Made of Stardust

You know, it hadn’t occurred to me, but now I love the idea. They’d probably move in different circles, but every now and again their lives and work intersect.

Ok so I may be way late into this party, but upon coming across this theory thread on TFW2005 forum the other day, I have to join and put in my two cents. In the joint discussion between Autobot Burnout, Soundwaverulls and Lord Tron, it seems that TFP was meant to have an epic redemption character arc of the same weight and calibre as Beast War’s Dinobot…and the character in question was supposed to be Breakdown! 

(Warning, very long post!)

Although I haven’t been able to find the original official ‘announcement’ (as I was unfortunately not aware of this when TFP first came out) as of yet, I am 110% on board with this, with every fibre of my being. It means Breakdown was never meant to be a half-assed useless mech with no development. In fact, Breakdown’s character was destined for something greater and epic before it was cut abruptly by poor financial planning…and nowhere is that more clearly obvious than in in the episode Operation: Breakdown.

Below are a few examples of instances in which I feel the foundation for Breakdown’s ultimate redemption arc were clearly set up. This episode is stuffed with too many thematic similarities, foreshadowing and allegories to Beast Wars for it to be considered it a homage or only coincidental. Let’s begin!

“And I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you and I’d choose you.” 

Marker pen study of Breakdown’s hands. (Sloppily referenced from very low-res screenshots, please forgive.)

Hats off to Augusto Barranco and the other TFP artists who gave Breakdown such an amazing design. Just the attention to detail here. Dig those dead sexy knuckle guards with their diamond-shaped studs; our boy wears the robot equivalent of brass knuckles 24/7. I was also surprised by how long his fingers are. I had to blunt them to fit the page, but in reality they’re much longer than, say, Bulkhead’s stubby cocktail wieners, and likely more dexterous, too. BD could probably perform fine manual tasks as well as heavy lifting, which is part of what made him such a perfect physician’s assistant.

I dunno, sometimes I just think about these guys and I felt like chattering. In the later half of the Aligned continuity, and practically only in the later half of the Aligned continuity (until IDW needed him, anyway) Breakdown is this great big huge guy that swings a massive hammer and smashes stuff up. In TFP he wrecks some ruins, he crashes through some vehicles, he fires a missile at a museum… big, powerful guy. But sometimes I sit and think about the fact that according to Aligned canon, he actually wasn’t always a big brute. In fact, he started out just as small and physically less capable as he was in G1. His size and strength came at a sacrifice of speed and agility, by personal choice… why?

According to official sources that for the life of me I cannot remember, and if anyone could refresh my memory I would love them forever, it’s because Bulkhead beat his aft so hard that he went and upgraded himself just to be able to compete.

Now I know this says a lot about Breakdown, but I also like to think about what this says about Bulkhead, too. Look at Breakdown’s personality. He’s honestly the sweetest Decepticon in the whole series, okay? He encourages the vehicons, he helps his boyfriend with personal maintenance, if another ‘con asks him for a favor he lends a servo… slag it, Dreadwing… he’s actually a pretty great guy. For frag’s sake, he’s the medic’s assistant. He’s the Decepticon’s fragging nurse. So usually he’s actually fairly calm and non-destructive unless, of course, one of two things is happening; either he’s teamed up with Knock Out and getting caught up with things that way because they just play off of each other like that, or he’s caught sight of Bulkhead. Bulkhead is just amazing at bringing out the jerk in Breakdown. His very presence makes the blue bruiser talk more trash and take more pot shots than he does on his own, or even at Knock Out’s encouragement.

And frankly, I’m starting to get really curious about just how Bulkhead managed to earn the undying ire of the (respectively, amongst his own) gentle giant of the Decepticons.

Bulkhead, as we know, is a Wrecker. Big tough guy, he was part of an elite special forces group that got the job done or died trying… and if they died, you probably went down with them. The Wreckers took on scrap that nobody else wanted or was capable of handling. They were tough guys, and they meant bad news for the Decepticons. And Bulkhead is a formidable force even after he strikes away from the team to follow Optimus Prime. At one point in the early part of the series he rips a Vehicon’s internal wiring and possibly his very spark out. He crushes through those little guys like they’re nothing… and to him, I think they are nothing. Remember, this is the same Autobot that wanted to leave not one, but two humans to the Decepticons… Agent Fowler, and Vince, the bully from the human ally’s school. Oh well, he said. Sucks to be them, he shrugged. Bulkhead is often portrayed as this gentle giant by his own right, but honestly, I don’t think he’s that gentle. He’s careful, specifically, with Miko, because he loves her. But if Fowler, Vince, and every tool Ratchet owns is any indication, said courtesies don’t extend very far elsewhere.

Which honestly tells me that it should have been pretty easy for him to just eliminate tiny Breakdown in whatever fight they had if he had had the chance. So either he didn’t have the chance to finish him, or something else was going on in Bulkhead’s head that he just didn’t care to do the job. Honestly, I lean towards the second… I think that whatever job Bulkhead was doing, whatever mission he was on, he had other priorities and just didn't bother finishing off the enemy lying in his path. I think he just looked down at this little battered-down Decepticon, shrugged, and moved on. He had other orders, he didn’t need to spend his time killing this kid. That’s what I imagine happened. And I think it’s the indignity of this… that he wasn't worth taking the time to kill, he was too insignificant for Bulkhead to think hey, maybe this guy will be a threat later and I should do something about that now… that lead Breakdown to hold a grudge. He decided that the next time he saw this Wrecker, things were going to be different. He wasn’t going to be spared just because his opponent decided he had better things to do. He was going to make an impression next time.

And a few massive upgrades later, we ended up with the big brute we all know and love.

I can’t remember the user who made the analysis but I remember ages ago someone was making a comparison about how both Breakdown and Bulkheads “destructiveness” where two sides of a coin, that Bulkhead always broke things by accident through not knowing his own strength or not knowing when to reel it is, while Breakdown’s destructiveness were always during battle and was never seen causing accidents or breaking any equipment when he wasn’t fighting.

And further to this, it’s worth noting that Bulkhead rescues Breakdown from MECH pretty much so that he can have another shot at kicking Breakdown’s ass. (Which he later brags about doing; apparently it’s hilarious to use an injured opponent’s body as a weapon.)  By contrast, in the same episode, Breakdown rescues Bulkhead for no other evident reason than he saw Bulkhead was in trouble and figured one good turn deserved another.

i keep drawing random post predacon movie scenes with these two

flashback time once again! special thanks to @the-shy-lonely-weirdo as always ;V;