#rodimus and getaway have like a two second relationship

[cosmics-beings]

starscream is in the weird place where he is certainly attracted to carriers, and will take in their sparklings and be with them during their process, but he doesn't want to be called a sire or assume the position of a sire. but obvs whenever he is in a relationship with someone who is a carrier or whatever, they try to push him into that role or make him feel bad for not leaning toward it.

The one carrier to never make him feel that was has been Rodimus. I have so many aus where Rodimus ends up sparked and he kinda gets shunned by a lot of people, and he ends up entering a relationship with Starscream. Starscream is really hesistent because all the carriers he's ever been with have made him feel guilty for not wanting to be their sire, or have tried to force him into that role, but Rodimus doesn't. He really respects Starscream, and Starscream and him end up getting together and Starscream takes care of Rodimus and his sparklings. The sparklings also end up calling starscream their secondary carrier and he and Rodimus are happy.

[postapocalyptic-cryptic]

ok I’m back I did some actual research this time Transformers: Lost Light?

HI AGAIN dlkjfhlkj

(for this ask game!)

favorite character: oh absolutely Drift. idk what it is about him he's just making me insane.

least favorite character: from a "god I hate your guts" perspective it's Getaway but like. I like him because he's well-written and interesting. From characters I didn't really find interesting? I never really got into the Scavengers.

brOTP: Drift and Rodimus the BESTIES. Whenever I write them just assume they’re amica because they are. It doesn’t matter that they never mention it I just know they are in my heart.

OTP: Drift/Ratchet I’m just. I’m squeezing them. So nice to have your OTP be canon.

OT3: shocking from the person whose brOTP is Drift and Rodi and whose OTP is Dratchet but. Drift/Ratchet/Rodimus. Ratchet and his emotional support 2/3rds of the Lost Light command.

NOTP: God I don’t even know. There aren’t any ships from Lost light that really squick me out or make me upset bc I’m a huge multishipper. I guess Getaway/Tailgate, but I mean that was supposed to be horrifying, that was the whole point, so I don’t even know if it counts.

favorite storyline: oh wow so much of it was so good I don’t know how I could choose but I guess it’s the Dratchet storyline. The way their relationship develops so beautifully even though so much of it is in the background. Ough. I have a whole folder of screenshots of them being cute in the background.

least favorite storyline: like I said, I never got super into the Scavengers

what I wish had happened but didn’t: two things. first:I wish there had been an early on Megatron and Starscream encounter. I don’t think a Megatron redemption debate is complete without them interacting. second: I wish Drift and Rodimus had talked more about Drift’s exile. I want to see them working through that.

what happened I wish didn’t: ratchet,,,,

EDIT: I DIDNT POST THIS??? I SAVED IT AS A DRAFT BY ACCIDENT??? I am SO sorry I promise I wasn’t ignoring you oh my god

[fisitronisms]

Good Eye, Sniper || On Perceptor

“When Perceptor and physics make eye contact, physics blinks first.” Getaway, Filling in the Blanks

He talks too much until he doesn’t talk enough, he’s almost too bright and for that, was almost once extinguished.

How does one go from a walking trivia machine to an ice cold gunner?

Let’s talk about Perceptor, The Least Warlike Autobot.

Originally, Perceptor was a security mech under Sentinel as well as a brilliant scientist- not exactly Oohrah Soldier Material, to be sure! 

But his bright and chatty ways changed drastically after being pulled into a Pretender Project, the rebuild of one Kup. Within a short span of time, he went from being a leader in science and technology to nothing much more than a babysitter- the cigarette pack that kept Kup’s processor in line, and something of an IT service for the Wreckers.

He was tolerated, maybe even liked! Until, of course, that fateful mission on Turmoil’s battleship; Where, mid sentence, his chest was blasted through and he hit the ground, surely about to die.

And this is where the change from a chatterbox to a stone cold Sniproscope begins.

Part 1: The Technicalities of “Dying”

After this incident, Perceptor upgraded himself, going from merely a scientist to an ice cold sniper capable of taking out a combiner with a single shot to it’s torso (x). He becomes cold, distant, emotionally detached almost- And if you think about it, it stands to reason this would be the route he takes when faced with his innate personality.

Perceptor is passionate. Specifically about his work- a running gag through several continuities, including the G1 cartoon, is that he can lecture and speak and ramble about something he is truly interested in with almost no stopping- unless someone tells him to shut up.

