Yes, that is a much better scenario and he definitely shouldn't take advantage of the situation. And I think the main problem is not even the nudge, though it definitely makes things more creepy. Their memories had been altered without their consent, that is the worst part.
The problem now is how this will be wrapped up. Furman surely didn't want Revelations to end the way it did. To my understanding it was supposed to be 6 issues long and not 4. Here's hoping that Scott doesn't share the same fate. H3ll, a lot of this should just be left open... I'd rather Barber pick up were Scott left off here opposed to having Prime on Earth playing Patty Cake with the US President.
Honestly, I really liked one little side bit where Blast Off goes into the line about how mnemosurgery is the ULTIMATE VIOLATION, and Starscream kinda rolls his eyes and goes, "Okay mister professional sadist/murderer, sorry you don't like violation now." Like, yeah, mnemosurgery is bad, and also these are guys with guns built into their arms and they live life like guys with guns built into their arms.
Well that depends. Some people are willing to hurt people like gentlemen (bear with me on this), like how if you go fight each other on the battlefield it's not personal. Like it's okay to do your duty, but not okay to go to the bar afterward, see the same guys, and then take them out back and shoot them. That's not okay. I think that was a Klingon thing in one Star Trek episode, actually. Two warriors who would just as easily kill each other in battle will share a drink about the battle later, no harm no fowl. Obviously you can take this from Starscream's perspective and to him killing is killing, and whether you agree with that is a personal thing (let's not start that argument, there's no point). The point I'm getting at is for some characters it matters how you beat the other guy. I've been thinking about the "nudge" and what if the "nudge" itself is what tips Onslaught off that something's wrong. Granted we don't know if Starscream actually looked in Onslaught and knows for sure that Onslaught doesn't already 'notice' Blast Off (remember Onslaught found out quick what Blast Off did at the start). I'm saying that what if everyone is just assuming Onslaught doesn't know instead of knowing that he doesn't know. We know that Starscream paints the Combaticons as a bunch of unemployed losers, but we also know that Onslaught is not as dumb as Starscream thinks he is.
Yes! Agreed. I think Blast Off is a soldier, and he's willing to fight on the battlefield and do what he has to to survive and successfully complete his mission. He'll do whatever he thinks will make Onslaught proud. However, his distaste for Vortex's more sadistic measures shows that he does care about how these things are done. I think he is someone who would care about rules of conduct, even in war, and abide by them. Honor would mean something to him. What he isn't going to do is randomly go up and torture/kill someone just for the heck of it, like Vortex, Brawl, and (according to Starscream, at least) Onslaught would do. It does appear he killed Drunkotron, though we don't know for sure, and the fact that he went back to his apartment muttering, "It HAD to be done, it had to be done..." suggests he did do it and he was feeling some regret about it (but thought it was what Onslaught would have wanted). And yes! We still don't know what's truly in Onslaught's mind, what motivates him. I was hoping to gain some understanding in issues ahead. What we do know is he does seem to care about Blast Off at least enough to pay attention to what he's doing and to be willing to go out during a riot looking for him because he hadn't come home yet. Onslaught may have noticed Blast Off, may even be attracted to him, but just not wanted to say anything for one of many different possible reasons, we don't know.
Exactly! Lol, it could be Blast Off who is the one who's been manipulated the most here, we don't know. Onslaught could have definitely done that. Man... this makes me bummed out, I wanted to learn all this down the line. Now I don't know how much we'll find out.
considering g1 i find this whole starscream combatacons relationship very fun, aracnid is a nice addition, to be honest with all the prime characters that where uniqe being added to comics over the years it helps put use to the toys after the show they easily fit in with parts of classics
Just had a thought. Could the bumblebee halucinations actually be the work of a mnemosurgon manipulating events from afar?
Per the Annual, its actually Bumblebee projecting his consciousness from the Crystal City singularity.
Yea, if OP could start covering Cybertron again, that'd be good. Barber's cybertron stuff was pretty solid, even if I love Scott there.
