Transformers: More than Meets the Eye season two discussion

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zigzagger
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Post by zigzagger »

Re: Stormy -- Not surprised, though it does sort of diminish Elegant Chaos as a result, at least for me. It's a good thing EC was so much fun, otherwise I'd be miffed by the lack of lasting repercussions.

Eh... but since Megatron's allowed to roam around the ship, I'll let it slide.

Re: Cyclonus -- I'd completely agree with Unicron's statement if not for the fact that some of the folks that we saw killed on Kimia, like Grotusque, have popped up in the scenery since then (not 100 percent certain about the Technobots that were there, though).
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Auntie Slag
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Post by Auntie Slag »

Its mildly interesting that in our universe Minimus Ambus doesn't appear concerned at all about his missing brother. In the Galvatron Spotlight Sideswipe was incredibly concerned about Sunstreaker having gone missing, whilst Rewind has made it his life's work to find Dominus, even roping Chromedome into the search.

But Minimus isn't that fussed.

And whatever happened to Delta Magnus?
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

Auntie Slag wrote:Its mildly interesting that in our universe Minimus Ambus doesn't appear concerned at all about his missing brother. In the Galvatron Spotlight Sideswipe was incredibly concerned about Sunstreaker having gone missing, whilst Rewind has made it his life's work to find Dominus, even roping Chromedome into the search.

But Minimus isn't that fussed.

And whatever happened to Delta Magnus?
During the cell chat, I'm pretty sure Minimus referred to Dominus as 'long gone'. I'd have to go back and look to be sure, but I always assumed Minimus either knew or assumed Dominus was dead and that was that. Probably just the details of it that matter (Domey's possible involvement, maybe)

Delta Magnus... probably a casualty early-ish in the war.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

Hmm, I wonder why since the 'Magnus is Minimus' reveal that Magnus hasn't had a quiet word with Chromedome regarding the futility of a search. It must pain him just a little to know that Rewind is still conducting a search that has, perhaps, been going on for four million years.

Seeing such unwavering devotion, the only reason I can imagine why Magnus doesn't react is that he and Dominus may be one and the same. There's the tiniest argument that he has a thing for the little people (Rewind and Verity), but not THAT little (he shows no affectation for Swerve or Tailgate for example).
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

Auntie Slag wrote:Hmm, I wonder why since the 'Magnus is Minimus' reveal that Magnus hasn't had a quiet word with Chromedome regarding the futility of a search. It must pain him just a little to know that Rewind is still conducting a search that has, perhaps, been going on for four million years.

Seeing such unwavering devotion, the only reason I can imagine why Magnus doesn't react is that he and Dominus may be one and the same. There's the tiniest argument that he has a thing for the little people (Rewind and Verity), but not THAT little (he shows no affectation for Swerve or Tailgate for example).
Chromedome hasn't been carrying on the search, as far as we know. Pretty sure he said he hasn't at one point. Rewind may not have spoken of it outside of private (and it doesn't appear that he and Magnus spent time together) or at least not in a place Magnus could hear so Minimus may not even know Rewind was searching. I'd have to go back and real the cell scenes just check things.
He also couldn't just walk up to Rewind pre-Remain in Light and say something, for the risk of blowing his cover as Magnus. As for since the Minimus-is-Magnus reveal, there just hasn't been time since Rewind came back. Alt Rewind persisted, the Lost Light and everyone came back, and then it was right into Brainstorm's time-travelling brouhaha.

Minimus being Dominus (or vice versa), while plausible-ish, doesn't seem likely. We've already gotten the 'person A is actually person B' bit with Magnus. I can't see it being done again with the same character.
But maybe that's what Roberts wants us to think...
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Red Dave Prime
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Nah, the alt-universe has both Dominus and Minimus (and Rewind knows them both :) ). He's not the same bot.
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Post by Unicron »

Red Dave Prime wrote:Nah, the alt-universe has both Dominus and Minimus (and Rewind knows them both :) ). He's not the same bot.
While I was going to point that out too, I decided not to since it's plausible that one decided to take the place of the other in our universe.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

Things that bug the hell out of me that it feels will take forever to be revealed:

- The clicker in Krok's hand.
- Red's not-actual paranoia because he was tampered with.
- Who lit up the spark field on Luna 1.
- The significance of Rung's serial number.
- The wooden robot on the Worldsweeper ship.
- Why Skids hates Misfire.
- Where is Valve (there were three reasons why a Wrecker might be expelled).

