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sentinelpri · 3 years

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Dreaming Of You

Rough, grey lips on his, large servos resting on his hips, and ruby red optics trained on his sky blue ones seemed to haunt Optimus’s dreams more and more.

Maybe it was some weird manifestation of the new stress that had come to his life since Megatron had been rebuilt, or maybe it was just the deep, dark desires he had for the affection he’d been craving for so many light years finally taking over his processor and giving themselves away to him in the form of Megatron of all mechs.

Either way, he hated it; the dreams. They were too risque and too much about a Decepticon he should’ve absolutely despised for him to confide in any of his teammates about it, but they were too incessant to get rid of, so he was simply... Stuck.

Optimus was sure that he was dying inside when he jolted awake on the living room couch, sitting straight up as his optics shot open. This dream had been particularly bad; something blurry about him and Megatron sharing a berth, him tangled up in the warlord’s arms and falling asleep against his chest.

Weirdly enough, he found himself craving that.

Due to the sheer everything happening on planet earth, he had been so stressed that he hadn’t been able to recharge properly, and all he wanted was another bot to lull him to sleep, maybe cuddle with him a bit and sing to him or tell him a story, but he didn’t have anyone like that, humans were too small and hard to socialize with, and his team was off limits since they were technically subordinates.

He hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep on the couch until he woke up there, clearly panicked until his optics landed on Bumblebee, who was staring at him with a concerned look etched into his face plates.

Optimus knew that, considering the dream he just had, he probably looked like he’d seen a ghost- though that probably would’ve been better than what actually happened. Falling asleep on the couch had most definitely been a result of his exhaustion, because all he remembered was that one second, he was sitting on the couch to calm down, and the next, he was asleep.

”Optimus? Bossbot? Prime? You good?” Bumblebee asked, getting up and in Optimus’s face. The red and blue bot could only stand up and shake his head.

”Uh... Yeah. Definitely... Just don’t think I’ll be recharging for a while-” After realizing what he said, he quickly cut himself off with a sharp sigh before continuing again. “Never mind. I’m going on a walk.”

With that, Optimus left, ignoring any of the stares he got from his teammates as he walked outside the base, and walked, and walked. He didn’t even think about where he was going, simply listening to his instincts and allowing them to guide him.

The walk had been intended to clear his head, but as he reached a weirdly familiar looking forest, he realized that his thoughts were only growing more and more convoluted, spark pounding against his chest plates.

Oh, shit. He was right by the Decepticon base.

Why would his processor- no, his spark, he could feel it- lead him here of all places? What the hell was wrong with him? He was almost certain that his exhaustion was making him go crazy.

Right when he thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, he heard a deep, smooth, baritone voice in his audials that made them twitch.

“Autobot... How did you find me?” When Optimus turned around, Megatron was just... There. Sitting on the grass, back against a tree, arms crossed over his chest and one leg crossed over the other in front of him. “Why are you not fighting me?”

That was a good question. Megatron was just staring at him, too, clearly waiting, ruby burning into sky blue, almost as if the Decepticon was challenging him with his optics, a smirk on his kissable lips. Optimus knew he should’ve either ran or tried to apprehend Megatron right there, but he found that he couldn’t even move.

Their relationship was weird. Even though they were sworn enemies, all Optimus could do during battle was stare at him, and Megatron did the same in return- it was almost as if there was some sort of draw that they had to each other, but as hard as he tried to resist it, it wouldn’t go away, and he was sick of resisting it.

“Megatron.”

“I feel as if I should be concerned,” Megatron mumbled, sitting up again and quirking an optical ridge. “You aren’t fighting me, but I also don’t feel inclined to attack you, and you seem exhausted... Do you need to recharge? I’ll be surprised if you don’t drop to the ground any nanoklik now.”

“Mhm,” Was all Optimus could give in response, able to feel himself grow increasingly drowsy with each second that passed. Megatron’s voice only made it worse, and before he even realized what he was doing, Optimus found himself laying on the ground next to Megatron and laying his head over the warlord’s warm thighs, optics fluttering shut.

It was wrong, and he was sure it would come to bite him in the ass, but it was also exactly what he needed.

“What the hell... Alright. This is fine, I suppose, we can do this and then pretend it never happened... Just for a little while,” Megatron sighed and rested a servo on Optimus’s helm, gently petting one of the Autobot’s audials, and though it was a touch far more intimate than it should’ve been, he couldn’t help how his engines purred at the affection he’d been craving from another since he arrived on earth. “I could even tell you a story. Once upon a time, on a planet far away, there was a strong, powerful warlord with a cold spark, but that all changes when...”

And, as Optimus fell into recharge, he found that the last thing he heard was Megatron’s voice in his audials, lulling him to sleep- just like he needed.

When Optimus Prime woke up, he was no longer laying on the ground of the forest with his head rested across the expanse of Megatron’s thick thighs, but on the berth in Ratchet’s med bay, the team medic hovering around him, optics raking up and down his chassis.

All he could remember was sleeping on Megatron, but if he was in the med bay-

Optics wide, the Prime looked at himself up and down. No bandages, no wounds, no pain anywhere... Actually, he felt perfectly fine minus the lingering sleepiness, so why was he here?

“Prime, what happened?” Ratchet demanded, sitting down at the stool next to the med berth and scrutinizing Optimus carefully.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“You stormed off base and everyone was concerned when you didn’t come back after a few hours, so we split into teams and came looking for you. I found you in that forest near the Decepticon base a day later, sleeping on Megatron of all mechs,” A day. He’d slept for an entire day, and his teammates had caught him... He could only hope and pray that they didn’t realize exactly what was going on with him. “So what happened? Did he incapacitate you or did you do it... Willingly? You were out for a while.”

“I uh... I don’t know how to describe it,” Optimus murmured, not wanting to admit that it was fully optional and that he’d given in to his newfound desire to have Megatron, if only for a little bit. “I was just so tired when I left. I don’t know... Don’t remember anything too clearly, I probably stayed in recharge for so long because I was exhausted. Actually, I still feel pretty tired, but is everyone okay? Did anything else happen?”

“Yeah, they’re fine. Megatron left as soon as he saw us, the cowardly dolt... It was weird though, that he didn’t kidnap you or try to attack any of us- you were asleep, and it was just me and Sari, so he could’ve overpowered us if he played his cards right. Maybe he was in a rush to get somewhere else.”

“Makes sense.”

And no, it didn’t make sense- nothing Megatron had done during the course of that made sense; not him being so kind to Optimus, letting him sleep on his lap, telling him a berthtime story, and sparing his teammates- all of it was weird and fucked up, and he found that he almost missed when things were simpler, when Megatron was nothing but a blown up body and a half-working helm in Isaac Sumdac’s basement-lab.

“I doubt that it’s anything serious, but I have a couple questions for you, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Go ahead,” Optimus tried to act calm, but his face plates were burning red and his vents were producing nervous crackles that were loud enough for both he and Ratchet to hear.

“Have you had any odd dreams recently during your recharges? Since Megatron got his body rebuilt, I mean.”

“Uh... Yeah,” The blue and red bot trailed off, gulping.

How did Ratchet know? Was he that obvious?

“Tell me about them.”

