#‘why Ratchet needed to be so important to Drift and his story’

[novafire-is-thinking]

Same anon concerning Dratchet—

I get what you're saying a bit more, except my big counter would be:

How much of a main cast member is Drift, though? 🤔

He has a lot of presence when he's around, but if you look at the numbers... he's actually entirely missing for half the series (40/82 issues for MTMTE+LL) and his panel time is only spotty otherwise.

As much as I love him, he's really not much of a player plot-wise—you could honestly sub him out for just about anyone with no appreciable difference.

Whereas, I'd say Ratchet is still a main cast member regardless of him being entirely absent for 11 issues.

So... Drift might seem Ratchet-centric, but as opposed to that being a reflection of his actual character, it's only a reflection upon the fact that his only claim to fame is Ratchet so it follows any panel time he gets is panel time tying him up with Ratchet.

TL;DR: it's not that Dratchet/Ratchet more important to Drift's character, it's just that it's what connects him to the story.

Does that make any sense at all?

It’s interesting that you bring that up because I did think about the fact that, quantitatively, Drift isn’t quite a main cast member.

I was looking more at qualitative presence.

“you could honestly sub him out for just about anyone with no appreciable difference.”

^ Right. His presence in the series was heavily dependent on Dratchet being so huge, and that’s one of the main reasons I take issue with it in a similar way I think Cygate is overrated.

You’re right that Drift’s claim to fame was through Ratchet, but as far as I know, Ratchet is still the most stable relationship to him outside of MTMTE. Everyone else dies or walks away.

Ratchet was there at the start back at the Dead End, and Drift’s story ended with him attaining his goal of belonging. With Ratchet, apparently. The message conveyed by that narrative is that his story and all his losses were a “journey to Ratchet.” (aka journey to belonging)

Someone (@/weapon-up-wallflower?) wrote something about Dratchet and how every step led to each other (if I recall correctly). I wish I could remember where the post was…

To me, the fact that Ratchet is the main connection Drift gets to [arguably] his most significant story makes their relationship/the ship extremely important to his character arc as a whole. It carries the most weight.

As for Drift’s actual character—barring narrative and storytelling—I still see Ratchet as being key because Drift’s life without Ratchet would be emptier, kinda bland, and would lack all meaning/direction because all of his other relationships were severed or shallow.

Besides Wing and maybe Megatron (both dead), what did any of his other relationships do for him? Nothing.

Meanwhile, if Drift were removed from Ratchet’s life, Ratchet would still stand well on his own as an individual character. Judging by the end of LL, Ratchet was a significant part of many people’s lives and vice versa. His life would still have had meaning without Drift.

I guess I’m just sad that other, potentially interesting options to make Drift compelling were ignored/destroyed with each loss he faced over the course of his story.

EDIT: I realize this would be very different if Drift weren’t so relationally oriented. Relationships aren’t always the most significant thing about a character, but because they are for Drift, that’s where my focus goes: The nature and quality of his relationships.

[popculturebuffet]

More Than Meets the Eye Retrospective: Shadowplay (Issues 9 through 11) (Patreon review for Brotoman.exe)

Hello all you happy autobots and welcome back to my look at more than meets the eye, long delayed due to a lot of scheduling delays, a draining move, and general shenanigans. But it's finally time for us to take a look at Shadowplay.

Shadowplay is easily one of the most important arcs of MTMTE, not only seting up a lot of character backstory, but also fully establishing Roberts vision of Cybertron past that he dabbled with back in Chaos Theory, a place where the senate is corrupt, the Decepticons are slowly planning a coup that will sadly turn from righteous rebellion into nightmarish dictatorship not unlike what they replaced, and functionism lingers in the background. And at the first time I read this arc..

While I liked it well enough, being a tense story that characterized Optimus well and gave him spotlight at a time when he wasn't in any of the comics on a regular basis, it still felt a bit like a neat side tangent.

I've come around since then for a number of reasons: The first is, especially on re-read this arc is REALLY good and in a continuity where Optimus didn't get to shine that often, it's another character piece that makes me sad he never joined the lost light. He got to lead but this really gets to who he is as a character and shows him at his best. It also has plenty of nice depths for the autobots featured, and seeing who they were pre-war really adds some layers and shows just what the war did to each and every one. The other is simple: I was reading the story for the first time. And sometimes something extraneous at the time ends up being important. In this case both how cybertron used to be is vital to the future of those who left it behind. So with that's lets do a little shadowplay and see how the past will ultimately nearly destroy the future...

Content Warning: Self Harm and Suicide Is Discussed

We open in pre war cybertron, some time after the last time we saw it in chaos theory. The Decpticon movement in in full swing, and two bots are discussing the recent clampdown, basically a bunch of curfews and othe rnonsense to try and fight back against them. But one of these bots, Nightbeat isn't remotely convinced this will work while his buddy Quark

Sadly not that one, is paranoid about it and assumes they'll force Alt Mode Changes when they get in power. While they'll do much worse, remember this idea. It'll be important next season. As will Nightbeat.

For now though Quark's casually day drinking is interupted by some blood.. from a corpse hung above

Cut to present day at Swerves where Ratchet joins a group consisting of Rewind, Chromedome, Tailgate, Whirl, Skids, Drift and of course the man himself. Swerve. As for why.... well as put in the page image THEIR GONNA FIX RUNGS BRAIN. After everyone gets a chance to react in shock and disgust and this stupid stupid joke , (Minus swerve who isn't shown reacting and likely helped Rewind set him up), we find out it's not AS obnoxious as it sounds: Swerve is still comotose and Rewind brought them all here to try and fix that on Chromedome's advice. See Domey's figured out why our Psychatrist pal's still in his coma: His body is starting to function but he can't fully heal till his mind does. Hence this exercise: The group gathered here isn't random as it seems: most were involved in a story in cybertron's past, the same one from the cold open, each crossing paths with a certain future robot space jesus. Rewind himself wasn't, but has both archival footage and has talked to some involved, so he can fill in the gaps. As for Tailgate and Swerve.. well Tailgate is just a nice guy and was likely let along so he can learn more autobot history, and Swerve owns the only place they could do this session nice and quiet, only needing a closed sign. (The bar has been reopened it turns out. ). And frankly it's swerve: you think he'd miss anything where he'd have a chance to talk and crack jokes?

So here's where we are: Nominus Prime, one of the senators, was nearly assainated and has vanished since while the corrupt senate we saw last time is only getting more and more strained as the citizens, paticuarlly the aformentioned decipticons, are pushing back more and more.

It's here the first of our familiar faces enters: Chromedome. Dome was working in Mechaforensics, even had a diffrent name but for clarity's sake Rewind is having him use his current one. He's working with Prowl

Who while not as awful as present, still has a rod wedged up someplace uncomfortable, possibly a cybertronian voltzwagon. The plan has all the hallmarks of a decipticon: i'ts pointed straight at the functionist council building, their graffiti is on the back. It's bad. we then get a nice diversion as Skids wants to know Prowl more, as he's going to be a recurring character and all and we get Swerve naturally hurling a ton of insults at the asshole and as for Rewind..

I love how Roberts not only embraced Prowl's tantrum becoming a meme, but decided to just make it a character trait. I also like how both of them can recognize the exact sound he makes It's then time for Drift's story.. which is good because Rodimus is getting antsy. At the time Drift was a drug addict, plugging boosters into his head. Ratchet makes sure to emphasis WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS.. mostly because Tailgate's present. At any rate he gets hassled by two random dipshits... and stopped by Optimus, aka orion pax at the time, who then procedes to badassily take them both out in seconds. With Drift, known as roller then, comotose Optimus takes him to Ratchet... .. and then procedes to play with him by having the known atheist say adaptus be praised. The two wrestle a bit and Chromedome sidesteps this foreplay by pointing out this dosen't make sense: Apparently Ratchet was already cheif physician> Turns out though Ratchet was also unfufilled, so when Optimus, being optimus, suggested a secret center for addicts since the council , like most goverments, cares not one iota off a shit if people with a serious addiction die horribly, he gladly took it up. It also fits well with his character: Ratchet is older so of course he's already even further into his career, he likes helping and he likes a challenge.

Once he saves the future Drift, he encourages him to make something of his life.. while Drift plans to simply go to a refurbishment clinic and donate his body instead. The present day drift then has to go before Hot Rod tries to rebuke his amnesty.. and that's only half a joke as Drift geninely isn't sure if he can do that and isn't keane to find out. As for what the clinics were, Rewind helpfully explains for Tailgate, who nicely serves as an audience surrogate here. He even has a helpful ad

I also love the repacaging of something most older transformers fans like Roberts would be familiar with and fond of, the g1 manuals, into something fucked up, i.e. an add for cheap and nasty body tourisim. We don't know where it lead but we'll find out later. For now though once Drift leaves... Ratchet finds out there's bigger worries to deal with. Pax gestures to the news, something Ratchet dosen't like already for being state propoganda.. but likes even less finding out Nominus has offically been declared dead. More disturbingly Ratchet realizes their cause of death.. has to be wrong. It's said to be a rusted fuel pump, and the rust spreading to his spark casing.. but his fuel pump was pristine when Ratchet examined him post attack.. and with Optimus already theorizing to ratchet in a past conversation that the attack was a false flag attack from the senate itself Ratchet concludes not only is the senate behind this.. but they now have the matrix of leadership, all thanks to sentinel prime who no matter the reality is apparently just the biggest dick in existance.

Optimus reassures Ratchet he's not crazy or paranoid: they did clearly do this.. and he has a friend he wants him to meet

On that note we're back to Chromedome and Prowl. And we get another lovely toy based sight gag

Before the results tell prowl their going to Transluctna Heights next, the cybertronian beverley hills. Silciate Palm Trees and energon pools.

We then cut to Ratchet and Optimus who are meeting with the Senator, the same one from the end of Chaos Theory. This still works even if you had'nt read that story, as to me reading this comic the first time I assumed he and optimus had met previously and simply had a history.. and they do as seen with Chaos Theory he's the one who was convinced our hero could one day be a prime. Ratchet is mostly here to throw off suspiscion, since the senator already used most of his captial saving optimus from certain death at the end of chaos theory. That added context will be important in a bit but for now the Senator confirms that yup they killed Nominus for having a fake matrix. The only reason the senator isn't doing anything is because he's smarter than that and knows having a seat is way more useful than wringing Sentinels scrawny tickish neck. Speaking of which, The Senator is genuinely scared of what's going on. Also if you were curious where Megatron was during all of this he is alive, they simply have him on an asteroid mining as killing him would make him a martyr. His mining assignment is, once again, naturally important for later.. just not this storyline.

For this one we close the main story with Chromedome and Prowl investigating the swanky, richest of the rich only district of cybertron.. only to get a body thrown at them.

While we close the issue starting our b-plot for this three pater as we find out WHY Rodimus was so antsy for drift to get there NOW.

Yup... and honestly... this is the rare case where I genuinely DON'T know what happened here. We'll get an explination shortly and I THINK that's what indeed happened.. but I can't be sure for a number of reasons I don't want to spoil. The point is Red Alert's dead and Hot Rod thinks Cyclonus did it.

We see a lot of blurbs and what not on the news. The most important two are Senator Sherma, whose trying to pass a decipticon regestration act.. and if you've ever read x-men you'll know that's a pretty terrible idea and prejudice to boot, while we also get a hint against ratioisim, which I THINK is supposed to be some form of functionisim. For those wondering , Functionisim is basically determining your worth based on your alt mode and what purpose it serves. And if that idea sounds shady, racist and classist, you can see why the decipticons exist.

I also really like Roberts adding these shades to the decpticons existnace: Their still bad people mostly, but I love the idea they sprouted from a genuinely good place. From an opressed working class lorded over by a corrupt senate. It's an exploration of the idea a movement can easily be corrputed. YOu only have to look at say communisim: It's not a horrible idea on it's surface and modled right it can be done well.. and when molded wrong under someone like stalin it becomes an opressive facist state, just as democracy can be molded into one just the same when , as seen with the cybertronian senate, a few powerful folks wield said power regardless of the people's actions. As we've seen with Optimus , Nightbeat and Ratchet there are PLENTY of autobots who fully agree with their message.. they just won't agree with what that message becomes. It's one thing when the message is "take down the corrupt police state we all hate", it's another when the message becomes "Peace through tyranny"... a message really not that diffrent from the senate. The only diffrence.. is Megatron just comes out and admits he's going to rule over you as a dictator while the senate lies and says things are fair while constantly stacking the deck however they like. It makes me really wish Roberts had gotten to full on write the reboot when it happened, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Back with the cop plot, Chromedome is chasing around one of the perps on a flying bike. I wonder if you can play card games on it? For now the chase dosen't take much effort as the idiot he's chasing goes into a narrow garage.. that turns out ot be a no fly zone, complete with the cybertronian equilveant of saftey glass.. and being cybertronian that means anything speeding blows up real good. Prowl is already doing what he does best: casing the room and being mildly dimissive. Being an authortarian cockballon comes a little later but joining the police is a good start. That said we see how diffrent he was.. as he ACTUALLY APOLOGIZES

Yes when he finds out about the glass he genuinely apologizes and hopes Chromedome is okay. In the apartment they find both red alert and a decepticon manfesto and shrine. The senator was a secret deciptcion.. and given what else we know it's obvious the senate is trying to clean house of anyone that would oppose them.

Back in the present, Rodimus has turned Perciptor's lab into a makeshift inergation room. And it turns out.. he's taken in Cyclonus for no other reason than he's Decipticon adjacent. That's it. This is pure profling.. and it also provides a really intresting role reversal. Usually when these two talk Magnus is a stick in the mud doomsayer who follows regulations as his one true religion, while Rodimus, hot mess he may be, tends to give people chances and think outside the box. It's essentially a wackier version of Kirk and Spock.

Here though that same adherence to order and regulation that often makes Magnus the butt of the joke.. makes him the reasonable one for a change.

He does.. but only because Drift is unlawfly interogating him. Rodimus is just rashly assuming because decipticon, while Magnus rightly sees he's bungled this whole investigation by unlawfully arresting someone who did nothing wrong, they have no reason to bring in. Drift isn't much better as we see a nastier side to him. While he's a former decpitcon himself he treats Cyclonus hostile and subtly threatens him.. and gets driven into the table in response. While Magnus DOES hold Cyclonus back... if you look at the panel bellow he's not hurting him or anything. He's only holding him to prevent a fight that would only make this more of a farce. And Cyclonus speech makes it VERY clear how much of a farce this is and is honestly CHILLING with the recknoning in police we've been going through as what Rodders did.. is really what MOST police did and many still do

It's a damming speech and shows what Roberts has masterfully done so far and will continue to do: Show that the Autobots, while the good guys.. aren't flawless. We've seen it in how human they are and how goofy they can be... but we wee here the less endearing sides of their humanity, the judgmental side and tencndy to fly off the handle. Cyclonus also makes a valid point: they think winning the war makes them absolute victors.. but Cyclonus, while not impartial, is a mostly outside observer: he AGREES with the decipticon cause, but really isn't one. He can see the self righteousness and tendency to see themselves as absolute right the autobots are devleoping, something festering even worse back home, and he sees the same system that required the decipticons in the first place slowly reforming. And we've seen this cycle: the senate replaces a corrupt mad man, they become corrupt authorarians. MEgatron replaces them, he becomes a power mad dictator. While the autobots have a leg up on booth..there's no guarantee they can't fall just as hard or fast , and this book will more than prove that.

At anyr ate Cyclonus is absolved as First Aid thinks he has it.

Back at the crime scene, Chromedome and Prowl are backed against the wall. Prowl hasn't fought yet so he's scared shitless, Chromedome is enjoying that but it's not really helping the situation.. but someone arrives who does

If you ever find yourself wondering why optimus is in charge.. well it's mostly on the heart and sense of conviction, but if your wondering how he stayed in charge and stayed alive.. this is why.

Prowl then.. yells at Optimus, not only assuming he's a citzen but just being a dick. Optimus then flashes his badge and is disapointed what he heard about Prowl was exagerated. Yes even OPTIMUS FRIKKIN PRIME, PRE PRIME CANNOT STAND PROWL SOMETIMES. Optimus casualy says that Prowls report on all this will just get lost, and Prowl hopes "i'll never be as cynical as you orion pax"... bud.. your already.. so much worse.

Prime plans to follow up but he's wanted ON THE MOON... and I love a job where I get to say that. He's wanted at prison, as it's time for whirl to enter the story. Whirl also gets defnsive when ratchet rightly points out why he's arrested when he tries to blame optimus: He tried to murder a prisoner in his cell. The fact Megatron is evil later.. dosen't really justify it at all, as we saw. The senate were using him as a pawn to get away with worse stuff.

But the fact is by this point Whirl has realized the senate used him, and took away his hands, with a really crushing panel of him admitting why he's brought optimus here beyond REVENGE

They took everything he was from him and he can't do anything to them, as i'm sure many like him can't either. But he can tell optimus there's a plan for a large bombing, a false flag attack.. and to catch the Senator in the crossfire. We also see IMpactor getting introduced as Whirl's cellmate. Naturally for the wreckers there first meeting.. is impactor beating his head in.

One of my faviorite lines in the comic.

Anyways we get back to Prowl and Chromedome , and we get a really intresting bit: Chromedome can tell SOMETHING'S going to give and wonders if they'll survivie it, and while prowl denies it at first.. it turns out as much as he likes to bury his head in the sand at this point in his life, he hasn't buried it straight up his ass like his present day self.

Yeah I kick myself in hindsight for not only not noticing Chromedome and Rewind were a thing, but that PROWL and chromedome were in the past. I"m still shocked how oblivious I was, especially since I picked this one specifically because LIndsay Ellis had mentioned the idw transformers comics had gotten queer. I've gotten better at picking up on gay subtext, intentional or otherwise, but it's still hilariously tone deaf. It's also weird to see Prowl.. actually be romantic. Roberts does the legwork the other book simply dosen't seem to care to do in making Prowl a tragic figure: Sure he's absolutely the worst and Roberts makes no real attempts to prove that. If anything he shows the potetial was there.. but this arc really hammers in that Prowl before the war.. was a far better person. He still was entirley by the book, but he opened up to Chromedome, his partner in both senses, didn't want a war, and generally had good in him. I made a cop joke before.. but Dome IS trying to be good police. He belivies way too much in a corrupt system.. but contrast that to the Prowl we saw in issue 1 and will see again when the crossover comes: an authoratian nightmare who sees his boyfriend trying to get a measure of peace.. and sees it as a waste. Who sees the end of a years long war as just a lull in combat. Who in his own book is carrying out black ops bullshit and stoking tensions between autobots and decipticons. Prowl had the potetial to be what he is now always sure, but he wasn't etched in that. Becoming an autobot made somes lives better.. but for Prowl it just caused him to double down on his worse traits and become an outright monster.

The fight is also just.. sad. Instead of talking through their issue.s. rewind just snaps. He just can't face Rewind's history with Prowl or see that there WAS good in the man whose caused his partner such pain.. but also can't healthily cope with it. Then again as we'll learn heathily coping is not something Rewind's really EVER done.

Back with the plot , Prowl finds out to his fury that Flatfoot, his superior officer despite the name, has leaked his report, proving what Optimus said. Things only get more suspcious when they meet Trepan, the head of the clinic.. and after Chromedome sense ssomething shady, the sinister needle hands are a giveaway, Domey incapcitates the guy and our unambgiously gay duo find the insittute: tons of robtos removing brain moduls, rewiring... even before he became a mnemosurgeon, Domey was already intrested in the science and thus can recognize it. Trepan escapes but our heroes take their valuable intel to Optimus, who had Ratchet and some others round up the good senator from his school for gifted autobots.

