Mysterywriter2187 - MysteryWriter2187

Shark Tale and Kung Fu Panda really sums up the difference between having characters written for celebrities, and having genuinely well-written characters that celebrities just happen to be great fits for.

As proud as I am of the Quebula/Starbula fics I've written, it's definitely been pretty difficult tackling these issues in their dynamic without making the whole thing seem like a bad idea.

I know for a I've been keeping *a lot* of fans waiting for a possible follow-up, but I really want to make sure anything I write for Nebula and Quill now is worth the wait.

I wish I wasn’t so into Peter/Nebula because it’s not at all what either of them needs… Peter’s whole arc in Vol. 3 is to learn how to stop tying his worth to women and love himself. Nebula needs to know for certain she’s loved for herself and not have to wonder if she’s just a replacement for Gamora and Peter isn’t in a place yet to provide that. I love them because they clearly do love and respect each other but they’re not in the right place to explore what that might mean in a romantic sense by the end of Vol. 3.

…but my lizard brain still into it. 👀

You ever get that feeling when you really want to write more fanfics about a story, movie or pairing, but you loved everybody else's work (even your own past stuff) so much that you're terrified you won't live up to it?

NGL, I'm still kicking myself that I missed out on @starbulaweek back in October (everybody's stuff was so amazing!)

After seeing the render that was released/leaked the other day, I couldn't resist trying to draw Zhen. Can't wait to see her in action!

Saw this going around and I instantly thought of them…

Transformers: One - What's In A Kneel?

!!!!!MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!

With the responsibility of leadership and the dangers of pedestals and hero worship being such major themes, it only makes sense that all three of the film's leaders would show their true characters, and in doing so seal their fates, in moments where they have to kneel/bow.

Sentinel Prime essentially sets the entire second half of the film in motion when both the heroes and we as the viewer see him kneel to the Quintessons. It confirms everything that Alpha Trion was just telling them/us about him, and it's also the very thing that ends up getting broadcast to Iacon in order to finally expose Sentinel and turn the public against their False Prime.

For all his superficial charisma and his talk of looking out for the little guys, Sentinel himself is truly nothing more than a self-centred, spineless coward, who couldn't care less for the needs of the many and gladly bends to the will of bigger bullies/oppressors in order to keep himself in power.

After learning of Sentinel's betrayal and being subsequently captured with the High Guard, D-16 makes a point to stand while in custody and adamantly refuses to kneel. Even when Sentinel begins beating and torturing him, D-16 makes it abundantly clear that he has no intention of bowing to him or anyone else ever again.

In better circumstances this could be a heroic trait, a courageous defiance and the willingness to stand up in the face of injustice. But it just as becomes a negative one, and it's one of the last warning signs to the kind of leader that Megatron is going to be.

He may have started out with good and heroic intentions, but because of this Megatron sees himself as superior, and whether by choice or by force, he expects his fellow Cybetronians to rally behind him just as they did with Sentinel. While he sees himself as a revolutionary, in the end he's just going to become another tyrant.

And then we have Orion Pax. For much of the film, he's a far cry from the noble, legendary leader that we know and love from other iterations, but he starts to grow into it as he devises the rescue mission, and is tasked with rallying his fellow miners to help.

Having gotten a major upgrade since the last time he saw them, Orion now towers over his former peers and they're utterly awed by the sight of him. Rather than trying to take advantage of their admiration or even intimidate them with his new size and strength, Orion almost seems frustrated by the new height difference, and before beginning his speech he kneels down to literally speak to them on their level.

Orion doesn't make a point to do this, no one has to ask or prompt him to, in fact he himself doesn't even give that much thought to it, it's just his first instinct for how to best communicate. He may look larger and stronger now, but he still values the miners as his friends and his equals, and nothing is ever going to change that.

Gaining the Matrix later on may have gotten him the name, but it's this moment when Orion truly begins to embody the true core and heart of Optimus Prime. Powerful and inspiring, yet humble and caring. Or perhaps, as the legendary Peter Cullen himself has always said:

"Strong enough to be gentle."

Way better pitch than what Ego went with.

[GOTG1 Nebula developing a crush on Peter somehow]

Nebula: Together you and I will be the strongest couple in the entire world. We will dominate the galaxy!

- Breaks into Caitlyn's home, knocks her out, dresses her and ties her up

- Sees the kitchen on her way out

"Y'know what, fuck it, I'm gonna make a cupcake."

This whole insistence on everything being connected to the Bayverse would be funny, if not for the fact that Lorenzo is actively hurting the movies and the franchise as a whole by following this mindset and using his power as a producer to force these restrictions.

Thanks to him, all future Transformers films now have to be set before 2007 and can't have long-term changes that'll contradict it, and Megatron (who's "supposed" to still be frozen in the Hoover Dam) and most of the other main Decepticons can't appear in major roles in the live action ones. Everybody else working on these movies wants to use those characters and go all in on moving the franchise forward with the clean slate and the goodwill that Bumblebee gave them, but they can't do that, and it's solely because Lorenzo won't allow them to.

Keep in mind, The Last Knight full on underperformed, and any future sequels in that continuity were straight up cancelled specifically in favour of continuing a new story arc with Bumblebee (which was originally meant to be a standalone prequel). Meaning the Bayverse is already effectively dead, and Lorenzo is now hindering future films to (kind of) follow its continuity for literally no reason.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura desperately claiming every Transformers movie after The Last Knight is canon to the Bay movies

(Bumblebee shows him and the other differently-designed Autobots first arriving on Earth in the 80s)

Lorenzo: It's just a little G1-esque, it's still good, it's still good!

(Transformers: Rise of the Beasts shows Unicron invading Earth in the 90s rather than being the Earth itself)

Lorenzo: It's just a little retconned, it's still good, it's still good!

(Transformers One takes place on a different-looking Cybertron with entirely new actors and character designs)

Lorenzo: It's just a little animated, it's still good, it's still good!

Fans: It's rebooted.

Lorenzo: I know.