@Allenna if u provide me with a prompt... Wait there is the weekly writing prompt... MHHHHHHH (I was gonna go for Cygate with that one but MegaRod might be funny as well, idk.)
You know, Starscream might be a self-centered prick, but by god if he's not good at building a political infrastructure that happens to have positive feedback on everyone. He's still up to shit, but his level of 'shit' is still miles below like.... every other person who's tried to lead anything involving Cybertron. edit: I am literally cackling over the fact that the one guy most known for backstabbing and lying is like... halfway down the list of "people who have consistently lied and backstabbed for their own gain".
Despite that hilarious clip from G1, Starscream is actually quite intelligent! He's just conniving and amoral as well. But he wants to survive more than he wants to stay on top, so he arranges things to try to suppress populist upheaval, and he knows quite well that shooting people indiscriminately doesn't prevent populist upheaval. Instead he shoots people very discriminately. But yeah, most of the people who ruled Cybertron were some combination of stupid and blinded by ideology.
Yessss, I love it! And I really love (in a sad-making way) that even though he's being relatively decent, practically nobody is willing to give him any credit for it. Like sure, okay, he is definitely pulling some sketchy shit here and there but so is almost everyone else. I'm on mobile, so I can't wax eloquent, but I love that he gets less credit for the good things he's done than almost any other character.
Good fuckign christ would it kill Spike Witwicky to just die already? I mean yes, it would, that's the ideal but-- ugh. Fuck this guy.
WELL CAUGHT UP ON EXRID AND WHELP. OP UR SURE DOIN UR THING. I'm actually invested in how this turns out. Also in Starscream. I hate that I love Starscream.
I'm gonna need a link to a reading order once I've finished my Uni assignment of the week. I'm doin it. I'm lifebloggin exRiD
i would quite like in on this exRiD stuff also but comics intimidate me so, yes, reading order and somewhere to start pls and kthnx. xP
Reading order for the full IDW run is on the first page of the thread, and if you're reading on viewcomic y'all can start here! Of the... chapters? Plot arcs? that bounce between different series, there'll usually be a narrator-box towards the end that says "To be continued in [other series] #[X]!" ...I'm gonna be honest, I just kinda relied on the recaps to give me the important information from the out-of-exRid issues, viewcomic is a pain in the ass to navigate on mobile. Transformers makes such good bedreading tho
exRiD reading order! I'm just going to link to viewcomic. So first, you start just at issue one, which is approximately concurrent with the MTMTE start exRiD Issue 1 From there, you can read straight on through issue 22. Issue 22 itself is the exRiD lead-in to the dark cybertron arc, just like the lost light documentary issue with the bad art was for MTMTE. The comic itself is dense with political shenanigans, which was a struggle for me, personally, but it sets up some interesting interpersonal dynamics and the focus expands to cover more than just politics, especially after issue 16 or so, and especially after dark cybertron. The art is... competent, but not great, but it improves with time. Occasionally you will get issues with hideous art featuring Optimus Prime Orion Pax out having adventures (?) in space. These are lead-ins to dark cybertron and I didn't like them and largely ignored them, and it didn't really hurt my reading comprehension. Optional Pre-DC phase one reading: Spotlight: Shockwave Spotlight: Soundwave Galvatron's wikipedia page, through section 1.4 (I wouldn't wish most of the phase one issues about him on anybody) Not essential, but they've got some backstory for a few of the major decepticon players. Dark Cybertron itself, you can either bounce between MTMTE and RiD, or go to the viewcomic compilation document, which I'll link to. There are two volumes of this, but they're both pretty long Dark Cybertron Volume 1 The art is erratic, the plot is confusing, and the pacing is... not great, but there are some really great character moments sprinkled throughout. After that nonsense is done, you can skip back over to the comic proper for issue 28. This has the same six month timeskip as MTMTE, but doesn't really linger on Megatron's trial or anything. It sets up some of the forthcoming drama with robots and humans and also you get to meet Thundercracker, everything is worth it for Thundercracker exRiD Issue 28 Read through issue 38. Then you want to divert off into another miniseries! I don't know exaaaactly where this fits in the reading order, but I like it best as a breath of fresh air after wading through the human politics. This is the four-issue Windblade miniseries, drawn by Sarah Stone, and it is the most beautiful thing. There are issues past the fourth one linked on that viewcomic page, but for the moment, just read those first four. Windblade Miniseries, Issue 1 Then things hit Combiner Wars and reading order gets messy. So you know how DC wanted you to bounce between two ongoing series, but there was a compilation version you could read? Combiner Wars is like that, but without an online compilation. So you start at exRiD issue 39, and then you bounce between that and the Windblade ongoing series. exRiD Issue 39 (opening salvo) Windblade Issue 1 (part 1) exRiD Issue 40 (part 2) Windblade Issue 2 (part 3) exRiD Issue 41 (part 4) Windblade Issue 3 (part 5) exRiD Issue 42 (epilogue) Windblade Issue 4 (epilogue 2: electric boogaloo) FWOO. Okay. I hate it when they do that. I don't read that event online, just in my paperback compilation, because it's easier to keep track of things, but hopefully that helps. Now, there's two things you can read. One is the rest of Windblade's ongoing series! It follows pretty directly from combiner wars, and involves more outreach to the old cybertronian colonies and diplomatic shenanigans and Starscream <3< Windblade. I enjoy it. It only goes up through issue 7 right now, so it's a pretty light read. I hear it's maybe supposed to come back kind of soon? Keeping track of the schedules for these things is a nightmare. Windblade Issue 5 And the other thing is the rest of exRiD. As of a few days ago, that goes up through issue 52. I enjoy this part of the series a lot, it's doing interesting stuff with the story, and I'm really curious to see where they take it. exRiD Issue 43 And I think that's mostly it! There might be some non-obvious spotlights I've missed, like MTMTE has those spotlights for Trailcutter and Hoist, but the series still made sense to me without that extra content.
In addition to the above timeline, there are a few side bits: Punishment (somewhere around exRiD 35) Dinbots Combiner Hunters (right after Combiner Wars) Arcee and Windblade Sins of the Wreckers (somewhere between exRiD 44 and 45) Prowl fucks up, other people deal with the fallout, news at 11 Redemption (during exRiD 46) More dinobots (this one made me sad)
Ohhhhh my god, Punishment and Redemption were both intense. I feel like Ramondelli is....... maybe improving? I still don't like his art, but it's way more comprehensible than it used to be and his faces are getting better. also barricade is precious and oh my gosh strafe is my new favorite I NEED TO DRAW THE SHIT OUT OF HER
oh man, dark cybertron's going down way smoother this time around. also: i love brainstorm so, so, so much. and whirl. and arcee. ALSO: after 23 chapters, the contrast between mtmte and exrid could not be more stark. like. it's been all POLITICS POLITICS DEATH DEATH INTRIGUE GIANT ROBOT and now mtmte is so good
Hmmm, the first time they merge (and Rodimus worrying that his spark isn't as good as Optimus') If you want a Cygate one: they meet Cyc's ex (Galvatron)
Yes, Optimus, they like Thunderclash more than you. Okay well everyone loves Thunderclash but Rodimus who is like HE CANNOT BE PERFECT AT EVERYTHING WTF.
I might have to get a bit more prep for both of those! But I might do it in between liveblogging exRiD
Roddy being loyal to his crew even when they aren't his crew. Fuckin. Leave me to cry over this precious fucking robot. (In reference to Devastation 6, but... honestly could be anything at this point, is this what having a favorite feels like?)
