I usually flip flop between Animated and Prime with Ratchet and Megs in particular. I'd really like to see Corey Burton in that seat again.
What if they pull a Jojolion on us and Tarn turns out to be a demented fusion of both Roller AND Dominus.
People are projecting relationship between Rewind and Chromedome as if it was a pivot point of the entire MTME run and everything had to revolve around it even when it makes little sense. That's all to it, really.
James Roberts said that "Tarn is Tarn is Tarn." On twitter. I can pull the comment for you. So may be Tarn is just really Tarn and no one else.
Maybe just a little devil's advocate and a point of clarification, but everyone keeps saying Roller and Tarn are addicts, but they really don't fit the definition of addicts. They are more aligned to someone with obsessive compulsiveness or manic depression or Tourette syndrome; addict, however, is not the right term. Addiction is a bodily dependence on something (alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc.) that causes the brain's pleasure centers to release happy chemicals to the point the addict cannot think of anything else or function without their fix. However, there are some people who can use drugs or whatever without becoming addicts, just as there are somewhat high functioning addicts. The key issue is that they regulate their drug use. Think of students taking ADHD meds for tests, or cops/soldiers/nurses who take amphetamines to perform at a higher level, or anyone who drinks coffee to wake up in the morning to "get going." They walk the fine line of descending into full-blown addicts, but they control their use and for the most part are able to function, much like Roller. Roller essentially takes steroids to cure his perceived inadequacies, much like a person with clinically diagnosed low self-esteem or manic depression will do things like repeated plastic surgery or take steroids to cure their low impression of themselves. Now, if someone actually becomes an addict from a non-addict user, the key thing with high function addicts (such as steroid users) is that they eventually go to greater and greater lengths to satisfy their addiction, to the point they eventually lose something (family, wealth, etc.). While Tarn's quest for new transformation cogs may seem to fuel an addiction, he hasn't demonstrated an addiction on screen (we've seen him transform a lot, but no more than anyone else) and he certainly hasn't transformed to the point of death as we've seen other's do. If he were an addict, he wouldn't be a good leader because he would eventually be more focused on feeding his addiction than leading. He would be transforming at greater and greater rates, which would interfere with the very abilities for which he was recruited. He couldn't have led the DJD or Grindcore as an addict. He simply could not have functioned that well for that long and be an addict. Rather, I would propose that Tarn's dependence on new cogs comes because his original cog was burned out due to disease or abuse (drug use, even limited can lead to things like cirrhosis, as can disease) or was damaged beyond repair another way (say being blown up). As far as we've seen, t-cogs aren't vital to a Transformer's life, but each Transformer has one that is actually fitted to their body so it works best for that individual. Just like your organs work best for you, their organs work best for them. And, just like organ transplant recipients have to receive drugs to repress rejection and have an incredibly limited lifespan (10-12 years max for a kidney before it needs a second replacement), Tarn's body is rejecting his supply of other's cogs and burning through them faster than it would his own. Given his large size, it's not unrealistic to thing he burns through his victim's cogs pretty quickly as they aren't made to match they load they are being forced to bear. It's actually kind of ghastly when you think about it...
maybe it's tarn that defines him but he can't seriously just be tarn. if he is...and the mask comes off and his former self was a lowly bot named nobody mcredherring then roberts wasted all our time by dropping hints of a connection and making a point that he wears a mask instead of that being his face and now making a point to tell us megatron turning him into tarn is a big deal....i mean megatron says "i corrupted you. i saw an opportunity to hurt someone. i saw a chance to prove a point. after all if youcan be turned...." frankly you don't waste dialogue like that on a bot that's a nobody in the end. if that's it we've spent months...a year plus even...discussing and debating who he really is for no reason. that would be a shitty move on roberts's part....concoct a mystery with no payoff?? makes less sense than tarn being dominus.
Also, a small wrench for Tarn is Roller. Optimus is roughly 3/4 Roller's size. Megatron is roughly the same size as Optimus. Yet Megatron is bigger than Tarn...
