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transformers-fan-continuities · 2 years

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Spotlight: Autobots Roll Out!

Not me forgetting for ages and ages to finish and post this! </3 Anyway, here’s the previous one, but today we’ve got Autobots Roll Out! over at @transformers-autobotsrollout !

Q) Give us a run down of your cont! What’s it about, what’s it called, what’s it like?

Autobots Roll Out! is arguably a black comedy/action Transformers series. We open with Optimus and his friends trying to get to another planet, only to be thwarted by the evil Decepticons who blow up their ship! Or, at least, that’s what Hot Rod’s nightmares consist of. There’s a mystery element to the predicament Optimus and his friends have found themselves in; everyone is convinced they’re dead with the exception of Hot Rod, who’s faith and optimism haven’t wavered a day in the cycles they’ve been gone. But trouble’s afoot in more ways than one, and both teams are going to have to confront everything they thought they knew to solve it.

Q) What characters take the lead here? Any personal favorites?

Well, you can’t have a Transformers series without Optimus Prime! He’s joined by Jazz, Bumblebee, and Perceptor! With Optimus’ social awkwardness, Perceptor’s lackadaisical glee, Jazz’s spirtuality, and Bumblebee’s teenage sass, you can imagine how they get along stuck on this distant mudball. Back on Cybertron, Hot Rod, Arcee, and Springer are an unbeatable triad… and hey, sometimes Blurr hangs around to make sure they don’t get themselves killed.

I was admittedly a little sick of Megatron ALWAYS being the main force of the Decepticons, so instead of him taking the spotlight, we get the motley crew of Blitzwing, Astraea, Motormaster, and Flamewar to harass the trio back on Cybertron. These creeps are a delight but not the biggest threat, though. That would have to go to the mysterious and beautiful Flipsides, who’s probably my favorite villain in the whole series. She’s got a LOT of baggage to go with that pretty face of hers, and I can’t wait for y’all to meet her. There are some other threats on the horizon, but let’s keep those under wraps until their moment in the spotlight.

On Earth, we have to deal with Sixshot, a modified superhunter who's been sent after Optimus to ensure the only way he'll be coming back is in a coffin. His young ward Chop Shop has a very fascinating relationship with the humans, too. It's almost like he wants to become one of them... and peculiarly, Starscream's found his way onto Earth as well. Hmmmm.

Q) Is there a bigger point to this, like a theme or some catharsis? Or is it just fluffy fun?

[looks directly into the camera] War is bad and only benefits those who sell the weapons. Also, I wanted an excuse for my favorite characters to interact with each other, so there ya go.

Q) How long have you been working on it?

Back in August 2019, I dabbled in the idea of an original continuity. It was gonna be called Young Optimus Prime, and it was MASSIVELY different from any of this. It had been years since I’d consumed any Transformers content and I was going fully off TFwiki descriptions of random characters and secondhand info from my friends.

Batshit would be an understatement.

Blurr was a girl. Starscream was Megatron’s son that he brainwashed from Thundercracker into being an emotionless killing machine. Bumblebee was a baby robot that would grow up to be a Seeker. Arcee was going to be a stereotypical mean girl that bullied Elita One and tried to steal Optimus from her. Outback was a main character. There was an entire lake of Quintesson blood that turned people evil if you drank it. The true main villain was gonna be goddamn Tyrest. This story concept fizzled out quicker than a sparkler and frankly I don’t know if I regret it enough to keep it totally buried.

On October 12, 2020 Autobots Roll Out! started out the same way, with some utterly insane story elements that I made for the sake of being cool rather than linking together coherently. Plotlines such as an anarchist brigade led by Ultra Magnus, Beastformers being irradiated mutants that were the victims of a nuclear war, a direct depiction of police states, and most shocking of all – Starscream getting a redemption arc – are things that I knew I’d have to drop once I’d gotten the story on the road.

Q) Give us a behind-the-scenes look! Show us a secret ;))

Would you like to see Flipsides’ nightmares?

All noise vanished from the room. Every other bot had become faceless masses of twitching neon polygons, at least the ones that had been by her side. She couldn’t even tell what had happened to the rest, as the room had become an endless black void asides Megatron and the slab he was on. Beams of colored light shooting out from behind her squawked and chirped as they smacked into the once-living bots and slammed into invisible barriers.

