Interviews – Mairghread Scott

Hi, this is Margaret Scott, the first female

writer in Transformers comics, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Who in the pits

of Kaon is that? And then, he came right at me.

And I... Well, come on, Bulk. Come at me. I don't

want to hurt you, Rat. I said, come at me! 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 car? Wimp. How's

it humming? Did he just? Stronger, faster, studlier.

Dude. 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.

Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag. I am one of

your hosts, TFG and 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... Oh, boy. We have the first paid...

Female Transformers comics writer, Marigrid Scott

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

I'm doing good. Wise men 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. Oh, boy.

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 ask 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.

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, kidlit 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

MayorGred. Mer -Gred. See, you were wrong, Mike.

Mer -Gred, right? Mer -Gred? Am I saying it right?

Mer -Gred. Mer -Gred. Yeah, you got it. Okay.

It's an interesting name. Is there a particular,

like, history or story behind it, or your parents

just like the sound of it? It's the Scottish

version of Margaret, and my last name is Scott,

which is really boring, so I guess they felt

like they had to jazz up the first names then.

Yeah, I got one of those last names you can't

say. Exactly. You know, I still 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? 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

got a short last name. But, you know, your name

is I always figure especially middle names have

to be interesting because they're only good for,

you know, small talk on first dates. So, you

know, exactly, exactly. I think he just enjoyed

shouting wild across the office. Totally. Hey,

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

middle name is Titania. And. Yeah, so we go for

the interesting ones there. Oh, 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. 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 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.

I had two middle names, so we gave all the kids

two middle names. We were trying to maximize

that small talk. So that's what we were going

for there. Shakespeare and some Transformers

and some... Our kids are, yeah. 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 soliloquies like Starscream?

Yeah, that's true. That guy can just go like

he is. Experian characters like to talk to themselves.

If Iago churned into a jet, he'd be Starscream.

There we go. All right. 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'm 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 were

like, no, we don't really like that. And I was

like, well, what if I hook Gratchet on steroids?

And they were like, oh, good, I like that. 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, you future to accept

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, then I started writing on

the television side and I read a lot of, I like

to say, shows that solve problems with bloodless

violence. And then I moved into comics. Energon

is kind of like blood, but. Yeah, but, you know,

not if you're BSNP. So that's what counts. As

long as it makes a clang sound when they hit

each other, it's all fair. Clang? Did you clang?

Yeah, right. So what kind of shows did you watch

when you were a kid? Like what media were you

interested in? Did you watch Transformers? Did

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

really funny because I kind of, I grew up with.

batman the animated series and the uh the x -men

um 90s x -men and uh 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

to 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 watched the old episodes again

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

fight. That's a lot more deep when I was seven.

Wow. Oh, boy. What made you want to become a

writer? Was there something when you were younger?

Was it because you read books and were 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

writer -y 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. You know, I love

animation because I would just get so bored writing.

You know, 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 going to

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

I went to animation. So, wow. 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 would

not believe how many things I've shown up to

where my little placard says Mr. Scott. Wow.

But no, 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 fangirl

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. It's like that episode of the

Big Bang Theory when they finally take Penny

to the comic book store and 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 it was basically you had to sort of...

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 wonder. Part of that is just as a writer, it

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

just a typed name on an email. It's interesting.

In reverse, they haven't asked you to do anything

just because you're the girl, as you say. They

don't want a female perspective. Do you look

at the status quo sometimes? 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 a 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... 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.

No, no, the writer's assistant. That's my title

on Prime. There are 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.

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

we need three transformers that look like sharks

or that look like jets or who would be a transformer

who is super into math or something like that.

It's like, okay, I'll go do that research. 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

stories? And you pitch out your ideas until one

hits. See, I'm interested in your role there

as the writer's assistant. You said that's your

title, correct? Yes. Yeah, that is my. So it

sounds to me like 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'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, as a

freelance writer, they give you, you know, however

many, however much material they have. You have

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. The script,

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 going

to 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. It 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 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.

