I usually construct my posts in tandem with reading the issue, as in I read, I write my thought into the post box, I go bakc to the tab I'm reading on, etc. then i spoiler the whole thing with which issue it is and done? eta: but seperate thread miiiight work too
I'd rather just do a separate thread; short-post formatting is what I'm used to doing on other social media. RN I got distracted by IRL issues anyway.
This is what you all have done to me Spoiler: swag You guys all owe me like $150 @Kit look forward to it! Edit: I'm trying to binge through RiD right now, I think I'm up to volume five but I'll post thoughts
I really wish I felt comfortable in my local(ish) comic shops, because I have no Internet Money and I wanna get my grubby paws all over physical copies of these comics :T [whine whine moan complain] In better news, the grocery store I work in apparently has TF toys! I think they're from the most recent cartoon? Packaging is only labelled "Robots in Disguise". But anyway they have a neon orange mech labelled "Autobot Drift" and a 'con-colored beastformer labelled "Underbite." (The link for Drift does not accurately portray the SAFETY NEON ORANGE of the two I found, but my own photos came out blurry as fuck :P)
Important thoughts from the IRC logs Spoiler: pregancy, grief, megOP babies, sort-of parthogenesis 0119:47] <!sirsparklepants> what if it was traditional to exchange some coding between partners as a bonding ritual not as deep as the conjunx bond but as the equivalent of, i don't know, fluid bonding in LTR couples 01[19:47] <!sirsparklepants> and it TURNS OUT after the babypocalypse that if you kept that code you can have a baby by your dead lover ... 1[19:51] <!sirsparklepants> okay but if accidental dead lover pregnancy is possible what if a) throwing a spark has to be caused by an overload because something something energy wave triggering responding energy in spark handwavium and b) you ALSO have to be (consciously or not) accessing that coding at the time [19:51] <IvyLB> ohhhh [19:51] <loq> yesssssssssss 01[19:51] <!sirsparklepants> so everyone who sadsturbates over their dead lovers suddenly becomes pregnant with their kids [19:51] <loq> perfect [19:52] <IvyLB> fUCK [19:52] <Mirrors> OOPSY DAISY 01[19:52] <!sirsparklepants> THAT'S WHERE THE REAL POPULATION BOOM CAME FROM ... [19:52] <IvyLB> okay but [19:52] <IvyLB> OKAY BUT [19:52] <IvyLB> the real question is [19:53] <IvyLB> WERE ORION PAX AND MEGATRON FLUIDBONDED BEFORE THE WAR [19:53] <loq> YES AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME [19:53] <Mirrors> YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS 01[19:53] <!sirsparklepants> YOU ARE THINKING WHAT I WAS THINKING TY [19:53] <IvyLB> AND DO THEY BOTH GET KNOCKED UP BY MASTURBATING OVER THEOTEHR [19:53] <loq> PERFECT [19:53] <Mirrors> OF COURSE THEY DO 01[19:53] <!sirsparklepants> Y E S 01[19:53] <!sirsparklepants> ratchet has to take megs off the fool's energon for the sparkling's sake, megs starts to have crazy mood swings, it's awful times for everyone but he wants this baby so bad [19:53] <IvyLB> that is the most fucking embarrassing thing to possibly call your arch nemesis over ever and it happened to BOTH OF THEM 01[19:53] <!sirsparklepants> optimus doesn't tell him he's pregnant and vice versa [19:54] <IvyLB> do they just 01[19:54] <!sirsparklepants> until much later in the process [19:54] <IvyLB> see the sparklings when OP drops by for one of his impromptu visits to the LL [19:54] <Mirrors> walk in [19:54] <Mirrors> stop 01[19:54] <!sirsparklepants> Y E S [19:54] <Mirrors> stare 01[19:54] <!sirsparklepants> i really. really want to write this now. [19:54] <IvyLB> Rodimus in the background "well this just got awkward" [19:54] <Mirrors> DO IT PLEASE GOD DO IT [19:55] <IvyLB> I WANT 01[19:55] <!sirsparklepants> i'm not great at fanfic because it's hard for me to get into the heads of other people's characters 01[19:55] <!sirsparklepants> but i might 01[19:55] <!sirsparklepants> just write the one scene 01[19:56] <!sirsparklepants> from megs' POV [19:56] <Mirrors> o3o 01[19:56] <!sirsparklepants> when OP walks in with a sparkling that's silver all over [19:56] <IvyLB> bless you 01[19:56] <!sirsparklepants> and has OP's eyes 01[19:56] <!sirsparklepants> but red accents everywhere edit: also, pseudo-biology of spark twins Spoiler: pregnancy, medical nerding [19:09] <loq> okay so. However new sparks form, there's going to be mutations if we assume this is a biological process, it'll happen eventually. that is not under question :P I am Not Enough A Biologist to say how well it would work but-- something like how conjoined twins or polycephaly work, with added Weird Alien Handwavium to explain how the twins aren't physically [19:09] <loq> joined at the spark casing. 