Flipsides paid no mind to the chaos as she stepped forward, but the slab and he both seemed to get farther away. She tried to run and catch up to him, only to fall with an inelegant splash as what had once been the floor was now a reflective black pool of fluid. She resurfaced in an instant, trying to regain her bearings as she swam to Megatron’s side, the table somehow floating atop the still surface. He laid on the slab, spark exposed and optics dull grey, as if they’d never been alighted. Another version of herself was at his other side, one hand clutching his and the other holding his shoulder.

“Megatron?” she asked, pulling herself up. “Megatron, please.”

The other her raised her head and stared. The black fluid that covered the floor was seeping from her blank, featureless face.

Q) Where did you draw inspiration from? What canons, what other fiction, what parts of real life?

Oddly enough, this entire thing feels like a giant Kingdom Hearts fanfic at times. There’s a lot of pomp and circumstance about how you can’t lose yourself to despair and how the power of friendship is way past cool… in an anime way.

To be more serious, though, I took a lot of inspiration from Transformers Animated, Generation 2, Beast Wars, and Tranformers Cybertron. In hindsight, I wish I added more from Robots In Disguise 2001, but I’ve never been that big a fan of sentai shows, and RID 2001 was basically a Transformers sentai show despite how much I like it.

Q) Show off something you’re really proud of, a particular favorite part of your cont.

I love the character designs I’ve done for this series. I feel like I’ve improved so much with my artwork working on this series. Here’s my top five favorite designs in no particular order.

Q) What other fan canons do you love and why? Would you like to see them interviewed?

Man, I can’t really choose. I just get tickled seeing everyone’s interpretations and reimaginings of this series that I think there’s something special about every single one. Sorry if that’s a cop out!

Q) No worries, with such a menagerie of good content it’s tough to pick!

And that’s that! Thanks Orb for giving us a neat glimpse into ARO! Sorry for leaving this for so long oof. I gotta check my list for who’s up next for a spotlight, but stay tuned!

#tf:aro #transformers #long post #spotlight #transformers au #transformers redesign #tf original continuity #transformers fan continuity #maccadam

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thenamesblurrito · 2 years

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when fighting, which Heroes (and perhaps, Villains) tend to flourish their moves and show off? and how often are they allowed to do that? i.e Scourge Twirls his hammer in the air before slamming it into the ground to create multiple sweeps in a burst of light, Cheetor flourishing his Knives before Throwing them? or would they just get attacked while its happening? or perhaps they USUALLY allow it, but attack when things get Serious?

Overlord

just. saying that one up front loud and clear. Overlord for sure. anyway.

first of all, this is a goddamn magical girl anime, you KNOW it's all about the flourishes and twirls and poses and catchphrases and sparkles and witty back-and-forths. heck, i think it's a staple of the genre to have some degree of plot armor for the posing and flourishing because sure that's impractical and dangerous in a real fight and will make you vulnerable, but. the vibes. gotta have the vibes.

of the heroes, Thunderblast and Airachnid are actually tied for blatantly showiest, in different ways. Thunderblast has a very deep seated notice me, need me, pay attention to me drive that expresses itself as always being up front and loud, stealing the spotlight, jumping in to act when she isn't necessarily needed, showing off to grab attention and keep optics on her, making herself not only useful but interesting, either appealing or infuriating so everyone will see her and keep seeing her and she won't have to be alone in the dark, and it's a lot of physicality that seems unpracticed and unnecessary in actually fighting an enemy. Airachnid on the other hand uses attention as a form of control, to manipulate emotions and change perspectives and control narratives, to maneuver enemies where she wants them and force them to make exactly what assumptions about her she's leading them to make, hunting through mind games instead of through secrecy. so her physicality is not always big and loud and proud, sometimes it's sly and creeping, or blunt and flippant, or intimidating and predatory, so her flourishes and showing off are specifically tailored to the situation instead of just motion for motion's sake

