thistlebot

Of course I’m very happy to see Megatron back in Lost Light but I have two concerns:

- It’s an interesting choice to obscure his badge in his dramatic return picture...

I’m glad we got this epilogue issue. It reminded me of the prose-only epilogue from the end of MTMTE season 1. I love the prose, but it was good to see the second epilogue in comic form. I feel like after two long and plotty storylines in a row, it’s good to get a breather.

 There’s a lot of deception and manipulation going on in this issue. Tailgate lies about his feelings to Cyclonus, in a misguided attempt to protect him. Rodimus manipulates Ultra Magnus into viewing Megatron simply as a villain, reinforcing his emotional issues in the process. And Fangry manipulates and lies to Kaput in order to get his revenge against Tailgate.

 It feels to me like in this issue, Rodimus is falling back onto a lot of his old bad patterns. He’s ignoring the concerns of his crew, and he’s manipulating his second in command into falling in line with his own opinions…I expect better from him at this point, and I know he’s capable of better, despite his claim that he “can’t stop himself.” The contrast between his best and worst self frustrates me.

The stuff with Tailgate and Cyclonus was a gut punch that reminded me a lot of MTMTE S1. Tailgate has had a tendency to lie since the beginning, and even after everything with Getaway, he lies again here. Much like Cyclonus did earlier in the storyline, Tailgate decides to mislead Cyclonus instead of just speaking honestly to him about the situation. Cyclonus initially just accepts this and begins to leave... But when he changes his mind and comes back, it reminds me of that moment in the end of S1 where he considers killing Whirl, nearly does, but decides not to. Despite his attempt at honest conversation, Tailgate just can’t or won’t meet him there.

And as usual in this series, the use of reckless violence to solve problems ends up being more complicated, more costly in terms of future ramifications, and less effective in the long term than expected...

I don’t know what will happen with Tailgate, but I suspect we’ll see him again. I have a feeling Necroworld (and/or the moon inside of Necroworld) will have show up again, and also I’m not sure how many other people stayed behind who might affect this situation. Rodimus mentions that some people could stay behind and get picked up later, but it’s never really clear who ended up staying behind beyond the three characters we do see...

Also, Whirl’s character development continues to be wonderful. The one page with Whirl and Cyclonus was absolutely my favorite in this issue.

  It was good to see everyone’s different responses to Megatron’s absence. It makes sense that everyone would experience this in different ways, and that someone like Velocity, who only knew him recently, would have a very different perception of him and his absence than someone like Rodimus, Drift, or Ultra Magnus. It makes sense that some people miss him, some people are relieved that he’s gone, some people have complicated feelings, and some don’t even seem to notice or care.

  Small details that I enjoyed included:

Chromedome and Rewind telling Rung about the other Rung. The last time they told Rung a story to help him out was in Shadowplay. I like that they got a chance to do this again in a completely different way.

Rodimus standing on Megatron’s now-empty holo-statue platform to give his speech. I guess “in another universe” counts as dead for whatever technology makes them work.

Nautica being the only one who has an issue with mutilating a person’s corpse and then riding around inside of it. This sure says a lot about what the war has done to their culture.

Fangry’s alt mode is SO CUTE.

Other things:

I do think Nightbeat is right that something here will have ramifications later. Specifically, I suspect it’ll have something to do with there being an extra Luna 2 in this universe now. Back when Skids talked to whatever that was in MTMTE season 1, it mentioned what looked to me like five moons. I have a feeling this extra moon will have something to do with this at some point.

It took me a long time to figure out exactly how I felt about the ending of this issue, and my feelings about it are still really complicated.

- About Rung: Rung’s memory problems at the beginning of this issue concern me. If the Functionist Dystopian AU Rung was used to make these crystals, it makes sense that the War Universe Rung was also used for this same thing. If that’s true, it makes sense that his memory of being used this way would have been erased by the Institute. 

Also, Functionist Dystopian AU Rung is a badass and I continue to enjoy him immensely. I can’t believe he even took his glasses off at the end before preparing to fight Rodimus. (How many fistfights has this Rung been in that he thinks to do this?)

