Interview with Mairghread Scott on Transformers Prime, Female Characters, and Writing Animation

Hi, this is Margaret Scott, the first female

writer in Transformers Comics, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. What was that?

You have competition, Bulk. I'm a bit stronger

than I used to be. Also a bit faster. Think you

can take me, Muscle Carter? Wimp. How's it hummin'?

Did he just...? Stronger, faster, studlier. Dude!

Scrap. You know, I've always thought that children

were surprisingly unprofessional. Just in general.

Well, that would make Ender a 33 -year -old child.

I don't know what the hell he's talking about.

Welcome to the poll bag. I am one of your host

if you're Mike and joining me is Ender. Hello,

sir Good afternoon morning, whatever it is wherever

you're listening. You have a good one of those.

Yes. Yes, exactly And we are here to do yet another

pull bag interview the first one I did was with

Kyle Higgins writer of Nightwing over there at

DC Comics and now we have We have the first paid

Female Transformers comics writer Marigrid Scott

with us. Hello Marigrid, how are you? Hi guys,

I'm doing good. A wise man once said that what

every artist truly wants in their heart of hearts

is to be paid. Yes, that's true, that's true.

And for those of you that don't know, Marigrid

is one of the writers on Transformers Prime Beast

Hunters, the new ongoing series from IDW. Based

on the prime universe and the dinobots and shockwave

and dead insecticons. Oh boy There's a wanted

poster with your picture on it, isn't there?

Only in an insecticon hive somewhere But you

know, honestly, I've seen a lot of season 3 and

I'm feeling pretty safe Yeah, we won't ask if

there's anything you can tell us because I automatically

know the answer is no Anyway, but we are here

to primarily talk about the comic Outside of

what you're doing with the prime cartoon and

the prime comic Are there any other upcoming

projects you have in the future going on that

you can reveal? Oh Gosh, it's so unfortunate

that you asked that right now, but I'm hoping

to have some announcements at Comic Con That

I'll be able to reveal more but there is more

stuff in the works that I'm very very excited

about so Awesome Okay, sorry, I had a technical

problem there in case anyone noticed. You are

a technical problem. I am a technical problem.

You hire the guy to be loud and then he doesn't

say anything. Yeah, kidlet doom. Anyway, so before

I embarrass myself for the next half an hour,

I would like the official tutorial on how to

say your first name properly. Oh sure, it's no

problem. It's Mary Gred. Maregret see you were

wrong Mike Maregret, right Maregret. Is that

right? Maregret Maregret. Yeah. Yeah. Okay It's

an interesting name. Is there is there a is there

a particular like history or story behind it

or your parents? Just like this out of it It's

the Scottish version of Margaret and my last

name is Scott, which is really boring So I guess

I felt like they had to jazz up the first name

song Yeah, I got one of those last names you

can't say, so... You know, I don't feel bad,

though, because Jeff Klein, the EP on the TV

show for Transformers Prime, he just refused

to call me by my first name for, like, the first

two seasons, so he only calls me by my middle

name. You have a middle name? Yeah, yeah. Is

that something you share with the public, or...?

Sure, sure. My middle name is Wild, W -I -L -D.

Awesome, so you know you like made out on the

name front because you get a short last name

But you know your name is I was figured especially

middle names have to be interesting because they're

only good for you know small talk on first dates

so Exactly exactly. I think he just enjoyed shouting

wild across the yeah, totally Hey, Mike's my

son's middle name is Magnus my daughter's middle

name is Titania and Yeah, so we go for the interesting

ones there. Aw, nice. I often wonder how his

wife allowed him to get away with naming their

child Magnus. Alexander Magnus, Adela Titania,

and Lea Desdemona. Oh, that's very cool. See,

I mean, you've got at least two Shakespeare characters.

I don't remember Magnus, but... He's very ultra.

Exactly. Well, actually, my name isn't even as

interesting as that. It's just my mother's last

name. But in my family, you don't change your

name when you get married. So your last name

becomes your kid's middle name. So my kids, I

hope they're boys because their middle name is

going to be Scott. Both my daughters have a family

middle name that was passed down from my wife's

side, which is Lawrence. And then my son's second

middle name is Louise. Had two middle names.

We gave all the kids two middle names. We're

trying to maximize that small talk. So we uh

That's what we're going for there Shakespeare

and some Transformers and some Our kids again,

that's a play I want to see the transforming

Shakespeare of Star Wars You know transformers

actually remind me a lot of Shakespeare in a

lot of ways, you know I mean like who's soliloquy

is like Starscream Yeah, that's true That guy

can just go, like he is... Experienced characters

like to talk to themselves. If Viado churned

into a jet, he'd be Starscream. There we go!

Alright, so tell us about your background, where

are you from, and all that beginning early stuff.

Sure, sure. So, I guess where I'm from, I originally

grew up right outside of Detroit. and I went

to school for dramatic writing, and I ended up

having a lot of really good teachers there who

taught animation writing, including Charlie Rubin

and Joe Kelly from Man of Action, and it really

got me excited to write animation. So I moved

out to Los Angeles, threw everything in the back

of a 2000 Saturn, and drove out here, got a couple

production jobs, was able to come on on Transformers

Prime, pitched my first story. I was like, hey,

you guys, I've got this really amazing idea for

a Transformers episode. And they were like, no,

that's not a good idea. And I was like, well,

I have this other really amazing idea for a Transformers

episode. And they're like, no, we don't really

like that. And I was like, well, what if I hook

Ratchet on steroids? And they were like, oh,

good, I like that. Yeah, let's hear the other

ideas. I don't even remember. I'm sure they were

like, come on, you remember. I'm sure they were

overly complicated, like the Transformers, something

with space and time or something like that. That's

the one thing when you graduate with a writing

degree is your first story. Your first stories

are always like way overly complex. You know,

that's the future too, except the DeLorean transformed.

Exactly, and then you know throw in then you

throw in like oh, this has got a real Hemingway

feel And you're like what but no us and then

I started writing on the the television side

and I read a lot of I like to say it's shows

that solve problems with bloodless violence and

I moved into comic energy on is kind of like

blood but Yeah, but you know not if you're BS

and P. So that's what counts As long as it makes

a clang sound when they hit each other. It's

all fair So What kind of shows did you watch

when you were a kid like what what media were

you interested in? Did you watch? Transformers

did you watch what were you into? Well, it's

actually really funny cuz I kind of I grew up

with them Batman the animated series and the

the x -men 90s x -men and Beast Wars and and

it's funny as a kid I actually never read comic

books because I just sort of wandered into a

comic book store and tried to get into 90s x

-men and I was like issue 397 I Don't even know

what's going on That's exactly the same way I

felt until the new 52 reset almost everything

exactly so I I kept watching all of You know

all the all the wonderful comic book characters

on television But then I didn't actually start

reading comics till like the end of high school

and into college. So it's been It's been kind

of really a lovely thing to experience, you know

all these different characters sort of in their

original medium as I grow up. It's a nice way

of sort of looking back to your childhood without

actually having to watch the shows you watched

as a child. You know, I really love Sailor Moon.

She touches my heart, but I watch the old episodes

again, and it's like, ah, I forgot the hairdryer

monster fight. This was a lot more deep when

I was seven. Oh boy. What made you want to become

a writer? Was there something when you were younger?

Was it because you read books and you're like,

oh, I'd like to do this someday. What's the story

behind becoming a writer? Well, I came from,

this is going to sound awful. I came from a super

writery literary family. My mother was the small

town. She's a small town journalist and she's

a professional grammarian. And so we were always

telling stories and, you know, writing stories

and stuff in the household. But my biggest problem

was that at least compared to her, I have terrible

grammar. So I started doing sort of dramatic

writing, like movies and plays, because I could

always use the excuse, well, that's how people

talk. That sounds so familiar. And then I sort

of you just kind of. I love animation because

I would just get so bored writing. The few times

I've tried to write sort of the standard cop

procedural or something like that, it's like,

oh gosh, now we're gonna stand around in a room

and talk about all the interesting things that

happened in some other room. I was like, someone

turn into a jet. And so I went to animation.

