TF Views

JediTricks wrote:

Almighty Unicron wrote:Here's the thing: Transformers, in ever continuity, are created beings with a purpose in mind. Almost always,that purpose is "combat", except for the G1 cartoon where some were developed for "heavy labor". In either case, a robust, dense build is the best suited for those jobs, assuming you have to stick to a humanoid configuration. Transformers resemble human males for the same reason that human males are more robust than females, because physiologically they are more suited to physical tasks.

Arcee resembling a human female is an aberration from an engineering perspective. Given the Cybertronian culture we know of in the IDW series, her sub-optimal configuration is something to grieve over. Through translating Cybertronian to English we map "resembles human females" to "being female", and thus see her angst as relating to the solely human construct of gender rather than the problem of engineering it is on Cybertron. Frankly, it makes no sense that a transformer should have identifiably feminine characteristics, and Arcee being a freak is well justified in my view.


Furthermore, I don't remember there being a brouhaha when TFA Red Alert was female. Or Override/Nitro Convoy in Cybertron.

I hear what you are saying, but if we really look into that idea that they're all combat and labor bots, the idea that a masculine build is the only build is nonsense, the best build would be purpose-built and there would be no need for altmodes, or at best there would be botmodes more heavily tied to altmodes such as the Constructicons in Revenge of the Fallen. The viewpoint also ignores the fact that not every combat job requires brute strength, some require stealth or speed such as a scout or an assassin.

And there are robots that are designed for roles that aren't precisely combat, and they aren't as "robust" as someone like Optimus Prime- like TFA's Prowl or BW's Rattrap. What makes Arcee a fembot? It's curves that resemble the tertiary sexual characteristics of a human female, which make no sense on a robot (unless they were some sort of bizarre ablative armor). If she ain't breastfeeding, she don't need titties. If she ain't poppin' out babies, she don't need wide hips. I was going to say "you don't see 'male' transformers with structures resembling human male genitalia" and then I remembered DotM Devastator... but the fact that no one complains about Arcee's robo-titties and pretty much everyone over the age of five complained about Devvy's wrecking balls.

The IDW universe, moreover, has made it clear that there is significant debate about following the role that one was built for vs finding one's own path. You have Ambulon, you have Rung, etc. And what benefit would Ratchet being a big burly guy-shape be for his role? And it's not like Arcee is in any way diminished as a fighter, so that idea doesn't hold either.

The thing is, though, the "following the role" position was the norm in Cybetronian society and, correct me if I'm wrong (I haven't actually read any of the IDW comics), Arcee was made before that social movement really got going, no?

TFA Red Alert wasn't a major character, and TFA had already changed a lot of stuff. Nobody gave a fuck about Cybertron and Nitro Convoy because TF:C was a trainwreck... actually, I do remember some of our gang making a fuss about it.

Cybertron was one of my favorite series', bro, though to be fair I remember the toys more fondly than the show and it was good in comparison to Energon (which wasn't hard to achieve)... and I was like fourteen or so when it was on. Regardless!


I think fembots have their place, in a series where Transformers were created by organics (like G1 Cartoon- I *think* the Quintessons were organic beings, yes?) or where they have beast forms that incorporate cellular structure from organic creatures. The way I see it, Scott is just pandering to the Tumblr crowd to prop up her notoriety, causing false controversy where there is none, to get the Jezebel readers and the SRS groupies to buy her comic. I should know, as a literary agent I've had a few clients pull this same tactic. It's viral marketing 101.

Almighty Unicron wrote: The way I see it, Scott is just pandering to the Tumblr crowd to prop up her notoriety, causing false controversy where there is none, to get the Jezebel readers and the SRS groupies to buy her comic. I should know, as a literary agent I've had a few clients pull this same tactic. It's viral marketing 101.

Her approach is making me want to skip the series entirely, whereas normally I'd read it and then make the call.

If that's the truth? Furman is still wrong,as he didn't have to agree to the terms & take the job. He could of said no.

I think it was wrong for Marigold to bash furman's past work on-line,where everyone could read it. I just think Marigold is one of those mean spirited pompus women. There was no need for Marigold to bash furman. Those IDW TF writers do retcons all the time,yet they never bash other writers work like Marigold did with furman.

I just think Simon Furman is IDW's punching bag. Which is sad considering furman is one of the founding fathers of the TF comics/origins. IDW seems like a company run by Clueless mean spirted people, Thankfully Bob Budiansky has too much pride & dignity to lower himself to work for IDW. I suspose Simon is the fault here,as a bully can only bully if you submit to it everytime. Furman must be desperate & have low self esteem to allow these IDW guys to mock him so much.

Two wrongs don't make a right. Furman should have addressed Marigolds comments in a more private matter. perhaps send her a email,phone call or a meeting in person. to send a counter reply on-line just seemed unprofessional.

