Just popping in to say that we are going to start watching Beast Wars at the weekly Transformers stream next week, if anyone has ever wanted to check out the series that almost all longtime fans say is amazing, this is your chance. The animation for this show was extremely cool when it aired in 1996, but it hasn't aged well...It'll be a better watch with company. https://kintsugi.seebs.net/threads/kintsugi-rec-room-group-activities.3757/page-81 leave a note in the rec room thread and I'll add you to my ping list. majestic. At least Waspinator looks pretty good.
Your Transformers shitpost du jour, with extra "wtf youtube but thank you anyway," please enjoy robots dancing to Gangnam Style. Arcee is the best, also Shockwave: Spoiler: bideo
@spockandawe live-blogging MTMTE #6!!!! :D Spoiler: disclaimer newcomer to this fandom, please don't make fun of me if I get facts/who's who/plot details wrong, there are so many characters and so much backstory and I am trying my best Spoiler: MTMTE #6 Spoilers, Cursing "even Tailgate knows, and someone had to draw him a picture of Optimus Prime the other day" pfffffttttt Oh no, I feel sorry for Fortress Maximus, that torture scene looked awful, and that's a lot of blood. Although wow, the emotions in that scene were really good? Like damn this art is really good at conveying robot expressions. I'm actually really interested in his backstory and hope we get to see more of it soon. Ok so Fortress Maximus shot a guy? Why??? Did he kill him? Did that dude have something to do with him getting tortured? He's holding Rung and Whirl hostage. Ok then. Also uh Whirl, maybe stop taunting the crazy guy? I do not rate Whirl's chances of getting out of this alive very high. Rung is recording, I knew it. Fortress Maximus ripped off his thumb??? Ouch. I'm glad he's not dead though. Also Rung won't violate doctor-patient confidentiality even at gunpoint! Oh Rung, I really hope you get out of this ok. This is the second time poor Rung has been in mortal danger he did not sign up for. :/ ...Rung is gonna shoot him, please let that work Nope, that's not a gun, nevermind They're gonna break into the room from the outside of the ship, maybe? "give him your gun and get on your knees" pfff I cannot possibly be the only person whose mind went in the gutter at that oh shit he dead nope Whirl's alive! thats's good WAIT WHAT WHY FUCK YOU COMIC RUNG DIDN'T DESERVE THAT holy shit that's what that was I was wondering who was whispering "kill me" and this is certainly. something.
Ahhh, this backstory is contained in Last Stand Of The Wreckers, which is a spectacular DARK miniseries from IDW's phase one set of comics! (MTMTE begins basically at the very start of phase two). It stands well on its own and has some SPECTACULAR writing if you ever want to check it out, and it's got a lot of Overlord backstory and context for what Fort Max went through! And this isn't exactly spoilers because they let readers know in like one or two issues, but Rung isn't dead-dead! He's only mostly dead. He's lucky to be alive but despite the headshot, his brain was intact enough to keep him alive. This series does a lot of fun things with how ridiculously hard it is to kill cybertronians, and sometimes it's good, for keeping your faves alive, but then sometimes it's veryD: like with what Fort Max survived, or Tailgate being trapped underground for six million years. Interesting trivia: one of the prose things that goes with the LSOTW miniseries is Rung doing psychological evaluations of the new prospective recruits, and he mentions in passing that he's one of very few cybertronians to NOT have gotten all bulked up with wartime enhancements, which contributes to,how relatively small and delicate he is. Spoiler (and you're probably safe on the getting-made-fun-of front! A lot of people in the thread got introduced to transformers by starting with mtmte, and it is an overwhelming amount of info to try to catch up with, but it's a fun ride and it's always fun watching someone wade into it and seeing them get to know and love it the same way. I know my first read was so impatient that I wasn't reliably identifying some main characters up into like... the thirties :V) (and I don't know if you have a reading guide you're working from, but for a first time read my personal recommendation is to skip the big crossover event (dark cybertron) that happens in issues llllllike... 23-27? It leans heavily on plot from the other ongoing series and from phase one and is unevenly written and unevenly drawn. It has some nice moments, but it's a frustrating thing to fight through when you're new to the franchise)
Spoiler: MTMTE #7 Holy fuck there's a lot of torture in this series, wow. It's really well done and makes me take the villains seriously without feeling like it's trying too hard to be grimdark, though? Rung's alive!!!! HURRAH "I- wait a second. Is that my fuel pump?" "What, this? Um, yeah. Can I keep it?" "Well, I kind of need it. You know, for pumping my fuel." Ok, I like him. Also, that line is amazing. "He suffers from a rare and possibly made up type of psychosomatic hyperreflexia: he can't tell a lie without changing shape." "Not true!" *changes shape* pfff "Unless you're Megatron in a new body (in which case, no disrespect, but I hope you kept the receipt)" I like him too! "After all these years we can finally, er ...what was the plan after the war ended?" Oh no, they don't know who won or if it's safe for them to go back, they might think they'd be executed if they went back to Cybertron. I am attached to this small lonely band of Decepticons and I hope they make it out ok. holy shit that's a person in their campfire Yep. I should not have gotten so attached to these characters, whoops. Oh yay!!! Robot body horror! "I am not one of those Decepticons. I say we run away screaming." same, dude.
