Arcee

Arcee is a popular and recurring character in the Transformers franchise.
==Canon Background==
[characterization, story role, further important appearances]
=== Major Appearances ===
*The Transformers TV series
*The Transformers Generation One IDW Comics
*The Transformers Unicron Trilogy
*Transformers Bayverse
*Transformers Animated
* The Transformers Aligned (Prime) Continuity
*Transformers Cyberverse
*Transformers Earthspark
See on TFWiki.net for more of her appearances.
==Popular Tropes & Fanon==
TBA
==Subjects of Fannish Interest & Meta==
=== IDW Arcee ===
Simon Furman is a big-name writer of official Transformers media, having written much of the Transformers Generation One Marvel Comics, both in the UK and in the US, as well as the first-half of the Transformers Generation One IDW Comics. He's generally well respected by fans, though he's controversial for how he incorporates female Transformers characters into his stories.
He believes they are redundant and don't make much sense. In his words, "it’s not a sexist thing, it’s just that they’re robots." (19 February 2008) He had this take on them as far back as his Marvel run in the 1980s, introducing Arcee into that series as a "fembot" built to appease a "feminist mob," upset there were no female Transformers, in 1989Prime's Rib!, released 2 September 1989 in the UK, the only Transformers series at the time to address why there were fewer female Transformers than male ones in-universe.
In 2008, with the Spotlight Arcee comic in the IDW canon, he addressed Arcee's gender with the idea that she was experimented on by Jhiaxus to introduce gender, considered a lost Cybertronian custom, back into society. This was done against her will, with the process being physical. (7 December 2023) He saw this as putting rationale into the issue and that it was his own spin on the character. This effectively made her story resemble that of a transgender person, but it could be argued that she wasn't transgender herself, since she didn't expressly choose to be. Simon Furman himself said that she wasn't, as "‘Transsexual’ means the swapping the characteristics of one sex for another. That’s not what happened here." (5 March 2008) This plotpoint effectively implied that future female Transformers introduced into the canon by other writers had to follow in the footsteps of this plot, lessening the chances for writers to casually write female characters without an express purpose. The Spotlight issue was infamous and continues to be in fan circles.
In 2014, with John Barber as head writer, Windblade and the planet Caminus were introduced. Caminus is a colony of Cybertron that maintained the gender dimorphism Jhiaxus was trying to reintroduce into society with Arcee, thus, introducing plenty of female Transformers into the canon. Anode and Lug were also introduced, the first two Transformers to be transgender by choice without a retcon.
Following this, Arcee's backstory was retconned so her being transgender was her own choosing in 2017, released in 22 March 2017, elaborated on in the very last issue of the IDW canon in 2018, with the help of Jenevieve Frank, a Transformers fan consulted by IDW to help with Arcee's characterization. For more info, on the tfwiki.
Some fans consider the retcon in bad taste and may have IDW Arcee detransitioning as a fix-it (08 June 2020), though the fandom overall considers her transgender and like what was done with her character. She is transgender in the vast majority of fanworks, even before 2017. Transfic is common. Many trans fans dislike Simon Furman for the transmisogyny and overall misogyny in how he writes Female Transformers and for making the subject a hot-button issue, especially within the G1 comic-side of fandom, which tends to be mainly older men. (15 November 2019) (08 March 2022)
==Relationships==
This is purposefully an incomplete list, as Arcee is shipped with many of the other Transformers. She's also popular for self-insert shipping.
Please add any notable relationships in fanworks if they are missing.
Primary Canon	With... 	Who is a(n)...	Full Label 	Type	Ship Name(s)	Information
Prime 	Airachnid 	Decepticon 	Airachnid/Arcee 	F/F 	Airacee 	Rival enemies
IDW 	Aileron 	Autobot 	Aileron/Arcee 	F/F 	Aircee 	Became canon in 2018
Prime 	Bulkhead 	Autobot 	Arcee/Bulkhead 	F/M 	Bulkcee 	Close allies
Prime 	Bumblebee 	Autobot 	Arcee/Bumblebee 	F/M 	Beecee 	Close allies
Prime 	Cliffjumper	Autobot 	Acree/Cliffjumper	F/M 	クリアシ 	Official media hints this is canon
Prime 	Jack Darby 	Autobot ally 	Arcee/Jack Darby 	F/M 	Jackcee 	Interspecies
Prime 	June Darby 	Autobot ally 	Arcee/June Darby 	F/F 	Junecee 	Interspecies
Prime 	Knock Out 	Decepticon 	Arcee/Knock Out 	F/M 	ノクアシ 	(n/a)
Animated 	Ratchet 	Autobot 	Arcee/Ratchet 	F/M 	ラチェアシ 	Close allies
G1 Cartoon 	Hot Rod 	Autobot 	Arcee/Hot Rod 	F/M 	Rodcee 	Both introduced in the 1986 film
Prime 	Starscream 	Decepticon 	Arcee/Starscream 	F/M 	スタアシ 	Enemies; Arcee hates Starscream
Prime 	Wheeljack 	Autobot 	Arcee/Wheeljack 	F/M 	Wheelcee 	(n/a)
==Example/Notable Fanac==
===Fan Communities/Fan Events===
* , a club on DeviantArt.
* , a club on DeviantArt.
===Wikis===
* on PixivEncyclopedia
* on the TFWiki
===Fan Fic===
===Fan Art===
* (2021)
* (2023)
===General Fanworks===
==== Fan Mixes ====
* (2020)
===Meta===
==== IDW ====
Doyalist
* (2023)
* (2024)
* (2024)
* (2023)
* (2023)
* (2024)
Watsonian
* (2024)
* 
* (2023)
== References/Further Reading ==
Category:Transformers Characters