Could someone link me? I may have missed it earlier, but I don't know where the livejournal is for this fic. Spoiler: all the feelings. Caught up I'd honestly love to be grossly misenterpreting things. We are hitting the fic's endgame. We've seen Soundwave's ownership of Jazz threatened in every possible way, and each time those threats have been resolved in his favor. He's done some very significant things that have gone against his core beliefs. He lied to megatron, questioned megatron (twice) and looked the other way while Jazz orchestrated a riot from his hospital bed. What he hasn't done is treat Jazz any better than what was achieved in the first few chapters. All his seditious actions toward megatron were about retaining control of Jazz. Heck, the only time he even himted at having any kind of sympathy for the slave's plight was about shockwave's mistreatment of Chromia, and that was ages ago. Is there..any sign that Soundwave is going to start treating Jazz like a person? Any hint? Even a little one? I don't know, Jazz could still be playing the long game? He was miserable after the autobots rejected him, he told Soundwave that he'd never really been accepted by them. The point seemed to be his slow realization that Soundwave accepts..or is loyal to him in ways that the others aren't. Which seemed to be something that he craves. When he was talking about the autobots, he said that they only valued him because of what he did for them, and once he couldn't do that anymore, they rejected him. I don't think that's right, but can absolutely believe that's how Jazz views his relationships with other people. It would at least be tempting for Jazz aquiese to Soundwave in order to gain that total acceptance he can offer him. @coldstars I don't really know what to say to "tiptoeing around" thing. I've been posting my thoughts on this fanfic almost sense the beginning. I was completely on board with the 'Jazz playing the long game as part of a plan to help his cause'. That's why I was shocked and probably more upset than I should be when it started treading a more familar path. You've all brought up good points, but in the last few chapters-especially after the party- I don't see him doing anything except baring his soul and reassuring Soundwave that he loves him. The only thing that happened on their trip to earth is that soundwave now feels like Jazz is His, and Jazz did a stellar job of proving it. I may have missed something in chapter 45, I skimmed most of the fight scene pretty hard looking for a reason why Jazz completely gave himself to Soundwave and why he did it right then. @IvyB Well said, I want to believe that it's a new tactic! Just lately we've seen Jazz at his most emotionally vulnerable around Soundwave. Hell, he could have escaped in the confusion of the battle. That was his big chance to be free. He didn't take it. If there is a larger plan, then yes, he's got to convince Soundwave somehow that he's won, that he isn't a threat anymore. Maybe Jazz has done such a good job of seeming genuinely compromised around Soundwave that I can't see those bits of strength and control that used to show up every now and again in Jazz's behavior and actions. The Sideswipe sighting, the timing of Jazz giving Soundwave what he wanted, getting himself to earth by showing Soundwave explicitly what would happen if he was left behind. I want to believe that he had a purpose on earth, but equally possible was that he was pulled along by events outside of his control. I agree that he genuinely loves Soundwave. I don't entirely understand why? Even through the kindness, the kinship, and Soundwave's vulnerability/loyality, he still treats him/regards him as a possession. That fact doesn't get in the way of Jazz's feelings. Maybe the way he's being treated is comfortable and familiar on some level because of his past? This could be a subtle approach to changing Soundwave's mind. Jazz gave Soundwave what he wanted in a believable way could represent a shift in tactics. Jazz is never going to accomplish anything if Soundwave is constantly suspicious of him. So far, Soundwave has been completely intractable, he refuses to treat Jazz any better than he has since the beginning. The one thing I dread is that Jazz has truely switched sides because of his feelings for Soundwave and that he wants to remain in Soundwave's family. Do Not Want. EDIT: was writing that post for over an hour, will respond to the pr and petra asap
Spoiler: late tgwp Even apart from any emotional attachment to Soundwave and company playing any part in his decision (but also that emotional attachment is probably running extra high, given how hard Jazz got shut out by the other slaves in Cybertron), but I don't think running was even a viable option. He's got the collar, which can be used to track him, and is deep-wired into his nervous system. So also any Decepticon who gets close enough can incapacitate him at no risk to themselves. He can't transform, so he's stuck as a giant alien robot on a planet that's under Decepticon control. And there's satellite monitoring, the Decepticons were able to spot Sideswipe while he was disguised in his alt mode. Jazz doesn't standa chance. And that's apart from the very realpossibility that Megatron will punish the other slaves for Jazz's disobedience. It wasreally heart-wrenching watching Jazz wanting desperately to make a break for freedom despite knowing how hopeless itwas, but it was smart of him to stay.
