I guess. Those still read as male/female to me based on the pins and receivers. Having a foreskin doesn’t stop me from having male genetalia, even though I could find a clit big enough to fit in it. See also: sounding.
Not that there aren’t androgenous connectors, but the industry isn’t super well-standardized except for (apparently) power delivery connectors.
For all those who thought / were-really-hoping that Amber made this up: Nope!
James Roberts’ TF: MTMTE and TF: Lost Light are my favorite pieces of Transformers media of all time, a perfect blend of Transformers, Star Trek, Firefly, and Doctor Who, with a wicked sense of humor and a knack for the occasional moment of sheer emotional devastation.
But damned if it wasn’t weird as fuck sometimes. And the universe got rebooted before its time, and Roberts liked to set up plot hooks years in advance, so when the axe fell he had to quickly wrap some things up. So this DeceptiBabby was clearly meant to lead to some future storylines that I have no doubt would have been awesome somehow…but nope, it’s just a DeceptiBabby. I guess the misfit antihero team the Scavengers adopted it. Its contribution to the canon is “So, that happened”.
Not kidding about calling it a DeceptiBabby, either. Look, it’s got face tats!
It wasn’t human, specifically, but Scorponok’s plan was to accelerate the evolution of the Transformers race (and the rebuilding of the Decepticon army) by breeding biological lifeforms with sparks inside of them, letting them reproduce, and then harvesting those sparks to place into new Transformer bodies.
So, in this canon, the Cybertronian race is kinda fucked. They live a long time, but not forever. There USED to be these sort of natural events on Cybertron that periodically spat out new bots, but those happened less and less and then stopped entirely. Someone developed a way or producing new bots artificially by taking energy from the Matrix…but now the Matrix is busted.
And then they had a 4 million year long war that left billions dead. So…fucked.
MPregatron there (I CAN’T be the first person to call him that) is Scorponok, a mad science type. He performed a bunch of weirdass experiments to try to produce new Cybertronians. For example, he grew some out of wood! Actual footage.
His latest experiment was this Firstborn thing. The idea is that he would create a species that would reproduce organically, but have Cybertronian “sparks” (ie souls) which could then be extracted to put into robot bodies. So he’s gonna breed and kill a lot of humans to make more robots.
I think? Like I said, there was clearly going to be more to this, but the Scavengers just sort of stole the baby and I guess it’s the only one Scorponok was able to make. So plot over!
You’d think that if you were creating a humanoid species that reproduces organically, you’d need to be able to make more than one anyway.
Unless it can reproduce asexually, which would be more convenient if the only point was to use it create sparks and would mean the plot isn’t actually over.
He called her the Firstborn, so she was literally the first one, and the Scavengers busted up his plan before he could see if it worked so he could get started on more.
i havne’t been into it a ton, but it would be hilarious if the next movie had like a ten second shot of a transformer fetus undergoing gestating(??) and never bringing it up again lol
Transformers pr0n was honestly pretty much my introduction to shipping. Only it was… not good pr0n involving the phrase “muffled clank” which is all I remember because that’s where the entire set of us just couldn’t stop laughing. It had currently for like a year.
MTMTE and Lost Light (the source of this particular madness) are both good enough that you can enjoy them without being an existing fan and without being into collecting the toys
Although they might turn you into a fan or collector, that’s a potential hazard
You have brought this upon yourself and those around Charles. I hope you are ready for an in depth explanation of why it is a good thing that a transformer is pregnant.
Seriously though, can someone explain why a transformer is pregnant and what it all it means?
Apparently pregnant Transformer are a mad scientist experiment to cure sterilisation and their race’s extinction… by breeding and euthanasiting this “crossbreed”.
The change between Sal and Walky in the last panels got me. At first I didn’t realize Walky had jumped in, and I thought I had missed some important Sal developments, possibly over the timeskip.
I’m sad for Sal, because even this trainwreck of a diversion seems more interesting (to her dad, at least) than of her surprisingly (to her mom) mundane relationship with Danny. Sal is looking a little cranky before Walky jumps in, and probably now even moreso.
Linda starts blushing and excuses herself from the table. Charles goes a few minutes later to “check on her.” Sal, Danny, Amber, and Walky have an awkward lunch. Linda and Charles don’t get back until it’s time to pay the check. The only lessons learned are in regret.
On the otherhand, Amber is attempting to be as unlikable as possible without breaking character.
I could look it up, but I am wary of what cursed false positives Google will find.
Amd I don’t trust this comment section not to bullshit the ignorant.
Also… why? Just why? Making a transformer pregnant just raises so many unnecessary questions about their biology.
Was it an ilthought attempt to break into the girls market? Did someone overthink a vehicle-carrying vehicle?
I am not a TF fan but there is a segment of Transformers canon where the authors decided they absolutely wanted to deepen from toyetic villain of the weeks and answer all those hard questions about magic space robot gender, culture, biology, etc..
There’s always those in a long-running, multi-author franchise. It’s arguably the main selling point of Star Wars.
The Twitter sidebar works again but it’s just totally random, it starts with a tweet from June but scroll down just a little and you’re going back years.
I know the joke is supposed to be how Amber looks like an antisocial weirdo that’s bad girlfriend material, but uh…low key him getting excited over Transformers mpreg is more energy than I’ve seen from him in his entire relationship with Lucy. Is this about to be Jacob and Joyce 2? Cause that will be setting a precedent for pretend girlfriend plan being a bad idea and ultimately ending a relationship.
I’ve said before but my big gripe with Walky and Lucy has always been that they have like…no Chemistry. Lucy is nice and Walky is…ok and they like each other but they don’t feel like they’re…on the same page. Just never quite clicked for me.