You know, 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 that was 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 ignoric 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, Miko, 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 Miko

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 Decepticons, like she wants

to be Sarah Connor. And when does that comic

come out? I know, exactly. Someday, issue 127,

TFB centers. I'd say issue 11 or 12. At this

rate. Well, that'll be a question later, but

go ahead. Exactly. But, you know, she was a character

that I knew she was going to be an extraordinary

woman when she was an adult, but she's 14 now.

And so I was like, well, I want to really see

her sort of become Because on the other hand,

I really liked Miko 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 a 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 it,

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 um i 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

uh 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 going to be a g1 exosuit

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.

They were so mad at me. 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, all right, I'm going to give this

one last shot. You will like Nico. 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, X -O

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's my opinion, and I'm going to

stick to it. But it's like, every time that you

all as the writers or the animators or whoever

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's 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 Bantor 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 always hard to lighten the tone

of a century, essentially a million years long

civil war that annihilated a planet. Yeah, and

that's, again, Tomiko's testament in the very

first episode of the show. Dude, what are you

waiting for? Go with. Scrap. Exactly. And I really

see that as the appropriate response. If you

see a car. I'm going to get in trouble from,

like, the S &P. 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 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. This is true, yeah. He

probably would have survived that first afternoon,

as opposed to... People would say, you know,

I think she's crazy. They're like, no, she has

a serious mental condition, okay? This is like

a death wish in the first couple of episodes.

It was just like... Well, you know, different

strokes. Yeah. So let's see where we go. Again,

you know, she's the big, 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. So. 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, you know, 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. She did stuff. Pink Power

Ranger just sort of flew around, I don't know,

being pink, and that was very upsetting to me,

that 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 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,

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? Wolverine's

not a tool. Wolverine's just an emo old man stalker.

That's what he is. Magneto's a tool. That kid

was probably me. 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. 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.

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 when 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. I've

seen like two episodes of Power Rangers, so you

kind of lose me there. Yeah, Ender's an 80s kid.

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. I was like,

I don't know about that. I mean, 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, exactly. Isn't

my version of tact? This is my version of tech.

So, VodCon was this past weekend, and IDW revealed

that the Beast Hunters comic will be in two -issue

story arcs. So, I love that. 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 um 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. Cause I love RID and I love more

than meets the eye. But when I tell people, you

know, 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. Cause it's, 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 Meat's the Eye. He said something about,

I will never be able to see Shockwave in the

same way again. I had to go back and I had to

get all the volumes. All right. 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.

Okay. Okay. So this was 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

um 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 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 the dino bots and

let's say it 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 dino bots 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

um they're not just going to feel tacked on it's

really going to 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 and 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. Yeah. 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. Hello. Hi. Hi, my name's Leah. Hi,

Leah. I'm Marigrid. Can I ask you some questions?

Sure, sure. Okay. How does Miko 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 going to be a big scary place. Okay,

so here's the last question. Where did Arcee

learn her ninja skills? well rc learned her ninja

skills during the war because she was you know

that 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 Arcee is a really good fighter.

Miko and Arcee 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. Bye. I'm always

so much more nervous talking to kids than I am

to adults. I'm like, no, seriously. Every time

I 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, okay. 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. I was lucky in that way that we were interviewing

somebody who wrote her favorite episodes. You

know, if you hadn't, I don't know, if you'd wrote

a – I don't know. I don't want to cite any other

episode 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, transform us as much as we do. Yep,

exactly. See, I keep telling you, Ender, Prime

is this generation's G1. Yeah, keep hearing that.

I've heard that before. No, 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... doing the Prime Resurrection

thing at the beginning of Season 3 again does

more solidify that because I think it is, some

of what makes G1 G1 is actually the horrible

Prime death trauma. When I say that's not this

generation's G1, it's partially because I'm not

sure being this generation's G1 is a compliment

sometimes because you've got to remember we really

solidified that in all these... five -year -old's

minds at the time that like the death grip that

will never be released was leaving the movie

theater bawling 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 dramatic?

No, no. Well, I'm pointing out that though it

worked out in the end for them, it did kill the

franchise for a while in the middle. But you

remember it. Yeah. Well, in therapy in the 90s,

they could bring it back when everybody was remembering

their horrible doom. But you don't want it to

be that dramatic. My suggestion is not that yours

isn't dramatic enough, believe me. Watching Bulkhead

walk off down that hallway all gimpy was... I

was like, oh my god, this is a kid's show? You

should have 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, is

this a kid's 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, and also the drug use, I

suppose, was a little thematic. That's true.

