#incoming analysis
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More Than Meets the Eye #50 — The Midlife Crisis Cruise Comes to an End
Our issue begins on Earth— not Swearth, but honest-to-god Earth— where Optimus Prime and Jetfire are watching a broadcast. It’s not syndicated television like I Love Lucy or The Transformers (1984), however. No, this broadcast is coming from some of our favorite Lost Lighters, detailing their last will and testament.
Nautica wants to be buried on her home planet, and doesn’t give a hot gay fuck what they engrave on her sparkcase. Also she’s missing a good chunk of her face, but don’t worry about that too much.
Chromedome’s just happy that he’s dying WITH his husband this go around. I’m sure Brainstorm’s also thrilled to not have the “please please please stop stabbing yourself in the brain to avoid the pain of being a widower Jesus Christ we can’t keep doing this”.
Rewind takes the opportunity to poke Chromedome in the inferiority complex one last time, making his message out to Dominus Ambus. Our resident lovebirds want to “enter the after spark simultaneously”, though that seems more like something to address with whoever’s killing them.
Over on Cybertron, in Metroplex’s titties, it would seem this broadcast is VERY wideband, as Starscream and Scoop (we’ll go over whatever the fuck’s going on there in another post) witness Nightbeat’s will and testament, though considering Nightbeat’s technically undead, I’m not sure how much legal weight it holds. Having done the whole “dying” thing before, I’m sure he’s spent many a long, sleepless night thinking about how it would happen next time. Ikea Johnson wants a “Neoprimalist” funeral, where they preserve only the head. Interesting that Nightbeat's religious sect is the same as Flywheels, the Scavenger who only existed to be a stand-in for the word "fuck".
Over on Luna 1, Red Alert is convinced that Megatron is using his gun mode to threaten Nightbeat. Fort Max isn’t so sure.
Minimus shows off the most recent trick he’s learned, saying the word “fun” with only stuttering twice. He wants to be buried on the moon, next to all of Rodimus’s failed pregnancies, and wearing the skin of a man who’s been dead for thousands of years.
Whirl doesn’t want a funeral, though you’d think he’d at least want his corpse thrown in the general direction of the Wreckers’ base, where every member gets a slot in the Zone of Remembrance as part of the onboarding. I know he got kicked out, but being shot out of a rail gun at Debris sounds roughly his speed.
Rung only requests that, should he die in his vape pen form, that he be dismantled. He’s so committed to preventing underage smoking, and for that I commend him.
Rung’s request greatly disturbs the Scavengers, who seem to have forgone fixing the Krok-shaped hole in the wall and buying a couch more than two of them can sit on at a time, in order to afford a replacement TV, after Krok fastball-specialed a golden disc through the last one.
On another part of Cybertron, Windblade and Wheeljack watch Velocity state that she doesn’t regret a single thing that’s happened while she’s been a part of the Lost Light. To recap, in the few months Velocity’s been aboard: Thunderclash almost died of being too perfect, Velocity’s first boss ran off to go bang a billionaire with a sword collection, Swerve almost died from too much television, her second boss ran off to get roped into the Polycule Wars, Tailgate exploded, Rung was revealed to be practicing without a license by way of a weird gibbon with a ball gag and his serial killer boyfriend, and she became the only practicing medical professional aboard a ship of over 200, after failing to pass her medical exams ten times. Oh, and she wants to be recycled.
Optimus wants to go save them, thinking that there’s still time. However, the Lost Light isn’t responding, and it doesn’t actually matter anyhow— these recording were sent out weeks ago.
Looks like that’s a series wrap on Nautica, Chromedome, Rewind, Nightbeat, Minimus, Whirl, Rung, and Velocity! Let’s give ‘em a hand, folks!
Three weeks prior, on the planet of Miliarium, action is happening:
Being on your headset in the middle of a battle seems rather rude, but I suppose sacrifices to politeness have to be made, when one of your co-captains is effectively forbidden from stepping foot on any planet that’s aware of Cybertron’s existence, given that he, y’know, is the face of a cause that slaughtered billions over the course of millions of years.
(No, don’t ask Optimus how relations with Earth are going.)
Megatron, continuing to command from orbit, tells Whirl to go help Cyclonus and Crossblades with the Rust Giants’ longship, asking for no casualties. Which is sort of like asking a horse on cocaine to not freak out and kick someone in the head, if that horse also had guns tied to 30% of its body.
Rodimus asks Megatron if he’s enjoying himself, playing a pacifist run of a wartime strategy game with their lives, and Megatron says that he’s “rumbled”; which I’m not sure if I’m search-engining wrong, but I don’t know that even the British are saying that to mean they’re right chuffed or tallywackered about a situation, or whatever. Rodimus is suddenly faced with a Rust Giant that he doesn’t even come up to the knee of, but luckily we have a new superhero to save the day, by way of incredible violence.
Looks like we’re still workshopping the battle-cries.
Tailgate punched this guy so hard it cause a jump-cut to the post-battle celebration, where Rodimus shows off his multi-typefacial abilities, Megatron perpetrates his bigotry towards organics, the Cybertronians make galactic news for a not-awful reason for once, and Swerve is also here! For some reason! It looks like it’s gonna be all peaches and cream from here on, so long as we ignore the first three pages of this issue!
Hey, Cyclonus, you have to wait for him to call you, you're not an Autobot. Just because the little white guy you're Sufjan Stevens-level attached to is going, doesn't mean— Cyclonus, hey. Hey, Cyclonus. Cyclonus. Cycl—
Later, back on the Lost Light, class is in session. We finally get a look at those course Megatron’s been teaching, only briefly mentioned by Riptide in issue #29. The current course track is on the Knights of Cybertron, Megatron having assigned those in attendance to write essays tackling “pre-Functionist folklore and contested heritage”.
Today’s class consists of:
Minimus (old as balls, former high society)
Skids (the best at everything)
Brainstorm (literal genius)
Perceptor (slightly-less-literal genius)
Nautica (jack-of-all-trades brainiac and bibliophile)
Crosscut (former senator, current playwright, therefore probably has at least some sort of degree)
Nightbeat (nosy as fuck, loves to figure shit out)
Hound (former Primal Vanguard)
Thunderclash (perfect student, researcher, friend, confidante, and maybe even lover)
Grapple (not much to say here, other than he’s fucking jacked in IDW)
Xaaron (chief legal advisor for the Autobots)
And Riptide (created during the war and therefore has the least connection to Cybertron's folklore, canonically not a good test-taker)
Poor Riptide's grades don’t stand a snowball's chance in hell against his peers', but good on him for sticking with the classes regardless.
This essay was assigned to help students establish context for the Knights within a world where they have not existed for millions of years, having disappeared since they embarked on their quest to Cyberutopia; a world where information creep, the slow degradation of memory as time passes, has made them into mythological figures. Megatron posits that the only thing we really know about the Knights is that they failed to do what they set out to do, as the universe is not a peaceful place, himself arguably being exhibit A of that failure. Still, he intends to use this course to help the Lost Light’s crew understand the Knights to the best of their current, modernity-biased ability, prior to potentially meeting them. Considering that the Knights will be deciding Megatron’s fate, perhaps this is also for him to grapple with understanding his own end.
Anyway, let’s look at a plot device.
The last time we saw this symbol was during issue #46, both drawn by Grimlock on his walls, paired with the words “prepare confront repel”, and then on some mysterious fellows who were working with Krok’s nasty little friend Demus and someone called "The Grand Architect". However, the first time we saw it was with Skids in #21, after he went through Tyrest’s space bridge and talked to a giant technicolor ball of light.
Seeing this image kickstarts Skids’s memory, enough so that he interrupts class over it. Nautica has also seen this symbol, at an exhibit on Troja Major (a planet that Roberts will use as a dumping ground for many plot points in the sequel series to MTMTE) where it was claimed to be some sort of coat of arms. Thunderclash also knows this symbol, having seen it with his beautiful mind and kind heart in his visions, the same visions that were leading him to the Knights and allowing him to create a map to Cyberutopia. Nautica asks Skids to write out the symbol that he “heard” phonetically into her space phone, in a move that will prove HIGHLY useful later on. Perceptor adds in his two cents, showing off that he’s wearing the “feminine” nose-type today, stating that he had talked to one of the Circle of Light members back in Season 1, who had theorized that the Knights of Cybertron was either originally made up of OR broke down into clans, and that the symbol/map Rodimus and Thunderclash were drawing is merely connected to part of the Knights, and that there could be others floating around.
Nightbeat thinks that all this brainstorming (which hasn’t involved Brainstorm, oddly enough) is super cool and great, showing off his anime thumb in approval. When Minimus tries to give Megatron props for bringing everyone together to figure this out, he finds that Megatron is having some troubles, hunched over his podium as far as his fucked up old man toy articulation will allow. When Minimus approaches to see what’s wrong, he gets punched clear across the room for his troubles. Then this happens:
Look, I don’t care if 99.9% of the Cybertronian population can reclaim, you shouldn’t just limp your wrist at your first officer in the middle of class.
No, what Megatron is actually doing is pointing the fusion cannon he doesn’t have anymore, but had attached to his arm for roughly 4 million years, directly at Minimus’s tiny little skull. Quickly coming back to himself, Megatron is both horrified and mortified by what he’s done, offering nothing more but a quick apology before he dismisses the class and bolts, not even helping Minimus off of the floor.
