Transformers #42: "Now And On Earth"

[superboyprime]

Comments

[q99]

The IDW writers seem to love Arcee. She's so unusual compared to the others, between her struggles of identity, ease of biolence, and not-so-ease at other stuff, that she has a lot of fun story purposes.


In this case, the one modern Transformer that Galvatron seems to *like* ^^

[jlbarnett]

Arcee is not modern, she was made a femme by Jhiaxus

[terrykun]

Originally default Cybertronian 'male'/agendered, modified by J. Fundamental changes were made to Arcee's CNA, and it drive them mad. Then she spent several years doing nothing but killing J over and over, and now she's "better".
The hotspots naturally occurring on Cybertron seem to lack something the other ones, carried by the Titans to the colonies, manifested.

We really need a new collective term, to be inclusive of Camiens, Velocitronians, etc.

[matrix_dragon]

Transformer seems to be more accurate as a species name now.

Wait, forgot about the Monoforms, either through injury, age or religious beliefs. Dammit.

[terrykun]

There are also other mechanical races that can transform, such as the Ammonites and Terradores.

[jlbarnett]

right? What's all this have to do with I posted.

The hostpots on other planets seem to be from Cybertron itself, while the hotspots on the Titans are manifested from a sentient being

[terrykun]

The only 'foreign' hotspot we've seen so far was the one Rodimus ignited by stepping onto it, when the Lost Light found Luna-1, that gave us Megatron's spark.

I'm wondering if certain planets are viable for spark cultivation, the way Earth and other planets were viable for energon?

[q99]

"Originally default Cybertronian 'male'/agendered, modified by J. Fundamental changes were made to Arcee's CNA, and it drive them mad. Then she spent several years doing nothing but killing J over and over, and now she's "better"."

One question I want addressed is what Arcee's views on her gender *currently* are. She seemed to view Windblade, Chromia, and Nautica as 'like her' (which is why I go with 'she'), so it seems Arcee views herself as female now, and... I desire to know more.

Like, Arcee seems to identify as female, never expresses interest in not being a 'she', and hates that it happened all at the same time. Though after killing J a lot, the last bit seems to have receded some.


Also, this usage of 'J' for Jhiaxus makes me think of Harley Quinn and the Joker / 'Mistah J'.

[q99]

Modern in the sense of being an Autobot/Decepticon who's gone through all that, rather than having skipped all that era.

From a tumblr conversation I was in, "Galvatron was: What’s with warriors in this generation? Everyone want to talk about their feelings with enemies!

And then Arcee showed up."

And she even hates Jhiaxus!

[janegray]

Whenever I see Skyfire, I'm reminded of how much I wish IDW had kept his backstory with Starscream :(

I mean, I get why they got rid of it. Combat jet, constructed cold at that, during Functionist's rule? If Starscream had tried to become a scientist it would have gone about as well as it did with Whirl.

But Starscream's genuine love for science and his friendship with Skyfire were two of the best aspects of the character in the G1 cartoon. Heck, 30 years later people STILL name Fire In The Sky as their favourite episode. Damn shame IDW couldn't keep it :/

At the very least, I wish we got some kind of callback. Like, show that one of the reasons Starscream seems to genuinely like Wheeljack is that Starscream actually likes science, even if he doesn't understand it, and wished he could learn it when he was young, so he appreciates scientists (when they are not creepy like Shockwave or Bombshell or fucked up like Brainstorm).

[q99]

-I mean, I get why they got rid of it. Combat jet, constructed cold at that, during Functionist's rule? If Starscream had tried to become a scientist it would have gone about as well as it did with Whirl.-

It was possible to get promoted to 'intellectual' class, it seemed one of the few ways out of the class barrier, but for a cold constructed to boot, yea, not very likely.

-
At the very least, I wish we got some kind of callback. Like, show that one of the reasons Starscream seems to genuinely like Wheeljack is that Starscream actually likes science, even if he doesn't understand it, and wished he could learn it when he was young, so he appreciates scientists (when they are not creepy like Shockwave or Bombshell or fucked up like Brainstorm).-

Yes, that'd be neat!

