Nerdcoresteve1 while I wouldn’t say it is sjw, because that term has been reclaimed as somewhat of a slur and insult I can suggest a website that does have a large selection of idw comics readcomiconline.to if you have a strong Adblock and can stand clearing any cookies it might give you has practically every comic imaginable I personally use it to read long unsold comics from decades ago and also use it to catch up on Optimus prime
Omega supreme : where is my pet ?🤣🤣 Btw, Arcee and Elita 1 are the best and oldest autobots ever created G1 transformers more cooler and with awesome art style 😜😜
Shatter from the new Bumblebee movie was great. Her calculating personality contrasted well with Blitstreak's trigger friendly one. Overall I think the inclusion of more female presenting transformers introduces a whole new avenue of creativity for future designs and characters.
I think there's a simple way of explaining why there's female Transformers. Given that the Transformers were built as products and weapons by the Quintessons for sale to alien races many of whom would have gender, it could be seen as a way to make them relatable to female customers. In the Marvel comic, or any series using a Primus origin, Primus would have surmised they would encounter alien races and again, the gender would make them relatable to them. Great video as always.
i would go to say that Primus before the creation of the cybertonians explored the universe discovered other life and mimicked it , when he made the 13 that would explain why the body types are the way they are from mouths to other "ASSETS" also the age of the cybertrionian race predates even humans in both origins also so there gender isn't necessarily based on human physiology but some other species
Didn't Transformers existed before organic life? However, it could be possible that he was inspired. Hey maybe bots were inspired to have a family/kids.
I really like the Quintesson origin story. It also explains why their products are humanoid despite they themselves being five headed floating eggs with tentacles; they sold Cybertronians to alien customers with humanoid bodies and gender.
I didn't know that we owe the creation of female characters in the TV show to a writer's daughter. That was cool. Also, being an 80s kid, knew first hand that girls love Transformers as much as we did, so i don't see a reason why not have male and female bots.
3:17: “No explaination for female robots was deemed necessary in the cartoon” And that’s something that’s always peeved me off about female Transformers: the fact that they are rarely to never featured because “we need to explain why robots, in what amounts to a toy commercial for kids, have genders”. 😑. I’m glad the more recent incarnations have started to get away from that nonsense.
If an explanation is absolutely needed, the fact that they’re robots means you could have a human character spout technobabble and explain how “multimodal reflection sorting of their personality.ini file in the firmware of their spark’s cerebral Zero Point Module” is responsible for their gender. Yes I know I mixed technobabble from several different sources. The point is that they should make the definitive explanation one that’s poking fun at the need to explain why the robots have gender.
My fav is Black Arachnia. Love her because she chose which side to fight. Tarantulas did tinker with her protoform, but she always made decisions with herself in the equation. She wasn't going to die for Megatron or Tarantulas ambition. Arachnid and Prime's Arcee are a close tie for second. When TF: Prime first started and introduced us to Arcee I thought to myself. A shame they didn't get Gina Torres. She'd be awesome for the role of Arcee. Then they introduced Airachnid in 'Predatory' voiced by Gina Torress and I was hooked.
What did you think of TFA Blackarachnia? I really liked her as a character, and I wish her character arc completed, because season 3 only started her new growth, since S4 ideas stated she was going to build a Predacon army.
Wait...Shockwave seriously thought an entire gender of bots was EXTINCT??? Did he mean all female Transformers or just female Autobots specifically? What made Shockwave think they were "extinct" instead of simply dead or missing? Is it even possible for Transformers to go extinct? Is Shockwave simply really sexist? That one line raises so many questions.
I like how they have handled the female bots. They are just there and no need to make it a thing. The Prime series was my favorite transformers series thus far. All the characters were awesome and arcee was among them. She was just another well written character and didn't feel like it needed to be divisive. Also, keep in mind that this is a war between the two factions. In warfare, you typically see more males in combat then females. I just don't want transformers to be as divisive as a lot of modern franchises have become.
Here's hoping the Transformers IP doesn't get woke (and that's assuming it hasn't already done so, considering what happened with the 2015 "Robots in Disguise" series and what's going on with IDW Publishing).
For the combat role things, it's mostly a human things that female don't take part in battles. Lioness are the one hunting, Hyena female are the pack leaders, lot of female spiders are larger than their male conterparts... There's no reason female robots would not have active combat roles
@@dominusexmachina serously mate RiD 2015 did the female autobots justice too, Strongarm and Windblade are great characters, so stop being that one person who hates the newer gen for nostalgia's sake smh.
Dank Starscream Didn’t Animated also have a female Autobot Inferno as well who was named Flashpoint? The different name was due to the fact Decepticon (or Predacon) Inferno already being used.
Is it bad that I can't help but laugh like a six year old at Optimus Prime's line "Ladies and...er Ladies"? Also I had heard somewhere that Ratchet was originally supposed to be female. I really liked that idea, don't know how I feel about her being named after the witch nurse from One Flew Over the Coco's Nest.
Why do robots need genders? I don't know, why do robot's have beards, why do robots have names instead of numerical designations, why do robots become wrestling champions? You see where I'm going with this?
For the most part, at least what I portray them as. They are not just robots, They actually Living organisms like us humans and animals or whatever alien species. Just with hard Metal Skin and different organs and types of living. Why not should they have names? Why not have different Champions and Hierarchy of Class because they DO have it in the lore and show? But I do get that why they have genders if they dont reproduce, or the beards or hair or in general have Flesh-like Traits for their Structural Bodies
Kind of mirrors the real-world movements into inclusivity. The same thing happened with other toylines - Lego for example, didn't have female minifigs or sets that were designed for girls until the mid-90's. Until then, Lego was exclusively marketed to boys.
1980s attitudes towards making certain media hardcoded towards boys or girls was pretty bad back then. Still, transformers certainly had a long way to go. Heck, even Hasbro’s other big franchise, My Little Pony, featured male ponies and characters a bit more prominently than Transformers showed female cybertronians.
Naw. The comments are okay, from what I’ve seen. Honestly, from my experience, not a whole lot of people get pissed off about women in geek properties unless it’s something like replacing beloved male characters with female characters and then attacking the fan base as a bunch of misogynist for not liking the change or things of that nature.
I thought one thing Furman did right, or at least interestingly, with respect to gender in the Phase 1 IDW comics was that the TFs had holographic representations of humans to serve as their drivers, and to allow for easier human interaction. The gender of these was often pretty interesting - Sunstreaker's was a woman, I recall. And then later, in Lost Light, that went even further, with Ultra Magnus picking the only human he knew (a woman) as his avatar.
@@returnedtomonkey8886 yes. That was important - despite dying of old age, Tailgate had only lived consciously for a very short time. Hence the baby form.
@@returnedtomonkey8886 That is one of the reasons why I dislike MTMTE/LL or James Roberts' works in general. They are disturbingly weird. I also hate the romance and pairings.
@@miyako1909 This. Transformers has the benefit of being one of the only series that can't get bogged down by romance and messy stuff like that, and instead focus on platonic camaraderie. Romance should not be a thing for an asexual robotic species. Friendships and comrades are much deeper than romance.
Thank you very much for all doing this channel Chris. You do a wonderful job and I hope you can tell that us fans really appreciate it. Keep up the good work!
Say Chris, would you consider doing a "The Basics" video on the G2 franchise, it tends to be overlooked more often than any other Transformers franchise. Also, THANK YOU FOR ANOTHER FANTASTIC BASICS VIDEO!!!!! Your "Transformers The Basics" has become my all time favorite video series. :D
Thank you for the consideration, will you also consider doing a "The Basics" video on the Monsterbots, I just picked up all three of the Titans Return Deluxe class Monsterbots, and I know it will be entertaining hearing your thoughts on Doublecross, Repugnus, and Grotusque.
