The Energon Pub

[ScottyP]

The scene with Soundwave was heart wrenching. "Turn the screw" indeed. Jimmy V said if you laugh, think, and cry, that's a full day, so I guess this makes this a pretty full issue.

So who wants to chat about why Overlord left and why it was because of what happened at the end and not what he said was the reason? Not that I should ask such things with a full day of work ahead where I won't be online...

[Kurona]

I'd say stuff but TOO BUSY CRYING OVER RAVAGE
My god that hit me; he was one of my favourite characters. And that cutaway to Soundwave... god, Soundwave's the best character in his book. He's too good for ex-rid.

[MemphisR56]

So who wants to chat about why Overlord left and why it was because of what happened at the end and not what he said was the reason? Not that I should ask such things with a full day of work ahead where I won't be online...

So you're saying that the Galactic Council was responsible for the Geo Bomb?

If so, that would make sense for Overlord to turn tail. Plus we already know that The council has had access to killmasters geobomb designs... iirc, that was set up in an earlier issue, right?

[Kurona]

By the way, before Megatron killed Tesarus, he called him "Crucible".
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Crucible
I'd say it's a coincidence, but this is James Friggin' Roberts here.

[MrBlack]

So who wants to chat about why Overlord left and why it was because of what happened at the end and not what he said was the reason? Not that I should ask such things with a full day of work ahead where I won't be online...

So you're saying that the Galactic Council was responsible for the Geo Bomb?

If so, that would make sense for Overlord to turn tail. Plus we already know that The council has had access to killmasters geobomb designs... iirc, that was set up in an earlier issue, right?

The Galactic Council guy was waving the Geobomb around on the first page of this issue, referring to it as the backup plan.

Not sure if that is what prompted Overlord to leave. Perahaps it's as simple as what he said: He saw Megatron seeming to cower before him and realized that there was no point to killing him. Perhaps the distress signal had some subtle effect on him.

[MemphisR56]

By the way, before Megatron killed Tesarus, he called him "Crucible".
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Crucible
I'd say it's a coincidence, but this is James Friggin' Roberts here.

I already tweeted at J-Ro asking him for clarification on this one

[Va'al]

So who wants to chat about why Overlord left and why it was because of what happened at the end and not what he said was the reason? Not that I should ask such things with a full day of work ahead where I won't be online...

So you're saying that the Galactic Council was responsible for the Geo Bomb?

If so, that would make sense for Overlord to turn tail. Plus we already know that The council has had access to killmasters geobomb designs... iirc, that was set up in an earlier issue, right?

The Galactic Council guy was waving the Geobomb around on the first page of this issue, referring to it as the backup plan.

Not sure if that is what prompted Overlord to leave. Perahaps it's as simple as what he said: He saw Megatron seeming to cower before him and realized that there was no point to killing him. Perhaps the distress signal had some subtle effect on him.

The Council are jerks.

BOY THIS IS SO MUCH FUN

[Randomhero]

going back and rereading Glitchs free scenes just makes it more tragic. The poor guy was an outlier which made him an outcast, he had his head and hands removed. He's had it rough.

Cute nod is the fact that when Orion tells Roller to read Megatrons writing in the elegant chaos story, glitch is standing between then listening to Orion's advice.

[Va'al]

going back and rereading Glitchs free scenes just makes it more tragic. The poor guy was an outlier which made him an outcast, he had his head and hands removed. He's had it rough.

Cute nod is the fact that when Orion tells Roller to read Megatrons writing in the elegant chaos story, glitch is standing between then listening to Orion's advice.

Yep, as we said above, not entirely a nobody, but enough of one to support your point!
I was initially a little miffed at the reveal, but I appreciate it more and more.

Now, can we talk about the Council's insignia, also seen in the TR one-shot, and the symbol that the Sentinel Prime toy sports? And Overlord's rebuild? And..?

