OH MY GOD? OH MY GOD I am very emotionally compromised right now Spoiler: mtmte 55 So first, just in general, I am so fucking blown away by the plotting in this series. Everything! Just! EVERYTHING!!!! All coming back together! Whirl's arm! The briefcase! Megatron leaving the briefcase on the necrobot's world! So many plots and character development moments pulling together so well!!!!!!!!! Ummmm thinky thoughts. Let me try, at least, haha. Okay, so I'm SO GLAD to see Deathsaurus and Nickel finally peacing out of there, even if I'm still kind of vexed that it took a conscience gun to get their consciences to ACTUALLY kick in. I feel kind of antsy that maybe they'll never be coming back, and I want to see emotions and character development pls, but. Who knows, maybe. Hopefully! I'd love to see (ex) Decepticons being a happy boisterous family on the warworld, but we've already go the scavengers for Decepticon family dynamics, and the size of the warworld means it would distort the plot INCREDIBLY trying to fit them into the party mix. But! On the other hand! It would be such a shame letting them go, when Nickel and Deathsaurus are so gr8, and Lugnut got to show up, and I know there are other legacy characters in there from continuities I'm not familiar with, like Leozack. Tangent: I went to go look up Leozack on the wiki. WELL.... He's part of the elite Decepticon Breastforce. One of a group of Breastforcers. His chestplate can detach and transform into his Breast Animal partner. The Lionbreast. In other news, I'm apparently ten years old, and all it takes to get me sniggering is someone saying 'boobies' Okay, okay. Back to the story. I'm also still really a huge fan of Megatron yoinking Trailcutter's force field generators. Especially after he was the one who set Trailcutter on the path to (involuntary) sobriety and told him to turn his life around. And Trailcutter was in the middle of reading Towards Peace when he died. I have lots of feelings about these two, and even if Trailcutter's gone, I'm really glad his passing like... served a purpose in the plot, if that makes sense. We got to see the emotional impact on some of the characters it affected, and it served a plot-related purpose. I'm still super sad, but I can like... accept it. I really like seeing Deathsaurus in distress. Not in a 'you deserved this' way, but in a 'yesssssssssssssss now someone comfort him he's super pretty and has beautiful eyes and you should probably hug him and cuddle him a bit' AND I'm glad to see team grandma Nickel taking charge and BAILING THE FUCK ON TARN, THANK YOU. Maybe these two should pap each other a bit. I'd be 200% down for that And okay, Overlord's bit where he peaces out was pretty awesome. I mean, he's been obsessing over Megatron for a while and also he is a horrible person who does not deserve nice things. But it's SUCH a great contrast between him and Tarn. Like, this is the (semi) healthy way of moving forward. Recognize when someone has no more power over you, recognize that they don't deserve your time and attention. Even though they're both horrible people, they've both definitely been abused. Take the power of recovery out of your abuser's hands. Good job, Overlord. Oh my god. Brainstorm's expression when he's talking to Ravage!! What a good face. What a good face. ALSO, RAVAGE. FUCK. NO. Fuck fuck FUCK. WHY?? That 'I'm not keeping you out, I'm sealing you in' was PRETTY FUCKING KICKASS. Especially when Megatron rips those fusion cannons off Tarn's arm, like godDAMN. (though I am wondering how he let people into the panic bubble. like, the impermeability of the panic bubble was half the reason trailcutter died. unless its just a normal force field?) Helex and Tesarus pounding on the bubble trying to escape warms my cold, withered heart :3 And I love how even the DJD are totally intimidated by Megatron the moment he gets legit pissed. That is nice. And the way he expresses himself and his anger, like. Hhhh. I just really like this tiny slice of the writing. All the explanations for HOW Megatron managed to do this are so long, but they follow so well from the story!!!! I'm just blown away. Normally, I'm totally willing to gloss past complicated explanations without actually caring what happened (see: all of dark cybertron), but this one, I seriously enjoyed connecting the dots between all the plot points! There are all these moments in the story where I just took them at face value, and there's a WHOLE NOTHER LEVEL. Whirl's arm wasn't just gone to end the fight and let Megatron shut him down hard, it serves a purpose. Megatron didn't just have an emotional turnaround when he was confronted by the scope of everything he's