The following day, Velocity’s paying a visit to Megatron’s room, which is STILL as barren as the most dire of single male living spaces. Velocity’s here because Megatron missed his appointment yesterday, after whatever happened in the classroom. Megatron reminds her that the weekly appointment is for him receiving his ration of “fool’s energon” which is meant to keep him in a weakened state, which arguably shouldn’t make it medicine in the traditional sense. Velocity reminds him that he nearly knocked Minimus Ambus’s (yeah, she uses his full name, guess she’s not been around long enough to get “just Minimus” privileges) block off, and that if Megatron had been at full strength, we might be dealing with a murder situation instead.
Though Minimus IS a load bearer, who regularly slings around a body three times his size, on top of weapons, so maybe not. Also, there’s an even smaller guy inside the first mustached guy, so honestly it’d probably be fine.
Does Velocity even know about the irreducible Minimus? Is that in his medical history? Does she even know that Ultra Magnus and Minimus Ambus are the same person? Because Megatron didn’t even know until they found that corpse on the quantum duplicate Lost Light, and Magnus was his lawyer for the trial as well as being his SIC. Really, what are the legal ramifications of Minimus having assumed the identity of a dead man, now that Tyrest isn’t there to keep up the charade and the secret is a bit more open? Does Minimus have legal claim to Magnus’s identity, or at least ownership of the armor? Can Minimus lay claim to any property he purchased as Magnus, or that the previous Magnuses had purchased prior to their deaths? Was Minimus legally declared dead prior to undertaking the role of Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, if only to make things easier in terms of paperwork? Can Minimus sign off on things, and if so, does he use his own signature, or Magnus’s? If he signed something as Magnus, would any contract bearing it be rendered temporarily void whenever he’s not wearing his work pants? How much of Minimus’s existence makes him cry late into the night with how legally dubious it is? Does Delta Magnus know about Ultra Magnus being a skin suit? I feel like we don’t focus on how fucked up this whole situation is nearly enough.
Anyway, Velocity asks after Megatron’s medicine, probably because First Aid’s medical note-taking skills often get usurped by his need to write SpringerxReader fanfiction. She mentions that what they’ve been feeding Megatron over the last year have some side effects, which Megatron seems surprised by. Considering he’s felt sickly and crampy this whole time, the side effects are likely meant to be the intent of the medication.
Velocity then takes a gander at the dents Megatron put into his head when he had his little freakout, stating that “chemo-sedatives” can change one’s whole personality in extreme cases, as well as increased stress levels, as Megatron admits that the reason he crushed his head with his hands is that he heard voices screaming. However, Megatron doesn’t think stress caused such a thing.
To recap how the last year has gone for Megatron: he was forced to renounce the cause he had led for the last 4 million years, became co-captain of a fucking Carnival cruise ship, had 95% of his crew disappear from reality, found a bunch of corpses, got slapped in the face by Soundwave’s dad, had to lie to Rewind’s face to make him okay with killing himself so that everyone else might live, got shot as an infant, gaining anywhere from three-to-five fathers as a result, visited the most passive-aggressive garden in the galaxy, got stabbed in the chest and brained with a flat-screen television and then had to apologize for it, and was non-consensually hugged by a swarm of flesh-eating insects parading around in his SIC’s skin suit.
Velocity gets a call on her smart watch, Swerve on the other end demanding her presence at the medibay, seeing as she’s the only doctor on the ship now, and there are multiple people having a crisis.
Smash cut to Swerve, Cyclonus, Tailgate, Chromedome, Rewind, Rung, and Megatron standing on the bridge, their colors looking super fucked up and light bloomed out, because this is a 40-page issue with a shit-ton of detail and characters, so we’ve got three colorists, two artists, and an extra inker on for this one. They’re meeting with Rodimus, whose fingers have shrunk down to the size of shoestring potato fries, because Swerve, Tailgate, Rewind, Rung, and Megatron heard some sort of awful noise in their brains at the exact same time. Chromedome is here to support his husband, because he loves him so, so much, kissy-noise kissy-noise. Cyclonus is here mainly to clarify that he’s a badass who no one has ever heard cry, because emotional vulnerability and expressing pain are for pussies, unless you’re doing it by way of self-harming directly onto your face meat.
Only Tailgate and Rewind actually admit to what they heard, Tailgate hearing Cyclonus berate him for falling for Getaway’s tricks and Rewind hearing Dominus berate him for not doing enough to find him. I’d imagine both Rung and Swerve were hearing things relating to their professionalism, given that Rung fucking sucks at his job, and Swerve’s gonna fry the moment Ten gets a union sorted out. Megatron, is well, Megatron, so there’s a litany of awful things that he could have heard.
Rodimus has Blaster reveal that the ship received a signal at the exact same time that these people had their little brain event. Brainstorm hypothesizes that what happened was some sort of psychological assault, perhaps of Galactic Council origin, as a means of testing a new brain weapon. Magnus, who has been up on an upper level with a clipboard up to this point, notes that they could trace the signal. Mainframe informs him that they have, but the origin doesn’t seem to correspond to any known location in the navigation, and they’d have to physically go there to see what’s up. Which isn’t sketchy in the slightest.
Rodimus wants to load up on his big, beautiful Rodpod with everyone, so they can find who did this and make them stop. When Magnus questions if this is a wise course of action, Rodimus uses American grammar to trip up Magnus’s British-based spellcheck, so he gets to do whatever he wants. This is a trick he’s picked up since Drift left, as the old game of “pitting my people-pleaser hippy dippy boytoy and my no-nonsense stick-up-the-ass sentient rulebook against one another, so whatever I wanted to do from the start can seem like a pleasantly centralized option” doesn’t work very well when you replace the boytoy with a grumpy old man who tried to murder everything with a heartbeat.
Velocity wants to join the trip alongside Team Rodimus, but Mainframe has his reservations. I don’t blame him, considering she is, again, the only medical doctor currently on board this ship. He suggests she take along some personal protection, just in case.
…I mean, he’ll definitely make sure any bad guys who come her way will die horribly, if nothing else. Also, apparently the Rodpod's artificial gravity goes all the way around.
Nautica’s spent the last few weeks tricking out the Rodpod with a fancy schmancy new teleport drive, because Rodimus was annoying her to the point where if she didn’t give him what he was moaning about she might have had to kill him. Megatron is hesitant to use the drive, but after being informed that there are safety perimeters in place that’ll keep the ol’ Rodimus Podimus from teleporting inside a asteroid or whatever, he pulls the level and they end up in the dark.
No, not space dark, don’t be funny. That’s my job, and they don’t pay me for it, which should tell you how dire the situation is. This is a special sort of dark. The sort of dark that leads to panic and lethal levels of quipping. Rodimus cuts the lights on, but it does very little to offset the absolutely suffocating darkness outside. Rewind notes that there aren’t any stars, and Tailgate admits that he doesn’t know how space works. That’s alright Tailgate, neither do any of the people who draw or color this comic. You’re amongst (created by?) friends here.
The scanners reveal that there’s something 3000 miles in front of them. And behind them. And to the left, to the right, 12 o'clock, three o'clock, six o'clock, nine o'clock, rock around the clock tonight— that is to say, they’re surrounded by something the size of a planet. After disabling the safety protocols on the Rodimus Podimus, the gang find themselves on the surface of Necroworld, where the Necrobot Censere lives and operates his many plinths to the living and dead. Megatron isn’t exactly thrilled to be back here. Nightbeat on the other hand, is overdose on mystery, and he couldn’t be happier. Nobody’s sure what the fuck is going on. There’s no time to theorize, however, as half the gang just got blown sky high.
Everyone books it back to the Rodpod to escape the dozen attack craft coming after them, but there’s more trouble here— the teleport drive is dead. Which is weird, because they should have had enough juice to get to and from their little trip. When Rodimus tries to contact the Lost Light, there’s no response. They’re not responding. Megatron tells him that those are two different things, mirroring the same thing Optimus said about trying to contact the Lost Light after he and Jetfire viewed the will tapes. Everyone else is busy trying to figure out who the hell could be firing on them, all of them roughly coming to the same conclusion that Cybertronians as a whole aren’t terribly well liked, and the Lost Lighters have made a bit of a name (derogatory) for themselves, since they insulted the Galactic Council, caused the end of the 16-million year Stentarian war, and have ruined at least one bar with physical violence over home movies.
Rodimus tells Megatron to park the Rodpod at the Necrobot’s citadel, just in time for a missile to hit the ass-end of the shuttle, blowing off Magnus’s arm, shredding off roughly half of Nautica’s face, and giving Cyclonus an excuse to hold Tailgate in his arms. Everyone bolts to get inside, Nautica being carried by Skids so we can further solidify the straightest pairing in the series. Once they’re all inside, their attackers retreat, and we see where Censere’s gotten to in all this.
Let’s give him a hand, folks!
While Velocity looks over the body, Nightbeat deals with his personal Santa Claus being dead by way of trying to figure out what happened. Megatron, meanwhile, noticed that the craft that attacked them were of Decepticon design, and he tells Ravage to go check it out. Honestly, I doubt he was the only one to notice, given that all but three of the people on this trip were dealing with the Decepticons in some form or fashion all throughout the war, and could therefore identify the make of the crafts, if not the model, so I’m not sure what the deal is with this secrecy.