Oh man, the DJD are done SO cool. It seems like it would have been really easy for them to tip too far in a horrifying or narmy direction, but they worked out super awesome. And I love the scavengers!!! They make some... sketchy decisions occasionally, but they're trying XD And later there's a one-shot issue where one of them gets an internet boyfriend, and it is THE most precious thing. And! Bonus context! The character they just found locked in a mysterious pod thing on the creepy ship is Grimlock. I had no idea who he was my first time through, but he's one of the dinobots, and is a legacy character from the eighties cartoon. His IDW backstory is mostly tucked away in phase one, but it's mostly not relevant to what he's up to these days! He got sent to a prison because deliberately-disobeying-orders-for-reasons-of-i-want-to-fite shenanigans, disappeared from the prison at some point, and here he is. Back in the day, he was one of the most dangerous autobots out and about, and a smart, effective commander. It is one of the best best things that there is an entire set of people who transform into robot dinosaurs (it isn't until later things start escalating and they up the ante to 'turns into a two-headed dragon' or 'turns into a feather kaiju-dragon-thing' but the more extravagant the beast alt mode, the happier i am)
I did know that, actually! I've seen Grimlock in the RiD cartoon. I know everyone from that and a few people from Armada, bc Armada is a mess and there's only so much I took in. Also I'm currently on #16, but I have lists of thoughts on all the issues that I will clean up and post soon! Most of it is chronicling my journey from "wow I really like Drift, and also Rodimus, and wow they work together really well and should probably DEFINITELY kiss." to "...also they should kiss Ultra Magnus." And EVERYONE IS DEFINITELY OK I REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE CANON, FUCK OVERLORD. Also Rodimus I am currently very upset at you! That was not Drift's fault and you know it!
> : ) (I specifically bought the physical copies of issues (chapters???? how do comics terminology???) 12-22 because they hurt the most and I need physical pages to cover in tears welcome to hell, welcome to hell, etc etc)
Spoiler: Late MTMTE spoilers for new people Cyclonus ragging on everyone's handwriting because he probably knows Fancy old Cybertronian cursive - priceless
Spoiler: Reply I don´t remember reading that scene, but "Whos gun is this anyway" is priceless out of context. Are they just leaving their guns lying around and Cyclonus is tidying them? I don´t know but I want to believe.
i am still shook by yesterday's revelation (courtesy of @sirsparklepants ) that Naomi Novik has written transformers porn. Like. This is so surreal. the matrix must be glitching.
... do you want the one having the orgy or the one with the cavein? Also both feature absolutely delightful philosophical and political themes and i am DEAD and this woman killed me. (also the entire story collection is like Unbrindled Delight To Read, 200/10)
Oh yeah Astolat is Naomi Novik and is super open about it and has been for years and years. (edit: a source to make it clear it's public knowledge and I'm not outing anyone)
AHAHAHA, that's amazing, I had no idea! I knew astolat was doing good stuff and people were super excited about the fics (and oh my GOD the cave in one) (but I do really love that cymegs dynamic), but it never even occurred to me to wonder if astolat was a real person! XD
Wow! I'm gonna have to check out some of her published works. I'd never heard of Naomi Novik (and indeed, her name appears in the description of at least one of her AO3 fics so I feel pretty safe assuming that's not supposed to be secret). But I absolutely know of astolat. I've been impressed with her writing for years.
