#a car for rodimus/swerve/chromedome

[they-hermes]

was doing a dive into tfwiki and found this little fun fact for scrapped idw quickswitch

its funny to imagine the crew come together and build a baby, but whats funnier is the implication that this would be the second time megatron has witnessed the birth of a super warrior (overlord) but also the second time Prowls influence led to his ex building a super soldier (tarantulas saying without prowl ostaros would have never existed/ chromdome performing mnemosurgery on overlord bc of prowl)

quickswitch beating springer at the number of dads game

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #29 - The One Where Everyone Gets Super Shiny

Our issue opens up with Swerve laying down the Story So Far in the Exposition Dimension.

Fantastic, you funky little man.

If Swerve looks like he’s been tossed through the car wash a few dozen times, it’s because this is where our new colorist comes in! Everyone, please say hello to Joana Lafuente- known for her love of gradients and attention to light sources, this actually isn’t the first time we’ve run into her. Lafuente worked on colors for several issues of The Transformers (2009), Last Stand of the Wreckers #3, and a few issues of MTMTE Season 1. However, she was matching the styles of her co-colorists on a majority of these, so we haven’t seen her style properly until now.

Getting into the story proper, Cyclonus is busying himself with staring out the window at a PNG of space, as he is wont to do, when he hears the tell-tale sound of tires squealing down the hall towards his room. Oh, goodness, whoever could that be?

Nearly forgot about him, didn’t you? Yeah, it’s a little difficult to follow up on things like a character’s recovery from a horrific disease when you’ve got comic event contract obligations to deal with.

After getting tackled by Tailgate, who reminds us all about the time he stuck his dirty little fingers into a dude’s brain meat, Cyclonus takes the little nerd on a walk through the ship.

You’re not going to convince me to reread “Dark Cybertron”. I don’t care how much of a marshmallow you are, it’s not happening.

They’re passed by Megatron and a bunch of crew members carrying that coffin we saw at the end of last issue down the corridor, Tailgate has a moment, and we get a taste of Cyclonus’ distaste for the Autobots as a whole. Tailgate is mildly offended by this, as he gropes his chest in distain, showing off his shiny new Autobot badge- a gift for not dying a terrible, gruesome death.

Good job, Tailgate. Proud of you.

They’re also passed by an absolutely blitzed Jackpot and Mainframe, the former singing Tailgate’s Tyrest-stopping praises as the latter carts him over to the Medibay to deal with the almost alcohol poisoning he’s got going on. Cyclonus remarks that Tailgate was missed, though Tailgate can’t help but wonder if that’s really true.

Y’all like slowburn romance, right? Because these two dumbasses have been roommates for two years, and we’ve just gotten to the point where physical contact can happen without one of them needing to be dying.

Anyway, it’s been a good day for Tailgate so far. Let’s hope it stays that way for the little dude.

...And that’s a series wrap on Tailgate! Let’s give him a hand, folks!

Hopping back in time to Megatron’s trial, things get underway, as Optimus Prime takes a nap in the judge’s bench as Gripper- whose name you don’t need to remember, as he’s not actually important- tells everyone about how brutal the Decepticon Justice Division is, even to Autobots. Which isn’t really supposed to be their deal, given their, y’know, name, but I suppose nobody’s perfect.

Up in the stands, in an… opera box, I guess? Rodimus is watching the proceedings, when Atomizer walks in. Which I guess you can just do in a Cybertronian court case. Sure.

Atomizer, in case you forgot, is the dude who has a bow and arrow, and used to be an interior designer.

Say, didn’t Whirl has a bow and arrow in the last issue when he attacked Megatron? Mighty curious, that.

Rodimus and Atomizer briefly reflect on the DJD, recalling the horror that was Vos- not that Vos, the other one. Rodimus would really just rather this all be over with so the Lost Light can get back to finding the Knights of Cybertron, and it’s at this point that Atomizer breaks out a thing he really ought not have- the count for the vote on whether or not Rodimus should stay on as captain. Rodimus doesn’t want to look at it, because it was supposed to be anonymous for a reason, and tells Atomizer to destroy the list entirely.

Hm, that’s not a terribly determined face there, Rodimus.

Back in the present, specifically in Swerve’s, Groove is threatening to break Streetwise’s arm, as we get the downlow on just what exactly our Legislator buddy’s deal is. Turn’s out, Swerve got one of the things reprogrammed, so that he follows not the Autobot Code, but something else entirely.

Hey, Swerve?

I don’t expect you to know this, because I don’t think you were present when they revealed this information to the readers, but… your new bouncer is made of people. He’s a dude made of other dudes, namely the Circle of Light. There’s a chance that you reprogrammed a sentient being, my good bitch.

Anyway, Swerve’s in a fucking mood because his shoulder hurts, someone’s stealing his shit, and Megatron has joined the narrative. Over at a nearby table, Skids, Nautica, and Riptide take a gander at the tabloids. Trailcutter, who is positively smashed, to the point where he’s just leaking booze out of his face like it’s his job, isn’t terribly interested in that, however.

What an astute observation, Riptide. And people say you’re stupid!

Trailcutter wants to drink some more, because it’s very likely he’s got a problem, but the mention of “Megatron’s super fuel” makes him feel like it’s time to stop hounding Swerve and start performing crimes.

Back during the trial, we get to Starscream’s testimony. He’s wearing his crown. He’s acting like a self-righteous asshole, as he defends Megatron.

Well, “defend” in the technical, legal sense, I suppose.

But really it’s more about him insulting Megatron’s intelligence, strength, and courage, in front of a LOT of people, while also trying to make himself look better in the war crime department. Megatron doesn’t appreciate this very much, if his murder-face is anything to go by.

Megatron lets Ultra Magnus (his defender, if you’ll recall) know that he wants a private word, and court goes into a brief recess.

Back in the present, Nightbeat’s busy looking at a pin-up of Rung’s alt-mode, when someone knocks on his door. That someone is Chromedome, who’s trying to solve the mystery of The Missing Declaration of Love. Not that he says that specifically out loud.

You two were married, why- okay. No point in yelling at this digital copy of a comic book.

Anyway.

So, the whole screaming thing only happened the one time, and everything was back to normal on subsequent plays of Rewind’s message. Nightbeat seems to be leaning towards the depressive isolating getting to Chromedome, which Chromedome responds to by telling him to get the fuck out. Alas, someone’s blocking the door!

YO WHAT THE FUCK-

Back with Trailcutter’s subplot, our drunken friend is in the middle of breaking into the Medibay. Our trio of cool-colored pals watch him from back at the bar, by way of a laptop that looks like it was built the same year I was born.

As Trailcutter attempts to commit a crime, Megatron, Ultra Magnus, and Ratchet pass by, trying to figure out how to handle the whole coffin situation. Trailcutter’s about to punch the locks off a door, and Nautica decides that this is where she’s going to draw the line today, leaving the gaggle of fools to their shenanigans. Then Tailgate glomps Skids, throwing the computer to the ground and breaking it, as Trailcutter finds the door to the Medibay magically open.

If you don’t know what glomping is, there’s a 60% chance that you’re not old enough to vote in the US.

Trailcutter sneaks into the Medibay, we get a reminder that Ambulon is super dead, and Trailcutter commits theft from a food bank. What a guy.

This is the point where security shows up, armed with a great deal of guns, one of which is Megatron himself. Trailcutter, instead of feeling super powerful, actually feels positively awful after consuming Megatron’s rations of “super fuel”. Because he, as an Autobot, doesn’t want to be within 50 yards of Megatron, Trailcutter breaks out the forcefields the moment the guy approaches him. And oh, what a doozy this one is.

Trailcutter’s gotten himself a fancy new trick- this forcefield he’s broken out lasts for a solid half-hour, and he can’t turn it off. I’m sure that won’t bite him in the ass at any point in the near future, no-siree!

Back in the past, Rattrap is commending Starscream on playing the field and getting the public slightly more on his side, but Starscream’s too busy patting himself on the back to really pay attention. He knew damn well that Megatron wouldn’t like what he had to say on the stand, and now things are finally looking up for ol’ Screamer.

Over with Optimus Prime, Slamdance is showing off how the general public is really into this whole “folks being held accountable for their actions” thing.

In the present, Chromedome and Nightbeat seem to have remembered they have alt-modes and are driving down the hall back to Nightbeat’s room- wonder what the speed limit for the Lost Light is?- and discuss just what the hell happened. The current theory is that the Rewind they saw was a Data Ghost- a collection of information so dense, it had a not-quite-physical presence that wasn’t 100% removed when he died.

Which is a little fucked up, but let’s see where this goes.

Nightbeat undoes the 40,000 locks on his door while Chromedome bleeds guilt all over the shag carpet over the fact that he hasn’t been looking for Dominus Ambus like he said he would.

C’mon James, gimme that Chromedominus endgame.

Nightbeat finally opens the door to find a small problem.

Hm. That’s… not normal.

Over in the Medibay, Trailcutter’s bubble has burst, allowing Megatron to slap him in the back of the head. This head-slapping induces his FIM chip permanently, making it so that he can never get drunk again.

Weird party trick, Megatron. Kinda shitty, really.

Megatron then gives Trailcutter the job of director of security, because he needs direction in his life. Trailcutter just sort of takes what he’s given, because I suppose you can’t really argue with a guy who can literally slap you sober, and also threatens to destroy you if you fuck up even once. Nice, Megs. Nice.

MEGATRON THAT’S BEEN SITTING LIKE THAT FOR OVER HALF AN HOUR YOU FUCKING WET NOODLE

So, since there’s mystery juice all over the floor and no one’s died, Megatron assumes that the coffin ought to be fine to crack open.

Please note that Megatron is not a medical professional, and his views are now peer reviewed by medical professionals. Megatron is in no way endorsed by the WHO.

Anyway, Rodimus is in there.

Pretty fucked up.

Back in the past, recess is over, and Ultra Magnus comes bearing bad news- Megatron wants to change his plea to “innocent.” This gets about the reaction one would expect from just about anyone.

Well, except Rodimus, who’s too busy reading that list that he wanted destroyed. He’s very sad about it.

I know, what a bummer!

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 29

and continuing on!

the cover w/megatron and tailgate....tg so tiny...ooough

omg I forgot abt swerves long ass recap lol

the fact that they lowkey lampshade the fact that as mtmte was really hitting its stride, ending s1 fantastically, they got sucked into the whole dark cybertron thing...Ls

TG AND CYCLONUS HHHHH

tg as a lil car...and cyclonus smiling when he hears him coming...HHHH

also I love that cyclonus kept the great sword that he like, found amongst the belongings of all the dead circle of light members lmao 

or maybe the dude it belonged to didn't die, but he was too intimidated to ask cyclonus for his sword back. understandable 

tgs reaction to megatron...omg. I love him

I love ‘star sabered’ as a way of saying ‘drunk’ lmao

OUGHBHGGBHGJIHHIUHGHH and then when tailgate is like ‘ok, but HAVE I been missed?’ and cyclonus smiles and says ‘very much’ IM GONNA FUCKING DIE. this is only the BEGINNING of the tender gay pain for these two, how am I gonna survive this

the fact that tailgate’s criteria for ‘best day ever’ includes ‘people knowing who I am’ and ‘people being nice to me’...my boy 😭😭 

ah, trial time. I'm not really one for court/procedural stuff, and the gay space robots edition of judge judy is about as much as I can handle 

OOOOOF the list. the liiiiiiist

AUGHHHHH rodimus....rodimus....please make good decisions my boy

TEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love him

the little swerve icon on the ‘no guns no swords no briefcases’ sign omg

the panel of megatron like, smirking and reclining while ultra magnus yells at him is wild...I always forget that those two like, actively didn't get along at the beginning, mostly bc we only see that for a few issues, but still, it’s pretty ironic considering how things end up w/them later

lost light insider...I SO wish we could've gotten that one-shot issue about the guy who writes it, that's ridiculously up my alley 

skids saying ‘I don't think you’re fit to drive’ to trailcutter is like, bending my brain, bc like...is it a DUI if a transformer drives around in alt mode while drunk...you're not driving a car, you're driving YOURSELF, but still...bruh

oh god starscream is here hvbakjhfbjksdbfj he’s such a bitch I love him

starscream putting on his theater kid crown, ready to make the fuck-up-the-plot-of-a-series-I'm-not-even-in speech of a lifetime

magnus and optimus: ok enough drama you gay idiot get to the point

that panel of starscream raising his hands up like ‘ok ok sheesh lol’ is so fucking funny

ok oh man, that is an epic speech. like, ooof. ‘he deserves pity.’ WOW

I feel like it also does such a good job showing how much bad blood is between starscream and megatron, and goes to show how megatron fucked Absolutely Everything up, including his dynamic w/his subordinates 

anyways, I cant believe starscream roasted megatron so hard that megatron ended up become a main cast member in mtmte bc of spite lmao

meanwhile nightbeat is contemplating the Mystery Stick™

nightbeat yet again pulling his bbc sherlock bs on somebody, this time...chromedome, certified grieving widow. never change nightbeat hvbhjakdsfbsakjdf

