#wwheeljack

From here

Scrapper... 🥺

off the top of your head, notes for characterization? what are the most essential traits of this character to you?

Humble, but secure in his skills and knows what he's capable of. Scrapper would rather point out the contributions of his team as a whole than dwell on his personal accomplishments. What he brings to the Decepticons, along with the rest of the Constructicons, is first and foremost their engineering and construction skills. Yes they can and will fight, and capable enough to hold their own without combining in many cases, but Scrapper knows they shine most behind the scenes rather than in the front lines.

Scrapper defaults to an affable and friendly attitude. He doesn't always want to rock the boat, but if it's for the benefit of those he cares about, he will go to bat for them 100% with no hesitancy. On the other hand, if he fears causing "issues" will only result in them being hurt, Scrapper will put up with anything and everything, no matter how bad.

He's extremely skilled at leading his team and figuring out how best to help them work effectively together. The others trust Scrapper whole-heartedly, because he's taken the time and care to listen to them and genuinely support them.

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

Most of the fandom seems to prefer him being dead so. Not particularly.

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. why this combination? what insights would they have on each other?

Gonna bring up Blast Off again, because of their similarities to Hook. Scrapper is, after all, well versed in befriending stand-offish and anti-social grumps. Even if they don't become close, I think Scrapper could glean parts of Blast Off and better understand them due to his own closeness to Hook and learning to read him.

Which would definitely surprise Blast Off, and likely put them a bit on edge at first. But eventually they could come to appreciate that Scrapper made the effort to try to understand them, rather than simply judging from what others assume about them.

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?

His own team. Onslaught. The rest of the Combaticons. The Stunticons. I think there's a nice range of potential dynamics among them all, though they tend towards more positive or neutral at worst in my mind. Except for the the Combaticons are under the control of the loyalty coding; that's when things can turn sour.

do you have particular niche takes on this character?

From here

Menasor... I love him 🥺💜 (Brawl will get their own post too)

off the top of your head, notes for characterization? what are the most essential traits of this character to you?

So much inner turmoil, mostly due to (and definitely exacerbated by) the other Stunticons. Menasor struggles to think straight and form his own opinions on things when the others are constantly yelling at him and trying to assert their own thoughts and will. The component Stunticons hate feeling like they don't have control of themselves, so they swing wildly in the other direction of trying to control Menasor. I don't think combiners can actually work like that, so they aren't successful, but they do make pretty much everything harder for Menasor to navigate.

He's not incapable of having deeper thoughts or understanding complex concepts, but it's very hard for him to be able to concentrate long enough with how the others resist and push against him.

Emotional outbursts are common, as a result.

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

Meh, kinda. From what I've seen, the people who actually explore Menasor as more than just a big robot to smash things tend to do him justice. But mostly he's around as nothing character.

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. why this combination? what insights would they have on each other?

Bruticus and Devastator are obvious choices, being fellow combiners. I can see Devs trying to help Menasor (to varying degrees of acceptance and success) while Bruticus definitely takes much longer to warm up to him.

I like exploring the component Combaticons getting to know Menasor better too, especially when Bruticus is going through his own stuff and can't always provide Menasor the help and support he may need. The other Combaticons will check in with Menasor and want to hear directly from him about how he's doing. I enjoy combiners getting to know the components of another team and not just the combiner.

I've also come around to enjoying IDW 1 Menasor seeing Swindle as his creator and caring about them and wanting to be around them 🥺 In turn, Swindle does feel responsible for him and recognizing that his components aren't... going to be the best at helping him.

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?

All of the above, but also Menasor with his own team. It will take a lot of work and outside help, but they can eventually come to accept each other and actually start to be a team.

do you have particular niche takes on this character?

From here

Thanks me, and also @wwheeljack for sending Swindle originally; I just wanted them to have their own post since I yapped a lot

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)?

Swindle adapts to who they're interacting with, whether that be changing their demeanor, their cadence and word choice, how much they're willing to let the other party get their way, etc etc. They know how to play the long game when it suits their needs, and they know when it's better to cut and run and burn bridges.

I think one of the fun things about Swindle is how easy it is to justify that they know of a lot of people involved in the war. Probably not all on a personal level, but Swindle loves being in the know and having the upper hand; it's always good practice to know who you're dealing with, after all.

The Combaticons are obviously very important connections to them, and frankly waaay too much of canon drops the ball there in my opinion. I also enjoy the potential with Swindle interacting with the Constructicons and Stunticons. Trickdiamond is a canon connection of theirs, and though I've not read those comics, I found their dynamic interesting.

Swindle's voice in TFA is probably my favorite of their canon voices, but it still doesn't quite sound right for other versions of Swindle that are a little more battle hardened and true Combaticons.