But I mean, you know, he realizes it's 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 the, 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. And I think

it's the first episode we actually see his alt

mode in action. It is one of his first action

-packed episodes. 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 going to feature Ratchet?

But, you know, it's funny. I know we can be accused

of getting a little dark, but I actually think

that that's 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, that's very true. Very, very

true. You've introduced the Transformers to the

world of post -traumatic stress disorder. Exactly.

Exactly. And, of course, only as much as we can.

I mean, Bulkhead does recover, like, the next

episode. Like, I think he takes, like, three

or four episodes to recover. But in cartoon times,

that's forever. My favorite line from Bulkhead

is still when they're arguing. I think it's Orion

Pax Part 2. I think it's, I don't know, it's

one of them parts. It's after Optimus becomes

his former self. And Arcee is like, um... You're

pretty good at stating the obvious, Bull. Is

there 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 that 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. Like Breakdown is so star for,

that's sort of the character I at 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 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. 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 a legal reason he couldn't be Dead

End, or he was always Knockout? Gosh, you know,

I don't actually remember. I know that it was

very important to us that he was Vane, and that

we really liked that about the name Knockout.

Because essentially we thought of him, if Ratchet

is an EMT, that Knockout's 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, 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 to 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, like, twice. Like, just walk away from

that, okay? I 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 with my

friends that if I ever do bring Jazz into the

comics, it will just be for like one panel where

Jazz will get off 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 it's

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. I thought it played. 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 going

to 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. Yeah. That kind of thing

happens, I feel like, to some degree. It's just

a... That's Transformers hazard. I don't know.

It's like when... Swerve was too tall and more

than meets the eye a few issues back. You're

not a minibot anymore. The Airwave deck 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? 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. He 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, I think, 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

two. 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 know

for a fact what the next two are. I went on comiclist

.com and I found the subcovers. Issue 3. Spoilers

for anyone that doesn't want to know. You know,

fast forward a couple minutes. Issue 3, according

to comiclist .com, is going to be Soundwave,

and Issue 4 is going to be Megatron. Oh, yeah.

Oh, I didn't know about Issue 4, but Soundwave.

Yeah, the Soundwave one looks totally bad, eh?

Yeah, it does. It looks... And again, it's for

us, you know, granted, you know, a mom and her

kid are... 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 um however

many of them may be dead uh 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're talking about the characters you've

added in. I was really excited to see Firestar

again, who's nobody's used since the 80s. Yeah.

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,

suspension of 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 arcy who I think

it was Andy Schmidt who described as like, yeah,

she's like a Frankenstein monster. And it's like,

yeah, right. That's what women are, all right?

We're all normal, and they're Frankenstein monsters.

It was just such a horrible message that they

put out there. Not to mention, it turns the Transformers

into the Smurfs. Now I can think of as the, what

was it? The Venture Time thing where it's like,

clearly they're an insectoid race. But, you know,

you make some really good points. I love continuity.

I am a total continuity nut. 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 in. 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

um 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 you

have to build someone who is competent on their

own instead of just sort of being the the girl

And that's what I really like about that. Especially,

too, because 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. 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 for the

audience that you know i always say you know

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? Yeah, no, 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. When you read Morgan Meets the Eye,

it's a giant titanium sausage festival in space.

They're dudes. They're all dudes. It's what it

is. 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 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 going to see any Chromia or Moonracer

or Alita 1 or anything? Are we going to 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. Right. But, no, I

will keep adding female characters until someone

makes me stop. And I make no apologies for that.

It's obviously still the Dinobots, and when the

Primecast joins up, it's the Primecast. They're

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. I think some dorks

just confuse the population ratio of their life

to Cybertron's. Yeah, but we... The people they

know are girls. Yeah, it's funny. 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 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

Sir Cat 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 things about Sir

Ketter that she's fanatical, the shockwave that

she views the Dinobots as sort of the wayward

children and a wayward siblings of the forged

and that she turns into a giant dragon. Like

those are the, 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 mythological term, but you know,

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

bunch of countries. So, I can't fault him for

it. Blame the British. That's right. Damn Brits.