“I’d rather not-”

“Trust me, it’s important that I know these things. Medic’s honor, I won’t disclose what you’re about to tell me to anyone.”

“I have a lot of dreams about Megatron,” Optimus confessed with a sigh. Surprisingly, Ratchet looked like he was almost expecting that answer, nodding. “Mostly just meeting him in that forest or a berth, sleeping... Sometimes we talk and do other more unmentionable things.”

“I wonder...” The medic paused with a hum and tapped his digits against the med berth.

“Just what are you thinking, Ratchet?”

“It’s incredibly rare, but occasionally, when two Cybertronians who have a lot of chemistry encounter each other, they develop what’s known as a spark pull. It’s nothing like a spark bond- not even close, but it just means that the two are uniquely bound to each other in a way until they either bond or have a falling out that kills their chemistry. It’s like the soulmate concept that Sari and some of the other humans talk about in their romantic stories.”

“So... What does that mean? Am I going to be okay? Is there anything I can do to get rid of it?” Optimus asked, tilting his head. He was a bit panicked, as this was a whole new thing that he didn’t know how to handle, but at least there was a somewhat scientific explanation for his feelings instead of them just existing.

“There’s no need to worry about it, Prime, you’re perfectly healthy minus the lack of rest you get- which you need to work on, by the way- but you’ll be fine. Unless you bond with Megatron- you better not- there’s no getting rid of it, considering that the two of you should already hate each other.”

“I, um... Symptoms? Are there any aside from what I already know?”

“There hasn’t been a lot of research done on it since bonding is generally looked down upon in Autobot City where all of our medical studies get funded on Cybertron, but from what I’ve seen and heard... You’ll intuitively be able to ‘feel’ where Megatron is when he’s in close proximity, have a desire to go near and look at him whenever possible, have dreams about him like you’ve already been experiencing, and going through a sort of physical and mental ‘weakness’ when he’s around- from what you’ve described, your weakness is just allowing yourself to be vulnerable and relaxed around him, which is actually quite common... Shame you can’t allow yourself to do that with who he is, but it is what it is.”

It was a lot to take in all at once, but Optimus found that he handled it surprisingly well as he stood up from the med berth and stretched his joints.

“Anything else I should know?”

There was something new lighting his spark; a pounding, circuit-wrenching want that began to consume him. Now that he knew where his feelings were stemming from, he couldn’t help but want to interact with Megatron again, just to see if the older mech was feeling what he was feeling, and to see if he knew what was going on between the two of them as well.

His instinct was telling him to go back to the forest.

“No, that about covers it, so you’re free to go whenever... But Prime?”

“Yeah?” The blue and red bot looked at Ratchet, who was staring right into his spark, it seemed.

“Don’t go after him when you leave. I know you want to.”

“...Okay.”

Only, that’s exactly what Optimus did. The second he was out of the med bay, he was sneaking out through one of the hallway windows and running as if his life depended on it, passing through the busy city scenery of Detroit until he reached the more rural area that the forest was located in. He was staring at the ground as he ran so fast that his engines were revving with the force it took to keep him going, but he got so consumed in where his spark was telling him to go that he bumped into someone-

“Be more careful, you insolent f-...” Megatron’s voice flooded his audials the second that the older mech’s arms were wrapped around his small body to catch him, pulling him against a hard, broad chest. Optimus looked up at the warlord, optics going wide and face burning bright red. Oh, it’s just you, little Autobot... How did you find me again?”

Megatron’s question was filled with confusion, those ruby red optics slightly squinted and full of uncertainty.

“I, uh... Do you know what spark pulls are?” Optimus stammered and earned a groan from the Decepticon in return.

“You’re kidding.”

“I wish I were, but no one else is here and that nap last time was the best recharge I’ve had in lightyears. Do you mind?”

“...I suppose not,” Megatron sighed and let go of Optimus, then moved to lay down on the grass and stare up at the clouds. Optimus, albeit a bit awkwardly, laid down next to the mech, resting his helm on his chest- right over the purple, glaring Decepticon symbol that he should’ve detested, but instead found himself cuddling into.

“Why don’t you finish that story you started the other day?”

“A-Alright, but only because I’m feeling quite generous today. As I’d been saying last time, once upon a time, on a planet far away, there was a strong, powerful warlord with a cold spark, but that all changes when he meets a kind, passionate warrior from an opposing faction. At first, the two are against each other, but the warlord quickly realizes that something about the warrior has caught his interest, and before he knows it, he’s falling in love...”

Before Optimus could pipe up and ask any questions, he was falling into a peaceful recharge yet again, dreams of Megatron already plaguing his processor.

#tfa #transformers #transformers animated #megatron #tfa megatron #optimus prime #tfa optimus prime #megaop #tfa megaop #ask #asks #my asks #request #requests #anon request #fanfiction

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baebeyza · 4 years

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I've finished watching TFA and I got 5 episodes into TFP, but I'm not so sure if I'm into it. Do you think I should keep watching TFP or try something else, and if so which continuity would you recommend? I was thinking of doing either the G1 cartoon or G1 IDW, but I'm sort of warming up to other stuff like Cyberverse and I could use comments/opinions from someone who's watched more

Oh well dear, depends on what you didn’t like or missed in those first 5 episodes!

For me TFP was my first transformer show and it was good enough for me to go full into the whole franchise and I would recommend it for newcomers.

For newcomers it has a small cast to get invested in, has a good grasp on the general conflict of most transformers shows and a good story to follow. I at least never felt like I needed things explained to me or that it’s something you get more off if you already know the franchise.

But there is always a difference between “this show is objectively good” and “I enjoyed it”. I do think that Prime is pretty well written, not perfect, but still awesome with great moments. Also the animation is EPIC, with some of the best fight scenes I’ve seen in years!

But there are other TF shows I enjoyed more, despite not exactly thinking they are better written. TFA for example! That show I enjoyed more because it was more fun and the characters had better dynamics and development. But the general plot wasn’t as intriguing as TFP in my eyes.

What I personally didn’t like about it (TFP) were:

1. The human characters arent really all that great. They get better and are important, but they can be annoying, especially Miko. (though she develops more than the other two)

2. The heroes lack good character interactions, they mostly feel like people stuck in a group project without much friendship behind

3. There are sub-plots I didn’t care much for (like the human villains)

So I dunno if you should watch the rest - remember that the first 5 episodes were it’s own little plot, and that with episode 6 the real one starts. Maybe that will be more to your liking!

Personal enjoyment really depends on you and what you like too see though.

I for one like great character interaction, intense moments but also fun. Fun as in funny but also lighthearted, non-serious moments.

TFP does have good character writing and good character interactions with the villains at least. Not as much fun as TFA, but there are still some hilarious moments and characters. And the serious moments are actually really great! This show did have me on the edge on a lot of occasions, there is a lot of good escalations and “oh shit” moments.

But if you like really great character writing with great character interactions and dynamics, watch Beast Wars! It has some of the best character writing I’ve seen and also a really great plot! It takes a while to fully get into the meat and most of season 1 is built-up to that, but once it starts its a truly epic ride!

Beast Wars also has a good balance between fun and serious. If a show is just serious it gets tiring, but if it’s just fun and lighthearted it gets a little boring. Beast Wars has some truly intense moments that make me feel like crying thinking about them, but also a lot of funny scenes, mostly through character interactions, but also slapstick comedy.

