouldn't have been involved with Cybertron's origins

• He praised the work of all the artists but in particular Anna Malkova, who he considered the best thing to come out of IDW2 and particularly impressive for moving from artwork to comic storytelling

• Flamewar was an obvious favourite, one of many characters without much existing fiction which allowed for more freedom

• One of the main themes of the series was trauma, embodied in characters like Cyclonus and his ghosts

• Geomotus and others showed that neurodivergence exists in Cybertronians; he wanted to show that there was a variety of ways in which characters could see the world

• The Technobots annual was condensed down from a full story arc which would have featured the Terrorcons; the Technos were chosen as Brian's favourite combiner team

• He didn't want loads of combiners running around too soon, hence the Enigma being thrown into the sea; it would have resurfaced eventually

• He considered one of his biggest weaknesses to be that he didn't make individual issues read as well on their own rather than 'in the trade'; he hoped that he had gotten better at it as the series went on

• Favourite TF character types included female transformers and teleporters; he wanted Skywarp to be a trickster-type figure

• As the series went on Starscream would have remained neither a true Decepticon nor in any way an Autobot, trusted by no one and yet charming/threatening/maneuvering them into keeping him around

• A continuing theme would be the gap between how Cybertronians see themselves and how other species view them; organic planets would consider these giant robots terrifying

• He doesn't consider himself good at big shock reveals and doesn't like bait-and-switches, so tried not to do either during the series

• Despite the long-form storytelling aspect of the book, his personal favourite issues were the one-shots that divided each story arc, like Wheeljack on the moon

• The senate attack that kicked off the war in earnest was originally meant to come earlier in the series

• He didn't originally know that the continuity was being rebooted when he was asked to pitch for a TF comic; there was a lot of back-and-forth at the start as Hasbro kept adding requests

• The series would have gotten to humans eventually, although Brian wanted the TFs to encounter them already in space rather than on Earth

• He enjoys writing comics more than novels, and would happily do only the former if given the chance

• He needed a science-related TF to be the initial murder victim; he sent a shortlist of names to be approved and they chose Brainstorm

• Hasbro did not want too many original characters created for the series; the ones he invented were all done so because they were integral to the narrative

• Once they were told about the license being lost, Brian made a conscious decision not to kill a bunch of characters off before the end; he thinks that it would be too cynical, and that deaths have to serve a contextual and narrative purpose to be meaningful. He also recognises that every character is someone's favourite, and now they can imagine the adventures they might have in the future

All in all, a really interesting and honest panel! Thanks to Brian and all the artists for my favourite TF continuity ever; RIP IDW2

#transformers #maccadam #idw2 #brian ruckley #anna malkova #tfnation #tfn

[mrfandomwars]

Reasons Why I Think IDW2 Sentinel Prime Was A Still Technically A Young Prime/New First Senator By The Time We Meet Him - a mini meta

We are told that Nominus not only oversaw the final push against Exarchon - which happened like, 2000 years Before canon events - but also that he was the one who was in charge when Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were built - and Iacon was already rebuilt by that point, or at least mostly rebuilt from what we could see

2000 years to a species who can live up to millions, at very least, is like. Not a lot. At most a month or a year, something like that; Meaning that Sentinel could have only become a Prime at least 500 years after the War of the Threefold Spark ended, and that is if we are being generous with how quickly the Constructicon's finished Iacon and of Bumblebee and Cliffjumper's age.

So like. Sentinel, although he probably had been trained to take up the mantel of Prime by Nominus, was probably a young Prime by the time we met him

At most, he was like. A newly elected president who may not have yet fully completed a year on the job (maybe even less, enough to settle in with a new president but to still be considered a New President), because even though a lot of time passed to us for Transformers, it isn't, again, a lot comparatively to their life spans.

Also also: what better time to try and start a revolution/civil unrest? with a new leader that people are getting used to and is currently away.

#transformers #tf idw 2 #tfidw2 #tf idw2 #tf #sentinel prime #idw2 transformers #idw2 sentinel prime #nominus prime #bumblebee #cliffjumper #tf meta #transformers meta #my thoughts are still messy on a possible issue #that is that maybe Megatron started pushing forward to have that unrest not because it was time #but because he lost the first Senator election months/kilocyles before #and he waited until he had enough people to cause some real damage #again #my thoughts are still messy on this possibility so I shan't speak about it

[elfdragon12]

So, since I binge-read half of IDW2 last night... What if... I introduced Exarchon to my humanformers???

