#anyways the art kinda holds up so i think its a cool rewind back in time

[blubblubisdead2me]

I FOUND THIS IN MY DCIM FOLDER WHAT

[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!

[minniereview]

Bloodsport

I thought it was finally time to do another review. I promised my friend Cam that the next review I did would be on Bloodsport cause’ I’ve never seen that movie before and I think he really likes that movie. Or he thought that I would really like this movie.

Before the movie started I was a bit confused as I thought the guy from Rambo was the main character in it, but it turns out it was that guy who did those commercials where he was doing the splits in-between two trucks while the trucks were moving. I forgot what the ad was for but it was pretty good and I’m pretty sure it was real! I think his name is something Van Dam. I forgot. Anyway, he reminds me of one of my favorite wrestlers, Rob Van Dam! They both seem really similar cause’ Rob Van Dam is also really flexible like the movie star and does lots of martial arts too.

I didn’t know that the movie was set in Hong Kong. Oh! His name just came up on the screen! Jean Claude? I don’t think I’ve seen any movies with him in it. Is he like a white Jackie Chan but not as good? The training at the start where they were breaking the ice cubes and coconuts was pretty intense. I guess that’s the best way to train to fight though, cause bodies are a lot softer than coconuts and blocks of ice.

I don’t really get why he escapes the army to go fight in Hong Kong. Wouldn’t you get kicked out if you left the army like that?

I liked the part when those 3 boys rocked up to that ninja masters house and the little kid just fucked up the San Fransisco Giants kid and he was like, half the size. When San Fran started talking I was like… wtf… has his voice been overdubbed?  Wait… is this a flashback? Oh! It’s a flash back. I get it. Awh now they best friends! That’s nice. Now I get why it was overdubbed. Why didn’t they just get a kid from wherever Rob Van Dam is from because that accent was horrible and distracting.

I think they should have gone into how the son died… but I guess there wouldn’t have been time for the montage of Rob Van Dam falling down a billion times. That was pretty good.  Except when ninja master pulled the gold fish out of the pond. If that was real the fish would have been moving still. When he was strung up by the rope I noticed that he had a light blue belt on. I feel like at this point he should be a black belt. I mean, he was able to pour tea and shit blindfolded and get whacked by a kendo stick when he was meditating.

After the flashback, ninja master doesn’t look like he is dying at all. He looks the same age as what he was in the flash back. They should have fixed that.

The American fighter in this looks like The Hound from GoT but without the burny face. I’m glad Van Dam has a friend but he doesn’t seem like he is very nice to ladies. Van Dam looks like he would be nice to ladies. I wonder if this has a love story in it.

Hong Kong in the 80’s looks very sad and dangerous. Even The Hound was scared walking down that alley way. I knew cause he put his hand on Rob Van Dam’s shoulder. When they finally got to where the ring was it looked quite nice inside. I am a little confused though cause the man said you needed an invite to fight but where did they get them from? Cause’ ninja master seemed like a nice man, I didn’t think he would get caught up in something like this. I didn’t get why they asked him to break the bottom brick, surely you can’t make the brick explode like that?! Is that even a thing? And also how does that prove that ninja master trained him?

This reporter lady is a bit of a shit. Hasn’t she seen Fight Club? The first rule about Kumite is that you don’t TALK about Kumite. I feel bad about what happened to her in the bar when that the guy was trying to take her up to his room and stuff. That wouldn’t have been fun. I hope Rob Van Dam doesn’t end up with her.

For a secret fight club, this doesn’t look very secret. There’s like, hundreds of people there watching! Surely the army guys will find Rob Van Dam. If they don’t they aren’t very good army detectives.

During the fighting party I feel like they could have done a bit better with the sound effects. I don’t know that when you hit a body it sounds that dramatic. When The Hound was fighting that guy with the mullet that was pretty crazy. He just like, did the big fist like what Big Show does or Karhli and the guy was out cold. I hope he has more moves than that cause’ I don’t think that will get him very far.

Jesus Christ! The guy that has never been beaten has MASSIVE boobies! He’s so amazing. He just put that guy in a sleeper hold for like 2 seconds and he was out. I don’t think it was necessary that he hit him again. He was already out. Come on man.

I feel like it was too much of a coincidence that Rob Van Dam fought the asshole from the bar. I did really enjoy all of the fight scenes. Especially that awful 80s song came on and they did a montage of all of them. Some of these fighters are real shit though. You’d think that the calibre of fighters would be really great cause’ it’s an invite only kinda thing.

