I am unfortunately a sucker for when a character has to put on an act (which is totally not a large inspiration for this idea, hush) and had honestly not thought of the possible eldritch horror. I thought of it as more of a scenario of the matrix aka The Matrix of LEADERSHIP gathering data through observations of those around it’s user and using that data to alter their user slightly to better serve it’s people and their survival. Optimus is a level-head leader and The Autobots trust him, but sometimes that doesn’t exactly lead itself to actually being close to people since Optimus is a bit of larger than life character to most of them. Which is why when The Matrix changed/erased Hot Rod and made him into Rodimus he made him into a person who wanted social interaction would be able to “easily” understand people and could get close to them. Even if Rodimus isn’t it’s user like Optimus the matrix definitely still watches through him too. Honestly the matrix is just basically living vicariously through Optimus and Rodimus in this au, being able to both be the calm and collected leader while also being someone who can understand it’s people and help them in that way (Rodimus is probably silently screaming in extrovert focused to pretend to be an introvert) The matrix is sort of it’s own character in this au, being created/programmed to want to help it’s people, but it goes about this in a very socially inept kind of way.
I think Rodimus might have very very few memories of Hot Rod’s so he has a bit of a starting point in the whole figuring out being alive/life thing.
Honestly I need to stop coming up with new fic ideas or you know sort through my ideas and possibly scrap some of them or even better yet actually work on one of the ones I have.
I think a whole lot of this fic would end up being angst, if all the body horror and unwilling change of identities and what have you don’t spell it out clearly. But as I’m a sucker for happy endings, I would like to entertain the idea of the Matrix getting its own cybertronian body at the end of all this. (Whether Rodimus and Optimus manage to go back to normal I’m not sure, even if what the matrix did to them was reversed they’d still come out differently due to trauma.) That would certainly solve its savior complex issues, and stop it from trying to force its will on other people when it can be the one truly doing the saving for once.
Write a transformers fic for me to read and my life is yours 🙏
Oh yeah there is definitely gonna be a tone of angst thanks to the memory alteration, psychological/body horror and a fair amount of violence The Cybertronian Civil-War definitely exists in this au, because why else would the matrix do half of the shit it has done? idk if the story would have a “happy” ending but I’ll probably be aiming for at least bittersweet since not everything will be fixed at the end and this au is definitely on the slightly dark side (I plan on making The Autobots and Decepticon somewhat morally ambiguous/morally gray to a degree) I don’t think the matrix exactly would get a body per se, but maybe someone build a giant computer for it to inhabit, this computer also having control over large parts of Cybertron as they try and rebuild their world, so it has something to do and it’s savior complex can be regained in a little. The matrix’s influence however would probably never fully leave Optimus and Rodimus since it didn’t need to be directly connected to Rodimus after he was given life to still be able to experience the world through his senses and occasionally give horrible advice, the matrix was created to think of the collective and not the individual after all so it’s pretty horrible at social interactions like 9/10. Orion may still be kicking around in Optimus’ mind/consciousness to a degree, but Hot Rod is 99% dead and gone since Hot Rod/Rodimus was probably genuinely dead for a few seconds before the matrix finished it’s job and rebooted Hot Rod/Rodimus’ systems.
Imagine the very justified imposter syndrome this world’s Rodimus has, poor guy.
I imagine that eventually at least some of The Autobots are going to learn what the matrix did to Optimus and Rodimus, but for some reason I’m thinking about the idea of at least one higher up Autobot not being told about the whole matrix situation, but still being included in important meetings and stuff and then someone off-handedly mention that whole situation and it's revealed to them in the epilogue (if I decided to write one of those) only for that Autobot to go “WTF?”
I love me so morally grey Autobots, the general idea of that is a factor that made me want to write my current fic. The TFA Autobots seem to most morally grey out of all the continuities, so I figured why not twist them to be a little darker?
