Til All Are One Thoughts.
Not much calmer, but more rational. I also could not sleep because I had these ten thousand thoughts in my head so I literally got out of bed to write this. XD
I've made no secret of the fact I'm not fond of Scott's writing. Windblade the first volume was not all that bad. It was intriguing. It was after that where all of Scott's weaknesses became obvious. But I could toughen out poor writing to support a fellow writer, especially a female one. But after I saw the way she treated her fans and legitimate concrit of her writing skills, that was where my support ended.
That is neither here nor there.
Her writing is the sole reason I never intended to purchase Til All Are One in the first place. Her characterizations are shallow, especially concerning the mustache-twirling villain that Starscream has become, one without wit or substance, a negative foil only to Windblade, who is pure and speshul. You shouldn't have to make your "villain" an idiot, to make your "hero" look smart. That's just bad writing. Why was Chromia's bad behavior never addressed? Why does she get a pass when Starscream is "Terrible"? Why does the fact that Blurr, a champion racer, had to cheat to win never addressed? You can't tell me he was proud about that. We didn't get a moment of self-reflection. What happened to Wheeljack and Starscream's friendship? Why did that have to go away? Why is Starscream the only character who's not allowed any kind of development except backward?
Starscream deserves way better than this. He's smart. He's cunning. He's sly. He's worked damn hard to get where he is, and I loathe how Scott turns him into an idiot. It smacks of character-hatred to me. As if she doesn't like Starscream and this is her way of working out her hatred of him. She also completely ignores what happens in The Transformers. Whatever Barber does with Starscream, Scott doesn't take it into account. Again, it's because she says "fuck canon, I'll do what I what, fuck continuity, I'll do what I want."
I don't like how things are thrown in for fanservice, just because. I don't like cardboard cutout characters or SURPRISE guest characters thrown in to activate the nostalgia node either. Give me femmes with substance, with personalities. Don't just throw a femme at me and expect me to be so grateful for the inclusion that I don't care that she's little more than a lamp for decoration. Quit shoving random pairings at me just to wave it in my face that you have it, and then never mention it again, or give it depth. It's empty. What use is teasing a lesbian couple only for us to never see them again? It just feels like I'm reading a Michael Bay movie, where he thinks so long as there are explosions and panty shots, no one's going to notice or care about the glaring plot holes (I notice, and I care).
I'm not a KO/BD fan, so I'm not going to read a series just for glimpses of a pairing that was thrown in for fanservice. Just to say "look, I have a gay pairing." That's not an organic way to introduce such a thing. It feels like RID 2015, where they tried to get back their fans by throwing in TFP nostalgia, even though the addition of them sucked.
My problem is not that Chromia's helmet is removable. That is grossly oversimplyfying the issue. Armor pieces can be removable. That just makes sense. Especially if it's stuff added after the fact (as in Megatron's protective helmet for his sensors, yes, to some people it looks silly, but it makes sense, he's a miner for goodness sake). My problem is Scott's claim that TAAO is going to truly humanize the Transformers. There is implication in that statement that more than just the helmet comes off. On top of that, she doesn't want people to look at Windblade and know she turns into a Jet. She claims that is unimportant.
Scott has obviously not read any of the rest of IDW canon. A mech's form and function is the whole basis for the downfall of the society. It is the core tenet of Functionism. It is the reason for Cold Construction and Forging. It is the whole reason Megatron started the Decepticons and started writing and the basis for the war! A mech's origin and shape should not dictate his worth!
She is effectively erasing everything that has already been built. She's not writing a story that is meant to go along with canon. She is writing her own damn thing, and not even doing it well.
Aside from all that, Windblade turning into a jet is damn important for Transformers as a franchise. The entire lure of the franchise is that they are robots who turn into something else, whether it's a vehicle, or a tool, or a weapon. You can't just throw that aside and say it's not important. It helps define them as people.
Scott's waffling on what gender is for Transformers (another rant all together) is another point of contention. She continuously tries to add gender dynamics to a franchise that doesn't need our tired and stale gender dynamics. Their culture does not need to be based on ours. We don't need to add gender dynamics to the mix. She doesn't seem to understand any kind of gender spectrum or dynamic other than the age old Male/Female that Hasbro tries to cling to as well.