Optimus puts all the pieces together while Prowl bitches in the background: Domey and PRowl found a list at the clinic, that turns out to be a list of decipticons regestered as a polictical party. Turns out while Senator Sherma wanted it to LOOK like decipticon attack.. but not blame them right away, getting more cons to register.. then inittating ANOTHER false flag to make it look like the deciptcons betrayed them. As for how.. the how is utterly horrifying: they plan to BLOW UP nominus' corpse with a fake rigged matrix. Optimus' only recourse? They ahve to steal it We're onto the final issue and naturally Prowl thinks this is madness, wants nothing to do with it and is a right asshole as he flees, telling him not to let DOme go on the mission

Dome went to gather some of the senators pupils. I.. .wasn't remotely joking about the x-men comparison: Since the functionists obviously are baffled and apalled by beings who have extra talents beyond their alt modes, the Senator has been shielding them in his building for gifted autobots and brought a few to help: Skids himself is a super learner, able to learn anything in record time, which seems useless until you realize this means he can pick up any skill as fast as the flash and retain it unlike said flash. The others are windcharger, who has telekensis Kyle and Gltich, whose design I like a lot and who can mess up machinery. So in otherwords, Progidy, Hellion and Shadowcat. Got it.

We then break for a second as Ratchet examines rung and Swerve brings some old fashioned nightmare fuel to the party, which this being the comic that it is, is entirely real and requires gloves. When Chromedome worries about this eating up their insides, Swerve reveals this isn't rewind's FIRST session. It's not even his second. It makes sense though: this is a complex prospect and it's not unlikely every autobot here met Optimus at some point.. nor that unlikely that it'd fall apart, hence attempt 3 here. We also get an intresting fact about Rung that will be VITALLY important way down the line

We return to the story to find out this is what likely broke the two up for good, as Prowl, being prowl, just left with no explanation. They still need a full plan but skids having a mini matrix on his face, a religious thing back then the comic dosen't go into gives Optimus an idea: He spends Domey to talk to our good buddy ironfist, pre horrible tragic death. Being a massive fanboy even back then, he's more than willing ot help in exchange for getting his life sized model of Delta Magnus

So now our hero have a fake to swap for the fake. Before they leave on the heist though Ratchet and Optimus' Friend Roller Roller Da

An old friend of Optimus' on the force we just meet here but , say it with me "WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER". This arc could've easily been called "TRUST ME ALL OF THIS HAS A PAYOFF. ALL. OF. THISSSSSSSS. " And it does. One benefit of having to go over these issues with a finer tooth comb than my usual lagomorph lenth attention span allows is I catch just HOW well crafted this story is.

Anyways Roller hacked the system and finds out there's some weird stuff about the guy, a few charges, as you'd expect.. but also the fact Optimus isn't the ONLY person he's been grooming for this roll. Optimus.. dosen't care. He's not naive, he gets the senator likely has backups, and is with the guy not because he's truly buying what the man's selling on "being the next prime" and all that.. but becauase he's a good man in a broken system whose trying his damndest to fix it. A bit creepy sure, but someone he trusts enough to do this. if he didn't they woudln't of gone this far.

We get back to the present.. and it's one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the comic so far. And you KNOW that's already saying something. We find out what happened to Red Alert.. and it was suicide. Granted i'm still not sure it was entirely suicide or if the very least he wasn't pushed further by the knowledge of what was going on and the pressure of his already bad paranoia being kicked into overdrive. I won't know till he comes back. It's handled incredibly well.. including the fact that even now Rodimus makes it about him.. but in a way that just.. punches you in the heart. Rodimus takes it personally, feeling that if one of his crew is suicidal.. he shoudl've noticed. But the sad truth with mental illness is sometimes.. someone is just suffering so bad till they break. As someone who has had suicidal throughts... sometimes you just keep those to yourself till your already on the edge of it. What's worse is while they DID save him... Magnus suggests not putting him back on line just yet. He's understandibly worried given all the trauma it'll just happen again and plans to revivie him whent he misions over or at the very least when they have the time to help him. The results.. are just.. pure pain

Normally when rodimus asks this, it's clear he just wants a second opinon that will likely agree with him.. but here it's very clear from what happens next.. he just DESPERATLEY wants any othe roption, anything but this... and ultimately it's best for red to take a nap till they can help him... rodimus left utterly destroyed. Just the pannleing here is perfect.. it's clear Rodimus feels he failed... and the failures will only add up as the journey goes on. For now though we're back to the finale of our main story: So naturally for a heist the place their breaking into, the Primal Basicla, is super well guarded: any plane that tries to fly by deactivates, pressure plates along the floor to alert the guards, and said guards are trigger happy monsters with the orders to "take alive """IF POSSIBLE""""" which is code for

Thankfully thanks to said no flyzone the top is unguarded so they simply get to work: Windcharger lowers them down, Glitch shuts off the force beams, at great personal pain, and Swerve uh... uses his grappling hook to lower optimus mission impossible style. Hey at least it's a vital job. Problem is the things rigged. WOrse problems are back at base. For reasons unknown, Optimus decided to honor Prowl's wishes and Chromedome was left on sercurity with Roller Roller Da. The Senator assumes Optimus was being paranoid.. when who would it be at the door but hired goons

Who just burned down The Senator's institute for gifted autobots. Back at the heist, Optimus calls on Ratchet, whose roll now becomes clear beyond "Map guy": He was Optimus' backup plan: since he can't disarm the locks he uses reverse psychology on ratchet telling him he coudln't POSSIBLY unlock it in time. Ratchet knows he' splaying him.. but he's wrong and Ratchet does. He almost drops the matrix.. but thankfully Windcharger got bored and uses his telekensisis kyle to lift ratchet back up.

With the heist a success Windcharger starts slowly taking them back.. but Optimus, being twitchy that Roller hasn't contacted him JUMPS OFF THE FREAKING SKY THING AND INTO THE STREETS FAR BELLOW to go after him. Good thing too as he gets there before they can murder the senator. Sadly.. there's no happy ending here. Prequel and all that. The hired goons hold Roller Hostage.. and the Senator being who he is, agrees to go peacefully. The goons TRY to leave a guy for optimus to fight.. but optimus still has the bomb of leadership, hurls it and the senate covers it up the same way they covered up the academy. Gas leak. the silent killer. What's worse is while Optimus and Domey head for the instutitute.. it's already cleaned out.. and Domey also has a horrifying realization about the name: it's called that.. so people THINK there's only one. As he explains in narration, there turned out ot be one under EVERY refurbishment clinic.

So with that... it's all over. For now. There's no real happy ending... in the past. in the present though as the defcon klaxons ring... RUNG SPEAKS. This whole plan worked. Back in the past though we get one final coda as some creepy assholes plan to do the oepration on the senator, a complete personality swap.. a turn to logic.. and iwth that we find out just who this guy is.. and it's one of the most chilling, brilliant and tearjerking moments in the entire comic

Yup one of the nicest bots in transformers.. becomes a cold murder machine who will soon, or likely sometime next year for our purposes, nearly destroy all of cybertron. Someone who might of created a better future as Cybertron's greatest hero.. has become it's greatest monster. My jaw dropped when I read this and now having read dark cybertorn and knowing how the other side of this story plays out for him overal.. it's just an utter gutpunch. Even when I wasn't a fan of this story, I LOVED this ending.

As for shadowplay itself.. it's excellent. It's still not relaly one of my faviorite arcs, as it's one of the heavier ones, but the heist in the third act is great, there's some nice backstory shading and like I said that final twist is fucking phenominal. I'ts a story that only gets better as you see every piece it sets up for the rest of the comic fall into place, and on reread the red alert subplot fucking broke me. It's a great story Next Time: .. is in september, as I was SUPPOSED to take the summer off to do Beetlemania, which is now too far ahead to not do, but mtmte returns in september for an annual as Magnus takes the spotlight and a lot of stuff sure does happen. Thanks for reading.

[soundcrusher]

Escape

Part 15... You guys don't wanna know how long it took me to write and finish this part of Phoenix's story on board the sentient SG/Lost Light from @cuppajj

Either way. I hope you enjoy this.

Trigger Warning: Manipulation, death of non important characters and a threat of suicide(?)

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It was time. 

It was time for their escape.

It was finally time to leave this ship behind and escape into the stars.

Setting up their escape wasn’t easy though, and one small step could lead to them being stuck on the Lost Light forever. But this was a risk Rodimus was willing to take. 

But first, he should probably recount the steps he needed to take in order to get this far. Yes, that would be for the better, because that way, Rodimus could make sure that everything was going according to plan. 

Now, it all started with the dance session he had with Phoenix and the things that happened afterwards. Rodimus thought that it was a good idea to take the young spark out on a small trip around the Lost Light. Showing him everything the ship had to offer, while disguising it as a thing every captain would do, so that Lightlost wouldn’t ask questions as to why they were walking around.

At first, it was mostly to keep Phoenix’s good spirits up. That way, the youngling could ride on the highway of happiness for a little while longer, before being confronted by the dangers of the Lost Light again. But then it turned into something else as soon as they made it to the hangar. Rodimus completely forgot that there were other ships on the Lost Light. Also, seeing his Rod Pod again after so many years of not thinking about it sure enough made him feel conflicted. On one hand, because Phoenix was silently laughing at the sight of it and on the other, because he wanted to defend his Rod Pod, but he was sure Phoenix would just laugh harder. And that wouldn’t be good for the youngling’s damaged voice box. Sometimes Rodimus truly regrets being as soft as he was with the kid. Back when he was still the feared Rodimus Prime, no one would have laughed in fear he would burn them alive and scatter their ashes over the rusting grounds of a scrapyard. But now? Now he had a laughing youngling to deal with. 

A laughing youngling that almost made him wish Ultra Magnus was still around to lend him a servo, or Rung. No, scratch that. Drift and Ratchet would be better suited to deal with a youngling, despite Ratchet’s questionable reputation. Heck, maybe even Getaway would know how to deal with a youngling that’s laughing at you. He probably even had some kind of experience with that. 

Heh, that thought caused Rodimus to let out a chuckle, before continuing with their little tour. Although he had to soon stop, because Phoenix was running towards one of the bigger ships at the end of the hangar. One that was standing closer to the entrance and… he didn’t know that ship. Now, when he took a good look at some of the ships close to the one Phoenix was running to, most of them weren’t familiar to him. “They must be from those who boarded but never made it out again…” Muttered Rodimus, before he caught up with his little brother. 

But before they could even enter the ship, Thrillchaser came out of the shadows of one of the nearby ships and walked in front of them. Actively cutting the two off from the entrance. Something that made Rodimus mad and ready to show the mech what he thought about him following their every step, but Phoenix stopped him, by grabbing his hands, while looking up at Rodimus with those innocent optics and… Rodimus could feel his anger slightly going away. Damn his soft spot for the youngling and damn Phoenix a little bit too for not knowing that he could do this to him. 

[Can you tell Thrillchaser that I forgot something on the ship?] Asked Phoenix, which caused Rodimus to slightly tilt his head to the side. 

[What did you forget?]

[I can’t tell you… It’s… It’s very personal.]

Rodimus knew that sometimes, personal things shouldn’t be discussed with others. So, he simply nodded before asking Thrillchaser if they could enter the ship. And they could, but the mech was following them inside. At least he was just standing in the entrance and watching Phoenix go through the few boxes and cabinets on the ship. Which left Rodimus to explore  the rest. 

And that’s where he found it. 

A distress signal button and it seemed to work. So, without any second thought, Rodimus pressed it. Without even knowing if anyone would get it and or come to see why a ghost ship was sending out a distress signal of another ship. But he hoped, and that was something he hasn’t done in a long time. 

After all, hope and luck were for fools most of the time, but at that moment, Rodimus hoped he was the biggest fool of them all.

Rodimus would have loved to stay longer on that ship. He needed to know how it operated in order to have a safe escape plan, but Thrillchaser ushered him out as soon as Phoenix was done with his search. And he accepted it, because now it was time to start preparing in secret for their escape. 

The preparations were mostly him telling Phoenix to slowly start putting the most important things into his subspace, or convincing Lightlost that he himself needed some repairs. Considering how much the Lost Light wanted him to stay alive, that was the easiest part. Getting Phoenix to put away his things was harder. Especially the sword. The youngling seemed to not feel safe, if the sword wasn’t resting next to him. Something Rodimus would write up to the trauma Phoenix had to endure and the fear of not being able to defend himself. But, Rodimus managed to convince him to put it away, by pointing out that it would be Phoenix’s subspace. The closest place there could be. 

And then there was the issue with Thrillchaser. That damned mech, Rodimus was sure he could feel something was up. The way he lingered, even after Lightlost went away or the way he stared at Rodimus, as if to dare him to make a move. It was unsettling. He was sure Thrillchaser was waiting for him to slip up. He knew it, but he would not play into the slagger’s servos. No. Rodimus had played this game before, and he wouldn’t be Rodimus Prime if he backed down from a fight. 

Maybe Thrillchaser should even watch out, because even if Phoenix’s presence has changed some things, Rodimus was still the same mech who hunted Decepticons and killed them without any mercy. He even had a list with the names of those he still needed to kill. Granted, most names were already crossed off, but he wasn’t opposed to adding new ones. And Thrillchaser’s name was high on that list. 

Either way, Rodimus shouldn’t waste his time thinking about that mech, not when his plan finally seems to work. After weeks of waiting, a new ship finally boarded the Lost Light, and the mechs and femmes coming on board weren’t even few. No, there were many and the chaos they created was perfect for them to make another attempt at escape. 

So, while the Lost Light and Thrillchaser were busy hunting down the unwanted guests, Rodimus was quick to get Phoenix and run to the hangar. Dodging and avoiding some of the unknown Cybertronians trying to block their path. Some he had to, sadly, kill with one or two blaster shots. Or, at least he let Phoenix in the belief that he was sad about their deaths. In truth, he couldn’t care less about some nameless Cons or Bots dying, because, at least, they get to die a quick death at his servos. While their crew members probably met a painful and slow end in the halls of the Lost Light. If there was one thing he was glad about though was, that he tied a blindfold around Phoenix’s optics before they made their daring escape. The youngling didn’t need to see more energon shed in his young life than he already has.

Eitherway, they made their way towards their escape and while Phoenix, after taking off the blindfold, made the ship ready, Rodimus stood near the entrance to the very small bridge. Watching the youngling fumble around the controles, before a sudden movement in the corner of his optics caught his attention and he quickly shot at the cable trying to attack him. 

“I was wondering when you would show up.” Chuckled Rodimus, as he looked cocky at the appearing holo-avatar of Lightlost. “But you gotta admit, those Cons or Bots running around sure enough are a good distraction.”

“Captain…” Started Lightlost with a patronizing tone and a disappointed look. “Why would you try to leave again? Don’t you know what happened last time?”

Ah, last time. Rodimus could remember that time quite well, but he couldn’t appear weak now. Not when they finally had a chance of leaving. So, he ramped up the cocky act. Even propping up one servo on his hip, while jutting it slightly to the side. “Oh, I remember perfectly. But you should know me, I learn from my mistakes.” He said smugly and put the end of his blaster under his chin. Watching Lightlost going from calm and collected to slightly panicked. 

“Captain, stop, or-”

“Or what? What will you do Lightlost?” Asked Rodimus. “You can’t stop me. ONE wrong move and I’ll shoot my helm off. And you know what that means, right? No more Rodimus Prime. And I am sure that even you can’t restore a damaged processor.” He couldn’t help himself, he had to laugh at Lightlost’s expression. How long has he waited to see the holo-avatar of the Lost Light look, well, lost. 

“And before you even try to use those cables on me, I would ask myself. Can I move faster than a blaster shot?”

They were at a standoff, both of them knew this. Lightlost couldn’t move closer, because of Rodimus’ promise of shooting himself, and Rodimus couldn’t lower the blaster, because, if he did, this would be the end of the road. Phoenix and he would be doomed. Maybe the young spark would have an easier time, because he didn’t plan this escape, or Lightlost would use his brother to punish him. Either way, Rodimus couldn’t back off now. Not when their freedom was on the line. 

“Why would you leave?” Asked Lightlost after a while. “After everything I did to make sure you were safe and nothing could happen to you, you decided to leave me captain? Why? What did I do?”

Rodimus knew that this was a trap. Lightlost was planning something, but at the same time, Phoenix was still working on getting them out of here. So, he had to play into the trap. Something Rodimus didn’t want to do, but seeing how he didn’t have any other choice, he might as well do it. 

And so, he started recounting everything that came to mind as to why he would want to leave the Lost Light behind. From the reason as to why the original crew boarded this vessel, from Lightlost killing his crew, leaving him alive, using their parts to repair him, all the way to what Lightlost did to Phoenix. And every time Rodimus would see a cable trying to inch closer to him, he would press the blaster harder against his chin, while silently daring Lightlost to do something. 

He dared them to do something, to see what happened. He would do it. He would shoot himself right then and there to prove a point. He would shoot himself, if it meant that he finally could escape this nightmare and rest! The things the Lost Light did were something even Rodimus wouldn’t wish upon his greatest enemies. But then he would remember Phoenix. Phoenix who, if he truly shot himself, would probably be at the Lost Light’s mercy. And that thought caused Rodimus to reconsider. 

Something Lightlost saw and tried to use to their advantage. Letting the waiting cables move forwards to get close to Rodimus’ neck and send a paralyzing shock through his body. But the empathies were on ‘tried’, because Phoenix managed to get the ship working and quickly closed the door to the small bridge just in time. Severing the cables Lightlost could control in the process.

Which caused Rodimus to do two things. Laugh into Lightlost’s face and give Phoenix one command that he wanted to say for so long.

“LET’S FUCKING GO!”

Phoenix glared at Rodimus for using a swear word, before turning back to the consoles and making the small ship fly out of the hangar and towards the endless galaxy. 

Only when Rodimus was sure that they were far enough away from the Lost Light, did he drop the blaster and sat down in the captain’s chair. Resting his elbows on his thighs and face in his servos, before letting the tears he’s been keeping in for so long finally fall. 

They made it.

They made it out of there.

THEY MADE IT OUT OF THE NIGHTMARE!

Rodimus felt like thanking Primus and Unicron and whatever deity there was beside those he knew. 

They fragging made it, and Rodimus knew where they would go next. They both were, after all, in bad shape and needed a competent medic to fix them up. 

Luckily for them, he remembered that one mech Ratchet kept on talking about. His ex, if Rodimus remembered correctly. At least, it sounded like that mech was Ratchet’s ex. The way the old medic talked about him made it appear like they were, at one point, together.

“Phoenix, take curse to Delphi.”

[daisyachain]

drift and/or drachet for the ask?

ah!!

Drift: overrated little twerp

Dratchet: binary stars trapped in orbit for 4 million years drawing ever-closer until they combine with the light of a supernova

On a more serious note there's been plenty of good Drift analysis out there re: the way his character shifts from McCarthy to Roberts, the way he was written out of MTMTE season 2 to accommodate Megatron, etc. and I have nothing to add to that. Rather, my take is that he's just not that important! Nor that deep! He's a character that serves a purpose and he serves that purpose, he doesn't get the rhaposodic inner monologue of the standouts (Chromedome, Cyclonus, Whirl, Megatron, Magnus), he's a foil character to s1 Magnus/Rodimus before their character arcs kick into gear and he's a supporting character to Ratchet's arc. Reading him as anything more can be fun and interesting but is fundamentally wrong for the story-as-is (if not the story-that-might-have-been)!

Drift the other extreme in the trio of Magnus-Rod-Drift but not in the pessimism <-> optimism way that it seems on the surface. Rather, Magnus is the lawful extreme, he believes that the Law (the Tyrest Accord) is morality and anything that does not match the Law 1:1 cannot be ethical. Rodimus is more pragmatic, he earnestly wants to Do The Right Thing In The Right Way but he sticks to his own vacillating moral code rather than the Law. Drift is the opposite extreme to Magnus because there is nothing he will not do in order to aid the Cause. Why, when he only recently switched sides?