The Matrix being returned to Cybertron, aka Primus, and being able to be all over the planet does seem like the happiest ending the freaky little relic could get. At least Optimus has old friends who could comfort him and help him recover his true self, Rodimus’s anti social self doesn’t even have anyone immediately notice something is deeply wrong with him. Imagine how bad friends and mentors feel when they realized what happened to him, maybe they’ll try and help him recover his true self like how people are for Optimus, only to realize Hot rod is dead. All that remains is a Prime.
That’d be a hilarious way to end the epilogue for such a dark fic, but it would work really well with the idea that no one even knew what was happening to these Primes. Maybe more people knew in the past, before the war, but religious psychosis make them think it was simply Primus’s will.
The matrix is just a funky little guy with poor social skills and a desire to help/serve.
Now I’m thinking about what Hot Rod’s relationships would have been like with other characters before Rodimus took over and how since he is one of the "newer" Autobots there is a solid chance that some characters will have to deal with the fact that either 1) they only actually talked to Hot Rod once or twice 2) they’ve never actually interacted with Hot Rod or 3) the kid they knew is dead. I imagine some of the youngest recruits would be bunked together in an attempt to make them build relationships with each other, something Hot Rod hated possibly having grown up with only Kup and possibly Arcee and Blurr for company, so while is used to bunking/sleeping close to others he hasn’t actually really interacted with anyone his own age before then and Rodimus can’t even enjoy this sleeping arrangement either since all his roommates expect him to act like Hot Rod. I’d definitely keep Kup (and possibly Acree and Blurr) far away from Rodimus at the start since they’ve known Hot Rod for most of not, if not almost all of his life.
It’s also making me think about character’s ages and how long the war has been going on, I’d say Hot Rod is probably around 15-17ish in human years, with Arcee being 21-23ish and Blurr being 22-24ish. It also makes me wonder if I should make Bumblebee younger than, the same age or slightly older than Hot Rod (for angst potential reasons) since Hot Rod/Rodimus and Bumblebee are probably two of the youngest Autobots.
Sometimes when you’re busy being at war you just sort of forget to send out a memo, even if it’s just among the higher ups, whoops.
Megatron is definitely gonna be one of the people to find out about the matrix’s antics at some point, which might bring in some conflict for him in regards to Optimus depending on whether or not Orion and Megatron knew each other before the war.
Hot rod being one of the youngest to die is awful, imagine how Kup, Arcee, and Blurr would all feel about his death. How would they feel about Rodimus? Would they think him some sort of ghost? Or a parasite like the matrix taking over their young friend’s body? That would certainly make all of Rodimus’s insecurity complexes worse.
That could explain more about the war for this AU actually, if Megatron believes Primus/the Matrix itself is evil. As far as he knows, it killed his friend Orion, and now a solemn sad mech has taken his place. Miscommunication all over the place 🙌
Thinking about the war in the early days and how Orion probably joined The Autobots not when he became Prime, but after the war started. The Senate/Council were still their corrupt funky selves before the war and by the time Orion got the matrix it was probably going “wtf guys”. While not completely unaware of The Senate's wrong doings Orion probably didn't believe that taking a hammer to the system like Megatron wanted to do was the right choice, but Megatron in this au was more aware of all the things The Senate had done and was probably pretty pissed when he found out his friend choose them over him, not to mention the seemingly slowly becoming an entirely new person thing.
Kup, Arcee and Blurr are gonna be taking it harder than anyone else when they find out about what happened to Hot Rod and about Rodimus, but they may also be some of the first to realize and accept that Hot Rod isn't coming back. Arcee will probably be mad at Optimus (and possibly a little at herself too) for a while, because why did he have to be the one to get lucky? Why did she have to lose the person who was like a little brother to her when Megatron and others got to still keep their friend to a degree? Realistically Arcee probably knows that Rodimus isn’t to blame for Hot Rod’s death, but it may take a bit for her to accept that. In an ideal world Kup, Arcee and Blurr would eventually grow to love Rodimus in they same way they loved Hot Rod. I wouldn't discount the possibility of at least one of them trying to throw hands with an ancient Cybertronian relic though, they are/were Wheckers after all since Kup took Arcee, Blurr and Hot Rod in and raised them.
