Spoiler: post-DC exRID Yessssss, I am enjoying Thundercracker and Soundwave more than anything else! And Cosmos is a lot of fun and I ADORE Sky Lynx's design. I get a bit hung up on there being so much focus on Optimus and Galvatron, because I just.... do not find them interesting :P Or Alpha Trion. He's a bag of DICKS who didn't want to fix Sunstreaker. And Galvatron is such a manchild, but not in the fun way. Plus now it's getting into earth military politics and robot doubledealing, which is just ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhh hh, but I know there's a light at the eventual end of the tunnel! (also I'm cracking up, because everything in my life seems to go back to the Marshall Islands for some reason. One of my closest friends went there to work for three years, my job right now is set on the east coast, but everything revolves around Kwajalein, my aunt keeps going off to Kwaj for business trips, and now apparently the earth is stashing their giant robots there. It's a surprisingly relevant little country.)
Spoiler: LSOTW I just realized that I'd love it if some third party company actually made a Wreckers combiner, especially if it doesn't actually include Rotorstorm.
Ps, for people who need more Rodimus in their lives (everyone, I'm assuming), two of my favorite spotlight issues from the pre-mtmte era are this one, and this as a semi-direct sequel (there's a little bit of other plot in that second one, but I mostly just ignored it for rodimus :V ). The art isn't as good as mtmte, but it's not as ugly as the series sometimes gets either, and there is some excellent character stuff for Rodimus, especially if you've read DC.
Spoiler: Post DC exRID @spockandawe, it actually looks as though if you've read Combiner Wars, you've probably already gotten through the exRID issues that involve Starscream, including 33 - after CW, 43 has a lot of Soundwave and Cosmos; 44 is back on Cybertron, but then 46 and 47 have Optimus invade the Cybertron stuff with important Starscream developments tucked in so you kinda have to put up with it. 48 is just adorable and must be read at all costs, and 49 ties a lot of POVs together again. Unfortunately that's as far as I've read, so I don't want to read further on the wiki ;-; The problem with ex-RID is that it covers so many different groups compared to MTMTE...it's hard to pick stuff apart. I love Soundwave's weird subplot, but it all gets so tangled up in the Optimus-Prowl-Galvitron stuff that it's hard to avoid. I'm...not the biggest fan of Optimus in this continuity
Spoiler: pre-mtmte, post-dc exrid I really enjoy how subtly broken Optimus is in the idw run, because he's definitely run-down from the war, and he's had to compromise on his ideals and things, and like, when they captured Megatron, Optimus beating himself up and second-guessing all his own decisions was the most identifiable I found him. Things like him ignoring Wheelie's distress call because he had bigger things to worry about were kind of a nice OOF moment, because the classic hero move would be 'well I'm gonna fix BOTH problems!' But he doesn't even try, and Wheelie... his story fucks me up, man. Which was a reasonable, practical course of action by Optimus, and it's nice seeing even robot jesus having to compromise his ideals, but it adds up to a protagonist in the current timeline where I just... don't like being around him. Like, Prowl is fucked up too, but he's still kicking and punching and I want to see him keep doing his Prowl thing. I'm crazy invested in Sins of the Wreckers. Optimus Prime is just exhausted. You see him coming down so hard on Rodimus and giving up on trying to figure out how to untangle the mess that is Megatron. Especially contrasted to the energy and the ideals he has in flashbacks, it's really hard watching him function. I like what they did with him, but all that lovely development has added up to him being a character I don't especially want in any of my stories :P
Ohhh man that CyGateWhirl fic though. You have a gorgeous way with words @spockandawe so I'm slowly working my way through everything now.