Drift. Drift is SO big on swishy swords and quick pirouettes and sweeping bows and coy winks and fancy footwork, it's ridiculous. everyone rolls their optics at him except Rodimus who is just egged on by this. Rodimus is more blunt flaming brute force than Drift's delicate swift skill but he is absolutely a show off, both for his own fun "bro what if i did a sick kickflip" and also to try and impress neg Drift. Cheetor likes to sit back and watch them both be ridiculous at each other, but he finds cool twirls and spins fun too. of course he's fast enough that he can flip his daggers as quick as a helicopter rotor if he wants to and still have time to spare to stab someone coming at him, so it poses significantly less of a threat for him than others. most of his showing off is in his sheer speed and flexibility, with some impossible acrobatics he can pull off with ease that makes Rodimus and Drift jealous

Triptych isn't usually big on showing off and posing and stuff, but it depends on which mask is on: Mournsong is no-nonsense and economical, Predator will puff up and move as threateningly as possible, and Farsight has been known to (very badly) try ballet in the middle of a duel just for kicks. Hellscream can be pretty showy, but that's just like, his entire fussy bird personality, so no biggie there. Missy is usually practical but in moments of solemnity or significance she will absolutely rely on an almost ritual economy of motion that makes everything look deliberate and ethereal, especially when cityspeaking. it's like watching a spiritual experience instead of a show off, like she's forgotten anyone else is looking

Sixshot is very flourishy but completely unintentionally, they're a sixchanger, they can't help it! but they do have a weapon particularly suited to fancy twirls and use it for such indiscriminately. Elita 4 is all about the cool, cute, kawaii vibes, so she is all in on the poses and the blowing kisses and the teehee hand over mouth and the twinkletoes dancing across a battlefield. her gravikinesis makes this ridiculously easy so it doesn't endanger her too much. Elita 2 actually likes to copy her a bit specifically to make enemies underestimate her, before she moves in and guts them with speed and practicality. Scourge loves the idea of flourishes, but uh, is a little less coordinated than he'd like to be? trying to spin his hammer has absolutely resulted in someone getting the Forge to the face, sometimes himself. so he's only actually cool and competent when he isn't thinking about it, which makes his showiness less showing off and more just unconsciously cool

Optimus isn't very flourishy! he has his moments, sure, but he doesn't have any handheld weapons to twirl and isn't really given to dramatics, so he's pretty down to earth, comparatively. his most striking moments are when he's standing tall and firm and giving some sort of inspiring speech, rather than a cool flourish. Galvatron is not like that. he's not really twirly or intricate, just brutal, and his showing off is more in loud yelling and dramatic pauses before a powerful blow. Elita 1 would rather skip to the stabbing part than swish her sword around, thanks, or just punch someone, that works too. this means she's absolutely just decked Galvatron while he's still in the middle of some witty banter

Ultra Magnus is very practical in his movements, as is Elita 3, although neither of them are above some cool swishy motions with their weapons, and Elita 3 has a habit of moving along with the metal she's kinetically manipulating, a bit like bending but not full-on martial arts. Abominus is also more controlled, but this comes from an awareness of his own size and threatening stature, and he's careful to only ever come across as dangerous when he wants to, otherwise he moves very precisely so he doesn't hurt anything on accident. Elita 5 is also conscious of her large frame and large weapon and doesn't flourish very much, except with her flames which she makes into beautiful patterns and colors just for funsies to show off

Soundwave and Cyclonus are the least flourishy, Soundwave because he is nerfed by his own inner dialogue/argument and Cyclonus because this guy is just that stoic. sure he'll twirl his swords some but also why do a cool spin when he can just. teleport. boom, he's there, done

for antagonists aside from Overlord, uhhhh

okay so there's an episode where Jazz accidentally causes a state-wide compulsive musical, so like he is automatically the flourishiest show-offiest of them because he literally has his own showtunes and everything. Tarn and co are very dramatic and grandstanding and attention-grabbing, and they also feature music to some degree? hmmm. Kremzeek is Kremzeek. Trypticon's entire deal is just being big and threatening and showing off. Unicron victims are sort of as a rule rather robotic and one-track-minded so, if they ended up with a dramatic "default program" when infected like Flip Sides they might show off some, but otherwise they're hard to get a read on. Shockblast is completely practical and economical to the point where he barely emotes

