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What if I told you that the purpose and endpoint of storytelling is not character deaths, and undoing character deaths is not a negative or cheap action on the part of a writer if the method and result is narratively and thematically relevant? Which Roberts' always were.
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Feb 6, 2020 03:03
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Arquinsiel posted:There is a whole pile of cultural context to this which you might not be aware of, apart from the general "the USA is batshit crazy when it comes to cops" thing the rest of the world has. If you feel like depressing yourself google "Royal Ulster Constabulary" and go on a wiki walk. I’m well aware of that fact. But TFs are full of stuff that’s full of militarism getting attached to an example of “hey, cool robot!” that Roberts was way too flippant about it or tackled irresponsibly (and I’m not saying he doesn’t attempt it, I’m saying there are parts of his narrative where it’s played straight). And even then, my first post on this matter already addressed whether it was on purpose - even if he was trying to make a statement, that doesn’t change the fact that doing it at that time with that character wasn’t incredibly lame. Because it was super lame. Rook doesn’t DO anything. He doesn’t even transform. His alt mode isn’t even called out. To know Rook was an APC you’d have to already know about the character, and MTMTE had a number of readers that didn’t even buy toys. If his intention was to make a statement about Rook’s alt mode, he made no effort to engage with it or establish that thesis at all. Nodosaur fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Feb 6, 2020 |
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Feb 6, 2020 03:05
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GD_American posted:Roberts was a breath of fresh air, but he became so fey that I wanted an editor to rein him in.
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Feb 6, 2020 03:39
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Remember that issue when Swerve was just a rotting corpse in one panel, but it turned out that he was just fine and it was just a cheap jumpscare?
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Feb 6, 2020 03:43
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Also, Roller, Roberts’ own creation, is literally a personal carrier. AND a cop in universe.
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Feb 6, 2020 03:54
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Lodin posted:Don't forget the most important guy they just randomly snuffed out. RIP! Eh, could still be alive unless it showed Cykill's organic brain being destroyed. Are the Gobots in the IDWverse even brains in robot suits or full robot? I'm way out of the loop!
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Feb 6, 2020 05:40
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Lepecard posted:Eh, could still be alive unless it showed Cykill's organic brain being destroyed. Gobots don't exist in IDWverse, that's just a normal transformer that used Cykill's design for a cameo. He's 100% dead.
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Feb 6, 2020 09:07
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Nodosaur posted:Also, Roller, Roberts’ own creation, is literally a personal carrier. AND a cop in universe. Roller turns into a divvy van, not an APC. Though I will add that Roller's only figure to date is a Rook repaint that came out before Rook got got.
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Feb 6, 2020 12:18
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Was the post MTMTE stuff worth reading? I jumped out of Lost Light around issue 6 because I just didn't really wanna jump into a fictional authoritarian regime as 2016 was kicking off. Also I wanted to have some fun after the big final issue of MTMTE. Also the new chars kind of sucked. I read Optimus for a while but I dropped out of it pretty quick too. What I'm saying is I missed all of Unicron and it's all cuz they took TAAO away from me.
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Feb 6, 2020 15:18
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Finally the crossover Transformers fans have been waiting for!
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Feb 6, 2020 16:22
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Lol at Megs looking vaguely disgusted at being there.
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Feb 6, 2020 16:23
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I know how he feels.
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Feb 6, 2020 16:37
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Other posted:Roller turns into a divvy van, not an APC. Though I will add that Roller's only figure to date is a Rook repaint that came out before Rook got got. He has six wheels and a trailer in addition to clearly being armored. He’s not exactly an APC But he’s definitely the Cybertronian equivalent of it.
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Feb 6, 2020 16:57
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Eight wheels and a big glass window, rather than six wheels and literally the teeny vision slits of a Stryker IAV but okay,
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Feb 6, 2020 17:05
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It certainly looks more imposing and militaristic than a literal van with police markings.
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Feb 6, 2020 17:12
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Are y'all actually upset that Rook, a character with ZERO background that was created like 2 years prior got killed off in his 4th or 5th comic appearance?
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Feb 6, 2020 17:13
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Roller isn't in a team of police vehicles. I've seen someone elsewhere call a Defensor with four rooks as limbs a "Ferguson Prime". Rooks a cool toy and a great combiner limb and making him every limb is really fun but the disgust of calling him a protectobot is understandable given events and I can absolutely understand just not wanting to explore the character.
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Feb 6, 2020 17:20
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Rhyno posted:Are y'all actually upset that Rook, a character with ZERO background that was created like 2 years prior got killed off in his 4th or 5th comic appearance? It’s not the most serious issue in the world, but the point was that it was one of the standout examples of killing off an underutilized or new character needlessly, which IDW1 was unfortunately full of. And the idea Roberts killed him off as a statement about his alt mode is a huge stretch and not really conveyed in the text. It’s just a reach to defend every decision Roberts makes as having some deeper meaning that justifies it.
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Feb 6, 2020 17:21
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Was everyone up in arms when Flywheels got murdered in his first comic appearance? More or less than when Trailbreaker bit it?
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Feb 6, 2020 17:25
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I thought it was a bit gratuitous and wasteful? Why not just create a new toyless character to kill off?
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Feb 6, 2020 17:26
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Nodosaur posted:I thought it was a bit gratuitous and wasteful? Why not just create a new toyless character to kill off? Why do that when there's an enormous number of existing toys to choose from? Are you seriously going to tell me there's a huge Flywheels fanbase?
