So basically Chromedome has to edit out ego-tripping and emotionally unhinged parts of Prowl to make fan base happy? At least we have an excuse or just create another mnemo-surgeon/

 

Well, it won't erase his history, but it might help get the character back on track. Get him in touch with his 'better self'...

...by which I mean a potentially worse version of himself, but less petty and irrational.  

zmog

 

Prowl problems is the writers now if he can get cold logical dick that everyone loves to hate with few edits in memory....so be it. I told people on this forum it was mistake how Prowl handle Jazz. Jazz can be expendable but had to be very good reason for him. Namely for some reason that benefits Prowl and secure a victory in controlling Cybertron or getting rid of Starscream. I mean Jazz high value asset and to throw him away because of humans please.

 

I doubt that he really would have killed Jazz. Especially when there are so many ways to incapacitate a TF without actually killing them.

zmog

 

Honestly why hasn't it happened already? I'd read that.

I think this how Mindwipe could be introduced, he the devilish mnemosurgeon Prowl makes a deal with.

 

I know that. My point is Jazz is a good agent of Special Ops and killing him will not be problem. It is torpedo trustworthy friend who happens to be good special ops for nothing to gain by it. Jazz is unlikely to forget Prowl pulling a gun on him. It would make it harder of Prowl to use Jazz in the future. Jazz is no slouch when it comes to being a spy.

 

Whoa, do people seriously want to erase half of Prowl's personality so he can be more enjoyable?? This is character development, and he's more interesting than ever. After what Chromedome did to him, and what happened as a result, there's no way in hell he'd subject himself to that again. He said it himself, he's not afraid to face the consequences of his actions.

 

I would erase his personality to that he back to being Lelouch Britannia instead of being a moron. Prowl is making amateur mistakes that he needs to be House of Cards.

 

I guess I don't see it as being such a big deal. I don't think Jazz was too shaken by that, and I think Prowl knows that. He's a pro.

However, Prowl did totally betray them and turn on Prime's team, and then escape custody, so Jazz already has perfectly legit reasons to go after Prowl.

Oh, I don't know about the motivation side of it. I just think it would be one way to reset some of the bugs and bad writing that have contributed to his portrayal in IDW over the past few years.

Mind you, I'd also be satisfied just to have someone start writing him well on a regular basis, so I can start to forget about the bad stuff.  

I actually disagree that Prowl is more interesting than ever. Maybe in Roche's hands, sure... but generally speaking? Nope. Barber especially has just not show the sharpness or nuance to make Prowl a proper nemesis/anti-hero... instead I feel like he's just become a perennial loser and scapegoat for easy meta-moralizing.

Yeah, this. Exactly.

zmog

 

This reminds me how the whole "Scrapper is influencing Prowl" theory really should have been introduced by now. It's not too late. Have someone remove the 'Scrapper' from Prowl's mind, and then just have Roche write him from now on. Boom, fixed without any blatant brainwashing involved.

 

Well if its more a case of not liking his current deal, I guess that's more subjective. I like Prowl as we've seen him in recent years. I like that the constructicons are the only people who treat him with a shred of respect or trust (regardless of how poorly that speaks of him, as well those who are supposed to be on his side), and I want to see how that story plays out... hopefully it will, and wasn't trashed by Scoop/Optimus Maximus. It's not going to happen, but damn if I don't want to see THEM rescue him instead of the currently incapacitated Wreckers. But that's just me.

 

I agree in a sense. I loved the whole Prowlstator idea and dynamic as it introduced something new for both Prowl and the structies. But I'm sure you'd agree that the way it was all tied up in Combiner Wars was kind of a load. A huge waste of potential for the Constructicon/Prowl plot, and it reduced Prowl's personality from what made him interesting in the first place, to something a lot more predictable/one dimensional. In his experiences in MTMTE, AHMCoda, and Last Stand, we come to understand his sober thought processes and the basis of his judgement, while in Not-RID he would do things for no reason at all. This including aiming a gun at Jazz's head, airdropping as Devastator, not really making any attempt to cover his tracks like he's known to-- but above all his personality removed most of the subtlety he had before. In Combiner Wars he was a grinning megalomaniac who goaded Optimus into fighting him. He has a line that's, essentially: "What does morality have to do with any of this!" In DC his confrontation with Chromedome was unique because of his past relationship, but if he were to act that way around everyone there is no way he would have been overlooked the past 4 million years like he's been active. What Roche does better than Barber, I believe, is keeping him subtle while still a destructive (and constructive, hopefully) force in the narrative. So yeah, I agree on the Constructicons adding a unique perspective to him, but the way he's been written co-currently has sort of removed a lot of his more favorable established traits.

