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felyas-stuff · 2 months

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TMNT 2012 Space Arc Rewrite: Fugitoid

First in-depth character post for our rewrite is about Honeycutt because this rewrite was made by me and my friend @unscapedgoat what else were you expecting

All of the art featured here is a year and a half old at this point because we’ve been working on this rewrite for a long time and just didn’t post anything…the perfectionist in me says that I can do better but I won’t because the designs themselves are still relevant (though I recommend checking out this post for the characters designs). Speaking of…

Appearance

Zayton is a d’hoonib - a humanoid alien with big cat and eagle like features. He’s 6’1 feet and hundreds if not thousands of years old at this point - he’s old even for a long-living race. For his clothes I went for a mix of sad beige (because HAVE YOU SEEN HIS SHIP DECOR) and pirate (because he’s an outlaw who has a ship you know…some of you might even remember my "ship in the bottle" doodles) vibes

Fusiontoid is a modified 6 feet SAL model (both the original robot and the modificated version were created by Honeycutt). Compared to a regular SAL model, this one’s pearly-white instead of silver, has slim claw-like fingers, built-in weaponry and wires going from his brain to his main engine that function as neurons. When he’s not on Ulixes he carries an oxygen ballon because…human(oid) brains need that you know! He also has a spacesuit that he uses both as an oxygen ballon alternative and a disguise.

Story

Just like in IDW, SAL was one of Rewrite!2012 Honeycutt’s first inventions…which he later started mass-producing and selling because from what it seems like in OG and our AU 2012 Zayton is a freelancer from a rich family who earns money by selling various inventions of his. They did keep one SAL model for himself though, and later added a bunch of adjustments and renovations to it. Soon after his parents death Zayton started adding other renovations for his robot as well as rewriting the code and adding in a certain protocol, experimenting with the idea of making SAL his future body - after all, the man is old and dying is scary…The project however was scrapped when it was almost finished, after the scientist realised how risky this whole thing is and how easily it can go wrong. One of Honeycutt’s most recent inventions was the Black Hole generator. Something that can be used for good (it could’ve been a great power source for example) but all the potential buyers wanted to use to for mass murder - something the scientist didn’t want to happen. But because Zayton refused to sell their invention to anyone, he started to run out of money, making it hard for him to even pay for his home/ship Ulixes. The rumours of a brilliant scientist being this desperate for money started spreading near and far. This is when the Krang decided to show up and offered such a huge payment, that at this point Honeycutt just couldn’t refuse.

But hours after that Zayton realised that what he did was truly horrible and by this time the Krang could’ve killed millions of innocent people. And, just how Honeycutt thought - days later triceratons broke into Ulixes, asking the scientist to build them the same invention Krang used to destroy their home planet. Zayton refused, and before the triceratons killed him, Honeycutt gave one last order to his robot: destroy the heart of darkness

Hours later, Honeycutt wakes up in SAL’s body, only now realising that even though the brain transferring project was scrapped it was still a part of his robot’s new program - and, by following that program, it revived its creator in its own body. And, if it wasn’t already bad enough - Honeycutt’s new body will follow Honeycutt’s latest order of destroying the black hole generator no matter what. Horrified at the thought of being forever stuck in a robot’s body and having to eventually sacrifice himself to right his wrongs, the scientist just sits there for a good minute, trying to get their new body to move while thinking about what the hell is he gonna do now

Meanwhile Nathan Bishop (this rewrite’s OC inspired by 2012 Bishop because let’s be real 2012 Bishop isn’t much like Bishop and should’ve just been a new character with the same surname or something) finds out about what his old pal Zayton did and he’s pissed. He doesn’t tell about this to other utroms and just storms off to Ulixes to tell Honeycutt that he has less than an hour to explain himself, run as far as he can, and pray to god that they will die sooner than the Utrom Council finds and executes him. But Bishop quickly changes his mind once he sees what once was his friend - a brutally disfigured humanoid body and a scared robot covered in blood. Honeycutt quickly explains this whole situation and Nathan decides to stay at Ulixes for longer and help him. Because cutting off their ties now would just be cruel - clearly, Honeycutt already got consequences for his actions and regrets what they did.

Later on the two discover just how unstable Zayton’s current state is - in our rewrite AU he’s not just "jittery and nervous" because of his fusion core - he’s a robot filled to the brim with formaldehyde. A liquid of polar molecules. Honeycutt made sure that there won’t be any leakage, but next to so many electronics short-circuiting is bound to happen. And after a while Zayton’s brain just gives up and their body goes into somewhat of an auto-pilot mode, controlled by SAL. After a good rest (which usually takes a whole day) Zayton gets control of his body back. Yes, he does sleep, that’s something human(oid) brains do. No, you can never tell because he always seems active due to the body being in control of either Honeycutt himself or SAL. The two function separately and have their own memories, the last of SAL’s being that Honeycutt is dead. That’s why the triceratons named him Fusiontoid in the first place - at this point the maul-functioning android is neither fully SAL or Honeycutt, but an uneven mix of both. There is some sort of brain rot going on which results in him forgetting some of their memories. Sometimes Honeycutt uses it to his advantage to seem innocent and unaware of what he did while he was still a humanoid…but most of the times it’s just a huge inconvenience for both Honeycutt himself and his friends, making them question if, at this point, Honeycutt is still…well, Honeycutt.

Nathan, however, trusts his cyborg friend enough to ask him to help his earthling friends. At first Zayton agrees for a selfish reason - saving Earth and destroying the black hole generator would both fulfil his only purpose (from SAL’s perspective) and fix his reputation (the triceratons deemed him a criminal and at this point things Zayton did and what happened to them is a common knowledge for many). However, during their journey Honeycutt gets attached to his new friends and gets an on-screen redemption arc that lasts throughout this rewrite’s space arc - later on they genuinely want to help the main six save their homeplanet and even becomes a father figure for Donnie, Mikey and April and even tries to find another way to destroy the Black Hole Generator without blowing himself up so that the three won’t be sad about his death. Leo is also thrilled about getting a new father but for all the wrong reasons which I’ll talk more about in the next rewrite posts, but in short - Leo sees Honeycutt as a Splinter replacement (art below by @unscapedgoat)

Trivia

• They actually introduce themselves as Fusiontoid Honeycutt to keep their status quo for those who don’t know about his full story yet. He also does his best to keep this image of a silly friendly robot that totally never did anything wrong in his life ever. The more Honeycutt begins to trust the main six, the more he acts as his true self around them, slowly revealing who he really is

• Honeycutt had persistent tic disorder and ADD while he was humanoid which only worsened after he became a cyborg. They’re also autistic

• The bleep-bloop stuff are tics half the times and built-in censorship other times…which is a great robotic body feature to have when your bestie basically asked you to babysit six angsty teens who are constantly getting on your nerves

• Honeycutt used to go by he/him/they/them/it/its but no longer uses the last one because ever since he became a cyborg people only called him that in a derogatory way as if he’s some kind of object

• He used to have great relationships with his parents…and now that they’re gone and Honeycutt himself became a cyborg outlaw they sometimes feels like a disgrace to their family (the fact that some people actually called him out like that also doesn’t help)

• They’re probably the worst father figure imaginable and they know it what they don’t know is that these mutants real dad is even worse Honeycutt’s rather immature despite his age because he had the privilege of never facing any real problems up until now. Sometimes they outright neglect their newfound kids in favour of their own needs (especially at the start of the story) but later on start taking better care of the main six and grows a lot as a person.

• Leo, Honeycutt and Nathan have a bonding experience over the fact that they’re all into cheesy sci-if films from Earth

• Speaking of Earth - that’s one of Honeycutt’s main special interests. He’s especially fascinated with the turtles and April because OMG MUTANTS? YOU CAN ACTUALLY DO THAT WITH UTROM OOZE??? awesomesauce

• Since Honeycutt has memory issues at first he couldn’t remember the main six’s names and called them like their defining traits - Freckles, Toothgap, CrackedShell, Scar, Human and…April. Because a month like that already exists that’s not hard to remember

#teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2012 #tmnt #tmnt rewrite #tmnt au #tmnt rewritten space #tmnt fusiontoid #fugitoid #zayton honeycutt #professor honeycutt #character design #redesign #rewrite

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gale-gentlepenguin · 4 months

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Gale Reviews: Men In Black (The Original Trilogy)

(Thanks @knightsweeties for this sick pic)

For this Review I will be talking about Men In Black (1997)

Men in Black 2 (2002) and Men In Black 3 (2012)

Yes I know there is a 4th one but it is NOT part of the trilogy Men In Black international doesnt count as its more akin to a reboot/spinoff

Now normally I only review one movie at a time, but for this review I will be exploring things a touch differently. with the following:

Plot

Characters (and how they develop)

Effects

Action

Moral lesson

How does it build on the previous stories

Overall

Now if you havent watched the MIB trilogy. Spoilers below

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Plot

For the sake of Convenience. I will be taking the IMDB summaries from each and the putting my thoughts. (I will trim the fat on these synopses. to save on time)

Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) is a member of the Men in Black (MIB), a secret agency without ties to any government, whose goal is to maintain Earth as a "neutral zone" for extraterrestrial aliens, whom they disguise as humans around New York City. The agency maintains its secrecy by using a Neuralyzer to wipe the memories of those that encounter either them or the aliens, and also the memories of former agents when they retire.

K's former partner D has just retired after an incident at a border line between the U.S and Mexico where an alien disguised as a human almost killed a INS Officer but K finds New York City detective James Darrell Edwards III (Will Smith) as a potential replacement, due to his ability to follow a disguised alien. After putting Edwards through several tests, K offers him the chance to join the MIB. Edwards' identity is erased, and he becomes Agent J, K's partner. K orients J about the MIB; during this, they learn that numerous alien refugees are fleeing the Earth. MIB is contacted by an Arquillian fleet in Earth orbit; the fleet warns that a "Bug," a member of a giant cockroach-like species that are at war with several alien races, has come to Earth searching for an object known as the Galaxy. It's infinite power could turn the tide of war in favor of the Bugs. To prevent this, they are willing to destroy the Earth unless the MIB can secure the Galaxy before their deadline, only hours away.

