#i like to specifically read until TAAO and then stop

[avocado62524]

[ark-of-eden]

Accidentally drifting away from IDW Transformers?

(R:) I realized recently that I can't remember the last time that I bought, or even really looked forward to buying, any IDW TF comic. I remember a while ago when I was united with other fans who were excitedly posting things like, "Only three more sleeps until release!!" I used to mark release dates on my calendar and sit around on Comixology, refreshing the site until the early hours of the morning so I could get issues right when they came out. My life's been in kind of a shitty place for a while, but IDW TF stuff used to be one of the few things that actually got me excited and that I looked forward to. Now I just kind of...vaguely recall that new issues have been happening when somebody posts a screencap that I haven't seen before. I don't really know what's been happening since I suddenly stopped reading months ago, but since people are barely posting spoilers and big meta analyses anymore (used to be that the day after an issue dropped, screencaps and spoilers were so thick on the digital ground that there was no way to dodge it all unless you filtered everything), I suspect that a lot of other people are feeling this as well? Maybe? :/

When I tried to encapsulate what was causing it, the biggest reason I could think of was that a whole lot of things that were relatable to me or that were interesting just definitively ended all at once. Even though I was following several series, this sort of happened simultaneously in all of them, which caused that sense that IDW TF as a concept wasn't really relevant anymore.

Examples of things that are now gone that were evidently more important to me than I'd originally thought:

* TAAO ended, and it seems up in the air as to who is going to continue it (if they continue it somehow) and what they're going to do with the plotline and main characters despite the dangling story hooks. I admit that I haven't even bought the last issue because hell, there's nothing coming after it, and this way I can at least pretend that it's still ongoing and I just haven't caught up. I was invested in Starscream because his situation mirrored some parts of my actual life, so I wanted him to succeed despite acknowledging his personality failings. Apparently there is good Starscream in that other Vs series that started recently and which I am so invested in that I can't even remember the name of it most days ("Starscream of Gor"?). But that seems to be Starscream chewing up scenery by being classically himself, as opposed to being something related to his TAAO character development.

* Megatron. It's not that his arc was bad or that the ending was bad, but interesting things were being done with him and now that he is gone all those interesting things are over. Previously, he was the Soulless Evil Warlord Who Keeps Being Disturbingly Heroic Sometimes. Then there was the weirdness of Autobot Megatron, which at least provided fuel for interesting philosophical thoughts. (Ravage is also gone, but he was underutilized, IMO, so there's the added tragedy of nothing interesting ever being done with him in the future.) I get that Megatron might be coming back later, but then he'll be...Atheist Jesus Megatron? I felt that there was more mileage left in him as he was, so even if the character comes back, those previous versions of him will still be gone.

* Tailgate. TBH, I think this was the last thing that I was curious about in post-Megatron LL plot country, because it was dealing with the transformation of a powerless person into an overpowered person and how he was changing, his relationships were changing, and it was all very complicated and muddy and fascinating. I'm sure that he'll be rescued eventually, but who knows when. In the meantime, there's a void where that whole plotline used to be.

* Skids, or specifically Dead Skids. Apparently there's a plotline going on where people are trying to resurrect him? And maybe they won't succeed, but the fact that this is even a thing made me realize that I've hit critical mass in my tolerance for people being Surprise Not Actually Dead. JRo has this weird reputation for being a monster who is constantly pawing the Sudden Character Death trigger, but he really doesn't kill main characters all that often. Trailbreaker/cutter and the DJD are the only main, ongoing characters who died and stayed dead, IIRC? Like, I really appreciated the emotional impact of Rewind's death, but a new Rewind showed up quickly and all that emotion went flat. Tailgate was dying dramatically and then got 100% better at the last minute. Pharma was infected with Robo Ebola, got his hands cut off and was left for dead in the middle of nowhere, was implausably rescued and got all better, got his head blown off, and is foreshadowed to be coming back AGAIN. (Don't get me wrong, my warped ass loves Pharma, but seriously??) Cyclonus dramatically shielded Tailgate from a hail of bullets and seemed dead, but showed up later with only cosmetic damage - Accidental Dead Universe No-Sell FTW. The entire cast, including bonus Overlord, got slaughtered, but it was another dimension so it didn't really count for anything (except that replacement Rewind). And Skids dramatically Died For The World's Sins and who knows, they might succeed in bringing him back too. I am actually cashed out on the experience of being emotionally affected by a person's death/dying only for it to un-happen shortly afterward. If you're going to tearjerk by killing people, just fucking kill people.

* The DJD. Tarn was another person who uncomfortably reminds me of me in too many ways, enough so that I at least wanted him to be around for a while so he could fuck up his life and everything around himself in relatable ways that encourage me to drink heavily. (I have a historical weakness for characters like him, so this isn't specifically a Tarn thing - Tarn's just the local incarnation of that type.) Character development for the rest of the guys definitely wouldn't have hurt either. Their deaths made plot sense, but they're gone now and I don't think they'll be easily replaced.

* Deathsaurus and his merry mecha. Sure, they're also still out there and are supposedly going to come back at some point, but they were interesting and now they're gone.

* Most of the interesting things in the Optimus Prime series, particularly now that Prowl is gone. Prowl jumped series and is now on LL Bad Cop Vacation on the moon? For some reason?? It was never clear to me why he got it into his head that he had to go there, but he is no longer pulling strings on half the plot and just seems to be retired. While I'm happy for him, he was a huge part of why I even bothered with that series. There's some interesting stuff going on with Optimus Vs Pyra Magna on the religious front, but LBR, that series is fucking crawling with humans and human concerns and all that crap, so I need a real good reason to spend time in that environment. (I deal with humans every day of my life. I don't need humans in my escapist media.)

* Nick Roche, may his sanctity endure forever, is done making Wreckers series? I think I heard? A portion of the perfect light of mercy has departed this sinful world forever. TTnTT

That's all that's coming to mind at the moment, but that's rather a lot of things that used to be vital to my interest and which are now gone. Mostly I read a whole lot of fanfic and get excited about those plotlines instead of whatever's going on in canon because people are still writing a lot of fic set back in the parts of canon where things were still cool. :/

I dunno. I'm sort of peripherally aware of what's going on, but it keeps slipping my mind to get recent issues and catch up. :( I'm not switching fandoms, so far as I can tell (is there anything besides TF and 40K where you can read an entire book with few or no humans at all? ...True, maybe those various YA series where all the characters are animals...), but maybe I'm just turning into one of those people who ignores current canon and hangs around in the rosy past instead? :/