That begs the questions, how much exactly DID Megatron know about the council? He knew something was wrong with the Primes, and his friend who he thought he knew so well, his friend who would never betray him, walk into that council room and came out wrong.
I wonder how Rodimus would feel with all of Hot rod’s old friends and family trying to treat him similarly, would he hold a detached sort of vague affection for them? Or is even that from Hot rod dead? Would he feel like he doesn’t deserve it, like he knows he is not the same little brother and calm soldier they once knew. Maybe what would make it worse is him knowing he USED to love these people, so with his new extrovert personality he tries to get these people to love him just because that seems like what he should be doing. Inferiority complex cranked up to the 9s either way, poor sucker.
The matrix is very old, so it’s definitely possible that some things regarding it’s nature were lost to time and religious psychosis.
I’m not sure Hot Rod exactly had any “friends” being his anti-social self and all that, I think he labeled all his fellow younger cadet coworkers/associates at best, but that might be the teen angst talking. I’m not entirely sure Hot Rod’s feelings towards Kup, Acree and Blurr carried over to Rodimus, if they did it is probably VERY minimal.
I’m not entirely sure Blurr, Acree or Hot Rod would have mentioned that they knew each other and were to a degree raised by the same person, since The Wheckers kind of have a reputation and Kup won’t want that influencing how his kids were view by other Autobots simply because of the association and the fact that once you know it probably isn’t hard to tell they spent a good part of their lives with The Wheckers before joining with The Autobot’s main forces. So at the start when Rodimus meets Arcee or Blurr he is probably entirely unaware of their relationship aside from maybe a bit of muscle memory kicking in, but that isn’t a guarantee as to Rodimus figuring it out own his own.
I’m just thinking about how Bumblebee and Hot Rod were the two youngest Autobots and sort of foils to each other. Bumblebee being more cheerful and friendly, meanwhile Hot Rod was more closed off and stoic, yet they were still both raised as a part of The Autobot cause and have never experienced a world where their race wasn’t at war with itself (something Hot Rod would never get to see a world without) and when Hot Rod dies Rodimus sort of end up becoming a foil of sorts to him given their different personalities.
Trying to think of who the other younger Autobot cadets could be, so far I have Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Bluestreak and Bumblebee. I think it would be nice if there were a few more, even if it is a bit statistically unlikely, just have to figure out who.
I think I need a situation where Rodimus comes like VERY close to death, and gets sorta sunk half into the matrix/the all spark, I want a scene where Rodimus can talk to Hot rod himself for some actual closure- a metaphorical and literal moving on and becoming your own person, it would be the only think to help me cope with this angsty fic idea.
More child soldiers is always fun why not! I’m trying to think of more names, but besides the obvious being Blaster’s cassettes all I can think of at the moment is maybe Roller? He’s a little baby in G1 <3
…this took me so long to respond to I’m so sorry :’) I’ve been running around all day and I’ve hardly started my next chapter, I need to lock in before my schedule actually starts hurting me 🧍♀️
Hey no worries, sometimes it just takes a little time before you can sit down and write a reply to something.
Now that you mention it, yeah Rodimus definitely needs to have a talk with Hot Rod and find some sort of closure before he feels like he has the right to live his own life and not someone else's. Almost everyone is grieving Hot Rod in some way once the find out about his fate, but Rodimus has been grieving him from the very beginning despite never having known him. I can just imagine post-almost death characters who didn't know about Hot Rod/Rodimus just bearing witness to an act visibly being dropped as Rodimus just acts like himself for once and how this may lead to Rodimus having some explaining to do.
Hot Rod is really just haunting the narrative in his own unique way throughout the entirety of the fic and I definitely also want him to have a sort of closure even if he is technically already dead. The Hot Rod and Rodimus meeting scene should definitely be written in a way that makes it feel like it could either be a genuine meeting near the matrix/allspark or a hallucination since Rodimus is pretty close to dying and letting the reader decide what they think happened.