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

Not really, lmao, but I also blame canon separating Swindle from the other Combaticons so often. Plus, like... listen, I know Swindle is greedy, but I think we can do some more interesting things with that trait than just them having this expression 🤑 constantly. I don't really care about the one-dimensional readings of Swindle.

Also the ships are 99% trash and make no sense, and rely mostly on Swindle being willing to seal deals via sexual favors and I'm???? It's almost more baffling than rage inducing, honestly. But I know it mostly stems from the fandom desire to make sex be the center of everything even when it makes no fucking sense.

As mentioned before, I do not seek out fan content because I know the vast majority of it will just make me start to pull away from TF stuff.

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. why this combination? what insights would they have on each other?

Heavywait!! She does/did similar work as Swindle (black market arms dealing) so they must at least know of each other! I tend to see them as having worked together before the war, but not crossing the line of professional boundaries to ever call each other friends. Then once they both ended up with Decepticons and met up again, they started to get close and hang out.

I like the idea of people meeting the two of them together and assuming Swindle is the brains and Heavywait is the brawn, and being sorely surprised to learn that each can hold their own quite well in both regards.

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?

I think my answer for this one is going to quickly become repetitive and boring, as it's pretty much the same for every character I'm interested in. I like variety; I don't want to stick to the same old scenario or mood over and over again.

Probably will skip this question for the other characters unless I have something different to say 👍

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?

Swindle with their team 🥺

I just love the Combaticons as a team. Yes, I love the individuals, but the best part is bringing them together and seeing how they clash and overcome their differences and work together. When Swindle is in something alone? Sure, I still like him to a degree, but I also don't care much. The team dynamic isn't there, so I don't get invested.

And I hate when people cast them as hating each other and hating being a team/combiner. That's so boring. It's more fun to think about how someone like Swindle, who is characterized as being out for themself so often, could come to genuinely care for the others.

At least to me it's more fun.

do you have particular niche takes on this character?

Liking Swindle more as a Combaticon than on their own 🙃

From here

After writing out the stuff for Hook and seeing how long it is, I'm gonna give Swindle their own post, since that's likely to be even longer lol. So this is just for Hook!

1. 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)?

Composed and competent and rarely lets more vulnerable emotions show. Hook knows what he's doing when it comes to his work and isn't afraid to let that be known. In certain cases, he can be domineering when he feels that's the only way reach the level of perfection he desires. Annoyance and outright anger are easy (and common) emotions for him to latch onto, though he prefers detachment.

The flip side of all that is thinking of what will cause Hook to not uphold that composure and control so tightly. When will he risk a moment to relax? What makes him genuinely smile or laugh? To me, it has to do with his connections to certain people (mainly Scrapper, sometimes the rest of his team, and in my personal headcanon eventually Swindle and others too). Beneath the annoyance and displeased demeanor and lack of bedside manner is someone who does care, but struggles with showing it.

Of course, Scrapper and Devastator and all the other Constructicons are very important connections of his, with various relationships between them all. I don't really see the Constructicons as all viewing each other as family, and they very often clash, but they're still a team and are close. I only view them through a platonic lens.

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

To be frank, I don't seek out fan content from people I don't already have some familiarity with. So within my circle of what I see, yeah. Outside of that? I don't have very high hopes, given how many people fawn over that absolutely garbage ship that IDW 1 spawned, which relies solely on stripping Hook and the others of any and all personality to work.

3. 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. why this combination? what insights would they have on each other?

I think Hook and Blast Off are interesting to bounce off each other. They have a lot of similarities, but it's those similarities that make them clash and have difficulty understanding each other. Hook can very easily read way more into Blast Off's actions and words, thinking that they look down on him. Whereas Blast Off isn't actually one to beat around the bush about disliking someone; they don't give backhanded compliments, they insult someone to their face if they deem it deserved.

There's some instance or scenario where they could potentially be friends, but I think the most it will get to is just... understanding each other better and being on generally good terms.

5. 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?

I love a variety of scenarios, good, bad, everything in between. I get bored with the same thing over and over, which is why I tend to enjoy connecting events as much as possible so they can build off of and inform each other. How does a similar situation differ now after going through it once before?

But I also am in so deep with the SwinHook brain rot that I do love trying to see how they could become close in various continuities/verses. Not at the cost of ever thinking about Hook in relation to other characters though. One of the fun things about SwinHook is how that impacts their interactions with other characters around them. Mostly, I just love seeing Hook interact with my favs, the Combaticons.

6. 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?

Hook with his team, of course. But as stated above, I love having him interact with the Combaticons as well. They're familiar in certain ways, yet so different. I like dynamics that spark a change in how Hook views himself, or the other character, or the world.

7. 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.)

11 ⧽. if you were to rewrite Fifteen More Minutes with SwinHook how do you think it might change?

18 ⧽. how do you want your writing to feel to your readers?

19 ⧽. give a hint/teaser about something you're writing without any context or explanation! tease us haha

From here

8. what part of Amidst a Crashing World is your favorite?