I feel like I’m being mean to Lucy at this point. Like I’m the Sarah here. How else do you explain this? Amber got his excitement here without even trying. Lucy seems like a nice friend, but does Walky actually have any interest in her or anything she does beyond she’s a nice, smart, girl?
That’s honestly the crux of the relationship for me. Walky doesn’t find her UN-attractive, he enjoys her company, but he doesn’t seem like he’s actively into her romantically or sexually.
Yeah I feel like Lucy is a nice person. And I think people think that someone being “nice” is fine but it’s not really the end all be all of a relationship. They’re cute together, they get along and I don’t want anyone to be heart broken but they just don’t feel like they’ll go the distance and I dread that they won’t realize that until after they have sex or do something that complicates things.
He very much had a “You’re a smart, nice, attractive girl who likes me! I’d be mad not to reciprocate interest!” moment and then the relationship Gained Momentum because he doesn’t want to hurt her (or most people, or disappoint them, and he does want to be a Good Boy[friend]) and Lucy thinks he could genuinely be The One… On paper, she ticks the boxes. She is Good Girlfriend Material. She is somebody of whom parents should approve. But it wasn’t lust at first sight. This is their first shenanigans together, and she’s not even here (compare: Dorothy and Walky chasing down Amazigirl; or Walky developing his own caped hero costume to try and accompany Amazi-Amber as she fought crimes, and gaining serious insight into her DID in the process – but it started out as wacky hijinks!)… Walky likes excitement and adventure. Sure, girlfriends helping him with his studies (both Dorothy and Amber tutored him, as well as the grades changing from Amber which he doesn’t know about still) and dressing him up (at least Dorothy), encouraging him to grow and try new things (mainly Dorothy), giving him validation (both of them)…
I do think though that in the aftermath of their relationship crashing and burning, if Lucy lets herself be angry and then also works on expressing herself more healthily going forward, she’ll be happier and more interesting, with stronger friendships…
only thing I’d say different is Walky is lacking any feeling of intimacy, not “lust at first sight”. Lucy’s unreciprocated feelings go beyond horniness, and “lust at first sight” is not actually required for a romantic connection. eg: Sal and Danny.
Honestly Lucy contributing to this fake girlfriend plan was the most chemistry I’d felt between the two. For a moment it felt like the two were really vibing with sharing a single braincell… But then again I suppose that if this is the consequence of them experiencing a moment of wavelength resonance then they probably aren’t particularly good for each other / together…
I actually agree. The fact that she went along with that plan was cute and it’s the most I’ve ever been on board with this ship. Which…y’know…is ironic given this plan also facilitates Walky fake dating his ex.
I know somebody has probably already talked about this before, but while I was walking today I realized that I feel that Amazi-girl would be such a better name with the n left it because:
1) It becomes a full fusion of Amazing-girl which I think is kind of fun.
2) It is spelled identically to Amazing IRL, which seems very fitting for Amber.
Then again, I guess the name can’t fit Amber too well or it won’t be much of a secret identity and much of the whole point of Amazi-girl (for Amber to have a persona she feels is righteous and redeeming, but must be seperate from Amber which she feels is a terrible person).
So, a few days ago I said it’d be funny if *Charles* was the one who was so racist he immediately accepted Amber despite the insanity of it all, and now it’s starting to seem like that’s actually what’s happening and I’m kind of not prepared mentally for it.
Don’t know if he’s racist, seems like he’s really just amicable. Starting to see a lot of Walky like tendencies now that he’s spoken a little more, think he’s just willing to give her a chance.
I feel like this is more leaning towards how others have theorized that this is setting up an arc to Walky and Amber’s unresolved Garbage Roof history.
He has not said a single bad thing about Lucy! He met her once and didn’t even get to talk to her before the conversation ended. Like, come on, wait until he actually talks to her before judging.
Closest i can find on tv tropes is Rule 44: If it exists, there is a version of it for your fandom… and it has a wiki and possibly a tabletop version with a theme song performed by a Vocaloid.
…I want mpreg ttprg
I mean, I’ve said for years now that the entire Autobot/Decepticon war was a bunch of guys with fighting over a chick. For the longest time R.C. was the only female transformer, and she was with the autobots. Decepticons were blue balled for millions of years.
Looking at a Sal’s face as she kind of gets brushed aside with the madness. Hmm.
So Charles is the one who accepts the white girl and not the black one. Not Linda it seems. Interesting.
Granted not to get into the weeds too much but folks have brought up that Linda’s issue can be misogynoir rather than bog standard racism: which makes too much sense to me. And since Charles is mixed himself it makes me wonder which parent of his is black. What are Linda’s in law dynamics? If Charles’ mother is black and Linda does not get on with her I consider that a smoking gun and going three for three as it were. Granted if his father is and she does get on with him that’s another potential point in its favour.
Yeah, to be fair to Charles, while we saw Linda immediately become uncomfortable Charles immediately began chatting Lucy up, we just didn’t see the convo https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/whispering/ The quickness to decide Charles is racist is interesting, I think he’s honestly just being polite to his son’s gf, whoever that may be.
I mean, Charles was the one lamenting Sal showing up to that first family visit weekend with her natural hair (“but you look so pretty with it straight”). I don’t think Linda has ever said anything to Sal that blatant. (To/about Marcie? Sure. But even then, still nothing as rough as “your natural hair doesn’t look at good.”)
Based on what we’ve seen, Charles seems prone to ignorant microaggressions (I mean, the one we’ve seen can’t be the first—Sal accused both their parents of racism when she first blew up at Walky). That doesn’t make him a bad guy, but it doesn’t exactly scream “not racist” either.
