iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

As someone who watched the cannibal version of Tarantulas in Beast Wars in the designated age range of 7-12 and was--gasp--not traumatized, was hyped up by his creepy appearance in the ES trailer, and encouraged by Nick Roche quoting the Wreckers saga... ES Tarantulas was incredibly disappointing.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I remember someone complaining that what Tarantulas did in Earthspark WAS unhinged actually. For a regular guy? Yes, kidnapping a kid's parents based on a half-heard conversation and planning to wipe their memories is unhinged. For a guy who's into cannibalism? It really isn't.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It's wild how different of an experience US readers had with Prowl in the Marvel Transformers comics than UK readers. US Prowl: I'm worried for Optimus's safety, but I refuse to risk the lives of innocent humans. UK Prowl: If you'd just use my Casualty-inator 5000, we'd have won the war by now!

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Blackarachnia in her major appearances: Beast Wars: fiercely finds any way to establish her own autonomy and power, refusing to fall behind and thus be manipulated or forced to do things Beast Machines: wants to find her boyfriend TFA: wants to revert to her original body so she can rejoin society

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I think people try to handwave a lot of the evils Megatron committed with his backstory of being a revolutionary against classism, but that doesn't really gel with his Phase 6 colonization plans. However, MTMTE just "fixes" his xenophobia without doing any work or showing him change over time.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I do think that Vegeta of DBZ has a better character arc than Megatron in the MTMTE comics. We get a lot more of Vegeta's journey from a genocidal colonizer to willing to sacrifice himself, along with its bumps, than Megatron's journey from genocidal colonizer to willing to sacrifice himself.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I don't know that I've ever seen a more Rattrap quote! The struggles of being the team MVP! #BeastWars #Transformers

Black text on a white background reading "you know what pisses me off? Being held to a higher standard because management knows I'm capable. But F*ckstick McGee over there gets an 'atta boy' for remembering to breathe."

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I can't get over Rattrap having the same voice as Usopp--not just the same VA, but same voice with maybe minor tweaks. They aren't really similar characters at all. Rattrap is a middle aged man, why does he sound younger than Cheetor?

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I wonder why the Japanese dubbers for Beast Wars chose to center so many of their decisions around the idea of it being a comedy. Sure, it has comedic bits, but it'd be a stretch to call it a comedy. Then the following anime sequels were also much more comedic in tone compared to the G1 sequels.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Every time a fan calls Rattrap a coward, an angel loses its wings. 😔

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

-she has to be ineffectual, always needing to be saved and her storyline in the show is just the setting for Optimus and Sentinal's personal conflict. It's not even like her TFA design is less "girl robot" than the BW design. Her skills in every non-BW series get downplayed. It's frustrating!

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I think a good example about how female characters get mistreated is Blackarachnia in BW versus... Everywhere else? BW didn't write her perfectly, but there are things I will applaud them for (like romance not completely overtaking her storyline). TFA, however, she's not only the man-pain character-

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Exactly! There are actually quite a lot of characters originally meant to be female (or super obscure characters who were genderbent/finally got a specified gender), but fans are really incurious. Why genderbend Ravage when you could just include Howlback? It's so easy! But they don't care.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I've tried posting the actual pictures here, but Bluesky hates embroidery, I guess! 😭 Anyway, for Beast Wars' 30th anniversary, I made embroidered keychains of the major characters! I didn't get all the Predacons done, but the last 3 will be coming soon! Here's a link: www.reddit.com/r/beastwars/...

reddit.com

From the beastwars community on Reddit: 30th anniversary project!

Explore this post and more from the beastwars community

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It's always amazing looking at old art of shar pei and seeing how similar those ancient dogs look to my shar pei/husky mix!

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Outside of wanting a Decepticon leader that isn't from an anime, I don't see the appeal of Galvatron being a completely separate character from Megatron. There's just much more interesting story potential with a Galvatron that used to be Megatron than "some other dude" Galvatron.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

My dog got frustrated I wouldn't let her try to kill someone's escaped pet tortoise. She's too high prey drive to trust around other animals.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I hate coming across cats who are chill/friendly towards dogs or cats that get aggressive with dogs on my dog walks. They never go away when shooed and tend to follow too close to my dog who very much is not cat friendly--or anything that isn't a person or another dog friendly, for that matter.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

She *loves* to say hi to goldens and her new friend that she got to spend this morning playing with is one. Opposites attract, I guess. 😆

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

It's funny when you notice your dog has breed preferences. I have a shar pei/husky mix. She's very selective and likes her boundaries, doesn't like playing in groups, and has a more cat-like personality. However, she has a favorite breed--the most quintessential dog of all time, golden retrievers.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

It's a bit frustrating when Transformers fan act like G1 and IDW1 are interchangeable because IDW1 is a "G1 reboot". However, they don't share lore, characterizations, history, or most plot points. They share the basic "Autobots and Decepticons fight a war that ruins Cybertron and land on Earth".

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Victory and Beast Wars Neo did the best at balancing their shows. Victory didn't spend much time focusing on individuals, so there's not much of a single character getting overwhelming focus (minus Star Saber). Beast Wars Neo kept the cast fairly small, so no one got lost in the shuffle.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Beast Wars II kind of tried to make Galvatron more interesting, but I found him valuing compassion to be more confusing because his goal is to be an iron fisted tyrant. He's not even very nice to his own brother, never once praising him throughout their lives until the end of the show.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Scorponok is the most interesting because he is a proactive character and there's more focus on his intelligence (but the show is so stupid 😭). The other lead antagonists are just sitting around most of the time giving orders until we lead into the climax because they're only powerhouses.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I finally finished all the Japanese Transformers G1 and Beast era shows. Generally, they're acceptably written kids shows--except Headmasters which made me want to bang my head against a wall. I would say, collectively, they struggle with balancing characters and making antagonists interesting.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Simon Furman: It doesn't make sense for robots to have genders! Also Simon Furman: After Buster Witwicky gives the Matrix back to Optimus, he starts having visions of conbiners.