The one contra people always bring up is the “bad” animation. And YES it’s bad for todays standards because we are used to seeing better, but just because it’s outdated doesnt mean it’s not good! Like give it a chance people, once you get used to it it’s not as bad. It won an award for outstanding animation back when it aired!

G1 is my favourite show though! Not because it’s actually good, quite the opposite - it’s silly and stupid, it makes no sense and it’s completely shameless in that regard and that way it is just a fun ride!

With no overarching plot each episodes has it’s own plot and drama and while most episodes follow the same format (for season 1&2 at least) it barely gets boring! The creativity of the show writers knows no bounds ~

G1 also made me love a lot of characters! Some I learnt of only from that show and some I already knew but didn’t care for before. (Like Hot Rod for example)

G1 also has great dialogue and interactions as well :D

Headmasters is a japanese show that continues after G1 season 3 (and ignores the american season 4) and personally I really liked it! Unlike G1, Headmasters has a plot and a really good plot that made you come back for more. I still had my issues with it, but those were mostly because of the changes they made from the G1 cartoon. Still recommending it though! Especially if you feel like you need something a little more sophisticated after G1 :D I mean it has death scenes, character depth and development and redemption! (PS: the hong kong english dub of it is shit, but people like it as a “so bad it’s good” kind of comedy. would still watch the japanese version first)

Robots in Disguise 2001 is also a show for newcomers, given that it’s the first one to have it’s own continuity after G1. Though know that this one is more for really young kids. There isnt much escalation or truly serious moments, it’s more fun and lighthearted. So as an adult I found it a little boring, but it’s still good if you like lighthearted stuff! And most of the characters were really cute! It has a lot of brothers too, so as a person with lots of siblings I enjoyed that aspect :D (PS: I watched the original japanese version here)

Beast Wars II (you don’t need to have watched Beast Wars for this) is similiar to RiD01, as in really lighthearted with little escalation and depth. It’s a little jarring though, the heroes are really bland and the plot doesn’t really start until halfway through the show. The first half being about introducing various character groups that end up being important in the end, but most of these episodes aren’t really entertaining, especially when you don’t care about those characters like I did. I’d say the best thing about this show are the decepticons with a really sweet Galvatron as the leader and his idiot little brother Megastorm (who can be read as a version of Megatron) and a Starscream whose a little shit like always but also has a friend he cares about!

If that’s enough for you, go for it xD

Oh and Optimus has a son here - the best and only character arc the heroes have to offer. Found it pretty cute in the end ~

Cyberverse was a “meh” from me though, mostly because it feels like fanfiction. Fanfiction doesn’t need to explain to you who the characters are, it is able to assume that beforehand. And Cyberverse does that, it assumes that you already know the characters and world. And like that it doesn’t really try to write things with depth, it feels all shallow. To me at least, I am aware other people love it.

It just didn’t vibe with me because I want the media I consume to shake me and make me feel things, I wanna be at the edge of my seat, I wanna be anxious about what’s gonna happen next!

That is a thing Prime Wars was able to deliver - the third season, Return of the Primes, at least.

Though the Prime Wars Trilogy isn’t popular and has many flaws in storytelling, voice acting and animation (+ other things that have to do with expectation, which I don’t really consider flaws of the show itself), but I cannot help it, I still enjoyed it a lot ~ Also the whole thing is pretty short - 28 episodes, 8 of them 5-6 minutes long and the other 10 minutes. It doesn’t take long to finish it all.

The only shows I truly didn’t enjoy are Robots in Disguise 2015 and Beast Machines - RiD15 is the sequel to TFP and mate if you already don’t vibe with TFP, just skip this one. I didn’t like it much because:

- The decepticons are all badly written, either completely forgettable, not given enough screentime or just kinda having their potential ignored.

- The heroes never really develop - it’s a show with a lesson in every episode that get’s forgotten in the next. So you have the characters learning the same lessons all the time and I hate shit like that

There are decent episodes sure, and some really sweet characters, but overall it’s just not really good

And the last show I watched is Beast Machines, the sequel to Beast Wars with most of the same cast and some new characters.

And this is a show were I say that it had a good plot with good structure and conflict, but I didn’t enjoy it!

And I do try to divorce it from Beast Wars, but even then the flaws are still there. The biggest complaint I have is that the heroes are never in good terms with each other, almost every episodes has some of them being angry and fighting and that’s TIRING! NO FUN ALLOWED IN THIS SHOW! There is only one character who enjoys being in the show and he dies screaming.

The plot is also really philosophical and not really for kids that way. As an adult I did try to enjoy it, but the show has some flaws in it’s good vs evil conflict.

That would be it with the shows I watched!

As for IDW, I’m not really far with that so I cannot talk much.

Hope it helped ~ But I would recommend that you give them all a shot, at least for a few episodes. I cannot claim to always be objective, even if I try my best at it

And yeah, my no. recommendation is Beast Wars, it’s really good!

#transformers #asks #me explaining the shows #those I have finished at least #I did start armada and masterforce but cannot say much about them #transformer posting #Anonymous

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spockandawe · 7 years

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So, I think we need to talk about Terminus. Because there is some interesting stuff going on there. And after LL06, I was upset and confused and wanted to figure out what was going on, and I tripped over some fascinating things along the way. Behind a cut for spoilers and length.

I’m so sad about this, guys. I wanted to adore Terminus so bad. I still kind of do love him, like I love Prowl or Getaway. But I’ve been assuming that he’s a good boy, and… I’m pretty sure he is not that thing.

The picture we’ve gotten of Terminus thus far (filtered mostly through Megatron’s fond/affectionate/admiring point of view) is of an intelligent, resourceful mentor who was able to help him channel his thoughts into his publications, and then get those publications distributed even from their shitty mining outpost. Terminus gave him the guidance he needed to find his footing. I really, really wanted to adore him as much as Megatron does.

But let’s take away those affection goggles. Terminus is used to being able to steer Megatron. He proofreads(/edits, I’m sure) his writing, and he controls distribution. The time we see him sitting (lying) with Megatron, while his legs are gone, that’s some quietly powerful stuff. We see the injustice the miners are dealing with, his insistence on the importance of Megatron’s work, the intense amounts of future potential babby Megatron is working with. But how about we take a quick look at the things he’s doing and saying.

Okay, Megatron is writing. He’s a good writer, he has a talent for it, and it seems to be work he finds rewarding. Terminus is telling him that no, if that’s not enough, then you, PERSONALLY, must do more. You may have to force the issue, and you may have to use your fists.

Megatron, in the innocent flower of his youth, is kinda distressed by this. He’s upset at the idea of him personally wading into a fight, but Terminus turns the conversation away from directly discussing violence. He uses Megatron’s own words to emphasize how important it is for someone to work against the injustice at the heart of a system. And this is all being framed as Megatron’s job, mind, not a duty where he volunteered, knowing the full scope of what he was signing up for.

Let’s just look at that quote one more time.

“Never back down. Never compromise. Never bend. The moment you try to accommodate a rival set of interests, you subordinate your own.”

Like… wow, dude.

