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earthstellar · 2 years

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how would you go about doing SG bumblebee/goldbug? i have a few of my own thoughts but i’d love to hear yours :0

Thanks for asking! :)

There have been a few slightly varied depictions of SG!Bumblebee/Goldbug, but I'll just take a general approach here and not fixate too much on any one story. :)

It's been a while since I've read SG content, and I've never done so with too much of a focus on Bumblebee specifically, so please take all this with a grain of salt as I haven't had any time to go back and re-read the relevant content! :')

Bumblebee: A Basic Character Trait Analysis

With Bumblebee in the main canon, we can isolate a few common traits across almost all of his various appearances:

Friendly

Fairly outgoing if shy or awkward at times

Young (by which I mean, inexperienced or less experienced than others)

Highly motivated and energetic

Brave / Curious (he's a scout, so this makes sense)

Cares about others / his team mates

We tend to find these traits endearing!

In fact, this is why Bumblebee is often the "child audience appeal" character, and features so heavily in merchandise and advertising!

It's also why he could carry his own solo film; It is easy to believe such a character would be willing to engage with humanity, overcome any fear/hesitancy with a wide-eyed honest approach (literally, they have redesigned his model several times over the years to emphasise his optics to hammer this home visually), and he's least likely to come across as scary to younger kids because his inquisitive and open nature comes across as friendly and non-threatening-- Even though he's a giant robot from space.

But then!

In Shattered Glass, we tend to see him depicted as:

Ruthless

Disinterested in others for the most part unless they serve a purpose for his goals

Highly focused (could overlap easily with highly motivated) but only when he takes personal interest

Far less of a team player unless necessary

Cunning but willing to abandon a plan or situation if he deems the risk to himself or his goals to be too great

We tend to find these traits intense or even off-putting; SG Bumblebee comes across as more selfish or manipulative, and a lot is lost from what we find interesting, compelling, relatable, or enjoyable about his original universe counterpart in this trait-swap.

(Personally, I think we never really got a Shattered Glass style episode in any animated media at least in part because Bumblebee is mostly the "kid-friendly" character, and doing SG Bumblebee might be considered by Hasbro to be too jarring or potentially genuinely upsetting for the target younger audience for them to ever commit to greenlighting a legit SG episode.

Among other reasons, lol, but Bumblebee is usually specifically used to appeal to the youngest children watching any TF media, so I can see how they would want to dodge this potential concern.)

Why This Is An Issue:

Generally, in the context of the SG comics, this is why Bumblebee/Goldbug can be a little off-putting or outright unlikable for some people.

We don't really see him as being Bumblebee anymore, even an alternate universe version of him, because his core traits are just totally removed and swapped out.

Like I said in my other SG analysis post, in order to relate to the characters and continue to accept them as different versions of characters we are already familiar with, at least SOME recognisable elements of some core traits needs to remain.

Otherwise, they become just a little too far removed, and we stop being able to really see them as who they are supposed to be a mirror image of. They start to become new, different characters altogether, in an unfamiliar universe, which doesn't work when the unfamiliar universe is, well, unfamiliar-- We have no connection to it, once the characters lose our interest or become too unrecognisable.

This isn't universal, of course, but this tends to be one of the problems with Transformers SG content in general; I love the concept 100%, but there needs to be a balance with the trait-swapping.

Some Possible Ways to Address SG Trait Swap And Make It Slightly Less Jarring: Bumblebee Edition

To retain more of a connection to Bumblebee as he appears in the SG universe, it would help to retain more of his original universe traits of genuine curiosity or sense of wonderment, carried over from his main universe counterpart which we are more familiar with.

Not only is Bumblebee a scout, so he does tend to exhibit a personal and professional curiosity-- This is why he is often the first bot to run into human beings when looking around or exploring a populated area for the first time.

But also, we associate curiosity with youth, and therefore with some degree of innocence.

While SG!Bumblebee/Goldbug is very experienced and more "hardcore" as it were, it would still be nice to retain this genuine kind of curiosity as a personality trait, rather than a professional trait.

Sure, he knows professionally that he needs to stay behind cover, or shouldn't ask questions. But personally, he is curious.

