Content

TF:SNAP is about a lot of things. It's about leftist teenagers fighting through the internet the shield of anonymity. It's about wicked awesome magical space robots. It's about tropes, references, injokes, and rule of cool. An entire story can't be easily summed up by a simple list, but this page is meant to be something of a reflection on my own project, as well as a guide to you the audience to check for things you want to see and/or should avoid.

Tone & Themes

SNAP has been described as "a coming of age story about coming together and understanding the painful reality of the world while learning to seek others for support and fight for freedom". It has also been jokingly described as "Transformers: Ungunned" or "Transformers: Lobotomy", thanks to a few spoilery details. It's a story deliberately based on those classic magical girl anime tropes, with a good handful of cartoon and comic gimmicks thrown in. Lots of awesome superpower moments, lots of banter and comedy, lots of goodhearted ridiculousness. The world itself, however... I wasn't expecting it to turn this dark. Cybertron is very much a dystopia, and as I built more of it, I came to the dawning realization that there is a very specific reason for this, reaching all the way back to prehistory. The light story set within a very dark world is a scary yet fascinating dynamic, and it can only last so long before something breaks.

It's a coming-of-age story, an exploration of the way the world is and just how terrible things have gotten, and yet the lovely people and moments that exist in spite of that. Every aspect of the world serves to reinforce the final reveal, playing into the theme of an obfuscated truth surrounding people who don't know to look for it, but truth comes out in the end. Another theme is radical kindness, the down to earth choice to do, say, be what someone else needs, if only for a moment. And kindness is not niceness, a dichotomy made very clear. Same thing with found family and the recurring idea that it will always be people of varied lives and disparate backgrounds coming together that saves the world, not a singular idea or imposed order.

A lot of the character work in SNAP is based on my observations of real life children and teenagers figuring out their viewpoints, forming opinions, and going to war over the most mundane contradictions. It's about "social justice" for those who don't know what that means, about power and anonymity given to people who usually aren't even allowed their own autonomy yet, and the good and the bad they can accomplish with that. The way each character is affected by their background, their place in society, their mental and physical health, and all other manner of traits only complicates the way they interact, and also what their idea of justice is. There are conflicting needs, different but equally correct opinions, and ultimately the choice comes down to either infighting or identifying the real enemy. I don't try to make my heroes morally good or objectively correct, nor do I have my villains as inherently evil or justifiably punishable. Choice, and the reasons behind said choice, is the most important driving force of SNAP.

Content Warnings

I plan to have episode-specific content warnings for those who need them, but this list covers some consistent recurring details. This is not a grimdark story and much of it is lighthearted, but it doesn't shy away from dark things.

• Violence: robogore (ranging from minor to major/temporary to permanent), fatal injury, character death both temporary and permanent, constant child endangerment (deliberately and accidentally) of both the heroes meant to handle the danger and also bystanders, infection, corruption, and mutilation, murder and manslaughter, cannibalism and consumption, undeath in various flavors
• Dystopia: police brutality, homelessness, discrimination, bigotry, and institutionalized violence against "undesirables", eugenics, ableism, and population control, widespread punitive justice including state mandated mutilation and execution, medical malpractice
• Propaganda: media control, coercive cooption of religion, careers, psychiatry, and social norms to enforce state interests, historical revisionism, popularized lies or cover-ups or conspiracy theories, smear campaigns
• Mental health: systemic punitive psychiatry (often contrasted with healthy and helpful therapy), sublte/overt mind control and corruption, manipulation and gaslighting, intentional and accidental bigotry, bullying (both by/of children and by/of adults), mental illness of a wide variety along with both healthy and unhealthy reactions/coping mechanisms, some abusive family dynamics, alcoholism