#arc's analysis

(Spoiler warning for mtmte & lost light comics!)

Okay so, remember when Rodimus & company went to to Luna 1, and the hotspot activated? And everyone in story just kinda of assumed that it was Rodimus who did it, as it happened when he set foot on the moon. They just kinda all shrugged and were like "idk he's got half of the empty matrix? Maybe that did it?" And then they all had to move on from that really fast bc Lockdown & Pharma showed up and everything just kind of progressively off the rails.

I get why people just like assume its Rodimus who set off the hot spot bc thats what the characters assume and its not really explored past that. But I think it was something else that set off the hot spot.

See, at the same time that Rodimus stepped down on to the moon, so did Rung.

I am now convinced that Rung is what set off the hot spot, not Rodimus. I really love Rodimus, but when considering what would be more likely to set off a bunch of new life, I personally think it is more possible that Robo-god did so than "guy carrying half of an empty matrix."

Plus, Rung being the one to set it off instead of Rodimus would work with some of the patterns and themes of the comic I think. Rodimus has a lot of his arc about how he tends to center himself and feels like he's the most important and has to be involved in everything. The whole reason that Rung came with him to Luna 1 is bc the previous issue Rung had called him out for sulking abt how he was mad he wasn't the one to beat Overload, and felt bad abt being mad abt. And Rodimus invited Rung to come bc he needed someone to be able to contradict him while Magnus was missing.

Adding to that, assuming that Rodimus was the one who set off the hot spot instead of Rung kind of mirrors how during the sparkeater incident Rodimus assumed he would have the brightest spark, but instead Rung did.

If there is other stuff later in the comic that disprove this, or if someone already has thought of this first, feel free to let me know. I may have forgotten something, idk. Its totally fine if anyone disagrees or has a different perspective on it. I just realized this theory while as I am rereading mtmte currently, and I wanted to share it!

Like just. The way that her fatal flaw I feel isn't her egoism or greed or impulsivity or fear of commitment or lack of consistent morals. Her fatal flaw is her belief that she can't change any of those things. She's convinced herself that she's incapable of change or improvement in order to absolve herself of the guilt stemming from her awful actions. She's so certain that she's unfixably bad + doomed to die alone that she rarely tries to actually become better or genuinely connect and stay with those around her.

And part of the problem is these beliefs are reinforced by the people around her, for various reasons (especially in her 2016 run). Sana told her something like "its not your fault you were born broken" or smthg, bc Sana also wasn't ready to reckon with the fact that Aphra has free will but used it to hurt her. Triple Zero for a while keeps trying to make aphra believe she is like him (very evil and cruel) bc he wants another friend in his evilness. Even as a kid, Aphra's mom told her that some people(specifically referring to Aphra's father) are just "wired different" and are so fixated on specific things and end up bringing down trouble on themselves and everyone around them. All these things and potentially more I've forgotten keep reinforcing to Aphra that she's stuck the way she is, that there is no point making the effort to change, and that everyone who loves her will just need to overlook her problems instead of trying to help or excepting better.

This isn't like me saying "oh bc of x and y i think evidence shows whirl has ocd." This is more just like. What if she did?

Anyway I like the idea that whirl has ocd but like. No one is really aware of it. Bc whenever Whirl does smthg weird due to a compulsion everyone is just like "okay yeah whirl is just weird who cares" bc they've all already decided that she's "crazy" and so just dgaf abt why she does anything she does (or like. If she needs help..)

I think OCD would tie in to the fact that whirl doesn't want to feel controlled. After losing her clock shop & being empurataed and forced to work for the senate, she just feels like her life is so out of her hands and she's suffering a lot for things that aren't fully her fault. Her compulsions give her some small feeling of control when everything is just like. Going to shit. Ocd makes her feel like she has some semblance of control over what happens to her, even though ocd itself is controlling a lot of her behaviors.

I think she spins and clicks her claws a lot, and feels like she has to do it a certain amount of times or in a specific order or something bad will happen. She doesn't even know what "something bad" would be, really. She's already had so many awful things happen to her. She's been tortured and maimed, spent time in prison, rejected and loathed and fear. None of it would be something she hadn't already dealt with before. But the dread is still there, and she'll do a lot to avoid it.

I think ocd runs into her perfectionism while making clocks. It's not enough for her for it to be "good enough." It has to be exactly the way it "should" be in her head, or else what's even the point. I also think generally she has like. Specific times she likes to set clocks to when testing them. And has to go through all of them before it feels right. Whenever the clocks are just a few seconds off and don't sync up perfectly she hates it so much.