AUHGHHHHHH DATA GHOST REWIND IM HHHHHHHHHH

HIM 😭😭😭

I'M SO FUCKING SAD

REWINDDDDDDDDD

meanwhile, trailcutter is wearing a gopro to pull some sick illegal pranks for his youtube channel

there was probably a content creator power vacuum in the lost light youtuber community after rewind died and now everyone is scrambling to be the next big vlogger/editor

megatron: we should play this by the book

magnus: I have no choice but to simp

nautica is that Straightedge Square who gets caught up in sketchy shit and just dips vbhsjdkbfdjaskdf. the cops get called on a party and she's already gone, she drove you there but she left w/the car, whoops. I love her

oh I adore the panel with all the stuff labelled. tho ‘ambulons stuff (untouched)’ is making me really sad

ah, the premiere of the panic bubble, which will indeed be showing up again later

meanwhile starscream is doing lowkey anime poses and waxing poetic about how hard he dunked on megatron in front of everyone. I get the feeling he’s been waiting a long time for that one

oiguhahgudaf I forgot about chromedomes weird looking alt mode. cooked turkey lookinnnnn

don't knock ‘the power of love,’ nightbeat. You'll See™

the fact the cd is still looking for dominus even tho rewind is dead and also they haven't like, had any leads in millions of years...oof it hurts

gotta be honest, my first readthru I didn't understand the (really cool looking) panel of the lost light from the outside w/half of nightbeats hab suite missing, bc I just was like ‘oh its a visual framing technique for Cool Comic Panel’ lmao

ok I need the backstory of megatron being able to karate-chop people into permanent sobriety

megatron hiring trailcutter but in the most threatening way possible

oh, good, the coffin’s bleeding!

OHHH and the reveal that RODIMUS IS IN THE COFFIN and OH HEY we STILL haven't seen rodimus in the flash forwards have we??? hmmm

optimus: ok back to judge prime: luna 2 trials, magnus you got anything to add?

magnus: ಠ_ಠ(•_•)

and then we have megatron being the pettiest mfer in the known universe and changing his plea bc starscream pwned him ONCE 

hhhh and rodimus looking at the list...It Fuckin Hurts. my boy please make a good decision

thinkin abt how if optimus was like, supportive and understanding when rodimus tried to open up to him about his struggles w/leadership, all this might've gone differently...AUGH

anyways, cool issue! we’re doing lots of setup for the new status quo for s2, and there’s a mystery afoot! 

I don’t have much to say here tbh lol, this is a good issue and all but I don’t really have anything to add, soooo til next time!

[d0cpr0fess0r]

MTMTE Characters as dril Quotes

Rodimus: who the fuck is scraeming "LOG OFF" at my house. show yourself, coward. i will never log off

Ultra Magnus: finger nail check. everyone please post your fingernails right now for my inspection. i will block you if theyre filthy

Ratchet: trying to drink a can of beer .

Whirl: "jail isnt real," i assure myself as i close my eyes and ram the hallmark gift shop with my shitty bronco

Cyclonus: the wise man bowed his head solemnly and spoke: "theres actually zero difference between good & bad things. you imbecile. you fucking moron"

Nightbeat: im afraid i must say that i do not find the mysteries featured on "scooby-doo" challenging enough .

Tailgate: see this watch? i got it by Crying. my car? crying. my beautiful wife? Crying. My perfect teeth? Crying. now get the fuck out of my office

Megatron: the conflicted supersoldier stares over the horizon as he smokes a cigarette. "war is the most fucked up thing ever." he takes a sip of beer

Drift: sometimes i feel like im the only person on the whole damn computer who understands the concept of Honour

Skids: DOCTOR: you cant keep doing this to yourself. being The Last True Good Boy online will destroy you. you must stop posting with honor ME: No,

Rewind: there is no meme i have not looked at.

Rung: another blissfful day ignoring the fact that 75% of my peers on this site have been rejected from offline society for pretty good reasons

Nautica: at first i thought that Science was a shit waste of time. then somebody did a meme of it,. and now... hooboy.. now i like it

Brainstorm: Imagine. A world where guns come out of the ground like plants. And all the water is replaced by Bullet's. This is Gun World. It's real

Thunderclash: THERAPIST: your problem is, that youre perfect, and everyone is jealous of your good posts, and that makes you rightfully upset. ME: I agree

Chromedome: just found out about Object Permanence... why didnt any one tell me about this shit

Swerve: the jduge orders me to take off my anonymous v mask & im wearing the joker makeup underneath it. everyone in the courtroom groans at my shit

Getaway: awfully bold of you to fly the Good Year blimp on a year that has been extremely bad thus far

Tyrest: blocked. blocked. blocked. youre all blocked. none of you are free of sin

[secretsolenoid]

Gift Directory

Hey Solenoids! We've put together a directory of all the gifts submitted this year. Check for your own, or just look at all of the awesome stuff that got made this year! (Last updated Jan. 18 2019)

Minimus/Megatron (IDW) Art for Abysmalkaiju

Megatron/Optimus (IDW) Fic for Adilia

Prowl&Impactor ft. Kup and Tarantulas (IDW) Art for Alotofspiders

Deadlock&Ambulon (IDW) Fic for alotofspiders

Drift/Ratchet (IDW) Fic for Alyonian

Prowl/Jazz, Ironhide/Optimus (Various) for Anon-e-miss

Megatron/Optimus (TFP) Fic for Astolat

Megatron/Rodimus (IDW) Fic for Aethergeologist

Drift/Ratchet (IDW) Art for autobot-ratchet

Ratchet (TFP) Art for Benen

Prowl (IDW) Art for Benji

Whirl (IDW) Art for Bioluminosity

Scavengers, Dinobots (IDW) Fic for Blushlouise

Whirl&Swerve (IDW) Art for Btdoub-le-jump

TFOC Art for Cain

Bumblebee/Blitzwing (TFA) Art for cao-the-dreamer

Trailbreaker/OC (IDW) Fic for cavalierconvoy

Tarn/Pharma (IDW) Art for challengergirl9399

Brainstorm&Swerve (IDW) Fic for chaoswolf12

Anode/Lug (IDW) Fic for choomchoom

Prowl/Tarantulas (IDW) Fic for ckret2

Megatron&Rung (IDW) Fic for Combee

Thundercracker&Marissa Faireborne (IDW) Fic for cornet max

Eject & Rewind (G1) Art for cosmicprinse

Bumblebee/Starscream (IDW) Art for cyclone-light

Rodimus/Thunderclash (IDW) Fic for cydraulics

Brainstorm/Perceptor (IDW) Fic for darksidekelz

Cyclonus/Tailgate/Whirl (IDW) Fic for decepticondragon

Ensemble (Rescue Bots) Art for decepticonsensual

Soundwave&Cassettes (IDW) Fic for deformed-car

Rung (IDW) Fic for dimmeddown

Rodimus/Minimus Ambus (IDW) Fic for dingbatsy

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe (G1) Art for dragonhapppy

Starscream&Alexis (Armada) Art for dragonsir

Whirl/Brainstorm (IDW) Art for empatheticampersand

Misfire (IDW) Art for energon-goodies

Mirage/Hound (G1) Art for energon-goodies

Arcee and Knock Out (TFP) Art for enigmadoodles

Megatron/Optimus Prime (TFP) Fic for entangledwood

Lost Light Ensemble (IDW) Art for evenmorestress

Optimus (IDW) Art for fengren-art

Tailgate/Cyclonus (IDW) Art for ferrum-negative

Brainstorm/Perceoptor (IDW) Fic for ferrum-negative

Starscream (IDW) Art for fresaflan

Ratchet (G1) Art for fresaflan

Sideswipe/Sunstreaker (G1) Fic (NSFW) 

Ratchet&Wheeljack (G1) Fic for fuzipenguin

Prowl&Constructicons (IDW) Fic for gemmaroses

Knock Out&Ratchet (TFP) for glitzbot

Rumble/Frenzy (G1) Fic for goodladdie

Drift/Ratchet (IDW) Fic for harutemu

Rodimus/Megatron (IDW) Art for hauntedmyth

Blurr (TFA) Art for incommingtransmissionfromearth

Soundwave&Ravage (G1) Art for insecuriosity

Sideswipe/Sunstreaker (G1) Fic for kamkiri

Sideswipe/Sunstreaker/First Aid (G1) Fic for kamkiri

Cyclonus holoform (IDW) Art for krinsyn

Starscream/Skyfire (G1) Art for la-pousois

Starscream/Blurr (IDW) Art for ladydragon76

Megatron (IDW) Art for leftoverrain

Ratchet&Wheeljack (G1) Art for madee amber

Nickel&Helex (IDW) Art for mako-doodles

Drift/Rodimus (IDW) Art for marsreds

Sky Lynx (G1) Art for megatronwasright

Windblade/Chromia (IDW) Art for metrotitans

Lost Light Ensemble (IDW) Fic for midnightraid

Shockwave (TFP) Fic for midnightraid

TFOC Art for midnightstar807

Pharma/Tarn (IDW) Fic for moku-draws

Megatron/Minimus Ambus, Skids/Rung (IDW) Art for nl-art

Chromia&Windblade (IDW) Art for notwhelmedyet

Prowl (TFA) Art for nyte_myst

Megatron/Minimus Ambus (IDW) Art (NSFW) for owlcat-poops

TFOC&Tarn (IDW) Art for onetruebirb

Cyclonus/Tailgate (IDW) Fic for Omega

Skyfire/Starscream (G1) Fic for overlordraax

Rodimus/Megatron (IDW) Art for overrod

Skids&Swerve (IDW) Art for partyatswerves

Megatron/Optimus Prime (IDW) Fic (NSFW) for perictione

Jazz (G1) Art for pikarage

Nautica (IDW) fic for pikarage

Bumblebee, Starscream Fic for pixeledpurple

Prowl/Jazz Art for plantmandotexe

Strongarm&TFOC (RiD2015) Art for projectatron

Megatron/Rodimus (IDW) Art for queen-raye

Scavengers (IDW) Art for radetzkymarch

Megatron&Ratchet (IDW) for ralloonx

Drift/Ratchet (IDW) Art for rcxdirectrix

Rodimus/Sixshot (IDW) Fic (NSFW) for red--thedragon

Drift/Ratchet (IDW) Fic for rhapsodaze

Megatron&Frenzy&Rumble (G1) Art for robotlovesong13

Prowl/Jazz (G1) Art for rodimusofficial

Drift/Ratchet (IDW) Fic for roolsilver

Misfire/Swerve (IDW) Art for roseymoseyberry

Chromedome/Rewind (IDW) Art for rrayguntomyhead

Knock Out/Breakdown (TFP) Art for Sao

Perceptor/OC (G1) Fic for Sheabeeprime

Hook/Ratchet, Constructicons/Ratchet (G1) Fic (NSFW) for shibara

Starscream&Skywarp&Thundercracker (G1) Art for silverstar3

Ensemble (TFA) Fic for silverxenomorph

Tailgate/Whirl/Cyclonus (IDW) Art for Silvia

Prowl/Jazz/Starscream (G1) Fic (NSFW) for sinceredir

TFOC Art for sirmacguffin

Starscream/Skyfire (IDW) Art for skyfire

Rodimus/Thunderclash (IDW) Fic for starlight-moonlight-sunshine

Scavengers (IDW) Fic for starscreamwastaken

Tailgate/Cyclonus (IDW) Art for stuffedart

Starscream/Wheeljack (IDW) Fic for sugar-drift

Atomizer/Getaway (IDW) Art for teztrash

Ratchet, Drift, Rodimus, Whirl (IDW) Fic for thatswhyhesprime

Jazz/Prowl (G1) Art for theohiangirl

Raoul/Tracks (G1) Fic for thirsty4percy

Brainstorm/Perceptor (IDW) Fic for thirsty4percy

Megatron&Ravage (IDW) Art for Tia

Ratchet/Wheeljack (TFP) Fic for Tiana

Sari&Bumblebee (TFA) Art for tinybelieverstarfish

Tailgate/Cyclonus (IDW) Art for tinylesbeean

Blades&Cody Burns (Rescue Bots) Fic for trymeglitch

Vortex&First Aid (G1) Fic for ultharkitty

Vortex/First Aid (G1) Fic for ultharkitty

Starscream (G1) Art for vaxcy

Chromedome/Rewind (IDW) Art for violetscarlett

Whirl (IDW) Art for wamirul

Drift/Ratchet (IDW) Fic for WarpedSky

Skywarp&Starscream&Thundercracker (IDW) Fic for WarpedSky

Skywarp&Starscream&Thundercracker (G1) Fic for WarpedSky

Soundwave&Shockwave (TFP) Art for Wendy

Knock Out/Ratchet (TFP) Art for yesnomaybelobster33

Thundercracker&Buster (Cyberverse) Fic for you-got-the-touch

Ratchet&Rung (IDW) Fic for yviirin

Thundercracker&Buster (IDW) Art for zellezeion

Knock Out/Soundwave (TFP) Fic for 5amanthus

Longarm Prime/Cliffjumper (TFA) Art for 9arco95

[notwhelmedyet]

assigning lost light crew members mountain goats songs

bc i’m precisely that kind of nerd. thank you to @choomchoom for helping me make this monstrosity.

