Gained Sentience

Liminal spaces honestly always makes me think of Prime Soundwave 😌 but I’m not that good at drawing environments so this is also kind of a study . This is inspired by Ravimnaa’s (on X) pieces of Soundwave! Shadowzone must be so boring 🙄 he should just travel around since he’s got all that free time now. Do you think Soundwave is the Cybertronian equivalent of uncanny considering how unnerved everyone always was about him

It’s been while since I’ve made a transformers oc so I wanted to finally get to making one from a cell/telecommunications tower but also bug! This one I don’t have a name for yet but they’re very inspired by the Skytree tower! I was also inspired by samurai armor because of the several many cultural ties between dragonflies and samurais (and just generally Japanese culture tbh and cuz. The Skytree tower is in Japan) 🪲. There’s too many ties to put them all here unfortunately but I think it’s cool to read about it 😌

on the other hand I like to think there are a few insect transformers that are still huge while most are quite small now, just like how prehistoric bugs were huge 🤔 which is one of the reasons why I chose a dragonfly, considering how successful their big predecessors (?) were . The other reason is that I love dragonflies . Also idk if they’re an autobot or decepticon or neither lol I didn’t think that far

Had a little idea when I was out on a walk but ahh. I can’t really explain what’s going on I just think it’s cool. The High Guard/Command but creatures… Batwave, Bugwave, and uhh. Birdscream? I just liked the idea of how wings could replicate their look 😌 Soundwave was the hardest tbh cuz I had to figure out how bat wings work n all that. But they all turned out great to me! I just need to figure out their clothes tbh . Starscream must have one hell of a time trying to rest at night with how both Soundwave being probably-nocturnal and Shockwave being diurnal or nocturnal depending on the bug he is but also being a bug sleeps but doesn’t really sleep cuz.. Bugs are weird but awesome like that. Long story short it must suck being the only timely average sleeper

Cuz really what’s he smiling about 😒 thinks everything a damn game huh… that silly visor of his making him look so jolly and for what… in reality those two probably got Soundwave stressed so bad always 🙄 yelling at everyone and everything instead of actually doing stuff smh. Someone save him

A bird a bunny and a bat.. the three b’s I’ve heard so much about ( I have another idea for shockwave to give him an animal that flies but that’s for another time)

What y’all know about TFO Wavewave ⁉️ listen I was just looking at them and their colors really enlightened me 😌 even tho Shockwave is more magenta than pink but whatever . You guys get what I’m saying. “What were the High Guard doing all that time on the surface??” Recreating album covers, duh 🤨 what else were they supposed to do

I was missing TFO Soundwave real bad…realized I haven’t drawn or seen him in awhile but I didn’t know what to draw him doing or anything so I just redrew a screenshot of a scene with him it cuz I liked his little “huh” pose he had going on 🐈‍⬛ please tell me I’m not the only one who blows up thinking about him . He’s so precious to me

I’m still a fan of @suja-janee ‘s fellas 😛 I think they’re fun… smooth to draw too! Can’t believe Soundwave has to go thru the torment and torture of reading TC’s (Skywarp-Proofread, much to Soundwave’s dismay) writings out of friendship obligations 😔 listen, out of all the seekers, Soundwave can tolerate TC the easiest so even if he has to handle 200k words of yaoi every now and then it’s probably better than dealing with Starscream or Skywarp 😒 meanwhile TC’s. Addicted to writing well into the night I assume

Batwave concept 🤔… except also bugwave…. I wanna implement both of those thangs (because of how the poll went). I couldn’t figure how his face would look so I’ve come to the conclusion that his visor(?) Is his face 😌 (tho there’s a chance I might change it to a human head,, not sure yet) it’s just that he mimics a human by tucking his head in a certain way that’s convincing enough, trust.. as for the bug stuff? It’s more subtle I’d say, sure the exoskeleton is a clearer thing (yes that technically means he’s shirtless in this one, boy cover up!!!) but there are biological things happening that I don’t feel like explaining yet 😌 just know I spent a whole night researching certain bugs. For his bat side I mostly referenced fruit/flying fox bats cuz their slim faces worked best with him

I felt like there wasn’t enough obviously-bug stuff going on so I kinda wanted to give him two pairs of wings like bugs do, but I’m not sure yet if they Are bat wings or if they’re like bug wings that mimic bat wings 🤔 which would be preferred??? Usually though, in this au thing he’d have them covered/hidden, kinda like how mantids or beetles would have their wings flush to the body and typically seem hidden. Tho a part of me still wants to give him insect wings cuz it matches his usual streamlined body yknow?