The answer is another aspect of his character that I feel gets overlooked--Drift does not truly have faith. He's had some supernatural experiences which he believes 100% are visions of the future. In other words, he doesn't have faith in a greater power, he specifically trusts the hard evidence of his own senses that tell him there is a real greater power. Cyclonus and Swerve, the two other religious characters onboard, do not have these supernatural experiences. They believe without proof, they need no convincing, their faith encompasses everything in the world.

Drift, on the other hand, believes only what he has seen. He's seen supernatural and inexplicable things, but he doesn't convert out of a sense of peace and understanding, he converts (to Spectralism, to the Autobots) out of a conviction that things are going to go horribly wrong and that connecting with that greater power (the supernatural, Autobot High Command) is the only way to stop it. So, where Magnus embodies procedural justice, Drift embodies consequential justice--Magnus believes only things under the Law can be right, Drift believes that any action is right so long as it brings about the specific future he has seen. He manipulates Chromedome into doing dangerous work by dangling his spouse's life over his head. He drives Red Alert to suicide. He kills a sick, defenseless patient. He's as amoral as Whirl in his actions, but all of this he does because of a belief that Rodimus and the crew have to stay alive.

In short: Drift does believe in auras, life energy, the call of the universe, etc., it's not all a lie because the things he sacrifices to follow his visions are too much for anyone to give up who doesn't believe. He canonically puts on the hippie persona in s1 to be less threatening and insinuate himself better into the crew, the persona is fake but the beliefs are real. So far, so standard. However, his beliefs are...more godfearing than religious. He is pragmatically following a plan to fix his past mistakes and achieve a better future based on evidence which is concrete to him. He has no life philosophy. To treat him as genuinely religious or as fully cynical is incorrect.

Which leads me to Dratchet!! They do not hate each other, they are not enemies (or at least they have no known interactions during the time they are enemies), Ratchet doesn't treat Drift cruelly or even unfairly, if I have to see one more take that says 'Ratchet is so mean to Dwift uwu' I will scream.

I think I've said it before but Drift/Ratchet hinges on them being the only living people able to understand each other. Because they met before the war, Ratchet is the only one who can understand just what drove Drift to become a murderer and join the Decepticons, while Drift is the only one who can understand what has driven Ratchet to passive suicidality. Ratchet is not just a grumpy person, he's a loving idealist who wants to die rather than live in the world and not be of use/not be able to help people anymore. Drift is not just a weirdo who had a change of heart, he's bloodthirsty by the standards of a 4 million year war and has decided use his skills for the opposite side instead.

The lives Drift took are on both their consciences. Ratchet wants Drift to acknowledge the carnage he caused and the hurt he did to him, specifically. He needs Drift to understand what he did to him, Drift is the embodiment of everything in his life that went wrong--he started saving lives (he became a war medic), and because he started saving lives, he caused millions of deaths (he became a key figure in the war). Ratchet desperately wants to get rid of that weight and the only way he can think to do it is a) make Drift feel it, b) die. So he tries! He hates that Drift relies on platitudes because that negates his own role in the story, if Drift comes around to being a good person because he got a ticket to heaven, then that's just him being shallow and selfish. If Drift has changed sides because he recognized that he'd been doing evil, then that's an acknowledgement of the suffering he's caused Ratchet.

What pulls Ratchet out of his spiral is Drift saving him--for once, his actions have a positive consequence, someone comes back for him, someone does for him what he's always done for everyone else. From that moment on he views Drift not just as everything he's done wrong, he also views him as the only thing he's done right, and as these two ideas struggle he grows to love Drift as the only person who ever saw him as a person and not a concept.

Contrariwise, Drift sees Ratchet as every failing of the old regime, he's the embodiment of systemic ills, he's a well-intentioned person who sacrificed everything he had...to achieve nothing. He knows he owes Ratchet his own life and thousands more, but he still blames Ratchet for leaving him in the first place. He desperately wants Ratchet to have saved him truly, not just given him up to the fate that awaited him, but he can't justify asking for that. He knows he doesn't 'deserve' it.

So instead he tries to pay back the life debt he owes. He's atoning for his sins (supporting the Decepticon cause) by achieving good (making sure the future he saw comes to pass) rather than by becoming a good person, so it only makes sense for him to stand by Ratchet and fucking hate it. His arguing with Ratchet isn't over whether Primus exists or visions or rationality or whatever, it's over whether his change of heart is genuine. Ratchet thinks he's just going through the motions for his own benefit, Drift thinks he's made a significant sacrifice to repay his debts for Ratchet's sake, they both resent the other for ignoring their own personal stake in it. Ratchet isn't cruel to Drift, he's calling him on using weirdo status to deflect responsibility for his crimes. Drift isn't defending his beliefs to Ratchet, he's defending the integrity of his new morals. It's a metaphor! If it were really belief vs rationalism, Ratchet would take it up with Cyclonus.

And in spite of this, as Drift puts in his mandatory lifedebt repayment, he gets to know Ratchet as a person and comes to realize just how genuine he used to be and how far he's fallen and how instrumental Drift has been in stamping out every bit of hope he had. When Ratchet comes to take him home, part of it is Ratchet making up for his previous mistakes. He is confronted with an outcast Drift again and he is making absolutely sure that he has a support network and a way back into a community. Yet also it is Drift realizing that Ratchet never really wronged him, that he always tried to save him, that 4 million years of resentment have pretty much come to nothing, and that he's been tormented by something (the systemic injustice of Cybertron) that was far bigger than either of them. So he returns with him.

This is all very incoherent. What I mean to say is: Ratchet is a character made of unconditional love and he extends that love to Drift as he does to any other. Drift is a character who works alone, without support and without restriction, without justification, without boundaries, and he comes to realize he has nothing except Ratchet's love because of the simple fact that it is unconditional. This loops around so that Drift becomes the only one who knows what that cost Ratchet, and the only one who can give that to him in return, secure in the knowledge that whatever Ratchet says doesn't convey what he means, and that he is putting a lifetime in the service of ungrateful causes somewhere where they will mean something.

[mk-wizard]

Another Top 10 Reasons TF Needs to Change its Status Quo

After making this list, I realised 10 reasons are not enough and that alone is telling. After some thought, I realised there are many reasons though these are the ones that are most important as to why Transformers needs to change its status quo.

1- Proper representation that is respectful and with the times matters. - Did you know that Jazz is so far the only confirmed Transformer of colour and every damn time he is used, he’s a stereotype of a black person? Did you also know that even though everyone knows Knockout from Transformers Prime is gay, the writers denied it by denying that Transformers don’t have genders or orientations even though it has been confirmed that they do since Beast Wars? Also, the first openly “oriental” Transformers are a little ridiculous to look at it. Windblade looks like a geisha girl with hair and make up to match. Then we have Drift who looks and acts like a stereotypical overly stern samurai. And let’s not forget Transformers Animated Ratchet who is another stereotypical old man character who is predictably grouchy, not fun, anti-social, borderline ageist and has PTSD. I hate being politically correct, but as a progressive and open minded person, it’s getting a bit ridiculous that the writing still treats the times like it is the 1980s in which every type of character is a stereotype of itself. Write characters naturally and don’t be afraid to make diversity a natural thing without extremism in culture, colour or anything. And that thing that the writers said about Knockout was outright offensive. Why create a character who is gay if you’re going to force him to stay in the closet? And what really stinks about that low blow move is that Knockout is NOT a stereotype of what he is and not everything is about him being gay. He is a well written fleshed out character. Transformers has to move on from the 1980s and accept diversity with open arms respectfully.

2- Children do not follow a status quo when they play with the Transformer toys. - Here’s a secret that’s not a secret at all, people. When kids play with their toys, they don’t always make them act the way they are “supposed” to. When I was a girl, I used to pretend Barbie was a superhero and sometimes, when I played with Transformers, I didn’t always have them fighting. Sometimes, I used to pretend the Transformers would do regular stuff like go out, visit friends and stuff. I even used to know someone online whose daughter pretended Arcee was married to one of the Seekers (I don’t recall which one) and played house with them with other bots acting as their kids and neighbours. If kids don’t follow a status quo and are open to different settings when playing with the Transformers, they are going to be open to shows/movies/comics that don’t follow a status quo. In fact, I think it they would love it.

3- We need more movies and specials like Bumblebee. - In other words, films that showcase a fan favourite to give them their own backstory and character development which answers a lot of the questions fans have. Even if they are just straight to Blu-Ray or Netflix movies. I mean, DC and Marvel has tons of made for TV only animated movies and they’re great. I would love to see a movie that showcases Prowl, Arcee or tells us Megatron’s origin story.

4- A prequel of Transformers is worth telling. - Beyond short mini comic series, we have never delved into the origin of Megatron, Optimus or how the entire war began. All we know is that in the beginning, Megatron’s intentions were noble, but then went bad and he ruined Cybertron, so the Autobots rebelled. Transformers War for Cybertron attempts to give us a prequel, but it’s not quite one. It’s still a story about the war, but in the earlier phase while it was still happening on Cybetron only. Give us a real prequel. Please.

5- There are confirmed bad Autobots and it’s high time we treated them like villains properly. - Devcon is a bounty hunter who is Autobot by faction, but he doesn’t follow the Autobot values or any morals as he is just concerned with getting paid, and he has been known to do heinous things just to get a buck. Then there is Repugnus who hence his name, is the kind of guy who will disgust you because he is sadistic, he has no honour, he cheats, he fights dirty and has been discharged multiple times from the army for taking things too far. And for the record, the Decepticons won’t have him in their ranks because even they think he’s too distasteful. I think it would be interesting and good writing to showcase these two as reoccurring villains who even face consequences like villains instead of “pardoning” them just because they are Autobots.

6- Does Optimus have to be the Prime in every series? - Seriously, this formula is getting old. Even Robots In Disguise snuck Optimus in as Prime and it was supposed to be Bumblebee’s time to shine. Then there was Beast Wars who had an Optimus as a leader too. You don’t even have to kill Optimus! Just have a different group of bots with a different leader. Star Trek does that with every different series and it’s great for it. And get creative with the settings through that: exploration, repairing Cybertron, politics, home life, etc.

7- Make different versions of the same character DIFFERENT. - Transformers Armada always stood out to me as a series because it was the one series where Starscream was not only not concerned with overthrowing Megatron, he was the complete opposite! He was loyal to Megatron and just wanted his appreciation, and above all else, Starscream was a good guy. In fact, a lot of characters were very different from their moulds. Maybe we should do this more often. Make an Optimus who is not very nice, make a Megatron who is empathetic, etc. If you’re going to put out a new story and make the characters look different, why not make them different on the inside too? I think that would be fun.

8- Transformers is in fact alienating new fans by keeping the status quo. - A lot of the suggestions I am making are not from me a lot. A lot of fans especially the newer ones are begging for fresh new ideas, but for the most part, a large majority of Transformers’ media is just Autobots vs. Decepticons or something like it. If you keep ignoring the suggestions of new fans, you will cease having new fans.

9- It is ok for characters to fall in love and be in love. - If there is one thing that Beast Wars did right, it was incorporating romance into the storytelling. And it did it beautifully. A huge chunk of Blackarachnia’s character development was thanks to falling in love and with a great guy above all else. Moreover, it didn’t stop her, her boyfriend or anyone around them from being badass, goofy and going on with life in other ways that were not romantic. I also want to add that it is important for kids to see all of that so they can learn that love is not yucky. And that for most grown ups, falling in love and starting a family is a good thing and an adventure within itself worth taking. And more importantly, you don’t stop being you just because you’re married and have kids. Yes, some people don’t want to marry or have kids, but keeping everyone childfree and alone is just as unnatural and unrealistic as having them all get hitched and multiply. Besides, it has been confirmed that Transformers can be in love, be male or female and reproduce like we do. There’s no point of hiding it.

10- Transformer epilogues are worth telling. - Just as a prequel is worth telling, so is an epilogue. We sort of get that with Rescue Bots Academy after Transformers Prime and Robots In Disguise, but what about other series? What happened after G1 and how did the peace treaty between Autobots and Decepticons go down? Did it work out? How did characters adapt to peace? How did they deal with trauma and PTSD? What was life like for the civilians after? Were the problems that spawned the war fixed? Do Autobots and Decepticons even live together on Cybertron? Personally, I would love to see all of that as a huge fan of Steven Universe Future and Picard. Just because one story ends doesn’t mean another can’t begin. I think it would be a lot of fun and also, it would give closure to many Transformer series that never got any.

Do any of you have good reasons you can all think of as to why Transformers needs to change its status quo?

[earthstellar]

It’s Deaf Awareness Week, so I’m posting my hearing disabled Drift fan fiction in full below the cut! 

I am still fundraising for my hearing aids, so if you like the story and would like to donate, you can do so at my Ko-Fi or via PayPal. 

You can also see my post on Chirolinguistics and Sign Language in Transformers media here! 

Auditory Error by Capricorn_Stellium - Word Count: 2733

Summary: 

The Lost Light visits a marketplace on a newly identified planet in the hopes of restocking on a few crucial supplies.

Unfortunately, things go less than well, and Drift is hit with some sort of energy disruptor-- Which results in processor damage.

Once everyone is back on board and clear of the fight, Ratchet and First Aid get to work attempting to assess Drift post-injury in a MedBay that is suddenly far, far too noisy.

"Stay where you are. Don't move! First Aid, get over here, get on his left side."

It was Ratchet's voice, or at least, he thought it was.

Drift was in the MedBay, so evidently they'd made it back to the Lost Light.

He quickly tried to assess himself: No missing limbs, so that's nice. Doesn't seem to be much frame damage, no evidence of blaster shots or blade damage anywhere across his armour that he could see.

Not that he could see much, as Ratchet was aggressively trying to get him to lay his helm back down flat against the medical berth.

"He's awake. Aid, titrate the sedative, I don't want him dizzy but keep it level so he's not running around." Ratchet moved to the side of the berth from where he had been standing so far, somewhere behind his helm, but it was odd. His voice seemed to come from all directions at once, and it was disorienting.

"Drift, can you focus on me? You were hit in the helm by one of the marketplace traders; Turns out Rodimus was wrong about the locals being friendly, because of course he was. Nobody else is hurt, so don't even try getting up! I don't know what they hit you with, some kind of focused disruptor of some kind. We're running additional scans to try to figure it out, but stay down for now. You aren't restrained, no painkillers. Just a mild physical sedative in the event you woke up swinging. I'm too old to keep having to fight my patients, you know."

It was bizarre; He felt totally fine. He could hear that Ratchet was speaking, but the words were... Missing, here and there. All of the sounds in the room were equally as loud, completely drowning each other out. It was overwhelming and disorienting.

He'd been in the MedBay enough times both as a patient and just waiting for Ratchet to get off shift that he was well aware it shouldn't sound like this. It was as if every piece of machinery was at maximum volume and surely Ratchet was whispering, but why would he be whispering? Was there something else going on? Was Ratchet's vocaliser damaged somehow? Why would Ratchet lie about the situation, unless it was serious?

Ratchet noticed Drift's increasingly heavy frown; He looked fairly alert, but confused. Running another quick diagnostic scan, nothing new was coming up. Drift had been concussed, he'd already known about that. The more extensive diagnostic panel wouldn't be complete for another minute or two.

"Aid, I told you to moderate--" First Aid interrupted by holding up what was the needle end of a clearly disconnected fuel line drip.

"He's not being sedated actively at all anymore, Ratchet. It should work it's way out of his systems soon, low level dose should remain for the next three to five hours but not significantly enough to produce a frame relaxing effect. Intensive scan is just about ready, give it a moment. We'll figure it out."

Ratchet huffed. He was proud of his star apprentice, but it was irritating to get blatant reassurance from a junior doctor.

Not that First Aid was wrong to comment; It was hard to administer emergency care to your own conjunx. In other circumstances, it would never be allowed at all, but the Lost Light was a perpetual mess. A good mess, most of the time. But still not quite as organised as some might prefer-- A fact that Ultra Magnus never let anyone forget.

Speaking of Magnus, the paperwork for this would be a nightmare, but Ratchet had other concerns on his mind.

Drift raised a servo to his faceplate, careful not to lift his helm lest Ratchet come after him again. "I... feel okay, I think. But I never had a concussion that made everything sound so... I don't know. Things sound wrong all of a sudden."

Ratchet and First Aid looked at each other from across their respective sides of the medical berth. Aid pulled out a data pad and began taking notes once Ratchet nodded in the affirmative to proceed.

"What do you mean? Can you describe what you're feeling?"

Drift ex-vented. "Physically, totally fine. Not even a headache, really. Everything else seems okay, but it's like... Everything is at the same volume, and is coming from everywhere all the time. I can hardly make out what you and Aid are saying, every other word is gone, it's easier for me to focus on the vague sort of rhythm of the noises you're making rather than what you're actually talking about. Like the words are messed up and lost in the sounds of everything else. But, I don't know. It's like everything is a flood of noise, except for speech, I guess? Keep talking to me, I'll figure it out."

It was Ratchet's turn to frown. "Hmm." He backed up a little from the side of the berth. "Drift, can you shutter your optics for a second? I won't touch you, but I want you to listen as best you can, okay?" Drift nodded, wondering what Ratchet was up to.

Closing his optics felt awful; It made the noises seem even louder and more all-encompassing, somehow. Hopefully this wouldn't take long. He was glad Ratchet had kept him on the berth; It was a dizzying sensation. Like the noise was giving him vertigo.

"I'm going to snap my digits in different areas and at different distances from your helm. I want you to tell me where you hear the sound in relation to yourself, so for example, upper left from your point of view, or lower right, or straight ahead. Okay?"

Drift nodded, hoping he'd heard the instructions correctly. It was suddenly much harder to fill the gaps in Ratchet's speech when he couldn't watch his faceplate while he was speaking.

The exam went on for a while until finally Ratchet snapped his digits for the last time to Drift's righthand side, but Drift stated the sound was coming from straight ahead and slightly above his helm.

"Maybe a little to the right?" He could hear Ratchet ex-vent, but from where, he couldn't tell. "Nope. Open your optics, Drift. Sorry to say you didn't exactly pass that test." He turned to face First Aid, who had apparently been following along and taking quite a few notes.

Turns out both of them were stood exactly where they were when the exam had started. Weird. To Drift, it had seemed like their intermittent words were floating around him while his optics had been shuttered. Had they moved at all, the entire time?

The noise of all the medical machinery was getting awful. How were Ratchet and Aid okay with it?

Then he realised they probably couldn't hear it. Somehow...

Ratchet's voice knocked him out of the state of distress he was rapidly falling into the more he tried to think about all the noise. "Aid, note a general lack of directional hearing. No loss of hearing overall, his audials are registering sound as usual, but..."

First Aid looked up from the data pad. "But the way his processor is interpreting the sounds he's hearing is wrong."

"Correct. It's processor damage. Damn."

Drift had missed what was probably a very important word, there. "Sorry, what kind of damage?"

Ratchet, to his credit, only looked upset for a very brief moment. But Drift could tell; He could always tell with his Ratty. And that look was never good.

"Sorry, Drift. We shouldn't talk about you like you aren't here, anyway; It's a bad habit medics can develop."

That got a small smile out of Drift. "Since when are you worried about bad medic habits? You routinely throw wrenches at your patients."

"Hey, that's usually only Whirl. And Rodimus. And..." Ratchet took one of Drift's servos into his own. "Fine, you have a point, but this is serious. We need to run more tests. And by more, I mean you're going to be in here for a while."

Drift nodded, not wanting to speak himself lest it break his intense concentration on Ratchet's intake. It definitely seemed like trying to follow Ratchet's faceplate movements made it easier to guess what words he was missing.

The words he could no longer hear. For some reason.

It was only years of experience performing various mindfulness meditations that prevented Drift's anxiety from escalating.

First Aid walked towards the foot of the medical berth to be more fully in Drift's line of sight before addressing him.