Prime Universe: "you see, women are in the minority, but they also get badass space blacksmith powers, that clearly give them an advantage over other transformers" Senseless people: "are you trying to say they're some sort of DEFECT!?"
Literally. I can't believe peoole knew Solus was a genius and that her decendants were slso incredibly smart and that they decided to complain about that.
Arcee is probably my favorite character in TF Prime, narrowly beating Knock Out. She was a very nuanced character, never came off as forced, shown to be perhaps the most protective having a heartwarming big sister role with Jack, and she also kicked as much ass as the rest of the bots and cons despite being half their size. Also Sumalee Montano voices the character perfectly.
I agree, I think any new continuities created going forward will do the same, especially whatever rebooted universe IDW does next after the current one finishes!
Chris McFeely Arcee was simply experimented on. The retconned Furman's (incredibly stupid) plotline and simply made Arcee's 'experimented' on a rebuild.
In context, Spotlight Arcee was one of the most interesting new takes on her character since her creation. Her last role before was "secretary" after all.
I never got around to reading Furman's take on Arcee. I heard about the broad strokes and it sounded like an awful idea. Now? Now I'm thinking I need to read it because I've seen much *worse* approaches taken. I wonder, did he take such a hamfisted approach because he thought people were doing that already?
Furman's take on Arcee in IDW came a few years before trans issues really started to get recognised in mainstream media, it was presented more as a body horror type thing - Arcee having been experimented on in such a way that other Transformers felt uncomfortable around her. And in hindsight it's incredibly problematic, but didn't necessarily feel that way at the time.
ok uhh, found it, and yep. Botcon 2014 almost had a Strika fig using Voyager Bulky: www.toycollectors.com.au/bc14/bc14br.html just scroll to the “ALMOST happened” category.
ok uh last comment or something. Cus someone did it, a mad man did it! Someone made a custom Strika using Voy Bulky, and it look really good! ua-cam.com/video/q3xtWaPRnSc/v-deo.html
I like the explanation around solus prime. It explains the lack of female transformers and gives them a logical origin. I never thought of them as "not normal". Beasts, combiners, minicon and females are normal transformers .
Hasbro's focus-grouping (or, in this case, assumptions) in the early franchise will never stop pissing me off. I always liked female characters in boy-focused shows. Hell, Cheetara was my favorite Thundercat when I was young. I think boys having a "girls are icky" attitude was really dying out in the '80s (I know I never did) and it took awhile for toylines and children's media to catch up.
My favorite female is Elita One with Arcee in second and Blackarachnia in third. I'm going to include some more females in my fanfiction, including a female Seeker with a crush on Starscream. By the way, if you're wondering who the components of Victorion are, they are the Combiner team known as the Torch Bearers from Caminus, specifically a splinter faction called the Rust Renegades. Off-balance motorcyle Rust Dust Extremely focused Ferrari 458 Italia Dustup Swift teleporting Lamborghini Diablo Jumpstream Gemini twin helicopters Skyburst and Stormclash And their leader, tough and serious fire truck Pyra Magna.
Awwww I had no idea that characters like Anode and Lug would even be considered in Transformers and I love it... If Hasbro (or a third party company) ever makes figures for them then I’m buying two of each
She just needs some bits of her personality changed, and she needs to have moments with Sideswipe (I SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT) and I'll be fine with her.
ZimMan2 which one Energon Strongarn, Movie Strongarm (Via the toyline, IDW, and Titan comics), animated Strongarm (via Allspark Almanac), or RID 2015 Strongarm?
My favorite Femme are Nightbird and Glyph, Nightbird because even tho she was a human experiment she prove that she could handle herself really while plus she was so awesome!! And if Hasbro bring her back one day they can use the Circle of Light as a reason for where she got her sword training. Glyph is an expert in data decryption, languages, forensic science, and dating of archaeological specimens through radiocarbon dating and other methods. She love learning about Aliens past and current culture. Glyph isn't much of a fighter but she makes but for it in smart and being able to stand on her own ground verbally Plus I'm also a hella whole nerd and she just relate to me 😅
I liked the idea of female Transformers being descended from Solus Prime as well as the idea that the concept of genders being unknown to Cybertronians. I think a lot of creators forget that concepts which may seem normal to humans may be alien to non-human species.
I like the fact how some of the male combiners are a bit slow but victorion is basically 1 person despite her 5 counter parts. She is probably one of the most stable combiners
Your "oof" reactions were on point both times. Ferman's treatment on female Cybertronians is... "oof". I hope the new IDW series does it right from the start.
Honestly my main hc for Transformers (in general, not specifically in or out of any continuities), is that they are biologically genderless and has no concept of it until they interacted with other species. Most are referred to as "he", as plenty of people seem to use that as a pronoun for unknown or unspecified people (despite the fact singular they exists...), but some considered the perspective of other races and cultures and how gender works and decided "Hey! I want to specifically be a he, or a she, or a they!" Especially those that came to Earth
As a child who grew up during the 90’s the romance between Blackarachnia and Silverbolt was one of the highlights of _Beast Wars._ And yes, I hated _Beast Machines._
My favorite female bot is anode because I have multiple trans friends and personally think it’s really cool that the writers are supporting the trans community, also cause her alt mode is a biplane and that’s cool too
One of the reasons I like Anode and Lug is because they exemplify the two major kinds of trans women that you'd find: Those with dysphoria and those without. Anode got her chassis slimmed down because she liked the look better, while Lug mostly just liked the new pronouns and didn't see a reason to alter herself (Which I relate to for the most part.) As a bonus, Anode's story about how she came to the conclusion even went a long way in explaining that her realization wasn't a particularly rare thing either; Back when the colonies did business with Cybertron, sometimes Cybertronians that went to Caminus came back having reinvented themselves a bit after seeing the Camiens and deciding that their general presentation felt alright for them.
@@gircakes you don't need dysphoria to be trans. Gender euphoria is another way people realize they're trans. When you're just going along with your life and maybe you feel a bit different but nothing feels *bad* or *wrong*, and then one day someone at the grocery store "mistakes" you for a boy and it hits you: Oh. This feels... right. Comfortable. This fits so well. Why does this make me feel so right? I do experience dysphoria occasionally, and there are other trans people who feel dysphoric much more frequently than I. There are also trans people who never feel dysphoric. Doesn't make anyone any less trans.
Also it's not ... switching genders. Just because a doctor slapped a label on you when you were born doesn't mean you ever actually were that gender. You're who you are from the start.
@@gircakes Ah, yes, I apologize. I wasn't aware you were the Omniscient Lord of Gender. Let's just choose to ignore the experiences of thousands of people. And of course most people are cis. I never said otherwise. I was only clarifying that we don't "switch genders."
@@gircakes Sex is not the same as gender. Gender is how we initially rationalized sexual dimorphism, but evolved into a social presentation. Also i'm gonna say they earned the right to be cheeky because you just strolled up to me tut-tutting the idea of a trans-woman without dysphoria and called it sexist to exist as such.
Love how you don't gloss over the awfulness of the "Arcee was made to appease angry feminists" and "forcibly transitioned Arcee" origins. Those were some dark times, and I'm happy the franchise (and hopefully Simon Furman too?) has mostly moved past that. RID15's Strongarm has a special place in my heart for feeling different than the other token girl characters, as sorta this Lawful Good rookie SUV with a crossbow. No offense to TFP's Arcee, but her broody tsundere archetype just feels a little too cliche and familiar.