I did an interview with 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 I'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 were plenty of G1 toys that never

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

exclusives, sell it just here in the States.

Yeah, but see, 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 USA is

what happens in the USA 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?

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

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

a U .S.-based company that, okay, 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. Ender,

wasn't there two different sets of Constructicons

back in the old days? A green set and a yellow

set, and the yellow set was only like a four...

The yellow set was the G2 set, I thought. Right,

but... You mean before then? I don't know. Wasn't

there at some point an overseas exclusive set

of Transformers? It might have been the Diaclone

ones or something, I'm not sure. I'm not that

versed in that. My point here is Hasbro could

make an SDCC exclusive set of the Dinobots. 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 and there are plenty of people and i

can x that out for you if you ever have me sign

something so i'll just go through change it a

pen change it for you but no i actually i actually

like anything that brings us to a water wider

audience like global audience and it's not like

The Transformers land in Nevada. It's not like

there isn't enough American -centric things in

American media. I love American media, but look

at G .I. Joe. Even the ninja's a white guy. 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? Yeah,

it's... Maybe we'll do the red sun of Transformers

and the Ark can crash in China or something and

it'll all be Chinese based. So we received some

incriminating pictures of you. Oh gosh, which

ones? 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.

And this is sort of an argument that's been happening

over the Internet. Between 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. I told my husband, I was like, wouldn't it

be cool to 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 PA system. And I'm just going to 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. And 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, that women are

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

We had that great photo and we let, you know,

BotCon know that there are lots of ladies who

love Transformers and that we would, you know,

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. 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 Ts in Scott. And you can find me on Tumblr

at mscottwrites. W -R -I -T -E -S, rights. And

I also do a Q &A thread on TFW 2005, TF World

2005. So 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, if 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 and the Transformers that they

like and people I don't like and the Transformers

they like. So just be aware. That's diabolical.

Wow. If you think about it, you could probably

have Cosmos just orbiting Cybertron as 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 Ms. 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? outdid

the wreckers. Starscream, 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 precious... Brainless brute. It's funny. I

have the same thing. My husband and I love to

play the Pokemon games together. 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. Awesome. Although the

answer is Soundwave. Soundwave is the best Transformer.

Soundwave is awesome. The hardest to write for.

Because you can't write anything for him. 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 Bumblebee on one side talking to

Soundwave and I want Bumblebee to make a little

raspberry noise and I want Soundwave to have

a little emoticon sticking the... colon and the

P sticking back out at him. And then like R2

-D2 in the corner with a little like, you know,

boop, boop, boop, and a translation that says,

you'll be hearing from our lawyers. Did you,

Ender, did you hear the... We could do like a

Nuff Said kind of thing where it's just Bumblebee

versus Soundwave for the whole issue. Yeah. Ender,

did you hear the RC interview I did? No, I haven't

had a chance. Well... Damn it. I've been procreating.

I know, I know. I'm going to spoil it then because

I actually asked Simile 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. Oh, man. 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

guys who insert the static can know, you know,

what insert the bleeps can make them sort of

sound like what he's supposed to be said. That's

interesting because I kind of just envisioned

Frank Welker like doing little armpit farts at

the microphone. No, he actually does. 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 he is he is compensated for

that he's compensated for the oh cool but i thought

maybe he was just like i'll say that but um you

know just like the insecticons bumblebee is is

sound effects so actually most of the insecticon

noises are most of uh predator king's noises

when he's i think all of predator king's noises

when he's in um dragon form are are just sound

effects and and that like weird like high pitch

Winnie Scream the Insecticons have also sound

effects. Wow. Which is funny because actually

I almost never see the final product because

since I work in production I see the episodes

so damn often. But the last version I see 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 Um,

but I never hear it with music or sound effects.

