Short answer, "Sure why not!" Longer answer, As long as the more prominent ones are given the same attention to character, pros and flaws, as their male counterparts. I'm as game for a good heroine and villainess as I am their male compatriots or rivals.
I don't care if there are female transformers or if they gain an increased presence as the franchise continues. All that matters to me is these "fembots" or what have you are a). well-written and interesting characters (as much as they can be in a media franchise designed to sell toys) and b). are not used as mouth pieces to promote "progressive" rhetoric. I'm a girl, but I don't care about such trivial things as "representation" in my media. I just want good characters and a fun story.
well i kinda feel the same about these characters, ok 23 yo guy here but still i hate when diversity comes with characters being washed off personality, being just some blank collage of stereotypes and archetypes, kinda same goes for e.g. LGBT ppl, or ethnic, national or racial minorities, i think that including character lie this in form of empty tolerance banner, with no personality, and no impact or purpose in story, is more offensive than not including such at all. Anyways i think that even if that was probably main reason for fembots to appear in 1st place i think they greatly solidify the idea of Transformers being sentient and emotional entities, which don't need such differentiation, they choose to do so, the feel need for this one more aspect to add to their personality. Well i even had idea for 2 Transformers characters on my own(but seeing how recent installments in franchise kinda butchering all characters with last animated series turning them all into morons while movie series just kills most of them off) which are brother and sister, their origin story is quite long and also kinda mashes up G1 Quitesons with how the Decepticon uprising was presented in Aligned continuity but kinda don't want to write it down here.
Sounds like you care then. When people say they want good representation they typically say it in response to shitty representation already there or due to the blatant unprofessionalism of the creator's reasoning for not including it, rather than demanding it out of nowhere. Long story short, it's criticism of quality just like any other.
@@femi-naziolanerkek2029 They don't even have that. They're machines with several examples showing they have no concept of gender or sexuality like humans do.
Starscream: She's not so hot. Megatron: She's hot enough to replace you whenever I please. Starscream: REPLACE ME?! NEVER! (Actual dialogue from the G1 series but not sure which episode)
I liked the episode that debuted them in the G1 cartoon. I never understood why Hasbro back then didn't seize on that opportunity. Glad it's happening now. Now, how about more female Decepticons?
Gender and sex are two different things, though. Transformers don't have a biological (or in their case, mechanical) means of reproduction, so no need for sex and thus, genitals. Gender is separate.
@@KittycatDaddy Your argument is specious and fallacious. While sex and gender are two separate things, gender is best defined as one's sex identity and therefore is going to be entirely shaped by one's own biology. What you are doing is anthropomorphism to a fallacious extreme. The fact is that Transformers have a wide range of differing reproductive states or mimicry of said states, which varies from continuity to continuity. The Maximals in Beast Machines for example, being technorganic, are arguably capable of sexual reproduction; ergo as a bisexually reproducing species, projecting human sexual and gender dynamics onto them, makes sense. Likewise the transformers in the Sunbow cartoon were basically consumer and commercial robots, designed to mimic the bisexually reproducing biological alien races they were being sold to. A great analogy for them is the synths in "Humans". They were built no doubt with companionship in mind and possibly even as sex robots. Once again, projecting human sexual and gender dynamics onto them, makes sense. Then you get to the Marvel G2 Comic, where transformers could reproduce through budding - a form of asexual reproduction; projecting our human sexual and gender dynamics as a bisexually reproducing species, onto a monosexually reproducing species, makes absolutely no sense. The same is true of every single non-Quintesson continuity (with the exception of Cyberverse where their origins were radically different) where Transformers are created through the Allspark. In that continuity, there is a single source of reproduction and the transformers themselves were sterile beings, devoid of any kind of sexuality. As such, there is one single gender and any and all manifestations of what might be considered different genders to we humans, are all simply manifestations of the one single gender. The same is true of hotspots. In both cases, projecting our human sexual and gender dynamics as a bisexually reproducing species, onto a non-sexually reproducing species, makes absolutely no sense. The one exception to all of this is the Maximals and Predacons in Beast Wars, however only when they have scanned and replicated a biological alt-mode on an alien world. In those cases, as "Call of the Wild" showed, the alt mode fundamentally altered the psychology of the Cybertronian who scanned it. While this means that said Transformer will mimic the sexuality and gender of the life form they've scanned and replicated, this really is the one example where there is no straight answer. If the life form scanned and replicated is bisexually reproducing, then bisexual sex and gender dynamics will be predictable. If the life form is trisexually reproducing or monosexually reproducing, then those are the sex and gender dynamics you would expect to see, as opposed to those of a bisexually reproducing species such as ours. In short, the answer as to whether gender should exist in transformers ultimately depends on the universe building of the continuity it takes place in. If people want female transformers and human gender and sexual issues to be present in a Transformers story and make sense, then it is up to the writers to ensure that either the biology of the Transformers or the biology which the Transformers are mimicking in some form or another, is that of a bisexually reproducing species. Clearly Transformers needs more writers who actually understand how important universe building is in science fiction.
I honestly used to think the idea that they’re gender neutral, so some are more masculine and some are more feminine and when they are in relationships with other transformers its more about personalities than anything else. This video just flooded back all my old memories of the female transformers (especially beast wars can’t believe I forgot about them) and really confirms to me they were always there in almost every version of transformers and there’s nothing wrong with that.
It is a shame that we live now in a world where when discussing male and female robots in a cartoon from 34 years ago you have to start the video with a disclaimer that is basically pleading with people not to get "offended" with your personal point of view on the matter.
Kopie Eh I don’t know previous generations thought Rock n Roll from Elvis and Pokémon were satanic and evil so I have a hard time believing that this is the pussy generation.
@@sonicx945 see that generation hadn’t heard stuff like that before. The same thing happened with metal in the 80s. But that didn’t do a whole lot community wise like our generation. In the older generations you would say something semi controversial and people would ignore you and laugh you off, now people will go out of their way to get your voice silenced. Now that’s not everyone but it’s a thing
As much as I feel the Aligned continuity has gotten a bit... complicated, the origin story of the Thirteen Primes is one of my favorite things to come out of it (at least in terms of ironing out the idea of the concept). And I absolutely love the idea of female cybertronians being descendants of Solus Prime, who was given a more creative mind in order to invent and create her powerful relics. It not only gives them a functional explanation for their existance, but it also explains why other specific character concepts continue to reappear in the franchise. Like how beast mode transformers are descendants of Onyx Prime and Minicons from Micronus Prime, and so on. Of course it doesn't explain everything, but it's a good foundation to be, well, toyed with and build upon by fans and writers alike. Also, Prime Arcee is awesome, and probably my favorite female transformer.
The entire concept of all female Transformers being the decendents of Solus Prime, with how it continues to be executed, is an example of how untalented hacks who have no place writing science fiction stories, wind up doing exactly that. The concept could have worked had it actually gone down the route of having budding being a secondary form of reproduction for the Transformers. In fact, in the original fan club extended run of Transformers Generation 2, Arcee is given an origin story where Hot Rod gives birth to Arcee through budding, after rediscovering not only the ability, but how to shape the form and personality of his offspring, when he is captured by the Cybertronian Empire and under the tutilege of the female Cybertronian, Phoenix. Had different Transformers had a direct lineage through budding, which was traced back to the 13 Primes, this would actually work and be incredibly solid. It could even have opened up the possibility of exploring ideas like Cybertronian tribes having formed the basis of modern Cybertroanian society, and how it ties into things like functionalism. Heck, even the Quintesson origin, where Cybertronians are essentially the equivalent of the robots in the show "Humans", makes not only the concept of gender completely work, but also opens the door up to romantic and even sexual relationships, involving all possible sexual orientations. Instead, we wind up with either the Allspark or sparks and/or hotspots being the sole form of Cybertronian reproduction - which makes the entire concept of any gender - let alone the concetp of romantic relationships - in either the Alligned or IDW continuities, something which is utterly asinine.
@@johncaulfield8935 That is a tough one to answer. The Continued Generation 2 Comic, which was produced by Transmasters UK in the 1990s, ran for 36 issues, continuing on from Issue 12, and some issues were even done by a younger Nick Roche. Unfortunately tracking these down is a really difficult. There is no sign of them online and I have no idea who might have copies of them. Sadly there's a lot of great Transformers content from the 1990s that has simply been memory-holed.
@@johncaulfield8935 ...aaaaand Murphy's Law, while I don't know where all of them are, TMUK seem to be trying to do reprints and scans of them and there seems to be no clear indication on when that's happening, they did upload one issue of it to Facebook: facebook.com/10157804015767555
Great video man. I have to say that Elita-1 is my fav female character. I like the inclusion of the female bots but if I have to complain it would be for more Decepticon females to be included in the stories.
If you are talking about the last jedi, then that's Disney. Speaking of the last jedi as well as transformers, my biggest concern is whether or not the female bots were inserted because they would make good characters or because of ideological corruption. The reason why I worry about that is because of the way ideologies like feminism operate. It will stop at nothing to spread itself.
@@huntergman8338 actually it wasn’t Disney, it was very much the head of LucasArtz. Since the end of the modern trilogy, Disney has been stripping her power away because of how much Star Wars fans hate her
"I don't get why people are upset. These are characters after all, and while they're robots, 'gender' is something that gives them more humanity." As a Marvel Comics fan, I was always fascinated by Ultron, Jocasta, and Alkhema. Humanoid robots with emotions, gender identities, and psychological problems similat to the Avengers they were patterned after (Hank Pym, Wasp, Mockingbird).
Yeah female transformers are definitely a lot better female characters in fiction than in most other series. The writers were able to create a good balance between the soft, tender side and the tough, fighter side
I remember seeing one fan interpretation that I really liked. It's not so much the robots that have genders, but the Sparks. In appearance, the Sparks look like balls of energy, so you can't tell what gender they are by looking at them. But you put them in a blank protoform, and said protoform transforms into a more masculine/feminine appearance depending on the gender of the Spark. And the role the genders play in Transformer physiology is the same as any other species, i.e. procreation. How they achieve this is that a male and female transformer would open their spark chambers and join their energies to create a new Spark. It is then placed inside a blank protoform which the parents pre-programmed with a name and initial purpose (I say initial because their purpose can change depending on what they learn in life) creating a new Transformer who appears fully grown and aware of who he is and what his initial purpose is.
I head canon this as well. Only thing a little different with mine is, working within what is canon, the created 'sparkling' is placed within Cybertron or Vector Sigma to mature until it is ready to be placed in a protoform or forged.
Dank Starscream If you’re including voice, you’re the closest one being a female robot with your g1 voice. Me and my friend even argued about g1 starscream gender with his opinion that you’re female.
im just happy elita one,moonracer, and novastar/firestar are finally geting figs. im mostly looking forwerd to elita one because now my classics optimus will have his girl. optimus X elita Ironhide X chromia I think arcee is in a bit of a love triangle with Rodimus Prime and Springer
i agree on the sticker front that will be a issue, I'm actually considering picking up a toyhax Reprolabel sheat to fix my power of the primes jazz with the G2 stickers sheat.
You tackled this difficult subject very well, and I absolutely loved this video! You should do more videos together. Your voices and style of narrating compliment each other very well. Please do more videos like this one. I love seeing the evolution of concepts and characters through different continuities.
Thank you. I may take that into consideration with my wife, though I'm not sure if she would want to again. It's very difficult with a 2 year old running around the room with an open mic! I do have a few ideas rolling around however!