In the context of this conversation, this moment kind of rolls past without being lingered over, kind of like the Pharma-feeling-guilty tidbit in the Tyrest arc. We’ve just seen Terminus with a busted body, where it’s not worth it to save him, so he’s been left to starve to death. And we’re headed right into the reveal that he’s been menaced by people who want to stop Megatron from writing. Plus he delivers the line very calmly and quietly, and he’s been speaking about righting injustices.

But dang is that an impressively bitter line.

This isn’t as intense as the last panel. But Megatron tries to call attention back to the group, and power resting with the collective, and Terminus is like nope, one Supreme Leader, you’ll be able to see after you force people to accept it.

And the contrast between needing someone to rally behind and needing someone to hold that leadership position forever is interesting. Because Megatron’s three questions to the senate were: ‘In whose interests do you exercise your powers? To whom are you held accountable? And how can we get rid of you?’ There are ways to answer that within Terminus’s paradigm, but not really in any way that’s reassuring that abuses of power won’t occur. After the war ended, Optimus ditched his name and peaced out into space, specifically trying to avoid this exact problem. And this is still sheltered, innocent, young Megatron. This isn’t setting up a healthy, fair future government structure, as is.

So the scene wraps up in a much less directly pushy way. But when Megatron suggests that maybe he should take a little break from writing to protect Terminus, Terminus shoots that right down. It’s still pretty pushy, even if it’s more subtle than before. Not only should Megatron keep writing, he should write more. And that writing makes him a leader, like Terminus said before. So just, y’know, keep that stuff in mind. About forcing the issue and using your fists and being a figurehead.

But that statement, that the people are hungry and Megatron needs to feed them… This is pretty classic imagery, fairly commonplace. However, consider it in the context of how Terminus isn’t getting repaired and his rations are getting withheld, and Megatron is going on dangerously short rations to help keep him alive. This is a sucker punch right to the heart, and I have a hard time believing Terminus wasn’t aware of that incredibly direct parallel. Look what you’re doing for me. Are you saying you’d do less for all of Cybertron?

Terminus’s active influence ends there, because he poofs off into the sunset, and Megatron is just left to remember what Terminus taught him. And to feel intensely guilty that in the last few minutes before evacuation, he gathered the datapads with his writing instead of looking for the missing Terminus.

Anyways, smash cut to four million and something years later.

We’ve got the first edition of Megatron’s big manifesto being dedicated to Terminus, though that was removed in all subsequent editions, because Terminus taught him ‘not to get attached.’ Given the emotions in that scene up above, maybe this is just because the pain and guilt there made him reluctant to open himself up to that happening again. But… this is honestly fairly in line with the philosophy Terminus was trying to convince him was right.

Look at how Megatron generally behaves during the war, in phase one and early phase two. I tend to refer to him as cult leader Megatron to differentiate him from present Megatron, because the differences are huge. Now, check out all those things Terminus was telling Megatron were necessary. Use your brain and your fists. Take the lead personally. Be a figurehead. The collective doesn’t matter as much as the person sitting pretty in a position of ultimate power, and be prepared to sit there alone.

And more than anything else, consider how he was told to never back down, compromise, or bend.

Terminus was legit out of the picture, as an independent, active force. But when you look at his philosophy and look at the behavior of classic warlord-flavor Megatron, Terminus’s fingerprints are all over the way Megatron carries himself.

The comic has memories and truth and manipulation as some of its major, major themes. Mnemosurgery means these come up pretty regularly, but manipulation comes up in other ways too, like with attempted blackmail, Rodimus being pressured to bring Overlord along for the ride (and Chromedome being recruited to work with him), Trailcutter’s drinking problem being derailed with a brute force permanent reactivation of his FIM chip, all kinds of flavors. Especially Getaway, right now.

In the pre-trial part of the comic, Megatron makes it very clear that he has an extremely negative reaction to the idea of anyone going into his brain, even if they claim they only have the most benign intentions. He’s also just generally pretty resistant about being influenced by… anybody. He does what he wants, and doesn’t afraid of anything. It shows through in general, even once he starts developing in a positive direction, like with how high-handed he is with permanently reactivating Trailcutter’s FIM chip. But it shows up more explicitly at times, like in phase one where Starscream tries to ask why they’re farting around one stupid alien city when they should be winning an intergalactic war. Even when Starscream makes an appeal about the ideals under which the Decepticons were formed, Megatron completely ignores those words. He just… does whatever the heck he wants.

Now, it’s not clear how much of that is due to what Terminus taught him versus the trauma from the almost-lobotomy and the rest of that day. But it’s very much in line with the things we see Terminus telling him about never bending or compromising. That’s almost the last thing Terminus ever tells him before he disappears, and it’s very much in line with how we see Megatron acting during the war proper. Even once he’s on the Lost Light and starts to really become a part of the crew, he’s just not a person who seems very concerned with what other people think he ought to do.

But then at the end of MTMTE 55, Megatron is a stressed-out mess, who was planning to die and was only barely persuaded away from that when Rodimus teleported in to rescue him. He’s just broken the vow of pacifism he’d been trying to take up, he’s on a planet that’s a massive reminder of his past mistakes, and he’s fighting the DJD, another reminder of his past mistakes. Then he watches his old, old friend die. He decides to peace out, and even threatens Ratchet in the heat of the moment, when Ratchet is trying to talk him down.

But then Terminus pops up, and Megatron just immediately snaps out of it. He drops the cannon, drops the idea that he’s going to leave, all of it. He goes straight to Terminus and immediately embraces him, which is a gesture of intimacy unlike anything we’ve seen from him in the comic. He’s been affectionate with Ravage, giving him scritches, but in the holiday comic he even says specifically that he doesn’t do hugs.

And his very, very first words to Terminus are about how he ‘lost his way’. He’s vulnerable, he’s taking comfort in someone, he’s telling his old mentor, who used to teach and guide him, he lost his way. It’s hard to say whether he completely falls into orbit around Terminus with the way the comic POV cuts away from them, but at that incredibly low moment, he recenters himself on Terminus. No matter how hard Megatron is to influence, Terminus has this old leftover backdoor into his trust, and the way Megatron reacts to him here is unlike we’ve seen him react to anyone else. Megatron is used to letting Terminus guide him, even if he’s been operating without that active guidance for millions of years.

Now, the overarching narrative of this comic keeps coming back around to manipulation, betrayal, and lies. A lot of this comes back around to Rodimus, with the way Prowl manipulated him into taking Overlord on board, the way Drift took the fall for Overlord to protect him, the vote of no confidence after he owns up to Overlord. Plus there’s always Getaway and his… everything.

This goes all the way back into phase one and the spotlight issues about his history with Dealer. We don’t see much of the fallout directly, but it really sounds like Rodimus took the loss of his team hard, and that has to hurt even more once he learns that it happened because someone he trusted betrayed him. And then we see it playing very, very directly into the story right now, with how furious Rodimus is over Getaway. I don’t know if we’ve ever seen him this angry, and it’s kind of alarming. Which makes it pretty painful to read the way issue six ends with him thinking that after the Dying Of The Light, after everything they’ve been through, Megatron has betrayed them all.

