Spoiler: i know, right? Like, Skids snapped at Damus/Tarn because he'd just accidentally broken the winch in Skids' arm and endangered people's lives. It wasn't a mature response, but it wasn't 'RRRR I TOTALLY HATE YOU FOR REAL' either.
Spoiler: i’m facepalming at the memory For fuck’s sake, Tarn. Is a little perspective too much to ask? Oh wait. Tarn. Taaaaaaarn.
Spoiler The worship of Megatron does sort of fit in with the pseudo-Communist thing that the Decepticons had going on; most Communist regimes had very strong cults-of-personality going on with the leaders and simultaneous disdain for "religion".
Spoiler Oh, I know, it's just also definitely presented that way to frame the DJD as massive hypocrites, which they are.
So I have been doing lostlightfest/drawtober, it’s just a bit late due to lack of time and internet Spoiler: Pictures! day one: Ultra Magnus. Inspired by this comic cover Day two: some very ugly rodimuses Day three: a somewhat misshapen Drift Day four: Ratchet! Panel redraw from the team fortress two comics Day five: less-ugly Rodimus and Megatron. I’ll probably make this into a proper painting at some point. Bonus for day 5
So Verity and Ultra Magnus' epic friendship/familial relationship is referenced so often in MTMTE/LL that I just assumed it was super established stuff from the earlier canon but apparently not? Like they didn't hate each other but it wasn't 'this is a connection UM treasures enough to be one of the most important relationships in his life*' level. I gotta know how that happened. Give us the forbidden Verity and Ultra Magnus relationship building in space, please. Like it gotta have happened in the years between when we last saw phase 1 Verity or whatever and the Last Stand of the Wreckers, right? Can someone who's read the entire continuity confirm their relationship before LSOTW where she's calling him Uncle Magnus? * Spoiler Based his holomatter avatar on her teenaged self, apparently had an entire therapy session with Rung where he literally just talked about Verity and then got so upset he didn't book a follow-up, his vision of what he wants his brother to say to him places his friendship with Verity on the same level as getting made the duly appointed enforcer of the Tyrest Accord and his years on the Lost Light. And like, Minimus is so emotionally constipated (something he even acknowledges about himself) that the fact that he spent an entire therapy session talking about someone he cares about is genuinely shocking to me.
Do you think they keep in touch? Are they pen pals? Ultra Magnus my man you realize humans only live so long, you gotta be pen pals with Verity. EDIT: Did she get told when everyone on the LL were presumed dead? Either of those times?
lostlightfest 6, nautica and velocity! trying to explain quantum mechanics while drunk is not the best idea
It’s been a while since I read phase 1. Other than LSotW I think most of her screen time was quite early on. Whereas Ultra Magnus was a bit later to arrive on Earth iirc. I don’t think we saw much more of the humans after his arrival. From the wiki article I gather this is probably because he wasn’t there for all that long, and after he left he discovered Verity had stowed away, in events directly preceding Last Stand.
Didn't she say she'd been with him for a few years in the start of LSOTW, or am I misremembering? I guess they definitely had enough time to get to know each other. Spoiler: LL 24 I just noticed Minimus is given a super big, Ultra Magnus sized Matrix to open (that magically sizes down when Whirl gets it) so as wee Minimus falls from his suit, the Matrix is like... bigger than him, mass-wise? It's hilarious. I hope they brought some of the Matrixes back and the end is they show up like 'hey Optimus we've got 12 Matrixes now but Primus is dead'. I know that's not how it's going to end because of the Unicron stuff going on at the same time, but it'd be hilarious. 'I think Whirl's a Prime now? We've got like... 15 Primes now, technically. But- wait, yup, they're saying if you start calling them Primes they're leaving. Sorry, you have to hang up because UNICRON is there?' EDIT: Spoiler: LL 24 on the other hand imagine Optimus Prime going 'if only we had 12 matrixes to fight unicron with' and then like, suddenly lost light. lmao.
Also Spoiler: Unicron 5 Awww, it's the kiddo Arcee named Sideswipe! Looking pretty fully formed there, Sideswipe! Guess you're old enough now to decide to leave your dinosaur dad and stand outside during the Apocalypse. Truly, a coming of age for every young Cybertronian.
That is my reading of the Verity situation. I think it was sadly all offscreen. Your spoilers made me laugh so hard I faceplanted on the hotel bed with my entire body in a pathetic attempt not to make loud noises at night. I have no idea what I’m going to tell my sister when she finishes with snapchat because she’s definitely gonna want an explanation for that acrobatic flip off the handle.
Well, the good thing is the Verity and Ultra Magnus thing being kept entirely offscreen is it means we can make it all up and nobody can stop us. I'll start: Verity introduced him to karaoke.
The crew on Hedonia shore leave didn’t ask nearly enough questions or they might eventually have discovered a few of the numerous Earth style drinking games Ultra Magnus knows from those years. (Almost all of which they made up themselves because Verity was a bit young and full of wrath to have had the motive or opportunity for much of that sort partying. They involve a lot of rules, but make up for it because the rules are all completely hilarious once you get past the health and safety preamble.)
Ultra Magnus homeschooled Verity for her years on his ship. He also read like, a hundred human books on parenting because he needs rules and guidelines to process stuff. The ones on infancy were not as applicable to his situation as he would have wanted, but he had anxiety, okay. EDIT: Like she stowed away when she was still a teenager, right? I can definitely see him going 'okay I am now her Guardian and must do this properly.' EDIT EDIT: But also Verity was pretty good at derailing his lessons to learn about stuff she actually wanted to learn, and Ultra Magnus was surprisingly good at getting her to do math worksheets.
The wiki repeatedly says Ultra Magnus was 'never outwardly warm to Verity' but I really don't think you can determine that because of the timeskip and the fact that he doesn't feature a ton in the Wrecker stuff that she features in. I mean he's not exactly a naturally warm person but I bet he was outwardly warm to her over those 3 years.
I’m not sure how old she was at that point exactly, but I remember in the parts of phase 1 in which she appeared, she came across as just old enough that she could bluster her way past concerns about someone so young being on their own. She didn’t seem to have any parental figures in her life and she was suffering a lot from the lack of stability and simple care from other humans in a position of responsibility.
Yeah. So like... maybe Ultra Magnus wasn't acting like her best friend. But I think she needed someone to act like a stable figure she could depend on, instead. I could see how they'd be really good for each other.
Basically I reckon Ultra Magnus didn't treat her like she was stupid just because she's reckless and emotionally damaged, taught her skills and gave her responsibilities, and was just generally way more stable and dependable than most people in her life had been up until then. Didn't stop her from panicking and making a bad decision 3 years later when she thought he was abandoning her, but trust issues like Verity has don't go away easily. EDIT: Also he definitely blamed himself for her stowing away on a Wrecker suicide mission, right? Like even though she lived the shit she saw was... not good. And then when she got sick later, god, I can't even imagine.
