Yes, she had one in season 3! I think it debuted in “Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1” and not in the movie (I think she just had her grey blaster pistol there), though I may be wrong. This gun is 100% real because that’s the one I was thinking of when I chose this URL lol

I can see how this wouldn’t be as obvious in other languages since many of these references have to do with Black culture in the USA.

• Jazz is a musical style heavily associated with Black musicians
• He was most famously voiced by Black voice actors—notably his voice actor in the Sunbow cartoon, Scatman Crothers, was cast with no audition because the voice director thought that he was perfect
• He uses a lot of terms and phrases from AAVE (African-American Vernacular English) when he speaks, usually ones that originate from the 40s-50s

If you look at his G1 comics bio, even in just the first paragraph, many things stand out:

Jazz would be cruising down Bourbon Street in New Orleans or be double-parked outside a cellar club in Greenwich Village soaking up the local sounds if he weren’t in the middle of a war. He’s a confirmed Earthen culture junkie - he can talk fluently about ballet or break-dancing (although he prefers the latter), and he’s always on the lookout for more stuff to turn on to.

New Orleans and Greenwich Village are both places super important to Black history in the USA, the links lead to very basic introductory resources explaining some of the reasons why. Also, this bio mentions that Jazz prefers breakdancing. I’ve linked the Wikipedia page for the art that gives an overview of the African origins of breakdancing, its link to hip-hop, the Black artists who developed breakdancing, and so on.

Thanks! This is a fun question. I think not every major Autobot or Decepticon needs a direct rival/parallel on the Decepticon side. Usually Jazz seems to be shown fighting various big-name Decepticons (Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Galvatron, Bludgeon, Thunderwing, and so on), but Jazz really seems to be employed more in certain complicated situations that his skills are useful for. He doesn’t seem to have a specific nemesis. I can see why the rivalry between Blaster and Soundwave isn’t compelling to you, I always felt it seemed pretty forced and doesn’t say that much about either character. While I do think Jazz and Soundwave fighting can be really fun, there’s not intense history there either. I think this adds to the feeling I get there’s often a sort of distance between Jazz and others.

I guess I should mention Megadeath since I keep bringing up that “The Magnificent Six!” story, and Megadeath was a rare Decepticon antagonist that had to do with Jazz’s story and character, but that’s definitely not a rivalry or nemesis in the way a lot of Autobots have those. He was a storytelling tool to showcase how Jazz reacted to torture, being horribly traumatized, having his first experience with the true horror of war, and having to face his past and gather the courage to talk about what happened. Jazz was also able to defeat him. Huh, now that I say this, actually, I guess Megadeath was a great villain for Jazz? Given that my interpretation is that Jazz’s major flaw is that he doesn’t reveal how he really feels a lot of the time, having a villain who is responsible for Jazz developing that flaw that Jazz has to grow past was really successful!

I might recommend picking what about Jazz you want to highlight and then picking an antagonist based on that. Since he doesn’t have a specific nemesis, you have freedom! Like using Soundwave might make sense to explore Jazz’s musical ability or how he’s often super competent but not often formally a SIC, but it might not make sense in other situations (which might be part of why you and I don’t feel much about how often that’s done in fanfic). Maybe you want to focus on Jazz’s more academic interest in cultural stuff and he could fight against somebody who wants to destroy it, in more of a small-scale disruptive way like Rumble or Runabout and Runamuck, or in a more large-scale and serious way like Megatron. Maybe you want to explore Jazz’s thoughts on organic beings and he could fight against somebody who hunts other species like Airachnid. Maybe you want to focus on Jazz’s ability to improvise and choose a Decepticon who sucks at improvising like Shockwave… or one who’s also good at it, like Starscream.