you can listen to this as a playlist here

Ambulon : Birth of Serpents

Crawl through the tunnel and follow, follow the light northwest See that young man who dwells inside his body like an uninvited guest

Anode : Heretic Pride

And there's honeysuckle on the faint breeze today With every breath i'm drawing in I want to cry out But I don't scream and I don't shout And I feel so proud to be alive And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives

Brainstorm : This Year

The motor screaming out Stuck in second gear The scene ends badly As you might imagine In a cavalcade of anger and fear There will be feasting and dancing In Jerusalem next year

I am going to make it through this year If it kills me

Chromedome : Prowl Great Cain

Feel the prickings of my conscience in my chest Every now and then Sometimes a great wave of forgetfulness Rises up and blesses me And other times the sickness howls And I despair of any remedy

Cyclonus : Genesis 3:23

When I get home after dark Sit looking up at the stars outside Like teeth in the mouth of a shark I used to live here I used to live here I used to live here

Drift

1. White Cedar

My visions won't ever learn But I see the light that much clearer Every time I return Forge my armor in the old fire My spirit sings loud and clear Even in here

2. Hebrews 11:40

Fight my way back down, don't want to hurt anyone Probably gonna have to before it's all done

Take to the hills, run away I'm gonna get my perfect body back someday If not by faith then by the sword I'm going to be restored

First Aid : Lion’s Teeth

Nobody in this house Wants to own up to the truth I crawl in shotgun and reach into his mouth And grab hold of one long, sharp tooth And hold on For dear life, I hold on

Fortress Maximus aka Fort Max : Never Quite Free

And you'll breathe easier just knowing That the worst is all behind you And the waves that tossed the raft all night Have set you on dry land It gets okay to praise the day Believe in sheltering skies and stable earth beneath But hear his breath come through his teeth Walk by faith Tell no one what you've seen

Getaway : Heel Turn 2

Spend too much of my life Now trying to play fair Throw my better self overboard Shoot at him when he comes up for air

Lug : Jenny

Lit up your magnificent silhouette How much better, how much better can my life get? 900 cubic centimeters of raw, whining power No outstanding warrants for my arrest Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa The pirate's life for me

Nautica : Cotton

Let them all go Let 'em all go This song is for the people Who tell their families that they're sorry For things they can't and won't feel sorry for

Nightbeat : Beautiful Gas Mask

Never sleep, remember to breathe deep Never sleep, remember to breathe Breathe deep Crash in from deep space Shot birds falling fast Who will be there to catch us in his jaw When we arrive, alive, at last?

Perceptor : Autoclave

When I try to open up to you I get completely lost Houses swallowed by the earth, windows thick with frost And I reach deep down within, but the pathways twist and turn And there's no light anywhere, and nothing left to burn

Pipes : Sourdoire Valley Song

Keep to ourselves mostly Few friends and fewer closer friends Lead a long life if you're lucky Hope it never ends

Ratchet : Genesis 30:3

Talked about the days they’d said were sure to come Had a hard time believing I remember seeing you, my tongue struck dumb When you first came here from wherever it was you came from

Red Alert : Night Light

Plug a night light in Leave the porch light on Because the small dark corners have designs on me

Rewind : Distant Stations

I waited for you But I never told you where I was It was you who taught me how To write these kinds of equations I waited on the steps for you And I hid in the bushes whenever a car pulled into the parking lot You taught me how To listen to these Distant stations Distant stations

Rodimus : Choked Out

No brakes down An endless dark incline Most of the boys Won't ever cross this line If they all want to die dead broke that's fine, that's fine Everybody's got their limits Nobody's found mine

Rung : Unmasked!

And you don't care, you look almost relieved down there Like you're free, like you can breathe now Like they've sawn off your cast Just one more sleeper to see through And by way of honoring The things we once both held dear I will reveal you I will reveal you

Skids : Luna

Trace names in ash Big names, old friends And dead ends Those last few frames Go down so fast Rise through the flames and end again in flames at last

Swerve : Craters on the Moon

If the strain proves too much Give up right away If the light hurts your eyes Stay in your room all day

Tailgate : The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement

And I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore I'm pretty hardcore but I'm not that hardcore

Ten : Color in Your Cheeks

And we all knew he was broken pretty bad So we gave him what we had We cleared a space for him to sleep in And we let the silence that's our trademark make its presence felt Come on in We haven't slept for weeks Drink some of this This'll put color in your cheeks

Trailbreaker/Trailcutter : Damn These Vampires

And when the sun comes Try not to hate the light Someday we'll try To walk upright Crawl 'til dawn On my hands and knees God damn these bite marks Deep in my arteries

Ultra Magnus : Liza Forever Minnelli

Never get away, never get away I am never, ever gonna get away from this place Laid out on the street, my eyes toward the sun Your star next to my face

The compasses I came into this world with Never really worked so good

Velocity : Love, Love, Love

But the things you do for love are going to come back to you one by one Love love is going to lead you by the hand Into a white and soundless place

Whirl : Foreign Object

Gonna jab you in the eye with a foreign object I personally will stab you in the eye with a foreign object

[artoutforblood]

Do you have any first birthday reactions for the children? Bots of your choice, so could be awkward, some could go all out, Brainstorm's gifts being checked over.

The first time you celebrated your birthday aboard the Lost Light you got a free drink, a Rodimus Star, some candy from Rung, and a deadly game of hide and seek with your favorite local lobster man. Needless to say, you were quite concerned coming upon the seven year old’s, Brook’s, birthday and the bots decided to throw a party. You wonder if it was wise to tell Swerve about birthday parties, but the look on the their face when they saw everyone gathered around with presents in their hands and the cake you and Swerve made swept those concerns under the rug.

For the most part.

Rodimus, with your help and advice (and some sleepless nights while you both tried to finish the darn thing in time), fashioned a costume in the likeness of his alt mode and by coincidence the hot wheels car they owned. The kind that they can transform by kneeling. It even had a Rodimus Star pinned on the bumper! Brook had to halt the whole party to get into it with your help. He called them “Rodimus Junior” for the rest of the day with a note of pride.

Drift and Ratchet were some of the few who knew about Brook’s fear of the dark, possibly stemming from the power outage that occurred on the ship you found them on. Drift wanted to make them something, Ratchet wanted to give them something useful, so they wound up making a salt crystal lamp, not to get confused with salt rock lamps. The light refracted against the crystal made a warm aurora in the dark that even lulled your more hyperactive kids when they showcased it. Brook would be later found sleeping on Ratchet’s chest with the nightlight glowing against the wall and Drift taking pictures.

Brainstorm’s gift was first opened by you and Perceptor in another room. You didn’t know what to make of it at first, but Perceptor cleared it of weapons, only finding (and disabling) the three he found. Brainstorm must’ve been holding back, you noted. Later, when it was his presents turn, he was practically jumping on the heels of his pedes when they opened up their very own mecha armour. The kids got turns sitting in the cockpit and admiring their new, well, you hesitated calling it a toy. But you didn’t miss the glint in Stormy’s optics. You knew sooner or later you were going to have a small army of mecha armoured children.

Rung had asked for your help getting Brook a present, and so you two ended up window shopping on the next planet. You came across a lot of amazing things, but nothing that they would have liked, until you came across bookstore. Brook did enjoy Rung’s story time, but they didn’t have any books of their own. Eventually, you both settled on a book full of classic fairytales from that planet. Brook was flipping through the pages, filled with beautiful illustrations and new stories just ready to be dived into. 

Rewind and Chromedome’s gift was easy, but it meant a lot to the homesick children. A holographic map of the Milky Way galaxy, the Sol System. You felt tears in the back of your eyes as you watched them gather around, watching Earth turn around the sun. Some of the older kids had to turn away, trying to keep anyone from seeing them cry. This one was shared between them all, kept in their dormitory. You thanked Rewind and Chromedome yourself once all was said and done.

Ultra Magnus was at a loss. He had originally wanted to give them a manuscript of the Autobot Code, which was so full of boring textbook jargon that it made your eyes glaze over. You managed to persuade him away from that, so instead he gave them a jacket with an Autobot patch and named them an honorary Autobot in Training, or Junior Autobot. You had a feeling Minimus Ambus might’ve had something to do with the carefully sown patch.

Tailgate and Cyclonus wanted to do something special. Correction, Tailgate wanted to do something special and pulled Cyclonus into it. They has spent weeks trying to figure something out, something perfect for them, but kept scrapping ideas. It wasn’t until Brook mentioned how much they wanted to learn to ride a hoverboard that a lightbulb went off in their heads. Brook opened up a brand new hoverboard with Tailgate’s promise to teach them everything he knew. You would’ve been more concerned if you didn’t know Cyclonus would be there keeping them from hurting themselves.

Swerve and Skids helped make the cake with you, along with all the other human comfort foods you somehow found ingredients for. That would’ve been enough, but they love these kids and decided to go the extra mile and bought them every episode of their favorite cartoon series, for all of the kids to enjoy. You three ended up marathoning it with them later. It was old, and the CGI was frankly terrible, but the characters were lovable and the story was good. And it felt normal, and nice, which was something these kids sorely needed.

Nautica wanted to give Brook something useful too, and that’s why you raised your eyebrows at the stuffed teddy bear they unwrapped. Of course, Brook was ecstatic, they had been without a stuffed animal until then. Nautica was beaming when she told them that if they ever were afraid, they only needed to press a kiss to Brownie’s (Brook named the bear) nose and the stuffed bear would protect them. You didn’t know how literal she was until Brook woke up from a nightmare, kissed Brownie’s nose, and the teddy bear came to life and, after looking for the threat, held Brook until they went back to sleep. Which you only found out since you came to investigate their screams and found the bear staring at you while holding the sleeping child. You nodded. He nodded. You went back to sleep.

Whirl didn’t know what to get the kids. He didn’t. And you vetoed anymore hide n seeks. So he had no choice but to go to you and Rung for advice, because dammit he was not going to let that kid go without a stinkin’ present! Your guys’ advice was to give him something from the spark, something that would mean something to you both. Brook opened up their present with Whirl nervously looking over their shoulder. It was a pocket watch. It was plain silver and gold, and it worked fine. Nothing fancy, but clawed on the inside was “From Lobster Man”. Brook never went a day without it.

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #22- If You Don’t Love Thunderclash, Get Better Soon I Guess

One last issue before we reach Comic Event Hell.

Time to use a dead man to set up the rest of the nonsense that’s got to happen, because apparently 14 issues of setup, including six issues of literal prelude, wasn’t enough.

The first bit of information we’re presented with is the fact that Chromedome and Swerve are on the opposite sides of the camera-shy scale. I guess that’s bound to happen when your spouse has had his video-cam literally connected to his brain for at least several thousand years.

The art may look really gritty and hardcore here, but this is actually due to a filter Rewind has over all his footage that he’s neglected to take off, because it made all the wartime propaganda he would stuff into people’s heads all the more brutal-looking.

No, this is the style of our artist for this issue, James Raiz, who we’ll be seeing a fair bit of over the next several issues. Raiz has worked on the Transformers franchise over the course of multiple license-holders, as well as contributed to both Marvel and DC comics. He also works in special effects, including matte painting and VFX. That’s just neat.

Anyway, the reason Swerve’s completely frozen in place isn’t because Rewind  switched out his head-mounted camera for a gun that goes off if it hears you make a self-deprecating joke, but rather because he’s conducting interviews with everyone in the main cast. We get all their introductions, Cyclonus makes a statement about his political stances, Drift sounds like he’s high as a kite, First Aid strikes a sassy pose while not being bitter in the slightest, and Ultra Magnus makes a move that would get him murdered on any given film set in the universe.

You do NOT use your bare fucking hand to clean a camera lens, mister. Go get a microfiber cloth and try the fuck again, you complete and utter duffel bag of a creature.

We get a quick cut of the speech Rodimus made back in issue #1, with an angle that implies that Rewind was in the front row of the front row, then cut over to Rodimus asking Rewind to document their Capital-Q Quest. This is where we establish that this film doesn’t only contain footage from Rewind’s personal camera, but also that of the Lost Light’s security system.