I love that the only significant difference between the female version of Lugnut in Cyberverse (renamed “Clobber”) and the male version in Animated is that the Cyberverse version has lipstick.
Very cool interesting that Ratchet was named after the nurse in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Great topic one of my favs with the Combiners. This is why I like booth Transformers and Gobots since Gobots had the likes of Crasher from the start of the series. One thing I wish they would of done in the G1 Series was have some more episodes with the original Female Autobots a few more episodes though we did get to see Ariel before she became Elita 1 in the episode for Optimus' Origin.
Could you do a Basics for the following: Humans- the fleshy pals that tag along for better or for worse The War- why are they fighting in the first place Relics of the Primes- special weapons or tools like the star saber or the forge of Solus Prime Action Masters- Transformers without the transformation
These would be great. In particular the much maligned human characters would be worth looking at. I've even recently been thinking that a way forward for the toys would be to give us more representations of organic and semi-organic characters. I'm okay with things that don't transform as long as they're not meant to. :)
Humans: Pointless add on The War: Kids love pew pew action. What do you want? Senate meeting? Relics of the Primes: Deus Ex machina because writers can't be arsed to write something good Action Masters: Lazy uncreative hacks
@@GigawingsVideo i've never seen someone being so wrang about his opinions...evrything you've just said could not be further from the truth than right now.
@@GigawingsVideo humans: obligatory presence when the war get taken to earth. Moron. Relics of the primes: old artifact of the past of cybertron that can be used by both autobots AND decepticons.a big part of the lore of the saga. Idiot. Action masters: transformers taking the trending banwagon of action figures to keep the brand alive. Not the best part but a necessary one. That's how it works. Uncultured boy.
Nice to see my fave female Autobots in this video. They are Windblade, Arcee from G1, and Arcee from Transformers Prime. I have the Prime Arcee and Windblade figure's. I even have Thunderblast and Override figure's from Transformer's Cybertron line.
WOOOOW, okay i had known that past explanations of female transformers were bad but hadnt looked up specifics, and just wow. I bet those comic writers thought they were sooo smart. I much prefer the explanation of there just being no explanation. its straightforward and i kinda dont trust them with actually having genderless mean what they say.
JPArtSpace they really did not have to go to such lengths. If you look at our Militaries the majority of soldiers are Male. And bulk of them that go into Combat are Male. They could have mirored that without the menral gymnastics.
Same here. I mean we don't know actual alien robotic beings in real life so why should they come up with the assumption that they don't have gender when for all we know they do? Just comes across as contrived.
@@kaijuguy19 plus they're nit just dumb mindless machines, they're more akin to a technorganic lifeform with it's own biology, so genders could make sense. Like to give birth to a protoform with a new spark after mating with a male transformers.
@@IrishKyokushin but that's mostly an human thing that female rarely assume combat roles. nature show a very different story, Lioness are the one hunting, female Hyena lead their packs, in a lot of spider species the female are much larger than their male counterpart. There's no reason to assume female robots would not take combat roles. Particularly with a culture that's millions years older than human history
Hey Chris I think this has been my favorite episode so far, it has such an interesting history and it's a topic I find really cool but never thought about before. Thanks so much for making it
I'm rather fond of the Megatronia girls. Has nothing to do with their official art. Though it does help. No my fav fem bot is Prime's take of Arcee, nice and classy, badass biker babe bot.
I remember reading, yeeeeeeaaars ago, that there was neither male or female cybetronians but just that there were some individuals that were deemed as female due to humans subconsciously assigning our characteristics to things we encounter(think seeing faces in the clouds if you will.)
I wonder... has anyone in-universe realized that some transformers seem to be descended from multiple Primes? Females with Beast Modes, Minicon Combiners, that sort of thing. Once we get a Female Minicon Combiner with a Beast Mode, be it the entire team or just one, someone HAS to take notice. The division hasn't been one in thirteen in a LONG time.
I wish they reuse strongarm she was an okay cool they made her bulky I remember having an bulky fem of an OC so long ago I don't even remember her name but I dislike robots in disguise for what they did to Soundwave and bumblebee I actually stopped watching it instead of putting it on hold whitch is something I rarely do with series.
Love the video, and I applaud the way you show how the story tried to include females at the start, but whether through business decisions (boys toys) or logic (robots are genderless), their existence has been either denied or postponed. Ever since first seeing The Search for Alpha Trion, I have wanted to see a greater female presence. I am curious though, if you agree with the theory for the American G1, that only female Autobots existed (not female Decepticons since none were shown on the American cartoon) because the Autobot ancestors were designed as consumer goods, engineers, scientists, and possibly more domestic functions. Since some buyers might prefer servants with a more female aspect, especially for tradition roles such as dealing with children. For the record, I also believe this explains why the first Transformers with beast modes were Decepticons, because buyers might have a preference for units with an animal abilities versus a standard model. Please let me know what you think of this theory, and once again thank you for another great video.
I'm glad you brought Overide up. That's actually not the only time that's happened with regards to the JP/Western divide. Airrazor was male in the JP BW dub for instance, with the Tigertron/Tigerhawk thing remaining intact iirc.
I never questioned why there were female transformers. I questioned what determines if a transformer is male or female? Like, among Transformers themselves, what decides that Optimus Prime is a guy and Elita-1 is a girl? What traits or factors make those things mean what we think they mean?
My personal favorite ones are: Arcee: because of stuff like prime and war for cybertron. (Either version) Elita-1: mainly because of war for cybertron. Sari sumdac: because she's cool and from one of my favorite series. (She counts! She transforms!) Airazor: just watched WFC: kingdom and she was great in that. Blackarachnia: because of transformers animated and WFC: kingdom. Windblade: because she's a fan creation and because her stories are amazing.
I went ape shit when I saw the first female transformers in the local toys r us store, I picked her up and have been hunting for more of them since, arcee was always my favorite. Also she was the first to get a toy in the states anyways.
While we're talking favorites here, I figured I'd jot down my own! Character-wise I've been loving what I've been seeing of IDW's Chromia and Nickel. The former wears the Princess Leia Expy like a champ and the amount of added depth and teamwork between her and Ironhide easily makes them one of my favorite couples. The latter just fits the the DJD exactly where she needed to be, and her design just drips of Hayato Sakamoto's personality so much that it's impossible to not love that little face. (Mastermind Creations, get this bot some love!) Speaking of Sakamoto, my favorites design-wise are by far Megatronia and consequently Megaempress and the 4 Guards. I was never huge on the Rubber Forehead Alien girl bodies that Arcee and the rest tended to have, and I was genuinely interested in the idea of stockier combiner members, but in the end the Torchbearers seemed too plain and samey to me (their rotten tomato-colored toys and one-dimensional religious fanaticism *really* didn't win them any favors on my end). The slick black/neon Japanese repaints however just won me over in a heartbeat. Their writing so far in the comics have been admittedly _trite,_ but their looks just emit so much more personality than what they've got on paper and I can't argue with how fabulous Megatronia looks on my shelf. (Or maybe I've just been watching _way_ too much of Thew's reviews. Beats me!) Anyway, and as always, kudos Chris on the great content! *EDIT:* Nightbird's easily an honorable mention in both categories too. Enter the Nightbird was easily one of my favorite G1 cartoon episodes, and I had the privilege of getting the LG-15 figure for dirt cheap. *Man* if it isn't just spectacular!
