#idw2 transformers

Knock Out: "Thank you, darling! I don't know what I'd do without you!"

I have sooo many thoughts on this asjdhjks!! It could honestly go in so many directions (fluff/angst/the fallout/etc)

In IDW2, Wheeljack was definitely an overprotective caretaker

^^^^husband material

(I absolutely loved that papa wolf!Wheeljack characterization so I'm stealing it. IDW2 was so right for this)

So! Based on that I think he would absolutely dote and be overprotective. He may be a wacky little guy but he cares so much (canonically!)

I think he may also have some paranoia, partly because Starscream is paranoid and it rubs off on him and partly because he has his own knack for getting in dangerous situations, some of his own making

I've sort of touched on what the fallout could be in read it and weep and given how the comics set on Cybertron post-war show how tenuous the peace still is, I think they both would have reason to be paranoid/protective. Most of the Autobots don't really trust Starscream's leadership, even if (imo) he is honestly doing his best. Again, stealing Wheeljack's characterization from IDW2 here, he would absolutely be overprotective, even without Starscream's own paranoia getting to him.

In any scenario, he would definitely be bothering Ratchet about everything, to Starscream's horror. Starscream makes one (1) offhand comment about feeling nauseated one morning and now the Hatchet™️ has all of his medical records. All five million+ years' worth. Sent over an unencrypted line because Wheeljack was panicking. Starscream suddenly realizes why half the things he makes explode. Somewhere in the galaxy, Soundwave just got a bunch of new reading material.

We are told that Nominus not only oversaw the final push against Exarchon - which happened like, 2000 years Before canon events - but also that he was the one who was in charge when Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were built - and Iacon was already rebuilt by that point, or at least mostly rebuilt from what we could see

2000 years to a species who can live up to millions, at very least, is like. Not a lot. At most a month or a year, something like that; Meaning that Sentinel could have only become a Prime at least 500 years after the War of the Threefold Spark ended, and that is if we are being generous with how quickly the Constructicon's finished Iacon and of Bumblebee and Cliffjumper's age.

So like. Sentinel, although he probably had been trained to take up the mantel of Prime by Nominus, was probably a young Prime by the time we met him

At most, he was like. A newly elected president who may not have yet fully completed a year on the job (maybe even less, enough to settle in with a new president but to still be considered a New President), because even though a lot of time passed to us for Transformers, it isn't, again, a lot comparatively to their life spans.

⚠️COMIC SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT⚠️

sO i've been wanting to rant about this for a while, because i was really sad and disappointed about IDW Optimus' story and what they did with him.

disclaimer- i don't really know what happened after Til All Are One or what happened during Revolution because... well because i was so DONE with the storyline. it felt really repetitive and just... made me mad.

at the start of phase 2 of the IDW transformers comics (The Death Of Optimus Prime), i actually found what they did with optimus rather enjoyable. he changed his name back to Orion Pax and went rogue, which i found really refreshing (plus, his design for this particular comic? HOT)

LOOK AT HIM

ANYway, his decision to go into self exile was very in character (which, in all honesty, is the last time we see something like this), and sort of justified. his choice to leave and give cybertron back to its people was a smart one in my opinion. to the returning neutrals, optimus represented the old cybertron and the war, and he knew that reminders of that was the last thing the planet needed. they never would've willingly accepted him as their leader anyway.

i was also HERE for optimus being confused when he first got back. he thought he was dead, then realized he wasn't, and then wandered until he found himself in iacon being yelled at.

i love his- "Just what the hell is going on?" Especially since in other continuities (aside from bayverse) he doesn't even use cybertronian swears. i just really love seeing small bits of emotion from him. that probably comes from watching TFP when i was younger and the lack of emotion from him in that particular show.

after his exile arc with hardhead, wheelie, and garnak, it started to get worse. he was slowly losing that certain character that he had before. when he began working with the camiens and the mistress of flame, it felt as if his entire personality had been replaced. but despite this, i kept reading. i thought, "it'll be fine. he just has to get over this whole "being a self-proclaimed religious figure" thing and he'll go back to normal. there's absolutely NO WAY that this could get worse."

holy SHIT was i wrong.

i literally had to stop reading because after his whole "i'm just gonna casually invade earth" thing-

-i couldn't even read it anymore. it just... fUCK it was sad to see a character i love so much turn out like this. the writers just screwed over his entire existence in the comics and i hated it so much.

in conclusion:

basically the only comics worth reading from phase 2 are MTMTE and Lost Light. i literally can't think of a single bad thing to say about them. plus, those two series are a lot more creative and light-hearted compared to Robots in Disguise/Transformers. Til All Are One is good too, but if i'm being honest the only reason i read it was because i heard that BDKO was canon.

welp- that's basically it for this rant i guess