[Randomhero]

going back and rereading Glitchs free scenes just makes it more tragic. The poor guy was an outlier which made him an outcast, he had his head and hands removed. He's had it rough.

Cute nod is the fact that when Orion tells Roller to read Megatrons writing in the elegant chaos story, glitch is standing between then listening to Orion's advice.

Yep, as we said above, not entirely a nobody, but enough of one to support your point!
I was initially a little miffed at the reveal, but I appreciate it more and more.

Now, can we talk about the Council's insignia, also seen in the TR one-shot, and the symbol that the Sentinel Prime toy sports? And Overlord's rebuild? And..?

Does it? I never noticed it on the Sentinel SDCC but that's on me. I haven't paid attention to that toy. Only Brainstorm who by the I got on eBay last night for $20!!!

Anyway it does seem they are slowly but surly building toward a big confrontation with the Galactic Council.

Are you sure about sentinel toy having it? The wiki states it's a symbol from the equity forces from Megatron origin

[MemphisR56]

going back and rereading Glitchs free scenes just makes it more tragic. The poor guy was an outlier which made him an outcast, he had his head and hands removed. He's had it rough.

Cute nod is the fact that when Orion tells Roller to read Megatrons writing in the elegant chaos story, glitch is standing between then listening to Orion's advice.

Yep, as we said above, not entirely a nobody, but enough of one to support your point!
I was initially a little miffed at the reveal, but I appreciate it more and more.

Now, can we talk about the Council's insignia, also seen in the TR one-shot, and the symbol that the Sentinel Prime toy sports? And Overlord's rebuild? And..?

Sentinel's SDCC toy does have it, it's mentioned in the Optibotimus review of it, but he didn't know what it was either.

It's the symbol of the Cybertronian Security Force, of which Sentinel was the leader. And it's doubtless the symbol he was wearing when he was killed in Megatron Origin.

It seems likely that Overlord was rebuilt by the Council themselves. Though to what end is unknown.

The council did mention that they objected to Cybertronians saving organics on their watch, which is exactly what optimus spends his time in the All Hail Optimus arc doing. Him raising that Titan is definitely going to draw their attention.

PLUS way over in the road to revolution oneshot, it's also mentioned by GI Joe that optimus prime may have painted a target on earth for anyone else out there who was watching... ....and there's a new void waiting to be filled by new big bads.

That cap shown in the Titans Return one shot is starting to feel like one big ominous...er... omen....

[MemphisR56]

For comparison, the council symbol looks a bit more like this to me:

Galactic council

Security_symbol_Megatron_Origin.png (9.57 KiB) Viewed 21745 times

[Va'al]

They are not identical, it's true, but close enough - in my view - to fuel the speculation engines.
I'm revving hard here, people.

[Randomhero]

They are not identical, it's true, but close enough - in my view - to fuel the speculation engines.
I'm revving hard here, people.

We wouldn't be here if we all weren't squinting, reading between the lines and acting like Will Hunting with math equations all over the chalkboard trying to connect anything and everything.

[Noideaforaname]

Exposition! Twist! Exposition! Twist! Exposition! Twist!

Meh, I dunno, nothing really felt satisfying this issue. Took too long to get to some of these plot points, but then everything got rushed. The Necrobot found the time case that Megatron buried and saved Roller and Terminus and put them in organic bodies that coincidentally resemble those buried under Demus' place that those guys with the gear symbol found in 's portal dimension were looking for! "Wait, what?" OOPS Ravage died look at sad Soudwave!

[Randomhero]

Exposition! Twist! Exposition! Twist! Exposition! Twist!

Meh, I dunno, nothing really felt satisfying this issue. Took too long to get to some of these plot points, but then everything got rushed. The Necrobot found the time case that Megatron buried and saved Roller and Terminus and put them in organic bodies that coincidentally resemble those buried under Demus' place that those guys with the gear symbol found in 's portal dimension were looking for! "Wait, what?" OOPS Ravage died look at sad Soudwave!