I’ve been drawing my Human Soundwave always covering his neck because I always imagined it to be how he’d hide his non-humanness 🤔 not sure how tall he is yet tho. Likely very tall tbh, maybe his visor thing is the equivalent of a bug face (exoskeleton) ,,, yet is shaped like a bat’s head. If that makes sense

Bonus the line art just cuz I like how it is… since bugs are like the top dogs in mimicry I like to imagine Soundwave going in on that 😌 similar to how many people like to think Prime Soundwave looks like a sparkeater! Soundwave here? Mostly not human. But pretends to be and is good at it

Okay so I’m reposting my human(oid) TFP design for reference for the poll I wanna do but like, elaboration. You all know my other g1 not-human human creature design I did for Soundwave 🤔 well I was gonna do that for TFP Soundwave too, cuz again everyone in TFP was pointing out (especially from Ratchet) that Soundwave is no ordinary or normal Cybertronian inside or out. But it’s just that I can’t decide between three options to go with so I wanted to see what you’d all pick out (the winner may not be definite on what I go with btw but it would be a tremendous help with my indecision)

And also yes I do have ideas for each, and I do lean towards one option than the others… I’m sure some of you remember my ol’ post of my observations of Prime Shockwave and Soundwave looking like they have bug anatomy 😌 tho I still think all three of these options suit Soundwave so well that I can’t decide on which one (also if you had any ideas regarding any of the options I would be glad to hear them!)

Earthspark Soundwave pieces I did cuz I realized I haven’t drawn him in awhile 😋 I still hold the belief that since Frenzy could wear makeup clearly so can Soundwave 🙄 it’s just that he has that mask on so we never see it (also I just have a great appreciation for ES making Soundwave built like that and still giving him one of the deepest voice in the cast 😭). And for the other piece that was just a random thing I’ve thought about making months ago but never doing for some reason…whatever, I just figured yknow, he’s all about loyalty and being abandoned by the one person you put all your loyalty into; I think being betrayed must hurt him like many times deeper than to some others

For my own personal sake I choose to imagine that when IDW Soundwave used the Enigma he got to smile truly for the last time cuz he got to see everyone dear to him one last time and join them okay 🤧 HE’S VERY DEAR TO ME!!!! ohhh IDW Soundwave you’re so tragic but wonderful

A human TFA Shockwave concept 🤨 in this economy?? I always imagined a human Shockwave to be Yknow. At least part machine, cyborg… makes sense to me. I also gave him a bit of a detective look just cuz it fit his role I suppose.. in my Hc I like to imagine he’s actually blind in his two normal eyes, and sees thru his robo eye instead 😌 to keep the Shockwaveness. But he does move his blind eyes around when doing disguised stuff so he seems not-blind in them (tho he’s not uncommonly off the mark with them)

And in every thing I’ve seen with TFA Shockwave is that he lowkey sucks at being a spy and lying 💔 but I have seen some works of him and TFP Soundwave together and I think that goes hard 😌 two tall lanky spies that are kinda unsettling (one more so than the other,) and creature-y… I also just like how Shockwave looks like a deer in Animated

Yeah !! And have a little piece of Prime Soundwave I whipped up 😋 I figured it’d make sense if they might’ve greyed a little while in the Shadowzone . One, cuz it’s the Shadowzone and who knows what affects might mark onto them; and two, it’s probably at least a considerable amount of stressful to be in there 😔 poor fella