Brainstorm is brought over to Nightbeat to help solve this mystery, and he promptly identifies that some of Censere’s equipment is very similar to the stuff Tyrest used for the Aequitas trials, likely used to figure out what sparkflowers to plant where. Rewind, having popped on his sparkliest nipple pasties on, because he hates Censere and wants to get glitter all over his house, asks the boys to scootch on over so he can try to call the Lost Light. Nightbeat thinks that Censere tried to sabotage a signal someone else had sent in an attempt to lure Team Rodimus (and friends) to the planet, and that resulted in the brain attack that had happened earlier in the day. Unfortunately, Censere didn’t spend any time with Rodimus the last time the Lost Light visited, so he didn’t get a taste of the ridiculous way Rodimus likes to live his life, and why the psychic attack wouldn’t work.
Rewind gets the phone working, calling Rodimus over to get on the horn. Magnus stands in the background, showing off his grievous amputation. After a bit of fiddling with the settings on their end, the Lost Light makes official contact with Team Rodimus.
Getaway, last we saw him, was very much in prison, but Rodimus isn’t going to focus on that niggling little detail right now, as he asks for the Lost Light to swing by to pick up the team so they don’t all die. Getaway sort of DOES want to focus on that detail, however, as he very much didn’t appreciate being fetish fuel throughout the holiday season, and, despite his name, didn’t actually escape that setup. No, Getaway had help.
Man, guess Megatron should’ve reconsidered failing Riptide on his essay.
Speaking of Megatron, he walks up about now to see what all the hubbub’s about. Rodimus, looking like he’s about to cry, realizes that Mainframe lied to them about not being able to track the signal. Getaway gives him points for getting that right, but really, he wants to drive home the point that the entirety of the crew wanted Megatron’s little pals off the ship. And that’s what it’s really about, at the end of the day. Getaway hates that high command gave Megatron a party cruise to live out his last days on, last days that might not even happen, with the track record of this goddamned quest. He’s sick of Rodimus and pals acting like this whole arrangement isn’t an affront to every single life that’s been snuffed out because of Megatron’s actions.
Everyone other than Whirl seems pretty bummed out by these accusations. Swerve pipes up, enraged that he’s been doomed to die alongside everyone else— he doesn’t even LIKE Megatron. Getaway reveals that at some point or another, he and Atomizer (the interior designer turned bowman, you’ll recall) approached every single crew member and asked if they thought Megatron deserved to have a second chance and also, completely unrelated, but what would you do in the event of a coup? Anyone who didn’t provide a desirable answer got visited by the nudge gun fairy— that gun that can fire thought into your brain, or just erase memories if fired dry. The collection of headaches main cast have been experiencing over the last several issues? The side effect of being shot. Skids especially does not like this reveal.
Of course, Getaway isn’t just upset with Megatron’s leadership— he’s also mad as hell what’s supposed to be a trip to find their ancestors, who will guide them back onto the straight and narrow, has, in actuality, been Rodimus’s midlife crisis road trip. Getaway wasn’t even here for Rodimus and Drift’s ass-slapping contests and insulting galactic officials who want the Cybertronians dead, but he didn’t need to be. He took one look at the Rodpod and decided he needed to kill Rodimus right then and there.
Rodimus, at this point, remembers the list Atomizer had offered him back during the trial. Magnus, biting his lip at the idea of a list existing, asks what that’s all about, and Rodimus explains. Getaway really was hoping that Rodimus would take the bait, so he could’ve blackmailed Rodimus into stepping down and letting literally anyone else take over. Probably Magnus, at that point in the timeline, given that he hadn’t gotten buddy-buddy with Megatron yet at that point. Unless Getaway considers acting as someone’s lawyer under order of the space pope as being too close to an individual.
Getaway decides that this conversation has reached its natural conclusion, as he’s got questing to get done, and it should be moving at a pretty even clip now, since he’s excised all the distractions. Rodimus swears to come after him, but Getaway doubts it’ll happen, given what’s happening next.
While this debacle has been happening, Ravage has been busy searching a crash site, trying to uncover the identity of who the hell’s decided to attack them. Tarn commits a microagression at him, before firing his twin fusion cannons.
The call ends, Getaway cutting off the comm to all contact.
Ravage shows back up at this point, to give everyone the bad news.
Nightbeat, honey, the tragedy is in the opposite direction.
Now, that’s technically the finale of the main story, but there’s a little bonus comic attached to the end, acting as a sort of sideways epilogue to hint at what Getaway and his merry band of mutineers will be getting up to, since we aren’t seeing them again for a bit.
Our little backup strip begins right before the original launch of the Lost Light, where we see some guys we haven’t seen the 2012 Annual issue. Shock and Ore wander around what will one day become Swerve’s, Shock convinced that this ship is actually the ship they lost 5 million years prior, the Unitrex-1. Ore isn’t so sure, but as the readers, we saw the exact moment that Unitrex-1 disappeared in issue #38, after Rodimus forgot to wash his hands while putting the quantum engine together. Shock, wanting to prove that he’s right, fumbles around in the dark, looking for the graffiti he carved into the underside of a table. Ore gets a call on his space Blackberry while he’s doing this, and we finally get the other half of that call Prowl made in issue #1, after he failed to get Chromedome to stay on Cybertron. The Duobots have 20 minutes to get Overlord’s massive, lippy ass on the ship. Knowing that that isn’t a ton of time, the two quickly book it out of the bar, leaving the spectral form of Skids to look really bummed out.
Later, at Swerve’s grand (secret) opening, we see some more old faces.
Whoa now, Drift, you’re not supposed to be back until next issue!
Pipes thinks he’s been cursed to not have friends, since Hubcap is still at his dead-end job with the Wreckers, and Riptide was too busy being in a coma to come say goodbye. How rude!
Drift doesn’t seem to particularly want Pipes around more than necessary, pushing him to be friends with Rewind, who he describes as having kind eyes. Whether Drift is doing this to keep Pipes safe from overhearing any Overlord-related secrets, keeping his ass-slapping and sexually-tense sword training time with Rodimus safe, or just because he finds Pipes to be mildly annoying isn’t clear. Pipes, however, is looking for more than friendship— he’s looking to bone down.
Pipes’s ideal partner is wide as they are tall, with tits to match and at least one alt-mode that he can use as a yacht. Drift tells him he can introduce him to Tailgate, though something tells me Pipes isn’t really Tailgate’s type, given that he can actually say what he means and doesn’t have some fucked-up facial situation.
It’s really too bad that Pipes died, because I bet he would have loved Nautica, and he would have REALLY loved Nickel.
Later still, we see all of our doctors together— even Ambulon is there! In one piece, even! Ambulon wants to tell First Aid something, and First Aid automatically tries to make it a cosmetic thing, because of COURSE Ambulon would be insecure about his bad skin, and what he really needs is a better cleanser. What Ambulon actually wants to talk about, though, is his alt mode, and the fact that the puns involved with being part of a Combiner make him want to die. First Aid understands, but Swerve, known menace to society, might not be so compassionate, as he throws a grenade into the back of Ambulon’s head, triggering his transformation. Ambulon is mortified, and Swerve does the thing that Ambulon literally just said he hates. First Aid continues to rip flakes of paint off of Ambulon, as the specter of Velocity watches, looking pretty bummed about the fact that she never got to be part of banter like this.
Later on than that, Rewind and a wheelchair-bound Rung are in the currently-empty Swerve’s, as Rewind calls Chromedome to gather up one of the groups for those storytelling circles Rewind organized to try to fix Rung’s brain. He hangs up, then tells Rung that once his brain works again, they’re going to have a goddamned chat about Dominus Ambus, which is only mildly hampered in its threat by the fact that Rewind standing is barely the same height as Rung sitting down.
Rewind then gets to work writing out the story map for when the “Shadowplay” group gets there, as the specter of Chromedome reaches out longingly for the dead version of his husband. He laments that this Rewind died without closure, but the ghostly specter of Rung reminds him that there are rules to this, and they have to leave now. Not sure why Rung’s here to watch himself be threatened by Pipsqueak McGee. Is he actually doing his job for once, helping guide someone through their grief? I doubt it, since Chromedome isn’t a hottie bo-body like Skids, and his problems haven’t (directly, at least) caused the sort of trouble that make entire star systems hate you like Megatron.
Later, during the Overlord disaster, Perceptor sprints into Swerve’s, shouting for a medic, as the rest of the battered and beaten watch. Hoist, himself hooked up to the wall by some sort of cable, while wearing his extra-special Rodimus Star, offers to help, though he’s technically an engineer, and whatever he’s gonna do probably won’t have any consideration for the soul or ability to feel pain. Perceptor was using Tripodeca— sweet, beloved, friend to all, who was the star of the post-Overlord mass funeral Tripodeca— as a, uh, tripod for his rifle, when Overlord probably noticed that the ol’ science sniper looked sort of familiar and did a lil’ grabbing with his big nasty hands. Hoist asks if Perceptor is going to stop Overlord, and considering how things went the last time Overlord was the star of the show, I doubt Perceptor thought he was gonna get lucky twice in terms of survival, especially when Overlord is riGHT BEHIND HIM OH GOD LORDY JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH
How Perceptor survived this isn't clear, but we know he did, as he continued to show up in the story past issue #15 in a decidedly alive, non-paste form. His specter watches this scene unfold, expression unreadable.
