oh hey so. while we were at tfcon and meeting jro, cold c stars and spock asked thoughtful questions or gave amazing gifts etc and I, like the horrible little gremlin that i am, handed over a piece of paper that said 'simpatico is canon' that i had scribbled on the hotel note pad that morning and said 'don't feel obligated but Please' he laughed and crossed out 'is' and turned it into 'is simpatico canon?' and i shook my fist at him but took it with delight and gratitude Spoiler: img THEN i asked him to sign the mtmte 40 script that i had bought and THIS TIME he signed it thus: Spoiler: img SO i posted it on tumblr Of Course and proudly showed it off to various con-goers ('you're doing a public service' said a dude in the elevator) and all was Good all this to say: fuckin. get a load of this guy, like an hour after i posted it Spoiler: Large screenshots Spoiler: transcript si0c0 Let’s see if it turns out to be true. We’ve been blue-balled for years. Source: cassetticons are we really gonna take this shit?Where is it JroYou shoved over 30 issues of Cyclonus and tailgate down my throatgive me at least one fucking panel of Simpaticowe've been more than readylike i obviously think this is just cashing in on the fans ships to keep MTMTE afloatwe keep having these they're canonbut then we get Brainstorm's hallucination showing us Brainstorm still flailing over Quarkso get your shit together Jro and give me facts and no more of these I SAY ITS CANON TAKE THAT AND NOT SHOW IT YOU COWARDtf mtmte simpatico idwcan you tell this pisses me offwhen creators try to draw in attention by confirming things but never actually showing it???its like having JK rowling saying draco and harry are gay in and walking away whistling while everything in canon contradicts her wordsdont take content creators words for it its mediocre and lazyif they allude to it and end with a show of Perceptor and brainstorm holding hands walking away into the fucking sunset and they confirmingour suspicions that fine cause we actually saw itbut we've barely had any buildup to simpaticowe hardly ever saw them interactbut they know people are thirst for this shit and trying to ramp up the hype for the last issue even furtherto you sirs who do this take the fat F and go rantholy shit THEY WERE SO ANGERY!!!! IT WAS A FUN THING THAT HAPPENED AT A CON!!!!!! JRO IS DOING HIS BEST!!!!!
...Brainstorm is allowed to still love Quark and love Perceptor at the same time. It's not a contest, especially when Quark is hella fucking dead. Like, my impression has been that simpatico is canon but neither Brainstorm or Perceptor have gotten to the point of actually initiating anything.
Besides I would super duper not imply JRO queerbaits. Shipbaits certain ships, maybe, arguably, if you're invested in them and the comic is being coy, but any coyness is definitely not bc of the gayness involved, because MTMTE/LL is hella fucking gay (and trans, now!)
I was going to say something snarky about bury your gays, but then I realized that Brainstorm legit nearly succeeded in bringing an already-dead love interest back to life, which feels like it needs to be a new trope. Lazarus gays? Raise your gays from the dead? This needs to be a thing.
Like I can see Brainstorm and Perceptor mutually crushing but neither initiating bc Brainstorm wants everything to be just right before he does and also was working on the Quark thing, and Perceptor being like, 'oh, well, no way he's interested, besides didn't he like that one guy, Quark?' and it just clusterfucking.
Brainstorm doing a mad scientist mating dance around Perceptor and Perceptor just... being cool and calm in response bc gotta stay professional and completely missing that Brainstorm is in love w/ him.
Also, I was reading through a tagged archive of JRO's transformers tweets on tumblr and I found out that I was totally right about something. Spoiler: Namely why the Aequitas trials went how they did It was just. A coincidence. As I've been guessing all along bc it's the maximally tragic answer.
OH ALSO the first piece of paper ('is simpatico canon?') got thrown out by hotel cleaning staff (cause like. it was just a piece of paper and i left it on the desk like a Fool) so the next day when we went back to jro's table i told him that TRAGICALLY a great piece of history had been lost to the ether and he was like <:0 'oh no it was thrown out? i'm so sorry, can i sign something else for you?' like genuinely sympathetic and then i fished out a piece of paper that had been handed out at his panel the day before (it had song lyrics on it!) and gave it to him and upon it he wrote, unprompted: Spoiler: Big HE WAS SUCH A PEACH
Do you have a link to the archive? I’ve been trying to go through his twitter and not getting very far
Spoiler: LL 23? I wonder if, since Rung is Primus, the dying of cybertronian hot spots have something to do with Rung's mental or physical state? EDIT: Like, the Luna 1 hotspot lit up when Rodimus stepped on the moon, but I think in retrospect it's implied that Rung is the cause, since he's not just carrying half a matrix, but is the matrix-maker himself. We also know from JRO's twitter that Rung got shadowplayed during the silver harvest so he wouldn't remember his role in the (probably non-voluntary) creation of photonic crystals. Of course, hot spot ignition was slowing before the silver harvest, but... Spoiler: edit to include proof https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/1052268654493032448