I’m actually thinking that Sal initiated straightening her hair, in an attempt to win her mother’s approval, and Charles was just trying to be supportive of her. Like he maybe thought she liked it straight?
That’s a reason to tell you like her hair straight when she straightens it and to support her doing so, not to say how much better you like it the other way when she lets it go back to natural.
No, its a known problem in the black community. “Texturism”, as a subset of colorism. The concepts of “good hair” and “bad hair” have been espoused since the colonial (or in America’s case, pre civil rights?) days; simply put the looser (closer to European) your hair is, the better it is. More African hair (4a-c) is “nappy” and “bad”. Either way black women have been encouraged or even forced (it was a requirement in the workplace at a time) to straighten our hair since our natural hair was viewed as dirty and unprofessional. So saying something like “your hair was so much prettier straight” to a black woman, especially your own daughter, is actually a pretty weighted thing.
Sorry for the essays lately, recently found our I flunked outta college so I’m trying to put some of that education to use and feel like I didnt
Oh, zee, I’m so sorry to hear you went through such a rough time. That is so tough. Especially during college.
I really appreciate your essays. I find them thoughtful.
I really hope you find the educational path that works for you. There are SO MANY ways to get an education that serves you well in life. Only a small fraction of them involve a four-year university.
Thanks Laura, that’s really thoughtful 🥲
I’m not really built for academia, learning disorders and ADHD (probably auDHD tbh) run in the family and I’m not the first. It’s a relief not worry about collecting credits anymore at least. Maybe I’ll work in the arts or something
If it’s any consolation, I probably ain’t gonna complete my Physics Bachelors either. Even if by some very stressful and self-destructive margin I DID complete a degree, a job in my field is far from guaranteed, let alone a job I can actually DO without burning myself out like I have in the past, due my repeated mistake of trying to hard to compete in a world that just ain’t built for me. Not to say that I don’t want to learn as much science as I can put into my brain as possible as a way of life akin to Dina’s, I just think that there’s a better path for me.
Some much needed validating statistics:
— less than 50% of all college graduates actually get a job in their fields of study
— less than 40% of autistic students will graduate with a degree after enrolling in a 4-year school, even less so for students who also have ADHD
— over 85% of autistics are unemployed, and not by choice either!
Even if they are well-nigh immortal, with replaceable parts. Let me tell you if I could replace a few of my parts, I would. Especially if everything worked perfectly after the remove-and-replace without the need for extended physical therapy.
I may be an atheist but I’ll pray if it makes Twitter just die already. Satan, Buddah, The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, Cthulhu, Quetzalcoatl, SpongeBob Squarepants — I can’t afford to be picky.
If I have absorbed anything about Willis’ personality over the last two decades of reading his comics, it’s that he desperatelt wants to talk about everything related to this, yet understands how off putting it may be.
Curse you, daily comics. There’s like 30 or 50 different interactions I wanna see at this table, no matter how many you can get into a strip (today: three) it’s never gonna be very much. A river of drama held back to a slow drip feed. Like, Sal and Danny are probably not just sitting quietly during this even though that’s as much as we can see. Linda is probably considering ten different comments she could make and hasn’t decided which one to go with yet. And so on.
I think it could feel freeing for a socially anxious person to go into a situation with the express purpose of annoying and alienating those around her. She doesn’t have to be afraid of them judging her or hating her — that’s exactly the win condition.
Amber’s too dead inside to worry about what people think about her at this point. That’s what I’ve gotten from her post timeskip vibe. When depression overtakes anxiety.
Also people have pointed out that she too gives Girl Autism vibes so maybe he’s leaning into that
depending on what kind of art we’re talking about here this could be amber trying to nuke things off the bat but forgetting that a lot of the weirdest porn just looks like a shitpost to many people and also that extremely offline people don’t even know what a shitpost is
I figured it was part of the plan. Walky acts interested in Amber’s NSFW interests and his parents realize she’s a bad influence. But maybe he genuinely does want to see it, who knows.
I honestly feel bad that this was inflicted on Charles, who seems to be doing his best. Maybe the sensible thing of bringing Lucy and facing Linda head-on would have been the right move after all.
I can see this going one of two ways:
A) By the end of the evening, Charles and Linda will practically be begging Walky to get back with Lucy.
B) Linda doubles down and insists he get back with Dorothy.
The ancient Greeks had their own slashfic where practically anything could get anything else pregnant, and so did the Norse I think. No reason an Autobot should get left out of the action.
You know, mpreg is interesting conceptually from a gender standpoint. I’m currently reading a long piece on trans and/or nonbinary people who experience pregnancy. As there’s growing awareness of trans people and that there are, as part of this, men who experience pregnancy, I wonder if that shifts views and feelings on “mpreg” in any of the spaces it comes up. Back when I first encountered the concept– well, admittedly, I didn’t look into it too much, but it seemed like some of the more technical aspects were handwaved in the fandom spaces I saw it in.
And now the Transformers are involved as well, so that’s. Something.
There is this comedy movie “Junior” from 1994 with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito where Arnold becomes pregnant. Not sure how it holds up to modern sensibilities though.
I’m nonbinary and pregnant! It is a wild ride.
I don’t relate to pregnant men or pregnant robots in any particular way, though. I’m not a man or a robot any more than I’m a lady.
Your mileage may vary, but for me, I wasn’t into mpreg before, and I’m still not into mpreg now.
My boyfriends latest hyperfixation is transformers so I hate that I know exactly what this is referring to despite how hard I’ve been trying to avoid the franchise
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“Walky, nobody specified MPREG… or that it’s not a pregnant electrical component inside a cannon”
I mean there is the concept of male and female cables so…
Let us not forget androgynous cables! 😊
Oooh, or converters. Yet another kink for the transformers!
