#entry 12

Btw spoilers and personal opinions

I remember season 1 coming out on Netflix in 2020 and I was still in the mindset of wanting a emotionally invested Transformers series ever since I finished Transformers Prime back in Highschool?? (Back when I was able to buy the Shockwave commander figure at Target I think) Robots in Disguise was whiplash of lighthearted fun (I couldn't finish. Bumblebee's design was....hmmm) while War on Cybertron was too dark and overly serious (I stopped in Kingdom. didn't finish). I hadn't considered the comics at that point. So when I began watching Cyberverse, I didn't set my expectations, skipped around and didn't give it a proper chance. Which sucked because I really wanted to get to know Windblade (yes I know there's comics but at the time I didn't have the money nor considered trying to find it online at the time. Last time I did consider getting into the Transformers comics I bought Dark Energon and got really confused because I wasn't sure how many issues back before getting to Windblade's issue. I didn't use reddit nor look up any forms to even find the information of where I should start or read as a solo issue. I do now though. Really enjoying MTMTE).

Cyberverse S1 has a good concept and had moments that caught me off guard but after seeing the entire show if you want to convince someone to watch it they got to really look past that first season. Episode 8 I believe with Blurr and his ENTIRE PLANET DYING and the backstory with Shadow Striker, I felt there werent any good hooks. Even with Windblade as a main character, it still wasnt interesting.

Seeing comments on videos and forms I agree that sort of after season 2, episodes start hitting better and every episode is either a bottle of fun or a oh shit that happened??????

The real turning point for me was in S2 with the Arcee and Grimlock solo episode. I think Cyberverse can write some genuinely fun character interactions. And that was one I kept craving for each season.

The good thing about this show I'd like to make clear is that there are a lot of femmebots in Cyberverse (Clobber being one of my favorites. She's such a delight on screen). However, when it comes to having any autobots on screen, one of my gripes that was it felt like there was a rule of one femmebot per episode or an autobot group mission. They kept switching them out and I know they could at least have Chromia and Arcee go on a mission with Bee, Grimlock and Hotrod or something. During S2 when the Autobots are on their journey back to Cybertron, I had noticed Arcee and Windblade got to a point that they were never on screen at the same time, let alone interact for a 5 minutes or a minute at least. It could possibly be that as characters they aren't close friends with one another but come on. They're stuck on the same ship...It was distracting but by no means was a show ruiner. It was something I happened to notice through the rest of the seasons. Sure there were probably some other interactions I could go back to but I wouldn't have this entire paragraph here dedicated about it now would I? (Oh well, we have EarthSpark so that need is fulfilled).

Stand Out Characters That I Personally Gravitated To In No Particular Order:

Clobber: Her side conversations with Lockdown stuck with me. Being a character who didn't want to fight but was always ordered to and eventually joined the Autobots. She's so cute.

Soundwave: The writers gave him a lot to work with and it shows. His reaction to Hot Rod getting the shit beat out of him in the finale was so excellent as a call back when they were forced to work together during the Quintesson invasion. They hadn't had any episodes with any notable interactions since then but I felt like it was a smart choice, though it took me a second to remember why. Soundwave Superior. Rip.

Grimlock/ and Arcee: I just really like their dynamic and the show kept giving me crumbs after their own solo episode together. Out of all the friendships in Cyberverse, this stood out to me the most. They had really good vibes I'd love to see more of in other iterations of Transformers. Arcee was one of the front characters in the opening so I was surprised they didn't put her in as many episodes as they could have.

Dead End/ and Astrotrain: That was also another dynamic I really liked and had very small crumbs for. Gotta love a ship pissing off a grumpy character. Why do they hate each other? Who knows but it's funny and I can only imagine more...

Dead End is a new character I gravitated towards right away. I wasn't sure if it was a popular character or not in the Transformers franchise as a whole. I love a character that is unexpectedly smart in a selfish kind of way. He didn't give me "evil vibes" which the majority of the Decepticons were giving off in the show. Man just wants to live. Like Lockdown, he was really caring towards his fellow Decepticon, Clobber (which now I remember I do also like their interactions too. Seeing if they need to deactivate Shockwave comes to mind). Dead End is also is a very funny reactionary character towards the rest of the cast during the 3rd season. In the finale, he's become a bit more of a background character after Astrotrain died (rip Astrotrain :(((), but at least Dead End has a nice development on not choosing the option to save himself for once (In part one of the special I was sort of shocked they didn't give him a line about hating parades. I mean we see he doesn't like it, but that's just a me thing).

Megatron: Still made him a pretty complicated character, I just wish I had more episodes to see it.

