#tf:aro

[transformers-fan-continuities]

Spotlight: Autobots Roll Out!

Not me forgetting for ages and ages to finish and post this! </3 Anyway, here’s the previous one, but today we’ve got Autobots Roll Out! over at @transformers-autobotsrollout !

Q) Give us a run down of your cont! What’s it about, what’s it called, what’s it like?

Autobots Roll Out! is arguably a black comedy/action Transformers series. We open with Optimus and his friends trying to get to another planet, only to be thwarted by the evil Decepticons who blow up their ship! Or, at least, that’s what Hot Rod’s nightmares consist of. There’s a mystery element to the predicament Optimus and his friends have found themselves in; everyone is convinced they’re dead with the exception of Hot Rod, who’s faith and optimism haven’t wavered a day in the cycles they’ve been gone. But trouble’s afoot in more ways than one, and both teams are going to have to confront everything they thought they knew to solve it.

Q) What characters take the lead here? Any personal favorites?

Well, you can’t have a Transformers series without Optimus Prime! He’s joined by Jazz, Bumblebee, and Perceptor! With Optimus’ social awkwardness, Perceptor’s lackadaisical glee, Jazz’s spirtuality, and Bumblebee’s teenage sass, you can imagine how they get along stuck on this distant mudball. Back on Cybertron, Hot Rod, Arcee, and Springer are an unbeatable triad… and hey, sometimes Blurr hangs around to make sure they don’t get themselves killed.

I was admittedly a little sick of Megatron ALWAYS being the main force of the Decepticons, so instead of him taking the spotlight, we get the motley crew of Blitzwing, Astraea, Motormaster, and Flamewar to harass the trio back on Cybertron. These creeps are a delight but not the biggest threat, though. That would have to go to the mysterious and beautiful Flipsides, who’s probably my favorite villain in the whole series. She’s got a LOT of baggage to go with that pretty face of hers, and I can’t wait for y’all to meet her. There are some other threats on the horizon, but let’s keep those under wraps until their moment in the spotlight.

On Earth, we have to deal with Sixshot, a modified superhunter who's been sent after Optimus to ensure the only way he'll be coming back is in a coffin. His young ward Chop Shop has a very fascinating relationship with the humans, too.  It's almost like he wants to become one of them... and peculiarly, Starscream's found his way onto Earth as well. Hmmmm.

Q) Is there a bigger point to this, like a theme or some catharsis? Or is it just fluffy fun?

[looks directly into the camera] War is bad and only benefits those who sell the weapons. Also, I wanted an excuse for my favorite characters to interact with each other, so there ya go.

Q) How long have you been working on it?

Back in August 2019, I dabbled in the idea of an original continuity. It was gonna be called Young Optimus Prime, and it was MASSIVELY different from any of this. It had been years since I’d consumed any Transformers content and I was going fully off TFwiki descriptions of random characters and secondhand info from my friends.

Batshit would be an understatement.

Blurr was a girl. Starscream was Megatron’s son that he brainwashed from Thundercracker into being an emotionless killing machine. Bumblebee was a baby robot that would grow up to be a Seeker. Arcee was going to be a stereotypical mean girl that bullied Elita One and tried to steal Optimus from her. Outback was a main character. There was an entire lake of Quintesson blood that turned people evil if you drank it. The true main villain was gonna be goddamn Tyrest. This story concept fizzled out quicker than a sparkler and frankly I don’t know if I regret it enough to keep it totally buried.

On October 12, 2020 Autobots Roll Out! started out the same way, with some utterly insane story elements that I made for the sake of being cool rather than linking together coherently. Plotlines such as an anarchist brigade led by Ultra Magnus, Beastformers being irradiated mutants that were the victims of a nuclear war, a direct depiction of police states, and most shocking of all – Starscream getting a redemption arc – are things that I knew I’d have to drop once I’d gotten the story on the road.

Q) Give us a behind-the-scenes look! Show us a secret ;))

Would you like to see Flipsides’ nightmares?

All noise vanished from the room. Every other bot had become faceless masses of twitching neon polygons, at least the ones that had been by her side. She couldn’t even tell what had happened to the rest, as the room had become an endless black void asides Megatron and the slab he was on. Beams of colored light shooting out from behind her squawked and chirped as they smacked into the once-living bots and slammed into invisible barriers.

Flipsides paid no mind to the chaos as she stepped forward, but the slab and he both seemed to get farther away. She tried to run and catch up to him, only to fall with an inelegant splash as what had once been the floor was now a reflective black pool of fluid. She resurfaced in an instant, trying to regain her bearings as she swam to Megatron’s side, the table somehow floating atop the still surface. He laid on the slab, spark exposed and optics dull grey, as if they’d never been alighted. Another version of herself was at his other side, one hand clutching his and the other holding his shoulder.

“Megatron?” she asked, pulling herself up. “Megatron, please.”

The other her raised her head and stared. The black fluid that covered the floor was seeping from her blank, featureless face.

Q) Where did you draw inspiration from? What canons, what other fiction, what parts of real life?

Oddly enough, this entire thing feels like a giant Kingdom Hearts fanfic at times. There’s a lot of pomp and circumstance about how you can’t lose yourself to despair and how the power of friendship is way past cool… in an anime way.

To be more serious, though, I took a lot of inspiration from Transformers Animated, Generation 2, Beast Wars, and Tranformers Cybertron. In hindsight, I wish I added more from Robots In Disguise 2001, but I’ve never been that big a fan of sentai shows, and RID 2001 was basically a Transformers sentai show despite how much I like it.

Q) Show off something you’re really proud of, a particular favorite part of your cont.

I love the character designs I’ve done for this series. I feel like I’ve improved so much with my artwork working on this series. Here’s my top five favorite designs in no particular order.

Q) What other fan canons do you love and why? Would you like to see them interviewed?

Man, I can’t really choose. I just get tickled seeing everyone’s interpretations and reimaginings of this series that I think there’s something special about every single one. Sorry if that’s a cop out!

Q) No worries, with such a menagerie of good content it’s tough to pick!

And that’s that! Thanks Orb for giving us a neat glimpse into ARO! Sorry for leaving this for so long oof. I gotta check my list for who’s up next for a spotlight, but stay tuned!

#tf:aro #transformers #long post #spotlight #transformers au #transformers redesign #tf original continuity #transformers fan continuity #maccadam