And GOT show runners have said definitively that "Jon is dead". And he is, and Tarn IS Tarn. But resurrections, especially around red priest(ess)s are an established fact in GOT, and Tarn is a name that comes with the position. Snow is coming back, and Tarn HAD to be someone prior to being Tarn. It's not like Megatron found a sea-green spark, slopped a whole bunch of sentio metallico onto it and said "I dub thee Tarn, and I have a job for you, now hurry up and finish being a protoform so that you can be a mass murderer insanely devoted to me".
How long Tarn was under that mask? Millions of years. Tarn may had been either Roller or Dominus but those personas were devour by his current one. So Tarn is no longer either Roller or Dominus and that his current one is now the core one. That would imply that Tarn had multiple personality disorder and was unstable from the get go. Which means that Tarn is now the core personality. Megatron saw an opportunity to exploit and he did that. All we know is that Tarn sanity is an illusion and beyond that he needs to feel in control. Deep down I suspect Tarn actually hates both the Autobots and Decepticons equally. Then again what prevents Tarn from killing is illusion of loyalty to whatever he considers Decepticon cause. In the Game of Thrones, Tarn is more like the Faceless Men in Braavos where he could be no one. "Mask are good as poison if you are someone."
Very true, but there's a panel in issue 39 where Tarn is reflecting on his past and it appears he's being stripped and rebuilt. So that could be why he's shorter.
Well said; I'm one who frequently uses the addictive personality card but Roller's juiceboxes never struck me as that far gone. I have a caveat about Tarn's Transformation addiction though. While it's true that ever since his debut appearance (in which he changed shape 3 or so times in the course of walking a straight line) we haven't seen him transform at nearly the same clip his reputation suggests. But we know he still needs a supply of cogs (ones that aren't so "smooshed" that Nickel can still salvage them). I believe lately his obsession has changed Targets - to Megatron. Ever since "The Permanent Revolution" his drive has been go find Megatron and make his world right again; he forewent the list, even removing members of Deathsaurus' crew from it (a severe violation of his precious protocols) and he's compromising his own values just to distance himself from his shattered idol. I think in this hyperfocused state he's forgotten all about his addiction, much like how some people who speak with a stutter can sing unimpededly.
It wouldn't be that weird, they are major characters, not that much has been done with them recently *except* foreshadowing Dominus, and Ultra Magnus is tied in with Dominus too. That said, I still doubt it. Tarn's not a charismatic-good-at-everything type, Dominus doesn't strike me as as much of a follower, face damage, etc..
What if Tarn's "transforming addiction" isn't quite what everyone thinks? Someone earlier brought up the point a cog works best for ONE body, and any other it won't work as well, and will eventually burn out. What if, in Tarn's case, that's a double-edge sword? If anyone remembers back when Wolverine lost his adamantium, and it was revealed he had the bone claws, for a time he kept popping them. When someone asked why, he mentioned keeping the channel clear so it wasn't as bad. What if Tarn's transforming addiction isn't actually an addiction, but him keeping the cog active so it doesn't go out as fast? Also, what if his downsizing was meant as a way to reduce the burnout of the cogs? Eventually, they still burn out, because he has to keep using it to keep it functioning, which speeds up the burnout, which means he has to keep replacing it.
Optimus was Pax then, though. He definitely could have gotten a size upgrade-- he looks pretty small compared to Rodimus.
Ratchet seemed to suggest that Tarn's transformation-cog-burn-out problem was a medical condition waaaay back in issue 5 rather than anything to do with using foreign cogs
I'd laugh hard if Tarn was a relative nobody under this mask. His present despicable self is interesting enough. Actually, we DO see him transform more than anyone else in his first issue. In series like MTME when they rarely transform unless needed, Tarn can't take a stroll out of the Peacefull Tyranny without transforming. Quite pointlessly, because the distance was very short. He's not burning his cog to the point of dying because he's supplied with new cogs. Human transplant recipients. In comparison it seems like transformers are much easier to swap part in them and key elements are pretty standard in size. The only organs shown that were noticeably different (larger) in books were those of metrotitans. Nothing in books really shows otherwise, heck, Rodimus had an entire set of new hands built by him and he's forged.