I'm just happy elta one finally got a proper figure, and with moonracer released and novastar / firestar (the name change was most likely due to the fact that Marvel owns the name of Firestar) on the way, soon have all of the named female Transformers from the episode The search for Alpha Trion. I technically own two versions of elta one that is the power of the primes version, and the other is the 07 movie version (which was an Energon Arcee repaint), I decided to repurpose 07 movie figure as the aerial to Orion Pax.
Hasbro definitely needs to make some more fembots into toys. The Rust Renegades we’re a good approach, Elita-1 and Arcee are getting more toys than ever, some more would be nice. I’m thinking maybe a female Titan, a new Windblade figure, perhaps the first ever figure of Solus Prime, etc.
Always looked to Fembots as a part of Quintesson's creation. Autobots - working. Decepticons - fighting. Fembots - service. Most Fembots have could die during rebellion against Quintessons. Most of the rest were killed during civil war between Autobots and Decepticons.
I never did read the comics. So when someone asked me why there was female transformers, why they'd need females if they're all genderless "males" I thought to myself - "What if they were like that till they encountered humanity and their different genders and some cybertronians found the female gender appealing and so reformatted their body to have a feminine shape?" Like their species *had* been genderless, in fact had even been without the very concept of a gender but upon seeing humans and gaining an understanding of what gender was some cybertronians decided - "That sounds interesting. I think I will try out this 'gender' thing. And since our neutral is so close to what humans call a male I think I will try being a female." And one quick scan of a human woman later their chassis possesses curves. At least that was my headcanon. Speaking as a woman who has always loved the transformers I'm glad to see women on cybertron. I'm also happy to see female transformers whose robot modes aren't designed to sex appeal. I remember a 3rd party toy company released two female dinobots and their designs were so cringe worthy, with perfectly sculpted, round butts that looked like a human in a thong and an overall design that just made me shake my head. Especially since Hasbro had released an official female dinobot, Slash, and she was perfect. Her robot design looks feminine without looking like it was designed after a barbie doll.
Blackarachnia's always been a big favourite for me since I grew up on Beast Wars. I was happy when she showed up in Animated, and very happy when Takara made that Legends toy of BW Blackarachnia, even if the rubbery legs of the Animated toy maybe didn't age well. I'm really hoping she gets an MP figure, even if her transformation is almost impossible without just removing big chunks of the spider mode.
The original five flavor pack
Arcee - bubblegum
Moonracer - mint
Elita-1 - fruit punch
Chromia - blue raspberry
Firestar - cinnamon
Best comment 👍🏼
TFP arcee Blueberry bubblegum
Clober = Mint 5 gum
Blackarachnia-.....Grape/Citrus flavor?
Where's spicy?
I am much more of a fan of Arcee knowing that a writer fought for her inclusion on behalf of his daughter.
And actually, more boys are fan of Arcee. Thus Arcee in IDW comic become some kind of strong/mad fighter.
Same here. Pretty interesting to hear that and makes me appreciate Arcee even more. :)
I also wish I had the cash to get into the comics. It sounds like they're better than they've ever been.
SJW Cybertronians? Sign me up!
Nerdcoresteve1 while I wouldn’t say it is sjw, because that term has been reclaimed as somewhat of a slur and insult
I can suggest a website that does have a large selection of idw comics
readcomiconline.to if you have a strong Adblock and can stand clearing any cookies it might give you has practically every comic imaginable
I personally use it to read long unsold comics from decades ago and also use it to catch up on Optimus prime
SonicCam04 I'm a polyamorous pansexual who paints his nails and is in favor of socialism. I'm absolutely an SJW snowflake.
"Yes we exist. And we always will!"-Autobot Chromia, G1
Mr. McFeely probably should've put that quote in at the end, IMO.
" Such noble nonsense."
Nautical, hands down, is my favorite. So genuine and intelligent, able to hold her own in a fight, and even teach some bots how to dance.
Atticus Tsai-McCarthy she also sold of her freaking friendship and sorrow and gained nothing
If that ain’t tragic I don’t know what is
SonicCam04 all in an attempt to bring said friend back. Her's is truly a tragic story.
I also ship her with Skids. We must make this canon in a new show.
Omega supreme : where is my pet ?🤣🤣
Btw, Arcee and Elita 1 are the best and oldest autobots ever created G1 transformers more cooler and with awesome art style 😜😜
Of course even tho you are at war death is prefable over not knowing how to dance or look fabulous
Shatter from the new Bumblebee movie was great. Her calculating personality contrasted well with Blitstreak's trigger friendly one. Overall I think the inclusion of more female presenting transformers introduces a whole new avenue of creativity for future designs and characters.
Name of shatter's sidekick is dropkick
Su socio se llama Dropkick, no Blitstreak
I think there's a simple way of explaining why there's female Transformers.
Given that the Transformers were built as products and weapons by the Quintessons for sale to alien races many of whom would have gender, it could be seen as a way to make them relatable to female customers.
In the Marvel comic, or any series using a Primus origin, Primus would have surmised they would encounter alien races and again, the gender would make them relatable to them.
Great video as always.
i would go to say that Primus before the creation of the cybertonians explored the universe discovered other life and mimicked it , when he made the 13 that would explain why the body types are the way they are from mouths to other "ASSETS" also the age of the cybertrionian race predates even humans in both origins also so there gender isn't necessarily based on human physiology but some other species
I dig the Quintesson idea. :)
I love that idea for the Primus route. :D
Didn't Transformers existed before organic life? However, it could be possible that he was inspired. Hey maybe bots were inspired to have a family/kids.
I really like the Quintesson origin story. It also explains why their products are humanoid despite they themselves being five headed floating eggs with tentacles; they sold Cybertronians to alien customers with humanoid bodies and gender.
I didn't know that we owe the creation of female characters in the TV show to a writer's daughter. That was cool. Also, being an 80s kid, knew first hand that girls love Transformers as much as we did, so i don't see a reason why not have male and female bots.
I had friends who had no clue about Fembots. Then I showed them Arcee. Suddenly after 7 years they take an interest. XD
Dank Starscream you can probably guess their interest
I can already tell why they took such a fast interest if you know what I mean. XD
“Yeah baby,” - Austin Powers
Certain rule bring good stuff ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Yep
If I had to meet and greet anyone alive today, it would be Chris Mcfeely, I love this guy and the work he does is phenomenal beyond measure
3:17: “No explaination for female robots was deemed necessary in the cartoon”
And that’s something that’s always peeved me off about female Transformers: the fact that they are rarely to never featured because “we need to explain why robots, in what amounts to a toy commercial for kids, have genders”. 😑. I’m glad the more recent incarnations have started to get away from that nonsense.
If an explanation is absolutely needed, the fact that they’re robots means you could have a human character spout technobabble and explain how “multimodal reflection sorting of their personality.ini file in the firmware of their spark’s cerebral Zero Point Module” is responsible for their gender.
Yes I know I mixed technobabble from several different sources. The point is that they should make the definitive explanation one that’s poking fun at the need to explain why the robots have gender.
I think an explanation on why an asexual species have sexual dimorphism could be interesting to say the least...
My explanation is, they just are. 😂
McFeely: "...including Chromia, Moonracer, Firestar, and others..."
Lancer: "What about me-"
McFeely: "AND others...!"
My fav is Black Arachnia. Love her because she chose which side to fight. Tarantulas did tinker with her protoform, but she always made decisions with herself in the equation. She wasn't going to die for Megatron or Tarantulas ambition.
Arachnid and Prime's Arcee are a close tie for second. When TF: Prime first started and introduced us to Arcee I thought to myself. A shame they didn't get Gina Torres. She'd be awesome for the role of Arcee. Then they introduced Airachnid in 'Predatory' voiced by Gina Torress and I was hooked.