- About Cyclonus: I love to see him showing concern for other members of the crew in his own way. His temperament is still the same but his relationship with his crew members has profoundly changed since the beginning of MTMTE. The panel of Tailgate grabbing his arm is so good, and just made me even more curious about what “story” Whirl told Tailgate...

- About Megatron: I took Roller’s commentary to be more about Megatron’s decisive leadership than anything else about him. 

Megatron’s statement that he “hasn’t thought about” whether Orion exists in this universe seems like a blatant lie, considering how he immediately provides a thoroughly thought-out, in-depth explanation as to why Orion probably doesn’t.

Also, Megatron’s faith in Orion is striking.

Megatron’s sure that if Orion existed in this universe, he’d be doing the right thing and fighting the good fight against the oppressive government. He doesn’t seem to think that his own early influence on Orion was important or necessary for this. Basically, Megatron sees something awful and concludes that if Orion isn’t fighting it, he’s gone or dead. I can’t help but think of that scene in Dark Cybertron when Optimus assumes that if something awful is happening, Megatron must be causing it...

When Terminus tries to talk Megatron into leaving his crew behind, the two people Megatron mentions are Rodimus and Minimus. It seems like despite Megatron’s recent behavior, he does value the opinion and moral compass of his co-captain. It’s less surprising that he cares what Minimus thinks of him, but it’s interesting that he calls him Minimus and not Ultra Magnus. In any case, it seems like he doesn’t trust himself not to turn this situation into a second version of the Autobot-Decepticon war if left on his own...

-About Rodimus and the Matrix: Rodimus continues to be a badass. Six Of Twelve talks a big game about how painful his weapon is, but Rodimus remains quite capable of telling him off while he's being zapped.

I believe Rodimus when he says that whatever Six Of Twelve has, it’s not the Matrix. Rodimus knows what he’s talking about, but also Council apparently couldn’t make any new sparks from this Matrix...

-Other stuff: I wonder if it was Ratchet’s idea or Rung’s idea to hold Rung hostage in order to get past the Council?

I laughed about poor Sweep’s extremely low-tech broom. I wonder if his alt-mode is a roomba...

There’s only one fight in this issue and it happens off-camera because it’s not plot or character enhancing to spend panels on it. I love this.

What I want is for Lug to be real and alive because I love her. But yeah, I don’t think that’s actually true.

As plenty of people have noted, no one ever really talks to Lug. Her dialogue has no real impact on any conversation and is never necessary. If you blank it out, the conversations still work just fine. No one ever directly addresses her or interacts with her except Anode. The comic does some tricky dialogue management and panel/page layouts to make this feel harder to notice. For example:

In this panel, the first panel on a new page, it seems like Kaput’s responding to Lug. But he’s not. He’s responding to Velocity from the previous page:

So if Lug isn’t real, what is her deal? I think there’s a pretty clear and believable explanation here.

Hallucinations are one of the mental side effects of being timesick. And we have already seen Anode experience a flashback, another mental side effect on the list…

I think the best explanation here is that she has timesickness and is hallucinating Lug. So what do I think happened?

I think the explanation is pretty simple, and right there in the beginning of issue one. 

When the Necrobot came back to get both Anode and Lug, only Anode grabbed his hand in time. Lug got left behind and was killed when the forcefield collapsed. Since then she’s just been a hallucination Anode has been seeing as a symptom of being timesick.

This got really long...

- Did Perceptor really ask Brainstorm to be lab partners? When did this happen? Perceptor is still on the Lost Light, which brings up... a lot of questions, considering how supportive he was of Brainstorm earlier. I’m still eagerly awaiting a glimpse of the Lost Light and the mutineers, and Perceptor is one of the characters I’m especially interested to see...

- When they fixed up Ten, they removed his cute flower paintings but left “I failed the Ambus Test” on his back? Not cool, guys.