I stopped reading Windblade because it didn't feel like it fit with the rest of IDW continuity anymore. It doesn't seem like TAAO is going to fix this, in fact, make it worse.
You don't have to take off a Transformers armor, and take away their alt-mode, to humanize them. You can do it in their behavior, their actions, the way they respond to each other. You can give a character depth. You can have them interact. You can, you know, actually write. Put in an effort. It's not hard.
It would help if you could have just a little bit of love for the characters while you're at it, too.
Windblade is not a bad character. I probably could have liked her. But not in Scott's hands. Windblade is everything we didn't want her to be in Scott's hands. And I feel sorry about that because she had potential.
I think I feel most sorry for the artists though. These people are amazing. Fayren and Rinpin and Spewpew now, I think. They are killing the scenes, and the art is gorgeous. And I refuse to buy the series cause I don't want to support Scott's writing, but I really wish I could support the artists instead. They are the ones deserving of praise here.
And I still think the absolute worst part is, MTMTE is constantly hovering around a fear it'll get cancelled (I swear, someday I will make a post about the things I don't like about MTMTE just to prove I"m not biased, but right now, I have to cling to MTMTE as it's the only thing keeping me in this fandom ;_; That and Thundercracker and Buster and break-my-heart-right-now Soundwave).
But Scott will never get fired. Because she's a woman. And her entire creative team is female. Because only women can write women and draw women, amirite? It doesn't matter that her writing sucks. She's a woman, which means she automatically knows what the female fans want, and heaven forbid the idea of firing her comes up, because we all know it's a gender thing and has nothing to do with quality of work.
Primus, I could rant about this all night. Sorry if I meander a bit. I'm just so dang frustrated. XD. Okay, now I shall sleep and I'll respond to comments on the other post in the AM. (Where I will probably come up with more to say, lol)
Cause if Scott's everybody's idea of good writing, no wonder I can't make any sales. DX Clearly, I've been doing all the wrong things.
This entry was originally posted at http://dracoqueen22.dreamwidth.org/329425.html. Feel free to comment wherever you find most convenient.
I've made no secret of the fact I'm not fond of Scott's writing. Windblade the first volume was not all that bad. It was intriguing. It was after that where all of Scott's weaknesses became obvious. But I could toughen out poor writing to support a fellow writer, especially a female one. But after I saw the way she treated her fans and legitimate concrit of her writing skills, that was where my support ended.
That is neither here nor there.
Her writing is the sole reason I never intended to purchase Til All Are One in the first place. Her characterizations are shallow, especially concerning the mustache-twirling villain that Starscream has become, one without wit or substance, a negative foil only to Windblade, who is pure and speshul. You shouldn't have to make your "villain" an idiot, to make your "hero" look smart. That's just bad writing. Why was Chromia's bad behavior never addressed? Why does she get a pass when Starscream is "Terrible"? Why does the fact that Blurr, a champion racer, had to cheat to win never addressed? You can't tell me he was proud about that. We didn't get a moment of self-reflection. What happened to Wheeljack and Starscream's friendship? Why did that have to go away? Why is Starscream the only character who's not allowed any kind of development except backward?
Starscream deserves way better than this. He's smart. He's cunning. He's sly. He's worked damn hard to get where he is, and I loathe how Scott turns him into an idiot. It smacks of character-hatred to me. As if she doesn't like Starscream and this is her way of working out her hatred of him. She also completely ignores what happens in The Transformers. Whatever Barber does with Starscream, Scott doesn't take it into account. Again, it's because she says "fuck canon, I'll do what I what, fuck continuity, I'll do what I want."
I don't like how things are thrown in for fanservice, just because. I don't like cardboard cutout characters or SURPRISE guest characters thrown in to activate the nostalgia node either. Give me femmes with substance, with personalities. Don't just throw a femme at me and expect me to be so grateful for the inclusion that I don't care that she's little more than a lamp for decoration. Quit shoving random pairings at me just to wave it in my face that you have it, and then never mention it again, or give it depth. It's empty. What use is teasing a lesbian couple only for us to never see them again? It just feels like I'm reading a Michael Bay movie, where he thinks so long as there are explosions and panty shots, no one's going to notice or care about the glaring plot holes (I notice, and I care).