Shockwave: I'm always a fan of Shockwave but I felt bad completely forgetting he offed himself while I kept wondering where he was before the Meteorfire and Cosmos. Oops.

Hot Rod: After I got used to his "dude bro" voice I was enjoying his development and becoming a main character in the 3rd season. I was wondering if he would ever become Rodimus Prime at some point other than having the temporary paint change but I mean I guess if you know then you know. He was a good central character with the team he has to work with. Made it a great change of pace.

Sky-byte: I cant help but laugh he has the Skeletor voice. The episode where he and Jetfire are introduced I really thought it would be an episode where the Decepticons and Autobots really see they shouldn't be fighting due to the insane amount of constant planetary damage their war with each other causes. But they didn't. So it landed in parody territory. I have no idea whether it was because it was time or intentional. But yeah Parody territory. Also later on after the peace treaty you don't see Sky-byte or Jetfire interact with each other in obvious friendly terms. I find this hilarious when I noticed Sky-byte was getting more screen time.

Wild Wheel: This man is the background after his solo episode. We're close to the end of the series and Cyberverse sneaks in a Western. As if Cyberverse wasn't already insane as it is. The good thing about his episode as it answered who was in one of the lost pods from season 1 aside from Grimlock and Bumblebee. AND Optimus is a sick shot.

Meteorfire and Cosmos: AUSSIE AUTOBOT. I guess it answers what other shows Cybertronians watch beside Cube??? Somehow also a banger solo episode. It's so silly and there's a random ass scene that is now in my core memory. The show may say "Bumblebee's Cyberverse Adventures" but it was an episode where a new character that eventually goes into the background steals the show. Also Cosmos was very cute. She's toe to toe with Weird Al Cosmos for me.

Perceptor: The character with one of the clip compilations that steered me towards watching the show. He is incredible. What a guy. Has an exceptionally high tolerance for his arm getting ripped off, going blind, and falling really far distances.

Teletraan-X: He's just a little guy, and I like his attitude. I was happy seeing him again in the finale with Windblade.

Tarn: I now know who Tarn is. Wowza scary guy.

Overall I'm glad I watched Cyberverse. I do agree it's underrated. I had a lot of fun watching, maybe I'll draw Dead End one of these days.

LAYER 1: SAFE BETS

Box Guy in the Basement World

REASONING: He literally turns into Irving when you use the angler effect. I don't know if it gets any more clear-cut than that. There's also a bunch of dust bunnies around, and bunnies in general tend to be one of Irving's symbols.

MEANING INTERPRETATION: This is an area pretty tucked-away from everything else (you have to solve a moving box puzzle to get here). Could be representative of how Irving sees himself -- he's hidden himself away in some dusty corner with a bed and a desk and doesn't want to be found.

Pan Flute Player in Boiling Water World (Bestiary Entry #12)

REASONING: In the Curtain Den, if you interact with the racoon dog when you have the wendigo effect equipped, the racoon dog will rapidly switch between forms, switching to the monster at Junction Space and the Pan Flute Player before stopping alltogether. If we follow the logic that the racoon dog is trying to copy Irving, then any forms it switches to are extensions of Irving himself.

There's also the fact that when you go to Lucky's stand with the deer effect equipped, she remarks "A deer, of course..." Her unsurprised response would imply Irving has some sort of history with deer, though what exactly that isn't really the focus of this post (and is also very confusing).

MEANING INTERPRETATION: ???????????????? As previously stated, Irving's relationship with deer is very confusing!! I'll probably tackle it in its own post eventually. Maybe this means that Irving played the pan flute at some point though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Pan Flute Player has an interesting reaction to the wendigo effect though. They stop playing music and have a shadow cast over their face.

The Monster at Junction Space (Bestiary Entry #3)

REASONING: Same as the Pan Flute Player -- the racoon dog in the Curtain Den transforms into the monster when copying Irving.

MEANING INTERPRETATION: The monster is one of the only chasers in the game, and the only one who chases you unprovoked, but the bestiary makes note of the fact that it's protecting something rather than lashing out in rage. This means that between the chaser and the skeleton key lock, Irving is subconsciously REALLY trying to keep himself away from Junction Space and whatever it represents (which, again, is extremely confusing and not really the focus of this post, though I do have a theory post about that half-drafted). The whole "Am I even in my own dream?" comment from the Bestiary might have something to do with it...

