Razorbeast's characterisation

[138 Scourge]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Dom, this is all well and good if Gomess was trying to sell this story or something, or brand stuff with these characters as a totally original creation. But since he's writing this story for fun, then he's totally doing exactly what Hasbro wants people to do with their toys. He's playing with 'em and making his own adventures featuring those characters. Just not actually using the toys, is all.

Just so I'm clear: G, if you write this thing, I'll read the hell out of it.

[Gomess]

a fan appropriating bits of a franchise. And, even a full "Man of Steel" style reboot still keeps certain things intact. (For example, Clark Kent is still from Kansas, and is not a former crack dealer....)

Ok, I'm actually not gonna say this again. =/ WERE I to write a BW comic, I'd base it on the toyline. You know, the toyline where the story is, "There are these guys called Transformers who are made of metal and turn into actual organic-infused animals and blow up laboratories on modern Earth". How, exactly, have I changed that? I decided to set it in a certain historical context. *O NOES!* I decided that some characters without specific genders could be female, to bring more gender diversity to the cast. *CALL THE FICTION POLICE!*

You're having a debate, but it seemingly has little to do with my concept.

almost tempted to send an abstract to IDW.

I know I've just been sarcastic, but this is for serious: please do. I will support you. But it will have *no* effect on my fan project.

he's writing this story for fun, then he's totally doing exactly what Hasbro wants people to do with their toys. He's playing with 'em and making his own adventures featuring those characters.

It makes me a little =[ that Scourge feels the need to explain this. I understand that Dom REALLY doesn't like fanfic, but... man. This is nearing vitriolic levels.

Just so I'm clear: G, if you write this thing, I'll read the hell out of it.

That's the spirit, fellow Fiend. Was it the giant ants? =p

[BWprowl]

God, this topic got nuts before I even got a chance to post in it.

For the record, Razorbeast is a dumbass. He spent ages infiltrating Magmatron's inner circle and relaying his plans back to LioConvoy (who did all of nothing to stop him except continue to have only Razorbeast hang out behind the scenes), then blew all that in a second to reveal himself and run away from Mags, at a critical juncture, with no back up or definite plan, while stranded chronally-displaced on Prehistoric Earth. Oh, and he had a program that would've prevented Magmatron from turning all the stasis pods into Predacons, but only used *some* of it, because it was totally stealthier that way, and letting half of the pods come out as bad guys then running away is definitely a better plan than, say, turning them all into good guys, then surrounding the half-dozen already-bad guys and beating the shit out of them. Anyway, later he somehow finds rope on Prehistoric Earth and decides it's a good idea to use it to tie up Ravage (who's in his TMII body at this point, y'know, basically made out of blades) and leave him lying right next to the chronal-displacer-time-McGuffins he needs. Ravage literally slices himself out of the ropes less than a page later. Then Razorbeast gets himself stabbed by Rartorarta and turns into an evil feral pig monster and goes on a rampage until Optimus Minor mercy kills him, ending his stupid life on Earth after he accomplished nothing (seriously, the Big Final Battel happened on Cybertron thanks to a portal that I think Magmatron opened up. Razorbeast didn't participate and really had nothing to do with any of it).

God I hate Razorbeast.

I always kind of liked the idea of Tigerhawk as Tigatron and Airazor's kid, since I always figured that's what they were going for in the first place. Makes me wonder why we never saw anything like that from Blackarachnia and Silverbolt (besides the eighty billion who've showed up in bad fanfics, of course).

See, the Mutant Heads could be something they get from Megatron's insidious bio-experiments, kidnapping innocent Transformers and inducting them into the nefarious Predacon organization as Remodeled Cybertronians. Until ONE ROBOT escaped and decided to stand up to Megatron's evil, and wear his Mutant Headed Mask for justice as-wait, wait, never mind.

My brother and I always liked to pretend the Mutant Heads were just battle masks they could turn on as high-grade battlefield data-collection type things, with awesome targeting reticules and thermal vision and the like. Maybe something like that?

[Gomess]

until Optimus Minor mercy kills him

I just want you to know, this is where I had to stop reading for a moment and rub my eyes. This is the kind of thing that reeaally motivates me to write for fun.

See, the Mutant Heads could be something they get from Megatron's insidious bio-experiments, kidnapping innocent Transformers and inducting them into the nefarious Predacon organization as Remodeled Cybertronians. Until ONE ROBOT escaped and decided to stand up to Megatron's evil, and wear his Mutant Headed Mask for justice as-wait, wait, never mind.