Agent K and Agent J find the Bug is disguised using the skin of farmer Edgar (Vincent D'Onofrio) after killing the human. It already killed two Arquillians it believed had the Galaxy. The two bodies, along with a cat that refuses to leave its owner, are taken to the city morgue. There, Dr. Laurel Weaver (Linda Fiorentino) discovers one of the tiny Arquillians is barely alive inside its human looking robot; struggling with English, it whispers to her that "The Galaxy is on Orion's belt" before it expires. K and J arrive to help remove the alien bodies and wipe Laurel's mind, but not before learning about this message.

As the Arquillian deadline looms, the MIB tries to figure out how Edgar will leave. J then recalls from his initial briefing that the observation towers at Flushing Meadows are disguised spacecraft. Agents K and J race there, finding Edgar climbing one of the structures. Their arrival distracts the Bug but it enters the craft and starts the engines. The agents fire on the ship, forcing it to crash. As the two face off against Edgar, it rips through its disguise, swallows their guns and knocks them across the field. K tells J to keep the Bug from getting to the second ship by creating a distraction. K goads the Bug to eat him, which it does by swallowing him whole. J keeps the Bug distracted by stepping on cockroaches around a nearby dumpster.

Before J can be eaten by the enraged Bug he tells the bug to get out of his face before something bad happens. K having found his gun in the Bug's stomach, then blasts his way out, ripping the alien in half. K is slime covered but safe and J picks up the the Galaxy from among the contents of the Bug's stomach. The news is then relayed to the Arquillian fleet, saving the Earth. While J and K are recovering from their battle, the top-half of the bug suddenly rears up behind them, but Laurel shoots the bug with J's gun which was ejected from the Bug's stomach.

As MIB cleans up the situation, and K apparently prepares to Neuralyze Laurel, he admits that he was not training J as a partner but as his replacement, as he is ready to retire from the agency. J reluctantly acknowledges this and Neuralyzes him. In the epilogue, Laurel is Agent J's new partner Agent L, while K (now Kevin Brown) has returned to civilian life and the girl he left behind, and J and L began to investigate more aliens disguised as humans as they drive away the headquarters.

The plot throws a lot at the viewer in the beginning, but it never feels overwhelming it immerses the viewer in the world of MIB, and it has K training J to replace him. It is actually a touch heartwarming of a story but outside of that... the actual plot outside of Agent J's origin is pretty middling. Also Laurel is not that interesting of a female lead in this, the chemistry is lacking compared to J and K. Overall I give this plot a 7/10. A solid start for the series, and can be watched with little to no knowledge of the source material

Now for the sequel MIB 2

5 years after the events of Men in Black, Agent J (Will Smith) is now the top operative for the MIB, J is largely without a partner, after Agent L (from the first film) decided to return to her former life and subsequent partners have not lived up to J's professional standards. While investigating a seemingly routine crime at a SoHo pizzeria, J uncovers a diabolical plot by Serleena, a shape-shifting Kylothian queen who disguises herself as a lingerie model (Lara Flynn Boyle), but resembles a plant-like hydra in her own form. The Neuralyzed Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) has assumed civilian life as Kevin Brown, postmaster of a small town in Massachusetts, and to stop her, J must convince Kevin to rejoin MIB, because he is the only operative still alive who knows how to find what Serleena wants, the "Light of Zartha".

While J tries to Deneuralyze Kevin, Serleena breaks into MIB resulting in a lock down; J and Kevin escape after being flushed from the building. J then takes Kevin to Jack Jeebs (Tony Shalhoub), who built an unofficial Deneuralyzer. Although K eventually regains some of his memory, he still has no recollection of the "Light of Zartha" (he Neuralyzed himself) but left himself a series of clues in case he needed to remember. The clues eventually lead to a video-store where they watch a tape that jars K's memory: 25 years ago, the Zarthan Queen Laurana arrived on Earth to try to hide the Light of Zartha, but the MIB refused to help due to their neutrality. Serleena arrived to steal the Light, but K activated the Zarthan ship and sent it away. Serleena, believing the Light is on board the ship, chased the ship, but not before fatally shooting Laurana. K then reveals that the ship was a decoy, and that the Light is still hidden on Earth.

Meanwhile, Serleena frees all of the MIB's high-security prisoners and uses them as henchmen. Believing that the Light is in the bracelet worn by Laura Vasquez (Rosario Dawson), a waitress at the pizzeria, Serleena kidnaps Laura and prepares to send her back to her home-world. K and J assault MIB headquarters, defeat Serleena's henchmen, and rescue Laura. However, K warns them that if the Light is not taken off Earth and returned to Zartha, it will explode and destroy the planet. As they make their way to the departure point, Serleena gives chase but is eaten by Jeff, a giant alien worm living in the New York subway system. When they reach the departure point, K reveals that Laura is Laurana's daughter and the actual Light of Zartha (it's also suggested that he is her father as well). To save Earth and Zartha, Laura reluctantly leaves Earth, much to J's dismay, as he had developed feelings for her.

Serleena returns to try to capture Laura again, but K and J manage to destroy her for good. To cover up the chaos caused by Serleena's rampage, K activates a giant Neuralyzer hidden in the Statue of Liberty's torch. Now that Laura is gone, K and Agent Zed (Rip Torn the head of MIB) try to console J for his loss, but he answers that he needs no consolation and had accepted her departure without much sorrow. To provide a measure of comfort, K puts the aliens found in a Grand Central Terminal locker, as one of the clues, in J's locker. After J suggests, showing them that their world is bigger than a locker, K shows him and Frank through a door, that they, are in fact an alien species themselves, kept in a locker in an alien station, suggesting to his rookie worldview.

This film Builds on what was established in the past, but also has it explained on why K returns but Laurel (L) is no longer part of the MIB. I think this does act as a phenomenal sequel. The plot has higher stakes, the chase around the city that was similar in the last one is more refined. It is basically the plot of the first one but executed better with Rosario dawson's character having much more chemistry with J. And in a way it has a twist of Having Agent J mentoring K in this case, allowing for a roll reversal, keeping the dynamic fresh and then shifting back when needed. The film works well on its own, but with an actually more interesting villain, Serleena, it adds more than the previous one did in plot.

8/10

Then Finally Men in black 3 (This one is complicated so I didnt cut out the details)

Boris the Animal, last surviving member of the predatory Boglodyte race, escapes from the inescapable LunarMax prison on Earth's moon intent on going back in time to kill Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), who on July 16 1969, caused the loss of one of Boris' arms and arrested him. On Earth, K learns of the escape after investigating a spaceship crash in the New York City streets and a Chinese restaurant teeming with alien life. While K won't reveal any details to Agent J (Will Smith), he confesses his regret at not having killed Boris in 1969. Meanwhile Boris has reached Earth & attacks the son, Jeffery Price, of the fellow inmate for a device that will allow him to travel back in time & kill K before he took away his arm.

Boris arrives at that restaurant (as it has his favorite dish) & attacks J & K. Both escape, but not before Boris tells K that he is already dead. K is very afraid. Late that night when the two agents are in their respective apartments, K calls J seemingly to tell all but remains silent and J hangs up on him. K then makes preparation for an ambush and sets to wait when all traces of him and his apartment disappear. The next morning J goes to talk with K and discovers the world is different. At MIB headquarters, J learns that all other MIB personnel remember K as having been killed in action in the year 1969.

Agent O (Emma Thompson), the new Chief after Zed's passing, deduces from J's insistence of his reality and knowledge of details about Agent K that a fracture has occurred in the space-time continuum. She deduces Boris time-jumped to 1969 - knowledge of time-travel having been restricted to prevent such an occurrence - and killed K, resulting in a different future reality and an imminent Boglodyte invasion of Earth, now vulnerable due to the absence of the protective ArcNet which, in J's version of reality, K had installed in 1969. Through electronics-shop owner Jeffrey Price, J acquires the same time-jump mechanism as Boris, but his query about how he can remember K when nobody else can merely results in Jeffrey informing him that he must have 'been there'. J's plan is to arrive on July 15th & kill the younger Boris, so that the elder Boris who went back to kill K, wont even exist. As the doomed Earth is being invaded, J jumps off the Chrysler Building to reach time-travel velocity and arrives in 1969 the day before Boris is supposed to kill K.

With some inevitable challenges upon his arrival - including his lack of resources and his skin color - J goes to Coney Island to intercept Boris while he is there to commit a historically recorded murder. Turns out the younger Boris was at Coney Island to find Griffin, the creator of the Arcnet which is a device that can save Earth from a Boglodyian invasion. But a 29-year-old Agent K (Josh Brolin) interrupts and arrests J. After fruitless questioning at MIB headquarters because J had been advised not to interact with the young Agent, K has J placed inside a large Neuralyzer. At the last second, after J confesses the truth of his mission, K aborts the procedure. As a wary team, they follow clues of Boris' trail to a bowling alley then to Andy Warhol's Factory, where they meet the prescient alien Griffin, who occupies 5-dimensions and possesses the ArcNet. Griffin tells them the Boglodytes destroyed his planet, and that he does not wish the Earth to suffer the same fate. Griffin then warns the two agents of Boris' impending arrival with the intent to kill him and leaves just before Boris arrives. Agent K narrowly escapes his own demise at the hands of Boris. The elder Boris arrives, meeting up with his younger self and both agree to get the ArcNet and kill K so that the invasion will be imminent.