What did you think of TFA Blackarachnia?
I really liked her as a character, and I wish her character arc completed, because season 3 only started her new growth, since S4 ideas stated she was going to build a Predacon army.
I like Airachnid. She's so cold and emotionless to me she's just badass, and she has a cool alt mode and robot mode
For actual boobs?
I love Airachnid. Gina Torres is brilliant with her, too.
I dunno, mang. Sumalee Montano really brought Arcee to life.
I like the idea of female Autobots being descended from Solus Prime. Also, I miss Elita One and her relationship with Optimus
Wait...Shockwave seriously thought an entire gender of bots was EXTINCT???
Did he mean all female Transformers or just female Autobots specifically? What made Shockwave think they were "extinct" instead of simply dead or missing?
Is it even possible for Transformers to go extinct? Is Shockwave simply really sexist?
That one line raises so many questions.
Well, I guess a lot can happen in four million years. :\
Yeah he did. Female Autobots were so dangerous the deceptions made the priority targets.
Or Shockwave expect female Transformer not been a figther (or he just sexist because that wat i thought of when i heard that)
The Decepticons had near total control of Cybertron at that point so Shockwave had every right to believe that female Autobots would not be there
BattleUp Saber maybe it was joke or something?
Regardless of gender, I think we can all agree on one thing transformers are awesome male or female 👍🏻
Paladin Entertainment finally some one who gets it all transformers are cool
Dank Starscream if the transformers assign with gender then that's OK, in my eyes though there just characters that I hold to my heart.
Paladin Entertainment Exactly! Sometimes I wish Transformers really exist. Sometimes I wish I'm one so that way it feels more natural to drive.
Paladin Entertainment finally someone who has common sense!!!
People ruin everything
Arcee is still my favorite. I finally picked up toys of her and Hot Rod last year, and they both stand together proudly on my dresser.
mine is arcee and springer...hahaha
It’s good she has choices! ✨♥️👍✨
I'm quite happy that Solus Prime is sort of the Primes' blacksmith, instead of only having her gender to differentiate her from the others.
I like how they have handled the female bots. They are just there and no need to make it a thing. The Prime series was my favorite transformers series thus far. All the characters were awesome and arcee was among them. She was just another well written character and didn't feel like it needed to be divisive. Also, keep in mind that this is a war between the two factions. In warfare, you typically see more males in combat then females. I just don't want transformers to be as divisive as a lot of modern franchises have become.
True agree with you
Here's hoping the Transformers IP doesn't get woke (and that's assuming it hasn't already done so, considering what happened with the 2015 "Robots in Disguise" series and what's going on with IDW Publishing).
@@dominusexmachina the comics are "woke" as fuck and nobody cares(note should they).
For the combat role things, it's mostly a human things that female don't take part in battles. Lioness are the one hunting, Hyena female are the pack leaders, lot of female spiders are larger than their male conterparts... There's no reason female robots would not have active combat roles
@@dominusexmachina serously mate RiD 2015 did the female autobots justice too, Strongarm and Windblade are great characters, so stop being that one person who hates the newer gen for nostalgia's sake smh.
Arcee, Elita one, Chromia and windblade
butwaittheresmore... Moonracer, Ariel, Victorion, Pyra Magna, Jumpstream, Rust Dust, Dust up, Skyburst, Stormclash, Megatronia, FlowSpade, TrickDiamond, LunaClub, MoonHeart, MegaEmpress, Red Alert (animated), Strongarm(RID), Scilla, Override, etc.
Dank Starscream
Don’t forget the female red alert form the animated cartoon
@@BasedVegeta thunderblast was the most cringeworthy female decepticons I've had the misfortune to have known as a kid.
Dank Starscream Didn’t Animated also have a female Autobot Inferno as well who was named Flashpoint? The different name was due to the fact Decepticon (or Predacon) Inferno already being used.
@@BasedVegeta jobby the hong
I'm glad that fembots became a thing. It pisses me off when people think that women can't be hero's like men can. God bless you Ron Friedman.
wonder womans been around since the 80s stfu filthy feminist
Deborah comes to mind when you said that.
Is it bad that I can't help but laugh like a six year old at Optimus Prime's line "Ladies and...er Ladies"?
Also I had heard somewhere that Ratchet was originally supposed to be female. I really liked that idea, don't know how I feel about her being named after the witch nurse from One Flew Over the Coco's Nest.
Why do robots need genders? I don't know, why do robot's have beards, why do robots have names instead of numerical designations, why do robots become wrestling champions? You see where I'm going with this?
Because....they cute and so...hot ?
@@Legend4halaI do love robot girls. ❤🤖
For the most part, at least what I portray them as. They are not just robots, They actually Living organisms like us humans and animals or whatever alien species. Just with hard Metal Skin and different organs and types of living. Why not should they have names? Why not have different Champions and Hierarchy of Class because they DO have it in the lore and show? But I do get that why they have genders if they dont reproduce, or the beards or hair or in general have Flesh-like Traits for their Structural Bodies
This is way more convoluted than it should be. Female Transformers, not this video.
Kind of mirrors the real-world movements into inclusivity. The same thing happened with other toylines - Lego for example, didn't have female minifigs or sets that were designed for girls until the mid-90's. Until then, Lego was exclusively marketed to boys.
Rob Wood yeah cause they sold unlike the girls shit BIONICLE was fucking lit
@@magicman3163 at least there were female Bionicles right from the start.
1980s attitudes towards making certain media hardcoded towards boys or girls was pretty bad back then. Still, transformers certainly had a long way to go. Heck, even Hasbro’s other big franchise, My Little Pony, featured male ponies and characters a bit more prominently than Transformers showed female cybertronians.
Slipstream, Arcee, Thunderblast, Windblade, Override, Elita One, Chromia they are all so awesome!
Primus bless you, Chris. (RIP comments section 😂)
Matt Frank oh yeah comment section is cancer
Naw. The comments are okay, from what I’ve seen. Honestly, from my experience, not a whole lot of people get pissed off about women in geek properties unless it’s something like replacing beloved male characters with female characters and then attacking the fan base as a bunch of misogynist for not liking the change or things of that nature.
@@shadowdramon01 This comment is based. Thank you.
@@ChangedMyNameFinally69 - HAHAHAHAHAHA! No
Thank you Chris for making this series. I have been enjoying them and been sharing them with my fellow transformer loving friends
I thought one thing Furman did right, or at least interestingly, with respect to gender in the Phase 1 IDW comics was that the TFs had holographic representations of humans to serve as their drivers, and to allow for easier human interaction. The gender of these was often pretty interesting - Sunstreaker's was a woman, I recall. And then later, in Lost Light, that went even further, with Ultra Magnus picking the only human he knew (a woman) as his avatar.
... Tailgate was a baby.
And he was Cyclonus' bf by the end of the story.
@@returnedtomonkey8886 yes. That was important - despite dying of old age, Tailgate had only lived consciously for a very short time. Hence the baby form.
@@returnedtomonkey8886 That is one of the reasons why I dislike MTMTE/LL or James Roberts' works in general. They are disturbingly weird. I also hate the romance and pairings.
@@miyako1909 This. Transformers has the benefit of being one of the only series that can't get bogged down by romance and messy stuff like that, and instead focus on platonic camaraderie. Romance should not be a thing for an asexual robotic species. Friendships and comrades are much deeper than romance.
This video can be accurately summarized as “God dammit Simon Furman”
And Bob Buddianski...