Quick lil’ doodle of my probably human Prime Soundwave 😋 my last piece of them was actually quite fun so I wanted to doodle them again! The purple accents are my favorite part 🐈‍⬛ I’ve been trying to figure out how a human Shockwave would work on the side (mostly a Prime and or TFA Shockwave specifically) and one of my conclusions is that he could be a cyborg thing 😌 it makes sense to me… I just don’t know to what extent; meanwhile Soundwave is just always a biological anomaly idk why. It just makes Soundwave, Soundwave,, to me. Also I kinda wanna give em some outfits

I was watching a lot of Prime Soundwave clips lately, namely the ones where he uses his data cables, and the thing that stands out to me the most is how they’re So incredibly snake-like, even in sound design! The best instance was the scene where he was rescuing Laserbeak and turned back to pick up a piece he missed, and the pure silence of the scene with only the eerie wind and the near silent hissing/slithering noises of the cables (especially the way they moved) was just super snake-like that I figured it’d be very cool if in a human setting he’d have snakes for his cables! Do all the decepticons get jump scared when they notice the little snakes? Maybe (yes but I doubt Shockwave did), but Soundwave never pays them any mind. Maybe he could secretly record all the reactions for himself and makes little compilations. (Starscream will hate to ever admit how startled he got) I also think Prime Soundwave’s former higher status before he stepped down, he probably has quite the good fits still

My TFP Soundwave ramblings (be warned cuz there are many words)

I was gonna draw today but the prospect of it felt overwhelming for some reason so instead I’m just gonna talk about TFP Soundwave’s alt mode (a UAV/ reaper drone) just cuz I was reading about it and I like how I could link stuff between how he is and how reaper drones are.

So basically, one of the first things I wanna mention is that reaper drones/UAVs are unmanned aerial vehicles (given the whole “drone” thing and what UAV even means) but to me that just sorta makes sense for Soundwave in regard to his more.. Unsettling, robotic/alien-like behavior and movements? As well as his silence and usual distance from the front lines and his lack of showing face/(social?) detachment from like everyone else other than Laserbeak (don’t ask, it just makes sense to me). Reaper drones were also made to work at first only in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles; but eventually additionally a hunter-killer role which you can kinda see in Soundwave’s character in the show (my best example is the scene where he retrieves Laserbeak from Ratchet, super cool creepy behavior from him, just waiting for something or someone to make any noise or any movement). When he has a mission, he’s most definitely getting it done, he stalks and lurks and takes action when the time is just Right; he’s very pinpoint accurate in Prime. 

Reaper drones were also made to provide “deadly persistence” capability, being able to fly over areas night and day waiting for a target to present itself, or to survey for LONG long amounts of time. Which to me correlates to how he’s able to stand still and do work and wait and listen and watch and do everything for So Long as he does in the show (and tolerate Starscream— or like everyone actually for so long 🙄). 

Reapers also utilize satellite communications for command and control (as in, they kinda literally have satellite dishes in them I think that’s what that is?), so that to me also easily parallels Soundwave's abilities with the space bridges and kind of his visor being computer-like as well (and that time he used an. Antenna satellite thing? To look for signals or whatever). They also use other multiple sensors to target and observe, which include optical (high resolution imagery for identification and target acquisition), infrared, and radar systems (enables the drone to locate and track targets regardless of weather conditions or visibility). Which imo links to how Soundwave is described as the “eyes and ears of the decepticons”.

They carry many weapons but I’m not really gonna get into that tbh cuz. Idk. Don’t wanna. Also TFP Soundwave doesn’t fight often anyways and when he does it’s mostly just straight hands (and data cables). And this is as far as my not the most accurate of ramblings most likely but just one I wanted to make because there’s just a Lot from so Little of TFP Soundwave I just love to think about it. Was I geeked out writing this? Maybe, so what 😒

Hmmm a WIP? Not sure yet if I should shade this or whatever cuz so far it does look pretty great! But anyways I just really wanted to do a little piece that was nice to look at 😌 Soundwave being the ultra security system that he is. And I like the way that security cameras are shaped. So it only makes sense to do a little thing containing both.