Of course, I'm also familiar with the fact that actually killing a dozen people is worse than actually killing three. Chromia was stopped remember, not to mention it is ambiguous whether or not she was aware people would die before Starscream told her. Intent =/= ignorance. I hate that people called Chromia a bitch who deserved to die when dozens of bots have done worse, meanwhile people would be quite happy to see Sandstorm get his own damned comic despite doing worse. I don't care that you hate the ending of Windblade, I really don't. What I hate is how much vitriol was leveled at Chromia and how little is being leveled at the many, many other murderous bots who did far worse than she did. You're not doing that so I don't really have an issue with you at all.
Let's remember how many people Starscream has killed, and Skywarp and Bombshell and Sunstreaker and so many others, even the Dinobots were called out for their actions, the Firecons killed thousands in one battle and the Dinobots were apparently 'just as bad.' And heck, it's ok for women to be villains! Especially if it's not the femme-fatal type. She has a believable motive, she carried through a fairly smart plan, and was stopped by her friend. That works for me.
Thank you. Chromia killed 3 people to show Windblade that Cybertron is dangerous, when it is? KILL THE BITCH SHE NEEDS TO DIIIIIE!!111!!one Sandstorm? Killed a dozen people? HES SUPER COOL DESPERADO LOL Yeah, that makes so much sense.
Ah, but the Decepticons are just poor freedom fighters that let things get a teeny bit out of hand, lol.
Let me clarify that I don't like that both Sandstorm and Chromia are 'killers'. At all. Sandstorm killing bots as a soldier during the war is understandable (but still horrible), but anyone going on a killing spree in peacetime, no matter what their intentions are, is truly awful. However, there's most definitely a difference between Sandstorm and Chromia, even if you don't count Chromia almost killing a lot of people with the space bridge - that was definitely unintentional and unplanned, although she did try to go through with it. The difference between the two is that Sandstorm is a soldier who went through possibly millions of years of war, and as a veteran is suffering from either a form of PTSD or a strong conviction that the bad guys should not go unpunished - because even if IDW paints the Autobot/Decepticon conflict grey, with thugs and heroes on both sides, the Decepticons still are the bad guys (and the Autobots force they're fighting is not the corrupt Cybertron system they at first tried to overthrow). Chromia? Chromia has zero experience in the war, and has only been around since Dark Cybertron (where the conflict wasn't even Bot/Con). She bombed civilians of random and unknown affiliation, to make a point that Cybertron is unsafe for Windblade, hilariously twisted being the danger to Windblade in the first place. She has (or had) no cause for concern for Cybertronians, seeing all of them as expendable. Again, to clarify: I don't like neither character's actions. They both deserve to be locked away (not die), and I don't think Sandstorm is a cool badass. And to be honest: I get the story this book is telling (basically turning Sandstorm into the Punisher), and I don't disagree with it, but I'm kind of done with 'thuggish' Autobots. IDW has enough of them by now, and I'd like to see some genuine heroic once again. Why do people think a Starscream is 'cool' despite the fact he's a criminal who has killed thousands, of not millions? Because he was written as a bad guy from the start. He was never a good guy who overstepped his boundaries. Sandstorm and Chromia are both 'friendly' Autobot characters, whose reinterpretations in IDW are glaring compared to their previous versions (even if they weren't that greatly developed before). That's a huge difference in how you perceive a characters' actions. I guess the same can be said for IDW Star Saber, but heh, at least I remember tiny fragments of Sandstorm and Chromia, so I can't see them as 'blank slates'. I wasn't even aware of Star Saber until about 6 or so years ago, making it much easier for me to accept this heroic Autobot turned killer zealot. And yes, that IS hypocritical of me.
Even the casualties of the bomb weren't necessarily intended. What we learned is Chromia is a professional bodyguard who views it as her job to bring her charge home, and she's willing to use fairly ruthless methods to do so, but more from an 'acceptable losses' standpoint. It cements her as, in a way similar to Starscream, thinking of them as two quite different groups, while to Windblade and most of the bar members, they're all just 'bots. A danger she could control to acceptable levels- the bomb'd go off when Windblade's at almost-sure-to-survive-but-wounded range (Prowl pulled a similar trick, after all), a fact apparent only to Chromia. Though IDW doesn't exactly have a lack of the latter either! Aside from Sandstorm and Chromia, Sunstreaker manages to leave both of those two in the dust. Oh yea, and Springer. Remember when he sent dozens of bots to their death to rescue Kup? That's... that's really quite similar come to think of it. Both Springer and Chromia value personal loyalty very highly and will sacrifice a lot of others to protect the one they're loyal to.