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Feb 6, 2020 17:27
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Rhyno posted:Why do that when there's an enormous number of existing toys to choose from? Are you seriously going to tell me there's a huge Flywheels fanbase? Every character is someone’s favorite. Every character has the potential to become someone’s favorite. If you need to kill off an existing character, why not pick someone who’s not wanting for screen time? Why does it have to be the obscure ones? Choose the ones that have already had their time in the sun, or make something up, I say. MTMTE was even praised for using underutilized characters at the beginning, so there’s justification for it.
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Feb 6, 2020 17:37
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Hemingway To Go! posted:Roller isn't in a team of police vehicles. The Protectobots aren't exactly a team of police vehicles. Ok, two are cops, but two are the other sorts of first responders, and there's whatever the hell Blades is. SAR? Air Ambulance? I don't actually have a point here though. Anyway, this whole Rook thing reminds me that the better take on police brutality/militarization is Bay Barricade, and especially his TLK toy's ƎVЯƎƧ and TƆƎTOЯꟼ knuckledusters. I think they actually ended up saying "punish" and "enslave" onscreen, which kind of lessened the joke.
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Feb 6, 2020 17:45
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The truly surprising thing is how long this took to happen, also they better include the two or three Transformers that have a horse as an alt-mode in this Nodosaur posted:Every character is someone’s favorite. Every character has the potential to become someone’s favorite. Exactly, kinda ties into an idea I've had that if I ever had the chance to do something official I'd love to explore further, do a universe where one of the key things about Cybertronians is that they are full blown Immortal, their Sparks cannot die no matter what you do to them, really explore how messed up a war can get when neither faction can kill each other no matter how badly they want to due to the fact that they've all done absolutely horrible things to each other trying to find a way to finally pull it off
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Feb 6, 2020 17:58
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I enjoy that Defensor kind of is a bunch of cops but once he’s out together all he really seems good at is putting out fires.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:01
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Weirdly Roberts managed to create fans of these obscure characters before murdering them. That was probably Roberts's biggest talent and draw. Last Stand of the Wreckers was a bunch of nobodies who all got fleshed out before dying horribly, nobody cared about Rewind before Roberts did his thing, and Trailbreaker got his own unique spin before whoops hope you didn't care about that one issue all about him, 'cuz he ain't 'round no more. It's like he's doing a Nuzlocke challenge with whatever obscure characters he pulls out of a bag. It's such a weird handling of things. Good Listener posted:Was the post MTMTE stuff worth reading? I jumped out of Lost Light around issue 6 because I just didn't really wanna jump into a fictional authoritarian regime as 2016 was kicking off. Also I wanted to have some fun after the big final issue of MTMTE. Also the new chars kind of sucked. I read Optimus for a while but I dropped out of it pretty quick too. What I'm saying is I missed all of Unicron and it's all cuz they took TAAO away from me. Definitely read the first Windblade series. The second one is ok but not nearly as great. They're basically the same franchise. Especially if you consider horses as pretty much vehicles. Transformers are just more mechanically complex. Hemingway To Go! posted:Roller isn't in a team of police vehicles. He's in a team with Optimus who was both a police and a vehicle.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:02
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Rhyno posted:Why do that when there's an enormous number of existing toys to choose from? Are you seriously going to tell me there's a huge Flywheels fanbase? keep his name out of your mouth pal!
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Feb 6, 2020 18:07
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Nodosaur posted:Why does it have to be the obscure ones? ... Because he's using them expressly for the purpose of being killed off.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:08
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GD_American posted:Roberts always found a way to resurrect his favorites, in admiteddly very clever ways, but it still cheapened the blow. Cyclonus seemingly being shot to pieces at the end of one issue then shown walking around saying "got a bit shot" 8 pages into the very next issue was particularly bad
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Feb 6, 2020 18:31
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Rhyno posted:... If you’re not gonna engage with the rest of my post, I dunno what to say. This isn’t endemic to just Transformers. Cape comics readers get frustrated when obscure but liked by a few characters show up after years of being absent just to get killed off too.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:33
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Hasbro did have input on the books. I mean you think Roberts didn't want to start murdering fan favorites left and right? I'm fairly certain I recall an interview where he said he'd present a list to Hasbro and they'd say which he could kill.
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Feb 6, 2020 19:07
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Gonna have to admit, if you told me Ian Flynn was gonna do work on Transformers and it was a crossover, this would not be the end result.
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Feb 6, 2020 19:07
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I've seen some episodes of MLP with my sisters kids and it's actually a good show. I can't hate it just because the fandom is so lovely. My niece is a bit too old for it probably but I might get her that comic. Also, Mach Kick should be included. He's pretty as a ponay. 
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Feb 6, 2020 19:33
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More pics of Horse Robots: https://twitter.com/IDWPublishing/status/1225483434933407744 What the gently caress is that 4th mode on Mach Kick?
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Feb 6, 2020 19:51
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A mistake.
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Feb 6, 2020 19:56
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Anora posted:More pics of Horse Robots: Penny Arcade posted:Select the pistol, and then, select your horse.
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Feb 6, 2020 19:56
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Lodin posted:I've seen some episodes of MLP with my sisters kids and it's actually a good show. I can't hate it just because the fandom is so lovely. My niece is a bit too old for it probably but I might get her that comic. Is the bottom right transformation supposed to look like the dog creature from the Thing?
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Feb 6, 2020 20:48
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Hemingway To Go! posted:Roller isn't in a team of police vehicles. Who is also a junkie.
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Feb 6, 2020 22:04
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SlothfulCobra posted:He's in a team with Optimus who was both a police and a vehicle. They missed a chance to call him Stoptimus Crime
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Feb 6, 2020 22:20
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Anora posted:More pics of Horse Robots: The Beast Wars Neo figures all had third modes and they all looked like Shoggoths
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Feb 6, 2020 23:11
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