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Description
"Thundercracker vs. Megatron: Rebels and Martyrs"
Prints available!
I'd been contemplating doing a Machine Wars Thundercracker pic for a while, so when dcjosh told me about his MACHINE-WARS project, I decided to make this a contribution to it. (I don't know what he's planning to do, story-wise; this picture is entirely my own flight of fancy.)

The short description: Thundercracker is leading a group of rebel Decepticons against Megatron and his loyalists. At a moment of standoff, Skywarp teleports into Megatron, sacrificing himself to end the battle before it becomes a slaughter. But he doesn't realize that he has actually destroyed Megaplex , Megatron's "decoy." Soundwave, the only one who knows this, surreptitiously keeps the real Megatron informed.

So why is this happening, and why aren't all the characters in their traditional forms? There are a lot of ideas packed in here, so... bear with me.

It starts with Thundercracker, whose original toy packaging bio says that he's "not totally convinced of the Decepticons' cause, but they've persuaded him to continue battling Autobots." This trait was ignored in the old cartoon and comics, but it would be revisited over a decade later when Thundercracker got a toy in the short-lived Machine Wars line: That bio describes him as a "rebel warrior" who "believes in the Decepticon cause, but remains rebellious among his own ranks." Since the bios are the only form of MW fiction, this bit of character development went completely unexplored. The way I read it, he's found an ideology to follow, but at the cost of the loyalty that had been keeping him in check. So what sort of rebellion is this? Who else might be on his side?

Well, Skywarp also got a Machine Wars toy, and comparing his bios yields an interesting result too: The original says he's "not too smart" and "would be useless without Megatron's supervision"; the MW one still says he has "low intelligence" but omits any mention of Megatron. Is this because he's been swept up in the rebellion? And why does his MW toy have a Generation 2 Decepticon symbol? (An enduring curiosity of TF lore is that the G2 line featured completely different Autobot and Decepticon symbols . Since many of the toys were recolored G1 figures, this led to the strange effect of old characters still wearing old symbol-stickers alongside new symbols painted on. The new symbols were never explained in the fiction, and they were abandoned after G2 ended. MW Skywarp is a rare holdover because his toy had been intended for G2.) So I say perhaps the G2 'Con symbol is the mark of Thundercracker's faction. Perhaps all the old characters who got new toys with that symbol are his army, and contrary to real-world chronology, MW is a precursor to G2!

Thus, this picture.

I have some other thoughts on related issues, like which universe this might be happening in, why Soundwave isn't in his MW form, why there are Megatron toys with the new symbol, etc. But that's enough rambling for now, I think.

Description
"Thundercracker vs. Megatron: Rebels and Martyrs"
Prints available!
I'd been contemplating doing a Machine Wars Thundercracker pic for a while, so when dcjosh told me about his MACHINE-WARS project, I decided to make this a contribution to it. (I don't know what he's planning to do, story-wise; this picture is entirely my own flight of fancy.)

The short description: Thundercracker is leading a group of rebel Decepticons against Megatron and his loyalists. At a moment of standoff, Skywarp teleports into Megatron, sacrificing himself to end the battle before it becomes a slaughter. But he doesn't realize that he has actually destroyed Megaplex , Megatron's "decoy." Soundwave, the only one who knows this, surreptitiously keeps the real Megatron informed.

So why is this happening, and why aren't all the characters in their traditional forms? There are a lot of ideas packed in here, so... bear with me.

It starts with Thundercracker, whose original toy packaging bio says that he's "not totally convinced of the Decepticons' cause, but they've persuaded him to continue battling Autobots." This trait was ignored in the old cartoon and comics, but it would be revisited over a decade later when Thundercracker got a toy in the short-lived Machine Wars line: That bio describes him as a "rebel warrior" who "believes in the Decepticon cause, but remains rebellious among his own ranks." Since the bios are the only form of MW fiction, this bit of character development went completely unexplored. The way I read it, he's found an ideology to follow, but at the cost of the loyalty that had been keeping him in check. So what sort of rebellion is this? Who else might be on his side?

Well, Skywarp also got a Machine Wars toy, and comparing his bios yields an interesting result too: The original says he's "not too smart" and "would be useless without Megatron's supervision"; the MW one still says he has "low intelligence" but omits any mention of Megatron. Is this because he's been swept up in the rebellion? And why does his MW toy have a Generation 2 Decepticon symbol? (An enduring curiosity of TF lore is that the G2 line featured completely different Autobot and Decepticon symbols . Since many of the toys were recolored G1 figures, this led to the strange effect of old characters still wearing old symbol-stickers alongside new symbols painted on. The new symbols were never explained in the fiction, and they were abandoned after G2 ended. MW Skywarp is a rare holdover because his toy had been intended for G2.) So I say perhaps the G2 'Con symbol is the mark of Thundercracker's faction. Perhaps all the old characters who got new toys with that symbol are his army, and contrary to real-world chronology, MW is a precursor to G2!

Thus, this picture.

I have some other thoughts on related issues, like which universe this might be happening in, why Soundwave isn't in his MW form, why there are Megatron toys with the new symbol, etc. But that's enough rambling for now, I think.