LIVEBLOG Spoiler: LL06 Omg, Rodimus, DUDE. I'm loving the 'wtf, bro' of it, and I'm glad the other characters AND Rodimus are calling attention to the wtf of it. I kind of wonder if there's something like the time travel sickness deal that has to do with universe-hopping that would affect them. Because some of these guys are WAY into dude, chill land, and the stress of dying of the light could contribute, but I'm always up for some casual mindfuckery. Though actually, I bet it has to do with some of the psychological stuff and anger that led to his dramatic makeover, Also, Rung's poor face!!!! D: It reminds me of when Rodimus was throwing his post-overlord tantrum and Rung called him out and Rung got menacing. But he never hit Rung. And Rodimus helping him up after that!! Good, good, this is all a good. But I'll be real, I'm having a LOT of trouble getting involved in the Action Movie part of this plot. Luna II? Gotta splode the moon and save the day? I just.... don't caaaare........... I still have trouble caring about the fighty parts of the tyrest arc, but I learned to love those, and my brain is still glazing right past this. (That being said, if Terminus dies, I am going to be UPSET) I love Kaput and his silly wheel. Kaput is a Good. Velocity is a Good. Nautica is a Good. Everyone involved with this is so wonderful and sweet. AND I love the Necrobot's indexing system. Like, UNF, take me now, you old man death librarian. Though this means also, distress, because what irreplaceable records just got destroyed in the battle? DDDDD: Drift taking Ratchet's hand to help him up, that gives me life. Forget the action movie, you two just keep bantering and casually touching, that's all I need. OOOOOH, blacksmithing time, here we go :D But... dang, that is a potentially game-breaking amount of revival potential there in the mix. It's okay if the Necrobot was only RARELY able to take spark imprints, but a lot of the beauty of the war is the sheer scale of destruction, the death and damage, and how PERMANENT it was. There was a whole arc about trying to go back in time to undo just a little of that damage (or hey, why not the entire war, yolooo), and that came to nothing and Perceptor accidentally a dystopian universe. I don't want death undid except in very rare, VERY special circumstances. Like Rewind. Or Lug. And Megatron helping Rodimus up!! This issue is full of people carefully helping people they care about to their feet! I am Pleased. The stick thing running out of juice.... those constraints are WAY too tight for the plot too be satisfactorily resolved. Bring Killmaster the fuck back from the great beyond, make friends with him (cyclonus! or have cyclonus ash it up between him and whirl), and get him to help you SCIENCE your way free. Get Brainstorm's jack of all trades mad science and Killmaster's spacial displacement hyperspecial skills, and WORK. TOGETHER. Also the laser pointer dude's limbs are just.... a little too thin. It bothers me. It's a little TOO cartoony :/ Oh geez. Also I'm not sure how to fill about godzilla Rung. Oh my god, ANODE, you don't need to rush things QUITE this much. I mean, I'm a fan. And I'd do the same thing. But it's objectively a reckless, stupid decision. I'm right there with you, but NEITHER of us has the best judgment or impulse control or a knack for delayed gratification. Though I guess millennia of torture prepped Rung pretty dang good to endure the ultimate pain :V Ohhhh holy shit. These are the kind of teleportation mad science shenanigans I am here for, but this ALSO sounds like an INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS IDEA. Guys, guys, do you seriously want to bring back a giant chunk of this MASSIVE DYSTOPIAN HELLHOLE with you? aughh TERMINUS STOP PROTO-LUG, NO TERMINUS I NEED YOU TO EXTRA STOP I AM VERY GENERALLY STRESSED RIGHT NOW What the fuck what the fuck what is happening right now i am in DISTRESS Damus. I am still distressed, but have uncurled from my distress ball enough to be intrigued Peace through empathy. That is nice. Andd........ what is with that last page. I am confused and upset and want to see things fixed, but it all got so much extra broken SO FAST, and the way rodimus and minimus ambus are reacting... upsets me. And I don't get what's up with the communicator thing (eta: I have been reminded of how Roller was trying to hail OP before). I'm CONFUSED AND DISTRESSED and I want my robot children to be somewhere chill where they can talk things out without hurting each other worse. I don't trust Terminus OR Roller right now, and I wanted to like them so badly :<
Spoiler: LL06 Though I am very, VERY desirous that Lug's re-happening doesn't go as smoothly as Anode thinks it's going. It's too easy. I dun like it. The backpack still has babby texture, like in the holiday special. Lug was not too happy with Anode when she peaced out before. I want some kind of Difficulty in trying to get the Lug that Anode knew back, with the trust and closeness just like they had before. Whether it's physical or psychological, I want PROBLEMS.