Well he didn't put them in organic bodies he used the same thing as hallow-avatars. They just looked organic and they weren't the same as the the Cog factions. They were different

[Tigertrack]

I'm fairly satisfied with the end of this arc.

The deaths felt real, and caused the right emotions. Ravage is hard to deal with. I never cared about him at all, until he joined Megatron here, and started to change as well.

When he tells Megatron not to change back with the fresh new Decepticon charm symbol on his chest, does he mean don't change back to a Decepticon, or don't change back to being an Autobot again???

Thoughts? I'm pretty sure I know what I think it means... don't change back to Decepticon Megatron of recent old, but I think it was left to be a little ambiguous purposely.

Is Tarn truly dead? Rod and Megs left before the explosion. It seems like yes, but...???

Okay, Terminus and Roller joining up... And ROLLER should be a bit more unsure about Megatron, right? Wonder if there is a story to tell about ROLLER still.I've tried to decide on a toy to represent Terminus in my collection, before he showed up here, I was going to use Armada/Energon Treadshot (repaint of Armada Scavenger) kind of an older version of a treaded digger vehicle...oh well, it was good for about two seconds.

[ricemazter]

Okay, this issue bothered me quite a bit on reflection. There's no doubt that MTMTE has pacing issues, and I know that the character moments are supposed to make up for it. That said, this has been a problem for a long time and its getting irritating that it hasn't been fixed by now. It feels like there's always a ton of things the writer wants to do, but with 20 pages there's never enough room. Instead of cutting unnecessary things, Roberts goes and does all of them anyway.

The root of the problem, I think, might be that he plants so many seeds with no immediate payoff or seem relatively inconsequential. Then, he's put into a position where he needs to do something with them. Don't get me wrong, it can, and has been, pretty cool to see some seemingly minor detail become uber important later. However, did a lot of people, in their heart of hearts, care about what happened to Terminus or Roller? Why do they need to show up at the end when they already fulfilled their story purpose? Way back when, I was fine with Terminus being another motivator/character element in Megatron's history. We didn't need him to come back. I was similarly fine with Roller falling off the face of the earth. It's pretty clear clear that, until now, his purpose in the MTMTE sotry was to be a red herring for Tarn, and to that end it's fine if he doesn't come back. With all the tiny little things that have been back loaded into the story by previous issues, this one feels like: "Hey, remember that thing we mentioned a while ago? Well, here's how its going to solve our current problem. Now excuse us while we set up more things."

I've also been pretty vocal about how much Roberst misuses Megatron. Every time I think something interesting could happen with his character, Roberts does almost the opposite. This issue, I was really enjoying the confrontation with the DJD. Last time, I'm pretty sure I said something along the lines of "I hope Megatron turns around and punches Overlord/Tarn into submission without any other characters coming to save him." Partly because I was hoping that the payoff to Megatron's character would be that he learns that it's possible for him to achieve balance between peace through tyranny and his newfound pacifism. He should learn that it's possible for him to control himself and his baser urges without turning into the old Megatron. So, this issue when he turns the tables on the DJD himself, I was exited. Then, when Ravage dies, I was thinking okay, another test to see if he could put down the gun. He couldn't do it. It took the timely arrival of Terminus to defuse the situation. He's still the same Megatron, and once again, he needs some other force to stop him.

Rant over. This isn't to say that I necessarily dislike MTMTE or Roberts' writing, but I gotta admit that I'm pretty disappointed with what's been billed as more or less a conclusion.

[Randomhero]

I'm fairly satisfied with the end of this arc.

The deaths felt real, and caused the right emotions. Ravage is hard to deal with. I never cared about him at all, until he joined Megatron here, and started to change as well.

When he tells Megatron not to change back with the fresh new Decepticon charm symbol on his chest, does he mean don't change back to a Decepticon, or don't change back to being an Autobot again???

