Spoiler I disagree. How do you think they should be written to sound like they were almost forced to kill each other in an arena at the whim of a decadent prime? Don't you see all those interactions from over a year of realtime that foreshadows this? I'm not trying to attack you, I'm just confused. How do you think they should be acting, when you don't know what happened in between being freed and fighting for Megatron and Galvatron leaving on the Ark?
Spoiler It's not a matter of how they should be acting, I think. It's the lack of mentioning anything. They don't reference anything that happened back then, with the possible exception of that line of "an ally turned you into what you are". There is nothing indicating that their interactions are anything other than relatively recent. They speak of things that happened during the Second Civil War, but no events from before that, at least not until in OP 9 she suddenly mentions standing by while her brother got murdered. I could understand this constrained set of references if they had been born during the Second Civil War, but we knew even then that they're both quite a bit older than that. So for instance, Galvatron could have referenced the arena, something along the lines of "this wouldn't be the first time you've tried to kill me at the behest of a power-mad Prime." Which, sure, could be explained away as referring to an event from the Second Civil War, but is worded just oddly enough, in my opinion, to indicate that there's something else there. And then OP 10 comes out and we get to see what he's really talking about: not "I killed a bunch of your people due to Dark Universe shenanigans so you're trying to kill me in revenge", but literally trying to kill him at the behest of a power-mad Prime. Maybe I'm just tone deaf, but without that, I could see them as siblings, or as former fuckbuddies, or rival debate team captains, if I simply go by how they talk to and address each other. The issue to me isn't who they are to each other or how they interact, it's the lack of reference to shared history. Oh, speaking of addresses: she addresses him at least once as "old man", in a dismissive manner. She either is being somewhat hypocritical, or for some reason thinks of herself as significantly younger than him. Which makes the "twins" bit a little shaky, unless Cybertronian "twins" means something quite different.
Spoiler Oh, I interpreted them as making a lot of references to a shared history that were mostly obvious in hindsight. For example, after the 'an ally turned you into what you are' line, Arcee says 'I am what I was always meant to be', and Galvatron says 'that's a healthy attitude. What changed?' implying her knew her when she had a different attitude about what Jihaxus did. 'Always with the inferior creatures, Galvatron. Why do you hang around them if you're so much better than them?' is a bit of a double-meaning thing, since it's something Arcee could intuit from the few on-screen interactions she's had with him so far or historical stuff, but with the context of them being siblings sounds to me like the continuation of an old, old argument, since that seems to be one of the things she's upset with him about in OP 10's story. There's the already mentioned 'brotherhood' quip making Galvatron wince, and then before Galvatron's death, they have this conversation as they fight. Arcee: Galvatron! Why sacrifice your soldier needlessly? Why not leave him and run? Galvatron: I never run. And I never surrender. Arcee: There's always time to learn something new. Galvatron: What do you know of that? All you've ever been is a tool in service of irrelevant causes. Arcee: Maybe once. But I've definitely learned a thing or two about change. [...] Galvatron: You place your faith in the wrong savior. Deep inside you know this. Optimus will betray you. Arcee: And you've betrayed everyone. Which is why you're here, with no one left, while an Autobot is never alone. That's... pretty fucking personal snipes based on the interactions we've seen them have. They're digging at old wounds and again, it has the cadence of an old, old argument. You said you could read them as siblings, old fuckbuddies, or even debate partners, but honestly, Arcee and Galvatron get more personal with each other in their antagonism than they get with almost anyone else. The way Arcee talks to Galvatron honestly reminds me of how she talks about Prowl, only much... less fresh pain? With Prowl she's angry first and foremost, with Galvatron she's untrusting and resigned. But usually Arcee doesn't open up that much to people even in antagonism. Normally Arcee doesn't show she cares about who she's fighting, more the cause she's fighting for. So for her to care that she's fighting Galvatron, it implies the connection was deep, whatever betrayal or drifting or fight that separated them old, and her (and him) so resigned to being at odds that they don't even TRY to trust each other. As for the 'old man'... I think it was a fake-out to imply Galvatron is older than Arcee, but with the reveal the meaning changes to be Arcee being hypocritical, ribbing him about his age, or, and this would be interesting, her feeling younger than him because what Jihaxus did or some other event fucked with her memory way back when. We don't really know yet. I'm mentally tabbing that as 'keep an eye on'.
That said, I don't disagree with you, @Exohedron . The first solid clue we got towards the nature of their relationship was in OP 9, and it was clarified who was being referred to in OP 10. But it was told by an unreliable narrator. Everything fits, but I think we need to wait longer to see what the writers are doing and how they're going to build on this.
