TFs: DARE TO BE STUPID

Spoiler: TAAO 1

Yesssss to all this!! I read it really fast literally as I was walking to my choir concert, so I wasn't able to gush as much as I wanted. But even though I was kind of ehh on having another series instead of course-correcting for exRiD, and despite the things Mairghread Scott was saying about it, I am SO EXCITED NOW.

The murder mystery thing is great. I'd kind of thought that the Swindle Lives things was going to get dropped or go on a back burner and be a super minor plot point, but I am REALLY liking it as a central focus of the plot. It's so interesting! Because Swindle was a JACKASS, but that was still a shitty thing that was done to him. And Starscream may be taking shady action for the (theoretical) good of cybertron, but they are some SHADY-ASS ACTIONS. Also I want Swindle back, because he's a two-story-tall bag of dicks, but I can't not love him after TFA and Herz and he didn't deserve to go out like that, Starscream you ass

I'm really, really curious about what's going to be done with the Combaticons. Because in Phase one... Hm. I'm assuming they were around, because they're pretty high-profile decepticons, in a meta sense. I wouldn't have recognized them, because I still can't, except for Swindle. But I'm pretty sure they didn't do much of anything that was important to the plot. Even in exRiD, they popped up here and there (wasn't Needlenose in the bar with one of them when Tracks came to be an overbearing older brother?), but again, not much to do with moving the plot forward. I remember that one of the things that was odd to me in the holiday special was that Onslaught and the Combaticons got their own special mention when they'd never really done anything in the story, but if they're going to play a bigger part moving forward, I'm excited. It does stand out to me that they WERE a combiner team in the original cartoon, and combiners are happening all over the place, but nothing has been done with them yet. Bruticus, right? Maybe if/when Swindle isn't dead or however that plays out, maybe then there will be another combiner happening. I wonder who will be in the driver's seat in that case, and what their motivations will be. Hm.

Alsooooo I am ALL about those dysfunctional team dynamics, so I really, REALLY want to see more of the Combaticons interacting. No shame, I am COMPLETELY about those 'I kind of hate you but also you're my teammate and I'm going to have mixed feelings but do the decent thing' dynamics. Like Cyclonus/Whirl, but with extra people and extra history. They seemed like an amorphous blob of characters, but with the way they drew I-don't-know-his-name balancing the can on his face, not once, but twice, I'm hoping SO HARD that they're intending to work some awesome character moments into the future plot.

I'm also really curious about wtf is up with Rattrap. I'm pretty positive he's the informant, because Swindle told him that last information thing as he was dying, so he's gotta be practically the only person around who can be pulling all these strings. The badgeless uniform, that is playing DIRTY and EXCITING. There have to be so many shenanigans that can be caused that way, omg. Of course, I love Starscream, I don't want to see him overthrown or anything, and Rattrap already makes me nervous where he is, I don't want to see him in charge of anything. But if maybe Starscream gets undermined just enough that other people can take enough power to level out the social playing field (I feel super bad for those decepticons, and the one drunk idiot who got murdered), maybe then other people will be equal enough with him that they can see the way he's falling the fuck apart and get the poor asshole some help :( I am really, really emotionally invested in someone getting Starscream some help.

Spoiler: barely spoilers for taao, sins of the wreckers, and exrid 54

Last thing, I'm also super confused about timing between all these series :P Not in a mad way, just confused. Because Optimus Prime has annexed earth. I coulda sworn some of the Combaticons went along through the space bridge for that party, but whatever. But Longtooth and Circuit were reporting from earth, but also they're reporting on Cybertron in here. I will absolutely buy reporter-based teleporting powers. But I don't know when SOTW is supposed to be happening in relation to everything else. Because if this is pre-SOTW and Jimmy or whatever his name is has been dicking around with Spike and killing cute, innocent robots while Verity is lonely and dying in Alaska, I'll be even more pissed at him. Or if there are giant robot fights happening on Earth, wouldn't Stakeout, like...... notice? Or Tarantulas? Also, Arcee is double booked for hunting down Galvatron and hunting down Prowl. Maybe SOTW wraps up before All Hail Optimus starts? But that's some seriously fast turnaround. I mean, even mtmte plays around with how time passes, so I'm not upset or anything and I don't think it's impossible to reconcile, but I wonder how well the people in charge of plotting these series have ironed out the details.

Spoiler: combiner wars

Prowl had already won me over, but that part was where he broke my fucking heart. Even if MTMTE is crushing the writing-about-mental-health game, this was a part of exRiD that caused me much, much emotional pain. Prowl just... can't win. Even when you go back all the way to the bomb plot, he can't win. Like, taking care of mental health in a military setting is a big, messy problem, no matter what. And a four-million-year near-total war without any end in sight makes it a problem so big that it's gotta be nearly impossible even trying to address it. You see bots like Blaster, where even being an upbeat social media type is a massive emotional drain, or the way things have affected Optimus, or Krok, or speculation about Dominus Ambus, all kinds of things. There's only so much emotional effort you can pour into something without getting to reenergize before you burn out. The big distinction I draw between Getaway and Prowl is that Prowl cares so much about His People and Getaway... doesn't. And it has to fucking hurt wearing yourself down to nothing over this, and none of your friends even noticing what it's doing to you. But ANYWAYS, he's not doing it for his people, he's doing it for the Autobot cause, obviously, and besides, nobody else could do this job half as well as he can and also how dare you imply there's anything wrong with him????? I don't even know if I'm articulating this well, but Prowl makes me so sad I can hardly stand to write him :C

ON A HAPPIER, BEEFIER NOTE!

Omg, check out Roadmaster. She was originally sketched up as a possible Strika before Alex Milne decided Strika needed to be even more lorge, so Roadbuster is from Caminus and is one of the people who ended up on the Vis Vitalis



And I didn't know who Strika was the last time I read Windblade, but now I need to go back and rub every panel with her all over my face. She's so BIG! If she's sparring partners with Chromia now, she'd better have lots of screentime, this is VERY IMPORTANT (though I do like her TFA color scheme a little better, the purple there is much more raspberry, and I think it looks better on her)

 

Chromia is a pretty tense lady! A blindfold would be really good for her, a nice excuse for her to give up some control, lie back, and relax :3c

 

Alsoooooooooo, so Strika has some serious height over Elita One. But Elita One is not a small lady



She lorge

I know these comics aren't the best at consistent scale, but I choose to believe Elita One is giant and pink and built on the same scale as Megatron