ok no but tailgate who slowly becomes an eldritch horror Spoiler: spoilers for mtmte 55 probably it gets kickstarted by tailgate becoming an outlier, and it's a slow, creeping process. every time he pushes himself, emotionally, physically, he gets a little closer to the void. unnoticably much. but sometimes he sings notes that transformers cant hear. and his shadow is slightly off-colour (a blueish tint. if ambient light is blue, then his shadow has an almost supernatural quality of pure distilled blueness). slips in and out of shadows. maybe his shadow starts moving independently from him, but thats later. the hum of his engine and spark become near imperceptably quiet when he recharges. the overspilling glow from his tears gaining a slight ripple at the edges, like something trying to break through the surface. the shadows of his armor deepening, just a bit. and then more. Cyclonus notices because he's Cyclonus and, well, they're roommates and Cyclonus is perceptive. He's mildly confused and worried because that's usually not something that happens to Transformers. He keeps an eye on it. Whirl notices because Whirl has an eye for details like that. (@IvyLB did the pun) Rung notices because it's Rungs job to notice things. Megatron notices, it's pinging his weirdness sensors because he's spent like 2 million years trying to reach out to a black hole. It takes him, at least in his own opinion, way too long to piece together what exactly is happening and oh scrap. Drift notices but is extremely confused why Tailgate just reminds him more and more of the deep, silent void of space and wraps it into five layers of spectralist bullshit, which tips off Ratchet. Rewind notices something is off and begins a progress compilation - but he doesn't know what to make of it. Neither does Chromedome. Ultra Magnus notices, and admonishes Tailgate because his shadows is two shades off regulation. (Whirl is sitting in the background flinging popcorn at his face) (Skids notices but dies before he can say anything. Same with Ravage) Swerve doesn't notice until someone tips him off and asks if there's a betting pool regarding wtf is up with Tailgate. The bets include "part of his outlier shenaniganry" and "whatever the fuck it was that Drift talked about". there's at least four different summaries attempting to explain what Drift was talking about. Ten notices but can't express it no matter how hard he tries. The mural he paints to try and explain is just pitch darkness. Brainstorm notices when shadowy tentacles start creeping out of Tailgate's shadows Rodimus doesn't even notice then. When presented with evidence, he just goes "He looks a bit more evil than usual. Cool." When they run across Getaway again, the change has progressed enough to be noticeable if you last saw Tailgate before the change got into gears. All his senses are screaming at him to get away. To the question about wtf happened to Tailgate, the uniform response is "you happened to him, you asshole" Tailgate doesn't notice. He just sings to the void and the engines and is happy he can protect his friends. And doesn't pay any attention to his progressively weirder dreams.
...Whimsy that introduced me to the existence of Ten and. Oh my goodness that's wonderful. And according to the wiki someone gives him flower paint on his chestplate!
Yes!! And a background detail is that the character who painted him up is named Grotusque, and he barely features in this continuity, but apparently he's a total sweetheart who's totally willing to poke fun at his own grotesque (GEDDIT) alt mode. I'm so happy he and Ten are friends :')
@IvyLB and me being cygate trash under the spoiler Spoiler: tooth rotting fluff but with the hum of tailgate's spark and engine becoming quieter, what if cyclonus basically freaks out at that because he's afraid he's going to lose tailgate by some other medical bullshit, just a quiet shutdown he wakes up and finds tailgate asleep and near-dead quiet, puts his head on tailgates chest to check the sparkbeat and just falls asleep there (the hum is not fainter, it's just deeper, so deep it becomes a tactile rumble, the background hum of the void) tailgate wakes up somewhen in between, just puts his ahnd on cyclonus head and falls asleep again (is that how they sorta officially finally hook up) (because tailgates like 'nuh uh not gonna let you go until you tell me whats up with you' until cyclonus talks)
You know, I feel kinda bad for the Vehicons. I mean, they're clones, right? Probably just made to be expendable cannon fodder for the boss, without any chance to be anything else or a reasonable way out. Imagine them all banding together and being like 'well, we're the ones who mine and refine all the energon, and keep the ship running, and fight their battles, so what if we just holed up in the mines and didn't send them any more until they decided to treat us better' or something. It'd probably end with them all getting flattened, but maybe their apparently enormous numbers would help? It'd be nice, at least. Only Breakdown ever really cared about them. eta: also in episode 3 of s3 (i'm catchin up for camp) Miko says that a dragon is a giant flying fire-breathing lizard... But she's Japanese. Shouldn't that kind of dragon what she thinks of first? So something like 'big flying lizard' that doesn't SPECIFICALLY breathe fire? Since according to wikipedia they're more associated with water. IDK.