I haven’t seen those since the Token Ring days…
I have some cables that feature a connector with one male and one female terminal. Does that mean they’re hermaphrodite cables?
It’s the connectors that are male, female, or other; the cables are usually interchangeable.
Connectors can be androgynous… male contacts in a female enclosure (or the other way around, for its mating connector of course).
Examples : https://www.fclane.com/sites/default/files/Souriau-8D-MIL-DTL-38999-Series-III-Composite-Lightweight-Circular-Connectors-2.jpg
I guess. Those still read as male/female to me based on the pins and receivers. Having a foreskin doesn’t stop me from having male genetalia, even though I could find a clit big enough to fit in it. See also: sounding.
Not that there aren’t androgenous connectors, but the industry isn’t super well-standardized except for (apparently) power delivery connectors.
Maybe he just always wants to see Transformer MPREG, regardless of whether or not that’s actually what this is!
It’s Amber. It’s a safe bet.
For all those who thought / were-really-hoping that Amber made this up: Nope!
James Roberts’ TF: MTMTE and TF: Lost Light are my favorite pieces of Transformers media of all time, a perfect blend of Transformers, Star Trek, Firefly, and Doctor Who, with a wicked sense of humor and a knack for the occasional moment of sheer emotional devastation.
But damned if it wasn’t weird as fuck sometimes. And the universe got rebooted before its time, and Roberts liked to set up plot hooks years in advance, so when the axe fell he had to quickly wrap some things up. So this DeceptiBabby was clearly meant to lead to some future storylines that I have no doubt would have been awesome somehow…but nope, it’s just a DeceptiBabby. I guess the misfit antihero team the Scavengers adopted it. Its contribution to the canon is “So, that happened”.
Not kidding about calling it a DeceptiBabby, either. Look, it’s got face tats!
So…. this is a baby human? that a transformer is pregnant with? Or do the vehicle/robot parts grow in a later phase of fetal development?
Perhaps Willis can enlighten us.
Or who am I kidding it’s almost certain!
It wasn’t human, specifically, but Scorponok’s plan was to accelerate the evolution of the Transformers race (and the rebuilding of the Decepticon army) by breeding biological lifeforms with sparks inside of them, letting them reproduce, and then harvesting those sparks to place into new Transformer bodies.
Gnosticism redux?
So, Jupiter Ascending but Transformers?
I can sort of explain…a little. Maybe.
So, in this canon, the Cybertronian race is kinda fucked. They live a long time, but not forever. There USED to be these sort of natural events on Cybertron that periodically spat out new bots, but those happened less and less and then stopped entirely. Someone developed a way or producing new bots artificially by taking energy from the Matrix…but now the Matrix is busted.
And then they had a 4 million year long war that left billions dead. So…fucked.
MPregatron there (I CAN’T be the first person to call him that) is Scorponok, a mad science type. He performed a bunch of weirdass experiments to try to produce new Cybertronians. For example, he grew some out of wood! Actual footage.
His latest experiment was this Firstborn thing. The idea is that he would create a species that would reproduce organically, but have Cybertronian “sparks” (ie souls) which could then be extracted to put into robot bodies. So he’s gonna breed and kill a lot of humans to make more robots.
I think? Like I said, there was clearly going to be more to this, but the Scavengers just sort of stole the baby and I guess it’s the only one Scorponok was able to make. So plot over!
You’d think that if you were creating a humanoid species that reproduces organically, you’d need to be able to make more than one anyway.
Unless it can reproduce asexually, which would be more convenient if the only point was to use it create sparks and would mean the plot isn’t actually over.
He called her the Firstborn, so she was literally the first one, and the Scavengers busted up his plan before he could see if it worked so he could get started on more.
Didn’t they also find some new birthing facilities on one of Cybertron’s moon’s? I lost track of things.
i havne’t been into it a ton, but it would be hilarious if the next movie had like a ten second shot of a transformer fetus undergoing gestating(??) and never bringing it up again lol
… why did I click the links?
Why did I read the full explanation?
WHY have I sacrificed my precious brain cells to Transformer MPreg?!
What? Just boop ’em from your host brain — oh yeah right…
I haven’t been in on Transformers lore for a while, but this just kind of tracks.
Transformers pr0n was honestly pretty much my introduction to shipping. Only it was… not good pr0n involving the phrase “muffled clank” which is all I remember because that’s where the entire set of us just couldn’t stop laughing. It had currently for like a year.
How is babby formed?
How Transformer get pragnet?
I’m not really a Transformers fan, but these articles have some interesting discussions of gender, family, and reproduction among Transformers.
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Reproduction
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Female_Transformer
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/List_of_female_Transformers
Just found it interesting.
Seeing that first image without explanation is just… wtf!
But reading the explanation and the whole storyline of the race diminishing in numbers.
This now kind of really makes sense. *shrug*
I kind of wish I was more of a Transformers person sometime, they get up to some wild shit.
Of course, my wallet is relieved I only follow it much from afar.
Pick a comic to hyperfocus on, there’s a lot that get weird. Like the canon lesbian magical girl Venom AU.
MTMTE and Lost Light (the source of this particular madness) are both good enough that you can enjoy them without being an existing fan and without being into collecting the toys
Although they might turn you into a fan or collector, that’s a potential hazard
That’s the one I recommend. Excellent stuff.
“Do you want to read about robots being sad, drunk and gay on a spaceship?” was the pitch I needed to really dive into a transformers thing
So much for being on board with fuck piles.
You know, this train wreck is so far off the rails by this point I’m not positive it’s still a train wreck.
I think she accidentally made it seem like she and Walky could plausibly be interested in each other.