RodimusPrimal You're welcome! It would make sense for it to take a long time since it is quite a difficult topic, but time and effort is always the best! Can't wait for the next Episode! :)
1:48 This is rather perplexing since G.I. Joe had Scarlett, Lady Jaye, and Cover Girl. What's also interesting to note is that while little boys may act weird about the opposite sex, they actually do like girls, they just won't admit it. Also, little boys tend to have crushes on older teenage girls and women. I would imagine that many little boys who grew up watching G.I. Joe had crushes on Scarlett or Lady Jaye. I had a crush on the-princess-formerly-known-as-Toadstool-and-now-known-as-Peach. I always played as the Princess in Super Mario Bros. 2 for that reason. With female transformers though, it's hard to imagine boys crushing on a robot. Arcee's relationship with Daniel is something that can be commonly misunderstood. Nowadays, people seem to think that any close, intimate relationship between an adult and a child is "pedophilia" but really if you look closer, it's more of a parenting instinct. I'm sure many a little boy had a crush on his sexy young female babysitter and felt very warm and fuzzy inside when she would hug and cuddle him, but what the little boy doesn't realize is that she's actually just acting on a mothering instinct. It's even more crushing to find out that she already has a big Football player Jock-type boyfriend.
I don't know about you, but I had QUITE the crush on Prime Arcee growing up, so crushing on robots may not be as farfetched as you think. That, or I was just one strange kid lol
When I was a kid I thought Arcee was really cool. I also really liked She-ra and Teela from He-man. Female characters totally have a place in "boys" properties.
For your second paragraph made me think how sick some people are. I guess they think a parent can’t spend time with their children. You have to have a sick mind for that.
It's cool how you are straight up with how you're not PC, and that you're doing this video just to celebrate woman's day and not push any political agenda Edit: TBH that female Ratchet idea actually sounds really cool, and would have maybe even got girls into TF. At least they had Arcee and the Paradron Medics
Ratchet is so imbedded as a male character in my mind, that I can't imagine him being female. If he was female since G1 though, I would've been perfectly fine with it.
My friends and I used to talk about this a lot back in college, which was a little less than 20 years ago. At the time, the internet was still a relatively new thing, and so knowledge of the Japanese series wasn't as common as today. Thus the focus was on the original G1 and by extension BW and BM series. The general consensus was that the female Transformers, who from the cartoon were always was Autobots, were created as a way to offer options to customers. According to the Five Faces of Darkness story arc, Cybertron was originally a robot factory that created two product lines. The military hardware line were the forerunners of the Decepticons, explaining their thirst for conquest and conflict. The consumer goods line in turn were the ancestors of the Autobots. These were meant for engineering, construction, and even scientific jobs. However, as some customers might feel more comfortable with a female doing certain jobs, e.g. teaching children, the predecessors of the female Autobots were created for that niche market. After the Quintessons were driven off the planet, female Autobots simply continued to be made like the regular male Transformers. As for other continuities, the reasons vary with the history of that continuity. I am not familiar with many of these, so will not speculate on them. As far as the subject of Transformer reproduction is concerned, I have two pieces of advice. First, emphasize that different continuities and media have different rules. Second, buckle up its going to be a bumpy ride.
Thanks. We emphasized that about different continuities. I'm sure just even TALKING about this topic is going to raise eyebrows, and that's not even talking reproduction.
Thank you for an excellent video. As I said, I am not very familiar with the various alternate continuities, especially comic book ones, so videos like these help keep this G1 outmode in the loop. About the raising of eyebrows, well, refer to my second piece of advice.
I used to own a website called femmebots.com which, at the time, was dedicated to female transformers. I had come to the same conclusion. Consumer goods, by nature, have to be tailored to the needs of the consumer. This easily justifies the existence of female transformers.
This is what I always believed, too. Quints made female bots for profit. I always believed that Transformers are often rebuilt/recycled into new robots throughout the millions of years. Like how the Combaticons all had previous lives before Starscream rebuilt them. Or how Blitzwing has faint memories of Quintessons... he probably knew them ages ago in a different identity.
If a character is well developed and interesting, their gender, race, or whatever other factors shouldn’t hinder them. If you use those factors to base the character, it better be a damn good character
Story time: I decided to try out Transformers Prime on Netflix one day and really began to enjoy it. But it was Arcee and her (almost sibling like) bond with Jack that sold it for me. Learning to relate with the humans she swore to protect was a brilliant move for the writers. My favorite episode to this day is still Predatory, when they introduce Arachnid into the fray.
Great introduction to keep the climate around the discussion subtle and not overall distracting or disrespectful, but really political and social ideals aren't necessary for a transformers discussion. And lastly, well done video like always and a nice inclusion of Mrs.Primal!
Thanks. The problem is that in today's society, the distractions of politics and social "ideals" do creep into our media when it shouldn't. So I knew it was best to tread carefully. Thanks again. My wife wanted me to cover this topic too, so it was worth having her involved.
"really political and social ideals aren't necessary for a transformers discussion" Really? I think the whole francise became much better when it stopped being about "good Autobots beating evil Decepticons" and went more to "middle-class Autobots trying to find their place in the world changed by Decepticon revolution"
Very intriguing video, I have always loved the concept of female Transformers, since the first time I saw "The Search For Alpha Trion". Basically I love the origin created by Mairghread Scott for IDW, it was one of the only times I disagreed with my favorite TF writer Simon Furman, which I hated because he is such a nice guy in person. Anyways you did omit one female Autobot, and since you had Aunty which is only an AI interface, Sari, Alice, and Nightbird (which is technically not a Transformer well neither is Alana). Well the one you forgot to mention is T-AI from RID 2001, which just like Aunty is an AI interface, and even though she looks human she is an Autobot. So you asked who is my favorite, and yes it would be T-AI, since I thought she was so cute and basically gave orders (even to Optimus) during the series she was in. But being a fan of female Transformers in general I have so many favorites, from Minerva to Moonracer they are all so awesome.
Oh that's right. I know this was a basic overview of the concept anyway, but I should have included her. On a side note, T-AI, AFAIK, is the daughter of Teletraan I.
Yeah T-AI was really cute, although that's a series people tend to forget about because of how screwed over Car Robots western release was in response to something that happened in September 2001. There was another female transformer in Beast Wars II who lived inside the moon named Artemis that RodimusPrimal forgot about. Minerva would have to be my favorite of the female transformers, as TAI wasn't really a transformer.
I'm just glad you didn't go on an anti-feminist rampage. Great presentation of a tricky subject!. I can't believe I only remember Arcee. Female transformers were omnipresent and I am really happy about that!
RodimusPrimal Thanks!!! I can't believe I only discovered your channel recently. I loved G1 when I grew up and love your exhaustive presentation of all things TF!
Dank Starscream Thanks! More important than choosing a side on whether "feminism" is "bad" or "good", people should just talk with each other and listen to each other without going over into histrionics and demonising.
"I can't believe I only remember Arcee. " The "Nightbird" episode was a personal favourite for me, and so I have fond memories of it. Megatron hints that he views Nightbird as a potential replacement for Star Scream, so an envious and paranoid Star Scream becomes her worst enemy and works to have her captured by the Autobots. Favorite lines from the episode: *Star Scream: "She's not so hot!" *Megatron: "She's hot enough to replace you whenever I choose!"
It's kind of funny hearing Hasbro's reason for not originally wanting female characters was "This is a boys toy. So there shouldn't be any female characters." If that was their policy at the time, then how did Scarlett and Baroness from G I Joe get their approval to appear in the show and get their own toy? I didn't grow up during the 80's as I was born in the 90's so I was wondering, was it a case that the sale figures of female character toys from G I Joe affected their toy policy when Transformers being developed? Or is this just a case of different members of the Hasbro higher ups at the time having different ideas of what kids wanted? It is a shame there weren't any more episodes of Elita One and her team fighting Shockwave on Cybertron. Would had been nice to have episodes set on Cybertron without forcing a reason for the team on Earth to go there.
I believe it was the fact that female character toys did NOT sell well that led to that. Scarlett and Lady Jaye were not big sales wise. Boys generally wouldn't choose a female character when they were told by their parents "you can only buy one" while they shopped in the toy store. I agree that there should have been more adventures on Cybertron with the female characters, and toys to accompany them, but they probably would have been rare (like one per case) back then. I will admit, though, I was pretty mad that I could not get an Arcee to go along with Ultra Magnus, Springer, Kup, Blurr, and Rodimus Prime on my toy shelf.
Yup, I finally got my brother the Arcee he always wanted last year (We used to decide who got which robot when we were kids) but which never came out till fairly recently. He isn't in to them too much now, apart from a general interest, but he was very happy to get it LOL
Excellent video...I wish there was a actually story on where were Elita One, Moonracer and the other G1 female Autobots we're during the events of Transformers the Movie....This has become one of my 5 favorite videos you have made..
I always wanted more from them after that episode. For all we know is that they remained in hiding on Cybertron until the Decepticons took over and were on Earth at the Ark during the battle of Autobot City.
Megatron: She's everything i've always wanted! I thought Megatron had some form of lust toward Nightbird. TBH, she could have been the first female Decepticon. She could also became one of Galvatron's goons along with Cyclonus and Scourge after being upgraded by Unicron as a true Transformers.
I've been pondering this for quite some time, since I've been working on my own fan fiction around my Transformers collection- I build up a mythology around third party and official toys, make my own characters, etc. In regards to why the Transformers would have gender, different explanations work for different continuities, but my interpretation of their G1 origin runs as such: Five Faces of Darkness establishes that the Quintessons build several lines of robots, Autobots and Autocons, for a variety of military and domestic purposes. It stands to reason that some of these robots would be built with female aesthetics by customer demand. It also stands to reason that these robots would be built with at least a basic artificial intelligence, if not full sentience. That said, it makes sense for a robot designed to appear female to have a female "personality"- IE, Siri, Alexa, etc. And when these robots achieved sentience and rose up against their masters, they retained the programmed concept of gender. = Other versions of the Transformers origins have the entire race being off-shoots of Primus, each spark a part of a much larger entity (the Matrix/ Primus- consider the end of Beast Machines, where Megatron absorbs every spark into his own.) If Primus began to bestow life upon the Transformers, whether out of curiosity, or as part of his ongoing struggle against Unicron, It's not unreasonable to consider "He" may experiment with gender- as well as non-humanoid Transformers like the Insecticons and Ravage- in an effort to achieve his goals. = As for reproduction, again it seems to vary wildly between continuities; while in one universe, an intelligence-boosted Grimlock can scratchbuild five sentient robots from spare parts of Unicron (did they inherit part of Unicron's "spark"? Now there's a debate...) with little difficulty. While in Beast Wars and Animated, the Autobots/Maximals rely on protoforms to carry their sparks, and blank protoforms exist. But the creation of the sparks themselves is rather vague- The closest I can remember is the Maximals creating Rampage by attempting to clone Starscream's mutant "immortal" Spark. But complicating matters is Dinobot 2, who is a clone using "DNA" from the original Dinobot, but given life by half of Rampage's own spark. However, despite being powered by Rampage's spark, he retains some semblance of Dinobot's personality (an unproduced episode would have explained that further) but suffice it to say, Dinobot 2 comes to remember his existence as Dinobot (or something resembling it) and turns against Megatron in the final episode. And then there's Silverbolt and Quickstrike to consider; when they are awakened in Coming of the Fuzors, they have sparks, but no apparent memory of who they were before being loaded aboard the Axalon. So, is a Transformer's memory and personality separate?
The thing about G1 cartoon continuity, is that it was established thanks to the Botcon comics that Primus IS the core of Cybertron with Vector Sigma being the conduit to him. So perhaps the Quintessons additional programming DID have an effect on them, but it still comes from Primus himself. Reproduction is a topic I may have to cover one day, but I must tread carefully on that topic.
Have you ever seen a movie called "Strings"??? It's pretty obscure. It's about a world of marionette people who KNOW they're marionettes; the strings are physical and a part of them, stretching into the sky, so no buildings have roofs, the city gate is one bar to stop the strings passing underneath. Anyhow, the "people" reproduce by, uh... rubbing their strings together, and then a new "life string" develops and peels off of the "mother". while the new strings develop, the father sculpts a new body for the child. I kinda adapted that idea for my fan-canon; what if Transformers reproduced by merging their sparks; coding from both parents is used to create a new spark, which develops into a separate entity, and is then loaded into a blank protoform. - Which may explain Tigerhawk; Tigatron and Air Razor's sparks combine when they take over Tigerhawk's body.