That's a little different, I think. Springer informed all those people about the danger and equipped them as best as he could to retrieve Kup. Each 'Bot knew the risks going into the operation. I'm cross about Chromia not getting any real justice because she's supposedly a good guy...yet she's killed three people in a terrorist attack (and I mean, honestly, why wouldn't she expect severe explosions to kill a few people?), triggered said attack when Windblade was there and got her charge injured, and doesn't give a shit that people died because of her actions. The fact that she's basically gotten off scott-free in a very contrived, unsatisfying way even though logically she should be at least detained is baffling to me. Megatron and Starscream have both been jailed and/or put on trial several times in the series for their actions. We see with the Aequitas trials that many, many Autobots have been put to justice for various war crimes. Hell, let's look at Impactor! He killed unarmed, tied up Decepticons during wartime and was punished severely for it by being put on trial and sent to Garrus 9. But Chromia kills 3 innocent civilians in a terrorist attack in peacetime just to get her friend and charge to go home and doesn't feel any remorse for it...and nothing happens? Really? There's a serious disconnect there. And if Sandstorm is getting the same sort of bizarre treatment by the narrative there's something wrong with that too. It's not like being upset about how Chromia's crimes were dealt with and being upset with how Sandstorms crimes are being dealt with are mutually exclusive things. Though I will say, as least Sandstorm is being shown to have PTSD and/or is shown as mentally unstable, whereas Chromia was just treated as heartless when it comes to the civilians she killed. The way the Windblade miniseries ended just ruined my enjoyment of Chromia as a character for me, despite me being totally on board beforehand. I'm genuinely disheartened that this is the case for one of the very few female characters we have in IDW. I wanted to like Chromia, I really did, but these events completely soured her for me.
The difference is that Sandstorm is a soldier with a real-life issue (PTSD) and Chromia is a just a bodyguard that has never seen actual war and gets all self-righteous about it. That said I don´t hate her, but the two of them grew in very different scenarios.
Never seen war =/= never been in life or death situations, mind you. Caminus is a city with a warrior tradition, it fights with swords, it likely has crime and interacts with neighbors. It's a quite different situation, but remember, Orion Pax-Super Cop never had seen war as-of Shadowplay either, and Ironhide was just a bodyguard for quite some time... heck, *this* Ironhide (thanks to the memory loss) isn't in that different a position. And it's not so much that she's self-righteous, it's that she wants her charge out of the mess before she gets killed. Something happens. Windblade has to form an alliance with Starscream and Chromia loses a major part of her relationship with the bot most important to her. But, to paraphrase Starscream. "Seriously, we've all tried to kill each other." Things are getting better, but it's been a pretty rough peace and there's been both a number of small incidents (the charge problem with the moon that zapped several bots before Wheeljack diverted for one, aside from the Sandstorm case and similar), plus a few huge ones (City on Fire, Dark Cybertron). Everyone outside of a very small circle thinks the explosion was a malfunction. Putting it out in the open would jeopardize the attempts to repair Metroplex, reconnect with Caminus, and other things both sides want. It's realpolitik.
The thing is we don't know anything of what the Camiens society is like all we know is that they avoided the war through isolation. For all we know it could have been a dystopian nightmare. The functionist lead society didn't have no civil war but it was equally as brutal and nightmarish. Chromias role as body guard could have meant all sorts of different things in their culture.
Being a society with a warrior tradition and being in an actual war might be different things.Sure it helps built a reputation and all, but once bullets start flying, what guarantees do I have that reputation won´t crumble?
Barber’s Afterword at the end of the comic promises we’ll see Sandstorm again. So it’s just a question of how soon. This is why this story works and the Windblade mini fails miserably. I’m actually interested to see where Sandstorm’s character goes from here. Does he stay a villain or can he be redeemed? Chromia’s character isn’t at that interesting crossroad because the story goes on to ignore the implications of her actions. As a result, she loses the opportunity to grow as a character. These two stories are similar but I think the different reactions to their culprits is justified because of the details. Sandstorm went off the deep end but he was clearly shown struggling with it. After the war is over, he targeted those he saw as war criminals that went unpunished and, in the end, he was imprisoned for his crimes. Chromia callously killed civilians during peacetime for flimsy reasoning, wouldn't think twice about causing many many more to die, but got away with it because she knew people in high places. Both did things that were completely without justification, but Chromia’s crimes, coupled with the lack of remorse or penalty, make her the more morally reprehensible one to me. Agreed. With Scott returning to Windblade for the Combiner Wars, I’m really hoping they take the time to address this. Something good can be done with the character – hero or villain – but it can’t be done if they ignore what she did. Your entire post describes exactly how I felt after finishing the mini. It was just an awful letdown after such a promising start. Plus, we lost that wonderful relationship between Windblade and Chromia for a terrible shock reveal with no real resolution. Instead of a true friendship between two female characters, we find out that Chromia apparently cares about Windblade so much that she lied to her, manipulated Metroplex behind her back, set off a bomb in her vicinity, and ultimately created the situation that made Starscream try to kill her. The way I've been able to stomach Chromia as a character is by treating that last part of the story as a cliffhanger that hasn’t been concluded yet. Yet Chromia’s still standing by Windblade’s side as of Wheeljack’s revival and nothing more has been said about it. I want to see them address how this has affected their relationship but, as of now, there's been nothing.