01[19:10] <!sirsparklepants> hmmm [19:10] <loq> Because this is a decently rare phenomenon and not all cases present in the same way, medics just sort of make up their own names for it when they find it-- splitspark, branched-spark, mitotic spark, etc 01[19:10] <!sirsparklepants> neat! [19:11] <loq> Alternatively, the autobots keep *some* sort of medical database because they're not complete scrublords, and split, mitotic, and branched sparks are all separate designations for how the twins in question are "joined", much like there are several different medical categories for human conjoined twins ... 1[19:16] <!sirsparklepants> okay, so, to simplify the absolute hell out of this, twins are due to one of two things: two ovum accidentally being released, or one fertilized ovum splitting into two, and depending on which day after fertilization this happens, you get slightly different things in prenatal development. conjoined twins happen with a VERY late splitting of the fertilized ovum 01[19:17] <!sirsparklepants> SO if we say that sparks are the core of who transformers are we can sort of go with them initially being something like a zygote and something like a nervous system [19:17] <loq> (Also, Mirrors, I interrupt your orgy to bring you a cassette reply :P Gess is Not Good at blocking her end of the emote connection, now that the initial adrenaline has worn off he'll be getting a lot of Tired And Done from her) [19:17] <Mirrors> (awwwwwwwwwww gess) 01[19:18] <!sirsparklepants> so for a pregnancy to occur something would have to happen to make the parent spark generate a new spark, and that would probably be coding from everyone involved in the interface act at the time to go with alien biology 01[19:18] <!sirsparklepants> so things like twins would probably be more common with multiple parents [19:19] <Mirrors> that makes sense! [19:19] <Mirrors> i'm still just giggling about the idea of life support picking jetski up and being like 'why are you heavier' and jetski just being like IUNNO) [19:19] <loq> :)c 01[19:19] <!sirsparklepants> different types of spark-twins would be easily explained by when, exactly the initial spark split in two [19:19] <loq> (ffff irc why. why you gotta fuck up my emotes) [19:19] <loq> but yes, I like this idea! [19:19] <Mirrors> it's an excellent one 01[19:19] <!sirsparklepants> the longer they were one spark the more degrees of connected they get [19:20] <IvyLB> i fucking love the alien mech biology nerding 01[19:20] <!sirsparklepants> but there is also the possibility of, using the two-ovum fraternal twins concept, multiple children resulting from multiple parents having different combinations of inheritance from each parent [19:20] <loq> mhm [19:21] <Mirrors> so they'd be less or not at all mentally connected 01[19:21] <!sirsparklepants> yeah 01[19:21] <!sirsparklepants> spark twins of whatever degree are going to be connected to some extent [19:21] <Mirrors> yes 01[19:21] <!sirsparklepants> twins resulting from the parent spark throwing two sparks are not [19:22] <Mirrors> LOGIC [19:22] <loq> yeeee [19:22] <loq> (I am just kinda nodnodnodding, all these things make sense and I have nothing interesting to add :P) 01[19:22] <!sirsparklepants> so, say, a branched spark would be a spark that split VERY late in the process, say, three weeks in, where the twins look identical and have the capacity for telepathy from long distances and even maybe speaking through each other 01[19:23] <!sirsparklepants> whereas a split spark would be telepathy when close and some empathy [19:23] <Mirrors> and they wouldn't necessarily be identical either i guess 01[19:23] <!sirsparklepants> or a mitotic spark might split fairly early and have a little empathy and can sense when their twin is close 01[19:24] <!sirsparklepants> yeah the sooner the splitting happens the less likely the twins are to be identical 01[19:24] <!sirsparklepants> anyway that's just what i'm extrapolating from human bio [19:24] <loq> yeeeee [19:24] <Mirrors> i vote the two ideas up there are twins still. =P 01[19:25] <!sirsparklepants> yay, my physiology classes are already proven useful! 