Spoiler: late TGWP/Jazz motivations I think it's kind of important that Jazz's dream for freedom wasn't just him flying alone down a desert, it was him followed by the other Autobot slaves. Escaping for himself into a hostile environment while hobbled by the slave collar wasn't really viable, and I don't think it's what his endgame is ever going to be. I know he was hurt by the other Autobots rejecting him, but I don't think that hurt would be enough to tip him over in to "fuck you I'm getting mine" territory-- so sedition from within would still be his best method for getting what he wants. And depending on how he spins this with Starscream's rebellion, he's got a lot more chance for getting the endgame where everyone goes free, not just himself. Whether or not he and Soundwave are still together in that endgame is more up in the air for me? But I don't think that Jazz has given up.
Also I wouldn't say the fic is in the endgame necessarily? It's certainly closer to the end than to the beginning but. It's not going to be resolved in just a few chapters, especially with what happened in chapter 46.
Here. It updates in segments over here, and then a bunch of segments are pulled together for a chapter and posted on the ff.n. So since it last updated over here about a month ago, people following the lj got chapter 46 a lot earlier.
Spoiler: Late Jazz/Soundwave motivations Yes! This is part of what I tried (and failed) to articulate on mobile on an exercise bike, hahaha. As much as Jazz wants his freedom, I think pure practicality, his emotional attachment to the autobot slaves, and his emotional attachment to Soundwave and company all played a part in holding him back. Just in purely non-emotional terms, I don't think escape was workable,anot without a spaceship or a surgeon. But even apart from that, since the end of the war, and even while he was slowly being killed by Skywarp, Jazz has done everything possible to protect the other slaves. The way they treated him at the party must have been awful, but like... Jazz is used to being the guy who does the dirty work. Part of that almost has to be having a thick skin for dealing with criticism and mistrust from your allies and friends. Jazz keeps his distance in terms of letting himself be vulnerable, but he also cares deeply about His People. I don't think one fight, even an ugly one, would be enough to make him say 'fuck it, you losers are on your own.' But also, that WAS a pretty nasty fight, and Jazz is a sociable, friendly guy. Even though he's tried to keep his emotional distance from Soundwave, Soundwave had been making every effort to pull him closer. In definitely unhealthy ways, a lot of the time. But there are other moments that Soundwave definitely doesn't try to leverage, like the reveal about the cassetibots, or Jazz catching onto how much Soundwave cares about his own cassettes. I'm not in a position to go comb through the fic, but I think the moments Soundwave doesn't try to actively USE are where he makes the most emotional headway with Jazz. But okay, one way or the other, the slow emotional burn is there. Ever since the riot, 'soundwave and jazz versus the world' has been a running theme. Whether or not it played a major role in Jazz's decision not to run (I honestly think it was the most minor of his reasons), that fight with the other slaves drove Jazz HARD into Soundwave's arms. The guy was already exhausted, worn down, and struggling to keep himself going. To have his only friends reject him that hard would be really hard to take on your own, especially when Soundwave is right there, actively offering comfort. Now, I think that's unsustainable intimacy, in the vein of the mandatory heavy petting time Soundwave has been doing. But it still would have been one of the most recent events on Jazz's mind when he was devising whether to save Soundwave or bolt, if that makes sense. Bluh, again, I'm on mobile and working out, can't edit very well. Hopefully that was mostly coherent and autocorrect wasn't too cruel to me.
Spoiler Also oh my fucking god? Soundwave ABSOLUTELY starts treating Jazz better little by little. It's really subtle things but it's still THERE. Jazz can run his mouth more freely now. Soundwave indulged him with going to the party at all AND letting him see the autobot slaves, despite screaming paranoia telling him to do otherwise. He takes him back to earth out of fear of what Megatron might do but while there he consistently humors Jazz more and more, letting him devise a plan in the middle of a high stakes battle and going through with it. Soundwave values Jazz' opinions and input on intel work so much that it scares him to give him opportunities to flex those skills, because that is letting an incredibly dangerous, still hostile element have access to the Decepticon Intelligence Data. But he wants to. And I think he will let him do stuff like that from now on possibly.
