Spoiler It's really interesting that Thundercracker's aware of how racist it is, and that other parts of the story reference fliers as 'second class citizens', but Starscream is still so fixed on it (actually, that's an interesting contrast to the fandom business you sometimes see with fliers being the prettiest, flashiest birds. In functionist society, they're highly mobile as soldiers and they're highly mobile as transport, and there you've got two very, very broad functions that can be applied to the whole class of frametypes, and bam, there you go, all set for mass conscription) And... hm. Starscream is watching Birth Of Cybertron here particularly referencing the stuff on how to rule an empire. And there's some of the other stuff with the 'metrotitan's words didn't mean anything REAL' and the other series have had a lot of push and pull with political power, especially as relates to Optimus 'don't scare me like that, colonizer' Prime. It's hard to keep track of timelines across series at any point in this silly continuity, but the movie-making process must have taken a while and Starscream gave himself up somewhere in the middle. I don't know if maybe we're intended to see Starscream's interest in the movie as part of things slipping out of his control, like they were in TAAO? Him being entrenched in the political games, trying to do right by Cybertron, but also trying to hold his own against Optimus and Elita for mixed reasons, and also trying to stay out of reach of his own old bad decisions. Birth of a Nation has some of those old 'well they thought it was right at the time' vibes, and I don't know it well enough for a deep reading, but it makes me think of Optimus annexing Earth for its own good, and sinking further back into factionalized society, and Starscream being really hung up on how people flock to Optimus and his image. Which is to say that Birth of Cybertron is racist, and Starscream was probably on the receiving end of that racism, and diving back into that now is a sign of the way he was in danger of slipping in unfortunate directions before he recovered his footing and just flat-out resigned. NOT VERY COHERENT THOUGHTS, sorry, I've had a headache all day and I may be out of words. (which is all apart from that OP16 business. I'm not caught up but those panels with bumblebee are Le Discomfort, and I hope the narrative gets its balance back soon)
Hello hello today I can't stop thinking about the DJD coming across Starscream and he's not on the list so they can't kill him, but Tarn keeps him for the collection as his own personal Limited Edition Vintage Starscream™. He makes a lovely addition to the first editions. So historical. But very loud.
metal bird alarm clock. no one in the DJD ever oversleeps again. there is no sleep. there is no routine. there probably are several holes blasted into the walls, and also starscream, and only starscream.
Kaon very much wants to zap him, just a little bit, but Tarn is protective of his artifacts (Kaon does zap him and burns off half his paint, and Tarn retouches Starscream in his original colours for maximum historical accuracy). Tarn and Starscream can both quote everything Megatron's ever written, chapter and verse, and have the most uncomfortably tense philosophical discussions. Starscream doesn't know whether this is supposed to be torture or the world's weirdest foreplay (one time he accidentally lets it slip that he's slept with Megatron. Tarn can't look him in the face for days).
I think John Barber maybe should have to read other comics in the series since he's you know writing in the universe. Because....I'm not he's been reading a lot of other idw transformer comics.
Spoiler: OP Annual If Starscream has made a very, very, very public confession of all his wrongdoing and is sitting in jail, why on earth would the guards be LISTENING to him? When he's like 'okay now you goons need to go kill this one guy for me kay thanks', they should be like 'um, sir you are technically a criminal and this would be problematic orders even if you were not literally incarcerated at this very moment, sooooo......' Honestly, I'm kind of unsure John Barber is aware of what's happening in the other series, even on a basic plot level, never mind a character level.
Spoiler Which is weird, because when he was senior editor he was the epitome of the fight against continuity errors, trying to make the IDW universe work as a whole.