So our research indicates that despite being

a comic book and television writer that you are

in fact not a dude What's up with that Exactly

much to the surprise of many people. I've actually

you not believe how many Things I've shown up

to where my little placard says mr. Scott But

now I am not I'm not a dude at all it was very

tempting to become a dude But I decided not to.

What's that been like in the industry that's,

you know, kind of dude -filled in some ways,

at least in perception? You know, it's a really

weird thing to have sort of been a fan girl and

then a fan professional, especially in sort of

the early 2000s and like up till today. because

I remember when I first started reading comics,

it was still a thing where I would go into a

comic book store and literally a good percentage

of the store would follow me from aisle to aisle

as You know it's like that episode of the big

bang theory when they finally take Penny the

comp to the comic book store and half the half

the guys in the comic book store just Pass out.

Oh my god a girl Yeah, no, literally I had that

and I would have I've been to comic book stores

where was basically you had to sort of it's you

remember that scene in Monty Python, holy grail,

answer me these questions three. It was like

you had to answer three Green Lantern Silver

Age trivia questions before you could buy your

comics. I'd have had trouble with that. I know.

But, you know, it's funny, once I actually got

into the industry side of things, it was something

that people were really aware of. And it was

something that I was always sort of warned against.

But so far, at least it's not. Happened to me.

I've not experienced that You know, maybe I've

been really lucky to work with the people that

I've worked with but by and large You know Hasbro

has been really good to me No one's ever told

me you have to write this because you're the

girl or you know We really don't want like a

female viewpoint on this and IDW has been fantastic

It's just sort of never been an issue. I mean

I wonder Part of that is is just as a writer.

It really doesn't matter what you look like You're

just a typed name on an email, you know, so It's

it's interesting When reverse do you see when

you like they're saying that you know, they haven't

asked you to do anything just because you know

You're the girl as you say do you you they don't

want a female perspective or dick. Do you look

at? do you look at the status quo sometimes and

think though like that it's really lacking in

said perspective and they don't even realize

it or well i think that there's definitely look

i mean comic books are really cool medium and

i've always been of the opinion that comic books

are for everyone that you just haven't found

the comic that you like yet and because of that

i really think that comic books should sort of

be as diverse as the world that they live in.

And clearly they're not. They're not fully there

yet. We've gotten a lot better. But yeah, you

know, it's one of those things where you just

have to take it sort of one story at a time and

one character at a time. And you write, you know,

a good enough story for a character. And who

thought, you know, who thought 20 years ago that

Spider -Woman would be the cornerstone of a giant

Marvel event? Or that Squirrel Girl would be

a huge fan favorite. Or that Captain Marvel III

would sell so many t -shirts. But they do. So

you just sort of have to, over time, make that

the new normal. Excellent. Let's talk about some

Transformers Prime stuff. How did the show, like...

Did Hasbro put a call out? Did the Hub put a

call out saying, hey, we're looking for writers?

Or how did you get to be a writer on the show

itself? Oh, yeah. Well, basically it was that

when I got, I had a day job on the show, which

is the script coordinator, or no, no, the writer's

assistant. That's my title on Prime. They're

two different things in live action, but they're

basically the same thing in animation. The job

was to be in the room every day taking notes

and researching all the continuity, you know,

it would be a thing where it's like, Margaret,

we need three transformers that look like sharks,

you know, or that look like jets or who would

be a transformer who, you know, is super into

math or something like that. And it's like, oh,

okay, I'll go do that research. And you just

start, it's a natural progression to becoming

a professional writer. It's just sort of a job

that you know is the first step for most professional

writers because eventually at some point they

turn to you and say well do you have any ideas

for for stories and You pitch out your ideas

until one hits See I'm interested in that in

your role. There is the writer's assistant. You

said that's your title correct? Yes, yeah, that

is my so it sounds to me like it but in that

capacity you actually had some hand and a great

deal of the show, not just the episodes you wrote.

Yeah, well, I got to see it. It's sort of been

really lucky for me to do so much writing on

a show that I also worked production on, because

I can see as a freelance writer, they give you,

you know, however many, however much material

they have. You have, you know, a week to write

your outline, you have two weeks to write your

first draft, you have a week to write your second

draft, and then maybe you'll be invited to the

record. That's it. You, the script, you know,

here's your check, goodbye. And a year later,

you'll see it on TV. But working in production,

I was really able to see the scripts at every

single stage and all the changes that went through.

And so it really was a great... Essentially a

great place to start it put me on a really firm

ground with the show because I knew exactly What

had happened before and I knew what was gonna

happen? Afterwards, so it helped me really position

some I think some really cool stories Yeah, so

I mean that's the and would you say that you

feel like? Were you was it solely learning experience

or were you really kind of you know? Do you think

there's your imprint is probably a bit of everywhere?

Sounds more likely to me Well, I don't want to

take more credit I do think I've been really

fortunate I've been really fortunate in the sense

that Dwayne who is the the head writer on the

show? Has always taken sort of a best idea wins

approach So there are you know lots of ideas

that that I throw out there, but that everyone

sort of throws out there And I know I had sort

of special side projects. I definitely took Miko

very close to my heart and really fought to sort

of develop her as much as possible. But those

aren't things that would have gotten through

just on my effort alone. Everything on Prime

is really a team effort and I'm really happy

that I was part of that team. Awesome. Well,

you know, it's funny you bring up Miko because

there's actually the next thing I was going to

ask you about. At the inception of the show,

there was a lot of, you know, fan derision about

her maybe, you know, being a Norik or, you know,

sorry, manic or annoying. But she changed a lot

over the series, but never so much. as when you

were writing her. In the course of episodes you

wrote, Mikko, let's see, go down the list, kills

Hardshell, is declared a wrecker, and by chain

of command is literally beating up Decepticons.

So tell us about Mikko and your relationship

with her. Tell us how you approached that, because

you seem to have a real effect on that part of

the show. Yeah, well, I think in some ways I

really identified with Miko on a personal level.

Not just because I was also the youngest woman

in the room. But the fact that, you know, Miko

really wants to be I always joke that Miko really

wants to be 22 with a gatling gun like strapped

to bulkhead's roof shooting down to septicons

like she wants to be Sarah Connor comic come

out. I know exactly someday issue 127 TFB centers.

I'd say issue 11 or 12 Well, that'll that'll

be a question later, but go ahead exactly but

you know She was a character that that I knew

she was gonna be an extraordinary woman when

she was in an adult but she's 14 now and So I

was like, well, I want to really see her sort

of become competent. Because on the other hand,

I really like Tomiko because as a writer, she's

not a character that I see a lot, which is essentially

a woman who fails and gets back up. A lot of

times, women are sort of the exposition characters,

or they're the intelligence characters, or they're

the more the RC thing where they're kind of uber

competent. And I really liked that Miko was Yeah,

she's kind of screw up, you know But she that

does not bother her or hold her back at all and

I kind of wanted to reward her for Essentially

staying in there as long as she did Well at the

start of the series, I mean she really drives

a lot of the plot Just in terms of you know Let's

jump through the space bridge into a giant robot

-filled battle. You know what I mean? And it

seems crazy. But if you think about it, too,

the story wouldn't go anywhere if she didn't

do it most of the time. But it was really nice

to see her evolve in the way that you did, especially

to such a level. Because I think for my daughters,

seeing her there, it's not just a female character.

