They really tease reader about DJD and him too much. In any of their reference in other comic, everybody scare of them, bot and con. And i know it is not only about their strength (except he fight toe to toe with Overlord, can kill people with just his word, literally). And i know he suppose to be hurt deep inside as well. But at the end of MTMTE, My reaction is "That it ? "





But the whole arc somewhat lame. Oh my god, Megatron is so badass, he kill them all with his asspull magic power, everybody safe now. Is it really that it ? From the TFwiki, There seem no more story of him, only the past story


Well, at least is not a let down

Spoiler

 

Sounds like you've not actually read the issues and only reading summaries on tfwiki.

 

Literally the entire point of Tarn's story in MTMTE is that he's built up this big scary reputation for himself, and likes to think that he's this suave, dangerous badass, but he's actually just an insignificant loser who murders people to make himself feel more important.

The season 2 finale arc is all about the cool guy facade that Tarn has built up for himself slowly crumbling, starting with him snapping and killing Kaon in a pissy tantrum, and ending with him begging pathetically for his own life. It's entirely on purpose that he doesn't have some epic final duel.

 

Still disappointed. Just because it is the purpose doesn't mean it handle well.
And that too of course doesn't change the fact Megatron very much pull a magical power from his ass and solved everything. And remember they also give the whole crew a free trial access to super saiyan by exchange of one member's emotion triggered.
Overlord have somewhat familiar trait in The Wrecker's last stand. They both want a piece of Meg so hard and can't get him out of their head. But In the Wreacker Saga, you don't feel like your exception get betrayed

 

A power he's been on record as having since 1984.



And yes, to echo earlier comments, Tarn is supposed to be a tremendous let-down. I mean, he's a complete and total knob. He's a foul tempered sadistic addict who thinks he's better than other people because he's just clever enough to wrap his vices in a self-serving philosophy that he follows but clearly doesn't understand, and fantasises that he's a better person because he occasionally feels a bit uncomfortable with his own excesses, despite the fact that he doesn't stop them.

He's the gang leader who quotes poetry to try to show he has hidden depths. The animalistic moron who stabs people on the street because he thinks they didn't show him 'respect' but still imagines himself entitled to it. He's scum- after all, remember that Skids labelled himself 'scum' for

Spoiler

having accidentally enabled Tarn's plans

. Essentially, not only does Tarn need to be brought down to nothing before he dies, but also, it's quite deliberate and intentional on the writer's part that readers who admired Tarn, who thought he was cool, are left with a bad taste in their mouths and a sense of "I've just been told that the sort of people I admire and think are cool, are actually completely worthless pieces of dog shit who are nothing more than a bad joke."

 

That is not a acceptable defend on writing a fiction, tbh.

You guys seem to avoid the real issue and just keep repeating that "That is the point". It is not about that, People still can like a character just because they think them interesting, Not admit the personally as real people. And the thing is i STILL it Tarn is being weak and pathetic interesting. So please just stop with that excuse

Now let go back to the real issue here: It is not about the writer say Tarn is turn out not so cool. It is about how it did. Whatever you said about Tarn, he still the one who can kill with just words, And can fight toe to toe with Overlord. He chase the Lost light to the dead end. And i gonna repeat the problem once again: everything solved by some Super saiyan free trial and Megatron's black magic. And that all.

There is a time Starscream need to live with his soul be crumble by his own failure after 3 year in the command of Decepticon but failure. How about that ?
Look at his last words: do it really show Tarn get brought down to the lowest ? No. It's just "That it ?"

 

Tarn being big nothing is the best part of this story. His downfall being pathetic and whimpy is part of this character - he didn't even achieve an epic death.

Megatron's new power is a mildly bad writing idea - might be a nice call back to the Marvel UK, but it's not 1984 to begin with. But even without it the DJD would be written to die like nobodies because that's their purpose. They're like those Waffen SS members who felt of-so-strong and unbeatable and scary in their shiny uniforms only to get an improvised battlefield execution.