Spoiler: Also Even if Jazz wasn't in love with Soundwave, he absolutely loves Laserbeak. And everything he's learned since the start indicates a dead carrier is VERY BAD for bound cassettes, especially if there's not another carrier around they're willing to bind to. Which there isn't. He didn't just save Soundwave's life, he saved Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Rumble, Frenzy, and Ravage, both directly (running into gunfire to find Laserbeak) and indirectly (saving Soundwave's life).
Spoiler: tgwp jazz saves the world THIS! THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE! It fits perfectly, of course he's trying to free Soundwave from his own servitude. We've already seen that Jazz will put himself through absolute hell for the sake of his fellow captives, he has to protecr them. Spending the whole fic in Soundwave's point of view makes it very hard for me to to understand Jazz's motivations. Soundwave has such a narrow view of the world. Of course Jazz could tell how scared shitless Soundwave is of..well, most everything. Megatron, speaking up, Megatron, losing his family, Megatron, disobedience, thinking seditious thoughts. Soundwave is fucking shackled by his own rules and fear. If he wasn't bound up, he wouldn't have to bind everyone he cared about so tightly. That has got to be it, Jazz is commited to freeing Soundwave. Boy does he have an uphill battle to fight! I don't know how he's going to do it, that mech has been trapped by a combo of megs policies and his own web of rules for millions of years, but Jazz is gonna try. I've read a bunch of manga in the past (also fanfic to a lesser extent) where the captive stops fighting, submits completely to their master out of love and everything is fine. It's a pretty common trope for backstories, even in well written manga (it's also a REALLY popular one for more trashy shojo and yaoi mangas). I hate that trope with a fiery passion and I'm used to putting up with it in works that I enjoy. I care too much about Jazz to watch him go through that..um, conversion >>; Tl; dr: I <3 you, Petra. Here, have a cookie.
Spoiler: ^U^ Yeah, I understand that really good stories getting derailed for uwu problematic love is a thing, but it's really not happening here!
@IvyLB Spoiler: tgwp soundwave the problematic fav Ehhhhh, Soundwave's treatment of Jazz depends completely on how paranod he's feeling at the moment. If I remember correctly, Soundwave was letting jazz help him with politics AND taking his advice before the combaticon incident. Once he had an inkling that Jazz was dangerous, he started restricting him massively. This has happened several times over the course of the series. Jazz will win back priviledges then have them taken away again. Soundwave now forces his way into Jazz's brain whenever he needs answers, he definitely didn't used to do that, now it's a regular occurence. Soundwave still can't really treat Jazz better than he did before the combaticon incident because he has to remain in control of Jazz. I think he will treat Jazz better if he feels like he can trust him. That might start happening now, or the seesaw of paranoia could continue. The battle was a big moment, but every time soundwave gives a little, he always seems to double down afterwards. I'm trying to remember, did soundwave have another big paranoia episode after he let Jazz cause the riot? If not, then that would have been a big turning point.
@spockandawe @PRelations Spoiler: tgwp gonna tap out for awhile, thanks everyone for amazing meta You both are absolutely right. He couldn't have gotten far, unless there had been something planned beforehand with sideswipe. He can't abandon his friends, he also can't abandon his family. Six years of slavery has done so much to wear away at the autobots, their world has been narrowed by the constant abuse. I wish that Jazz could have tine to talk to them without being monitored. He needs at least one of them to show their support (or I just need one of them to not reject him completely.) Jazz just wants to save them all, TOO MANY EMOTIONS. I'm gonna have to write something pre-soundwave between the autobots and Jazz, just so he can talk to them. I'm 100 percent certain that they were one of the only things that kept him going for the last six years. I'm gonna go back and read chapter 45, because I skimmed ot pretty hard. I'll be really sad if Silverbolt died.