#hf meta talk

[askvectorprime]

What happened to Damus in IDW2? Did he ever become Tarn?

Dear Tarn Troubled,

Damus was one of the very first Cybertronians to be forged in the immediate aftermath of the War of the Threefold Spark and the ratification of the Nominus Edict. His earliest memories were of emerging into a broken, empty plaza populated by a sparse crowd of war-weary Cybertronians, whereupon a haggard Nominus Prime quickly handed him off into the care of his mentor Derail, who—though well-intentioned—was too busy working construction rotas and helping to track down Threefold Spark holdouts to truly spend time with his new mentee. It should come as no surprise that Damus struggled to relate to the people around him, and so with no clear path forward, he immersed himself in Codexa’s archives, learning everything he could about Cybertron’s past. In the days of reconstruction, some forward-thinking Cybertronians came to realize that their empire had been built upon the misery of other races, but Damus never had to directly confront the cruelty that lay beneath the Expansion’s glorious imperial veneer: as he pored through the Cybertronian archives, he saw unstoppable Titan fleets waging war, brave explorers planting flags on virgin worlds, awe-inspiring works of art and music, verminous alien aggressors brought to heel by their so-called “betters”… and he quickly began to resent Nominus Prime for robbing him of the world he should’ve known, a world had never truly existed.

Damus might’ve become an archivist, or at worst a contrarian academic, but his early education took a turn for the worse when the people of Cybertron discovered his unique, deadly gift. When correctly modulated, his vocal harmonics could subtly interfere with the regular electromagnetic impulses that governed ordinary machines… and those that powered a pulsing spark: with enough time and training, he could literally talk anyone to death. Like the Insecticons who’d preceded him, Damus was foisted off into the care of the Cybertronian Science Ministry, where he became an object of curiosity for many of Cybertron’s intellectuals. Eventually, once they’d learned everything they could from this latest prodigy, Damus was released: however, his newfound reputation meant that few Cybertronians would associate with him, and fewer still would offer him the kind of academic position he’d hoped for. Damus eventually collapsed into the dregs of society, where he spent most of his days chasing one high or another… until the day the idealistic Termagax founded a new political movement intended to return Cybertron to its glory days.

As one of the first Ascenticons, Damus became an ardent adherent to the Ascenticon cause; after all, Termagax was the first Cybertronian he’d met who was unafraid of his lethal talents. However, in time, Termagax’s resolve began to falter, and after a string of political defeats that culminated in Termagax abandoning society altogether, Damus sunk back into depression. Soon, however, a new leader arose to take up the mantle of Ascenticon leader—a charismatic firebrand named Megatron. Determined to restore “Cybertronian greatness” by any means necessary, Damus stood by Megatron’s party even as a string of violent incidents began to turn the public against Megatron’s increasingly inflammatory rhetoric. At first, Damus was repulsed by the kind of thuggish, indiscriminate violence exemplified by “The Rise”. In time, however, some part of him began to rationalize its necessity, then begin to take a kind of perverse glee as more and more Ascenticon rallies collapsed into anarchic violence. After all, had Cybertronians not won their cosmic birthright through conquest, as the strong asserted their dominance over the weak?

When Megatron finally made his true intentions known and overthrew the Senate, the Decepticon leader had already sent Damus to assist Jhiaxus as the ex-Senator spearheaded a Decepticon uprising in the city of Tarn and successfully conquered the region. What Jhiaxus didn’t know, however, was that Megatron—correctly suspicious of the lieutenant—had deliberately sent Damus along as a mole to pass information on his doings back to the Decepticon leader and “bring him to justice” should Jhiaxus’s ambitions get the better of him.

As the triumphant Decepticons tightened their hold over the region, Jhaixus began developing a series of full-body upgrades that would hybridize traditional Cybertronian design standards with an experimental bodytype that metabolized both energon and highly-refined nucleon fuel rods. Jhiaxus successfully tested a prototype version of the design on himself, and it should come as no surprise that Damus was the first Cybertronian who volunteered to become the “perfect Decepticon”. Damus emerged from the surgery stronger, faster, and more alive, his unique abilities now greatly enhanced. To commemorate what he proclaimed to be an inevitable Decepticon victory, Damus adopted the nom de guerre “Tarn”, to honor the city where the future of Cybertron had been created… but, before Jhiaxus could begin mass-producing an army of “perfect Decepticons”, Elita-1’s resistance unit attacked! Along with Hot Spot, Cliffjumper, and Wheel Blaze, Elita was able to sabotage the technology and deal Jhiaxus a crushing defeat, permanently stymying any hope of creating an unstoppable army. That did not bother Tarn, however: he proclaimed himself an army of one, a one-man “justice division” who wouldn’t stop until these unruly Autobot saboteurs faced Decepticon law.

