Still plenty of light Remaining in Light!

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Auntie Slag
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Still plenty of light Remaining in Light!

Post by Auntie Slag »

I went through the whole of Remain in Light this evening, because I usually tend to loiter around Shadowplay, Delphi, the DJD and the Overlord story. There’s still so many things in RiL to come to er… light it seems.
  1. Skids can move through the portal to speak to the glowing globule thing on the other side, yet Rung can’t. Pharma says its just a forcefield, but Rung thinks its similar to Aquitas tech that holds you back if it can detect guilt. What’s Rung got to feel guilty about; or anguish or self-reproach? He’s not killed anyone, it can’t be the accumulated feelings of his clients as you’d think he’d be experienced enough to separate himself from that (I know counsellors need their own counsellors, but for the sake of this story…), and is it linked to his “Deja vu” comment?
  2. Its always bugged me what Tailgate said to Cyclonus on his deathbed; that he was born in Rivet’s field. Cyclonus says Rivet’s Field was ignited two weeks before Ark 1 took off, and two weeks before Tailgate was trapped underground. Does that mean that Tailgate came into existence and straight away was assigned to the Ark 1 on waste disposal duty? I must be misunderstanding something.
  3. When the glowing orb talks to Skids it almost seems to be asking him if he is an Autobot or Deception, and in the next panel asks him something like; don’t go back to the Lost Light, stay and unite the five moons!
  4. Tyrest mutters once to himself when he takes Rodimus and the others hostage. There’s evidence in the text story to suggest Tyrest is another Load Bearer and therefore a point-one percenter, but who is he talking to; Dominus? Its said Tyrest only made a name for himself once the war had started, prior to that he wasn’t such a big deal.
  5. Minimus recalls about the original Ultra Magnus, and there’s a scene where Pax, Magnus, Skids and Delta Magnus are fighting a giant two-headed monster Decepticon (maybe Sinnertwin?). If Skids gets his memories back, it may also give us cool stories about Delta Magnus, which in turn could give more cool stories about the original Magnus brothers!
  6. Rung is 90% secret compartments; does this refer to his link to subspace, or multiple dimensions?
  7. Brainstorm seems to handle the green spark (Megatron's spark) in quite a rough n' ready way as he's getting it out of the ground. Preceptor is having kittens watching him. And then Whirl of all people seems to be somewhat clued up about sent metallic "There's an equation". This is Whirl the thug! Yes he was a watchmaker previously, but he'd have never had to handle sparks in that business. Is there something to his comment? I mean, you'd believe that line if it were coming from someone like Chromedome!
  8. I’m really reaching now, but there’s a panel in Issue 19 as part of a two-page sequence where Tyrest explains to Minimus what this is all about. ‘guilt’. Its the panel where Minimus says “Is that why you’re keeping me out of the loop”; it looks like Tyrest is standing over an extra large version of Rung’s alt-mode. Maybe its nothing, but again we know Milne draws everything in a certain way, or with James’ direction; there’s a reason Skids was in the panel with Delta and Pax, there must be a reason why this thing Tyrest is standing over looks a little like Rung.
  9. Could Star Saber also be a load bearer; his toy having the ‘robot within a robot’ motif, and that’s why he happens to be the new enforcer of the Tyrest accord. And the same is true of Max!
Its really cool to have the luxury to going back for a read and come up with a whole bunch of questions. Top of my list would be Rung not being able to pass through Tyrest's force field. And why he's not bothered about Skids going through. If Rung knew what was on the other side and was concerned about that knowledge, surely he'd have tried to stop Skids.

Its interesting trying to pin down how much Rung knows. I've assumed he knows a lot more than he's letting on (ever since "Its Rung, forever", and his disappearance in the Slaughterhouse storyline). But maybe he's not privy to everything, everything!
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Post by Unicron »

2. Yeah, pretty much. Though I think it's more he was assigned to waste disposal at the launch site that happened to be where the Ark was leaving from rather than to the Ark itself. Not a crewmember and all.
I don't view the two weeks as a big deal. It's been established bots effectively wake up, take a few minutes to get used to being alive, then get shoved out the door. MTOs and all that. Plus functionism at the time. You wake up and get told your job right off the bat based on what you turn into.
6. While I fully expect this turn out to be something relevant later (meta-bomb and all that), I think the compartment bit was a simple joke.
7. I can buy Whirl knowing that an equation exists. Harvesting sparks from the ground is an almost religious thing for these guys (scientists aside). Also, it's not specifically stated Whirl knows what the formula is, just that there is one. I mean I know you can enrich uranium in a centrifuge, but I couldn't tell you how to do it.
9. and 4. I doubt both Tyrest and Star Saber are loadbearers. The reflex trigger or whatever it was on the Magnus Armor's recall system could probably be incorporated into a regular hand, especially since we've seen Tyrest give out fancy hands to Pharma. Tis also possible he regained enough motor control lying in isolation to trigger the teleport himself. Pretty sure he was just blasted through, not had his head taken off.
Star Saber maybe, because of the toy, but I'm pretty sure his teleport escape was manual.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

2. It seemed a little uncomfortable accepting that at first, but yeah like you said, that’s pretty much all the MTO’s get. I just kind of assumed that a forged spark would naturally get longer, unless there was a massive shortage of slicers on Cybertron.

