Ok, so first, a recap of the stuff I had dug up on the mystery bots I posted last week (Skip through if you've already read)
D-Maximus_Prime wrote:So I wanted to make this post in regards to the mysterious bots from issue 46 of MTMTE and that showed up again in LL #8. It's sort of a "track them through the issues" thing.
So:
First little thing was MTMTE 19's reveal of the constructed cold trials with Tyrest. Flame is on trial, and includes the desecration of bodies and other related crimes.
Story first really starts in Last Stand of the Wreckers. Overlord takes over the prison for over 3 years, and during that time Grimlock disappears and Flame must've disappeared too, as he was an Autobot and Overlord ordered all bots to be killed at the end (and they were), so he had to have been spirited away too. MTMTE issue 6 would also state that when Overlord was interrogating Fort Max, he stated that he didn't want Aequitus, he wanted what it was built to hide. We thought nothing of it at the time, but what if there was something, and that's where Grimlock and Flame went?
Forward to MTMTE 7 and 8 with the Scavengers. They find a symbol ship with aborted protoforms and a wooden robot (sound familiar LL 8 coffin bot?) along with Grimlock, who is brain damaged and basically doesn't even know who he is. He was used for something that damaged him internally, whether it be by actual surgical procedures or a case of Skids where his experiences damaged him emotionally/psychologically.
Potentially related but uncertain at this point: MTMTE 21. Skids sees through Tyrest's portal to cyberutopia. A spark that speaks in pictures, and the pictures include a bot and con symbol and the Lost Light, along with the "symbol" and 5 planets/moons, and the setting of cyberutopia is even 5 planets/moons. Pharma, who was already found by Tyrest, has his headless corpse pulled through by tentacles before it closes. Tyrest also disappears ala Magnus hand trick style. Star Saber teleports away half blinded and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
MTMTE 42 shows Thunderclash's map and the "symbol" again, and as it uses plug outlets for the symbol, it would appear to indicate that this is something related to power potentially.
MTMTE 46 shows the mysterious bots for the first time. More protoforms hidden by standard transformers practice who are protected by the mystery bots in exchange for hiding whatever operation is happening. Mention is made of another location, which is visited by the bots in issues 8 and 9 of LL. Also shows Grimlock drawing the symbol and writing a phrase that Drift would later see in his LL1 vision.
MTMTE 50 shows the bots discussing the symbol and the things they have learned about their quest. Indication is made that these symbol guys are part of one of the 5 clans of the Knights. we have also seen 5 planets/moons related to the symbol that is most prevalent.
MTMTE 54: Skids, the one bot who saw the other side of the portal and thus what the spark said, dies.
LL1: Drift has his vision that includes himself, Rodimus, and Grimlock facing off against Pharma and an army of Sparkeaters and symbol ships, with the message Grim was writing etched into the ground and it is raining those crystal things that in
LL5: we find out Rung's true purpose is to create these crystals, which is crucial in the process of birthing new cybertronians.
LL6: Anode is shown to be a blacksmith who crafts the crystals from Rung to allow for new cybertronians to be born.
LL8: mystery bots show up again, led by Flame, and they are still using a symbol ship and they are after blacksmiths who craft life while they are at a location where protoforms are being grown. There is also a robot who turns into a wooden coffin, killed by the black block consortia.
If I missed anything, please add to this!
And now, updated with the stuff we learned this issue, complete with thoughts:
Well, ok, so this issue has me torn in 2 very different fronts. For one thing, I have similar complaints to when we were dealing with the personality ticks: we are dealing with very outlandish stuff that to me really didn't work. That whole process felt sort of half-hearted and I wasn't that impressed with the whole bring Skids back to life thing. And then now Nautica doesn't even care about him, which kinda really sucks. It felt like yet another filler issue, and the same was said for Anode and Lugs part. There really wasn't too much weight behind it, and I felt like we got very little for what could have been.
Now mind you, the last 2 pages are where things really hit. At first, it was like the end of Sweath, where there is a huge reveal calling back to something really far back in IDW that elevated an otherwise lackluster story. But then, this is more than that. Think about it related to that large "overall bad guys post" that I posted in the LL thread last week. This isn't just finding the Necrobot, this is tying in a story that could be said to start back in Devastation era times. And it makes so much more sense that Scorponok, who was really missing and it was weird he was, being in G9 with all that stuff, and now he is the glue holding this entire story together. His rivalry with Grimlock is why Grim is involved. Scorp knew of Flame and his moral ambiguity and thus employed him. Scorponok has always tampered with life, and the Magnificence being involved with a story that has Hot Rod/Rodimus in it again, and it having been missing and being so much more than was thought. That last page was Swearth done right. It was a reveal that really sets things up for the rest of the series, tied so many over-arcing things together, and pulls strings dating back what 10,12 years? This is what Roberts is good at, and it is finally showing through. The last page got me back, pulled me back into that story. We are finally getting the payoff with thousands of clues that have been riddled in for over a decade.
IN SHORT OF LONG ASS POSTThings are falling in place, this is the sort of thing I like, Lost Light may be getting back on track. It just needs to stop the really strange stuff distracting us from the major things that only get a page or 2 dedicated to them