 

Tarn, and even the DJD, were such a hilarious waste of time. Not even a decent character study, just a complete non-event because Roberts couldn't end the story satisfyingly. He was a bland and a total Mary Sue villain that spoiled any story he entered, and the fact that it didn't even have satisfying payoff made the whole DJD feel like an exercise in pointlessness.

People will try and defend it by saying "but that's the point!" But that only makes it worse. Subverting expectations isn't a good thing if it's shit and unremarkable. I'd easily take a well-written character and story that doesn't surprise me over a "twist ending" that makes me feel like I wasted my time.

FWIW I have read the stories and found it equally as unsatisfying.

It's beyond pretentious for a writer to assume they're smarter than their audience, and these "oh you just don't get it, it's supposed to suck" excuses are always the worst and are always easily seen for what they are. Many a writer and fan have tried to defend poor writing this way, and it never works.

I followed MTMTE start to finish, making excuses when it was shitty and bragging when it was good, but eventually I just couldn't ignore the faults. It became a slog, a chore to read, and the constant feeling of every story beat being a "what a tweest" moment, even if it didn't make sense, grew old. It felt like the book was more about gimmicks and gags than it was just telling an entertaining story.

 

No, it's actually mentioned in his original profile.

"Megatron can use his internal circuitry to connect the cannon interdimensionally with a black hole, where it can draw on anti-matter as its power source. The blast from this is far greater, but it creates a tremendous strain on Megatron to do this for even one blast."

 

This is going to devolve into another argument between pro-Roberts and anti-Roberts. People who like his writing thought it was a great ending, but those who didn't thought it was another one of his failures to deliver, and the first truly massive one at that. If you'd read the comics as they'd come out, you had a huge wait to see who Tarn actually was, and he'd been pumped up to be this ultimate badass (killing Black Shadow, Heretech) and everyone being terrified of him. Then he gets killed like a chump using Megs' forgotten power - because it was mentioned originally and then NEVER again until Roberts throws it out there.

Personally? This was when I got off the Roberts train. I felt like he was less about delivering a good story and more into the "fooled you" twists that could make sense but only just so.

 

Which still wasn't mentioned or referenced in the old IDW continuity until MTME when Ratchet dismissed it as a rumor. It's 1984 G1 profile.

 

Still never got why Tarn, with his super powered voice and all, didn't use it to kill Megatron. That was one of unfortunately many plot holes in this arc (and don't get me started on the deliberately misleading solicitations and covers, which I also felt was foul play on Roberts' part, and in fact something he did all the way to the end of LL).

Side note: while I really did enjoy a lot of what Roberts did (and still do) I am really glad the board has moved away from sycophants railing angrily at people dissecting Roberts work (good and bad) simply because they were either obsessed with it or even running a mini-"business" on it. I wish the discussions about his work were more of this nature back then vs. the tribal warfare that was going on.

 

He never seems to use that skill in battle, so maybe he can't; possibly it's something that requires time for focus and concentration.

 

Has it been long enough to talk about Tarn's ridiculous superpower?

He can kill things just by talking at them. It's so utterly stupid in the context of a race that can turn off their ears that I have to find it a little bit brilliant. My favorite Tarn moment of all is when he's harassing someone over the phone and they just hang up on him. I love it.

 

LOL, convenient power forgetting, along with how his own creator utterly forgetting he was a transformation addict. He apparently can only use it against specific targets who are chumps on Roberts' list (like Scorponok, who may be the most toothless bad guy in Roberts' story). I guess it goes into the strange way Roberts WAY overpowered Tarn and had to give Megs a previously forgotten magic weapon to beat him.

And yes, the deliberate misleading of the reader burned a lot of bridges with me and Roberts. I would like to really enjoy his work because Season 1 was SUCH a high point, and there were great nuggets of lore building in the rest.

But, yeah, you are right that there was almost tribal warfare while this was going on, to the point that a lot of people remembered that there was another series going on. MTMtE/LL greatly overshadowed Barber's stuff. What mini-business were you talking about? 3rd parties of the Lost Light crew?