Thank you very much for all doing this channel Chris. You do a wonderful job and I hope you can tell that us fans really appreciate it. Keep up the good work!
Say Chris, would you consider doing a "The Basics" video on the G2 franchise, it tends to be overlooked more often than any other Transformers franchise. Also, THANK YOU FOR ANOTHER FANTASTIC BASICS VIDEO!!!!! Your "Transformers The Basics" has become my all time favorite video series. :D
Feels like G2 has been suggested a lot lately, I'll have to add it to the list!
Thank you for the consideration, will you also consider doing a "The Basics" video on the Monsterbots, I just picked up all three of the Titans Return Deluxe class Monsterbots, and I know it will be entertaining hearing your thoughts on Doublecross, Repugnus, and Grotusque.
My favorite thing about Lug and Anode is when Lug transforms into a backpack (toolbox) and her girlfriend carries her around, its adorable
I think this is one of your best videos.
Why??🤔
@Nakor Prime It's a good video but IMO not his best just curious why you think it's the best?
Fantastic analysis and detailed explanation Video!
Prime Universe: "you see, women are in the minority, but they also get badass space blacksmith powers, that clearly give them an advantage over other transformers"
Senseless people: "are you trying to say they're some sort of DEFECT!?"
Literally. I can't believe peoole knew Solus was a genius and that her decendants were slso incredibly smart and that they decided to complain about that.
MORE LIKE A SUBSPECIES
Arcee is probably my favorite character in TF Prime, narrowly beating Knock Out. She was a very nuanced character, never came off as forced, shown to be perhaps the most protective having a heartwarming big sister role with Jack, and she also kicked as much ass as the rest of the bots and cons despite being half their size. Also Sumalee Montano voices the character perfectly.
Dude, I think Arcee is a feminist icon!
Also, love the humph at 4:07. It's says so much than words ever could. XD
Basics on Technorganic?
Theriomancer Beast Machines
If I was to remake the IDW continuity I'd make females just apart of their world
Arcee would have simply been experimented on
I agree, I think any new continuities created going forward will do the same, especially whatever rebooted universe IDW does next after the current one finishes!
Chris McFeely Arcee was simply experimented on. The retconned Furman's (incredibly stupid) plotline and simply made Arcee's 'experimented' on a rebuild.
In context, Spotlight Arcee was one of the most interesting new takes on her character since her creation. Her last role before was "secretary" after all.
I never got around to reading Furman's take on Arcee. I heard about the broad strokes and it sounded like an awful idea. Now? Now I'm thinking I need to read it because I've seen much *worse* approaches taken. I wonder, did he take such a hamfisted approach because he thought people were doing that already?
Furman's take on Arcee in IDW came a few years before trans issues really started to get recognised in mainstream media, it was presented more as a body horror type thing - Arcee having been experimented on in such a way that other Transformers felt uncomfortable around her. And in hindsight it's incredibly problematic, but didn't necessarily feel that way at the time.
I so dearly want a New Official Strika Toy. She is such a wonderful collection of character concepts.
UrbanTheFox She's a qt.
If I recall, the peeps at Botcon (can’t remember which year atm) thought of a retooled Voyager (or leader?) Bulkhead, to look like Strika.
ok uhh, found it, and yep.
Botcon 2014 almost had a Strika fig using Voyager Bulky:
www.toycollectors.com.au/bc14/bc14br.html
just scroll to the “ALMOST happened” category.
ok uh last comment or something. Cus someone did it, a mad man did it!
Someone made a custom Strika using Voy Bulky, and it look really good!
ua-cam.com/video/q3xtWaPRnSc/v-deo.html
Cool but thinking of officially mass released.
I like the explanation around solus prime. It explains the lack of female transformers and gives them a logical origin. I never thought of them as "not normal". Beasts, combiners, minicon and females are normal transformers .
Hasbro's focus-grouping (or, in this case, assumptions) in the early franchise will never stop pissing me off. I always liked female characters in boy-focused shows. Hell, Cheetara was my favorite Thundercat when I was young. I think boys having a "girls are icky" attitude was really dying out in the '80s (I know I never did) and it took awhile for toylines and children's media to catch up.
My favorite female is Elita One with Arcee in second and Blackarachnia in third. I'm going to include some more females in my fanfiction, including a female Seeker with a crush on Starscream. By the way, if you're wondering who the components of Victorion are, they are the Combiner team known as the Torch Bearers from Caminus, specifically a splinter faction called the Rust Renegades.
Off-balance motorcyle Rust Dust
Extremely focused Ferrari 458 Italia Dustup
Swift teleporting Lamborghini Diablo Jumpstream
Gemini twin helicopters Skyburst and Stormclash
And their leader, tough and serious fire truck Pyra Magna.
Windblade is my favorite female transformer, she's such a cool design, though she's not the first geisha bot in the series.
Wait, there are transgender Cybertronians?! Transformers has represented women like me?! You have no idea how happy this makes me!
There aren't transgender transformers you fucking moron
Sure sounded like it.
Awwww I had no idea that characters like Anode and Lug would even be considered in Transformers and I love it...
If Hasbro (or a third party company) ever makes figures for them then I’m buying two of each
Anode best girl
They’re definitely putting the “Trans” in Transformers,
I’m super into the explanation that ALL the girl bots looked at the dumb shit going on in Cybertron, and were like “Aight, I’m out”
They just said "I ain't dealing with that bs" and and adiosed out of there
The world needs more Strongarm.
she's now part of the g1 idw continuity via beast wars uprising and requem of the wreckers
One of the best new female characters hands-down imo. I prefer her to Windblade
She just needs some bits of her personality changed, and she needs to have moments with Sideswipe (I SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT) and I'll be fine with her.
Maybe if she lighten up
ZimMan2 which one Energon Strongarn, Movie Strongarm (Via the toyline, IDW, and Titan comics), animated Strongarm (via Allspark Almanac), or RID 2015 Strongarm?
My favorite Femme are Nightbird and Glyph, Nightbird because even tho she was a human experiment she prove that she could handle herself really while plus she was so awesome!! And if Hasbro bring her back one day they can use the Circle of Light as a reason for where she got her sword training.
Glyph is an expert in data decryption, languages, forensic science, and dating of archaeological specimens through radiocarbon dating and other methods. She love learning about Aliens past and current culture. Glyph isn't much of a fighter but she makes but for it in smart and being able to stand on her own ground verbally
Plus I'm also a hella whole nerd and she just relate to me 😅
No night bird was being controlled by the decepticons that's why she could handle herself
I liked the idea of female Transformers being descended from Solus Prime as well as the idea that the concept of genders being unknown to Cybertronians. I think a lot of creators forget that concepts which may seem normal to humans may be alien to non-human species.
Correct a species which reproduces asexually and lives for millenia would not realistically understand the concept of gender.
"Arcee in the comics was created to appease a mob of human feminists."
Ho-ly shit that's funny.
I like the fact how some of the male combiners are a bit slow but victorion is basically 1 person despite her 5 counter parts. She is probably one of the most stable combiners
Override, Arcee is my favorite fembots and slipstream, thunderblast my favorite ladycons
My favorite is override buh
AGREED :D
Funfact: In the french version of Transformers The Movie (1986), Starscream was female.
Your "oof" reactions were on point both times. Ferman's treatment on female Cybertronians is... "oof". I hope the new IDW series does it right from the start.