I'm not a KO/BD fan, so I'm not going to read a series just for glimpses of a pairing that was thrown in for fanservice. Just to say "look, I have a gay pairing." That's not an organic way to introduce such a thing. It feels like RID 2015, where they tried to get back their fans by throwing in TFP nostalgia, even though the addition of them sucked.
My problem is not that Chromia's helmet is removable. That is grossly oversimplyfying the issue. Armor pieces can be removable. That just makes sense. Especially if it's stuff added after the fact (as in Megatron's protective helmet for his sensors, yes, to some people it looks silly, but it makes sense, he's a miner for goodness sake). My problem is Scott's claim that TAAO is going to truly humanize the Transformers. There is implication in that statement that more than just the helmet comes off. On top of that, she doesn't want people to look at Windblade and know she turns into a Jet. She claims that is unimportant.
Scott has obviously not read any of the rest of IDW canon. A mech's form and function is the whole basis for the downfall of the society. It is the core tenet of Functionism. It is the reason for Cold Construction and Forging. It is the whole reason Megatron started the Decepticons and started writing and the basis for the war! A mech's origin and shape should not dictate his worth!
She is effectively erasing everything that has already been built. She's not writing a story that is meant to go along with canon. She is writing her own damn thing, and not even doing it well.
Aside from all that, Windblade turning into a jet is damn important for Transformers as a franchise. The entire lure of the franchise is that they are robots who turn into something else, whether it's a vehicle, or a tool, or a weapon. You can't just throw that aside and say it's not important. It helps define them as people.
Scott's waffling on what gender is for Transformers (another rant all together) is another point of contention. She continuously tries to add gender dynamics to a franchise that doesn't need our tired and stale gender dynamics. Their culture does not need to be based on ours. We don't need to add gender dynamics to the mix. She doesn't seem to understand any kind of gender spectrum or dynamic other than the age old Male/Female that Hasbro tries to cling to as well.
I stopped reading Windblade because it didn't feel like it fit with the rest of IDW continuity anymore. It doesn't seem like TAAO is going to fix this, in fact, make it worse.
You don't have to take off a Transformers armor, and take away their alt-mode, to humanize them. You can do it in their behavior, their actions, the way they respond to each other. You can give a character depth. You can have them interact. You can, you know, actually write. Put in an effort. It's not hard.
It would help if you could have just a little bit of love for the characters while you're at it, too.
Windblade is not a bad character. I probably could have liked her. But not in Scott's hands. Windblade is everything we didn't want her to be in Scott's hands. And I feel sorry about that because she had potential.
I think I feel most sorry for the artists though. These people are amazing. Fayren and Rinpin and Spewpew now, I think. They are killing the scenes, and the art is gorgeous. And I refuse to buy the series cause I don't want to support Scott's writing, but I really wish I could support the artists instead. They are the ones deserving of praise here.
And I still think the absolute worst part is, MTMTE is constantly hovering around a fear it'll get cancelled (I swear, someday I will make a post about the things I don't like about MTMTE just to prove I"m not biased, but right now, I have to cling to MTMTE as it's the only thing keeping me in this fandom ;_; That and Thundercracker and Buster and break-my-heart-right-now Soundwave).
But Scott will never get fired. Because she's a woman. And her entire creative team is female. Because only women can write women and draw women, amirite? It doesn't matter that her writing sucks. She's a woman, which means she automatically knows what the female fans want, and heaven forbid the idea of firing her comes up, because we all know it's a gender thing and has nothing to do with quality of work.
Primus, I could rant about this all night. Sorry if I meander a bit. I'm just so dang frustrated. XD. Okay, now I shall sleep and I'll respond to comments on the other post in the AM. (Where I will probably come up with more to say, lol)
Cause if Scott's everybody's idea of good writing, no wonder I can't make any sales. DX Clearly, I've been doing all the wrong things.
This entry was originally posted at http://dracoqueen22.dreamwidth.org/329425.html. Feel free to comment wherever you find most convenient.