#no making love without needing to fill out a gawd damn form XD

[danielladigitalbunny]

My significant other drafting me into Helldivers...now we fight Bugs and Machines together for Freedom and Democracy!

[scraplette]

Lost Light #5 Thoughts & Feels

Okay, because of IRL circumstances, I had to skip on a thought&feels post for #4. Unfortunately, I doubt it's something I'll ever get back to. So please accept my sincerest apologies as we leap straight into Lost Light #5: Modes of Production.

As always, under a read more for massive spoilers.

+recap of issue #4: EVEN MORE FUNCTIONISTS!

+I'm loving the Council cover. They look suitably menacing.

+I'm honestly touched by this moment between Rung and Nightbeat. Nightbeat, guessing that Rung would rather suffer in silence, decides to track him down so he can help him. It's so sweet how Nightbeat offers to be an outlet for Rung's pain.

+Rung has friends who care about his emotional well-being!

+Buuuuuuut, well. Not to throw poop all over his thoughtful gesture but Nightbeat is not exactly known for his tact or understanding >_>... Add to that the fact that he's currently taking an emotion blocking drug... Let's see how this goes!

+Not gonna lie. I've always lowkeyed shipped Nightbeat/Rung. This issue is not helping XD

+Look at Rung's face! He misses Skids so much Q_Q

+”It's not Skids. I mean, it is Skids, but-”

SCREAMING

“-It's everything else, too. It's me.”

MORE SCREAMING

+Don't you be hurting Drift's BFF!

+I like the call back to Rodimus being a past Matrix holder. Noice.

+It's hilarious how much the Council buy into their own BS : | and when I say hilarious, I actually mean pathetic and a little bit terrifying.

+Gawd, I'm loving all this Rung stuff. I'm so sorry, everyone. I think much of this issue is going to be me cooing over Rung.

+I did wonder how Rung was coping with retirement. I think maybe one to two months have passed since the get of #48/49 and there was never any follow up to Rung's resignation. Like, how did his patients feel? How did that affect Rung' relationship with the rest of the crew. Did he take on a new position?  

Rung talking about his self-worth, and how his job helped him deal with that, is actually kinda heartbreaking when you take Cybertronian society into account. Being without a job is not the same for other bots as it is for Rung. I hate to say it but, in a gross-oversimplification of the Cybertronian culture, a functional alt-mode is a safety net, psychologically if not job wise.

A jet can be a scientist or a cook, anything they want, but they will always have the comfort of knowing, if all that falls through, they're still a jet. There is not such comfort for Rung.

+”If it's a choice between us killing him and you using him... No contest” Ratchet continues to be awesome in everything he does *fans self*

+I wanted to bring this up after reading #4 but didn't get the chance. For the longest time I've wondered why the Council had such power and political influence. After all, religious doctrine can only get you so far. Well, I must say, turning into the key to Vector Sigma... Yeah, that'll do it.

Except that seems to be complete BS. So feck those guys.

Damn! FU!Rung is on fire!

+Luna 2 looks so cool. If it doesn't end up being a Proto-Unicron then I'll be super miffed.

+I spy a teeny Minimus amongst the destruction.

+I do like when Megatron is all comandery.

Tiny glasses

+Poor Roller misses his pal :( I wonder if he knows Orion Pax became Optimus Prime. Has anyone told him yet? Ratchet, come on. He has a right to know!

+Speaking of Roller, I wonder if his drugs problem will ever be addressed.

Proceeds to describe in great detail what he thinks happened to Orion Pax. Yeah, sure you haven't XD

+YAY! TEN AND SWERVE ARE OKAY!

+Supportive Cyclonus is best Cyclonus.

+This is easily my favourite panel in the whole comic.

+So, it looks like we won't be getting a immediate conclusion to the Tailgate/Whirl cliffhanger. I'm actually glad of that. Abuse(intentional or not) is a very delicate issue and needs to be handed as such. There's too much going on in this issues to give it adequate panel time.

+I've actually seen some folks complain about the lack of follow up, accusing Roberts of dropping  an important plot thread or even outright ignoring it. Really? James Roberts. James seeded-the-beginnings-of-Elegant-Chaos-as-early-as-Chaos-Theory-or-Issue-one-of-MTMTE Roberts? REALLY?

+May 10th is Brainstorm day! Spread the word!

YES! Ever since its introduction, I've always hoped we'd see some in-universe examples of individuals affected by it!

+Rung is admitting that he can't remember his early life or his exact date of birth. And we're not talking a few days or weeks. Oh no. Rung has narrowed his birth down to six or seven million years ago. SIX OR SEVEN!? That's at least a millions years unaccounted for. That's a ridiculous amount of time!

