The Energon Pub

[ZeroWolf]

You're not really listening to us. More like, you don't see what you like and you just disregard it even though they are facts. You're the one calling them men. Cyclonus is genderless, that's a fact. Tailgate is genderless, that is a fact. Roberts started these developments before we even knew about caminea (spelt wrong I know) so the only bot with a gender at that time in IDW was Arcee and she was having more fun being prowls little assassin.

You're seeing this as you want to see it (in a sense of seeing something that isn't there) this is all on you.

[1984forever]

You're not really listening to us. More like, you don't see what you like and you just disregard it even though they are facts. You're the one calling them men. Cyclonus is genderless, that's a fact. Tailgate is genderless, that is a fact. Roberts started these developments before we even knew about caminea (spelt wrong I know) so the only bot with a gender at that time in IDW was Arcee and she was having more fun being prowls little assassin.

You're seeing this as you want to see it (in a sense of seeing something that isn't there) this is all on you.

If Cybertonians had no gender it would have translated over from Cybetronian as the word "it" and not "he"! Why use the word "guys" to refer to a bunch of Cybertonians but never "gals"? Why would one of the Scavengers have an issue with how his Holomatter generator displayed gender when in disguise if he himself has no gender?

These Cybertonians self identify as male and the members on this site refer to them as such, as does the majority of the public. Trying to make these characters genderless after 30yrs is extremely flawed and unpopular.

[ZeroWolf]

They are genderless as the comics have said so. It's a fact. You may not like, others may not like it but up until it's retconned it is what it is. Now the other side of what your saying is perception, which is again on the reader. You see them as male, I see them as just robots having fun and trying to put the past behind them. See how easy it is to leave their gender out of it.

Also, perception aside, the other thing about genderless is pronouns which if you accept this line: "they are genderless but for sake of ease were just going to call them he's but that's for our sake"

A lot of this I've explained above

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Roberts may be "God" to MTMTE, but you have to remember Barber is his editor and Hasbro must approve what he does. There was a thing for issue 15 where he wasnt sure if hasbro would let him put "I love you" as Rewinds last words, but they were all for it! And on top of that, when he started the book, Arcee was the only female (and not in his book). To him, females did not exist until issue 25 or so when Windblade and crew were introduced, and not overly again until issue 41 where Thunderclash was found, and even so he has only chosed 2 females: Nautica and Velocity.

And since the robots are genderless (they have no need to have them since they cannot reproduce), they really do not need to call each other he or she. it is he just because it is the most common use of those 2. And now that we have shes, it's really not that big of a difference since there really isnt a difference between them except chassis design and pronouns.

And also: Roberts is fully aware of what may be bad. In the original issue 31, Nautica had a different spark type, but roberts went in and edited that out so as to not make females different like that. He is aware of things (and so is Barber), and the direction they are taking is ok.

And please, enough with the argument about boys and adults. They are all experienced and have been online a good bit, and they learn quickly, as Getaways preview for issue 48 shows. Size does not matter. Neither does the avatar. They can be whatever they want! And the avatars are for disguising as other races which do have genders for different roles, so they need to have gender there

[ZeroWolf]

Great point about the avatars d-max, I completely missed that argument

[1984forever]

We have seen many examples in the past of how Transformers avatars reflect aspects of their personalities or reader perception of them. For example-

Tailgate hasn't experienced much in life, so he's shown as a baby.
Megatron, old crime lord
Hot Rod, cool young man
Nightbeat, Detective


IDWs gender Retcon doesn't make sense. Jhiaxus wants to introduce gender to Cybertronians who they (IDW, Jhiaxus) claim were genderless, so Jhiaxus automatically thinks to alter a Cybertronian to appear feminine Instead of just adding sex organs to the test subject to make it truly male? IMO a robot with any sort of organs instead of mechanical parts is stupid. I'm not condoning this.

I don't trust IDW, Hasbro or Takara. Kiss players shows that there is a history of officially sanctioned perversion in the Transformers brand.

[ZeroWolf]

I...I am at a loss of words...

I've never seen such a display of paranoia in a kids brand franchise. My hat is off to you 84forever or it would be if I wore hats. They don't have sex organs as there is no point to them in this universe or any other. How many times must we do this till it becomes clear that you have created your own bogeyman.

It's almost like you don't like how well this series is doing or how well the tf brand as a whole is doing so you try to create a new things that aren't there to complain about.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I...I am at a loss of words...

I've never seen such a display of paranoia in a kids brand franchise. My hat is off to you 84forever or it would be if I wore hats. They don't have sex organs as there is no point to them in this universe or any other. How many times must we do this till it becomes clear that you have created your own bogeyman.

It's almost like you don't like how well this series is doing or how well the tf brand as a whole is doing so you try to create a new things that aren't there to complain about.

Well he has not been a fan of anything since 84, and considering how different this is (the war is over after all and Furman's not around) we shouldn't be too surprised. Although the thing about creating your own bogeyman does make sense. He has always stated how much he hated MTMTE (yet keeps following it with us) and IDW needs to lose the license, and now he does not trust Hasbro or takara and uses examples of something extremely strange from a long time ago that was in Japan (where: look at their anime and tell me what's normal there), so this is just a pointless argument with someone who does not want this book to do well and who just wants to find anything to blow up.

