Andraste

A Revelation

Sun, 10 Feb 2019 11:34:27 GMT

So, this week's Star Trek: Discovery got me thinking about moments when you realise that your favourite character is your favourite. Because, at least for me, with some characters it's practically instantaneous, and with others it takes a while, and sometimes I don't figure it out until later.

( Spoilers for this week's Disco. And also for who my favourite Disco character is, I guess. )

This is not the first time that this has happened - believe it or not, it took me until I got on the internet and started looking for fanfiction to realise that Charles Xavier was my Best Beloved. (Keep in mind that this was 1996 and there was basically no fanfic about him at the time. Had I a time machine, I would love to pop back to my annoyed teenage self and reassure her that this was not going to be a problem for her twenty years down the road ...)

On the other hand, I knew that I loved Magneto basically as soon as he appeared and began talking. There's also the time the Twelfth Doctor was talking to a tramp about his face and I thought 'he is my favourite Doctor.' (I then told myself I was being ridiculous because it was far too soon to make up my mind after less than half an episode, but my love never wavered after that.) With Londo Mollari it took until he told Adira was his password was, and with G'Kar it was the singing to his lunch, so both of those happened pretty early. I think Merrill became my favourite Dragon Age character somewhere during that first hilariously awkward conversation with Hawke, but I don't think I knew that until at least the second time I played the game. I don't even remember a time when I didn't love Starscream - I definitely did by 1987 when I was distressed by his death. (Little did I know that he would end up dying and coming back in most versions of the canon to the point where I would become completely blasé about it.)

... all of which to say, if there's a pattern in any of that, I do not know what it is. But sometimes you really don't know you love a thing until you think it might be gone. Or you cannot find any fanfic about it.

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I Think I Have A Storage Problem

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 11:56:46 GMT

After months of putting it off, today I started the project of cleaning out all the boxes of toys in my cupboard. Which means that my floor is now covered in hundreds (many hundreds?) of action figures because obviously I had to take them all out of their poorly sorted, poorly labeled boxes before I could do anything about organizing them.

Because of this, it has come to my attention that I have TOO MANY TRANSFORMERS.

I mean, I'm sure most non-collector type people would look at my floor and say I had too many toys in general. (Meanwhile, the type of collector who keeps stuff mint in box would be horrified by the fact that they were on the floor at all.) But while I spotted a few duplicate characters among the Doctor Who, Marvel, DC and G.I. Joe stuff than can probably go, it's only the giant pile of Transformers that made me feel like I'd gone wrong somewhere.

The trouble with Transformers is that literally the whole point of the franchise is To Sell Toys. The fiction exists for no other reason, and the fact that it's sometimes good is more of a happy accident than anything else. And it is very good at what it does!

For example, when I first got back into the franchise a decade ago, I bought the version of Starscream that was in the shops because he was easily available. The Animated came out, and I bought Animated!Starscream, along with every clone I could get my hands on. Then I got my glorious Masterpice Starscream, who is perfect, only then Prime came out and I got Prime Starscream as well. So that's four Starscreams and a bunch of other Seeker jets.

Now replace 'Starscream' in the above paragraph with 'Megatron' or 'Soundwave' or 'Waspinator' and change a few details and before long it turns out I have multiple versions of a bunch of characters. Some of which I am totally giving to charity because that is TOO MANY TRANSFORMERS even for me. Maybe some actual children will play with them at some point!

... and maybe once I've cleared some room I'll finally get that Masterpiece Megatron.

(Look, I have Starscream and Soundwave in that size class and they'd make a really cool display that would fit on my shelf just right!)

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Transformers: Prime Endnotes

Sun, 07 Jun 2015 12:15:42 GMT

So, finally finished Transformers: Prime! It doesn't edge out Animated as my favourite iteration, but it was pretty great.

Unfortunately, I think I would have preferred the ending we got in the last episode of Season Three to the one presented by the movie :(. There are a few reasons for that.

( Spoilers. )

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Transformers: Prime Thoughts

Mon, 01 Jun 2015 07:32:55 GMT

I am finally almost finished watching Transformers: Prime, a mere two years after it finished! And I have decided that the only downside of episodes like Patch and Thirst is that they make me wish that they'd do something like Rescue Bots about the Decepticons. Only instead of rescuing people they stab each other in the back and do evil science experiments. Not that I have anything against the Prime Autobots, but a sitcom where Starscream and Knockout are room-mates and Megatron is their angry boss/landlord could only be comedy gold.

Thirst also made me realise once and for all that my Prime OTP isn't Megatron/Starscream, but Starscream/Knockout. Partly because this is pretty much the only universe where I really ship Optimus/Megatron, but also because I think Starscream actually likes Knockout, insofar as he's capable of liking anyone. I mean, he actually SAID SOMETHING NICE to him and meant it. And Knockout said something nice back. And then they awkwardly didn't look at each other <3.

I am trying to recall if any prior version of Starscream has ever said something nice to someone when he wasn't sucking up or otherwise attempting to put one over on them. Maybe G1 Starscream about Skyfire? Armada Starscream might have paid someone a genuine compliment at some point, I guess, but he's the anti-Starscream in so many respects that I'm not sure that should count.

I am currently trying to brace myself for Starscream to get killed at the end of the series - I'm unspoiled and don't know that he actually does. But if not that would make it the only TF universe with him in it where he lived to the end, so I am not getting my hopes up. I'm normally not bothered because it happens so often and he always comes back, but he's had such an amazing character arc in this show that I feel like it should end with something other than his death. Unless they've come up with a really cool and appropriate way of doing it, I guess.

But I still want to see the show where Starscream and Knockout accidentally unleash vampires on the Decepticon base every week, in between bitching at each other and trying to kill Shockwave.

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It's As If They Know Me

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 06:49:28 GMT

I am pretty sure I would have gotten around to watching Transformers: Prime sooner if someone had explained Knock Out to me. After only a handful of episodes, he's swiftly become one of my favourite Decepticons. Which is certainly a long list, but seldom has anyone gotten on there so fast. (I think the last person was Sky-Byte, and he has the advantage of being a haiku-composing flying shark. And Slipstream, but she embodies a concept I've wanted to see done officially since I was a little fangirl, so I was obligated to love her immediately.)

The combination of 'what if G1 Tracks were a Decepticon medic?' and 'what if Starscream had his own Starscream?' seems specifically designed to appeal to me. Now I just wish they'd made a toy with his in-show paint job! Knock Out would be very displeased that the only versions of him available are inexplicably maroon, covered in dubious stickers, recoloured an ugly green or have a crocodile tail attached.

This thought brought to you by watching Shadowzone, otherwise known as The Hilarious Adventures of Starscreams's Severed Arm.

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