Contrary to what some people might believe, Transformers yaoi is NOT a new concept. I actually read and shared TF slash back in the mid-1980's while the original series was still yet on the air. The only reason why it seems so ‘fresh’ now is due to the fact we have the internet which offers far more greater exposure than localized fan groups swapping ideas and the mail-order fanzines of old. We also didn’t refer to it ‘yaoi’ back then either. As a matter of fact, I don’t believe we dubbed it anything at all ---other than robots being very gay.
Still, in all of slash-dom, there is no other show I can think of that seems to rival all the ‘taboo’ that surrounds Transformers related slash. If it’s not the irregular homophobic fans you’ll encounter who’ll argue that you are --quote-- ‘Raping my childhood!’ and ‘How dare you do such a thing!’, you also have the other side of the fan community that are in fact into TF slashing, but have totally different ideas and separate opinions as to how those sexual acts are performed by giant mechs. Sometimes it’s those different beliefs that have also spawned the occasional disagreement. Allow me to use the G1 Megatron/Optimus Prime yaoi comic, ‘Confession’ I created as a prime example of opinion controversy .
Since the comic first debut in 2005, Confession has become layered thick in both praises and controversy for it’s rather alternative (Some might say unethical) approach to Prime and Megatron’s relationship. I’ve been beseeched by questions from the curious ever since.
While the ‘Confession’ fan comic is in fact the most popular of the offerings here at Dream In Pink, that doesn’t deny the fact that some TF slash fans were really bugged about my use of phalluses, or that Optimus Prime was, in some opinions, rather out of character. These are elements I actually completely understand more than some readers think I do. The comic doesn’t suit everyone and I never expected it too. As a matter of fact, the comic originated as a ‘jab’ of sorts; a tease at Prime’s constant ‘pinning Megatron down routine’ as frequently witnessed throughout the G1 series. The comic ultimately took on a life of it’s own that even I had not anticipated! And the reaction .. Oh, the reaction!
Point is, every TF slash fan has different taste. Some fans feel that ‘sex’ among the robots is purely mechanical in it’s nature; attaching cables, buttons, and pushing keys. Some slash fans enjoy adding a more human-like element by having phalluses and such. Still yet, there’s another part of the Trans-slashdom who appreciate the ‘Transformers human’ concept that depict the robots in a human form (Such as based on the G1 Season 3 episode of ‘Only Human’) engaged in sexual acts. That part of the community has another fraction to it all of it’s very own that include Transformers involved in sexual acts with human beings! The majority of this concept seems to have it’s roots laid thick in Japan where the Transformer/Human idea is a very prevalent one. The KISS Alternators product line for instance.
So then what about myself? What do I, as a TF slash artist, think?
I have to laugh a bit at just how serious some people took the ‘Confession’ comic because there was never any in-depth chemistry behind the artwork. It doesn’t exist as a debate as to how I think Transformers really engage in sexual acts, and nor does it condemn other TF slash fans’ personal beliefs about it either. I just simply drew what was pleasing for me to look at --Nothing more. That said, I used ‘phalluses’ and other humanized, like elements of sex in the comic NOT because I believe that this is the way it is done, but because I wanted something that was visually gratifying to me as a human being having to draw and read it.
I know some of you value this particular concept, but I’m not about to lie to anyone either, there’s just nothing really stimulating nor arousing for me in the way of hooking cables and pushing some buttons. On paper, it's very impersonal looking to me. Do Transformers use cables and such? I’m pretty sure they might. But it’s just not my thing. I probably wouldn’t mind combining to two interest however; mechanical and humanized.
Okay. One question down and one more to go. The BIIIIG one ...Shinju! Why so damned OOC with having Optimus raping Megatron for?!!
I think the notion that it’s ‘out of character’ is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I see Optimus in much the same exact light as the rest of you do. He has all the right elements of a good uke --He’s younger than Megatron, he stands for peace and justice, and as Orion Pax he was even maybe a little bit naive. But there’s another factor at play here. Over the past 20+ years, both characters have seen several different incarnations since the original series in which their personalities might rival the personalities of the universe before it. For example, perhaps Armada Prime is more gullible than G1 Prime, or Superlink Prime. Maybe Beast Wars Megatron is far more forceful than Armada’s version of Megatron.
You can go round and round with this, but I’m a G1 fan. I grew up a G1 fan, and in the original series --uke-like or not, or however he may be in other later series-- it was Optimus Prime, not Megatron, who most often pinned Megatron down, groped, and even grabbed him. He did it often and quite frequently. Optimus Prime is the way he is in ‘Confession’ because I wanted to toy with the idea of answering why Prime does this so very much. I finally found a decent answer in the G1 season 2 episode of ‘War Dawn’ where we are introduced to Prime as the young, teenaged, Orion Pax. As Orion Pax, it was clear that Optimus originally thought the world of Megatron. He was ‘absolutely incredible!’ He gestures, “And oh so cool!’
...Too bad his hero worship was doomed to be his worst enemy.
It all sounded like the perfect recipe for severe anguish and denial of the fact that Prime once favored him, and nothing hurts worse than the regret of ages. What I did was to allow all this pent up blend of boyhood disappointment and infatuation to explode on the surface in the ‘Confession’ comic thus resulting in what you saw and read. The very title itself is linked to the idea: ‘I have a confession to make that I always wanted to be with you. That I loved you...’
The truth is that in all reality, all slash is OOC in one form or another. Slash is what it is: It is a product of pure individual fan fantasy. We’ve created relationships and situations that exist no further than very our own imagination. This is, after all, the joy of slash in the first place.
The GREAT debate continues..
Despite the acknowledgment that there exist plentiful genuine examples of male and female Transformer relationships throughout the product’s history, there has never really been a canon example to serve as a guide as to how (or even if) a Transformer can actually engage in a sexual act. The implication certainly exist, but ‘how so’ has been left up to the fans themselves.
The closest canon example I was ever able to locate is also one of the most infamously well known. In the official Japanese TF ‘Victory’ manga, fans (And the shocked Autobots who discover them) are introduced to the Decepticon Deathsaurus’s wife, Esmeryl, her sister, and all their many children on Dark Nebula, a home to the Decepticons' families and civilians. The idea that a Decepticon had a wife and small children has been the subject of debate (and some in firm denial of the idea) for years!
It begs the question again, How did Deathsaurus do it?!
One thing we should think about is that Transformers should NEVER be equated with our human, earth understanding of robotics and what they’re capable of. We tend to forget that the Transformers are aliens. They do not abide by our rules of nature. If they can physically age (as clearly witnessed with Alpha Trion) then it is also likely to assume that they could have been children as well. Another further example of Transformer/robotic children can also witnessed in the G1 Season 3 episode, ‘Forever is a long time’ when the slave fembot, 'Beta' introduces us to some Autobot families: Males, females, and children.
It would appear to me then that Transformers can do both when it comes to creating life. They can build (Such as like the Dinobots and Stunticons were built) and then we have the possibility of the ‘the old fashion’ way. Neither one seem to be wrong. Likewise, neither one can be completely denied, but acceptance of either option has been left up to personal individual taste.
BACK TO DREAM IN PINK • E-MAIL US