Spoiler If there's some background stuff going on, with Starscream slipping back into bad habits for [reasons], it would make more sense, but right now it's... confusing. Reasons could be that Starscream has no concrete power that he earned fairly at this point, so he feels like he's got to scrape up everything he can through illicit means, and go back go relying heavily on underhanded dealing to make up for a real or perceived power differential. They could be that Starscream seeing his true form is having actually some negative emotional/practical fallout, where if that could have been him, well it clearly isn't, so there's no point trying to live up to that ideal anymore, because it didn't happen, he is ruined forever, etc. If something along those lines was the case, there could.... almost be a coherent shape for his character arc, where Windblade falls heavily on the side of 'look, this is what you can live up to now!!' and Bumblebee is undermining that with 'that's your true form? ....yeah? okay?' and shrugging it off like it doesn't matter. But that arc is split across at least two series and Starscream isn't starring in anything these days and it makes me... nervous. (honestly, that would be a story I'd really love to read, where Windblade is super emphatic that this is important, and he must be able to see that, and he can be so much more than he is now, and Bumblebee is just ehhhhh and not knowing why it even matters or why Starscream cares this much, and all the emotional pieces are laid out for Starscream to progress forward, but the external forces cancel each other out and he has to take those steps himself) (also it would be bumblebee being wrong about a thing even though he's been the 'i told you so' shoulder angel for a long while now, and that would be nice) There could be reasons revolving around... ugh, this is hard to articulate and I'm tired. Thundercracker is trying to market this movie on earth, and earth is Optimus Prime's domain. This movie is betraying some of Starscream's legit emotional weaknesses. If Thundercracker sells this movie on earth, he's going to be showing Optimus Prime's people Starscream's secrets (it's not so cut and dried, but that kind of thing). Starscream and Windblade have successfully wiggled themselves out of the enemies zone, so as far as active political enemies, Starscream is currently looking at Elita and Optimus. Even though he's technically out of power, they could probably still find a way to leverage all this against him and/or Cybertron, and maybe even against the candidate Starscream threw his support behind. This would need WAY more textual support before it was anything more than speculation, but Starscream makes so many of his decisions based on how to outmaneuver his enemies, and his enemy pool has shrunk pretty drastically of late. In a practical way, it could be a way to show that Windblade's control over the city is kind of weak, and especially that the badgeless are a hole in her security, and they take orders from another party. I don't think we really needed to see that kind of thing right now, but the badgeless have already... been the tools for some sketchy shenanigans. Blast Off/Rattrap used them to undermine Starscream once, and Starscream is using them for his own purposes now even though he's nominally out of power. From a plot direction, it could show that he has still some ways to affect the city, even from jail, or to show that Windblade has limited control over the city and things are pretty divided and unrest is strong. I'm not terribly happy with how ANY of that is supported in the text right now, and it's all hiiiiighly highly speculative and I think the writing has been really disappointing on the Starscream front specifically, but... hm. Oh, alternate read: The badgeless weren't there to kill Thundercracker (and they just forgot that puppies need atmosphere to breathe), Starscream just ordered them to destroy the movie, a la the aequitas trial records. They didn't quite manage because Thundercracker reacted to a threat like the highly trained soldier he is and utterly crushed them, and he was under attack, but it wasn't meant to be an attack on his life. It seems more likely Starscream would be able to bribe/pressure guards into a property theft than assassination of a high-profile diplomat, and John Barber is refusing to commit to whether Starscream wanted to kill Thundercracker, so maybe. Lots of maybes. A frustrating number of maybes.
