#sunbow arcee

had 2 map this 2 get out of head, orange is stuff that we basically/actually know, black arrows r speculation. this head design map of Arcee only goes up to 2018 & doesnt cover everything. amazed that Blackarachnia is part of this & roots of prime arcee r basically unknown afaik!

would love to know whats going on with prime arcee's lil' upper cheek guard stubs that are like idw1 arcee's but hidden under her pointy cheek guard ridges. she also shares the chin armor that binaltech arcee & art of war #5 arcee were 1st to have followed by idw1 & animated 'cee.

"Zoomy" Arcana Magnus: We do. Danielle and I adore hanging out with them when we can. We stayed together as a unit for much of the War, combining frequently all the way through to our deployment alongside the Wreckers and Autobot Intelligence to defeat the Decepticon Justice Division's last major fortress and liberate the prisoners there- including the prototype Primus/Unicron planetoid form who took on the name Gaea and Cybertronian she pronouns after our attached Cityspeakers and Greenlight helped cut through the Funcronist* code impeding her processes.

*(Funcronism is an amalgam of Functionist and Unicronist ideologies, and Funcronist infiltration of the Decepticons and running their judicial faction while gaslighting Megatron was instrumental to the Decepticon's descent from autocratic stratocracy into totalitarianism which was eventually responded to with the Decepticon Civil War, a story for another time)

And we stayed together after that. Those who didn't already live there moved to Caminus with me, dear neighbors and extended family besides darlings Greenlight and Lancer and Chromia (Chromia's more Windblade, Nautica, Road Rage, and Strongarm's partner but my end of the polycule does enjoy tangling with her from time to time, sparring and dancing in particular something we enjoy among other aspects of intimate trust that we smooch over occasionally). Though Cybertron is currently the political capital of the Autobot Alliance once more, there is much talk about moving the gathering of our highest delegations and councils back to Caminus, which was the de facto capital for a significant portion of the war. Elita, Galebreach Convoy (Windblade's formal Prime name) and I and many other Primes have already set up a secondary Primal Expanse here, no easy feat with how much Matrix cyberform architecture we had to do, exhausting. Anode (also a Matrix bearer, she elected not to change her name), had an innovative approach of having blacksmiths aid us in the shaping, so it at least took less time than it did in ancient days for Solus and her early colleagues.

Lifeline and I tend to chat over a boardgame or meditate together. Moonracer and I love to go racing, Firestar of course I see frequently since she is amicably enamored with Nautica and her Amica Endura polycule (consisting of four previously named alongside Rung, Nightbeat, Brainstorm, Velocity, and Skids), and Elita, Greenlight, Lancer, and I have spent quite a bit of time learning Cityspeaking in order to stay in touch with Gaea.

"Arcsword" Danielle Witwicky: the Shield of Solus has also grown as an organization in peacetime. Given my position in it continuing the now ancient transformer society iteration of multispecies membership in nearly every intergalactic group transformers have had a major part in forming- we have had more from the galaxy join us in this capacity and have become teachers of a sort about the War, and about peace. I'll never forget the look on Solus's face when she told us thank you, for transforming her name into something far beyond her status as a Prime. A delta vector of change, an amusing parallel to the Delta League of Prof that instead reclaimed a monarch Solus's Forge of Solus Prime as gender expansive symbology and because of the history of her federation closely entwined with affirmation practices and gender affirmation across Cybertron before the First Cybertronian Civil War (this name of a conflict we've mentioned here is a canonical conflict in IDW1, where "Prof" Arcee is from but nothing else we have said in regards to that continuity in this post is canonical).

"Prof" Arcee: though I worked with a Novastar (no, not the Camien Firestar, a different gal, the military civil guard commander of Uraya early on during Nova Prime's rule) and Lifeline in the Delta League, what I would have given to have Greenlight, Chromia, Lancer, and Moonracer of my world beside me in the often armed liberation movement against Functionism and Nova Prime- save for the fact that I would never have wished that upon them. The way conflict went on and on and how most of us left was so sad... I would chalk it up to how equivalently annoying it would be to live for 4 million years as guerrillas against a Shockwave whose first response to discovering the Shield of Solus was to yell "FEMALES!?"

