Well those are some A+ starscream faces and I'm glad for Nautica, but that is basicallt what I was worried about... I was hoping one of the animated series would be good, but I don't think there's anything new that isn't very much for kids. Axiom's End seems so cool and I am delighted to hear that it's basically transformers
If you're just here for the memes, the Transformers/MLP crossover has been surprisingly hilarious so far, and also has starscream with capes
More toy news: Here is an adorable baby Arcee. Spoiler: Baby But the important part is that the engineers have made it so that she actually transforms into a car even with the giant head: Spoiler: Baby car Anyway, I love third party Transformers toys.
I've made a discovery about IDW2, and it's that, while cityspeakers exist, Windblade isn't one. Instead she is a cop (???). and maybe this version of her is ok as that, but just from the wiki summary it seems like she's just... they could've fit anyone into that plot role and it'd have been fine.
OK sorry I thought about this more and. I got [NOT ENOUGH] hours of sleep so these aren't all my thoughts but whatever The first, immediately interesting thing about Windblade as a character in IDW1 is that she's NOT a warrior. She's a diplomat, a crafter, a repairer and healer of systems. She is definitionally involved in systemic change, through the Titans - being someone whose job is both to fix the being that everyone else relies on, and direct Metroplex's attention to what needs help immediately because he's so big and strong but thinks on such a different scale from smaller 'bots, AND to speak for his interest when people think that because of that, they can do whatever they want and ask whatever they want of him, whether that's hooking into his fuel lines to drain him (because he's so big, how would he notice?) Or expecting him to be in tip top fighting shape after the entire war She's a character who fundamentally works WITH systems, but isn't inside them. She LITERALLY has to be able to understand what it means to have a bigger perspective to do her job! She spends her life learning how to understand something so much bigger than herself, that will definitely outlive her, and that shapes so much about her! Her work is really not subtly about seeing a system, seeing how it does and doesn't work for people, and repairing its structures to protect people! She's an idealist, and she does have a strong belief in the Titans and Primes, and that can lead to her being naive - but it also means she has a perspective the war broke in everyone else, she doesn't think of violence as the first or most reliable tool she has. Hell, her skill with the sword is something she mostly learned as an art form that Chromia insisted be self defense! And none of that lines up with her being a security forces member. Like, even presuming she's trying to work within the system to keep it serving people, that's so much of a less interesting way for her to do it? It really just strikes me as 'well how will we know she's a strong female character if she's not good at stabbing people' - and of course since the war isn't on yet, she can't be a TOTAL newcomer to the conflicts, but she can still be someone who devoted herself to the Titans and as such has a hard time connecting to the mainstream, especially when what's popular isn't what's best for everyone or what her superiors think is important mainly benefits them. Could they not think of how to make a character who repairs, maintains, and negotiates a key player in an action story without shuffling her off-page so the gunfights can happen? (and that's not even getting into the sheer weirdness of having her be THE cityspeaker, all the lore developed for her story's sake, and then just. Not having her be one even though they exist. it's like having Ratchet not be an ambulance, for goodness' sake) Like, maybe they're planning on doing an arc where she meets a Titan and realizes it's her true calling? And it'll drive a wedge between her and people only thinking on a factional level right when the war kicks off? But man idk
IDW 2.0 is just. It's a lot. Every time I catch so much as a glimpse of what's happening, ie the 'Deathsaurus eats crystal bat poop' thing, I just.........take another step back And yeah, it seems weighted towards making all the characters either politicians or cops/security, a decision that certainly is a decision that was made
Oh I didn't even hear about that one, wow. Isn't the tragedy of the war that it sucked in everyone, even people who just wanted to be artists or librarians or medics or watchmakers? That everyone had to learn to fight? You have to actually people who AREN'T career fighters for that to have impact. Plus, is it just me, or are there fewer complicated weird people? That's a clunky way to describe it, but the thing that got me into MTMTE, along with the humor, was how everyone was complicated and sounded absolutely ridiculous if you described them just by traits, and how well they all bounced off each other. Even the villains had their neuroses and could be absolutely absurd in certain moments - like Shockwave's, uh, shock, at the DJD doing the list in order even though it's inefficient. Now it seems like everyone is some combination of well meaning, driven, and noble // scheming, underhanded, and cruel, without much else to say about them.
Unfortunately, since I've only read...maybe two and a half issues, tops, I can't say for sure if the character depth gets much better than what little blandness I've picked up from 2.0. Like, it sounds like they have a couple of cool concepts, along the lines of Termagex and Codexa, but it mostly exists in a Cybertron setting that is already getting thrown right back into the war narrative anyway. The writer who caused the drama by killing Brainstorm two issues in made a big deal about how these characters obviously aren't connected to the old IDW continuity and characterization, but...eh Also crystal bat poop
*looks up those two on the wiki* They do seem pretty cool! Old lady visionaries are interested, especially if they're both mentoring different sides, but with the war being inevitable it's a bit hard to get invested without them pulling all the stops out right away ...wait the bats worship Bumblebee? I mean, valid, but also crystal bat poop.
They had a whole lot of cool shit going for them (Codexa growing into the planet, whatever the heck is up with the energy system/moon(s), Vigilem was there for two seconds, etc etc) and instead of worldbuilding something new and unique, they're already calling one of the mini series "war world" or something so we can speed run right to the Decepticons being evil. Megatron's entire motivations make even less sense than IDW 1.0, which is truly an achievement in its own right. He tried to shoot Termagex, his mentor, at a public rally because he's just that power hungry I guess Basically, it does the opposite of compel me
Siiiigh It's not even been 2 years, can you guys please keep some stuff in reserve. If you were this eager to get to it you could've started on the eve of the war itself and then fleshed it out through flashbacks, let people guess at it as it's filled out, but nooo.
I mean, if they weren't going to actually let the tragedy of the pre-war stuff land, then dragging it out isn't doing anyone any favors. We KNOW they have authors who can land tragedy and dramatic irony, but instead they're doing this so half heartedly that everyone knows they're biding time till an ~outbreak of the War~ event and then it's back to business as usual. So it feels both too rushed to get people invested and too slow to be compelling.
Hello I just discovered that in the Cyberverse cartoon, the show's finale Spoiler: did anyone watch this? idk but finale spoilers I guess has Megatron from another universe create an army of Perfect Decepticons And they all look like this
Honestly it's the attention to detail that gets me. Like the glow lines on the cannon. Also that I think these guys have a Deceptibrand backpack each which is even more excessive.