Post-Luna 1, Swerve stands in his ruined bar dejectedly, when he realizes that quite a few people have shown up to help him clean up the mess, as long as he promises to reward their hard work with reopening once it’s done. As everyone works to get things back in order, Swerve tells them to keep an eye out for a non-trashed Legislator that he could use as a bouncer, once he fucks around with its head enough to make it do what he wants. Ten’s specter watches as his shitty boss and arguable father is gifted the body that would become him, making a note to get his union going with a bit more urgency.
Later, on the day of the “Fuck Off Megatron 2-for-1 Drink Deal”, Crosscut lead Riptide, Mirage, and Nautica on a tour of the ship. Mirage notes that Swerve’s is a bit of a dive, not suited to his refined tastes in the slightest. In a booth, Getaway and Atomizer have boxed Mainframe in on either side to have a little chat. Swerve and Bluestreak talk television, Bluestreak making a little jab at MTMTE’s second season not being quite as well-received by fans as the first. Over at the bar, Highbrow and Perceptor talk about Quark, while Brainstorm watches while having his briefcase, which he is NOT supposed to have in here.
Crosscut goes on about this bar being where all things happen and where bittersweet is the most often-felt emotion, then calls Trailcutter/blazer an alcoholic as he dances on the ceiling. The specters of just about everyone on the ship watch their fallen friend, enjoying the moment and missing him terribly, as Perceptor brings them back to the here and now of the story, which turns out to be just after the holiday special, judging by the Christmas lights.
Minimus asks if this is safe, and Perceptor says that it is, as nobody can actually interact with the past, because Brainstorm is the only one who’s ever actually perfected that tech, not that this isn’t his fault either. It turns out that when you try to fly against the stream of time as it naturally occurs, you tear a few thousand itty bitty holes on the way to perfecting the process. Perceptor’s found a way to let others view the past, at least for a little while. Minimus is fine with it, as long as everyone continues to behave, and it seems like they are, as everyone mingles in Swerve’s.
The two of them sit down, Megatron handing Minimus what I’m sure is a mocktail, and Perceptor explains that while the window into the past is closing for now, it may open back up in the future. When Rodimus asks when that might be, he then immediately decides that he doesn’t want to know, instead wanting to have a fun little surprise for later. They don’t get very many of those, fun surprises.
As everyone toasts to the dead and to future adventures, the specter of Getaway watches on, smug as hell.
That’s the end of “No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases” but that is STILL not the end of the issue! It never ends, this thing! Because the number 50 is very big and impressive, obviously this is a double-sized spectacular, and has to cap off with a note from the man himself— James Roberts.
And then after that we get a new notes from fans, but this is already obscenely long and I think I can show you the crux of what they’re all saying right here: MTMTE (2012) is fucking good. It’s a good series. Make your goddamn family, friends, coworkers, librarians, and goldfish read it. Share it with people you’ve never met. Get a long-term personal project out of it. Get long-term friends out of it. Get a long-term romantic partner out of it. If I can do it, so can you!
#transformers#MTMTE#issue 50#maccadam#hannzreads#text post#long post#comic script writing#overthinking about robots#incoming analysis
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I’ll probably make a longer post about this later on but I love how in “what else can I do?” Isabelas transformation isn’t about rejecting feminity but instead about defining your own identity. I seen people saying it was “anti feminine” but where? she’s still graceful and has a dress she still acts very similar the only difference is her dress is a different color and she’s happier! Isabela is undoubtably feminine and I think that can be said for a lot of women in encanto. They aren’t rejecting feminity they’re rejecting the roles they’ve been forced into.
#encanto#isabela madrigal#uh oh another wecid analysis incoming#I don’t like the idea that isabela just rejects feminity because it’s so clear to me in the song she wasn’t unhappy about that?#isabela is still a girly bitch just cause her dress isn’t pink doesn’t mean anything
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thinking about batman jay (earth-15) being so strikingly similar to bruce in attitude (as he is in every universe. it just really shines through when he's wearing a cowl) and missing bruce, who is dead in their world.
"so your batman is paranoid, too. there's a shocker" "why are we helping these people? they're obviously incompetent."
"does it make you feel better, that bruce is still alive somewhere in some incarnation?" "i wasn't thinking about it." "hmm, sudden intake of breath, slight increase in heart rate, and an almost imperceptible catch in the voice– once a boy wonder, always a boy wonder, eh, jason?"
#countdown 30#i'm almost done with my countdown analysis post and extracted this part because it was getting too long...#but i might include it in there still.#speaking about this issue. jason kicking his own ass is poetic cinema#hm. i'm so normal about earth-15 jay.#FACE IN HANDS#dc comics#jason todd#red hood#undescribed#<- will come back to this later. sorry!#countdown#<- this is a tag now because more posts from my reread are incoming.#batman jason agenda
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Revelation omggggg
(Hiding it in case you haven’t caught up on the manga bc there are spoilers):
Satoru is dressed like this right?
And I can’t find the exact panel but there’s a little blurb of Toji that has his face and says “copycat” acknowledging that Satoru in fact is dressing like Toji. I was like, why did Gege point that out?
Could be to poke fun or to be a lil silly. But I had a thought.
Suguru shows up to Jujutsu High on December 24th, 2017 with Toji’s curse on his shoulder.
And so I thought,
What if it’s Satoru’s way of honoring Suguru’s death by also donning a memento of the person who started them both down their separate paths? To do the same as Suguru did, on December 24th, 2018, a year after Suguru’s death as a way to mourn him.
Btw I am fully convinced Satoru plans to die when he takes Kenjaku out I just feel like he’s gonna pull a Yuuta and promise Suguru to go with him like Yuuta did with Rika when he beat Suguru. But that’s a post for another day.
#meta incoming#satosugu#satosugu meta#stsg#gojo satoru#geto suguru#suguru geto#satoru gojo#jjk#jujutsu kaisen#jujukai#jjk spoilers#satosugu analysis#satosugu headcanons
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people comparing some shots from the guilty mv to the handmaiden im actually going to lose my mind about this
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while the icj ruling is by no means a momentous victory, it’s a victory nonetheless and non-palestinian people shouldn’t be dismissive of its long-term implications in terms of how we can support palestine moving forward especially if they have no background in or knowledge of substantive international law. please actually read (and understand) the case report before being fatalistic for the sake of it.
#more actual legal analysis incoming but tldr—#i get ittt the natural inclination is to pessimism but this is very very big in the grand scheme of things#lettos says#live laugh law#icj#palestine
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Sometimes I like to pretend like I’m some unsuspecting non-spn fan getting exposed to the show for the first time.
Like I’d rewatch a destiel edit I’ve seen over a hundred times but imagine it from the pov of someone who’s never seen a single episode of the show and be like “DAMN THESE BITCHES ARE GAY” all over again. And each time I do this I always notice something new about them. Sometimes small things, something huge things. That’s how I generate all the posts.
It feels kind of like when Crowley gets injected with human blood and feels something again for the first time in a long time. Like when a certain scene doesn’t hit as hard anymore and then suddenly it does. Sometimes even harder than the last time.
#wow I just described um#addiction#definitely not a sign of another insane destiel analysis incoming#NUH UH#*hides the long ass paragraphs written in my notes app*#supernatural#spn#destiel#deancas#casdean#dean x castiel
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random OC ask: what would your OC wear on an average day? what would they wear to a special event?
[feel free to include reference images, if you'd like!]
so here are some sketches of what solli wears
though his general color scheme has always been tinted reddish pink, he dresses with more dark colors when he grows up. his signature garment since childhood is pumpkin pants (and astarion is responsible for it). they make up his whole silhouette usually
(i deliberately built his color scheme based on cazador's, only made the silhouette more whimsical. i like the idea that solli's arc of personal identity is to own his heritage all while rejecting cazador's legacy. like, he is a szarr, but he will decide what that means for him and everyone around him, everyone he loves)
he's also only ever worn long nightshirts to bed, comfy and easy for movements etc and lbr same ruffly style as astarion's eccentric camp clothes bc the desire to match with big brother never ends
the gala fit is... something. i don't think solli would wear that more than once if he could help it (but i want to draw it so i did, sorry solli). in my mind i just vaguely thought of them infiltrating a fancy soirée for Adventure Reasons and solli putting that on and all he sees in the mirror is his father. not great. probably also jumpscared astarion, a bit. but they're doing their best
workshop gears is the most fun fit to draw!! probably solli's favorite too considering how much he loves being in his workshop for hours on end working on whatever contraption or toys he's making. he also often ties his bangs up when he does that and it's a whole different vibes than slicked up hair. he wears scrunchies that cazador wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole
#oc: solli#ok i ended up doing character analysis but yknow what#that's bound to happen#i love this boy v much#doodles of him WITH astarion (finally) incoming!
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ok. poll in honour of speak your language day
#asking bc this was a big big thing for me a few years ago#and it still is! but i think esp when i was a teenager english was very easy for me to hide behind#probably because (psychological analysis incoming) i dont associate words that may mean difficult things with those actual situations#bc i speak dutch in actual real life situations so the english equivalent does not have the same weight as the dutch word does#and i wonder if its the same for people and whether it matters if you have that association or not#yes this is just me being a nerd.#personal
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An apple a Kitakam-day keeps the doctor away (or 'they have fields of them now oh my god')
Guys. Guys. I am at my upper limit and Brassius hasn't even graced my clubhouse yet. I'm going to yeet myself off clifftops without a dragon. (No Rotom buddy, don't save me. It's not worth it.)