He wants to know, he investigates even when he maybe shouldn't and discovered some things as a result, or maybe we get a brief moment where he is less motivated by underhanded selfish goals and instead is primarily motivated purely by an interest in something that catches his eye, something he's spotted before anyone else has.

We could get some moments where his motivation is not something underhanded or cruel or conniving, but rather, just a little innocent curiosity. Just so we could see that we can recognise something in this character, so there's a little hope that comes up-- Oh, maybe he has the capacity for some good, maybe somewhere inside his spark there is something untouched by his outwardly aggressive behaviour, etc.

And while this may not be the case in whatever story, it is an engaging thought for readers/the audience to have. We still want to think there's something more under all that toughness and selfishness;

And that makes sense, because it adds some interest and potential depth to his character.

By which I mean, a common problem with SG is often that the characters are so obviously and overwhelmingly evil that they come across as one-dimensional villains, rather than alternate universe versions of characters we care about.

We generally don't get to see SG Autobots do anything other than be comically evil, unnecessarily cruel or violent, etc. and it winds up falling a little flat because it removes a lot of the complexity from these characters as we know them through their original universe counterparts.

Case Study: Star Trek Mirror Universe

I'm going to pick DS9's mirror universe, because there's a great example of this, good and bad.

A great example of "Trait Swap Balancing" (as I call it) is Kira, in the mirror universe episodes.

Kira, in the main universe, is a victim of violent oppression who obtains a position of relative authority on board a previously occupied space station which orbits her home world, out of a personal desire to oversee the restoration efforts and ensure her people are not taken advantage of by Starfleet immediately after the prior oppressors are made to leave the station, as she does not initially trust Starfleet to act on their promises or remain within their agreed upon limited remit.

Kira, in the mirror universe, is a collaborator and secured her position of power through political finesse and social manipulation, running the same space station in the mirror universe but as a singular representative of her planet's position in the oppressive interplanetary collaboration, lording her power over Federation indentured slave labourers as an Intendant.

Why is this so effective?

The audience doesn't totally hate Mirror Universe Kira, because we see that even in this universe, she is revealed to have some doubts about what is going on and the collaboration she is an active participant in once she is pressed further, and her emotional stability is obviously in question; She copes primarily through lashing out at others and engaging in overly-personal manipulative behaviour.

She is unstable in her position, and we get a sense eventually that she isn't as happy with the situation as it first seems. She believes that collaborating is her best chance to spare her people the worst of it, even if it means subjugating others, and this appears to be a root cause of much of her personal instability.

Thus, she retains some critical traits from her main universe counterpart, we recognise this as being the same character at heart, who made very different choices (choices which appropriately mirror her decisions in the primary universe).

She retains her love for her people, and we find out that her motivation in both universes is actually the same: She wants to keep her people safe. In the main universe, she did this by fighting against her oppressors. In the mirror universe, she attempted to do this by joining her oppressors.

So, there you go!

Even though Mirror Kira is awful, we don't hate her. Because we can see where her outwardly evil actions and harmful behaviours have a basis, deep down, that is rooted in a trait which makes us like the main universe Kira: She's trying to do good for her people in both universes.

In the Mirror Universe, this took a terrible path, and her behaviour and actions are oppressive and evil; She is still willing to go along with it in the Mirror Universe. The trait reversal is still very much present. She is still a "bad guy" in the Mirror Universe, very much so.

But we can still recognise some critical key traits from the main universe Kira in her, so we don't start to see Mirror Kira as another character entirely, we don't experience any disconnect there despite the extreme differences in their behaviour and thought processes...

And as a result, we can believe that this is really a Mirror Universe.

We don't have to like Mirror Kira. In fact, we're encouraged not to. We just have to accept her as a mirror universe counterpart to her character in the primary universe.

And retaining those core traits, as differently as they manifest in the mirror universe, is a great way to make Mirror Kira more interesting and familiar to us as an audience--

--Because we can see that yeah, this is the same person. Just different.

Comparing DS9 Mirror Universe to Shattered Glass

Compare this DS9 Mirror Universe example to a lot of the currently available Shattered Glass media, and how the characters are "trait reversed" in many of these stories.

Do you feel you can see any of the "liked traits" of the original universe characters present, in any way or to any degree, in the SG counterparts?