01[19:25] <!sirsparklepants> XP sounds good [19:25] <IvyLB> they would either be really early splits then or two seperate sparks from the beginning i'm assuming 01[19:25] <!sirsparklepants> if they were spark twins they would have a very early split 01[19:25] <!sirsparklepants> yeah what ivy said 01[19:25] <!sirsparklepants> LS just wants a baby SO BAD that his spark throws two separate sparks. XP 1[19:26] <!sirsparklepants> alternatively: most of the time larger frames have larger sparks and those are more likely to a) get pregnant and b) throw multiples 01[19:26] <!sirsparklepants> if we want like a pseudoscientific explanation rather than silly wtf explanation [19:27] <IvyLB> ... I just realized that Nichrome's sparkling will likely grow to be taller than her really quickly if they take after their Sire AT ALL [19:27] <loq> why not both? [19:27] <IvyLB> whoever that sire is 01[19:27] <!sirsparklepants> (since minimus is a load-bearing spark i'm just going with that idea, the spark has to be capable of producing enough energy to animate a large frame and if so it's more reactive)
Liveblog time! I cobbled together thoughts on Transformers: Robots in Disguise Trades 1 - 4 Nothing is in order... *grumble grumble* Starscream *grumble* your crown is dumb *grumble grumble* Spoiler: volume 1 -4 Volumes 1 - 4 SO COMPLICATED - binging on this was probably a bad idea. -Wait a second, was ratbat a senator in the functionalist government. That doesn't work, beastformers weren't allowed to do that??? - The one autobot who genuinely tried to extend the olive branch to a decepticon got murdered by the planet. -Prowl orders many murders and is an asshole. - everyone is an asshole actually. - Except Ironside, he's precious, and, -How are there still any cybertronians left at all when they're constantly murdering each other. By all rights, there shouldn't be any left who remember the old days, they should have all died somewhere in the 4 million year old war. - The passage of time is utter bullshit when it comes to millennia old robots "I got stuck in a place for a 2 million years, it was kinda bad' . - The tiny yellow robot should not be in charge of this clusterfuck, he doesn't have the skills. - Arcee is TERRIFYING - Starscream actually has the right idea, he has good points. IF ONLY HE WERENT SUCH A NARCISSTIC DICKWEED. OMFG WHY DID YOU MURDER YOUR BESTFRIEND IN A QUESTIONABLE ATTEMPT TO GET YOURSELF ELECTED! - *SCREAMS INTO PILLOW* - I LIKED METALHAWK! I WAS STARTING TO SHIP YOU TWO! - The titan choosing starscream made my day. I love that he couldn't deal with it either. - The timetravel is really confusing. Optimus Prime went on a psychedelic adventure through time, and I STILL don't know why??? OR the syntax error kid???? - I love the mythology story time in the middle of..volume 4? this and MTME have always been excellent tell really authentic sounding myths. - Cyclonus was there! And Tailgate lived in the crystal city! Yay! People I recognize! - Still wondering how the crystal city went from underneath cybertron to half way across the Galaxy. Did Dai Atlas shrink it down really small and stash it in his pocket? - How in the name of sound continuity does Megatron go from MWAHAAHAHA I HAVE A COMBINER WATCH MY TWIRL MY MUSTACHE to being co-commander of the Lost Light??? - I'm disappointed that Prowl wasn't responsible for more of the shady bad stuff that happened. "Oh no someone was controlling his body" seems like a copout. At least he murdered Ratbat of his own free will - So Megs used his..mysterious power/connection with magic in the center of cybertron to make……people who wandered into a certain spot go nuts and try to combine?? That BARELY makes any sense. - There are about 15 (actually 3) decepticons that look like Cyclonus, this comic is teasing me with the possiblity of my fav purple grumpy samurai robot. I can see why he insisted on putting 'Not a Decepticon' on that documentary footage, it would be an easy mistake to make. - So I was under the impression that combiners were just a normal thing in the transformer universe, but I guess they are a destructive sin against nature? All the cybertronians got tossed out of the city when Jiraxus made the first combiner, that part of the story got a little garden of eden-y - I'm waiting for the titan that teleported out of mtmte to appear in RiD..unless that was