Which feels like the sort of access you maybe wouldn’t want to give some nosy little film buff, especially when you have a secret giant serial killing sadist living in your basement like a disappointing adult child.

See? He was given the job to record the adventures of the Lost Light not five minutes ago, and he’s already using his powers for evil. Eavesdropping evil. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, Rodimus, and you just handed it to the guy with a massive Dominus Ambus-shaped chip on his shoulder.

So Rewind’s got permission to film just about whatever he wants, and Rodimus figures it’ll be nonstop action from here to the finish line! Fights! Intrigue! Mild hijinks and peril! Explosions aplomb! Oh man, I can’t wait to see what kinds of crazy shit will happen on this absolute roller coaster of a Quest!

Smashcut to Swerve literally falling asleep in the middle of a conversation. Yeah, as it turns out, no quest, capital Q or not, is nonstop action. Which is good, honestly, because that kind of seems like it would be exhausting after the first week or so.

Swerve, Tailgate, and Rewind are discussing cool alt-modes, which seems like an odd topic, seeing as Tailgate and Swerve have basically the same situation going on there, leaving Rewind alone in the camp of “does not have wheels”.

I worry about you sometimes, Rewind. Internalized Functionism is a very real problem. Uh, well, in your universe anyway. Us humans have to deal with regular ol’ classism and racism.

Rung gets brought up, and it’s revealed that the wheel on his back is almost purely cosmetic; it doesn’t even actually attach to his body. The lads decide that they’ve got nothing better to do, and set up a gentlemen’s wager- first one to figure out Rung’s whole deal gets 100 space-dollars.

Throwing shit at people’s heads will be a major plot point in the climax of this comic series.

Swerve’s go at trying to win the bet involved tossing a grenade at Rung to hit him in the neural cluster, which is rumored to be able to force an involuntary mode change if done correctly. Obviously, it didn’t work this go around. Then our narrative focus switches over to the crew’s hobbies.

You were listening to Prince, weren’t you, Magnus? Not even deep space is safe from the Cease and Desist.

Skids’ hobby is meeting new people, because he suffers from the terrible curse of being so fucking good at everything he tries, he always ends up dropping whatever he picked up, because what’s the point? This acts as a segue into another flashback, to even MORE bullshit that the fellas got roped into on Hedonia.

These are the Stentarians. They’re like the Cybertronians, if they were better in every way.

And by “better”, I, of course, mean “more bloodthirsty, warmongering, and driven enough to make their civil war last about as long as the Jurassic Period”. Also, they’re all combiners by default, and Whirl seems a little TOO into their whole situation. So much so, in fact, that when the Imperial Guard of their race show up to kill them, he decides to do them a solid by single-handedly ending their entire war.

You know, in most cases you’re supposed to show and not tell for visual media. This is way funnier, though, so it can be excused.

We jump back into the interviews, and Rewind’s just asked everyone if they’re happy. This might seem like an odd question, until you remember that everyone on-board this ship has crippling depression and PTSD, and Rewind’s married to one of the saddest motherfuckers to ever exist, so he probably has this question loaded into the proverbial chamber at any given moment. We won’t cover all of the answers here, because they’ll be more poignant to reflect back on later in the comic run, but let’s take a gander at the characters who’ve completed the first leg of their character arcs this season.

Drift, is that perhaps… an honest expression of your inner thought processes happening right there? Has Rewind broken through your carefully crafted persona, if even for just a moment, with his question? Perish the thought!

Because Tailgate outed himself as being baby in issue #21, I have zero doubt he’s not exaggerating here. He was a janitor, then he fell in a hole and became Dirt-Nap Supreme for six million years; even the most boring day on the Lost Light’s got to be better than that.

And it’s nice to see Chromedome on a good day for once. Hopefully he reveled in it while he had the chance, because this interview takes place maybe a couple weeks before he fucks everything up big time and has to blow up his husband with a missile strike.

Getting back to the Mystery of the Rungian Alt-Mode plotline, we see Rung using his backpack as a wheelbarrow- no idea what he’s actually pushing in the damned thing- and wearing the most disgruntled face I’ve seen him pull in a hot minute. Someone yells for him to come down the eerily unlit and sinister-looking hallway, which he does. Rung would not do well in a horror film.

He winds up at Swerve’s, where Tailgate, Swerve, Brainstorm, and someone who is most likely Trailcutter, given the colors, are hanging out in their alt-modes. Tailgate’s ploy to find out Rung’s deal is to do what he does best- lie! They’re having an alt-mode party, and wouldn’t Rung like to join in? There are, of course, logistical issues with being a car in a bar, especially when your drink is on the table and your head is tucked up somewhere in your torso, but never mind all that! Let’s get crazy!

This doesn’t work either. Maybe we should cut out the middle man here and just get Rung drunk enough to agree to a wet alt-mode contest.

No, I don’t have any idea how that would work.

In our next vignette, Rodimus comes into the comms room, Rewind trailing behind him like a grim shadow of death, to see what the hell Blaster wants, other than just the hugest glass of water.

Raiz’s work is very detailed, and you really feel the weight of these giant metal space robots, but everyone looks like they’ve been put through a food dehydrator.

We get a lot of build up to the character who’s about to be introduced, with a common opinion being shared amongst everyone- even Tailgate, who hates successful people like his life depends on it.

Lovely readers, put your hands together for the ideal male partner for Autobots, Decepticons, and Neutrals alike:

A man with so much charisma and charm that only Rodimus could hate him, Thuderclash brings to IDW what everyone wishes Optimus Prime would, making our disappointing space dad even more mediocre by comparison. He fights for justice, and freedom, and the good of the universe- and he does it all while having a chronic medical condition that forces him to stay within a certain distance of his ship that is also a life-support machine, otherwise he will die. Despite his handicaps, Thunderclash seemingly brings to others what they need most, even if they don’t even realize that they needed it in the first place.

He also, in this one scene, appeals to Drift’s religious sensibilities, does a secret best-friend dance with Ratchet (who he helped to pass his medical exams- yes, Ratchet), and congratulates Rodimus on his questing so far.

Thunderclash is one of those characters that everyone in-universe is supposed to love, and I completely buy it- because he’s completely genuine and humble about all of this the entire time.

Compare this to the last time Roberts wrote Thunderclash, in Eugenesis.

Where he was an ex-Decepticon.

And kind of an abrasive asshole.

And then he died.

Y’know, now that I think of it, Eugenesis Thunderclash and MTMTE Ambulon being basically the same character makes a whole lot of sense, even without the horrors of Roberts’ Twitter getting involved.

Thunderclash reveals that he, too, is on a quest to find the Knights of Cybertron, much to Rodimus’ chagrin. But first he needs the Lost Light to break out the jumper cables, and then for his second in command to stop threatening his life.

Turns out, not everyone is as obvious as the Cybertronians with their naming conventions. Whirl assassinated the wrong folks; I’m sure the Galactic Council is utterly thrilled. Paddox wants to steal the quantum engine technology for the good of his people, so they can kick the ass of the up-and-coming Terradore leader.

Completely unaware of the situation unfolding here in the lab, Swerve is directing Rung towards the warm, loving aura of Thunderclash for another go at winning the gentlemen’s wager- through the power of lying about having friends, Swerve’s “agreed” to get Rung Thunderclash’s autograph, in exchange for getting to check that Rung’s transformation cog is still working. Then they bump into the nightmare currently unfolding. My, whoever will save us from this dreaded menace, who holds a gun to the head of the Autobots’ greatest warrior, confidant, friend, and perhaps even lover?

How about a bartender and a giant vape pen?

Okay, so Rung doesn’t actually turn into a vape. It turns out that the Mystery of the Rungian Alt-Mode is also a mystery to the man himself. Because Rung is old as shit, the Functionists got to see this bullshit for themselves, and ended up testing him over and over and over trying to figure it out, lest he prove to be a flaw in their fascist ideologies. Fun fact: fascists HATE it when people they’re trying to oppress don’t play to their expectations.

The Functionists were the ones who gave Rung his little wheelie backpack, to make him at least appear useful. This sort of treatment tends to warp one’s head a bit, which would explain why he’s bothered to keep it for so long- internalized functionism’s a real bitch.

At least he’s not giving teenagers nicotine addictions under the guise of being somewhat better than cigarettes.

Back with Rodimus and Cybertron’s Autobot of the Year for 40,000 consecutive years, we get the unfortunate news that jump-starting Thunderclash’s ship is going to make the Quest go a bit slower for the Lost Light, much to Rodimus’ horror, though he does his best to put on a brave face; after all, that’s what heroes do, isn’t it?

It’s at this point that it’s revealed that “Little Victories” was being screened to all the Circle of Light members who didn’t get murdered or turned into Legislators on Luna 1, and man are these guys pissy. What was meant to be a recruitment video turned out to do just the opposite, because none of these guys want anything to do with what the Lost Light’s got going on.

Too bad Rewind didn’t have time for a cleaner cut for showing. Maybe they could have at least snagged a couple of these guys to tag along.

As all of the Circle of Light leave the theatre to go call everyone’s favorite Autobot to see if he needs a more crew members, the film plays on behind Skids, back to the interviews, as everyone promises more adventures just waiting on the horizon.

You’re not even on this trip anymore, you dork.

Chromedome gives us the title drop for the movie and issue, and we cut to Rewind organizing a group photo of all the interviewees.

And then Rewind died horribly like a week later. Thus ends season one of More Than Meets the Eye!

While I’m here, I’d like to take the time to cover a little bit of cut content from this issue, a scene between Drift and Ratchet.

Drift, during his interview, recalls the time that Ratchet called him into his office for a very serious discussion about his/Pharma’s hands.

Yeah, turns out they’re haunted.

Well, no, not really, because this is a prank. But Drift doesn’t know that yet.

Ratchet demonstrates this hand-haunting by punching Drift in the face, as he screams damnation at Pharma’s ghost. Drift, because he is a spiritual man, knows exactly what to do to deal with this possession; he draws his sword and chops Ratchet’s hands off, then throws them out the airlock.

This, too, is a prank, not that Ratchet knows it right away, yelling at Drift that he’s crippled him.

Clearly, these two belong together.

This bit of cut script was lucky enough to have gotten drawn by the colorist for MTMTE Season 1, Josh Burcham. Burcham’s line art is iconic- you won’t mistake him for anyone else. It’s rough and angular, and honestly just very charming. I’m a sucker for this sort of style. If you want to see his adaptation of this chunk of script- and trust me, you do- the link’s right here:

https://dcjosh.tumblr.com/post/107665292031/its-done-the-mtmte-22-deleted-scene-in-all-its

[thanksjro]

MTMTE #13: Signal to Noise, A Lost Light Interlude- No One Can Resist the Siren’s Call of the Souvenir Shop

You know what we haven’t seen in a while? A Roberts prose story. Let’s fix that, shall we?

Hey, you. Do ya like Rung? Do ya like the therapy twink who got thrown across a bar four million years ago and then never made an impact on anyone ever after that moment? Because if so, you’re in luck- this story has Rung smeared all across it.

…God fucking dammit, James, this is the first line.

Rung, in the eerie, odd quiet of the ship, can hear his inner mechanisms at work. Now, you might think that it would have to be mighty quiet for such a thing to occur, and if we were dealing with human characters you’d be right! However, Rung and all his peers are giant space robots. It probably sounds like a forty car pileup on the freeway when they walk down the hall.

He marvels at the wonder that is the Cybertronian body, revealing himself to be, like apparently half the friggin’ cast, to be old as shit. Rung, who existed during and even before the Functionists, has never changed his body. He looks exactly like he did when he came into the world, and that includes the eyebrows. He didn’t change for the war, he didn’t change to be tall like all his friends, he won’t change for you, and he certainly won’t change for me. Rung’s good where he is.

We get a mention of something truly unbelievable- apparently there are OTHER psychiatric professionals on Cybertron, and their names are just as blatant riffs on real-world psychiatry as his own. Transformers play on words never go terribly deep, so it’s in theme.

Rung doesn’t remember a ton of what happened when he was shot, though he remembers Overlord’s nasty lips for SOME reason. He woke up from his head injury, had a little face blindness, then Swerve, using a prototype of Rewind’s idea of using stories to heal the mind, gave Rung a helping hand.

Way to use that medical degree, Swerve.

Then we get the period of time that the Shadowplay arc was framed within, flit through the whole Temptoria debacle, touch on the fact that the original plan for Rung and Brainstorm teaming up on the avatars was to make them more energy efficient, and arrive in a seedy tourist trap gift shop.

Rung realizes he forgot about someone. He hates when that happens to him, so it kind of bums him out.

I mean, you just got out of the hospital, dude. I’m sure they’ll understand.

So, we’re at the gift shop. Tailgate’s there, Rewind’s there, Skids is trying on hats.

Tailgate has not said Whirl’s name once in canon, and I’m not completely convinced he’s aware of that fact.