It's a little girl. And she's welcome in that

world. And it was really gratifying to see her

not only be welcome in that world, but respected

in it. And that way, I feel like that makes it

inclusive for my daughters as well. You know

which a lot of shows don't manage. So thank you

for that. I Have to say really quickly I have

to say when I watch chain of command and spoilers

for anyone who hasn't seen it yet It's been out

for about two or three weeks now When I watch

chain of command, I nearly fell out of my chair

Because as soon as I knew as soon as she started

staring at that apex armor thing I knew it was

gonna be a g1 XO suit reference. I knew it happened

See, you fell out of your chair. I was on the

edge of my freaking seat, because I was writing

Chain of Command, I think, a little bit after

Hurt came out. And I thought Hurt was like, it's

one of my favorite episodes I've ever written,

if not my favorite episode. And I thought fans,

like, oh, fans are going to love this. And the

boards hated it. You know? They were so mad at

me for, you know, it was basically like, I hate

Nico even more for taking up this valuable screen

time. And so, I was writing Chain of Command

and I'm like, alright, I'm gonna give this one

last shot. You will like me, Cal. No, but I swear

it was like... As I was watching Chain of Command,

I literally saw, even though it's not that character

or that situation, in my brain... Transformers

the movie was playing, and it's Daniel. Come

on, Transform! Transform! I swear, as soon as

I saw it, I was like, oh yeah, XO suits, so awesome!

And I'm sorry, no offense to a lot of the more

competent people on the boards, some of those

people on the boards are just crazy because a

lot of them don't, a lot of Transformers fans

in general don't like humans, and I have said

from day one, Jack, Miko, and Raph are the three

best humans in Transformers cartoon history.

they just are they're the best written the best

character development we've ever had that that's

my opinion and i'm gonna stick to it but it's

like when i say every time that you all as the

writers or the animators or whoever you know

takes care of it every time i see a reference

just like just Even in some of the scripts and

some of the lines, like Megatron's looking for

a beast machine soldier, I'm like, oh, that's

so cool. You know, and it's like, it's just,

it's so good. My favorite is the Bantor reference

when Ratchet's drunk, or when he's coming out

of it. He's coming out of like, anesthesia. Yeah,

I remember. It's all mandrel before I put a tiger

in his tank. Yeah, exactly. I have a Bantor.

You know, it's always, it is absolutely fine

for me, people who don't want humans in the Transformers

mythos. That's just, you know, it's like how

everyone has the Batman that they grew up with,

and either your Batman is, you know, the Adam

West Batman, or your Batman is the Frank Miller

Batman, and those are not the same Batman. But

it is a special victory when you get a fan commenting

that they didn't like the humans or didn't see

their value and then you were sort of able to

help them see that value and honestly, I think

the humans are they're not really there for the

30 year old fan they're there for the kid because

you know when I watched X -Men like I love Jubilee

because she was slightly older than me and I

wanted to someday wake up and get my mutant powers

and go have fun with the X -Men. So the kids

are there for kids watching the show to think

that maybe the car next to them is going to transform

and turn into their robot friend. I think whenever

you remove the humans from it, technically it

doesn't have to be humans, I mean they could

be protecting badgers to some degree, but if

you don't have those secondary characters for

the Autobots to protect, it robs the Autobots

of a lot of purpose and agency, and you kind

of wonder what they're all shooting at each other

over. Well I think it's more that it definitely,

I think the good thing I like about humans as

a writer is that they just are able to lighten

the tone a lot. You know it's it's always hard

to lighten the tone of a century essentially

a million years long civil war that annihilated

a planet Yeah, and that's like again to Miko's

testament in the very first episode of the show

Dude, what are you waiting for go with scrap?

And I really see that as the appropriate response

if you see a car I'm gonna get in trouble from

like the SMP, but small children if a car transforms

into a robot and invites you on an adventure

across the galaxy the answer is yes Go go live

that life. I can't deal with reluctant heroes

I always liked Miko better than Jack because

I Jack I Found a little on the dull side and

couldn't quite see what he was doing there a

lot of the time Miko was like right out in the

adventure I feel like if Jack had his way the

whole show would have been about him cooking

french fries In his defense though in real life

Jack would probably live quite a bit longer than

Miko He probably would have survived that first

afternoon as opposed to People would say you

know, she was you know, I think she's crazy like

no, she's a serious mental condition Okay, she's

this is like a death wish in that in the first

couple of episodes. It was just like You know

different strokes. Yeah So, let's see, where

are we going? Again, you know, she's the big

favorite around here in my house right now. You

know, no matter how many times I tell my daughter

this, that it's not important, I know she finds

the seven -foot -high boys sign that hangs above

the Transformers toys slightly off -putting.

Yeah. And, you know, I can't imagine why. For

you, did you have similar experiences when you

were a kid with toys and franchises you were

interested in that maybe didn't seem interested

in you? And how does that inform how you approach

the things you write today? I mean, yeah, I guess

I did. I remember that because when I was little,

the things that you would pretend to be was X

-Men and Power Rangers. And there was always

a fight whenever you played Power Rangers over

who had to be the pink Power Ranger, because

all the girls wanted to be the yellow Power Ranger.

She was the good one. You know, she did stuff.

Pink Power Ranger just sort of flew around, I

don't know, being pink. And that was, like, very

upsetting to me, that, like, I was not going

to be the pink Power Ranger. See, I have the

opposite opinion. Oh, so you were a Pink Power

Ranger fan, Trini Fly? Trini didn't do anything.

She sat back with Billy tinkering. That's all

she ever did. Well, you and my, you know, third

grade self can go dig that out. Yeah, but no,

it was, and I remember especially there was,

it was a really big deal when Jean Grey became

Phoenix. because before that and this is just

me looking back as a small child the feeling

was that basically Jean Grey couldn't do anything

until sort of they needed her to be able to do

something and then she could do it and then she

would like pass out and that was really annoying

and like no one wanted to be none of the little

girls wanted to be Jean Grey everyone wanted

to be Storm everyone wanted to be Rogue no one

wanted to be Jean Grey and I I was always made

to be Jean Grey. And I remember the day that

Jean Grey became Phoenix. And then it's like,

now I own you. And there was much revenge reaped

on the playground that day. Was there always

some little boy who was playing Cyclops who would

chase you around and yell, Jean! Over and over

again. You know, I don't remember that, but I

do remember there was always like there was always

the kid that was like. Wolverine and he was like

well nothing you do can hurt me or like Magneto

another whoever was Magneto was always a tool

and was just like why levitate everyone with

the iron in your blood like Wolverine's not a

tool Wolverine's just a emo old man stalker That's

what he is. Magneto is a tool that kid was probably

me yeah and the green power ranger whoever wanted

to be the green power ranger was always like

it's the me show which i'm sure is what people

thought of when i was phoenix but green power

ranger was always like it's me time now um that's

pretty much gone on for the last 20 years i mean

green white red and black he's been all the colors

he's the most power he's not the most powerful

most popular uh Power Ranger in the last 20 years

of the history of the American version. Well,

don't tell my husband, because my husband's name

is Jason, which was the name of the red Power

Ranger that we grew up with, and he's still upset

that the green Power Ranger showed up. He's still

mad about it. The actor's real name is Jason,

so there you go. Good old Jason David Frank.

Like two episodes of Power Rangers, so kind of

lose me there but yeah Enders an 80s kid. He

he checked out in the 90s I think I just missed

it like I was excited when the ads came on for

Power Rangers because I thought it looked cool

and I watched like two episodes and was like

I haven't watched it since I was a child. So

honestly, we probably know about the same amount.

That's probably healthy Well, I guess that makes

me the sad person in this group since I've watched

almost every single episode of all the series

Well, I didn't want to be the one to say it.

Yeah, you jerk Notice how quiet Margaret's being

yes This is my version of tech. So BotCon was

this past weekend and IDW revealed that the Beast

Hunters comic will be in two issue story arcs.

So I love it. I think that's great. It's almost

like it's a weekly television show that you have

to keep coming back for. I think that's an amazing

way to approach a comic. Thanks. Well, it was,

you know, we did it for two reasons. One, it

allowed us to write more comics simultaneously,

which since Mike is writing a bunch of comics

and since I still write animation, has allowed

us to sort of stockpile a lot of issues so we

can keep writing it. But also we just really

wanted Beast Hunters, because it was tied in

the TV show, to be a comic that would be a really

good intro comic. To new readers or as good as

we can make it because I love our ID and I love

more than meets the eye but When I tell people

you're like, oh you got to read more than meets

the eye. It's like you you know, oh, okay Well,

you want to start, you know 20 issues ago and

And it's perfect because it's it's such a great

story. There's so much laid out in it and it's

so complex and wonderful but we really wanted

something where where the The sort of motto we

were going with is, all you have to know is that

there are robots that turn into things. Everything

else we will explain. Yes, and yeah, that's pretty

much one line. One Twitter message from Ender

basically made me go back and get the three volumes

from Where the Meets the Eye. He said something

about, I will never be able to see Shockwave

in the same way again. Alright, so also revealed

is that the comic will link up with the cartoon

around issue six or seven Can you reveal anything

without spoiling everything? The comic will link

up with the cartoon around issue six and seven.