- Megatron trying to understand the rank-and-file members of the resistance is great, and so is his comment about protest. I hope he keeps moving closer to his roots. I also love that Ratchet went down there too, presumably to supply medical care to anyone who needs it. Ratchet is good.

- Something I’ve been wondering about for a while - Why is Megatron’s Autobot badge still red? Most of the characters have switched theirs to silver in mourning, but not Megatron even though he lost someone close to him. Why not?

- Nine-Of-Twelve is... interesting. The way he talks about “executing the Senate for blasphemy” as if it was perfectly reasonable gives a window into how he views the world, and draws an interesting parallel between the Functionist council and the early Decepticon faction, who also assassinated the Senate... It’s also kind of horrifying that the reason he defected was because the council started making new sparks, and not the other horrifying things the council was doing before then. Nine-Of-Twelve might be helpful, but his perception of the world and his values are very different from those of the protagonists.

- I’m not sure how I feel about Anode being a "blacksmith” yet. I’ll keep reading and think about it. 

The way Velocity talks about it is interesting and revealing. She almost sounds like a Functionist - as if Anode should have done this job because that’s what she was made to do, saying she was “blessed” and seeming disdainful that Anode chose to do something else instead. It’s hard to know how much of her response is because she thinks Anode robbed the Lighthouse before leaving and how much is because she thinks it’s wrong for Anode to be doing anything other than being a “Blacksmith” but... hm. I’m interested to see where this will go and what it reveals about Caminus.

- Also, I’ve seen fan-theories about Lug being a hallucination, and this issue seems to further imply that... I hope that’s not the case though. I really like Lug and I like the variety she adds to the crew. I want her to remain as a cast member.

- The crew’s use of “mood suppressants” makes me wonder how common this was during the war. Are Rung and Nautica the only characters going through the grieving process without them right now? How did the option to suppress grief affect the duration of the war?

- Okay, I saved the most important subject for last. RUNG’S ALT.

I absolutely do not buy that the tank the Functionists revealed here is Rung’s alt mode. I think it’s Functionist propaganda. If that really was Rung’s alt, why not have him transform on the broadcast? Why reveal this tank coming out of some garage instead? I don’t buy it. 

I do think they’ve figured out “what he turns into” but I don’t think they’re revealing its actual “function” to the public, whatever it is. Basically, I remain extremely suspicious for the time being.

- Whirl’s ongoing character growth continues to be one of my favorite things about this book. Back when Whirl was first introduced I couldn’t have even made a post called “Whirl and Friends” without it being sarcastic, because he didn’t have any friends besides a collection of scavenged corpses. That’s changed.

In this issue, Whirl cares about his own life, and he cares about the lives of those around him.

He isn’t afraid to show weakness. He admits to Swerve that he lied, and that he’s not as “unvincible” as he claims to be. He’s willing to ask both Cyclonus and Tailgate for help, and without even trying to disguise that fact or hide it behind some kind of bluster, something that I think would’ve been entirely out of the question for him earlier in the series. 

Whirl even regrets pushing the button, and says so. That’s a lot, coming from him.

- It seems like after Whirl contacted Cyclonus through such desperate means in order to save Tailgate’s life, Cyclonus gave him his number. That’s really something, coming from Cyclonus!

And Cyclonus comes rushing to help Whirl despite whatever else happened, and despite the shape he’s in. And where’s Tailgate? What the heck happened in between LL issue 2 and now? 

- This issue shows more of the religious element of the Functionist state. I wonder how much of this was present pre-war in the main universe? That would explain a lot about the anti-religion element of the Decepticon faction.

In the beginning of this issue, Rodimus calls Twelve-of-Twelve a “tool” as an insult, but at the end, Six-Of-Twelve calls the citizens “tools” as a respectful term of address. I love that parallel. It very simply clarifies how different these two universes are, right down to the ways that they use language.

- I don’t have much to say about Anode and Lug yet except that I love them.