I'll definitely have to think about who else could be younger Autobot cadets, I kind of want at least one female character but I'm not sure who. I at the very least want Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Bumblebee to be Hot Rod/Rodimus’ roommates since I think they have a lot of potential in terms of drawing parallels between them and out main “characters” (Hot Rod and Rodimus)
I also have to think about Acree and Blurr's relationships with other characters since they too are an important part of the story and who'd fit into their age group (unfortunately all Kup's kid may suffer from “I'm better at interacting with older people” syndrome thanks to their upbringing) so far I'm think Acree, Blurr, Windblade and possibly Mirage (maybe First Aid too, idk) are around the same age.
I'm not entirely sure about the cassettes being counted at kids though, it's kind of a yes and no situation in my mind. Their sort of not kids, but their also sort of are kids.
I’m just thinking about how Ratchet is technically the first person Rodimus ever meets and the guilt he most be wrecked with when he finds out about Rodimus and possibly blaming himself for not noticing sooner once he knows.
Love me a good ‘haunting the narrative’ character, and Hot rod seems to be the perfect archetype for that role. Just get a slow motion video of him with a blur filter and sad music and he’ll fit one of those ‘dead wife flashbacks’ in movies! Originally in my current story I had Blackarachnia more like that archetype, but I decided to change that so she and Optimus could reunite sooner because other wise I wasn’t sure how to get Optimus to trust the ‘Cons enough lol Also fun fact, originally all of Optimus’s amica weren’t meant to be kinda sorta siblings- they were meant to be lovers, which would have made everything even more awkward so it’s a good thing that changed lol Sentinel is angry enough over their friendship breakup.
Mini idea here bear with me, Rodimus is obviously much more ‘child like’ than Hot rod yes? He’s more energetic, happy, the works. He’s also much more likely to interact with his younger peers. If we’re going off the basis that whilst yes he’s still young and acts much younger, he’s still a Prime- than maybe part of his new happy personality is literally tailored to the younger soldiers? Like- If Optimus’s goal was to protect the people as a Prime, and it was Rodimus’s goal to make them happy, that could be the reason for his drastic personality overhaul besides just Hot rod’s death. Side note, Rodimus doesn’t only suffer from ‘I’m better at interacting with older people’ as he interacts with everyone, therefore since he first met Ratchet I think he should follow around that medic like a lost duckling.
Imagine Rodimus’s ‘birth’ from Ratchet POV with me. Ratchet is trying to save the life of a young soldier, who seems rather solemn, tired, and startling mature about the prospect of death- and when he saves that soldier, the kid wakes up completely different. Ratchet was the last person to ever speak to Hot rod, and the first to speak to Rodimus. And he doesn’t ever know. (Not for a while at least)
To me if the cassettes are kids or not changes with the continuity, so I’d say do whatever you want with them, it’s your story lol
Optimus and Ratchet are the last two people to ever talk to Hot Rod before his death and Ratchet is the first person to talk to Rodimus when he first wakes up in the medbay. I think Ratchet most hate looking back on his first meeting with Rodimus because of course he knew Hot Rod was acting a little odd, but the kid had just almost died and he isn’t exactly sure what to expect in terms of after/side-effects from being healed by the matrix so a little confusion was probably natural.
I imagine one of the reasons Megatron knows as much as he does in regards to the matrix is ironically because of Orion, since he worked as an archivist and closed to the senate at that too.
Because of everything with the war when the matrix first got it’s hands on Orion it realized that it’d people needed a leader, someone who could rally forces and people would look up too. Unfortunately for the matrix it forgot to account for the possibility that Optimus could become a bit of a larger than life figure and not everyone would be able to truly freely interact with Optimus. So when the matrix made Rodimus it wanted him to be more approachable and someone who would freely interact with everyone, but being the socially inept little piece of machinery that it is it didn’t exactly think about the whole personality rewrite thing and how others would perceive it. Optimus and Orion definitely still share some personality traits, same goes for Rodimus and Hot Rod.