The Agents later locate Griffin at Shea Stadium, where he gives them the ArcNet and instructs K it has to be placed onto the Apollo 11 lunar rocket launch occurring in less than six hours in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Boris arrives and snatches Griffin and the Agents pursue to rescue him from a certain fate. Upon arriving at Cape Canaveral, the agents and Griffin are arrested by military police. A colonel, however, allows them to continue their mission after Griffin uses his precognitive power to show the colonel how important the agents are.

At the launch pad, J and K confront both the 1969 and 2012 incarnations of Boris and the battle ensues on the rocket scaffolding as the ignition blastoff counts down. The elder Boris impales J with his spikes before they both fall off the pad; however, J uses the time-jump to travel back to the beginning of the fight and avoid the spikes before pushing the elder Boris off the scaffolding, falling to the pad below. Meanwhile, as K battles the younger Boris, he disconnects a hose causing it to spray liquid hydrogen on Boris' left arm, freezing it and causing it to shatter. K then plants the ArcNet on the top of the rocket in the last seconds before blastoff. The elder Boris is incinerated to death in the blastoff and the protective shield deploys as the rocket leaves Earth's atmosphere.

The Colonel congratulates K returning from the launch pad. As J watches from the distance, the younger Boris surprises them and kills the Colonel. The younger Boris tries to goad K into arresting him, but the junior agent instead shoots the young Boris this time, killing him. A young boy named James exits a military vehicle looking for his father, who happens to be the Colonel. He pulls out a pocket watch revealed earlier to have been passed down to Agent J by his father, and J realizes that the young boy is actually his younger self (Explaining Jeffrey's revelation that he was there; he was present when Boris altered history by killing K). Unwilling to reveal his father's death, K Neuralyzes James, telling him his father is a hero. It was then J realized why K wouldn't tell him about why he regretted arresting Boris in the first place.

With the time-line restored, J returns to the present day, where he meets his partner at a diner. There, he shows K his father's pocket watch and thanks him. As they leave the diner, Griffin, a few seats away, tells the viewers all is well with the world, except for an imminent asteroid impact on Earth if this is the time-line where K forgot to leave a tip. But when K returns to leave his tip, the asteroid collides with an orbiting satellite instead of the Earth, thus it is safe for now.

Now on principal I am IFFY on all time travel plots. But the way MIB handles this is actually quite methodical. It explains how time travel mechanics work, how the changes work. And it even PROPERLY explains 5th dimensional understanding as we theorize. Plus young Agent K had an amazing performance and had wonderful chemistry with J. And the scene when its revealed that K knew J even before he knew him and that seeing this kid lose his dad is why he became his serious self was something that moved me.

Overall the plot was complicated but never felt dull. It kept you invested the whole way through, and Boris the Animal is by far the best villain in the trilogy.

9/10

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Characters (and how they develop)

For this I am only going to focus on Agent J and Agent K.

Agent J: He started off as a cop that worked hard to protect people to be a hero like his dad, and he has a knack for the MIB world, having instincts that made K respect him. Though K will be hard on him because he wants to protect J, in a way that is almost fatherly, which we understand why after the 3rd movie. I will say that I felt J shined at his best in the second movie, as he had a good romantic subplot going and you got to see his dynamic with K go back and forth at its best.

Agent K: My favorite character, and the one that has the most things that happen to him, going from a jadded guy thinking he wants out so he trains his replacement, to a guy that couldnt adjust back because he was too deep into the world, to an almost father figure to his partner. Each movie has K in some sort of unique situation that helps reveal more of his character, and yet he is still a mystery. I think the best characterization is seen in 3, as we see what made him the man he is now.

The back up characters and aliens all have great personalities and the way they banter with J and K works so well for the world.

I feel the banter and Characters were at their best in 2 and 3.

But a quick ranking of the characters

MIB:8/10

MIB2 9/10

MIB3 9.5/10

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Effects

I normally dont dwell too much on Special effects as unless they are awful, they dont impact my enjoyment of the film.

I think each film is well done considering the time period, though if I had to be real, the first MIB is kind of the most impressive of the 3 because it was done in the late 90's. Its almost shocking how great the effects and use of CGI was for the time. Though it was more practical effects.

The other two movies are fine, but I think the first one is more technologically impressive. Especially with the aliens and slime.

MIB: 9/10

MIB 2 8/10

MIB 3 8/10

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Action

The action scenes in each film are solid, from brawls in small spaces to high stakes monster fights.

The first one probably has the best ending to a big monster fight with K blowing the monster up from the inside.

The second one had the Highest stakes of a fight.

I have to say the 3rd one probably had the coolest set piece with it being on the rocket launch. But each movie had its own iconic final battle scene.

Its hard to say which one was truly objectively the best. So with this.

Soilid 8/10 for all 3

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Moral lesson

Each MIB had a theme/ lesson to take away.

The First one was the Passing of the Torch. K was learning that there comes a time when everyone needs to be ready to let the next guy take over.

The second one was about trust. J learned the importance of trust and how that trust cant grow without putting the effort in.

The Last one was about acceptance, J learned how life changes and twists and we must be willing to accept what the world gives us at our own pace, and that things take time.

Overall I think the first one and third handle their themes the best, as the second one basically acted as a retcon to the first one.

MIB: 7/10

MIB 2 6/10

MIB 3 8/10

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How does it build on the previous stories?

The one thing I really love about the MIB trilogy is that it always builds on itself, it references previous films, it keeps reoccuring jokes, and it always keeps developing its characters. Its nothing ground breaking, but in a world of constantly bad sequels, MIB should be the standard on how sequels SHOULD be handled.

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Overall

I enjoyed revisiting these old films and it makes me wish modern hollywood would go back to this era of movie making. It doesnt need to be a 2+ hour epic. Movies can be fun, can be emotional, can be caring, and can bring forth a good nostalgia that cares for its source material

The MIB trilogy is a solid 8 out of 10 and I recommend it for those that like sci fi and want a funny and sometimes emotional movie experience.

#MIB #men in black #gale reviews

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popculturebuffet · 8 months

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Transformers More than Meets the Eye Retrospective: Intermission: Robots in Disguise Season 1 Retrospective (Patreon Review for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my More than Meets the Eye retrospective. Kinda. For those of you just joining us for the past two years i've been doing a retrospective of the Transformers comic More than Meets the Eye, one of my faviorite comics ever. While it is as a patreon review i've been more than happy to and in december we hit the end of season 1.

So now.. we're in a weird in between place, as season 1 for MTMTE is over.. but we still have a big crossover event left. And to judge said event fairly.... I realzied I had to go back and re-read Robots in Disguise to properly gage said event.

Yeah i've never been a huge fan of the 2012 comic Robots in Disguise. See I first read RiD AFTER More than Meets the Eye, having loved what I could read of MTMTE and wanting more. This... wasn't the right mindset in hindsight as the two works are completely diffrent beasts: MTMTE is about a found family of disfunctional robots trying to move on from war, making quips, and dealing with their trauma. It is a LOT of things I love in fiction: a bunch of misfits who don't really fit into the society their a part of, clever jokes, spectacular world building, and minor characters given their day in the sun. It feels at times like the book was made for me, down to repadeatly homaging one of my faviorite covers of all time. It was easy to love it and it only grows as I dig into it.

RID in contrast.. is an attempt at a morally grey prestige drama that on paper is about the sacrifices and compromises the autobtos make trying to rebuild cybertron, and in practice is about a weak willed useless jackass, his jackbooted best friend, a well meaning non combatant who means well but also is judgey as fuck, and Starscream, who easily outmanuvers them because a sock full of quarters with googly eyes on it could out manuver them. Wheeljack and Blur are also there and they are delightful but not used nearly enough . I gave the book an honest chance and was badly disapointed, and I gave it a second chance despite utterly dreading this.. and was once again disapointed. RiD is just not very good.

Now i'll give some caveats: the book DOES get better in season 2, with a fresh cast and premise that work decently. It's not on MTMTE"s level.. but I respect writer John Barber and IDW for seeing what they fucked up and course correcting. Barber's work isn't my forte, but the guy isn't terrible an does have his fans for a reason, I just prefer More than Meets the Eye and Windblade more, with Windblade being a second, much more succesful stab at IDW doing an intrigue on cybertron book, one i'll defintely cover at some point. It helps Windblade got most of the standouts from this book as supporting cast, but it's genuinely good and worth your time. None of this makes season 1 GOOD, by any stretch, but I wanted to get it out of the way that YES the series gets better. But you can also largely skip season 1 or read the wiki without loosing much for either RiD Season 2 or Windblade.

That being said.. Season 1 is a mess. It wasn't that pleasant to re read despite it's bright spots and it took a while to get through, an utter chore to slog through this one. One of the only bright sides is it taught me I CAN review a whole series in one post again.. just probably in smaller doses than my last attempt with new teen titans, which was great but just about killed me. So other series I dislike like All New All Diffrent X-Men, Dan Slott's fantastic four or Jason Aaron's avengers are now more within my grasp to actually tear apart at some point.

For now though let's focus on THIS disapointing series, see why it is and also talk a lot about how much this version of Bumblbee sucks and this version of Starscream fucking slaps.

Do You Have Any Clue What Happens Now?

Like more than Meets the Eye, Robots in Disguise kicks off with the Death of Optimus Prime, a one shot setting up both series and dealing with the aftermath of Chaos, the big event that ended the previous era of IDW and allowed a soft reset for this one.

So as a quick recap since it's been a long time since I tackled this issue: The War is Over. At long lost the Autobots defeated the evil forces of the decpitcons after all of them were combined by an elder god into one giant deciptigod and Megatron disappeared after hyjacking it.

The problem is what comes next which is a great hook and part of what makes MTMTE works: the war is over.. but unlike most transformers stories that get to end the war, we see what happens now everyones free.

The Autobots take command.. but it's not going wella s Optimus Prime finds out: the planet has reverted to a primal state and thousands of civlians, dubbed nails by the autobots and something the nails aren't fond of, have arrived and the vast majority of them want the Autobots to fuck off their planet.