If I had to pick one it would be Krok.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

This might be an inconsistency, or me being bored but Red Alert notices Brainstorm's briefcase straight away in issue one. He asks to search it.

Brainstorm could have activated his attention deflector in the handle (something he used to hold onto the briefcase when they were all thrown into the cell during Remain in Light). Instead, he uses a special dispensation card from Rodimus (the one with the rub sign).

Why would Rodimus give Brainstorm special dispensation for anything? It doesn't appear to make much sense and I find it a little hard to believe he (Roberts) hadn't thought up the attention deflectors at this point. Its possible, I suppose... but I don't believe it.

So it was either done for the gag, and it was a good gag, or its an actual slip up.
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

Auntie Slag wrote:Things that bug the hell out of me that it feels will take forever to be revealed:

- The clicker in Krok's hand.
- Red's not-actual paranoia because he was tampered with.
- Who lit up the spark field on Luna 1.
- The significance of Rung's serial number.
- The wooden robot on the Worldsweeper ship.
- Why Skids hates Misfire.
- Where is Valve (there were three reasons why a Wrecker might be expelled).

If I had to pick one it would be Krok.
The Krok thing is an annoyance. I'm sure we'll get there sooner or later, probably when they next appear significantly.
Yeah, that's a bit of a thing. I think it's pretty clear he was an early use of injecting, which may explain his 'unbalance'.
Seems pretty obvious to me that it was Rodimus and his shattered Matrix half, though I suppose that is misdirection and it was Rung. Because reasons.
Rung's just special, that's all. How special and why, those are the questions.
The wooden robot is just another example of crazy science on that ship. I'm more annoyed by the lack of info on who owned the ship (I'm betting Scorponok)
I'm inclined to think that Skids doesn't actually hate Misfire, he just picked someone random because he really doesn't remember who his nemesis is. Though I do look forward to seeing Skids and Misfire locked in a death grip with each other when they meet.
I keep forgetting about Valve. So many other things deflecting my attention.
Auntie Slag wrote:This might be an inconsistency, or me being bored but Red Alert notices Brainstorm's briefcase straight away in issue one. He asks to search it.

Brainstorm could have activated his attention deflector in the handle (something he used to hold onto the briefcase when they were all thrown into the cell during Remain in Light). Instead, he uses a special dispensation card from Rodimus (the one with the rub sign).

Why would Rodimus give Brainstorm special dispensation for anything? It doesn't appear to make much sense and I find it a little hard to believe he (Roberts) hadn't thought up the attention deflectors at this point. Its possible, I suppose... but I don't believe it.

So it was either done for the gag, and it was a good gag, or its an actual slip up.
Assuming the deflector wasn't installed at a later time (which is possible, since a lot of people on the ship are aware of the briefcase. That or people know about Brainstorm's propensity for toting a briefcase from Kimia so the deflector won't work on them), it could be the deflector didn't work on Red because of his paranoia, similar to the ones in the Magnus armor not really working on Ratchet. Red's the kind of bot who would notice anything.

As for why Rodders would give Brainstorm special dispensation, he probably had to/got talked into it by Drift. Brainstorm was involved in 'Project: End in Tears', makes sense he'd get all kinds of help in deflecting official attention from his stuff and activities, just in case.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

Ah yes the Drift, Chromedome, Brainstorm (and Prowl) Overlord agreement. Yes, that makes sense.

I still think the Worldsweeper ship was Shockwave's. I can understand how it could be (and probably is) Scorponok's, but I like Shockwave much more. Where is Scorponok in the IDW verse? Is he in prison following Maximum Dinobots (which I didn't read, but I roughly know the gist of).

I'd be a little sad if it turned out that Skids didn't hate Misfire. Its such a wonderfully odd choice of nemesis I want it to be true.

Now that we're talking about the Scavengers, there was that issue about Spinister being something of a medical savant. I thought a while ago that maybe Spinister shared a link with Skids and someone else, maybe the outliers, because they all have these super special powers/gifts that no-one can explain. Chromedome is, by all accounts an uncannily good mnemosurgeon, on account that he's done loads and hasn't died from it, like his peers.
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Post by Unicron »

Auntie Slag wrote: I still think the Worldsweeper ship was Shockwave's. I can understand how it could be (and probably is) Scorponok's, but I like Shockwave much more. Where is Scorponok in the IDW verse? Is he in prison following Maximum Dinobots (which I didn't read, but I roughly know the gist of).