Friends, I downloaded MTMTE in anticipation of doctors appointments and other times when I would be waiting without Internet for extended periods of time. I've been laid up in bed with cramps all day, and I'd just finished my Tank Girl reread, so I was like "what the hell let's see how far I get before ADHD fucks me." I just finished issue 13 and I am still interested but I had to take a break to just roll around in my feelings. I just love them all so much, but Tailgate and Ultra Magnus are now my very special favorites. Spoiler: Spoilers and incoherent feelings I had gotten the spoiler from... somewhere, idk, that tailgate was not actually bomb disposal, but I wasn't sure of it because it was just a vague recollection, so I viewed the bomb issue with such a sense of dread. I was just like 'oh shit does he screw up is that how everyone finds out that we'd be awful and everyone would hate him poor baby' and the it turned out it was actually fucking Whirl! Comic you cannot do this to me, make me root for a character so hard in one issue and make me want to just SHAKE Him in another. But that moment where Cyclonus is teaching Tailgate the song o m f g I just want to roll around in that forever. And Tailgate trash talking... Dominus? Rewind's science activist buddy, names are hard. That was so fucking cute, trying to shittalk him to make Chromedome feel better, uuuuuuugh. Also Chromedome and Rewind have the best interactions? I don't even know what to do with a canon relationship where they fight over real issues and still love each other dearly. BUT FUCKING ULTRA MAGNUS OMFG. I had gotten the impression from somewhere that people hate him, idk, but he is my forever fave. Even in the first issue I was like 'okay dude's pretty funny' but the fucking annual I can't even. HE HAS A RESPONSIBILITY TO THE CREW Y'ALL. HE SMILED. And his scene with Swerve in the bar 'not a popular bot' I just wanted to hold him. (Swerve in this issue gets an honorable mention because I also wanted to sweep hum up in my arms and give him a giant hug. He makes me laugh too.) Side note: who is this kid he modeled himself after, I'm guessing the one who calls him 'uncle magnus'? Because she looks like a cutie and I am hella interested. (that whole bar scene really makes me want to find the robot fake marriage fic @spockandawe recced a million years ago in CDCF and reread it now that I have some backstory, I enjoyed it even when I knew nothing and I'm sure I'd love it even more now.) And the bonus story at the end of this I fucking cried laughing. Actual tears came to my eyes. "' I should have said energy-efficient vocal synthesizers,' said Ultra Magnus quietly, in a manner reminiscent of a pathologist pronouncing the time of death." Christ almighty. AND THE BIT ABOUT HIS COUGH, AND EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THE GIFT SHOP. (I'm still fucking dying that they found Cyclonus counting change, what the fuck, I can't even. I don't even know what to make of that.) Also special mention to Rodimus, who I genuinely thought I was going to hate, and instead I found myself mightily entertained by him. I cackle every time his silly little catchphrase is brought up. OH ALSO I ALMOST FORGOT, I think this was in the annual but w/e, that moment when Cyclonus sneaks into Tailgate's ceremony fucking got me. Also, does anyone want to go over the Shockwave thing for me briefly, or does that get brought up again? From cultural osmosis I gather he's a Deception scientist, but idk if he was like, a Big Deal Bad Dude or what. I would also like to know when ladies show up! Current crew is gr8 but I would like to see them, I seem to remember them being promised in CDCF. I'm also doing pretty well at keeping track of who's who, which shocked me, but I feel like there's like five red and white dudes that have been shown at this point and it's messing me up. Also lighting changes confuse me.