And he proceeded to say something that Drift totally missed, because First Aid's battle mask made it impossible to read his faceplates in the way that he could with Ratchet.

"Uh... I don't want to interrupt? But two things: Aid, can you retract your mask?" Both First Aid and Ratchet stiffened immediately.

"I'm so sorry--" "Drift, if you can't understand us, just say so and we can--"

And it was too much noise.

Instinctively, his servos flew up to cover his audials, which hadn't helped as much as he had hoped it might.

"Stop! Stop, I'm sorry, it's okay. Don't worry about it. But the second thing, is that it's way, way too much in here. The noise, I mean. It's a lot."

Ratchet gently grabbed Drift's wrists, getting closer in the process.

"The scan we were running has finished by now. Aid, turn off everything we're not currently using, let's see if it makes a difference in the ambient noise level. Go ahead and start interpreting the results, construct a summary, you know what to do."

As First Aid got started as directed, looking somewhat upset that he hadn't thought to retract his battle mask earlier, Ratchet moved in even closer to speak directly into Drift's audial.

On the other side of Drift's helm, he cupped a servo over the opposite audial to help block out the surrounding noise and force Drift's processor to focus on the most immediate input: His voice. "I'm sorry. I'll try to make this as easy on you as I possibly can, okay? We're not hearing things the way you are, so we'll have to figure this out as we go. But that's fine; You're okay... You will be okay."

Vision obscured by Ratchet's shoulder armour while intensely trying to focus on his voice, suddenly, it hit Drift.

He could hear, but he couldn't hear. Not really.

A thousand scenarios flooded him at once, each one more terrifying than the last.

Being in a battle, unable to tell where bullets were coming from. Hearing a ship-wide alarm go off, and being incapacitated by the noise, unable to react otherwise. Unable to help. Unable to protect Ratchet. Never being able to parse anyone's speech, always missing words, never having all the information.

Going to a racetrack and being disoriented by the hum of all the wheels and engines at high speed, causing an accident. Anywhere noisy, anyone talking. Anywhere sound exists, it would be too much or not enough and never in-between.

He couldn't fight effectively. He wouldn't able to communicate effectively, not if he constantly misheard every single thing. The stress just from the MedBay noise was horrendous; What about in the middle of a conflict, or the command deck, or even someplace like Swerve's? Totally unbearable.

He would go right back to being isolated. He would be a problem for others. A burden, an annoyance.

What if this wasn't fixable?

He gasped like he had been choking, causing Ratchet to startle and pull back. "Ratchet! Ratchet, Ratty, what if-- What if you can't fix me?"

And he knew that look.

He felt Ratchet's arm move slightly somewhere behind him, and First Aid swiftly and silently left; He would finish looking over the results in his own office space. Ratchet had probably flashed some kind of medic secret code hand signal or something.

Or maybe it was just awkward to watch your mentor's partner start crying in your shared workplace. It was probably that, and the thought would have made Drift laugh if he didn't suddenly have a terrible headache.

Ratchet made the most of his wide set medical frame type, and completely wrapped Drift in a hug.

It helped. Everything seemed like too much right now, but this, he could never possibly get enough of.

Fluid had pooled behind his optics; Some started to trickle down in small streams. Ratchet wiped some of it away gently.

"Drift, I'm not going to lie. I already know what those scan results are going to say; There's nothing wrong with you, aside from whatever is going wrong with your processor. And I'm going to be honest, because you know I don't lie when it comes to my diagnostics... If I'm right about the nature of your processor damage, it's most likely not something that can be repaired."

Even though on some level he figured that might be the case, it felt like Ratchet had jammed the Great Sword through his spark.

Before he had the chance to completely break down, Ratchet carefully grabbed the sides of Drift's helm, gently rubbing soft swirls in his faceplate and ensuring Drift didn't just fold in on himself and completely collapse.

He wanted Drift to be able to understand; Keeping his helm up like this would help Drift read his faceplate, too.

"I know. It's not good news. But we can work with it. You can work with it. We'll figure it out. If we don't have the supplies we need to make whatever assistive device we might have to come up with, we'll find a way to get them, or make them. You have me, Perceptor, Brainstorm, a whole ship full of people who can and will help you. Okay?"

Drift wanted to nod, he really did, but the tears welling up in his optics had blurred his vision, and the thought of being unable to see clearly while being unable to hear clearly was so completely distressing to him that he simply threw his arms around Ratchet's neck strut and let himself cry it out.

Not for long, and not very hard; He found that the sound of his own crying was odd and grating to his audials, both muted and sharper than it should have been.

While he could stifle his tears, he couldn't stop his upset and frustration from seeping out through his EM field.

Ratchet's armour plating shivered a bit, before he met Drift's EM field with his own and wrapped him in another hug, spark to spark.

A surge of love, care, devotion- Ratchet's EM field helped soothe Drift's headache, and slowly, he calmed down. His vents evened out, the sound of the fans rattling no longer another sound adding to his distress.

"Sorry, Ratty. I just, this is... really bad."

"Yeah, it is. But we'll figure it out."

Drift's voice fell to almost a whisper. He couldn't fully hear himself speak, although he felt his vocaliser warm up. "There's this weird dissonance, like everything is too loud and too quiet all at once. Like all the small noises are massive and I can't hear anything I actually want to listen to. It reminds me of coming down from a syk hit, when my sensory data would get a little messed up."

Ratchet stilled, then tightened his hold on Drift. He was careful to speak directly into Drift's audial. "Rung is here too, you know. We're all here for you. I'm here for you."

He pulled back just enough to kiss Drift's faceplate, where the tears had left stains. Drift stared at his intake; He wasn't sure if it was to return the kiss, or if it was an attempt to try to follow along with his words.

"How about this: While Aid finishes up the report on your scan results, we can lay down in our hab suite and hopefully it'll be quiet enough there for you to get some real rest. I can give you a painkiller before we head out; Nothing heavy-duty, but sensory sensitivity can be unpleasant and I want you to actually recharge if you think you can. I can call Velocity in to handle my other patients for the evening."

He hadn't been this tired earlier, but he definitely was now. Drift nodded, leaning his helm up a bit to return Ratchet's kiss.

"Yeah, that sounds good."

[hibiscera]

hm. prowl tfa.. might aswell

INHALES. EXHALES. OKAY, SO

First impression

JEFF BENNETT!? Also this robot is definitely autistic.

Impression now

I can not even begin to describe the level of importance he has to me. For me, Prowl means a lot and helped me navigate a lot of feelings I had ignored and discovered things about myself I was pushing back. Not to mention the comfort he gives me with the fact that he feels very autistic coded to me!!

And he’s just a plain good character. I despise how his arc was wrapped up, but he’s very well developed otherwise and UNDERRATED HILARIOUS!! He is very special to me and it is hard to find the words, but I’m very thankful for the influence he has had on me and the joy he has bought me. ;_;

Favorite moment

Basically every moment he has with Bulkhead, but one of my standout favorites is

Bulkhead: It’s not like we’re having her fight Decepticons!

Prowl: ... Yet.

Prowl understands nothing of human children and genuinely thinks Sari could fight Megatron with training. I love that. He was SO GENUINE in that moment. Also the iconic scene where he takes back Yoketron’s helmet and masters P over M!! 😭

Idea for a story

Ok besides all my ProwlBulk fic ideas.

I REALLY want to touch on his relationship with RATCHET!! They have similar traumas I think, caused by the same bot no less! They were both pushed into a war they wanted nothing to do with (but Prowl actually escaped)! And with my headcanon basckstory for Prowl, and my headcanon that Yoketron and Ratchet were in love, that’s even more connecting threads between the two of them!

They deserve some father-son bonding and talking out the things that hurt them and recovering... it’s something I really want to put out in the world one day. ;_;

Unpopular opinion

I don’t know how popular this opinion is these days anyways, but I think the theory that he used to be a Decepticon is... silly.

Besides the fact that That’s Literally Just Drift 2, I think his narrative is more compelling if he was always an Autobot anyways. Also I’m biased because of my headcanon for his backstory. 😔

Favorite relationship

PROWL AND BULKHEAD. MARRIED MEN.

Their relationship does mean a lot to me... I think they have some of the most fun banter on the show, and the dynamic between them is just so much fun. Prowl is one of the only bots who hasn’t talked down to Bulkhead and is generally supportive of his ambitions (stubbornly training him in stealth despite it not being one of his strengths, being the only bot besides Bee to try and understand why he wanted to do art). I can only name one scene where you could say he insulted him and I have every single one of their scenes memorized. It’s my special interest.

They adopted three dinosaurs, I see Dinobot island as symbolic in their relationship and as a symbol of their trust and their bond. I really miss the dynamic of season 1 and early season 2 of how every time dinobot island was involved, they were the ones involved!! I think they can find common ground in admiring and observing the quiet moments in life... Plus, Bulkhead is the first one who found Prowl and Prowl refers to this event as fate. The SUBTEXT!! They are just very important to me and there’s so much. ;-;

Also they are both Austistic ADHD kings.

Other relationships of Prowl I treasure are the Father-Son bond with him and the Dinobots, YOKETRON AS HIS ADOPTIVE DAD IS SO SUPER IMPORTANT TO ME!! Ratchet and Dai Atlas too, but Yoketron is his Most Important dad. And I wish there was more content of him having a brotherly bond with Jazz!!! His annoying older brother.

Favorite headcanon

Prowl is nonbinary. Ok, I know that by all technicalities everyone on Cybertron probably is, but please work with me here.

What’s especially important to me though, is he’s nonbinary but he doesn’t really want to change anything about himself or how he was protoformed... I struggle a lot with my presentation and identity, and for me it was very important to have a character who was nonbinary but saw no need to change anything or owe anyone adrogyny. I suppose this mostly applies to my human Prowl, but I like to think that when he gets to earth and learns the term nonbinary, it resonates with him and he calls himself that. It’s so deeply important to me... ;_;

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #12- Gay Rights: the Movie

Finally finished with our franchise obligations! Let’s get back to the main story.

Those are some ominous ellipses. Almost like something bad is going to happen!

Let’s take a look at Cover A for this issue.

When this was released to the general public, alongside the synopsis that stated the Lost Lighters were going to run into a group of Decepticons, a lot of people thought we’d be seeing them meet the Scavengers. This isn’t the case, and that’s not Fulcrum. It’s some other K-Con, one that has purple in his color scheme.

Our story opens up with a narrative framing device:

Welcome to “Before & After”, one of the more ambitious issues of MTMTE in terms of storytelling. Roberts really likes bouncing between scenes and POVs, and he’s really indulging that here.

Rodimus and crew have loaded up on one of the Lost Light’s scouting ships to check in on a planet called Temptoria. Whirl’s leading all the guys in the front in a war cry that wouldn’t be out of place in Hollywood’s version of the Vietnam war, while Brawn demonstrates how to not properly handle a gun. Rodimus tries to explain what exactly they’ll be doing, but no one’s listening, feeding off of the chaotic energy. The back seat isn’t quite as rowdy.

Oh, Ambulon’s here? That’s got to be awkward. And Perceptor’s looking mighty cross about having to pick up a gun again. Isn’t he supposed to be retired from being a science sniper?

Rodimus finally gets everyone to settle down long enough to explain the situation, though not without a little jargon mixup.

Basically, Ultra Magnus went down to Temptoria while the “Shadowplay” story was being told, and found out that the organic populace had been enslaved by a group of Decepticons, and, more importantly, the sovereign agreement that the planet had with Cybertron’s been violated. Also, these guys might have been the one’s who kidnapped the Circle of Light. You remember those guys, right? The guys who were supposed to be in the 2012 Annual, but they weren’t, and Drift got really mad about it.

Rodimus wraps up the briefing with a “’Til all are one!” And we cut over to see what Swerve and Tailgate are up to. Tailgate seems to be a little nervous, not the type to enjoy waiting, but Swerve seems to be doing just fine. Why is that, exactly?

Even if Rung’s still a steamed side dish of a vegetable, he’s still here, in a way. And good on Swerve for not assuming Tailgate can visualize in the same way he can. Aphantasia is more common than one might think.

Escapism is an interesting way of dealing with your problems, but I don’t know enough about wartime psychiatry to know if this is something that would actually be considered a viable solution or not.

Oh, now that I’ve said it, I’ve got the research itch.

Later, later.

Anyway, Tailgate gives it a spin, and his happy place is surprisingly domestic for such a seasoned professional.

Pipes, it’s a clear glass, it’s not hiding anything from you.

Speaking of Pipes, he’s seated next to Hound, as they discuss what happened to Red Alert. Or, rather, the cover story that’s been fed to the rest of the crew by Rodimus, which is that the engine room pretty much attacked him. This is how ghost stories get started.

Trailcutter’s gotten some guns installed in his legs, because he’s a hypocrite.

Over with Chromedome and Rewind, there’s trouble in paradise, as they’re having a lovers’ spat. Chromedome’s giving Rewind the silent treatment, and Rewind’s having none of it. What exactly are they fighting about? We don’t get to know about that yet, but it’s digging up other issues, like Chromedome going back on his promise to stop injecting. The only thing keeping this from becoming a total meltdown is Whirl can-canning through the door to kidnap Rewind, so he can film Whirl getting in the zone before the fight. Whirl’s having a great time. This is probably the first time they’ve gotten to fight something since the Lost Light took off, and he’s all about it.

Rewind’s dragged away, and Chromedome just lets it happen, because he’s feeling cross. It’s good to take a moment to cool off, but I’m not quite sure this was the best time or way for it to happen.

Meanwhile, on the Temptorian surface, Blip the Decepticon, who is likely the dirtiest son of a gun we’ve run into so far, is asked to take a look at the monitor by a guy who sounds exactly like Megatron. It doesn’t particularly matter which Megatron, because comics are not an audio-based medium, so you can pick whichever one you like best. What’s on the monitor does not please Blip in the slightest.

I feel like maybe having guys who don’t turn into flying machines jump out of the bottom of the shuttlecraft isn’t the greatest tactical thinking, but I’m sure everything will be okay. Brawn’s got a gun, maybe he’ll figure out how to rocket-jump before he hits terminal velocity.

Then the narrative jumps to after the fight, as the ship flies away from the scene, and Chromedome isn’t happy. It’s for a different reason than earlier, though.

Man, Pipes just can’t win, can he?

Ambulon remembers that he is, in fact, a medical professional, and starts working on Rewind, while Chromedome tries to ask Swerve just what the hell happened. Swerve’s having his own issues, however.

I’d nearly forgotten they had skeletons.

On the production side of this issue, we’ve got two artists: there’s our usual guy, Alex Milne on the “Before” sections, and Brandon Cahill on the “After”. Cahill’s other Transformers work includes The Transformers (2009) and the sister series to MTMTE, Robots in Disguise. Outside of the franchise, he’s worked on several Marvel pieces, including writing Sable & Fortune and Legion of Monsters. Unlike a lot of the alternate artists we’ve seen for the series, Cahill won’t be a one-and-done; we’ll see his art again in Dark Cybertron, Season 2 of MTMTE, and even Lost Light.

Getting back to the story, we’ve jumped back to the point in the battle where everyone’s hit the ground and are just wailing on each other. Tailgate and Swerve watch the chaos unfold, as Ultra Magnus more or less takes on a platoon of Decepticons.

Drift’s having a great time, as he Naruto runs through the enemy, slashing as he goes with a big ol’ smile on his face. He stabs a guy in the back of the head who was trying to grapple with Rodimus, thus interrupting the little dialogue they had going on. Rodimus is vaguely upset that his moment was cut short.

In the “After”, the shuttle’s landed back on the Lost Light, and Chromedome rushes out with Rewind in his arms to find First Aid with a motorized stretcher. He was hoping for Ratchet- he wants only the best for his shnookums. As they run Rewind down to the medibay, Chromedome starts listing off his allergies- which include ultraviolet light, something we know reveals mnemosurgery scars. This is a holdover from a dropped plot point I’ll cover at a later time; as it stands in the canon narrative, Rewind’s just got an allergy to the friggin’ sun.

Back at the shuttle, Tailgate starts dragging Cyclonus down the gangplank. Oh, hell. You know it’s a bad situation when the guy who literally couldn’t die for six million years is out of commission.

Spoke and Lockstock are a bit of a gag- they always manage to get their asses kicked, but everyone on the ship really likes them. They will never be seen on-panel, and have no character designs.

Over in the medibay, history is being made.

Esteemed members of the jury, I present to you: canon gay robots. The first in a long line of them. This is the starting point of the queer community being handed the Transformers franchise on a silver platter.

Up to this point, Roberts hadn’t gotten any further than implied attraction and affection between robots, in either his fanworks or professional credits. Pretty heavy-handed implication in some cases-

-but implication nonetheless. Here is the first, honest-to-god direct confirmation of two male-coded robots in love.

In love and space-married and recognized by the authority in power, in a comic written in 2012, as a part of a major franchise owned by a massive American company, three years before same-sex marriage would be legalized on a federal level.

As part of the story, it’s great. Within the context of the time during which it was published, it’s a whole other level. This wasn’t just good writing, it was important.

Let me part the kimono a little here, with some personal backstory- I grew up in Buttfuck Nowhere, NC, and went to a high school that was so homogeneous, they were threatening to bus students in after I graduated. I didn’t know what a gay person even was until I was 12. “Lesbian” was used as an insult, and it was one I was subjected to because I had cut my hair short in middle school and wore cargo shorts on occasion. It was something I really pushed against, because that’s how a lot of people react to being forcibly given a label.

Not the best environment for a little queer kid, clearly.

It wasn’t until well after I’d gone to college that I really started understanding who I was. Hell, I’m still figuring some things out, but at least I’m getting somewhere.

I remember reading this for the first time in 2015- yes, I got into the comics sort of late- and then having to reread it. I needed a moment just to process what had happened. As a person who had only recently come to terms with their sexuality at the time, it was kind of mind-blowing to have that sort of representation, especially since I was also watching Transformers Prime at around the same time. Talk about the duality of man, am I right?

These days, there’s a lot more representation in many different forms of media. Things are getting better. Which, y’know, yay! I’m glad. I just can’t help but wonder if things would have been a little different if this sort of representation had been available earlier on.

Anyway, so yes, Chromedome’s got a difficult choice to make for Rewind- either let his body try to sort itself out, or let First Aid break out the clamps and try to jumpstart him. Rewind’s got a relatively rare spark type, but luckily Chromedome’s the same type. Looks like everything’s coming up roses for our boys!

Tailgate and Cyclonus aren’t getting nearly as good a break.

My god, he’s filled with grape soda!

Back in the “Before”, things are getting a little silly.

Chromedome, what POSSIBLE tactical advantage could you be gaining from riding the giant, fire-breathing robot dinosaur? This is why they threw you in Kimia, isn’t it? Because you’re a dumbass.

While this bullshit is happening, Rewind and Tailgate are stacked on top of each other to look through a window, because I guess that’s just how things turn out when the resident couple on the ship is upset with one another. Rewind’s found something, but it isn’t the Circle of Light. Rather, it seems the Decepticons are dabbling in Pink Alchemy- a rather inefficient process that allows organic creatures to be turned into energon for consumption.

The good guy thing to do would be to save all the organics, but there’s a bit of a problem- the door is wired to a massive bomb. Good thing Tailgate was in Bomb Disposal, and is just generally an impressive and well-established dude. He gets to work.

Getting back to a point I made during Chaos Theory, Whirl can’t make a fist. Punching himself in the face is probably more akin to slashing it.

Tailgate’s got a weird approach to bombs, taking the time to teach Rewind how to do it, by way of student-led learning. They decide to poke a hole in the bottom of the bomb to drain all the explosive fluid out, which Tailgate does with little robot tears streaming down his face. Fear is a great motivator.

Oof, not a “Domey” in sight. That’s how you know things are rough.

