Hmmm... my first thought is to rework it into some sort of bird or dragon or something else Typically Macho/Impressive, but... given the premise, another Sharp Pointy Aggressive Thing seems kind of. Missing the point? (Just woke up, having trouble wordsing, sorry.) It would be really nice to see it worked into something more... fluid? Organic? But I don't know what design could make that work, or how I'd even start describing it if I ever did draw it out.
Hmm. Actually a bird might fit very well. The orginal chestpiece as I imagine it could be covered with a bird with spread wings. And Starscream is a flier. Not only that but he was one before Megs. (I think?) So rather than being another aggressive pointy thing, it would be something that is His, not Megatrons. ETA: Wiki says IDW Megs was not a gladiator, but I can imagine he´d be the type to get fuckoff macho tattoos anyway.
IDW Megs was a gladiator too, just a bit less official. The gladiator's arena was more of an underground illegal fight pit, but he definitely participated. (It was also where he did most of his recruiting.)
I feel like Megs might have less overtly MACHO tattoos and more """"""meaningful""""""" highly symbolic tattoos of the old school type. Idk I'd have to look up if miners had a distinguished tattoo/branding culture as Pirates and other sailors did?
Spoiler: DC 3/ExRiD 23 liveblog man, Scream, what is it with you and talking to dead people? Fucking hell, kids, fight the titan, not each other. This is counterproductive :| "Conspiracy stuff[...] like the guys that say Ultra Magnus is just a little guy in armor" snrrrrk This whole wall is golden Also, who's posting bulletins in Old Cybertronian? I still don't like the art they're using for the LL portions :T THUMB QUEST ...arcee, whose arm did you steal. That gun is too big for you. Soundy c3< Bee c3< Prowl Children shhhh "My friends down there-- I'm pretty sure they're going to start shooting at me pretty soon. You know how friends are" THAT'S NOT HOW FRIENDS WORK, SCREAM D8 Uhhh. Hawk. Metalhawk. Bro. Are you okay. Megs looks weird without his chest calligraphy.
Hm. I did think they´d be symbolic actually. Just since they´re gladiator tats, they would still be aggressive. A threat display in ink. ETA:Better wordsed, they would be cultural like the historical pirate ones, but they´d be gladiator culture tats. I´m going with culture as in canon (Theocracy etc) but it happens to be a culture had by humans.
Can I just say, again, how much I appreciate the extremely well cited and sourced TFwiki? Because oh my god, no other fandom compares.
More tat talk: Megs has a huge decepticon badge chestpiece, possibly involving writing of some sort. Starscreams symbolize loyalty. (Irony is good for your blood.)
Spoiler: DC 4/MTMTE 24 well. That sure is a glorious crotch shot of Ratchet on the cover. ...rumble is black now, okay. Brainstorm. Now is not the time for your bouncy science bird mating dance. Stop that. "Primus knows why [the Ammonites] are mad at us..." [side-eyes Whirl] Rung, a quarterstaff might not be the best weapon underwater... "I'm not judging!" "You're judging! Orion, he's judging!" Daaaaaad, he's touching meeee make him stoooop! GOD DAMMIT HARDHEAD'S THIS ISN'T WARTIME AND RODIMUS DOESN'T HAVE TO OBEY OP'S EVERY WHIM ANYMORE Cassette baaabies D8 it's okay, rumble, frenzy'll come back! Oh no, ohhhh no, Megs and noncon medical stuff D8 you'll be okay, shhhhshshh ...are the Ammonites a nautilus with guns for tentacles. That's beautiful.
Or, given his history, I bet they genuinely symbolized loyalty at first, because Starscream was definitely an early, enthusiastic recruit, who voluntarily took on dangerous, high-stakes, high-risk missions. And even in the AHM attempted betrayal we see from him, it's motivated by his anger that instead of conquering planets and achieving great things, Megatron is wasting the potential of the Decepticons by just pissing around in NYC. Even at that point, after piles of abuse and plenty of disloyalty on a personal level, Starscream still believed in the Decepticons cause. I love me some angst, so imagine Starscream and his 'loyalty' tattoos, and that bitter, bitter reminder of the past and everything he's been through since. He was more willing than almost any other Decepticon to give up his badge after the war was over, but tattoos are so... permanent
That what I meant. Cruel irony in the reminder, and a lighter irony in the guy known throughout the galaxy for backstabbing having loyalty tattoos. Now I just gotta get through DC so I can get back to Starscreams arc and hopefully see him interact withW heeljack. Or find some other <> for him. (Because covering up the tattoos inspired by your abuser is definitely a pale activity.