Whirl has decided that he’s going to bang his head against the glass of the window outside. That’s what he’s going to do in this moment.

Rung, who the fuck gave you your degree, my guy?

Rung feels kind of bad about leaving Swerve to his fate with Ultra Magnus- this is an interlude, after all, so it’s in the middle of our story- and the fellas wonder just how much trouble they’re going to be in when all is said and done. Tailgate suggests they run away. Rewind’s more interested in conspiracy theories.

But forget all that, someone very special’s just walked through the door of this tacky little shop. Also, Whirl’s disappeared, but no one actually cares about that.

Cyclonus gives his version of a greeting to Tailgate- i.e. looking at him for a second- then starts wandering around the store. Tailgate reveals that Cyclonus has some fucking cheddar to spend, then gives the gang a quick rundown of the big purple guy’s personal philosophy-

Oh god, Cyclonus, are you sad? Is that why you’re humming? Because you’re sad about something? I’m gonna overthink every time you sing now because of this issue.

Skids and Tailgate get into it over just what exactly Cyclonus’ deal is, and also whether shopping is a valid hobby, and Rung walks off to make his purchase for the evening. He walks by a rack covered in memory sticks touting the ability to allow one to relive the Hedonian experience, and Rung gets smacked in the face with the realization of just who exactly he went and forgot.

Back on the Lost Light, Rung is doing his best to keep up with his silent companion on the walk to Rodimus’ office, who is as awkward as he is tall, and it’s Ultra Magnus, so… yeah. Rung wouldn’t typically need an escort to the captain’s office, but it would appear this is one of Rodimus’ off days.

It’s been a rough few months.

We get a quick peek at Ultra Magnus’ personal philosophy on language- namely, that it should be as dry as cardboard and so straight to the point you could use it as a ruler. Rung asks Magnus to please, for the love of god, make a follow up appointment, whether due to professional concern or professional fascination isn’t clear. Then Magnus tries to tell a joke.

I think it might have fallen flat, just a bit.

They reach the office, Rung marvels at the cacophony of mental health issues he lives inside, and they enter.

Rodimus is busy carving shit into his desk, with a scalpel he probably swiped from the medibay. He invites Rung to take a seat, makes light of all the friggin’ awful things that have happened since this trip started, and Rung begins to wonder if he needs to expand his office hours.

Ultra Magnus gets things back on track, and we finally get to see just what exactly Rung forgot.

It was Red Alert, and that very incriminating recording he showed Rung back during the Delphi arc.

Rodimus gets twitchy when it’s brought up, asking Magnus to guard the door. First he tries to deflect, calling Red Alert crazy. When Rung brings up the fact that he heard the basement voice too, Rodimus promises to check into it, right after he does about a million other things.

Looks like Rewind called it.

Rodimus runs out of the office to do his errands, and Rung decides to share a little conversation with Ultra Magnus, because we’re just totally committing to being friends with every patient we have, aren’t we, you creamsicle-looking son of a gun.

You know, we never did find out where Chromedome was during this whole shore leave situation. I hope he had a nice, quiet evening in, and absolutely nothing nefarious took place.

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 35

ooooh baby functionist universe time

the cover with the neon ‘everything is fine’ sign is rlly good but also the pile of dead data stick bots makes me so sad omg noooo they're so cute leave them alone :( 

minimus and rewind...! its so cool seeing them interact

also I just love the crowd shot, and you can immediately see that there are a ton of data stick bots like rewind around - which isn't what we’re used to at all

also some good ole totalitarian govt stuff like the ‘you are our eyes’ sign (which, in retrospect, is fucking evil damnnnn)

also I'm so [eyezoom] on this functionist universe stuff bc like, this is basically the only time we ever see dominus be a character (rather than hearing abt him thru other characters), and even so he remains pretty ambiguous 

like, minimus clearly isn't thrilled that dominus didn't show up to see him at the space airport or w/e when they've been apart for two million years - and even tho we later see why he didn't show up, it still shows that there's some tension there

the amount of crowd shots in this issue is insane 

oooof, the fact that they sold luna 2 - and to the black box consortia, who we just heard about last chapter when they previously got into a space battle w/the galactic council and the djd

fu!minimus being part of the primal vanguard is interesting, I wanna see more about that. what was he doing w/them for 2 million years?

rewind just casually saying this completely fucked stuff, like that the govt ‘outlawed the intellectual class’ and ‘deported the knock-offs’ (which I'm assuming is cold constructed bots?)

I really like the sense we get thru minimus and rewind’s convo that all of this fucked up stuff has happened slowly enough that its become almost normal - like, they talk about it casually, even though its clear they don't necessarily agree with any of it 

plus the sense of ‘even if things get really bad ill be okay’ that both rewind and minimus seem to adhere to - rewind having been upgraded from being in the disposable class due to his connection w/dominus, and minimus saying ‘I like to think that obsolescence is something that happens to other people’ 

I love all the fucked up signage this issue. ‘take pride in being a means to an end,’ yikes

god and the fact that there isn't MORE data sticks, there's just LESS of other alt modes bc of how many alt modes the govt has wiped out completely...

oof, and continuing the whole ‘slow change’ thing - minimus saying that ‘the council never touches the astro class,’ and maybe that used to be true, but the govt will keep pushing that line, clearly...

and we get to see minimus’s alt mode! altho we the readers know that this isn't minimus’s true form...

‘amazing, the lengths some people will go to cross class boundaries,’ minimus says, as if he isn't doing exactly what rewinds describing, but even moreso as a loadbearer wearing an entire suit of armor

and then the casual public execution of the last lunabot...oof.

love the ‘cybertron. the present day’ text overlay...I was so confused about this when I first read it lmao. I figured it had to be some sort of au/quantum nonsense but STILL

back on the lost light, chromedome is going full kool-aid man on rewinds door

mannnnn I absolutely love the plotline of rewind 2 and chromedome 1...im so glad the story acknowledges that they ARE different, they did experience different stuff on their own lost lights, and rewind 2 being a quantum duplicate doesn't mean he had the same experiences as rewind 1...

and I love so much that chromedome just Doesn't Get It, bc of course he wouldn't - he’s too relieved that rewind is back to even consider that its not quite the same, that the rewind he was forced to blow up is still dead (which is a fucked up thought, so of course chromedome, the master of pushing the past away and moving right along, would want to avoid thinking about that in favor of continuing his relationship w/rewind 2)

it also makes a lot of sense that rewind, who records everything and puts a huge emphasis on history/the past, would be hyperaware of all the differences between him and rewind 1, and his chromedome and this chromedome

AUGHHHH and chromedome referring to an offer he made to rewind that was pretty clearly ‘if your memories of the djd slaughter are too much, I can remove them for you’ ooooof...I love these two so much, like...their absolute opposite approaches to trauma is fascinating

oooh mannnnn and then rewind starts ‘remembering’ stuff from the functionist universe...the plot thickens...!

I really like how one of the main ‘things’ in a lot of tf universes is energon/energy shortages, its interesting when the angle is kinda like, ‘energon is a finite resource and the methods to obtain more often involve destroying other planets,’ that's a pretty unique, alien problem for the tfs to have

it also makes sense that the functionists would form partially in response to that (perceived) shortage, and any sort of scarcity would push them further into their extremist views

I like how expressive the characters with visors are...its cute...

poor rewind has to go thru So Much

WHY can just anyone go into the morgue and touch the dead bodies. I mean I guess megatron being one of the captains explains why he’s in there, but that still shouldn't be allowed 

‘megatron mountain’ vhbjdkshfbjskfbhhk that's so fucking funnyyyyy I love rodimus....I quote that line a lot, especially when watching g1 lmao

the fact that swerve diluting his engex bc he’s a cheapskate saved everyone's s lives is amazing lmao

also like...damn brainstorm sure tried to murder Literally Everyone huh. like I guess the logic would be that if he succeeded in changing the past it wouldn't matter that they had died there cause the timeline wouldn't exist, but STILL. I guess that shows how confident brainstorm was in his plan

it makes so much sense somehow that rung doesn't drink. and we’ve seen firsthand why magnus doesn't lol

mannnn that panel of brainstorm shooting magnus with some wacky beam and causing the magnus armor to fall off in vehicle mode...Super Cool, just peak mad scientist vibes there

ok but if minimus switches to alt mode when ultra magnus does - as we see here, where minesweeper-minimus is inside big-ole-car-magnus - does that mean that inside the minesweeper is turbofox-minimus?? I want to seeeee

ghsdufjkbvksadfbhjs the panels of rodimus telling megatron that brainstorm time travelled are so fucking funny

and megatrons rant about how absolutely bonkers the lost light is....hvbhjdskfbasjh that's so funny oh my god. like yeah dude you're right and you gotta roll w/it sorry 

'on this ship, a minor breakdown is practically a rite of passage’ vbjdsnfbkasdfn its true and I love it

goddddddd it kills me how at this point in the story its So Obvious to everyone that brainstorm travelled back in time to do evil decepticon double agent stuff - and we as the reader can even buy that bc brainstorm has been so sketchy until now, and nothing he’s done contradicts what rodimus suggests - but it turns out in the end, it was all just for love. AUGHHHHHHHH its about the LOVE!!!! that's why I love this arc so much.

back in the functionist universe - god I cant believe rewind waited until Now to reveal to minimus that dominus has a tv face...like I get that that's a difficult topic to bring up in conversation but like, a little sooner might've been good hbvhjkdhnfbjaksl

oh man it hurts...rewind saying that they're in a ‘blind spot...’ oh man :(

rebel rewind, tho!! I love it sm

oh man and rewind never even broke the news about dominus to minimus oof. that's a tough reveal 

MANNN I really like the whole ‘flathead’ thing, its so awful and brutal. its such a logical extension of empurata, and as dominus says, once people get used to seeing empurata’d bots, it loses its punch...and the flatheads thing is even more invasive 

and writing wise, both empurata and the tv-heads are such good devices to show evil govt bs. I talk abt it a lot but I like all the ways jro gets creative with the ‘alien robots’ thing; a lot of these concepts wouldn't work at all with humans or other organic aliens

GODDD and dominus’s chilling speech being interrupted by the functionist propaganda....fucking horrifying I love it

also seeing dominus here is fascinating - clearly the council managed to pin him down enough to turn him into a flathead, but they never discovered his true alt mode...same with minimus, actually 

the cog is so fucking ominous. just floating there...

and the council is scary too! their names, and the fact that they all look the same...seems about right for an evil alien governing body

mannnnnnn and then the reveal that the data slug alt-modes will be ‘recalled’ next...rewind noooooo...and the one council guy even admitted that they still served some purpose in society, BUT that their ability to mass store data made them dangerous to the goverment...evil!!

meanwhile, rodimus doesn't know enough about science to be appropriately frightened about their timeline being wiped from existence, so he’s having a grand ole time

‘no one’s nodding, perceptor’ bvhjdbfasdfhbk their expressions....the lost light command crew are all clearly team ‘leave the science to the scientists’ lmao

I do love the paradox stuff, and brainstorm’s way around it all 

‘so I'm not allowed to take an interest in magic?’ hvbjhsdkfbjhkdf ily sm rodimus

but also like....rodimus suggests a parallel universe could've formed and perceptor is like ‘no way, that's not scientifically possible,’ as if brainstorm didn't basically defy science by time travelling at all...and more to the point, functionist cybertron DID get created, so rodimus was actually RIGHT this time

love that we’re already seeing perceptor’s admiration for brainstorm and his invention even here....sapiosexual mfer

a time travel chase....so beautiful...I love sci-fi so much

seriously time travel is one of my favorite tropes ever, this arc was inevitably gonna be my fav 

‘he’s going to kill orion pax.’ DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN

meanwhile, on functionist cybertron...aw, is that bulkhead? great cameo! oh wait what's going on with all the data sticks...? uh oh!

the fact that their heads just EXPLODE....soooo fucked!! 

god and then the council picks up their dead bodies, for...probably something evil, I’d assume

god and then dominus got even more fucked....

