Spoiler: Lost Light 1 Things I liked: Megatron and Terminus, CDRW teasing each other about alcohol tolerance, the return of the Functionist universe, Ultra Magnus trying to joke. Things I didn't: the amount of stuff crammed into the issue, the new characters having no explanation (part of the stuff problem), not a lot of emotional weight to the scenes because of the too much stuff problem. Basically all the things I didn't like boiled down to that, but it was a big issue that caused a lot of other problems. I'm upset I paid four bucks for mostly content from other series. Edit: like, I feel the issue was really short and didn't have a lot of content despite the sheer amount of new things thrown at us. And so, so many different hanging plot threads. I know they're trying to keep interest but it's just. Idk how to word this. Not well paced. I would have been fine with it if the content had been spread over two or three issues to give more space to each plot point and more emotional reaction, which is what I picked this comic up for in the first place.
Spoiler: LL 1 nearly started crying when I thought the two at the beginning wouldn't make it do I need a break already, fuck I've been so trained to sob over robots that it happens for any of them
-cracks knuckles- LIVEBLOG TIME Spoiler: LL #1 Aw. Aw I love Anode. Waht a cuties -POINTS AND SHRIEKS- CENSERE! MY SON! HI! BABE YOU ARE BACK!!!! o-kay...??? Hi UM? "819 slides later" sdfghjk awwww okay Censere is still dead but i still welcome every time they show my babe on screen doing cool stuff ANODE YOU TREASURE Wh- Oh. Ohhhhh. Awwww UM my sweetling. "Joke. I've been practicing." I love you. ASDFGHJK ROLLER IS SO BIG NEXT TO REWIND BLESS omg Fangry has decided Tailgate is teh most powerful guy in the room <3 Also pls more of Tailgate lifting people several times his size. !!! Cyclonus cares about Tailgate in public!!!!!!!!!!!! (have they STILL not had that talk because I am starting to be peeved about this!) FANGRY THAT'S MEAN "Anode. Archeologist. No, Adventurer! Put Adventurer. Adventurer!" sdfghjk <3<3<3 those question swerve asks sdfghjkl LUG ANSWERING EARNESTLY OMG awwwww omg poor swerve. Poor everyone. Wait... Anode knows Velocity? :O -looks at Drift repainting Rodimus in his new colorscheme- I... ship it... hhhhhhh more religious worldbuilding. Please whisper sweet spectralist nothings to me drift. A... promise to kill... Rodimus no. Rodimus. Rodimus. omg. Getaway is gon' get so fucked. that dorky paintstripe right over his face tho. Um. Please don't die. Awwwww Terminus and Megatron being all sweet with eachother. AWWW he says goodbye to Ravage QuQ SFGHJ NIGHTBEAT oh my god. THE GALACTIC COUNCIL DID WHUT? oh no OH NO RUNG DIDN'T KNOW YET WHAAAAAAAAT oh no what happened to cy? OH NO Tailgate DON'T ... Anode what. what are you gonna do? Anode you nerd Uh... uhhhhhhhh Holy shit who is that. What is. What? *sudden influx of Dratchet feels* OH! Anode goes by female pronouns! This endears me to her more <3 RODIMUS "I wouldn't out you in charge of your own legs" awwwww Whirl Domey and Rewind's married couple bantering gives me liiiiife <3 "Is Starscream expecting us Megatron?" "No I want it to be a surprise." OnO" concern Oh. My God. OH MY GOD. THIS IS EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED THANK YOU JRO THANK YOU SO MUCH AHHHHH :D this is gonna be so fucked up ahahahahahhahaa ohhhhhhhhhhh ohhhh this one panel already makes me so delightedly happy. This is a personal gift to me. hhhhhh. Look at that etching and the chains. mhhhhhhh. The missing optics. I am in love.