Turmoil, the Decepticon who shot Perceptor through the spark, falls into that “tells him to shut up” category. In Spotlight: Drift, we see the moment Perceptor meets death- The moment Turmoil shoots him through the heavy doors he is trying to keep locked while the Wreckers try to slice through the wall for an extraction mission.

This moment, specifically. See what he says upon seeing the smoking hole in Perceptor’s body? “Shoot your mouth off, give your position away. Amateurs.”

And then, in the very next panel, a shot to Perceptor’s eye while he, apparently, screams in pain and probably terror. Now, judging by the angle of the shot, its not a clean one- what was no doubt intended as a quick end instead was most likely just added suffering, his spark beginning to slow and fail and fade and half his vision fritzed or worse- gone completely.

And then everyone left.

Now here is Perceptor, nearly dead and on the way out- his sight halved and fuzzy and his spark nearly obliterated. And at the end, he’s alone. The Wreckers moved on, attempting to finish the mission while battling Turmoil’s forces only to be separated briefly.

And then, he’s not alone, and he’s falling, and then he’s on the Trion in a CR chamber nearly in pieces.

Imagine how that affected him, when he came out of the CR chamber- a culmination of years upon years, no doubt, of being just a bit too wordy. It’s even reflected in MTMTE years later, when Rodimus (bored or agitated by Perceptor’s scientific terms, it’s hard to tell) cuts him off to tell him to use layman’s terms.

That aside, for Perceptor- he was nearly killed and then immediately mocked for his chatterbox tendencies. Speaking nearly got him killed, explaining was nearly the end of the line for him.

And when he comes out of the CR chamber, he changes- and not just physically.

He had already been a bit standoffish, no doubt at feeling a bit unwelcome among more active soldiers while being mostly a scientist, but now its cemented that not only is his BODY not up to par for war- but he himself is not either.

And we see, when he rebuilds himself, that his “explanations” are a single sentence, maybe less. Drift gets a “Much obliged” when Perceptor blankly quips that it was due to Drift that he is alive.

Nothing like the miniature lectures or chatter of before.

We see it when Monstructor is taken out by a single perfect shot to the joined-area of his torso, “Just doing my job.”

Operating on single sentences or less; the difference is astounding. But, considering everything that led up to it, not shocking.

The only deviation to this behavior (pre-Lost Light) is on Garrus 9, the prison planet Perceptor was requested to go to along with Kup, Springer, and several others.

The deviation of behavior, specifically, is the explanation of Aequitas’s function.

And this explanation is still rather short, and only at the behest of Verity. There’s no jargon, no tangents, to explanations within explanations or invitations for further discussion- its short, straight, and to the point. It’s blunt, clinical, and worded with a kind of finality that begs a conversation to move on away from the punctuation that threatens to fridge it.

But Perceptor’s initial near-death experience is not the ONLY factor in what his personality, what HE himself became- just the first step.

Part II: The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Near death experiences change you, it’s just a fact. There’s always a part of someone that gets left behind when healing from one, a little bit of their innocence or softness that is given up.

Perceptor is no different.

Perceptor always has been, and always will be, a scientist. He looks at things from a “logical” standpoint, he believes what his eyes show him. 

And what his eyes showed him was being left behind, in more ways than one.

The first time being, of course, on Turmoil’s ship- no doubt it was assumed he wasn’t going to survive, not with an injury like that, not in a place like that- But he did. He made it back, because Drift pulled him out.

Looking over Perceptor’s Wrecker history, that would be the last time that someone did that it seems.

The first incident we’re going to look at is one that happens not long after Perceptor’s rebuild- Actually, immediately after taking down Monstructor.

One of the first direct reactions to Perceptor’s rebuild, not counting Kup’s discomfort and dismissal of Perceptor’s suggestion he rebuild into a soldier (not even specifically a SNIPER, just a soldier, just to have more survivability in wartime). 

Blaster is hinted at being good friends with Perceptor; Primarily in Spotlight: Blaster, where Perceptor not only repairs Blaster after an assasination attempt gone awry, but helps him discover the assassin’s identity- Beachcomber, being mind-controlled by Bombshell.

Perceptor was injured when the trap had been set, and it looks to be a shot to the chest- Ironically, the same injury he repaired on Blaster, shown here:

Which was almost mirrored when Perceptor was shot by Turmoil.