Warning: this post contains no story spoilers for Kitakami, but it does contain a certain Pokemon, and a DLC-specific location, and the occasional mention of a sidequest or two. If you want to go in totally spoiler-free, just be wary. :)
Now, we all know Applin as the gay mascot Pokemon, so what did they feel like doing for our first DLC?
What is this. What IS THIS. Note the unamused expression on mini Holz - mood, honey. Biggest mood.
This is Kitakami's Apple Fields, which are so painfully obviously a Hassius honeymoon destination that they're even winking at me.
THE AUDACITY.
... I'm glad you do, because personally, I've become allergic to them. Whatever the apple version of homophobia is, I have a terminal case.
But anyway, if you happen to scale these lovely cliffs off to the side:
You will be able to count how many fields there are here. It's difficult at ground level because the fences are stupid, but there's sixteen of them. TM16 in this game is Acrobatics, which is - and you can choose, I'm easy - either a reference to Brassius jumping off windmills because he has the confidence now through love, or me jumping off this ledge without a dragon and no Rotom Phone. (Yes, I will do a flip.)
Wasn't enough for you to give me a core-wyrm and a fore-wyrm, a marital signpost of a Pokemon, was it Game Freak, or stick a heart around Harvest C, or give Hassel a Flapple? Nope. FIELDS OF APPLIN. Yeah no, I'm fine...
Look at this little bastard. Look at her. She knows what she is.
You also find the simp Glitterati here by the way, twice, so... mmm, simps, enjoying apples, on two separate occasions. Can't mean anything guys, don't worry about it...
And as though all this wasn't bullshit enough, this is what happens when you show a Dipplin to the guys in Mossui Town who wish they had a romance half as compelling as Hassius:
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME I WILL FIGHT YOU BOTH NEXT TO THE CRYSTAL POOL YOU F -
#ephemeralartshipping#hassius#brassius x hassel#brassius#hassel#pokemon scarlet and violet#teal mask dlc#teal mask dlc spoilers#... god I hate it here.#fucking FIELDS OF THEM#;(((((((#I will say the fact that bug bite is next to those crates is hilarious but also FUCK THIS DLC lmao#/j it's great#kieran analysis incoming ;)
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More Than Meets the Eye #46 — Krok Realizes That Being Traumatized is Not an Excuse for Participating in Trafficking
Last issue ended with Fortress Maximus, the new Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord— which is a position they should consider renaming, if only for the sake of optics— blowing up Demus’s head and looming in a doorway that I fucking KNOW was significantly smaller earlier in the issue. This issue takes us back in time a smidge, showing just what exactly lead to Fort Max being on the planet of Tebris VII.
As Max had flown a spacecraft through the airspace of the planet, he chatted with Red Alert on the radio, who was established as sticking with Fort Max on Luna 1 after he was brought back online in "The Sound of Breaking Glass”. Red Alert has been busying himself with finding conspiracies where there likely aren’t any, having combed through the entirety of Wreckers: Declassified looking for ciphers in the typos Fisitron made in each entry.
Red, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but any conspiracy involved with the Wreckers fandom blog already happened, and it resulted in at least five deaths. Most folks just don’t have proofreaders for their blogs, especially when they’re not getting paid for the posts.
Sidenote: if you see any typos in this write-up, no you didn’t 💛
Of course, we’ll see that there are other conspiracies going on that involve Red Alert, but that will have to wait for the "Titans Return” comic to reveal itself. In the meantime, it would seem that Fort Max has seen the WAP crushed into the side of that mountain from last issue. Red Alert informs him that the ship, while originally an Autobot vessel, currently belongs to the Scavengers, labeling them as “deserters”. Fort Max resolves to deal with them after Demus, even though, as Red Alert points out, they haven’t actually done anything, as far as either of them know. However, it would seem that Max is throwing due process to the wind today, as he’s going off of the name “Scavengers” as an admission of guilt to selling Cybertronian tech to lesser beings. Which they haven’t done, and there’s no proof that they have, but they might! And Fort Max is going to preemptively arrest them for this crime, because they’re Decepticons.
Yeah, it doesn’t surprise me that this guy used to be a prison warden.
Fort Max wants the rundown on the Scavengers, since he’s now committed to making their lives hell. Red Alert provides him with the skinny via Autopedia.
Hmmm, Autopedia might want to look into employing some moderators.
Going off of this absolutely bonkers information, Fort Max enters the fray, armed to the teeth for what might be the battle of a lifetime, as far as he’s concerned. Oh, and he’s got Red Alert on speaker for this, so I sure hope the guy likes hearing police brutality over the phone.
With that, we’re back in the present, reestablishing the fact that Fort Max murdered Demus instead of walking slightly faster to catch the guy who was at most literally half his size, or even just shooting him in his tiny legs so he could have been captured alive.
Spinister, stop staring at the issue title, the fourth wall is barely holding up as is.
Fort Max waves his stupidly large gun at the Scavengers, stating that Demus was the lowest of the low, and pretending otherwise isn’t going to win them any points with him. Fort Max tells them that they’re being arrested for trafficking Cybertronian tech, and Misfire informs him that Cybertronian tech sucks, because they spent the last 4 million years killing each other, which left very little room for innovation. Which, uh, nobody tell him about Kimia. Or Brainstorm’s whole deal, who the Scavengers were literally providing parts for.
I guess because the Scavengers are stupid, they didn’t really consider how wartime is the best time for innovating ways to murder people. Killmaster gets name dropped, blueprints under his name having contributed to something called a geobomb, which can vaporize planets despite its small size.
We’re getting away from the point though, as is par for the course with the Scavengers. Krok steers things back on track, asking what exactly Fort Max plans on doing with them. Misfire doesn’t like the sound of Fort Max’s plan, however, and pulls the double distraction trick, ending with Crankcase blasting Max with his backpack laser guns. The Scavengers split up and book it out of Demus’s office, Crankcase and Spinister bickering like an old married couple as they run.
Things quickly turn into the galaxy’s shittiest game of Marco Polo, as Fort Max stalks through the scrapyard hunting for the Scavengers. Krok seems on the verge of a panic attack, clicking his communicator until Misfire snaps and dumps Krok’s baggage for him.
The two then struggle, as Misfire attempts to wrest the communicator out of Krok’s grasp, while Fulcrum tells them to shut the fuck up so they don’t get Tyrest Enforced. Fort Max, who I suppose can’t quite hear this nonsense going on, tries to get a rise out of his prey, saying he’ll let them in on Demus’s whole deal if they come out.
Then Misfire finally gets ahold of Krok’s communicator.
I’m not gonna lie, Krokky-baby, this is a little hard to defend
This is the catalyst for finally, finally learning why the fuck Krok is the way he is. Before he was a Scavenger, Krok headed a squad of Decepticons who had the rotten fucking luck of running into the Wreckers. Everyone but Krok died horribly, including his beloved pet (Gatoraider, though the name isn’t stated) and Radar, a guy who turned into a portable telecoms system. After the carnage, Krok took what was left, which was apparently a single finger and the concept of being named after the crocodilia order of reptiles.
Clicking Radar’s finger lets Krok know if there are other Decepticons nearby, by detecting spark signatures that carry Decepticon markers. Clicking the finger morphed into a way of soothing himself when anxious, as it would allow him to call for help if needed. Because he’s pretty anxious right now— being chased by the cops tends to do that— he checks the counter, not hoping for much, as they usually don’t run into their peers while out scavenging.
However, it would appear that today is a rather atypical day, because Radar tells him that he’s absolutely surrounded by ‘Cons.
It’s quickly revealed that this isn’t actually a good thing, as it turns out that Demus was a fucking vile little man— his Roboids™ were made out of Cybertronians.
Horrifying, thank you Max!
Krok, who really hasn’t endeared himself to his crew today, is questioned on whether he was aware of this questionable business practice. He was not. Fort Max then makes a lot of claims on Demus’s character, which, while I don’t exactly doubt them, can’t really be corroborated by the man, as his head was turned into chunky salsa a couple minutes ago.
Crankcase picks this moment in time to call Misfire on their unsecured network, saying that he’s worried Fort Max will find out about Grimlock. Red Alert immediately picks this up, and tells Max exactly where to find everyone’s favorite Dinobot. Fort Max shifts gears, leaving the Scavengers unfound so he can go arrest Grimlock.
With Fort Max having high-tailed it out of the scrapyard, we can now return to the shamble that is Krok’s mental health. Fulcrum’s a little put off about Krok not telling him about his tragic backstory until Misfire quite literally ripped it out of his hands. Why Fulcrum never asked about the communicator, even after being directly told that he probably should, isn’t addressed. Krok doesn’t find this easy to talk about, traumatized to the point that previously he’d convinced himself that his squad hadn’t in fact died horribly, and were somewhere out in the universe, safe and sound. This is why he told Fulcrum just as much back in issue #7, and told Misfire that his old squad would come to save them when the DJD were on their way in issue #8.