On a better note: Dying of the Light begins in 3 months! only 3 issues away! DJD V. Lost Light coming at us!

[ZeroWolf]

Agreed, he'll find fault with anything.

Looking forward to the showdown with the djd but I am wondering who will make it out alive. In a way I want a lot of deathsarus crew to make it out alive as I think they have fun potential down the road, especially if they give us liokaiser.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Agreed, he'll find fault with anything.

Looking forward to the showdown with the djd but I am wondering who will make it out alive. In a way I want a lot of deathsarus crew to make it out alive as I think they have fun potential down the road, especially if they give us liokaiser.

Well, issue 50 is a 2-parter part 1 to the Dying Light, so who knows what will happen. As for deaths: I'm willing to bet that at least 1 bridge crew member will die, as will several other crew members of varying knowledge. I feel like Cyclonus, Tailgate, Getaway, Swerve or Chromedome will bite the dust here. Plus we may only have a few DJD deaths and some generic deaths, such as in Prime's season finale (only Megs and Bee died, and both were revived after a sort of time)

I feel like Megs is gonna come close to dying, like nearly sacrificing himself for Rodimus or Magnus (to avoid another Trailcutter) and that Megs will kill at least of the DJD (maybe Kaon since he killed TC). Either way, there is gonna be battle, and there will be death.

I am also really hoping the protectobots/mirage and ratchet/drift return in time for the showdown. Gives the Lost Light both its medics back and a combiner to face that large force (plus we would get Defensor drawn up right). If so, I feel Drift would bite the dust there too if that came to be.

Either way, we are headed for some epic stuff

[ZeroWolf]

Yes, though I hope Roberts picks some epic music to go along with it. I'm not sure drift would get it so soon after coming back. If chromedome goes I want it to be alongside rewind. I can see brainstorm biting the bullet as a way of making up for all the chaos he caused.

Speaking of, I wonder if megatron would be tempted to try and use time travel tech

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Good point about Brainstorm. And it would make sense (or maybe, Brainstorm will also claim his first life by his own hand and destroy someone). And i have no clue what the deal is with that last time case, but who knows where that can go. Also, we might finally find out who agent 113 was (or still is....)

[Va'al]

What's coming up next week by IDW Publishing, you ask? Two new releases, with the lull before the storm of issue #50 taking place in More Than Meets the Eye #47 - check out the full preview below, and head back after its release for the Seibertron.com review!

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #47
James Roberts (w) • Brendan Cahill (a) • Alex Milne (c)
FRIENDSHIP ISN'T MAGIC! TAILGATE has a choice to make—and if he had any idea what was at stake, he'd think twice before making it. The crew is ripped apart as MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE begins the sprint towards its shocking 50th issue!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
You thought things looked bad for the Lost Light crew before?
You haven’t seen anything yet.
FINAL ISSUE!
Just kidding, there’s more next month!
Variant WRECKERS cover by Brendan Cahill!

[Bounti76]

I can't be the only one who wants Tailgate to choose Cyclonus.... Getaway smacks of very awkward and manipulative desperation. Even if he is just intensely lonely, he's done some shady crap to cozy up to Tailgate.

[CombaticonsCombine?]

I have a feeling that Cyclonus is literally a panel away.
At the start, I was kinda done with the whole relationships thing, but this is starting to get pretty interesting.

[Va'al]

At this point, I really don't think it's a question of choosing, but rather of get Getaway the F*** away from anyone, the manipulative little creep. I am in no way less sickened by his behaviour than I was last time I talked about this.

*shudders*

[1984forever]

Now Getaway is dressing little Tailgate up.

Just ... Wow.

[ebonyleopard]

Wow, congrats. Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think someone could make a Transformer come off as being stalker creepy (which is one hand intriguing and on the other hand kinda sad, because Getaway was one of my favorite Powermaster toys).

[Mindmaster]

Yikes... Getaway's earning his doctorate in "romance-driven creepy manipulation".

I like how Cyclonus is begrudgingly accepting he has a thing for Tailgate.

[Mindmaster]

Yikes... Getaway's earning his doctorate in "romance-driven creepy manipulation".

I like how Cyclonus is begrudgingly accepting he has a thing for Tailgate.

[Optimizzy]

wasnt getaway working as an assassin or something? I tend to think Getaway has a very specific purpose here and although he is creepy and awkward I'd caution against underestimating him. He seems like he has some ulterior goal in mind. This looks less of a love triangle and more like manipulating an asset.

[Glarryg]

Getaway's creepiness is compounded by the fact that Tailgate has this "small and naive, and therefore childlike" atmosphere about him, which Getaway seems to be taking advantage of. Eww.

Cyclonus, on the other hand, is being himself the whole time, without any air of deception or manipulation. It's nice when writers can get us to root for the "bad guys."

Glarryg

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Cyclonus is literally only a panel away in my opinion, and this is about to turn into world war Tailgate. Things are about to heat up really fierce

[LE0KING]

I get the feeling getaway is going to ask tailgate to mess with his mind. Maybe make him forget the story he just told him.

[Shuttershock]

You know, people often use words like "naïve" and "innocent" to describe Tailgate.

I'm gonna go with "gullible idiot".