You say "never mind", I hear "affectionate homage to one of my favourite series". That said, there isn't a grasshopper in BW, so it'd be kinda forced. =[ ...Unless I portrayed Ramhorn as a tubby version of Kabuto. X]

quote="BWprowl"]My brother and I always liked to pretend the Mutant Heads were just battle masks they could turn on as high-grade battlefield data-collection type things, with awesome targeting reticules and thermal vision and the like. Maybe something like that?[/quote]
That too! I actually don't know why I worried, since it can all really happen together. Experiments / lycanthropy / battle-efficient armour... All kinda blends, if you ask me.

...Yeah, this was a passionate little thread, wasn't it?

[Onslaught Six]

I seem to remember you made Iguanus female in Ethereal

Quite right! And as you pointed out, this was basically because there weren't enough female characters in it. On reflection, though, his tech spec does explicitly state he's male, so that's what I'd go with now. =3

I don't think it was supposed to be BW Iguanus though; I think it was supposed to be some alt-universe version that resembled Reptilion. (Because Ethereal was post-Universe.)

Anyway! Dom's innate hatred of fanfic for fanfic's sake (aka you know, fun) is pretty damn scary.

The worst part is, Dom would likely read this, if not support it, if it were published by IDW, on the simple virtue that it is now "official."

Sometimes, with fanfic, you have to change things...for the sake of changing things. Just to set your story apart. Otherwise, what's the point? Like my Jetfire fanfic I never finished, which was based on the old Dutch pack-in comics where Jetfire led the Autobots. I expanded that into that Prime had already left Cybertron with a small squad of Autobots (all the guys in the live action movie!) and abandoned them, but Magnus and the others saw Prime as a Jesus-like figure and prayed for him to return and save them from the Satancons. This didn't happen because Shockwave had gone to Earth and ripped Prime's head off and taken it back to Cybertron to look for the Creation Matrix. (Actually, in essence, now that I think about it--there wasn't a whole lot keeping this from being a Movieverse fanfic.)

[Gomess]

Eh, my problem isn't with what Dom believes, though; it's that he doesn't seem interested in cultivating cohabitation between his beliefs and others'. You can hate something all you like, but if it prevents you from talking about it, then there's no point involving yourself in discussion at all.

Dom, I honestly would've appreciated your opinions on my *ideas*, rather than your opinions on fanfic in general. I know I'm a derailer, but the things you've said (and, more importantly, generalised and ignored) in this thread haven't really contibuted anything other than momentarily putting me off the idea and making me feel like taking a quick walk in the fresh air.

If you don't want to help with a thread that's obviously about fanfic, then don't! Repeatedly rephrasing "fanfic is a waste of time" in a "hey gaiz help me wiv my fic" thread is basically trolling.

And if I ever piss any of you lot off by doing similar things in a thread against which I'm clearly biased, I expect you to call me out on it, too. Hence why I've stopped posting in Tigermegatron's fantasy movie toy threads.

[Ursus mellifera]

Scourge and Ursus might've been taking the piss for all I know, but at least they've given me positive answers and ideas without sweeping generalisations about how I'm wasting my time. =/

I'm honestly curious. I enjoy the creative process.

[Gomess]

Scourge and Ursus might've been taking the piss for all I know, but at least they've given me positive answers and ideas without sweeping generalisations about how I'm wasting my time. =/

I'm honestly curious. I enjoy the creative process.

Then I'll be sure to consult you in future!

[Dominic]

For this thread:
My problem with your ideas is that they are entirely self indulgent. Sometimes, originality is not a good thing. Some ideas have not been used before because they are bad.

At a more basic level:
We start talking about rebooting BW, and it immediately turns into textbook bad fanfic. "Wow, look who is a girl now! Wow, cannon rayp and now this character is somebody's kid!" There are checklists of this sort of thing.

The fact is that out most basic obstacle to growth as a forum is not our size. It is our lack of focus. Both here and at Yee's, we have had a tremendous amount of attention from Hasbro and other official sources. We could pitch a *good* idea to them, and they might actually listen.

We could do that. But, instead we devolve discussion right back into fanon and such.


Dom
-going to read some real comics by real writers now.

[Gomess]

...And once again you completely ignore what I've actually said in favour of just reiterating how much you hate the things you hate, and refuse to even entertain the idea of acknowledging that you've been nothing but pompous throughout this entire thread.

Dom, if you're so keen on the idea of pitching something to IDW as a board, then try taking the initiative and starting a thread of your own. If you *don't* really want to do that, then stop mentioning it (while simultaneously insulting the board at large for "wasting their chance to make a difference").

But I am going to write my self-indulgent fanfic with the help of those posters who value imagination and self-expression, because- believe it or not- writing is a hobby of mine as well as a job, and hobbies are *meant* to be self-indulgent.