‘there are certain words you cant afford to lose’ ;_; REWIND....GODDD IM SAD 

GOD GOD GOD the reveal that minimus has CAMERAS in his EYES GODDDDDDDDDDDD that's so FUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and rewinds reaction...ME TOO BITCH TF!!!!!!

all the ‘you are our eyes’ messages are even worse now huh!!

they did it while minimus was asleep...that's so fuckedddd

FUCKKKK and then rewind’s impassioned rebel speech, which I adore.....rewind ily sm...he��s such a good revolutionary, I wish we could've seen him leading an anti-funtionist rebellion....BUT THEN ‘oh? what about the back up?’ and its just like HHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and then his head starts smoking and we see another billboard, but this time it says ‘WE are your eyes’ - is the implication that everyone is now a surveilling spy, whether they like it or now, so now it’s ‘we?’ like, we’re all in it together, spying on each other! ooooof

also. this is like the third time rewind has died on-screen in this series lmao (well, if you count the fake-out death where he thought he’d be cancelled out during slaughterhouse)...he ALMOST died in issue 12 too....poor rewind

‘the custom-made now’ is such a great title. jro always killin it w/the titles

plus ‘elegant chaos’ is such a cool arc name. fucking epic 

M A N NNNNNNNN THIS ISSUE WAS BALLER...this ARC is baller....I talked a lot hvbhdjkhfndsak lmao but there's so much to talk abt!!! I love the look into the functionist universe, I love seeing alternate versions of characters and settings so much, and I love time travel, so this issue is basically made for me

plus I fuckign love alien robot politics and seeing the absolute control the govt has over cybertronian society in the functionist universe is fascinating - plus from a storytelling standpoint, I think it was brilliant to show the ‘other side,’ aka what things would've been like without the war...which is something ill talk about later when its more directly addressed in the story but man do I enjoy that 

basically I love this arccccc I cant wait to read more hhhhhhh

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 22

oooh man, its time to feel some EMOTIONS!

I'm BACK after a hiatus, which was due in part to me getting my 1st dose of the covid vaccine! woohoo!

anyways, starting here w/issue 22....we have a great cover w/thunderclash, the legend himself

oof. the covers made me forget how much I don't like the art this issue...I hate to be mean to the artists but this art style just isn't doin it for me chief

god I love this issue though. the framing device of rewind’s movie is so so fantastic

tailgate listing off all his fake awards/accomplishments....ily 

rodimus my boy, you're a prime in my heart

the ‘not a decepticon’ label for cyclonus is so much hvbhkjfbskjf

I literally wanna comment on every single panel bc I love all the characters so much but then id be here forever...that being said whirl ily sm 

hvbjdfbhsfjhdfshja BRAINSTORM ‘according to perceptor - ships genius’ hvhdkjhbfhjs ily dumb gay idiot

and then the cut to perceptor after brainstorm like, blew up his lab vjbkdsfnbksjf dude

GODDDDDD drift ‘your name...defines you. it’s your soul expressed in syllables. hm? oh, yes, sorry. it’s drift.’ GOD he’s so fucking funny. I love early story hippy drift

god I cant stop thinking about how good this whole issue would be as an animated show...like, specifically rewinds film, it would be SO FUCKING GOOOOOOD mtmte show WHEN

rewiiiiind ;_; I fuckgin love rewind god. fellow video editing enthusiast....

ohhhh rodimus being embarrassed about his big speech at the beginning of mtmte....my boy I love u so much

gjhnbgehjsrkfbjksf magnus being suspicious of rewind oh my god. magnus ily but please, look at the lil guy, he’s a good boy, most of the time

the fuckgin footage that magnus removed hbvhakjbfhskf god. wasn't that intended to be footage of magnus dancing? I love him

minibot squad.....

and here it begins, the mystery stick rung question...

poor rung oh my god he’s just trying to polish his lil spaceship and people r throwing shit at him. taking Ls as per usual it seems

hand grenade tag hvbfjksdnfbkjdf love that callback

noooo rungs ship :( 

magnus’s censorship vhbhadkjfhdbhjsakjhfn

oh man I forgot about how they met that race of Transformers But More 

the one-upsmanship hbvkajsbehfjks

whirrrrrl lmao I love whirl sm

goddddd whirl just killing that other alien and ending the 16 million yr long civil war bvkjsdbfhjjkafs so fucking much

oh god oh god the ‘are you happy’ page, I'm not emotionally equipped to handle this like, ever

but I will say I feel like it would be EVEN MORE oof if it were milne or someone drawing it bc I feel like this art style takes away from some of the impact bc the expressions aren't really that...expressive? idk how to put it

anyways. every single answer destroys me!!! like even the happy ones, like chromedome and rewind and tailgate - well, in present time, none of those three are doing so hot, so that makes this just hurt 

and rung....that is so fucking depressing. jesus. this guy is so fuckng sad, somebody get him a friend stat

and swerve...ouch. this readthru I've really noticed how much early-mtmte swerve is not-so-subtly like, crying out for help bc he’s so alone and shit. jesus 

also brainstorms response is just plain ole sad w/context, but at this point in the story without context, it just seems very foreboding lmao. I'm realizing this readthru that brainstorm is very sketchy and ominous in a particular ‘is he evil?’ mad scientist sorta way in early mtmte

and then everyone else is also just so OOF in their own unique sad ways, but I think the worst out of everyone is drift....GODDDDDD. especially considering that at this point in the story, drift is this kinda goofy hippy guy, so seeing him just sit there with his face in his hand, not even answering the question...AND knowing that shortly after this he’ll end up banished...IT FUCKING HURTS M8!

meanwhile, the more upbeat ‘quest to see rungs alt mode’ continues...with an ‘alt mode party’ vhbadkjsdfnabskjf it looks so silly with a bunch of cars just sitting around a table lmao

I cant even tell who everyone is bc they so rarely turn into cars n shit lmaoooooo 

rodimus with the bucket on his head hbvhakjbfskjf I CANT

everyone’s reactions to thunderclash...i fucking love it

the fact that TAILGATE doesn't hate him, even though we’ve seen that tailgate tends to dislike people who are universally liked/who have achieved a lot of impressive things

rodimus you petty thot vbdkjbfdjhsakjdf ily

RODIMUS IS SO FUNNYYYYYY ‘I'm not making all these sacrifices and leading these guys into battle and being inspirational - I'm not doing that because it makes me look good’ RODIMUS VBHSKJDFNBKSJF

thunderclash talking about magnus’s article on typefaces....hdbksjfsdbkjgfb bro

AND THEN MAGNUS HUGS HIM....HGBSKJFDSHFKD I CANT

POOR DRIFT bvhajkdfbhjkjsfd rodimus saying he ‘rehabilitated him’ oh my god

the whole spectralism thing...im sorry I cant get over how funny all this is vbakdjfbksjf thunderclash rlly b out here charming rodimus’s entire crew

and then ratchet comes in, calling tc ‘thunders,’ and tc immediately notices ratchets new hands (somehow) hvbkjfhbskjf truly amazing

it cracks me up that rodimus is all 😒😒 at thunderclash, even though as we come to find out, tc really IS That Perfect, and him complimenting rodimus isn't sarcasm at all lmao

AND THEYRE LOOKING FOR THE KNIGHTS OF CYBERTRON TOO HVSDHFJBSHKHDFJS OF COURSE

the vis vitalis being a life support machine spaceship is a really cool concept tho

‘rescuing some orphans from an exploding sun’ I fucking cant

evil guy: [holds a gun to thunderclash’s head] 

rodimus: :D finally something doesn't go his way!

he’s so petty I’m..........dkdjhfdabhduifadijgl

and its the aliens from earlier! oooh

GODDD I forgot that swerve used rung in mystery stick mode to SCHWACK the guy

rung casually dropping the fact that the functionists like, experimented on him...there's a lot of implications there, and that'll certainly be explored more later...

the fact that his ID card says ‘rong’ hvbhjakhdsbfakhsjfn 

oughufadkfujbsfk the circle of light throwing wrenches n shit at skids...guys cmon vbhsdjkfnslfd

the circle of light is like ‘wtf you all have trauma and a bunch of weird unhealthy coping mechanisms this is wack byeeeee’ lmao

skids calling the lost light his home is rlly sweet tho

cant believe the religious space hippy cult is being so rude about a film made by a guy who died like a week ago. unreal 

cd finally figured out how to make the pffft sound, good for him

AUGHHHHH the fact that rewind used ‘little victories’ as the title of the film and that's something that chromedome said in the video ;_; I'm fucking inconsolable 

rodimus, despite his obvious posturing for the camera during the whole issue, comes off as surprisingly genuine when he says that he hasn't thought about his own future much, but wants the crew to have a happy ending....im gonna cry

‘who knows what's around the corner?’ tailgate, PLEASE don't say that, oh my god, 

OUGHHHH GROUP SHOT 

OHHH mannnnNNNNN i love this issue SO MUCH. what a good fun emotional rollercoaster wrap-up to mtmte s1. god. 

like, this issue has it all - humor, drama, crippling sadness, intrigue, worldbuilding...it’s so excellent 

and getting to see rewind again hurts so bad but also I love him

ok quick mtmte s1 retrospective...god s1 is so fucking good. I'm gonna have to read more to say which chunk of mtmte I liked best but s1 is so fucking excellent that it might be my favorite. though its hard to pick bc there's so much good stuff later on too...whatever, the point is s1 is so so good

the plotlines and characters are fucking stellar. like I cant even believe how well Everything works, its very impressive. I cant really think of anything major that made me go ‘yeah could've done without that plotline/character’

I love how dedicated jro is to connecting everything. I've mentioned it before but basically every single moment in the series has payoff - what you initially think is just a funny moment, or a fluffy character establishment bit, ends up ALSO being an important plot point later, in some way

an example would be here w/rung and his alt mode - it just seems like a fun little B-plot for this issue, and seems to pretty neatly conclude with the reveal that rung was eventually classified as an ‘ornament’ (lmao)...but we later on get to see a lot more about this, both here and in the functionist universe 

and like, stuff like tailgate’s autobot lessons w/magnus - at first that can be seen as purely character establishment stuff, showing that magnus is a strict rule-lover and tg is a loveable try-hard good boy - but that becomes plot relevant in remain in light, with tailgate saving the day due to his knowledge of the autobot code (and its also character relevant, with magnus’s arc in remain in light). 

and I know this is like. a normal regular thing in writing, but I'm just very impressed about how cleanly jro pulls it off, and how many things he’s juggling at once, especially in early mtmte - it’s very ambitious!

and we gotta remember, this is a comic book. I've read a lot of comic books, and the quality is all over the place. a lot of writers bite off more than they can chew, and the story ends up kinda scattered as a result. 

another thing I see a lot in franchise writing like this is a lack of strong early character establishing due to the author assuming the readers are at least somewhat familiar with the characters already - which can be totally fair depending on where it is in the continuity, but other times it can come off as lazy

in mtmte, the cast is extremely well fleshed out, and not only that, the cast itself is unique in that there are a lot of relative unknowns (franchise-wise) - which I think was an absolutely brilliant move, because then jro was able to essentially create The Definitive Version of these characters - characters like swerve, brainstorm, chromedome, rewind, tailgate...mtmte is their baseline characterization, because they haven't really appeared in much else

this also allows for deviation from the franchise norms - again, a comic book classic is good writing being stifled by a need to stick to a certain status quo regard the characters, the world, the powers, relationships, etc

(I've mostly read DC comics, and some marvel, so I'm thinking superheroes w/all these comic comparisons)

so mtmte had a good recipe for genuine creativity in that the characters were relative unknowns, the plot was basically ‘space road trip,’ the status quo of ‘autobot vs decepticon war’ had been demolished throughout the entire franchise...so jro was able to take all that and run, and it turned out so fantastic

and luckily it isn't over yet! so many comics suffer from premature cancellation...and sadly mtmte/ll isn't exempt from this, as we’ll see later, but I've seen some awful ones, where comics are forced to wrap up in like 2 issues while in the middle of an arc. yikes. 

but another comic staple...one of my least favorite things about comics books in general...something that was basically responsible for driving me away from comics after reading a bunch...the dreaded crossover event

yep, even mtmte isn't immune to this unfortunate plague on the comic industry. crossover events are the absolute worst, and I'm saying this as somebody who adores crossovers (in concept more than execution usually). they SHOULD be my favorite, but unfortunately they p much always completely suck

they're essentially a ploy to get you to read the other ongoing titles, but they usually only serve to bog down whatever story you're reading to the point where you don't even wanna read that one anymore, let alone read all the other ongoings. at least, that’s been my experience 

it doesn't help that reading orders tend to be hard to find/keep track of, and that you need to go read the other series to know what's going on. I just hate it, like, I came here to read THIS series, I don't want a bunch of other series showing up too - even if I was reading two series, I wouldn't want them crossed over, because they're separate stories! augh!

I'm totally losing my focus here but my point is...crossover events suck, and mtmte unfortunately is involved in one. I have not read dark cybertron, and I'm not about to. I've heard nothing but bad things so I have no desire to inflict that upon myself 

soooo ill be reading through the tfwiki articles for those issues to give myself a better understanding of what went on - which is more than I've ever done in the past - and maybe ill even make a single post summarizing my thoughts on what I read in the wiki, lmao

but yea ill be skipping to the mtmte s2 stuff next 

phew ok I'm super tired, my vision keeps blurring out and stuff lmao. its time for bed, I probably have more thoughts but ill save them for later. for now...peace out!