The Nails.. are one of the biggest wasted opportunities of Robots in Disguise. The IDEA is good: a bunch of bots who either fled one of the two sides or managed to opt out entirely return and aren't happy with the planet or military leadership. It's a concept with a lot of depth as on the one hand the autobots have a point

While the Nails had every right to nope out of a war they were tired of, the Autobots fought long hard and lost a lot to get to this point and blaming them for something that's objectively not their fault, the planet going bonkers, isn't remotely fair. On the other.. the nails have every right ot want the planet back and to want a part in it, and to want leadership that isn't just the autobots.

The problem is the conflict is handeled with the subtley of a sledgehammer and thus BOTH sides come off as assholes: The Autobots make up an embarassing faction name for them, push them around and Prowl goes into a creepy tirade about how this isn't "Their" planet and they didn't fight in the war and later sics the deciptcons on them afte rthey agree to get explosives put in their brains.

The Nails Meanwhile spend the start of the sreies, especially the death of optimus prime bitching at the autobots, treating them as facists, and treating them all like they were complicit in the senates corruption, which only gets more galling after season 1 of MTMTE as most were fully against it.. they just couldn't do anything about it. Neither could you guys. It dosen't help they HANG OPTIMUS PRIME IN EFFIGY for the crime of STAYING AROUND ON A PLANET HE JUST SAVED.

The lack of nuance makes me just.. not care about most of both sides: The Autobots come off like their trying to consolidate power and remain in charge because they feel owed it, while the Nails blame them for everything. We COULD have had a good story abotu trying to perserve the past while acknowldging it's flaws and making a better present, but instead it's just the nails either whining or making entirely valid points that the autobots, mostly prowl, try to police brutality away because they can't accept they shoudlnt' be running things.

In the middle of all this Perciptor examines the matrix and finds a map, with Drift seeing it as a map to the mythical knights of cybertron and wanting to go on a quest to find it. Rodimus agrees, while Bee wants them to stay here and be miserable dammit because he is. While on paper Rodimus is running away from his problems in practice.. he defintely is but makes a valid point: Why SHOULD he stay on a planet that doesn't want him. And when Ultra Magnus joins with them, he makes a valid point: finding the knights could find something to fix cybertron. While Rodimus' hopes finding the knights will fix everything is a pipe dream, those are Rodders faviorite kind, their not wrong to want to find a solution that isn't just "Try and make this work" and forcing people who genuinely dont' WANT to help you to do what you say isn't healthy. This isn't a war for all time: it's just a disagremeent about what you want to do now your free of the war.

Optimus ends their squabble by giving them each half the matrix and fucking off, deciding to shed his former mane and his planet. The Lost Light leave despite Bumblebee's bitch crying.. and then seemingly blow up.

And this is where RiD begins, our cast is barely holding Cybertron together, aren't adressing their problem and now they assume the lost light is dead. So what does this add up to?

Okay TECHNICALLY this isn't true: Bumblebee sets up a state funeral for the bots, which is Starscream's first big platform to worm his way into high command, and Wheeljack brings him up once... but really you could take this subplot out and replace the big shindig with something else and nothing would change.

In contrast the messy takeoff... is VITAL to More Than Meets The Eye: the explosion it causes sends a good chunk of lost lighters to the planet bellow, brings skids on board when they investigate the planet, and brings the sparkeater on board to set those up for much later. And that's not even getting into how the opening arc of season 2 follows up on it, which i'll save for when we get there. Here.. they just sorta assume their friends are dead, don't bother investigating or thinking that MAYBE a ship with a quantum engine did some weird shit. It's to the point that when Optimus is told during his sub plot, his response... is to not remotely buy Rodimus could be killed that easy and assume they'll find them eventually. Which.. they do.

There's also just.. legistics. I know this is a pair of comics about giant robots, science isn't strictly followed nor should it be. But if the lost light exploded.. there would be debris. And they HAVE plenty of ships. Someone could investigate. If the Nails think the autobots REALLY commited this sort of execution, as their said to outright suspect including their rep in the main cast metalhawk, then .. why would NONE of the thousands of bots with functioning space ships look into it. Or the deciptcons once their brain explode chips are turned off. It feels like an excuse to just have the two not interact.. which they already had being out of range and with Blaster spending the season getting coms up and running again.

Anyways the series proper mostly follows Autobot high command as they try to run this planet/prevent anyone else from doing so. Like the lost light exploision this is a possibly intresting hook... that's utterly bungled. They do do things with it.. but they don't do them well. And the best way to get into that is with the characters starting with their supreme leader

Bumblebee: He's Tried Nothing and He's All Out of Ideas

The idea of Bumblebee being forced to take charge of the autobots is a great one. Tranformers has gone to this well three times i'm aware of, and it's a concept worth exploring taking what's essentially the team's kid brother and forcing him to take the throne and see if he can make it.

IDW's last attempt before this wasn't great, with Bee making a deal with the goverment that backfired horribly, and generally acomplishing nothing. So trying AGAIN.. was a smart move. It was worth a second try.

Unfortunately... Barber entirely bungled that second attempt. Bumblebee is TECHNICALLY leader of cybertron.. but really dosen't try to lead. He lets prowl do whatever he wants and whatever prowl wants is usually some form of police brutality, he argues with metal hawk but tends not to have an argument other than "the autobots aren't all bad mkay" or "All decipticons deciptisuck", and he overworks poor sweet Wheeljack, fostering all their super science shit on him and being mad when the guy is doing work of his own. It's VERY transparent in every scene he's in Bumblebee wants peace with the Nails not because it's the right thing.. but simply so the autobots can hold onto the planet. While the Nails are often written as overreacting assholes, as the book goes on they mellow out and most of their actions are entirely... justifable. Their horrified Prowl put bombs in the decipticons brains, they don't want police brutality, they want to actually elect a leader.

Every move Bee makes is to keep himself in charge despite not having a single fucking idea what he's doing. I could buy him as a leader if he tried.. leading: Tried finding homes for the Nails, making actual negotations with the decpticons, send out a party to go tame the primal planet so they can expand iacon , actually hammer out a government. There's a LOT to building a whole new world after a war, it's the reason Hamilton got an entire, incredibly gripping act out of all the nation building. But instead RiD just ignores the intresting idea of rebuilding cybertron's goverment and how it governs itself from scratch and just focuses on Bee whining or various things that happen for the plot. And by doing so it makes Bumblbee and those loyal to him come off like power grabbing assholes who care more about being appricated for fighting the war and less about making a better world to live in or even making the world LIVEABLE.

What makes this so galling though is how the narrative treats bee: characters talk about his "great vision" failed or say he might win the election. That last part is Prowl/Bombshell playing Bee, more on that in a minute, but most of the cast talks his ass up when really he's just a guy way in over his head, which could be intresting to explore.. but they just.. DON'T. Instead we just follow a bland dithering jackass as he fucks up till eventually someone smarter, with more charisma and an actual plan takes his place. But before we can get to them.. let's talk about the most punchable face in Autobot high command

Fuck Prowl

Yeah I tried to make a clever title here, I really did.. but most attempts lead to a storm of profanity as I genuinely detest this version of Prowl. And as a reminder like bumblebee it's JUST the IDW comics version. Animated Prowl slaps. Prowl's G1 deisgn is great. I'm sure there are other prowls who don't suck all joy out of a page when they show up or are the poster boy for why we need police reform despite doing a police on a whole other planet. I"d like to meet them. But this prowl is one of my least faviorite characters in fiction. In fact I can't bleivei I didn't add him to my jjall before now.

Welcome Home Prick!

Now I will give one caveat to this character: Part of the problem is the multitude of writers: James Roberts, who wanted Prowl for his cast, wrote prowl as a giant asshole who could never let the war go and got two people killed with his overlord scheme. Nick Roche wrote prowl as a scheming asshole who paranoidly plots. And tha'ts not even getting into his asshole characterization in books BEFORE this era.

John Barber.. dosen't walk either of these back, but wants Prowl to be a complex symapthetic figure, someone who is a calculating draconian asshole.. but who was driven there by his betryal by spike in the previous ongoing, and who badly WANTS to do the right thing. The problem is rather than make prowl a layered intresting character.. he instead comes off as an asshat who constantly tries to justify the horrible shit he does as "for the greater good"

It's not helped that Prowl's first scenes in this era leave a truly terrible first impression: The first things we see from prowl are

Him bitching about the nails and being absolutely LIVID at their suggestion the autobots leave the planet, not because it's a stupid unfair suggestion, but because he feels OWED the planet and was also once nearly one himself.

Conscripting the Decipticons into his own private army he uses to try and supress a riot from the Nails, instead making it ten times worse and only not getting anyone killed because Optimus steps in.

In MTMTE, trying to convince Chromedome to stay so he can use his ex boyfriend to do mnemosurgery, something Chromedome VERY much dosen't want to do, mocking his current boyfriend and then flipping a table like a petulant teenager when Chromedome walks out on his ass.

Using Arcee as his own personal hit squad , having her assitnate ratbat then trying to act like he didn't ask her to do that.

It's.. nigh impossible to come back form all of that and Prowl really dosen't. He spends the season brainwashed by Bombshell, in part thanks to trying to blackmail Chromedome and forgetting "oh yeah he can do mind things to me".. and NO ONE notices. He's horrified by that fact, but it's VERY telling that the only action of his that was hintingly out of character.. was telling bumblebee he could win the election. GENUINELY supporting his friend instead of trying to talk over him... is something that was a HINT he was brainwashed and the only thing people felt off. Said brainwashing also feels like it came out of nowhere, with not the slightest hint, and feels like a way to soft reset the character... which then fails as he spends season 2 once again out of his head... and once again in a way that isn't remotely out of character. I don't blame prowl for what he did under bombshell for most of the sries, he was brainwashed. But it's DAMMING that he did enough in ONE VOLUME before being hypnotized to earn my ire. More than Meets the Eye dosen't HELP nad IS a diffrent writer.. but even under Barber he's just the worst and I don't look forward to seeing more of him during Dark Cybertron and beyond. I DO look forward to seeing him hurled off a cliff.