4. Yeah that’s true. I didn’t think of it like that. I also sold Tyrest short, as prior to the war he was Nominus’ number one scientist guy, responsible to breaking into the Matrix. And being so insanely talented, giving Pharma those magic hands and curing people (Magnus) from death, he’s an incredibly valuable guy to slip through Red Alert and Max’s hands.
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Post by Summerhayes »

With skids chatting on the other side of the portal; could it have been referring to the colonies and planets we're seeing in Windblade and not-RiD? I always sort of hope Roberts can steer super clear of that stuff, but presumably he just talk to everyone else.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

If it was, the glowing orb didn't make any mention of it. It just seemed to be interested in knowing whether Skids was an Autobot or Decepticon. What also intrigued me was that it seemed to make a negative comment about The Lost Light. Maybe it knows something about the ship in the time between it being created, to Drift coming to purchase it for the Knights quest?

I'm just guessing. I don't read any of RID, Windblade, Combiner Wars so you might be right. I'd imagine, like you say, that Roberts knows what's going on in the other titles, which characters are alive/dead, whose gone to B&Q for the duct tape etc.

I didn't even know Cosmos was off the Lost Light until I was flicking idly through one of the other comics whilst picking up MTMTE!
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Post by Summerhayes »

Right, sorry, meant to reply to this aaages ago.
The panel I was referring to was this:
Image
The collection of planets and the symbol in the middle at the time reminded me of the Cybertron animé, which has since become pretty much the basis for ex-RiD and Windblade. They've been travelling around to other Cybertronian colonies and uniting them, a bit like this seemed to be telling Skids to do.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

That symbol has popped up in the latest issue of MTMTE (released yesterday)
SPOILER! (select to read)
Grimlock drew the symbol on a door of the Scavenger's ship, and the story ended with two robots sporting that insignia on their chests, and referring to 'The Grand Architect'.

Its also the symbol from Thunderclash's etchings, and Rodimus' scratchings into his desk. Thunderclash did his through visions, whilst Rodimus achieved his through idly carving when he was bored at his desk. It could suggest that Cybertronian's (or certain Cybertronians) are linked to this other race/faction who work with The Grand Architect.
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Post by Summerhayes »

Man, I need to start going digital. By the time I read new issues, the chat's left me behind!
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Post by Auntie Slag »

I always read the comics in paper format. I was lucky this time as I was in town yesterday when it came into the shops. Normally I'm four or five days later than everyone else!
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Post by Unicron »

Summerhayes wrote:Man, I need to start going digital. By the time I read new issues, the chat's left me behind!
Could be worse. Could be like me, who reads synopses until the newest trade comes out. So I'm always a few months behind on actually reading the things. I prefer the trade format and I'm not keen on buying them twice (either print or digital) so I'm kind of stuck
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Post by Auntie Slag »

That's some serious exercise of restraint! I bought the Wreckers and first volume of MTMTE as TPB's, but after that I couldn't wait & collect the regular comic.
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Post by Unicron »

Yeah, it's not the easiest thing at times, but since I got the first two volumes of MTMTE at the same time, and the third shortly there after, I decided to stick to trades. The delay sucks, but I can live with it, for now.
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Post by Summerhayes »

I like getting it month-by-month as intended, and like Auntie says I just can't wait! Trades must be a nightmare if you've got people on facebook and twitter getting excited when each new issue lands.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

But now you've got MTMTE and Sins of the Wreckers running concurrently for the next few months. Can you hold out on both? I'm imagining you having Tyrest style drill holes everywhere to cope with this :D

I remember how it felt at the time, I saw the on-going published and in the shops after All Hail Megatron, and I remember loving the artwork of Breakdown on that first page... and more than that, the fact that it featured an almost no-mark LIKE Breakdown on the first page, it caught my interest, but I never bought an issue.

I'd occasionally flick through the succeeding issues as time went on, but it never made me buy it. Then the Chaos Theory two-parter arrived and that felt like a change in the direction of the wind. Still didn't buy it though.

Then I saw the Wreckers issues and because I'd missed the first four I decided to buy the TPB and see if it really was the dogs, what with it being about the Wreckers and all.

Cue a hasty purchase of MTMTE Vol 1 and its been ace since then. I love it, especially how it feels like Ironfist's writings from five years ago are about to have a serious effect on the current story.
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Post by Unicron »

Auntie Slag wrote:But now you've got MTMTE and Sins of the Wreckers running concurrently for the next few months. Can you hold out on both? I'm imagining you having Tyrest style drill holes everywhere to cope with this :D
Nah, no Tyrest-style holes. I'm coping just fine, thanks to the Whirl method. The Sweeps aren't too happy about it, but they're already dead so who cares
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Post by Auntie Slag »

But you come out with such brilliant insight so often. I always have to pore over my issue, ruminate about it for a while, chop some wood in Alaska, drink some fine wine over a blazing hearth etc etc and then finally, maybe I'll come up with something.

If you switched to monthly you'd be able to see into the author's mind! Vicarious Perception I think the Jumpstarters called it.
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Post by Unicron »

That would take half the fun out of it though.
Besides, given some of the messed up stuff Roberts has put into the comics, I don't think I'd want to see what's kicking around in his mind.
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Post by Summerhayes »

I feel like a real idiot when I go back and go through the threads after reading a new issue. I never pick up on anything the guys here seem to notice!
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Post by Unicron »

Summerhayes wrote:I feel like a real idiot when I go back and go through the threads after reading a new issue. I never pick up on anything the guys here seem to notice!
It's a side benefit of not giving a damn about spoilers and just reading the hell out of threads and such. Gives the benefit of seeing various bits others have picked up on, and occasionally allows one to piece them together with their own thoughts into the odd 'brilliant insight' now and then.
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