Honestly my main hc for Transformers (in general, not specifically in or out of any continuities), is that they are biologically genderless and has no concept of it until they interacted with other species. Most are referred to as "he", as plenty of people seem to use that as a pronoun for unknown or unspecified people (despite the fact singular they exists...), but some considered the perspective of other races and cultures and how gender works and decided "Hey! I want to specifically be a he, or a she, or a they!" Especially those that came to Earth
As a child who grew up during the 90’s the romance between Blackarachnia and Silverbolt was one of the highlights of _Beast Wars._ And yes, I hated _Beast Machines._
My favorite female bot is anode because I have multiple trans friends and personally think it’s really cool that the writers are supporting the trans community, also cause her alt mode is a biplane and that’s cool too
One of the reasons I like Anode and Lug is because they exemplify the two major kinds of trans women that you'd find: Those with dysphoria and those without.
Anode got her chassis slimmed down because she liked the look better, while Lug mostly just liked the new pronouns and didn't see a reason to alter herself (Which I relate to for the most part.)
As a bonus, Anode's story about how she came to the conclusion even went a long way in explaining that her realization wasn't a particularly rare thing either; Back when the colonies did business with Cybertron, sometimes Cybertronians that went to Caminus came back having reinvented themselves a bit after seeing the Camiens and deciding that their general presentation felt alright for them.
@@gircakes you don't need dysphoria to be trans. Gender euphoria is another way people realize they're trans. When you're just going along with your life and maybe you feel a bit different but nothing feels *bad* or *wrong*, and then one day someone at the grocery store "mistakes" you for a boy and it hits you: Oh. This feels... right. Comfortable. This fits so well. Why does this make me feel so right?
I do experience dysphoria occasionally, and there are other trans people who feel dysphoric much more frequently than I. There are also trans people who never feel dysphoric. Doesn't make anyone any less trans.
Also it's not ... switching genders. Just because a doctor slapped a label on you when you were born doesn't mean you ever actually were that gender. You're who you are from the start.
@@gircakes Ah, yes, I apologize. I wasn't aware you were the Omniscient Lord of Gender. Let's just choose to ignore the experiences of thousands of people.
And of course most people are cis. I never said otherwise. I was only clarifying that we don't "switch genders."
@@gircakes Sex is not the same as gender.
Gender is how we initially rationalized sexual dimorphism, but evolved into a social presentation.
Also i'm gonna say they earned the right to be cheeky because you just strolled up to me tut-tutting the idea of a trans-woman without dysphoria and called it sexist to exist as such.
@@gircakes Nah, i'm gonna say you're just a transphobic shithead with no concept of reality and leave it at that.
Could you do a the basics on Chris McFeely?
Mcfreely worked as a gas station attendant at Fossil Fuel.
*insert Obama awarding himself a medal*
That is a perfect basics anniversary episode
Love how you don't gloss over the awfulness of the "Arcee was made to appease angry feminists" and "forcibly transitioned Arcee" origins. Those were some dark times, and I'm happy the franchise (and hopefully Simon Furman too?) has mostly moved past that.
RID15's Strongarm has a special place in my heart for feeling different than the other token girl characters, as sorta this Lawful Good rookie SUV with a crossbow. No offense to TFP's Arcee, but her broody tsundere archetype just feels a little too cliche and familiar.
I am so proud that transmetal airazor is the first female mold transformer because airazor is my favorite femme she's just awesome
Arcee is thicc
Neyyss
Damn right
I dare say Arcee is more thicc then elasta-girl
And you are blocked
Tracytron 54321 why?
I love that the only significant difference between the female version of Lugnut in Cyberverse (renamed “Clobber”) and the male version in Animated is that the Cyberverse version has lipstick.
Beautifully done, Chris. Beautifully done. Well worth the wait.
Very cool interesting that Ratchet was named after the nurse in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Great topic one of my favs with the Combiners. This is why I like booth Transformers and Gobots since Gobots had the likes of Crasher from the start of the series. One thing I wish they would of done in the G1 Series was have some more episodes with the original Female Autobots a few more episodes though we did get to see Ariel before she became Elita 1 in the episode for Optimus' Origin.
This is one of your best videos to date, as well as your most interesting. Well done. And I love Arcee. She rules! 🤖💖💖💖💖
Now this is my favorite transformers video teaching and educating me on female transformers
My mom told me that when I was little I had a crush on Arcee, so she is my favorite. Not favorite female transformer, favorite transformer.
Could you do a Basics for the following: Humans- the fleshy pals that tag along for better or for worse
The War- why are they fighting in the first place
Relics of the Primes- special weapons or tools like the star saber or the forge of Solus Prime
Action Masters- Transformers without the transformation
These would be great. In particular the much maligned human characters would be worth looking at. I've even recently been thinking that a way forward for the toys would be to give us more representations of organic and semi-organic characters. I'm okay with things that don't transform as long as they're not meant to. :)
Humans: Pointless add on
The War: Kids love pew pew action. What do you want? Senate meeting?
Relics of the Primes: Deus Ex machina because writers can't be arsed to write something good
Action Masters: Lazy uncreative hacks
GigawingsVideo There was always a meaning for the war. It just various from different universes.
@@GigawingsVideo i've never seen someone being so wrang about his opinions...evrything you've just said could not be further from the truth than right now.
@@GigawingsVideo
humans: obligatory presence when the war get taken to earth. Moron.
Relics of the primes: old artifact of the past of cybertron that can be used by both autobots AND decepticons.a big part of the lore of the saga. Idiot.
Action masters: transformers taking the trending banwagon of action figures to keep the brand alive. Not the best part but a necessary one. That's how it works. Uncultured boy.
Nice to see my fave female Autobots in this video. They are Windblade, Arcee from G1, and Arcee from Transformers Prime. I have the Prime Arcee and Windblade figure's. I even have Thunderblast and Override figure's from Transformer's Cybertron line.
Guy: So got my daughter Animal Crossing for her Switch. What you get yours?
Writer: Giant robot.
WOOOOW, okay i had known that past explanations of female transformers were bad but hadnt looked up specifics, and just wow. I bet those comic writers thought they were sooo smart. I much prefer the explanation of there just being no explanation. its straightforward and i kinda dont trust them with actually having genderless mean what they say.
JPArtSpace they really did not have to go to such lengths. If you look at our Militaries the majority of soldiers are Male. And bulk of them that go into Combat are Male. They could have mirored that without the menral gymnastics.
Same here. I mean we don't know actual alien robotic beings in real life so why should they come up with the assumption that they don't have gender when for all we know they do? Just comes across as contrived.
kaijuguy19 I mean every living thing I know has a gender and seeing how similar transformers are to humans I don’t see why it would be different.
@@kaijuguy19 plus they're nit just dumb mindless machines, they're more akin to a technorganic lifeform with it's own biology, so genders could make sense. Like to give birth to a protoform with a new spark after mating with a male transformers.
@@IrishKyokushin but that's mostly an human thing that female rarely assume combat roles. nature show a very different story, Lioness are the one hunting, female Hyena lead their packs, in a lot of spider species the female are much larger than their male counterpart. There's no reason to assume female robots would not take combat roles. Particularly with a culture that's millions years older than human history
Hey Chris I think this has been my favorite episode so far, it has such an interesting history and it's a topic I find really cool but never thought about before. Thanks so much for making it
I'm rather fond of the Megatronia girls. Has nothing to do with their official art. Though it does help. No my fav fem bot is Prime's take of Arcee, nice and classy, badass biker babe bot.
Do you mean elita one or some stupid art
The back of the box i think
Basics on wheeljack please.
My favorite fembots are actually quickshadow from rescue bots (the voice is so good) and slipstream from the animated series (not robots in disguise)
I remember reading, yeeeeeeaaars ago, that there was neither male or female cybetronians but just that there were some individuals that were deemed as female due to humans subconsciously assigning our characteristics to things we encounter(think seeing faces in the clouds if you will.)
thats how ive always assumed it worked.