It is not the point how Onslaught feels about Blast Off in a romantic way, unlike Motormaster he does care about his team and is very protective. The reason why Onslaught is going wise up to this is not because of what Blast Off says to him it is how he reacts to him. Blast Off own infatuation and the violation will probably make difficult for him to have an close and intimate relationship any one. Onslaught getting close just will remind him about what Starscream and Airachnid did to him. I think the whole dream sequence was big mistake to do and Blast Off was not ready admit his feelings. Onslaught will pick up Blast Off reactions being different. Blast Off will question does Onslaught really does love him. I also don't think Onslaught manipulate Blast Off he may be unaware of the depth of feeling the later has. Since Starscream did not understand the team dynamics of the Combaticons he may just effectively traumatize Blast Off. As for Airachnid I think she just does not understand basic things like love and caring for another person in general. Bruticus will turn on them and be more destructive than before. All Starscream did was create emotional torment with no real benefit. Covering up what for the near death of Swindle and again this will come undone once the Combaticons will combine. I don't think Brawl and Vortex will be happy with the memory alteration as Onslaught is going be. I also think the Combaticons will not harm Blast Off in lasting away because of the gesalt mind they now have. Whatever pain they dish out to Blast Off will be felt by all. As for Onslaught I don't messing with his emotions is good for long term health in general. Very few things in life Onslaught actually cares about and he would never gone out of his way if he didn't care about Swindle. I am hoping this carries on to see what Onslaught will do and what lengths he will go for revenge. Onslaught will turn blind to Brawl and Vortex hurting Blast Off but I doubt that extends to Starscream.
To be clear, on it's own this is a fine and good story. Let me be stronger than that, it's the best I've read since Revolution. But it feels like a fan fiction because of what it does long term. Let me list the ways.... 1. This permanently breaks the Combaticons as a group. Unless Blast-Off immediately tells Onslaught what's going on, there is absolutely no way the Combaticons go on from here. Vortex and Brawl don't care enough about Blast Off to forgive him (reference their bet on whether he's alive or dead in the first arc) and Onslaught never forgets a slight (reference the entire motive behind the first arc). So that takes off the board the Combaticons as a group once this comes out. Worse yet: IT WILL COME OUT THE FIRST TIME THEY COMBINE. Reference every other combiner team, and even the first arc of this series. Once they combine everyone shares everything whether they want to or not. Blast Off knowing this is a lie means EVERYONE will know it's a lie as soon as Bruticus comes into play. 2. Bumblee rationalizing away Starscream's actions damages Bumblebee's character unless it turns out he's a hallucination. Prior to the annual there were a lot of different possible explanations for HeadBee. Now the only one that preserves Bumblebee's integrity is the one that is excluded by the annual. 3. For Starscream, this is an incredibly stupid ploy. Again, he's doing this to get a combiner. The first time they combine this all falls apart. While Starscream is ruthless, he's been careful to make sure there are no witnesses and no evidence. Everything about this issue screams "The thing that undoes Starscream." This whole scenario is just massively stupid on his part and absolutely will leave the kind of evidence you can use to bring him down. This issue feels like when the killer in a story makes a stupid mistake just to make sure the detective will catch him. 4. It establishes a pretty lusty relationship dynamic for aesexual robots. I'd have been just as uncool with Ironhide and Chromia locked in a passionate embrace. Hell, look at how their relationship has grown and how it parallels what we've seen of Chromedome and Rewind. What's happened here is that the writer has mapped human actions onto alien robots. It's annoying when Roberts has people quoting Community, it's just as annoying here. All that said, I am bummed the book is cancelled. Scott has been the one to pick up most of the Cybertron threads from Barber's season 1 of RiD. I liked those threads and with this book gone I'm scared those threads will die off. She's done some good work. Even this issue, which is likely to be a nightmare for continuity going forward is really great. EDIT IN: I mentioned the Harlan Ellison script for City on the Edge of Forever as an example of "incredible but unpublishable story", i.e. an editor making the call to kill an amazing story for the good of the franchise. If you want an example of the opposite, go look at Marvel's AXIS event. Marvel should have clearly killed that story for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is that AXIS makes no sense with the lead in to Secret Wars, an initiative that Marvel had been building to for years. There's literally no way to make both AXIS and the Secret Wars run up work in the same continuity, and that's an editorial issue. This feels similar, where not very far from now we're going to look at this issue and notice it really mucked up things that needed to not be mucked up.