It still shows that Chromia thinks collateral damage is fine, and that Cybertronians - whatever faction - are unimportant compared to the life of a Camien she's sworn to protect. In peacetime. It's understandable, but incredibly iffy. I think the 'best' retcon IDW could pull right now is simply that the bomb never killed anyone, and was always set to only do damage. Lots of damage, but in the end, non-fatal and -to robots- reparable damage. I don't care if they twist it into Starscream trying to goad the perpetrator and Chromia trying to maintain her cover, thus not being able to say it wasnt meant to kill or anything. Trying to activate the spacebridge and warp home would still be bad, but again, that was sort of unintentional and was stopped. I'm sorry, I just really dislike female Transformers are finally back in fiction and the second new one introduced already has some serious mental issues just like Arcee. A good character isn't defined by its gender, so I don't mind an amoral bodyguard robot...but since the ratio is still 4 to 400 I'd love to see Chromia redeemed and start over fresh. True. I also hate Sunstreaker, and cannot for the life of me figure out what the appeal is to the Lambo Twins. They're assholes, but Streaker especially! But all those bots were Autobot soldiers who all signed up to extract an Autobot war hero, which is still different from sacrificing civilians (although yes, I bet Springer has had to make some touch calls ending in collateral damage at some point in the past as well). You're totally right on Chromia and her personal loyalty, but proactively dealing with problems through murder instead of passively protecting (she is officially a bodyguard, after all), and treating Cybertronians as something completely different as (and lesser to) Camiens is a mental problem at best, xenophobic at worst.... C'mon IDW. Fix Chromia, make her more in control than we initially think she is. Let her answer to somebody else if neccesary, but please fix that misstep. And send Sandstorm to jail!
... Because they had a brief cameo in a story about another bot and Chromia is still Windblade's bodyguard. I find people are too impatient with the serial medium, bot just here, but all over. So many people get annoyed that various things aren't happening now, but the way the format works strongly encourages things spread out, and we're only 10 issues into the new 'season' and have had other revelations aplenty. So, yea, they can't stick in everything that fast, we have very sizable casts (even just talking main casts) and stories need room to breath. The natural place for it to be explored is the Windblade ongoing, just because they show up in a book or two between that doesn't mean other aspects are forgotten, indeed small roles are often a way for writers to say, 'Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about this character, they'll have their shot.' And let me note- Chromia did not tag along in Punishment, which I doubt is coincidence.
Just noticed Now that sandstorm has taken a leap to the dark side most of the helicopter transformers are a pretty effed up bunch Sandstorm - vigilante killer Springer - sent loads to their deaths to save his friend Blades - his g2 portrayal was pretty mean Vortex - seemed pretty cold in the g1 cartoon and was locked up as a decepticon criminal Animated Megatron - no redemption for this cold hearted megatron Whirl - don't need to explain this one, do I? Airachnid - point proven
So much applause is deserved for this. I shudder to think what reading comics back in the 80s would have been like if the Internet existed. She's there briefly, for the bungled raid on the Firecons, but then vanishes back into story exile. She's definitely not being kept involved in the investigation or Windblade's dangerous activities.
But, see, the thing is that--regarding the Windblade miniseries, at least--no one was really sure by the end if there was going to be more. It was a kind of testing the waters/up-in-the-air thing if there was going to be a continuation by the time those four issues ended. Functionally, Mrs. Scott was writing this not knowing if she would ever get to continue it, but then it turned out to be popular enough for IDW to give them all the go-ahead for more. In light of this, the ending to the four issues is very abrupt, confusing, and rather irritating. No one was expecting absolutely everything to be tied up by the end, but surely at least the main plot regarding the bombing and who was responsible and should be put to justice for it should have a satisfactory ending, right? Instead, what we got was what came across as a very rushed half-conclusion with Windblade flying off for some reason with yet another "dramatic" voiceover that amounts to just about nothing...all the while Chromia isn't taken into custody or anything and is just left standing there. Saying that people are being impatient for a conclusion that really should've been dealt with in the miniseries, especially when you know that the writer wrote it not knowing if they'd get to write any more, is kind of a strange criticism to have of people who wanted more out of that ending. What we were given wasn't so much of even an open-ended wrap up as what came off as, in my opinion, a strangely sloppy "I don't really know what else to write here, so uh...Windblade monologues into the sunset, the end." It's WEIRD, really, because I'd been absolutely delighted with Mrs. Scott's writing up until that point. Oddly enough, Mr. Roberts has a bit of this problem sometimes too, where he'll write a plotline that is great in its execution up until the very end where it leaves off on a weird note (MTMTE #15 is so rushed and lackluster to me, as well as the issue where he had to very briefly write a few prose pieces to explain that Red Alert and Fort Max left the Lost Light and essentially "put them on a bus", to name a few incidences). I've criticized him for it too at various points. He and Scott could both probably use more precaution next time they plot things out in their respective works.
The natural place to have shown Windblade's reaction to Chromia's betrayal would've been in the Windblade mini itself. We're stuck waiting for it to be addressed in the ongoing because the mini fell short in focusing on two of it's most major characters in a limited cast. There was an entire final page of Windblade's internal monologue but no thoughts on Chromia? By comparison, TF: Punishment included Optimus' reactions to Sandstorm's actions, which is another reason it felt more satisfying than the Windblade mini.
