Void Rivals (#1â#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 doesnât look and sound as sad anymore, when heâs once in the multiverse had to listen to his fellow suicide squad member confess that heâs 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.
Just chill in the shadows Spring Roddyâs gonna pull up in an astrosec, Darak just needs to meet up with his boss Elander again, and then have half a conversation with hisâŚâfatherâ, first. đ
Ah, thereâs that magic word again, âworthyâ.
As if thatâs any sort of excuse, given Darakâs thankfully (for you Dulin) easygoing personality (I mean itâs not like heâs 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.
In a âthe needs of the many outweigh the needs of a fewâ sort of way, I can respect. You donât play favorites despite basically being a hereditary monarch.
(And itâs totally not like thereâs any other family, letâs say, an uncle, in the pictureâŚ
âWait where the hell did this guy come fromâ?â)
Itâs justâŚwhy not let everyone else in Agorria know? đ¤¨
Cuz now youâve got these Unifiersâwith Elander turning out to be one of themâwho have no idea who Goliant is potentially endangering the entire Sacred Ring.
You still want to maintain some sort of advantage over Zertonia out ofâŚego?
Like Zaliliakâs situation makes sense since his people mightâve considered him blasphemous for trying to warn them, and thus potentially remove him from all his power + privilegesâ
(Itâs corrupt, yeah, but it computes)
But hey, youâre an explicit monarchy (and maybe Zaliliakâs gov is too but I donât 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?
âWill they even really say anything to begin with?â
I meanâŚthey 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 progressâ
âSuch devastationâ Woah is that a Kirkmanismâ?
(Sorry I just finished reading Furmanâs 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 donât believe (or rather they donât seem to want to believe) that Zerta would be someone capable of having any sort of ill intent.
âNo, sheâs our speciesâ hero!â
But thatâs 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?), Iâm starting to develop some doubts (not to downplay either of the Trionsâ accomplishments, such as liberating Cybertron), although if thereâs 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. Weâre prob gonna have to rely on seeing how Jetfire reacts to being back on Cybertron for now in terms of providing clues).
Iâd say they shouldâve stuck around to at least process everything that happenedâŚbut then theyâd have to deal with an army of Sharkticons soâ
âDang, 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 Solilaâ
I have a feeling Zerta didnât want that.
âThen how the hell does that help her speciesââ
I donât think she wanted them to go through hell reminiscent of LSOTW.
âNgl, their departure, as well as Solila changing her mind about unity seemed to happen rather abruptlyâ
Yeah I think I wouldâve preferred an extra page in Issue #23 to really emphasize the destruction and Solilaâs 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 donât mind. Not at all.
Thatâs basically what people have been asking Robert Kirkman to do with the characters in his TF run so far. Not to say that you canât tell story through action (obviously), but thatâs prob a reason why I surprisingly really, really gravitated towards Flaggâs 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 wouldâve included Mags too but, well, uhâ).
Then again he might be relocated over to M.A.S.K, which would mean the bitch hopping comics 3 times like dayumâ
âTbh, Spring and Roddy so far have seemed more like plot devices than charactersâ
So Iâm curious to see where heâll take Spring and Roddyâs characters going forward. Iâm currently reading through IDW (itâs said that you donât have to read Phase 1, and there have been inconsistencies, retcons and the occasional âYikesâ momentâ*shrugs* but idk must be some completionist thing) by publishing order (most of the time)âtheyâve def stood out. Wreck ân fragginâ rule yâall.
It took until, what, 2012 for Roddy to gain enough rare candies to evolve into Rodimus? Thatâs 7 years in. Maybe that wonât even happen at all.
Maybe the Matrix will go on to choose Springer instead.
(You guys Iâm tellinâ you heâs really underrated and badass and I can see why First Aid finds him hotâ