done when he was on the necrobot's planet, he left the briefcase. Everything, just. AAAAAAAA! Heeeeeeeeheeheehee dismemberment! I find this part intensely satisfying ROLLER! ROLLER ROLLER ROLLER! I'm so happy about all this stuff with the Necrobot saving people across time. SUCH! GOOD! PLOTTING!!! And I like both the way that Tarn begs for mercy and Megatron is like HAHA NOPE. As much as I like the way his character has developed on the Lost Light, it's... very him. A Megatron who is calm and reasonable and teaches history classes is nice, but it's like, a reassurance that he hasn't been ENTIRELY rewritten, the brutal warlord is still in there. I like the contrast. And fuk u tarn, you deserve exactly zero mercy, you assclown Ratchet is so tiny compared to Roller! I am extremely pleased right now. I also like the reveal that it is Glitch! Did anyone really guess that? Because okay, so. You know how sometimes I latch onto super super minor characters and then they're my FAVORITEST favorite, like Rotorstorm or Strika? Well I did that a little with Glitch, but it never really got off the ground, because there's so little fan content for him, and I wasn't able to track down anything about his ultimate fate in the universe, so I eventually gave up and moved on to greener pastures. But I! Really like this!!!! And the voice thing, killing people with his voice, it works SO WELL with his established outlier-hood! The flashback establishes his power, and does specify non-sentient machinery. But then it establishes that he'll be able to apply his skills from a distance eventually. And I thiiiiink Tarn said something about developing powers at some point? I'm not sure and can't check now, but instead meaning that he developed a murdervoice power, I like the implication that he developed the ability to affect sentient machinery too. I like this a lot. I didn't see it coming, and I would have enjoyed the other possible identities for the guy, but I like this a lot. I also seriously love that Megatron was willing to die here. I really like that as a character thing. BUT EVEN MORE THAN THAT I LOVE RODIMUS WITH THE TELEPORTING IN AND REACHING OUT TO HIM AND SAVING HIM LIKE? OH MY GOD????? I HAVE NO WORDS. I don't know if the implication is that Drift is pretending Megatron isn't there, but I really like that, so it's what I'm going to personally roll with Also I want to say that Megatron, it's a little creepy that you slapped Tarn's face right on your chest. Little creepy, bro. And oh my fuck, Ravage, no. I'm not okay with this. Especially with Soundwave making that face? Oh my god? How can you do this to me????? Ravage is the first person who was ever decent to him and they've been family for so long, and Ravage went off on his quest to (hopefully) retrieve Megatron and... Soundwave never saw him again. I'm not okay right now. Megatron's reaction is breaking my heart too, but I'm also loving like... the emotional crash after an awful day. This has been a rough ride from start to finish, and I like the combination of him being upset and angry and touchy, and going right near violence, without actually hurting people. But pointing your fusion canon at Ratchet's face is kind of a dick move, buddy. AND! TERMINUS!!!!!!! OH MY GOD?????????????? Like, I figured there was always a chance he survived Messatine, because Megatron went back for him and he wasn't there. But I'd always thought it was more likely that government thugs went to take him out while Trepan worked on Megatron's brain, so they could deal with both troublemakers at once. And even if he survived, he would have had to have seen all the things Megatron did during the war. But this!!! Holy shit, there's someone here who remembers Megatron at his absolute best, and where those memories are fresh and new and oh my god I'm getting so emotional over this. And Megatron just!! Throws his fusion cannon aside and embraces him!!! Like, holy shit, I'm not even going to comment on the rest of the story, because this. I just. I'm so emotional over this, I can't even deal right now. I'm so happy.
Spoiler: snarky mtmte 55 Alright, lemme just say right now I am feeling some sweet vindication over thinking Tarn could be Dominus. Because all the people who said it was obvious that he was Roller or Terminus were crowing about the Ambus crowd being wrong, and they were also wrong. I am. Deeply satisfied by this turn of events. And Glitch's outlier ability did actually lend itself very well for Tarn's DEATH VOICE so that's really nice? I mean, I'm sad we won't see the empurata baby come back, because :( but that's.... genuinely more satisfying to me than having it be any of the Top Three Theories.
