Timing-induced strikeouts

It's always a particular kind of ":(" realising someone had a bad experience with Topic That You Like, because you're then stuck never bringing that topic up out of respect, and feeling just a little bit deceptive for not outright saying "I like this thing, but cool" in case it's one of those things people consider One Strike You're Out tells.

I have an especially hard time not running into this because I'm apparently very easy to confide into, and a lot of people will open up about a lot of adverse experiences they've had to me. If I'd had fifty bucks every time someone told me "I've never spoken to anyone else about this", I'd have my rent covered for the foreseeable future.

(Then again, I don't know if I wouldn't prefer this to finding out about these things after going out of my way to gush about something that makes that person incredibly uncomfortable. Conversational no-go zones are unpleasant, no matter how you stumble into them.)

>:(

Oh, what

I'm not allowed to feel good about anything today?

>:((((((((

:((((

:(

On the topic of TFP Smokescreen and Hotrod...

(Reposted from Tumblr)

I’m pretty sure Alpha Trion was deliberately grooming Smokescreen for a Rodimus-like role. I mean, he could see the future, he was probably able to anticipate the events of Season 2, so for the sake of the cosmos, he made sure to have a backup plan for when Known Idealist Optimus Prime would fail to do what needed to be done to end the war.

Like, maybe he deliberately picked Smokescreen, because someone so young, naive and hungry for recognition would be easy to shape into a zealot capable of returning peace to Cybertron by any means necessary, would be easy to groom into thinking that the ends justify the means,

and then on top of that made sure to cultivate qualities that would appeal to Optimus, namely perseverance, good cheer and a forward-looking positivity, so when manoeuvred into a position where he’d have to give up the Matrix, Optimus would naturally feel inclined to hand it over to the person Alpha Trion wanted it to end up with.

And it almost worked, too. I have no doubt that when Smokescreen first arrived on Earth, had he then been offered the Matrix, he wouldn’t have thought twice about taking it. But either by providence or good luck, Smokescreen’s mercurial adaptability meant that by the time Alpha Trion’s plan would have taken effect, he’d already grown to exceed it, and could find a third option.

As much as his naivety and malleability made Smokescreen the ideal candidate for such a plan, it also made him the perfect foil for it. Having the forward-looking, progress-oriented attitude that endeared that was required for Optimus to fall for Alpha Trion’s scheme meant that Smokescreen’s growth didn’t just stop at the things Alpha Trion taught him.