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kudosmyhero · 1 year

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Transformers (Phase 02) Spotlight: Hoist The Waiting Game

Read Date: October 07, 2022 Cover Date: May 2013 ● Writer: James Roberts ● Art: Agustin Padilla ● Colorist: Joana Lafuente ● Letterer: Shawn Lee ● Editor: John Barber ●

Synopsis: Hoist, Swerve, and Perceptor were supposed to be going on a routine mission to scavenge what they could from a deserted Decepticon outpost, but things took a turn for the worse when Sunstreaker and his pet Bob decided to join them. While piloting the craft, the vain Sunstreaker was distracted by his own reflection in the radar screen and wound up crashing the ship. With Perceptor's legs melted to the ceiling by the overloading heat coils (well, the floor, actually, since the ship winds up upside-down), Hoist sets out to do a little reconnaissance, only to suddenly be attacked by one of the worst 'bots imaginable: Tarn of the Decepticon Justice Division. Hoist flees back to the ship and activates its cloaking field, hiding them from view, but the effects will only last six hours before their energy reserves dry up, and the Lost Light isn't answering their calls for help.

Swerve fills the time by talking, and talking, and talking some more. He lists his greatest fears, besides Tarn and the DJD, (Megatron, Overlord, Sixshot, Shockwave, and a hypothetical combination of all four), asks questions about Bob and his origins, and just generally bickers with a very grumpy Sunstreaker. After four hours, Sunstreaker angrily suggests he try turning his insult comedy on Hoist instead, but Swerve finds no potential for humor in the exceedingly ordinary maintenance 'bot. An hour later, conversation shifts to near-death experiences, and Swerve manages to annoy Hoist enough into talking about one of his: a time millions of years ago when his ship crashed in the Rust Spot after a collision with another vessel, and he was the only survivor, stranded alone in those desolate wastes. To illustrate his story, Hoist tosses a pipe to the ground, but when he bends to pick it up, he spots a gaping wound in Swerve's side that the little 'bot has kept a secret, distracting everyone from it with his endless chatter. Realizing that the injury will be fatal if Swerve does not get treatment soon, Hoist and Sunstreaker resolve to take on Tarn in hopes of appropriating his ship and getting off the planet.

Loading themselves up with an assortment of weaponry that the engineer has quickly built, Hoist and Sunstreaker venture out and split up to search. Sunstreaker, mired in self-loathing, is caught unawares by Tarn and quickly taken down, but when Hoist rushes to his aid he discovers not the DJD leader, but Megatron, Overlord, Sixshot, and Shockwave, who all promptly combine into a gargantuan robot! Hoist's crossbow proves ineffective against the giant, but just as it is about to stomp on him, it simply fades away to nothing. Realizing that something is very wrong, Hoist races back to the ship, where Swerve has passed out. Listening to the details of his story, Perceptor realises that the planet is protected by a phobia shield, a defense mechanism created by the Galactic Council to ward off Cybertronian incursions that creates tangible illusions out of fears plucked from the minds of those that stray into its area of effect. When Swerve lost consciousness, the illusions the shield was creating based on his fears ceased to be, but as the ship suddenly shakes, the pair realise that the shield was locked onto someone else's mind… Bob's! Hoist drags his friends out of the ship seconds before the titanic foot of an illusory Metroplex crushes it to powder, and chases after a fleeing Bob, leaping a chasm. Just as Perceptor is thanking him, Hoist coldcocks the scientist to prevent the shield from reading his mind, then does the same to Bob, causing Metroplex to fade away just in time. And so, Hoist is the only one left for the shield to lock on to, and his worst fear comes true around him… the fear of being stranded alone, in those desolate wastes…

(https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Spotlight:_Hoist)

Fan Art: TRANSFORMERS LEGENDS Hoist by manbu1977

(I don't know how well these panels will show up. If they're small, please visit the DeviantArt page to view it in all its glory!)

Accompanying Podcast: ● Married with Comics: Rod Pod - episode 06

#idw #idw comics #my idw read #transformers #robots in disguise #rod pod #comics #comic books #fan art #fanart #podcast recommendation #podcast - married with comics #hoist

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bitegore · 1 year

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Idk man you just made it seem like they would be kind of obscure and the terrorcons aren't popular but they're like… not buried I guess? Even if they tend to be gimmicky. Lol yeah the dragon thing probably should have been a giveaway tho.