Now, Megatron being resistant to manipulation is something that I already discussed. But Megatron himself can be pretty darn manipulative. He plots, he’s always planning, he’s always assessing the situation and working out strategies to get what he wants. And frequently that involves getting people to do certain things. I don’t know if this is even all conscious. He’s charismatic enough, he’s an icon in his own right, and he’s a large, intimidating person. But it’s definitely sometimes conscious. We see the way he provokes Optimus towards the end of phase one, getting him to lash out. We see him needling Starscream in spotlight: megatron until he finally lashes out. And we see him prodding and provoking Rodimus in quieter ways after he joins the crew.

I’m sure this is a combination of deliberate action and longstanding bad habits. But as he spends more time on the Lost Light, you see that start to fade. He’s more respectful of others, you see him expressing his doubt over everything he’s done and seeking ways to better himself. He’s less dismissive of everyone and more understanding. And even though he’s always been so resistant to outside influence, by the time we hit the Dying Of The Light, he’s willing to defer to Rodimus as a leader instead of just prodding him into making the decisions that Megatron wants, because Megatron always knows best.

He calls Rodimus and Ultra Magnus his conscience, which really says that he recognizes some of his own bad habits he’s learned over the years, and is trying to compensate for them. By the time issue six ends, he’s preaching peace through empathy, which is an incredibly striking change from his earlier philosophy. Instead of tyranny and ordering people to do what you decide is best, he’s advocating compassion and trying to understand other people’s needs.

The flip side of manipulation and betrayal is the idea of trust, especially building trust, and repairing relationships once that trust has been betrayed. We see this trust building between Cyclonus and… everyone, really, but especially Whirl and Tailgate. We see the way Nautica is so upset by the reveal that Brainstorm has been lying, we see the aftermath of Rodimus revealing to the crew that he was responsible for Overlord, and we see Drift and Rodimus reuniting, and the way Drift is hurt by the way Rodimus never came back for him after the truth was revealed about Overlord. We see the effort that goes into it

Nobody trusted Megatron at first. Which makes complete sense. The gradual buildup of trust has been slow, but it’s such an important part of his development. Instead of being that lone figurehead Terminus told him to be (the authoritarian figurehead that he ultimately became), he learns to back away from that position and respect other people as people.

And gradually they start to accept him. For most of the crew, it’s more that they just tolerate him. Because they have to. But the environment he’s in is enough that he tells Velocity that he’s never been so happy in his life. In particular, his relationships with Ultra Magnus and Rodimus in season two go from being persistently antagonistic to being cooperative and friendly, with teasing that’s teasing instead of just conversational jabs at each other.

There are similar slow-burn trust-building relationships in the comic, like with Cyclonus, or with Drift and Ratchet. But the effect it has on Megatron is incredibly striking. This time when he’s never been so happy in his life, this is the same time where he’s feeling more guilt over his past than he ever has before. This is when he dents his own head with how much it affects him when he’s hit with the guilt gun. If the inside of Megatron’s head is about guilt, he’s drinking what he thinks is poison for every meal, and he’s making drastic moves like refusing to fight in any way, but he’s still this happy (and just look at the softness of that smile, coming from Megatron, oh my gosh), that happiness almost has to revolve around the relationships, and trust, that he’s built since coming aboard.

Now, consider how much time it took to build even an uneasy trust between Megatron and anyone from the Lost Light. Consider his trust in Ravage. And then just take a look at how easily he yields into Terminus. It’s a shame Ravage died, because I’d love to see how Megatron would react to Ravage and Terminus disagreeing over something. That trust with Terminus was built when Megatron was young and inexperienced, and I have a hard time believing someone could earn that much trust from him over anything at this point in time. The conversations they have are short, which is a shame. But the only time we see anything even close to this open from Megatron is when he’s talking to the distant past version of Optimus.

Okay now. Let’s remember what Megatron said to Rung.

If Terminus taught Megatron not to get attached, this is… different. Now, there is that ambiguity of how much Terminus explicitly taught him versus how Megatron dealt with the trauma of his terrible horrible no good very bad day.

But then if you look at Terminus’s quote about never bending, never compromising—Those don’t sound like how you ought to be treating a friend. Terminus doesn’t even tell him not to compromise his ideals, he tells Megatron not to compromise his interests. That’s pretty extreme. And then take into account the things Terminus said about a lone figurehead being necessary, one who sits alone. The text doesn’t lay everything out, but the implication I’m taking away from his words is that he doesn’t think Megatron should get attached to people, or at least that interpersonal relationships need to have a hierarchy that places Megatron at the top.

Which is kind of odd, given the way he and Megatron play off each other.

If you take as a basic premise that Terminus outright told Megatron ‘don’t get attached to people,’ then how does that flavor what we see on the page. It says don’t get attached to anyone… except me. Don’t bend to the will of other people…. even though this is a conversation where I’m telling you to do things you don’t want to do. You need to be the lone figurehead, the single ultimate leader…….. but still you need to do these things I’m telling you to do.

On its own, I never even noticed those contradictions. Megatron here is young and inexperienced, he doesn’t want to fight or lead, he’s more comfortable in the land of philosophy than in taking direct real life action. It makes sense that his mentor would be nudging him to grow and expand his comfort zone.

But then why does Terminus still keep acting similarly once Megatron has four million years of wartime leader experience behind him?

Megatron and Terminus are sitting in a massive field of the death flowers, Megatron has been explaining the war, and given his recent development, has almost definitely been very frank about how much death and destruction he’s been responsible for. Like… the war destroyed their entire planet for a while there, never even mind Cybertronian and alien casualties. Or the MTOs and their horrifyingly short expected lifespan. Even if Megatron only bears partial responsibility, he’s still responsible for a LOT.

Terminus’s response is immediately about how he’s sure Megatron is being too hard on himself. Um. About that. Well— This is a difficult conversation to field, and an incredibly huge scope to process. It’s understandable that he’d make some kind of comforting/reassuring response. And then the next two things he says are about gosh, look at you giving orders, and how he can’t wait to see Megatron TAKING CHARGE. Again, in the moment, not suspicious. But it’s really starting to play into a thematic whole.

And when you’re looking at the page with suspicious eyes, it even starts with him telling Megatron how to feel, and reminding him of wow, you remember when we were MINERS? And stuck in that dangerous mine? Remember what our life was like back then? And again, on its own, this looks incredibly innocuous. It feels like overreacting to mistrust this. But it’s really in line with the quiet way he tries to steer Megatron.

In the next issue, Terminus gets excited again about how good Megatron is at command and fights (even If Megatron himself is not directly fighting). Like before, it feels so overblown to get hung up on this panel as something suspicious, but it keeps adding up to a consistent whole.

But here’s where I start feeling a little less guilty about that suspicion. Terminus knows that their war is over. Megatron did the war leader thing, Megatron ditched the war leader thing. The personal cause Terminus was trying to get him to fight for, the cause that Terminus was so bitter over (only a day or two ago by his awareness), that’s been resolved. Terminus never got to watch it unfold, and he didn’t get to win. He’s heard that Megatron was that authoritarian leader, but Megatron didn’t get to win the war and seize full control like Terminus had been urging him to do.

And would you just look at that, here’s another Cybertron with another clearly oppressed class just begging to be led and saved. Compassion is the easiest motive to read into Terminus here. It’s natural. It’s what’s the reader has been nudged to feel. That’s how I read it the first time through.

