TFP Shockwave Has Emotions

Discussing the emotions we see Shockwave express in Transformers Prime and raising the question of whether he is becoming less cruel over time.

Music
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Track: Frame — KV [Audio Library Release]
Music provided by Audio Library Plus
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Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
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"Art of Silence - by Uniq" is under a Creative Commons license (Creative Commons – International Recognition 4.0 – CC BY 4.0)
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A Journey Through The Universe - Lesion X
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
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[UrdnotRed]

Shockwave is an introvert. "I hate all of you and would rather do my own thing, but I like having at least someone around to watch me do it... As long as you're quiet and don't get in the way, that is."

[kiranmason]

Shockwave experimenting in the name of science: “some of you may die, but it is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

[Arkhamman]

Bringing back Shockwave for season 3 was a “logical” decision.

[strm]

Shockwave is one of the most underrated characters in the Aligned Continuity.

[friccle_]

“I am tempted to force you to share my *perception* of things”

I think he wasnt going to kill Scream, i think he was gonna stab one of his eyes out

You know.

Share his perception, his

*depth* perception

[isaandreso]

*"You didn't think I'd build something so powerful such as you... and not have a way to control it? Now, sit there as a good pet, while I finish my work."*

-Shockwave to Grimlock, in Fall of Cybertron.

[anniebannanielosttheirnanny]

When Shockwave interacted with Ratchet "nicely", I always thought it was because it was logical. If you don't treat your partner with kindness and respect, how are you supposed to get work done? You don't, there'll be tension and conflict, so gotta play nice xD

But I like that view that he was almost like an excited child wanting to try their new thing, it makes the whole Ratchet and Shockwave moment seem sweet. <3

[AGuyNamedGray]

Wow, Shockwave is a deeper character than I often give him credit for...

[shatterIguess]

You forgot one facet of his personality, his vengefulness.

A good example of this would be when Predaking was lured and trapped through a space bridge. Shockwave witnessed, with his own optic, all his hard work, months maybe even years of dedicated research, care and effort, seemingly go down to the drain. When Starscream made those snide comments to him afterwards, he doesn't ignore it, he doesn't even seem to acknowledge them, he just walks off.
What Starscream would assume as him going to sulk, he actually goes to join the battle in the defense of Dark Mount, and if you remember he put in a lot more energy than any emotionless robot would ever have to. His leaps and bounds forces the very earth beneath him to shudder, he drives foward, firing aggressively. And when he finally gets over to the, at that moment, defeated Wheeljack and Bulkhead, you can hear the edge in his voice as he informs them of their illogical decision to even come there.
An emotionless being, especially a sentient robot, wouldn't have even moved from that spot as he watched on the warship. He would have just stared blankly, not even showing a physical reaction, but guess who didn't do that.

Shockwave.

[kinglycrimson]

Shockwave on paper: logic logic lol
Shockwave in actuality: a sad person who hates most of his race

[calebporter]

Honestly, I didn't think about him like this. I just saw him as "ooo sinister scientist that says 'logical' every other sentence"

[staticpez]

Shockwave has a LOT of character in Covenant of Primus. He's fond of his creations and views himself as their father, and felt lonely and betrayed when the Dinobots rebelled against him. He likes Megatron's attention, and rewards his loyal followers with accommodations. He gets very excited about dinosaurs and his experiments, and seems to genuinely believe that what he does isn't cruelty, but kindness. He's squeamish at being insulted, and shuts off his auditory centers so he can ignore it and concentrate. He even mumbles to himself happily while he is working. It's hard to believe that it's the same continuity as TFP.

Though Shockwave himself might say otherwise, he is far from emotionless, he just lacks empathy and the SELF PERCEPTION of his own emotions. Another thing to note is in TFP, Shockwave makes a lot less sound when hurt compared to other characters. I have a headcanon that he has an extremely high pain tolerance, and therefore does not understand other bots' pain, thinking they're just being dramatic.

[carloseduardocastelandaluz]

"every sentient being possesses the capacity for change" - optimus prime

[eeveeofalltrades]

Ironically, the big red eye that takes up like 60% of his face makes him look nicer and more loveable

[spandanhalder]

Shockwave is an introvert who's unable to vent out his feelings😞

[treyrex]

This is why Shockwave is one of my favorite Transformers characters ever!

[mirandolux]

Nice for someone to finally give shockwave the attention he deserves instead of just calling him completely emotionless and empty and move on to other characters. I really liked your observation of his character development and I can’t wait to see more of your videos!

[DeinotronTheTerrible]

Starscream: All by myself...
Shockwave: Let me join...

[brentc]

Shockwave isn't cruel, he's cold, and indifferent, there's a huge difference.

[MissBabyForte]

I think Shockwave was always interested in the concept and theory of life in general. Because in the past, he was the scientist/surgeon that created the combiners (of a based form of it) in the gladitor aerna, "created" the dinobots and then the predacons. Hell, even Megatron laughed and said "you messing with life again eh Shockwave (or something along those lines when Shockwave introduced the predacon/Predaking to Megatron) which means that this was his MO with the decepticons and Megatron is ok/used to this manner from Shockwave.

Shockwave has always "cares" for cybertron because he deciper of the Quintessons language and share this information with cybertronians than make a deal with the Quintessons for them to give Shockwave test subjects/riches/whatever.

As for not caring for failed creations because to him, they are failures and have no values because to him, he failed in creating something useful/great. If the subjects can't provide anything of use to him, whatever it is information/usefulness of the subjects surviving/adapting will be destroyed/discarded. This is why Shockwave is proud of the predacons, they can and will survive even on a recently revived cybertron.

As Shockwave being more "warm" to Starscream, Shockwave has been alone on a dead cybertron for who knows how long with NO ONE else around. This can affect even the strongest amd emotionless people mentally when they realize they can be truly be alone. Shockwave wants to be alone but even he knows that complete isolation from everyone on a dead cybertron is affecting him in some ways or other.

One more note then I will disappear, in one of the last episodes of Season 3, Shockwave ask Megatron of why was Megatron choose to cyberform Earth instead of Cybertron. Shockwave demeanor is very odd and out of character for him in scene since he refer to Megatron as "Master" instead of My liege/My Lord. Showing that Shockwave wanted an answer but did not want a possible backlash from Megatron. I remember this from a tumblr post years ago about this and it stuck with me about this scene. Shockwave wanted to revive Cybertron because he cares for cybertron because it is their home and was somewhat sad at Megatron's choice.

*swan-dive into the dumpster*