the one they found underground (I don't THINK it was. Unless he left sometime after that whole business with shockwave). - BLURR AND SWERVE COULD OPEN A BAR TOGETHER! I didn't think that was a possibility BUT IT IS!! EEEE! and part way through volume 5! Spoiler: Issues 17 - 20 #17 - Does a decepticon ever take another decepticon out into some isolated area without killing them? You think after 4 million years they'd all be more cautious. -The senator shockwave story was SO GOOD!!!! I now have the complete picture. -Shockwave, preserving Dai Atlas for future generations by blowing his legs off. #18 - The dinobots should adopt Arcee, I support this idea - Arcee failed miserably at consoling Prowl, and it was great. "I wish I were still torturing that guy for six years, it was a simpler time. I'd kill him and he'd come back to life. Things made sense." - My heart melted a little when she finally decided that she was going to be an autobot.,,,by carving the symbol into her body. We haven't seen her all that much, but she's my favorite character so far in this series - I kind of wish that I cared about Bumblebee, but he hasn't really done anything for this whole run except looked worried and felt inadequate to the task at hand. 19# -The art is gorgeous. Love the watercolors -The story keeps trying to kill off the rhyming robot, but he never dies. -AND HE HAS A SLINGSHOT..ARGHHHHH -I'm a little disappointed that the titan doesn't tower over the combiner, he's supposed to be the size of a city. -The Optimus plot makes a little more sense. They needed him to come to the death ore place to awaken the titan so Shockwave could dig the space bridge out of its skull. - I thought all the titans were being called back to Cybertron by the message? - - Shouldn't the ones who are capable of teleporting shown up there already? - Why is the titan still ok after being subjected to the death ore? - Am I just thinking about this too hard? 20# - starscream you smug, insecure rusty douchecanoe - Blurr is not going to put up with your bullshit. STARSCREAM YOU WOULD HAVE AN EASIER TIME IF YOU HADNT MURDERED YOUR ONLY FUCKING ALLY - Ray is exactly like Starscream, it's uncanny. - Starscream is uncomfortable around people who aren't as evil as him. STARSCREAM, IF YOUR WHOLE INNER CIRCLE IS MADE UP OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU, THEY ARE JUST GOING TO STAB YOU IN THE BACK AT THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY. YOUR PLAN IS BAD. - at least Wheeljack isn't dead forever- - until Starscream decides to have him murdered again. Because heaven forbid that someone actually believes in him - It's interesting that they have recuperation tanks in this comic, but not in MTMTE.
I think it was more the beastformers that don't have a humanoid mode were particularly disenfranchised. Ratbat did start out with a humanoid mode (that's what he had when he recruited Soundwave off the streets in... 22? somewhere around there), but then after Soundwave helped Megatron butcher the Senate, Ratbat was taken to be converted to a cassette specifically as a punishment and humiliation. I assume he lost his humanoid mode around then. I think that it's said that Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, and Ravage voluntarily agreed to be converted into cassettes, and I belieeeeeeeve Frenzy and Rumble were kind of pushed into it by Megatron (in Megatron: Origin, I think?), but Ratbat was definitely not a consensual conversion. The syntax error kid's spotlight clears up a fewwwwwwwww of the time travel questions. Or at least gives a little background for them :P That's Spotlight: Wheelie, not sure if it's online, but I can do the shitty pirate game tomorrow if anyone is curious. That was one of the earliest spotlight issues in phase one, but it has serious call-forwards, like the Reflector trio in their crashed time travel ship, stuff like that. The titan in MTMTE was a different one from exRiD! At least I'm pretty sure he was. Alpha Trion has been farting around the galaxy with Metroplex for ages, I don't believe it was them underground there. The shenanigans with the ores make no sense to me, I can't help you there :PPP And I have... mixed feelings about Wheelie, but his backstory is pretty upsetting and tragic, and he was a quality part of Chaos Theory! And the spotlight explains the rhyming, which is always the thing that bothered me the most about his character.
