TFs: DARE TO BE STUPID

Eldritch Tailgate!!!



Awright, I'm okay with this new development again, if only because it will upset other people within the setting, so I get to enjoy their suffering

 

As far as I know, it's preeeeeetty close to his old design (except for the way the proportions are so D:), and some blockiness shows up in flashback things. But this isn't flashing back, this is in the present where he is GORGEOUS and flawless and needs to be adored (and I genuinely don't understand how someone could choose between the old design and his current design and decide they want to draw the old one)

 

Ice/cornflower/white, petals/butterfly/glimmer, but also with a nice little... shadow? accent thrown on top of it all, because I had it sitting in my hoard and had never gotten to use it before (i don't care much for faes), and eldritch Tailgate is my favorite. I have a shameful number of transformers dragons, and my current goal is to slap a pretty/fitting accent onto every single one of them :P

 

And he's used to being someone who's kind of a step behind, who's easy to take advantage of, who came right out the gate lying about his past because he has real issues with who he is. He made some steps in a positive direction, backing off on the lies about his history, putting the waste disposal thing back on his arm, etc. And then along comes Getaway to abuse his trust like WHOA and take advantage of his sweet accommodating nature. Even before he knew about his e%quisite STRENGTH, he came out of that experience angry. And now that he's strong... well, he's going to be that much less receptive to people guiding him from the outside, he's going to be less willing to let people protect and help him, because HE'S strong enough to protect people now, thankyouverymuch, and he's sick of people thinking he doesn't have his own autonomy.

I'm not at all surprised he's getting snappy even with Cyclonus, I'm pretty delighted by this development, because it's such a logical step in his emotions, but when you've got a naturally sweet character and bad things happen to them, it's a piece of reaction that a lot of creators just... glide past. And Tailgate isn't able to just push back verbally either, he's all swole and junk, he is taking control of his life back, STOP TRYING TO TELL HIM WHAT TO DO. And Cyclonus is probably one of the best people who could articulate why restraint and control is so important, he cares enough about Tailgate to be patient while Tailgate is being difficult, and he cares enough about Tailgate to actually dig in far enough to try to explain and help, past his own difficulties with expressing his feelings.

I've got veryvery many emotions about all this. Little things where Tailgate just burns over how he doesn't keep up, how people expect things he can't quite do, how he misses little things and messes up, how easy it is for someone to reach in and steer him. He gets openly upset about being left in a spot where he told a ship full of autobots that he wanted to be a decepticon. He's upset over how... aggressively Rodimus and company made their counterargument, and the scope of everything he didn't know when he embarrassed himself. He calls Chromedome 'Domey' and gets shut down. He set himself up by claiming to be a bomb disposal expert, but now he has to actualy dispose of a bomb, and oh god he's boxed himself in, there's no way out of this without disappointing someone, and lives are at stake, this is all his fault. And Getaway. Just a brutal thing for someone as sweet and trusting as Tailgate to experience, but that's why he was chosen for it.

So yes, I am intensely happy that this is where his character went, how alarming it is to see this emotional reaction, alongside that out of control strength, alongside his inexperience with that kind of power or the stakes that go along with it. I think with Cyclonus he's got a good chance of coming out the other side without taking too many more hits, but Cyclonus is probably going to absorb some nasty hits from Tailgate before things even out. Tailgate still hasn't forgotten the way Cyclonus hurt him at first, both the decepticon thing and the actual literal kicking. The kicking is referenced as late in the game as issue 33 or so. From that, Tailgate definitely knows how much it sucks to be hurt by someone for no decent reason, other than them taking out their anger on him. And once his emotions steady out a little here, he's going to have to process the way he's literally hurt other people without proper cause, the nasty things he's said to Cyclonus, and I'm not sure Cyclonus is getting away from this without taking some physical damage too (I'm kind of thinking the last page of issue whatever has something to do with tailgate. what? i dunno, but it seems like a likely connection). All such good stuff. And then Tailgate has the balance of having been hurt and being able to hurt others, both in pretty serious ways. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, i love it

 

But he told Velocity he felt old and tired. I am still le worried :<

And also!!! I was poking through more comic issues, and in the fuss of EVERYTHING, I forgot Rung was part of the guilt whatsit



And by that I mean he was a vague, cagey motherfucker who dodged like whoa and oh my god, TELL ME YOUR SECRETS. I want to know what rung was so upset over, I neeeeeeed to know :(((((

 

Heyyyyy, why would I want to be sleeping or anything. But I'm feeling the rhythm of these things again

Spoiler: large

 

So JRO said the thing on twitter about sometimes Pharma catches himself off guard and hates what he's become. Pharma's not on the screen that much, so we don't get to see too-too much not-being-awful depth out of him, what we get is mostly via Ratchet or out of the comic from JRO. And then there's this tiny piece of canon. The plot here is moving at breakneck speed and we've got character moments for two main characters happening, so I'm not surprised this never quite clicked in my head, but I am SO DELIGHTED TO SPOT IT NOW. Pharma brushes off the character thing and leaves the screen. Then Rung clarifies the character thing, while he and Skids have character things of their own, but unless you backtrack, it's so easy to miss filling in the gaps between that statement and what Pharma said earlier.

(and it makes me so happy to have this comic that I have read to hell and back, and instead of getting tired of it and bored, there are still new things in there for me to find and love)



I love this, I love him, he's awful and delightful and hiding guilt/anguish/self-reproach, I love it

 

Wait, WAIT, and this is literally the very next thing that happens in the comic. They've just outright told us that Pharma feels too guilty to pass through an aequitas-type barrier. And then he plays out this shameless bit of nastiness, in direct contrast to what we were just told.



He feels too guilty to pass, he sometimes catches himself off-guard and hates what he's become. But when someone confronts him directly, he just doubles down on every bad thing he's done. If we want to go into pride things, it could tie into that. Or it could be something like Whirl where WELP, everything is irredeemably ruined, so why even bother trying to make it better. Or both! Both is good. Maybe with a pinch of guilt playing into the way he provokes First Aid. This could have all kinds of flavors to it and I just want to know MORE. He's so terrible, and also I ache for him. I've got so many feelings right now, this isn't how I meant to spend my evening ;-;