#i suppose i can buy that at that point in his life megatron viewed such violence AS a way to express his care for the people

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #32 - Nobody’s Ever Actually Dead in Comic Books

Our band of merry guys-who-weren’t-on-the-Lost-Light-in-issue-#1 approach the shattered husk of the Lost Light, in a gruesome scene that is only slightly marred by the graphic design.

Font doesn’t really suggest danger, does it? Here, for comparison, is something I slapped together in fifteen minutes (including recreation of background) using a font I got off a free font site.

Now, one could say that my version is rather derivative, flat, and arguably cliche, but you know what else it is? Appropriate for the fucking mood of having found a destroyed, hemorrhaging ship after everyone you knew disappeared.

I’m available, IDW! Hit me up.

Theorizing that this is the ship that the Coffin Rodimus came from- remember that? It was a few issues ago- the gang flies in for a closer look. The ship blood is actually something called quantum foam, which allows for quantum space travel to happen. It’s not supposed to be outside of the quantum quills, but the ship’s pretty junked up, so it is.

Because the ship is so very full of holes, the gang can set down for repairs pretty easy. They land in Swerve’s, finding it in less-than-pristine condition. They also find evidence of Crosscut having gotten creative, as a poster for the play he was working on is hung up in the room. Considering he was still writing it when he disappeared, this might seem a bit odd. But then you remember that this is a ship from the future, and it stops being so odd.

Because this is a future ship, with evidence that Crosscut did some stuff, it stands to reason that, at some point, everyone is going to come back from being disappeared.

Just to die.

Which is a bummer, but one crisis at a time.

Megatron disembarks the Rod Pod, with Ravage following, and everyone is just a touch put off by the duo. Everyone but Nautica, who proceeds to commit a microaggression.

Nautica, that’s Soundwave’s father you’re petting like a common animal.

Ravage, angered by this over-familiarity, swats at her. Skids questions letting an active Decepticon roam around, but Megatron brushes off these concerns, saying that finding any still-living crew members is more important. With that, the search begins.

The gang splits up to look for clues, despite Riptide thinking this is a horrible idea. They’re on the clock for this one- the quantum foam is liable to explode if it touches anything, and there’s an awful lot of the stuff floating around right now.

Nightbeat and Nautica leave the rest of the group to their own work, seeing as Nautica has the most appropriate alt-mode for traversing the gaps in the ship.

Man, that’s pretty cool. Wish Nautica hadn’t been regulated to being “girl best friend” for her character arcs, I would have loved to see her do some neat stuff for her own development. Guess that’s what happens when you get introduced as main cast late, and have to compete with all the faves who had dozens of issues to be established and who also don’t have to deal with the whole “token girl character” thing.

The rest of the gang- Megatron, Ravage, Riptide, Skids, and Getaway- start looking in the area they’re already in. Seems a little lopsided, but whatever.

Ravage finds someone almost immediately, identifying Ultra Magnus through smell alone. Only, it isn’t just Ultra Magnus.

The Magnus armor lays not terribly far away, having had its hands cut off to prevent the recall signal from being activated before being gut-murdered.

Gut-murdered wiTH A FUSION CANNON, MEGATRON

Of course, Megatron was forced to destroy his fusion canon after it was decided he would be joining the Lost Light, but you can buy these things off the black market like it’s nothing. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Brainstorm had a few stashed in his lab.

As it currently stands, nobody can trust the guy who has a storied past of killing Autobots, on a future ship where the only folks who could stop him are dead. Megatron, at least, has the good sense to not argue this fact, and suggests that the boys lock both Ravage and himself up until they suss out exactly what happened.

Meanwhile, over with Nautica and Nightbeat, we run through all the weird shit that’s happened in the last day or so.

Nautica, you’ve been on this ship for months now. How did you miss the fact that the only couple within 800 miles got annihilated by way of Phase Sixer? I feel like that attack might have come up at some point.

Since they’re on the subject of spouses, Nightbeat asks Nautica if she’s married, or if she has friends. Though noting that such a direct line of questioning might get him slapped with someone else, Nautica reveals that she is single, though she does have a best friend. Nightbeat is also single, probably because he pulls shit like this.

While this conversation is going on, Nautica uses her Sonic Screwdriver wrench to open a door with the literal push of a button. Brainstorm tricked out her wrench so hard it turned into a magic wand, which is good, because they’re going to need all the help they can get now that space is literally warping around them thanks to the quantum foam.

Nautica kicks something on the elevator, and that something turns out to be Brainstorm’s mysterious briefcase. Too bad Swerve is gone, he was so invested in what it contained. Luckily, Nightbeat is just as interested.

Back over on the other side of the ship, it seems as though Megatron kept his word about not resisting, as both he and Ravage have been locked in a cabinet. Wonder how that’s going for them.

Oh, better than I expected.