Spoiler HMMMMM for the mindrape part I'd... actually like to point out that I think your reading of this isn't quite what I remember happening? Soundwave mindrapes Jazz once. It's absolutely awful for both of them and Soundwave afterwards decides not to try that again because it didnt work. Not... the best reasons yanno. But he holds true to his word. He doesn't try to enter Jazz's brain without explicit vocal invitation anymore. Of course Jazz consent is massively compromised with regards to pretty much everything but. "Soundwave now forces his way into Jazz's brain whenever he needs answers, he definitely didn't used to do that, now it's a regular occurence." is a phrasing I just don't see as accurately portraying what is going on. Because Jazz fucking beat the shit out of Soundwave on his own turf to the point where Soundwave has come to the conclusion that he cannot gain anything from reading Jazz' mind without letting Jazz take the lead for that.
@IvyLB Spoiler: TGWP: How bad is it really? hmmmm, ok, I thought he did it two other times, albeit, not as violently? (One was about Rodimus???? The other was sideswipe) My memory is shit. But you're right, that was an exaggeration. I know he just went into Jazz's mind looking for Sideswipe. One of Jazz's crowning moments was beating the pants off of him on his own turf with MUSIC, but he still went rooting around for evidence of the autobot in Jazz's mind despite everything, that's how he learned of the moment of dead silence (creepy, very creepy. One of the reasons I suspected that Jazz's spirit might have broken)
Finally read through...most of the hidden discussions! I needed some time to cool down after that tumultious night's read. But man, I love tgwp, so much. I feel like I shoukd go back through it and pick over every little thing that jazz learned and did just to figure out the big picture. I still need to reread 45, if only to find out what happened to silverbolt (still a fav!). Spoiler: TGWP rambly speculations The idea that jazz planted the camera blew my mind. You guys are right, it had to be him.. Even though his reasoning is severely unclear. It would have been a masterful move to more firmly plant soundwave on his side. Could he have gotten it later? Jazz may have some kind of handler or accomplice, someone who could slip him items or info in emergency situations. There are so many tantalizing pieces at play. Springer got himself (and possibily his crew) deported to earth, Sideswipe made contact with Jazz (they didn't meet face to face, but he could have left him something), the combaticons have been gone for ages with hound. Rodimus caught megs eye in a very deliberate way, but then he vanished (almost like Roddy got ideas and went off script when he caught megs' attention, then the one in charge yanked him out of harms way *coughprowlcough* before megatron could get his grubby claws on roddy's ostentatious paint job OR he went to earth with springer. What does everyone think, is Prowl secretly alive? Someone asked about the "tomorrow" lyrics from Jazz's memories. He must have been so elated to learn that they didn't have Mirage. That meant that he could move to the next stage of the plan. Which was getting them to being hound to mirage. I think that was the first big step in a plan that they've been working on since before the autobots were defeated. At that moment, he was looking toward a better tomorrow, probably for the first time in ages. Ot shows that he doesn't have mastery of the situation, he has small parts to play, but the next step is completely out of his hands, all he can do is hope. There was some talk of starscream and jazz working together. This blew my mind a little, but it makes sense that starscream would still have some kind of hold over him. I don't think he meant to lose Jazz in Skywarp's cardgame, but he would have taken advantage of Jazz's sudden importance to soundwave in any way possible. If Starscream has something on Jazz, then he's had to juggle both Decepticon's demands without letting Soundwave know the score, along with his objectives in the autobot conspiracy. It could be that Starscream is helping the conspirators in exchange for their help with his plans to overthrow Megatron. Gahhh, I wish we had more glimpses of the gigantic conspiracy underpinning the whole fic. I have a suspicsion that Jazz doesn't know half of what's going on. I Still have NO idea why the decepticons didn't recognize Rodimus. None. @Kemmasandi a very belated thanks for all those fic recs! I've got them all bookmarked now. I too have some serious Skyfire/Silverbolt feelings from TGWP. They are stuck in hell together and it's awful.
I have not seen discussion of chapter 46 yet but CHAPTER 46 IS OUT AND HOLY SHIT? H O L Y S H I T? Spoiler Goddammit Starscream you ALMOST managed to get away with it too WOW This will result in some DELICIOUS new developements
It was on livejournal for a while, but usually there's more added before things get consolidated into a ff.net chapter! But that was a REALLY good ending spot! I'm always the most gullible, trusting sap, but even knowing Starscream, I sincerely didn't see that twist coming OR taking that big epic turn, and I'm excited!!! I know there's some discussion and speculation back near the end of the quoted pays from the original thread of you're curious to read more!