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 18

lets goooo

I love the ‘no guns no swords no briefcases’ sign sm

NEVER over the ‘my first blaster(tm): big grip for little hands’ fucking iconic

‘get the hell out of my bar’ swerve lmao ily

so now we continue on with the remain in light arc, this issue subtitled ‘house of ambus,’ which is a dopeass name and also promises some ambus lore, which is exciting

first aid holding his gun sideways like a gangsta lmao I canttt

forgot there's literally a guy named dipstick LMAOOOOO that's funny on so many levels like...it sounds like dipshit, and also a urine dipstick is a urine test used to detect various stuff so that's the first thing I think of...what a name

‘put two and two together and make it a fist’ skids ily sm

pharma is in full-on dr thot mode over here, oh boy

lockdown looks like such a nerd on his edgy decepticon hoverboard

the fact that cyclonus immediately goes along w/whirls suggestion to disobey rodimus and attack the enemy....both of them are icons

OOOH ALL THE TITANS...that's such a good panel 

ok but I cant get over how lowkey funny it is that there's this battle going on rn where most of the participants can turn into various vehicles, but they're all riding around on dorky air scooters instead. this series, man

well, at least chromedome transformed

I fucking love that rodimus is always doing this like, ridiculous 80s action movie nonsense, I feel like that's perfect considering his g1 debut was in a ridiculous 80s action movie

poor tg just found out he’s gonna die in like 3 days and then rodimus immediately is like ‘wanna make that today?’ and does some crazy shit while tg clings to him like a terrified baby

rodimus mid-car transformation is fucking wild lmao

and now we finally get to see a bit more of what’s going on with our framing device flash-forward - it’s not just rodimus, everyone’s there! except ratchet...also, they’re in jail. woohoo!

and then there’s magnus, looking completely healthy but strangely unresponsive...

TYREST....this motherfucker....he is like, SO MUCH. the cape...the helmet crown thing...the holes....

tyrest told rodimus to ‘shut up or be held in contempt’ ayyyyyyyyyyyy

‘crimes against creation’ that's pretty dramatic dude

Let The Robots Swear!!

ok but rlly I find it funny that they're not allowed to say swear words (I'm assuming its not allowed rather than it being a creative choice) but all the death and violence and body horror is ok

chromedome is sitting there like oh holy shit did I find my now-dead husbands missing 1st husband after millions of years, like a WEEK after my husband died

chromedome mimicking the moustache with his finger...cute

its interesting to see a ‘sibling’ type of relationship here, since that's really uncommon for tfs since they don't really have families/lineage - of course, we don't really get to see dominus and minimus interact (until the FU), so

minimus really tried to pass himself off as a law-breaking smuggler lmaoooo that was never gonna work mdude

like he just continues acting exactly like ultra magnus except he pretends not to know these guys lol

‘forceful expressions of innocence’ tailgate ily

poor tg :( 

OH GOD pharma time. he’s out here looking totally unhinged and also thotty somehow, like usual

I SO subscribe to the idea that ratchet and pharma are exes are pharma still isn't over ratchet. that's the most entertaining and interesting way to read their interactions imo

dual chainsaw hands.....Bruh.

skiiiiiiiiiiiids....I love skids, he’s just such a good dude

also he’s really cool and also sexy. I feel like if anyone would be the mary sue of the series it would be skids rather than rung lmao 

oh shit I forgot skids gets skewered by star saber

aaaaaand ratchet’s in the box!!!! jesus pharma just say you kin the joker and go

HOW is ratchet alive tho like....wouldn't he need energon?? isn't energon basically blood for them, but also food, and fuel, and basically everything? I don't get it but yknow what, ill suspend my disbelief bc its so entertaining 

see, the little backstory on tyrest is really interesting, cause it seems to me that at one point, tyrest did have the best interests of the cybertronian people in mind, and he really did stand for true justice and tried to end the war peacefully - but somewhere along the way things went bad, and now here he is

oh rung, scolding somebody for revealing top secret information, that’s rich coming from mr hipaa violations himself 

lmao and minimus cant restrain himself from scolding rodimus either, and then very obviously fishing for information so he can ask questions without it being clear that he already knew all about the lost light 

vhbjahdbhjhdf im NEVER over rung passive-aggressively antagonizing minimus so he can accuse him of being ultra magnus hvbhjkdnfssfhsabjhdfk that's so funny

also its another example of rung maybe not being the best at his job - he’s basically manipulating magnus’s OCD to try to force minimus into revealing his identity...ethical? perhaps not. effective? oh yeah

I mean I guess you could say this is an example of rung being really good at his job, bc he was able to use psychology to deduce minimus’s identity...it’s more like he also decided to disregard medical ethics and ethics in general 

and then the reveal....ultra magnus is actually a much smaller green dude?! whaaaat!? 

ill talk more about it later but fr this is one of my favorite concepts that mtmte introduced, I fucking love it 

ahhhh I love this issue. tho tbh I love basically every issue. anyways tho I love the continuation of ratchet and pharma’s story, with pharma officially going off the rails with some complete bullshit, and also the big reveal about magnus/minimus! great stuff

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 15

death awaits!

oh god the cover. I aint ready 

the cover of overlords open mouth w/rodimus floating inside or w/e,,,,the overlord mouth fixation continues i see

and of COURSE its by nick roche. of course

oh god the tension and dread in the first page, as we get overlords sinister promise to murder everyone, starting with rewind, and then seeing chromedome rush over to open the door, and knowing that 30 minutes have passed already...

that full page spread of everyone vs overlord is amazing

also I always thought that ambulon was trying to kick overlord but now that I look closer he’s actually jumping away from overlord, having just crashed one of those hover...thingys....into him...which is honestly cool as hell. also I'm never over the fact that ambulon kinda looks like he’s smiling here, just having a grand ole time as overlord tries his best to murder everyone

and chromedome just seeing this and saying ‘rewind?’ is fucking killing me thanks

PIPES NO DONT DO THIS. YOURE JUST RUBBING SALT IN THE WOUND. PLEASE don't talk about how much fun you're having on your wacky space adventure oh god, that’s just asking to be murdered,

GOD AND THERE HE GOES, DRIVING TO HIS DOOM. PIPES NO

AUGHHHHHHHHHH AND THERES OVERLORD WITH HIS GIANT FOOT. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

PIIIIIPES ;_; 

his messed up goodbye thoughts are brutal...plus the final shot of him laying all busted up....god :( 

that guy seriously had some awful luck this trip. rip lil guy

BUT he sounded the alarm!!! so good for him!! that's a pretty amazing final act right there

oh my god I forgot abt this scene where rewind is like ‘so brainstorm why is my husband saying your name in his sleep :))))’ and brainstorm is like ‘haha idk its certainly not because we’re working on a secret project together, so jot that down!’ lmao brainstorm....

also dw rewind brainstorm is not fucking ur husband, just look at his evidentially extensive collection of perceptor-style microscopes...my man is microscopesexual 

I forgot abt the metabomb omfg

‘some of my favorite words are monosyllabic’ rodimus ily, himbo of my heart,

fort max :( rung :( 

oughhghghg I forgot abt the scene of tailgate making cyclonus a new horn ;_; and then cyclonus materializes menacingly bc tg dared to volunteer their room for movie night hvbfshdjkfbaskj cyclonus anti-social icon

AUGHHHH GOD THE PANEL OF RATCHET TALKING ON THE COMMS AND OVERLORD IS JUST, RIGHT BEHIND HIM, WITH HIS BIG STUPID LIPS, OH MY GOD

what the fuck, is drift a flying car??? hello??? what the hell????

seriously he’s got like, rockets and shit, what the fuck

anyways, the entire exchange b/w ratchet and drift here kills me, for multiple reasons.... ‘my faith and my sword’ lmao love it. and then ratchet refusing to leave drift and calling him his friend ;_; aughhh

rodimus w/the squad like ‘lets go gays!!!’ 

also I guess cosmos WAS on the lost light lol, totally didn't remember that, I'm guessing he left at some point to go be in the other series lmao 

I'm sorry but ‘amazing. you speak entirely in name’ is so fucking funny, but also like stfu overlord you're not allowed to be funny

MAGNUSSSSSSSS

now I'm confusing myself lmao, rodimus DID know abt overlord, didn't he??? wasn't that the whole thing???? I don't remember if he was involved w/the whole mnemosurgery plan but he at least knew that overlord was there...but we haven't been told that in-story yet so now I'm questioning that lmao

oh god I forgot that overlord almost kills magnus, jeeeeesus. good thing he’s a russian nesting doll otherwise he probably would've died fr 

also damn that's gotta be scary for everyone else, bc magnus is The Big Guy, and a renown fighter...plus drift got all fucked up...yall are in for a bad time 

tailgate gettin his panic on I see

swerve w/the meta narration lmao 

cyclonus ily sm.......

rodimus charging at overlord....ohhh my boy not your best idea

cd and rewind both saying ‘I thought you were dead!’ HHHHHHHH I'm destroyed fuck it all

rodimus (inadvertently) saving the day by saying ‘til all are one’...iconic!!

FORT MAX IS HEREEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

drift just casually chillin w/no legs

chromedome going into extreme detail about all the mnemosurgery he’s been doing on overlord for WEEKS while rewind is Right There....my dude.

this issue has a LOT of completely white backgrounds but I cant even rlly blame milne bc this seems like more drawing work than usual

oh god cd don't say ‘we’ll finish this conversation later’ at a time like this, that’s never a good idea,

rewind no don't do it :( :( :( 

that panel of cd’s arm getting cut off...AUGHHH

GODDDDDDD IM FUCKING CRYING. AUGHHHHHHHHHHH I.....

so incredibly fucked that cd does what’s best for rewind by blowing the pod up....hhhhh god 

and then that last panel of cd laying on the ground....fucking destroy me!!!!!!!!

also I love that at the beginning of the issue we see whirl with the missile launcher thing, and that’s what cd uses at the end here....good bookends. jro is really great about putting stuff in the story that just seems like innocuous filler/fun character building but turns out to ALSO be plot relevant later

HOLY SHIT I forgot about the cast page with the big red X’s thru the dead people’s profiles....jesus christ 

AUGH this issue was a rollercoaster, phew...and the emotionally devastating conclusion to this arc is still yet to come! 

I will say that it’s super interesting looking back on this, in the sense that rewind & chromedome are introduced as the first ever gay tf couple, and a few issues after we get told this explicitly, rewind is killed. this doesn't really end up being an issue representation-wise bc literally everyone is gay and there are a bunch of other significant gay characters/relationships later on, AND rewind comes back later 

but still! it’s interesting to think about how, at the time this came out, the phrase/concept ‘bury your gays’ wasn't really something that was talked about a lot (or like, it was, but not as often as nowadays, and not really under the term ‘bury your gays’ iirc), but at the time of publication this would have fallen under that trope (though rewind coming back later negates it imo). I think it would've been tough for this story to come out nowadays due to the backlash that would've occurred from rewind’s initial death (it also makes me wonder if there was any backlash when this DID come out) 

to be clear, this isn't a writing criticism - in fact, the reason this is able to work at all is because of the crazy amount of representation mtmte has. it’s like, youre able to kill off gay characters without it being ‘bury your gays’ if literally all your characters are gay by default, and there are a bunch of significant gay relationships happening - technically speaking, any death in mtmte is bury your gays lmao 

this is a completely disjointed rant but my point is like, if this issue came out in 2020 people would probably be pretty put off by rewind dying (understandably), but in the context of the series as a whole I don't consider this to be bad writing/bad representation/bury your gays 

and like, WERE people really mad about this in 2013? I am curious now, bc I would definitely feel kinda betrayed if I didn't know all the stuff that happens later 

but its pretty nice, because now I'm free to enjoy the writing and be emotionally devastated by rewinds death in a normal way, and not a ‘I'm angry at the writers for killing off one of the only gay characters’ kinda way

anyways I'm tired as hell so I'm going to bed, ill continue the emotional devastation later, phew

[thanksjro]

The Transformers #28- Chaos Part 3: I Really, REALLY Hope I Don’t Have to Read Heart of Darkness for This to Make Sense

Out in space, there’s an escape pod full of robots, and they’re in trouble.

Chromedome seems to have forgotten his visor. Must have run out the door in a hurry, y’know, so he didn’t get all exploded along with Kimia. Seems like an important thing to leave behind, but you can forget just about anything in an emergency situation like that. That’s why Brainstorm’s briefcase is cuffed to his wrist at all times!

Chromedome and Brainstorm are in the front seat, presumably because they’re the tallest sons of guns aboard. I mean, look at all these little tiny guys in the back.

We got Rung, Mainframe, Rewind, Swerve and his sick-looking shoulder patch, Rad, Sureshot, Crosshairs, and Slamdance. We’ll be seeing everyone except Slamdance later on in MTMTE. Slamdance will have better things to do, like pursue his passion in journalism.