Now that we're talking about the Scavengers, there was that issue about Spinister being something of a medical savant. I thought a while ago that maybe Spinister shared a link with Skids and someone else, maybe the outliers, because they all have these super special powers/gifts that no-one can explain. Chromedome is, by all accounts an uncannily good mnemosurgeon, on account that he's done loads and hasn't died from it, like his peers.
Scorponok was picked up by Magnus at the end of Maximum Dinobots, just like Shockwave, so it would make sense if they both ended up on G-9. Beyond the arrest by Magnus, or at least the taking into custody of his comatose body, we know nothing of his fate. No mention of what he's up to or where he's been. Not even an acknowledgement that he might be out there somewhere.

Spinister I really don't know what to make of. I'm not sure if he's the token idiot savant, a genius who's masquerading as an idiot for some reason, or a genius rendered moronic due to deliberate action/failed experiment.
Wasn't there something about Outliers only being forged or am I remembering wrong? And hilarious idea: Misfire is an outlier, and his gift is being 'aimless'
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Post by Auntie Slag »

You might think I'm really reaching now; in the first issue when Tailgate ignites his energon cube and sends the explosion through to the planets surface that knocks Whirl offline... the sequence there is slightly odd.

It's always bugged me, Chromedome fishes him out of the hole, Tailgate sees Whirl and says in his polite Tailgate-y way; “Oh my, did I do that”?

In the very next panel the text changes font slightly and goes small as he repeats “Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm”, before panicking that Whirl is dead.

I've always wondered whether what's actually happening there is Tailgate having a sudden flashback to a previous event where he actually did kill somebody, and that's the true origin of his panicky nature.

I wonder if just maybe the person Tailgate killed was someone Getaway knew?
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Post by Unicron »

Auntie Slag wrote:You might think I'm really reaching now; in the first issue when Tailgate ignites his energon cube and sends the explosion through to the planets surface that knocks Whirl offline... the sequence there is slightly odd.

It's always bugged me, Chromedome fishes him out of the hole, Tailgate sees Whirl and says in his polite Tailgate-y way; “Oh my, did I do that”?

In the very next panel the text changes font slightly and goes small as he repeats “Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm”, before panicking that Whirl is dead.

I've always wondered whether what's actually happening there is Tailgate having a sudden flashback to a previous event where he actually did kill somebody, and that's the true origin of his panicky nature.

I wonder if just maybe the person Tailgate killed was someone Getaway knew?
Can't be. Tailgate was two weeks old when he was trapped just before the Ark-1 launch. Getaway is an MTO. Outside of wacky 'back from the dead' shenanigans, there's no possible way Tailgate could have accidently killed someone pre-trap that Getaway would have known.

You may be on to something with Tailgate's panicky nature being based in a past trauma rather than him being like 2-3 years old at this point.
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Post by Terome »

I hate to drag you all back a few posts but re: Dominus and Minimus

Something I've been thinking about lately in light of this issue is how confident and self-assured Minimus was in the Functionist Universe. That makes sense given his personality and quirks and, when push finally came to shove, he was willing to turn against the Functionists even though they had a place for everyone and everyone in their place.

Perhaps in the Decepticon Universe he never felt like he was his own man, like he was in his famous brother's shadow and that was why he put so much of himself into being Ultra Magnus and why he was so ashamed to be outed?

Meanwhile, we don't really know what a 'brother' is in IDW do we? They're not branched sparks like Twin Twist and Topsin - we're told those are quite rare. They're born in batches but aren't they batches of several hundred or so? Are they just batchmates who happen to have a similar body / design from the outset? But then Dominus and Minimus are nothing alike aside from their face and guys like the seekers don't care about each other one bit. Did Rewind consider all those other cassette guys in the Functionist Universe his brothers?

We have a right to know!
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Terome
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Post by Terome »

Read it! I've got a long lunch break so here are initial thoughts.

SPOILER SPACE














Lots of pipe to lay so this won't be anyone's favourite issue. The focus on Nautica was nice and gave some shape to an otherwise quite muddled introduction to and arc that seems to be focused on the most overlooked feature of the series - the attention deflector.