Outside of this little scene, Whirl and Cyclonus are handling Decepticons. Whirl’s got a hold on that guy who’s voiced by Frank Welker, and we get a nice shot of his sad cat face before Whirl turns his head into a memory.

Swerve- who is also here- asks Whirl to loan him a gun.

GODDAMMIT SWERVE.

Not a single one of you bastards know proper gun safety! Between all the severe depression and reckless weapon-handling, I genuinely have no idea how the hell are any of you are still alive.

In the “After”, Chromedome’s just finished jumpstarting Rewind, and it’ll take a bit to see if it worked, so he’s left alone with his thoughts.

Just kidding, Tailgate’s come over to check in. Seems like Cyclonus is gonna pull through, something Chromedome’s not terribly thrilled about. Chromedome’s still miffed about the whole Kimia thing.

We finally learn why Chromedome and Rewind were fighting; it was because Rewind, as a walking historical database, has been deemed too important to die, and can opt out of any fight he choose to, but he doesn’t, thereby putting himself in harm’s way unnecessarily. Maybe he just worries about you when you go out there on the battlefield alone, Chromedome, you ever think of that? Maybe he doesn’t want to wonder when his husband will return home from the war.

Tailgate asks about all the little vials that are scattered around Rewind’s hospital bed, and we get a little Cybertronian tradition thrown at us.

The vials are filled with innermost energon, the stuff that surrounds the spark casing and never changes, no matter how much you modify or upgrade your body. Leaving a little of the stuff for someone in an offering signifies that you care very much for that person. Chromedome can’t give Rewind any, because he was “born dry”, but I think being space-married to the guy more than makes up for it.

Tailgate asks how the two of them met, and unlike in issue #6, Chromedome is feeling vulnerable enough to indulge the question this time.

But first we need to establish that Chromedome is insanely insecure.

So, Rewind is fucking old. He’s older than the Cybertronian civil war, he’s older than the calendar system, and he’s old enough to have been affected by Functionist society’s categorization system. Due to being a memory stick- something that there were millions of back in the day- Ratioism dictated that Rewind as an individual was worth very little, and made him and his like into slaves. Because he was a slave, he needed a master, and that master was none other than Dominus Ambus, also known as Cybertron’s Mech of the Year for 40,000 consecutive years.

Even on Cybertron, there’s a weird stigma about breastfeeding.

Rewind and Dominus quickly became friends, because that’s just the sort of guy Rewind is, and it made Dominus realize that maybe these slaves Cybertron had been working to death were sentient creatures worthy of respect too. He even developed a test to prove that all the slave classes were on the same level of functionality as everyone else.

On their quest to find a cure for the horrible disease Cybercrosis, Rewind and Dominus fucked off into space, on a wild goose chase to try and find Luna 1, the Cybertronian moon that just disappeared one day. Weird, that. They didn’t find it, and by the time they’d come back home, the war was well underway. They immediately became Autobots, and that was it for a while.

Then we move on to how Chromedome and Rewind met, and boy is it a doozy.

Chromedome had decided he wanted to kill himself, so he moseyed on over to the nearest relinquishment clinic- they did assisted suicides instead of body-swaps at this point- to do the deed. He was sitting in the waiting room, when he heard someone screaming. He wandered into the back to find Rewind weeping over a coffin, and he thought to himself “Maybe I don’t need to die after all” as he offered his future conjunx a shoulder to cry on.

What a fucking dark start to a relationship.

Rewind wasn’t upset about anyone who was dead though, but rather missing- Dominus had disappeared into thin air months ago, and Rewind was getting desperate to find him, looking in more and more awful places in the hope of recovering what he’d lost.

As it turns out, he’s still doing that. The reason the two of them are on the Lost Light is because Rewind needs to find Dominus- alive or dead, it doesn’t seem to particularly matter at this point. That’s why he buys snuff films in dark alleys.

See, Tailgate gets it.

Guys, bad news.

Chromedome’s spark is too weak to jumpstart Rewind. Unless they find another compatible donor, Rewind’s gonna be in big trouble. There’s nothing to do but wait.

Later, in their room, Chromedome is sitting on the floor and very much not following doctor’s orders to get some sleep. Someone on the opposite side of the door he’s leaning up against starts talking to him. Chromedome doesn’t seem to want to hear any of it, until he does.

Given who the basement dweller is, this probably won’t turn out so hot.

Chromedome gets a call from the medibay, and fortunately the universe has decided to play nice this go around, because someone came forward as a match.

But it’s not like Whirl cares about anyone, right? Not in the slightest, nuh-uh, not him!

While Chromedome gives Whirl what is probably an uncomfortably long hug, and they both most likely ignore the fact that Chromedome would be actively suicidal without Rewind, Tailgate’s off in the corner, having taken his hand off and begun pouring cartoon toxic waste into a vial. It’s actually his innermost energon. Boy’s making an offering, but it isn’t to Rewind.

It’s to this ungrateful fuck.

Cyclonus stalks away from Tailgate’s kindness, until he’s stopped by witnessing the power of love.

Everyone likes Rewind, and these displays of affection seems to have reminded Cyclonus that he’s horrifically lonely. Feeling some remorse over his actions- not that he’ll ever admit it out loud- he goes back to help Tailgate pick up the pieces of the vial he broke.

Wrapping up our story, we go back to the “Before”, right before the bomb is set to go off. Whirl and Cyclonus have more or less taken care of the Decepticons, Whirl suggests they set aside their differences and agree to stop trying to murder each other, in a surprising show of reason and, perhaps, self-preservation. Cyclonus doesn’t seem to agree with the idea.

I genuinely think that’s the most he’s said all series up to this point.

Rewind calls the two idiots over for help, because Tailgate’s about to pull a self-sacrifice to get this bomb emptied, and he just isn’t listening to reason. Cyclonus assists.

Once Tailgate’s been fastball-specialed out of the room, Whirl decides to get back to being a bastard, and locks Cyclonus and Rewind in with the bomb with 10 seconds left on the clock. Ah, so the donation was out of guilt, I see. Still a form of caring, in its own way.

With no way to escape, all Cyclonus can do is attempt to shield Rewind with his body as the bomb goes off.

That’s the end of the issue but it’s the middle of the story, and despite what Cyclonus says, dynamics are changing. Slowly, but surely, things are shifting. He’s headed for a lot of character development, and he’ll be kicking and screaming the whole way.

[mermaidxatxheart]

It’s Always You {1}

Ok. Chapter One is finally here. I hope you enjoy it. Yes, I posted a sneak peek a couple weeks ago. This has since been updated, revised and is extended.  Thank you so so so so so much to @everythingisoverrated​ for putting up with my insanity on this one. I made the mood board myself specifically for this story. If you want to be added or removed, send me an ask.

Pairing: Bucky X OFC

Word Count: 1964

Warnings: Mentions of suicide, angst, trauma, car accident. Sarcasm like you’ve never seen. Oh boy.

Summary: Ava has been in a car accident. When she wakes up, she’s surprised to find Captain America waiting for her. Will she be able to help him find the answers they’re both looking for? 

Series Master List

The last thing I remember is the set of headlights coming directly at the left side of my car. The screeching of metal twisting, the hollow popping as the door panels crack and the shattering of glass are the last noises I hear. 

 Silence.

 Blissful. 

 Pain-free.

 Silence. 

 The next sound I become slowly aware of is a quiet beeping. A steady, even rhythm. 

It almost lulls me back to sleep. But then I’m aware that something isn’t right. I try to roll over but my whole body is immobilized, held down, and I begin to panic. That quiet beeping becomes frantic, picks up speed. I can’t breathe. Something is blocking my airway, something hard forced down my throat. 

 “She’s awake!” A voice yells and there’s more noise. People talking over people, hands touching me, and my panic ratchets up another notch. 

 The hard plastic something is pulled out of my throat, leaving it burning and raw, but at least I can breathe. I gasp for air and my throat feels like it’s on fire.

 “If you can hear me, you need to calm down. You’re safe, you’re in a hospital.” A voice says gently, a hand pressing on my shoulder.

 I struggle to open my eyes, but for the first time I realize I can’t, they’re being held shut. 

 I try to lift my arms but they feel like dead weight and won’t move.

 “Easy, now. Just relax.” The voice says again and I feel fingers against my eyes, but there’s a gap in the sensation. It takes me a long minute to realize that it’s because I can’t feel all of the fingertip. 

 Something like tape is pulled off my eye and I wince as pain flares. But now I can open my eyes. One only opens a little, it’s mostly swollen shut.

 “Your eye kept popping open, it was unnerving some of the staff.” The voice says again, gentle and feminine. 

 I try to turn my head to look at her, but my neck won’t twist. “What happened to me?” I croak. My voice is scratchy and rough, and speaking even that much hurts like a bitch. 

 “Don’t try to move. You’re very lucky to be alive. Can you tell me what you remember?” She asks, stepping into my view. She’s very pretty, a dark-skinned beauty with obvious Western Asian features and a British accent. 

 “I…” I try to think back before waking up, but it’s just a big black void. Faces appear, my parents, my sisters, people I used to know, my boyfriend. “I was talking to my boyfriend... on the phone, I think.” I start, my good eye drifting down over my body. 

 It looks like the entire thing is in a cast. My legs are elevated, the left one in a complicated looking brace and the right one in red plaster. My arms are suspended in front of me, needles stuck along the fingers and thick bandages wrapped from my palms up to the middle of my forearms. My right arm is in a cast up to the middle of my bicep and I can feel the massive bandage over my right shoulder.

 “And what were you doing at the time?” The doctor asks. Her face is kind and I want to answer, but thinking back that far hurts my head. 

 “I don’t remember.” I close my eyes, trying to calm down. 

 “That’s alright. Maybe with a little rest, it will come back to you. Can you tell me your name?”

 “Ava. Ava Fonesca.”

 “That’s really good. I’m Doctor Haskin. If you need anything or have any questions for me, you can always have a nurse page me.”

 “Can’t you tell me what’s the matter with me?” I ask.

 She glances towards the door for a moment. “Someone is here to see you. We can discuss your injuries later after you’ve had more time to heal.” She says, stepping outside.

 I nearly choke at seeing the man who enters the room. He’s tall, he’s blond and those baby blue eyes seem to look right through me. They roamed over my injuries at first, only a natural instinct.

 Captain America.

 “Hi,” He says once his eyes meet mine.

 “Hi,” I reply, feeling ridiculous. I should have a better comeback.

 “Do you know who I am?” He asks.

 “Don’t tell me you have amnesia, too. The whole world will fall apart if Captain Steve Rogers can’t remember who he is.” I reply, my jaw aches so I’m careful to keep it mostly shut.

 He grins. “Finally, a sense of humor I can get along with.”

 “You get along with everybody.” A female voice says as a woman comes into the room. She has red hair, bright green eyes, and a petite figure.  

 Wanda Maximoff.

 “Don’t let him lie to you like that.” She says with a friendly smile at me. 

 I don’t respond, mostly because I’m trying to keep my panic under control.

 “How are you feeling?” Steve asks.

 “Like an elephant is sitting on my chest,” I admit.

 He gives a small chuckle. “I’ve been there. It will go away.” He stalls for a minute and I can tell the small talk is over.

 “What are you doing here?” I ask.

 “Direct, to the point. I like her.” Wanda says, turning a little to Steve. 

 “We need to talk about what happened to you.” 

 “I don’t know anything,” I answer honestly.

 “Okay. So, let’s talk about what you do know.” He pulls a chair close to the side of my bed.

 “Literally nothing. Don’t tell me you’re going deaf already.”

 He chuckles. “I’m sure that’s not true. You must know some stuff. You’re one of the best biochemists in the world, from what I hear.” He smiles and I have to try hard to resist rolling my eyes.

 “Well, sure, I know stuff. But you’re not referring to what I know like that. You want to know what got me here and honestly, I have no idea.”

 Wanda snorts in a very unladylike way behind Steve. My eyes slide to her. Does she not believe me?

 “Okay.” He takes a deep breath. “So, do you remember going to work?”

 I close my eyes, trying to focus. “I remember a conversation.” I want to rub my face. It’s frustrating to not have the mobility I should.

 “With who? With your boyfriend?” Steve asks. 

 “No, with... with a friend. I think I sent him something.” I frown. 

 “Was this friend Michael Chambers?” Steve asks gently.

 I try to nod, but can’t. “Yes. We went to Harvard together.” It dawns on me that I never said Michael’s name. “How did you know it was him?” I ask, my eye one good eye trained on Steve.

 “He was found dead in his apartment two weeks ago. The same night you had your accident.”

 Everything in me stops cold. The beeping next me flatlines for a minute before it picks up double time.

 “Huh, I didn’t think that actually happens.” Wanda comments. Steve shushes her.

 “Dead? How?” I ask, my face going numb.

 “Self-inflicted gunshot wound.” He says it gently, like it will hurt less if he gives me those big blue puppy dog eyes.

 This takes me a long time to comprehend. I can’t even picture what he’s telling me. A world where Michael isn’t alive doesn’t make sense. “He killed himself?” I say finally. 

 “I’m sorry.”

 “That’s... that’s not right.” I say, a cloud fogging up my mind. 

 “Suicide is never easy to process,” Steve starts. 

 “No, that’s... he was...” The taste of metal fills my mouth and pain flares on my tongue. “N-no-”

 “Ava? What’s wrong?” Wanda asks, reaching a hand towards me.

 My whole body goes rigid, locking everything into place, and then it’s like my nerves spark and explode. Everything on my bed and my body start shaking at once as my body tries to start convulsing. 

 Thankfully, I don’t feel anything after that as the darkness comes for me again.

 Steve

 “What do you mean you don’t know when she’s going to wake up?” I snap at Doctor Haskin. I’m aware that it’s not her fault, but I need to yell at someone.

 “Brain injuries are complicated. Honestly, we were surprised she even woke up the first time. With that many concussed areas, it was a miracle she was able to open her eyes, to speak, to remember anything at all. With the extent of her injuries-it’s a damn miracle she lived. Her body is healing the best way it knows how.”

 “It’s been two months since you put her into that coma.” I cross my arms over my chest, fists clenched underneath.

 “Yes, and half of that since we took her off the medicine that induced it. I’m telling you, Captain Rogers. She may never wake up. You need to prepare yourself for that possibility.”

 “She has information we need.”

 “Then you should have thought about that before your interrogation sent her into a bout of seizures,” Haskin says with a glare before turning on her heel and storming away.

 “Curvă,” Wanda mutters, looking after her. 

 I ignore her comment and turn to the girl in the bed. She had been on the verge of telling me something important, I’m sure of it.  And whether the doc is right and I did cause this, or I didn’t and it would have happened anyway, I still feel awful. That’s probably why I’m still hanging around some random hospital in Maryland.

 She’s pretty, I can see it better now that the swelling on her face has disappeared. Her high cheekbones give her face almost a heart shape. Her lips are a little pouty, a petite nose rests just above them. The scars that crisscross her face don’t take away from the natural beauty, and I hope that when she wakes up, because she just has to, she’ll see it that way too.

 “Do you think I should...” Wanda trails off, giving her slender fingers a wiggle.

 I look at her and shake my head. “No, whatever is going on with her, it should be her telling us. I think she might be pissed if she finds out we were digging around in her brain. Hopefully, she should wake up naturally from it. If she’s going to at all.”

 “Captain.” A Wakandan accent reaches my ears and I turn to see one of the King’s Guard, the Dora Milaje.

 “Yeah?”

 “The woman’s partner is here again. Shall I send him away?” She asks.

 “No, let him come up. He should be able to say his goodbyes.” I sigh and rub a hand over my face. This was always the hardest part. 

 The man, Jonathan, comes down the hallway, flowers in his hand.

 “No change yet?” He asks. He always asks.

 “No. I just spoke with the doc. Doesn’t look too good.” I tell him, trying to soften the blow.

 “Yeah, they always say that, don’t they?” He steps into the room and sets the flowers in another vase. “She just doesn’t know Ava like I do. She’ll wake up, you’ll see.” He bends down and kisses her forehead. “Won’t you, baby? You’ll come back to me.” 

 Wanda makes a face and turns away. I also turn away, feeling even more guilty. 

 “Come on. Let’s go get some food. We can come back tomorrow.” I say to Wanda, pushing away from the window and heading for the door. 

 “Yes, please. I cannot watch a grown man call a grown woman ‘baby’. It’s pathetic.”

 “What does Vision call you?” I ask with a smirk as I hold the door open for us.

 “Wanda.” 

 I tip my head back and laugh loudly. “Of course, I honestly don’t know what else I was expecting.”

Chapter 2

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It’s Always You Tag List:

@katiew1973​ 

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 19

it’s 2021 now!! time for more transformers 

we start off w/a flashback showing tyrest retrieving ultra magnus’s body from the ship - and we get a look at magnus’s spark, which is the green color of a 0.1%er [eyes emoji]

tyrest punching magnus..... grrrrr leave my dad alone bastard man

‘the divided self’ what a good title 

rodimus is like listen man this is a lot for my poor thot brain to take in

in flashback land, we see tyrest immediately launch into a crazy person spiel about how he can and will edit the law as he sees fit to conform to the situation, because that doesn't seem like a blatant abuse of power or a huge conflict of interest or anything 

oooh the screen in the corner that says ‘thought warfare,’ I see that

oof, poor magnus. its gotta be rough to hear your boss rant about how bad at your job you are....especially bc this is right after overlord called magnus a joke and nearly killed him

its especially brutal bc as magnus says, his job is his life 

augh, I love the panel where the armor is falling off around minimus, and then the one where he’s holding the ultra magnus head...poetic 

its fascinating that there was an ‘original’ magnus who was an actual guy, and then tyrest chose to make him into this legacy symbol - I'm assuming the OG magnus had no say in this, and probably didn't even know that he was gonna become this lawman legacy figure

I do wanna know though - obviously everyone thought that ultra magnus was one dude, but how did the different guys wearing the armor deal w/that? like, did minimus have people coming up to him like ‘hey ultra magnus old buddy! remember when we fought those guys in that one place? good times!’ like, do they have to study up on the lives of the past armor wearers to prepare for the role of ultra magnus?

augh poor minimus, of course he’s been wondering about what happened with overlord after he was KO’d

oof, drift...I feel like minimus looks surprised and a little skeptical at the idea that drift was the one behind the entire overlord thing - which is interesting bc as we saw at the beginning of the story, he doesn't exactly trust drift, but it’s still pretty far-fetched that one person orchestrated the entire thing

tailgate :(

the concept of a load-bearer is SUPER cool, I love it so much

it also puts a much-needed limit on things - as in, there IS a limit to how much weight/mass a normal cybertronian frame can carry, which is why you don't see everybody upgrading to be Massive - bc they actually CANT

oof, the worst part is that tyrest is RIGHT, minimus essentially DID have a nervous breakdown after the war ended bc of the rigid way he views the world

mental health support is clearly in shambles for cybertronians, yikes. they literally have 1 therapist for their entire race, and he’s not even licensed anymore due to hipaa violations. what a mess

the ‘attention deflectors’ thing is so cool and clever and also a great explanation as to why ratchet or anyone else never said ‘hey wait a minute, you're actually a much smaller dude in a trench coat’ 

I love tailgate knowing all the stuff about the autobot code bc of magnus...my BOY

and THATS why minimus was asking about skids specifically earlier!

oh minimus, please don't put so much stock in tyrest being stable and resonable...

aaaand there's skids and swerve! brainstorm says it best - ‘because something unexpected hasn't happened for at least nine seconds.’ lmao ily brainstorm 

finally checking in w/whirl and cyclonus - god I love that. whirl asking cyclonus how many cons he killed and cyc is like psh I wasn't keeping count....................ok it was six

hhhhh cyclonus IS looking for a cure for tailgate, even though he told tg that there wasn’t anything to hope for....excuse me as I go be emo 

and now we flash over to the unethical medical conduct hell zone, where pharma is being weird and horny and ratchet is appropriately horrified 

