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I can't believe that he only now realises that 'emotion is an issue'. He has been fighting for millions of years. He is very experienced, not a teenager.

snavej wrote:I can't believe that he only now realises that 'emotion is an issue'. He has been fighting for millions of years. He is very experienced, not a teenager.

Well, he is kinda deranged. The whole torture-hobby, he drinks "blood" in his spare time, steroid-induced rages, hangs corpses on his wall, general intense zealotry etc. That, and after meeting the turned Megatron in person, only to have him slip away, Tarn's going to be even more unbalanced than usual.

Who knows what extreme old age and battle fatigue do to Transformers, anyway? It is beyond our experience.

It would be badass if Dying of The Light ended with Megatron fighting the DJD, Overlord and Deathsaurus troops on his own and rescuing the Autobots.

"I can't believe that he only now realises that 'emotion is an issue'. He has been fighting for millions of years. He is very experienced, not a teenager."

Uh, being a veteran makes people MORE at risk of emotional and psychological problems, not less.

If anything, after a few million years of low intensity warfare, you would think there would be more Transformers with such problems

I'd love to see more fiction delving into the psych aspects of millions of years of warfare, especially now that we have the colony TFs to act as a foil to the more warlike Cybertronians. Starscream's secret police etc. might just be a symptom of a culture that doesn't value individual lives that highly anymore.

I can't wait to find out who Tarn really is... (Unless it's been revealed and I totally missed it. Or am I just being paranoid?)

Rodimus Prime wrote:I can't wait to find out who Tarn really is... (Unless it's been revealed and I totally missed it. Or am I just being paranoid?)

I thought they were going to reveal it this issue during "the talk".

Rodimus Prime wrote:I can't wait to find out who Tarn really is... (Unless it's been revealed and I totally missed it. Or am I just being paranoid?)

All we know of Tarn is he is, or was, very close to Optimus.

Ironhidensh wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I can't wait to find out who Tarn really is... (Unless it's been revealed and I totally missed it. Or am I just being paranoid?)

All we know of Tarn is he is, or was, very close to Optimus.

My jaw would actually dislocate it would drop so hard if Tarn turns out to be Elita. Or Dion from back when he was Orion Pax. (I just started reading the Transformers TPBs, so I don't know if they're in that series. I didn't see them in MTMTE.)

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Ironhidensh wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I can't wait to find out who Tarn really is... (Unless it's been revealed and I totally missed it. Or am I just being paranoid?)

All we know of Tarn is he is, or was, very close to Optimus.

My jaw would actually dislocate it would drop so hard if Tarn turns out to be Elita. Or Dion from back when he was Orion Pax. (I just started reading the Transformers TPBs, so I don't know if they're in that series. I didn't see them in MTMTE.)

Elita shows up in Windblade and will do again in Till All Are One.

Dr Va'al wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Ironhidensh wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I can't wait to find out who Tarn really is... (Unless it's been revealed and I totally missed it. Or am I just being paranoid?)

All we know of Tarn is he is, or was, very close to Optimus.

My jaw would actually dislocate it would drop so hard if Tarn turns out to be Elita. Or Dion from back when he was Orion Pax. (I just started reading the Transformers TPBs, so I don't know if they're in that series. I didn't see them in MTMTE.)

Elita shows up in Windblade and will do again in Till All Are One.

Ah. Thank you. Still would have been awesome if it was actually her...

Let's not forget that Optimus will be envolved with the "End of the Light", so he and Tarn might face each other.

Gabrielizador wrote:Let's not forget that Optimus will be envolved with the "End of the Light", so he and Tarn might face each other.

Wait, when did this information come out? I hadn't heard that.

And while Tarn has not been unmasked, I am still adamant it is Dominus Ambus.

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:while Tarn has not been unmasked, I am still adamant it is Dominus Ambus.

Why? I understand that his fate is still a mystery, but why would Dominus have been so close to Optimus previously?

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:

Gabrielizador wrote:Let's not forget that Optimus will be envolved with the "End of the Light", so he and Tarn might face each other.

Wait, when did this information come out? I hadn't heard that.