Um Okay, okay, so this is really the challenge

that we had was that Hasbro both loved Rage of

the Dinobots and Hasbro loved Transformers Prime,

the TV show, and they wanted both in a comic.

And obviously, at least up to this point, there

are no Dinobots in Transformers Prime, the TV

show. And also, if you watch season three, there's

not really a lot of gaps where you're like, oh,

and they also did this. The Autobots pretty much

don't also do anything in season three. It is

a shot. from right out of the gate. And so we

decided, well, let's take the DinoBots and let's

say it's basically set at the same time as season

three, but it's set on Cybertron instead of on

Earth. And so we're really trying to build up

the DinoBots as a team and as characters so that

when they meet up with the prime characters who

we assume our readers already know and love,

they're not just gonna feel tacked on. It's really

gonna be two teams um colliding and sort of having

to um having equal weight so it's definitely

going to be a when it does um when the shows

do come together it's going to be a very sort

of brave new world for uh for our characters

yeah because the way i thought of it really quickly

was that I thought that because the show is ending

and we don't know what the next new iteration

will be, the best way to keep it continuing is

to have the Earthbound characters go into the

comic. That would make more sense to me because

of the fact that, as you just said, the Dinobot

stuff takes place on Cybertron. We've only seen

a portion of Cybertron in the show. That's a

huge friggin planet, you know, where they found

Shockwave lying half dead. you know could be

one section in the dino bots are over you know

in asia or something i don't know exactly well

if you not to spoil the first few issues but

the dino bots are you know three miles underground

so yes yes see that's that's the thing they're

not even on the planet surface so it makes sense

to bring the show characters into the comic once

sadly the show goes away all right now we're

going to hear from one of ender's kidlets yep

uh mike i was uh Watching chain of command earlier

today and my daughter was watching with me and

we discussed this coming interview and she would

like to ask you a few questions Hi, my name is

Leia. Hi Leia. I'm Margaret. Can I ask you some

questions? Sure. Sure. Okay How does me go fit

into? The Apex armor? I never found that out.

That was so confusing. Okay, so Miko, you know,

she jumps on the Apex armor and it sort of makes

itself around her, but you know, it sort of changes

how tall it is based on whoever is in it. So

remember when Starscream was in it and when he

was fighting Optimus and he was like as big as

Optimus? And so when Miko gets in it, she's just

a little shorter than Starscream. So it just

becomes whatever size. You know, the person that's

in it is. It just makes them bigger. What makes

Miko so courageous? I think Miko... I think Miko

is like every little kid out there and knows

that there is actually a lot more to be had out

of life than grown -ups think. Everything that

I regret about my life is something I didn't

do, not something I did do. And I think Miko,

like a lot of little kids, is ready to get out

there and go after the world and not think that

the world is gonna be a big scary place. Okay,

so here's the last question. Where did Arcee

learn her ninja skills? Well, R .C. learned her

ninja skills during the war because she was,

you know, there were a lot of Autobots fighting

and she was a soldier too and she fought a lot

of people and then... As the Autobots lost and

they got lost, she was Optimus' right hand for

a really long time. And so, you know, Optimus

is a really good fighter and so RC is a really

good fighter. Miko and RC are my favorite characters

in Transformers Prime. Thank you for making them

so kick ass. Thank you for liking them. They're

my favorite too. Thank you. Bye. I'm always so

much more nervous talking to kids than I am to

adults No, seriously every time I like try and

talk to a little kid and it's like oh hey little

kid You're playing with a Transformers toy. Do

you like Transformers? Yeah You know, I write

that show What? Hey, look, I can stand on my

head and it's like wow, you're not impressed

at all Or you'll be like, do you like Transformers

Prime? Nope. And they walk away. Well, I told

her I was interviewing a writer of the show.

And she's like, OK. And I was like, she wrote

the one where Miko got in the armor and kicked

Starscream's ass. She was like, oh, really? That

woke her up. Exactly. Kids are brutally honest,

man. Yeah, so I was lucky in that way that we

were interviewing somebody who wrote her favorite

episodes because. If you hadn't, I don't know,

if you wrote a... I don't know. I don't want

to cite the other episode, but that isn't as

great, but that could have gone sour. She's one

to express her appreciation and ask you, and

interview you like daddy, you know? No, that's

great. That's great, because, you know, I mean,

that's why we write the show, so there's a whole

other generation of kids who will like Transformers

as much as we do. Yep, exactly. See? I keep telling

you, Ender, Prime is this generation's G1. Yeah,

everything. Keep hearing that. I've heard that

before. It's true. I mean, I grew up on Beast

Wars. I actually never saw Optimus turn into

a truck until the Michael Bay films. I will say...

the uh... doing the prime resurrection thing

at the beginning of season three again does more

solidify that because i think it is some of what

makes g one g one is actually the horrible prime

death trauma it was what i say that's not this

generation g one it's it partially because i'm

not sure being this jerry generations g one is

a compliment sometimes because got a little really

solidified that like you know Five year olds

minds at the time that like the death grip that

will never be released was leaving the movie

theater balling their eyes out Because Hasbro

made a critical mistake with their franchise

You know you were the first person in the history

of my writing to say that my writing is not traumatic

enough Do you think we should be more traumatic?

Well, I'm pointing out that though it it worked

out in the end for them It did kill the franchise

for a while in the middle. It was only you remember

it Yeah, well, they you know once in therapy

in the 90s They could bring it whatever was you

know, they could bring it back when everybody

was remembering their their horrible doom, but

You don't want to be that traumatic. I mean My

suggestion is not that yours isn't dramatic enough.

Believe me, but um What's what was you're watching

bulkhead walk off? down that hallway all gimpy

was I Could I was like, oh my god. This is a

kids show You know seen it when I screened stronger

faster for my friends I was like, hey everyone

It's my first TV show episode and I screened

it for them and they were like, oh my god This

is a kids show And I was like they're like you

tortured someone and I was like I'm not the first

episode to do that in our series I just I'm not

falling on that sword Not my fault not my fault.

Well, it also the drug use I suppose was a little

thematic But I mean, you know, he realizes this

bad in the end like it's a very special episode

of Transformers Prime I have never seen Ratchet,

okay. We saw in G1 that Megatron and the Decepticons

got drunk on energon in one of those, is it season

two episodes? I think it's micro, yeah. And you

know, we see that, but I don't think I've ever

seen a Transformer like Ratchet on drugs. It

was so cool. I love that episode. I think it's

the first episode he, like we actually see his

alt mode in action. It is one of his first action

-packed episodes We were looking because I remember

I wrote it specifically because we wanted an

episode that featured each of the characters

and we were like Well, what's the episode that's

gonna feature ratchet? But you know, it's funny

I I know we can be accused of getting a little

dark, but I actually think that that's some one

of the things I'm kind of proudest of in the

show is that I would much prefer that if you're

going to have characters talk about being in

a war, that you teach kids that being in a war

is not necessarily a happy fun thing. Yeah. And

while there are things, you know, we obviously

want to shelter children from, I would much prefer

kids to know that, you know, people get hurt

in war. And when you hurt people, like the whole

point of hurt is You know Miko's so upset and

she goes off to get revenge and revenge doesn't

solve the problem and I think that's actually

a much more valuable lesson than sort of pretending

that they're not Really hurting anyone or that,

you know Actions don't have consequences Yeah,

it's very true You've introduced the transformers

the world of post -traumatic stress disorder

Of course only as much as we can I mean bulkhead

does recover like the next episode Like I think

he's like takes them like three or four episodes

to recover, but in cartoon times has forever

My favorite line from bulkhead is still when

they're arguing. I think it's Ryan Pax part two

I think it's it's one of them parts. It's it's

after optimus becomes his former self and RC

is like You're pretty good at stating the obvious,

Boggs. Anything else you'd like to tell us? Nothing

I can say in front of the children. Yeah. I love

that line. Although it's funny because actually

my favorite moment, well, one of my favorite

moments, was also from the episode, which doesn't

get a lot of press, but I really loved the moment

where Fowler's trying to convince the Decepticons

that everything's okay at the base, and he asks,

you know, the Han Solo line, the, how are you?