I seriously love how unhinged pharma looks, the art & colors do such a good job conveying his feral energy 

ratchet has some massive dick energy for taunting pharma when he’s currently just a head and pharma has dual chainsaws for hands 

ugh, I love whirls speech about anger...and I feel like he really does see cyclonus as a peer, despite cyclonus wanting to kill him, which is why he tells cyclonus all of this 

I fuckgin love that cyclonus’s reaction to very suddenly getting stabbed thru the abdomen is to just glance down at the sword, looking mildly inconvenienced 

back over to ratchet - and at first its like oh wow I can’t believe pharma was stupid enough to let ratchet goad him into this contest....but then you see first aid and ambulon and its like UH OH this is gonna be BAD

the idea that getting sliced in half is no big deal for a cybertronian is wild

‘you're gonna let doctor djd cut us in half?’ yeahhhh that's an appropriate reaction, yikes

FUCKING LENGTHWAYS GOD

pharma you piece of shit

poor ambulon :( :( :( that's fucking brutal. amazing panel but....jesus

and like, to further my point from last issue’s liveblog - the fact that this very gore-y panel is okay, but swearing isn't...that's really funny honestly. I guess robo-gore is acceptable, while I'm guessing regular ole run of the mill human gore wouldn't be

then back to cyclonus, who is still looking only vaguely put out by the sword stuck right thru him

and then cyclonus just pulls it right out, which is a very bad idea for humans but probably not as big of a deal for big near-immortal alien robots

circle of light stuck in capitalistic urban hellscape cubicals 

poor skids, being asked to stand trial while having no idea what his crime is due to Big Amnesia 

OH SHITTTT I totally forgot that getaway shows up here

that is super clever though, with chromedome confusing the name ‘getaway’ with the concept ‘needing to escape’

cant believe tyrest is really dumb enough to tell minimus all his evil plans

BUT that means its time for some very important forged vs constructed cold lore

jro spelling ‘program’ as ‘programme’ made me remember when he said that he considers everyone on the lost light to be british, which is perhaps the least valid thing he’s ever said vhbghjsdbfjkhasbjk

the idea that they used the matrix - which is portrayed as kind of a holy object - in reproductive experiments is really interesting

AUGHHHHH this is all so good and interesting...im really fascinated w/this particular brand of like, alien robot racism/constructism/whatever you wanna call it - I feel like it does such a good job as a plot device, where many other ‘fantasy racism’ concepts from other franchises fail, bc there's not really a ‘human metaphor’ being used here (as far as I know/can tell) - as in, this isn't a thinly veiled metaphor for something that happened/could happen in human history

in fact, this type of bigotry (or w/e you wanna call it) isn't something that is even really possible in humans - I guess if there was a stigma against being born via ivf or something...? but there isn't, so there's no obvious real-world equivalent, which I take as a sign of good writing and worldbuilding - it makes the cybertronians feel more Real, bc of course they would have their own types of bigotry based off of completely different things than humans 

additionally - and this is crucial - tyrest is wrong: there’s no like, inherent moral corruption in cold constructed bots. there's no difference at all, other than method of construction. fantasy racism plotlines often flounder here, with the oppressors having a ‘valid reason’ for oppressing the oppressed, but tyrest is just operated on religious zealot bs and some biased science

like, dude, did you ever think that maybe there are other reasons why your trials only condemned cold constructed bots? like, maybe the trial itself was biased? or societal conditions were to blame? correlation is not causation, my dude, especially when the conclusion is ‘cold constructed bots are inherently SINNERS’ lmao 

like, tyrest rlly said ‘FUCK separation of church and state,’ huh

anyways I just think the whole cold construction vs forged thing is really interesting and well-done, and serves as a good precursor to the more fleshed-out functionism stuff we see later 

so tyrest is clearly off his rockers w/the whole drilling thing - dude, you accidentally gave yourself a lobotomy, okay - but I find it kinda funny that he’s right about a lot of that stuff he said at the end, about primus and the guiding hand and stuff being real 

cyclonus saying ‘tailgate and the others’...I see you, man, I see you

also cyclonus looks fine now??? didn't he just get stabbed??? 

ah, tyrest sprinkling a little light genocide onto his plan to find salvation. nice, dude!

MINIMUS NOOOOOOOOO

‘fully deserved’ SHUT UP BIIIIITCH

poor minimus is taking a lot of Ls this arc, geez

oof, great issue! again, as usual....I loved the lore we got this issue, its so interesting...and some good character stuff too. I love minimus, I feel like he’s gonna be my fav this readthru; my first read my fav was brainstorm, second readthru was whirl, and I feel like its minimus/magnus this time. I just love his character arc...

hype af for more B) 

[ratgirl112]

*In all stories Kitty doesn't transform and she has a human holoform she uses for as a disguise.*

*Kitty is a doctor/healing bot and heals with a single touch*

*Kitty does fight if she has too. Except in More Than Meet the Eye, she doesn't have the strength to fight until later in the story*

*In all Continuities Kitty can fly by a pair of wings that she can retract at any time she needs to. How she got them is different in every continuity. In TFA/Beast Wars/Beast Machines/TFP/RID(2015)/MTMTE/Rescue Bots Academy, Optimus Primal created the wings and had them built into her as an upgrade. In Generation 1 and Headmasters, Ratchet already built in the wings when she was created. In Cyberverse, she created the wings herself and had a doctor put them on for her.*

Generation 1: Kitty was created by Ratchet around the same time the Dinobots were created(seems logical). Soon she started to become smarter than the Dinobots and she was able to heal bots by the touch. Soon she has feelings for Ratchet, her creator, and has a relationship with him until his death. Kitty went crazy after Ratchet's death and joins the Deceptions with Galvatron and Cyclonus as her leaders. She likes to tease and flirt with Rodimus and even says at one time that he reminds her of Ratchet. Kitty doesn't transform and has a human holoform that she uses as a disguise. She tends to be beaten by the Deceptions because they believe she's still an Autobot. But she thinks it's better than being an Autobot and feel guilt-tripped because she feels that she could of saved Ratchet and blames herself.

The Headmasters: Kitty goes back with the Autobots and has a relationship with Rodimus. She's not really part of the story, and she's mostly just a side character. Doesn't transform and has human holoform to disguise herself.

Beast Wars: Kitty comes in a pod and doesn't remember anything and she can't transform. She messes with Rattrap alongside with Dinobot, which leads to her having a relationship with Dinobot. She's good friends with Airazor and is as close to her as Cheetor is with Tigatron. Of course, Kitty is buddy buddy with Cheetor, considering the fact that they're both Cheetahs. After Dinobot's and Airazor's deaths she loses her mind and almost joins the Predacons, but Blackarachnia stopped her and she becomes close friends with her because of those events. She soon has a relationship with Waspinator and protects him when the others mess with him.

Beast Machines: When they get back to Cybertron, Kitty can't find Waspinator and spends the whole time trying to look for him. While Thrust,(who has Waspinator's spark), tries to flirt with her. She gives up and believes that her Wasp is dead.

Transformers Armada/Energon: She doesn't do a lot in the show, but she flirts with Hot Shot and Rodimus a lot. She occasionally gets into fights with the Femme Deceptions.

Transformers: Animated: Kitty is an autobot and she was originally a cheetah, but was created when the Allspark fragments had spread through the planet and created them, she's an autobot, but she can not transform, she was with Waspinator until he was destroyed, she was also good friends with Black Arachnia. Black Arachnia had sent Kitty to Earth through a portal to send a message, when Kitty came to Earth, she showed up on the Dinobot Island and met the Autobots when she helped people out of a burning building. She now stays with the Autobots and she found out that she was sent to Earth because she's the Guardian of the Allspark and meets Prowl because he's within the Allspark.

Transformers: Prime: Kitty is from the past back during the Beast Era. She is the only living Beast that hasn't been experimented on by Shockwave and isn't a clone. She has an interest in the doctor Ratchet and works with him a lot with helping the bots heal and get better. She later has a relationship with Ratchet and stays with him through the entire show. When Knockout joins the team he flirts with her and gets smack by Ratchet when he does so. By the end of Prime, Kitty stays on Earth with Ratchet when the others go on Cybertron.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise(2015): Kitty is second in command on Bumblebee's team and is a little Fiesty towards the whole team. She acts like a cat whose tail was just stepped on. She doesn't get along with Drift and has a love-hate relationship with him. When Ratchet comes back she can't stand to look at him and when he's around, she's not around.

Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy. She stays on Cybertron and helps out Optimus once in a while to train the new recruits on Cybertron at the Academy. She's like their Gym coach and will push them to their limits if she has to.

Cyberverse: In the past, Kitty was a laid back type of Femme and she liked to play tricks with the other bots. She liked to tease Hot Rod the most and said that if she could, Hot Rod would be the mech for her. In the present, Kitty is awoken with the other bots and is a wise Femme and is careful with her decisions. She remembers what she said to Hot Rod, but wants to wait until the war is over to settle down with him. Even if he begs her to be with him. She basically is a Femme version of Optimus.

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye/Lost Light: Kitty joins the Lost Light crew because she admires Rodimus and wants to be just like him. She a young bot and is inexperienced when it comes to fighting until Drift trains her and she becomes a ninja bot. Drift helps Kitty get closer to Rodimus and is insanely blushing when she first meets him. She has a great relationship with Rodimus and soon become Conjux Enduras, which Ultra Magnus asks Kitty why Rodimus out of all mechs. By the end of Lost Light, she dies during the final battle and promises to Rodimus that she will be watching over him and thanks to him for all of the fun that they have together. She is close friends with Tailgate and she protects him at all costs.

Power of the Prime Trilogy: In Combiner Wars, she was only just a minor character, only showing up for the final battle between Starscream and not explaining how she got there. She mentions that she used to have a relationship with Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime but broke it off because he was always busy and was never talking to her. In Titans Return, she works with Perceptor to figure out what the Titans want and figure out how to stop them, she occasionally flirts with Perceptor but is turned down every time, with Perceptor saying that science is more important than love. In Power of the Primes, Kitty meets Optimus Primal and falls head over heels for him. She instantly tries to protect him at all times even if it gets her almost killed and ripped into two by Overlord. By the end, she creates a relationship with Primal.

Bayverse(Michael Bay Movies): Kitty is first introduced in Age of Extinction and has no back story, but says that she did once have an interest in Drift but was never with him. In The Last Night, she has a relationship with Crosshairs and always flirts with him, which gets Bumblebee mad a lot.

Knightverse: She shows up on Earth shortly after Optimus shows up on Earth. She mentions having a relationship with Hot Rod but never goes into depth about it. She gets into arguments with Arcee a lot because Arcee says that she deserves Hot Rod and not Kitty. Optimus or Ratchet usually have to break up the fights.

War for Cybertron Trilogy(Video Games): Kitty isn't much of a warrior and more of a medic, she was only on the field fighting when she needed to grab injured Cybertronians. She's with Rodimus and works with him until his dying breath. Kitty doesn't see him die on the field, but she hears about his death from Optimus and screams. She wanted to stay with Rodimus and wished that she could have saved him. After a short time, Cybertron was destroyed, Optimus calls a team of Autobots to join him on Earth. Kitty decides to go to this planet to see new scenery, she knew Optimus and wanted to join him, she wanted to try to stop thinking about Rodimus and accepted that he was gone, no matter how hard it was, she couldn't ever forget about her Roddy.

Transformers: More than Meets the Eye Part 2: Before Kitty went to join the Lost Light, she was in the DJD, she was in a relationship with Glitch and stayed with him when he became Tarn. She was crazy enough to stay with him, he did show her affection, but when she failed, he would punish her for her mistakes, so she had to leave when she heard that the Lost Light was asking for people. When Tarn was getting destroyed by Megatron, she took his mask and holds on to it remembering the good memories she had with him when he was still Glitch. BTW she gets therapy from Rung.

Transformers: Cyberverse Part 2: Before the war, she was with Starscream, but was torn apart from him when it came to choosing sides. From time to time Starscream still calls her his queen and always says that when he becomes the next leader of the Decepticons, she will be forced to be with him.

Robots in Disguise 2001: Kitty is basically a child in this series, she basically messes around with SideBurn and teases him about red sport cars. When Ultra Magnus came around, she was amazed by how professional he was, she would always follow him, but not follow what he does, she still takes orders from Optimus, unlike Magnus. Sky-Byte is amazed by Kitty and she's worried because he likes her, but she's an Autobot and he's a Predacon. Even though she's with Ultra Magnus, she still thinks about Sky-Byte. BTW Sky-Byte doesn't like the fact that she likes Ultra Magnus and always keeps an eye on him.

IDW Comics(Before More Than Meets the Eye): Kitty starts off as a Decepticon, originally created by Overlord and Trepan as an expirement. She was infused with a special energon that makes her different than anyone else, which is why Megatron recruited her to be with the DJD, but unlike the others, she kept her name, she loved to feast on the Cogs after Nickel didn't need them, but only if they were damaged, which didn't happen very often, but she still enjoyed it none the less. Although she had a relationship with Tarn, she still messed around with the other DJD members, including Nickel. But before she joined the DJD she went against her creators and became an autobot for a short time, but after confessing her love to Ratchet and being rejected because he didn't like her back, she went crawling back to Overlord and he recommended her to join the DJD. When she was an autobot, she had a thing for Glitch, which is why when she joined the DJD she fell in love with Tarn because she knew what he once was.

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Part 3: Overlord and Trepan found Kitty's parts to build her from scraps that were left after an area that was destroyed by Rodimus. So Overlord and Trepan knew this and told Kitty, so when Kitty met Rodimus she was a little scared, because she was an Autobot when she met him and he's the captain of a ship even though he destroyed an area full of Autobots. When she confronted him about this, he said that it was the only choice and was sorry. She also told him that her parts came from there and he was shocked, Kitty was one of the only people who saw the true Rodimus and she trusted him more now that she knew the truth about him. He was shocked to learn about her past.

Beast Wars 2(The Anime): Kitty was always getting herself in trouble, even though she wasn't a Destron. She always seemed to get captured by either Starscream or Megatron, Lio Convoy always wondered if she liked to get kidnapped or if she was just getting herself into trouble. Tasmania Kid even had to watch her one day when she tried to sneak out of the ship to find Starscream or Megatron. Tasmania wondered if she liked them.

[sternerstufftoys]

I love gooooooooold

It is the year 1987... ...The Smiths have broken up, but being a lich, Morrisey himself cannot die until someone destroys his phylactery... ...Ducktales premieres on the telly. WOOHOO! ...and in the world of the Transformers, a certain character is taking a leaf out of Morrisey's book and is destined to be reborn...

Yeah, it's not Optimus Prime. I'm done with him. There is no going back. And even before the big OP powermastered his way back to life in 1988, Bumblebee beat him to the punch as the first legacy character, the first to get a brand new toy, rebranded as Goldbug. Or Goldfire as we're looking at here, because calling a muscle car a bug would have been a little weird. I don't care. He'll always be Goldbug to me.

Actually, was Goldbug originally intended to be Bumblebee? Other than the alt mode being a VW Beetle there's not a whole lot that they have in common. I can imagine the early prototypes of the Throttlebots being put through to committee and someone pointing out that, hey, that Beetle there could Bumble-be a Bumblebee. Shame the Throttlebot toys were so crap really, being battlechargers that were just shrunk down and made even cheaper and more wretched. Naturally, being inexpensive and mass-produced, I had three of them. One of them was Goldbug, and therefore an Important Character, and therefore Better Than The Others, and therefore more easily lost. I have no idea what happened to him.

In fiction of course, Goldbug didn't last all that long, despite some stand-out stories where he and Blaster deserted the Autobots and did some cool rebel loner stuff for a few issues. There's a weird moment later on where Ratchet rebuilds him with his old Bumblebee looks, proclaiming it to be his 'personal preference'. That's kind of creepy. Imagine going in for life-saving surgery and coming out with a different face, not because you needed it, but because the doctor thinks you look better that way. And all because Bumblebee's third toy - a traditional-looking bot in a Pretender shell - had to be shilled instead.

Similarly, IDW's comics spent a decent portion of the 2010s having to shill the Generations toys as well, although this led to a lot of confusing flip-flopping for Bumblebee. First he had a muscle car design made for him that didn't have a toy, then had to change that out to a Cybertronian design that did have a toy before going back to this Goldbuggy variant of the muscle car design because by then it did have a toy. Then he got shot. Life is cruel, kids.

It's being charitable to say that this mould was never the most popular, though I do have a fondness for it. Gone are Bumblebee's traditionally rounded and tubby styles and instead you have a tall, lanky athletic body. Perhaps that's why I'm more accepting of it as a Goldbug analogue than a Bumblebee one - there's less pressure on Goldbug to look a certain way, while Bumblebee comes with a lot more preconceptions. But even then, slightly wobbly joints and a rather unappealing way of dealing with car mode kibble by having it flail around on the shoulders makes the design feel a little half-finished, especially compared with other carformers that Generations had already knocked out in the previous few years. Drift. There are options to be had with that kibble though, such as letting it dangle like glam-rock sleeves or tucking it into his armpits to get it out of the way. I prefer the latter. He looks a lot simpler.

Buuuuut putting Goldfirebug into car mode is a remarkably satisfying experience. Everything clips together tightly, and you get, okay, perhaps not the most exciting car ever, but a perfectly decent one to roll around any living room carpet of your choice making "broom broom" noises. It's nice. The weapons that the toy comes with, however, are not particularly nice. They're 'stingers', presumably a G1ification of the spiky zappy things that he got in Animated, but they're ultimately just rubbish and bulky. I've kitted him out with the much smarter pistols that came with RID Thermidor, who doesn't need them thanks to his big clamp clamp ka-bamps.

Yeah, not for everyone, this mould. It didn't do itself any favours by being released again as Nightbeat, an even worse fit for the character. But while this may not have been the best Bumblebee either, I'd argue that it is the best Goldbug. Something about his more grown-up proportions seems to work better for a version of the character that is supposed to be a little bit older and wiser. Or perhaps it's just that I had Goldbug as a kid and I like having Goldbug again now. Let's not rule that out.

[seenashwrite]

Don’s Rules

Category: One-shot, On-the-hunt, Humor, Behind-the-scenes Canon-Compliant Word Count: 3.9K Rating: Teen & Up Character(s): Dean, Don, couple OCs Warnings: Mild coarse language, show-level violence Author’s Note(s): You want it, you got it Overall Summary: As has been noted, it’s probably better if you don’t take a joint from a guy named Don.

As a general rule, Don didn't sell to anyone that wasn't a direct referral from one of his existing customers. After all, he wasn't some kid in college trying to make money on the side - well, he was making money on the side, but there was more at stake, more to lose if someone ran off at the mouth. He had a wife, and a suit-and-tie gig at the bank, neither of which would take kindly to knowing about the patch of land about a mile out from town where he practiced his art.

And it was art.

Don was a stickler, from the hand-mixed fertilizer to the fine imported papers he'd throw in if you bought in bulk. If you were really on his good side, he'd roll one for you, and it would burn evenly no matter how many times it got passed. But he didn't stick around after the deal was done, eat up all your snacks like the stereotypical douches he loathed. He didn't have a clue where any of his customers lived. 

That was another rule: Don never came to you; you came to Don.

But now he found himself feeling charitable, completely against his nature, truth be told, yet it had been nagging at him, that kid - not an actual kid, anybody under 30 was a kid to Don. He'd seen the young man in town, though sparingly, and always exiting the drug store with armfuls of bandages, or at the grocery, bringing out bags of food and the occasional case of beer. He'd climb into the waiting muscle car, and one time Don had spotted the kid getting an earful from a man he assumed was the father, finger pointing, face red.

