Owww owwie owww ouchh

Jorge corona’s constructicon colors:

Dan mora’s devastator colors:

And a bonus nonbinary (shoutout skybound they/themastator) + alternate asexual flag:

off the top of your head: notes for characterization? what are the most essential traits of this character to you (personality traits, important connections/dynamics, voice)?

Okkkk, so many things; I'll try to be objective.

Jazz is Black; it is very important that no matter what is done to him, he remains black. Even canon wavers sometimes, but that doesn't mean he's NOT black. Also, it doesn't matter what country you're from; observe, educate yourself.

Jazz is competent. He'll always be Optimus SiC (no matter what THEY say); he is Optimus's right-hand man, and he does his job well, fast, and with style. Even if he gets distracted sometimes (also, Scatman Crothers had trouble remembering his lines in The Shining (1980); I like adding a bad memory to Jazz as a nod.)

Jazz loves Earth culture and music. Sounds self-explanatory enough, right? Even if nowadays every Autobot finds Earth beautiful or whatever. Being well-versed in culture is HIS thing.

Jazz hates war. He hates the cycle of violence and what it does to him and the people around him. He remains strong for everyone's sake, but he does get depressed. He's a decent person.

adjacently—do you think fandom does the above traits justice? why or why not?

I know fandoms gonna racist, because... Yt ppl. But there is a second version of Jazz, which has no relation with the original beyond appearance, running around in the #tfjazz tag of tumblr.com and the Jazz (Transformers) tag on Ao3, and he has replaced the original in some people's minds. And it's not recent; it goes wayyyy back, the J/P people created fanon disciples well-versed in their racist ways of old.

Jazz is NOT lazy; he's explicitly written as competent. Jazz does not disturb those around him from doing their job. Jazz is NOT giddy about violence, and do not come at me with that whole "spy" thing; you're using his "spec-ops" function to make him kill w/out blame AND be worse than some Decepticons.

And, most infuriating, it's 2026, Jazz should not speak like THAT (iykyk).

I won't dwell on this, since there are a lot of posts specifically about how the fandom does him dirty, but holy shit, it's a whole 1920s out there.

throw this character at any other character of your choice to bounce off each other as outsider pov to each other— regardless of timeline or logistics (crossovers allowed if you're interesting about it). why this combination? what insights would they have on each other?

Jazz vs Starscream is so unexplored it's almost criminal. THEY'RE SUCH GOOD FOILS. Guy who only loves himself vs guy who everyone can rely on? Disloyal SiC vs Loyal sic? Earth lover guy vs throw Earth in the sun guy?

how do you think you would react to this character in real life and vice versa? would you prefer be a million miles out of range, be amicable classmates, or fall desperately in love? (bonus: arrange a hypothetical date between yourself and this character. getting silly with it is encouraged (fakedate them! escape a dinner date through a bathroom window!))

"Who is the idiot driving a Porsche in these fucking streets??"

"OMG JAZZ TRANSFORMERS"

I don't think we'd be friends; he's like my cool black uncle from the big city.

ideal flavor of rotating for this character? crack them open and dissect them— do you want them tormented, pining, or being loved + comforted? do you have any specific scenarios you like to think about?

Oh, boy, how I love seeing Jazz getting emotionally tortured. I'm glad canon does that (or used to). I just need to see him crack under pressure or bottle it all up until he's numb. The scenarios I imagine with him are usually quieter than what I make them up to be; he's a very private person, so I think he just cries a few tears, wipes them, and jumps into action again.

weave a web of dynamics through the cast for this character: which dynamics are you most interested in? both canonically and through extrapolation/speculation— which dynamics are the richest to you, and why?

Well, I don't think he's a guy of many friends, like, REAL friends. Sure, everyone likes him, but is he really anyone's first option?

I enjoy him with Optimus; even if they differ on some things, I think Jazz is one of the few people who see OP as a person and understand his story and what made him what he is (or try to; I think Elita was the only one there since day 0). I also REALLY enjoy thinking about him and Bumblebee having a weird friendship; granted, I like my Bees jaded... but idk, I think they'd see each other in ways no one else can.

Also Marvel pr0wl, but I don't talk about him here.

do you have particular niche takes on this character? defend those takes. (openly controversial takes are permitted, but also: hyper-specific headcanons which you believe in and no one else has considered enough to disagree with yet. pick a hill to die on.)

I'm so sold on Aroace Jazz (happy pride month!) BUUUT, I need to see him feel unfit for it (yes, even if they're Cybertronians, Jazz has issues). I like imagining he feels that if he found "the right person," he'd finally feel... Idk, alive? Cleansed? Complete? Something.