Hmmm, I think when Blast Off retracts their faceguard when talking to Swindle, and for a moment, Swindle averts their gaze because they're afraid of the vulnerability in that gesture, but also afraid of the vulnerability not being real.

11. if you were to rewrite Fifteen More Minutes with SwinHook how do you think it might change?

Haha, let's see... if it was Hook staying up, I know he wouldn't resort to that pleading expression the way Scrapper did. He'd probably be more like "this is important and I need to get it done as soon as possible, so I can't rest now". And I think Swindle would point out that they aren't in the middle of a crisis or emergency, so it isn't needed. Or Swin might use the angle of "I'd sleep better if you were there" to convince Hook to take a break if he was being really stubborn about it.

If it was the other way around, with Swindle staying up, Hook expressing his concern for their health would likely be enough to get them to bed.

18. how do you want your writing to feel to your readers?

Aside from the emotions of whatever's happening in the story, I guess the main thing that stays consistent across them all is not wanting any story to feel like it's overstayed its welcome. Wanting more of something is fine; to me, feeling like a story could've been cut in half to get the same point across is way worse. If writing drags on and on for no good reason, it's not enjoyable to read anymore.

19. give a hint/teaser about something you're writing without any context or explanation! tease us haha

An excerpt from a wip:

6 ⧽. if you were to write a part two/sequel to a fic, what fic would you want to write it for?

13 ⧽. do you have any writing projects/goals/plans you're working on/want to work on?

From here

1. if you could sit down and finish any one of your wips without anything stopping you (time, tiredness, etc), which fic would you choose? tell us about it if you want!

Probably the fic I mentioned in the other ask, because I'm the farthest along with it and I want it to be done!!!!

But also, I really want to get the second chapter of my "Combaticons supporting each other" fic done, because I'm struggling with it and unsure if I'm even going to continue with it.

6. if you were to write a part two/sequel to a fic, what fic would you want to write it for?

I actually do have a kind of sequel planned for "When the Past Catches Up", which will involve Onslaught and Hook telling members of their respective teams about what happened and how they plan to move forward.

13. do you have any writing projects/goals/plans you're working on/want to work on?

I still eounitwnly think of youe precious cybug Constructicons!!! They are my world. Being so cute and dear and loving. I need them!

Also I keep thinking of Devon and Menasor ans them having days where Devon brings his cybugs over to see the Stuntibugs and maybe Devon can be kind of akin to a dad to Menasor 🥺

ahwwjuauhagh,, AW in glad you still think about them omg... 🥺🥺!!! and YES Devon hears about Menasor's cybugs and is like oh god they need socializing ASAP. i totally imagine Devon becoming like a dad to Menasor :] or if not a dad, at least a mentor type of figure. or perhaps something along the lines of "that one cool uncle"/older brother kinda deal.

i really gotta sit down and doodle out the ideas i have in mind for them (both the cybugs as well as the humans) but unfortunately i dont have any art to show as of yet- WAIT NO, I CAN. SHOW OFF THIS.

...

✨ tada ✨

ive been playing tomodachi life and i very recently made Devon! and also Squirrel Scav because i thought that'd be cute!

theres a lil bit more under the cut lmao

From here

Starting with Motormaster!

Headcanon 1:  Realistic

Motormaster tries to be very meticulous with the care and upkeep of his sword. "Tries", because it's not like anyone's ever taught him how to actually do that (not that he'd listen to any advice anyway) and of course he wouldn't ask anyone for pointers.

But his weapon is something that is solely his and under his complete control. I'm sure that says nothing else about his mental state and how he views others.

Headcanon 2: May or not be realistic

Socially awkward on the rare occasion he deigns to try and join in. When he doesn't have something to boast about or a way to act tough, then he's keenly aware of the fact that he's not well liked and doesn't fit in for it.

Headcanon 3: Evil and heart-breaking why would you do this

Blames Menasor for most of his problems. And his teams' problems. Maybe if they hadn't been made as a combiner, and with Menasor as part of them mucking everything up, they could all be normal and be the superior soldiers they were meant to be.

Headcanon 4: Doesn't align with canon

He does have the capacity to change and be better, especially with regards to how he treats his team, but it will definitely take an outside party to help facilitate that change. Onslaught could be a good role model for him, given the opportunity.

And now Bonecrusher

Headcanon 1:  Realistic

He and Hook are more alike than either of them care to admit out loud. This is, of course, why they butt heads so often; the similarities and the refusal to accept them.

Headcanon 2: May or not be realistic

Had a string of shitty bosses before eventually joining up with Scrapper. His respect and decent treatment gained him Bonecrusher's loyalty.

Headcanon 3: Evil and heart-breaking why would you do this

Not to sure what to put here...

Headcanon 4: Doesn't align with canon