#ask vector prime #transformers #maccadam #idw2 #damus #tarn #exarchon #nomimus prime #derail #codexa #titans #sparks #termagax #ascenticons #megatron #jhiaxus #elita one #hot spot #cliffjumper #wheel blaze

[transformers-villain-tournament]

The final bracket lineup has been decided! There are 64 Transformers villains on the list that'll be fighting for 1st place!

Actual Polls will be tagged with #polls so you can find them easier

Transcript and notes under the cut (as well as the versions of the characters– It's why there are multiple Galvatrons listed, for example)

Notes:

▪︎ This won't be about voting for who you think would win in a fight. It's about who your favorite villains are

▪︎ The specific versions of characters will be made clear in the actual polls (and on the transcript here). If it's not specified, they just represent all versions of them

▪︎ We also allowed some characters to be submitted as duos since there are few of them

Side 1

Match 1: Rampage (Beast Wars) VS. Obsidian & Strika (Beast Machines)

Match 2: Fangry (IDW 2005) VS. Vigilem (IDW 2005)

Match 3: Soundwave (TFP) VS. Lord Imperious Delirious (Beast Wars Uprising)

Match 4: Cryotek (Beast Era) VS. Shadow Striker

Match 5: King Sombra (MLP) VS. Jetstorm (Beast Machines)

Match 6: Tarantulas (Beast Wars) VS. Scorponok (IDW 2005)

Match 7: Vampire (Beast Wars Uprising) VS. Circuit Breaker

Match 8: Skold (Beast Wars) VS. Skywarp (IDW 2019)

Match 9: Thunderwing VS. Megaempress

Match 10: Flamewar VS. Trypticon

Match 11: Overlord VS. Ser-Ket

Match 12: Galvatron II (Marvel G1) VS. Slipstream

Match 13: Straxus VS. Megatron (Beast Machines)

Match 14: Nightbird VS. Lockdown (TFA)

Match 15: Airachnid VS. Goryū

Match 16: Heretech (IDW 2019) VS. Bludgeon (Marvel G1)

Side 2

Match 17: Antagony VS. Leozack

Match 18: Spinister (Marvel G1) VS. Exarchon

Match 19: Deathsaurus (Victory) VS. Shatter & Dropkick

Match 20: Scourge (ROTB) VS. Unicron

Match 21: Steeljaw (RID) VS. Bludgeon (IDW 2005)

Match 22: Galvatron II (Japanese G1) VS. Megatron (Cyberverse)

Match 23: Flame (Marvel G1) VS. Sunstorm

Match 24: Death's Head VS. Cyclonus

Match 25: Scorponok (Marvel G1) VS. Megastorm

Match 26: Clobber & Lockdown (Cyberverse) VS. Starscream & BB (Beast Wars II)

Match 27: Swindle VS. Trickdiamond

Match 28: Pharma VS. Galvatron

Match 29: Quintessons VS. Blackarachnia

Match 30: Soundblaster VS. Sky-Byte

Match 31: Tankor (Beast Machines) VS. Zarak

Match 32: Shockwave VS. Megatron (Beast Wars)

#transformers villain tournament #info #maccadam #transformers

[cherrytimemachine]

Ok, so I had this idea for a storyline with the Guiding hand where all of them died and were reborn as their modern day selves, and I was trying to create an identity for Adaptus when I thought of this. I haven’t read IDW 2 so I have no idea if this is a good take, so I’m asking you guys for your thoughts. If you have any suggestions, let me know in the notes.

#exarchon #adaptus #guiding hand #idw g1 #idw g2 #transformers idw #transformers #cherry chats

[optimistpax]

ooh I'm thinking of reading tf 2019 but idk if it's for me, could you share more of what you enjoyed about it? I'm curious!

Absolutely!! I'm always down to talk about comics!