Thoughts? I'm pretty sure I know what I think it means... don't change back to Decepticon Megatron of recent old, but I think it was left to be a little ambiguous purposely.

Is Tarn truly dead? Rod and Megs left before the explosion. It seems like yes, but...???

Okay, Terminus and Roller joining up... And ROLLER should be a bit more unsure about Megatron, right? Wonder if there is a story to tell about ROLLER still.I've tried to decide on a toy to represent Terminus in my collection, before he showed up here, I was going to use Armada/Energon Treadshot (repaint of Armada Scavenger) kind of an older version of a treaded digger vehicle...oh well, it was good for about two seconds.

Of course he dead. Why would you think he's not? There's a panel dedicated to him being ripped apart and disintegrated by the antimatter. You don't get more dead than that

[Tigertrack]

Okay, this issue bothered me quite a bit on reflection. There's no doubt that MTMTE has pacing issues, and I know that the character moments are supposed to make up for it. That said, this has been a problem for a long time and its getting irritating that it hasn't been fixed by now. It feels like there's always a ton of things the writer wants to do, but with 20 pages there's never enough room. Instead of cutting unnecessary things, Roberts goes and does all of them anyway.

The root of the problem, I think, might be that he plants so many seeds with no immediate payoff or seem relatively inconsequential. Then, he's put into a position where he needs to do something with them. Don't get me wrong, it can, and has been, pretty cool to see some seemingly minor detail become uber important later. However, did a lot of people, in their heart of hearts, care about what happened to Terminus or Roller? Why do they need to show up at the end when they already fulfilled their story purpose? Way back when, I was fine with Terminus being another motivator/character element in Megatron's history. We didn't need him to come back. I was similarly fine with Roller falling off the face of the earth. It's pretty clear clear that, until now, his purpose in the MTMTE sotry was to be a red herring for Tarn, and to that end it's fine if he doesn't come back. With all the tiny little things that have been back loaded into the story by previous issues, this one feels like: "Hey, remember that thing we mentioned a while ago? Well, here's how its going to solve our current problem. Now excuse us while we set up more things."

I've also been pretty vocal about how much Roberst misuses Megatron. Every time I think something interesting could happen with his character, Roberts does almost the opposite. This issue, I was really enjoying the confrontation with the DJD. Last time, I'm pretty sure I said something along the lines of "I hope Megatron turns around and punches Overlord/Tarn into submission without any other characters coming to save him." Partly because I was hoping that the payoff to Megatron's character would be that he learns that it's possible for him to achieve balance between peace through tyranny and his newfound pacifism. He should learn that it's possible for him to control himself and his baser urges without turning into the old Megatron. So, this issue when he turns the tables on the DJD himself, I was exited. Then, when Ravage dies, I was thinking okay, another test to see if he could put down the gun. He couldn't do it. It took the timely arrival of Terminus to defuse the situation. He's still the same Megatron, and once again, he needs some other force to stop him.

Rant over. This isn't to say that I necessarily dislike MTMTE or Roberts' writing, but I gotta admit that I'm pretty disappointed with what's been billed as more or less a conclusion.

Well said. The part about Megatron not actually changing is especially insiteful. And Roller and Terminus must have future implications to the next story, I would suppose, but I agree, other than to show who Tarn wasn't, and to just fill Megatron with positives when he was feeling most negative (which could be the point--he stopped the big M from making a fatal return at a crucial moment), they don't seem to serve much purpose, yet, and at this time, could have been left where they were.

[Tigertrack]

I'm fairly satisfied with the end of this arc.

The deaths felt real, and caused the right emotions. Ravage is hard to deal with. I never cared about him at all, until he joined Megatron here, and started to change as well.

When he tells Megatron not to change back with the fresh new Decepticon charm symbol on his chest, does he mean don't change back to a Decepticon, or don't change back to being an Autobot again???

Thoughts? I'm pretty sure I know what I think it means... don't change back to Decepticon Megatron of recent old, but I think it was left to be a little ambiguous purposely.