But because no one cares about Breakdown, it

actually works. Breakdown is so star for... That's

sort of the character I least developed is I've

always given Breakdown essentially this unrequited

yearning for emotional connection. Breakdown's

so happy that someone cares about him that he

actually answers. It's like, Breakdown, aw. Poor

Breakdown. Well, when you're partnered with Knockout,

you've got to imagine that you are not the center

of the show. Especially with Darren Norris voicing

Knockout. Oh man. Oh man. Knockout. It's so hard

for me now because recently just recently I don't

know why maybe it's because there's nothing ever

on in the afternoons I will flip to Nickelodeon

and I've been watching Fairly Oddparents and

I can just see Knockout's face on Cosmo's body

because they're both voiced by Darren and it's

like oh god Maybe you'll know this is there The

name knockout I always look at knockout and he's

colored just like dead end and he hangs out with

breakdown But he's knockout was there like a

legal reason they couldn't be he couldn't be

dead end or they just he was just always knocked

out or Gosh, you know, I don't actually remember

I know there was very important to us that he

was vain and that we really liked that about

the name Knockout because essentially we thought

of him if ratchet is an EMT that knockouts a

plastic surgeon Right. And so that was really,

we really enjoyed that. But I don't know if there

was something like why we specifically couldn't

name him Dead End or if we pursued the name Dead

End at all. I just know that we really liked

the name Knockout. So kind of transitioning really

quickly here, back to the comic. In the first

two issues, we've seen that after Rage of the

Dinobots, Grimlock's basically a lost leader.

He's just... Doom and gloom sitting on his throne

and honestly for me I what I loved about Rage

of the Dinobots and what I love about so far

in the ongoing is that Outside of certain parts

of rage where it does focus on Grimlock the rest

of the stuff has nothing to do with him Thank

you. Finally somebody is paying attention the

other Dinobots and it's not just me Grimlock

in the spotlight Yeah, well, I didn't want it

to become like Grimlock and friends, you know

I actually really liked the other Dinobots, and

especially as I was writing Rage, it occurred

to me that I would try and think of who the other

Dinobots were as you're writing them. And I'm

like, oh, Sludge is actually the only sort of

emotionally balanced one of the group. Sludge

really doesn't have a lot of issues. And then

I got to the end of Rage, and I was like, wait

a minute, Sludge was left for dead twice. Just

walk away from that, OK? Was really excited to

see sludge because I enjoyed the game a lot,

but unfortunately he was kind of a wall sconce

in it Yes, he was and jazz was a jerk But I was

joking my friends that if I ever do bring jazz

into the comics It will just be for like one

panel where jazz like get off, you know the spaceship

and be like, hey everybody I'm back and sludge

will just punch him across the face Just never

see jazz again I think a lot of us were like,

yes, they're actually calling back to finding

out what the hell happened to Sludge and how

he's still alive. Yay. Yeah, that's definitely

the thing. You know, it's one of the hard things

when you're writing when you're writing anything,

but when you're writing a miniseries in particular

is that, you know, the number one thing about

a miniseries is it has to be a good story on

its own. So Mike and I, you know, we're already

talking about all these other stories. But if

there's not a natural place to put that. You

know, then I'd rather leave it out than have

like a really awkward thing where they're climbing

up to the prison and Sludge is like, you know,

this reminds me of being left to die in the thing.

So it's funny because I actually get a lot of

fans about like in issue one and two, you know,

we don't really learn a lot about Airwave and

his backstory. And part of that was because the

fact that there was just no good place for Air

airwave to tell his backstory but it's not that

he doesn't have one um i thought i played but

no it played very well did he transform into

an earth jet on purpose his jet ended up being

a little more earth shaped than we he transformed

into a jet leave it alone Because I know a lot

of people have been oh, how is he how is he gonna

transform into an earth jet when he's never been

to earth? That we know of That's true. Yeah,

that's a fair critique. Oh, yeah, it's that kind

of thing happens I can't I feel like to some

degree. It's just up That's transformers hazard.

I don't know. It's like when uh Swerve was too

tall and more than meets the eye a few issues

back You're not a mini -bot anymore The airway

that is actually a really good example of the

kind of writing that I like to do because if

You know anything about airwave. You're like,

oh my god, it's airwave. What's a Decepticon

doing in the middle of the space? You know, but

if you don't know anything about airwave You're

fine, too. It just adds an extra layer if you

know something about airwave Yeah, so I really

want to be able to include more of that kind

of thing to sort of suggest a bigger world and

Yes, airwave was a Decepticon He did not become

an Autobot. He clearly by the end of issue two

I think everyone would agree that he did not

have a kind of change of heart and become a good

person You just sort of realized that a Decepticon

is not going to live as long with a bunch of

Autobot prisoners as a fellow Autobot is. Yeah.

Oh, but no, I'm just loving the direction. I

cannot wait. I've heard several podcasts and

I know this. What I love about IDW specifically

is that they offer three covers. three or four

covers for almost every book they ever put out,

specifically to Transformers. And I love the

idea, and I don't know if they're going to continue

it past issue. I think they told me on Twitter

it's either going to stick through issue three

or four. It might not go past that. But for those

of us who add the title Transformers Prime Beast

Hunters to our comic pull list at our comic shops,

IDW sends us, same price as the regular cover,

a subscription cover with animation art on it

from the show, and I absolutely love that. I

think that's great, that's cool. Yes, it is kind

of a lie, because RC has nothing to do with issue

2, but... I know, I feel so conflicted, but it's

such a cool RC image! It's such a cool RC image,

and it was such a cool Starscream image! And

I, you know, I know for a fact what the next

two are. I went on comiclist .com and I found

the the sub covers issue three spoilers for anyone

that doesn't want to know You know fast forward

a couple minutes issue three according to comiclist

.com is gonna be sound wave and issue four is

gonna be Megatron Oh, yeah. Oh, I didn't know

about issue four, but sound wave. Yeah, the sound

wave one looks totally bad a well Yeah, it does

it looks and again. It's for us. You know granted.

You know a mom and her kid or Ender and his son

that may actually just go into the shop and just

pick up the regular cover. That's fine There's

a purpose for a subscription cover. It's for

those of us who have a subscription. It's for

those It's something extra for us that that hold

on to the book and I don't mind it because I

I obviously know transformers prime beast hunters

to this point is About the Dinobots the insecticons.

However, them may be dead However, many of them

may be dead You know And for me, I think it's

cool. I think it's great. I'm actually going

to mail mine to Simile Montano and have her sign

it. I was excited, too, to see you talk about

the characters you've added in. I was really

excited to see Firestar again, who's nobody's

used since the 80s. And it was fun, too, because

as we were discussing before with the sort of

attitudes towards things that. It was nice to

see an IDW Transformers comic with a female Transformer

in it, if only to disprove Simon Furman's theory

that, like, suspenseful disbelief will come crashing

down and no one will read the comics anymore

if you have female Transformers. Well, you know,

they've always been female Transformers in the

Prime continuity, you know, right back to Solus

Prime. Right. So I have, I... I love the Fembots,

and I totally want to bring them back. I make

no qualms about that, and no one's stopped me

so far. Well, good on you. I find it, at this

point, a little offensive in the IDW continuity,

the idea of how they're treating Fembots, frankly.

