Comment on Lessons in Leadership

  1. lesbianbean Sun 09 Mar 2025 12:24AM UTC

    -oh my god, Orion offering to help him up. It's so in character and of course Orion wouldn't even get why Starscream would be offended by that. Incredible detail.
    -Starscream recognizing D-16's strength but also his vulnerability, Starscream's own ability to quietly watch and observe not just D, but how D interacts with other bots. He's good at his job!
    -Starscream glimpsing between Orion and D and thinking "oh" and then immediately going "okay how can I use this..." best character ever, never change. (also the inherent hilarity of your leader also being a 20-something who had a messy breakup)
    -I love how you write Starscream's thought process in the fight scene, how he's both calculating and also kind of distracted by his own emotions, how he calculates exactly what to say to D to get him angrier.
    -I love how D is physically in control but emotionally completely in over his head. Like this really does capture the strengths and weaknesses both characters have in a way you really only can do with a sex scene?
    -not me saying "noooo" out loud and grabbing my chest when Starscream finds the sticker.
    -oh god them both talking about Megatronus is so hot, like, they both loved him for very different reasons and are specifically finding the answer to their grief in each other. Amazing, I'm eating the drywall.
    -I love how you built the fucked-up mentor/student relationship with these two characters, like you took the appetizer they gave us in the movie and spun it into a whole ass feast. This fic watered my crops in the best way, absolutely incredible stuff <3

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    1. devilfangs Tue 11 Mar 2025 12:05AM UTC

      Screenshot of Orin the Red from Baldur’s Gate 3. She is bloodied and licking her dagger, Bloodthirst.

      Thank you so much for your comment!! You picked up on exactly what I was trying to convey--that weird, ambivalent power dynamic where d-16 is physically in control but mentally and emotionally so out of his depth. And starscream being starscream immediately latches onto that

      But ironically, he's so out of his depth, he doesn't realize the tenuous hold that Starscream has over the situation. Because starscream is a great manipulator, but d-16 *actually*, unintentionally, throws him for a loop. He's feeling genuine emotion (gasp) and doesn't know what to do with it, so he hopes d-16 doesn't notice as he tampers it down (he doesn't)

      And yesss. I definitely think starscream loved megatronus. He's leveraging him like a weapon here, but there was definitely more there than just a physical connection (whether it was mutual or not, who knows). Glad the sticker scene hit the mark

      Also whenever I think of the whole tfo decepticon high command dynamic I cannot help but laugh. You guys are all like 50 and your leader is repping a "I survived a codependent homoerotic teenage friendship" tshirt. Couldnt help but add in starscream realizing the inherent stupidity of it 😭

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      1. lesbianbean Wed 12 Mar 2025 03:02AM UTC

        Lmao I actually just made a tf1 megop edit with the "I survived a codependent homoerotic teenage friendship" tweet. TF1 has so many messy dynamics, I'm kind of sad we probably won't get a sequel but also it means that we as a fandom can just go nuts with what they gave us and it's all equally canon, so that's fun.

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