Arm the Lonely

[arbre_rieur]

Some pages from last month's TRANSFORMERS: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE #20...

Last issue, the amnesiac Skids met someone from his past who might have a few answers...















Together, the good guys storms Tyrest in his control room, but he's ready for them.



He activates the universal Killswitch.

Comments

[the_phantom]

oh answers sweet answers.

Ratchet that was a little messed up

And poor Ravage

[insolent_one]

I do like seeing how Soundwave is genuinely concerned for Ravage, and not just treating him like a disposable minion.

[beoweasel]

From everything I've been told, Soundwave treats all of his cassettes like they're his children.

[icon_uk]

Even as far back as Gen 1, he had a certain affection for Ravage

[q99]

I think the only one he probably isn't *as* attached to is Ratbat.

[kamino_neko]

That panel with Ravage and Soundwave is right up there with Domey killing Rewind (or so he thinks...after this arc, I'm almost entirely convinced this is a 'if you don't see the body' situation) as the most heart-rending panels of the series (or of any TF media) for me.

[remial]

anyone else see Soundwave as a crazy cat-lady, and the cassettes are his cats?

no?

just me?

[q99]

... I kinda see it now!


Especially as, y'know, Ravage, catbot...

[cainofdreaming]

Oh, like Hot Rod has ever done anything he's been told. Even if it's a thought implanted in his head that's doing the telling. Countdown to plan failure begins at three.

[md84]

What does it say about Starscream that he calls out for Megatron when the killswitch starts messing with him?

[terrykun]

I read it as an accusation.

[coldfury]

I think he isn't calling for him, but asking if this is his doing. He's probably convinced that at any moment, Megatron will step out of the shadows and kill him. So when this happens, he thinks this is it.

[md84]

One way or another, it proves that Megatron's shadow still looms heavily over Starscream.

[icon_uk]

And it always will...

[terrykun]

Besides the Soundwave moment already mentioned, I was surprised to see Tarn reaching out to another like that. Surprisingly touching.

[icon_uk]

I think that's just his mode of speech as a sort of ironic counterpoint to how lethal his voice is, Tarn always seems to speak in mellifluous tones, always polite, always considerate.

[kamino_neko]

Tarn is a firm and vocal believer in Megatron's Peace Through Tyranny line - he believes that a Decepticon victory would be a good thing for all bots...those that survive, anyway. Thus, legitimately caring for, and reaching out to, an ally and fellow believer like Kaon isn't really unexpected, IMO. (Traitors to the cause, and ideological enemies, on the other hand, are to be destroyed.)

[matrix_dragon]

So, let's recap. The Scavengers, six of the most incompetent Decepticons ever, according to Tarn, managed to free Misfire from the Galactic Councils Death Row.

Well, more or less. There's a few hiccups. Most of the crew being hit by the killswitch, Misfire getting the munchies ("Munch?" may be the most entertaining speech bubble in a long time), but not bad at all for a crew of supposed failures.

[q99]

Hey, the failures managed to survive the DJD too!

I think it's more a case of 'skilled in some ways but have... problems, that make them perform badly. In the past probably even more-so than now.'

Plus, hey, they live by scavenging, and not for any greater cause.

[kamino_neko]

Also, the bots who turned out to be constructed cold is kind of interesting.

In these pages Decepticons outnumber Autobots by a slight margin (although since several of the Lost Light crew besides Blaster and...whoever that is next to him...were hit, the numbers of shown 'knockoffs' is significantly Autobot heavy, but I think the fact that the ones who weren't in Tyrest's chambers skew toward the Cons is significant) - this makes Tyrest's belief that those constructed cold are more prone to go bad seem less crazy, but also makes sense, since those constructed cold were treated as second class under the old Senate, thus would be more attracted to the Decepticon cause as it was sold.

Every Headmaster we've seen in this book (and all but one that have appeared since Chaos - Apeface, IIRC had a couple panels in RID) are constructed cold. Interesting connection, though I'm not sure just what meaning it might have.

Prowl and Starscream were both surprising to me - not sure why.

[q99]

-Prowl and Starscream were both surprising to me - not sure why.
-

Possibly because we know they're both very old. Still, young enough for cold construction.

Also because I think there's an unstated assumption that forged = better, especially since .1 percenters are forged, but it seems that aside from not being a .1 percenter, there's no disadvantage aside from that.

Looking at them, I thought about Tyrest's view, and noted several of the Autobots there, Chromedome and Prowl, got fairly shady, so just maybe one could still fit the argument... but then, Blaster's affected too, and Blaster's about as stand up as you get. Hardhead too, really.

[md84]

It's probably just a really unfortunate coincidence that every recent convict Tyrest processed happened to be cold-cast.

[q99]

I'd imagine there's some reason for it. Like, a lot of the worst offers being war-made cold cast types who didn't have as much chance for good ethics to be installed as the pre-war.

I mean, we know plenty of forged who are just as bad/worse. Overlord, most obviously.

[matrix_dragon]

They seemingly ran out of Matrix-Harvested sparks quite a while back (Magnus made mention of it right before Tyrest crushed his head). Most War Born like Fort Max are apparently Forged.

I have the suspicion that Tyrest was seeing a connection that wasn't really there, given he admits to already having doubts about his involvement in the whole constructed cold program. And after he drilled a hole in his brain, I think his judgment on the issue can be seen as faulty :)

[q99]

-They seemingly ran out of Matrix-Harvested sparks quite a while back (Magnus made mention of it right before Tyrest crushed his head). Most War Born like Fort Max are apparently Forged. -

Forgot about that. I guess I should say, perhaps it's just the right-before-war period when they were both at their peak, and a lot of bots were fairly extreme.

[kamino_neko]

The nature of some of the Autobots who were CC also occurred to me as I was thinking about that...Chromedome didn't even come into my head, though. Probably because he's displayed deep remorse over the things he did. It was Prowl and BRAINSTORM that struck me as Autobot exhibits for Tyrest's argument - Brainstorm is the single scariest 'Bot, this side of Arcee.

(It's also a little odd that Brainstorm be constructed cold, since he was the one who went on about how he 'always supported equal rights for knockoffs' a couple issues ago. I wonder if it's possible to not know how you were born? Or else he's just a lying liar who lies, which is perfectly in character for him.)

[q99]

It's also possible it's simply long enough ago he forgot. 'Bot memories are shown not to be perfect.