If so, in what situations? How did these liked traits come out, and how did it affect their decision making, if it did at all? Was this engaging? Did it help you recognise the character as more relatable to their original universe counterpart, or make them more definitively recognisable as being a mirrored version of the more familiar main universe version of the character?

If not, how might retaining certain liked traits help provide some character depth or improve recognisability of the SG version of the character? What are ways in which the SG character might become less "flat" feeling or more rounded out by the inclusion of some element of a likable trait or two from their original universe counterpart? What are some ways an SG character could retain some recognisable likable traits while still being suitably evil?

Just some questions to consider!

I think one of the main reasons why a lot of people struggle to get into the Shattered Glass media, despite the great concept behind all of it, is that the trait swap is just too much of a 100% trait swap, and we don't really get to see any recognisable traits underlying any of their actions, behaviours, or thought processes in the SG universe.

Of course, this is just my assessment of things; I hope this was an interesting read for you, and I'm sorry it took me a few days to get the time to type it all out! <3

#shattered glass #transformers #long post #reply #transformers analysis #tf sg #sg transformers #maccadam #maccadams #character analysis #tf bumblebee #sg bumblebee #goldbug

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transformersmr-hq · 2 years

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TFMR asdf - Shattered glass maybe idk

Nothing but empty ramblings ahead

Cons

Megs

somewhat like Optimus Prime in OG universe

occasional dad jokes

never raises his voice

logical and collected

color scheme: traditional SG!white-and-blue

Difference between OG!TFMR OP

Soundwave

More experienced dad

somewhat like Bumblebee in OG universe

People feel unreasonable urge to protect him

Genuinley interested in human culture

Likes to engage with people

Ravage: lolcat

Laserbeak: shy

color scheme: traditional SG!white-blue-yellow

Difference between OG!TFMR Bumblebee

Cannot speak

Blitzwing

somewhat like Whirl in OG universe

Default setting: Random

Dumb as a brick, spark of a hero

Delivers sick rhymes

color scheme: Navy blue, gold, and hint of silver

Difference between OG!TFMR Whirl

dramatic mood swings does not always result in violence

Pharma

somewhat like Arcee in OG universe

Everyone's favorite auntie

Life advices as good as her homemade energon sweets

mess with her bois and get chainsaw'd in the face

color scheme: idk about this one honestly

Difference between OG!TFMR Arcee

not really a berserker in battle

Knock Out

Does his job even when no one is looking

Loyal to a fault

sense of humor dryer than rust sea

color scheme: one of the two shown in this post

Difference between OG!TFMR Mirage

Not so obsessed with paintjobs

Starscream

somewhat like Ratchet in OG universe

Honesty can be a weapon and he's damn good at using it

Sometimes too much of an idealist

Actually understands the weight of being in command

color scheme: 3rd pic, this post

Difference between OG!TFMR Ratchet

Bots

Too much of a gentlebot to be cranky

Optimus Prime

somewhat like Megatron in OG universe

Intimidatingly silent

Patience is virtue... up to certain point

Knows what you're thinking so don't even

color scheme: either traditional SG!purple or TFA toxitron

Difference between OG!TFMR Megs

never loses his cool

Arcee

somewhat like Starscream in OG universe

Survival of the fittest

Everyone's nightmare drill sergeant

a Karen

color scheme: gun metal grey and teal

Difference between OG!Starscream

people actually take her seriously

Goldbug(Bumblebee)

somewhat like Soundwave in OG universe

When you think no one is looking...

That smile is clearly not an innocent one

would someone please get this emotionally stunted child an actual caring parental figure

color scheme: mostly black with gold highlights here and there

Difference between OG!Soundwave

lacking in mad computer skillz

Ratchet

somewhat like Pharma in OG universe

First impression: charming old gentleman

Actually getting to know: calling this fragger a trash is an insult to all trash in the universe

Won't hesitate to steal your hands in your sleep

color scheme: [FREE SPACE]

Difference between OG!Pharma

does messed up shit for self enjoyment rather than grandiose research purpose

Whirl

somewhat like Blitzwing in OG universe

accepted his fate as a disposable

empty husk of a man

EXTERMINATE

color scheme: light grey, dark grey, and just enough orange to show he's not a corpse just yet