Of course, Krok’s species has been at war for millions of years and everyone is awful to each other, so being mentally ill hasn’t been terribly fun, Crankcase having labeled him as cuckoo bananas over this literal delusion in the past. Krok himself thinks that just because his mental illness is more visible than some, doesn’t mean that other folks are actually better off than he is. Crankcase himself will prove this later in the More Than Meets the Eye: Revolution issue, when he’s inadvertently exposed to something that triggers his PTSD over the event of the Stormbringer miniseries.
Oh my god, is Cybertron about to get a third mental health specialist? Also, I would like to point out that since the reveal of Krok’s communicator actually being a finger, Radar has slowly been changing in color, going from green to gray, as if to signify Krok’s acceptance of his squad being dead.
Of course, the green comes back later, so this might just be a coloring error, but you’ll have to pull the symbolism from my cold, dead hands.
Fulcrum calls Krok out on being a massive fucking hypocrite, considering he was going to sell Grimlock, who is mentally unwell to the point of near-complete aphasia and extreme reactive violence, for the half-billion that would pay for that clinic he wants so badly. Krok at least has the good sense to feel gross with himself over his behavior.
Crankcase and Spinister show up at this point, Crankcase patting himself on the back for having gotten Fort Max off their back with that call to Misfire earlier. It would appear that Misfire is the only one who bothered to do his homework however, ragefully reminding Crankcase that Grimlock was a prisoner at Garrus 9, and Fort Max was his literal warden and a current cop on the prowl for people to arrest. If he gets his hands on Grimlock, Grimlock isn’t going to just take it, and then things are going to go south very quickly.
Krok agrees with Misfire that they need to go help Grimlock, admitting that he’s been a shithead the last couple hours, and that he’s putting together a plan. Unfortunately, affiliating with Demus has bitten them in the ass once again, as their inhibitor chips haven’t yet worn off, and there doesn’t seem to be a vehicle around that can carry all of them. However, Crankcase gets an idea, pointing at something off-panel.
We cut over to the WAP, where Grimlock is in his alt-mode, holding a marker with his dinky little t-rex arm. He hears Fort Max rolling through the halls on his hovercraft, looking for someone to crump with. Luckily, Grimlock is happy to oblige.
Fort Max and Grimlock get into it, and it interferes with Max’s call with Red Alert, as Grimlock headbutts him. It’s getting nasty very quickly, to the point where Red Alert reminds Fort Max to not kill Grimlock so he can be brought in. Fort Max, however, seems to be channeling some hurt over how Grimlock got out of being Overlord’s plaything for years while Max got turned into a blind doorstop, stating that Grimlock is a ‘Con now, and certainly isn’t going to give Max the courtesy of letting him live.
Guys, I’m beginning to think that maybe Fort Max is a bit biased against Decepticons.
The Scavengers manage to get to the WAP by this point, having opened the boxes of several Roboids™ and ridden the horsies inside back to the ship. While I do wonder about the ethics of this, it does give us this sick-ass panel of Krok riding a horse while it kicks a gun out of Fortress Maximus’s hand.
Friendship is magic, bitch!
Having disarmed Fort Max, Krok demands parley. Unfortunately, he’s talking to Fortress “Guns in His Legs” Maximus, who was at Simanzi and did a rootin’-tootin’ good job there, who laughs at the Scavengers trying to work out a deal. Krok clarifies their relation to Grimlock, and how he came into their fray. Fort Max is doubtful of this, as he— as has been made painfully clear by this point— has trust issues when it comes to Decepticons. He tells Misfire that he wants to take Grimlock so Cerebros can take a look at him.
Cerebros is a very rare type of Cybertronian, as he’s a mental health specialist. That’s right, there’s another one! This is actually his foray into the IDW run, though he’s been in other Transformers media. Currently, he works on Luna 1 with Red Alert and Fort Max— whether he’s working with them is unstated, but it seems likely, given their collective past needing psychiatric help.
Misfire is willing to let Grimlock go, if it might help him, though it clearly looks like it kills him to do so. This is when Spinister, in a rare moment of brilliance, says that they’ve completely forgotten Grimlock’s opinion in all this. He asks Grimlock if he wants to stay with the guys who resort to cannibalism regularly, or go with his former jailer. Grimlock answers, in his own fashion.
Misfire, who looks like he’s about to friggin’ cry, says that it’s settled, but Fort Max was gonna just take all of them into custody anyway, so this doesn’t really change much on his end. This is when Krok reveals that the Scavengers have a bomb.
No, not Fulcrum.
Well, yes Fulcrum, but also another, different bomb, that actually works. He’s talking about that one.
Fort Max is dubious about this, but Krok stands his ground, arming the detonator with a click.
The neon green detonator, that totally isn’t a severed finger. Honest.
Fort Max has thirty minutes to go disarm the bomb that’s planted in the late Demus’s office, surrounded by loads of helpless domesticated Cybertronians. When Fort Max asks them where the hell they got a bomb, Krok says that Fulcrum made it, because that’s his thing. Autopedia backs this up, calling Fulcrum the bravest, sexiest explosives expert in the universe, whose meat is huge and whose supply of bitches is never-ending.
Fort Max tries to grab the detonator from Krok, but Krok tosses it over to Crankcase, who can and will set the damn thing off now if Fort Max doesn’t buzz off. He then death-stares Max until he decides that maybe this isn’t a bluff, and asks if he can borrow a pony to get back to the scrapyard.
I haven’t mentioned it, but the Scavengers have been extremely British these past issues. Like, real tea and crumpets-sounding sons of guns.
Later, in the WAP, Crankcase is commended for his steely visage, only for it to be revealed that his face had stopped working at some point during the ride over. Fulcrum starts passing out compliments, just like a good project manager should, while Krok starts futzing around with the ship’s navigation. Plugging Radar into the terminal, the finger’s ability to locate Decepticon sparks is amplified, going to a galactic scale.
Wow, the real success was the friends he made along the way! That’s beautiful, Krok.
Crankcase asks if this means that they’re going to actually be doing shit now, which Krok thinks that yeah, they are. They’re going to help folks, and they might even be good at it. Of course, "helping people” is a really nebulous goal, and this is the Scavengers we’re talking about, so Misfire almost immediately derails the moment by pulling out his SNERF (space NERF) gun, so they can complete their game from earlier.
Misfire, he’s the sole survivor of an attack by the Wreckers. He went toe to toe with Springer, you will show some goddamned respect!
Misfire, remembering that Grimlock’s room was completely totaled a few hours ago, promises to get the behemoth a new door, one that only locks from the inside. Grimlock tells him that he appreciates it, which stops Misfire in his tracks, as that’s the most Grimlock’s said since they found him. When Misfire tries to get him to repeat it, however, Grimlock stays quiet. Misfire compares him to Spinister, in that sometimes he’ll do some shit that’ll remind everyone that he’s far more capable than they think he is.
Like this ominous symbol Grimlock’s drawn on his whiteboard!
Wow, I’m sure that won’t be plot-relevant later on!
Later, we check in on Fort Max, flying back to Luna 1 while on another call. Fucking hell, this guy just loves to talk. This time, his conversational partner is none other than Rung. They’re talking about how the Scavengers weren’t what Fort Max was expecting, and how he’s reconsidering his approach to being the Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord. Rung agrees that this might be a good idea, as the approach of “murder any Decepticon who so much as voices displeasure at being shot and chased” is a little yikes!
Obviously, when Fort Max went back to the scrapyard, there was no bomb. At least, not in the traditional sense.
Spinister, please don’t blow kisses at the cop who tried to arrest you, especially on the instructions for how to fix horrific forced body modification.
Of course, because it turned out that the Roboids™ are, in fact, mutilated Cybertronians, Fort Max had to bring them back to Luna 1, so that they could try out Spinister’s instructions. Everyone’s favorite current Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord is absolutely plastered in fluffy little animals as he flies back to base, and it looks like all’s well that ends well!
Oh, goddammit.
So this ship is connected to the folks who were working with Demus, who were supposed to be protecting him from the law and whatnot. Obviously, that didn’t happen, so these guys are down a guy to hide their weird bullet-tubes full of green fluid and alien lifeforms in the basement. Or well, not theirs, precisely, but rather the Grand Architect.
Whoever the fuck that is.
As it currently stands, the moving of the bullet-tubes risks contamination of the contents, so these two guys are going to have to abort this whole collection and focus on the others that reside on other planets.
Oh, Grimlock, honey, you got some explaining to do.
#transformers#MTMTE#issue 46#maccadam#Hannzreads#text post#long post#overthinking about robots#incoming analysis#comic script writing
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there's something uniquely tragic about the fact that even though erhardt regretted killing his king, if he could do his whole life over he probably would have done it again
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What if I… character analyzed my favorite funky fella? What if I did that? How would that make you all feel? There are a grand total of approximately 13 people making content for this character and I feel like better character analysis than just “oh he’s a violent narcissistic asshole who likes to go Stabby Stabby” is looooong overdue. And this isn’t going to be me playing devil’s advocate either with “oh he’s just a sad boi in tragic love :(“ either. No. I’m gonna character analyze the shit out of this guy from so many angles. I need to make it clear just how I view this guy. CRYSTAL CLEAR.