All Hail Starscream:

Taking a break from pure, unyielding rage for a second, let's talk about something the book does right. I may be giving John Barber a LOT of crap this review.. but I can't deny he writes the best Starscream. There are other great starscreams from the hilarously over the top unsubtle 84 version, to the compitent but still hilarously shady animated verison and i'm sure i'll only find more as I watch more shows. Starscream rocks. But this one takes all that and asks a question: What happens when you take Starscream out of war and put him where his lying and scheming are an asset and his bad past is a non factor if he can lie hard enough: Politics.

While the autobots drown post war, trying to find their place.. Star scream swims like a majestic dolphin. Granted he's a Majestic Dolphin who still gets shit on a lot as it's starscream and everyone knows not to trust him and he has to work hard for his schemes for the most part... but he's still FAR more at home here than he ever was trying to usurp megatron. With the Decpticons, might made right: Megatron was on top because he was a great tactician, sure, but he was also capable of kicking anyone's ass who dared defy him, and had a death squad just for making a gruesome example out of anyone who betrays or tries to leave the cause. While Starscream was strong he couldn't muslce out megs or the various destructive douchebags he hired.

In contrast on Cybertron post war... he simply has to outthink and outspeak his opponents, who even if they weren't mostly fuck ups, still aren't really public speakers. Starscream first weasles his way into command with a few simple moves: He goes to the autobots in good faith, which they rightfully don't buy, tells them about a planned false flag attack by ratbat.. then once he's foiled, steps onto the stage at the funeral the attack was taking place at and boldly offer shimself as a formerish decipticon representive. While Bee never trusts the guy, for good damn reason, from that point on it simply dosen't matter: he's in the room where it happens. And often.. he's somehow the voice of reason. He's always got an angle... but it dosen't change the fact he's right or he gives Metalhawk someone to back him up. Not only that some of the bonds he forms are genuine. Metalhawk genuinely warms up to screamer and Wheeljack is the only one to try and make amends, to the point that after my boy gets horribly injured, Starscream makes sure he's getting healed and genuinely feels bad the poor guy got hurt.

On top of that once the media is restored for iacon, Starscream plays to the cameras, with his biggest play since stepping on stage coming in the annual: The Autobots find a titan in the desert while looking for lost comrades, trying to keep starscream out of it as Bee is deathly aware finding them would be some very easy bipartisan points for Screamer. Screamer shows up anyway... and when Prowl's croney keeps a gun traind on him and metalhawk, Screamer easily turns the situation on them: He invites a TON of Nails to watch and essentially make it so if he gets shot, it's over for the autobots, then goes down himself. It's here he gets a stroke of pure luck: The titan they've found... deems Starscream as some kind of chosen one. This isn't necessarily a good thing long term... but it does mean a lot especailly to the religious. Now normally this would mean nothing or months of trying to find proof.. but because Screamer's crowd crawled down to witness the titan once it was safe.. they all heard it.

At this point.. Starscream's basically won. The only genuine compettion he'd have in an open election is metalhawk, but either way the Autobots have basically lost control and all that's left is to wait for the elections. Sadly for Screamer he soon has a no good very bad day as Megatron comes back and Starscream spends the next arc as a hostage after going to rant at his former boss, with Megatron not remotely interested in compromise.

That said Starscream has survivied being humilaited plenty and while the Autobots are autobusy dealing with Megatron and the decpeticons, not to mention prowl combining with devestator, Starscream reminds us who he is: He kills Metalhawk, later being genuinely regretful.. but acknowledging Metalhawk was, genuinely, the only thing in his way. He was the only oponent in his rise to power left: Megatron was dealt with, the autobots had shot themselves in the foot 87 times, he feels terrible about what he did.. but killing Metalhawk looses him a friend and someone who belivied in him.. but gains him a Martyr. In the aftermath Screamer basically declares himself LEADER OF THE DECPTEICONS.. ER CYBERTRON, everyone backs him and he gets rid of most of his major opposition by casting out anyone who won't revoke their faction. A few autobots like Blurr stay behind... but msot of the cast we know are cast into the wildnerness and it's their own damn fault.

We get one last issue with Screamer , a spotlight that shows this job will be hard as while speeching got him INTO the job, he has to solve actual problems. Three Monologues is the best issue of season 1 as Starscream rants at megatron in stasis, reflects to Metalhawk's corpse and genuinely opens up to an injured in stasis wheeljack. Not only that Starscream also gets his own starscream, Beast Wars Faviorite rattrap. I'm mixed on this version of him: the character is very well written, being a slimy weasel whose looking for an angle and who gets rid of a local altruist for star scream by framing the guy. It creates an intresting relationship too as Starscream recognizes the behavior of his own.. and takes Rattrap into his administration. As Screamer perfectly puts it the guy Rattrap framed.. was a liablity. He liked star scream, genuinely belivied in the titans... but as Starscream brilliantly puts it altrusim.. is unpredictable. Rattrap on the other hand is who Screamer used to be before he became god emperor of cybertron starscream the first: he can not only deal with that, but it gives him a minon.

Before we leave Screamer I also just want to say.. I fucking love that he put on the crown from transformers the movie. I've always loed that he just... had to have a little crown for himself and that even if this version is less of a joke, he's still starscream enough to need a crown. It's also a striking visual in this context: Starscream is in control of cybertron. Primus help us.

Metalhawk: Don't Let him Be Misunderstood

For any longtime fans of this series or MTMTE, this section is probably going to be controversial but on second read.. I didn't hate Metalhawk. He's still obnoxious at first, he is the one saying "oh well you should piss off the planet you just fought hard to save from a giant Decipticon monster god man". It's easy to hate him as he's constantly telling our heroes they shoudl fuck off.

Yet on reread.. him doing that is WHY he's entertaining. See when I first read the books it was a few years ago. When I can't remember, my memory catches a lot of things but some things are lost to the enternal bog that is the back of my head, but it was before 2020.. and thus before George Floyd's untimely murder. As a result a lot of what the autobots do read diffrentlY: what they did ALWAYS came off as awful: even when the protestors are slamming the doors down, sending out jackbooted thugs is NEVER a good look, and the way Prowl talks about nails and treats them as second class citzens for simply wanting a voice is ... all kinds of chilling. Prowl sees himself as a police officer, and he certainly is.. but the worst kind, the kind most are who will gladly do shady shit to persue what they think is justice and oppress civlians because their "above them. "

So while said realizations about policing and the various police beatings of innocnet protestors made Prowl somehow even worse.. they made Metalhawk better as a LOT of what he's asking.. comes off more resonable. His wanting the decpticons free was kinda bonkers to me when i first raed it.. but now I entirely get that maybe putting bombs in defeated enemy combatants is you know.. a war crime. If you really want to put decitpcons who are dangerous away.. use a jail. Give them a trial. It's not great but putting them int what's basically a gheto that also oused to be a gun is horrible.

Metalhawk simply wants a voice and change for his people. He grows out of throwing the autobots out, being far more willing to work with them than they are with him and making plenty of valid points. He evolves as a character from a whiny asshole who disrpescts the autobots to seeing them as fuckups.. but ones who, prowl aside, are GENUINELY trying, with Bee planning to basically let Metalhawk takeover after the big fight at the end of season 1 before Starscream put some holes in that plan and also metalhawk. He's often the only person speaking up for a bunch of people who greatly outnumber the people in charge yet have to listen to thir bullshit, something that's become more and mor erelevant as congress fucks up more and more . It's hard to boo him when he's right: the autobots probably SHOUDLN'T be running the planet. They shoudln't leave, but they shoudln't be in charge. They shoudlnt be using deciptcons as easy soldiers and shoudln't keep the bombs in their heads now their vastly outnumbered. He's the voice of reason in a calvlcade of jackasses and a schemeing asshole. He's still annoying at times.. but it's really hard to hate a guy who grows out of his most annoying traits and ends the comic betrayed by the most obvious cantidate, something he only didn't see coming.. because he genuinely thought his friend had changed.

Wheeljack and the Rest: Robots in Disguise has a large cast, but most of the best players are off to the side, Starscream excluded. So let's talk about them.

My easy faviorite is one I wish Roberts had gotten like he wanted, the man the myth, Wheeljack. now I like Wheeljack in general due to his design, a nice faceplate, a unique head, it helps him stand out among the standard faces most autobots have.

Wheeljack seems to be one of the few Autobots genuinely trying for a better tommorow: he tries to make peace with starscream, and is frequently working on other projects before bee yells at him for not being avaliable to put out all his fires. He's kind, considerate and also a genuius, getting a nice moment in the sun when he sneaks into a decipticon ship and fidns out their up to some shit, then escapes the horde. I mean Metalhawk DOES save him in the end, but the fact he did most of this himself and gets both of them out himself is impressive. Wheeljack sadly just dosen't appear a ton and ends the season getting his head crushed by megatron. He does come back during season 2 and quickly becomes besties with Windblade, something we'll get to eventually, so good for him.

Blurr is a close third in the characters I like and is the only one of the autobots to really explore the ideas MTMTE was, the idea of "what do you do with your life next". Blurr does help out at first but his mounting frustration with prowl leads to him noping out, only helping out to try and find Ironhide. He decides to open a bar, much like Swerve , and his is a nicely diffrent joint: while Swerves is basically the cheers of transformer,s a place to forget your worries, hang with pals and get into hyjinks, Macadams, a regular location in most transformers place is that.. but also a melting pot, as Blurr soon makes a bunch of former decepticon friends including Sky Byte, a nail who has a great outfit, with him gladly defending his patrons with his good buddy jazz, whose barely in this comic for some reason despite, as always, being fucking great.