There wwwwill be a bit of a shift in focus on exrid after DC. Starscream does sometimes feature, especially in Sarah Stone's issue (33, I think?) but the main focus is on earth. But! If you look at that reading order in the other thread? Mtmte is parallel to exrid, and mostly independent. The windblade books and the new ongoing, taao, are MUCH more closely tied to this series. They're basically making up for the shift in exrid, because they are allllllll about starscream and Cybertron and shenanigans. Also the combiner wars crossover will be even harder to follow than DC without reading the other series that feeds it. I know you said things about only wanting to focus on one series at a time, but there's very little of this other material out there! A windblade miniseries (with Sarah Stone art and lots of Starscream), a very short ongoing, that has been dropped (at a good stopping point, not because it was canceled), and then only two issues so far of taao, which picks up where the windblade ongoing left off. I love exrid a lot, but honestly, I love the Cybertron-focused books even more.
That is very good to know! I wanted to focus on one series because I want to try and follow a manageable number of plotlines at once, but sounds like following a series is not the way to do this. Right now obviously I mainly wanna follow Starscreams plotline. So should I start the Windblade miniseries after DC if I want that?
Spoiler: DC 5/exRiD 24 ....Galvatron and Cyclonus look really similar. I wonder what that says about early Novan-era Cybertronian society, since Cy presumably was forged after Galvatron and probably after the War of the Thirteen. Shockwave has really pretty legs with this artist and it's kind of disorienting I mean, it's still really great to see Bee get punched, but. Hawk. Bb. Your new boss is Not Good For You. ...hhhmmmm. Nova Prime specifically calls his body his carapace. ... >u> [rolls back into Alien Worldbuilding Hell] Nightbeat and Hardhead's reunion is still hilarious Man, I forgot how grating Nightbeat's Sherlock thing could be :T Cy's a private guy, stop spilling all his motivations in public. ...I really, really can't blame Cy for trying to strangle him. Sweet, sweet emotional-release-via-fiction. ...did anyone go back for Frenzy? Are Ravage and Frenzy both down right now? D8 no wonder Rumble's a mess! Fuck only knows Soundwave has an unnatural poker face, but. [Teakettle noises] Also, where are the birdtwins? please tell me they're recovering Frenzy Megs has mysteriously acquired the calligraphy tats detailing. ...why does the necrotitan have wheels? Is he a tripleformer or a mobile city? ...mobile home altmode tho ...yeah, like. Dudes. He straight-up mentioned the sleeper agent thing during introductions, dunno why no one thought of it.
On a different topic: entered a random store on last day of beachcation and found IDW merch* :DDD probably overpriced but this shirt's got Roddy and Jazz (well, I think it's Jazz-- I am Bad at Robot ID) on, how could I not Pictures when I get back to the room, heh *my phone autocorrected "merch" to "mech" and I think that's beautiful
Approximately! I think what you want to do is read the windblade miniseries, then read issue 33 of exrid, then read the windblade ongoing. It'll be the combiner wars crossover pretty much... immediately. Those don't exist in a clean, collected upload like DC does, but I think the individual issues are all linked in the reading guide. Then finish up the Windblade ongoing and move right on into Till All Are One! I think issue 3 is coming out on Wednesday, so your timing is pretty excellent! I think you'll miss a few bits and scraps of Starscream where he connects back into the military/political shenanigans on earth, but this should capture almost everything he does.
Spam time! Someone who knows robot faces, I have two mysteries that need solved. Spoiler: pics The Whole Gang(TM). My other option was a grey Autobot sigil on plain black, which... eh... I probably woulda got it of it was the only option, but pbbbbbt robits are better. Jazz?? I think he's Jazz. Maybe. JAZZ! Bee! OP. I'd assume as Prime rather than Pax, given the gun and Bee being at his right hand. RODDY! Who Is He? Grimlock apparently! I will probably wear this tomorrow because what is prewashing, I'm impatient :P