0:08 To defeat the Huns.
I'm going to be honest but "Female TRANSFORMER Characters" are my all time favorite concept in this series.
Man it was a different time back then. Nice to see the progress we have now. Nice video
I wonder... has anyone in-universe realized that some transformers seem to be descended from multiple Primes? Females with Beast Modes, Minicon Combiners, that sort of thing. Once we get a Female Minicon Combiner with a Beast Mode, be it the entire team or just one, someone HAS to take notice. The division hasn't been one in thirteen in a LONG time.
Orgy of the Primes
My favourite female Transformer is Blackarachnia in Animated. She has an interesting backstory on how she came to be.
Dark Scream
My favorite is also BlackArachnia. But from Beast Wars.
PersonaX
No
Generation 1: Arcee sisters!
Robots in Disguise: Windblade and Strongarm
Cyberverse:
Autobots: Windblade, Elita one
Decepticons: Slipstream, Shadow Striker
I wish they reuse strongarm she was an okay cool they made her bulky I remember having an bulky fem of an OC so long ago I don't even remember her name but I dislike robots in disguise for what they did to Soundwave and bumblebee I actually stopped watching it instead of putting it on hold whitch is something I rarely do with series.
Knocked it outta the park again, Mr. McFeely! Here's hoping we get even more female TFs in future series!!
Love the video, and I applaud the way you show how the story tried to include females at the start, but whether through business decisions (boys toys) or logic (robots are genderless), their existence has been either denied or postponed. Ever since first seeing The Search for Alpha Trion, I have wanted to see a greater female presence. I am curious though, if you agree with the theory for the American G1, that only female Autobots existed (not female Decepticons since none were shown on the American cartoon) because the Autobot ancestors were designed as consumer goods, engineers, scientists, and possibly more domestic functions. Since some buyers might prefer servants with a more female aspect, especially for tradition roles such as dealing with children. For the record, I also believe this explains why the first Transformers with beast modes were Decepticons, because buyers might have a preference for units with an animal abilities versus a standard model. Please let me know what you think of this theory, and once again thank you for another great video.
It's a solid theory that's been around a long time!
Ok, thank you. Just was curious if you were a fan of it.
I'm glad you brought Overide up. That's actually not the only time that's happened with regards to the JP/Western divide.
Airrazor was male in the JP BW dub for instance, with the Tigertron/Tigerhawk thing remaining intact iirc.
I never questioned why there were female transformers. I questioned what determines if a transformer is male or female? Like, among Transformers themselves, what decides that Optimus Prime is a guy and Elita-1 is a girl? What traits or factors make those things mean what we think they mean?
That Solus explanation is incredibly clever in its attempt to explain a problem.
Chromia is my biggest G1 crush. :)
“Females, I thought they were extinct”
- Shockwave
My personal favorite ones are:
Arcee: because of stuff like prime and war for cybertron. (Either version)
Elita-1: mainly because of war for cybertron.
Sari sumdac: because she's cool and from one of my favorite series. (She counts! She transforms!)
Airazor: just watched WFC: kingdom and she was great in that.
Blackarachnia: because of transformers animated and WFC: kingdom.
Windblade: because she's a fan creation and because her stories are amazing.
Windblade might be the most famous female cybertronian warrior she is in the modern transformers cartoon
I went ape shit when I saw the first female transformers in the local toys r us store, I picked her up and have been hunting for more of them since, arcee was always my favorite.
Also she was the first to get a toy in the states anyways.
While we're talking favorites here, I figured I'd jot down my own!
Character-wise I've been loving what I've been seeing of IDW's Chromia and Nickel. The former wears the Princess Leia Expy like a champ and the amount of added depth and teamwork between her and Ironhide easily makes them one of my favorite couples.
The latter just fits the the DJD exactly where she needed to be, and her design just drips of Hayato Sakamoto's personality so much that it's impossible to not love that little face. (Mastermind Creations, get this bot some love!)
Speaking of Sakamoto, my favorites design-wise are by far Megatronia and consequently Megaempress and the 4 Guards.
I was never huge on the Rubber Forehead Alien girl bodies that Arcee and the rest tended to have, and I was genuinely interested in the idea of stockier combiner members, but in the end the Torchbearers seemed too plain and samey to me (their rotten tomato-colored toys and one-dimensional religious fanaticism *really* didn't win them any favors on my end).
The slick black/neon Japanese repaints however just won me over in a heartbeat. Their writing so far in the comics have been admittedly _trite,_ but their looks just emit so much more personality than what they've got on paper and I can't argue with how fabulous Megatronia looks on my shelf.
(Or maybe I've just been watching _way_ too much of Thew's reviews. Beats me!)
Anyway, and as always, kudos Chris on the great content!
*EDIT:* Nightbird's easily an honorable mention in both categories too. Enter the Nightbird was easily one of my favorite G1 cartoon episodes, and I had the privilege of getting the LG-15 figure for dirt cheap. *Man* if it isn't just spectacular!
I'm just happy elta one finally got a proper figure, and with moonracer released and novastar / firestar (the name change was most likely due to the fact that Marvel owns the name of Firestar) on the way, soon have all of the named female Transformers from the episode The search for Alpha Trion. I technically own two versions of elta one that is the power of the primes version, and the other is the 07 movie version (which was an Energon Arcee repaint), I decided to repurpose 07 movie figure as the aerial to Orion Pax.
Hasbro definitely needs to make some more fembots into toys. The Rust Renegades we’re a good approach, Elita-1 and Arcee are getting more toys than ever, some more would be nice. I’m thinking maybe a female Titan, a new Windblade figure, perhaps the first ever figure of Solus Prime, etc.
I also want a female headmaster too as I really like wolfwire
Just pray they're not all shellformers, I wanna see some damn innovation
Always looked to Fembots as a part of Quintesson's creation.
Autobots - working.
Decepticons - fighting.
Fembots - service.
Most Fembots have could die during rebellion against Quintessons. Most of the rest were killed during civil war between Autobots and Decepticons.
3:29 I just love that reaction Shockwave did
I never did read the comics. So when someone asked me why there was female transformers, why they'd need females if they're all genderless "males" I thought to myself - "What if they were like that till they encountered humanity and their different genders and some cybertronians found the female gender appealing and so reformatted their body to have a feminine shape?"
Like their species *had* been genderless, in fact had even been without the very concept of a gender but upon seeing humans and gaining an understanding of what gender was some cybertronians decided - "That sounds interesting. I think I will try out this 'gender' thing. And since our neutral is so close to what humans call a male I think I will try being a female."
And one quick scan of a human woman later their chassis possesses curves.
At least that was my headcanon. Speaking as a woman who has always loved the transformers I'm glad to see women on cybertron. I'm also happy to see female transformers whose robot modes aren't designed to sex appeal.
I remember a 3rd party toy company released two female dinobots and their designs were so cringe worthy, with perfectly sculpted, round butts that looked like a human in a thong and an overall design that just made me shake my head. Especially since Hasbro had released an official female dinobot, Slash, and she was perfect. Her robot design looks feminine without looking like it was designed after a barbie doll.
Blackarachnia's always been a big favourite for me since I grew up on Beast Wars. I was happy when she showed up in Animated, and very happy when Takara made that Legends toy of BW Blackarachnia, even if the rubbery legs of the Animated toy maybe didn't age well. I'm really hoping she gets an MP figure, even if her transformation is almost impossible without just removing big chunks of the spider mode.