Next up is Ironhide. Ironhide does get a pretty meaty roll, as his recent ressurection has convinced him he's immortal and he's getting flashes of a possible future.. .one where the autobots are gon by cybertron thrives. Naturally everyone assumes he needs help instead of you know.. remembering that they followed the matrix for so long because it had robot magic or the giant stygian being made out of a dark god and 80 decepticons they just fought a month ago. What i'm saying is "I can see the fuuuuuuttttttreeee" isn't that farfetched at this point. So Ironhide goes to explore the wilderness with my boys the dinobots who sadly are all kinda douchey here.. but they still kick plenty of ass. The group disappears for a while after a signal drives my dino boys mad... but naturally they show up just in time to be the calvary in the finale. Ironhide is great.. they just don't really focus on him and I wish they did. Same with the dinobots.

Finally out of the ones who actually do stuff we have Arcee. Arcee... is a lot to unpack despite her short screentime. If you'll recall, and if you don't i'm so sorry for reminding you, Simon Furman's approach to the most prominent female transformer.. was to make it so she was FORCED to become female by a mad scientest, a tonedeaf, transphobic take brought about because Simon Furman hates the very idea Cybertronians have a concept of gender.. despite writing male prounouns into this continuity, thus showing they do just .. all male.

So how did Barber tackle this transphobic mess Simon Furman had saddled him and other writers with?

Yeah he just straight up ignored tha tpart for the first 21 issues. Arcee does mention killing Jhiaxus, the mad scientest in question, again, and again and again, but otherwise as far as RiD is concerned, Arcee is just an autobot who was tortured a lot by Jihaxius and who Prowl uses as his hit squad. She gleefully agrees to this... but it's clear she has no real sense of purpose. She DOES get a well done spotlight issue after the Autobots are cast out, with her wondering if the endless violence is worth it and deciding to join the autobots, wether they want her or not. It's a BETTER characterizfation than Furman's, a person with clear trauma trying to find out "what now"... but that big black cloud of "I done a transphobia because I hate them girl robots" hangs over it. It's an elephant in the room no one wants to talk about. I don't FULLY fault barber for it as IDW could've wanted him not to and it was a subject that would need a through, out in the open exploration. IDW was clearly willing as they supported Chromedome and Rewind and would continue to support out and out queerness in this franchise, Barber just wasn't ready yet and thus kept Arcee out of focus. He'd TRY to deal with this later at least but it's still super uncomfortable for now.

Decepticon wise.. they don't really get to do much till the season finale of sorts: they mostly stand around in a gun barrel and plot. Ratbat, one of my faviorite casettes of Soundwaves, is very prominent, trying to weasle his way into power early on.. but then Prowl goes and kills him and i'm sad. Soundwave , my boy, does fuck all till the build up to dark cybertron while Shockwave is in the shadows preparing said event , mostly done in optimus primes subplot. It's a real waste too as having more deciptcons actually try to reform or at least integrate into society would be neat, instead their just mostly canon fodder after a whil ewith a subplot about one seeing what prowl did going nowhere.

So speaking of Prime

The Thrilling Tales of Orion Pax

I haven't mentiond it till now but RiD has it's own isolated subplot ala the scavengers, just one that only lasts this season. Optimus left after the one shot and while he calls himself orion pax as does this segment... i'm just calling him Optimus like everyone else: Optimus goes on his own thrilling space adventures with his crew of Garnak, an ork like alien, Wheelie, who met garnak while stuck on a planet where time was constantly in flux and is still traumatized from it and Hardhead, a minor character turned Optimus buddy.

The trio had captured Jhiaxus, the mad science guy but got some criptic info. Jhiaxus quickly breaks free and while Optimus intended to just soft retire, he can't deny the danger he or his apprentice turned master Shockwave presents, and thus teams up with this motely crew. The adventures are only across three issue but each is fun, the characterrs ar eintresting if underdevleoped and i'ts neat to see Optimus like this: Grappling with his past, unsure of his future, and unwilling to be Optimus again despite everything pulling him toward it. His characterization also takes a nice turn as he was a minor prick in the return of optimus, calling the circle of light a cult. Douchebags yes, cult no.

There's really.. not much to say here anyalis wwise: these adventures are well done and I wish they were the main focus, and clearly Barber agreed as Optimus takes over next season, if sadly not bringin most of these guys with him.

THey are vital for the build up to Dark Cybertron, with Jhiaxus and his goons being Shockwaves main minons and hinting at his mission.. which Shockwave happily outlines in a spotlight later.. well happy isn't an emotion he experinces but he still outlines it: He's been seeding 13 powerful ores, tying in previous things like super energon and such, and the final and 13th one.. is ressurection, bringing people back under his control. His plans feel vauge in theis build up, but involve jhiaxus taking a titan right to cybertron, the ores, and beating up soundwave, with Prime persuing.

The only complaint I really have is the art, which isn't bad, it's just dark, cold , and muted, and not really my forte, working better to represent the dark universe during the crossover. It's not bad it's just hard to make out the visuals at times is all.

So with that we have one last bit of pre-crossover buisnes sto attend to

THe Old Man's Back Again

I did mention Megatron came back right? Because he did. And since he has a big roll to play in the crossover and in MTMTE season 2, let's talk about where Megs has been. Megs was left half dead after becoming a giant pile of decpticons, coming back towards the end of season 1, having what's essnetially the season finale early and the rest of the issues are spotlights dealing with the aftermath.

Bumblebee's reaction is exactly what you'd expect

I mean it's not unwaranted: it's megatron. He was a walking death machine and a brilliant strategist. It's not wrong to expect that even shambling and half dead he's plotting something.. because that's EXACTLY what he was doing. Bee DOES decide to spare him for a trial after being talked into it, but reluctantly and with Megatron guarded to hell. Unfortuantely.. the person in charge of his security is prowl who has a bit of a brain bug at the moment, having taken out omega supreme.

Yeah turns out a LOT of the seasons events were Megatron

The field driving people into rages was him, bombshell was working for megs the whole time, and Shockwave was working with him.. if only till it was convient enough to bail and go work on his own scheme. It's a MILD stretch and I wish it'd been se tup better.. but like Starscream it's hard NOT to enjoy Meg's presence: he brings a genuine threat and meanace, pinning our heroess to the wall and barely being beaten. He's not as layered as he was about to become... but he's still a clever villian who scoffs at Starscream's bitch crying, not WANTING a compromised cybertron but an empire. He ends up loosing but barely does, having still caused a ton of damage and left enough of a gaping woom for Screamer to take the crown. While this Megs is pretty simplistic, he still serves as a good foundation for what's next: a man who genuinely THINKS he's doing the right thing and that peace really is possible if you throw away those pesky civil liberties and his plan and near victory underline HOW dangeorus he is, why the lost light needs to nerf him to put him on board... and why Cybertron will BADLY need his help in the mess to come.

So that was Robots in Disguise and this review.. was difficult to say the least. It's not a great book but it has flecks of greatness in it and later seasons of this side of transformers and other series would pick up on that

Next Time in March: DARK CYBERTRON BEGINS. Bumlbee and the Bumblefucks try to protect a cyberton that hates and fears them, Rodimus goes into a stygian hole in space time, and Shockwave's plan hopefully makes sense.

#transformers #optimus prime #idw #robots in disguise #prowl #bumblebee #wheeljack #megatron #starscream #meatalhawk #blurr #arcee

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percyaugod · 10 months

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Uncle Saki AU???

I was just trying to do more Uncle Saki but it somehow turned into more of a villain 2012 Donnie. Oops??

The first time one of the turtles talks he makes it his mission to get at least one to say his name as their first word. Mission failed.

12-year-old Donnie is the first to figure out Saki's secret. He wants in. Donnie, the holder of the family brain cell, chooses to use it for crime.

Donnie playing both sides. Depending on who he's with at the time is who he fights for. Destroys his own robots and then rebuilds them stronger later.

Shredder looking at him with the most exhausted look: You're a menace.

Donnie: Love you too Uncle Saki.

He's also a bit reckless with what he builds.

Saki: You have to be more careful with the parts you use, we didn't rob the bank

Donnie: ...yet

And Saki thought he was the criminal here.

Saki: Yes, but if anything happens to you or your siblings I'm as good as dead.

Donnie: That's a risk I'm willing to take.

Some of the newer members thought Donnie was the one in charge at first.

Donnie's Villain disguise has a cloak and full-face gas mask. The smoke bombs are a good distraction and add a dramatic effect. He later makes cheaper copies for the others because Mikey kept bothering him for some. So his limbs aren't recognized he uses mechanical extensions, which also lets him be even taller and more intimidating. The first time Saki saw the fake limbs he thought Donatello actually cut them off and replaced them and nearly had a heart attack. A backpack to hold his tech and disguise his shell. His villain's name is Incognito.

Metalhead is a robot double of himself as Incognito used to have him and Incognito in the same place at the same time. Can't have people getting suspicious now, can we?

At this point, Shredder is starting to wonder if he's really in charge anymore. He can't even control one teenager. Maybe this is karma for his crimes

The others never figure out Donnie's identity, only Saki's. Donnie takes over since the Shredder has "retired" (Forcibly dragged out kicking and screaming.) At least the business is still in the family. Even if only two people know it.

#tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2012 au #2012 shredder #2012 donnie #Villain 2012 Donnie #Uncle Saki AU

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dragon-snoots-a-boopin · 7 months

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And I've got another one of these Page Punchers to look at here. Like the previous one, this one is Transformers related so, let's take a look at what is here by taking a look at the figures first.

First, let's look at Bumblebee. Now, they don't look as bad as that Optimus Prime and Megatron but still doesn't look very good either. They didn't bother to paint the headlights on the feet and they didn't bother to paint any of the rims either. But, like with Prime, they didn't give Bee any of their accessories either, not even their typical gun.