And yet, Blaster’s reaction to Perceptor repairing and, in many ways IMPROVING, himself was to accuse him of “defiling himself”. To tell him his job was “a scientist”, considering Blaster’s job was once a radio host, that seems a mite hypocritical.

The second rejection to look at comes, also, from All Hail Megatron and the battle against the Swarm.

And here’s Ratchet, with an awful thing to say about someone you had a close working relationship with before they. You know. Nearly died and had to rebuild themselves from the ground up with frankly minimal support.

Acting like becoming capable of defending yourself and surviving a war somehow diminishes one’s intellectual capability.

And because Ratchet does nothing by half, he follows it up with something even WORSE. So, that is two people Perceptor considered friends who clearly... may not value the relationship as much as Perceptor might.

An important distinction, however, is while Blaster announced his opinion for the entire unit to hear- Ratchet’s comments were made in a more private setting, directly to Kup.

So, there’s that, at least.

But, these are just comments- rude, yes, but Perceptor has no doubt heard worse?

A fair point, to be sure! The problem comes in the form of Garrus 9. As many things do.

Gun-fondling battle-stat.

A special kind of derision, that- something that could be a reminder of what people really think of Perceptor. It makes one have to wonder- what would hearing another annoyed title being laid on him do? And by THE enemy, no less?

A reminder that his worth is entirely conditional. He is not necessary so much as convenient- He was convenient for Prowl, he was convenient for Kup, convenient for the Wreckers...

After long enough being optional, one stops trying to be irreplacable.

Part III: Old Gravemarkers

So, looking at the previous points, it’s safe to say that Perceptor isn’t in the greatest headspace at any given time.  From the shot that killed an Insecticon scout and prompted Cliffjumper to ask “When did Perceptor become scary?” to his infamously showing activation of tactical explosives; its very safe to say that not all is well with our favorite science-sniper (as Verity once called him, in Last Stand of the Wreckers).

Down to the flat, cold way he voted in favor of killing Impactor, around to the almost clinical way he addressed crewmates in the beginning of MTMTE.

But, the most painful part is, he starts getting better. He begins to interact with others, mostly Brainstorm, and slowly seems to start shedding the frigidness he developed after his near death and his rebuild and after all the backs that got turned to him.

But then, Overlord comes back.

And it’s gently suggested that Overlord went looking for him, as illustrated below: 

Could this be a reference to earlier in the issue, where Perceptor is seen carrying Tripodeca back after a terrible run in with the phase sixer?

Or is it something deeper than that- Overlord remembering Perceptor as the sniper that shot off his hand, that dared to go against him? Remembering Perceptor as one of the Autobots who set him up for absolute failure?

It’s entirely possible, and even plausible, that Perceptor internalized this incident (like many other things, no doubt) and it was one of the reasons Getaway felt he would be suitable to be involved in the mutiny. Perhaps this was a driving factor in seeing Perceptor spend a majority of time with Brainstorm.

Perhaps the behavior shown by Perceptor in MTMTE is the result of him simply forgetting how to interact with people- after so long in sniper perches and wondering if you’ll be dead in thirty seconds some things fall by the wayside, maybe socialization is one of them.

At the end, though, the things Perceptor later becomes known for: Being cold, distant, blunt and to the point even when using jargon, being almost uncompromising; after thinking about what he’s lived through, well....

It makes a little more sense, doesn’t it?

[irigoddess]

Fandom: transformers (I think you're into that, right?), Ship: Cad/Embo, Character: Boba

Favorite character: Cyclonus. He’s gay and angsty just like me. Whirl is a close second though. Riptide is a close third

Least Favorite character: GETAWAY. THAT FUCKER CAN ROT

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Cygate, Knock/Breakdown, Chromedome/Rewind, Rodimus/Happiness, Lug/Anode

Character I find most attractive: MEGATRON

Character I would marry: Cyclonus

Character I would be best friends with: Rodimus. He seems like fun

a random thought: Transformers is always brushed off as pointless media but it’s actually really fun and can be poignant (IDW especially.) If you like gays and like crying, then this is the fandom for you.

An unpopular opinion: MegOP isn’t even that good of a ship.

My Canon OTP: Cygate.