It's interesting how hasbro were happy to keep gender politics out of the lore. It's a surprisingly complex thing but I think they introduced it well in G1. They don't try to over explain. And they haven't gone to the lengths of trying to have robot pregnancies because that would be jumping the shark, big time. With where it is, they have it on safe ground where maybe they have ways of interfacing in private that aren't shown because transformers is a franchise for people of all ages. But even if they just enjoy each other's company, for self aware, living machines that could surely be enough to justify having female machines. It's as if hasbro was worried that introducing female robots would scare boys away. It could have if introduced differently. I'm not too sure how much I liked the idea of robots falling in love. My ten year old self did not like that and I'm still not 100% on board with that even though it adds depth to their character and it happened in G1. For me there'll always be a feeling of it being like a sister taking my Optimus prime and making it have kissy play with her barbie in front of me
Well, I've entertained the thought that it's possible for male and female Cybertronians to interface with one another's sparks that actually generate a new spark that could be placed in "Cyber matter" or whatever it's called in that continuity to create a new Transformer, but that is JUST A THEORY. Still, I am in the same boat with being a boy and not wanting my "boys toys" to mesh with my sister's girls toys. Of course, in today's "wonderfully" social climate, boys are not allowed to say that anymore....
RodimusPrimal it's funny how in the 80s we took comfort in the clear gender lines between toys for boys and toys for girls. It cracks me up how nowadays it's basically taboo to say that kids shouldn't play with certain toys for gender reasons. Does make for an amusing mental image of a little girl playing with a G1 megatron transforming it into a gun. Those very notions of gender specific appeal are actually something that the shounen series One Piece has played a few laughs off of. Where a cyborg character called Franky impresses characters who are boys at heart with all his robo/mecha augmentations. While Chopper who is a talking humanoid transforming reindeer gets lots of love from the female characters because they find him cute like a teddy bear and his fur is soft. I'm glad that in the video you didn't concern yourself with the PC angle. It made for a video that was very focused and focused on the most important things to the subject. I never knew the full story about how female characters came into G1. I just noticed they popped into the show and I just kindanrolled with it because they didn't ruin the show. New characters appeared out of nowhere without much explanation so I didn't bat an eyelid when female transformers appeared out of nowhere. Although I do find it interesting that in G1 there aren't any female decepticons
@@unstoppableExodia It funny that I imagine the so called male transformers would be the pregnant ones since that they have more room to carry a baby. Robot pregnancy is weird.
I love female transformers. Arcee was my fave as a kid now we have so many. I’m getting some custom fembots done. I wish masterpiece toys would give us more fembots. MMCs new green arcee is a great start
Great video guys!! I have always wanted them to include more female transformers, obviously not needed for reproduction of transformers, but more for the chemistry and natural argumentative relationships that it makes. Obviously, it's the "human" aspect of the whole thing is why we are questioning it at all. I'm quite sure if it were just sentient robots that the topic wouldn't be such a topic. However it is fun to speculate, and if you collect Masterpiece or any transformers like myself, next month, Fans Toys is scheduled to come out with an Arcee figure in which they call: "Rouge". So look out for it. It looks like a very good interpretation of Arcee. Thanks again for the video and cool topic! Roll on Roddy.
This is so informative. I love how, in terms of writing, Arcee may in fact be older than Elita-1 and co. As a teen I made some rules for a Transformers RPG and attempted to define the sexes among Cybertronians as some kind of differentiation needed to form complete sentient programs (like having a basic code but then adding an extra bit of code that activates it or something). Course that by itself would not explain sexual di-morphism but I never considered that. Now I'm more inclined to say 'sexes' and 'genders' can be different things. If that makes this comment 'progressive' then indulge me because it is a useful distinction for fictional or fabulous characters and is nothing remotely new. Consider the nature of gods and goddesses. Do they have to have genitalia or is it sufficient for them to have a quality that _feels_ masculine or feminine to us? If so they we could say they lack sex but possess gender. Anyway... The comics book solution of turning fembots into part of a _lineage_ is interesting but I have my qualms - making them tribal like that reminds me too much of the old, silly phrase 'the female race'. Course, we all know the real, out-of-story explanation in Transformers for masculine and feminine, as indeed for youthful and elderly, siblings, best mates, lovers and so on, which is that they're not machines at all, but cartoon characters that reflect who we are and are written so that we can identify with them in some way or other. :)
Agreed that we now distinguish gender and sex as you describe. I'll note that living things can reproduce asexually, but that tends to happen with simpler life-forms. And of course you could go the other way and have more sexual diversity (I once wrote a short story in which a species had sperm-providers, ovum-providers, pollinators and gestators). :) The video passingly mentions that (out-of-story) the Arcee concept was under development before they wrote the season two episode with the female Autobots.
There are still some fans and non-fans (a minority I suspect) who try to say 'but they are just machines so are neuter.' Imagine what the cartoon would have been like if they had put the effort in to make that accurate. Every character would talk in a distorted, mid-range monotone, like Soundwave, or not talk at all, like Laserbeak (since who can tell the sex of a bird anyway). It would have been a bit boring. :)
Personally love fembots. As a kid, always had a crush on Arcee, and she was still badass (except headmasters managed to make her a little different lol) Always wished there was a few more to make it so the few didn't stick out so much
"I really forgot the names of the female autobots after so many years. " Not that big of a surprise. I found the Decepticons to have better-defined roles and more memorable characters. Decades later, I can name entire lists of Decepticons, while I struggle to remember most of the Autobots other than Optimus Prime (who I disliked), Arcee, Kup, Rodimus Prime (who were favourite characters for me), and Ultra Magnus (who had a memorable name, but was a rather disappointing character.)
Personally I think it’s kinda silly that we need explain away female transformer, when the easiest explanation would be some cybertronians like to look female and some like to look male. It may make no sense for robots to have gender but it also doesn’t make sense for robots to have souls which is exactly what a Spark is
My top 10 ♀️ Arcee Elita 1 (All versions but Ugly Animated and Evil IDW) Nightbird (She deserves to be brought back onto television) Windblade Slipstream (No not the imposter puck from RID!) Blackarachnia (Minus Animated) Airachnid Thunderblast Moonracer Chromia
I like the variety that female Transformers add to the series, both in personality and aesthetics. Having two sexes helped make Transformers more relatable and opened the door to more stories. Storytelling being the main priority. Having female Transformers can also show kids great examples of how male and females are meant to work together as a team too. So long as politics and toxic progressive rhetoric aren't infecting the script, then female Transformers all the way. As for origins: It's possible the Transformers sought a way to reproduce other than the one left by the Quintessons (Vector Sigma). Together, male and female Transformers would allow Cybertronians to forge their own destiny. They could have patterned their concept of reproduction from observation of other species. Additionally they could have reverse engineered Vector Sigma to some extent, providing female Transformers with a unique spark that has the ability to produce sparks when combined with the energy of a male Transformer's spark. Inside her would be a reactor where the spark would stabilize and absorb data tracks from the combined experiences and personalities of both Transformers. As such, procreation would be a deeply personal experience for Transformers, as their very souls link. This would explain the dimorphic differences and their unique powers such as Aleta One's time disruption. Powers like this would serve as a last ditch effort to protect the gestating spark from danger. A body or protoform is then manufactured and the spark is placed inside. Naturally the Decepticons would seek to destroy all female Autobots, while keeping their own a closely guarded asset. As an antagonistic faction, it wouldn't be too shocking to see Decepticons controlling their female population for a time. This is why we never saw female Transformers on either side.
There's a couple of ways to look at it i think. One is that they exist in the real world, for purposes of selling toys/media/etc. So they can't really divorce themselves from the 'ideal' of providing equal representation/empowerment/coexistance/etc. Especially since they're primarily targeting impressionable children. The other is in-house fluff: they are alien robots. They mainly look like 'male' and sound 'male' in the cartoons, so that's what we identify them as. But they're alien. They could look like men and sound like women, or look like women and sound like men. They would probably look like they were designed for optimal efficiency in their designated role, whatever that means. I always liked the invid from robotech, because aside from the regis you couldn't really tell what gender the 'basic' invid were, or if they even had a gender. They were really good at being 'alien'. But, if i had to pick a side, based on the target audience i would say yes there should be lady transformers. If they were going after adults or late-teens, then yeah i'd go more for the fluff side of the equation.
I really liked the idea of Elita one as Optimus' Girlfriend. I don't know, Maybe because it gives a robot some human character, but also because you know I can honestly say as long as they don't force in a bunch of female transformers because "its the current year" then Female characters aren't something that should be discouraged. Arcee was on of my favorite characters in the film.
i think the best is slipstream, she came from something from starscream, and she is the most competent of the clones in the series perhaps more competent than the original, and maybe it even alludes to something about starscream's own identity,
I've never really seen any need to explain why some TFs are male and female. I just accepted that some look and sound male to us and some seem what we humans would stereotype as feminine. They're just a group of different looking and sounding robots.
Great video! I learned an awful lot here. Alas my knowledge of Transformers stopped after G1. So it's great to see that female characters have become established. (When I re-read some of the old stories, I sometimes have the vague feeling that something was missing... The new female characters might remedy that!)
As a girl who grew up on the transformers(being first introduced to the series with the 2007 movie) I believe there needs to be more female transformers. They're are plenty of existing ones that can be used, so there is no need to create new ones from scratch. But you can if you want to. My point is, I love the transformers. I go and watch prime on netflix, and see the movies in theaters. I read the comics. It's something I get joy from. When revenge of the fallen came out, and there were the three female autobots (the motorcycles) I was ecstatic. I would watch the screen raptly for them and cheered whenever they came on. (Btw, wasn't that chase scene in Shanghai awesome!?) That fact that they were girls like me made me feel like a part of the fandom. Representation matters. The United states was found on the phrase "no taxation without representation". Seeing something or someone that looks like you and represents you on the big screen makes you feel big too. I was always told to go watch something else, like MLP or a girls show. And while there is nothing wrong with girls shows like MLP, what I really loved was transformers. But my parents would't by the toys for me because they were for boys. And If there were more female transformers and female autobot toys, it would give validation for girls like me who liked the series but were told not to, or that it wasn't for them. While I'm not saying female autobots like Arcee, or Elita-one, or Chromia would magically fix it, they would have helped. In short, seeing female autobots as a part of the transformers and by extension the fandom, made me feel accepted as well. Of course, all three were killed of and/or never scene again.
I like the idea of using existing characters as well. Arcee, Chromia, Firestar, Moonracer, Slipstream, Windblade, Elita One, Black Arachnia, Thunderblast, etc all have a place in Transformers tales, as long as they are well told. I know plenty of girls who enjoyed Transformers just as much and it didn't matter to them that there were no girl toys. But I can see your point. Having it for all is good, as long as they understand WHO their audience is.
For some reason your last sentence is hilarious. Btw if you haven’t watch TFP yet, you should. Arcee buttkicking decepticon is totally enjoyable to watch. I didn’t like her first because of her attitude, but over time she became a bit likeable(i guess).But my favorite is Windblade! Definitely windblade! Did I say windblade? Yeah I love windblade!😍
i think seeing your self represented tends to come off as narcissistic and slightly sociopathic at times. Because all you would care is just race, gender, and sexuality, and not the personality of the character. Take me for example, I'm Half-black half-Mexican, I don't need characters like Superman or Spider-Man to be changed in certain ways just to validate my existence or to see myself, I already like them just the way they are. If you want representation, either use pre-existing characters that are part of a specific minority and give them more attention or create new ones. No race, gender, or sexuality swaps towards pre-existing straight white male characters in some misguided attempt at representation. It comes of as being creatively lazy, virtue signaling, and annoyingly pandering.