Spoiler: 55 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK???? NOOOO!! RAVAGE!!! SOUNDWAVE!!!?! What FUCK ROLLER!!!! I'M SP GLAD HES OKAY TERMINUS??? I LOVE YOU CENSERE YOU BRAVE BEAUTIFUL DEAD ROBOT MEGATRON............. RODIMUS..... WHIRL... NIGHTBEAT???!!! RUNG!!!!!! I'M COMPROMISED
Spoiler: mtmte 55 Cyclonus and Tailgate are both okay! and standing next to each other, even! I can't remember who was worried about that, but there you go also I guess Tarn got into the bubble because of his outlier powers, but I don't know why he wouldn't be able to get out again?
Spoiler: CONTINUED 55 SCREAMS Nickel and deathsaurus!!!!!! god that made me so happy.... also also also look what I just noticed THE GLINTY EYES RETURN..... he is excited that rodimus is okay anyway spock said everything I was thinking and more so i'm just gonna quietly vibrate over here, rolling around in my uncontrollable feelings
wait wAIT WAIT NO I LIED ONE MORE THING Spoiler: 55 IM LAUGHING SO HARD AT THIS CALLBACK transformers ongoing series, 2011, part 1 of chaos theory: WHICH WAS CALLED BACK TO IN MTMTE 29: AND NOW HERE WE ARE!!!!!! personally i take that to mean that megatron absolutely spilled the beans about his magic eyes to ratchet. GOD BLESS US EVERYONE
Holy shit, that is a BEAUTIFUL series of callbacks. Also all I want in life is to see Megatron and Ratchet being grumpy old gossipbuddies, trading stories with each other from the opposite sides of the war
Spoiler: 55 First Trailcutter's hand, and now this? Elita would approve. Hell, Elita would use all these convenient bodies lying around to make a new ship... The fact that Ravage makes a cat pun of all things on his deathbed fills me with pride and also tears. Ravage you are dying you can't just use the phrase 'cat's cradle' and expect me to ignore this Also that panel of Megatron flipping a table? Looks uncannily identical to Prowl flipping that table, oh so long ago. Considering what TPTB have said about things coming full circle with Prowl's anticipated return, most likely deliberate... And Whirl calling his lost arm a miracle of engineering...god I love Whirl
Spoiler: mtmte 55 Also, you know what? Glitch's powers make him pretty much perfect as the DJD leader, even before factoring in the murdervoice. So like, our introduction to the DJD is them taking down Black Shadow, right? And the DJD are pretty ridiculously overpowered, but Black Shadow is a phase sixer, and it looks like they took him down without any trouble at all. Basically... if you've got a target, and you've got the ability to disable any energy weapons or transportation that this person has, and they don't know you have that power, then that takes so much of the challenge out of any fight. Without the target knowing you can do it, you've pretty much disarmed and hobbled them, and they don't know you've done that. We don't get any particulars on how subtle his power can get, but I'd bet he can disable thrusters or engines, even if someone tries to escape in their alt mode. Tarn has secretly been using all the best cheat codes this whole time. did he accidentally fuck up and break the smelter in grindcore and that was why skids had to fix it? who knows but I sure want to think so edit: oh my god, GLITCH WAS THE COMMANDANT, all this after he and skids were heist buddies together and had good times saving thousands of innocent civilians from being blown up, and then he was in charge of skids in grindcore, and now they're deaddddddddd
Spoiler: 55 The first thing he does as commandant is break the damn smelter by fucking accident IM FUCKININBG - So he starts blasting the Empyrian Suite at all hours of the day so everyone's too intimidated to realize he's fucked up the main execution chamber and everyone just goes along with it. Tarn circulates ten different cover stories to hide the truth but everyone who tries to fix the smelter knows because it's broken in a way that make no sense, no sign of actual physical damage - What a beautiful time we live in. I accept this wholeheartedly.