+btw Rung has some very nice lips in this panel.

+Are they implying Rung used to know what he did?

+Clicker is so precious!

+YAY! It's Sweep! I'm surprised we haven't seen Quark yet.

+ghpdjfngh[ojkfnh]pmfghpo

+WE KNOW WHAT RUNG DOES!

+I actually gasped. We knew Rung's function scared the Council. The second these crystals were revealed to be photonic crystals I lost it. Like, holy shit. Rung can make photonic crystals! A crucial ingredient in created constructed cold bots. It disproves everything the Council has ever preached.  My poor brain honestly cannot fully comprehend all the implications @_@

But the biggest thing that sticks in my mind is this. At this point, without the pulses from Vector Sigma Rung is the only thing capable of creating new life, but that's only if Vector Sigma itself is still active, which it appears to be both in this universe and the main one. For ages, we've been lead to assume that cold construction is an "unnatural" form of creation. But Rung's existence completely turns that on its head. Did the planet create Rung because it knew its pulses were a temporary thing? Why is there only one of him? What was all that stuff Rung was implying, about making the crystals before. If he did used to make them, then why did he stop? There's so much going on! I also don't think we've gotten the full story yet.

+What does this mean for Cybertron's future? Why are the crystals in Drift's vision?

+”I'd produced them unexpectedly. A physiological response to an intolerable psychological burden.”

So... That's the trigger?

Oh...

+So Skids' death for Our!Rung was mentally equivalent to two millions years of torture. My littler shipper heart isn't sure how to process this information.

+... Does this mean we might get Skids back? How much residual spark energy is needed to fill a crystal?

+Okay, I'm down with Rung's function but if he can form crystals with his hands/spark then what's the point of his alt-mode?

+Our!Rung has produced seven crystals. I wonder if that's going to be important later.

+Pssst, it totally will be.

+The Nightbeat/Rung shipper inside me just squeed.

+I love Nightbeat here. He's got his arm around Rung's and is all “Sorry, mate. I don't have the foggiest but I'm gonna try my best to be here for you.”

+The Matrix is a photonic crystal. I wonder if Rung can fix it... or if he made the original O_O

+I'm not sure how to feel about Terminus. I don't think he's informed enough to advise Megatron in this situation. He didn't experience the war. He didn't see the atrocities committed by his friend. Megatron told him as mush as he could, but it's no replacement for first-hand experience.

However, I do understand him trying to save his friend. It's rather endearing, in it's own way.

As for the situation, Megatron remaining on Functionist!Cybertron, I would honestly be fine with Megatron staying. I'm paraphrasing a bit, but Roberts once said he couldn't have Prowl on the Lost Light because every single story would be about him. Prowl actions have effected so many people, there'd be no way to avoid it. Unfortunately, the exact thing has happened with Megatron, who's like a Prowl turned up to eleven when it comes to horrific deeds committed against the Cybertronian race. While I've enjoyed the ride, I feel other characters stories are starting to suffer.

+I honestly love Megatron in this scene. He's not trying to justify or deny his past crimes.

Yaaaasssss

:(

+This theory was guessed as early as issue two(maybe even issue one) so, sadly, learning Lug has been a hallucination this whole time loses a little of it's emotional impact. Stilled bummed, though. I really liked Lug. I can only hope that Lug survived and is out there, somewhere.

+This is comics land so no one is dead until we see a body! ANODE! GO FIND HER STATUE!

+FU!Rung is competent as hell.

+Rewind and Chromedome are quite sweet here. Comforting each other whilst Rung lays out the Council's plan for galactic conquest.

+Rewind, once again, explains why Cybertronians are massive pricks. Seriously, though, Rewind isn't wrong. What is with Cybertronians and genocide?

+My god. The Council really are a bunch of hypocritical pricks.

+”Hold that heroic thought” is a great line and I must find a way to work in into normal conversation.

+Rodimus squealing brings me joy. The circle of squee is complete.

+Poor FU!Rung. He looks so tired... but that doesn't mean he's not ready to throw down!

This is my second favourite panel.

+As much as I love any and all versions of Rung, I'm amazed Rodimus didn't laugh in his face.

+Serious talk. A lot of people have been so quick to assume Rodimus is going to kick Rung's tiny back wheel. And yeah, it seems like an obvious assumption to make. But I've been doing a bit of thinking... Our!Rung's weapon of choice is a staff. In a war lasting millions of years, fought mainly with some sort of long distance laser weaponry, our tiny Psychiatrist decided that he would use a staff. Hm, maybe we'll all be surprised.

+NEXT ISSUE NOW PLEASE!