But, we then get to Wheeljack here and my goodness. First, the thighs are supposed to be painted white like the feet and lower legs are. There's also supposed to be red right in the center of the crotch and on the forearms too and, tbh, the face and things on the back look like that Hasbro unpainted grey plastic and not actually silver. They didn't even bother to paint the the windshield piece on the chest!!! That shouldn't be white!!!! I'd have expected that to be black like the windshield areas on Bumblebee but they couldn't do that on Wheeljack???

Of course, let's address the included comic books real quick. With Bumblebee we get the first issue of the 2009 mini-series titled Transformers Bumblebee by IDW Publishing. With Wheeljack with have the 7th issue of the 2012 series Transformers Robots In Disguise by IDW Publishing.

Again, we have two three inch figures that are very much lacking in paint and accessories, one 15 year old comic book that sells for $2.50 and one 12 year old comic book that sells for about $2.50 and all this is $17-$18. I don't know, I don't know if I see it myself but okay. To be honest, this is what I think is the problem with the toy industry as a whole is that they keep raising the prices of things while the quality gets worse and worse and that's unacceptable. I may get this one as well just to see how the figures actually are but I don't know yet.

#transformers #hasbro #autobots #decepticons #idw transformers #idw publishing #bumblebee #wheeljack #mcfarlane toys #the dragons speak #IDW Comics #IDW Publishing #IDW Transformers #Autobots #Decepticons #Transformers Comic Books #Image Comics #Skybound Entertainment

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pluralsword · 2 years

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Compiled a list of all the different scoped weapons we’ve seen Arcee use in canon, for reasons, does anybody have any to add? It’s really interesting how vastly different the designs are. Side-mounts, holosight-esque, and whatever the scrap is going on with Earthspark Arcee’s snub-scope. An image of her from WFC the videogame with any of the scoped guns would also be appreciated (or really anything of her from any of the videogames with a scoped weapon)

Close up of images in order of appearance below

IDW1/IDW2005 Arcee (in 2012, three full body reformats so far on her gender journey, currently with a cybertronian car alt-mode) with side-mount stock over shoulder two-hand rifle in Robots in Disguise #9, “Night and the City.”

Same Arcee (2013) with a massive over the shoulder missile launcher or cannon, in Robots in Disguise #23, Dark Cybertron #3, “Winners and Losers.” Honestly this thing may have a scope but it sure seems like she’s eyeballing until she has the go ahead to fire. This weapon is called the Superior Cannon in Wave 2 (2019) of the now canceled Transformers Trading Card Game by Wizards of the Coast.

Forged to Fight Arcee (present in the game at launch in 2017, basically T30 Generations Arcee but lankier with long arms) kneeling to fire her stock mounted round scope blue sniper rifle with a side mounted red laser sight as part of her special attack. The front of the barrel lights up blue when it fires... and what is actually fired is a metal bullet! A nice surprise from a G1-stylized character. Image sourced from this video.

IDW1/IDW2005 Arcee (2018, now five full body reformats so far on her gender journey, currently with an earth car alt-mode that was inspired by the Lotus Elite, this is the form she has at the end of the series we will go off about this some other time) with a fold-up/modular designated marksbot rifle looking gun with a squarish digital sight, in Unicron #2, “Stranger Eons.” It’s funny, we never see her IDW1 iteration shoot any of these three, but we do see her shoot her guns with only iron sights or none at all iirc? IDW2 on the other hand we’ll talk about in a bit, but first, Cyberverse Arcee!

Cyberverse Arcee (in 2020) in Cyberverse Season 3 Episode 13 “The Judge” readying a very large blaster with a drum ammunition barrel (when she isn’t shooting her blaster pistols or in melee, shooting a gun with a drum barrel seems to be her thing, specifically, very large guns, usually minigun/autocannon/rotary cannon sort of deal) that has a sloped forend and ridges under the front of the gun barrel, and either has a narrow scope or ?ammo counter?/probably a scope above the ammo barrel. (remembered her shooting this thanks to @arceespinkgun ‘s post of gifs of Shadow Striker and Arcee fighting together in this episode after seeing the G1 images they reblogged this post with, thank you!!) She also never uses the scope when she shoots the thing in her exuberant battle delight, unlike somebody...

IDW2/IDW2019 Arcee (2021, notes on reformats later)*, has a cybertronian look the whole series), aiming her blocky anti-armor rifle while crouching, the scope is kind of holosight-like, in Transformers #35, “Lord of Misrule: Sea of Rust II”. She shoots this thing several times in the series and gosh you don’t want to get hit by the brief beam of plasma that cuts through a Seeker like butter when she pulls the trigger. RE reformats: possibly one, twice if she did off-screen before series start for trans reasons? like she had a look more like Earthrise Arcee at the beginning mixed with IDW1 but then they went for the An Arcee Sort of Day look that is basically a WFC Chromia/Nightbird retool with outer armor of the backpack made into back stacks instead after Galaxies was over, maybe because she joined the Autobots and wanted to change her look or literally armor up, or the artists just felt like it, we don’t know but would like to know. In any case her alt mode went from a sci-fi convertible to an armored fighting car look. (which we are the only person we know of with a custom or toy of at all so far as of early 2023)

Then from this promotional image from Nickelodeon we have Earthspark Arcee (2023) smiling while one-handing a giant aft pistol that’s all rounded and curved with a TAIL FIN SCOPE in a way that looks like her G1 car mode she doesn’t have since she has a muscle car mode instead. Okay dear you’re cool as frag for having a gun that looks like the alt mode you don’t have while you rock the boxier one you have instead. I’m so trans that I can hold a version of my old body in my hand and shoot it. Like okay we’re just waiting for her to say she’s trans now right that’s the consensus- anyway about the scope:

HOW DOES SHE AIM DOWN THAT SCOPE. IF THAT’S WHAT IT IS. LIKE WHAT IS HAPPENING? Like this goes past what her IDW2 rifle’s scope does which lets her comfortably lean her head down a little while resting the gun against her neck guard armor- but this is like, plonking your head down to aim forward unless... unless she eyeballs the scope itself or links up with it via her hand. Which she could. Would not put past sage in martial arts, ethics, and bullshitting Earthspark Arcee to have a weapon that defies expectations while showing her history in the palm of her hand. Gods why do we feel like crying over this promo image, anyway that’s a wrap on this until y’all send us more images.

Also we found the gun thanks to @fancyrobotenthusiast ‘s post of the image and then we did a reverse google image search while we started compiling the other images finding that inspired, so thank you, you by chance gave our trans brain something to do for a few hours that has made us very happy after

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megatronfangirl · 1 year

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Robots In Disguise (2012) Rattrap is like Starscream’s eunuch

#JOKE COPYRIGHT GOES TO MY FRIEND JILL

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incorrect-tmnt2012-quotes · 2 years

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Shredder: You lie and betray as well as your father.

Karai: But I learnt it from you. You should be proud.

#submission #thank you for the submission <3 #incorrect tmnt quotes #Source: Transformers: Robots in Disguise #tmnt 2012 #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #Karai #shredder #the foot clan

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wimcycles-aj · 1 year

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·˚ ༘₊·About Me·˚ ༘₊·

Hello! My name is Anixton but you can call me Anix or Wims/Wimcycles.

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On this specific accounts I will be writing Small Stories, Headcanons, Scenarios and Etc.

If you want actual Stories you can go to my Wattpad which is in my Link tree (Link in Bio)

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• Q & A - Open

• Requests - Open

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Fandoms I write for

Transformers

Transformers Prime

Transformers Bayverse

Transformers Animated

Transformers Robots In Disguise

Transformers Earth Spark

Transformers War for Cybertron

Marvel

Spectacular Spiderman (haven't seen in a while)

Ultimate Spiderman

Across the Spiderverse

The amazing spiderman (Andrew Garfield)

Spiderman 1-3 (Toby Maguire)

Homecoming // Far from home (Tom Holland)

infinity war

Civil war

Endgame

Guardian of fhe Galaxy

Deadpool

Anime

Tokyo Revengers

naruto

Mob psycho

Demon Slayer

Jujutsu Kaisen

Justice League unlimited

Young Justice

Justice League action

Teen Titans

Teen tians go

Titans

The Batman

Batman the Animated series

The new batman adventures

Batman the killing Joke

The Dark Knight

Joker (Movie)

Extra 🧍🏽

Ninjago

TMNT 2012

ROTMNT

House of Wax

Halloween

Texas chainsaw massacre

Scream (1 through 6)

Total Drama island

Psycho

Bates motel

Star wars

The Mandalorian

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What I Will/Won't Write

What I WILL Write:

Yandere

Angst

Su!c!de/Depression

Fluff

Platonic ships

Romantic ships

LGBTQ+

Character x Character

Character x Reader

Character x Oc

Mental illnesses

Comforting

Any gender is welcome<3

Insecurity

Crossovers!

What I WON'T write

Lot's of gore

Incest

Fetishes

Suggestive content of minors

S/A or R@pe (It's a triggering topic for me and many others.)

Zoophilia

Minor x Adult (Pedophilia. If it's platonic fine)

HUGE Age gaps with MINORS

What I MIGHT write:

Suggestive content (depends on the character)

kinks (Depends.)

Matchups (I'm still learning about those)

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Extra

Oneshots I will write up to 900-1'000 words sometimes more if I have extra ideas (You can ask for a 2nd part of a oneshot if you like it) , Short stories can be up to 1'000-3'000 words with 3-4 parts.

Please don't rush me sometimes I take a while to upload because I don't really have a schedule and I'm usually busy due to stuff at home nothing to serious✧*。٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧*。

If you have any questions don't be scared to ask! I don't mind answering!!