"Pistoleer" Arcee: yeah your Shockwave and mine were real pieces of work when it came to gender huh. I'm glad to still be in touch with my Shield of Solus team, they did vital work for the liberation and defense of Cybertron and Earth during my more well known adventures (this is also not canonical per se, if only). Being away from Greenlight and Lancer often was excruciating even though duty demanded we attended to our posts, I thankfully no longer have to worry about that. We still hang out together, actually currently we are looking for colonies we lost contact with or that fell, in particular to keep be able to respond in places where er 'Female Autobots didn't go extinct' which is impossible without destroying the two entwined ideas and all sapient life...

Prof & Pistoleer: *laughter*

"Pistoleer" Arcee: that said directly experiencing Danielle's two adolescences through our binary bond was maybe one of the largest challenges I myself have faced, and I was certainly amused by the second one, and did all I could to help her with both. No wonder organic bodied people have a hard time with hormones, with all the stuff they do! Truly admirable how you all live in your flesh.

"Flanker" Danielle Witwicky: right back at you. A Cybertronian staying in good health means a lot of mechanical upkeep, and I feel it every time Lifeline has to give you a tune-up. The fact you don't heal the same way I do makes things complicated.

Arcana Magnus: for our first post, we thought we'd get some help from the Earth we post on! Transformers media in your world is to sell toys after all (aside from people wanting to tell a story) and we thought some the customs in this photo would help set the tone even though talking via toys won't usually happen (and well, the unofficial Ask Vector Prime 2 has done digibashes paired with prose storytelling, so not new ground really). Please feel free to send us asks, even for things canon hasn't answered! :3

We're talking about canon here besides touching on those two. Here's the alt text/dialogue so people can read it this way, its a bit lengthy because of the amount of dialogue:

thinking about how aesthetically TR already did partner Daniel Witwicky with IDW1 inspired Arcee because of the helm shape TR Arcee has, before we did that in fanfic, & afterwards (almost certainly having done so without knowing about our trans Daniel and Arcee fanfic) JRO did so for uk postage stamps+

ID 1 of 2: Three Arcee toys on a window sill. Specifically, an IDW1 custom of Arcee (from Legacy Elita) holding Leinad (Daniel Witwicky) in head mode showing Arcee's face, and touching the back of that head is Studio 86 Arcee. TR Arcee has helm guard ridges on her mid and lower cheeks, just like the IDW Arcee custom, whereas S86 Arcee does not. End ID.

ID 2 of 2: Visual art Arcee heads: from EXRID of IDW1 (art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez), a stock photo of the TR Arcee from TFwiki, a zoom in on the box art of TR Arcee, and screencap of Arcee's head from Transformers the Movie. The TR heads do have some differences from both the comic and cartoon heads: the audials are smaller (likely due to the TR headmaster gimmick) and are pink (like her early EXRID helm), and the head crest has an additional smaller crest on top with a blue biolight at the front (similar to her early Phase 1 helm). End ID.

Combined with the fact e.g. original Arcee bio describes her as a ferocious warrior especially when fighting people who threatened her loved ones, and well, if you watched Sunbow you do see some of that, a lot of this was not new ground for EXRID to tread, just a different journey. So TR Arcee being an amalgam of the trans gal we know in the comics & G1 Arcee (and TR Blurr retool no less, across gender retools are one of our favorite things about transformers) is just bringing together two overlapping aspects of Arcee the postage stamp bio did the same.

What the stamp bio did not do in having Arcee & Daniel being friends was have Daniel go on a gender journey as a result of that lmao, which we did write , after talking with another fanfic writer who was writing how Daniel would be inspired by her & the blurring from their binary bond.

Now, we aren't actually the first person to post a trans Daniel Witwicky story on Ao3. Somebody beat us to that  by nearly nine years, back in 2013 (we definitely don't mind! the more people who write trans Daniel the better) but it's smut so we won't link it here lmao.

But if you want to read the fic that led us to write how Daniel & Arcee's gender journeys could intertwine, or want to read a good G1 fic go read Showdown at Sherman Dam , the fic we did partially because of that one is Day of Multiflame .