- Tailgate has changed in some ways, but his bad behavior in this issue comes from the same weaknesses he’s had since the beginning. Tailgate came into the series craving attention and approval, and he was willing to build a series of complicated and dangerous lies to get it. He was also willing to risk lives in order to keep it. He never really paid any price for those lies, and afterwards he still craved that attention and approval - that’s what made him so easy for Getaway to manipulate.

Right now, Tailgate’s getting that attention and approval by bragging about how he’s killed people, and his insecurity is also showing itself in some pretty ugly and unnecessary violence. And even this close after everything that happened with Getaway, he still isn’t all that interested in listening to other people when they warn him that he might be making mistakes. I like Tailgate a lot, and I’m worried for him.

- Megatron continues to be terrible at pacifism. But he hasn’t given up on trying, which pleasantly surprised me. I’ve got more to say about this subject but I’ll save it for later.

Also, I love how Terminus responds to the current-era Megatron. Terminus is looking at all of this as someone whose only experience is a strictly class-segregated Cybertron. Seeing Megatron give orders, be in charge, and have confidence that others will listen to him, must all be shocking from his perspective.

- I love the AVL and I really hope Clicker is a laser pointer.

I’m so glad to be getting back to the main storyline of this book! I really enjoyed the Luna 1 issues and seeing the Scavengers again but I missed the main cast and I’m so glad they’re back. 

I also really like the new title. The old title was fitting to the series and I liked it, but the new one lacks the nostalgic implications and stands on its own as a new thing rather than a reference to G1, which I think suits the book.

The series has been renamed, but the same themes are established from the onset. “Characters dealing with the aftermath of war” has been one of the major themes of MTMTE. Lost Light starts off with the main cast all dealing with the aftermath of very recent violence - in different ways, with varying degrees of success. Tailgate coming down from the battle as a new experience, and veteran Cyclonus attempting to help him. Swerve dealing or maybe not dealing with his loss. Nautica at least up and walking around again after spending the past issue grieving. Megatron dealing with having lost Ravage and regained Terminus. Rung dealing with losing Skids. Rodimus vowing revenge.

The last time we saw him, Rodimus was at his best, forgiving Megatron and risking his life to save him regardless of what Megatron did or perhaps deserved. This issue shows a different side of Rodimus - he’s swearing to kill Getaway in an act of revenge for “stealing his ship and crew.” I hope he doesn’t go through with it, for a lot of reasons. It seems like Drift feels the same way.

With Cyclonus in this issue... It’s almost hard to remember that he used to be so mistrusted by the entire cast back in season one. Now he’s the responsible one Rodimus leaves in charge before he goes. This issue was a reminder that Cyclonus’s refusal to join a faction really does mark him as an outsider to both groups. The Autobots viewed Cyclonus as basically a Decepticon for a long time, and now the Decepticons seem to see him as basically an Autobot. It’s not easy being non-aligned...

I’m so glad that Terminus remains a prominent character. I have to wonder how Terminus will affect Megatron’s future character arc. Terminus is understandably biased towards his friend, and he didn’t witness the war first-hand. I wonder if his presence will make it easier for Megatron to act like the person he used to be, or just make it easier for Megatron to look away from the things he is responsible for. I especially wonder about this in the context of how the issue ends, with Megatron coming face to face with the reality of a world without him...

The ending was great. I’m so excited to see the Functionst Dystopia AU come back, even though I’m also dreading how this might play out. I’m glad that Whirl isn’t on the away mission... I don’t think I could emotionally handle his response if he was. I hope this also means the return of badass-Functionist-AU Rung very soon, because he is my favorite.

I also love the addition of new non-aligned and Decepticon cast members (”Fangry” omg) and the way they’re playing into the social structure that already exists. The crew doesn’t really seem to have considered all the ways this could’ve gone wrong, but just imagine a reverse scenario, with them waking up in a world where the war was over and Optimus Prime wore a Decepticon badge? It’s no wonder the two Decepticons are on edge here. I’m also intrigued by Lug and Anode, and I really like their designs.

Before this issue came out, I had been hoping to see what the mutineers were doing on the Lost Light, but I enjoyed this issue so much that I didn’t even remember to miss the mutineers.