LAYER 2: PROBABLY, BUT COULD BE SOMEONE ELSE TOO

The Shadow from the Incomprehensible Event (Bestiary Entry #22)

REASONING: The incomprehensible event shows a looming figure saying some "incomprehensible words" (though most of them are either symbols of sleep or nothingness, so it's not all that incomprehensible). The person on the left dissolves when the speaking figure utters the character "无" meaning "nothing" or "negative." This resembles ending #1 of Oversomnia in a LOT of ways. The looming figure on the right bears a striking resemblance to the pillars in the Dreaming Serpents World (a resemblance that's somehow even more visually obvious in older versions of the game, as seen in the image on the far right) and the sleep-related symbols also align with the idea of a DREAMING serpent. Ending #1 also shows Irving drowning/dissolving in a green river at the very end before vanishing from reality, which would also align with the event here where the figure on the left dissolves.

MEANING INTERPRETATION: The serpents are a Lot to handle. What they want, where they came from, how real they are and their influence on reality are all questions at the core of Oversomnia's mysteries. To quote the bestiary though, whatever they want, it's probably not good. Either way -- how I see the event is that either the monster approached Irving, or Irving approached it, and the monster ended up meddling in Irving's affairs with the end result of him possibly vanishing. How real this vanishing is and how "real" ending #1 is are up for debate -- the fact you "wake up" after ending #1, get a menu theme, and can then go chat with Lucky about Irving's worries are suggests that ending #1 might just be another dream. Alternatively, maybe Irving DID vanish from reality and the rest of the game is a dream in the afterlife. Or maybe he's been dreaming this whole time and nothing was real, etc etc. Ending #1 and the serpents have a dedicated post coming later too. Anyways, the only reason I hesitate to say with 100% certainty that the dissolving figure IS Irving is because we know for a fact some of his friends are also caught up in this whole serpent business. Lucky's the obvious one given her presence beyond the gate at the very north of the Dreaming Serpents World, but the figure depicted here doesn't resemble her too much (no skirt, no coat, no clover). There's also Irving's friend in Junction Space (bestiary entry #4) who goes through a door adorned with distinctly serpentine iconography. So the dissolving figure could be Irving as seen in ending #1, or it could be one of his friends.

LAYER 3: EHH YOU COULD ARGUE THIS ONE EITHER WAY

Pallid Beings in the Emergency Room (Bestiary Entry #31)

REASONING: A lot of my logic in this is based on two assumptions. Firstly, that the monster protecting Junction Space IS in fact Irving, as I argued earlier in this post. Secondly, that the pallid creatures are sick versions of the monsters from junction space. My reasoning behind that second point is based on an earlier post I made noting that the monster and the pallid creatures have a lot of visual similarities -- primarily white in color, big heads and bodies but small legs and arms, melty, have horns (only present in some pallid creatures), and have black circles around their eyes with black rings around their necks (only present in the pallid creatures still capable of walking). Additionally, the monster at Junction Space will send you to the Emergency Room if you get caught by it.

MEANING INTERPRETATION: Irving might be sick in some way, or had some sort of serious illness before. Could also be a dream-sickness? The monsters are melty, and Irving does dissolve in ending #1. Could be representative of that. There's also this sprite in the left of Irving's bathroom that could be a pill bottle, but it could also just be his laundry detergent -- it's too small to say definitively either way.

Oversomnia does, in general though, have a decent number of "sickly"/"guarding someone" type events. There's obviously the emergency room and the nurse here, but there's also the bat creature protecting the sickly person who you get vampirism from (bestiary entry #6) as well as the monster guarding the wilting flower in the garden center basement (bestiary entry #37) so even if you don't buy this exact comparison, there is some other possible evidence for the broader Irving Illness Theory.

LAYER 4: OK NOW YOU'RE STRETCHING IT

Person on the Pink Beach (Bestiary Entry #9)

REASONING: This theory requires you to believe all the other comparisons I've made up until this point. The only way you get to the Pink Beach is through meeting the ghost in the emergency room by using the tuning fork. If the emergency room and the pallid creatures are already representative of Irving, then anything connecting to them probably is too. Additionally, the figure on the beach is wearing a bone mask, like the Pan Flute Player is, except the Pink Beach figure is covering their whole face. Additionally, both the Pink Beach and Boiling Water World are EXTREMELY pink areas with a focus on water. ALSO the Pink Beach's music is the same as the Title Screen of Oversomnia, which could indicate that the Pink Beach is more important and more broadly emblematic of Irving and his dreams than it initially lets on.

MEANING INTERPRETATION: The bestiary entry for this area reads "Hidden away in a place where it had been forgotten was a beach made of pink sand. The only person on the beach had also been forgotten…" You COULD possibly interpret "the only person on the beach" to mean Irving in this context which could indicate that his friends have forgotten about him, OR he's worried about being forgotten. 50/50 shot on that one, if you believe it at all. Alternatively, it could be representative of something Irving's forgotten about himself. This IS where you get the skeleton key effect after all, and the skeleton key is all about unlocking hidden dreams and hidden memories!!