Consider, why does Terminus want to stay here? Their universe isn’t perfect, but functionism has been solidly obliterated. Nobody’s being pushed into the mines. Paying for medical services doesn’t seem to be an issue as far as the medics we’ve seen. There’s social space for noncombatants to exist. There’s this group of friendly mechs here who seem glad to have him, including his old adoring mentee, who was so overwhelmed and happy to see him miraculously alive again. Why does he want to leave that? Even if Megatron didn’t win the war, the oppressive social structures that were screwing them over are gone. Why does he want to go to this war-torn, fascist mess of a planet, where those old enemies have been getting more entrenched, more powerful, and more oppressive? Compassion is one answer, sure. But are we sure he doesn’t want to just… win?

Terminus decides for himself to stay. Which is his right. And it’s understandable. And it’s understandable that if he’s staying, he’d try to get Megatron to stay with him. But it’s sure interesting that he watches Megatron and Rodimus squabble over Rodimus not trusting Megatron’s intentions. And then the moment Terminus and Megatron are alone again, Terminus is leaning on Megatron hard to stay here with him.

It’s all those old urgings again. Megatron led, Megatron fought. He’s done that for four million years. But the way Terminus talks to him here is just like when Megatron was young and inexperienced and reluctant to be a figurehead. Sure, this could be habit, Terminus hasn’t had long to adjust to the massive time skip. But again, Terminus told Megatron to never bend. To never bend for anyone. Except Terminus, apparently. Because when Megatron has just pledged his loyalty to the group leaving (right in front of Terminus), and while Megatron is saying no multiple times, Terminus is sure pushing hard that Megatron is the ONLY person who could lead and save these people.

And this is after Megatron and Terminus had a private, intimate conversation about how Megatron done fucked up, and when Megatron has been drowning in remorse and the awareness of how much he has to atone for. Terminus continues to tell him that no, never mind your trial, screw justice, you know what’s best more than they do. We know what’s best. You’re above justice.

Before, Terminus told Megatron about how important it was that he be the figurehead, the lone figurehead, placed above everyone else. He told him to never compromise in favor of someone else’s interests. He never took that back. He argued when Megatron told him that power needed to lie with the collective. And again here, he’s talking about Megatron being so very special that he’s the only one who could possibly lead. But the moment Megatron says he can’t keep putting himself first, Terminus pivots smoothly to noooo no no, this isn’t about you, this is about the masses!

Guys, Terminus is kinda super sketchy.

He’s talking about how justice is less important than Megatron’s skills. Megatron published a treatise that talked specifically about how the government needs to be held accountable, but Terminus is telling him that he’s too important to be held accountable. He’s trying to pull Megatron away from the faith he just, just pledged to Rodimus and Ultra Magnus. Terminus tells him that pledge Megatron values means nothing compared to what Terminus thinks he should value.

Megatron digs in his heels here and refuses to break that trust, just before the conversation is cut short, but. Dang. Seriously, it’s not the easiest thing to notice given the action movie pace of the Cybertron plot right now, but Terminus is being incredibly sketchy.

In the context of before, this pings me like an indirect ultimatum that Terminus is trying to lay down for Megatron. He knows their relationship, and he knows how much Megatron trusts him. He knows Megatron is used to being guided by him. This more self-assured, confident Megatron is new to him, but because of the way he disappeared, that mentor/mentee connection never went away, it just hibernated. Before, Megatron was going on starvation rations to keep Terminus alive. Is he really, really going to leave Terminus now?

Well, yes. He pledges faith again, and though Rodimus has been so on edge, even though he’s reacted in some really alarming ways that seem to tie back to trust and betrayal (like how he’s been burned with Getaway and Dealer), even then, Rodimus agrees to trust him. Megatron calls Rodimus captain. An overt gesture of respect for Rodimus and his authority, and an implicit deferral to that authority. Him learning to respect Rodimus as a leader was a slow-burn part of his development, but Megatron’s trust (and the way he shows it) is an intense, heavy thing. Rodimus is reluctant, but still decides to take him at his word.

Annnnd the moment they’re alone, there goes Terminus again, trying to lean on him to change his mind. He just saw Megatron make that promise to Rodimus, and he knows how serious Megatron was. But still, let’s have one more little nudge to break faith. Megatron doesn’t just dig in his heels here, he pushes back, and I’m very glad about that.

But when they have to go to a different teleporter, Terminus has an opportunity. Maybe Roller could have lied about the coordinates. But what have we seen to suggest he would do that? He seems like a nice, friendly guy. But we have seen a certain someone leaning harder and harder on Megatron that no, seriously, you need to ditch those guys and stay here with me.

Oooh, yeah, they gave you a second chance, that’s definitely how this happened~

Nice immediate spin on the situation to make Megatron feel like he should be grateful to stay here. The way he’s been insisting he doesn’t want to do. Terminus wants him to stay. The others totally want him to stay (yeah, even though Rodimus was so angry about the possibility of Megatron bailing on them). If so many other people want him to stay, shouldn’t Megatron… bend? :)

It kills me how urgent Megatron is in trying to find them, and how dismayed he looks in that last panel. He didn’t want them to leave without him, and he knows how generous they’ve already been with him, and he wanted to leave too. I’m reluctant to put too much weight on comic illustration microexpressions, but the way Terminus has that half-smile thing going on… I don’t like it.

But Megatron gets to return to his philosophical roots! Doing it right this time! Pacifist reform, peace through empathy! And he even gets to reconnect with Optimus and have a second chance to do that right too. Even if Terminus lied to get him here, this is a really happy ending, right?

NO!

Your mileage may vary, but one of the big narrative themes in this story has been… history. It comes through in a lot of ways, but one of the most common ways we see it is the idea that painful memories are hard to deal with, but they’re necessary and important. We see it with Tailgate rewriting the past so it hurts less. We see it with Chromedome for himself and for Rewind. Skids is told that the memories that are blocked off are going to be incredibly painful, but he keeps chasing after it, because it’s part of him.

And a lot of Megatron’s character development involves coming to terms with everything he did in the past. He’s aware, in a clinical sense. But as the comic follows him starting to treat people as people, it also follows him gradually becoming aware of the impact of that history. It’s what lets him connect on a personal level… but it’s also closely tied to how intensely he starts regretting the entire war. But those personal connections seem to be an integral part of what makes him so happy that he tells Velocity he’s never been happier.

He’s willing to face justice. He’s delayed his trial, but he’s never tried to escape it altogether. He could have done that during his trial under Optimus, when there was a flat-out rescue attempt. I’m sure he and Ravage could have easily peaced out at some point if he really wanted to. Here, Terminus offers him a nice, appealing escape, and he still insists he wants to face justice and atone.

So in what way is it a happy ending for him to land in a universe where none of that history happened to anyone except him? He came out of the history just fine, and ah, here we go, we’re in a place where those people dead because of you never existed. Nobody here knows anything about his past, except Terminus. I seriously doubt he’s going to publicize it. Even if people believed the ridiculous story, on a world that’s so inexperienced at war, why on earth would they trust him as a pacifist philosopher? No, now he’s free to redo everything and never face justice, because nobody is here to hold him accountable for that past. He can be the messiah he tried to be before, but this time he’s got it RIGHT, so nothing will go wrong. Just like he was so sure he had it RIGHT last time.