Who knows perhaps Simon reached his boiling point & needed to vent. to protect the little dignity IDW hasn't taken away yet.

I suspose the proper thing here,would be for IDW to force Marigold to make a on-line apology to simon. But since this is IDW were talking about here,we all know this isn't going to happen.

I can totally see IDW not reprimanding Marigold for this. yet IDW reprimands simon for defending himself.

Shockwave wrote: Uhhh... did you actually read his response? He addressed all of that. Or, more accurately, the TFW poster he quoted addressed all of that. But it is right there in his response.

At the time I wrote that, I only read the part that Simon wrote, quoted in the first post. Since then I've read the whole thing that Jenbot1980 posted and a bunch of the responses in Furman's twitter feed.

He target Mairghread Scott because she targeted him first by calling his work misogynistic to begin with.

So maybe she could've tip-toed around the topic a little more carefully. I'm not going to say she was 100% right in how she discussed her problems with SL:Arcee. But I still feel that he's overreacting to a perceived attack where there was none intended.

Or more ironically- he misunderstood the intent of something Scott wrote and took offense.

If she didn't like the story or didn't feel up to the challenge of writing around it then she shouldn't have taken the job, or if she still wanted to do it, then she should have just done it and shut the hell up.

Now you're just assuming that she's going to retcon it out of existence. You have no idea how she's going to handle the topic of gender in TFs.

And he clarified the G2 thing in the comments section which I reitterated above, but since you apparently missed it, here it is again: That wasn't Furman's decision. IDW mandated that they pick up after issue 80 rather than G2 #12. Furman wanted it the other way.

I didn't miss anything. Furman wanted to continue after G2. IDW mandated that he continue after G1 #80. So he did. He didn't have to. He could've bowed out of the project if he had strong reservations about retconning his own material. But he didn't.

Mako Crab wrote:

Shockwave wrote: Uhhh... did you actually read his response? He addressed all of that. Or, more accurately, the TFW poster he quoted addressed all of that. But it is right there in his response.

At the time I wrote that, I only read the part that Simon wrote, quoted in the first post. Since then I've read the whole thing that Jenbot1980 posted and a bunch of the responses in Furman's twitter feed.

He target Mairghread Scott because she targeted him first by calling his work misogynistic to begin with.

So maybe she could've tip-toed around the topic a little more carefully. I'm not going to say she was 100% right in how she discussed her problems with SL:Arcee. But I still feel that he's overreacting to a perceived attack where there was none intended.

Or more ironically- he misunderstood the intent of something Scott wrote and took offense.

If she didn't like the story or didn't feel up to the challenge of writing around it then she shouldn't have taken the job, or if she still wanted to do it, then she should have just done it and shut the hell up.

Now you're just assuming that she's going to retcon it out of existence. You have no idea how she's going to handle the topic of gender in TFs.

And he clarified the G2 thing in the comments section which I reitterated above, but since you apparently missed it, here it is again: That wasn't Furman's decision. IDW mandated that they pick up after issue 80 rather than G2 #12. Furman wanted it the other way.

I didn't miss anything. Furman wanted to continue after G2. IDW mandated that he continue after G1 #80. So he did. He didn't have to. He could've bowed out of the project if he had strong reservations about retconning his own material. But he didn't.

All really good points and you're right, she might not have to retconn anything. I'll probably still read it anyway. Although I did drop Beast Hunters so she's not off to a good start with me anyway, being the only one to pen a TF book that I've dropped.

That bad huh? Lol I still haven't read anything since #13 of Costa's run! He soured me on idw's universe so much. Anyway, I read all the way to the very last comment on Simon's twitter, & he said that he and Mairghread spoke & worked it all out. So I guess it's all been resolved.

Mako Crab wrote:That bad huh? Lol I still haven't read anything since #13 of Costa's run! He soured me on idw's universe so much. Anyway, I read all the way to the very last comment on Simon's twitter, & he said that he and Mairghread spoke & worked it all out. So I guess it's all been resolved.

It's literally the same story over and over again: "Dinobots vs. Shockwave". And I haven't actually read the last four issues I bought and I just figured there's no point in buying comics I'm not reading. Plus, it takes a special kind of talent to make me lose interest in a story with Shockwave in it. It's not that it's bad exactly, just redundant.

Anyway, it's good that they worked it all out.

Mako Crab wrote:Anyway, I read all the way to the very last comment on Simon's twitter, & he said that he and Mairghread spoke & worked it all out. So I guess it's all been resolved.

That's good to hear. I'll have to go read the comments myself.

The fact that Furman got away scott-free with ruining not just Arcee, but all future females in IDW always pissed me off, and I'm glad to see that somebody in a position to do something about it acknowledged that it was fucked up.

Onslaught Six wrote:scott-free

LOL