#ll16

Okay so basically after LL 16 it should seem pretty cut and dry that yes Tailgate is dead and Cyclonus is now allowed to make things right between them before the crew is set free/die themselves just in time for idw’s reboot

FALSE

Some brief points:

James Roberts is a Trick Ass Bitch

Jro notorious likes to display the dead body-- I believe there’s one tweet where he said the most reliable way to determine if someone is dead is to see if their head has been severed 

As seen by last issue even that’s not always trusthworthy

We have not seen Tailgate’s body

Why did Ten know what to do and then marvel at his ability to speak once reaching the Afterspark?

Mpreg is now a thing because this man found out they were rebooting everything and threw caution to the wind. 

Now, I can’t necessarily prove the uh, pregnancy part. That’s mostly going to go on the resemblance of the the Scavenger’s reactions to the one of the group who found Tailgate-- I would say style coincidence except one was drawn by Lawrence, one Milne. That was intentional and I think Lawrence copied the expressions from Milne for a reason. Also MTMTE/LL has been Jro’s cygate slowburn fanfic and Tailgate dying will feel like an unnecessary tragic cop out. 

As for the Afterspark. It is most likely a test. Seeing as the Guiding Hand (and maybe Rung since he’s been missing) seem to be running it, it’s reasonable to believe that they can use their knowledge of bots + the memories of those trapped to give them what they want most or maybe even, what they hope or fear may happen when they face those lost, left behind, or killed. Or, in the case of Ten, something they’ve always desperately wanted. 

Ten, I think, however, is either dead or fine. He was being used by someone (not himself, noted by the fact that his voice sounded different pre afterspark) to get the crew to a certain place. If left there too long, especially with several bots who do remember what happened, it would be a liability to leave him there for too long and have the ruse discovered. He either was given speech in order to fail (or, as Swerve calls, ascend) or it was not Ten at all and meant to freak Rodimus out a bit. Note that Swerve seems pretty content and he hasn’t ascended.  Roller is greeted by a friend who forgives him for not being able to save them. Imagine if we start going through the others who feel they need to settle affairs with the dead. We may get to see Drift react to Wing, etc. However, while most would want forgiveness, Rodimus most likely wouldn’t expect from those he probably wants to talk to most. Not those he lost on the Lost Light, but the deaths that had been haunted him for a very long time: the People of Nyon. We see how hard death hurts Rodimus-- the last issue they were in, we watched his cool facade break for a panel. If the Hand is smart, they force Rodimus to face the people of Nyon who blame him for their death and he must find a way to figure out if they’re fake. If they’re not, Rodimus is given a people of Nyon who forgive him when Rodimus very much can’t forgive himself and determines it quickly as fake. Etc etc for each person. If they accept death, they fail and ascend and don’t get to move on with the next step in the journey. 

There is also the idea that the acceptance of death is what is needed to go to the next part of the journey. Ascending is finding the knights, but I’m not 100% sure and I’d need to read over the issue and maybe last a few more times.