So while the location of their first real encounter surprised him - a dive bar on the county line where Don would stop after tending his crop, on his way back home - it didn't surprise him to find the kid perched on a stool, nursing a beer, a black eye on its way to surfacing. Don did note his knuckles were bashed to hell, hoped that meant he'd given as good as he got. Regardless, the sunk posture and thousand yard stare told the world he needed a break.

"Old man giving you trouble?" Don asked as he took a stool two down, not wanting to crowd.

The kid looked up, a slight frown on his face, and answered, "No. Why?"

Don shrugged. "Seen you two around." He made a motion, and the bartender came over, raised her eyebrows; Don nodded, then met the kid's eye again. "Looked to me like he's pretty tough on you."

If the kid was offended by Don's bluntness, he didn't show it, instead matching Don's shrug. "Nothing I can't handle." The statement was followed by a gulp of beer that might've indicated different.

"Oh I can tell that," Don replied, then extended his hand. "I'm Don."

As they shook, the kid said, "Dean." He noticed the dirt caked under Don's fingernails, then took in the overalls. "So what's your story? You a farmer?"

"Sort of," Don answered, then gave the bartender a wink when his whiskey was placed in front of him. He didn't offer any more explanation, and he wasn't asked for it. That alone made him like the kid immediately.

They sat in silence as Don sipped and Dean guzzled, but when the younger man was finished, he didn't reach for his wallet or move to stand. He simply stared at himself, rigid, unblinking, in the mirror behind the bar. He went from looking like fresh twenties to hard forties in one exhausted sigh.

"You wanna try something a little stronger?" Don asked, but before Dean could commit, he'd spoken to the bartender, who'd just come to retrieve the empty mug. "I'm about to need another, and set one up for him, too."

"Thanks," Dean said.

Don moved down a stool. "What's your story? I'm a good listener."

Another shrug. "I'm just stressed out."

Don waited. The drinks were brought. Sips were taken. Don kept waiting. Then finally Dean cleared his throat.

"I, uh... my dad, he's a... bounty hunter. We're only here so long as the job lasts. I help him."

Don nodded, but it was a crock of shit. The stress, he believed. But it wasn't a big town, he'd have heard if someone shady had been lurking. Most news they'd had in weeks was from a legit farmer, elderly man who'd been ranting about wolves trying to come and eat his heart. Don's wife was a nurse at the ER, said they'd kept him on a psych hold, but not much to do after that. He'd promised he'd swing by to check in on the nut. But he had some time to spare, given the worthy cause in front of him.

"Anyway, thanks."

"You already said," Don pointed out. "You're welcome."

They drank without any further conversation, but when the bottoms of the glasses were reached, Dean was no less tense, and Don scooted down one more stool, receiving some side-eye when he did.

"Listen, kid----"

"Dean."

"Right. I don't usually do this----"

"Uh, hey, man - you ain't my type."

Don grimaced. "I'm not--- I'm not hitting on you! Jesus!"

"Well what am I supposed to think when----"

"Look, I had a real sumbitch of a father, too. And I don't like the thought of you going back to whatever shit motel you're holed up at, walking into whatever else he's figured out to blame you for, especially when you're wound up like a tick about to pop."

Dean's eyes narrowed. "I don't get it."

Don leaned in closer. "If you want, we can step out back, and I'll roll you a joint."

"I've never tr---- I mean...." Dean paused briefly, then regrouped, backtracked. "It's not my thing. Besides, I only have enough cash for my beer."

Don considered this - a complete stranger who was also a novice who also had no money. More rules out the window. But rules were made to be broken. So Don stood, gave Dean's shoulder a clap, then pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket that made his new friend's eyes widen.

"Don't worry about it," Don said, and tossed several bills onto the counter. "Come on. You look like death. So live a little."

It started about a quarter way into the joint.

Don watched as Dean paced around the alley when he wasn't still enough to take a puff, telling stories that would've blown the hair back on every camper around a fire, some things that would send even the most stoic horror movie aficionado bolting from the theater, and when Don didn't react in an astonished enough manner - which, in his defense, he was just trying to keep up - that was when the insistent tone and rapid-fire babbling ratcheted up a notch, with some paranoia on top.

".....and could be anywhere, Don, I'm telling you. A-ny-where!" Dean lowered his voice to a whisper. "Even here, like, just around that corner!"

Dean had gestured wildly with the hand holding the joint, causing smoke to drift into Don's face, which he brushed away, his eyes tracking Dean as he returned to pacing, taking another puff as he went, now hell-and-gone from hesitation.

Through a hearty cough, Dean advised, "You gotta watch your back. I mean it. Do you carry a gun? A knife? Something? Anything?!"

Don held out his hand, and the joint was passed. "Chill out." Then he took his own advice, took a deep drag, exhaled slowly. "I keep a shotgun at my shack, by my little rose garden. And there's a piece in my glove box. Always got a pocket knife. And my lighter, but I'm not packing the real heat - what'd you say, salt? And silver? Iron? No-go, my man."

"I can make you some bullets. Well, no, I can't, not here - but I can give you some----" Dean reached around, pulled a pistol from his waistband where it had been hidden by his jacket "----if it's your caliber, I mean, what's in your car? Let's go see if----"

"Are you nuts?!" Don hissed, glancing around them. He ran a hand through his hair, closed his eyes for a moment, trying to not be pissed at how the kid seemed determined to ruin a much-needed high. "Will you just sit down? Let that kick in? It's my best stuff to date, brand new blend - no way you don't feel something. I mean, do you feel any better? At all?"

Dean sat. And he thought. And he stared at his hands. Then he stared at a dumpster. Then he stared at Don.

"Well?" Don prompted.

"I think I'm hungry," Dean said.

Don smiled at the sight of the glazed-over eyes. Finally. "If you're done with your tall tales, then what say we finish this joint, and I point you in the direction of the nearest burger joint?"

"Is it in walking distance?"

"You walked here?"

Dean nodded.

Don cursed under his breath - what kind of father let his son, he didn't care how old, wander around a town he wasn't from, carrying a gun, hardly any money, and with no transportation?

As if Dean read his mind, he pulled a phone out of his pocket. "I can call my----"

"The hell you will, put that away," Don told him, but gently.

Dean nodded again, did as he was told.

A few tokes later, and the joint was gone.

"All right," said Don. "Let's go get you fed." A pause, a bit of consideration. "And me, too."

They'd just climbed into the truck when the glove box - that is, Don's phone - began ringing, and he answered while pulling out of the bar parking lot, but not before rolling his eyes at how Dean had set into slowly... very slowly... replacing a few rounds in the glove box gun with some of his own, transferring them at snail speed, like he was performing a very delicate surgery.

"Y'ello," Don said.

"I have been calling you for hours!"

Don sighed. "Sorry, hon. Got caught up, picked up a stray."

"We're not taking in another dog," his wife said, "and speaking of dogs - have you not gone out to Wally's yet? Because he was expecting you, and now he's called me, frantic, talking about wolves again!"

"We don't have wolves out here," Don replied calmly, because he was calm, tips to toes. He could've been on fire and all he would've done was glance around for the closest pond, then done the backstroke, look up at the stars for awhile. He actually got lost in the thought, til he picked up on the fact that Dean had begun mumbling to himself.

"Knew we didn't get 'em all... knew it was a bigger pack, but does he listen? Nooooo...."

"Hon, lemme let you go, I'll head out there now," said Don, then exchanged goodbyes with his wife. After he tossed the phone onto the dash, he said to Dean, "What's that about a pack? You think you saw some wolves? Were you and your dad hunting for his bail-jumper or whatever in the woods?"

"Not actual wolves. Werewolves, Donny. Were-wol-llllllves," Dean replied, and instead of putting Don's gun back where he found it, he set it on the seat between them. Then he looked over with a smirk and half-mast eyes. "Let's roll."

"Roll... where?" Don asked, taking the opportunity presented by a stop sign to turn in his seat to face Dean. "I'm dropping you off at the diner, then I got to go run out to check on an old senile coot so I won't have to deal with my wife, and then I'm going to put my fat ass to bed."

"I'm going with you. It could be the straggler we missed." Dean pointed up. "Full moon tonight. They're tougher to deal with then."

“What do you mean ‘then’? I thought that was werewolves’ whole deal, the full moon.”

“Donny, I have a theory that they can change whenever they damn well want,” Dean said, looking a bit smug as he tapped the side of his head; but then his expression changed to one that was - if Don had to name it - forlorn. “But Dad never listens.”

"There are no such things as werewolves, you do know that, right?" Don asked, and in what he hoped was a careful tone - after all, a high, paranoid, armed, possibly crazy person was about a foot away. Though, if the kid didn’t kill him, his wife would, so the distance may've been a plus; aiming straight was not something Don would've bet his substantial savings on.

"What did he say?" Dean asked as reply.

"What did who say?"

"Whoever saw it. Did they say anything about hearts?"

"We talking cupids now?"

Dean made a face. "No. Cupids aren't real."

"Oh, forgive me, that was a stupid----"

"Werewolves will open up your chest and take your heart in ten seconds flat."

Don stared at Dean til a car pulled up behind them and honked their horn - and as he accelerated, he realized this was a no-win situation. "Fuck. Fine. You're coming with."

"Because you believe me?"

"No, because I guess I'm breaking all my rules tonight."

"What's the rule?"

"Never make decisions when I'm testing out a new blend."

"What're the other rules?"

"Does it matter?"

Dean leaned back and closed his eyes as response - but his gun remained clutched in his hand.

They rode the rest of the way in silence, but it was most decidedly broken upon arrival at the farm. The door was busted in, looked like the wood was practically shredded, and Don saw it from the driveway, before they'd even gotten out of the truck. He picked up his gun.

"Stay here, kid," he advised, but Dean reached for the handle - so Don planted his free hand against his chest, shoved him back. "I mean it."

"Ooooookay, jeez," Dean replied, rolling his still-glossy eyes.

Don had surveyed the yard as he walked, saw nothing amiss, and now on the porch, he slowly eased open what was left of the door. "Wally?" he called out. 

Floorboards creaked from somewhere down the hall. 

"Wally? It’s Don. You okay?" he tried again, making his way cautiously toward the bedroom at the end, the only closed door, glancing into the open rooms as he went.

It was dark, not a lamp on in the house, but the moon was so bright it was cutting through the windows and their ancient, threadbare curtains, which  - once he became aware of how sticky his footsteps sounded - let him see the blood trail. Don instinctively reached to his pocket, for his phone, then mentally cursed himself when he realized he'd left it in the truck. And perhaps if he weren't still feeling a bit mellow - after all, the geezer probably went and cut himself while making dinner or some such, right? - he'd have high-tailed it out of there, called the cops. But he was, so he didn’t.

And he didn’t have his gun up when he turned the knob, nor when he opened the bedroom door, and he nearly dropped it at the sight of a quite dead Wally laid haphazardly across the bed, and Don knew he was dead - if it weren’t for the blood and the way his chest was opened up and his ribs pulled apart and the lack of a heart, the fact that said heart was lying on the floor would’ve tipped him off.

Don made the sign of the cross, and likely backwards, because he hadn’t been to church since he was a boy, and also because he wasn’t Catholic.

“Told you.”

Don jumped, turning, gun raised this time, and there was Dean, leaning casually against the door frame. Then Dean casually reached out and pushed on the barrel of the gun, and Don lowered it. And then, still casual, Dean’s eyes sluggishly cut over to the closed louvered doors across the room.

“We interrupted. Bet he’s in the closet,” Dean whispered, at least, in what he thought was a whisper.

“Huh?” Don whispered back.

“You wanna give it a try?”

“Huh?!” Don asked again.

Dean pointed at Don’s gun with his own. “Loaded you up with some silver.” 

(Later, Don would swear that the man who came out of the closet just then was laughing. Don would also swear that his eyes were glowing and that his teeth were bared and that the rumbling growl that came from him was anything but human, but the cops chalked it up to Don being high - the chief was one of his best customers - and the murderer being on PCP or whatnot. Regardless, the rest of story of what happened was plausible, and that’s because it was what actually happened.)

Don turned when the closet doors slammed open, and barely had his gun raised by the time Dean had stepped forward and fired a shot.

All parties froze. Then the werewolf looked over his shoulder. The bullet had gone straight past him and into the wall. 

Dean frowned, drew back the hammer, fired again.

Miss.

The werewolf stared. “Aren’t you one of the Winchesters?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Dean said, defensive tone in check.

The werewolf glanced from Don, to Dean, to Don, then back again. His eyes narrowed as he studied Dean’s. He sniffed the air. “Are you... are you high?”

“No!” Dean exclaimed, but he took a step back, glancing around like he expected more werewolves to ooze out of the yellowed wallpaper.

“Oh, for... shit,” Don muttered.

The werewolf advanced a few steps. “And here I thought I was dead meat. Maybe if it was your daddy----”

Dean kept backing into the hallway, and Don backed toward the bed, accidentally knocking the heart under it with his boot, cringing at the sound of the organ smacking against a bedpost.

“Oh YEAH?!” Dean shouted, and fired off his last round, which - wrecked hand-eye coordination be damned - did manage to land in the werewolf’s upper arm.

“Nicely done, idiot,” the werewolf said with a sneer. “Not that it matters - what kind of hunter tries to shoot a wolf with regular bullets?”

Dean blanched as he realized he must’ve loaded all the silver into Don’s gun instead of just a few, then put the standard rounds - a lousy three - into his own. “Uh, hey, Don?” he said nervously.

“HEY, DON, WHAT?!” an irritated Don shouted back.

The werewolf snickered, still backing Dean down the hallway. “Thanks for bringing me the extra snacks, that other heart’s gonna be ice cold, and I was really looking forward to a hot meal.”

When Don looked down the hallway not a second later, the werewolf had leapt, sending the both of them into the den, Dean now pinned on the floor by the sofa, legs kicking, and just as Don saw a clawed hand raised, poised to rip Dean’s face off-----

POW!

Dean and the werewolf both gasped. The shot had gone through the werewolf’s hand. And they didn’t have to wait long for Don to have another go.

The werewolf actually howled when the next round hit his back, and while it wasn’t a through-and-through, it must’ve come close because blood was beginning to show on the right side of his shirt. But that didn’t matter. The werewolf now had his injured hand around Dean’s neck, raising the other in preparation to strike.

“Left, Don, LEFT! HEAAAART!” Dean managed to choke out - and then he let out a grunt as the werewolf collapsed onto him following what would be Don’s final shot.

While they waited on the cops, they poked around, and in the basement, Dean let out a low whistle and Don’s eyes got wide: the walls were covered in just about every weapon he could’ve imagined, and some he never would’ve.

Dean walked to the long worktable against the back wall, ran a fingertip across a bullet mold. “Your friend Wally is - was - a hunter.” 

“Holy shit,” Don breathed out. He thumbed through a small journal as he stood at the other end of the table. Every page he turned made his head spin more and more. Sketches of fairy tale monsters. Notes covering the margins on abilities, weaknesses, appearance. He raised his eyes to Dean’s. “The hell, kid.”

“He was just too old to kick its ass. Guess it’ll happen to all of us eventually,” Dean said solemnly. “Hey, and, uh - speaking of kicking ass... thanks.”

“None needed, standard Thursday for me,” Don replied wryly. He took another look around the room. “I got no idea what they’re gonna say about all this.”

Dean reached out and took the journal from Don’s hands. “So long as we take this outta here, they’ll just think he was a crazy old man.”

The two men looked at each other in silence for several minutes before Don spoke.

“I’m never smoking again.”

“This wasn’t a hallucination. And I’m the one that’s never smoking again.”

They heard footsteps above them.

“Don?” called out a voice. “Don? Where are you?”

"We're down here, we're fine," Don called back. Then to Dean, he said, "Never say never, kid."

"Well, I'm never taking another joint from a guy named Don."

Don grinned. "Good rule. Now, let's go on and give our statements----"

"What should I----"

"Tell 'em the truth."

Dean let out a brief huff of a chuckle. "'The truth'," he repeated. "I guess I'm trying two new things tonight."

They parked down the road from the motel, and as Dean was just about to climb out, Don asked him a question.

"You got anybody to talk to? Anybody to... I dunno... share this burden with?"

Dean thought for a moment, then said, "My brother's got his own life, at college. He's probably happy."

"Probably?"

"We haven't talked in awhile."

"Figure out an excuse to call him, or go see him - don't take the joints, fine, but take advice from this guy named Don, huh?"

The corner of Dean's mouth turned up. "Yeah. Yeah, all right. I'll think about it. But, uh... we head out tomorrow."

"Where to?"

"Not sure. We got wind of something in California, and something else in New Orleans."

"Hope it isn't werewolves."

"Same. So are you okay covering with the police? One of their witnesses disappearing?"

Don waved him off. "I got it. You just take care of yourself, kid." A pause. "Dean."

Dean nodded. "You, too, Don."

Don waited til Dean entered the motel room that had the muscle car parked right in front of it. Then he dug in his work bag, pulled out some of his stash, more than ready to burn one - but as he was leaning back up, he noticed Dean had left Wally's journal in the floorboard. And as he leisurely drove toward home, he pondered on what all was out there going bump in the night.

It'd be a bitch, gathering the supplies and weapons, not to mention spending what would likely be some serious research time at the library. But he smiled. He'd just have to make room in the shack for more than fertilizer, and learn to balance his old hobby with his new one.

See Nash Write : Master  /  See Nash Write : Mobile

🏷️🏷️Wanna be tagged? Hit me up! 🏷️🏷️

Behold, the tagging of the Nashooligans.....