#character analysis incoming#my funky fella#I call him that but boy oh boy is he more than just a fella#this is about Ghirahim btw#GIVE MY MAN SOME DEPTH PLEASE
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Han Joo Won loves a love triangle, Part I
Let's talk about Han Joo Won, his jealousy and his weird attempts at creating love triangles.
[Excuse this post and all its flaws: it was written during a stupid, stupid English heatwave... otherwise known as satan's asscrack. No, this tiny cold island shouldn't be 33C at 9am. ]
Also, I must add that I barely got my English GCSE at school. So, to all those English majors or people with a higher qualification in English Literature (etc), I have no horse in this race. I am not pretending to know what I am talking about... Just indulge me, please.
We all know that Han Joo Won is a silly, silly man. He is pompous and proud, blunt and rude, emotional and caring; he picks fights, gets dissed, and then needs 5-10 business days to think of a comeback.
He also doesn't like close emotional relationships. He believes relationships should be on a transactional (give and take) basis; no emotions, no complication, just favours and debts that get paid off.
Han Joo Won has also canonically never had a romantic relationship.
Joo Won clearly has some emotional issues that stem from childhood trauma. He struggles with making genuine, long-lasting connections (mainly because he doesn't want them) and doesn't seem to understand the value of creating bonds. He's a very lonely person, who doesn't know that they're lonely.
He reminds me quite a lot of Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. Both share some character traits and act as "misunderstood antagonists" in their own stories, only to become one of the protagonist's greatest allies (and romantic interest). [they're both totally autistic/have asd but whatevs]
[This is written about Mr Darcy. But if someone told me it was a summary of Joo Won, I would totally believe it]
Obviously, the basic plots of Pride and Prejudice and Beyond Evil do differ: one is about the sociopolitical inequalities of regency England's marriage system and how that conflicts with love, and the other is about the importance of found family and love in a corrupt society, overcoming trauma and that no one is above the law. However, they do share similar themes:
Reputation
Class
Family
Preconceived assumptions
Love
Integrity
Han Joo Won and Mr Darcy are (at first) both hard to get along with. Their arrogance and snobby attitudes rub people up the wrong way, and they are often excused for their behaviour because of the family's class and financial status.
Where these two characters differ the most is the lens through which they are explored. By this, I mean that Mr Darcy is explored through Elizabeth's pov, and only when her perspective of him changes so does the audience's. Whereas Joo Won has his own pov, he is one of the main narrators of his story. Our perspective of him only chances once he is willing to show his other facets (because Dong Sik forces him to).
[HJW and MD are both misunderstood, socially inept rain-soaked kitty cats, who do use/would use the word ardently when describing their feelings]
[Quick note: Dong Sik is so Elizabeth Bennet. Crazy pretty, comes from a family of "lower" economic class, is from a loving family, charismatic with a sharp tongue, witty, sarcastic, has a love of the ridiculous, stubborn, and has a bit of a temper. Come on, this quote said by Elizabeth could easily have been said by Dong Sik:
“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” Pride and Prejudice, chapter 31]
Another similarity between Han Joo Won and Mr Darcy is that at one point or another, they find themselves in a short-lived love triangle. The biggest difference is that Mr Darcy did not choose to be in a love triangle, Han Joo Won did.
[Joo Won has his own hand flex scene]
When Han Joo Won arrives in Manyang, he is there with a purpose and that purpose is to catch his murder suspect: Lee Dong Sik. There is some stalking history but that's another point for another time. Han Joo Won seems to be taken aback by how much Dong Sik's community love him: he has a large friendship circle and is respected and supported.
From very early on, Joo Won seems to be interested in the idea that Dong Sik has a girlfriend. Which could speak on Joo Won's societal beliefs. Perhaps, he's been brought up to believe that a man in his forties should or at the very least, would, have a girlfriend or wife. Perhaps, he believes that Dong Sik would have a wife- maybe it helps Joo Won add more detail to his murder suspect's MO. Or perhaps, it's because Joo Won needs Dong Sik to be interested and involved with women because if he wasn't then... maybe he's interested in men, maybe he'll be interested in Joo Won, maybe he'll find Joo Won attractive, what if Joo Won reciprocated those feelings, what if-
It's easier for Joo Won if Dong Sik is straight.
Beyond Evil uses the rule of three when exploring Joo Won's jealousy.
[Definition: "The rule (or power) of three is an age-old writing technique that implies that things that come in threes are inherently more satisfying and effective to readers." - www.andbeyond.com]
So, who's the first person Joo Won believes Dong Sik is interested in? Kang Min Jeong.
I'm not even sure if this suspicion lasts for an entire episode. But Joo Won is so bitchy about it, so princess, that Ji Hoon had to sit him down and say you're being really obvious, calm down, damnnnn she's like his daughter.
So, once that "potential love interest/rival" is ruled out, Joo Won moves quickly on. The second rule of the three, the next suspect: Oh Ji Hwa
Now, this is where Joo Won's jealously really shines through. It's text, it's obvious, it's right there for everyone to see. Episode 5 is where this jealously is most prevalent for the audience to see.
[quick context filler]
At the beginning of the episode, Joo Won wanted to know who Dong Sik is protecting. They have a big UST row over it and Joo Won left with all this information and not context (cause he's too silly to connect the dots). At the police station, the Mayang police gang protect Joo Won against the harassment of the reporter... and he... well...
He asks: “Why do you care about me? You barely know anything about me." That's some of the sad shit right there. It just highlights Joo Won's complete lack of understanding of how feelings (like attraction, affection, love) work. He doesn’t understand that they aren’t something earnt, they aren’t given with permission, you cannot control how someone feels about you. It ALSO shows Joo Won's panic of "oh, now I owe these people".
The conversation that follows is (I think) one of the most important in the show because it outlines one of the fundamental factors of Dong Sik's and Joo Won’s dynamic. Dong Sik tells Joo Won that “we'' protect our own here, even if we are mad at each other. The people of Manjang band together to eliminate any external threats. And WHAT HAPPENS THROUGHOUT THE STORY??
DS & JW band together to protect a disabled boy against the weather
When bringing Kang Jin Mook to justice
They (reluctantly at first) unite to find out who kills KJM
They start their own task force to investigate who killed the Chief
They band together to find out who killed Lee Yu Yeon
They band together to arrest Joo Won’s father
Whenever there is an outside threat to their community, their safety, their happiness, and their relationship, these two always band together to protect and fight off the threat. No matter the sacrifice, they will protect each other and anyone else who deserves it. That is so beautiful. They are at their best when they are a unit.
But anyway, within the context of the scene, Dong Sik is really saying: “I’m still mad at you for the shit you’ve been pulling recently. But don't you see that we are all just normal people? I'm not who you think I am. So, just stop the charade and be a part of our community."
But at this point in the story, episode 5, Joo Won doesn't trust Dong Sik but he is interested in him. What he also doesn't realise is that after the whole "don't be mean to HJW. He's an idiot but he's our idiot" scene, Dong Sik alongside everyone else. He has just protected Joo Won, adding him to the list he recited at the beginning of the episode.
Then... plot happens and they go beat people up together because they're bonding... it's also because Joo Won cares for Dong Sik AND it's because Dong Sik protected him, and Joo Won has paid back the debt.
[from the moment I saw this bit, I thought it was an erection joke and I've got smh at myself sometimes]
But what happens afterwards is what is most telling.
Whilst the officers are processing the charges, Lee Chang Jin makes everyone aware that he and Ji Hwa used to be married.
In a thinly-veiled attempt to make others feel sorry that he’s no longer with “his love”, Dong Sik gets angry on her behalf. Ji Hwa is one of Dong Sik’s closest friends, they have always had a platonic relationship, and they love each other dearly. Dong Sik doesn’t like his friend’s shitty ex-husband spurting lies.
So, he kicks the desk.
Joo Won’s reaction? A small amount of confusion mixed with surprise and a sad sigh as he looks away.
What does this look like to Joo Won? He thinks Dong Sik is jealous. He thinks the guy he likes is jealous of (if this were a normal het drama, Dong Sik and Ji Hwa would have been a couple and Joo Won and Jae Yi would have ended up together) Lee Chang Jin’s history with Ji Hwa. Perhaps, his feelings got hurt so he wants to push the “straight” man he likes away, in order to protect himself. Concealing. Concealing. Concealing.
So, what does he actually do?
Gets jealous and pisses Dong Sik off by being a jealous brat.
As we enter the following scene with jwds, the shot we see is of Joo Won sitting up straight with his arms crossed in front of himself. He seems to be annoyed and deep in thought. This could be because of a video of him beating people up is online, it could be because he knows his father knows, it could be because he’s worried he’ll get into trouble. But what is the first thing out of his mouth?
Are you jealous?
What a wonderful example of projecting.
Dong Sik isn’t the jealous one. We know he isn’t because there hasn’t been a point in the show (for the 5 episodes, which are roughly an hour long each) that a romantic relationship (past or present) between Dong Sik and Ji Hwa has been mentioned. Instead, we have seen their friendship. The concept of jealousy comes directly from Joo Won and you can see how hurt/tired Dong Sik is once Joo Won accuses him of being jealous of his friend… his female friend’s ex-husband.
We’re at the halfway point of the episode, up until this point Dong Sik has been trying to pull Joo Won in by protecting him and just being nice. He finally thinks they’ve gotten somewhere and the brat says this?