Actually I don't have a problem with female characters at all. Its the forced representation (especially gender-swaps) I have a problem with. (For some reason it's ben going on since 2016 from what I heard.) For example, taking a pre- existing male character then turn that character female. Especially if its done out of virtue signaling. In fact i don't mind seeing black, Female and gay characters, but they have to be fresh creations. Plus being those things is part of their characterization but not their only trait. I think youtuber Micah Curtis said it best, if you want characters to be changed in a certain way just to validate your existence, then your existence doesn't mean much in the first place
Very cool topic. This is one reason I liked Gobots as well. With them having some female robots with Crasher from the get go as well as a few others before they brought the female robots, as far as Cybertronians, in Transformers. The search for Alpha Trion is one of my top favorite episodes of the Transformers series getting to see not only some of the Autobots left on Cybertron but also having them female was so cool. Would of loved if the series would of revisited them in another episode or two before the movie.
My most favorite Female Transformers is Override (Cybertron) & Elita-1/Blackarachnia (Animated) back when I was a kid, may not seem a lot but they were the ONLY Female TF characters that I actually feel connected to, back then I loved the Animated version of Elita-1 so much, being the Cute, Spunky, Blonde, Energetic Autobot that she was, until I actually felt really bad for her of being mutated as the half organic Cybertronian Spider known as Blackarachnia, but at the same time that even made me love her even more because I grew up loving/reading/watching/playing a lot Spider-Man Games, Movies,TV shows, and Comics. Not only that, but because of Spider-Man & Elita-1/Blackarachnia being a big influence part of my life growing up, in General, Spiders do interests me a lot, in my spare time I would always go on TH-cam and watch and learn a lot about Spiders, and I still do today in my free time, they're just fascinating creatures to learn about. Override on the hand, I just find her straight up cool, She's that type of Velocitronian who's isn't that much of the "girlish" type but more the fun, hang around, racer, tomboy-ish type, which I Ultimately love about her. Female Transformers Wise, before them, Jazz is and will always be my most favorite Transformer of all time, Next to Blurr, Drift, and Starscream.
A dumb question but do transformers need drivers ed or flight training before they use their alt modes or is it just programed in. This probably wont make a full viedo maybe you could do some short ones in one viedo.
It's explained in Beast Wars that they transform to hide from the raw/unprocessed mass of energon scattered about tha planet which I don't recall exactly how that works but they do explain why transformation is necessary in that canon|
That's so cool you and your wife are Transformers fan and very passionate about it. Thanks for the wonderful videos too, really enhance the Transformer's lore.
this was a pretty awesome vid, i think it was a good idea to make female transformers, it give the female fans some characters to kinda relate to. i prefer the Solous Prime origin, it just sounds so interesting. keep up the great work
Thanks. I don't think female fans NEED female characters to relate to them, but it always helps to have them present regardless. I like Transformers characters whether they are male or female.
I recently got the Masterpiece Road Rage (red version of Tracks) and did some digging on the character. I come to find out that she was indeed a female. Now I am going to collect all the females. Ive been a Transformers fan since day one and now the opportunities to have the girls are here. I personally think it's awesome!!!!
Slipstream is probably my favorite female decepticon because well her the design I really like and is probably the most unique female decepticons I know of aside from black arachnia. It's just ashame she's not used that often not to mention even getting an official toy. ):
I like her design too. She's a fairly recent character, all things considered, but they DO need to make more toys of her. Right now, there are there are two toys made of her. One was a Subscription service slight remold of Prime Starscream, and the other was a Japanese Legends version retool of Generations Windblade.
RodimusPrimal Maybe there could be one with potp, cyberverse, or even the new war for Cybertron series. I'm just here, waiting to put a slipstream figure on my transformers collection selfs.
I love seeing a family love Transformers together. It makes me feel happy. Minivera reminds me of Zero from Rockman X. I wonder if that was a concept or something for Zero later.
Whatever the circumstance, I'm glad they introduced female Transformer characters into the franchise and we got amazing characters like Arcee and Black Arachnia.
Arcee was not with Springer, they were basically brother & sister. Hotrod and Arcee flirted with each other. But after Hotrod became Rodimus, he pushed the relationship away because he was dealing with the pressures of leadership...
Ultra Magnus For the most part most of us transformers the movie fans saw Springer and arcee as boy friend and girlfriend and in some source material it was heavily implied.
Dank Starscream I thought most fans saw it the same way...it seemed clear that arcee and Springer had a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship and it was more of a romantic triangle with hot rod in the beginning but I got the sense that hot rod was just too young and immature for her(romance trope) Springer was definitely more of a ladies man as far as transformers are allowed to be... and in TF THE MOVIE as it went on, arcee definitely kinda settled on springer...the next season of TF definitely made it clear with then hot rod bc Rodimus and now occupied with being the leader of the autobots.
From the movie to season 3 and the Japanese continuation, there was absolutely nothing romantic between Springer and C. That was a loveless relationship...
Dude your videos are ALWAYS awesome and I'm a old man who grew up on ALL 80's cartoons and I ALWAYS said from season one of Transformers that I wanted too see female robots with their male counterparts at age 12.
Yes it should be.... because prime himself before he became Optimus prime had his girlfriend....so we should have some female transformers.... because women are in every and probably needed in every field.
As long as they are well conceived as characters. I don't mind female Transformers. They should've expanded on the idea in G1, but alas, the reality of it being a toy line. By the way, Moonracer is my favorite and I hope she gets more love on the future.
I like the idea of Cybertronian Sex, as in "spark sharing", where both parties expose there sparks in close proximity to each other. Most of the time, the spark sharing only results in intamancy between Cybertonians. But sometimes, such a coupling produces a small spark. That spark, when resting in a protoform, can mature into a Cybertronican itself.
Good7 Bad13 I guess so. I mean i watched all of the unicorn trilogy transformers as a little kid as well as G1 so female transformers were no surprise to me. But I guess people only think of Megatron vs Optimus whenever they think of transformers
Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia was my first ever online purchase because I really like the character and the toy looks awesome. I also like Victorion and her Takara counterpart, Megatronia.
As long as the Fem Transformers are well written and act normal not to push an agenda it makes transformers more bio-mechanic than purely mechanic, Arcee should have stayed pink thou, is getting annoying how being pink is bad if you're female.
This was a really good video! Also, just wanted to say: Thank you for your take, and not pushing any identity politics into anything. Honestly you guys have earned my respect from that. Transformers is for everyone. Would you by chance make a video in Transformers Reproduction? That is a thing that is so divided and vauge that I don't get it. What's the standard? I have heard of the Allspark, Hotspots, Budding, Htachlings and I belive I also have heard of mass-energon infusion into a cold-forged robot or vehicle can also give "birth" to a Cybertronian. (The last one is my favorite as it is more dependent on energon than any mystical do-hickey)
2nd time watching this video. This IP was so ahead of it's time. Hard to believe it was around at the same time as Thunder-cats, and Masters of the Universe (the thunders-cats, movie is a rough rewatch, because of the sub-par animation). The movie is my favourite film and soundtrack, the 30th anniversary, Bluray, blew me away! (apologise for the pun) P.S. Sorry for pestering you with so many comments today
I love female trransformers..I collect them like with any astromech I see as a must have.Ive talked about my freind who said Starscream was the son of Megatron.Well we don't think sex the normal way but the mingling of Sparks to produce and off spring then they tranfer it to a protoform.I have to show her this video
Short answer, "Sure why not!"
Longer answer, As long as the more prominent ones are given the same attention to character, pros and flaws, as their male counterparts. I'm as game for a good heroine and villainess as I am their male compatriots or rivals.
I don't care if there are female transformers or if they gain an increased presence as the franchise continues. All that matters to me is these "fembots" or what have you are a). well-written and interesting characters (as much as they can be in a media franchise designed to sell toys) and b). are not used as mouth pieces to promote "progressive" rhetoric.
I'm a girl, but I don't care about such trivial things as "representation" in my media. I just want good characters and a fun story.
well i kinda feel the same about these characters, ok 23 yo guy here but still i hate when diversity comes with characters being washed off personality, being just some blank collage of stereotypes and archetypes, kinda same goes for e.g. LGBT ppl, or ethnic, national or racial minorities, i think that including character lie this in form of empty tolerance banner, with no personality, and no impact or purpose in story, is more offensive than not including such at all.
Anyways i think that even if that was probably main reason for fembots to appear in 1st place i think they greatly solidify the idea of Transformers being sentient and emotional entities, which don't need such differentiation, they choose to do so, the feel need for this one more aspect to add to their personality. Well i even had idea for 2 Transformers characters on my own(but seeing how recent installments in franchise kinda butchering all characters with last animated series turning them all into morons while movie series just kills most of them off) which are brother and sister, their origin story is quite long and also kinda mashes up G1 Quitesons with how the Decepticon uprising was presented in Aligned continuity but kinda don't want to write it down here.
Agreed
Sounds like you care then.
When people say they want good representation they typically say it in response to shitty representation already there or due to the blatant unprofessionalism of the creator's reasoning for not including it, rather than demanding it out of nowhere.
Long story short, it's criticism of quality just like any other.
TheCucuyo9779 wow.
thanks for getting here before me and posting this.
I personally love the female Transformers
Arcee
Elita 1
Chromia
Windblade
Slipstream
They’re awesome
Yeah me too but not slipstream
I prefer nautica
Arcee and windblade are the best and yet with windblade she was recently made
@@calvin3218 a man of culture I see
Where THE FUCK is black arachnia
Ever since beast wars showed that there was organic life on cybertron i figured their had to have always been male and female robots types
@@BasedVegeta maybe is not sexual.
Please don't say Beast Wars. That was the disaster Beast Machines that did that
@@TheCastellan yep thats it there are genders but no sexuality
@@femi-naziolanerkek2029
They don't even have that. They're machines with several examples showing they have no concept of gender or sexuality like humans do.
Megatron: _"She's everything I always wanted!"_
That's funny😂😉
Dank Starscream
7w7
No wonder Starscream hated her.
@@new2pitt26 She looks a lot like a puppet. :)
Is there something your hidding megatron?
Starscream: She's not so hot.
Megatron: She's hot enough to replace you whenever I please.
Starscream: REPLACE ME?! NEVER!
(Actual dialogue from the G1 series but not sure which episode)
I really think that the
female-bots are really interesting like arcee
YES Soundwave btw you're my fav deception!
I liked the episode that debuted them in the G1 cartoon. I never understood why Hasbro back then didn't seize on that opportunity. Glad it's happening now. Now, how about more female Decepticons?
We are getting more. Slipstream and Shadow Striker will be part of Cyberverse.
@Scott Whatever Transformers were definitely male even before the introduction of Elita-1.
Why else would they refer to each other as "he"?
Scott Whatever AGREED.
They look silly and doesn’t make sense
Gender and sex are two different things, though. Transformers don't have a biological (or in their case, mechanical) means of reproduction, so no need for sex and thus, genitals. Gender is separate.
@@KittycatDaddy Your argument is specious and fallacious. While sex and gender are two separate things, gender is best defined as one's sex identity and therefore is going to be entirely shaped by one's own biology. What you are doing is anthropomorphism to a fallacious extreme. The fact is that Transformers have a wide range of differing reproductive states or mimicry of said states, which varies from continuity to continuity. The Maximals in Beast Machines for example, being technorganic, are arguably capable of sexual reproduction; ergo as a bisexually reproducing species, projecting human sexual and gender dynamics onto them, makes sense. Likewise the transformers in the Sunbow cartoon were basically consumer and commercial robots, designed to mimic the bisexually reproducing biological alien races they were being sold to. A great analogy for them is the synths in "Humans". They were built no doubt with companionship in mind and possibly even as sex robots. Once again, projecting human sexual and gender dynamics onto them, makes sense.
Then you get to the Marvel G2 Comic, where transformers could reproduce through budding - a form of asexual reproduction; projecting our human sexual and gender dynamics as a bisexually reproducing species, onto a monosexually reproducing species, makes absolutely no sense.
The same is true of every single non-Quintesson continuity (with the exception of Cyberverse where their origins were radically different) where Transformers are created through the Allspark. In that continuity, there is a single source of reproduction and the transformers themselves were sterile beings, devoid of any kind of sexuality. As such, there is one single gender and any and all manifestations of what might be considered different genders to we humans, are all simply manifestations of the one single gender. The same is true of hotspots. In both cases, projecting our human sexual and gender dynamics as a bisexually reproducing species, onto a non-sexually reproducing species, makes absolutely no sense.
