Kaon News Network (KNN)

*And also a spoiler in terms of mentioning a new development that MASK (indirectly) revealed*

I am so sorry, for the gifs incoming—

*Also ranting, but not out of hate. It’s from eating stuff up*

Let’s go. Let’s f*ckin’ go Thunderhawk! 😍🎉

To the skies, my beloved!

Ain’t no way those Philadelphian bastards can get their hands on—! 😎

What if Magnus took the first opportunity to leave Earth, because of how terrified he was of Optimus’ reaction to him explaining what happened on Orcas Island and afterwards, and desperately wanted to avoid that confrontation when tensions inevitably flared up to a point where he can no longer hide his feelings?

I’ve described this analogy before, but I’ll reiterate, since we’re coming back to Earth this next issue (as well as some comments I’ve seen about Mags’ decision to leave Earth in particular)—

Imagine if you just moved back in with family to recover after being held captive for years, and immediately encounter your kidnapper, but unexpectedly experience a PTSD episode and flee to find/establish safety—

And just when you’ve calmed down and are able to have a reassuring conversation with some of the family who were able to find you—you not only get kidnapped again (by this time, the authorities who’ve mistaken you for someone like your first kidnapper, without proper investigation)—

You unintentionally (at best) hurt some of them because their boss couldn’t be bothered to take the time to discern enemy from ally (possibly had half a goddamn year to do this btw, unless they plan on retconning this or actually explaining that he somehow didn’t know) and just decided to risk/sacrifice the lives of his subordinates for…blind retaliation?

(Which totally hasn’t happened in history before, no— 😒)

Then fast forwarding after you luckily escape that ordeal, and the misunderstanding supposedly gets resolved—that same boss (a now second perpetrator in your life) utilizing his position of authority/power personally shows up at your family’s house, and showers the head (the one who pays the bills) with gifts, and thus gains more to use against you if you were to confront either of them.

(Meanwhile, not only is he seemingly not gonna bother to provide anymore “assistance” in regards to dealing with the criminals you continue to struggle with [he had more opportunities to]—he’s secretly going after other people as a result of his continuing incompetence)

What do you do then?

…

Exactly.

Because now, it’s highly likely that a conversation with the head of the house would not only NOT go in your favor—but also (even if they genuinely mean well) potentially traumatize you even further by one, downplaying what happened (“He’s no Shockwave, so you have nothing to fear”), two, insinuating that you were the one at fault when you weren’t (“You didn’t scare or harm any of the humans, did you?”)—

And/or three, something along the lines of, “He didn’t know any better, and he’s done a lot of good. Perhaps in time you two can…reconcile?”.

Yeah. No. F**k that—

Prioritize your recovering mental health instead, Mags. You have my full support as a human.✌️

(No hate to Optimus, but the idea of him saying things like that, to someone who experienced something horrible can be extremely damaging as well, due to how these words can make one feel truly unsupported and like they’ve lost most of if not all of their remaining autonomy, which just sounds…very unlike what an Autobot is supposed to be and stand for right?)

So perhaps, if he were to have stayed on Earth, I’m going to theorize right now that Mags would not have accomplished as much as he did in Issue #32 alone, if Issue #29 was anything to go by.

“He still got beat up again”

And this is gonna sound weird, but I like that!

I like that’s he’s not the best fighter this side of the galaxy and loses a lotta fights. That’s more real! It shows that he’s still got a long road ahead of him, but thanks to Elita removing him from an emotionally detrimental environment (which yes, could risk affecting him physically), he’s immediately able to provide support after being given support himself as well as a newfound purpose.

(You can certainly have your own take on this, and believe that Mags just straight up being able to attack Shockwave now is the writers just “curing” his PTSD, but hear me out if you’d like—)

Think of it back to that analogy as suddenly another head of a household in your family showing up, or a close friend, or a social worker—

Someone who’s experienced, reliable, has never said anything bad about you or to you (not yet at least, oh God, Kirkman please don’t make her do that unless you have a clear plan), and who saved your life once before—

Someone who could take you (and other family members!) away, give you a fresh start, a chance to make a tangible difference, and hope.

It’s beautiful, and so many people are in need of that.

