#them into a monster whose new outwardly violent and self destructive behaviors will doom themselves and others

[hampterguts]

tailgate's story throughout mtmte/ll is literally a tragedy in the sense of like... the corruption of sympathy that repeated and constant exposure to environments that require lethal violence to survive can do to a person. to me.

is it portrayed as such? kinda? does it lead to any kind of real conversation on the topic? no 🤗

spoilers ? i guess vv

[in reaction to multiple people dying in a fight against one person] "Im Upset, doesnt anyone DO upset anymore? what is WRONG with you people? Is this a war thing?" -> many issues later -> not even feeling concern for a woman he mightve just killed, who had tried intervening to stop him from killing someone

edit: like do u know how much it bothers me that when cyclonus tries to bring light to the horror that tailgate brings he just goes "FINE, LESSON LEARNED, WHATEVER. i was TOTALLY in control and calmed MYSELF down BTW" was not calm did not calm down until after the decepticon crowd dispersed. until after sending anode flying, who he has no idea ended up skewered mid-air and bleeding out, but "whatever dw dw im so strong and cool and protective and i kill Bad People™️"

and............... im just supposed to believe ..... that its fine and thats NOT an alarming end to that note......???

like "oh hey remember sweet innocent tailgate, terrified and learning abt the horrors of his own civil war, trying to achieve greatness and community while his roommate tries to emphasize the nuance to all perspectives of humanity? yeaahhhh uhhhh he's going down the bad path of focusing on good vs evil when the war is literally over and hes trying to kill ppl he doesnt even know over small scrapes but dont worry, he's cool and its fine its whatever. dont worry abt it. he's not remorseful but like whatever man he wont do it again i prommy. like he SAID he had it handled dont you trust him??? the guy who beat someone unconscious and was STILL going after them violently??? hes. FINE. (and then tailgate doesnt end up in another situation to prove he's changed at all)

also PLEASE i wish i couldve gotten ONE scene of anode seeing tailgate again and just. acknowledging it. hanging out with swerve and being like aw hell its that dude who sent me flying like a frisbee, swerve why do you hang out with him.

edit edit: w. wait. was the. was the whole "pls get rid of my favorite cool powers bc they give me self destructive nightmares that almost killed my partner" .... ALSO supposed to..... no literally did he not give a shit abt the violence to strangers he only cared abt cyclonus???? bro........................................ little guy is so fucked up and not in a good fun way