Spoiler I do agree that their interactions in ex-RID are super personal, that the emotional intensity is there, and that there is indication of some history. Just, not necessarily the history that was revealed in OP 10. To me, that bit before Galvatron was murdered didn't sound like a rehash of an old argument, again because of a lack of references to previous iterations of that argument. No "you already know..." or "why do you still..." I'm comparing it to my impressions of the Prowl-Chromedome mess. Again, super personal, biting arguments. Lots of history, good and bad. People who know each other and used to like each other and now do not. Those interactions are full of history, offhand references, allusions to past arguments, "I've explained this before" all over the place. Actually, that's one of the things IDW does well: references to events to flesh out history. We keep getting snippets of the Second Civil War all over the place, references to battles that we never get to see, mentions of places that we'll probably never go, single panels that fill in a four million year timeline and give us a sense that, yeah, all of these Cybertronians share a history, mostly involving shooting each other. Someone mentions Simanzi, and we the readers don't know what exactly that means, but everyone in comic nods and thinks "that was an unmitigated disaster" because they all share that history, even if they weren't there personally. And then when someone else mentions Simanzi, we the readers come to understand that this was a thing, that the Simanzi Massacre was an Event in the shared history. And that helps us believe in the idea that there was a war that enveloped an entire people. It's historical worldbuilding. Or historybuilding. Whatever the word is. It's those moments of brief specificity that I feel are missing. Maybe not names, but events that can't be handwaved so easily away by a truncated history. I am also interested in where this is going, though. To be honest, the historical stuff is actually my favorite part of exRID, despite the art, because of the recontexualization it offers. Which is also probably why I'm getting so worked up about this, because I find this particular piece of recontextualization super awkward. Sure, all stories are lies. Narrators are unreliable. Alpha Trion is actually Liege Maximo. But this particular bit sits weirdly amongst the other bits.
Spoiler Fair enough. Man tho can you imagine being Optimus Prime right now and suddenly considering that maybe Arcee had more than burning hatred for Galvatron, she's one of the best cybertronian warriors currently alive, he murdered Galvatron right in front of her (since Galvatron DID surrender), she's just suffered another pretty big emotional blow with Sideswipe, and she is basically OP's second in command right now? Do you think he's got any sort of feeling for dread? I don't think Arcee is going to go on an emotional bender at him, but uh... it's still got to be kiiiiind of uncomfortable.
Spoiler: OP 10, shitpost Optimus Prime: So, Arcee, uh, I heard a rumor you were... related to Galvatron? Hahahaha, crazy right, stupid rumors, hahaha...
Spoiler Soundwave: Huh, that's weird, who just started internally screaming Arcee, internally: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHH Soundwave: ...I think that's normal...
Spoiler I mean, he's managed to piss off all of the other fembots around him. So what's one more, right? I hope he has six years and the secret to immortality, though.
Spoiler: OP 10 Optimus Prime: Nobody NEEDS you, Galvatron. Arcee, quietly: Actually- Optimus Prime: YOU'RE TERRIBLE AND NOBODY LIKES YOU, YOU SELFISH, SELFISH MONSTER, I HATE YOU. Galvatron, loudly: Hey, uh, this is a bit- BLAM
Really interesting video on Male Gaze in Bayverse movies... as shown by how male characters are framed.
Spoiler At least I'm being a bit reassured that the narrative DOESN'T think OP is mister infallible mcdivineright prime. Because I was a little.... not sure given the end of exrid, and the way he was portrayed at the beginning of the series. But Jetfire is getting upset over his shit in the backstory, the colonists are nnnot doing so awesome, especially the surviving divisen lady. And they just??? Buried Oiler without ANY consideration for cultural death rites???????????? OP either had them do it or he wasn't involved at ALL and both of those options are... not great. The human president cares more about Jazz than he does. Jazz makes the slip about USED to trust optimus. Pyra Magna is aware that OP is using religion to control people when he doesn't believe at all. She's seeking out the disaffected colonists and making an outreach effort. He totally alienated Windblade in the crappy crossover event. He's been shitty to Starscream. He's been EXTRA shitty to Prowl. He took a surrendering mech and executed him. And as it turns out, did it right in front of the guy's sister. Cosmos is neglected. Aileron is being dragged into the deep end of the pool (the war+politics pool, augh D:) when she was only just learning to swim. And that's just off the top of my head. He's been the worst combination of authoritative and detached/unconnected, but the story isn't showing either of those as a good thing. The moment when he helps put a halt to the violence with the junkions is treated as a good sign, but that's like... the ONLY good sign we've seen from him. Like, the way almost everyone's mental health in this series is so DDDDD: is a major point, but Optimus's party is really kinda starting to take a mass nosedive, especially after Sideswipe. And Optimus isn't responsible for taking care of everyone, but he could have done a LOT to head off the worst of these problems. Anyways, this is my new favorite. Giant alien lobster boy. Named Gimlet. Lov him. Also will someone please get this lady some kind of assistive device? Drastic frame changes are a thing doctors can do. Somebody please give her some help. Emotional and physical assistance, please. This is important to me.
Spoiler and didn't Petra make those posts about how the Junkion thing was being handled badly? And hypocritically too.
i know, right. I'm actually really invested in seeing this comic slowly build up a jenga tower of poor life choices, I can't wait to see which one is going to make the whole edifice collapse on top of him.
Fake It Until You Make It, Then Keep Faking It, Oh Primus People Are Relying On You, What Have You Done, We Are All Going To Die: The Optimus Prime Story
