moose

Commission drawn by: 六依

(ignore grammatical errors idc)

I finally hoped into TF aligned novels. Im currently on chapter 18/19? of Transformers exodus and im satisfied greatly with the Jazz crumbs. They might not be a full course meal, which is what I would prefer because Jazz is my ultimate favorite character in TF. But it’s enough to make me happy. Above everything else in the novel, so far, I love the way they’re writing Jazz. It’s refreshing after the no-jazz fever and consuming mostly fan content of him after reading everything else about him.

Even as happy as I am though, I cant help but feel a bit disappointed and a bit angry at how the fandom handles Jazz. He’s written so blandly and generic in the way that removes the soul of the character you know? Like for example, you can predict everything about the role Jazz will play in a fanfic. The thief, criminal, the one who disobeys the law, someone whose more “street smart” rather than the intelligent & wise individual he is.

He’s a walking stereotype is what I am trying to say. His actual easygoing, smooth, charismatic, going with the flow type of personality is swapped with the feisty, “the exaggerated swagger of a black teen” stereotypes. There’s no nuance to him. It’s all surface level stuff. He kind of just it the diversity addition. Like Jazz is very down to earth and observant. Its like every one kind of writes him differently from canon just so readers go like “ok yeah he sounds black enough in this” and thats why his accent is always so dramatized and everything. But dont point out how its never given to Ironhide or Ratchets vocal tics (not sure how to word this) or any other character who has a special/different kind of speech pattern.

Like dude. It’s like that one scene from BlackKklansman of that racist white dude saying he can differentiate when a black person or a pure bred aryan is talking based on how they pronounce the letter R.

like wtf is this?!

And I hate to say it, but its so prominent in the Jazzprowl fandom. Often making Jazz be a therapist for Prowl, making everything about Jazz about Prowl. Never having Jazz have more to him other than Prowl. But its not only limited to Jazzprowl as well, and that lowkey also makes me mad- that Jazzprowl gets the most hate from the bad Jazz treatment because its the most famous Jazz ship (btw: not defending jazzprowlers in this particular problem- Im just saying what it is), when literally almost every ship with Jazz, he’s treated like the an outlier. Its never about him, just about the person hes paired up with. Hes always the one chasing, the one caring, making them feel better.

AND THERES BARELY ANY JAZZ CONTENT OUTSIDE SHIPS. WHICH MAKES IT ALL THE MORE FRUSTRATING.

I just feel like people engage Jazz in a way that doesnt give him justice.

And look, I may not care much about fanon characterization, because at the end of the day, we’re all allowed to our own interpretation of characters. We all have scenarios where we put our favorite characters in something theyd never do in canon, have them say things they never would in canon. But its does get annoying when the whole FANDOM does the same thing. And removes everything there is to Jazz.

Bc 1 I'm Mixed

And 2 I agree.

I want to point out it's been very prevalent in that he has had those grounded qualities to him in that wisdom especially if you have watched any of the G1 animated series, read comics or ect.

But.

In G1 he had those qualities for about two seasons and then they completely reduced him to the silly guy while prowl got to stay the same. In the comics he gets to hold onto his character more ( actually at times when they are in frame he makes prowl seem outgoing) but when he's next to the morally gray tactician it's always "there's gotta be the good one" to justify the relationship. So they make it jazz and jazz has to be a prowl chaser or else nothing would happen. That's just not true if prowl wants something he will get it. And jazz is not doing shit he's not begging for a prowl for a relationship he's going to wait and see what happens.

Bc we forget jazz is not a person you can slap a stereotype on. Jazz is his own character who happens to have a lot of black coding because he loves black culture and music. That doesn't make him black he's an alien from outer space. He's also the 3rd or 2nd in command of the autobots, Head of Special Operations and Cultural Investigator. And it's derogatory towards black people to slap this on him.

This ship isn't racist what's racist is the stereotype that's played to by people who are ignorant to the fact they are playing into it.

He has a lot of responsibilities. That doesn't mean you can't make him silly and fun bc he is!! It means being aware of the character you're writing. All that saying is give jazz the respect he deserves.

He can also use black slang and have accented text. Once again he's a character influenced by Black culture but you also have to acknowledge that he's not black.

anywyas

. im on a moving car rn (plus i think i sent this to the wrong comment section anyway) so i apologize if i’ve