Spoiler bonus points: this would mirror so nicely with Rodimus's line in early MTMTE about "drift tells me to do one thing, Magnus says to do the opposite, I get to do whatever the hell I want" :>
it's cold as balls and I don't have work, so clearly it's time to chug through more RiD instead of catching up on OP Spoiler: s2e5 NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA ......wait, didn't that mesa base get blown up? nvm why are you all yellow Drift is So Done you made it 4 seconds buddy good eggs GOOD EGGS I LOVE THESE TINY DEMONS ....those effects. hrm. nice Science tho oh my god please put optimus' mask back on, he looks so weird without it showoffs windblade just not gonna help or anything #0kay this is possibly the dumbest fight I've watched in a while tbh at least Drift is unfreezing a little tho, it's nice to watch him open up about caring about his minis teleport??? Fixit pls .....optimus that wasn't temperature manipulation, nevada is not humid enough to support spontaneous ice generation at midday guys guys it's called changing your name OH MY GOD OPTIMUS "I can't believe I tried not to offend someone" YOU'RE DOIN GREAT HONEY .......that's not stamina, that's actual physical damage "I can scout on my own" you JUST SAID to stay in PAIRS you HYPOCRITICAL GEARSTICK WINDBLADE PLEASE WINDBLADE YOU'RE A FUCKING PLANE JUST TRANSFORM WINDBLADE YOU'RE A FUCKING GIANT ROBOT, STAND UP for real this is the most contrived subplot I've seen in a while .........honey. some of these are missing wheels, of course they haven't been used recently WINDBLADE PLEASE >uses turbines specifically as an argument >fails to use turbines when they would actually be useful A+ windblade pls well that sure is an episode that happened Spoiler: s2e6 this episode summary sounds like the TFP one where Bulkhead got temporarily genius'd you ARE the flash grenade oh my god put fixit down grim please FIXIT PLEASE STOP OFFERING TO DOWNLOAD THINGS DIRECTLY TO PEOPLES' BRAINS I like how fixit's immediate reponse is just "well shit :/" "something like this happened to a friend of mine once" AT LEAST THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEY'RE RE-USING PLOTS thanks for that exposition dump, grim, definitely necessary ......guys. guys. those big observation windows exist. that's not how anything works oh my god the train problem "how to shut down the cannon" there you go that's the question that was actually pretty nice Spoiler: s2e7 awwwwwwwww yeah welcome back furry bot stRONGARM NO OH NO WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM WHO HURT THE WOLF BOI ..................having just come out of an IDW chapter involving Scorponok, this is a little surreal children children it's called hacking ............children we know you are capable of seeing in alt, why did you need to transform there STRONGARM HONEY ARE THOSE INSECTIMINICONS bee has hood shoulder ornaments, how cute steeljaw honey stop gloating and go tbh I'd say just give Steeljaw and the cons their own planet that's not Earth but lbr, we saw how well Garrus-9 went strongarm honey the answer is "shoot him and steal the control" "is anyone broken" bEE Spoiler: s2e8 I know it won't happen but my sad little heart just went "ah yes, a trainyard, this is where we will find knock out and his tiny human hostages" I love this delusional frog bee did you just shoot grim bee totally shot grim good job honey bee. you are the only experienced soldier here. Strongarm is An Babby and Grimlock spent god knows how long in stasis. you can't expect them to be soldiers when the war neither of them fought is over does this mean. miko was into vintage metal??? or has more time passed between rid and tfp than previously assumed poor russel do not DO NOT at least russel's smart enough to get off the moving prop kittens RUSSEL NO "aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I forget where we parked" ME bee "this better be the last thing that goes wrong tonight" [OMINOUS ROBOT FOOTSTEPS] w wot BEE YOU GIGANTIC NERD okay but this song is seriously a jam okay but what was the plan for bisk before bee showed up to fight him was he supposed to have a staged fight with the minis or russel's bluff skill just keeps improving BEE IS