When the army guys finally caught up with Rob Van Dam it was sooo obvious he was going to get away because they played happy music with a lot of synth. It was almost like slap stick comedy in a way. I feel like they could have made it way more intense if they played something less 80’s.

NO ROB VAN DAM. DON’T GET DISTRACTED BY THIS REPORTER! SHE’S USING YOU TO GET INTO THE KUMITE! OH MY GOD THEY SHOWED HIS BUTT! I tried to make Brandon rewind it so I could see that shit again but he wouldn’t. Rob Van Dam has a butt that just won’t quit. Its rock-solid gold. He should have showered before he left. Now he’s probably got sex stank smell which is only going to get worse when he is fighting. Oh no now his girlfriend reporter is with another man. When she said “this isn’t the first time Ive had to go undercover to get a story” right in front of everyone I was like, what the fuck lady? You are the worst reporter in history. Do you even know what undercover means?! It means not telling everyone that you’re undercover. You stupid idiot.

More montages with 80s music. The guy that never loses is so broad and massive. How does he even hold up his arms. I didn’t watch the part where he broke that other guys leg cause I think I might have spewed. But then they cut back to the reporter lady and she got out her tape recorder in front of everyone. This lady is a real piece of work. Rob Van Dam is going to have to save her at some point in this movie. I can just tell.

I wish they showed more fight scenes with Rob Van Dam cause he is amazing. He’s so quick. Where is he from? They keep saying he is American but I don’t think he is. Is he where Arnie is from? Or is he where Rambo is from?

When Rob Van Dam was fighting the big guy and he punched him in the balls, I thought the crowd would turn on him cause’ that’s a bit dirty but it turns out they liked him more after that. I got real sad when the big bad guy beat The Hound and stole his headband. I think Rob Van Dam is going to get the headband back and its going to be really symbolic.

Another montage of Rob Van Dam training. He literally has 0% body fat. When they showed him on The Peak, Brandon explained that across the water was China! I didn’t realise how close China was! That’s pretty cool.

I really like how every time Rob Van Dam is in casual clothes, he’s wearing high waisted pants with a collar shirt tucked in. He pulls it off for sure. I don’t think anybody else could. Now they are all back in the arena and the army guys and that stupid reporter lady came in to watch. She seems happy when Rob Van Dam kicks kick boxers ass but its like, bitch, you just told on him cause you didn’t want him to fight. Make up your mind you stupid idiot!

Oh no! Big bad killed someone. Come on now. There’s no need for that. Surely they have to call it off and extradite him. Everyone seems so sad about it. Are they praying for the man that died? I think they are praying for him. That’s nice.

Now it’s the main event and Rob Van Dam is looking calm. But what did big bad put in his shorts? It looked like a tablet or something. I’m scared and I didn’t really wanna watch this part but Rob Van Dam opened the fight with a swift kick to the throat hole which was sick as fuck. Why did they make the ring like a skate ramp. OH IT WAS SALT THE BIG BAD PUT IN HIS EYE! Lucky he learnt how to fight and pour tea with a eye mask on. He just has to centre himself now and remember his training. Come on son. Now hes had his little freak out and flash backs he’s ready to KICK SOME FUCKING ASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. GET IT! YOU’RE FUCKED NOW, BIG BAD! LOOK AT HIS WINDMILL KICKS! Can someone explain to me why there were cat sounds all through the fighting though cause that was really distracting.

This movie seems too outrageous to be based on a true story but it was! WTF!

I did really like this movie although I thought most of what was going to happened seemed pretty obvious. Like when he got The Hounds headscarf back and stuff. I think I would like to watch more Rob Van Dam movies in the future. Four stars!

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog - spotlights edition

yeah imma be real w/you chief i don't remember these at all so a reread is definitely in order. so: spotlights trailcutter and hoist

so first ill do trailcutter cause i think that one comes first? maybe? 