Because the notion that removes them is Simon

Furman saying, well, there needs to be a reason.

for there to be female transformers, which makes

me think he's probably not married. But beyond

that, I mean, it's the same reason they have

fingers and eyes and, you know, they're anthropomorphized

us and dis -including half of us is extremely

crappy just on the surface of it. But the one

throwaway they have is they have Arcee. Who I

think it was Andy Schmidt who described is like,

yeah, she's like a Frankenstein monster. And

it's like, yeah, right. That's what women are.

All right. They're we're all normal and they're

Frankenstein monsters. It was just such a like

a whore. I think it's just such a horrible message

that they put out there, not to mention it turns

the Transformers into the Smurfs. I mean, now

I can think of as the what was it, the. The venture

time thing where it's like clearly they're an

insectoid race. Um But you know you make you

make some really good points I love continuity.

I am the total continuity nut. I can abs I I

Can absolutely see you know not wanting to violate

a show's continuity But at least for us because

we can because there is no continuity in the

Aligned continuity that says there aren't female

Transformers. I see no reason not to put them

on. I think it gives them, I think it costs us

almost nothing and it gives us a lot more. It

makes us accessible to, you know, the human readership

that we actually have. I think especially because,

you know, the great thing about writing Transformers

is that they really don't have gender in a lot

of the ways that we think of gender. And so it

really makes the female characters that are in

Transformers just a lot more appealing for readers

and writers as characters, because you can't

just be someone's girlfriend or someone's love

interest, because there are no girlfriends. And,

you know, there are love interests, but there's

no one has a mom, no one has a little sister,

like you have to build someone who is competent

on their own, instead of just sort of being the

girl. And that's that's what I really like about

that, especially too because we focus we're able

to have Female characters who don't focus on

their gender. For example, no one ever brings

up Miko's gender I think the only person that

brings up gender in even a tangential way is

a line Arachnid says about the Decepticons being

a boys club by But honestly, I think she's not

really referring to that that they don't like

her because she's Female they just don't like

her because she's a bounty hunter and she clearly

isn't you know following lockstep with Megatron,

right? So it's it's just really nice to have

Female characters that that they're they're just

accepted and that's you know, they're part of

the team like everyone else They don't have to

run around talking about how their female characters

all the time Well, I think it only creates more

accessibility, you know for the audience that

you know, I always say do Nobody gives a crap

about what giant robots from outer space would

be like What everyone wants to read about is

what we would be like if we were giant robots

from outer space. So the more like us they are,

the more interesting they are in some ways. The

interesting part of them being giant robots is

in the differences that would create in ourselves.

It's not so much like a realistic, like they

should be, you know, they're not androgynous,

for instance. You know what I mean? Like, yeah,

I know we don't refer to them as technically,

we probably should refer to them as it, you know,

it, they and. But that's not how it is. You read

more than meets the eye. It's a giant titanium

sausage festival in space. They're dudes. They're

all dudes. It's what it is. So they can't get

away with saying, like, what? They don't have

gender. I don't buy that. I think it's kind of

offensive. Frankly, it's a continuity or not.

Either they need to adjust the continuity, say

they were off panel, or they could cowboy up

and apologize for being such dicks and just start

having girls in the thing. Speaking of which,

are we gonna see any Chromia or Moon Racer or

Alita 1 or anything in the - are we gonna see

any more female Autobots? Oh my gosh, that would

seem like such a natural thing, wouldn't it?

Well, we've already got Firestar and because

we have Firestar, we now have to bring in Ironhide.

There's actually no plans for Ironhide, thank

you very much. Not right now. I try and avoid

characters that are actually in the other comic

lines just because there are so many wonderful

Transformers to play with But No, I will keep

adding female characters and until someone makes

me stop and I make no apologies for that It's

obviously still the Dinobots and when the prime

cast turns up, it's the prime cast They're the

the main characters, but you know You can't tell

because we didn't draw them with giant mechanical

boobs, but when Grimlock talks to the people

that confront him, half of those people are women.

Half? That's outrageous. Why would you make half

of them girls? That just doesn't make any sense.

Because it doesn't matter, and we don't bring

it up. You know, it's funny. Where are you getting

this number from? I know. I heard someone say

that... Technically the female population of

the aligned continuity would likely be 13 % Because

solus prime is one of the 13. So I think some

dorks just confuse the you know population ratio

of their their life to Cybertron's Yeah, but

we the people they know are girls. Yeah, it's

funny. I just I I will keep adding I don't see

any problem with it, and no one else, my editor,

doesn't see any problem with it, so we keep going.

It's actually, the funniest thing was is that

the only line we had in issue one of the miniseries

that referenced Sir Cat's gender, we cut out,

because we realized we just didn't need it, and

we didn't notice that we never referenced her

gender, and then people were like, oh, is that

a girl? Is that a guy? And we were like, ah,

crud. Like, we cut out the only line of dialogue

that actually makes Sirket a she in the first

issue. But it was kind of neat because it wasn't

a big deal. It was just like, you know, someone

walked up and referred to her as ma 'am, and

I was like, oh, we don't need that bubble. And

it just, you know, never occurred to me. That's

good. I mean, I think it's not the defining characteristic

of that character. You didn't need to know it

in the first issue. It just wasn't presented

as part of the... You know, it's just who she

was. Exactly, yeah. The important thing is about

Sir Keter that she's fanatical of the shockwave,

that she views the Dinobots as sort of the wayward

children and rayward siblings of the Forged,

and that she turns into a giant dragon. Like

those are the most relevant points of her character.

Yeah, the pronoun is not exactly the point. Not

at all. For me, personally, outside of Grimlock,

Snarl and Swoop are my two favorite Dinobots.

Now, we've already seen in the first two issues

a story with Snarl. Are we going to see more

in depth as the series goes on? Are we going

to have a Swoop -centric storyline or anything

like that? Oh, yeah. I don't think this is going

to spoil anything. You probably already get the

sense. But basically, when Mike and I started,

we wanted to start off sort of pairing off the

characters a little bit. Issue one and two are

Snarl and Sludge. And then issue three and four

is going to be a very Grimlock and Swoop heavy

story. And then issue five and six are sort of

all of them, but Slug really has the sort of

core emotional story. Like that's the one where

I really wanted to shine a spotlight on on Slug.

So I don't care what Hasbro says in the Transformers

Prime universe. Scrap is the new swear word.

His name is slag. Damn it No, I'm with you. It's

so cool. It's a metallurgical term, but you know

You can't sell toys that are swear word in a

bunch of countries. So I can't fault them for

it Yeah, bring blame the British damn Brits I

did an interview at the underbase and they were

like, why do you call him slag? And I was like,

that's your fault Those guys are all in England.

I think it'd be more sympathetic if Hasbro would

actually make a goddamn slag toy. Yeah. Like

have that problem, please. You know, and there

have been plenty of, I remember in the old G1

days, there are plenty of G1 toys that never

made it to the UK. So if you make a slag Sdcc

exclusive sell it just here in the states Yeah,

see but see it If they put out the Dinobots as

a wide release wouldn't you want? The Triceratops

to be there wouldn't you be sad if they couldn't

do that because his name was a swear word in

some countries If you could only get him as an

Sdcc exclusive I'm of the opinion and I know

this might sound really off the wall here, but

oh dear whatever happens in the u .s .a. is what

happens in the u .s .a. to hell with other countries

i'm sorry i don't care if it's on sale here in

the u .s. that's all that matters to me you know

i mean this is not a shared problem i'm backing

away from that statement that statement does

not represent my feelings nor the feelings of

hasbro or idw Can I get in on that disclaimer?

Yeah. We're all just going to back away slowly

from that. Seriously, it's like, you know, they're

a US -based company that, OK, sure, they market

for kids, they market for us collectors to a

lesser extent, and they market for all parts

of the world. But I mean, seriously. There and

there wasn't there two different sets of construct

icons back in the old days a green set in the

yellow set in the yellow set was only like four

like a Set was the g2 set. I thought right before

that. I don't know wasn't there at some point

a Overseas exclusive could like set of transformers

or something My point here is Hasbro could make

an SDCC exclusive set of the Dino bots For just

us and then make a less, you know a less expensive

mass -produced ones that his name is different,

dude It'll be okay. I'll call him slag with you

Then there are plenty of people and I can X that

out for you if you ever have me sign something

But no, I actually I actually like anything that

brings us to a water wider audience like global

audience and it's not like You know, I mean,

the Transformers land in Nevada, like, it's not

like there isn't enough American -centric things

in American media. And I love American media,

but I mean, like, look at G .I. Joe, even the

ninja's a white guy. Like, so I think, I think

there's, I think Transformers, as much as we

can, gives a very particular nod to the states.