And while Tarn has not been unmasked, I am still adamant it is Dominus Ambus.

I have a couple of issues with that theory, but the biggest one by far is that Tarn lacks the Ambus family's distinct facial insignia, from the one time we've seen him unmasked.

Ironhidensh wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I can't wait to find out who Tarn really is... (Unless it's been revealed and I totally missed it. Or am I just being paranoid?)

All we know of Tarn is he is, or was, very close to Optimus.

We're not certain on Optimus's involvement;

All we know is that Tarn was important to someone Megatron wanted to hurt. Optimus is a likely candidate, but not a certain one. I don't think we've received adequate explanation for Terminus being erased from Megatron's writings - perhaps that is involved, one way or another.

MrBlack wrote:

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:

Gabrielizador wrote:Let's not forget that Optimus will be envolved with the "End of the Light", so he and Tarn might face each other.

Wait, when did this information come out? I hadn't heard that.

And while Tarn has not been unmasked, I am still adamant it is Dominus Ambus.

I have a couple of issues with that theory, but the biggest one by far is that Tarn lacks the Ambus family's distinct facial insignia, from the one time we've seen him unmasked.

(That, and the 'stache has been referred to as an insignia of the House of Ambus, which has a vibe of nobility about it. A diehard Megatron fanatic would probably remove symbols of the pre-War power structure.)

I thought about that, but it would make for an incredibly ham-handed reveal.

*Tarn removes mask*

Crew: ...

Tailgate: Who dat?

That's ultimately my problem with a lot of these theories. I can't see it being Glitch or Proteus because, from a storytelling perspective, no one reading the book is going to recognize either of them, on top of the fact that there will be zero emotional resonance with the audience. Dominus has the emotional resonance, but would also be unrecognizable without his goatee. Also, per the last issue, I'm not sure who Megatron would want to hurt by turning Dominus to his side. It would be quite the coup to turn someone of his stature, except for the fact that no one knows who Tarn actually is. Plus, it is not clear who Megatron would be trying to hurt by turning Dominus. Rewind and Minimus are the only two cast members we know of who had a relationship with Dominus, and I can't see why Megatron would want to hurt either of them.

That's on top of the fact that almost every clue points to it being Roller. I know some folks have slammed that theory on the grounds that it's "obvious," but it's only "obvious" to folks who are actually paying attention to what's going on. If Roberts is trying to play a fair mystery here, he HAS to drop clues in so that the reader can figure out who Tarn is. If all of the evidence so far in favor of Roller turns out to be a pile of red herrings, it's just poor writing.

So, just how powerful is Tarn, or has Overlord been severely weakened?

Ironhidensh wrote:So, just how powerful is Tarn, or has Overlord been severely weakened?

Overlord was found and rebuilt by his mysterious "benefactors." I don't remember it being specified whether he was rebuilt to his previous physical specifications, but I do know that Tarn is very powerful, especially wielding double fusion cannons. How they didn't blow a hole straight through Megatron when Tarn shot him in the chest still baffles me. Maybe Tarn wasn't really 100% into killing Megs?

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Ironhidensh wrote:So, just how powerful is Tarn, or has Overlord been severely weakened?

Overlord was found and rebuilt by his mysterious "benefactors." I don't remember it being specified whether he was rebuilt to his previous physical specifications, but I do know that Tarn is very powerful, especially wielding double fusion cannons. How they didn't blow a hole straight through Megatron when Tarn shot him in the chest still baffles me. Maybe Tarn wasn't really 100% into killing Megs?

Considering that Whirl's arm disappeared when he tried to punch Megatron in the stomach, perhaps some of the blast was diverted elsewhere due to the mess of wormholes in Megatron's torso.

Thanks Shockwave.

Ok, so here is my theory behind Dominus.

1) Roller is too obvious. Remember back in Shadow play? It was looking like the senator was Magnus right? and then it was Shockwave and it was a huge surprise. And then with Minimus being Magnus, also a big surprise. there were subtle hints that people never noticed before until the reveal. Now here, Roller has had every thing point his way. Green spark, size, disappearance, damaged right side of the head, addictions, was encouraged to read Megatron's work, some of the head details, etc. But Roberts has never made something that obvious, and to be the hints have been absolutely telling us it's Roller, but with Roberts I doubt he would make it that obvious.