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[primeadv]

SITS DOWN

PULLS OUT 10 GIANT ALBUMS :))) 

(this came out way longer than I intended im so fuckgkdsdf sory)

How I feel about this character: EVERYONE WHO KNOWS ME KNOWS I’M IN LOVE WIHT RATCHET. I love him in all iterations of Transformers because he’s always the tired, pragmatic one of the group. In contrast, he’s also almost tiredly optimistic in some ways. He won’t get out of bed, but if someone gets shot in the head he’ll spend however long and beyond to resuscitate them. There’s 2 halves to this--the me who identifies with the beating exhaustion he exudes, and the me who’s in awe that he’ll still fight his way through life.  I won’t... get into each continuity...because that’s too much, so I’ll stick with probably the most unpopular version of him and that’s IDW (my impression, anyway). IDW Ratchet gets a lot of flack for being way too sour and like, maybe not selfish, but uncaring. He cares! A lot! He’s always thinking about everyone in really surprisingly thoughtful ways. Like when he’s 90% sure he’ll die due to Overlord and his last words are to promote First Aid to CMO (he’s ready!! god that’s sweet), and to give his hands to Whirl (though maybe a bit blindsided, he’s paid attention to some roots of Whirl’s trauma). Or yeah he’s hella mean to Drift in the beginning, but when Drift is dying in his arms he’s scREAMING at him “you’re gonna make it! You’re gonna be fine because I’m gonna make sure you’re gonna be fine”. He can be an asshole, but he knows the time and place. Death isn’t something to play with--he’s seen probably countless friends die, and he doesn’t want that to happen again. Even now, even after the war.  So I feel very confused when ppl act like he’s this mean, cold person. He’s exTREMELY emotional. He’s probably way too invested in everyone’s lives, honestly? He interrupts a round table story for Rung just to reminisce on the veery last time he, OP, and Roller were together in the same room (not even hanging out or anything, just being together one last time. who remembers that after 5+ millions years??). He started an illegal clinic in the bad part of town because he wanted to put his skills to better use! Like! LOL.  ALSO, a point that i think is unfair is that ppl think his atheism is just really mean. IT is! But I think it shows just how much of an emotional and extremely, deeply hurt person he is. It gets aggravating when he’s condescending of religion, because there’s no simple logic to it. He reacts the way he does because he’s a hurt person who’s gone through years of trauma and this is his way of coping. Is it healthy or right? Nah, but it’s humanizing. It’s why when he becomes closer to Drift he occupies this weird between space where he snarks but also tries to indulge more in perspectives outside of his own in his own dumb old tsundere way. He’s a person who believes in justice, ultimately, and religion to him doesn’t fall under justice.  ALSO, can I say that his inability to say good byes is so.. like relatable? I have rly bad social anxiety, and so I’ve definitely ghosted people who’ve been nothing but really supportive for me. It’s not because I wanted to burn them, but it freaks you out needing to, not even say goodbye, but communicate with ppl. And for Ratchet--how many times was he FORCED to say good bye to friends + patients who were dying beyond his help? Maybe, if he could help it, he doesn’t want to say goodbye. And it’s tragic the times he’s just left, these were people who ended up either dying for falling astray into insanity, i.e., beyond his help. But he learns. He chases after Drift, who he actually said, in a way, good bye to (helping him off the floor after being attacked, also I should point out that a very tiny handful of people were comfortable interacting w/ Drift at all, and how much Ratchet just doesn’t give a shit abt how other ppl think abt him. he’ll help drift off the floor bc t’s the right thing to do). He says goodbye in his old dumb way--First Aid calls him out on it. ALSO his trust in First Aid is super cute. ALSO he’s like.. genuinely nice to Ten (he helped him get a date with Minimus!!!). And he’s not afraid to call out on other ppl’s bullshit (telling rodi straight you dont deserve to be captain which, at the time, was really true). He’s also SUPER smart. Also there’s that post on tumblr that pointed out that Ratchet immediately goes to deescalate conflict. He’s willing to put aside pride and anything if it means ultimately coming to a resolution where EVERYONE involved is safe. The only time he doesn’t is FUCKING OVERLORD who he rightfully, immediately, tries to briefly incapacitate to lockdown his medibay (protect patients/information). Ok I gotta stop I can go on forever just going page to page. Also, despite my love, I can totally point out his flaws. He’s grating when it’s unnecessary, he’s abhorrently bad at communicating, he’s privileged, he’s narrow-minded at times, etc. ec. But again what I love about him is that despite all that, he’ll throw his own self out the window for others’s well-being bc he genuinely, genuinellyyy cares about other people. If only he could care for himself //cries All the people I ship romantically with this character OH god... everyone. He’s my bicycle.  ok look, ya’ll know I’m an intense dratchet shipper and I could literally write a god damn essay. ... here’s another essay???!! So, I’ma be real, I wasn’t a super dratchet shipper before. I wasn’t anti (i have no notps), but I was just “yeah they’re cute i guess haha”. But 99.99% the reason why I ship anything is all for super cute adorable fanart. and I kept drawing them because 1) ratchet’s my fav, 2) drift is super popular so I figured I should learn to draw him. And they became the only 2 mechs I could draw. I used to be way more into Scavengers + megarod. I used to only like 1 dratchet fanfic and that’s bc it was less romantic and more plot centric (still a fav tho). Then I kept seeing cute fanart, I would read posts by other dratchet shippers too about what makes them so nice? And I was yeah.. oh yeah. And it doesn’t help that in Lost Light, drift is CONSTANTLY by Ratchet’s side. He’s constantly checking up on him and holding him and touching him, like as if Ratchet is the thing that he needs to make sure, at all costs, is safe.  In Drift’s life, Ratchet is the one who appears to him when he needs support the most but is in the most denial of it. When Drift is at the brink of death, overdosed and about to be broken apart and Orion brings him to Ratchet’s clinic. Ratchet patches him up pro-bono and tells him that he sees something special in him.  like??? can you imagine how that feels? To have no one believe in you--you don’t even believe in yourself, and yet here’s this person who tells you “you’re gonna be great”. And it totally doesn’t hit Drift in anyway, at least in a way that’s tangible to him, until much later in life. Or maybe it does (hey, how do you weave character narratives when it’s been written by like 3 different ppl shrugs). And that statement means 2 different things to them. To Drift, it’s a reminder that he’s worth something, even if it’s a sliver of nearly nothing to hold onto. To Ratchet, it’s a reminder that the greatness he saw led to the deaths of thousands of people.  HEY can you imagine this person you saved, patched up, tried to encourage, ended up being a mass serial killer in the future? (have you ever read Monster by Naoki Urusawa). Ended up killing people you loved?  So it’s no wonder that a good part of Ratchet is absolutely mad at Drift. And I think if that was all, they probably would’ve ended up being amicable. But Drift also ended up being super religious and seeing the hand and primus in everything and oh my god is this person really waxing poetry on the value of life when he, himself, shot several bullets at me at one point?  I also believe they are uncomfortably similar as they are different. The reason why they constantly butt heads is they’re two people trying to escape a past they don’t want and found complete opposite ways to cope with their losses. Drift found religion, Ratchet is gratingly pragmatic, and they see each other and go “how could this guy choose to be this way?”. I’ve heard ppl like to cite the annual as the reason why they could never work out. BUT, can I point out, that they act around each other in a way they don’t with anyone else? Drift gets SO MAD. Ratchet gets extremely talkative and incredibly personal (pulled out an electro slug from someone’s spark, holy shit that fucking traumatized you didn’t it??). They challenge each other emotionally, and it’s so fucking difficult bc they’re both extremely depressed and suffer from PTSD and would probably rather just go on their dumb space adventure and look at stars--take 2 emotionally constipated idiots and you get them. And hell no, don’t tell me Drift is in-tune with his feelings bc he’s 10000% not. He uses religion to cope with a past and life that he doesn’t want to think about. He tries to re-contextualize himself because he hates who he is. OUCHHH. And Ratchet MAKES him confront the parts of himself he hates--bc Ratchet has seen his worst traits and isn’t afraid to make him think about it.  So why do they work out eventually? They realize how important they are to each other. Delphi, Drift saves Ratchet’s life while he’s barely holding onto his own because he probably feels like he owes Ratchet his own life. And that’s a huge turning point in their relationship--Ratchet sees that... Drift tries really really fucking hard. My friend Zig pointed out that post-Delphi, Drift is eating energon w/ chopsticks (what a fucking nerd), and you can see in a later panel that Ratchet (who chose to sit next to Drift) is using those chopsticks too. IT’s such a small thing, but they’re becoming closer by sharing and learning from each other. And then Drift takes the fall and leaves. And Ratchet realizes just how important Drift’s presence is in his life. I mentioned it already lol but the scene where Ratchet helps Drift up off the floor and it’s superimposed with the love message Rewind left for CD. They care about each other so much!! And Ratchet chases after him!! HOLY SHIT. If that isn’t romance, what is?? lol I kid, but it’s obvious just how important Drift’s presence meant to him. IT’s really because they became so so so close in a way that can’t be described as just friends. They deeply understand each other in really uncomfortable ways and bring out the absolute worst and absolute best in each other. And this point is where Ratchet again appears when Drift doesn’t realize he needs someone in his life. Drift thinks he can be a loner and just float aimlessly and voicelessly--hell no! He needs friends, he needs community. He NEEDs belonging, because he wants to belong somewhere. And Ratchet helps bridge him back to friends and found family.  And Ratchet slowly changes the more he’s with Drift. He reads religious text and tries to brag about it bc he’s a dumb tsundere lol but he’s trying to understand Drift’s interests more even if it takes a decade and more to get there. And Drift values him for being his rock. That’s why he’s constantly making sure Ratchet is safe and unharmed, because he owes at least that much to him. And yeah they eventually fall in love because they value each other in a way they haven’t anyone else. IM EMO I CAN GO ONE, this all probably didn’t make a whole lot of sense but yeah. I’m just so soft to the fact that they’re horribly hurt people who don’t know how to redirect their pain, but by being together they come out healthier and more confident. IT’S RLY ROMANTIC IDKKK My non-romantic OTP for this character As much as I also love OpRatch, they are also great best friend platonic ship. They know each other best, they’ve been through SO MUCH together. It’s honestly a shame they barely interact in IDW bc the small tidbits we have, they obviously deeply respect each other’s opinions and deeply value the relationship they’ve had over the past millions of years.  I’m also all for non-romanceOTP for dratchet because I can totally imagine they go to each other to talk about things they feel uncomfortable sharing with others (they’ve seen the absolute worst of each other afterall).  My unpopular opinion about this character I don’t... think I ahve one. Some ppl view my love for his as grating lol.  One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon. Medic spin off.

[stlplaybox]

The Home Stretch

This week marks the beginning of the end. The crew that we’ve come to know and love will careen into into their final story arc. But instead of conjecturing about the mountain of questions that remain unanswered, I want to spend some time honing in on the key pieces on the elaborate chessboard that James Roberts has setup. After all, what is MTMTE/Lost Light other than the sum part of the characters it has woven together?

The question I want to explore is this: who are the key players that will shape this final story arc? If we can guess who, we have an idea of what’s at stake, what to look out for, and, most importantly, how are hearts are going to be broken. 

Like my write up of who was likely to survive the Dying of the Light, I’m going to give the odds of each character playing a big role as I expect (hope).

Naturally, before we proceed, a heavy SPOILERS reminder. If you haven’t already caught up, please don’t proceed past this point. 

The Set Pieces

Rodimus: This is Rodimus’ story. This is his quest. This is his ship. These are his friends. Lost Light has always been about the story of how the unlikeliest of bots banded together on the unlikeliest of journeys and became the unlikeliest of friends. Deep down Rodimus has always known this wasn’t about the quest. He made this concession early in the opening salvo of Dark Cybertron before Getaway or Megatron came aboard. Deep down this is all that matters to Rodimus. At it’s core, this is why Rodimus hates Getaway. Their confrontation will be brutal as Rodimus must come to terms with the damage that Getaway has inflicted. 

Odds: A Sure Bet.

Getaway: There is no Getaway without Rodimus. A bot who has lost his way and committed to his dark path, he must come colliding with the bots that he resented and displaced. We may not be certain of what fate the rest of the Lost Light has succumbed to, but Getaway’s confrontation with Rodimus and crew will be a chilling contrast to what life used to be aboard the Lost Light.

Odds: A Sure Bet.

Ratchet vs Pharma: Apart from the foreshadowing in Lost Light #1, you don’t reveal Cyberutopia as being an eerie science fiction take on euthanasia and palliative care without these two characters clashing again. Ratchet has been a big heart of this book and there’s no better way to raise the stakes than forcing a confrontation with the bot that resents him more than anything else in this universe. If you think back to Ratchet’s story arc at the start of season one, this surely comes full circle.

Odds: A Sure Bet.

Drift: One of the key players from the start, we know there has always been, pardon the pun, more than meets the eye with Drift. Issue #18’s revelations will undoubtedly have an important impact on Drift but there’s still too much about Drift that’s been left vague. On a ship of misfits who were always looking for anything else but the reality of post war life, he’s always had an angle. Now we’re going to get to find out exactly what.

Odds: A Sure Bet.

Rung: He’s been primed for this. If there was ever a moment he was going to shine, this is it. All the pieces are in play. The sparks, the blacksmith, the whole forged vs constructed cold. The Lost Light’s opening arc was a vehicle that set up Rung’s potential and there’s no way JRo is letting this one through to the keeper. Rung prime must star.

Odds: A Sure Bet.

The Grand Architect: the identity of this bot is the biggest mystery. I have a few loose theories but nothing that’s convincing but we’ll leave that for another time. I’m convinced whoever they are revealed to be, it’ll be critical to shaping the final trajectory of the our beloved crew.

Odds: A Sure Bet.

Nautica: The themes of memory, revisionism and identity have been core to MTMTE/Lost Light since the beginning. Skids was a key exponent of this and his death triggered something in Nautica. In trying to save one of her dearest friends, Nautica lost her memories of ever loving him and this is biggest note that can be sounded to tell this story. The consequences have been tragic for us the reader to watch but it does not come full circle until Nautica herself realises the price she has paid. Strap yourselves in. This is going to hurt.

Odds: 95%

Anode: Brought on at the start of Season 3, the obnoxious and brash blacksmith’s skills clearly have a key part to play. How? I’m not sure, but that the Grand Architect was responsible for sending her on the quest in Lost Light #1, means she has a large role in the coming conflict. 

Odds: 95%

The Wildcards

First Aid: If there is one character who owes so much to the Lost Light, it’s First Aid. Rescued from the dreariness that was Delphi, he found his identity and home  onboard the Lost Light. From the companionship of other minibots who he watched movies with to being anointed the Chief Medical Officer, First Aid is mortified by his role in enabling Getaway to assume control of the Lost Light. It’s personal now and I can’t see First Aid not coming back to make things right.

Odds: 90%

Megatron: Will Megatron return in the darkest hour? A la Drift and Ratchet in the Dying of the Light? I believed this with full certainty at first. But I wavered on this after a great debate with my dear friend (@SeanV2) but then my memory went back to some of Megatron’s own words: 

“Sometimes, you look back on your life - on your life’s work and you realise that it’s unsalvageable.  And if you’re brave enough - or desperate enough - you throw it all away and start again. On Luna 2, I threw it all away. And here on this ship, I started again.” 

Megatron never wanted to stay in the Functionist Universe. It was Terminus who entrapped him. For Megatron to complete his arc, he must come back. He may never atone for the atrocities he’s committed but coming back means that he’s desperate enough to salvage his second lease on life and make it count on the ship that gave it to him. 

But what about the mechanics of getting him back, you say? Let’s not forget the liberties that are afforded to a writer when said titular character carries around an inter dimensional wormhole in his gut.

James Roberts has also on the record said that he needed to move Megatron from the board to focus on the core characters. He also said that this was the last we’d seen of the Scavengers. Go figure.

Odds: 85%

Grimlock: The big bad of Autobot fandom has been simmering away in the IDW universe and this is his moment to shine. He’s been there since the beginning and we’ve watched as he’s slowly pulled himself back together with the help of the Scavengers. We’ve seen him take command of a situation already but he’s also carrying the child and I can’t see Grimlock role not having a pivotal role in all this.  

Odds: 80%

Deathsaurus: With Nickel’s role in helping him realise the bigger picture, I can’t see Deathsaurus not coming for her. And in doing so, Deathsaurus brings a disenfranchised arm of the Decepticon cause in this post war environment back to the chessboard. This is important as a core component of the MTMTE lore has been to question the black and white roles of Autobot and Decepticons. Bringing them to the fold in this finale offers an x-factor in the moral quagmire that is MTMTE/Lost Light.

Odds: 60%

The Dark Horses

Overlord: if there is something brewing in the Transformers Universe, the Galactic Council will no doubt have their eyes on this. What better way to bring a loose cannon into the fold than this? There’s an unsolved mystery here as well. The Galactic Council has been lurking in the shadows since the early days of MTMTE and I think it’s high time we got the answer to how they tamed a Phase Sixer that Megatron could barely keep in check.

Odds: 40%.

Roller: Why bring back a character who has contributed so little? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved his appearances in the flashbacks but there’s been nothing potent and imposing about his presence yet. I refuse to believe James brought him back purely as eye candy (and that he is!). That said, I’ve looked hard but I’m unsure how he fits in this end game so all I’m going on is that he had to be brought back for a reason.

Odds: 10%

Fortress Maximus & Red Alert: These two were pretty much there at the beginning. That they went to Necroworld where things have gone awol, will have give them a trail to follow. Realistically they maybe will have a cameo at best but I think I speak for a lot of us when I drool over the prospect of the newest Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord confronting Scorponok. 

Odds: 10% 

So there it is. My hypothesising about who would die in Dying of the Light was pretty good. Will I be as lucky this time? Let’s strap ourselves in for the final ride and see how we go this time.

[shikai-the-storyteller]

So you want to read Transformers

Did my recommendation post get you interested? Here’s part two: a comprehensive guide on how to get into the MTMTE / Lost Light series, aka: the easiest jumping-in point into the Transformers franchise. Includes: reading order, where to read, and supplemental Transformer comic recommendations.

READING ORDER: A timeline to help you keep track of what to read when. The list is far less messy than typical comic timeline lists, but it’s still worth having on-hand in case you get confused.

The Death of Optimus Prime (Recommended Reading) - 1 issue - This is essentially the prologue to MTMTE. A bit of backstory from other comics here, but ultimately it doesn't matter if a lot of it goes over your head. (It certainly went over mine!)

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye (MTMTE) - 57 issues - The Transformers: MTMTE Annual  2012 (also called “Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations”) should be read after the 7th comic. Mandatory Reading; it gives you what’s essentially the creationism story equivalent for the Transformers universe (and it builds up some important relationships and character development that’ll be expanded on later). -  The Transformers Holiday Special. This is actually three different stories in one comic! Only one story ("Silent Light") has the MTMTE crew, but all of them are cute and funny. The MTMTE one is definitely the funniest and sweetest though! I highly recommend reading it when you need a mood boost. (I would recommend waiting to read this until you’ve read #45 of MTMTE, as it includes some of the newer characters).

Transformers: Lost Light - 25 issues (currently only 18 out; series will be wrapping up this summer). - Read after MTMTE issue 57. - Continues the MTMTE story, they just call it "Lost Light" now.

For additional reading, as well as a list of good places to read the comic, look below! 

OTHER: You don’t have to read these comics to understand the main story, but they exist to build up character friendships and they give you a better understanding of certain character’s history and motivations.

The Transformers 2009, IDW volume #22 (Recommended Reading)  - A prologue to the prologue, can be read whenever. - Gives insight into the beginning of the Autobot / Decepticon war, and gives flashback to Megatron and Optimus Prime’s relationship and past before they were leaders on opposing sides of the war. - TLDR, if you like Megatron and Optimus Prime, this is a good read. It’s written by the same person who writes MTMTE / Lost Light, so you know it’ll be a great read. It’s tricky to find online (and even trickier to find a physical copy of it) but it’s well worth the effort.

The Transformers: Drift - Empire of Stone (Optional) - 4 issues - Can be read anytime after volume 40 or before volume 50 of MTMTE. A bit of a side-story, worth reading if you like Drift and Ratchet.  

The Transformers: Drift (Optional) - 4 issues - What caused one of the Decepticon's most ruthless soldiers to turn his back on them? And what ancient secrets lie hidden deep within an alien planet? All this and more are revealed in this comic! - TLDR: if you like Drift and want to know more about his backstory as a Decepticon and how he gave that up, this is the comic for you.

The Dark Cybertron Arc (Optional) - Wondering why Megatron became an Autobot? Well, be prepared to read the one obligatory crossover MTMTE got roped into! Honestly, I put this under “Optional” because I accidentally skipped over the entire thing myself, and I wasn’t too thrown off by things. But if you’re determined, please refer to the Dark Cybertron arc on this list.

Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again! (Optional) - 1 issue - About the Scavengers; the group of Decepticon losers. If you like them, this is a fun read!

WHERE TO READ: I read the majority of the comics online and by checking them out from my local library, but I also bought three of my favorite compilation volumes. You can find the first two MTMTE comics voice-acted by a talented group called “Team Train-Wreck” on Youtube. (I highly recommend them; the videos finally got me to read Transformers)! You can also buy the comics digitally at comixology (they’re currently on sale!) or you can get the first issue on IDW’s site for just $1!. But if cash is a little tight (I totally commiserate) here’s a few other options for where to read them for free:

Comicextra - By far the best of the bunch. Most organized, absolutely no ads with adblocker, and includes the “our story so far” summary at the beginning and author’s end notes at the end (also includes alt comic covers). However, it’s missing Drift: Empire of Stone and a few other comics on the optional / recommended reading list.

Readcomiconline - Way too may ads, but it’s organized and comprehensive. Includes all the extra comics (including Drift: Empire of Stone and The Transformers #22) and the author end notes and alt covers. I read all the comics on this site, but I did it on my phone because it was easier to navigate around the ads.

View-comic - Ok, but lists them out of order and doesn’t include the “our story so far” summary at the beginning or the author’s notes at the end. Also missing a few comics here and there.

There’s a few others, but these are the ones I know. Do some googling and I’m sure you’ll find one that’s right for you!

A character reference list will be the next big Transformers-related post.