I think the shoe will drop when she and Walky discover that they are still plausibly into each other…
See, e.g.:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/04-hompk/hang/
Didn’t work out in the end, but come to think of it they did make a nice Autism / ADHD pair.
Till all are one.
I hate you, you mad beautiful genius.
Yeah, Sal was NOT down with the plan…
Mpreg transformers that’s a thing… I don’t want live in this planet any more.
Let’s be fair, fpreg transformers isn’t any more normal within the transformers canon
*cues up the U2 tracks*
sounds like it’s working
I’m indifferent to transformers impregnation. You can talk about it if you want or not, or we can talk about transformers inflation instead.
Reminds me a song I heard about there being nothing wrong with Pregnant Sonic art.
Well don’t leave us handing! 😀
*hanging
https://twitter.com/alexapdos/status/1681333011671838720
The Autistic Resonance is strong with this one. 🤘😈
Thanks bruh.
Thanks, I hate it.
Good. This hurt me and I want to spread this pain to others.
Pain? To quote Franky from One Piece,
“hahaha, that tickles!” 😝😎
I love you for providing me with more ammunition to send my sister and unexpecting friends.
My sister says
“Everything is wrong with you”
Are you familiar with the Scandinavian band Kollectivet?
Try their lovely song “I can’t get an erection from the election.” If you want some terrible songs ammunition… XD
Excellent. I know a few Discord servers I’ll be dropping that in, thank you.
And that reminds me of the classic Batman+Shrek=Sonic picture
“I’m not the stepdad I’m the dad that stepped up” I felt that 😔✊
Never has a more horrible pronouncement been made than “I’m going to start talking about it now,” regarding Transformers.
You have brought this upon yourself and those around Charles. I hope you are ready for an in depth explanation of why it is a good thing that a transformer is pregnant.
Seriously though, can someone explain why a transformer is pregnant and what it all it means?
Well, sometimes when two Transformers aren’t really getting along and have some misguided notions about what would “save” their relationship…
Apparently pregnant Transformer are a mad scientist experiment to cure sterilisation and their race’s extinction… by breeding and euthanasiting this “crossbreed”.
Gotta breed organic beings and then harvest their souls to build new bots around.
Fascinating
The change between Sal and Walky in the last panels got me. At first I didn’t realize Walky had jumped in, and I thought I had missed some important Sal developments, possibly over the timeskip.
I’m sad for Sal, because even this trainwreck of a diversion seems more interesting (to her dad, at least) than of her surprisingly (to her mom) mundane relationship with Danny. Sal is looking a little cranky before Walky jumps in, and probably now even moreso.
Charles is really winning me over this storyline.
Well, I know I’ve never felt more sympathetic to him than in that last panel.
What we don’t know is that Linda is really into niche Transformers pornography.
Linda starts blushing and excuses herself from the table. Charles goes a few minutes later to “check on her.” Sal, Danny, Amber, and Walky have an awkward lunch. Linda and Charles don’t get back until it’s time to pay the check. The only lessons learned are in regret.
She optis on his mus until he primes
She auto on my bot til I roll out
I am honestly curious if that’s real.
On one hand Willis would know.
On the otherhand, Amber is attempting to be as unlikable as possible without breaking character.
I could look it up, but I am wary of what cursed false positives Google will find.
Amd I don’t trust this comment section not to bullshit the ignorant.
Also… why? Just why? Making a transformer pregnant just raises so many unnecessary questions about their biology.
Was it an ilthought attempt to break into the girls market? Did someone overthink a vehicle-carrying vehicle?
Rule 34, Buli-Buli
Rule. Thirty. Four.
This isn’t Rule 34 – like she says, it’s happened in canon.
Technically it rule 34 doesn’t actually specify non-canonical. But I did miss her saying it was canon. So I guess it’s not SUPPOSED to be a fetish…
Well I mean…not like comics haven’t been guilty of inserting those into the narrative.
Yeah I would not make assumptions about this not being a fetish of either the writer or the artist.
Mash up of 34, 44 and 49
“There is porn of it, its in your fandom and it’s somebody’s fetish”
Hey strange, those are the three sizes I saw on Flintstones on Yoto’s stream last night. 😮
45*
I am not a TF fan but there is a segment of Transformers canon where the authors decided they absolutely wanted to deepen from toyetic villain of the weeks and answer all those hard questions about magic space robot gender, culture, biology, etc..
There’s always those in a long-running, multi-author franchise. It’s arguably the main selling point of Star Wars.
Behold:
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Firstborn
Oh, that is so much better than what I was imagining.
***I don’t trust this comment section not to bullshit the ignorant.***
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, that you would suggest such a thing.
The Twitter sidebar works again but it’s just totally random, it starts with a tweet from June but scroll down just a little and you’re going back years.
… wait, no, it disappeared immediately after I hit post.
yup.
tease.
It is working for me here now, and also on a bog I follow.
Err, “blog”, I’m not that into wetlands.
Why not? They’re amazing.
Amber: after all, we know they have dicks and massive balls from the movies. No, the Bay ones.
I know the joke is supposed to be how Amber looks like an antisocial weirdo that’s bad girlfriend material, but uh…low key him getting excited over Transformers mpreg is more energy than I’ve seen from him in his entire relationship with Lucy. Is this about to be Jacob and Joyce 2? Cause that will be setting a precedent for pretend girlfriend plan being a bad idea and ultimately ending a relationship.
I’ve said before but my big gripe with Walky and Lucy has always been that they have like…no Chemistry. Lucy is nice and Walky is…ok and they like each other but they don’t feel like they’re…on the same page. Just never quite clicked for me.