Brainstorm and Chromedome’s chat about the nature of escape pods is interrupted by a call from Arcee, who’s come to save them. Chromedome makes sure to tell Swerve to zip it before she gets there, lest he doom everyone to an early grave with his big mouth.

Down on Cybertron-

Excuse me, Crybertron, Cliffjumper and Wheelie have managed to escape with their lives to warn the others about Megatron’s rapid-onset free-from-prison disorder. Megatron doesn’t seem to be actively looking for the Autobots, too busy massacring Sweeps. This sits just fine with the Autobots, seeing as no matter what happens, things will probably go in their favor. Either Megatron kills the Sweeps, or the Sweeps kill Megatron, and it’s one less thing to worry about. Things are looking up!

Then Sideswipe gets attacked by a cat.

At least, I think it’s Sideswipe. Ramondelli’s art is always a little difficult to parse.

The cat is Ravage. The Decepticons swarm the battlefield. We’ve got all the classics: Starscream, Shockwave, Soundwave and his newly-repaired head, the Insecticons, even all the Constructicons.

That includes Scrapper, who they carry onto the scene like pall-bearers would a coffin.

Taking the term dead leg to a whole other level. They can still combine like this, though I’d have to imagine it feels a bit odd, and Devastator is more dragging the Scrapper leg than really walking on it. This slows the Combiner down enough for the Autobots to high-tail it out of there.

They call Sunstreaker to let him know they’re on their way, but he’s pretty sure that Omega Supreme isn’t in any condition to be protecting anyone at the moment. He and Garnak start collecting all the explosives they have on board.

Over at the crater Kimia blasted into Cybertron, Optimus and Rodimus are just sort of taking it all in. Optimus knows that Galvatron is down in there, trying to get to the core of Crybertron. How does he know this? Mystical space pope knowledge coming from the Matrix itself. Something within Galvatron is calling to the Matrix. He jumped in the hole without waiting to make sure the others are following him.

Back with Sunstreaker, the golden boy’s decided to commandeer a wheelchair and roll out into the battlefield.

This is rather silly looking. Not just the hovering recliner, the entire scene taking place here.

With Bob coming with to protect from the pions, Sunstreaker makes his way over to confront Devastator. He goads the very, very large robot into trying to squish him, jumping just in time for the foot to come down on his wheelchair that’s just stuffed to bursting with explosive charges. An explosion ensues, taking out Devastator’s  good leg, sending him crashing to the ground. He’s still got arms though, which might present a problem.

Or not.

Down in the depths of the planet, Galvatron is running down the hall with Jhiaxus, when their path is blocked by Optimus Prime and pals. This makes Galvatron very angry, because he’s got a tight schedule for today, and Optimus is getting in the way of things.

Up above, the Decepticons have all started doing the binary thing, and start convening and making, uh, this fucking thing:

There’s also a lot of Sweeps in there. There’d kind of have to be, I suppose.

This massive thing starts wrecking shop, throwing towers and Autobots like it’s nothing.

Back down below, Galvatron’s going on about a Heart of Darkness, and how it’s the only think that can stop the giant motherfucker up top. He starts stripping, and this causes the binary bullshit to start happening to Drift, who responds by swinging his sword around like a madman, then stabs himself in the chest so he stops doing that.

Optimus gets a call from Cliffjumper while this is going down, though he isn’t thrilled about it. Things aren’t going so hotfoot Cliffjumper either, as he has his phone taken away from him by Megatron so he and Optimus can have a little talk. Optimus is surprised by the fact Megatron’s escaped. I guess he hasn’t been paying attention for the last four million years.

Aww, he just wants to spend a little time with his favorite Prime.

Optimus blows Megatron off, saying that he’s got to follow Galvatron and keep him from blowing up the planet, or whatever it is he’s doing, and Megatron better keep that big nasty monster thing from ripping too many holes in Crybertron in the meantime. In the background, Rodimus is freaking out over Drift, who is still stabbed on a sword, but hasn’t died just yet. Which, y’know, at least they got that going for them.

And that’s the state of affairs we leave off on. Turns out the clown-car’s worth of nerds floating aimlessly in space after surviving a bombing of their workplace are having the best day out of anyone so far. No wonder they call it Crybertron.

[notwhelmedyet]

An alphabetical guide to MTMTE season 1 characters

All the characters that are prominently featured/mentioned in MTMTE issues 1-22 who you might want a quick reference on, descriptions contain no spoilers past that point! Primary cast in italics

‘the Necrobot’ : A mysterious mythological figure that visits the bodies of every fallen soldier. Or does he?

‘the Senator’ : Appears in the Shadowplay flashbacks, Orion Pax’s benefactor who altered him to be able to carry the matrix, alt mode is a small spacecraft

Ambulon : A medic stationed at Delphi under Pharma, a former Decepticon

Blaster : LL crew member and director of communications

Brainstorm : LL crew member, a scientist and weapons designer, alt mode is a blue jet

Bumblebee : Autobot commander on Cybertron, uses a cane to walk, a close friend of Ratchet’s, was left with the other half of the Matrix, alt mode is a small yellow car

Chromedome aka Tumbler : LL crew member, a former mnemosurgeon, very close to Rewind, alt mode is a weird red and orange car

Crankcase : One of the Scavengers. Missing a chunk of his head. Fairly surly.

Cyclonus : LL crew member, neither an Autobot nor a Decepticon, was stuck in a dead universe as a zombie for millions of years, deeply cynical, led the attack on Kimia before the end of the war (that’s where Chromedome, Rewind and Brainstorm worked!) and killed a lot of people. Also helped save Cybertron. Alt mode is a purple jet

Dai Atlas : Leader of the Circle of Light, the religious group that converted Drift when he left the Decepticons

Dominus Ambus : Former husband of Rewind’s, a scientist, philosopher and activist, missing since the start of the war

Drift, formerly Deadlock : LL crew member, 3rd in command, formerly the Decepticon Deadlock, defected and joined the Autobots after finding The Circle of Light and being mentored by Wing, stabbed himself in the spark and had a religious awakening at the end of the war

First Aid : A nurse stationed at Delphi under Pharma, obsessed with Autobot badges, a big fan of the Wreckers

Flywheels : One of the Scavengers, a deeply religious neoprimalist who can’t lie without transforming, has very large feet.

Fortress Maximus aka Fort Max : An Autobot, was stationed as warden of the prison Garrus 9 when it was attacked by Overlord, he was brutally tortured for three years before the Wreckers mounted a rescue. He’s been unconscious ever since.

Fulcrum : One of the Scavengers, a K-class Decepticon who miraculously survived battle and was subsequently adopted by the Scavengers.

Froid : A colleague/nemesis of Rung’s, a fellow psychologist. Missing, presumed dead

Galvatron : Ancient warrior and Cyclonus’s former lord. Nearly destroyed Cybertron fairly recently.

Getaway : An Autobot escapologist who’s been missing for some time

Glitch : Appears in the Shadowplay flashbacks, an outlier and victim of empurata, Glitch has the ability to disable non-sentient mechanical objects by touching them

Grimlock : Autobot whos alt mode is a T. Rex. Last seen at the prison Garrus 9

Helex : Member of the DJD, a very large mech with two sets of arms, kills people by stuffing them into his chest compartment smelting pool

Hoist : LL crewmember, Trailbreaker’s roommate, he’s got a spotlight you could read. He turns into a green...hoist thingie. Useful for rescuing crewmembers who are underwater.

Impactor : Appears in the Shadowplay flashbacks, a miner who was once friends with Megatron who later became the leader of the Wreckers.

Ironfist aka Fistiron : Appears in the Shadowplay flashbacks, a total nerd who was obsessed with the Primal Vanguard. During the war he was a weapons designer who ran the Wreckers: Declassified datalogs. He was eventually assigned to accompany the Wreckers on a mission, where he died.

Kaon : Member of the DJD, has no eyes, has a pet turbofox that he claims is a Sparkeater, alt mode is an electric chair

Krok : Leader of the Scavengers, looking for his old squad.

Misfire : One of the Scavengers, a Decepticon who’s a notoriously bad shot.

Nightbeat : Appears in the Shadowplay flashbacks, a detective who first finds the dead body with his partner Quark

Optimus Prime / Orion Pax : ...do I really have to? Leader of the Autobots, the most recognizable transformer, alt mode is a truck.

Ore : LL crewmember, one of the Duobots with Shock, dies early on

Overlord : A ‘Phase 6′ Decepticon who is known for being bloodthirsty, having creepy lips and being nigh unstoppable. Alt mode is a tank.

Perceptor: LL crewmember, most respected scientist on board, during the war he was a member of the Wreckers and nearly died but was saved by Drift. This led to him becoming a sniper/getting a radical sniper makeover, alt mode is a microscope

Pharma : Lead medic at Delphi, knows Ratchet from way back, alt mode is a jet

Pipes : LL crewmember, very small and optimistic and a bit awkward, alt mode is a small blue car

Proteus : Appears in the Shadowplay flashbacks, the senator that offered Decepticons political recognition if enough would officially register as Decepticons

Prowl : Autobot left on Cybertron, Chromedome’s partner from his police detective days, a schemer and strategist, flips tables over when he’s angry as a running gag, alt mode is a police car

Quark : Appears in the Shadowplay flashbacks, a detective who first finds the dead body with his partner Nightbeat

Ratchet : LL crewmember, chief medical officer of the ship and formerly of the Autobots, grumpy surly and a belligerent athiest, has ‘form fatigue’ in his hands which threatens to ruin his medical career, alt mode is an ambulance

Red Alert : LL crewmember, chief of security, struggles with paranoia and intrusive thoughts, has exceptional hearing, spies on everyone all the time (because he’s worried about them)

Rewind : LL crewmember, has a camera mounted on his head and uses it constantly, archivist, making a travelogue of the Lost Light’s adventures, very close to Chromedome, very small, alt mode is a memory stick

Rodimus, formerly Hot Rod : LL captain, has flames painted on his chest, very showy and impulsive, once carried the Matrix during the war, came up from nothing on the streets of Nyon, alt mode is a sports car

Roller : Appears in the Shadowplay flashbacks, a cop who’s a buddy of Orion Pax

Rung : LL crewmember, the only therapist on board, mysterious past, wears glasses, alt mode is a mystery

Scourge : Dead. Cyclonus’s closest friend, was also trapped in the Dead Universe and was also a zombie. By throwing his body into some magical well Galvatron created an army of Scourge clones at the end of the war...they all died too.

Shock : LL crewmember, one of the Duobots (with Ore), dies early on

Skids : joins the LL crew, Autobot who’d gone missing, can’t remember his recent past, very affable and kind, alt mode is a blue car

Spinister : One of the Scavengers, a Decepticon who’s very good at surgery and struggles with paranoia

Star Saber : A rogue member of the circle of light, a religious zealot who led ‘holy wars’ against ‘heretics’

Swerve : LL crewmember, a very chatty metallurgist who has always dreamed of being a bartender, makes a lot of jokes, desperate for real friends

Tailgate : LL crewmember, a minibot who spent several million years asleep at the bottom of a hole and missed the entire war, Cyclonus’s roommate, alt mode is a tiny blue and white car

Tarn : Leader of the DJD (Decepticon Justice Devision), the ultimate Megatron fanboy, kills people by talking to them, alt mode is a purple tank

Tesarus : Member of the DJD, very large with an X over his face, large blender in his chest that he uses to blend/torture people

Thunderclash : The best Autobot, well known war hero off on his own space adventure, on life support due to a spark injury, huge and heroic and with clashing colors

Trailbreaker/Trailcutter : LL crewmember, an outlier who can summon forcefields, has a serious drinking problem,

Trepan : Appears in the Shadowplay flashbacks, mnemosurgeon, missing in action and presumed dead, alt mode is a drill

Tyrest : Chief Justice Tyrest, a Neutral/Autobot (sometimes one, sometimes the other) who presided over peace talks, helped organize the Exodus of unafilliated Cybertronians etc. etc. Holds the Law to be the most important thing.

Ultra Magnus : LL crewmember, second in command, Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, very very tall and very very serious, obsessed with rules and order, alt mode is a truck

Vos : Member of the DJD, can only speak the Primal Vernacular, tortures people by forcing them to wear a mask of spikes, alt mode is a sniper rifle

Whirl : LL crewmember, first seen trying to light some mutilated corpses on fire, bombastic and aggressive, claws and a single optic, former member of the Wreckers, alt mode is a helicopter

Windcharger : Appears in the Shadowplay flashbacks, an outlier with the ability to levitate using magnetism

Wing : Former member of the Circle of Light, Drift’s friend and mentor, died during the Drift miniseries

(If you need to ID a very minor character, try TFWiki. The ‘Featured Characters’ listing for each issue will tell you who appeared in that issue. Be warned that all the character pages are full of spoilers.)

If I’ve made any mistakes please send corrections! I’d hate to mislead any new fans.