A GIANT NERD AND I LOVE HIM Spoiler: s2e9 uncomfortable humans on the preview screen that's nice that's supposed to be canine????? clearly he is a bear, not a wolf oh my god this is why we don't have fights near population centers, children bee just ". . . fuk" okay but why you gotta be secret this continue to be my nitpick with this series have Cybertronians been banned from Earth? Who set that up? With which government(s)? Records almost definitely exist of the events in TFP, given the direct US military intervention/assistance in s3, to say nothing of Fowler's presence at all much less the fact that he reports to someone. Why the Absolute Fuck can't you just call up the appropriate department (bc you can't tell me there wouldn't be one after everything that happened in Prime) and say "hey we have intel some escaped convicts landed on Earth, we have a squad down to take care of them" shit, Bee was part of the original team just aaaaaAAAAAAAAGH fixit is a good egg and I love him TINY DRAGON FRIENDS god I love all the minicons bee now is not the time for traffic laws you're clearly in a city, drive like an asshole like everyone else bee you're not buff enough to lock horns with construction equipment wh why was that an eye-shutter blackout bee is still in car mode are the animators implying that bee at least has eyes while he's a car w h a t THEY'VE COME SO FAR SHARING TOOLS TEAMING UP GOOD JOB BOYS (I say, of a middle-aged man and a space robot undoubtedly at least thousands, if not millions of years old) oh my god he's beautiful "common criminals" strongarm strongarm they're not even alive though the one next to her does look entertainingly like knock out what kind of video game puzzle bullshit is this oh my god THEY'RE TRYING SO HARD GOOD JOB FIXIT A+ UNIRONIC A+ EVEN at least quillfire's a good boss FIXIT AND GRIM BEING BESTIES IS THE GREATEST OKAY WHAT GOOD CHILDREN Spoiler: s2e10 "portals" oh boy spacebridge? "ACCIDENTALLY FREES SOUNDWAVE FROM THE SHADOWZONE" COUNT ME IN good job guys gooooooood job GOOD JOB BEE NO SARCASM THIS TIME "crazy cousin" IN THIS HOUSE WE LOVE AND ACCEPT SIDESWIPE AS THE ASSHOLE LITTLE BROTHER I do love that we have more insectformers this time through fixit how did you fuck up that badly HIIIIIIIIII SOUNDY 8D 8D 8D MY SON AND DAUGHTER THEY ARE HERE AND KICKING ASS nice revenge soundy bee. bee you were there when the Shadow Zone adventures happened, get a clue I do like the texture-shift they did with him tho, that's p neat (also whoever named the Shadow Zone remains a Fucking Nerd) "lightyears away" thanks for the confirmation he's still alive, I guess!!! guys guys what if you. called the other half of your fucking team. Optimus at least has fought Soundwave before, I'm like 75% that Drift would have as well if he wasn't off partying with Wing and his crowd, and Windblade and Sideswipe are zippy little shits. You have six extra fucking bots at your call if you can get through to them. guys you're gonna die okay at least they acknowledge that the others are out there what the fuck are they doing is what I wanna know denny you're a horrible fucking shot soundwave's thighs tho Nice what the hell kind of firepower is laserbeak packing that she can knock over a Dinobot with one hit??? I do like that she's more obviously birdlike now tho ono the daughter the perfect visual cue for "biTCH" this is why we don't jump around without aerial maneuvering capabilities, bee WOW RUDE at least they didn't split up soundy and laserbeak I GUESS :T ....this sounds like "we need a disposable body to throw at the problem" Spoiler: s2e11 I SAW DRIFT ON THE PREVIEW, DOES THIS MEAN WE GET TO SEE WHY THEY COULDN'T ANSWER PLEASE goooooooooood windblade is so pretty so pretty optimus looks. so much better with his mask on sideswipe has two tiny troublemaking bros and it's beautiful robot cigars continue to baffle me why did these need to exist sideswipe oh I missed you honey dayum hon where did she even get all this??? DRIFT Drift you've grown so much What a good dad oh my god optimus randomly acquiring a soft tidewater accent for a few lines is surreal as fuck the twins are good eggs :c oh my god is sideswipe getting arm eggs now I mean at least you're out of the box