I feel like I’m being mean to Lucy at this point. Like I’m the Sarah here. How else do you explain this? Amber got his excitement here without even trying. Lucy seems like a nice friend, but does Walky actually have any interest in her or anything she does beyond she’s a nice, smart, girl?
That’s honestly the crux of the relationship for me. Walky doesn’t find her UN-attractive, he enjoys her company, but he doesn’t seem like he’s actively into her romantically or sexually.
Yeah I feel like Lucy is a nice person. And I think people think that someone being “nice” is fine but it’s not really the end all be all of a relationship. They’re cute together, they get along and I don’t want anyone to be heart broken but they just don’t feel like they’ll go the distance and I dread that they won’t realize that until after they have sex or do something that complicates things.
He very much had a “You’re a smart, nice, attractive girl who likes me! I’d be mad not to reciprocate interest!” moment and then the relationship Gained Momentum because he doesn’t want to hurt her (or most people, or disappoint them, and he does want to be a Good Boy[friend]) and Lucy thinks he could genuinely be The One… On paper, she ticks the boxes. She is Good Girlfriend Material. She is somebody of whom parents should approve. But it wasn’t lust at first sight. This is their first shenanigans together, and she’s not even here (compare: Dorothy and Walky chasing down Amazigirl; or Walky developing his own caped hero costume to try and accompany Amazi-Amber as she fought crimes, and gaining serious insight into her DID in the process – but it started out as wacky hijinks!)… Walky likes excitement and adventure. Sure, girlfriends helping him with his studies (both Dorothy and Amber tutored him, as well as the grades changing from Amber which he doesn’t know about still) and dressing him up (at least Dorothy), encouraging him to grow and try new things (mainly Dorothy), giving him validation (both of them)…
I do think though that in the aftermath of their relationship crashing and burning, if Lucy lets herself be angry and then also works on expressing herself more healthily going forward, she’ll be happier and more interesting, with stronger friendships…
Agreed to all of the above.
only thing I’d say different is Walky is lacking any feeling of intimacy, not “lust at first sight”. Lucy’s unreciprocated feelings go beyond horniness, and “lust at first sight” is not actually required for a romantic connection. eg: Sal and Danny.
Honestly Lucy contributing to this fake girlfriend plan was the most chemistry I’d felt between the two. For a moment it felt like the two were really vibing with sharing a single braincell… But then again I suppose that if this is the consequence of them experiencing a moment of wavelength resonance then they probably aren’t particularly good for each other / together…
I actually agree. The fact that she went along with that plan was cute and it’s the most I’ve ever been on board with this ship. Which…y’know…is ironic given this plan also facilitates Walky fake dating his ex.
You’re right actually. I went back and looked. It does feel like a real joint interest. Cute even.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/commended/
Wow that is some irony.
Well, you’re the one who asked, dude.
I know somebody has probably already talked about this before, but while I was walking today I realized that I feel that Amazi-girl would be such a better name with the n left it because:
1) It becomes a full fusion of Amazing-girl which I think is kind of fun.
2) It is spelled identically to Amazing IRL, which seems very fitting for Amber.
Then again, I guess the name can’t fit Amber too well or it won’t be much of a secret identity and much of the whole point of Amazi-girl (for Amber to have a persona she feels is righteous and redeeming, but must be seperate from Amber which she feels is a terrible person).
Yep, no longer part of The Bit, Walky is genuinely interested.
I guess giving Amber a chance is the white thing to do!
So, a few days ago I said it’d be funny if *Charles* was the one who was so racist he immediately accepted Amber despite the insanity of it all, and now it’s starting to seem like that’s actually what’s happening and I’m kind of not prepared mentally for it.
Don’t know if he’s racist, seems like he’s really just amicable. Starting to see a lot of Walky like tendencies now that he’s spoken a little more, think he’s just willing to give her a chance.
I feel like this is more leaning towards how others have theorized that this is setting up an arc to Walky and Amber’s unresolved Garbage Roof history.
He has not said a single bad thing about Lucy! He met her once and didn’t even get to talk to her before the conversation ended. Like, come on, wait until he actually talks to her before judging.
For it to be racist he would have to reject Lucy. All I see is evidence of him trying to be nice to his son’s partner.
does this include the marriage? ‘cuz if so, understandable!
Honestly, Amber should just be wearing a T-shirt saying, “Dead Bird – Do Not Eat.”
Or maybe have a phone case with that on it.
Isnt the tag “Dead Dove”, actually?
i mean as far as mpreg goes, robotic mpreg probably isn’t bad XD
oh thank god scorponok mpreg is being discussed in dumbing of age. this is all i wanted.
Search for Cannon preg transformer must be nasty rabbit hole and full of other non canon preg fantasy.
Does mpreg have own rule number like rule 34?
Closest i can find on tv tropes is Rule 44: If it exists, there is a version of it for your fandom… and it has a wiki and possibly a tabletop version with a theme song performed by a Vocaloid.
…I want mpreg ttprg
I mean, I’ve said for years now that the entire Autobot/Decepticon war was a bunch of guys with fighting over a chick. For the longest time R.C. was the only female transformer, and she was with the autobots. Decepticons were blue balled for millions of years.
Dw they solved that by being incredibly gay and trans
oh man, Charles is my age, isn’t he?
if not younger
How does atobot becom praganat
MAD SCIENCE MAKES ANYTHING POSSIBLE!
ANYTHING!!!!
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/453/293/b58.jpg
Yee, after watching Made in Abyss, few things will phase me. 😗
Maid in the Abyss. Yes both Milton and Coleridge mentioned her.
Do not ask questions to which you might not want the answers.
This rule is typically learned the hard way.
Witness Chuck learning.