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britesparc · 2 years

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Weekend Top Ten #563

Top Ten Moments in The Transformers’ Lost Light Saga

I’ve written about Transformers a lot on here. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t the single thing I’d written blogs about the most (followed by the MCU and then, I dunno, probably Hey Duggee). It’s the biggest “thing” in my life – the media franchise I enjoy and engage with the most. And I’ve definitely ranked favourite moments before. But I wanted to return to it – yet again – for a couple of reasons.

2012 marks the ten-year anniversary of my favourite run of Transformers, across its entire nearly-forty-year history: the comics More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light. These comics, written by James Roberts in collaboration with several artists (but predominantly Alex Milne and Jack Lawrence), tell one epic tale of friendship, tragedy, comedy, political discourse, allegory, and references to obscure British pop culture. As it happens, I’ve re-read the entire series whilst on tour with the BBC, so it’s all fresh in my mind; also another reason to revisit it in a list.

There’s another, kinda serendipitous reason to look back over IDW’s time with Transformers. This week just gone, the last ever Transformers book published by IDW was released. It is, I think, sixteen years since they first had the licence, and the breadth of great comics they’ve produced – from the first Infiltration series by Simon Furman and EJ Su to the most recent continuity written by Brian Ruckley, by way of MTMTE, Robots in Disguise, Furman and Andrew Wildman continuing their nineties G1 run in Regeneration One, and the recent sort-of-not-in-continuity Last Bot Standing by Nick Roche and – him again – EJ Su – is remarkable. It’s a hell of a run, the best the franchise has ever been handled by one company. No film, no animated series, no other published comics come close for me. How the merry hell do they follow this?

For the first time, though, I’m singling out one specific arc – the Lost Light Saga, for want of a better title (I would also consider “Sad Gay Robots in Space”) – and just picking the best bits. I’m also doing deep on why they’re the best. And I’m going to try to say where you can find this great bit of a great comic!

This is a celebration. I want that to come through. I hope that when all is said and done – and this might end up being my last word on the Lost Light – that the myriad reasons why I adore this series is evident. The nuance of the writing, the fidelity of the artwork, the breadth of the allusion, the comedy, pathos, empathy, sadness, love. It’s a masterful piece of work that had me tearing up multiple times, sometimes over bits that I didn’t remember or that just didn’t hit me first time round.

Also, y’know, spoilers. I’ll put a break in. But if you do want to enjoy the saga in its entirety, maybe don’t read this list. Buy the paperbacks, get it on Kindle, scour your local comic shop for back issues. And then maybe you’ll join me in wishing happy birthday to the greatest iteration of my favourite franchise.

And I really want to emphasise that. Transformers really is my thing. it was the first cartoon and comic I fell in love with. It’s remained more important to me than, say, Star Wars or the MCU, or other childhood loves like Ghostbusters, Turtles, and even my beloved orange meatball with stripes, Garfield. Transformers is really the only thing I can see myself going to conventions for on the reg, a thing that just speaks to me, that I get unequivocally nerdy about. I wouldn’t say it’s like a religion but it probably occupies the same irreducible part of my soul that, like all the cultural bits of Catholicism, will never leave me, no matter what. And all of that – the length and breadth of it, the joys and sorrows, the heart and soul – my favourite bit of Transformers are these comics. I think I’ve said it before, but they achieved something.

“Don’t change back”: the arc of Megatron becoming an Autobot was one of those it’ll-never-work things that did work, and it worked so damn well. It became an examination of corruption and ideology and self-determinism and, well, the nature of tyranny, but also guilt and acceptance. Megatron, now a determined pacifist, is compelled back to violence to defend his new friends, but in doing so slaps a Decepticon badge over his Autobot one. When the dying Ravage – always sceptical and disapproving of his former boss’s change to the red team – notices, he reaches his hand out to touch the badge and says “don’t change back”. Back to what? Back to being an Autobot? Or back to being a Decepticon? These were his last words, and we’ll never know what they mean. And I really need to underline, Ravage is one of my favourite characters, and this is how he died. It just helps to underline the massive schism in Megatron’s psyche, his own continued self-doubt, the betrayal his former friends now feel, and – yes – his continued guilt. Quite how this ridiculous plot thread, imposed upon the writer by the publisher, turned into the cornerstone and most compelling element of the entire run is just exceptional writing and character work.

“Even Team Whirl”: this is two-fold because it’s a great moment and a call-back. The first time we see Whirl he’s about to kill himself. He’s filled with self-loathing because he’s been abused and mistreated, he’s a violent loner who’s alienated all his friends, and because he might have started the war in the first place. He’s a horrible person who we don’t really like but very slowly we grow to love him as he opens up. And then when Rodimus gives to inspire everyone he includes Whirl – “even Team Whirl” he says – and Whirl does seem to notice. Then, at the very end, Whirl has enough self-belief in his own latent goodness that he can open the Matrix, saying to himself “Even… Team… Whirl…”. So it’s partly the story of Whirl’s redemption and how he learns to believe in himself, and also a story about how Rodimus is just a cool guy and super-inspiring.

“Goodnight, little one”: after Getaway grooms and gaslights Tailgate, he outlines the four steps a Transformer takes to codify their relationship (basically, wedding vows). Tailgate is rescued by Cyclonus, but as they’re pinned down by security forces, we see the four steps play out again: actions that Cyclonus has taken over the years – instinctively, selflessly, without thinking – that prove how much he’s always loved Tailgate. It’s a heartbreaking encapsulation of their relationship when Tailgate realises all of this, realises Cyclonus is the right one after all. Then Cyclonus is shot to pieces.

“Megatron was able to open it when you couldn’t…”: might need a bit of explaining this, but the whole saga ends with the team opening multiple Matrixes (Matrices?) at the same time. Except they only open if you feel like you deserve to open them, that you’re good enough. Throughout, Rodimus has been an egocentric do-gooder who wants everyone to think he’s ace; that he’s a true Prime, essentially. He opens his Matrix effortlessly. But later he tells a court that he couldn’t open it, but Megatron could; he lies to the universe to try to get them to pardon the guy who started the war and once tried to kill him. This evolution of their relationship and his own personality is so beautifully sad and, ultimately, heroic. Like a true Prime.

“I love you”: why are so many of these sad? Despite what I said about Tailgate and Cyclonus, the defining relationship of the series is Chromedome and Rewind. One can read people’s minds by injecting their skulls; the other is constantly recording everything and saving the footage to a vast database. When Rewind dies, Chromedome wants to remove the memories of his dead love from his own mind; but a recording by Rewind, spliced together from dozens of different videos, leaves him a beautiful but tragic message from beyond the grave, culminating in three very simple words. Chromedome decides not to wipe his own mind.

“Remember me as I was”: one of the best long-running arcs in the series was the frequent flashbacks to old Cybertron (we’ll see more of this later). The mysterious, unnamed senator who befriended Orion Pax – with his vibrant, ever-changing colour scheme and propensity for emotional outbursts – is a mysterious and slightly sinister character. What’s his game? Is he grooming Orion? And then as the real sinister villains take over, the scale of the senator’s punishment is horrific and severe and we discover that his face, hands, and entire personality has been irrevocably altered, and he was in fact the cold, emotionless, logical Shockwave, one of the most notorious Decepticons. It’s a terrific origin for a popular character, suitably shocking and unexpected; a great twist.

“We’re going to steal the Matrix”: still back in the past for this, another classic cliffhanger ending. After establishing Orion Pax as the supercop who can’t be stopped, we have a number of plot threads converge as the scale of the evil Cybertronian Senate and the sinister, fascistic Functionists becomes apparent. Knowing what must be done, Orion hatches a simple but impossible plan: steal the Matrix. It turns a flashback mystery-cum-character piece into, all of a sudden, a Cybertronian heist movie; Orion’s Eleven. And it is, of course, excellent.

“It happened off-panel”: it’s a funny book, this, and sometimes you just need a good gag. I was tempted to include the Holiday Special and its “Contrivance Engine”, but really my favourite of the Red Dwarf-style silly sci-fi gags is the Meta-Bomb – “it blows a hole in the fourth wall”. Swerve – comic relief with a tragic backstory – presses it and instantly becomes a sort of metafictional narrator, semi-outside of the narrative, not quite Deadpool but a step removed. The fact that this gag, making use of and fun of the comics medium, is great in and of itself is one thing; but it also sets up further developments down the road. And that’s the funny thing about comedy; the banter and the gags makes you fall in love with the characters, so when a writer twists the knife it hurts that much more.

“Tell Whirl he can have my hands”: Ratchet is a grumpy doc with a heart of gold, but it’s the grumpiness that comes to the fore more often. His Spock/McCoy banter with Drift is a solid part of the story’s early years, and one would be forgiven for thinking Ratchet was a hard, flinty sort. But when the chips are down – faced with a rampaging Overlord and certain death – he doesn’t flinch for a second, defending the needy and immediately barking orders, bestowing favours and generosity. Whirl’s loss of hands and the abuse that loss signifies is a great weight on his soul, and instantly Ratchet offers to alleviate that. It’s so fast, so instant a thought, that its generosity takes me by surprise.

“It’s not funny at all. It’s tragic”: we end where we began, with Megatron’s redemption, and once again with a fashback narrative – here Megatron talking via a sort of time travel phone with not-Optimus-yet Orion Pax. Pax, assuming he’s talking to the Megatron of his own time, is a big fan of his future foe, wants to get him to join the fight; Megatron, speaking from the future, drops a couple of cryptic references to their eventual animosity. There are shades of Macbeth or Milton’s Satan when he says he couldn’t turn back now even if he wanted to, but he acknowledges he will join Pax “eventually”. Tragic doesn’t cover it.

There we are then. I don’t know what else to say. I’m sad it’s over but I’m happy it happened. We achieved something. Oh boy.

#top ten #transformers #idw publishing #idw transformers #comics #more than meets the eye #mtmte #lost light

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