2) The load-bearer spark. Minimus has it, and if Dominus is his brother, it is not unreasonable to assume he had it too. Maybe he just never used it, much like minimus may not have until he was upgraded to Magnus. If that were the case, than the face we saw in issue 39 was the "Magnus" face and Dominus is actually inside like Minimus is. Also, load-bearers are special types of point-one percenters. And also, in issue 32 where the alternate Magnus was killed, Tarn knew that the right hand was a recall trigger, so he cut it off. And he knew Minimus was inside, so he drug his corpse out of the armor.

3) Rewind. On the alternate Lost Light, Rewind was the sole survivor. That would be a little part of Dominus speaking through, making sure his former love survived. And he may not have cared for Rewinds new love, hence the reason they tried to get domey to wipe his own memories and killed him when he didn't.

4) The whole scene from this past issue. Dominus was a well known figure on cybertron. He was someone who went on quests and could be figured to be one of the best of the best. That means, if Megatron could turn him, he could turn anyone. And Dominus being the academic and scholar that he is, would easily be able to memorize Megatron's writings and know stuff inside and out. (I will admit this last bit is a bit weak)

So I am still adamant that Dominus is Tarn, especially since Rewind is shown trying to figure out the statue of the disappeared which he is on. Roller's name is shown, again an obvious reference and one that goes against him being Tarn as it's just too obvious.

I just don't buy it.

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Ok, so here is my theory behind Dominus.

1) Roller is too obvious. Remember back in Shadow play? It was looking like the senator was Magnus right? and then it was Shockwave and it was a huge surprise. And then with Minimus being Magnus, also a big surprise. there were subtle hints that people never noticed before until the reveal. Now here, Roller has had every thing point his way. Green spark, size, disappearance, damaged right side of the head, addictions, was encouraged to read Megatron's work, some of the head details, etc. But Roberts has never made something that obvious, and to be the hints have been absolutely telling us it's Roller, but with Roberts I doubt he would make it that obvious.

Neither of those were proper mysteries.

There was nothing to indicate to the audience that the Senator was Shockwave until the reveal. No clues whatsoever. All we got was one color scheme to make people think it might be Magnus. It was meant to be a surprise reveal, not something the audience could figure out.

The Minimus Ambus reveal was a bit different, but again, it wasn't a proper mystery. There were hints spread throughout the series that put the reveal in a different light, but we had absolutely no reason to suspect that Ultra Magnus was anyone other than Ultra Magnus until literally the issue where Minimus showed up.

In other words, those reveals weren't obvious because the audience was never intended to figure them out beforehand.

Tarn, on the other hand, is a proper mystery. The question of his real identity has been built up for quite some time, and we have gotten several explicit clues pointing to his past. We are meant to be able to figure out who he is from what we have been given, and I think dismissing too many of the more subtle clues pointing to Roller as red herrings ruins the attempt at making a mystery.

2) The load-bearer spark. Minimus has it, and if Dominus is his brother, it is not unreasonable to assume he had it too. Maybe he just never used it, much like minimus may not have until he was upgraded to Magnus. If that were the case, than the face we saw in issue 39 was the "Magnus" face and Dominus is actually inside like Minimus is. Also, load-bearers are special types of point-one percenters. And also, in issue 32 where the alternate Magnus was killed, Tarn knew that the right hand was a recall trigger, so he cut it off. And he knew Minimus was inside, so he drug his corpse out of the armor.

What we know about Tarn is that he is a point one percenter and that his outlier abilities developed later in life. We know that such abilities can develop later in a bot's life due to stress-induced mutation made possible by exposure to radiation from quantum travel (see Tailgate). That fits Roller: Team Rodimus used the quantum powered time machine to teleport into his trailer (not to mention the radiation he'd been soaking up from the Senate ship), and he shortly thereafter was put in the very stressful situation of being grievously injured and abandoned by his friends. We do not have an analogous set of circumstances for Dominus, at least thus far. At best, you could argue that the Nuke was responsible, but it's clear that it was a very recent discovery (the DJD had not been able to tell Megatron) and Tarn has had his powers long enough for other Decepticons to fear him because of those powers.

