Yeah! So like - maybe Whirl always wanted to look more birdlike. Maybe he was just keeping himself restrained before because he was already pushing things enough with his watchmaking. Maybe not! There's no way to tell! But the side-by-side is really interesting.
alternatively, post-empurata whirl might have the bordlike anatomy and exaggerated body language BECAUSE he can't use his face to emote any longer. It's pretty interesting seeing the difference between reserved/puzzled watchmaker and raring-for-a-fight ex-Wrecker though.
I can't get over the gunfeet. Everything about him is 100% less pointy and scary, but then gunfeet. It's still toned down from Whirl's gun tiddies, but lmao.
Also I can't even deal with the little outboard footshields. I see those and all I can think of is training wheels on your bicycle
I also had the idea that Whirl might have pared down his body mass for space reasons. Boid!Whirl can probably curl up a lot tighter than Watch!Whirl, but he's also got excellent reach, as we've seen in canon.
Spoiler: DC 2/MTMTE 23 ....hmm. The narration (Swerve? Is Swerve recapping for us yet?) calls Galvatron a "Cybertronian leader"... is he actually something important (...governmentally speaking, I'd count killing a Prime as important mo matter what post he held), or was he a noble, or is Narrator making things concise or??? See, Bee, you're good at battle command! It's just the whole government thing you can't and shouldn't do for shit. Ghhhhhh it's the stupid line-heavy art they used in 22, whyyyyyyyy this, it's so much better-suited for organic shapes than mechs Roddy, are you getting bored in Science Class With Brainstorm? ...Stormy, baby, why and how do you have a trilobite suspended in a tube of goo. How are you going to use a trilobite to protect people from the Dark Universe. ...is someone in the creation chain a Girl Genius fan. "Greatest warrior in the history of the Decepticon cause" [Looks at phase 6ers and Megs] [Looks back at Scream] ....suuuure, baby. They literally only have one banner anoard, this is great Someone teach these children how to wash cloth "Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, and Optimus Prime all at a table in my bar? Damn straight I'm taking photos!" A+ Swerve ilu "Responsibility rests with high command, with [Roddy], with [Mags and OP], with-- with Bumblebee." "And Prowl." [Everyone on the LL Prowl personally fucked over and/or involved in the Overlord scheme looks at each other] "...yeah. Sure." "Megatron's behind everything" You two have the most disfunctional spade, OP, and your paranoia doesn't help anything :T Stormy. Stormy. You can call that thing a cyberwraith all you want, but it is pretty clearly a trilobite. "Ooh, a fight!" "No one's--" "Fight! Fight! Fight!" "No one's fighting anyone, Whirl." "Fight?" Cy<3<>Whirl forever "I'm allergic to hostile environments" snrk Jaaaaaazzzzz <3 Predating Nova Prime, hmmmmm? *u* Cyyyyyyyyyy D8 I forgot he was dying too fuuuuuuck [Ride of the Valkyries plays as Soundwave and the cassettes come to the rescue] That aside-- aaaaaaaaaaaa Whiiiirl
Later issues of exrid describe him as a warlord (might have even been a barbarian warlord, iirc)! The worldbuilding details we get are painfully sparse, but once Nova Prime took charge of things, I'd guess he had a rank comparable to general. Cybertronian society seems like it was pretty dang warlike back then, so he probably counts as a leader-type figure!
Galvatron stabbed his way to the top. Pretty sure he's considered an important person because he had the balls to almost a whole genocide and take the piss out of the Thirteen. Nooo idea what social rank he was originally, but one can't argue that he's a great warrior! He's just also a horrible paranoid bigot.
Oh, and whatever social rank he had, it was apparently enough to not only have a bodyguard, but to have a favorite bodyguard, which is how Cyclonus ended up on the Ark. So he was definitely important!
Ok everyone, the next transformers prime stream will start in 10 minutes, we are on episode 18, season 2 http://lets.rabb.it/886j/sdn5vFDgyv
On the other hand, maybe pre-empurata Whirl had random, standard issue guns in a more logical place like his arms or shoulders, but had them shifted down to his feet to free up his hands for clock making. He gets so excited setting up his shop, thinking he's got a chance to be something other than his designated function - and then everything goes to shit, he loses his hands and face, and all he can do to defend himself half the time is kick people to aim the gun feet properly until he gets them moved to his chest, a symbolic shift showing how weapons have been forced into the central focus of his life I can't tell if this thought is sad or hilarious. Maybe both
Speaking of Whirl! Images from MTMTE 6, warning for robo-gore. Spoiler: Whirl Ask her not to wear those army boots, though.
So I'm just like... really distressed by Cyclonus and Tailgate? In a good way, but okay, first off. That diversion with Whirl before shit went down. Cyclonus said all those wonderful things about doing whatever it takes to make sure Tailgate makes it out alive. And that didn't pay off in this arc at all. But consider how tight the writing is in this series. Oh my god, what's going to happen with these two??? What is JRO going to put them through before they get resolution with each other? And on that note: reaching that resolution? I'M SO WORRIED. Because a running theme with Cyclonus is that he doesn't give him the way answers or tell him the things that he wants to hear. He says he tells Tailgate what he needs to hear. And well... he's made it pretty clear to Whirl that no matter what Tailgate wants, Cyclonus thinks he deserves/needs someone who's better than he is. I think that's an entirely unfair assessment and also presumptuous and also probably ties back into not only Cyclonus's temperament, but also into moral injuries like the ones he suffered when Galvatron was using him. But Cyclonus is so reserved and intractable and I'm just. REALLY REALLY WORRIED about the romantic lives of these two alien robots, I've been getting so worked up and emotional over this for days now
I'm so used to experiencing this kind of tension in fanfiction (where 95% of the time you know the confession will eventually happen one way or another, no matter how long and painfully the author drags out the miscommunication and angsty mishaps before the payoff), and so don't really know how to predict what will happen in an actual canon comic series. Are we in angsty territory, or eventual fluff territory? It's just so hard to make the call, especially with the rename coming up so fast And meanwhile we're all stuck shouting at Cyclonus to just spit it out already, with Whirl apparently our best hope for nudging them into it
I have legitimately read this fanfic. There have to be at least two with this exact premise on AO3. I believe in the power of my Whirly son to be as unsubtle as possible if he ever feels motivated to Do the Wingman Thing in canon, but at the same time...yeah. Oh Whirl
Whirl genuinely wants to help Cyclonus and is stubborn enough not to listen when Cyclonus says he doesn't want help, so. Yup.
If anyone has good Whirl-trying-to-help-cy-with-his relationship/weird hangups fanfic recs, I'd love to read some of that.
So for reasons of TFP I headcanon human!Megatron as being heavily bodymodded.* Do to the "Can´t decide if he wants Megatrons job or his approval" Thing I imagine Starscream also has some tats. (I´m imagining a chest piece low/short enough to be hidden under average mens shirts with the decepticon badge in the center and two armbands.) Spoiler: exRID Fic idea He could tear his badge off his clothes, but it´s hard to tear a tattoo off. Consider him wanting the get the damn thing off and possibly having to talked down from something self harm-y into just covering it up. (Possibly by Wheeljack) What I don´t know is what he would cover it with, ideas? (Maybe further reading will help) *Going off the idea that TFP Megsys teeth and spikyness were a gladiator bodymod, and the other ´Cons made themselves spiky in imitation.