Is Tarn truly dead? Rod and Megs left before the explosion. It seems like yes, but...???

Okay, Terminus and Roller joining up... And ROLLER should be a bit more unsure about Megatron, right? Wonder if there is a story to tell about ROLLER still.I've tried to decide on a toy to represent Terminus in my collection, before he showed up here, I was going to use Armada/Energon Treadshot (repaint of Armada Scavenger) kind of an older version of a treaded digger vehicle...oh well, it was good for about two seconds.

Of course he dead. Why would you think he's not? There's a panel dedicated to him being ripped apart and disintegrated by the antimatter. You don't get more dead than that

Cause stories dude. In comics, death rarely equals dead... even in extremes.

[Randomhero]

Okay, this issue bothered me quite a bit on reflection. There's no doubt that MTMTE has pacing issues, and I know that the character moments are supposed to make up for it. That said, this has been a problem for a long time and its getting irritating that it hasn't been fixed by now. It feels like there's always a ton of things the writer wants to do, but with 20 pages there's never enough room. Instead of cutting unnecessary things, Roberts goes and does all of them anyway.

The root of the problem, I think, might be that he plants so many seeds with no immediate payoff or seem relatively inconsequential. Then, he's put into a position where he needs to do something with them. Don't get me wrong, it can, and has been, pretty cool to see some seemingly minor detail become uber important later. However, did a lot of people, in their heart of hearts, care about what happened to Terminus or Roller? Why do they need to show up at the end when they already fulfilled their story purpose? Way back when, I was fine with Terminus being another motivator/character element in Megatron's history. We didn't need him to come back. I was similarly fine with Roller falling off the face of the earth. It's pretty clear clear that, until now, his purpose in the MTMTE sotry was to be a red herring for Tarn, and to that end it's fine if he doesn't come back. With all the tiny little things that have been back loaded into the story by previous issues, this one feels like: "Hey, remember that thing we mentioned a while ago? Well, here's how its going to solve our current problem. Now excuse us while we set up more things."

I've also been pretty vocal about how much Roberst misuses Megatron. Every time I think something interesting could happen with his character, Roberts does almost the opposite. This issue, I was really enjoying the confrontation with the DJD. Last time, I'm pretty sure I said something along the lines of "I hope Megatron turns around and punches Overlord/Tarn into submission without any other characters coming to save him." Partly because I was hoping that the payoff to Megatron's character would be that he learns that it's possible for him to achieve balance between peace through tyranny and his newfound pacifism. He should learn that it's possible for him to control himself and his baser urges without turning into the old Megatron. So, this issue when he turns the tables on the DJD himself, I was exited. Then, when Ravage dies, I was thinking okay, another test to see if he could put down the gun. He couldn't do it. It took the timely arrival of Terminus to defuse the situation. He's still the same Megatron, and once again, he needs some other force to stop him.

Rant over. This isn't to say that I necessarily dislike MTMTE or Roberts' writing, but I gotta admit that I'm pretty disappointed with what's been billed as more or less a conclusion.

You obviously haven't read the dozens and dozens of posts about roller and terminus. A lot of people wanted to know about roller and terminus.

So you're a bit disappointed about being surprised? So what if things arnt the same as how you envision it. It means you're not right and you get a surprise.

I thought for a year Proteus was Tarn and was damn certain he was only for that to be the complete opposite. I was wrong and couldn't be happier that I was wrong because that means this book continues to be fresh and unpredictable.

[MrBlack]

I have been pretty happy with Megatron's character arc, and this issue continues that. He's really struggling to be the person he was before the war, and I can see why he would almost be ready to throw that away after this issue. He not only gave up his newfound pacifism, which had given him great relief, but he violently killed his former followers. To top it off, the bot he desperately wanted to save died anyway. He was emotionally distraught and had lost the one real friend he had left. Of course he was ready to crack. And, of course, his old pre-war mentor, someone who knew the old Megatron, is the one to snap him back.

