Hello! I am in need of some characterization knowledge that is broadly in line with how you wrote DALDOM, because I'm not that good at cartoonishly silly, and also I learned Transformers through fandoms.
The goal of my fic is a bit of a 'everyone sucks' scenario.
Where Prowl has a processor/coding/datastream maintenance he needs to do regularly (because he has a Tac-Net grafted into his not-brain) or it causes him to manifest, then aggravate several personality flaws.
Prowl hasn't DONE the maintenance task in 2 million years when he's supposed to do it every 8 years. (the maintenance is time consuming, indivisible -it basically resets to the previous default if interrupted- and getting more and more unwieldy to fit into a schedule as time passes without him doing it)
So he is irritated with everyone, short of temper, and probably prone to seeing everyone as an amalgam of their worst traits.
Shifting from cartoon-like personalities to more nuanced ones later on when he isn't so angry at everything is kind of up in the air...
(Well. I'm not that good at cartoonish representation, so I think it will slide toward realism on it's own. But a solid grounding on how to portray everyone in a silly way to start with would help get the vibe I'm aiming for.)
(But if I don't dip toward cartoony, the whole thing will swerve right toward 'grimmdark' and I don't want that.)
So the characters I would need tips for would be:
Optimus (I kinda pre-set him with idealist but horrible at strategy because he values morals so much)
Jazz (I have NOT ruled Jazzprowl out, but right now, Prowl kinda hates everyone -maybe he hates Jazz a bit less- so it's a 'later' thing)
... Like, whoever in the Ark ensemble cast you feel like including, really
Got fun headcanons about Decepticons?
Ohhh man this one is a toughy. (OP actually has the first chap out if anyone is intrigued: Less Isn't More (That's a Logical Fallacy), Jazzprowl people might remember them from the barbarian AU a few months back (I freaking love those AUs, I'm had one brewing in the back of my head forever too)
Cartoony kind of comes to me for the sole reason that I have NO patience right now for writing slow pay offs XD Any time I hit a part that I'm like "ohh no we've reached the slog. I was DREADING this boring filler part-" I then think "I mean, does the Jazz of my AU have the patience for this either?" He is more or less on a dream walking VACATION, he will not settle with having anything BUT the absolute time of his life. He's got his wheelies on and he's desperate to escape his feelies. This man is in a mental state at the moment where standing still and not having suitable distraction is worse than DEATH. If I find this boring and unbearable to wade through- so does he. And then he promptly wanders off, changes the topic, dissasociates or acts visibly bored and beligerent whenever I get bored with a scene. Or something cartoonishly wacky happens in the background and he is back to being Andy from parks and rec making the delighted "OOOOOO" face to the camera. I think you have more patience then me though XD Because you've got "math as a plot point" in you tags and I couldnt even make myself write 4 BS sci-fi Mcguffin lines about Wheeljack's invention and instead just had Jazz be like "yeah, no, I tuned that out immediately- anyway, let's think about the recently aquired design specs of Prowl's Spike instead."
I guess with the premise you have here- I'm picturing the cartoon filter as a type of delusion. It's prowl recapping everything people are doing and saying with the most :
It was what I pictured in Prowl's dream with the assorted Autobots- The way they talked and acted was the equivalent of Prowl taking on that exasperated mocking tone with them when providing what they'd say or do. Add as much snark and bias into the narration as you can XD
Maybe cartoonishly stilted 2D dialouge like "I'm a complete tool so I'm going to go ahead and side with Optimus Prime on this, even though I'm too stupid to understand what we're talking about" as long as it's followed up with "Ironhide said... or at least, he said somthing to that effect. Prowl had already diverted his primary processing to more pressing matters before he opened his intake."
Optimus is easy enough- you just write him with the dialouge of an old timey self rightous morally black and white superhero XD
Jazz might be "literally incapable of taking anything seriously" but with hints of "he could be and can be competent if and when he applies himself" Maybe Jazz always at least understands where Prowl is coming from so sometimes he's helpful in furthering Prowl's agendas and other times he can't be bothered. He's the wildcard/chesire cat of the high command board room. Prowl's only sometimes ally- but mercurial and hard to read, it's a coin flip on whether he'll get involved in any given matter or just lean back and let the scene play out. Sometimes Prowl appreciates him, sometimes he REALLY doesn't.
Smokescreen is the number one character in fanfic for being "just whatever the heck you need him to be" lol. I have no set personilty for him beyond "gambling". Maybe Prowl doesn't either at the start idk
For goofy cons, I strongly rec just about ANY spoon888 fic. "The doctor is in" is brilliant
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