“Yeah, sure, take you away, right back to an active warzone and straight to your first kidnapper smh”

As if Earth isn’t currently a warzone with Megatron? :/

Look, if you had to choose, would you rather be in a warzone you were or weren’t familiar with (with not to mention the added pressure/stress you can’t handle well of protecting humans even though it was not your fault they got involved)?

And seeing Shockwave so damaged, Shorb jokes aside, that’s huge.

It’s great that Mags is able to see more clearly just how pathetic his first kidnapper really is, and how weak he is when he doesn’t have any backup—and also how explicitly awful he’s choosing to act.

Because others, as he knows very well, will hide that awfulness so successfully that they can charm anyone onto their side (at least until those people finally get sick of their nasty attitude and personality, and hightail it), and that can be arguably way more terrifying.

“Yeah, which is exactly what can happen to Carly, Spike and the rest of the Autobots without Magnus’ protection/awareness. If the charm wears off/fails, what’s stopping Flagg from taking Carly and Spike hostage to get what he wants from Optimus?

Because Magnus so selfishly left, they’re (rest of humanity included) hella screwed from not only Flagg but obviously Megatron or…whatever he’s gonna evolve into.

‘I just feel like I’m needed’ my ass! Can’t believe they assassinated his character like that…”

You do realize that people with trauma aren’t perfect beings (well actually Mags is perfect and always has been but anyway— ❤️🤍💙 ) who are always pure of heart and always able to make the “right” decision and are always able to accurately explain their feelings…

Right?

Ulchtar/Starscream is the most extreme/irredeemable example of this in this comic alone so far.

(Oh. Right. And Megs too, ig…)

Wheeljack came off as a hypocrite when he snapped at Bulkhead (What, other Autobots can’t voice their opinions, but you can, Wheeljack, to Optimus himself? Didn’t know you were explicitly named second-in-command, hmm)—

But you can understand why he’s like that.

You can understand Optimus’ inconsistent behavior/dialogue, as someone who still lacks experience greatly fearing a revert back into a more violent version of himself.

(But you can also attribute this to poor writing, if you want, but from what I interpret I think it still works so far, even if yes it could’ve been done better with more time)

Point is, people with trauma are just like everyone else in terms of flaws, so for those that referred to him as a “snake”, I’d argue that Mags choosing to leave Earth not only made total sense for his character, but also made it even more interesting and just…real.

He held Trailbreaker in his arms to defend him, and he gets irresponsibly allowed to wander off and be vulnerable…

All that effort. All that pain. For nothing.

And yet, on Cybertron…there’s very strangely a sense of greater stability and certainty, so thanks Elita. You’ve done a fragging awesome job. 💗

PS: Mentally prepared for all of this subtext to be thrown out the window depending on what happens next and how they wanna portray certain characters going forward.

Will I be disappointed or mad if so?

I think I know what I’m getting myself into by this point so if anything I’ll play along, why not. *Shrugs*

No but if they wanna start portraying Flagg as a genuine good guy so that we earn that aircraft carrier, they better give me at least 50 goddamn issues IDW Megatron style because he’s got a lot to address and change. A lot.

*Part 9*

Void Rivals (#1–#30) Part 5: Cobra-La + End of the Quintesson War

I almost never talk about the quality of any artwork in the EU (cuz um, I would be one to talk, if you’ve seen my art 🥀), BUT—

Ig Pythona is just one of those characters who for me noticeably (so I’m not saying this isn’t the case for any other character of course)—no matter who draws them—always looks good.

Also here’s some unfinished Pythona cuz hell yeah she’s purty and a baddie (always has been btw) and more people should post about her:

(Yeah. Yeah it’s the long ponytail for me— 🥰)

Ig it’s kinda hard to have another PTSD episode when the source of the PTSD got reduced to this:

“Alright you bland asf Tootsie Pop stuck on top of a garbage pile, I was subjected to almost permanent involuntary ‘exposure therapy’ recently—

I said “hang on” when it came to these guys...how long ago—? 🗓️😶

Slag/Slug:

Sludge:

Snarl:

Swoop:

Paddles:

KARMA’S A BITCH AND SO AM I!!! 😈

(For those that aren’t in the loop as to what he’s also been up to:)

*Part 8*

Void Rivals (#1–#28) Part 4: Agorria

I just read LSOTW (as well as the extra context surrounding that story), so Springer getting stranded alone for thousands of years doesn’t look and sound as sad anymore, when he’s once in the multiverse had to listen to his fellow suicide squad member confess that he’s happy that his older brother figure committed war crimes, while in a coma (due to having his faceplate ripped off) in order to be brought back from it.