Oh, and would you look at that, he even gets to have a second chance with Optimus! Isn’t that wonderful. In their universe, things got so poisonous they had a jolly conversation about how many times they’ve almost killed each other, and then Megatron talks about how mmmm, he sure loves killing for the sake of killing, all to provoke Optimus into torturing him. He says that he didn’t think he meant it sincerely when he said it, but after saying the words, he realized he believed it. No, that’s all gone now. You can just pretend those memories don’t exist. This Optimus doesn’t have them, so it’s all good.

Rewind II had difficulty reconciling a relationship with Chromedome I, and that’s after only maybe like… two years of being quantum duplicate not-spouses. They had millions of years of history that they still shared, but Rewind still struggled with it. I would say that this Megatron and Optimus have four million years of divergence, but that isn’t even properly true. Megatron never existed here. His works influenced Optimus, back in the day, even apart from the effect of their toxic interplay once the war took off. This Optimus is a very, very different person from the one he knows. Honestly, I can see a lot of character ways this Optimus could even be a functionist enforcer. It was Megatron who originally nudged him out of his comfortable government-supporting groove.

And even if Optimus’s personality is fairly stable across universes, even if he feels like the same person, Megatron is going into this new relationship (platonic or not) with four million years of baggage and expectations. What an… incredibly intense weight to load onto that relationship. Is Megatron telling Optimus about his past? No? Well that’s four million years of lying by omission, that’s a nice honest start to things. Or is Megatron telling Optimus about everything? Look at how inexperienced these Cybertronians are with violence. Even if Megatron can get Optimus to believe him, how appalling is the full history going to be to him? The scale of the atrocities Megatron ordered, condoned, and carried out— Even for the characters who lived the war, Getaway says that it’s so much that you stop being able to process it. How is an unhardened, un-war-like Optimus going to feel about that? Thank you for telling me, I am taking this in stride, now how about we make out a little?

In TAAO, Starscream just cornered Blast Off into making a very difficult decision. He manages to box things in so that it’s a choice between ‘let the person you love destroy himself’ and ‘lie to him to keep him in line, and live a happy, romantic life together.’ Two shitty options, but of course Blast Off chooses the less shitty one, even though he knows he’s agreeing to live a lie, manipulating the person he loves so much. He chooses it, but he feels awful about it, because he knows what a dishonest foundation he’s just laid for their relationship, and he knows that he’s poisoned the trust between them. The narrative doesn’t expect me to be happy for him.

I’m not happy for Blast Off. So I’m not going to be happy for Megatron.

I’ll be sad for him, but if you’re going to value trust and honesty, this isn’t a happy situation.

Another huge theme in the narrative is that history can’t be rewritten. We see Tailgate abandoning the lies he told to prop himself up. We see Brainstorm fighting so hard to go back in time and fix things, and he doesn’t succeed. We see Chromedome rewriting Prowl’s memory to remove blackmail material, and whatever that is, I assume it isn’t going to be gone from the story forever. This isn’t literally rewriting history, but if it’s framed as a complete do-over for Megatron, it’s nearly the same thing. Megatron was willing to die as part of his atonement at the end of Dying Of The Light. He tells Tarn that he’s drowning under the weight of his past, and at the end, he only reluctantly lets Rodimus save him.

If he was that miserable then, I don’t think being the adored, beloved savior of Cybertron is going to be more than a temporary patch. It isn’t a long-term solution for the things he’s been struggling to deal with. And he didn’t choose this. He had the choice forced on him.

Terminus shamelessly exploited the trust Megatron had in him. He leans on Megatron harder and harder to get Megatron to do what Terminus wants. And then when that fails, he outright lies. All this while Megatron is very, very clear about what he wants and why. Terminus shoves himself in the way of Megatron’s new positive relationships, and sabotages that trust that’s been so slowly built up.

Megatron is upset to be left behind, but Rodimus is furious. And he blames Megatron. I was worried about him even before this, but this made it so much worse. Rodimus isn’t just angry for the sake of angry, he has that history with Dealer that made him shy away from leadership roles for ages. He’s still hurting bad over Getaway. And now he thinks that here we go, a third time someone has shamelessly exploited him. And he wasn’t going to trust Megatron. Megatron promised. And then immediately broke that promise (as far as Rodimus knows). Rodimus says that he’s heart over head, every time. Which has its value, for sure. But that has to make it so much more painful when someone he trusts abuses that trust.

In TAAO, at least when Blast Off was manipulated into making a shitty choice, he was aware of the manipulation. He knows the character of what Starscream is doing to him. It doesn’t get him out of the situation, but at least he knows what’s happening. Terminus is manipulating Megatron ~for his own good.~ No matter what Megatron says he wants, Terminus knows better. So why doesn’t he just… slip in there and quietly undermine everything you’re trying to do and sabotage some personal relationships you value. And then pretend like he didn’t do anything about this, nope. And the idea that it’s for Megatron’s own good… This is about what Terminus wants. His first appearance makes it clear that he’s very bitter and very ruthless. He was actively working to push Megatron into the ‘right’ decisions then, and he’s doing it now. It isn’t a happy ending that he succeeded in keeping Megatron from doing right by the people who put their trust in him.

Two frivolous little things. One, Terminus as a name. According to the wiki, “Terminus was the name of the Roman god of boundaries, with the motto ‘Concedo nulli’ - ‘Yield no ground.’” Innocuous enough on its own. But plenty telling given what we see of him here. He’s unyielding, but over what, exactly? He tells Megatron not to bend for anyone and then spends lots of time trying to get Megatron to bend for him. I think Terminus is unyielding over what Terminus wants, and like I said, he is a… very bitter man, and he has a major fixation on strong, authoritarian leadership.

And two, look at the contrast between these covers.

Melancholy and quiet, private introspection on the left. And high-energy action, no time to think, being pulled in against your will on the right. Both of these covers are gorgeous, of course. But I know which one makes me feel like it’s positive in a character sense. Kind of like it’s better to make your own difficult, painful choices than to be dragged in a direction you tried to resist.

Anyways, if I was meant to feel decent about the ending of this comic, it would have been really easy. It would have BARELY taken a change at all. There’s a post by @sunderedstar that summed it up well, but basically just… don’t have the lie. Have Megatron trying to keep faith, have Terminus supporting him while he tries to keep faith. Have him rushing to the new teleporter coordinates, but he’s just, just too slow. He and Rodimus reach out for each other, but the teleporter activates, and they only barely miss each other.

It would be bittersweet. But it would be better for Rodimus, knowing that Megatron didn’t lie to him, that Megatron didn’t use him. Megatron tried to keep his promise. And Megatron would know that they didn’t abandon him. Even if it’s framed as a gift of another chance, it’s still going against the difficult decision he made to face justice for his actions. He didn’t ask for another chance, and he resisted attempts to nudge him into taking one on his own. He’d know he wasn’t lied to, that nobody was trying to block him from doing the right thing. And honestly, the parallel to the climax of Dying Of The Light is so strong, I’m kind of shocked they didn’t go for this anyways. All I can take away from this is that the point was that Terminus blatantly lied to Megatron. And even if he’d say it was for Megatron’s own good, that isn’t a very happy ending.