All of this "Dong Sik having feelings for Ji Hwa" nonsense is best summed up Ji Hwa's reaction:
This is probably meant to be a funny line to help diffuse the tension for the audience. A “we know it's getting pretty gay in here but don’t worry, we’ve acknowledged it, it’s not like that, pls don't run away conservative audiences…”
But in reality: She directs these two lines to Joo Won. Not her best friend, who is older and should know better than to let little upsets get between himself and his partner. No, she directs it to Joo Won. Almost as if she can see through him, all the way down to his silly jealousy.
His reaction is so interesting to me because he immediately gets up and tries to leave; which could be seen as heterosexual disgust (the suggestion that he might “fall” for a man) but it's already been established that he’s the one who is jealous. So, is it disgust or is it concealment?
[Also, I know when he gets up, in the world of television, he has to stay facing the camera, so we can see his face as he leaves. But the character of Joo Won always chooses to leave the interrogation room by squeezing behind Dong Sik (getting in his personal space again), instead of just walking to his right. That is rather amusing to me]
In episode 6, Joo Won brings up Ji Hwa one last time to determine Dong Sik's feelings. The reaction he gets is a sigh. By this point, Joo Won has finally gotten his head around the fact that Ji Hwa and Dong Sik aren't romantically interested in one another.
Joo Won had ruled Ji Hwa out as a romantic interest/rival. This leads him to his next suspect: Park Jung Je. The last part of the rule of three.
-
I'm going to leave this there for now. I will write a part II at some point but don't expect it any time soon. This feels a little disorganised but we all know what I'm getting at.
Thanks for reading.
Ta ta for now!
#beyond evil#jtbc beyond evil#beyond evil analysis#beyond evil meta commentary#jwds#han juwon#lee dongsik#joo won wants the romcom drama. so he created it himself. i respect that#i bet he read too much romantic literature growing up#he wants side burns and waist coats and VERY tight trousers#he wants to walk across his estate and have a yearly income that will mean he is a handsome suitor#although no one has been handsome enough to tempt him... until...
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i'm going to be harsh, if your entire read on a character is taking a hypocritical monologue of theirs at face value and then completely dismissing the second half of the game's MANY explicit reveals about their true motives and goals as well as his role as an antagonist in relation to the protagonists, your read on that character is worthless. get out of my tag
#tag rant incoming#you know I really like Jin Xenoblade 2 when with any other character the asinine takes from his 'fans'#would make me start to dislike his character by association jfc#like i would question if the game stumbles in its basic communication if I hadn't played it and watched the several cutscenes worth#of characters YELLING a character analysis of him at each other#it's very hard to miss and yet--!#tldr he's a great villain#stop trying to pass him off as something he's not#it's weird
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I'm so tired of this. I can't reply directly because people on this website can't handle being told they're wrong, but I'm gonna use this as an opportunity to tell people why Zavala's nightmare is the way it is.
First of all, learn what words mean. "Fridging" does not mean "someone's wife died" nor does it mean "a female character died." This isn't the first (nor the last) time I'm seeing this line of thinking.
Second, a trope is just a literary device. Tropes exist in every story. Tropes are not bad things by default. The trope with Zavala is not "fridging" it's a trope about an immortal in love with a mortal. Honestly, this type of a story is severely lacking in Destiny considering the plot of Destiny hinges on immortal people with superpowers living with ordinary humans. You'd think it would happen more often.
Zavala's wife was a mortal woman. She was bound to die of old age eventually, if not before due to the dangers of being an ordinary human in the Destiny universe. We'll learn more about her and their relationship as the season progresses: we have an entire lore book (Triage) to read, at least two missions with Zavala dealing with the nightmare as Crow currently is and yes, I know an out of context cutscene has been datamined ahead of time and out of order from the story. I haven't seen it and don't plan to see it until it's in the game in the proper order in the story.
To understand why Zavala's nightmare isn't some grand event or war, we must understand what Nightmares are.
They are personal nightmares. They are unique to every person specifically to maximise the torment afflicted upon the person. A grand event or a war does not depend on one person alone. The blame for a failed attack on the Moon can be shared between people and is therefore not nightmare material. Individual events can manifest as nightmares (entire Shadowkeep campaign with Eris and nightmares of her fireteam), but not some nebulous "failure of the Vanguard."
From a meta perspective, you can more easily make a manifestation of a person for Zavala to argue with, than a manifestation of the concept of failing at a war.
Zavala's nightmare in particular is a story that has been hinted at back over a year ago, in Season of the Splicer, when we first learned that he has very well hidden traumas. He's a Vanguard Commander: he must appear impersonal and strong and stoic and detached. To see him vulnerable over something that doesn't revolve around saving the City from apocalypse is rare and unique. He doesn't get time for himself. It's been a consistent element in his story for years now, reiterated most recently last season when even Caiatl tells him he has to learn when to rest.
Over the last two years (since he came back into focus during Season of the Worthy, but more broadly, ever since the Red War) we've seen a steady development of Zavala's character arc. He's becoming more and more burdened by the failures and losses that rest on his shoulders: the one and only time the City fell in the Red War, Cayde's death, losing friends like Sloane and Asher, inability to stop the Darkness from advancing, or to stop the Hive from messing with us from within. The threats are growing and he's been consistently shown as more and more distraught, restless, unable to sleep and relax. He's had arguments with his closest friends and allies, disagreements and battles, AND he had to deal with people he trusted not trusting him (re: Crow's identity).
And yet, there's one thing he had in all that time that's only his. The memories of a family he had and could've had. The one thing that can't be taken away and tainted or lost.
Until now. The Darkness deliberately seeks out your most vulnerable points to strike and cause psychological torment and trauma. It extracted Zavala's most well kept secret and regret and fear and it's using it to haunt him in a way nothing else could haunt him. That's what the Darkness does.
Similarly, Saint-14 told Crow that he doesn't want to go to the Moon because he knows his nightmare will be Osiris. Not Six Fronts, or Twilight Gap, or his crusade against the Eliksni. Nothing so big. Osiris. The nightmare of his deepest fears and regrets about the man he loves and who, he thinks, may never wake up again.
And Caiatl as well. Her nightmare isn't the fall of Torobatl. It's Ghaul. Her former friend and ally who helped her dethrone and exile her father and then turned his back on her and led armies into certain doom chasing the idea of having the Traveler, leaving Torobatl with weakened defenses. It's not even Umun'arath who got corrupted by the Hive. It's Ghaul. Ghaul is more personal to Caiatl, as can be seen from the lore tabs where it shows that she trained and learned with and from him.
Zavala being openly exposed and vulnerable like this is a bigger source of trauma than anything else. Everyone knows the City fell in the Red War and it's not Zavala's fault, nor is it his fault the Great Disaster happened. Most of all, Zavala knows this. He knows that it's not his fault, deep down, no matter how much burden he puts on himself.
But his very personal story about a woman he loved and who he knew he would outlive? Something he clearly doesn't share with even his closest friends? The nightmare of THAT regret, a regret that lets other people see his most closely guarded secrets?
Yeah, that's what the Darkness wants. That's why his nightmare is Safiyah.
A year ago, op of this post also posted against the story of Zavala having had a wife, claiming that Bungie should "delete the wife." The explanation after I commented was that she didn't get any lore and is just a memory that Zavala has in one lore tab. To which I replied that yeah, it's the first time she's been mentioned. She'll get lore in due time. I was called an "optimist" which I still don't understand because this is how Bungie has been delivering lore since Destiny's inception.
Lo and behold, she is now getting lore. There's a whole lore book we have to unlock over the next 8 weeks or so, as well as missions about her and Zavala and apparently a cutscene.
So now the goalpost is shifted to "lore about her is bad and she is fridged."
It's really easy to just say you don't like something in canon because you have personal headcanons otherwise, instead of trying to desperately justify your dislike and make it seem objective. It's really not objective.
And it's also an incorrect interpretation of Destiny's story. Which is understandable, there's a lot going on and many players may have missed certain seasons and storylines. I'm happy to help anyone who needs an update.
I'm just so very tired of people who have clearly missed information putting negative and incorrect shit with confidence and authority in the main tag. Not to mention the misuse of the concept of tropes and the "fridging" trope in particular. You gotta watch media analysis that isn't cinemasins my dudes.
Obligatory disclaimer: if I end up being wrong and the whole lore book is unlocked and the missions are out and the cutscene is out and it all sucks ass, well, I'll be damned! It happens, congratulations to people who saw it coming, I'll be booboo the fool. Also don't harass people obviously.
#destiny 2#destiny 2 spoilers#season of the haunted spoilers#zavala#long post#lore vibing#this will keep happening so I'm posting this as soon as possible#this will also keep happening because people can't turn off shipping brains#okay you ship zavala with cayde and zavala having a wife at some point messes up the fics#you can just say that it doesnt have to be justified with some faux lore analysis#I've literally had almost exactly the same discussion with op a year ago#and i was correct: more lore was incoming#but now the lore is bad actually#just say you dont want zavala to have had a partner in the past and go#this isn't the only post in this vein I've seen either so it's not an isolated incident#genuinely baffled over people being so violently against lore about zavala's family#like what's the problem. he had a family. it weighs on him. it's his regret#we have two other characters with different nightmares#and we've had eris#why cant one character have trauma over a mortal family#bizarre
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