Transformers: More than Meets the Eye season two discussion

Post by **Blackjack** » Sat Jul 12, 2014 9:44 pm

Denyer wrote:Hoping to not have some kind of big shake-up in the vein of Infinite Crisis

Oh good lord please no

I'm all up for raising the stakes, but please steer clear of all the Crisis bullshit.

Denyer wrote:and having characters at the mercy of technobabble lands on the wrong side of playing around with concepts to my mind.

-nod nod-

Denyer wrote:the Tailgate/Cyclonus OTP is feeling a bit forced at this point

I've never really saw Tailgate and Cyclonus as a romantic pair the way Chromedome and Rewind were. If anything, until very recent 'Cyclonus is jealous' they felt more like an older brother/younger brother thing, or a student-mentor thing, or simply just good friends because they share the same origin in time.

If anything recent issues seem to be enforcing that by having Getaway be this forced secondary love interest for no reason at all.

Denyer wrote:Still a lot to like, though.

This is my main feeling for almost the entirety of MTMTE's so-called season 2. There's still a lot to like, but a lot of the contents that I don't like so much -- the scenes with Megatron's trial, all the stuff here, the Rodimus fake-out, the fact that Megatron becoming co-captain is handwaved, etc -- kind of soured the experience for me somewhat.

Unicron · Post by **Unicron** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 1:44 am

inflatable dalek wrote:I think the big clue as to whether the theory is right will be if the likes of Cosmos and Fizzle suddenly vanish from RID and Windblade between now and the next issue of MTMTE as well, presumably whatever this is will go sweeping up the rest of the original crew no matter where they are.

That assumes there isn't some limit to the range of the effect. Could be that the quantum effect only becomes a thing when in a relatively close proximity. Cosmos and Fizzle may be out of range.
Of course, given that it took until somewhere in Dark Cybertron for the effects of Tyrest's Killswitch to be mentioned by anyone on Cybertron, we may not see any effects in the other two books. Tis quite possible the events of RID and Windblade are occurring before those in MTMTE.

And on the subject of things a follow-up would be nice for, I'm really wondering what became or will become of that point-one-percenter spark Brainstorm harvested back on Luna 1. Especially now that the ship has gone all vanishy.

Post by **Warcry** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 3:34 am

Unicron wrote:And on the subject of things a follow-up would be nice for, I'm really wondering what became or will become of that point-one-percenter spark Brainstorm harvested back on Luna 1. Especially now that the ship has gone all vanishy.

The text story at the end of Remain in Light seemed to imply that he was carrying it around inside him, didn't it? So it was probably with him aboard whatever shuttle he was on, but from there who knows? I assume that if it is floating in space, they'll pick it up on the way out when they recover First Aid and anyone else who wasn't around to be quantum-teleported away.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:59 am

A couple of things that caught my eye: it was interesting to see Chromedome and Rewind in the background of Iacon's new Religious quarter. Especially when Drift is reminded that the lanterns relate to the Hymn of the Disappeared. This might mean Chromedome and Rewind were busy looking for Dominus Ambus right up until takeoff.

'Lost Light' is also the name of the festival, which refers to the Disappeared. Do Chromedome and Rewind also suspect something about the ship that Drift bought, something about its background that may help them offworld in their search for Dominus? I guess up until this time they only had reason to believe he was on Cybertron somewhere, so to leave Cybertron aboard that ship in particular... maybe they had a serious hunch about it, perhaps knowing more about the ship's background than Drift or Riptide did.

Also, Hoist mentions having a good friend called Scattergun. Scattergun was one of Chromedome's Conjunx Endura before Rewind. Did Hoist know Scattergun at that time? And if so, how come Hoist has never spoken to Chromedome in the entirety of MTMTE?

There was no mention of the story title this time around: 'World, Shut Your Mouth'. Was this accidentally left out?

And doesn't Megatron absolutely hate confinement and needles eh? To the point he pulls a gun on Tailgate! Surely he's had some incredibly nasty run-ins with the Institute in the past.

.... And a quick question from Issue 6; the hostage issue with Max, Rung and Whirl: At the end of that issue Red Alert is drilling into the floor of the ship, and he finds Overlord suspended in the slow cell. The thing is, didn't his drilling split a crack in the slow cell, so the cells properties could leak into the rest of the ship or something? Maybe this was answered somewhere and I missed it, but to me it would appear as if his drilling into the cell would be the same as bursting a bubble.

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 11:31 am

On the subject of Cyclonus/Tailgate/Getaway, I still don't see a romance thing there. I see Cyclonus and Tailgate as a father/son (or maybe big brother/little brother) thing. I think Cyclonus storming out of Swerve's is down to him thinking Getaway is buttering Tailgate up and planning to exploit him in some way. Getaway must have some interesting things going on after his secret service days. Maybe he needs Tailgate for something...

Post by **Blackjack** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 12:55 pm

Auntie Slag wrote:A couple of things that caught my eye: it was interesting to see Chromedome and Rewind in the background of Iacon's new Religious quarter. Especially when Drift is reminded that the lanterns relate to the Hymn of the Disappeared. This might mean Chromedome and Rewind were busy looking for Dominus Ambus right up until takeoff.

Ooh, good catch! I didn't even notice the two were in the background!

Mmm, that puts a bit of a spin because my impression was that Dominus Ambus happened a long, long time ago...

Auntie Slag wrote:Also, Hoist mentions having a good friend called Scattergun. Scattergun was one of Chromedome's Conjunx Endura before Rewind. Did Hoist know Scattergun at that time? And if so, how come Hoist has never spoken to Chromedome in the entirety of MTMTE?