My Non-canon OTP: Optimus/Finally getting to die 

Most Badass Character: MEGA-FUCKING-TRON

Most Epic Villain: TARNNNNNN

Pairing I am not a fan of: MEGOP

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I feel like Riptide deserved more of a spotlight. I need the dumb gay

Favourite Friendship: Nautica/Brainstorm

Character I most identify with: RIPTIDE. I too am a dumbass gay

Character I wish I could be: Drift. He’s a cool dude

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:

When I started shipping them: Years and years ago lol. I’ve loved them ever since.

My thoughts: They make sense. I mean, rivals that are secret lovers? Totally my thing.

What makes me happy about them: That they’re two gay nonhuman men and wouldn’t be ashamed of any part of their relationship

What makes me sad about them: They barely interact in canon XD

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: I can’t really say anything because no one writes fanfics about them.

Things I look for in fanfic: ANYTHING

My wishlist: For them to hang out in canon

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Cad probably would rather be alone. Embo with Sugi.

My happily ever after for them: They retire together and live long and happily.

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character: He is my child.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: I honestly can’t think of anyone. He’s always a kid in my mind XD

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: I think he and Jango have a really sweet father/son relationship. But I think he and the other hunters would have an interesting dynamic as well.

My unpopular opinion about this character: He deserves better? 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: He gets a movie directed by Taika Waititi that explores his Mando roots and his relationships with the other hunters.

Favorite friendship for this character: ????

My crossover ship: I can’t think of anything tbh

[mekklord]

The whole James Roberts/Megatron controversy is wayyy overblown and people are treating James Roberts like he’s writing Megatron as if he never did anything wrong but let’s not forget the following points:

1- Megatron acknowledged his wrongs and accepted to be trialed until he let his pride take over and decided to have the Knights of Cybertron judge him so he could be remembered as the guy who found them rather than the guy who started a four million years-long war. His position was never “I’m sorry, forgive me now” but “I’m sorry and I’m going to be judged fairly and accordingly”. Which, given what we now of the Autobots’ war crimes themselves, is only just.

2- Nobody really forgives Megatron anyhow, for what it’s worth. Even characters like Ultra Magnus or Rodimus who grow closer to him still argue that there is no way they will let him avoid his trial. And they are not portrayed negatively for that, but rather for their handling of the issue, with Rodimus’ concerns over the situation relating more to the Lost Light mutiny and his own hatred of Getaway.

3- Speaking of Getaway! Getaway is undeniably a jerk. Literally built in the middle of a battle, so tough circumstances, but still a jerk. I mean, the guy worked under PROWL. Trying to get Tailgate killed so he could incriminate Megatron doesn’t help either. But Getaway didn’t just evict people who liked Megatron. Because nobody really “likes” Megatron. Getaway asked every single crewmember two questions: “do you think Megatron deserves a second chance?” and “what would you do if someone staged a coup?”, not “is Megatron pure and perfect and flawless?” and there are fundamental differences there. Let’s make a character-by-character analysis of why they might have been ousted: - Rodimus has been growing fonder of Megatron due to their time spent together relating on things such as finding Thunderclash overhyped. Rodimus has also been the key target of Getaway’s mutiny, who deems him a terrible captain, so it’s likely he wasn’t even asked the questions to begin with. - Ultra Magnus loves justice. Ultra Magnus probably wouldn’t like mutiny, nor would he like people going out of their way to murder Megatron. - Whirl hates Megatron. Whirl also had differences with Getaway and Atomizer, ultimately ruining their plans. - Nightbeat and Chromedome have probably somewhat neutral opinions on Megatron, having spent too little time socializing with anyone during the war (or having forgotten about it) to really be affected by the loss of loved ones, an dare probably loyal enough to Rodimus to be uneasy about a coup. - Skids lost his memories. His own character arc is that he’s trying to rebuild himself from the ground up, starting from scratch. It’s not too much of a stretch to consider that he might think the same could be possible for Megatron. Let’s not forget that Skids was the one who chewed Megatron out on his hypocrisy, which actually moved the former Decepticon leader. - Nautica and Velocity have never been part of the War and may have only vaguely heard about it, period. Similarly, Cyclonus seems to have a vision of the war that is mostly neutral but biased enough to convince Tailgate to become a Decepticon at first until he’s injected with anti-Decepticon propaganda by Rewind. - Rewind and Brainstorm attempted to murder Megatron and may still carry some guilt over it. Tailgate might have similar feelings over his own attempt at “brainwashing” Megatron, and is still very upset at Getaway. - Rung, in his own words, has “learned to forgive anything”. Rung’s professionalism also meant that he had to look and study Megatron from an unbiased point of view, and his generally mellowed-out personality would be the reason behind his refusal to partake in any mutiny. - I don’t think I need to explain why Ravage was evicted as well. The people who have been pushed out haven’t been pushed out for being fans of Megatron, because (minus Ravage) they aren’t. Which brings me to my next point:

4- The people who mutinied aren’t being portrayed as assholes either. A lot of the characters presented in the spread have valid reasons to want to get rid of Megatron, including but not limited to: - Perceptor, who had been grievously wounded by Turmoil’s crew, was part of the Wreckers for a while, and was also recently on the receiving end of Megatron’s anger, going as far as calling him out on it. - Blaster, who had been a primary assassination target for Decepticons, going as far as mind-controlling Beachcomber to do the job. - Mainframe, who had a recent run-in with the D.J.D. that led to one of their friends, Trailcutter, dying in a particularly gruesome way. - Hoist, who was friends with Trailcutter. And not to mention a large portion of the crew was already somewhat upset at Rodimus after the Overlord incident (many of which were seriously injured at Overlord’s hands), with opinions continuing to decline as more incidents happened. My point is: no one is purely presented as an asshole for wanting Megatron and/or Rodimus out. 5- Terminus is also brought up by Roberts’ “attackers” as an argument, but let’s not forget that Terminus is: a) someone who skipped the war entirely; b) someone who probably wasn’t told the extend of Megatron’s or the Decepticons’ atrocities during the war; c) someone who believes (believed?) that violence was necessary to push for social change. Terminus’ appraisal of Megatron, the young idealistic and kind miner he took under his wing and who became a powerful and respected leader, makes a lot of sense without being a flawless defence of Megatron: he does argue with Megatron about staying in the Functionnist Universe rather than facing his trial, and may have possibly sabotaged Megatron in order to make him stay where he (Terminus) considered that Megatron would be most useful. The problem with the whole “Terminus is 100% praising Megatron” argument is that it’s only really problematic if Terminus is presented as a saint. But he isn’t. 6- People who have “criticized” Roberts’ writing may believe that they are justified but they... aren’t. There seems to be an unhealthy focus on Megatron’s “abusive” tendencies due to his relationship with Starscream, and some of them are even going as far as to portray Starscream as an “abuse victim” first and foremost as if Starscream wasn’t a sneaky scheming egomaniac to begin with. Roberts’ reactions, though unprofessional, are also somewhat justified in the sense where attacks against him and his writing have been really far-fetched and unnecessarily aggressive to the point where they were more alienating than constructive. Which is a recurring problem on this website. I feel like the real issue is that people tackled on this issue as if it were a simple black vs white matter when it’s much more nuanced. Yes, Megatron has way too much time in the spotlight because of Roberts and season 2 of MTMTE somewhat suffered because of it. No, Megatron’s character arc isn’t just a simple redemption arc: it’s so much more than that, because Megatron is so much more than that. Nobody simply pretends like Megatron suddenly joining the Autobots is acceptable, and everyone from Rodimus to Tarn has valid reasons to be at least upset about it. The real issue, however, is how people started making Roberts’ writing about them rather than about the comic-book space opera it is and how they chose to focus on aspects that they could somewhat relate to rather than take a glance at the bigger picture.

This isn’t about you. This isn’t about your abuse beings wept away. This isn’t about a tyrant getting off scot-free, because he doesn’t. I hate to sound so condescending because it will give people an excuse to ignore my arguments, but grow up.

[sunderedstar]

Knights (of Cybertron)-Errant, Medieval Romance, and Why Lost Light Feels Wonky

It’s probably not a new theory in the fandom, but I keep drawing silly medieval romance/courtly allusions over Cyclonus and Tailgate’s relationship, so might as well throw some thoughts together in the blender and hit it. Lost Light 7 (and a smidge of LL10) spoilers, again.

See, I’m wondering how, between Rodimus’s scribbled Matrix map bits and having Thunderclash on board, Getaway hasn’t found the end of the map yet.

Getaway has the most solid bits of the map on board the Lost Light as well as Thunderclash, who in addition to being one of the most exaggeratedly good guy characters in MTMTE, can never seem to go wrong. So why is it, in the blurb for LL 10, that (spoilers) First Aid is apparently going to catch up to the Lost Light to find Getaway in charge and “the crew […] actually making progress…” and yet they’re still not quite there?

