User:RatchetNeededThat

Greet'ns,

I'm a small-timer around these parts, but y'know, who's not a Transformers fan since childhood in some form? Elsewhere, I'm known as Ahalosniper, or ASniper, on various wikis, most notably Halo Fanon as an admin. My first experience was somewhere in Energon, when Optimus Prime was a fire truck, so seeing him as a semi other places threw me off quite a bit. Anyway, interest picked back up once Prime was all out because it combines so many awesome characters and storylines that were proven successful in the franchise before into one timeline, and notably builds up earned reputations for characters in terms of winning fights and not jobbing like a punk as soon as the plot of the day demands. Just recently, I heard about the new Robots In Disguise as a follow-up to Prime and have gotten a little invested in it. Your judgements of it being targeted at younger audiences have no effect on me! No effect!

Alright, should probably set up a favorites list so you get a sense of who I am through what appeals to me:

• Ratchet (Prime):
  The crotchety, grizzled veteran version of Ratchet from Prime is, if not top of my list, at least the first to spring to mind for me for a favorite. He doesn't get the most focus of characters in the show, but he provides a conflict the more-agreeable, friendlier characters we're supposed to like don't offer. He's weary after fighting so long, and (as we see when he juices on synthetic Energon) angry at Optimus a bit for not being more pragmatic and doing what was needed to take out Megatron before Cybertron was lost, but his qualms don't get in the way of his loyalty and long-standing friendship with Optimus. He also doesn't take quickly to humans, but with just the one line, "Want to ride with the siren on?" he shows he can not just sympathize with them, but be sensitive to their feelings. That same conversation reveals he carries some guilt with him for not attaining perfection in fixing Bumblebee, even if he did save the bot's life with what little time and material might've been available. Being an amateur writer, I can sympathize with him a bit for being ashamed of not being perfect. Good writing takes a lot of self-criticism, y'know. And, while most of the time he's the scientist comfortable with staying in the stuffy bunker operating the groundbridge, he's no slouch on the battlefield. He might not be able to take on the heavy-hitters like Megatron, but he stood with Optimus to cut through an entire Terrorcon army, and that's not nothing.
• Strongarm (RID):
  A new favorite. The stickler-for-the-rules type is nothing new, but other personality traits cross with it to make for a complex and enjoyable character. Her practical fangirling over Team Prime's exploits during the Prime show pay homage to the events before her first appearance and show she (and the show) have respect for those deeds, and are plain adorable besides. It does help that she has Sideswipe as such a direct contrast to play off of, and the times their bickering devolves to literal slap-fights show she's not really much more mature than he is, but she is trying to be. If I'm honest though, it's her character design that made me most interested in her in the first place. I know, I shouldn't love a 'bot for her bodywork, but she's not all delicate curves and armor shaped for non-existent mammaries. Those big shoulders and greaves give her a physical presence, looking like she can take a punch instead of being a work of body art. Still, if you notice her midsection, she does still have a feminine shape, tough and beautiful at once. I kinda want to write a story with some recollections about her being bullied at the academy for being the big femme and forming a friendship with a weak mech as they're both outcasts, and working harder than anyone to get close to the top rankings for graduation, trimming up into the specimen of peak fitness and picking up her back-to-front knowledge of the book in the process through intense studying along the way. Then, during RID's run, she meets that friend again only to be betrayed; the friend didn't make it through academy, and instead of persevering like Strongarm, he's let being a social outcast get to him, gave up on being good, and has defected to the Cons as a result until she takes him down. But, maybe that'd be cliched for a female character even slightly bigger than that old G1 femme standard to be labelled "the fat girl", as I've seen some people appreciate her for the fact her design isn't even commented on because it's not a big deal to anyone, so.
• Knockout (Prime):
  Good grief is Knockout ever fantastic. In his vanity, he's found a character flaw that just works so well for someone who's liable to actually rip you apart for messing with his appearance rather than just dramatically shouting "my hair!". There are a few things that work so well as a defining character trait, like paranoid fear for Stork in the show Storm Hawks. But, while that alone could've been enough for the character to get by as a flat, background elite minion, he's given more depth through friendship with Breakdown and involvement in the political Decepticon scheming. I hope he's one of the returning characters in Season 2 of RID, because I want to see what his Autobot turnaround has done for him in the time since Cybertron's been rebuilt. Just an entertaining character, which is bottom-line what all characters should be at the end of the day.