Spoiler: LL1 liveblog oh boooooooooooy (I made physical noises when I saw the cover. Roddy is not supposed to be purple but aaaaaaaaaa he pretty) man Drift's face... I mean I'm here for bold angular facepaint, but it's gonna take me a bit to learn to recognize him also aaaaa nautica gets a cover slot!! :D I don't know who these children are but I love them already "I am in hate with you." [chanting] PITCH ROBOTS PITCH ROBOTS PITCH ROBOTS a... snowflake? I am intrigued to see what, if anything, that is. CENSERE??? OH NOOOOO D8 [sigh of relief] they're both still alive, thank god "819 slides later" never change, Magnus man knowing a fan character named Life Support makes that speech so much more entertaining "why yes, CMO Life Support, we stuffed all two hundred-odd robots into your alt for a few centuries, didn't you know?" "those of us who've spent the last 50 slides trying to punch ourselves to death" did Magnus just. Ignore the disturbance in the hopes it would go away? Because that's a hilarious image ....Magnus. Magnus. Oh my god baby that was beautiful especially if he knows what the new Enforcer is doing (or was, last we saw him) "a pleasure to nearly meet you" Nautica bb (also Velocity I understand you don't want her to pester the poor guy about history but there are easier ways to do that) TAILGATE WHY YOU'RE ADORABLE BUT WHAT ARE YOU DOING, PUT POOR ROLLER DOWN Taaailgaaaaaate Cyyyyy Swerve's questions about things that actually fuckign happened oh my gooood it's crewditions but better RODDY AND DRIFT ARE HAVING A PAINT PARTY AWWWWWW Rod<>Drift forever Rodimus. Converted to Spectralism. I don't think any of us saw that coming but OKAY ...that earthquake is Rung and Nightbeat fucking shit up in the reverse-planet, isn't it. (Also, Roddy's new facestreak ftw) "turned a teleport chamber into a fusion canon" Brainstorm, I how :< Ravage I'M ASKING, NIGHTBEAT I'M ASKING ...that bomb is the 5-year timeskip innit I like how they had enough time to finish Roddy's face before checking everything out oh no WHAT THE ...is Rung a revivification machine or does he have cybercrosis Cy bb (Also, the fact that Tailgate's first reaction to "someone hurt him" is "vengeance"... I mean, the silly romantic part of me is enchanted, but uh. You okay there buddy?) "takes two, does it?" oh my god they're not holding back on the sex jokes are they whoa that uh alright, that's Autobot-Neocybex, let's see "PREPARE CONFRONT REPEL" huh. Sounds like instructions for a defensive battle. And that's Drift, Rodimus, and... Blue Dude who looks vaguely familiar but I can't name, against Americabot red-white-and-blue and a flock of... sparkeaters? This looks fun. It is also interesting to me that Drift 'dreams' in Autobot. How long, comparatively, did he spend on each side of the war, to say nothing of the Crystal City? Awww Ratchet and Drift. I miss the earlier pitch dynamic but they're adorable fussing over each other. Ooh, more naturally-female Cybertronians! (Or... Camiens? I'm Intrigued to know why they're hiding from Velocity) oh my god that whole banter between roddy and whirl Rodimus why did you take the entire command staff with you, this is poor tactics I am in actual hysterics right now, I am laughcrying is that the functionist universe did the bomb switch the universe they were in oh god eta: Spoiler wait. wait fuck. "Chest cavity search." How much you want to bet there's some way of determining whether someone's coldcon or forged, and ccs aren't allowed in fancy areas? Also: the two mechs chained up have had their optics removed in a way that looks really similar to Kaon's old face. Significant?
Spoiler IIIIIIIT'S BAAAAAAAAACK!!!! FINALLY I have MUCH to say but I am Tired and also on my phone so WAIT 4 IT
Spoiler: NEW CHAPTER LIVEBLOG Hi, purple Roddy cover, you're still kinda weird. PARTISAN KNEECAPS geez that is a lot of Deceptibrands. 'I am in hate with you' well someone is a Homestuck! ...what the... Oh! They're one of the rescues! pfft. magnus has a sense of humor! ....you're. ok 1 this isn't a PRISON, sure you don't have a way off but still. 2. cyclonus will demolish you. ...it's a joke but. in this crew, these are questions worth asking. maybe they should be being asked by someone who can be trusted not to disclose, but... ...oh god it's actually happening. wait, spectralism? uh. So this IS Rodimus going murdergoth. hopefully no one reads the new colors as 'decepticon-friendly.' i mean, it's also RODIMUS, but. 'far too hard on yourself' oh. oh terminus. did you see Megatron's statue? ....are they BY megatron's statue? ..... RAVAGE. ...wow ravage had a huge bodycount. oh, that's what happened. yeah no way it's THAT simple. aww oh SHIT. RUNG. RUNG DO YOU HAVE CYBERCROSIS TOO. ...uh WOW YOU'RE PLANNING ON SURPRISING STARSCREAM THIS WILL END WELL. But hey, Windblade might show up! .......motherfuck what. NOT THIS AGAIN. ....did rung go with them?