 

Yeah, that. That was so clearly on the table, and then just seemed to get swept aside as if Barber got so swamped with all the Combiner Wars stuff Hasbro wanted him to do that he just gave up on that whole plot point.

Not that I think it's a great plot turn, and it already feels a bit like a redux of the Bombshell thing, but at least by addressing it that way, we could course-correct the character. And then hopefully put him in another writer's hands.  

Honestly, I hate almost everything Barber has ever done with Prowl. In fact, I got so frustrated with Barber's shallow, tone-deaf writing in general that I dropped RID (or whatever we call it now) over a year ago. No regrets. Every issue just grated on me more and more, and I realized that I just didn't enjoy the stories anymore.

For me the Constructicon plot made no sense, and the Constructicons themselves were totally underdeveloped. It just felt very superficial overall. You've already seem my feelings on Prowl being poorly portrayed as a irrational fail-monkey under Barber, so for me it's all just throwing bad money after bad, so to speak. But I do agree that the Combiner Wars business does make an ever bigger mess of things.

zmog

 

I'm not surprised nobody in IDW is willing to go near Arcee's SL. This thing is basically unrecoverable. Best left alone unless you absolutely have to edit it.

This thing with her being an Autobot in prison is another fun example. It has no connections to her talks and relationship with Bumblebee where it was implied that she never was one before.

Of course, she could be an Autobot before being abducted by Jhiaxus, except... Lines from Galvatron about knowng her before may or may not imply that she might have been experimented on before the civil war...

And Autobots are pretty new faction originated by Optimus. They merely use the same generic Cybertronian symbol as the Senate before them.

Seriously, this is one big continuity snarl. Better to pretend SL Arcee never happened.


Prowlastator was a bad idea to continue. It shouldn't last that long. Worked as a plot point for Megatron's return and should end with it. I don't really see much character development in Prowl past this. More like character derailment. Not only with Barber. Roberts did not fare much better at it.

 

Her being an Autobot before getting experimented on, could just mean she was on the police force of that era.

 

But Autobots became a thing after the Senate. It was Zeta's and Pax's doing. Before this, the "Autobot" term was more a generic description for a Cybertronian.

Unless Garrus-9 had every prisoner labeled as an Autobot unless they're NAIL or Con.

And that's, for once a continuity lapse NOT produced by Arcee's SL alone, more like by later authors not checking with this book too closely before continuing with Arcee (can't blame them for avoiding it, really, but it does make things even worse).

 

I have to agree. Arcee was perhaps unofficially an Autobot until she got the brand. I am not going stress over the details when she is an Autobot.

I could see that happening.

 

I agree completely.

Why the hell are they ignoring that clearly obvious plot point?

you'd think the whole climax of Combiner Wars would be Scrapper's back.....*sigh* All that build up for nothing.

Wait were we just looking into something that was actually not there in the first place?

 

I like this theory. A threat like Overlord is big enough to justify "inhumane" methods of punishment/capture. Just using the noisemaze on your average Decepticon POW seems excessive.

Impactor was the only person who knew Springer was "hollow" and could take a hit like that?

I haven't been all that into this series, but this issue turned the corner for me. Although it read like an info-dump the Tarrantulis reveal and his entirely non-faction related motives for hating Prowl make him quite the villain (even though IDW Prowl is almost a villain himself.)

More of this enjoyable world-building that extends beyond the bot-con war.

Throwing this out there:

Sky-Byte, being the lover of culture, theater and the arts, spent the better half of the 70's & 80's disguised as a prop at Speilburg movie studios.

He always wanted to work with Roy Schnider.