Making the Baby – the real way robots reproduce (from the 2005 film, Robots).
I officially love Charles and wish he wasnt attached to the Kraken
I wish they had told Sal about this plan before they went through with it.
She might have brought up salient points like: so bro, if they actually accept Amber what are you going to do then?
Looking at a Sal’s face as she kind of gets brushed aside with the madness. Hmm.
So Charles is the one who accepts the white girl and not the black one. Not Linda it seems. Interesting.
Granted not to get into the weeds too much but folks have brought up that Linda’s issue can be misogynoir rather than bog standard racism: which makes too much sense to me. And since Charles is mixed himself it makes me wonder which parent of his is black. What are Linda’s in law dynamics? If Charles’ mother is black and Linda does not get on with her I consider that a smoking gun and going three for three as it were. Granted if his father is and she does get on with him that’s another potential point in its favour.
Like I said in a comment above, wait until Charles actually interacts with Lucy at all before calling him a racist.
Yeah, to be fair to Charles, while we saw Linda immediately become uncomfortable Charles immediately began chatting Lucy up, we just didn’t see the convo https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/whispering/ The quickness to decide Charles is racist is interesting, I think he’s honestly just being polite to his son’s gf, whoever that may be.
I mean, Charles was the one lamenting Sal showing up to that first family visit weekend with her natural hair (“but you look so pretty with it straight”). I don’t think Linda has ever said anything to Sal that blatant. (To/about Marcie? Sure. But even then, still nothing as rough as “your natural hair doesn’t look at good.”)
Based on what we’ve seen, Charles seems prone to ignorant microaggressions (I mean, the one we’ve seen can’t be the first—Sal accused both their parents of racism when she first blew up at Walky). That doesn’t make him a bad guy, but it doesn’t exactly scream “not racist” either.
I’m actually thinking that Sal initiated straightening her hair, in an attempt to win her mother’s approval, and Charles was just trying to be supportive of her. Like he maybe thought she liked it straight?
That’s a reason to tell you like her hair straight when she straightens it and to support her doing so, not to say how much better you like it the other way when she lets it go back to natural.
No, its a known problem in the black community. “Texturism”, as a subset of colorism. The concepts of “good hair” and “bad hair” have been espoused since the colonial (or in America’s case, pre civil rights?) days; simply put the looser (closer to European) your hair is, the better it is. More African hair (4a-c) is “nappy” and “bad”. Either way black women have been encouraged or even forced (it was a requirement in the workplace at a time) to straighten our hair since our natural hair was viewed as dirty and unprofessional. So saying something like “your hair was so much prettier straight” to a black woman, especially your own daughter, is actually a pretty weighted thing.
Sorry for the essays lately, recently found our I flunked outta college so I’m trying to put some of that education to use and feel like I didnt
Oh, zee, I’m so sorry to hear you went through such a rough time. That is so tough. Especially during college.
I really appreciate your essays. I find them thoughtful.
I really hope you find the educational path that works for you. There are SO MANY ways to get an education that serves you well in life. Only a small fraction of them involve a four-year university.
I believe in your future.
Thanks Laura, that’s really thoughtful 🥲
I’m not really built for academia, learning disorders and ADHD (probably auDHD tbh) run in the family and I’m not the first. It’s a relief not worry about collecting credits anymore at least. Maybe I’ll work in the arts or something
Good luck to you. Your future is wide open. Your way will open up for you.
Best of luck Zee, I feel you.
If it’s any consolation, I probably ain’t gonna complete my Physics Bachelors either. Even if by some very stressful and self-destructive margin I DID complete a degree, a job in my field is far from guaranteed, let alone a job I can actually DO without burning myself out like I have in the past, due my repeated mistake of trying to hard to compete in a world that just ain’t built for me. Not to say that I don’t want to learn as much science as I can put into my brain as possible as a way of life akin to Dina’s, I just think that there’s a better path for me.
Some much needed validating statistics:
— less than 50% of all college graduates actually get a job in their fields of study
— less than 40% of autistic students will graduate with a degree after enrolling in a 4-year school, even less so for students who also have ADHD
— over 85% of autistics are unemployed, and not by choice either!
I didn’t catch that detail. Thanks for pointing it out!
I think he’s genuinely just trying to be nice, and would have been equally nice to Lucy.
You know what, nevermind. This is going to be amazing.
This is going to crash and burn. We might as well enjoy the fireworks.
DeeeeeeeRANGED!
Anyway, I sense a spark and a fizzle at the same time.
That’s a thing?
Wait, of course it’s a thing. This is the Internet.
… That’s a canon thing?!
Yes. Bonafide. I mean this is Willis, your #1 source for Transformers info, period.
That’s legitimately true.
Of course it’s a cannon thing. This is comic books.
Hey what if I told you the transformers mpreg was to solve the energy crisis?
(According to second hand info, actual transformers stans will know better than me)
per comments above, it’s more about staving off impending extinction.
Everything goes extinct eventually. Transformers don’t get to be exempt.
Even if they are well-nigh immortal, with replaceable parts. Let me tell you if I could replace a few of my parts, I would. Especially if everything worked perfectly after the remove-and-replace without the need for extended physical therapy.
Side note: I see tweets in the Twitter bar again, but they’re all old (going back years) and out of order.
Yup.
I may be an atheist but I’ll pray if it makes Twitter just die already. Satan, Buddah, The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, Cthulhu, Quetzalcoatl, SpongeBob Squarepants — I can’t afford to be picky.
I’m looking for Twitter to become such a liability that Space Karen has to sell it for a humiliating 1 cent on the dollar.
What? Not one mention of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? In the name of all Pastafarians, may he smite you with his noodly appendage.