Spoiler: MTMTE 50 here we goooo I wonder if the faces in the cliff are supposed to be anyone in particular. Domey 8C ...oh, the irony of Rewind's message. Minimus said fun :D Whirl :c ...did they just send it Literally Everywhere? How are the scavengers in on this? ...help, I'm in the RodMegs dumpster and I can't get out Help I wanna take Megs' history class Okay, we weren't supposed to recognize that symbol yet, good thank you, Nautica Lotty's gr8 <3 I do kinda wanna know what triggered Megs in the classroom, tho. "[Cy in pain]'s not a sound he's heard before. Just so we're clear." Yes, baby, your pride's intact, shhhh Snrrrrk Mags expects the best of everyone Whirl is So Hype, it's precious Also why the fuck is Brainstorm upside down again, what is his thing with being upside down Brainstorm, troll son <3 Goodbye, old man :c maybe you'll get a Q&A like Vector Sigma someday, that'd be nice. ...Maybe I've been in the FID threads too long, but Getaway's logic here reads a lot like tumblr/toxic fandom/anti witch-hunting. Like. I realize we're talking about Space Hitler here, but. The "no one can change ever and they must be put to death for their sins" logic... mm. When your posts can be effectively paraphrased and used by literal comic book villains, it is maybe time to rethink your position. Getaway. Bro. The solution is "get your own ship," not "become a pirate".
Jesus fucking christ. Titans Return. Okay. Big epic issue, lots of Big Shit going down, everything that should be great and wonderful? Who do you think you drew it? Go on. Guess. THAT'S RIGHT IT'S RAMONDELLI I finally gave up on waiting for it to pop up on viewcomic and hopped over to comixology, but... no. I'm not doing it. I'm not paying $5 for forty pages of Ramondelli art when I already know I'll be paying for dead tree versions at least once, maybe twice, depending on which trades cover it. I don't care how epic this is, I'm not contributing any more of my money to this particular flavor of badly-drawn nonsense. And the preview opens with Ravage and Megatron talking and how dare they bait me this way I won't stand for it I'm actually kind of outraged and talking about Megatron's gladiator past and Soundwave and this is unkind, transformers gods, stop giving Ramondelli all the best bits /grump
...as someone who actually likes Ramondelli art: what is this Titans Return thing? Is it supposed to fit in with the modern series(...es? what's the plural of series)? The hook on IDW's site is... not terribly informative, but I'm considering getting Internet Money just so I can read this thing. Spoiler: Preview babbling Ravage and Megs being salty friends, A+ (also, history! yeeeeeee!) Swerve being affectionate with literally everyone, save me (also, Whirl <3) ...I feel like I should recognize that hat, but I don't. Brainstorm's face looks kinda flat there, whoops. Whirl <3 ...somehow it doesn't sound like Cy's quite talking about war there... give me a nonbinary robot, give it to meeee Swerve trying so hard to keep everything friendly look at my son ...on a different note Spoiler: MTMTE 51 liveblog is megs holding a fuckin light saber on the cover oh my god Is Ten holding a flower there? "Genuine displays of affection only, I've been fooled like that before" SWERVE 8C "I think I'm going to select "we don't know where they parked" from the long, long list of reasons your plan is rubbish." Snrrrrk Whirl is darling Ravage! Stop using people who trust you as bait! Ten doesn't deserve this! At least Drift and Ratchet protect Ten :c
Titans Return is the lead in to the MTMTE crossover with exRID and Windblade, right? Or it is the crossover? I know that the three series are touching base and then diverging though, and then the not-MTMTE-but-basically-the-third-season series kicks off after. With Roddy's dumb adorable paint scheme.
