You know I absolutely adore Star Saber but just is a completly different character. Yeah I know, Star Saber was religious, but he would still never be a complete zealot willing to commit genocide. His personality is that he is a white knight, but one of morals, not one blinded by conviction. He’s literally a different character then the Star Saber in Victory.

That said, I do like zealot-like angle but only if it ends up with Star Saber realizing the error of his ways and coming to terms that he killed all those people for nothing, thats why I wanted him to win the POTP because it would have had the most interesting character arc. Him being a genocidal murdering manic is like making Optimus a ruthless agressor or Bumblebee a douchey frat boy.

That said, hey, Liokaiser. Who doesn’t have Deathcobra. Oh and all of the Protectobots got murdered, thats nice, what a waste.

 

I kinda do wonder why to even bother with combiners in this continuity. They're just pushovers, it seems.

Also, so IDW-Star-Saber-nameslap-lookalike is a one bot army more powerful than Megatron, Optimus and Galvatron? Because ach of these three had it harder facing a combiner.

And people had problems with machinima Windblade, lol...


When exactly IDW-Star-Saber-nameslap-lookalike got a Phase Sixer upgrade? :X

 

I called Defensor being beaten in a BS Manner, but I didn't call most of the protectobots getting offed like that.

At this point I'd like a issue of Getaway and Star Saber slowly melting in a smelting pit. On the other hand that's another issue for Roberts to use them, so maybe a fast unceromounius death would be better.

Part of the problem is that Transformers is a shared thing. Now nobody can EVER do anything in the IDW universe with the Protectobots or other characters. If someone wanted to tell a story with a heroic Star Saber? Well you can't do that. If the transformers are a shared toybox, Roberts right now is the kid taking the toys out and blowing them up with firecrackers, making it so no one else can play with them.

Seriously we might end up needing a reboot just because so many of the characters have been killed or altered so much from their core versions. It's not always a bad thing, but I was pretty shocked to realize just how many OC's there are filling roles because the other established characters are gone. Scott actually seemed to be the best writer about avoiding that.

Well I knew that was coming. Comic Writers used to have a horrible time dealing with Combiners. Oddly enough that's one thing the original cartoon did better, even with all it's 80's cartoon problems. The comics writers seemed to have a problem making it so that the strongest didn't always need to be the BBEG getting beaten by whoever they wanted to be the hero currently digging deep down inside and pulling out and going "I have had enough of you!" They'd much rather hand vast power to Starscream with the Underbase, or Thunderwing with the Matrix or just plain have them be overpowered than try to figure out the dynamic for a combiner. I dread to think what it'd be like if they had to write something like Justice League or Avengers where there's massive power differences built into the teams.

Also they sometimes just forget like that time Buzzsaw one shotted Omega Supreme.

 

Shoulda been Laserbeak, the one with deadly lasers (Buzzsaw was always more hands on, or rather beak-&-claws on), and it should have been a face full of 'em, a direct headshot up close from a target too speedy and small for Omega to track and intercept. That'd do for me!

 

This issue has really reminded me of The Last Jedi of all things hahahahaha, dividing the audience because things don't go the way one would expect, and mayyyyybe doing things for the sake of shock value rather than for actual legitimate purpose. Defensor's death shocked me, as I feel like they completely under-utilised him, and i was really hoping for a Defensor vs Liokaiser fight at some point.

But my main issue with this recent arc is it functions as a continuity catch up more than anything else: reintroducing missing characters (only to kill them off); re-assert and emphasise Getaway as an antagonist (with a new group of villains thanks to Sunder, Star-Saber and Froid); quick cameos from Deathsaurus and pals (plus Scavengers); and not to mention setting the stage for the grand finale of Cyberutopia. While it has been the best arc of lost light, which isn't really saying much, the jarring pace differentiation makes this issue feel rushed. It functions as a story segue: spring cleaning dangling plot threads in a rushed fashion, rather than letting events happen organically. While nothing has overtly been stated, I feel like IDW is wrapping up this continuity, with Unicron's overdue appearance being the main sign for me, not to mention both this and Op feeling like they are rapidly picking up the pace for their respective finales.

Getaway as a villain was most interesting to me when he was ambiguous, and I really liked the idea that he legitimately got the crew on his side because they agreed with his principals, rather than being brainwashed by Sunder. He's become a dark parody of Rodimus, over the top and petty, rather than being the interesting Prowl-like schemer that he used to be. Maybe if Froid was the catalyst that made him go over the edge, turn him to the dark side if you will, he would have been made more interesting, but the fact that Froid just stood back and watched him become evil on his own accord struck me as kind of cheap. He's been reduced to a one note villain, who acts out of shock value with little depth. Defensor's death was cheap, but writers in IDW don't seem to know how to use combiners, so Im not too surprised.

My main issue with Robert's writing is he lets fan favourite characters outstay their welcome, even when their arcs are finished and they no longer bring anything to the plot, letting them stagnate and steal attention from other characters, who seem like they have a lot of potential, but then get nipped in the bud before they can do anything interesting. He keeps adding to an already packed cast, then throwing out characters when he realises that there are simply too many already. In all honesty, the only death throughout LL and MTMTE that legitimately got me was Skids, and he went out like a wimp. Still hurts me today that bloody Tailgate got superpowers, but Skids just flat out dies of a broken heart.