Possibly because they aren’t the knights in this quest. In medieval romances, knights who are too perfect and have perfect lives and perfect faith and instincts can quickly become boring to the narrative; things have to get shaken up by mistakes or misdeeds or violence or crises of faith, or else things become stagnant and peter out and the story never goes anywhere. On the other hand, knights who rove around searching for adventures and quests to prove their worth are referred to as knights-errant. And errant can have two definitions:

In addition, etymologically, errant developed from errer - both forms of it, according to Merriam-Webster, at least:

Middle English erraunt, from Anglo-French errant, present participle of errer to err & errer to travel, from Late Latin iterare, from Latin iter road, journey

…

Errant has a split history.

To err and to travel.

Getaway and Thunderclash might have everything they need at their disposal, but the Rod Squad are the literal knights-errant in the sense that they keep getting distracted, making errors, and wandering off on adventures in the middle of their actual quest. And ironically, the Circle of Light members (who go off to join Thunderclash’s crew), who wield swords and are the most obvious knightly candidates, who indirectly allude to the Knights of the Round Table - they don’t get it! They think that getting sidetracked all the time makes the Lost Light crew incompetent, even when all those distractions and side quests and tangents often prove to be critical to universe-saving shenanigans.

But a quest where you go out and immediately follow the map perfectly with no distractions wouldn’t make for a good story. It would make for a boring, flat, uncomplicated anecdote. The Circle of Light wind up as backstory for Drift and get rescued by the Lost Light crew instead of taking control of their own fate; they’re in the background at best most of the time. Whereas those dysfunctional wanderers are the ones who take their swords, power them up with faith and spark, and pull King Arthur shit like this:

(But the odd courtly love allusions in Cyclonus and Tailgate’s relationship, including the uneven exchange of favors, would be an entire other meta.)

And anyway, who does the Rod Squad have on their side, who got blasted by a metafictional bomb several issues before he said this line about wanting a lot of rambling diversions before getting any closure?

Swerve, who encourages stories and quests and meta moments in the narrative. And the second Swerve gets zapped away by Killmaster’s magic wand, we start seeing a bunch of sudden, circular, unsatisfactory endings snap shut on the characters: Megatron gets ‘the end’ed while trapped in the split history of the Functionist universe, Tailgate gets ‘the end!’ed back into a hole in the ground. Circular endings usually bring things back to the start in a deliberate echo, but these don’t feel right. It’s abrupt, it’s often unsatisfactory, and it only offers closure for those story arcs in the most clinical sense of the term, while leaving massive plot threads and emotional pain dangling for those left in the ongoing narrative. All of which will hopefully be dealt with in future issues, but which right now stand out like sore thumbs.

There is tension between the metafictional narrative themes that have filled MTMTE up til this point and the magical themes that abruptly fill Lost Light 7. (Swerve is the most obvious example of the meta jokes and fourth wall breaking because of Swearth and the metabomb, but the Scavengers in Revolutions also run into Cons4eva, whose entire plot runs on brand loyalty and tongue in cheek jokes about the crossover event.) In LL, they’re suddenly in a space with different rules of engagement, ruled by wishes for happy endings and wish-granting figures and spell-casting wands that defy the previously established laws of physics to such an extent that improbable, impossible things start happening with worrying frequency. They steal and bury a moon within a hollow planet so that there is a literal imbalance in the number of Luna-2s per universe.

And it starts after they’re shunted into the next universe by the Council’s geobomb. A geobomb based on Killmaster’s moongun plans and his cut and paste bilocational weaponry (I keep coming back to that, too, sorry). 

I keep coming back to it mostly because Killmaster looks like…fucking this:

He wields a literal wand, and looks like something out of Bayverse in terms of facial design. He doesn’t fit, he doesn’t emerge along with the rest of the sleeping beauties under Censere’s home, and his wand at least temporarily removes Swerve from the scene. I am convinced he is tied to moons somehow with nigh irrational conviction, and since the old mystery of Luna-1 and its guilt portal and floaty symbols and dead titans and its disappearance are all moon related, I’m not letting this one go for a long time.

Regardless. If it comes down to the effects of the metabomb versus the geobomb, I don’t know which wins. But until the tension is resolved here, I don’t see the Rod Squad making much progress quest-wise, either. When genres get muddled in medieval romances, things have to get sorted out, or conflict inevitably ensues.