Can you imagine that you know writing these things

and having it totally bent towards your gaze

like nobody else exists Who would do that oh

Yeah, it's maybe we'll do the red Sun of Transformers

and the arc can crash and China or something

and it'll all be Chinese based So we received

some incriminating pictures of you. Oh gosh,

which ones? They were you were leading some kind

of insurgent rally at BotCon. Would you care

to elaborate? Oh, yes. Oh, good. I thought it

was going to be the bullfight pictures. I've

heard of those, but I haven't seen them. And

never shall you. But no, I did. It's funny because

I had this one thing that I've been seeing a

lot of is the idea. I've been seeing a lot of

protests online that there should be more female

transformer toys. And I've been seeing a lot

of comments from other people saying well why

because there aren't a lot of women who like

Transformers you know and this is sort of an

argument that's been happening over the internet

and Boys Between people on both sides And I thought

you know one thing that I do hear a lot even

from women is that Transformers is a guy's brand

and girls don't like Transformers and girls don't

read Transformers so they feel like they can't

be included, like essentially that we're actively

excluding them. And so I thought that since we're

at BotCon, I kept looking around and being like,

you know, there's so many women here. There's

so many women here that, and the myth of Transformers

is that women don't like Transformers. And so

we sort of... got I told my husband I was like

wouldn't it be cool to get like get a picture

with all the female fans but you know of course

I don't want to do it it'll disrupt everyone's

day no one will want to do it you know and he's

like no you have to do it and so he marches up

with me to the the PA system and And I'm just

gonna say like, hey, I kind of, it'd be nice

to have like a group picture or something. But

by the end, it was sort of like a game of telephone.

And by the end, it was like, the announcement

comes on, like the staff of Transformers Prime

requests that all female fans report to the Hasbro

booth for an official Hasbro photograph. Which

Hasbro was very polite about because it was actually

just me. I thought it would be a cool idea. But

yeah, we had like 50 women show up and everyone,

they were so happy to be acknowledged and to

be there. And I think, you know, if you're a

female trans, if you're a trans sister and people

say that you don't exist, you know, and you want

there to be more product for you, go take a picture

of yourself holding the toys that you buy, you

know, go take a picture of yourself holding the

t -shirts that you own. Like the only way to

sort of convince people that the women are here

is to show them that we're here. And so We had

that great photo and we let BotCon know that

there are lots of ladies who love Transformers

and that we would like to be represented too.

And I think that everyone I heard afterwards

had a great time, thought it was a great idea.

So we march onward. Yes, that is so true. All

right. So would you like to inform the fans of

where they can interact with you online? Yes.

Yes. You can absolutely interact with me online.

Do just ask. You can ask me anything. I might

not answer, but I will answer everything I'm

allowed to and three things that I'm not allowed

to. But you can find me on Twitter at at Margaret

Scott M A I R G H R E A D two T's and Scott.

And you can find me on Tumblr at M Scott rights.

W -R -I -T -E -S writes. I also do a Q &A thread

on TFW2005, TF World 2005. You can reach out

to me. I'm out there. Any questions, comments,

complaints, no story ideas, please, the lawyers

will kill me. But if you always have you know

you you want to start that online petition to

bring back cosmos Let me know I've got a list

I have two lists though people I like in the

transformers that they like and people I don't

like and the Transformers they like so just be

aware Just you know orbiting Cybertron is the

Dinobots are Six feet underground. Well, they

just made a toy of him. I don't know. That's

true. Exactly one step closer. Take your picture

with that toy. That'll be your vote for Cosmos

coming back. We'd like to thank Mrs. God for

taking time to chat with us on this interview

inside the pull bag. We'll ask you to hold the

line and we'll be back after this. Want someone

your own size? What do you know? It does. because

any first -cycle cadet knows better than to detonate

a grenade in a confined space. Even if I intended

the confined space to be the belly of the beast?

Uh, sir? Your actions continue to be just one

step removed from getting us all scrapped. With

all due respect, sir, the Predacon's loose, and

Miko's out there alone. Permission to provide

cover, sir? out did the wreckers star screen

status report master we have secured the bone

and our Predacon is dealing with the Autobots

pet human as we speak on my command of course

I will not risk losing a person Brainless brute.

It's you know, it's funny. I have the same thing

We're like my husband and I love to play the

Pokemon games together And so we'll meet little

kids and they're just so happy that someone knows

anything about Pokemon and we're going on this

conversation It's like no, these are actual things.

Yeah, they're right Charmander is the best one

at that level. Um Awesome, but yeah, I know although

the answer is sound wave sound wave is the the

best transformer He's awesome the hardest to

write for Yeah, because you can't write anything

for him Yeah, Soundwave stares and points that

way Soundwave points at his face with the I wish

that they would just friggin give a vocoder to

Frank and just let him do it Seriously, I want

a little comic that just has like Bumblebee on

one side talking to Soundwave and I want Bumblebee

to make a little raspberry noise and Soundwave

to have a little you know emoticon sticking you

know the colon the peace to get back out at them

and then i have to teach you in the corner with

a little like you know people who've been a translation

that says you'll be hearing from our lawyers

did you uh... and as you hear the you can be

like enough said kind of thing where it's just

on the eversus and way for the whole issue and

did you hear the uh... the rc interview i did

no i haven't had a chance Damn it. I don't I've

been procreating I know I know I spoil it then

because I actually asked similarly Montano how

in the script like in the show Bumblebee will

do his beeps and then RC will say something back

to him and I'm like, how does that work? in a

voice session. Is it in English in the script

that he actually says something and then they

just insert the beeps? Does Frank Welker make

the beeps? How does that work? And she's like,

hmm, let me pull out a script and find out for

you. Yeah, no, for the most part, there are a

couple lines where we just write bleeps, but

actually for the most part, Bumblebee has dialogue

in the script and Frank does dialogue in a special

voice for Bumblebee. and then we record that

so the actors can work off it and it's also so

the uh... the guys who insert the static can

now you know what insert the bleeps can make

them sort of sound like what he's supposed to

be said so that's interesting because i kind

of just envisioned frank welker like doing a

little armpit farts at the microphone no he actually

does uh... he has the it's really cute too he

has a really cute bumblebee voice and he does

lines of dialogue just like every other character

frank welker is kind of godly So I just want

to clarify, because this will be in an outtake,

I just want to clarify, Bumblebee's noises on

the show are a sound effect and it's not Frank

doing it, correct? Yes. That's why he's not...

Yeah, no. What happens is that Frank voices...

He voices words. Right, but when they put the

final product together... That is not Frank's

voice. That is purely sound effect. Frank's just

being a good sport and doing that part. Well,

I mean, you know, he is compensated for that.

He's compensated for the... Oh, cool. I thought

maybe he was just like, I'll say that. But, you

know, just like the Insecticons, Bumblebee is

sound effects. So actually, most of the Insecticon

noises are most of Predaking's noises when he's...

I think all of Predaking's noises when he's in

dragon form are just sound effects. And that

like weird like high -pitched... Winny scream

the insect accounts have also sound effects Wow,

so which is funny because actually I almost never

see the final product Because I since I work

in production I I see the episodes so so damn

often um But the last version I see is that is

the final? It's called final picture, so it's

the final images, and it's the final Actor audio

that I make for the closed captioning script

and But I never hear it with music or sound effects.

