If I hear another "not called cisformers is it sweetie? UwU" I will commit a hate crime
It would be awful to pigeonhole a power into a single gender. It's not like the entire Cybertronian race could be "non-binary" simply because they transform. I wonder if they even "know" what non-binary is? Because Nightshade seems less androgynous, even a bit "feminine," though it's just the "generic male" form of the Transformers in its line, which makes it somewhat unnecessary, even for its own line.
I dunno call me crazy but I find the g1 cartoon explanation of "yeah they were always there but just like on decepticon occupied cybertron sabotaging shit" a funny and kinda worth it explanation. Viewing them as some kinda extra or tacked on last minute creation to be more relatable to humans is kinda what opened the door for the kinda preachy IDW and earthspark segments about gendershit, kind of a double edge in a sense I guess because like you said the focus on female transformers in general shouldn't really be a big thing in canon because they're fucking aliens. Despite humanoid appearance they clearly don't have the same baggage as humans when it comes to that kinda thing.
It's like in a strange setting, a race of aliens who were supposed to be genderless suddenly reveal that there were Fembots and Trannybots, and then out of nowhere they show several gay couples, which is very nice, but the fact that Cybertronians "didn't have gender" is quite perplexing, since within several continuities there are indications that they can form families, not only of siblings but of fathers, mothers, children, and so on.
I think the biggest issue with earthspark aside from blandness is the fact it was simultaneously trying to be a much kiddier cartoon than most Transformers while ALSO doing a mature post-war story... AS A NEW INCARNATION OF THE FUCKING TRANSFORMERS.
God, Transformers is generally known as the robots that transform into things that are at war. Earthspark deals with the "Post-War" period and focuses on "New Characters," but there's hardly any real plot beyond the weekly Decepticon. And I mean, those who defended Nightshade barely know how to analyze the series.
I mean, no psychological exploration of Optimus, Megatron, Bee, or anything? Instead, they look for an "Autistic Transformer" because he likes dinosaurs and the critics praise him for it
New issue of the comic dropped and I think its alright. I thought Optimus struggling with not being a prime is interesting and they did it without making a worse or pathetic character.
At least it's not a "political agenda" thing, but more of a corporate agenda. The Transformers One movie brought Elita One into the public eye, enough to elevate her to an exploitable character almost like Bumblebee (possibly on a smaller scale), but I don't rule out that it's a bit political... I don't know, I feel like it follows the pattern of making the male character look bad so that the female character seems better.