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Herzspalter @herzspalter.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Rest in peace, Peter Cullen 💔 Thank you for giving so much warmth and care to your roles, you've meant so much to a lot of people. May you rest softly in your accomplishments. 'til all are one

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Diana Soreil @silencedrowns.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I hope this horrible week teaches us one thing: you will be remembered and loved infinitely more for moments of kindness, friendship, and joy than for power, dominance, or bullying. you have the choice for what sort of life you want to live. make the right one.

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Abby Bulmer @abbybulmer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I did this recently because I wanted to get out how I feel about Optimus as a character. RIP Peter Cullen, who gave so much warmth to a cool big robot dad.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Dangit. Not Peter Cullen too. www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...

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Boner Vivant @dougtilley.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Rest in peace to one of the best to ever do it.

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I appreciate that Dolly Parton refused to participate in "dress respectability" and, by her own account, modeled her aesthetic after a town "tramp," who she thought was beautiful. She separated aesthetics from character and understood "classiness" to be about how you treat people, not how you dress.

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Boze Herrington, Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Dolly Parton rose from poverty to stardom. She gave $500 to every student in her hometown who finished high school; she built hospitals & bald eagle preserves; her Imagination Library has gifted 300 million books to children. Roger Ebert met her and came away thinking she was a literal angel. RIP.

“In Dallas for the premier of '9 to 5', I had an uncanny experience, and on the plane home to Chicago I confessed it to Siskel: I had been granted a private half hour with Dolly Parton, and as we spoke I was filled with a strange ethereal grace. This was not spiritual, nor was it sexual. It was healing and comforting. Gene listened and said, "Roger, I felt the exact same thing during my interview with her." We looked at each other. What did this mean? Neither one of us ever felt that feeling again. From time to time we would refer to it in wonder.”

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Annie Wu @anniewu.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Cleaned up this Dolly sketch from a few years ago, mostly to make her hair twice as big, because she deserves it.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Honestly, TFA's "Autobots can't fly" rule was so ridiculous, especially with how characters had to be modified. Like, here's this guy named Powerglide. He, uh, he turns into a tank! Yeah! That totally makes sense! Because, uh, treads kind of glide on the ground, right? It's very silly.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

The reason that Transformers has never been able to replicate Dinobot's amazing character arc from Beast Wars is that, not only did it span 35 episodes, they weren't afraid to let him make decisions that, while making sense to him, were bad and let him be called out for them.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Man, I arranged for my sister to pick up a guitar off a guy for me for cheap ($50). She's describing it as cheap but serviceable (just as well because the idea is to repaint it), but, after fiddling with it, that it's charming... Now I really want to go home and play around with it!! 😭😭😭

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Gobots character Cy-Kill gets killed more frequently in Transformers stories than Cliffjumper.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

He also definitely did more than 4 genocides, not only directly but indirectly too. The Phase Six thing was literally just about committing genocide.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I'll never get over the MTMTE narrative immediately forgiving Megatron for a minimum of 4 genocides he personally committed the instant he expressed any sign of sadness about it. Like, maybe killing billions of people out of xenophobia/robot supremacy is something we have to spend more time on.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

-designed and created a giant cannon BW Megatron is legitimately a scientist in his own right and is quite cunning. Meanwhile, in Beast Machines, he is... Not really half as smart. (Granted, no one else is half as smart as they were in Beast Wars.)

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

It's frustrating how dumb Megatron is in Beast Machines. Can't even update the Vehicon scanners to pick up beast modes. Meanwhile, in Beast Wars, he: -programmed the defense system -made a fully organic Dinobot -fused a blank protoform, Dinobot's DNA, Rampage's spark, and Vok tech to make Dinobot II

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

My sister brought up the comparison to Napoleon's Old Guard who earned the nickname "les Grognards" (the Grumblers) by openly complaining about things and got away with it because of their loyalty and the respect they earned. I would say learning to trust wasn't limited to Dinobot though.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Yards are overrated as a "requirement" for dog ownership. Unless you have acres or you're actively playing with them, it's a small plot of land that never changes. That gets boring pretty quickly. Heck, my dog gets bored of the same dog parks within 20 minutes.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I was talking about how indoor enrichment games don't do much for my husky mix, though part of it is that we live in an apartment. Someone hit me with judgement about a husky in an apartment. She's been to 3 different national parks, we live 2 miles from mountain trails, and get 3 hour daily walks.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Man, Cy-Kill is *so* much more intelligent than G1 Megatron.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

It's wild so many people would rather genderbend popular male characters rather than use pre-existing female characters, even when genderbending after makes the character become a negative gender stereotype, like Cosmos in Cyberverse. She's cute, but we didn't need a literal damsel in distress.

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Elf @elfdragon12.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I mean, there are people who really believe Rattrap's character arc in Beast Wars was overcoming his "cowardice"... Except he clearly proves he's not a coward by episode 3. He just isn't stupid or reckless and knows the reward for a job well done is another job.

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