Spoiler: 52 liveblog ...Kaon's a creepy fuck, part of the DJD, and may or may not have had anything to do with locking [the Pet] in altmode, but at least he's a Loving Pet Parent. ["Not as bad as you could have been" silver star] Dratchet spades still give me life "That felt problematic" still needs to be an emote ...hm. Another nod to the "how the fuck" of Tarn being at the head of the DJD. Spoiler: 55 So Damus serving with/directly under OP probably wasn't just a bad-timeline thing. The questions remain: how, why, and when did he become a Decepticon? ...well. at least knowing Tarn's logic in advance makes it hit a little farther from home. I'm just gonna... not read his dialogue too closely The fact that Overlord saves Megs' life at least twice in this arc is still great. Drift<>Rod 2kForever "That's not a knife tank, this is a tank!" Snrrrrk Okay, so Cybertron does have Amica, I don't know where I picked up the idea it was a Camien construct. Also, I continue to be a sucker for ChRewind. In other news, water is wet. Nickel's first sign of wavering! (It's okay, baby :c) "Don't think you can come into my house and pass judgement." [Memelord noises in the distance] Spoiler: 53 if this is the issue I think it is... [chanting] PAIN TRAIN PAIN TRAIN PAIN TRAIN "With my hands closed and my eyes tied behind my back" Ratchet go to bed Doooomeeeeey >:[[[ nO, don't do that. Bad Domey. "Massive, heavily-armored snowflakes." Thank you for that hilarious imagery, Stormy, right before the pain train runs into me full fuckin force Yep There I go Actual tears, right into my lunch At least I'm practically home alone There's no possible way Drift wouldn't notice someone going for his swords, not when he's so well-trained and they're all hyped up on battle Drift let Rewind take the sword and this makes me stupidly happy Whirl<3<>Cy, yesgood I am still a sucker for cy's Dramatic Declaration Of Loyalty "Tasty" ME TOO MINIMUS ME FUCKIN TOO Group hug best hug Spoiler: 54 that is still really bad posing for Ravage. four minibots in a turret trenchcoat I like how Cy just goes right fuckin for Overlord, like Dude Uuuuuuugh I did not need to read that again, thanks roboGHB skiiiiiiids were you not around for Chromedome almost dying of injection a few hours ago??? You Stop That Tailgate, you can't set up your own one liners like that you precious nerd Oh god the first thing Skids does is try to find Stormy baby ....hrm. Strike against the "slow fade" theory of why some corpses grey out and others are colored-- Skids greys out almost immediately after collapsing. No one likes your plans and posturing, Tarn. ...sometimes I forget how fucking huge Megatron is. Oh my god I can't get the "Domey's alt is a roast chicken" image out of my head, not the time brain why ...man, this was a hellish cliffhanger the first time through, but now I'm just excited ...view-comic still doesn't have 55. Huh. Anyone know what's up with the lag time between uploads on vc and v-c? I prefer the dashed one cos it's got less pop-ups on mobile, but... Spoiler: 55 this is still a beautiful cover. Man. Remember when we thought the Galactic Council were some sort of TF parallel to the UFP and Starfleet? That was great. (Can we have one space empire that's not completely awful, please?) R&D vs SpecOps. Children please. "A mental breakdown is a rite of passage on [the Lost Light]" indeed. Yeesh. Temper, Megs. I mean, it's great that it saves most of our faves, but... :/ SOUNDWAVE D8 Goooood, just. Everyone gets so much character development. Everyone. Save me. Aaaaand wham.
Spoiler: More eldritch tailgate stuff I'm pretty convinced Cyclonus would be blaming himself in this situation. He revived Tailgate from his spark after all - what if he infected him with some lingering scrap of dead universeness? And he doesn't say anything about it because whatever Tailgate's becoming is kind of comforting on some deep level and he cannot be homesick for that hell dimension. Tailgate's completely unbothered by what's happening to him but he can tell that Cyclonus is upset and that bothers him because he's saying even less about it than usual- -and then Whirl is best moirail and fixes stuff by being extremely annoying because this train of thought was kind of upsetting
TFP stream tonight! Starts in 20 minutes. http://lets.rabb.it/886j/2RqBeYUMTv Our last episode of the night will be the season 3 finale! Come and join us! :D. Come on, we have Ultra Magnus and everything.
I know this is old drama but..I just ran across it for the first time in a certain tag on tumblr-- Spoiler: blocking this off because old megatron drama is old http://gottalovesteak.tumblr.com/post/143282866462/real-talk-writing-megatron ^Rape mention, Fictionkin^ *head in hands*. Going past the part where they are straight up telling people how to interpret character - Are all 230 people who reblogged that just going to ignore the fact that Megatron: Spotlight exists?? I hope to god the fandom has gotten past this stupid phase by now. Cause lol the guy who threw minions to their death because he was mad and sadistically torments his second in command with no remorse could never force himself on someone else. Nope, such behavior is completely outside of the realm of possibility. Just a cheap tactic to punch up Megs' evilness level. Non-con is the training wheels of Megatron characterizations... *inarticulate growling noises*
-facepalm- I mean look, if someone wanted to write him as not being ok with rape Evil Has Standards could work. Because yeah, even complete asswipes usually have lines they won´t cross. But no, it would not be OOC to write him as "Consent? Wazzat?"
I had to double check the url to make sure it wasn't Ray. That is classic Ray levels of 'stop writing Cronus/Megatron as a rapist because I said so you rape kinksters!!!" discourse. I don't want to scroll through the notes to see if he reblogged it because I have better things to do with my life, but...