Oh yeah I just never see the Terrorcons in anything, lol. Most recent official media is like, two appearances in idw 2005 and while I adore them in spotlight: sixshot, they're kind of nobody guys.

Honestly it's kind of a waste. They're pretty gimmicky, sure, but they're a cool gimmick with a pretty unusual energy as compared to the other characters, much unlike, like.... every other combiner minus the Constructions lmao. The seacons are close but they ALSO never show up anywhere

#red replies #anonymous #i can see the confusion though yeah

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liaswritesrobots · 4 years

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#transformers #spotlight: sixshot #Sixshot #terrorcons #idw #lias reads idw

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kryptonitecore · 3 months

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Reread: Spotlight: Metroplex

A cool concept - an Autobot base keeps a lot of its goals secret from those who work there and only the command staff really have a good idea of their true purpose. However, when much of command are killed in a sudden attack by Sixshot, a team of lower-ranking crew-members are the only survivors. I’m not sure that concept is really pushed to its full potential, but it still has merit.

Otherwise, I don’t have a lot to say - this is sort of a fun issue, in no small part because it’s not too heavily tied into the overarching narrative, and I think it’s the last work by Furman for a while. I’m looking forward to getting more variety, as Furman’s writing has a lot of limitations - I understand that some portions of the fandom are very fond of him and almost repackage his limited range as a strength, but I’m hoping for variety and some of the more complex or character-driven things that come later. How a series like the Spotlights, whose primary goal should be character exploration managed to put characterisation on the back-burner as much as it did is a wonder to me.

Regarding this specific issue, however, I am a little bit sad to know this is the end for Sixshot in IDW1 (I think?). He’s indicated to still be alive, but it’s a shame to see one of the more significant Decepticon characters of the early continuity just disappear off into the ether. I choose to imagine he was a bit embarrassed by the situation with Starscream and the Reapers, then got possessed, then was stomped on by a titan, and then simply decided that he’d had enough and that he should retire somewhere nice and find a new hobby. The Terrorcons are busy elsewhere, but maybe they could visit, who knows?

#transformers #comics #rereading!#the grand reread 2023-2024 #spotlight metroplex

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brandxspandex · 6 years

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Smashing through some pre-modern Spotlight issues on the way towards the meat of the main story in my IDW re-read.

Spotlight: Thundercracker again leaves me wondering how the hell Thundercracker managed to live with being a Decepticon for so long. After all, this Spotlight is set towards the beginning of the Great War and Thundercracker already has misgivings serious enough that he’s moved to commit some pretty severely treasonous acts, and this was back when organic genocide was just a side effect of the Decepticons’ goals, rather than a goal in itself. If he was already upset with how the Cons treated organics at this stage, I can’t imagine how he would have reacted when they made cleansing the galaxy of organics their policy, and I can’t understand how he stuck around after that point. I used to think that the increase in the Decepticons’ outward brutality probably corresponded to the increase in their inward brutality, so as Thundercracker gained more and more reasons to leave the Cons he also got more and more reasons to be afraid of leaving. Yet this issue confirms that the DJD existed even at this point, and Thundercracker was still willing to risk acting on behalf of his morals regardless. I suppose it’s possible that the DJD’s tactics were less extreme at this point, but I still find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that it took Thundercracker millions of years to take the final little step towards a heelfaceturn.

After letting Bumblebee live, Thundercracker seems to imply that if all Autobots were like Bee he would be willing to switch sides, or perhaps that they wouldn’t be at war in the first place. While Bumblebee is an exceptionally friendly guy for sure (in fact this issue takes time to hammer home that in terms of heroic intent Bee is pretty much on Optimus Prime’s level, even if he lacks Optimus’s focused leadership abilities – which is a big theme of Bee’s own character arc), Thundercracker seemed particularly taken with Bee because he went out of his way to save organics, which doesn’t seem that unusual a trait among Autobots. Sure, we’ve seen some Autobots that don’t seem to give a shit about organics, and some that have just been nasty pieces of work in general, but most Bots we’ve seen have been of the heroic, organic-saving inclination, so it seems as though Thundercracker must have had a warped perception of the Autobots if he thought Bee was an exception (unless of course particularly heroic Autobots are overrepresented amongst the main characters, which may very well be the case). So maybe Thundercracker didn’t switch sides and go to the Autobots because he was under the impression that they were no better than the Decepticons (and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Cons were fed propaganda to maintain those sorts of perceptions).