Okay near as I can tell TAAO leads up into revolution so imma start there and deal with figuring out reading order later Spoiler: TAAO 1 that is some really nice painting on the cover like Dayum Who's this asshole and should I know who he is Awww bee breakdown All of them really yO ....it would be really easy to spin this as "scream is having people who think swindle lives attacked" but that would be too easy "If you can't find trouble, make it" This sounds uncomfortably like someone wants a riot ...shit, isn't Maximo supposed to show up at some point? That would splain some things Bless random green and orange lesbians Oh my god idw is going hard Police brutality has been a thing from the start but shooting a random lower-class dude for running from threats is Uh Go big or go home I guess, A+ Oh come on, tell me it ain't that fuckin simple, I am disappoint Spoiler: TAAO 2 oh come on buddy you can't tell me betting on people's state of death isn't a decepticon sport Sassmaster bee Bless ironhide, he's doing his best Bee<>Scream Bee<>Scream (Scream's such a mess he needs two diamonds) Awwww babies UH ONSLAUGHT WHAT Spoiler: TAAO 3 ...uh. someone who actually knows computers, is that as much bullshit technobabble as I think it is? I'm calling this guy Not Swerve until I get a name for him Wheeljack 8C ....I am. Nerdraging a little about misuse of "brain dead". Mhhhh. They're robots it could be different... I! SHIP! IT! I'm weak for heartfelt emotional discussions what can I say Thiiiiis seems like a really bad idea Spoiler: TAAO 4 Everyone's Bad At Grieving: the series I know it's unrelated but come on, the placing of that "buuuuuuurn" bubble had to be intentional Dayum Good for you, Chromia Unrelated to TAAO but since the TV is on in the other room while I read: imagine tagging your asshole ex's car and it turns into a person to ask you what the fuck (Some auto detailer is capitalising on Last Knight coming out, but I kind of want this to actually be in the movie)
I'm not gonna read the new LL until tomorrow bc I want something to look forward to after work. Is it good, tho?
I'll say here what I said in discord: I trust JRo, but I am having Conflicted Emotions and feeling a little bit gunshy re: "things some writers/publishers would consider an acceptable place to end an arc". Last liveblog for the night: Spoiler: Titans Return 1 this has been an adventure in "okay I think this is the right-- wait what was that in the recap, what did I miss" and googling reading orders "My Autobots"? Sentinel, you were never a bot, you had Enforcers. Aaaaaa movie night I remember this! Bless swerve bless whirl "What could I have possibly gained by desecrating a beloved war hero?" "Candy?" swerve (Oh my god does he try) What happened to "the galaxy doesn't need Autobots anymore"? what happened to "the universe doesn't need another conqueror"?? Huh OP????? HUH???? I can't take Kaon seriously anymore dank bowls of kaon "Hodgepodgeatron" Bless fat tankor Babies I love the implication that even though he's a racer and a diplomat knock out is still doing crazy medical shit For Science DID HE JUST KILL AILERON NOT ALLOWED NOT ALLOWED
Spoiler: LL 06 I caved and read it. And honestly? I'd be pretty okay with Megatron staying behind in another universe.
I think part of it for me is the art style shift. It didn't bother me when we first switched to Lost Light! But the pacing and...panel beats (I don't have the vocabulary for this :V) feel kind of abrupt, in some ways, and I thought I would adapt to it more than I have. Like Spoiler I can picture in my head what the reveal of Megatron figuring out he's at the wrong teleport pad would have looked like in MTMTE's regular art style - and the disconnect is just big enough that I'm starting to feel unsatisfied, I guess. Hm. I prefer binge reading to live reading from month to month, which might be part of the problem. I like a lot of what we've seen here with the Functionist universe stuff and the Rung reveal, but I feel it could have been presented and paced out better with the old art
what I want to know is... Spoiler: LOST LIGHT 6 SPOILERS What's Roller's game? He says he gave Megatron the co-ordinates for the jump, but he sent them to the wrong teleport pad! It seems really really unlikely that was an accident. WHY, ROLLER. WHAT DO YOU WANT.
Spoiler He could just want Megatron to stay, but remember: the LL crew switched teleport pads last minute, after Megatron had already split from Rodimus. Did Roller know that detail? Did megatron just not check again?