I think you're right. I think Onslaught does care for his team. I like to think (but am not entirely sure yet) that Onslaught cared about Swindle, too, and while getting revenge on Starscream was part of his motivation, trying to find his missing soldier was also part of his motivation. I like to think Onslaught considers that team "his" and while he's unable to express deep caring (and there could be several reasons for that), he does care if someone messes with one of his own. I've always seen all the Combaticons as inclined to argue and squabble among themselves but at the same time, quick to defend any of their team from an outsider. And yes, this will put Onslaught to the test. I hope that ultimately he will realize the real betrayer is Starscream. That SS manipulated his loyal team member and his main desire for revenge will lock on SS again. However, we've never actually seen much of what's going on in Onslaught's head.... this story has largely been focused on Blast Off. We still don't truly know Onslaught's motivations or if he is aware of Blast Off's infatuation or not, or if he returns it. I see Ons as a very military mech, someone who probably doesn't think love has any place on the battlefield, regardless of his own feelings. Even if he returned Blast Off's love, he might not want to show it. Because to him, the battle is still raging, the war isn't really over in his mind (as SS pointed out). I agree- this whole thing is likely to traumatize Blast Off even more. I think he really loves Onslaught, and will question any affection Ons gives him now. I hope it will make him uncomfortable and he'll back away- or outright tell Ons as soon as he can. ...Argh, so much I wanted to see- what's going on inside Onslaught's mind, more about Brawl and Tex, etc., how is Blast Off going to handle this all, so disappointed this series is ending. I'm not sure it does. It definitely throws a wrench into the works, as any good story plot device does. I think loyalty to each other is one of the Combaticons' defining traits, especially between Onslaught and Blast Off, and this wrenches that apart in the worst of ways. But I think that was the point. Take a defining quality of this team and take it away from them- what do they do now? How do they get back together? Can trust ever be earned again? This would challenge them like any good plot twist will. I didn't mind that plot twist, but I am worried we'll never see it resolved now- that it might just be left hanging, or resolved in a rushed manner. And we still don't know how Blast Off will react. He went with Starscream's plans so the Combaticons could at least live again- now that they are free and awake once more, he COULD just tell Onslaught right off the bat. Or perhaps he tries to keep the secret but eventually succumbs- or Onslaught detects something, or perhaps as I mentioned earlier, Onslaught even had a contingency plan just in case SS ever tried to mess with their heads. Or like you said, maybe when they combine. Starscream is overly cocky sometimes and I doubt he really understands the depths of love or loyalty the Combaticons can have- especially Blast Off (or what really happens when bots combine). His inability to conceive of someone doing something selfless, or for love, might be his downfall in dealing with Blast Off ultimately, who knows. I was looking forward to finding out. Now I'm not sure we will.
IDW hasn't made Onslaught as intelligent or as strategical as he should be. Without Swindle around, IDW Onslaught has been pretty useless. This has been completely absent. Yeah, I get that characters aren't exactly the same but that shouldn't mean everything that came before should be completely thrown out. I'm not a fan of Blast Off / Onslaught because it goes against who they should be. Whereas non-fans or those who don't care about 80s G1 would probably accept it. Blast Off shouldn't be a romantic and especially not towards Onslaught. Its like Peter Parker having sexual fantasies about J. Jonah Jameson. At least with Rewind/Chromedome and Cyclonus/Tailgate, their relationships are slowly built up over time and is more emotional with the only physical side being enjoying each other's company. Blast Off's fantasies went from almost zero to full on almost kissing that it's basically slash fic. And that's not even touching the fact that Blast Off is willing to allow Onslaught's memories and feelings be rewritten to benefit Blast Off's own desires. But then he is an immoral evil Decepticon at heart.
See, I'd disagree with that. Blast Off has always had a thing for Onslaught, ever since G1. Was it romantic? Who knows. But he definitely admired Onslaught, even back in the 80s cartoon. There's a line where Brawl is complaining about something and Blast Off assures him not to worry, "Onslaught will come up with a brilliant plan, he always does". He also is shown to immediately come to Onslaught and starts chatting with him the second they wake up in "Starscream's Brigade". Blast Off's G1 tech specs and bio speak of how he is lonely but covers it up by pretending to be aloof. Why does he feel the need to cover it up? I always wondered. In addition, in the G2 comics there's that one panel where Onslaught has pain and Blast off is immediately concerned about him, asking if he's ok... which is rather unusual behavior for the "evil, everyone for themselves" Decepticons. The groundwork has always been there, and I felt this explanation for things already present in the 1980s' bio and G1 and G2 fit right in to what has already been established. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, of course, but it definitely didn't come out of nowhere.