The one exception to all of this is the Maximals and Predacons in Beast Wars, however only when they have scanned and replicated a biological alt-mode on an alien world. In those cases, as "Call of the Wild" showed, the alt mode fundamentally altered the psychology of the Cybertronian who scanned it. While this means that said Transformer will mimic the sexuality and gender of the life form they've scanned and replicated, this really is the one example where there is no straight answer. If the life form scanned and replicated is bisexually reproducing, then bisexual sex and gender dynamics will be predictable. If the life form is trisexually reproducing or monosexually reproducing, then those are the sex and gender dynamics you would expect to see, as opposed to those of a bisexually reproducing species such as ours.
In short, the answer as to whether gender should exist in transformers ultimately depends on the universe building of the continuity it takes place in. If people want female transformers and human gender and sexual issues to be present in a Transformers story and make sense, then it is up to the writers to ensure that either the biology of the Transformers or the biology which the Transformers are mimicking in some form or another, is that of a bisexually reproducing species.
Clearly Transformers needs more writers who actually understand how important universe building is in science fiction.
I honestly used to think the idea that they’re gender neutral, so some are more masculine and some are more feminine and when they are in relationships with other transformers its more about personalities than anything else. This video just flooded back all my old memories of the female transformers (especially beast wars can’t believe I forgot about them) and really confirms to me they were always there in almost every version of transformers and there’s nothing wrong with that.
I really like prime arcee and animated black arachnia.
Rory Lumley as do I. It was a cool take on those characters.
Rory Lumley thats the best way i think to describe arcee
Arachnid was a pretty impressive femme fatale.
@@nil981 *airachnid
If any of you have seen bumblebee shatter is a really good villain
It is a shame that we live now in a world where when discussing male and female robots in a cartoon from 34 years ago you have to start the video with a disclaimer that is basically pleading with people not to get "offended" with your personal point of view on the matter.
As one guy said... This is a pussy generation....
Kopie Eh I don’t know previous generations thought Rock n Roll from Elvis and Pokémon were satanic and evil so I have a hard time believing that this is the pussy generation.
GolDrex Debatable I would say
@@sonicx945 see that generation hadn’t heard stuff like that before. The same thing happened with metal in the 80s. But that didn’t do a whole lot community wise like our generation. In the older generations you would say something semi controversial and people would ignore you and laugh you off, now people will go out of their way to get your voice silenced. Now that’s not everyone but it’s a thing
It really sucks that you had to put a disclaimer at the beginning like that. But that's the world we live in now.
Totally agree.
World of wimps
*cough* “feminists”
*cough cough* Karen’s
As much as I feel the Aligned continuity has gotten a bit... complicated, the origin story of the Thirteen Primes is one of my favorite things to come out of it (at least in terms of ironing out the idea of the concept). And I absolutely love the idea of female cybertronians being descendants of Solus Prime, who was given a more creative mind in order to invent and create her powerful relics. It not only gives them a functional explanation for their existance, but it also explains why other specific character concepts continue to reappear in the franchise. Like how beast mode transformers are descendants of Onyx Prime and Minicons from Micronus Prime, and so on. Of course it doesn't explain everything, but it's a good foundation to be, well, toyed with and build upon by fans and writers alike.
Also, Prime Arcee is awesome, and probably my favorite female transformer.
The entire concept of all female Transformers being the decendents of Solus Prime, with how it continues to be executed, is an example of how untalented hacks who have no place writing science fiction stories, wind up doing exactly that. The concept could have worked had it actually gone down the route of having budding being a secondary form of reproduction for the Transformers. In fact, in the original fan club extended run of Transformers Generation 2, Arcee is given an origin story where Hot Rod gives birth to Arcee through budding, after rediscovering not only the ability, but how to shape the form and personality of his offspring, when he is captured by the Cybertronian Empire and under the tutilege of the female Cybertronian, Phoenix. Had different Transformers had a direct lineage through budding, which was traced back to the 13 Primes, this would actually work and be incredibly solid. It could even have opened up the possibility of exploring ideas like Cybertronian tribes having formed the basis of modern Cybertroanian society, and how it ties into things like functionalism.
Heck, even the Quintesson origin, where Cybertronians are essentially the equivalent of the robots in the show "Humans", makes not only the concept of gender completely work, but also opens the door up to romantic and even sexual relationships, involving all possible sexual orientations.
Instead, we wind up with either the Allspark or sparks and/or hotspots being the sole form of Cybertronian reproduction - which makes the entire concept of any gender - let alone the concetp of romantic relationships - in either the Alligned or IDW continuities, something which is utterly asinine.
@@sabercyclone041 Where can I find this extended run of G2?
@@johncaulfield8935 That is a tough one to answer. The Continued Generation 2 Comic, which was produced by Transmasters UK in the 1990s, ran for 36 issues, continuing on from Issue 12, and some issues were even done by a younger Nick Roche. Unfortunately tracking these down is a really difficult. There is no sign of them online and I have no idea who might have copies of them. Sadly there's a lot of great Transformers content from the 1990s that has simply been memory-holed.
@@johncaulfield8935 ...aaaaand Murphy's Law, while I don't know where all of them are, TMUK seem to be trying to do reprints and scans of them and there seems to be no clear indication on when that's happening, they did upload one issue of it to Facebook:
facebook.com/10157804015767555
Great video man. I have to say that Elita-1 is my fav female character. I like the inclusion of the female bots but if I have to complain it would be for more Decepticon females to be included in the stories.
Thanks! I agree. There should be more female Decepticons in Transformers media.
Well you got your wish. Now we have 2 new canon femcepticons.
Why? It adds depth to the setting and can bring in more fans who may not be part of the targeted audience. I'm good with that.
Alverant That's what Lucas film is trying to do now and look at how that turned out.
If you are talking about the last jedi, then that's Disney.
Speaking of the last jedi as well as transformers, my biggest concern is whether or not the female bots were inserted because they would make good characters or because of ideological corruption. The reason why I worry about that is because of the way ideologies like feminism operate. It will stop at nothing to spread itself.
@@huntergman8338 actually it wasn’t Disney, it was very much the head of LucasArtz. Since the end of the modern trilogy, Disney has been stripping her power away because of how much Star Wars fans hate her
why not?
Evylistic Experiment I've often said that and got into arguments with people who don't like the concept.
I don't get why people are upset. These are characters after all, and while they're robots, 'gender' is something that gives them more humanity.
People get upset probably from a level of immaturity. I enjoy the characters, male AND female. Some I like. Others I do not.
"I don't get why people are upset. These are characters after all, and while they're robots, 'gender' is something that gives them more humanity."
As a Marvel Comics fan, I was always fascinated by Ultron, Jocasta, and Alkhema. Humanoid robots with emotions, gender identities, and psychological problems similat to the Avengers they were patterned after (Hank Pym, Wasp, Mockingbird).
i dont mind them. but id prefer a valid explanation why
These female transformers kick major butt.
"Major butt"? Who's that.... 😬
Arc and Arachnid were great in TFP
Yeah female transformers are definitely a lot better female characters in fiction than in most other series. The writers were able to create a good balance between the soft, tender side and the tough, fighter side
Should there be lady transformers?
My answer: heck yeah! I used to walk around in a princess dress and optimus prime rain boots
My favorite Female Transformer is Blackarachnia .
Noah Juarez OMG yes. She had her own agenda in Beast Wars.
She was equal parts funny and sexy.
Mine is Arcee
Great choice, mine is BW Megatron, my Queen. 😜
Arcee and Airachnia were badasses in Transformers: Prime. I never cared for Arcee in the G1 series.
I think female transformers are a fine addition. as long as they're good characters like Arcee Elita-1 and Blackarachnia
I remember seeing one fan interpretation that I really liked. It's not so much the robots that have genders, but the Sparks. In appearance, the Sparks look like balls of energy, so you can't tell what gender they are by looking at them. But you put them in a blank protoform, and said protoform transforms into a more masculine/feminine appearance depending on the gender of the Spark. And the role the genders play in Transformer physiology is the same as any other species, i.e. procreation. How they achieve this is that a male and female transformer would open their spark chambers and join their energies to create a new Spark. It is then placed inside a blank protoform which the parents pre-programmed with a name and initial purpose (I say initial because their purpose can change depending on what they learn in life) creating a new Transformer who appears fully grown and aware of who he is and what his initial purpose is.
I head canon this as well. Only thing a little different with mine is, working within what is canon, the created 'sparkling' is placed within Cybertron or Vector Sigma to mature until it is ready to be placed in a protoform or forged.
Cool. I like that. I was struggling to find a way to fit Vector Sigma into the mix, but with your explanation, it really fits.
Dank Starscream If you’re including voice, you’re the closest one being a female robot with your g1 voice. Me and my friend even argued about g1 starscream gender with his opinion that you’re female.
Cool story, bro. Write that fanfic and I'll read it.
Balderdash! That is gender essentialism.
im just happy elita one,moonracer, and novastar/firestar are finally geting figs.
im mostly looking forwerd to elita one because now my classics optimus will have his girl.
optimus X elita
Ironhide X chromia
I think arcee is in a bit of a love triangle with Rodimus Prime and Springer
As am I. Even though the Elita One fig looks like it will suffer because of stickers, I'm sure Reprolabels (Toyhax) can fix it!
i agree on the sticker front that will be a issue, I'm actually considering picking up a toyhax Reprolabel sheat to fix my power of the primes jazz with the G2 stickers sheat.
Robomerc I'm just going to add some paint to him in some spots.
These days I tend to ship Arcee with Bumblebee.
Slipstream X Starscream
Thunderblast X Megatron (Maybe.).
You tackled this difficult subject very well, and I absolutely loved this video! You should do more videos together. Your voices and style of narrating compliment each other very well. Please do more videos like this one. I love seeing the evolution of concepts and characters through different continuities.
Thank you. I may take that into consideration with my wife, though I'm not sure if she would want to again. It's very difficult with a 2 year old running around the room with an open mic! I do have a few ideas rolling around however!
Awesome discussion video Rodimus! This topic is quite a great one and thanks for explaining the long history of Female Transformers! :)
Thanks! This one took as LONG time to make and get it all together. Next one should be sooner. I hope!
RodimusPrimal You're welcome! It would make sense for it to take a long time since it is quite a difficult topic, but time and effort is always the best! Can't wait for the next Episode! :)
1:48 This is rather perplexing since G.I. Joe had Scarlett, Lady Jaye, and Cover Girl. What's also interesting to note is that while little boys may act weird about the opposite sex, they actually do like girls, they just won't admit it. Also, little boys tend to have crushes on older teenage girls and women. I would imagine that many little boys who grew up watching G.I. Joe had crushes on Scarlett or Lady Jaye. I had a crush on the-princess-formerly-known-as-Toadstool-and-now-known-as-Peach. I always played as the Princess in Super Mario Bros. 2 for that reason. With female transformers though, it's hard to imagine boys crushing on a robot.
Arcee's relationship with Daniel is something that can be commonly misunderstood. Nowadays, people seem to think that any close, intimate relationship between an adult and a child is "pedophilia" but really if you look closer, it's more of a parenting instinct. I'm sure many a little boy had a crush on his sexy young female babysitter and felt very warm and fuzzy inside when she would hug and cuddle him, but what the little boy doesn't realize is that she's actually just acting on a mothering instinct. It's even more crushing to find out that she already has a big Football player Jock-type boyfriend.
I don't know about you, but I had QUITE the crush on Prime Arcee growing up, so crushing on robots may not be as farfetched as you think. That, or I was just one strange kid lol
When I was a kid I thought Arcee was really cool. I also really liked She-ra and Teela from He-man. Female characters totally have a place in "boys" properties.