Something that I could do which would be really evil is sort of write a pre-story fic from Hot Rod’s pov about when he first joined The Autobots and his first meetings with some of the other characters.
I’ve read a few stories where one chapter would take place in the present, and the other in the past, and it has the reader slowly figure out what terrible events lead to the future- and that could be a fun spin on this fic idea. But I also would like a plain prologue in Hot rod’s pov, as it would allow for some nice foreshadowing :D
Hot rod/Rodimus is obviously the main character, but would this fic also have Optimus’s pov since he’s so important to the plot? Or would what happened to Optimus hang over Rodimus’s current story like a ghost haunting him?
Hot Rod won’t exactly getting a prologue in the traditional sense, but more of a short fic for himself that takes place before the actual main fic starts. I won’t exactly be required reading to understand the story, but I’d be able to give some context in regards to who Hot Rod was and his thoughts.
Optimus may end up getting a POV chapter every now and then to give the reader an insight to Autobot Command and what they are doing (It may be possible for a few other characters to get a POV chapter at some point) but Rodimus is our main character and our main point of view into this world and it’s history.
I’m unfortunately thinking about the Scavengers (again) (mainly Misfire) Specifically because I saw a post about someone theorizing that Misfire’s horrible aim is a ruse and then I also got to thinking about how The Scavengers sort of all come from different cultures in a way and how sometimes they just have to shrug and go along with whatever one of the others is doing and the shenanigans that could ensue.
I love me some alternating POV’s, I only limited my current fic to just Optimus’s POV as this is one of my first proper fics. The main character for my next story is actually Megatron, but I plan to have an odd character with someone else as the mc every now and then :D
Please think even more about the scavengers, I adore those idiots. There’s a lot of cool world building just in their small group, for example, Fulcrum is a literal suicide bomber? Made with the purpose of dying?? That’s tragic!! And AWESOME. It’s a crime there’s not more official stuff for them. Not to mention they have some of the best official found family vibes ever, and yes I’m including Grimlock in their found family, Misfire could be sad without the giant lug.
Comment on Glass Blowing for Dummies
Electricdazeworld on Chapter 24 Fri 15 Aug 2025 03:21PM UTC
Comment Actions
lizishere0o0 on Chapter 24 Fri 15 Aug 2025 04:18PM UTC
Comment Actions
Electricdazeworld on Chapter 24 Fri 15 Aug 2025 06:12PM UTC
Comment Actions
lizishere0o0 on Chapter 24 Fri 15 Aug 2025 07:30PM UTC
Comment Actions
Electricdazeworld on Chapter 24 Fri 15 Aug 2025 08:42PM UTC
Comment Actions
lizishere0o0 on Chapter 24 Sat 16 Aug 2025 12:35AM UTC
Comment Actions
Electricdazeworld on Chapter 24 Sat 16 Aug 2025 05:27AM UTC
Comment Actions
lizishere0o0 on Chapter 24 Sat 16 Aug 2025 02:03PM UTC
Comment Actions
Electricdazeworld on Chapter 24 Sat 16 Aug 2025 02:56PM UTC
Last Edited Sat 16 Aug 2025 07:45PM UTC
Comment Actions
lizishere0o0 on Chapter 24 Sat 16 Aug 2025 11:16PM UTC
Comment Actions
Electricdazeworld on Chapter 24 Sun 17 Aug 2025 06:33AM UTC
Last Edited Sun 17 Aug 2025 06:47AM UTC
Comment Actions
lizishere0o0 on Chapter 24 Sun 17 Aug 2025 11:50AM UTC
Comment Actions
Electricdazeworld on Chapter 24 Sun 17 Aug 2025 12:52PM UTC
Comment Actions
lizishere0o0 on Chapter 24 Sun 17 Aug 2025 03:53PM UTC
Comment Actions
Electricdazeworld on Chapter 24 Sun 17 Aug 2025 06:56PM UTC
Comment Actions
lizishere0o0 on Chapter 24 Sun 17 Aug 2025 08:47PM UTC
Comment Actions
(17 more comments in this thread)