I don't remember! Was he in the idw comics? The contrast in that one exrid issue between ratbat and ravage/laserbeak/buzzsaw, and megatron and soundwave both being like '...you know they're PEOPLE, right?' stuck with me. I wouldn't be surprised if any beastformer was somewhat disenfranchised, but it looks like at least ratbat and [redacted] were able to push through and make good despite that, and I don't know if they ever got their actual personhood questioned.
The way his wings are attached in the exRiD 22 flashback make me think that bat isn't Ratbat's original altmode. They don't look like they'd form anything that resembled a bat's wing. You might be able to get bird-ish wings out of them but not bat. Also there was some limited amount of social mobility. Senator Momus, for example, started out as a mining foreman of some sort.
@spockandawe I swear that in the optimus prime time travel comic, he took an Alien kid with him, then encountered the alien kid as an adult, I thought the alien was the one unable to understand anything but rhyme (which doesn't make sense actually, I must have been wrong). I found the spotlight comics, so you don't have to play pirate. Spotlight Collection (link goes to kickass torrents, I'm also a shitty pirate) Is 'Chaos theory' an older transformers comic?
ahhh chaos theory is a really really great two-parter from the previous idw transformers, i have links to it if you want?
Ahh, excellent! Yeah, I'm... not sure exactly what went down in the time travel comics. Deliberately jumbled time travel stories are one of those things where my brain is like 'makes no sense? fuk u i'm on my break.' Even like, the six panels in MTMTE where time gets scrambled in the elevator and it's actually relevant to the plot, I didn't catch it until like my third readthrough because my brain was like 'I don't understand MOVING ALONG NEXT SCENE.' Chaos Theory was the... last(?) miniseries of phase one. Either that or second-to-last. It covers Rodimus and Wheelie being space adventure bros together!
You are correct! I just looked it up, haha. I read it all in the hardcover trades in one exhausting marathon, so my knowledge of issue names is... very erratic. I got it half right, at least? :P
Also, a newbie question, why would anybody want to be a cassette tape. It seems like such a weird thing. Ooh, yes please!
@mizushimo this should work! if it doesn't let me know and i'll figure something out. the drift miniseries and EOS are in that folder too, if you haven't read them! edit: also you wanna be a cassette so you can hang out in soundwave's chest >:) it is The Place To Be.
That is... an excellent question. In the original series, at least, Soundwave was the intelligence officer and the cassettes were his spies (and also they were born as cassettes, or at least there's nothing about them being converted like in IDW), and by syncing up and docking, they were able to transfer the intelligence they collected back to him. Plus Blaster had a similar setup on the autobot side, though in IDW, he doesn't appear to be a cassette carrier anymore (Rewind, for example, was one of his original cassettes and definitely is not in this canon). Though! In terms of fannish speculation, These Games We Play is a fanfic based maiiiiiinly off the original cartoon (which I've barely touched, but I was still able to follow the story), and it goes into carrier/cassette relationships a lot. It's not the same as in IDW, but it's still super interesting. Warning for master/slave relationships, unhealthy power dynamics, noncon, dubcon, and all things problematic, plus an awesome (and problematic) romance blooming in the middle of everything. It's *REALLY* good, 11/10, definitely recommend.
that reminds me, i am due for my one, two, three, four fifth re-read of TGWP. tick tock, apple, it's not going to re-re-re-re-re-read itself.
I'm saving my next re-read for when I'm at a con next weekend! I have to metro in and out of the city, so there's a lot of dead time there to take care of. But I am torn, because I want to do a liveblog post for the thread, hmm. I guess I'll have to do ANOTHER reread after that. SIGH.
