Ahhhhhhhhh, issue twelve is one of my favorites! It took me a second reading to finish untangling the timeline, but I love love love everything that goes down there with Whirl. And Chromedome, oh my god, this is where I fell for him 200% (edit: that's a lie, I fell for him earlier, but this is where he first emotionally destroyed me), he's so dear to me.
Oh my god I love Rodimus. I love this emotional infant and he's fucking attitude about everything. Spoiler: MTMTE 35 Alright so, I'll admit I was coming into this with a bit of foreknowledge, because someone on my dash has been into robots since like, before Dark Cybertron. So I'd seen things about "functionalist timeline" and "alternate rewind" before (this is, in part, why Rewind's death devastated me but I also held out hope he'd come back.) Actually seeing the Functionalist Timeline in action? Hoo boy. Hoooo boooy.
Oh my god, everything that went down in that arc around issue 35 WRECKED me so, so badly. I still have trouble rereading that one, because it's just blow after blow after blow. It's so good, but so intense.
Spoiler: issue 13 and we start issue 13 with a message home! "It's not funny pipes nearly shrugged himself to death" you gotta admit that's a lil funny, swerve. "It's coming from the room the little panicky guy with the legs shares with the decepticon-who-says-he-isn't" that is the single most hilarious description ever. Tailgate got legs fo' daaaaaaays I CANNOT FUCKING STOP LAUGHING OH MY GOD THE SCREAMING WAS CYCLONUS SINGING I CAN'T OH MY GOD. THIS FUCKIN NERD are... are they actually bonding over their cultural stuff? :3 ILLEGALY ADORABLE "Those two have a very odd relationship" truer words were never spoken. But I think by ow a lot of these characters ship it too. Also teaching people sword moves. Just like in my fanfictions~ "Waverider and Sureshot insist on playing handgrenade tag outside my offic" omfg this is absolutely 100% swerve sending home embellished Rodimus/Magnus fanfic and i love every second of it I especially love the part where he multiships Rodimus with magnus AND Drift "Maybe the crew deserve some shore leave" BEACH EPISODE!!! BEACH EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh god they have an allowance and everything. Rodimus really IS parenting them HOLOMATTER AVATARS FUCK YEAAAAAAAAAH oh magnus. magnus u so control-freak *laugh track plays as i stare dead eye-d into the camera* (can u tell that this issue flanderizing his quirks gets on my nerves a bit?) "Do I look like a "Mary Sue"?" PFFFFFT But Skids' and Rung's holo-matter avatars are cute :D lmfao at Tailgate and Whirl though. Even knowing ahead of time what their avatars would be it's gold. WHIRL!!! don't smuggle dangerous shit as people's drinks! Magnus you are drunk as shit awww tailgate D: I SHIP CYGATE SO MUCH. MY FEELINGS. oh. oh no. oh swerve, HONEY ono "Next: OVERLORD" how about pick a less ominous name?
so far i ship Cygate, Dratchet and Beerpong-Dad-and-Rules-Mom ETA: AND REWIND AND CHROMEDOME OBV but yeah. i liek my fleet so far
I feel this. Love that you call it 'Beerpong-Dad-and-Rules-Mom' bc oh my god that's a beautiful phrase for those two nerds
Spoiler: MTMTE 38 AUUGH BRAINSTORM....... IN THE FEELINGS........... WHY ARE ALL OF THE ROBOTS GAY WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS ROBERTS I LOVE U.................
I MEAN IT'S TRUE I'M STILL NOT SURE WHY THEY LET RODIMUS MAKE ACTUAL IMPORTANT POLITICAL DECISIONS. GUY IS A SO FAR FROM MATURE HE CAN'T EVEN SEE IT FROM WHERE HE IS STANDING
AS LONG AS WE'RE DISCLOSING SHIPS..... Spoiler: a long, embarrassing list, potentially slightly spoilery!! THE SHIPS Cyclonus/Tailgate Drift/Ratchet Drift/Rodimus (he bought him a ship) Drift/Wing Cyclonus/Tailgate/Whirl Rewind/Chromedome Brainstorm/Perceptor Rewind/Chromedome/Brainstorm Whirl/Rung (ISH… in a world.. where rung is not literally whirl’s psychiatrist…..) Nautica/Velocity ♥♥♥ Nautica/Brainstorm/Perceptor Nautica/Nightbeat Nautica/Skids Nautica/Nightbeat/Skids TEAM RODIMUS: THE SHIP (rewind/)chromedome/brainstorm/nautica/skids/nightbeat and THE BAD SHIPS..... Prowl/Chromedome Ratchet/Pharma Megatron/Rodimus Megatron/Optimus Tailgate/Getaway (i know. i know) Nautica/Firestar Rodimus/Anyone who evokes his daddy issues i am... an enthusiastic shipper of things that will never have content...... also i am Very Very biased towards my favs..... edit: OH SHIT I forgot an important ship that belongs in the Bad Ships section.... Spoiler: exrid/DC spoilers PROWL/CONSTRUCTICONS......
if this is what being pandered to feels like then no fucking wonder straight white guys are so into it ALSO Spoiler: up to 40ish spoilers there's a great post on tumblr about how every single major plotline can be traced back to Chromedome and brainstorm being awful disastrous gay BFFs with shitty love lives, AND. IT'S BASICALLY TRUE??
omg it's here Spoiler: up to 46 it doesn't go into depth on the other plots but RLY overlord, alt-rewind, shadowplay, time-travel, necroplanet, ETC, it's chromedome's shitty love life all the way down
Okay so a thing I didn't get, when tailgate was apparently-dying, cyclonus shredded his face, then later it was back to normal, and I don't know what happened there or what it means?
... oh hey isn't sxizzor one of the people who got really mad at Luka once then blocked everyone in a fit of rage?
Spoiler In Dark Cybertron, his face is fixed, and Nightbeat does some deducting about how clearly you had a friend who almost died, patched scratches match the size of your hand, etc. It's fixed offscreen, without much reference or fanfare, but it does get fixed.
Honestly, I spent a great deal of time in the 1980s wondering what the fuck Optimus Prime was thinking, but now I sort of buy it. Thing is... Yeah, he's immature. But he's also sort of survived the war without becoming bitter and jaded. So he's actually an excellent choice in some ways.