Yeah.

Just chill in the shadows Spring Roddy’s gonna pull up in an astrosec, Darak just needs to meet up with his boss Elander again, and then have half a conversation with his…“father”, first. 😑

Ah, there’s that magic word again, “worthy”.

As if that’s any sort of excuse, given Darak’s thankfully (for you Dulin) easygoing personality (I mean it’s not like he’s impulsively power hungry like Proximus), to keep extremely important information from not only your son, but apparently the future heir of an entire civilization even tho you seemed perfectly fine with letting him die.

Which, hey—

In a “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few” sort of way, I can respect. You don’t play favorites despite basically being a hereditary monarch.

(And it’s totally not like there’s any other family, let’s say, an uncle, in the picture…

“Wait where the hell did this guy come from—?”)

It’s just…why not let everyone else in Agorria know? 🤨

Cuz now you’ve got these Unifiers—with Elander turning out to be one of them—who have no idea who Goliant is potentially endangering the entire Sacred Ring.

Oh. That’s right—

You still want to maintain some sort of advantage over Zertonia out of…ego?

Like Zaliliak’s situation makes sense since his people might’ve considered him blasphemous for trying to warn them, and thus potentially remove him from all his power + privileges—

(It’s corrupt, yeah, but it computes)

But hey, you’re an explicit monarchy (and maybe Zaliliak’s gov is too but I don’t think that was hinted at), and monarchies are stupid, but you gotta distract your citizens from that and electrocute your kids in order to continue conversations about world ending threats.

Meanwhile Springer also demonstrates how Megs has options other than genocide and conquest *coughs* diplomacy.

Makes you wonder how Elita will react to their arrival back to Cybertron. Will she be pissed? Will she consider anything they say worth listening to?

“Will they even really say anything to begin with?”

I mean…they just wanted to leave even after the Zertonians invaded (after Zerta sent Solila to Agorria to meet with Darak), and Goliant almost emerged due to the subsequent unity in progress—

“Such devastation” Woah is that a Kirkmanism—?

(Sorry I just finished reading Furman’s IDW run, and apparently repeating phrases is a thing with him so much that it gets referenced by James Roberts through Ironfirst and Skyfall)

And interestingly they don’t believe (or rather they don’t seem to want to believe) that Zerta would be someone capable of having any sort of ill intent.

“No, she’s our species’ hero!”

But that’s the thing tho. Your species.

And even then with Alpha Trion being 99% absent/unmentioned for whatever reason (is he considered a legend by this point too?), I’m starting to develop some doubts (not to downplay either of the Trions’ accomplishments, such as liberating Cybertron), although if there’s anything TF Issue #31 has made clear is that we seriously need to learn how exactly this war started, if there have been previous Decepticon leaders (or if war has always been a thing with there just being periods of ceasefire basically. We’re prob gonna have to rely on seeing how Jetfire reacts to being back on Cybertron for now in terms of providing clues).

I’d say they should’ve stuck around to at least process everything that happened…but then they’d have to deal with an army of Sharkticons so—

“Dang, you spend thousands of years following a legend just to dip out despite the signs everywhere of this legend being true. If only they got to speak with Solila”

I have a feeling Zerta didn’t want that.

“Then how the hell does that help her species—”

I don’t think she wanted them to go through hell reminiscent of LSOTW.

“Ngl, their departure, as well as Solila changing her mind about unity seemed to happen rather abruptly”

Yeah I think I would’ve preferred an extra page in Issue #23 to really emphasize the destruction and Solila’s reaction to that, to really sell the panic in her backing out of the idea of unity.

Some people might also not be happy that Roddy and Spring kinda just stand around talking for a few issues, but personally I don’t mind. Not at all.

That’s basically what people have been asking Robert Kirkman to do with the characters in his TF run so far. Not to say that you can’t tell story through action (obviously), but that’s prob a reason why I surprisingly really, really gravitated towards Flagg’s scenes.

