fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #1615 ]

⌈ Secret Post #1615 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 08 pages, 185 secrets from Secret Submission Post #231.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeats ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm kind of just sick of reading "Starscream's really a decent guy deep down" fics. Admittedly I just skipped around reading the fic in question, but that was the gist of it that I got.

Eh. Whatever makes you happy I guess, OP.

I actually thought it was decent and an enjoyable read and I'm not even a proponent of that pairing at all. I think TF:P Screamer has the capacity to have more background than most as far as characterization, but the shift from 'Con to 'Bot lover was abrupt for only five chapters, then again there was a decent amount of time-skipping, so it could be that.

Still, I thought Arcee stayed quite in character as did Starscream (although he WAS a slightly romanticized version, as Cyndi often does). They had to find a way out of a very unlikely (and made for the sole purpose of them getting together) situation.

...I wouldn't have minded being in Arcee's boots, though. >_>;

The situation they were in spoke symbolically to me. You can't live anywhere but in the present. Time won't rush or slow down because you want it to and you can get hurt trying to live in a single moment, so make every one count. You don't know when it will all fall to pieces. Moments special to you will never disappear as long as you remember, and as long as there is a future there is hope.

The summary is clever. "You never know what the future holds. Sometimes it falls apart and sometimes it changes you"

The time skips made sense for the pacing of the story. How many pages can you go on about sticking two wires together? Neither character is the type who would angst over things for long. Arcee faced the reason she was attracted to Starscream almost from the beginning: He reminded her of a past lover. It seems in her character that her "type" would be a bad boy instead of a doting sweetheart. I think the author kept Starscream's thoughts and emotions mostly a mystery on purpose. My personal impression was he liked having someone he could match wits with and talk to. Arcee was a change of pace for him. She did save his life in the beginning of the story; that may have had an impact on how he viewed her. The author mentioned he was a genius, and gifted yet lacking in the charisma Megatron appears to have from Sick Mind onward. He may have felt like the bot no one listened to. Then Arcee began to listen. She rattled him emotionally by making a poor joke about death; a loss he may not have properly grieved for because of the war.

Forcing them to lay close together was perfect for the sexual tension between them. Who wouldn't want to hear Starscream whisper in their ear hm? What went through Starscream's mind as Arcee overloaded in her sleep laying right up against him? Notice how after that point he tried to make her laugh and watched her once he succeeded. I thought he wanted to see beyond the soldier in her. Arcee puts up a front so often. She is stubborn and willful. Starscream peeled back her layers and they finally kiss after the laugh relaxed her. I think he found her beautiful when she laughed. "You should laugh more often" was the line. Was the silent message "because you're lovely when you laugh"?

Then to their sex scene which was dynamite to me. Arcee knew their chance of escape was slim. She wrestled in the beginning of the kiss. She is a soldier. Not used to being touched or treated like a femme. Were they feelings she buried after she lost Tailgate? Perhaps. She realized she had nothing to lose and took the initiative. Notice how nobody was on top or on the bottom but against a wall. Eye level and equal to each other. Arcee comes all the way out of her shell at her climax and Starscream reveals how he holds nothing back when he breaks her ideals of how male bots are supposed to act at the moment of overload. Prime Starscream would not be himself if he did not do things over the top, so him losing control and not caring suits him fine.

It's clear Starscream was experienced. I liked that. So was Arcee. No fumbling bumbling virgin antics from either of them. It's hinted even that he spent time learning the touches she liked as the love scene progressed.

I won't spoil the very end, however it was well done how the events played out after Starscream and Arcee gave themselves to each other. They open themselves right before the story itself climaxes with the dimension they fell into threatening to collapse around them. The warning signs were there and ignored like the warning signs of their impending romance were ignored until they reached a point of inevitability.

Through all of it Arcee viewed Starscream in stages. Enemy to wounded bot, wounded bot to emotional being, emotional being to friend and friend to lover. She pushed him away for a while out of fear of growing close because she's lost friends in the past. Once they acknowledge their feelings to each other Arcee reconciles with "we have NOW" and holds on to those moments. They promise to meet again if they're both alive when the war is over. That plants the hope for the future which is a blank slate.

By the end you want them both to live so they can meet again. It's a painful hope and it depends on how the series pans out.

I see where people might question the characterization. However Prime is such a new series and there is still so much we don't know about the characters. The author kept their pasts mostly ambiguous to allow for the series to fill in and I thought that was a smart move too. I am curious to what she might write about the fate of Starscream's trine. Starscream's reaction to Arcee's snotty remark says they died in a horrible way if it still affects him so many years later. Another point is the tears. Starscream freely let them well in his eyes while Arcee fought hers until the very end of the story. Yet another subtle contrast I enjoyed.

No fic is ever perfect yet that is why I enjoyed this one.

Oh dear me, I rambled far too long.

Good night LJers!

Why for the love of Primus did you post this here rather than telling the fic's author directly?

No kidding! That was quite something to wake up to in my inbox, lol. Just go comment on ff.net. Copy/paste, yo.

I sent her a pm on ff.net.

[ SECRET POST #1615 ]

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