Spoiler: LL...22? 23? What are numbers SO, i was just thinking about DOTL, as you do, and remembering how Megatron was stressed to the breaking point. And he's been dealing with a lot and then it all got sharply worse, super understandable. But a classic Megatron THING is the fusion cannon. Which got smelted down after DC. Until then Brainstorm made another one for him here. And even though he's been trying to stick to nonviolence, he eventually goes out here with the fusion cannon, doing his thing, until it gets shot. And the main two things I'm thinking about here are the way he cradles the broken cannon (probably partly a ploy, but he's also feeling lots of very real Emotions), and the way he flips and points the cannon at Ratchet later. And then, I'm thinking about his new medkit. Because him becoming a medic? Thematically DELICIOUS. And replacing his main classic weapon with medical tools is just *kisses fingers*. But I'm also thinking about it as like.... a comforting thing for him. He's made the move to rethink his EVERYTHING and remake himself into the person he wants to be, and that means jettisoning so much of what he defined himself by for so long. Like, at the end of mtmte, he's obviously struggling, and things he regrets keep coming back to haunt and/or murder him (and his friends). He's been hit by the sheer amount of death and destruction he caused, he's personally renounced violence, he's recanted his manifesto, he's become an autobot. He's getting a solid amount of external support, all things considered, but that is still a LOT. And I'm having trouble making the right words for this. But there's something about... after so incredibly long, that fusion cannon is practically part of Who He Is, and it's effectively a part of his body. Replacing that cannon, something with that same weight and shape, is finding something old and familiar and comforting that he can HAVE again. But it's a medkit, which is pretty much the most direct possible reminder that he's renounced violence and is making a personal commitment to saving lives instead. It's... not exactly a comfort object, but comforting, while also being a reminder of growth and ideals. From a story perspective, I already loved it, but now I love it even more. (Also, just realized. I never did get around to writing ratchet/megatron, but now it's extra important. Also, y/y, Megatron having lots of saved medical papers in his files, including manymany by Ratchet, which he studied and learned from to reach the impressive level of skill he has in LL) (Ohh my god. In my functionist starscream fic, MEGATRON would totally be the person treating skywarp. Holy shit, i need to think about this OuO)
Something, something, Megatron having a gun alt mode for a while there, and what it's says about him and his wartime psyche that he chose to physically embody/incorporate that violence in himself. Merging his identity so thoroughly with his primary weapon that he literally becomes Gun. The work it takes, mentally and physically, to extricate himself from something that was a fundamental part of his form, how he literally shaped himself
Medics are similar defined by their hands, their identities enmeshed with them. If your hands fail, that's it man, game over. When Pharma's hands are amputated and replaced by chainsaws, that's when his psyche begins to truly fracture and break down. It's the kind of modification of body into a weapon that Megatron pulled with the gun alt, and the DJD emulated even more deeply with their torture alt modes, so you could probably say that Pharma started losing himself/his hands/his identity as a medic as soon as he met them. He winds up in flux, however, changing not his entire frame but just his hands, and the amorphous nature of his change is what makes him susceptible on the meta level to Spoiler: Spoilers being Adaptus'd Megatron has to make that choice, with the med kit instead of the fusion cannon. For the purposes of this theme of identity, embodying guns vs embodying healing, /deep breath/ THERE CAN BE ONLY! ONE!!!
Spoiler: lost light 25 full preview soooooo i think. i know what rodimus is planning. > he doesnt believe megatron should stand trial again and wouldnt listen to prowl until megatron told him prowl was right > prowl just told him the lost light is going to be decommissioned because they need the quantum engines > rodimus concedes > rodimus then asks if prowl trusts him, and tells him he wants one last ride in the ship that little fucker is escaping with megatron. hes gonna quantum jump them and everyone who wants to come along the fuck out of there. OR: he finds a way so that they can have the quantum engines, and convinces megatron to run away with him :3 if this doesnt happen im WRITING IT
Spoiler: LL25 Okay, one, I am too many emotions to react fully right now. Two, LONGTIME!!!! CONJUNX!!!!! ENDURA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Three, phase one ended with a giant leap forward with ironhide and the future, which was immediately retconned as soon as phase two started, and also mtmte was ALL about divergent universes, so in conclusion ratchet doesn't actually die and drift is his longtime conjunx endura forever thank you for coming to my ted talk Four. HAND-HOLDING! SMILES!!!!!!! I'm sure I will have more/better thoughts later, but this is all I have right now. OH, RIGHT. FIVE, RODIMUS AND MEGATRON ARE TOTALLY GONNA ELOPE, THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN
Further note - Ratchet turning Ambulon's body into a weapon post mortem, under the guise of healing him - using Pharma's hands Juxtaposed with Pharma using his new chainsaw, weaponized hands to perform grotesque - but still medically intensive - surgeries
Spoiler: Megatron’s fusion cannon so, back in mtmte 7, there’s this panel: I think that’s why he made his fusion cannon a medkit. It’s still a burden and reminder of the path he’s chosen, it’s just a different path. Spoiler: Ll25, messy emotions under cut that should probably go in a vent thread but ehhhhhhh i am absolutely expecting this comic to wreck me emotionally and I do absolutely mean wreck. I’ve got kind of unhealthily invested in this series to the point I’ve already had one full blown two day long breakdown over it and it’s still my special interest. It sort of made me go “oh, this must be what antis feel like, this betrayal in this area that felt safe and fascinating and good and then suddenly there’s a trigger and I’m a crying mess because I can’t untangle my own feelings from these fictional characters” (and I know this punctuation doesn’t make sense but really that’s the best I can do right now) And the character that I mentally latched on to, that was basically lit up going “I’m relatable” was Megatron. And I’m really worried he’s going to be killed off. It looks unlikely, from the previews, but it’s still possible. And I know if that happens I’ll react badly but I can’t not look because special interest and gah I’m sorry to drop all of this on you lot and it’s my fault really for unconsciously tying my self esteem to robot Stalin but I had to get this out somewhere and I don’t know anyone else who’d understand that kind of emotional investment in a piece of fiction.