so this one takes place between 5 and 6....whoops

so here we have: shield man 

the introduction of the rodimus star! very crucial worldbuilding 

hvbhjskhdfjkd rodimus is so self-congratulatory lmaoooooo

also brainstorm looks rlly cute standing up there holding his briefcase aww

‘wear it with pride, chromedome’ hbsjkdhfghskdf rodimus is so funny 

tailgate. did u know ily 

is. is that a headmasters joke 

whirl hvbdusfbjasjdf that's so fucking funny 

im so bad at elaborating on things in these lmaooo I'm sorry I'm lazy af 

of COURSE whirl drew a mustache on his rod star lmaooo

whirl is such a dick hvhfsdjbsdkf i love him

actually, rodimus is kind of a dick too. i love him also

ok I'm sad abt trailbreaker. especially knowing what happens to him later. oof 

whirl is so goddamn entertaining

is that KILLMASTER??? it must be, i see a wand LMAO

i just want to quote half the lines from any given mtmte/mtmte-adjacent issue but alas that's not really how liveblogs are supposed to work

whirl and brainstorm is an underrated dynamic tbh

oh, tb, never make wishes like that before bed

can’t believe there's really a tf named huffer

oh no! everyone's had a blue filter placed over them!

ohhh and there's rodimus laying into rewind for having those snuff films

so this definitely takes place at the same time as spotlight hoist, then

magnawheels is dope af. he should be magnawheels guy instead of forcefield guy

so whatever froze everyone WASNT the cons doing...interesting

brainstorm being frozen cowering in fear is a nice touch. i love all the early-mtmte stuff that subtly paints him as a big coward, especially considering everything we later learn abt him 

ayy its lockdown! i remember him from tfa as a kid

and then tb - tc? - gives whirls Epic Beatdown Speech. love it 

some classic ‘bad guy explains his business’ stuff 

was metroplex the titan in the annual? or is he the one back on cybertron? the name is familiar but my memory for continuity is horrible 

very nice persuasive deception there, tb

‘how come we don't all have [magnawheels]?’ yknow that's a very good question rodimus

HBFSKJDGDSKJF the really big rodimus...medal...plate...thing lmao 

did this come out right before mtmte 16??? why did it come out so late if its set so early lmao

anyways, that was fun! i never have much to say abt spotlights hvbdahkjfbs sorry. i like tb and this was a cool kinda ‘greatest story never told’ tale!! 

next up: spotlight hoist!

is that tarn??? bro i totally forget what happens in this spotlight augh

i do like seeing tarn get trees thrown at him, tho. even tho iirc that isn't actually tarn, or something. ok we’ll see 

oh yeah swerves in this one! and sunstreaker, who is a character that exists and is on the lost light, but is also someone we basically never see. same with hoist, actually, i feel like we don't see him at all after this, unlike TB

no offense but sunstreaker looks mildly horrifying in this art style. why is his mouth Like That?

HGBSHJKFHSHGSUDJKF PERCEPTOR IS HERE TOO AND HES MASHED INTO THE CEILING. OR THE FLOOR BUT UPSIDE DOWN. LMAOOOOO POOR DUDE

so hoist must’ve been hailing them just as shit started going down in spotlight tb

also why does percy not have his microscope scope or his eye thingy. he looks weirdly symmetrical 

bob..................

i love the implications of an offscreen superlatives award ceremony, what with swerve apparently being voted ‘ships coward,’ and whirls profile saying he was voted ‘autobot most likely to defect’

oh, you're scared of overlord, swerve? well you're not gonna be too thrilled to hear about a certain upcoming plot, 

poor hoist, being sidelined then roasted in his own spotlight 

hoist really said ‘I'm just a normie, unlike all you psychologically damaged main characters’ and yknow what? he wasn't wrong 

ok so hoist was rlly like ‘I'm normal, i don't have any trauma unlike you fools. anyways [talks abt the time he was the sole survivor of a plane crash and almost died]’ like oh honey

oof swerve, being hilariously, concerningly flippant about dying, especially for an apparent coward 

so perceptor is still lodged in the ceiling I'm assuming...im sorry that's just really funny hvbhfsjdkufbsjk

and there's all of swerves fears...and they even combine into a giant scary decepticon lmao

‘phobia shield’ is so in line with that particular Brand(tm) of mtmte sci-fi technology, i fuckgin love it

WHERE THE HELL IS PERCEPTORS LOWER BODY. THATS FUCKED UP I THOT HIS LEGS WERE JUST STUCK IN THE CEILING WTF 

oh damn it latched onto bob 

OH GOD WHATS THIS ENDING WTF. that's fucking depressing, jesus. i mean ik they get rescued and everything's fine but what the hell

anyways, i liked this one a lot too! nice episodic feel, with a coolly poetic ending. i do feel bad for hoist bc this felt like half his spotlight, half swerves lmao AND hoist doesn't really show up in the story much after this, from what i remember. either way this was still a fun read!