Difference between OG!Blitzwing

emotilnally stable at least

Mirage

somewhat like Knock Out in OG universe

Social butterfly with charming smile 24/7

huge attention hoarder

Actually proud of his noble background and not afraid to brag it... as if it hadn't got him a fist to his face far too many times already

color scheme: either traditional SG!purple-and-grey, or unreleased G2 toy

Difference between OG!KO

surprisingly a functional and responsible adult

#transformers: mobius run #tfmr asdf #shattered glass #asdfgksjajdskfajaj

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super-saiyan-rose · 2 years

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I'm not really a bumblebee fan and didn't really care about sg goldbug but I caved since I wanted to bulk up my sg autobot a bit. It's neat, wish they did like sg rodimus still.

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eldritch-araneae · 3 years

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Okay, I know nothing of Shattered Glass and how Bumblebee there portrait as Goldbug.

I just had a thought of SG AU, Where Goldbug have similar personality as canon Bee, but he is being manipulated by Optimus to stay by his side.

Goldbug, like Bee, struggles with his place in the world, always looking for place to belong. He never knew peace until Optimus "showed" him that Goldbug belongs among Autobots.

Optimus really need Goldbug's skills, so he keeps the minibot by his side in all costs. This shit gets ugly.

Also a thought!

In normal verse, Bumblebee goes Goldbug as sign of maturity.

In SG Goldbug goes Bumblebee as sign of finally finding peace.

#maccadam #shattered glass

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yes-i-write-fanfiction · 5 years

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How would a SG version of the Bumblebee movie play out?

Bumblebee is out scouting for new planets for the Autobots to conquer and he lands on Earth but before he can call his comrades to proceed with the invasion he gets intercepted by Blitzwing who tries to protect the planet. In the end Blitzwing dies and Bumblebee is left with amnesia.

Somehow he lands in a garage and Charlie’s mom buys him (not knowing what he really is) and gives him to Charlie as a birthday present. This version of Charlie handles the grief of losing her father in different ways, instead of keeping everything that was his she tries to distance herself from everything that had with him to do. She acts like she doesn’t miss her father at all but because she never gave herself time to mourn and move on properly she is very mentally unstable, prone to angry outbursts and terrible mood swings.

Charlie manages to fix up Bee, just like in the movie. When Bee transforms and reveals himself her flight or fight instincts kick in and she decides to fight. Not that she manages to hurt Bumblebee but he finds it amusing (tiny fleshy thinks it can hurt him?) and just lets her attack him until she’s tired herself out. Finally they talk, well, they try to but Bee can’t speak so it doesn’t go that well. Charlie decides to keep Bee a secret because she unconsciously want something to distract her from the pain of losing her father.

Shatter and Dropkick are Decepticon soldiers who’s been given the important task of stopping other planets from being enslaved by Decepticons. They have been following Bumblebee for a long time and when they realize that he’s on Earth they are desperate to find him, wanting to save humanity from the war. In this version they don’t look for help from the military, they would much rather do it themselves so no innocent humans get hurt.

As Charlie and Bee bonds Charlie tells him about this girl she hates. Bee, having seen the anger inside of Charlie, decides to show her how to use her rage. He takes her to the girl’s house and together they set it on fire. No one dies in the fire but the house is burned to the ground. Charlie gets a rush out of this and for once she forgets about her loss. She decides to keep following Bee’s advice and act on her anger.

Finally Shatter and Dropkick find Bee and they carefully pacify him, putting him in cuffs. They are about to go back to Cybertron so they can put him in jail where he can’t hurt anyone but somehow Charlie manages to free Bumblebee and he goes on a rampage. He violently kills Shatter and Dropkick, who in her last moments plead to Charlie to please don’t let him do this, but Charlie just ignores her and in the end Bee kills her. The movie ends with Bumblebee sending out a signal to all Autobots, informing them about the planet. Charlie, not wanting to return to normalcy and the grief decides to run away from home with Bee who promises her that when the Autobots conquer Earth she will be on the winning side. The last scene of the movie shows a dozen of Autobot ships approaching Earth.

... Wait, since this is SG should Bumblebee’s name be Goldbug?

#transformers imagine #shattered glass #bumblebee movie #bumblebee

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