As for the recall trigger, that does lean a bit more in favor of Dominus, but it would require that Minimus became Magnus before Dominus' disappearance, and I'm not sure the timing works out for that, as Dominus seems to have disappeared early in the war, and Minimus is the last in line of several bots who have worn the Magnus armor. It would also require Minimus to have told Dominus about taking Magnus' identity, as well as the fact that there is a recall switch in the armor's hand. The former may be unlikely given the brothers' less than close relationship, and the latter is an oddly specific piece of information to give to someone else.

Of course, there's no reason Roller would know about the switch either, unless Decepticon intelligence was aware of Ultra Magnus' true identity, which appears unlikely given that Megatron was not aware. I'll admit that this one goes a bit more in favor of Dominus.

3) Rewind. On the alternate Lost Light, Rewind was the sole survivor. That would be a little part of Dominus speaking through, making sure his former love survived. And he may not have cared for Rewinds new love, hence the reason they tried to get domey to wipe his own memories and killed him when he didn't.

That is a good piece of evidence, but given that the DJD wanted a "travelogue" of their attack, letting Rewind go might have been intentional, in order to spread their legend to anyone who found the ship.

4) The whole scene from this past issue. Dominus was a well known figure on cybertron. He was someone who went on quests and could be figured to be one of the best of the best. That means, if Megatron could turn him, he could turn anyone. And Dominus being the academic and scholar that he is, would easily be able to memorize Megatron's writings and know stuff inside and out. (I will admit this last bit is a bit weak)

Megatron said that he turned Tarn not only to prove a point, but to hurt someone. Turning Dominus doesn't hurt anyone Megatron cares about. Turning Roller does, and hurts someone that we know Megatron has tried to hurt psychologically in the past.

There is also the fact that Tarn's sophisticated persona is judged as largely an affectation by everyone who has encountered him, as a mask for his true, vicious persona. That doesn't fit Dominus: He was legitimately a scholar and a renaissance man. It does fit Roller, who seemed much more low brow and prone to violence in his few appearances (watching bad TV, eating junk food, taking the fight to retreating enemies).

So I am still adamant that Dominus is Tarn, especially since Rewind is shown trying to figure out the statue of the disappeared which he is on. Roller's name is shown, again an obvious reference and one that goes against him being Tarn as it's just too obvious.

I still think it's Roller just because the clues all fit for him in a way they don't for Dominus. The addictions, the affectations, the powers, and the motivation for creating him all fit. Although there is nothing that we know about Dominus Ambus that would contradict any of the clues given, and although there are a couple of clues that potentially point towards him, I don't think the evidence we have as a whole works as well as it does for Roller. Plus, it would require providing the audience with additional information after the fact to explain some things (particularly the outlier powers, given that we have a valid explanation for those with Roller). Again, if Roberts is trying to give us an actual mystery, the obvious choice should be the correct choice, as that is how a mystery works. We gather the clues and see who they point to. Otherwise, it is not a fair mystery.

As much as I think it is Roller, I will admit that Dominus is, by far, the strongest contender otherwise. I'd be willing to buy him as Tarn, especially from a story perspective for the devastation that it would bring to Rewind

I would say Roller but again, it just feels too obvious. And how many times has the obvious been wrong? Probably as many times as it is right. 2 more months and we should know though

Massinissa wrote:"I can't believe that he only now realises that 'emotion is an issue'. He has been fighting for millions of years. He is very experienced, not a teenager."

Uh, being a veteran makes people MORE at risk of emotional and psychological problems, not less.

If anything, after a few million years of low intensity warfare, you would think there would be more Transformers with such problems

Well, if Tarn forgot basic things about commanding troops, why didn't the DJD fall apart a long time ago? I guess Megatron's capitulation has screwed him up royally.