 

I'm not sure where people are getting the idea that deliberately misleading people about Tarn was a big thing, beyond them falling for the obvious. Are you talking about where there were tons of hints dropped on who Tarn was, to the point where it practically screamed "HEY GUYS MAYBE TARN IS ROLLER", in a way that was blindingly obvious to be a red herring? Where once you knew he was Glitch, and looked back, it all still added up?

If you're mad Tarn wasn't Roller, or someone famous, you're completely missing the point. Tarn was a nobody. He built his entire identity into being Tarn. He let who he was be completely subsumed by the Decepticon "ethos", to the point he was willing lead an entire army to kill Megatron just because he couldn't process the whole end of the Great War. In the end, Tarn was absolutely no one, he was just an empty shell unable to function without the dogma he devoted his whole life to.

His powers? He was strong, and he had a voice that could kill sparks, but it wasn't immediate. He was also up against someone who knew exactly what he could do. He was up against someone who literally made Overlord scared. He was up against the person who used to represent everything he fought for, and whose trap he walked directly into. Tarn and the DJD never had a chance against a Megatron who actually had the drive to kill them, and they crumpled like the opportunistic murderers they were.

Remember, the DJD were the Decepticon secret police. Half their arsenal was the sheer terror they invoked. Against Megatron, that was turned against them. None of them seemed as devoted as Tarn, and Megatron clearly terrified them. They were all replaceable, and they knew it. It was literally part of the job description. You were picked for the DJD, you gave up who you were, and if you died in the line of duty you were replaced. They weren't Phase Sixers, they weren't Six Changers, they weren't planet killers. They were assassins, they were jack booted enforcers with pretty names and badges.

We even saw multiple times, leading up to their deaths, where they'd failed or been tricked into leaving. They were anything but infallible.

I'm getting a little off topic here. The point is, Tarn himself, behind the veneer of power, class, and terror he tried to evoke, was empty. He retreated into paperwork to keep order, he thought he was educated and erudite, and he believed in the Decepticon cause to the point of insanity. The moment things started to go pear shaped, he tried to commit suicide, then he decided the solution was to kill anything that made him question himself.

Him dying like a bitch was the entire endcap to his story. For all his seeming strength, ability, intelligence, and charisma, in the end there was nothing inside him but hate for himself and everything else.

 

The sad part is that I actually like the DJD, but when looking at then critically they really aren't that remarkable and I'd definitely agree they were overpowered. I think another author besides Roberts could do a better job with them... same with Rung, and a handful of others Roberts is 'known' for. But them trying to make Tarn seem sympathetic despite being a genuinely awful and unhinged person is one of the worst things they tried. The whole "Damos being Tarn" thing just felt like a lazy attempt at a twist, when I think just making it Roller would've been better. A twist just for the sake of it is usually a bad idea, and I wish writers would stop caring so much about twists and focus more on telling a good story first.

In retrospect despite how much I liked ideas Roberts had and elements introduced, I often found myself ultimately unsatisfied by the final execution.

Roberts definitely strikes me as pretentious, though to be fair it's hard to remain humble when literally all of the people you surround yourself with worship you like a god. He also made his obvious avatar into the literal god of their world.. so yeah.

I was there too, I used to justify or make excuses for all of the IDW stuff for awhile, but it got to the point where I just couldn't do it anymore. I began to wonder whether or not I was enjoying each time an issue was released or if I was just reading them because I felt obligated to do so.

 

IDW Megatron is still G1 Megatron. Everything in the 1980s profiles can also apply to the same G1 characters today. Note I didn't say "does also apply", as there will be changes with characters no longer having their original gimmick or has been given depth beyond their original portrayal, but the 1980s are a perfectly valid source when a writer chooses to do so.

 

Pulling things last minute out of the writer's bottom hole still is weak writing when a writer chooses to do so. It's doing low-hanging memberberries, like Crankcase shoulder guns. Except Crankcase guns weren't a major plot twist.


Also, IDW =/= actual G1. It's a reboot.

 

"Dismissed as a rumour" is pretty well clear seeding and confirmation really. Megatron does not have assistance from 2,300,009 invisible vampire ghosts, either.