All he did was talk, but goddammit does his dialogue and his role overall provide so much potential (in terms of angst/animosity/tension) in the wider narrative (particularly for Carly, Spike, Wheeljack and Optimus. I would’ve included Mags too but, well, uh—).

Then again he might be relocated over to M.A.S.K, which would mean the bitch hopping comics 3 times like dayum—

“Tbh, Spring and Roddy so far have seemed more like plot devices than characters”

So I’m curious to see where he’ll take Spring and Roddy’s characters going forward. I’m currently reading through IDW (it’s said that you don’t have to read Phase 1, and there have been inconsistencies, retcons and the occasional “Yikes” moment—*shrugs* but idk must be some completionist thing) by publishing order (most of the time)—they’ve def stood out. Wreck ‘n fraggin’ rule y’all.

It took until, what, 2012 for Roddy to gain enough rare candies to evolve into Rodimus? That’s 7 years in. Maybe that won’t even happen at all.

Maybe the Matrix will go on to choose Springer instead.

(You guys I’m tellin’ you he’s really underrated and badass and I can see why First Aid finds him hot—

(JAZZ NO— 😭)

‘Sup Trannis. Rockin’ the hood as usual.

Straxus long time no see— ⛏️

I think if anything Hound’s being selfless by choosing to prioritize the mission over an opportunity to explore Earth more freely (as he still has to hide from Duke and Clutch’s boss).

Here’s the thing about Skybound Duke from what I’ve gathered—

It’s not just his friend dying so suddenly and so callously that, as Hawk put it (or rather “Hawk” at that point already maybe), turned Duke into a “Walking American Nightmare”—

It’s the disillusionment and trust issues resulting from how the response to that by his superiors in the military was handled (with Colonel Hawk being the face of that).

Ever since his encounter with Starscream, people either haven’t believed him on how his friend actually died (and for an explicit half a year straight)—or had been actively lying to and keeping him from knowing certain things that are “bigger than him”—

And he. F*cking. Hates that.

He didn’t spend years working in search and rescue (as he cares very much about helping/protecting people) with pretty much a perfect record, just for his life to get turned upside down after a horrific situation that he couldn’t anticipate and fully control like he usually did with his missions—

And then basically told to shut up and get over it.

No. That’s not why he serves, and that’s not how things are supposed to be handled…but that’s often if not mostly what happens.

It’s what happened with Sparkplug, and it’s also what happened with Matt from what we know so far.

In short, Duke’s been through a lotta s**t, and is a ticking time bomb, and for good reason.

And he wants answers. Now.

So you can imagine how I felt reading this page lol—

*Sigh* Duke was so close, you guys.

So f*cking close.

All he had to do was ask Matt “What’s Shadow Watch? Who’s Mayhem? How do you know how to work with alien tech?”

And then Matt, well, might’ve given his whole backstory—which the writers obviously don’t want this soon, which alright, y’all wanna wait till June to spill the deets—

Duke would not gaf. Just sayin’. He didn’t put up with all this gaslighting from his side and Cobra bs just to still keep being left in the dark.

He would block Matt’s way until Matt explained exactly wtf’s been going on—or at least on his end.

That way Duke, Clutch and Hound would find out that the government/military pretty much knew about aliens/the robots the entire f*cking time, and Duke would remember Burkhart’s words about there being an arms race and connect the dots—

But fine. I’ll bs this—

Matt: I’m done running.

Duke: *Gets in his way* Is this Mayhem part of Cobra?

Matt: Wouldn’t count on it. He’s not one for being taken for a pawn. I’ll deal with him. You just keep taking care of Cobra and M.A.R.S.

Duke: All by yourself?

Matt: Guess Clutch didn’t tell you this—I work alone. Less people get hurt that way.

*Walks around him* And you’re caught in enough crosshairs as it is.

If I need more help, I’ll figure it out.

Duke: Whatever “Shadow Watch” is, it wasn’t mentioned in your file.

Matt wanting to protect them (most likely from Flagg): *Opens door* Just be careful who you put your trust in.

Clutch as Matt drives off: Matt—? (Duke: ???????????????)

/ Obviously not perfect, but at least Duke would’ve acknowledged some of these details that sound pretty goddamn important and make him seem less OOC.