Spoiler: 55 honestly i feel so predictable but this issue is again overwhelming me with fondness for my one and only forever favourite child......... i love whirl so much...... he only appeared for like 2 panels but i love him also!!!! unrelated but i'm so happy that censere was saving autobots and decepticons alike, yoinking them out of history and now they're all on this planet together like. how confused must these decepticons be.... there's their glorious leader, givin out hugs and hanging out with autobots and the war is over apparently??? ALSO I JUST NOTICED THIS AND ITS MAKIN ME REAL SAD look i mean. i shipped them so i'm biased but. nautica cared about skids so much, they cared about each other so much, my heart is breaking :(
WAIT WAIT ANOTHER THING Spoiler: 55 i think the letterer made a mistake because there is no fuckin way that this is right: helex should be crucible, tesarus should be scissorsaw, but it's tesarus gettin REK'D in the second panel so. i assume an error was made?? because there is NO WAY that the guy with an actual smelter in his midsection is not the one named crucible
Spoiler: 55 liveblog that is a really pretty cover, megs looks so broken and the lighting is beautifully done ...how did Overlord of all people even become a GC agent, you'd think with the whole banning-Cybertronians-for-violence thing they'd at least find a more easily-controlled spy aaaaaaaaah the forcefield reveal. I feel like this would've been cooler if I hadn't read the preview, hm :T NICKELLLLLLL BAAAAAABY SWEET SWEET NICKEL OOooh, look, someone raising the question we're all asking, thanks Brainstorm. I don't buy Ravage's "Megatron's smarter than everyone" line, but hey, he's SpecOps, who says he's even being honest? Tarn Has Problems, no one is surprised. ...uh oh, Megs is angry. I really hope this antimatter stuff doesn't play like TFP "Dark Energon," I wanna keep Grumpy Dad Megs :c Alright, explanation. Megs is, in fact, a strategist. And paranoid. Thank you Brainstorm nO Megs isn't allowed to blow up I am actually tearing up this is not okay Oooh ooh name reveals! I feel like I'm supposed to recognize Big Guy but uh Awwwww I wanted to get Tarn's name :c is that another goddamn timecase. no. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THEY LIVED THEY LIVED THEY LIVED GODDAMMIT THEY FRIDGED RAVAGE ANYWAY me too megs, me too. flip that fucking table. ...who thought touching the guy hyped on adrenaline and probably panic while wearing the symbol of his four-million-years-enemy was a good idea? Goddamn, kids, how'd you survive a war? ...okay I appreciate the infodump, Rewind, but how do you know this. (Do I need to add Censere to the ChromeWind+ poly pile.) Rewind, why were you reading Censere's journal :| Awwww baby finally getting to grieve properly. This feels like closure. cool alien worldbuilding get HYPE WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK YOU CAN'T LET THEM ALL LIVE AND THEN DO THAT TO ME Red-and-blue as Primus and Unicron? As The Fallen and The Arisen/Megs and OP? Aaaaahahahahahah myth arc myth arc Hm. I may read the crossover just because Soundwave's there tbh. Otherwise looks kind of boring and contrived.
also, to people who might actually know: will season 3 pick up at the end of August, or do we gotta wait for the crossover to be done?
Spoiler: 55 Also, some things that please/hurt me about the past few issues - Whirl's magnificent empurata-crippled arm was the anchor Megatron used to harness the antimatter and beat Tarn, an ex-empuratee The time cases Brainstorm created to save Quark, dead in Tarn's Grindcore, consistently saving lives in defiance of Tarn across the wide expanse of time - Censere saving whoever he could, Rodimus saving Megatron, and Brainstorm didn't save Quark in the end but look at everyone who's alive because of him The way Censere went and saved people, so many disappeared souls, and some of them AWOL soldiers who Tarn should have been hunting down but on this planet of death and memory they're alive and he's gone Tarn, who can use his voice to affect sparks as an extension of that original outlier power, beaten by mechs made stronger by the sacrifice of someone who lived through Grindcore so long ago, using simulated outlier powers Rewind leaving flowers under Dominus's name Nautica still by Skids just fuck me up
no, but why would you do this to me, now I have to draw this tonight D: I'm trying to frantically pack and get ready for a weekend trip sans laptop and tablet, and this. THIS. I need it. I neeeeeeed it. (also you hurt me with all your other thoughts about this issue, I'd never even considered some of those connections)
Spoiler: 55 guess whose handshake does not look like it Quite Worked, you get 1 guess (i'm going through every appearance glitch makes)