Gonna throw my thoughts under the cut bc oops this got really long really fast... i have a lot of thoughts

TLDR: I like it bc it's easy to get into organization/access wise, it's soooo pretty to look at, has genres I personally enjoy and find fun, has a lot of characters I vibe with, and its themes are empathetic and hopeful which is nice to read about when life is tough

Organization

So the first thing that I think rocks about the 2019 comics is that they are actually organized in volumes that make sense from the get go. All the main story AND side stories are compiled in chronological order. This may not seem like anything significant, but I have major beef with serialized American comics about this so imo this is great skldjfg. Also!!! 5/6 of these volumes are on overdrive! So if they aren't already on your libraries library app (libby or hoopla), then the library can absolutely get you them if you ask! I'm certain that the 6th volume will be up there soon, it did come out relatively recently tho so it might be a month or two. It's also only 4 years/6 volumes long so it's not an overwhelming amount of content to read, which is nice :)

Art

Another thing I really love about the 2019 comics is the art!! They've got a couple artists that are series regulars, but 9 times out of 10 they knock it out of the park! Usually I'm bothered by a series jumping around different artists, but the regulars have similar enough art styles that with the colourists help, it's not that noticeable when they do switch around, which is really nice! I also Looooove the use of colour dots (i dont think they're screentones in this case? since they're quite big and used as a texture thing? idk im not a professional comic artist.) You can see some in my header! It's a double page spread from the first volume!! gorgeous stuff :)

Genre/Story

As for the story itself, I think it'll really depend what kind of genres you like reading. It starts on Cybertron before the war, which is fun to see since we get to learn a little about their culture, history, and geology. The genre starts off as a murder mystery and evolves into a political drama before finally dissolving into something more action-y. So it's not for everyone, but I personally had a fantastic time!

Characters

The 2019 comics have a MASSIVE cast of characters. There are so many characters that there's bound to be at least a FEW that you really enjoy! Lots of more obscure characters from the depths of tf lore that haven't really been developed in mainstream media (afaik) get some time to shine (Flamewar, Roadrage, Jumpstream, Javelin, Lightbright, and Subsea to name a few) and also introduces some new characters (Termagax, Codexa, Geomotus, Exarchon, Cryak, Rubble, Gauge, Lodestar) which imo were really fun to see! There's also a surprisingly large (relatively fleshed out) female cast which is refreshing to see in a franchise that originated as Reagan-era toy ads lmao.

I say relatively fleshed out bc the massive cast of characters is one of the series biggest strengths, but it's definitely also one of its biggest weaknesses. Since there are so many characters sharing limited panel time it's difficult for the series to explore them in depth bc there are just SO MANY. They're also using the toy designs where they exist (see: lots of same designs with different colours), so characters are sometimes difficult to tell apart. Esp if they don't show up often and you're not already overly familiar with transformers. Altho my comic book club of non-transformers fans managed to get through the first volume alright (or at least they said they did) so it can't be that unintelligible...

Themes

I really liked the themes in this series! Again, that's a personal preference that'll vary from person to person, but I had fun with this one. I'm not sure if it's the right word, but I think the narrative felt very empathetic(?). Characters were very rooted in their ties to other characters, their relationship with other characters. Something something we're better with the connection to and with the support of others. Some of my favourites character arcs in support of the theme of empathy in no particular order off the top of my head:

Cyclonus and his grief

Arcee and the lasting impact that the PREVIOUS war had on her and her relationships (esp with Greenlight and Gauge)

Gauge getting to CHOOSE her family not because she has to but because she wants to

Sad videogame dad Bumblebee

Geomotus and how he's autistic and taken seriously and respected and also his friendship with Landmine

Optimus being chosen for the matrix because he has the quality of HOPE

Javelin's PTSD

Shadowstriker trying and failing to keep Flamewar from being a gremlin and getting in trouble

Megatron being the pettiest man alive

Starscream's love for Cybertron?? ???

Wheeljack being SO supportive of his mentee Gears

I would apologize for the essay but you DID ask ahaha! Anyways, I definitely think the 2019 comics are at least worth looking into if you're a transformers fan and are looking for some comics to read. I had a blast reading them :)

#if youre not sure whether you wanna get into it check it out from the library (digital or hard copy)! #costs you nothing and supports your library and if you dont like it then you can give it back with zero repercussions :) #ask #if anyone else wants to share what they liked about idw2 u should also share! #love hearing about ppl having fun