Spoiler: lost light 1 (not so much a liveblog as an art whine, but liveblogging also) I miss Alex Milne. This artist isn't bad, but they're definitely not one of my favorites. I guess the cartoony thing works for some people, but despite the fact that the entire franchise is based on a cartoon, I am not one of them I think. (Also Nautica missing her lipstick in this frame is bothering me for reasons I can't quite explain???) OH, I think I'm twigging onto why. There were a lot of wide gesticulations in Milne's run too, but despite not heading to the level of painterly detail that Stone did, he was very good at subtle nuance in the way character were drawn. Here it's like... no one is allowed to be subtle or stoic. Everyone has to hunch or posture or wave their arms or flail their legs or... Blegh. I can't tell how much of this is me being UNREASONABLE AND PETTY and how much of it is genuinely the art grating on me. (THAT SAID Drift and Roddy having a painting party is cute. I'm okay with this explanation for the dumb color scheme. Is Rodimus converting because of belief or as a means to try and get closer to Drift and mend some of those bridges? Because he really didn't actually have a decent apology and hashing things out session with Drift before.) NNNNNN why is it that this artist is okay at getting some characters on model but others are off-model just enough to grate. Why this. Why hapen. WHY CYCLONUS AND RODIMUS IN SPECIFIC. Is it the angles?? Are they just bad at angular faces???? (roddy, drift, das gay) (I want to say that's Pharma? Whose body got pulled through the Titan gate at the end of Season 1. And then Grimlock, which might be how the Scavengers come into it. But wow this is... fantastically unwhelming. I really do not like this art.) ("No. I want it to be a surprise." FFFFUCK OFF MEGS you're so lucky (not) that this is the Return Of Functionalism.) MAN OKAY. Here's the thing. The artist (Jack Lawrence, ftr) did... okay? on Windblade. His issues aren't my favorites, but that's fine, that's okay. The tonal shift of the comics (from political spy games thriller to episodic Explore A World) actually matched up alright to the cartoony art. The jokes worked a little better with it. But see, the thing that doesn't? Drama. Intense scenery. Huge reveals. Subtle emotions. Things that Milne was really good at, and hell, even Ramondelli can manage. AND IT'S NOT THAT IT'S BAD ART, because it's pretty good art! Even very good art! It's fun and bouncy and cartoonish and... all wrong for the writing and plot we've been given. It's not that the intense moments and reveals were any less suspenseful and dramatic, it's that the art just... doesn't mesh well. I might be a little frustrated with IDW right now, to be honest! edit: Doublechecking leads me to realizing that he's never done a full issue before, only covers. Which means this is functionally his debut in IDW comic drawing terms and I think he's taking a lot of cues from Corin Howell (the actual artist of the second half of the Windblade comics, sorry Howell) in terms of how to design his shots and model his characters. Which is fine, but still very jarring in a comic that relies a lot on nuance and drama, tonally speaking.
Spoiler Redundant. With a d. Also, for those like me who was wondering who the Council member is, based on the color scheme he seems to be Twelve-of-Twelve, the Castigator. Appropriate enough.
okay, if i get last stand of the wreckers and mtmte #1 and exrid #1 i can convince myself it's a (somewhat expensive) christmas present from seebs no idea when it's gonna get here but may as well enjoy the thing e. also got sins of the wreckers and had it all sent to [jet engine flies overhead] which is where i'll be christmasing, so it'll feel more like a present
Sins of the Wreckers takes place after like 45 issues of exRiD, so hold off on reading that for a while.
if i can marathon TGWP and have no idea who jazz even is, i'm pretty sure i can handle reading some things out of order :P i'll try but! money for issues and such. bleh this is like unlockable content, right here, by reading stuff i'll suddenly Understand why so many gay robots and i am kind of Excite about it??????
A lot of the SOTW raw plot is pretty disconnected from the main series, and I wwwwant to say the only BIG things you'll be missing are how Prowl ended up in such an awful place (a slow burn deterioration in exrid), and why Kup's brain is doing the Thing (he was stranded in a planet with these freaky psychoactive crystals in spotlight: kup in phase one, and killed a lot of the people who tried to rescue him, which is background info that enriches his and Guzzle's interactions in lsotw too. Prowl and Preceptor rebuilt him, and put on permanent antipsychotics in his cigar cy-gar, but Prowl had Perceptor leave him a backdoor into Kup's head). It's a relatively gentle one to read out of order! And if you decide you can't live without more giant robots, you can always read on viewcomic and buy when your wallet can support it. I read as much as I could online last year, and I only recently finished catching up with the phase two trades.