dayum honey sideswipe you dork HOLD THE LINE BABIES WE LOVE YOU MAXIMUM ANIME A+ reflexes drift also "three times in one day" what else was he throwing at sideswipe??? I LOVE MY TINY SONS Spoiler: s2e12 the squad is back together!!! OPTIMUS STOP UNDERMINING THE AUTHORITY OF PEOPLE YOU PUT IN CHARGE OH MY GOD GLOWTITS okay no that's where a lot of vehicles have their headlights but glowtits IS IT KNOCK OUT RATCHET OH MY GOD THAT'S EVEN BETTER "gone" do you mean dead, ratchet RATCHET HONEY THEY'RE DIAMONDS AND YOU CAN'T TELL ME OTHERWISE but also oh my god optimus slow your roll god bee has grown so much optimus better not undermine all this oh my god put clampdown back in his box, he'll escape while you're distracted elsewise OH MY GOD IT'S ONE OF THE MAINTENANCE MINIS ..........okay but cloaks wouldn't cover the giant fucking impact that's a lot nicer than inhibitor spikes there's only two swords this super looks like they intend to skewer him after OPTIMUS S T O P OPTIMUS LISTEN TO YOUR DIAMOND YOU OBTUSE FUCKHOLE this is how you end up with starscream, optimus do you want bee to be starscream do you windblade, stepping up while "leadership" squabbles in the background good job girl hot damn oh man even genericons are still pretty I'm in love with these two mooks "how in the name of megatron's pistons--" are are you swearing by Megatron's dick "now we start sneaking" >whole group continues to run this really isn't sneaking AND NO ONE IS SURPRISED optimus perhaps consider other people can be leaders too you shitheaded son of a gun Spoiler: s2e13 this is apparently the season finale????? why is season 2 half the length of season 1 if 3 still exists wot I kinda want steeljaw and starscream to be stuck in command together they would get Absolutely Fucking Nothing done "we don't have time for you two to argue, so here's the new plan--" windblade pls if they kill off windblade I'm gonna be pissed OH NO NOW THEY CAN'T MAGICAL GIRL COMBINER fixit please don't run in there you have the best chance of stealthing this mission but please fixit guys walk and talk, you're losing toolbox this sounds like it should probably turn him inside out but also we need a Final Boss so okay nope it's turning him inside out and making him final boss that works FIXIT "kicked me a little hard, didn't ya?" "sorry, I've wanted to do that since I met you c:" STRONGARM IS SAVAGE bless the tinies SWARM OF TINIES BLESS THE TINIES awwww we're losing ratchet too? :C Why they takin all the good characters Soundy, Windblade, Ratchet Not Fair Optimus gonna go politics before the Senate happens all over again man this was a good finale Spoiler: s3e1 WHY ARE THE SEASONS GETTING EXPONENTIALLY SHORTER ...........bee bee have you just been taking your new friends around to literally everywhere you visited last time guys guys no this is either the new base or the old one IT IS JASPER if we don't get cameos from the kids I'm gonna cry bee honey your nostalgia is adorable but no one else cares I don't know who these are but I love them already weaponformers!!!! 8D .......primal blue powering up his partner calling it now, he's aligned with either Nexus or Micronus and between the two I'd put money on Micronus, given minicon kids thanks grim Yeah, probably Micronus that mini's having some Thoughts this guy and the IDW Scavengers would have so many problems with each other oh my god sideswipe don't leave a note or anything!!!!! "Let's wrap this up before that guy blows up something important. Like a crucial artifact, or us." bee ilu "Ooookay. Freaky!" bless sideswipe I like this mini oh my god oh my god 80s bee Spoiler: s3e2 "sideswipe's score is 95--" "that's, like, 94 points higher than I've gotten on any test! ever! :D" honey oh boy that's that's a tall order, bee (roadtrip to find the kids pls) "and aaaaaanything you might've heard about alien robots or secret volcano bases--" I'm Dying pointy fish fixit you're bad at fieldwork, just accept it oh no oh no that's cool but tell me they don't end up in the development of course they do fixit this is the point where you listen to him and help him escape good egg [squints] I think I like this plot even if it's only gonna be six episodes long god bless fixit Spoiler: s3e3 