In issue 28, when he’s talking to Rung, Megatron says that his life has been a series of decisions made in confined spaces. It’s in that same scene that we hear Terminus’s name for the first time. And now, Terminus has fenced him in again, against his will. The increasing pressure we see him exert on Megatron is uncomfortable enough, but it’s ultimately an outright lie that fences Megatron in here, and a lie that’s designed specifically to slip around Megatron’s explicit ‘no’. That isn’t a happy ending. It isn’t even bittersweet, just tragic. Terminus wins and everyone else loses. This isn’t happy, and I can’t and won’t be happy over it.

#terminus #megatron #lost light spoilers #lost light #mtmte #rodimus #transformers #meta #it's like the opposite of how i tripped into the overlord breakdown

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ark-of-eden · 7 years

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Accidentally drifting away from IDW Transformers?

(R:) I realized recently that I can't remember the last time that I bought, or even really looked forward to buying, any IDW TF comic. I remember a while ago when I was united with other fans who were excitedly posting things like, "Only three more sleeps until release!!" I used to mark release dates on my calendar and sit around on Comixology, refreshing the site until the early hours of the morning so I could get issues right when they came out. My life's been in kind of a shitty place for a while, but IDW TF stuff used to be one of the few things that actually got me excited and that I looked forward to. Now I just kind of...vaguely recall that new issues have been happening when somebody posts a screencap that I haven't seen before. I don't really know what's been happening since I suddenly stopped reading months ago, but since people are barely posting spoilers and big meta analyses anymore (used to be that the day after an issue dropped, screencaps and spoilers were so thick on the digital ground that there was no way to dodge it all unless you filtered everything), I suspect that a lot of other people are feeling this as well? Maybe? :/

When I tried to encapsulate what was causing it, the biggest reason I could think of was that a whole lot of things that were relatable to me or that were interesting just definitively ended all at once. Even though I was following several series, this sort of happened simultaneously in all of them, which caused that sense that IDW TF as a concept wasn't really relevant anymore.

Examples of things that are now gone that were evidently more important to me than I'd originally thought:

* TAAO ended, and it seems up in the air as to who is going to continue it (if they continue it somehow) and what they're going to do with the plotline and main characters despite the dangling story hooks. I admit that I haven't even bought the last issue because hell, there's nothing coming after it, and this way I can at least pretend that it's still ongoing and I just haven't caught up. I was invested in Starscream because his situation mirrored some parts of my actual life, so I wanted him to succeed despite acknowledging his personality failings. Apparently there is good Starscream in that other Vs series that started recently and which I am so invested in that I can't even remember the name of it most days ("Starscream of Gor"?). But that seems to be Starscream chewing up scenery by being classically himself, as opposed to being something related to his TAAO character development.

* Megatron. It's not that his arc was bad or that the ending was bad, but interesting things were being done with him and now that he is gone all those interesting things are over. Previously, he was the Soulless Evil Warlord Who Keeps Being Disturbingly Heroic Sometimes. Then there was the weirdness of Autobot Megatron, which at least provided fuel for interesting philosophical thoughts. (Ravage is also gone, but he was underutilized, IMO, so there's the added tragedy of nothing interesting ever being done with him in the future.) I get that Megatron might be coming back later, but then he'll be...Atheist Jesus Megatron? I felt that there was more mileage left in him as he was, so even if the character comes back, those previous versions of him will still be gone.

* Tailgate. TBH, I think this was the last thing that I was curious about in post-Megatron LL plot country, because it was dealing with the transformation of a powerless person into an overpowered person and how he was changing, his relationships were changing, and it was all very complicated and muddy and fascinating. I'm sure that he'll be rescued eventually, but who knows when. In the meantime, there's a void where that whole plotline used to be.

* Skids, or specifically Dead Skids. Apparently there's a plotline going on where people are trying to resurrect him? And maybe they won't succeed, but the fact that this is even a thing made me realize that I've hit critical mass in my tolerance for people being Surprise Not Actually Dead. JRo has this weird reputation for being a monster who is constantly pawing the Sudden Character Death trigger, but he really doesn't kill main characters all that often. Trailbreaker/cutter and the DJD are the only main, ongoing characters who died and stayed dead, IIRC? Like, I really appreciated the emotional impact of Rewind's death, but a new Rewind showed up quickly and all that emotion went flat. Tailgate was dying dramatically and then got 100% better at the last minute. Pharma was infected with Robo Ebola, got his hands cut off and was left for dead in the middle of nowhere, was implausably rescued and got all better, got his head blown off, and is foreshadowed to be coming back AGAIN. (Don't get me wrong, my warped ass loves Pharma, but seriously??) Cyclonus dramatically shielded Tailgate from a hail of bullets and seemed dead, but showed up later with only cosmetic damage - Accidental Dead Universe No-Sell FTW. The entire cast, including bonus Overlord, got slaughtered, but it was another dimension so it didn't really count for anything (except that replacement Rewind). And Skids dramatically Died For The World's Sins and who knows, they might succeed in bringing him back too. I am actually cashed out on the experience of being emotionally affected by a person's death/dying only for it to un-happen shortly afterward. If you're going to tearjerk by killing people, just fucking kill people.

* The DJD. Tarn was another person who uncomfortably reminds me of me in too many ways, enough so that I at least wanted him to be around for a while so he could fuck up his life and everything around himself in relatable ways that encourage me to drink heavily. (I have a historical weakness for characters like him, so this isn't specifically a Tarn thing - Tarn's just the local incarnation of that type.) Character development for the rest of the guys definitely wouldn't have hurt either. Their deaths made plot sense, but they're gone now and I don't think they'll be easily replaced.

* Deathsaurus and his merry mecha. Sure, they're also still out there and are supposedly going to come back at some point, but they were interesting and now they're gone.

* Most of the interesting things in the Optimus Prime series, particularly now that Prowl is gone. Prowl jumped series and is now on LL Bad Cop Vacation on the moon? For some reason?? It was never clear to me why he got it into his head that he had to go there, but he is no longer pulling strings on half the plot and just seems to be retired. While I'm happy for him, he was a huge part of why I even bothered with that series. There's some interesting stuff going on with Optimus Vs Pyra Magna on the religious front, but LBR, that series is fucking crawling with humans and human concerns and all that crap, so I need a real good reason to spend time in that environment. (I deal with humans every day of my life. I don't need humans in my escapist media.)

* Nick Roche, may his sanctity endure forever, is done making Wreckers series? I think I heard? A portion of the perfect light of mercy has departed this sinful world forever. TTnTT

That's all that's coming to mind at the moment, but that's rather a lot of things that used to be vital to my interest and which are now gone. Mostly I read a whole lot of fanfic and get excited about those plotlines instead of whatever's going on in canon because people are still writing a lot of fic set back in the parts of canon where things were still cool. :/

I dunno. I'm sort of peripherally aware of what's going on, but it keeps slipping my mind to get recent issues and catch up. :( I'm not switching fandoms, so far as I can tell (is there anything besides TF and 40K where you can read an entire book with few or no humans at all? ...True, maybe those various YA series where all the characters are animals...), but maybe I'm just turning into one of those people who ignores current canon and hangs around in the rosy past instead? :/

#idw transformers #disillusionment #sadfeels

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