Thundercracker also seemed pretty hung up on the fact that being a Seeker was his identity, which may have made leaving the Decepticons difficult for him. I guess that before the war most Cybertronians had a very solid sense of their identity, which was defined by their alt-mode, before the war began and threw all of this into disarray. While a big reason the war was fought in the first place was precisely because many people didn’t like being boxed into these limited identities, it must have nonetheless been very disorientating to many to have the familiarity of their old identities disrupted. Thus it wouldn’t be surprising if many went on to dig their heels into whatever identities they could find in wartime.

Spotlight: Shockwave sees Shockwave going about his whole Regenesis Ore thing, which makes me wonder how much of the energon throughout the universe was due to Shockwave’s actions and how much of it just existed out there independently. I often wonder what sort of substance energon is exactly, and whether it is in anyway comparable to any real substances or if it is something completely alien and unknowable. The fact that we’ve seen Transformers converting known matter into synthesised energon suggests that it is at very least made of the same fundamental elements as the known universe. Still, I wonder if it’s something that can arise in the universe without any sort of Cybertronian involvement.

It’s interesting that Shockwave puts his (temporary) downfall in this issue down to his failure to factor in the universal constant of chaos, given that now he’s back he seems to be fixated on “the higher order of logic that is chaos”. Was this the beginning of the path that led him to decide that becoming some sort of chaos worshipping furry was the way to go? Speaking of furries, it’s kinda funny that Shockwave ended up becoming the furry Prime when his spotlight is also the issue in which the Dinobots get their dinosaur forms. Turns out that with Shockwave, everything begins and ends with furries.

Shockwave puts his inability to anticipate and understand the Dinobots’ rash, emotional actions down to his strictly logical thought process, to the point where he actually has to shut down his higher processing to allow him to “evolve” a primal subroutine approximating rage in order to deal with them. Shockwave’s apparent evolution in this issue is never really brought up again (at least, not yet), but then again, even before reappearing in this currently ambiguously un-shadowplayed state, Shockwave was suspiciously snarky and melodramatic for a guy without emotions. I gotta say that I find it kinda hard to believe that Shockwave finds irrational and emotional behaviour so mind-bogglingly shocking and hard to process given that this issue is set a few million years into the war and he has been with the Decepticons for all that time, a movement filled to the absolute brim with spectacularly emotional and irrational individuals.

Also I’m going to post this panel because when required to draw the gadget that enables Shockwave to signal his ship it sure as hell looks like the artist just decided to give him some car keys:

I can’t really recall Cliffjumper doing anything that notable in IDW outside of his Spotlight (and spoilers in the Unicron prologue issue he unfortunately got rather unceremoniously killed off off-panel) so I had forgotten that he’s apparently a total badass whose name strikes fear into troops of Cons who he then wipes out single-handedly before using one of their severed hands to hammer in the grave of the little organic girl he wrecks vengeance in the name of. I do really like how the Autobots have their little friendly round cars like Cliffjumper and Bumblebee as their spies, saboteurs and deadly assassins.

We see some very human-looking aliens in this issue, which is honestly something that always bugs me, even though it absolutely saturates sci-fi. It just strikes me as so astonishingly unlikely that evolution would pull the same trick so many times that it really pulls me out of the story; it’s something that stretches my suspension of disbelief that little bit too far. That’s why I love it when sci-fi provides some sort of explanation behind the humanoid pattern recurring throughout their setting, often in the form of some sort of progenitor race seeding genetic blueprints throughout the cosmos. And you know what? In IDW I’m just going to assume Shockwave’s behind it at this point. It seems like exactly the kind of thing he’d do and he’s responsible for pretty much everything else in the continuity so let’s go with that.