So yeah, like I came home one night and my husband

was like, what's that weird sound the insect

counts 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. Yeah. And all the legal things. And if

there's a sign in the background that says something,

you just like keep the whole show 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

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 yes yeah yeah

we can't legally say um The needs of the many

outweigh the needs of the few. Exactly. So, you

know. Bad Dark of the Moon joke. Oh, yeah. 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 coordinator 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 story's 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

Soundwave fit through this? So like, you know,

that there's one episode early on. in the first

whatchamacallit season first season like the

first five parter where they break into that

satellite thing and like 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 like a skylight and that's how I'll crash

in you know so little things like that Did you

always know how long the show was going to be?

Like, was it always going to be two and a half

seasons or was there, you know, 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 going to 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 Unicron at 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 don't

know if you'll get a season three. So you better

throw it in now if you got a good idea. Gotcha.

That's still the best, outside of Transformers

the movie, obviously, that's still the best incarnation

of Unicron. It makes so much sense to me, making

the core of our planet the evilest thing in the

galaxy. It's so cool. 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 sort of not physical.

He made those avatars, but it's not like Unicron.

Because it's always weird that Primus is a planet,

but then you'd see old pictures of Unicron and,

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

late size comp? Um, so of course that's the one

thing people always laugh at us about prime is

our, we, I admit our characters, um, losing gain

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 movies, I thought Starscream looked

ridiculous. You know, he looked like a giant

chicken. It was like, really, it's okay. You

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

there's no question. that these things are really

dangerous, that even the sort of lowliest Viet

Cong will destroy any human opponent. She's not

dumb. She has a death wish. That's not true.

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

the humans in general, specifically the female

humans, that they just don't care. There was

so much hate for Sari. and early on there was

so much hate for Miko, and 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 cartoons here in

the U .S., and 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 liked that, too. But, you know, I mean,

the great thing about Prime is there's something

for everyone. So 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. Spike was much more

annoying and rarely written very convincingly.

And really, what Miko and Sorry really do best

versus those other characters, they're actually

integrated well into the story. They are there

for a reason. Spike frequently was just... background

color or you know someone to you know yell when

something happened i liked him better when he

got when he grew up honestly but yeah well part

of that is just i mean remember we do have a

lot of like bs and p constraints like you can't

put a you can only put a kid in so much danger

frankly i'm really surprised they ever let me

write hurt um but 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 um pets right what besides besides

miko identify with the audience now yes 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 um the way we do it

is we take the person's like whatever image that

they, that they decide to send us for their,

their personal self. And then we put like specifically

for voice actors, we put like the characters

they voiced, but obviously since you're not a

voice actor, what are your, the characters that

you like? Oh man. I mean, I love sound wave,

but I think my favorite character that I ever,

I had heard 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, Arcee,

and the Decepticons. And Ratchet. Okay. All the

crotchety people. Alright. Do you not play well

with others? Margaret Scott likes you. Actually,

the person I really love in Season 3 is Wheeljack,

because I love that... Oh, that he basically

tells Ultra Magnus to shove it. Like... Yeah.

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. No, it was very, very awesome.

And actually, just for some behind -the -scenes

stuff. It was so interesting, we couldn't stop

interviewing. Yeah, no. We recorded an additional

13 minutes after we actually finished the interview.

No, it's absolutely... It was such a fun time.

We focused a little more on the show than I wanted

to, but at the same time, I didn't... 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 egged the question on about what's going to

happen once the show and 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 and the comic are going to

link up. I think that's awesome. I think the

answer to our spoiler questions was like, it's

Mergrade. That's how you say it. That's the answer

to that question. What's going to happen when

they link up? It's Mergrade. That's just a little,

you know, up at the end there. Scottish. That's

it. Need to know anything else? Oh, God. I just

don't have the power. So that has been the second...

I knew that one was coming. Oh, yeah. Good old

Scotty. This has been the second comic writer

interview we've done here in the pull bag, and

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 awesome. 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 character

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. Why Grimlock not want

to go fishing with Dinobots? Sludge and Snarl

have personalities? Who knew? I thought they

were background color. 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

going to be doing, but I'm hoping to be bringing...

We're going to give away money. Probably not.

Okay, then. Good night, everybody. And piranha.

Shut up, ender piranha. Transform and roll out.

We'll catch you next time.