Title: Fallout
Author: Nan00k
Rating: T
Genre: Drama/Friendship
Fandom: Transformers (2007 film/G1)
Words: ca. 700,000 words alltogether
Published: 2011 ... 2016
Status: Complete
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/11665


I'll preface this to say that I grew up on the Transformers cartoon. I was an avid G1 fan and one of those frothing at the mouth at TRUKNOTMUNKEE when Beast Wars came out. I hated the Bay films, mostly because it took over half the run time of the first movie to even see a Transformer... transform. Not to say that I'm a purist, since outside of the first cartoon/movie I didn't really go into the fandom all that much, but just putting this out there. Now, THAT SAID...


===(actual review starts here)===

Fallout is effectively split into 3 parts, a slice-of-life word prompt fic that builds up the initial setting, a straight drama story that effectively concludes the series, and then a group of random drabbles the author put in to fill out various parts of their little 'verse.

This is an alternate universe that branches off from the first Bay film, Mission City went horribly wrong and a lot of the humans and Transformers (on both sides) died. Through a series of events which are explained in the first chapter: Jazz is the last of the original Autobots. Prime was killed, but he managed to also kill Megatron but not before both sides were able to call for reinforcements. Megatron was revived as Galvatron, then things went to shit.

The main antagonists in Fallout are the Drones, quasi Matrix-like flying robo squids that Galvatron summoned that WentHorriblyWrong, since they indiscriminantly attacked every life form on earth, organic or otherwise. This basically sets the stage for the fic, where Jazz basically meets up with survivors from both sides of the faction line and various humans who have never known anything but the 'Fallout' of their war.

There are mix of OCs (the humans) and canon characters (the mechs). Though ostensibly a Movieverse fic, the only character from the film itself is Jazz, who obviously survived the climax of the film here, and for the most part the Transformers have their G1 or fanon personalities. The first story, Fallout—as a prompt fic—has the main focus on character interaction between the cast. The first few chapters are the build up to the setting, with the finale split between 3 chapters set a 1/3, 2/3, and final chapter, and everything else in between is character building.

Fallout: Apocalypse is the direct sequel to the first story, picking off immediately and jumping into a more linear drama story. Despite this, the plot still moves somewhat slowly as the Fallout characters now interact with their new situation and the new, B-cast they've run into.

Now then,

The Good:
Characterisation. That's what was promised and in my opinion it delivered. The characters run the whole gamut from rational to crazy... and Wildrider in particular (for some reason) adopted a slavic persona, which means he just became crazy awesome. Not all of the humans are paragons of sanity either, as growing up in a post-apocalyptic world with little human interaction has... given some of them interesting quirks.

And.. not gonna lie, but a lot of those quirks have given me new headcanons for particular characters, even if I've never even seen them in fics outside of this one.

But all in all as a group or in small doses, Fallout is pretty much a story of a very odd group trying to live their lives with each other.

The Meh:
The plot is a bit thin, although one could argue the story doesn't really need it. Fallout is fine with it's excuse plot, in my opinion. The world went to shit, here's some people who didn't die along with it, let's see what whacky hijinks they can get up to! ...oh, and there's these little Matrix knockoffs trying to kill them too. In the first story, since, again, it is so character driven, this isn't a problem. In the sequel, the plot takes more focus, but in my opinion is still not as strong as to carry it so it does fall slightly flat to me.

Also, in terms of actual relationships, those run the whole spectrum as well. From familial to friendly, platonic to romantic, there's all sorts. So, minor warning, one of the romantic pairings is slash between two Transformers. It's not really much of an issue other than the fact that it's there and it's given equal weight to the other ones. That said it's probably not everybody's cup of tea.

The Bad:
Nothing!
Kidding. As I've mentioned once... or twice... or a few times before, this is a character driven piece. As such the story can often feel quite slow. Even in the sequel where things are supposed to ramp up even more and the survivors suddenly find they have stakes worth fighting for, not just existing through, character building and reactions are still at the forefront of the story. For some people this works, for others it might kill the pacing of the story entirely. Sometimes it feels there is drama for the sake of drama and other times there are moments of extreme awkwardness between the cast. Again this could be a good or bad thing.



tl;dr 4/5—this fic isn't without its flaws, but it's one of the few transformers fics i will actually come back to read over and over again when i have nothing better to do.