I pretty much have the same issue with Optimus—especially since Duke stressed that there needs to be transparency between them, or else there will be consequences.

With him explaining a whole fantasy he’s had about destroying all of them (he’s got some tits/balls, that’s for sure)—

And then after that Optimus drops this:

And Duke just stands there crossing his arms again!

Like. What.

And knowing what we know about this version of Duke—he wouldn’t care if they spent hours exchanging information so that they don’t get potentially blindsided in the future—

But once again, I’ll bs this.

Duke: General Flagg? How did he get energon?

Clutch: Hawk had “a few boring meetings” with him at Langley Air Force base while you were in Texas.

/ For those that haven’t read G.I. Joe, this never happened. They don’t know about Zartan being disguised as Hawk.

Optimus: According to him, Shadow Watch had acquired a stock pile over the years.

Duke: Over…the years? (Clutch: Shadow Watch…?)

Optimus: Are you alright?

Duke: He knew about you all? This whole time?

Optimus: I did not get the impression he knew until recently, though I found the way he said things to be rather…strange, but him and the head of Shadow Watch Miles Mayhem have been of great help to us.

Duke, if Matt at least conveyed that Mayhem was trouble: ❗️

Clutch: Optimus…Mayhem’s on the run. He’s now a wanted criminal.

Optimus: That…does not surprise me.

Duke: Alright—Flagg likely thinks I’m dead; Most people think I am.

Do not tell him about us.

*Turns with his hands on his head in frustration* Dammit, Trakker…

Optimus: I will be cautious of him. Thank you.

/ Like I’m not asking for Duke to crash out right then—he doesn’t have enough concrete info since Matt didn’t really say anything (and I can understand Optimus not wanting to tell him about Tacoma, Seattle and Chicago, even if that might [or rather should] lead to problems later), and obviously they’re gonna keep secrets from Hawk anyway (crash out over that imminent) —

But at least have him start to feel some type of way about why Mayhem and Flagg were involved/in charge of some secret government project involving energon/Cybertronians, especially if Shadow Watch is gonna be a bigger deal in the future after all.

Not saying Duke and Clutch can do anything about them with their own issues (CC + Destro), but it’s something to keep at the back of their minds as events continue, and it would be nice if Duke were to say something on the drive back like:

Duke: You know why I’ve turned down promotions?

Clutch: To stay in the field?

Duke: Maybe also not end up surrounded by people who’ve lost sight of what really matters.

/ Other than that…nice. :)

I like that we got to see inside of Duke’s mind, for one. Perhaps Optimus sees a bit of Carly in him with his desire for vengeance.

I like that Optimus brings up his own fear of losing himself, so it’s good that at least the pressure of the Matrix is off his shoulders.

(Like if it helps him make less awful decisions like getting rid of Megs’ arm [not saying use the arm—just keep it away from Megs], and letting Trailbreaker go out alone, and not make any sense at times with his dialogue [this literally made me suspect he was Nemesis], then irdc if he’s not a prime anymore. Hell, if he never becomes prime again. I just want him to be in a clearer state of mind so he can finally lock in and protect Earth).

(Also I like that he’s not Orion. Orion’s gone. Megs likely killed him, and Alpha Trion rebuilt him into Optimus before giving him the Matrix—

And you can’t go back to being someone who’s gone.

So in a way, he already lost himself before, so it makes sense that he’s so scared of that happening again that it messes with his decision making)

(Unless you wanna explore a story in which Orion is trapped in this body and mind he never asked to be in, while basically being Alpha Trion’s pawn, same with Megs being a pawn of his creator [*Coughs* Trannis? 👀], but *shrugs* eh)

I like that Hound gets to stay—and that exchange between him and Clutch actually conveys more of his character! If we get more moments like that going forward, hell yeah.

(Idk how everybot else will react to him staying…Oh wait, they won’t feel some type of way like they didn’t with Beachcomber lol)

And lastly I like that they’re one step closer into finding out what happened with Megs at Cobra-La (and perhaps Thundercracker can provide more insight on this).

So yeah. Don’t quite know how to end this, other than that I’m cautiously optimistic for what’s to come, and Duke’s still my fav Skybound protagonist (wasn’t expecting him to become my fav when I first started reading the EU, but coolio).

Poor Doc tho.