Ravage is fucking pissed that Megatron joined the Autobots, thereby turning his back on everyone who supported his cause during the last four million years. Despite this grievous betrayal though, the Decepticons haven’t stopped moving. Turns out, Galvatron’s in charge now.

But only if Autobot Megatron isn’t some sort of ploy.

It’s at this point that we learn just why Ravage is here to begin with- to see if Megatron’s truly given up the Decepticons, and if he has, to murder him. But first he’d like to know why this is happening.

Megatron views himself as a monster, having perpetuated a war that ended the lives of billions, destroyed the Cybertronian way of life, ostracized his race from the rest of the universe, and killing just to have something to do. He doesn’t like feeling this way about himself, so he decided to walk away from that life by joining the other team.

Don’t think it’s quite that easy to do, but okay.

Ravage isn’t so sure that this change of heart is going to stick, still convinced that Megatron will snap back to his old self with just a bit more time. Problem is, Megatron may not have a ton of that resource left.

Didn’t they build that body in like an hour so you wouldn’t die? Yeah, no wonder it feels as ill-fitting as a twenty-dollar suit. Thing’s probably made out of pig iron and duct tape.

The lights come on before further self-reflection can be done, and the duo realize that they’ve had guests this whole time.

Someone put the kettle on.

Obviously some fucked up shit happened on this ship. Megatron isn’t so sure that it’s him who did these dirty deeds, however, as he reaches into Ratchet’s mouth and pulls out his brain. Which feels like something that doesn’t really absolve one of guilt, but okay.

Also, ew.

Back with Nautica and Nightbeat, things are getting weird.

Now, this sequence might seem confusing at first blush, but this is because the laws of reality are collapsing around them. Going by clues in the background, we can find the proper, linear progression of time, and thus is conversation. This is what is actually happening:

With the mystery of Brainstorm’s briefcase eluding us once again, we move on to see more graphic aftermaths of violence. Poor Tailgate has been nailed to the wall with a chunk of a metal beam that’s almost as big as he is. The mood lighting for this scene is gorgeous, but I’ve hit my limit for exposing y’all to gore for this issue, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one. Then they find something even more interesting.

Who’s ready for Under Cold Blue Stars… 2!

Back over on the opposite side of the ship, Riptide’s found something nasty. It’s a bunch of dead bodies!

Including, uh, Pipes.

Who already died a while ago.

Hm.

All the bodies in this room are in their alts, and it looks like they’ve all been shot and drilled into, for some reason. Skids brings up that he had a friend who could identify the placement of any robot’s brain module just by knowing what they turned into. Then he reaches into a corpse to see what the drill-hole’s all about. It makes him sick, though maybe not for the reason you might think. He gets on the phone with Nightbeat, who’s called to tell them that they’ve found Overlord.

Still locked in his weird body harness.

And decapitated.

Megatron is on the other line, calling because he’s figured out the same thing Skids has. Someone paid a visit to this ship. Someone nasty.

The gang regroups, and Nautica gets the basics on the DJD, because I guess nobody’s mentioned them even in passing in the last six months, either.

God, what do they even talk about on this ship? Certainly not their feelings.

The reason that one room was filled with alt-modes was because of Tarn’s addiction to transforming; t-cogs are easier to remove when they’ve been used recently.

We get a quick 4/5ths-page gore-fest, then it’s back to making it all about Megatron.

Maybe you should have thought about that before you FUCKING DEFECTED, YOU POOL NOODLE.

Nightbeat’s beginning to put two and two together. There’s an Overlord in the basement. That shouldn’t be, because Overlord got exploded by Chromedome when he mercy-killed Rewind. Something is off about the past of this ship.

Before he can establish his MTMTE everybody-lives-but-then-dies AU though, the quantum foam fucks with the ship. These sons of guns need to get the hell out of here, pronto.

Oh god, what now?

Ravage smells someone inside the Magnus armor, someone who isn’t a part of the usual nesting doll lineup. Megatron reaches into the Crackerjack box and pulls out one hell of a prize.

HE LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES

Chromedome would be so thrilled, if he still existed.

#transformers #jro #MTMTE #slaughterhouse #issue 32 #maccadam #Hannzreads #incoming analysis #text post #long post #comic script writing

[ask-prime-starscream]

Yeah, I always took a little issue with the way Starscream becomes the universe’s best parent in a lot of baby fics. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I crave that fluff sometimes, too. But looking at it from a more neutral point of view, would he really be such a good parent?

If I look at the Starscreams overall across fandom, he does have a knack for multiplying himself, with Cyberverse Starscream even calling scraplets his children. I guess, he has a parental side to him. ;-) But it’s always a means to an end. 

The Starscream in this story got pregnant out of his own volition to grant Megatron a controllable, obedient “super warrior”, something Megatron craves. It was supposed to be a status update to him, especially after Silas didn’t become what he was intended to be. Especially after Starscream lost his own agenda and saw Megatron as his only way to keep functioning. A parent/child bond is strong. Who would be more loyal?