Go forth and read the Gospel.
https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Flying-Spaghetti-Monster/dp/0812976568
Pray to the Invisible Pink Unicorn!
…I am… Actually surprised Walky is that wanting to see it
Yeah, whatever catches his interest, the ADHDemon.
He be a Luffy on the low. XD
Why? Just the phrase “transformers mpreg” is funny as shit
If I have absorbed anything about Willis’ personality over the last two decades of reading his comics, it’s that he desperatelt wants to talk about everything related to this, yet understands how off putting it may be.
Charles, if you get desperate, you could just change your mind and bite her, which would derail the conversation.
“Well that’s some way to treat your future daughter in law! Or is this some kind of invitation?”
That’s one way to assert nominance.
Charles, prepare for man-made horrors beyond human comprehension.
Curse you, daily comics. There’s like 30 or 50 different interactions I wanna see at this table, no matter how many you can get into a strip (today: three) it’s never gonna be very much. A river of drama held back to a slow drip feed. Like, Sal and Danny are probably not just sitting quietly during this even though that’s as much as we can see. Linda is probably considering ten different comments she could make and hasn’t decided which one to go with yet. And so on.
It took me a while to realize that Charles is speaking truth through punchline here.
I love Sal getting literally covered up by Walky in this conversation. Sibling feelings, no attention for Sal.
I feel like David has forgotten Amber’s social anxiety and just decided she’s Dina 2.0 now.
I think it could feel freeing for a socially anxious person to go into a situation with the express purpose of annoying and alienating those around her. She doesn’t have to be afraid of them judging her or hating her — that’s exactly the win condition.
Amber’s too dead inside to worry about what people think about her at this point. That’s what I’ve gotten from her post timeskip vibe. When depression overtakes anxiety.
Also people have pointed out that she too gives Girl Autism vibes so maybe he’s leaning into that
depending on what kind of art we’re talking about here this could be amber trying to nuke things off the bat but forgetting that a lot of the weirdest porn just looks like a shitpost to many people and also that extremely offline people don’t even know what a shitpost is
it’s a cannon event and we cannot interfere…
…I wish I were naïve enough to think that were a typo.
Is… is Amber about to legit win Walky over?
I figured it was part of the plan. Walky acts interested in Amber’s NSFW interests and his parents realize she’s a bad influence. But maybe he genuinely does want to see it, who knows.
I honestly feel bad that this was inflicted on Charles, who seems to be doing his best. Maybe the sensible thing of bringing Lucy and facing Linda head-on would have been the right move after all.
The plan was to make Lucy look like a better choice by comparison. This plan is going off without a hitch.
It definitely would’ve been sensible, and it probably would be better than this. But I guess they really want to make a statement.
I can see this going one of two ways:
A) By the end of the evening, Charles and Linda will practically be begging Walky to get back with Lucy.
B) Linda doubles down and insists he get back with Dorothy.
Or things could go wildly off track and she approves of Amber. Especially after learning about her doctor stepfather.
TIL what mpreg is. As I didn’t learn about it owing to a family member’s interest I can deal with it.
The ancient Greeks had their own slashfic where practically anything could get anything else pregnant, and so did the Norse I think. No reason an Autobot should get left out of the action.
You know, mpreg is interesting conceptually from a gender standpoint. I’m currently reading a long piece on trans and/or nonbinary people who experience pregnancy. As there’s growing awareness of trans people and that there are, as part of this, men who experience pregnancy, I wonder if that shifts views and feelings on “mpreg” in any of the spaces it comes up. Back when I first encountered the concept– well, admittedly, I didn’t look into it too much, but it seemed like some of the more technical aspects were handwaved in the fandom spaces I saw it in.
And now the Transformers are involved as well, so that’s. Something.
There is this comedy movie “Junior” from 1994 with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito where Arnold becomes pregnant. Not sure how it holds up to modern sensibilities though.
then you have the double ending of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Slightly_Pregnant_Man
way before schwarzy and arguably with a better actor and a real, if not that inspired, filmmaker.
I’m nonbinary and pregnant! It is a wild ride.
I don’t relate to pregnant men or pregnant robots in any particular way, though. I’m not a man or a robot any more than I’m a lady.
Your mileage may vary, but for me, I wasn’t into mpreg before, and I’m still not into mpreg now.
Amber is doing her best, bless her <3
You heathen. Not one mention of the Flying Spaghetti Monster! In the name of all Pastafarianis, may his noodly appendage smite thee. Go ye forth and read the Gospel.
https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Flying-Spaghetti-Monster/dp/0812976568 .
How did this wind up down here? Oh well. If at first you don’t succeed, make a nuisance of yourself by trying again.
I wasn’t aware it was still 2010.
Charles regrets his all of his life choices that he’s hearing about pregnant transformers, or that he’s only now hearing about pregnant transformers?
That he’s hearing about it now. Amber is going to start talking about pregnant transformers at length = regret.
That’s the obvious reading, but I like the other one.
He is thinking to himself, “Why couldn’t *I* have met a hot Transformers nerd babe when I was in college?”
My boyfriends latest hyperfixation is transformers so I hate that I know exactly what this is referring to despite how hard I’ve been trying to avoid the franchise
And, the ads are getting weird again. Apparently advertisers think I need cowboy boots, a $2k designer dress or an industrial trash compactor.
At least try the boots. They will be great for working the compactor.
I regret all the life choices that lead to me now hearing about pregnant transformers.
how does Walky know that’s specifically mpreg? Female transformers have been around since the G1 cartoon
Yeah, all 7 of ’em.
the fact that you can provide an exact number gives me many feelings. chiefly “is that an accurate count? … of course it is” and “single digit, huh?”