Fan fiction

Fan fiction (or fanfic) is fiction written by fans of a property without the explicit or even insinuated approval of the copyright holder. This allows for many fans to do what they most desire with the material that they are fiddling around with, be it to make a serious and epic story or to just plain mess around and play with their little fantasies. Needless to say, not all fanfics are good, but which are and which aren't is mostly up to the reader's discretion.

Dear Vector Prime, how specifically is Transformers fan-fiction categorized in relation to the Multiverse?

...I suppose it depends on the universe. There are Tyran clusters where Sam Witwicky's run through Mission City resulted in, amongst other things, air conditioners, fans, leaf blowers and the like coming to life to scurry about, causing trouble.Vector Prime's completely unhelpful response on the topic

Topics

Over the years, an incredibly wide variety of Transformers fanfic has been written, including straightforward adventure stories, crossovers with other properties, parodies, incredibly creepy and/or awesome stories in which gruesome acts of Decepticon-on-fleshling violence are described in tender, loving detail, and, of course, "erotica" of varying degrees of slagged-upness. Many aspiring human authors have written romantic stories of varying quality and explicitness, pairing just about any given character with any other character.

Popular Transformers fanfic topics

• Self-insertion: Guess what, you're a Transformer now, and everyone likes you the best! You're super powerful, but have a kind heart! You're the offspring of Ultra Magnus, and your grandparents are Unicron and Primus! Have the Matrix of Leadership for being so amazing!
• Fan-written episodes: Can range from one story mimicking the structure of a television episode to an entire fake season or whole movie. Usually written in script format. Some can even go as far as rewriting a whole series.
• Romance: Pick any two Transformers characters at all, even mortal enemies. Have them make out, exchange pillow talk and (of course) bone each other. Scale apparently doesn't matter here (not that it does anywhere else for that matter), and neither does species. Or characterization, because these types of fanfics often have their main couple acting ridiculously out-of-character just so the romance can work.
• Extra-humanized Transformers: Sisters! Cousins! Babies! Daddies! Almost a subcategory of "romance", since adding even more organic-like components to Transformers really helps along with the... ahem... sexual intercourse. Scale and species also does not matter here...yes. There does exist that kind of fanfic.
• Crossovers: Because obviously, civilization isn't complete until Soundwave somehow becomes human (or not, who cares? It's fan fiction!) and enrolls at Riverdale High, Megatron tries to take over Ponyville (again), Starscream is enrolled into Hogwarts, Razorclaw is made king of the Pride Lands, or Grimlock runs rampant in Jurassic Park.
• Character-driven stories: What does Cosmos think about when he's alone in space? What's a typical day for Big Daddy? What exactly is a normal day on the Ark? These tend to be pretty laid-back in tone.
• What if? stories: What if Optimus Prime had never become Autobot leader? What if the Ark had never crash-landed on Earth? What if Grimlock had been chosen by the Matrix instead of Hot Rod? The possibilities are endless. These kinds of stories are sometimes referred to as "AU" (alternate universe) stories, and can also serve as a way to retcon out details that the author found objectionable (like characters that they dislike). Notably, some official publications have also played around with various alternate universes.
• Absolute fanwanking: A nerd's nerd will write these, and they probably involve things like Berko and Browning going on adventures in their search for Forestonite and about a hundred other obscure characters joining them. How does everything fit together? Let's connect the dots, The Question-style!

Hard work pays off

Over the years, a few Transformers fanfic writers have made the jump to writing Hasbro-sanctioned fiction, including James Roberts, Ben Yee, Greg Sepelak, Trent Troop, Josh van Reyk, and Shaun Knowler.

Fiction

TransTech

Megatron threatened to send Bumblebee to the universe of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan fiction, much to everyone's horror. Bee in the City 2: Electric Bugaloo

Ask Vector Prime

Headcannon enjoyed writing his own "botfiction" about the characters in Crosscut's plays. Ask Vector Prime

2005 IDW continuity

Skyfall informed Ironfist that Swerve thought his Wreckers: Declassified datalogs were like fan fiction. Bullets

After viewing Thundercracker's film about him, Starscream attempted to spare his friend's feelings by simply telling him the film was no longer relevant and told the blue Seeker to go back to writing fan fiction. When that failed, he tried to have him killed. Starscream: The Movie

According to Swerve, Ultra Magnus wrote fan fiction about the Lost Light's sprinkler system. Lūstrāre Before the ship was due to be decommissioned, Magnus showed some of it to Brainstorm. How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2

Transformers: Earth Wars

Melody Keen wrote the very fanfic-y short story "Young 'bots in Love" for Valentine's Day, which depicted a romance between Drift and Prowl. Love Spark Event

BotBots cartoon

Burgertron wrote fan fiction about the Hunger Hubs as a way of processing his feelings of rejection. Rage Against the Karaoke Machine

See also

• Authorial intent
• Fanon
• Personal canon
• Transmasters UK

External links

• Fan fiction at Wikipedia
• Transformers Fanon Wiki
• Transformers Lexicon