Trannis discussion

[Shockprowl]

I was always struck by the little known character of Trannis when he was mentioned all so briefly in that text story in Marvel UK way back. The young War-Lord who took over from Megatron. He managed to conquer Cybertron! Ok, he didn't have Optimus Prime to contend with, but still, it's quite an achievement! He was Decepticon Leader for thousands of years. But almost nothing else is known about him.

I was intrigued to read on the Underbase about a story where it was Trannis who instructed Bludgeon in the martial arts. Fascinating!

So what do we all think of Trannis? What do you think he looked like? What was his alt mode like? Personality? Techspecs?

[Benn]

I suspect he was probably a bit of a bastard.

Lets face it, even Straxus didn't try and take him out, he waited for the Wreckers to come and despose of him.

[legios]

What little we know of him made me assume that he was ruthless and efficient. After all, he was the one who decided that taking Iacon - something that Megatron had failed to do - was not strategically important and just demolished the place wholesale. I kind of saw Trannis as having the mindset of a Mongol Khan - if someone resists then deal with them brutally, not to force them to surrender (because they won't be around to) but to encourage the next lot to surrender so you don't have to fight them.

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

In TMUK continuity, Trannis is resurrected and becomes Overlord.

(See the later chapters of Decepti-Kombat, particularly the chapters by Mark Stevenson.)

www.theunderbase.co.uk/fiction/deceptikombat_1.pdf
www.theunderbase.co.uk/fiction/deceptikombat_2.pdf
www.theunderbase.co.uk/fiction/deceptikombat_3.pdf
www.theunderbase.co.uk/fiction/kristallnacht.pdf

Martin

[Shockprowl]

Bloody 'ell! Keep reading these on and off. Would like to read them in one go, but small people and decorating keep getting in the way. Brilliant stuff, absolutely brilliant. I'm actualy quite speachless at the quality.

[The Doctor]

He is a bounder.

-Ralph

[Kingoji]

Confound him!

[Shockprowl]

What do you think Trannis actually looks like?

I see him as defo bad ass, large, but not too bulky, more stealthy, athletic even, especially if he's into his martial arts. Coloration? Possibly blues, purples and blacks, with a snip of red trim here and there. Some built in weaponry, and I can't get the image of a cape out of my head!

[The Doctor]

Like a civil servant.

-Ralph

[Shockprowl]

A civil servant with big fookoff guns 'n' sh1t. Yeah baby!

[jameso]

I'm flicking through the DK stories cringing in embarassment at how in half my contributions I shoved in unrelated characters and plots from my other stories, and adopting a strangely puzzled expression regarding the other half of my stories which I can barely recognise now.

[legios]

Apropros of nothing it struck me this afternoon how similar Trannis' name sounds when I say it to a celtic god of thunder - Taranis.

I doubt there is any particular connection (especially as my accent is an odd hybrid of all the places I have lived so I probably pronounce both slightly oddly....) but the apparently similarity in sound does intrique me.

As far as Trannis' general look I would be inclined to say that I seem him as looking somewhat generic and boxy - not imposing in the way Megatron was drawn, but the sort of 'bot you don't pay much attention to until his troops have you well and truly flanked and neutralised and he is offering you a once only chance to surrender.

Karl

[Rich]

Ha! James, I just read the opening to your (Ben's - I never liked that dude, he was an unfriendly so and so:) ) Scattershot piece, it reads like the scrolling bit at the opening of the Star Wars films: I wonder why that was?

It must be about the 10th anniversary of Decpikombat this year or next (it was around the time I first started posting to the egroup - I remember reading it in the library at uni), surely Hasbro have something planned for this momentous occasion? They brought out toys for Beast Wars and hardly anybody watched that.

[The Doctor]

That was 10 years ago? Jings, I feel old.

-Ralph

[jameso]

I think DK might have been 20002, possibly 2003.

Loads of G2 Combat Hero Megatron (Archforce) toys with a new DK logo on the card would be a great piece!

[Rich]

I've sifted through the layers of internet sediment and memory to uncover this rare moment of history:

This poll business and the TF Universe research I did for characters
like Topspin and Twin Twist in the Hubcap story has got me to thinking that
TF fiction has rather ignored the technological attributes and individual
fighting abilities/weapons of the big bad robots from Cybertron. Maybe it's
time we wrote a really bad story (plot & character-wise) in which some of the
great warriors really get to show off their full fighting capabilities. What
I propose is this:

DECEPTI-KOMBAT

A tournament, perhaps set on Cybertron around the time of PRISAC, where a
mysterious 'boss' organises a tournament for the title of Cybertron's
Greatest Warrior. The war is over and many legendary fighters are itching for
action. The rules are: No-one bigger than Optimus Prime. No Matrix-bearers. No
servants of Unicron. No-one with nanobot-enhanced superpowers. The email
group nominates 16 champions - hard guys like Sunstreaker (an ex-gladiator
from State Games) and Whirl, and we have 8 fights, which narrows it down to
8 warriors, then 4 quarter-finals, 2 semi-finals and a final. The winner gets
to face the mysterious boss.

At each stage the fights are written up in narrative form, using all the
modes, weapons and special abilities of each fighter to make it as varied and
interesting as possible.

And to make it more interesting, anyone who fails to get 2 votes in a fight
suffers a Fatality and doesn't make it out alive.

What do you reckon, would it be fun or am I suffering from negative inspiration
after the Hubcap effort?

Martin

Martin posted that on Wed Jan 17, 2001 10:25 am (give or take a second or two) in message number 8356 It grew out of a discussion and subsequent poll about whether Brawn and Grimlock would beat (I think) Cyclonus and Scourge in a fight. Why that was up for discussion I haven't got a clue.

From examining seeds and other Time Team type shenanigans, I've also established that the diet of the Early English 21st Century Transfan included a discussion of whether 'The Last Days of Optimus Prime' was going to invalidate Prisac and what Paul Cannon was going to do about it and 'Dreamwave - Good or Bad' (make of that what you will - I always forget how long ago DW was.

Ahh those were the days.

Well, I enjoyed my little trip down memory lane, and cumbersome and out-of-date as that group is, the fact it goes all the way back to 98 ('all the way back'? - how old am I?) does make me realise what as shame it was that all those early versions of the hub forum died in the past. But I guess gaps in history are pretty much a standard.

Oh, one final thing. I'm shocked and appalled that Martin would use the positive meaning of the word 'bad'. How very fanboyish;)

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Aug 9, 2010 21:16:21 GMT Rich said:

Oh, one final thing. I'm shocked and appalled that Martin would use the positive meaning of the word 'bad'. How very fanboyish;)

Guilty as charged as far as "big bad robots" is concerned. But when I suggested a "really bad story", I really was proposing a really bad (i.e. not good) story. I wanted to see clever action at the expense of plot, as I felt that doing both would be too ambitious an undertaking. But looking at the end result, that proposal seems to have been soundly rejected! (We managed to do both!)

Martin

[jameso]

Hot damn, I'm really surprised it was early 2001. The only reason I said 2002 or maybe 2003 is because I can remember Eugenesis coming out August 2001 (at Transforce) and I was sure it was a good while after that, but clearly not.