Spoiler It's almost worse than the There Are No Therapists trope, because he's the focus of so much pressure. He is almost literally the Only Sane Man on the ship. Who knows, maybe they'll come across Krok and his plans to help the Decepticons who are suffering from PTSD.
Spoiler: spoilers sorta The ship getting another therapist is a minor plot point in my Megatron/Rodimus fic sequel (I should be working on). A ship only have one therapist is sadly a trope I blame on ST:TNG (as much as I love that show), though I'm willing to forgive and overlooking the inherent issues because normally it's more of a juggling too many characters and giving them stories and plots and mentions thing then a thinking only one therapist can handle a full ship.
Given that the Cybertronian's are coming out of wartime circumstances is does make a bit more sense the ship only having one psychologist (it didn't in TNG but I give them credit for trying and for actually thinking hey we should have a counselor on board to help people deal with shit). Psychologist before the war seemed rather thin of the ground so to speak (why do talk therapy when you can just reprogram them! D: ) and given how long the war went on and that some of them probably fled with neutrals, the few the autobots had left were probably spread so thin that a ship having its on dedicated therapist to some probably seems like a luxury. Rung mentions having to go to many of his patients during the war - and well let me use a MASH example, there was a psychologist that would show up from time to time and it was made very clear that he was very over worked and spead very thin between made different camps both medical and combat, this is probably similar to what was going on for a very long time. And Spoiler: this goes a bit into spoilers Rung never had a chance to get attached before. He probably saw so many mechs, helping as many as he could. Even those he did repeat sessions with - Red Alert - it wasn't the same as living on a ship with them and being in the same limited social circles. So there's the issue of most mechs probably goings holy fragging Primus we have a therapist on ship, I don't have to wait several vorns for the next one to be at my base, and then Rung growing to realize that this isn't going to work, he can't treat all of these mechs, be several of their friends, be part of the command structure to a point, AND keep the emotional separation. There was really no right, perfectly moral thing for Rung or Megatron to do at the end of 49. Megatron going by his own re establishing morals and sense of duty to the crew was right to offer forgiveness (in a sense) to Rung, and Rung was just as right to say no. Because yeah it's Giant Robots in space and we can handwave a lot of things, but you can have the things people love about mtmte and still have it be black and white, it's going to have to be many shades of grey or the story falls apart. I think sometimes its hard for people to tell when something is shades of grey instead of being grim dark. They expect grim dark or clear cut good/bad. At least that's my take on it.
In the meantime, I'm predicting that a lot of them are going to start depending more on the other standard "means of therapy", i.e. Swerve's bar, which is going to be hilarious, then tragic, then very bad for everyone involved, and then hilarious.
Maybe Velocity or Nautica will write home and be like "SEND THERAPISTS ASAP". Or Thunderclash will turn out to also be a trained therapist. I'm sad Sunstreaker and Bob are on ship anymore because now I want Bob as a therapy Bug. Edit: Thunderclash not Thundercracker. Sorry had seekers on the brain.
Also I've read the first volume of Windblade and I am in love and possibly shipping Windblade/Starscream like fedex.
At this point like...I just want this arc to be over. I don't even care anymore. Like just GETTING to the DJD getting to the LL has taken so long I've stopped caring. I am all for long arcs but this one has had so many delays and stuff I just stopped caring. I just want it to be over so Tailgate and Cyclonus can go change their medical files to being married
It's taking so long because we've made the writer write Megatron's Into Peace manifesto. (I kid but really he seems shocked when people kept telling him they wanted that. He was like you want me to write WHAT that is HOW long. Oh sweet summer child, there are fanfic shorter than it)
hello!! i only read mtmte because i wanted context for R&R's robot opinions after reading the CDCF thread (i've come to the conclusion that, as in all things, their opinions about robots are Wrong) anyway. now im stuck in a terrible limbo where i care deeply about the crew of the LL and i have absolutely zero context for the plot or backstory for the rest of the IDW universe. shrug!! this is why i've never bothered with comic fandom before. i've made a terrible mistake, but i am in too deep to back out now.
It isn't the beginning of the IDW run (I'm working my way through the dead tree books, but I haven't seen them online), but Last Stand of the Wreckers is a miniseries that stands well on its own and gives context to some of the MTMTE characters and such. Also, I really, really loved it. Though if anyone on here does know of a spot where I can read the original IDW series online, that would be awesome. This material adds up to a lot of very large, very heavy books, and it would be nice to know where a digital version is too.
I'm not sure it's even really necessary to read the original IDW run considering how RID and MTMTE were a soft reboot and picking and choosing which stuff from old canon to keep. (Avoid Spotlight Arcee, just -- avoid it). Not quite related question: what the heck is the new Windblade on-going called so I can have it on my pull list at my shop? Is it the new 'on cybertron' book since ex-RID is following Optimus doing Earth stuff?
oh! https://www.comixology.com/ is having a 50% off IDW stuff right now and they have big Transformer packages that cover most of the IDW run.