@DejaVoodooDoll I think its only made weirder by the fact Arcee and Daniel basically confess to one another at the end of The Rebirth. Yikes lol
Yup Lady Jay was my crush growing up. Husky voiced women still do it for me, that and Texans 😝🤘.
For your second paragraph made me think how sick some people are. I guess they think a parent can’t spend time with their children. You have to have a sick mind for that.
Blackarachina hands down is my fav female transformer 💖 just love her character development
Blackarachnia is my favorite character besides windblade and flame wars.
It's cool how you are straight up with how you're not PC, and that you're doing this video just to celebrate woman's day and not push any political agenda
Edit: TBH that female Ratchet idea actually sounds really cool, and would have maybe even got girls into TF. At least they had Arcee and the Paradron Medics
Mustafa Amin I disagree. SJW, anti-SJW, I didn't want to think about it right now. Bummer
Mustafa Amin
Well, in animated there was a female Red alert
@@kevinhill8193 Regardless of SJW bias, there should have been female Transformers. It's a business, why alienate half of your customers?
Ratchet is so imbedded as a male character in my mind, that I can't imagine him being female. If he was female since G1 though, I would've been perfectly fine with it.
I got into that franchise *without* the idea.
My friends and I used to talk about this a lot back in college, which was a little less than 20 years ago. At the time, the internet was still a relatively new thing, and so knowledge of the Japanese series wasn't as common as today. Thus the focus was on the original G1 and by extension BW and BM series. The general consensus was that the female Transformers, who from the cartoon were always was Autobots, were created as a way to offer options to customers. According to the Five Faces of Darkness story arc, Cybertron was originally a robot factory that created two product lines. The military hardware line were the forerunners of the Decepticons, explaining their thirst for conquest and conflict. The consumer goods line in turn were the ancestors of the Autobots. These were meant for engineering, construction, and even scientific jobs. However, as some customers might feel more comfortable with a female doing certain jobs, e.g. teaching children, the predecessors of the female Autobots were created for that niche market. After the Quintessons were driven off the planet, female Autobots simply continued to be made like the regular male Transformers.
As for other continuities, the reasons vary with the history of that continuity. I am not familiar with many of these, so will not speculate on them. As far as the subject of Transformer reproduction is concerned, I have two pieces of advice. First, emphasize that different continuities and media have different rules. Second, buckle up its going to be a bumpy ride.
Thanks. We emphasized that about different continuities. I'm sure just even TALKING about this topic is going to raise eyebrows, and that's not even talking reproduction.
Thank you for an excellent video. As I said, I am not very familiar with the various alternate continuities, especially comic book ones, so videos like these help keep this G1 outmode in the loop. About the raising of eyebrows, well, refer to my second piece of advice.
That is perfectly logical and great use of common sense
I used to own a website called femmebots.com which, at the time, was dedicated to female transformers. I had come to the same conclusion. Consumer goods, by nature, have to be tailored to the needs of the consumer. This easily justifies the existence of female transformers.
This is what I always believed, too. Quints made female bots for profit. I always believed that Transformers are often rebuilt/recycled into new robots throughout the millions of years. Like how the Combaticons all had previous lives before Starscream rebuilt them. Or how Blitzwing has faint memories of Quintessons... he probably knew them ages ago in a different identity.
If a character is well developed and interesting, their gender, race, or whatever other factors shouldn’t hinder them. If you use those factors to base the character, it better be a damn good character
Agreed. When a character is written well then it’s a joy to watch them or read about them.
Story time:
I decided to try out Transformers Prime on Netflix one day and really began to enjoy it. But it was Arcee and her (almost sibling like) bond with Jack that sold it for me. Learning to relate with the humans she swore to protect was a brilliant move for the writers. My favorite episode to this day is still Predatory, when they introduce Arachnid into the fray.
Girl transformers: EXIST
Rule 34: it’s free real-estate
XxKevGodxX proboly why their wasn’t female transformers
This was handled very well and non biased. Loved this as I usually do with your videos
Bravo as always, love this channel
Great introduction to keep the climate around the discussion subtle and not overall distracting or disrespectful, but really political and social ideals aren't necessary for a transformers discussion. And lastly, well done video like always and a nice inclusion of Mrs.Primal!
Thanks. The problem is that in today's society, the distractions of politics and social "ideals" do creep into our media when it shouldn't. So I knew it was best to tread carefully. Thanks again. My wife wanted me to cover this topic too, so it was worth having her involved.
"really political and social ideals aren't necessary for a transformers discussion"
Really? I think the whole francise became much better when it stopped being about "good Autobots beating evil Decepticons" and went more to "middle-class Autobots trying to find their place in the world changed by Decepticon revolution"
Very intriguing video, I have always loved the concept of female Transformers, since the first time I saw "The Search For Alpha Trion".
Basically I love the origin created by Mairghread Scott for IDW, it was one of the only times I disagreed with my favorite TF writer Simon Furman, which I hated because he is such a nice guy in person.
Anyways you did omit one female Autobot, and since you had Aunty which is only an AI interface, Sari, Alice, and Nightbird (which is technically not a Transformer well neither is Alana). Well the one you forgot to mention is T-AI from RID 2001, which just like Aunty is an AI interface, and even though she looks human she is an Autobot.
So you asked who is my favorite, and yes it would be T-AI, since I thought she was so cute and basically gave orders (even to Optimus) during the series she was in. But being a fan of female Transformers in general I have so many favorites, from Minerva to Moonracer they are all so awesome.
Oh that's right. I know this was a basic overview of the concept anyway, but I should have included her. On a side note, T-AI, AFAIK, is the daughter of Teletraan I.
Yeah T-AI was really cute, although that's a series people tend to forget about because of how screwed over Car Robots western release was in response to something that happened in September 2001. There was another female transformer in Beast Wars II who lived inside the moon named Artemis that RodimusPrimal forgot about. Minerva would have to be my favorite of the female transformers, as TAI wasn't really a transformer.
I'm just glad you didn't go on an anti-feminist rampage. Great presentation of a tricky subject!. I can't believe I only remember Arcee. Female transformers were omnipresent and I am really happy about that!
Most remember her because she was a regular in the Movie and Season 3. The team led by Elita One were only in one episode so its easy to forget.
RodimusPrimal Thanks!!! I can't believe I only discovered your channel recently. I loved G1 when I grew up and love your exhaustive presentation of all things TF!
But strontium, are you not a strawman created by a feminist? By your own beliefs, you do not exist because a feminist made you up.
Dank Starscream Thanks! More important than choosing a side on whether "feminism" is "bad" or "good", people should just talk with each other and listen to each other without going over into histrionics and demonising.
"I can't believe I only remember Arcee. "
The "Nightbird" episode was a personal favourite for me, and so I have fond memories of it. Megatron hints that he views Nightbird as a potential replacement for Star Scream, so an envious and paranoid Star Scream becomes her worst enemy and works to have her captured by the Autobots.
Favorite lines from the episode:
*Star Scream: "She's not so hot!"
*Megatron: "She's hot enough to replace you whenever I choose!"
It's kind of funny hearing Hasbro's reason for not originally wanting female characters was "This is a boys toy. So there shouldn't be any female characters."
If that was their policy at the time, then how did Scarlett and Baroness from G I Joe get their approval to appear in the show and get their own toy?
I didn't grow up during the 80's as I was born in the 90's so I was wondering, was it a case that the sale figures of female character toys from G I Joe affected their toy policy when Transformers being developed? Or is this just a case of different members of the Hasbro higher ups at the time having different ideas of what kids wanted?
It is a shame there weren't any more episodes of Elita One and her team fighting Shockwave on Cybertron.
Would had been nice to have episodes set on Cybertron without forcing a reason for the team on Earth to go there.
I believe it was the fact that female character toys did NOT sell well that led to that. Scarlett and Lady Jaye were not big sales wise. Boys generally wouldn't choose a female character when they were told by their parents "you can only buy one" while they shopped in the toy store. I agree that there should have been more adventures on Cybertron with the female characters, and toys to accompany them, but they probably would have been rare (like one per case) back then. I will admit, though, I was pretty mad that I could not get an Arcee to go along with Ultra Magnus, Springer, Kup, Blurr, and Rodimus Prime on my toy shelf.
"She looks like some earthling play puppet" ah good old Starscream always that one guy.
Btw Starscream is my favorite g1 Decepticon
Starscream should be just about everyone's favorite Decepticon.
@@JROD082384 agreed
He's my favorite Decepticon.
The most underrated Fembot and my favourite Fembot: Road Rage.
My favourite female decpticons are megaempress and her four servents
This was an interesting discussion on female Transformers. Well done. My favorite is Arcee. She is beautiful. I love her. ♡♡♡♡
Yes, yes there should be female Transformers.
G1 explained it PERFECTLY.
When I was a kid. I was always looking for an Arcee toy.
Same here. As a kid, it bothered me to no end as she was part of the cast.
Yup, I finally got my brother the Arcee he always wanted last year (We used to decide who got which robot when we were kids) but which never came out till fairly recently. He isn't in to them too much now, apart from a general interest, but he was very happy to get it LOL
That's awesome. But I never liked seeing Arcee as a bike. When I think of Arcee I always think of her as a hot sports car.
It's lucky we got Generations Arcee then!
I was looking for Elita-1, Moonracer, Chromia. Not just Arcee. Elita-1 is my favorite female character.
Awesome video, you always go above and beyond researching these topics. Keep up the awesome videos.
I dint know optimus has a gf lol a savage
Oh yeah, he sadly can't be with her as there a war on.
In Cyberverse, it introduces a female decepticon named Shadow Striker!
Excellent video...I wish there was a actually story on where were Elita One, Moonracer and the other G1 female Autobots we're during the events of Transformers the Movie....This has become one of my 5 favorite videos you have made..
I always wanted more from them after that episode. For all we know is that they remained in hiding on Cybertron until the Decepticons took over and were on Earth at the Ark during the battle of Autobot City.
YES. There is and there should be! I love your presentation! And thank you for not being anti-feminist. I really greatly appreciate that!
I love that there are fembots with back storys
@6:18 Moonracer sniping that pillar without even looking. Okay, that is pretty badass. Great video Mr. and Mrs. Primal
Thank you!
Megatron: She's everything i've always wanted!
I thought Megatron had some form of lust toward Nightbird. TBH, she could have been the first female Decepticon. She could also became one of Galvatron's goons along with Cyclonus and Scourge after being upgraded by Unicron as a true Transformers.
Black archnia kicked ass in beast wars.
Arcee kicked ass in prime
Arcee kicked ass in gen 1
Fembots are f-ing awesome
I've been pondering this for quite some time, since I've been working on my own fan fiction around my Transformers collection- I build up a mythology around third party and official toys, make my own characters, etc.
In regards to why the Transformers would have gender, different explanations work for different continuities, but my interpretation of their G1 origin runs as such:
Five Faces of Darkness establishes that the Quintessons build several lines of robots, Autobots and Autocons, for a variety of military and domestic purposes. It stands to reason that some of these robots would be built with female aesthetics by customer demand.
It also stands to reason that these robots would be built with at least a basic artificial intelligence, if not full sentience. That said, it makes sense for a robot designed to appear female to have a female "personality"- IE, Siri, Alexa, etc.
And when these robots achieved sentience and rose up against their masters, they retained the programmed concept of gender.
=
Other versions of the Transformers origins have the entire race being off-shoots of Primus, each spark a part of a much larger entity (the Matrix/ Primus- consider the end of Beast Machines, where Megatron absorbs every spark into his own.)
If Primus began to bestow life upon the Transformers, whether out of curiosity, or as part of his ongoing struggle against Unicron, It's not unreasonable to consider "He" may experiment with gender- as well as non-humanoid Transformers like the Insecticons and Ravage- in an effort to achieve his goals.
=
As for reproduction, again it seems to vary wildly between continuities; while in one universe, an intelligence-boosted Grimlock can scratchbuild five sentient robots from spare parts of Unicron (did they inherit part of Unicron's "spark"? Now there's a debate...) with little difficulty.