Annnd another exrid issue Spoiler: exRiD #22 That's..... Monstructor I think? (alternate cover has Soundwave plus cassettes tho so that is clearly the important cover here :P) mhhhhhh four million years ago, that sweet sweet early rebellion stuff "He shall serve me, Shockwave. He shall become one of my Cassettes." Soundwave that's... fucked up... but also... i love it... "And former Senator Ratbat merely needs to learn... that some are more equal than others." sweet animal farm reference there bruh. (Also good lord Soundwave just tapdances on all my fictional crush buttons with this stuff ouo") Shockwave and Soundwave like... working together but being all... grumpy and suspicious of eachother is so... interesting. Annnnnnd then Soundwave punches Shockwave right in the eye hahahah wow shockwave you really like throwing dreadwing under the bus don't you lmao "A Decepticon is never alone." <3<3<3 The friend-smuggling chest-compartment strikes again! god I still can't quite get behind ramondelli art but... he makes Soundwave look so... lost but still proud here? I love it. "The world would be yours, Megatron." "Ours, Soundwave. The world shall be ours." I love this early stuff with all these pure ideals and hope and affection among the decepticons *sighs* !!!!!!!! NO DON'T SHOOT RAVAGE! GOD AHHH oh i momentarily forgot about shockwave's fuckery HOPE IS NOT MEANINGLESS YOU DOUCHE "I hated him immediately" *quietly whispers Aemula* "Shockwave was Perfection" *less quietly whispers AEMULA* oh god young Soundwave, when he just met Megatron, is so... cautious and deliberate and quiet and it makes me fall in love with him all over again. He is so cute. Oh man. Oh man I can understand why Soundwave fell in love with Megatron so hard back then. And... if they had actually gotten togetehr as Amicas I feel like maybe Megs wouldn't have gone off the rails so hard? Maybe? Shockwave is so fucking... What the fuck Shockwave. "I did not ask. I Commanded." He has like no regard for anyone at all. Not even like "I can treat you as if you aren't a braindead idiot and talk to you like you may understand where I come from" regard, he ust straight up treats people as fi they aren't even... real? yeah that works. ... yikes Ratbat. Yikes. "These beasts you consort with". dude. "The brotherhood of Decepticons" Soundwave is so focused on family I love it. I love him. love. Soundwave is like "says weird shit" uncle. The others aren't even surprised by this anymore. Thta is such a good panel. I am so glad. Thank you Soundwave you are... so good. So pure... I love you. *cries softly about bby!Soundwave and Ravage and Buzzsaw and Laserbeak befriending him* They are so cute. So cute. THE POWER OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP AND FAMILY WILL PREVAIL AGAINST SHOCKWAVE'S BULLSHIT! YES IT WILL!
okay the apple.... HASS the computer Spoiler: LL 01 OKAY on the one hand i feel so #blessed by the driftrod and dratchet content and i am delighted to see a ladybot sans tits and i am SO SO FOND OF MAGNUS....! and terminus and megatron sitting together Catching Up, and finally picking up those old plots..... there are a lot of things i liked!! but that pacing..... that art........ it's not AWFUL but i Do Not Care For It CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE RETURN OF THE GEAR GUYS hello again prepare confront repel!!! my favourite mystery :D obviously whatever took pharma is in on it, then, which means Tentacles are somehow involved GRIMLOCK GETS SOME PAYBACK!! which means we get to see scavengers/LL interaction YES now PLEASE someone explain the wooden robots
Spoiler: LL 1 - "I'm in hate with you." I squeed. - I love the scene with Drift repainting Rodimus. I ship it, gentle readers. Diamonds all the way. - "I want it to be a surprise." MEGS. DUDE. I mean, I'm glad we're continuing with the thing where Starscream and Megatron's relationship is so fucked at this point that even Megatron's redemption can't unfuck it. But jfc, small wonder Starscream is a paranoid wreck who refuses to believe that Megatron is EVER dead. - I actually really loved the art. *hands* - Rewind and Chromedome being marrieds who gently mock each other = <3 <3 <3 - That cliffhanger! I AM SO EXCITED. Functionalists, man, what a great dystopia. At one point Roberts reblogged a twitter poll asking who readers were more terrified of, the functionalists or the DJD, and now I'm picturing Roberts cackling to himself as he did it. -
Spoiler: Optimus Prime 1 Yooo, it's Rosanna and Flip Sides in the upper right panel! Interesting that they aren't the same person in this continuity. Makes sense they're data slugs, though, since that seems to be the default 'translation' of cassette unless someone's been modified. Also seems to imply that cybertronian women didn't not-exist, just maybe they didn't have the pronouns used? Since Rosanna and Flip Sides are both women. I mean, the same woman in TFA, but you know what I mean.
On second thought I don't think the cassette with Rosanna is Flip Sides, since they aren't functionally identical to her except for colors. Possible, though! The color scheme would be right if she had a red visor. I also appreciate that Rosanna cold-clocked someone 4 times her size in a riot and punched off their glasses. Smol but strong.
