donut

as funny as it is to me that there’s no soft launch for starbee and we never get an explanation for why this even happens i love it So so much. we don’t get either of their initial reactions, we don’t get starscreams confusion or fear that he’s seeing ghosts or losing his mind. by the time the idea is introduced to us they’ve settled into their dynamic. starscream talks to bee and makes offhand comments about bee being dead or not even real but there’s no real frustration or unease behind it. he’s just kinda accepted bee as part of him now. he leaves space for bee at all times, pulls furniture out for him to ‘sit’, talks to him even when he isn’t present just because that’s natural to him and there’s a chance bee is listening. when bee reunites with optimus before his resurrection he’s extremely casual about it and relates his displacement in reality to starscreams insecurities around his identity. like it just Is. they don’t have a solid answer on what this is or why but they’ve adapted regardless to the point that the absence of the other is more unnatural than their presence. the reveal at the end that starscream is now in bees place is insanely subtle because they, and in a way the reader, have already grown familiar with this dynamic. bee is leaving room beside himself for starscream to walk along the water. again we don’t get the first occurrence of them realizing their roles are reversed it’s just something we’re put into. they are mid conversation when the end reveal is shown and both are extremely comfortable i might even go as far to say it’s the MOST comfortable and relaxed starscream is in the entire continuity. there’s no fear or unease they just kinda Are and that’s all they have to be for the other. no expectations, just existence is enough