Spoiler With the things Terminus was saying about these people needing Megatron and ooooh look what a good leader Megatron is, and are you SURE you don't want to stay? I assumed he told Megatron the wrong coordinates on purpose. Especially since as far as his past is concerned, he's been the one giving Megatron direction and guidance, and being the filter between Megatron and the rest of the world in terms of his writings, etc. I don't quite trust Roller, but I'm way more suspicious of Terminus. And as a temporary roadblock for Megatron's character, I'm fine with this endpoint. But the things JRO is saying sound more... permanent. And if that's the case, oh my god I'm not okay with this??? Megatron just got everything he wanted when he was trying to dodge his trial. No accountability, your past is wiped away, nobody ever needs to know about the Bad Shit, you're allowed to be the unassailable messiah you tried to be when you were in your cult leader phase, good job. Being on the necroworld and being confronted with the scope of the harm you've done that you can never atone for and nobody is obliged to forgive you for? NOPE, you get your own universe to play in. You get to save the world, now, just like you always wanted. Oh, and you can even make nice with OP. Isn't that nice. He's not YOUR OP, you say? This is a person shaped by completely different experiences, where he never has to know you spent four million years trying to kill an alternate universe version of him? Hahahaaaaaaa noooo no no, don't worry about it bro, that's like, totally behind us. Behind me. Now let's make out a little or something. Those positive relationships you built with your crew? The ones that were painfully, slowly built and came from a position of intense mistrust and mutual antagonism before you found an understanding? Let's just take a big steaming shit on those before you leave, nothing wrong with that (like, that one point could have been fixed by having megatron running to the teleport pad, and it's a little further away, he doesn't make it in time-- but they see him TRYING. Nope, now they think he's a liar and he used them. That's-- wow, golly, why don't I find that satisfying.) Like, this is just BAD WRITING. If Megatron had died with the DJD, I would have been incredibly upset, but it would have been RIGHT. It would have been a solid dramatically sound conclusion to his story. This is like writing harry potter, you get through the big fight at the end of book five, the book ends, you get two chapters into book six, the plot is building up-- and harry dies. What do you mean that's not satisfying? As a step backwards on a solid character development path, I like this. As an END POINT? I'm upset! I feel cheated! This is intensely clumsy writing, and it's just. It's such a BASIC THING, I'm knocked breathless by JRO saying this is a happy end for Megatron. This is a cheap end! It's a cheap contrived end, Megatron gets to stay in this cartoon world with a bunch of barely-developed cartoon characters, the narrative took a big dump on the positive things he's managed to build, and we're expected to cheer for a cheap, lazy conclusion. I'm UPSET right now. I wanted to give JRO credit before and look in a positive future direction, but given the things he's said? I'm UPSET.
Spoiler Oh, I agree on that note, but I dunno if Megatron is really like... enjoying this as much as you'd think. From the outside it looks like redemption, but internally, idk. But I also think it'd be something he'd like... convince himself of over time, and that'd be... hmmm. Yeah. You're right, this isn't a satisfying endpoint for his arc for that reason. BC it really is all about him! And like, okay, I don't think he deserves to be held over hot coals forever and tortured, or even just to die, bc dying is easy living is harder blah blah, but of all the characters that I'd want this 'out' for... not Megatron. He's got waaaay too much active baggage and responsibility. Skids getting a happy out? Yes. Megatron? No.
Spoiler also I'M NOT DONE WITH HIM YET GIVE HIM BACK crossing my fingers for future interuniversal shenanigans/Optimus Prime getting his shit together and going to fetch Megatron himself.
Spoiler .................megatron still has a link to whirl's arm that he chest-vored and teleported off into the great beyond. In the MAIN universe.
Spoiler I think it's really unlikely that they're gonna leave Megatron there, regardless of what JRO says. His story has been too central to this entire arc, with the whole Knights of Cybertron thing. aaaand If nothing else, he's on one of the variant covers of upcoming issue 7 (pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease)
Spoiler !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD! GOOD GOOD GOOD! UM/Megatron reconciliation, yes fucking please, look at those HANDS!!!!!!!!!! My money is on people getting a clue that Rodimus is rocking off the rails and is refusing to be reasonable and increasingly refusing to listen to reason, and Mags is Troubled. This is good. I need hope. Give me hope. (and honestly, this whole thing is so unsatisfying and would be so unusual coming from jro that it didn't even occur to me this COULD be permanent until his words, and if I was a creator, I'd totally lie to my fans :P)
I know better than to expect nice things from Michael Bay, but.... that multi-headed dragon reminds me a lot of Strafe, and I do love her dearly.........
Bad boys go in the bad boy ball pit to atone for their shenanigans Spoiler: LL6 + dashcon /kisses fingers/ Another flawless masterpiece of Art
Spoiler: LL 6 Some people???? Manipulate their best friends???? To cope????? And also in Terminus' case to save their life I guess, not like he's got any emotional attachment to the war so I can understand him wanting to like... forcibly make Megatron move on from that and get back to the stuff Terminus remembers in him.
psst guys check out this issue 34 page in the context of LL06, and look at the words that are being said here Spoiler Spoiler: LL06 Very sympathetic stuff up top, them a smooth segue into oh by the way, you'd better be ready to FORCE this issue. With your fists. Personally. Because figureheads are important. Yes I know you didn't volunteer for that, *I* volunteered you so you didn't have to take care of that. And hush about the collective having power, we need a single figurehead to rule them all. And let's just mention you FORCING people to accept this again. And for the record, NEVER compromise, NEVER place other people's needs above your own, taking other people's needs and desires into account will just weaken you, so don't even think about doing it. Terminus is a very, very bitter man, guys. And that sounds so much like phase one megatron's attitude. I'm actually kind of alarmed? And alarmed I didn't catch this before?