[cynic79]

I'd like that. Sort of like Megatron telling Ratchet how he'd originally wanted to be a doctor.

[terrykun]

Ratched wanted to be a murderous tyrant. Funny how things work out.

[thanekos]

No one thought Swerve could pull off the Lost Light production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

They were right.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

I'm kinda disappointed that there aren't any scans of the Prowl/Prime fight, because IMO it really illustrates the difference between the two and why so many, myself included, are sympathetic to him.

When battling Prime, Prime says that their friends died for peace, while Prowl contends that they died for principles.

No Decepticon has been punished in a court of law for destroying countless worlds. Their second in command, his hands awash in blood, leads their world. And for all the talk of peace, the war would have been reignited inside of two weeks of 'ending', had Prowl not taken Ratbat out of play. And up until Dark Cybertron, Decepticon factions were still planning crimes against either their race, or reality (Shockwave). Hell, some are still out there, committing monstrous crimes (DJD)

Prowl may go too far, but it's hard not to see his point.

[matrix_dragon]

Except he's a violent, arrogant, destructive idiot that's made every situation he touches worse, ruined the ongoing efforts of everyone else to resolve the problems, considers the law and the opinions of everyone else to be unimportant besides his own genius, and is generally unreliable and untrustworthy. If he has a point, it's been buried under the disasters he keeps on making and refusing to accept responsibility for.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

While I freely concede that Prowl is arrogant, and he does struggle to take responsibility(which seems to have been made worse by his combining with the Constricons), his actions taken in perspective have been a mixed bag and frankly, not all his fault

For instance, as much as Ultra Magnus would like to blame Prowl for Overlord, said Phase Sixer was on-board the Lost Light with Rodimus's full knowledge. And Prowl was 100% right that the war wasn't over.

Much like when it came to that data slug, Ultra Magnus, and the rest of the Autobots, want Prowl to deal with the dirty business of war, but they don't want to know about it.

Prowl goes too far, yes, but the Autobots don't go far enough. They want to keep the peace based on faith, and don't press the matter of justice or take any steps to ensure that their civil war never again engulfs other worlds.

For all his many flaws, Prowl does act to protect the universe based on the facts he has on hand, vs. Prime trying to take it on faith.

[matrix_dragon]

Except that's what Optimus and the other have been trying to do. They can't just march in and overthrow Starscream, no matter how much both they and the reader know he deserves it. The Cybertronian public are, for the most part, the civilians that fled at the very start of the war, back when the Autobots were most well known for Zeta Primes crimes.

(They're also complete morons, but I've made that rant many times before)

They don't know about most of Starscreams crimes, which just so happened to include a pogrom that targeted any unaligned 'bots still on Cybertron. They're gullible enough to believe him. Optimus, Windblade and others have been working to undermine his reputation with the general public, and guide the rebuilding government in ways that limit his power and prevent him from becoming another Zeta or Sentinel Prime.

They haven't been using violence for their goals, but Optimus and co have been approaching the situation with a lot more intelligence and rationality. At this point, Prowl just thinks that breaking things will solve the problem, and in Devastator, he's got the biggest hammer. And all he's done every time is make things worse.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

"Except that's what Optimus and the other have been trying to do. They can't just march in and overthrow Starscream, no matter how much both they and the reader know he deserves it. "

Except that they totally could have, in the beginning. They could have pushed for war crime tribunals, some accountability, but they didn't. Hell, they allowed the civilians to push them out for the actions of the Decepticons.

Prime et all are trying to guide Cybertron/Starscream yes, but they did much the same when they overthrew the senate, working with Decepticons to overthrow a corrupt system.

And we all know where that went...