I don't, but I also don't remember all of R&R's URLs. ...I could swear ssenatorshockwave's one of them, though, and that url is in the notes. Will edit if I find anything else that pings as familiar. Edit: hubschraubers, there we go. Very first note after "OP posted this".
LOADS of things about Megatron's past would be totally suitable for him to have no real grasp of consent, whether that's coming from a malicious or a damaged place, depending on how sympathetic you wanted to write him. Way back to the miners, they were totally disenfranchised. They got occasional shore leave, but it seems like they were pretty confined. They were at the mercy of the higher-ups, without much ability to exert control over their own lives. It's not much of a stretch to imagine that there were sketchy sexual things happening, the way things can go down in prisons, or in military establishments. I know military sexual abuse is a big problem in general, but I think I've read stuff about how it's a particular problem in like... isolated bases, ships at sea, all that. If any of that was going on in the environment Megatron grew up in? It's not like his later experiences with Cybertronian society would necessarily do much to fix it. He was an outlaw/gladiator/rabble-rouser, then he was a warlord. And then it's the present. Alternately, that whole cult of personality thing. Megatron's certain he never raped anyone. They all consented, didn't they? Yeah, well, from their perspective, when Megatron makes it clear that he wants to frag you, there's only one answer you're allowed to give. But this Megatron isn't going to have any clear ideas about what proper consent entails either. Maybe he's very scornful of anyone who stoops to taking something that isn't freely offered, and is completely dismissive/disbelieving when anyone dares to suggest that maybe some of his partners didn't really want to be there. OBVIOUSLY they were fine with it. They were very, very enthusiastic about how much they wanted to bang him. And why wouldn't they want to? He's Megatron. I... hate these things where it's all or nothing on the sympathetic vs unsympathetic takes on the character. It kills me, because the narrative draws attention to it, the dialogue from the characters in the story explicitly talks about it, and you still get the reads like this where it's all 'nooooo megatron has no conception of friendly physical contact and he would be super shy uwu if anyone even offered him so much as a friendly haaaaaaaand'. Or apparently, he's a suave bastard who knows all about when and where to do everything and NEVER EVER OVERSTEPS because HE IS NOT A RAPIST. I don't understand why people are allergic to nuanced readings. I mean, this is not just a transformers thing, not just a Megatron thing, it extends all the way through anti culture and its predecessors. But I don't get why someone would want just a flatly moralistic view of anything. I can kind of sort of understand why it would be like... an ideal they'd want. Things are Good or Bad and can be sorted clearly. But this doesn't hold up. Even within a simplified fictional universe, once you get past the most basic of stories for young kids, there is usually some nuance to character and motivation and actions taken, which is a necessary component of making it a fictional narrative. It would be boring without that, and it's a central goddamn part of Megatron's character in particular. Getaway even says the thing about how Megatron's crimes have such a huge scope that it becomes impossible to comprehend, and your brain just glosses over it. Megatron doesn't even get the scope of what he's done until he sees the Necrobot's flowers. It's so explicit that i just can't understand why the people who latch onto him like this are so allergic to any kind of actual in-depth analysis of his character. He's just Not A Rapist, because that is a Bad Label, and Megatron is a Good Person. The End. Come onnnnn, give me Megatron failing to read Rodimus's signals that no, tonight is really not a good night, because he's not used to people telling him no. He's appalled to think back on everything else he might have misread for millions of years. Give me Megatron awkwardly dancing around Ultra Magnus, because Megatron is interested, but he's not letting himself be cornered either, and even if UM isn't the kind of person to take advantage, what if he is. And UM is awkward because that's how he always is, and they have the most ungodly awkward courtship dance in the history of cybertron. Give me Ratchet hitting Megatron up for a quick frag, and Megatron being totally off balance from the idea of quick sex that's.... just for fun, no strings, no power struggles, nothing. Give me Megatron outwardly keeping his cool, but Ratchet noticing the little tells, and them sliding into a very, very light, very subtle, d/s dynamic as Ratchet walks him through the new territory without ever outwardly acknowledging that anything is off. Give me Megatron who thinks he and Optimus have... an understanding, that they both know what that understanding entails, that they both want this. Give me an Optimus who's so exhausted and worn out and hollow, who wants someone else to lead so badly that he lets Megatron do it, even though he doesn't want to be there. He agrees, because it's easier to agree and let someone take charge. Give me an Optimus who feels even more hollow now, but who feels like he can rest, so he doesn't let on that anything's wrong, and Megatron goes on thinking that yes, they've both wanted this the whole time. There are so many cool ways to play this and that was me barely even trying, I don't know why it's apparently so much better to have Literal Angel Megatron as the only accepted interpretation of the narrative