Getaway doesn't notice when Rung enters a room, Ravage can make light lose its focus, First Aid doesn't find the horror in Thunderclash's trailer, Nautica is feeling unnoticed, a normal-looking medic handed out a miracle cure without anyone remarking on it, Getaway doesn't notice the thing growing on his face until it's too late... if the last big arc up to Elegant Chaos was 'edits,' then it looks like this one might be 'missing the thing that's right under your nose.' Is there a German word for that?

Rodimus and Megatron were reliably on form (and I did get a kick out of the call-back to highlighter pens) and I know Nightbeat isn't popular round these parts but I dig him. Nautica's suffocating best friend was a bit heavy-handed and felt a bit YA and I groaned out loud at the sequence that told us that, from now on, Swerve is going to be making a lot of those pop-culture references we crave.

Milne's on great form. That double-page spread was impressive for a couple of reasons beyond the meticulous crowd shots we expect of him.

Will Nightbeat and Getaway be perfectly okay next month?
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Post by inflatable dalek »

I pretty much enjoyed that, felt a lot more solid than last issue despite being similarly light for the most part.

Liked the idea of Nautica Nightbeat and Cyclonus being the uncool ones at the party, some effort being put into keeping track of Ravage and the spy freaking out. This is probably the friendliest we've seen Megatron and Rodimus as well.

I can appreciate people thinking Thunderclash is overdone, but I still like it (and the name of the academy can be handwaved as working better in the Cybertronian than the English it's being presented to us as).

I still find the Brainstorm thing deeply annoying. He reeeeeeeeeeallly shouldn't be let out and about till they've followed up on the Suspiciously Specifically Unammed Decepticon handler thing (and if they have, that should have been acknowledged at least even if it's not going to be dealt with head-on till later).

And, whilst I like Swerve more than, say, Warcry, I can't see why he's been given a new skit of Earth Culture when Bluestreak already has that market cornered. Plus, Community probably wouldn't exist in the IDWverse, it started in 2009. Or in other words, when America was a smouldering post AHM apocalyptic ruin. Sitcoms wouldn't have been up to much then.
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Post by Unicron »

inflatable dalek wrote:I still find the Brainstorm thing deeply annoying. He reeeeeeeeeeallly shouldn't be let out and about till they've followed up on the Suspiciously Specifically Unammed Decepticon handler thing (and if they have, that should have been acknowledged at least even if it's not going to be dealt with head-on till later).
If we're going to argue that, then they should be mining Megatron for info on who all the various Decepticon spies are. Just because Megatron said he doesn't know all of their agents doesn't mean he doesn't who a whole hell of a lot of them are
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Post by Knightdramon »

Something's up with Flamewar. She's evil and a monster queen.

Countdown's death goes surprisingly unreported and noticed on her watch.

She's mentioned to change her flame colour within the past year.

Her moves on the dance floor will "kill" Nautica.

Getaway and Skids are in exceptionally high spirits [as well as everybody else, with few exceptions] around her, but sulk badly afterwards. Skids even felt that way before.

Getaway is found after the party, almost passed out, then towards the end, he's infected on the face with the space barnacles.

Flamewar is a sucubus queen or something that "impregnates" other cybertronians like an Alien---they wake up with little memory of it.

And the female medic is either a cue for attention deflectors as well, or...she's a byproduct/that female Rung from pre-elegant chaos.

And while it seems that Ravage clawed his way into the morgue, what if that claw mark is from the space barnacle things?

Took me a second read to identify Rodimus' dagger on his table. At first I thought that Drift had returned or something. The red on the desk threw me off.

Lastly, what's going on with the chronology of the events? When do the Protectobots and Mirage leave?
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Post by inflatable dalek »

You're saying she might burn the others?

This actually managed to hit the top three on the UK Comixology chart (and crack the top 10 for, IIRC, the first time on the American). Considering we're both in the lull after the end of a major storyline and the number of noobies brought aboard by the Humble deal would have levelled out by now it should by all reason have stayed put or even fell a bit. Instead the climb continues.

My head says it's unlikely, but we're tantalisingly close to having a Transformers comic top an actual proper comics chart (oh yes, UK and digital counts Americans and physical-ophiles). It might need a slow week in terms of other titles (though I suppose that depends on how close the top three actually are), but that's still an insane prospect.
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