[janegray]

I'd also like to point out that Prime's approach so far has managed to sort of keep Starscream in check only because of dumb luck. Starscream's plan to secretely attack the Camiens and then show up as a saviour so they would feel in his debt and become his subordinated had actually succeeded, and was only thwarted at the last second because luck had it that the Camiens worship the Primes as gods. And Windblade accidentally caused Velocitron to refuse Starscream's offer when she was late for the meeting, she had no idea that Velocitronian hold speed above everything.

I suppose it's okay to entrust the safety of the universe to faith when the narrative does absolutely everything it can to make you always come out on top.

[matrix_dragon]

I feel I should note, a big part of my problem with Prowl is how I feel Barber has been writing both him and Optimus for season 2. He's been the narrator character for several issues, he's been the center of several story arcs... and Barber's written him so poorly that I wanted the 'Optimus runs out of patience and just punches him' scene a year ago.

Prowl SHOULD have a valid point. He should be damaged after what he went through in season one, on top of everything in the war before that. But instead of it being decently addressed, instead of Optimus stepping up and dealing with it in a way I feel the character should be capable of, we got more of Prowl being an idiot because 'Only Extreme Measures Will Solve The Problem, Even Though They Never Had Before.' I'm irked with the writer for letting it get to this point. Even if Optimus and Prowl had a falling out over each others beliefs and methods, this wasn't the way to do it.

Still, there's hope, at least for the optimistic fanfic writer in me. Prowl's lost all his allies, his only chance for survival is Rattrap, who's recently shown his own game isn't quite what Starscreams come to think it is. He's at the bottom of a very deep hole... but there's nowhere for him to go but up.

[janegray]

I had the opposite reaction, I was happy that the posted scans had nothing to do with Prowl. Frankly, I was dreading this particular post.

Because Prowl is one of my favourite characters and I completely sympathize with his pov. Even more so after I dropped MTMTE because the heroic autobots chose to throw the Universe under the bus to save themselves, showing ample evidence that Cybertronians of either faction truly can't be relied on (don't even get me started on the neutrals). And, given the way the comment sections for the previous entries have gone, I was sure if the scans in this post had focuses on Prowl the comment section would have turned into a bashfest.

Nearly every time we have seen Prowl in action, he has made things better, even if his methods were unethical. His manipulating Kup was shitty, but it saved everybody from the Dead Universe. The Wreckers and Fort Max got a meager deal, but the plan was effective in recovering the data pad and preventing the Decepticons from getting tons of dangerous info. Taking out Ratbat pretty much saved them all from a new war, and saved Bumblebee, who then went on to convince Megatron to change and save the universe from Shockwave. Even while mind-controlled and forced into a combiner against his will, Prowl still went so far as to rip the head off, which lead to Megatron getting imprisoned and later pulling a heel face turn. Combining with the Constructicons caused them to leave the Decepticons, and now for all intents and purposes one of the most dangerous Decepticon groups is working for the Autobots. He effectively dealt with the Decepticons on earth, and found what they were looking for. And his actions against Tyrest ensured that the insane guy with a god complex who held the lives of all CC bots in his hands was dealt with effectively.

Pretty much the only real fuck up before Combiner Wars was the thing with Overlord. Which, as you pointed out, happened with Rodimus' approval, and as a direct result of Bumblebee's insistance that they restore Overlord to full operational mode rather than leaving him helpless.

(And even in Combiner Wars, I'm not convinced taking out Starscream by force would really be that terrible for Cybertronians. It could be, but we really can't be sure. The Autobots would approve, even if they may not admit it. The Decepticons would too, because they hate Starscream even more than the Autobots do now, to the point that they are seeking asylum in the colonies rather than living under Starscream's rule. And the neutrals would bitch and whine as they always do, threaten riots as they always do, accuse the Autobots of tyranny, but in the end they likely would accept new elections, especially since they are pissed at Starscream over the blackouts and the bombings and were screaming at him even during Dark Cybertron).

But every single time Prowl comes up, most of fandom insists that he always does everything wrong.