While in Beast Wars and Animated, the Autobots/Maximals rely on protoforms to carry their sparks, and blank protoforms exist. But the creation of the sparks themselves is rather vague- The closest I can remember is the Maximals creating Rampage by attempting to clone Starscream's mutant "immortal" Spark.
But complicating matters is Dinobot 2, who is a clone using "DNA" from the original Dinobot, but given life by half of Rampage's own spark.
However, despite being powered by Rampage's spark, he retains some semblance of Dinobot's personality (an unproduced episode would have explained that further) but suffice it to say, Dinobot 2 comes to remember his existence as Dinobot (or something resembling it) and turns against Megatron in the final episode.
And then there's Silverbolt and Quickstrike to consider; when they are awakened in Coming of the Fuzors, they have sparks, but no apparent memory of who they were before being loaded aboard the Axalon. So, is a Transformer's memory and personality separate?
The thing about G1 cartoon continuity, is that it was established thanks to the Botcon comics that Primus IS the core of Cybertron with Vector Sigma being the conduit to him. So perhaps the Quintessons additional programming DID have an effect on them, but it still comes from Primus himself. Reproduction is a topic I may have to cover one day, but I must tread carefully on that topic.
Have you ever seen a movie called "Strings"??? It's pretty obscure.
It's about a world of marionette people who KNOW they're marionettes; the strings are physical and a part of them, stretching into the sky, so no buildings have roofs, the city gate is one bar to stop the strings passing underneath.
Anyhow, the "people" reproduce by, uh... rubbing their strings together, and then a new "life string" develops and peels off of the "mother". while the new strings develop, the father sculpts a new body for the child.
I kinda adapted that idea for my fan-canon; what if Transformers reproduced by merging their sparks; coding from both parents is used to create a new spark, which develops into a separate entity, and is then loaded into a blank protoform.
- Which may explain Tigerhawk; Tigatron and Air Razor's sparks combine when they take over Tigerhawk's body.
It's interesting how hasbro were happy to keep gender politics out of the lore. It's a surprisingly complex thing but I think they introduced it well in G1. They don't try to over explain. And they haven't gone to the lengths of trying to have robot pregnancies because that would be jumping the shark, big time.
With where it is, they have it on safe ground where maybe they have ways of interfacing in private that aren't shown because transformers is a franchise for people of all ages. But even if they just enjoy each other's company, for self aware, living machines that could surely be enough to justify having female machines. It's as if hasbro was worried that introducing female robots would scare boys away. It could have if introduced differently. I'm not too sure how much I liked the idea of robots falling in love. My ten year old self did not like that and I'm still not 100% on board with that even though it adds depth to their character and it happened in G1. For me there'll always be a feeling of it being like a sister taking my Optimus prime and making it have kissy play with her barbie in front of me
Well, I've entertained the thought that it's possible for male and female Cybertronians to interface with one another's sparks that actually generate a new spark that could be placed in "Cyber matter" or whatever it's called in that continuity to create a new Transformer, but that is JUST A THEORY. Still, I am in the same boat with being a boy and not wanting my "boys toys" to mesh with my sister's girls toys. Of course, in today's "wonderfully" social climate, boys are not allowed to say that anymore....
RodimusPrimal it's funny how in the 80s we took comfort in the clear gender lines between toys for boys and toys for girls.
It cracks me up how nowadays it's basically taboo to say that kids shouldn't play with certain toys for gender reasons. Does make for an amusing mental image of a little girl playing with a G1 megatron transforming it into a gun. Those very notions of gender specific appeal are actually something that the shounen series One Piece has played a few laughs off of. Where a cyborg character called Franky impresses characters who are boys at heart with all his robo/mecha augmentations. While Chopper who is a talking humanoid transforming reindeer gets lots of love from the female characters because they find him cute like a teddy bear and his fur is soft.
I'm glad that in the video you didn't concern yourself with the PC angle. It made for a video that was very focused and focused on the most important things to the subject. I never knew the full story about how female characters came into G1. I just noticed they popped into the show and I just kindanrolled with it because they didn't ruin the show. New characters appeared out of nowhere without much explanation so I didn't bat an eyelid when female transformers appeared out of nowhere. Although I do find it interesting that in G1 there aren't any female decepticons
And then we have IDW’s current additions to the lore... oh dear lord it’s awful.
Andrew Taylor oh man, commiserations. I don't read the comics so I've been spared that abomination at least.
@@unstoppableExodia
It funny that I imagine the so called male transformers would be the pregnant ones since that they have more room to carry a baby. Robot pregnancy is weird.
I love female transformers. Arcee was my fave as a kid now we have so many. I’m getting some custom fembots done. I wish masterpiece toys would give us more fembots. MMCs new green arcee is a great start
Speaking of Transformer/Human relations, can't believe you left out Sludge crushing on the reporter. That sub-plot was always a favourite of mine
Great video guys!! I have always wanted them to include more female transformers, obviously not needed for reproduction of transformers, but more for the chemistry and natural argumentative relationships that it makes. Obviously, it's the "human" aspect of the whole thing is why we are questioning it at all. I'm quite sure if it were just sentient robots that the topic wouldn't be such a topic. However it is fun to speculate, and if you collect Masterpiece or any transformers like myself, next month, Fans Toys is scheduled to come out with an Arcee figure in which they call: "Rouge". So look out for it. It looks like a very good interpretation of Arcee. Thanks again for the video and cool topic! Roll on Roddy.
This is so informative. I love how, in terms of writing, Arcee may in fact be older than Elita-1 and co.
As a teen I made some rules for a Transformers RPG and attempted to define the sexes among Cybertronians as some kind of differentiation needed to form complete sentient programs (like having a basic code but then adding an extra bit of code that activates it or something). Course that by itself would not explain sexual di-morphism but I never considered that.
Now I'm more inclined to say 'sexes' and 'genders' can be different things. If that makes this comment 'progressive' then indulge me because it is a useful distinction for fictional or fabulous characters and is nothing remotely new. Consider the nature of gods and goddesses. Do they have to have genitalia or is it sufficient for them to have a quality that _feels_ masculine or feminine to us? If so they we could say they lack sex but possess gender. Anyway...
The comics book solution of turning fembots into part of a _lineage_ is interesting but I have my qualms - making them tribal like that reminds me too much of the old, silly phrase 'the female race'.
Course, we all know the real, out-of-story explanation in Transformers for masculine and feminine, as indeed for youthful and elderly, siblings, best mates, lovers and so on, which is that they're not machines at all, but cartoon characters that reflect who we are and are written so that we can identify with them in some way or other. :)
Agreed that we now distinguish gender and sex as you describe. I'll note that living things can reproduce asexually, but that tends to happen with simpler life-forms. And of course you could go the other way and have more sexual diversity (I once wrote a short story in which a species had sperm-providers, ovum-providers, pollinators and gestators). :)
The video passingly mentions that (out-of-story) the Arcee concept was under development before they wrote the season two episode with the female Autobots.
There are still some fans and non-fans (a minority I suspect) who try to say 'but they are just machines so are neuter.' Imagine what the cartoon would have been like if they had put the effort in to make that accurate. Every character would talk in a distorted, mid-range monotone, like Soundwave, or not talk at all, like Laserbeak (since who can tell the sex of a bird anyway). It would have been a bit boring. :)
Personally love fembots. As a kid, always had a crush on Arcee, and she was still badass (except headmasters managed to make her a little different lol) Always wished there was a few more to make it so the few didn't stick out so much
Same here. If they were there from the get go it would be normal for them. Arcee indeed does rock....except in Headmasters.
4:42
"She looks like some earthling play puppet!"
*Thonk-*
I really forgot the names of the female autobots after so many years. This is a well researched video
Thanks!
"I really forgot the names of the female autobots after so many years. "
Not that big of a surprise. I found the Decepticons to have better-defined roles and more memorable characters. Decades later, I can name entire lists of Decepticons, while I struggle to remember most of the Autobots other than Optimus Prime (who I disliked), Arcee, Kup, Rodimus Prime (who were favourite characters for me), and Ultra Magnus (who had a memorable name, but was a rather disappointing character.)
Personally I think it’s kinda silly that we need explain away female transformer, when the easiest explanation would be some cybertronians like to look female and some like to look male. It may make no sense for robots to have gender but it also doesn’t make sense for robots to have souls which is exactly what a Spark is
Keep them coming rod
My top 10 ♀️
Arcee
Elita 1 (All versions but Ugly Animated and Evil IDW)
Nightbird (She deserves to be brought back onto television)
Windblade
Slipstream (No not the imposter puck from RID!)
Blackarachnia (Minus Animated)
Airachnid
Thunderblast
Moonracer
Chromia
Curious history of the female transformers
I like the variety that female Transformers add to the series, both in personality and aesthetics. Having two sexes helped make Transformers more relatable and opened the door to more stories. Storytelling being the main priority. Having female Transformers can also show kids great examples of how male and females are meant to work together as a team too. So long as politics and toxic progressive rhetoric aren't infecting the script, then female Transformers all the way.
As for origins: It's possible the Transformers sought a way to reproduce other than the one left by the Quintessons (Vector Sigma). Together, male and female Transformers would allow Cybertronians to forge their own destiny. They could have patterned their concept of reproduction from observation of other species. Additionally they could have reverse engineered Vector Sigma to some extent, providing female Transformers with a unique spark that has the ability to produce sparks when combined with the energy of a male Transformer's spark.
Inside her would be a reactor where the spark would stabilize and absorb data tracks from the combined experiences and personalities of both Transformers. As such, procreation would be a deeply personal experience for Transformers, as their very souls link. This would explain the dimorphic differences and their unique powers such as Aleta One's time disruption. Powers like this would serve as a last ditch effort to protect the gestating spark from danger. A body or protoform is then manufactured and the spark is placed inside.
Naturally the Decepticons would seek to destroy all female Autobots, while keeping their own a closely guarded asset. As an antagonistic faction, it wouldn't be too shocking to see Decepticons controlling their female population for a time. This is why we never saw female Transformers on either side.
There's a couple of ways to look at it i think. One is that they exist in the real world, for purposes of selling toys/media/etc. So they can't really divorce themselves from the 'ideal' of providing equal representation/empowerment/coexistance/etc. Especially since they're primarily targeting impressionable children. The other is in-house fluff: they are alien robots. They mainly look like 'male' and sound 'male' in the cartoons, so that's what we identify them as. But they're alien. They could look like men and sound like women, or look like women and sound like men. They would probably look like they were designed for optimal efficiency in their designated role, whatever that means. I always liked the invid from robotech, because aside from the regis you couldn't really tell what gender the 'basic' invid were, or if they even had a gender. They were really good at being 'alien'. But, if i had to pick a side, based on the target audience i would say yes there should be lady transformers. If they were going after adults or late-teens, then yeah i'd go more for the fluff side of the equation.
I really liked the idea of Elita one as Optimus' Girlfriend. I don't know, Maybe because it gives a robot some human character, but also because you know I can honestly say as long as they don't force in a bunch of female transformers because "its the current year" then Female characters aren't something that should be discouraged. Arcee was on of my favorite characters in the film.
I saw this video with my wife!!! This video was awsome Rodimus!!! You got a really nice family!!! We really liked the video!!!
Thanks! We appreciate that a lot!
i think the best is slipstream, she came from something from starscream, and she is the most competent of the clones in the series perhaps more competent than the original, and maybe it even alludes to something about starscream's own identity,
I've never really seen any need to explain why some TFs are male and female. I just accepted that some look and sound male to us and some seem what we humans would stereotype as feminine. They're just a group of different looking and sounding robots.
4:19 Elona: you like?
Seaspray internally: O HEK AHHHHH
Great video! I learned an awful lot here. Alas my knowledge of Transformers stopped after G1. So it's great to see that female characters have become established. (When I re-read some of the old stories, I sometimes have the vague feeling that something was missing... The new female characters might remedy that!)
I liked Alita-1 and Arcee from the G1 TransFormers. I always wanted Takara Tomy to make an Alita-1 figure to go along with my Optimus Prime figure.