So yeah, like I came home one night My husband

was like, what's that weird sound the insect

cons make and I'm like, what are you talking

about? So you like you make the closed captioning

script and you do the you do all this editing

and you find out all the little nitpicky things

they need to know to make sure it works and make

sure All the legal things and if there's a sign

in the background that says something you just

like keep the whole show's shit together Basically,

yeah. It's like, it's tracking a lot of little

things. It's like, oh, crud, we've forgotten

that episode, that happened, and so blah, blah,

blah, blah, you know? We're like, hey, we want

this line changed here. Who asked for that line

changed? Well, this person did. And you pull

out the note. Change this line. We can't legally

say that, so. Yeah. We can't legally say. The

needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Exactly. Bad Dark of the Moon joke. I can just

see ender scowling at me. That's my skull, dude.

It's just that way now. But yeah, if people ask

what a script editor is like, it's basically

essentially being the eyes and ears of the story

editor. When the script moves into production

so that the story editor can focus on just making

the best stories and making sure the stories

Appropriate and then as a script coordinator

I'm the one sort of making sure that all the

lines that we want to change got changed and

that there's nothing in there that we Thought

we could say that we can't say and you know Little

things like getting the designs really quickly

to them and it's like could sound wave fit through

this Oh, so like, you know that there's one episode

early on in the first, what do you call it? Season?

First season, like the first five parter. Oh

yeah. Before they break into that satellite thing.

Yeah. And we had written that Soundwave had gotten

into the building and then I was like, hey look

guys, I pulled the size comps and Soundwave can't

get through the door because of his arms. And

so I was like, okay, well we'll put in a skylight

and that's how I'll crash in. You know, so little

things like that. Do you always know how long

the show is gonna be like was it always gonna

be two and a half seasons? Or was there no factors

that? Most shows naturally cap out at you know,

there's an old saying 55 and out right so we

We I mean we we didn't know but that's Normally

when you are on an animation show you figure

that the best you're gonna get is 55 around there

Cool, so you just kind of operate on that premise.

Anyway, exactly Of course on the other hand too

is that you always there's you know There's always

the saying that you just you don't you don't

hold anything back Which is why we did unicorn

at like the end of season one is like the worst

thing you can do on a show is start holding Stuff

for season three because you know know if you'll

get a season three So you better throw it in

now if you got a good idea Gotcha that's that's

still the best outside of transformers the movie

obviously that's still the best incarnation of

unit like making it just it makes so much sense

to me making the core of our planet the evilest

thing in the galaxy it's pretty cool i love when

they pan out and you realize that it's just that

one big eye yeah that's an awesome shot yeah

i really like that he was like sort of not physical

you know like he made those avatars but it's

not like unicorn because it's always weird that

like primus is a planet but then like You'd see

old pictures of Unicron and he... First of all,

it's just weird for me to have like a giant dude

just floating through space. No offense to Galactus.

But like, then you're like, then you see him

and sometimes he's really small and you're just

like, why are you... Wait, size comp. So, of

course, that's the one thing people always laugh

at us about Prime is our... I admit our characters...

losing game quite a lot of mass as they transform.

Yeah. I prefer that. I prefer a little cheating

to make them look better. I thought, especially

in some of the movie, like I thought Starscream

looked ridiculous. You know, he looked like a

giant chicken. It was like, really, it's OK.

You can cheat. We won't notice. Just, you know.

Well, I think it's really cool because you get

those really awesome awe shots. I think one of

the great things is that one of the reasons why

I think people didn't like Miko is because we

made the robots. We did a lot of great cinematography

things where the robots are so big that it's

like, this is really freaking dangerous. There's

no question. That this is these things are really

dangerous that even the sort of lowliest via

con will destroy You know any human opponent?

I just think a lot of the fans that don't like

the humans in general Specifically the female

humans is that they just don't care for like

there was so much hate for sorry And early on,

there was so much hate for Miko and I just, I

approached it like it was a brand new show. I

approached it like, oh, okay, what's this character

going to be? And she's completely different from

any other human female we've had in the, in the,

in the cartoons here in the U S and I just, I

just enjoy it. And I think what makes it more

enjoyable is the fact that the three of them

are partnered up with three of the robots and

you have to create relationships that way. Yeah,

no, that's, we really, I really always like that

too. But you know, I mean, the great thing about

Prime is there's something for everyone. So if

you, if you don't like the humans, then watch

Thirst, you know, go watch, go hang out with

the Naughty Tons. Yeah, that ending. Holy crap.

I think Miko and, like, Sari are my favorite

humans in the Transformers fiction at this point.

Yeah, that's true. She's not any worse than Spike

was in G1. Yeah, Spike was much more annoying

and was rarely written very convincingly, you

know, so I feel, you know, and really what Miko

and Sorry really do best versus those other characters

are actually integrated well into the story.

Yeah. You know, they are there for a reason.

And, you know, Spike frequently was just, you

know, Background color or someone to yell when

something happened. I liked him better when he

got when he grew up Honestly, but yeah, well

part of that is it's just I mean remember we

do have a lot of like BS and P constraints Like

you can't put it. You can only put a kid in so

much danger. Frankly. I'm really surprised they

ever let me write hurt You know, yeah, I think

we really did want to try and integrate the kids

as much as possible and Jack and Raf and Miko

they all do They really do contribute and that's

always been been nice as opposed to having them

just sort of be pets, right? What besides besides

Miko identify with the audience now Besides Miko

who are your favorite characters because I need

to know for art purposes to add something to

the image you because the way we do our podcast

art for interviews is we The way we do it is

we take the person's whatever image that they

decide to send us for their personal self. And

then we put, specifically for voice actors, we

put the characters they voiced. But obviously,

since you're not a voice actor, what are the

characters that you like? Oh, man. I mean, I

love Soundwave, but I think my favorite character

that I ever... I could try a really long fight

scene with Knockout. I freaking love Knockout.

Like every other woman on the internet. I just...

He's so awesome. And Starscream's the best. Like...

I like Miko, RC, and the Decepticons. And Ratchet.

All the crotchety people. Do you not play well

with others? Margaret Scab likes you. Actually,

the person I really love in season 3 is Wheeljack,

cause I love that... Oh, that he basically tells

Ultra Magnus to shove it. Yeah, he pretty much

does. We Decepticons now face our darkest hour.

Well, there you go, folks. That was our interview

with Marigrid Scott. I'm probably saying it wrong.

I don't care. I'm not even going to try. uh...

you know it was very very awesome and actually

just for some behind -the -scenes stuff reviews

so interesting we couldn't stop interviewer yeah

no we were we recorded an additional thirteen

minutes after we actually finished the interview

with no it's it's it's absolutely it was such

a fun time we we've we focused a little more

on the show than i wanted to but at the same

time i did We asked her enough comic questions

without allowing or having her go into spoilers

because honestly I don't want to be spoiled on

beast hunters the comic I don't I mean yeah sure

I kind of you know I kind of Egged the question

on about you know what's gonna happen once the

show in the comic link up But I didn't want to

push it too far where she's like yeah, I just

can't say But I think it's great that the show

in the comic are gonna link up. I think that's

awesome I think the answer to our spoiler question

was like, it's Marigold. That's how you say it.

That's the answer to that question. What's gonna

happen when they link up? It's Marigold. That's

just a little, you know, up at the end there.

It's Scottish. That's the answer. Need to know

anything else? Oh, God. I just don't have the

power. So that has been the second This has been

the second comic writer interview we've done

here in the poll bag and it's just it's just

been awesome It's just been so awesome talking

to her and as we said in the interview first

ever quote -unquote paid Transformers female

writer and it's just it's just awesome. It's

and I think the difference is it's not so much

that whether it's males or females, it's so much

that her writing style is, is that to give the

characters she's writing about character development

and actually, like I said in the interview, the

greatest thing about what I've read with Rage

of the Dinobots and now the new ongoing is that

the Dinobots actually have character! They're

not just... Me want to go fishing. Yeah, why

lock not want to go fishing with dino box gnomes

and snarl have personalities Yeah, so that's

it for this interview in the poll bag I'm not

sure what's coming up next for the podcast. I

believe it's episode 23 and 24 I'm not sure what

we're gonna be doing but I'm hoping to be bringing

epic. We're gonna give away money probably not

okay then good night everybody and purata shut

up ender purata transform and roll out we'll

catch you next time