Then Megatron dies. Then he gets revived. Then he leaves... and Starscream is trapped with the Predacons. Baby Fracture becomes this wonderful thing in his bleak life, the glue that connects him to Megatron. Megatron won’t come back to him, but maybe to the baby? 

First he sees it more realistic...

But the more time passes, the stronger become his delusions. He is daydreaming about a happy family. Of being cherished.

Until the truth is finally revealed.

The breakdown that follows makes Starscream almost suicidal. The only reason keeping him from throwing himself off the tower being that he was too ashamed to possibly meet Skyfire, Thundercracker and Skywarp in the afterlife.

After Soundwave builds him up again, Starscream goes the “survive from spite” path. He begins to love and hate Fracture at the same time. The pregnancy made him weak, but it also keeps Predaking off him when the dragon comes up with an easy solution for his lack of Predacon offspring.

Starscream concocts a cruel plan that involves Soundwave kidnapping a random Autobot for Predaking’s needs. In his mind, the Autobots wouldn’t save him, since he is Starscream. Nobody gives a rat’s ass about him. But if the same kind of abuse happened to a fellow Autobot? The whole idea behind this is that the suffering of marginalized groups is often times not taken into the same consideration as the same kind of suffering happening to a member of a privileged group. Just take the average experiment of a man being in the shoes of a woman for a day or something. Suddenly it’s eye-opening.

While Blurr has to suffer a ton, Starscream is just devoid of pity now. When he gets reunited with Fracture, he is happy. He loves Fracture like a neat toy. He cries for him when he isn’t there and gets disinterested when he is allowed “family time”. Fracture belongs to him, he is too spiteful to let someone more suited take care of him, but he doesn’t really know what to do with him now. Smokescreen is a far better bot to be manipulated in the grant scheme of things. There is some fun involved using Fracture’s unconditional baby love to his parent as a power fantasy. Until Fracture cries that “Babu” is the real mother.

A lot of asks wanted Smokescreen to give Fracture back to Starscream, but some also said that the baby would actually be better off with Smokescreen, as naive and clumsy he might be sometimes. Smokescreen would never hit Fracture. When he gets overwhelmed by the baby screaming, he just leaves the room. There was a comic strip planned where Starscream was screaming back at Fracture while Knock Out just moaned about his beauty sleep. (Knock Out being a good parent or not could be its own thread, but I guess you guys already saw that Knock Out is very disinterested in Wildbreak. I picture Starscream as the parent who manipulates, shouts at, hits and gaslights their child while Knock Out is the emotionally distant parent who cares more about their own needs and lets their child accidentally die in an overheated car.)

This depiction of unhealthy parenthood comes from Starscream being physically and emotionally abused himself. The love and hate relationship he had with Megatron, traveled over to Fracture and him. Knock Out likes a lot of earth stuff, but he wouldn’t lift a finger to save it. He only cares about himself and his own well-being. Even Starscream is freaked out seeing him torture Breakdown’s remains. That’s how detached he is from everything around him. Therefore he is the disinterested parent.

Would Blurr be a good parent? I think he is too fucked up right now to be able to be one, even if he wanted. It was planned for Smokescreen to have a breakdown because he can’t handle the babies’s needs anymore alone. And that’s when Blurr starts taking the twins from him. Smokescreen is sparkbroken seeing Blurr, who should only care about his own comfort right now, feel obligated to help with the babies he didn’t want.

Okay. That were my two cents so far to the whole baby depiction.

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The factory carriers of the Skyfire/Starscream fic which serves as semi-canon backstory to this blog. It’s still not done yet, but I plan to finish it. There is just too much I have to get out. The factories were inspired by our own livestock (and slavery) of course. From the sparkling grinder to the way adults get “euthanized” when they can’t “produce” anymore. Like you said, I bet it would have happened if Cybertronians would have been able to create off-spring that way. Instead we got assembly lines, cold-construction and M.T.O.s. I found that part in the comics brilliant when this one character gets thrown into the war, his eyes not even functioning yet. Like BRUH! The sad truth is just that people are very creative in finding loopholes in order to save money. Even if you buy free-range eggs, chances are high the hens were kept from leaving the barn with electrical wires, which are removed when they get controlled like “See? They don’t actually want to go outside! :)” It’s just less of a bother collecting the eggs if the animals are conditioned to stay inside. Corporations are cool with literally poisoning people if it makes profit. Nobody cares about the long-term effects the way we treat nature. People who want to make a difference get betrayed. Indigenous people still get their land robbed.

In order to write dystopia, you just have to look at our society. It’s the greatest inspiration.

Well, what can I say? Look forward to what’s still to come. For the fic and this blog.

#anonymous fleshling #Starscream #TFP Starscream #long post #wall of text #long post incoming!!