Now that the final Dying of the Light issue has been released, I believe MTMTE season two is over. This season seems to have divided the fans, with a large group of fans starting to feel that the comic has gone down hill. I post this poll to try and find out what number of people on TFW feel that way. Discussion is, of course, welcome. If there is already a poll on this subject that I've missed/forgotten about, I apologize, and will understand this thread being merged/locked.

 

Mediocre. There was some good stuff in season 2. More than some people care to admit. But yeah, Dying of the Light was kind of a disappointment for me. As was a lot from this season.

 

The first year or so of S2, with the duplicate LL and time travel stories, was pretty excellent if you ask me. Then the span from after Ratchet's departure through to the start of Dying of the Light got kind of wishy-washy and self-indulgent, no doubt. #43 and #47 were the only bright spots in that run for me.

But I wouldn't say the book has become flat-out bad by any means, and Dying of the Light pulled it back and was a far better season finale than Remain in Light, so I'm still on board.

 

I should probably type out my thoughts on the matter, since this is my own thread. By now, I expect everyone knows I feel the comic is no longer worth reading, but I don't think I've gone over what I think of the whole season.

I feel the comic has really lost all the things that made it good. There aren't any interesting character dynamics, and with the exception of Megatron, none of the characters are that interesting anymore. They tried with Nautica, but her suffering from pear pressure on Caminus was just too ordinary. Brainstorm came close, but the final reveal of his motives in Elegant Chaos ruined it, with it all being to resurrect some background character he'd never brought up before.

Speaking of mystery, that brings me onto the ongoing stories. The comic can't seem to pay off it's set-ups at all. The cliffhanger in the Lopsided Triangle was resolved off-panel, wasting all that drama. The comic spent three years building up the DJD, only for two issues of conflict, diluted by an army of other 'Cons who had no purpose in the story. The whole Grincore thing with Skids was pointless. Just a way to give the 'Bots powers that ran out before they could do anything, making Skid's death pointless. Ravage's death was pointless too.

Overall, the comic no longer has anything that engages me. Sure, there is still some good issues, but that's not enough for me. This comic always went against what I feel TF should be, but I accepted it due to its exceptional writing. Now the writing in sub-par, I'm just not interested.

 

Unless the first few issues of Lost Light can wow me like season 1 or at least like the first 2 arks of season 2, I'm pretty much out.

 

I think it's a little worse than season 1 , but it is still one of the best comics Transformers ever had.

 

There are some weaker spots, but nothing I did not notice before.

 

I feel it's gone bad too, for many of the same reasons you mentioned. Mediocre doesn't fit to me; mediocre is a term for something with average, bland writing that is unremarkable and doesn't stand out. For me it doesn't really fit something that has very uneven quality: very good in some aspects and very bad in others.

MTMTE still has high quality in some aspects of its writing, like some character development, and good dialogue. But plotwise the story is full of holes and inconsistencies, really a disturbing amount. For instance I didn't think about it until I saw someone else point it out, but why, in the Lopsided Triangle, did the guards fire on Cyclonus for attacking Megatron? Those same guards had to have been a part of the later mutiny *against* Megatron. Why would they shoot first and ask questions later when it comes to someone having possibly attacked Megatron?

Sure, that might be resolved later--maybe all the mutineers actually love Megatron and were just brainwashed to mutiny later--but a story should make sense as you read it. A resolution 20 issues later isn't going to change the experiences you've had with an issue where the plot actions read as inconsistent and nonsensical and throw you out of the story the first time.

Then there's the pacing issues like you mentioned in The Lopsided Triangle. I also felt like the Sunder substory was completely wasted. I get that it was likely written in just to bring up Skids' memory issues, but that doesn't excuse not writing it well. It too was a plot buildup with no real satisfying resolution.

Pacing IS a writing skill and when a work suffers bad pacing, that's just as much of a failing of it as is bad dialogue or underdeveloped characters.

As for the DJD: I've seen some people go "But it's realistic for them to wiped out like they were nothing!!!" like sure lol ok, but if I want boringly!realistic then I watch the news, not read a comic book. Others pull out the "the banality of evil!!!" cliche to excuse it. It's like yeah, it's called banal for a reason: it's boring. To me it was nothing but another pacing failure, the writer failing to give a satisfying resolution to the buildup.

I still feel the series is worth reading, but I'm not sure if I'll feel that way forever given how badly astray the writing seems to be going.

 

Besides the personality ticks it was great

 

I kind of laugh at the vote for "it's as bad as ever." Then... why were you even reading it? =)

It's as good as ever. Excited for Lost Light.

 

Honestly? I don't think the quality has gone downhill at all. It's just that the new car smell is gone. What was once fresh and new has now become the norm. It's still good, but familiarity means it's harder to feel excited about it.

 

I'd say "other". I still think it's very good and one of the better comics out there. But I did find that Season One gelled together much better. Season Two had some hits and some misses. For instance, I /loved/ issue #47 and was really looking forward to seeing it continued in #48- then was disappointed with the offscreen, past tense, couple panel conclusion we got in #48 instead so things could rush into a new, unrelated story. The personality ticks story could have been told in one issue. There were times I felt the editing could have been better- keep the story focused rather than keep jumping around so much. Skids' death strikes me as extremely pointless. The other deaths were sad but I can see story-wise why they occurred. Maybe over time Skids' death will make more sense but right now it just seems pointless, with very little pay off from a story and character development standpoint. I'm still a fan of mtmte but I hope to see tighter focus, whether it's a big action story or a slice of life piece.

 

If we're judging just against other TF media, then its still easily the best thing ever. In fact what would number 2 even be? Beast Wars? And anyway its still top five of all comics coming out now.

 

I feel the same. Except I loved the Scavangers two-parter, that was great.

Season 3 has to be a major step up though.

 

Agreed

 

I had some low issues. But the good outweighs the bad.

 

^Pretty much this.

The series never was ideal, but it never became bad.

 

I chose option 5, the whole Brainstorm business was cool, Scavenger stories are always good, but there where some real stinkers: the celebrity-parasite (or whatever) two parter was among the worst TF fiction ever, and i could even enjoy the Swearth thing so thats saying something. The 'epic' finale mini was ok, some things where good, others kinda sucked but i can live with it.
The latest episode seemed like Roberts is in full form again, so i'm keeping with the series, but i hope he doesnt stray so much near cliché and tropes again as he has done in the 2nd season.
And i hope he quits the whole fuzzy hippie all togetherness, and gets back to the worldbuilding and filling in the history of pre war Cybertron and the war itself, wich was why i loved his season 1 stories so much.

 

You and I are in agreement in this regard, Kitten.

 

I think James Roberts planned out the first few issues and the last few issues and some issues in between to connect the end to the beginning, but didn't know how many issues he had available to use hence why there were several filler material which while mostly fun could be dropped without harming the story.