Another good catch, something I never realized -- thought Scattergun was just a random name tossed out. So Hoist knew Chromedome's now-dead ex... seems like Hoist may play a larger role some time in the future.

Auntie Slag wrote:.... And a quick question from Issue 6]

Maybe he didn't drill deep enough to crack the slow-cell, but enough to hear Overlord's voice? Don't really know how it would work, TBH. But it raises a pretty interesting question.

Poor Red. He's gotten really shafted, hasn't he? He never really had much of an appearance and was promptly shoved into the fridge after his head blew up and was left behind with Fort Max...

Rack 'n Ruin wrote:I think Cyclonus storming out of Swerve's is down to him thinking Getaway is buttering Tailgate up and planning to exploit him in some way. Getaway must have some interesting things going on after his secret service days. Maybe he needs Tailgate for something...

True, except Cyclonus had this angry look on his face as he storms out instead of, you know, tearing Getaway's face off. And there is this thing where Getaway asks Tailgate to show him his chin and 'bomp' and something? The entire scene just took me by surprise and while I'm pretty sure Getaway isn't evil or trying to molest Tailgate or whatever it still reads off as jealousy.

And I don't like that.

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 4:30 pm

Still not quite sure what's going on with Getaway and Tailgate. I'm with Rack 'n Ruin - not seeing it as a romance thing like others are - seems more like he's buttering him up for a con he's got planned and Cyclonus is keeping his distance to precipitate a learning event. Could be wrong.

Really surprised that Roberts doesn't appear to have read the Hitchhiker books. But those ideas are pretty much part of the cultural white noise at this point so they can't be ruled out as an influence.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 7:13 pm

Well, he's not read the book, he said nothing about whether he's seen the TV show/film/radio/towel at some point over the years.

Summerhayes · Post by **Summerhayes** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:15 pm

Ooh, I really like that tfw2005 theory.

As for the issue itself; very, very good. The offsted stuff was a bit cringeworthy and there was at least one typo that bugged me. Overall though it was full of great character stuff and it moved at a really nice pace. I'm even getting on well with Captain Megs.

And yes, the MTO's being named after campaigns and high command rushing to build them was all very horrific.

I think it's time to do a great big reread of MTMTE.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:36 pm

The typos are a real annoyance. This sort of thing shouldn't be happening at all.

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 5:45 pm

I've probably mentally auto-corrected... er, which typos are these?

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 6:45 pm

The wiki lists several. "Ravege" was the most glaring for me.

Summerhayes · Post by **Summerhayes** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 7:20 pm

The only one I spotted on my first read through was megs saying something like "he" instead of "he's". I think my years on the Internet have desensitised me to them a bit. However, going through the issue with a fine toothed comb, as is necessary with Roberts' work, I see it more.

Post by **Blackjack** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 7:43 pm

Ah, but that isn't really Ravage! It's actually his twin brother Ravege! All of the people who call him 'Ravage' are Autobots, after all, and Megatron is only playing along when he spoke it out lout!

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:57 pm

Another poster on another site (probably at Transfans), suggested the idea that Megatron on board the Lost Light might actually be Nautilator in a Megatron suit!

The reasoning is that Nautilator has a voice identical to Megatron, and yes; Whirl blew his head off doesn't mean he's actually dead (e.g. SnapTrap got a sword through the face, but was fine last issue). Coupled with the fact that Nautilator wasn't seen in last issue's 'Lets get Megatron out of this trial' breakout scene...

I thought it was a really interesting idea. I don't believe it at all, but its a cool spin on that fact about Nautilator.

Unicron · Post by **Unicron** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:09 pm

Auntie Slag wrote:Another poster on another site (probably at Transfans), suggested the idea that Megatron on board the Lost Light might actually be Nautilator in a Megatron suit!

As hilarious of a reveal as that would be, the immediate problem I see with it is space bridge guts.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:22 pm

Yeah, and also Nautilator would have to have good knowledge of Megatron's past (thinking about the aversion to needles in particular).

Unicron · Post by **Unicron** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 9:48 pm

The knowledge of Megatron's past is easy enough, and there's some precedent: Rewind's 11.3 second history lesson for Tailgate. Seems plausible that Nautilator could have been supplied with information similarly. That's why the space bridge guts strikes me as the killer of that idea.

Strange things we end up discussing as not too unreasonable theories, aren't they?

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:16 pm

Certainly, and that's a good part of the fun. I enjoy it when some innocuous detail from issue 2 becomes relevant in the latest story. There's always the risk that can alienate a new reader, but I think Roberts gauges things correctly so that doesn't occur.

And does he really need to be punished for that? Any series once its been going a while doesn't need to constantly pander to the new viewer does it? The X-Files or Battlestar Galactica or... whatever. I only watched a few episodes of Galactica but it felt that, even if I didn't know the machinations of every character, there was enough interesting things going on that I could be occupied with those things without feeling one-step behind the long-time fan.

I think that happens here. You don't have to keep your eye on every little thing, but its fun to do if you like it, and I do enjoy that aspect.

Death's Head · Post by **Death's Head** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:58 pm

I think in this age of digital issues and frequent comixology discounts* it's not too much to expect that new readers can find some way to catch up. Structuring the storylines into television-like "seasons" also helps matters, providing a jumping-on point for new readers.

Like Auntie Slag says, it's a balancing act, but I think we're on the right side of things for the time being.

*And stuff like the TF wiki, as well.