As a girl who grew up on the transformers(being first introduced to the series with the 2007 movie) I believe there needs to be more female transformers. They're are plenty of existing ones that can be used, so there is no need to create new ones from scratch. But you can if you want to. My point is, I love the transformers. I go and watch prime on netflix, and see the movies in theaters. I read the comics. It's something I get joy from.
When revenge of the fallen came out, and there were the three female autobots (the motorcycles) I was ecstatic. I would watch the screen raptly for them and cheered whenever they came on. (Btw, wasn't that chase scene in Shanghai awesome!?)
That fact that they were girls like me made me feel like a part of the fandom. Representation matters. The United states was found on the phrase "no taxation without representation". Seeing something or someone that looks like you and represents you on the big screen makes you feel big too. I was always told to go watch something else, like MLP or a girls show. And while there is nothing wrong with girls shows like MLP, what I really loved was transformers. But my parents would't by the toys for me because they were for boys. And If there were more female transformers and female autobot toys, it would give validation for girls like me who liked the series but were told not to, or that it wasn't for them. While I'm not saying female autobots like Arcee, or Elita-one, or Chromia would magically fix it, they would have helped. In short, seeing female autobots as a part of the transformers and by extension the fandom, made me feel accepted as well.
Of course, all three were killed of and/or never scene again.
I like the idea of using existing characters as well. Arcee, Chromia, Firestar, Moonracer, Slipstream, Windblade, Elita One, Black Arachnia, Thunderblast, etc all have a place in Transformers tales, as long as they are well told. I know plenty of girls who enjoyed Transformers just as much and it didn't matter to them that there were no girl toys. But I can see your point. Having it for all is good, as long as they understand WHO their audience is.
For some reason your last sentence is hilarious. Btw if you haven’t watch TFP yet, you should. Arcee buttkicking decepticon is totally enjoyable to watch. I didn’t like her first because of her attitude, but over time she became a bit likeable(i guess).But my favorite is Windblade! Definitely windblade! Did I say windblade? Yeah I love windblade!😍
i think seeing your self represented tends to come off as narcissistic and slightly sociopathic at times. Because all you would care is just race, gender, and sexuality, and not the personality of the character. Take me for example, I'm Half-black half-Mexican, I don't need characters like Superman or Spider-Man to be changed in certain ways just to validate my existence or to see myself, I already like them just the way they are. If you want representation, either use pre-existing characters that are part of a specific minority and give them more attention or create new ones. No race, gender, or sexuality swaps towards pre-existing straight white male characters in some misguided attempt at representation. It comes of as being creatively lazy, virtue signaling, and annoyingly pandering.
Actually I don't have a problem with female characters at all. Its the forced representation (especially gender-swaps) I have a problem with. (For some reason it's ben going on since 2016 from what I heard.) For example, taking a pre- existing male character then turn that character female. Especially if its done out of virtue signaling. In fact i don't mind seeing black, Female and gay characters, but they have to be fresh creations. Plus being those things is part of their characterization but not their only trait. I think youtuber Micah Curtis said it best, if you want characters to be changed in a certain way just to validate your existence, then your existence doesn't mean much in the first place
Very cool topic. This is one reason I liked Gobots as well. With them having some female robots with Crasher from the get go as well as a few others before they brought the female robots, as far as Cybertronians, in Transformers. The search for Alpha Trion is one of my top favorite episodes of the Transformers series getting to see not only some of the Autobots left on Cybertron but also having them female was so cool. Would of loved if the series would of revisited them in another episode or two before the movie.
At a Botcon they had fan artwork of Transformers . Female Autobot Pretenders and Female Decepticons Pretenders. Female Autobot Cassette Fast forward.
My most favorite Female Transformers is Override (Cybertron) & Elita-1/Blackarachnia (Animated) back when I was a kid, may not seem a lot but they were the ONLY Female TF characters that I actually feel connected to, back then I loved the Animated version of Elita-1 so much, being the Cute, Spunky, Blonde, Energetic Autobot that she was, until I actually felt really bad for her of being mutated as the half organic Cybertronian Spider known as Blackarachnia, but at the same time that even made me love her even more because I grew up loving/reading/watching/playing a lot Spider-Man Games, Movies,TV shows, and Comics. Not only that, but because of Spider-Man & Elita-1/Blackarachnia being a big influence part of my life growing up, in General, Spiders do interests me a lot, in my spare time I would always go on TH-cam and watch and learn a lot about Spiders, and I still do today in my free time, they're just fascinating creatures to learn about. Override on the hand, I just find her straight up cool, She's that type of Velocitronian who's isn't that much of the "girlish" type but more the fun, hang around, racer, tomboy-ish type, which I Ultimately love about her. Female Transformers Wise, before them, Jazz is and will always be my most favorite Transformer of all time, Next to Blurr, Drift, and Starscream.
A dumb question but do transformers need drivers ed or flight training before they use their alt modes or is it just programed in. This probably wont make a full viedo maybe you could do some short ones in one viedo.
Rory Lumley pretty much would be a topic on "Why do they transform?" definitely one to cover in the future.
Rory Lumley they probably just download the skills
Rory Lumley I think it would be like a dog or bird walking or flying.
It's explained in Beast Wars that they transform to hide from the raw/unprocessed mass of energon scattered about tha planet which I don't recall exactly how that works but they do explain why transformation is necessary in that canon|
Rory Lumley good question
That's so cool you and your wife are Transformers fan and very passionate about it. Thanks for the wonderful videos too, really enhance the Transformer's lore.
Thanks so much! Till all are one!
I like the Aligned/late IDW version. They are a natural part of life of Cybertron because of Solus. Nautica and Windblade are my favorites.
I love how you handled this subject! Keep up the good work.
Thanks. We really had to walk that fine line to do so.
this was a pretty awesome vid, i think it was a good idea to make female transformers, it give the female fans some characters to kinda relate to. i prefer the Solous Prime origin, it just sounds so interesting.
keep up the great work
Thanks. I don't think female fans NEED female characters to relate to them, but it always helps to have them present regardless. I like Transformers characters whether they are male or female.
agreed
I recently got the Masterpiece Road Rage (red version of Tracks) and did some digging on the character. I come to find out that she was indeed a female. Now I am going to collect all the females. Ive been a Transformers fan since day one and now the opportunities to have the girls are here. I personally think it's awesome!!!!
Slipstream is probably my favorite female decepticon because well her the design I really like and is probably the most unique female decepticons I know of aside from black arachnia. It's just ashame she's not used that often not to mention even getting an official toy. ):
I like her design too. She's a fairly recent character, all things considered, but they DO need to make more toys of her. Right now, there are there are two toys made of her. One was a Subscription service slight remold of Prime Starscream, and the other was a Japanese Legends version retool of Generations Windblade.
RodimusPrimal Maybe there could be one with potp, cyberverse, or even the new war for Cybertron series. I'm just here, waiting to put a slipstream figure on my transformers collection selfs.
I love seeing a family love Transformers together. It makes me feel happy. Minivera reminds me of Zero from Rockman X. I wonder if that was a concept or something for Zero later.
I like female transformers. For me Arcee is the first Lady of transformers
Whatever the circumstance, I'm glad they introduced female Transformer characters into the franchise and we got amazing characters like Arcee and Black Arachnia.
Arcee was not with Springer, they were basically brother & sister. Hotrod and Arcee flirted with each other. But after Hotrod became Rodimus, he pushed the relationship away because he was dealing with the pressures of leadership...
Ultra Magnus For the most part most of us transformers the movie fans saw Springer and arcee as boy
friend and girlfriend and in some source material it was heavily implied.
Dank Starscream I thought most fans saw it the same way...it seemed clear that arcee and Springer had a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship and it was more of a romantic triangle with hot rod in the beginning but I got the sense that hot rod was just too young and immature for her(romance trope) Springer was definitely more of a ladies man as far as transformers are allowed to be... and in TF THE MOVIE as it went on, arcee definitely kinda settled on springer...the next season of TF definitely made it clear with then hot rod bc Rodimus and now occupied with being the leader of the autobots.
Dank Starscream Thanks...Why is this so hard for others to see? It's so obvious.
From the movie to season 3 and the Japanese continuation, there was absolutely nothing romantic between Springer and C. That was a loveless relationship...
@
Ultra Magnus
You got also canon material when Springer is offering Arcee some flowers, so this is a proove to me xD
Dude your videos are ALWAYS awesome and I'm a old man who grew up on ALL 80's cartoons and I ALWAYS said from season one of Transformers that I wanted too see female robots with their male counterparts at age 12.
Thanks! I really appreciate that! It always bothered me that Arcee didn't get a G1 toy. She belonged on the shelf with my other 1986 toys!
Yes it should be.... because prime himself before he became Optimus prime had his girlfriend....so we should have some female transformers.... because women are in every and probably needed in every field.
I always liked the idea of fembots. Never had an issue with it and my wife and I hope there's more!
As long as they are well conceived as characters. I don't mind female Transformers. They should've expanded on the idea in G1, but alas, the reality of it being a toy line. By the way, Moonracer is my favorite and I hope she gets more love on the future.
I like the idea of Cybertronian Sex, as in "spark sharing", where both parties expose there sparks in close proximity to each other. Most of the time, the spark sharing only results in intamancy between Cybertonians. But sometimes, such a coupling produces a small spark. That spark, when resting in a protoform, can mature into a Cybertronican itself.
So like the mind melding from Dark Crystal?
I told my friend that there were female transformers. He was very surprised
Same. My friend thought i was lying lol
MajorTugh jedi I guess some people think giant alien robots and only think of boys.
Good7 Bad13 I guess so. I mean i watched all of the unicorn trilogy transformers as a little kid as well as G1 so female transformers were no surprise to me. But I guess people only think of Megatron vs Optimus whenever they think of transformers
MajorTugh jedi my first transformers show was the g1 movie, so arcee was just another transformer. Made sense to me that there would be both genders.
Pride!Ed from BBI/BBR my thoughts exactly
Gotta say the Jhiaxis forced sex change, gotta be 1 darkest plot concepts I heard of in relation to Transformers.
Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia was my first ever online purchase because I really like the character and the toy looks awesome. I also like Victorion and her Takara counterpart, Megatronia.
As long as the Fem Transformers are well written and act normal not to push an agenda it makes transformers more bio-mechanic than purely mechanic, Arcee should have stayed pink thou, is getting annoying how being pink is bad if you're female.
@Awesome power was she? I thought she was blue and silver in prime...might have to check again.
This was a really good video!
Also, just wanted to say: Thank you for your take, and not pushing any identity politics into anything.
Honestly you guys have earned my respect from that.
Transformers is for everyone.
Would you by chance make a video in Transformers Reproduction?
That is a thing that is so divided and vauge that I don't get it.
What's the standard?
I have heard of the Allspark, Hotspots, Budding, Htachlings and I belive I also have heard of mass-energon infusion into a cold-forged robot or vehicle can also give "birth" to a Cybertronian.
(The last one is my favorite as it is more dependent on energon than any mystical do-hickey)
Who here believes the theory that Arcee is the daughter of Elita-1 and Optimus Prime
O_o
errr transformers dont reproduce by requiring a female
Would be nice though.
@beans lmao but at the same time we never see it not happen so we can't tell if its impossible or not
2nd time watching this video. This IP was so ahead of it's time. Hard to believe it was around at the same time as Thunder-cats, and Masters of the Universe (the thunders-cats, movie is a rough rewatch, because of the sub-par animation). The movie is my favourite film and soundtrack, the 30th anniversary, Bluray, blew me away! (apologise for the pun)
P.S. Sorry for pestering you with so many comments today
I love female trransformers..I collect them like with any astromech I see as a must have.Ive talked about my freind who said Starscream was the son of Megatron.Well we don't think sex the normal way but the mingling of Sparks to produce and off spring then they tranfer it to a protoform.I have to show her this video
I'm all about the Torchbearers (or Rust Renegades) and Victorian!