And Shockwave!! He's surprisingly important for a character who rarely takes center stage. Spoilers for like... up through mtmte 11/12, whatever it was, plus a lot of the pre-mtmte stuff, including some things that apply to dark cybertron, but that were set up earlier than that Spoiler Okay, so you've got this senator fellow named Shockwave, who's super progressive compared to the rest of the functionist politicians and was bffs with Optimus Prime, until his progressive ways caught up with him and he got empurata'd, excising all emotion and turning him into a stone cold logic machine. That happened in mtmte. But before that, like around Tailgate's original time period, Shockwave was the main student of this scientist dude called Jhiaxus. Jhiaxus ended up on a ship with Cyclonus and Nova Prime and Galvatron and got sucked into the dead universe, but he left a message for Shockwave to ~continue his work~ Once the decepticon/autobot war started, Shockwave served as one of the main scientists for Megatron, but he kept carrying on his own super secret work on the side. What this work essentially boiled down to was these things called ores. Shockwave seeded a bunch of planets, then let them bake at 350 for a couple million years. Some of the ores fizzled out, and the ones that took seemed to have different effects. One made its planet come unstuck in time, one slowly killed its entire planet, etc. One ore, ore-13, got planted on earth. This ore turned out to be all about energy, and was like, producing super-energon, which is what originally pulled the Decepticons in to the planet and the Autobots came in to fight against them, classic transformers setup. Now, dial back ten thousand years or so. At one point, Shockwave came to have a peek at earth to see how his ore was doing. He'd also apparently finished screwing over the dinobots in some fashion, so they came chasing after him to get payback. Long story short, all of them ended up buried in the earth for a couple millennia and only got uncovered very recently by humans. Meanwhile the decepticons are like OH MY GOD, WHERE IS THAT DOUCHEBAG. And the ores are doing their ore things without the head honcho to keep an eye on them, and the decepticons have no clue wtf shockwave was even up to, but some of them start trying to figure it out. Shenanigans ensue. This all doesn't really culminate until the dark cybertron arc, but the bits and pieces of his story are very scattered. It's kind of easier to piece it together if you go to his wiki page, but there are also spoilers there, so be careful. But if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer! Edit: also I am super bad at remembering to say everything I meant to say. The human Ultra Magnus is modeled on is Verity Carlo, and she's the first character you meet in the idw transformers series! She's a main character for a little while, but not after a certain point. She does feature heavily in Last Stand of the Wreckers (very good, you can read that at any point you want, and you get to see her calling him Uncle Magnus on screen) and Sins of the Wreckers, the sequel series that is still not finished.
the ladies show up in the dark cybertron arc! so like. issue 2...6? and then nautica, of CDCF fame, becomes a permanent mtmte cast member in #28. she is the beautiful awkward light of my life.
also @sirsparklepants , WELCOME TO ROBOT HELL, we are so pleased to have you. boxes of tissues can be found on your right hand side as you enter The Pain Train. please keep arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times and enjoy the ride
Spoiler: mtmte 31 FLASHBACK TIME lol is that how they got the lost light? oh the concept of chirolinguality is FASCINATING! awww megs, it was a cute story and not everyone knew how they got the ship, don't be bitter D: how is nautica so adorable? "If i sit next to you for too long am I gonna get smartass poisoning?" oh getaway Megs, insulting Rodimus right back doesn't reflect on your ability to command either "The commodification of knowledge. I find that offensive." i feel this so hard cy. "Hm. I'll have to take your tiny word for it." megs he's pointing a blaster at you. Is now really the time to make fun of his height? Ratchet and Cyclonus are the "Save Tailgate From Himself" force and you can't convince me otherwise. megs... meeeeeegs... what are you doing there? NOT CHROMEDOME WHY COULDN'T YOU STICK TO NON-MAINCAST-BOTS I DON'T CARE ABOUT MYSTERIOUS VANISH-Y FORCE aww tailgate D; AWWW CYCLONUS :') oh man i love these worldbuilding infodumps "From thaw to war in under an hour" aaaah awww nauts D: oh my god cy vanishes and tailgate is absolutely breaking apart over it D; well shit okay that sounds like some dodgey shit but dodgey enough for the SHIP AND EVERYONE ON IT disappearing? okay nightbeat well done but as megs said that was slow as hell WELP
I JUST FINISHED ISSUE 15 AND I AM VERY UPSET. THIS IS NO LONGER A FUN DISTRACTION FROM PAIN, THIS IS PAIN.
I was really pleasantly surprised, my ability to read anything has been royally fucked for the last few months, and I'm pretty sure my adhd is the main culprit. But I read mtmte in two sittings, only with a break in the middle where I stalled out at the Dark Cybertron arc. There's something so insanely gripping about it, and I just could not physically force myself to put it down.