Roberts also doesn't seem to know how to write good villains any more. Getaway has become a one bit moustache-twirling villain, Overlord is a petulant child, and the DJD went out like utter bitches. Megatron was the clear exception to this, and I think he has the best character arc not only in this, but in all of IDW. Its a shame to me that Roberts teases constantly with unsatisfactory pay-off, and I'm nervous as to how this will all end. Just hope that Rod and co get to fight Unicron before this is all over. Despite all my complaining, I think it's testament to this comic that I actually care so much about all this, this is the only comic I'm actually invested in period, its definatley having some affect on me hahahaha, so Robert's must be doing something right, it just a shame that it feels wrong at the same time.

 

This series has its moments of sheer fan angering brutality. however, I have to give Roberts credit for revisiting a theme from Last Stand of the Wreckers:

 

OMG!  

But what an awesome issue of MTMTE this was. If now it was also drawn by Milne...

 

So it was actually IDW that came up with the shared universe? That at least makes sense! I was wondering what the actual fuck Hasbro were doing since none of these franchises have toys.

 

Very rushed and nothing like Griffith's usual standard. I'm shocked they've put it out like this. Lawrence's art also took a dive towards the end.

 

Yep; it was all on them. Hasbro basically went “sure why not.”

 

The deaths aren’t the issue here for me (although I casually missed the Protectobots being killed on the first read haha- they died as they lived, red shirts), it’s just the way it feels all chucked together. As a discrete trilogy arc it has no dynamics- all three issues feel like they have gone nowhere in particular except the very last page.

 

Combiners were easily dispatched throughout Combiner Wars too. And before that. If we're being generous, then Combiners are probably akin to the giants in Game of Thrones. They can knock people about pretty good, but they're eminently killable. It would still make sense for everyone to be wary of them because they can easily destroy their surroundings, which means any conflict gets accelerated immediately to "Put them down HARD or watch everything and everyone get trashed". Basically, imagine a tiger getting loose.

Although my deeper opinion is that they're a stupid concept, always were a stupid concept, and never make sense in any story - "Hey, let's exchange five warriors with guns and varying abilities for one larger, slower warrior who only uses his fists!" The best thing IDW did with them was make them into a joke about how Decepticons are obsessed with making them but never get them right.

Trailbreaker's death was well written, story-wise - it was cruel irony. One thing that affects our judgement as fans is that we have history with every character from different continuities. But in IDW/MTMTE, Trailbreaker's arc made complete sense, and tied into Megatron's effectively. He was a chronic self-doubter and alcoholic who was just starting to turn his life around and apply a positive, selfless philosophy to every situation, and his change of heart got him killed. This is a pretty realistic life lesson - the act of doing good will put you at risk, from pain if not death. That's why doing good is hard.

Same can't really be said for the Protectobots or Mirage. Really, they just got shuttled around to serve the needs of the plot.

You could make that objection to anything any writer did with the characters though, so it's not much of a complaint.

 

this....this was terrible...and not in a good way...as in a this comic sucks way...

this issue was way too rushed...the scavengers were pointless...mirage and all the protectabots except first aid of course are now dead so bye bye defensor forever...another unsatisfying conclusion...i guess roberts shot all his creative writing out the door on season one and now is just disappointing issue after issue..the mutineers were the one thing that had me interested in this season of LL and this is what we get? but ooo we'll have 12 issues or so devoted to his garbage new fanfic characters....every arc is disappointing.

oh and how is ambulon a limb again? i think him being sliced in half then turned into a gun would make his body rather...unsalvageable to say the least. i mean why do something smart like have mirage be the replacement limb or even groove...show the versatility of combiners....no no why do that? just shoe horn in your garbage fanfic character and create a plot hole out of it....

i think we need a new writer on this series


EDIT: thinking more about it..WHY was ambulon's body STILL on the LL to begin with? they went home to cybertron...wouldn't they just 'bury' him or whatever they do there? why is his body still there? it makes less and less sense the more i think about it.

 

I skimmed through some of the comments on here and I see this issue divided a lot of people.

For me, I really enjoyed this issue. I understand people's complaints and feeling like it was rushed and not a good wrap up to a trilogy.

However, when I first my comics I'm there just for the story and a brief escape from this world. This issue did a fantastic job of pulling me in and making me keep turning the page. I still feel like this issue is better than some of the older issues like with Nautica and co.

I am a little surprised to see that we've finally made it to Cybertopia since it's been the lead up for SOO many years so I'm kind of worried how this will play out? Do we know how many issues LL is supposed to get? Is LL in danager of the same fate as Till All Are One? Regardless, I'm enjoying myself and that's all that really matters to me.   

 

Roberts has said in the past the total of MTMTE/LL was planned to total at around 80 issues, so we are nearing the planned ending. I wouldn’t worry about it being canceled due to low sales like TAAO was.

 

See, GI. Joe I can understand. It's still around to a degree and it's defintely one of Hasbro's biggest franchises and it's got a memorable place in the minds of the fans and history with the Transformers. It can work.

But well, was anyone really looking for more stories from fucking Visionaries?

 

I would say this has been my least favorite issue so far.

 

Flipped through the issue at the shop today. It's awful. I promptly put it back on the shelf. That one panel with Misfire.. the proportions of his arms to his legs was ghastly.

 

I'm a bit confused as to how Ambulon was able to combine with the Protectobots. Sure, Ambulon already had the prerequisite of being a combining limb, but does that really mean he could just fill in any leg vacancy? I know in the past Devastator was able to combine although Scrapper was dead, but Scrapper was already a member of the Devastator team. So I guess combination-after-death isn't too hard to believe in that instance. Ambulon on the other hand had never combined with Defensor before death. How were the Protectobots able to establish a connection with an already dead body?

 

I'm really not surprised that Getaway wasn't ousted here.

Simply put, there's going to be a Rodimus vs. Getaway confrontation at some point. There has to be.