This issue implies that Cybertronians have some sort of in-built program that enables them to pick up the transmissions of an alien world they’re on and use them to synthesise a translation of the native languages they can then easily speak, as part of their “robots in disguise” adaptability shtick. This seems to somewhat contradict later instances where we see Transformers attempting to learn languages the more traditional way, but personally I much prefer the idea that they have this more alien and robotic approach. I also like the idea that it is part of the same collection of features that allows them to have alt-modes that mimic the vehicles and technology native to the alien world they’re on, because adapting to alien environments is an intrinsic part of their natures AND HOLY SHIT what if the reason Transformers have such a hard time changing their ways and breaking free of their vicious cycle of war, yet seem to suddenly undergo rapid character development when they encounter other species, such as humans, is because of this adaptability algorithm? When they’re just around other Transformers they automatically adapt to each other so they get stuck in a loop of mimicking the same behaviours, but when they encounter other species with new behaviours they can adapt to them and break out of the loop (same could go for encountering Transformer colony worlds that have been isolated for a while)??? Ok that idea probably wouldn’t hold up to closer inspection in this continuity at least BUT HELL IT’S A THOUGHT.

The idea that Transformers require alien transmissions in order to synthesise translations for their languages fits in well with the fact that Wheelie can’t automatically adapt to the language of the alien he encounters in Spotlight: Wheelie, give that both he and the alien are away from their native worlds. I thought that the alien having a translation device that for some reason requires the speaker to speak in rhyme in order to work was a pretty clever way of explaining Wheelie’s whole speaking in rhyme gimmick.

Wheelie’s Spotlight has the same basic core theme that most of this lot of Spotlight issues seem to have; the main character is faced with a moral dilemma where they can choose between taking the safest option that most benefits themselves, or they can save an innocent (typically an organic) and sacrifice something in the process. Each time the main character realises that if they choose to take the easy option and allow the innocent to befall whatever horrible fate is dangling over them, they will be sacrificing something even worse. The Autobot characters come to the conclusion that this is what defines them as an Autobot and separates them from the Decepticons, but we see Thundercracker making a similar decision in his own Spotlight. But of course, we know where Thundercracker’s storyline eventually takes him.

There’s a major tease at the end of Spotlight: Wheelie involving the presence of the Quintessons that certainly seems like the set up for some kind of significant plotline, but unless the Quintessons turn out to have some kind of important involvement in the Unicron storyline, I guess that’s never gonna go anywhere. It’s a pity, cos I reckon a lot can be done with the Quintessons, and in their sparse appearances in IDW they’ve always been quite intriguing.

Spotlight: Hot Rod introduces everyone’s favourite piece “woah what the hell they’re bringing that back up again now?” in the form of The Magnificence and yo hang on those Omega Guardians in this issue sure look like those things on the cover of an upcoming issue of the Lost Light:

I wonder if Hot Rod’s experience with Dealer plays into his hatred of Getaway. Hot Rod spent so much time angsting over his failures on his mission to collect The Magnificence, including the fact that he had to abandon Dealer in the process, and then he risked his life in order to save Dealer from a Decepticon prison camp. Then it turns out that Dealer was a doublecrosser who had caused the failures on Rodimus’s mission in the first place, and was still planning to stab him in the back. After all that, it wouldn’t be too surprising if Rodimus had developed a bit of a hair-trigger reaction when it comes to people who betray him.

Spotlight: Sixshot addresses the strangely sweet camaraderie between the emotional abyss/utter force of annihilation that is Sixshot and his carnage-loving fanbots the Terrorcons, which is something that, as far as I can recall, is never explored or brought up again. But, nonetheless, it’s nice to know it was a thing. It also features The Reapers, who provide an interesting little taster of some of the other aliens that exist in the IDW universe, from an electric space jellyfish to a berserker virus infected monster bird. The Reapers are all about ending war by pre-emptively destroying any sources of war, which makes me wonder how the hell have they haven’t got around to trying to destroying the Transformers yet. It’s a big universe I suppose.

Reading through these issues provided a nice little reminder of some forgotten characterisation and plot hooks that have been left dangling. It’s sad to think that most of these things won’t have a chance to be picked up now (except for The Magnificence, and I still can’t quite get over the fact that happened), but they are ready fodder for any fanfic writers who may want to pick up where canon is going to leave off.

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