Lost Light #20 (spoilers)

[Professor Smooth]

OK.

This was a really, REALLY dense issue. A lot of stuff happened here. Most of it, I really liked.

BUT...I didn't care for the Star Saber thing *at all*. That put me *well* off. Even now, 12 hours removed from reading the book, that still sticks in my craw.

Everything else? GOLD!

[Yaya]

Agree. The Star Saber thing was super lame. Probably a victim of having to wrap things up quickly. And that was, well, as quick as it gets.

Also can't figure out why Rodinus turned back to his original color. Come to think of it, cant remember why he was purple in the first place. Much prefer his true self, so glad for the change. Rodimus was great in this issue. Loved the little exchange with Cyclonus before he charges into the fire. Rodimus can be a smug ass, but he's still an Autobot commander, and we see why. Distinctive moment there, I felt. Rodimus made the issue for me.

Guess the Grand Archtect must be Unicron?

[Professor Smooth]

Agree. The Star Saber thing was super lame. Probably a victim of having to wrap things up quickly. And that was, well, as quick as it gets.

Also can't figure out why Rodinus turned back to his original color. Come to think of it, cant remember why he was purple in the first place. Much prefer his true self, so glad for the change. Rodimus was great in this issue. Loved the little exchange with Cyclonus before he charges into the fire. Rodimus can be a smug ass, but he's still an Autobot commander, and we see why. Distinctive moment there, I felt. Rodimus made the issue for me.

Guess the Grand Archtect must be Unicron?

I figured the fire burned Roddy's paint job off. He had Drift paint him after losing the Lost Light.

I doubt the Grand Architect is Unicron. Primus, maybe. I'm thinking it may turn out to be (a) Megatron.

[Auntie Slag]

He got the purple-y paint job to honour Skids' death, I think. I picked up both issues today and read them way too quickly. Two things are bothering me:

1) First Aid is there, but where are the other Protectobots, have they been zombified too?

2) In the solicit for Issue 21 you can see Rung on the cover and he's already got his arm back. I get a bit fed up with the way they instantly get over all their torturings and injuries. Issue 4-6 was awesome showing Fort Max dealing with his recovery, taking Rung and Whirl hostage etc. It was perhaps one of my favourite issues (outside of Shadowplay). And the way Chromedome tapped into Overlord's fear of failure by leaving a code phrase in his memories. Lately we've seen horrific things happen to various characters and they shrug it off, like Rodimus and Thunderclash being turned inside-out alive by Sunder. They should still be rocking on the floor in a corner thinking about that, or at least whenever anyone mentions Sunder's name.

Maybe its a time thing. Earlier issues could deal with trauma better. Now they get shot to hell one panel and everything's cool the next.

Anyway, I'll enjoy the story proper when I can re-read some of the back issues a bit more. Some of them I've only read through the once, which was a heresy with any MTMTE issues!

[Professor Smooth]

The arm thing bugged me, too. But it's just the cover. The preview pages that have been released still show Rung missing his arm.

[Auntie Slag]

Is there a lot more room for permadeath now? There's only five issues left, and it would appear that Mainframe, Slapdash, that guy with the visor and possibly Bluestreak have been killed. I was expecting Mirage to be resurrected somehow from a few issues back, but now it looks like there's not enough space to fit everything in, unless Roberts adds a text story or three to get as much out as possible...

One thing I don't understand; did Cyclonus somehow wish Tailgate back to life on Mederi? When all the other dead characters vanished... was this a 'power of love' thing? I know it hasn't yet been explained what Fort Max and co saw on the monitor showing Tailgate's underground tomb, they seemed more grossed out than shocked to see nothing there.