oh my god what .....grim you're gonna start an avalanche oh my god I didn't expect them to actually do an avalanche is is this guy supposed to be german I do love that his immediate response to "giant angry robot dinosaur" is "MAYBE IT'S FRIENDLY, LET'S FEED IT" you're never gonna show up again but you're my favorite human, pretzel dude LOBSTER PIRATE GOD BLESS is that is that dark energon oh god YOU'RE NEVER COMING BACK BUT YOU'RE MY FAVORITE HUMAN okay, probably not dark energon, that's okay "How can you be so sure we can--" [literal angelic choir] ".......ooookay, right, anyway!" oh my god "Does this mean we're growing up?" yes it does honey bless grim bless brother gunther tbh Spoiler: s3e4 there are THREE EPISODES LEFT I will finish this tonight if it kills me morning me can suck it it's an emp egg "we're perfectly safe" ya jinxed it SIDESWIPE DON'T SWORD THE EGG ..........sideswipe, did you suddenly lose your character development or wow strongarm gonna need some ice for that :/ THE TEAL ONE EVEN LOOKS LIKE MICRONUS, YOU CAN'T TELL ME THESE MINIS AIN'T HIS OH MY FUCKING GOD NO ONE THOUGHT TO GET THAT BACK NO ONE SERIOUSLY?! there's a fucking spacebridge in iacon you couldn't use that, optimus?!?!? ....for real, it feels like someone rewound sideswipe to season one. Where did all his emotional development go? buddy you have no idea how to use that sucker STARSCREAM WHAT WHAT WHERE DID HE GET TINIES WHEN DID HE GET TINIES HE BROUGHT INSECTICONS THERE ARE INSECTICONS HELL FUCKING YES STARSCREAM AS A GODDAMN THREATENING VILLAIN AGAIN HELL FUCKING YES oh my god no please don't make a romantic apology sides oh boy ohhhh boy :O you tried sideswipe oh my god he brought one whole flower drift's gotchu babes ........................multi-track DRIFTing fixit oh no I'M LOVE STARSCREAM DRAMATIC GUITAR RIFF is is that the jackhammer oh right optimus booooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I wanted wheeljack Spoiler: s3e5 fuck friends, Bee survived the war, he'll fight all three goons and Starscream steve blum does a dang good evil laugh ohhhhhhhhhhhhh the insecticon is still so pretty we FINALLY get acknowledgement that Optimus can fly "disposed of"? :C no, no killing predacons, bad screamer ..........................okay I'm seein a little Nexus in here now optimus says FUCK OFF PRIME PRIME welp you tried mmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM THE TRAUMA REACTION IS REAL I love the "o shit" look o shit drift's got two swords now, that's so much scarier sideswipe's type is "could kick my ass without breaking a sweat" and I can respect that starscream's electric guitar motif is making my night tbh IN THIS HOUSE WE LOVE AND RESPECT ACTUALLY THREATENING VILLAIN STARSCREAM Spoiler: the end is niiiiiiiiiiiiiigh (s3e6) last episode :C oh my god all three there's no bluffing your way out of this one "freeze your voice like I did your body," he says, to a bird who is quite clearly moving .........this is going to backfire hideously, and not just because screamer's trying to do this forcibly beautiful timing, well done writers back in the hole THAT WORKS TOO SIDESWIPE YOU'VE LEARNED NOTHING insecticon says fuck you .........the insecticon sounds are different and that was disorienting screamer buddy you don't want to be worthy of unicron sideswipe's smoking wound mysteriously vanishes when he stands up I want that superpower ACTUAL THREATENING VILLAIN STARSCREAM HE'S SO PRETTY HE HAS SUCH GREAT THEME MUSIC WE HAVE ACHIEVED FULL ANIME and you get a magical girl sequence and you get a magical girl sequence and you-- this would be one hell of a video game but also it's one hell of an anime THAT WORKS optimus you have your own turbines, put them to work [EYEBROWS] [skeptically:] "Okay..." me too, bee man that was cute that was a super cute series And now I'm out of RiD to procrastinate with :') Final edit: Netflix only has 6 episodes for season 3, but I'm finding references elsewhere to more things???? More Soundy content??? Motormaster????? Cyclonus and politics??????? Where Are They, I have a Mighty Need
I happened across this panel (which is I think from Regeneration One?), and good god, Megatron, why are you like this about Starscream? What the fuck.