I'm excited to see more of Roller and Terminus. I liked what little we have seen of Roller so far, and he seems like another good foil for Ratchet (his best friends always seem to be the ones that annoy him most). It will be interesting to see what Terminus thinks of Megatron's actions over the past 5 million years, and how his presence may affect Megatron's continued change of heart.

[Tigertrack]

I have been pretty happy with Megatron's character arc, and this issue continues that. He's really struggling to be the person he was before the war, and I can see why he would almost be ready to throw that away after this issue. He not only gave up his newfound pacifism, which had given him great relief, but he violently killed his former followers. To top it off, the bot he desperately wanted to save died anyway. He was emotionally distraught and had lost the one real friend he had left. Of course he was ready to crack. And, of course, his old pre-war mentor, someone who knew the old Megatron, is the one to snap him back.

I'm excited to see more of Roller and Terminus. I liked what little we have seen of Roller so far, and he seems like another good foil for Ratchet (his best friends always seem to be the ones that annoy him most). It will be interesting to see what Terminus thinks of Megatron's actions over the past 5 million years, and how his presence may affect Megatron's continued change of heart.

Well said MrBlack. I also have been a fan of Megatron via MTMTE. Never before from any fiction did I really care about him as more than the extreme bad guy leader who plays foil to the Autobots I sided with. Seeing him grow and change really, and the characterization of many characters including Starscream,and Thundercracker, and Prowl have made it so that the sides are not always so black and white, or red and purple. Each side has their monsters, each side has those that are on the fringe (Whirl and Drift), nobody's character can really be taken for face value anymore, they are complex beings with complex motivations, and that IS AWESOME, and really what I have wanted out of Transformers characters for a long time!

RandomH, are you okay? I'm reading your posts like you are very defensive, emotional, and on edge. Did the book hit you that hard, or are we being that bad?

[Randomhero]

I have been pretty happy with Megatron's character arc, and this issue continues that. He's really struggling to be the person he was before the war, and I can see why he would almost be ready to throw that away after this issue. He not only gave up his newfound pacifism, which had given him great relief, but he violently killed his former followers. To top it off, the bot he desperately wanted to save died anyway. He was emotionally distraught and had lost the one real friend he had left. Of course he was ready to crack. And, of course, his old pre-war mentor, someone who knew the old Megatron, is the one to snap him back.

I'm excited to see more of Roller and Terminus. I liked what little we have seen of Roller so far, and he seems like another good foil for Ratchet (his best friends always seem to be the ones that annoy him most). It will be interesting to see what Terminus thinks of Megatron's actions over the past 5 million years, and how his presence may affect Megatron's continued change of heart.

Well said MrBlack. I also have been a fan of Megatron via MTMTE. Never before from any fiction did I really care about him as more than the extreme bad guy leader who plays foil to the Autobots I sided with. Seeing him grow and change really, and the characterization of many characters including Starscream,and Thundercracker, and Prowl have made it so that the sides are not always so black and white, or red and purple. Each side has their monsters, each side has those that are on the fringe (Whirl and Drift), nobody's character can really be taken for face value anymore, they are complex beings with complex motivations, and that IS AWESOME, and really what I have wanted out of Transformers characters for a long time!

RandomH, are you okay? I'm reading your posts like you are very defensive, emotional, and on edge. Did the book hit you that hard, or are we being that bad?

No, I mean I've been vocal on my disappointments with MTMTE but it's never due to "what I want" or "how I'd do it" and with Tarns reveal and other stuff this issue did I guess I should expect there to be people who are a little burned because it's not what they theorized or its not how they expected it to be.

Personally, yes it was 6 months of waiting for pay offs and was somewhat disappointed with things not getting explained or stuff coming out of nowhere without an explanation in sight and this issue tied EVERY problem I've had and I'm willing to say this is a good story.