Spotlight:

[Gomess]

Doesn't every fourth thread turn into The People vs. Guglieme re: fanfic? I forget the exact ratio.

[Dominic]

Yeah, I surrender.

Lets pick this up in the creativity/customizing thread.


Dom
-will still not go to backyard shows though.

[Gomess]

DOM IS WRESTLING

[Dominic]

Nah, I am just a wrestling school drop out who happens to respect the business.

[Mako Crab]

I wrote a couple of fics back in the day. One of them was set in the RID universe (SkyByte and the crew, not the IDW RID) and I inserted my own namesake into the story. It was all about Gigatron trying to get Mako Crab to transform into his robot mode, and Mako insisting that his crab form *was* his robot mode. So there you go.

I had a lot of fun writing it. It was meant to feel like a legit episode of the show, and so I worked to recapture the feel. Also, I went into this story making sure that Mako wasn't a Marty Stu. I made him the exact opposite- tiny compared to all the other Preds, not very powerful, and in the end he loses a fight against Gigatron. I also made sure that he didn't steal the whole show despite being his introductory story.

[Gomess]

See, some fans put thought into it! That's probably the most humble self-insert account I've ever heard too, Crab. =p "Sure it's me, but he sucks!" Well, it is the RiDverse, there's gotta be a sense of comedy.

[Mako Crab]

I thought about posting it in the GD forum. I still have it sitting on my hard drive. Read it again last night after reading this thread some. Thankfully, it's not too bad!! I forget how long ago I wrote it, but I remember that some of my early writings were really awful.

[JediTricks]

Spotlight: Megatron (Hasbro edition) - why? What is the point of this book? I hadn't even noticed that the author was Nick Roche when I finished it, but man, what happened? This issue has a particularly narrow voice, is that because it's bridging story elements from Ongoing, which I didn't read? Megatron wakes up feeling repaired, comments briefly on a couple familiar faces, then plays cat and mouse with Starscream to show his diminished troops what to fight for. No depth, no logic, just light pontificating followed by noise. He sees his abuse of Starscream as fixing a problem, doing SS a favor, while SS already is full of self-loathing due to his abject failure to do anything successfully for long. So Megs beats the self-loathing out of SS, thanks a bunch, and now everything's right with the universe. Somehow.

[Dominic]

A recurring theme in IDW's G1 is "how the Decepticons became an army of monsters". (

Spoiler

Remember the suicide clinic shown in MTMTE

?)

In this case, the titular spotlight falls on Megatron and how he controls that army of monsters. Part of his post repair check-list includes an assessment of his troops. And, part of that is asserting dominance over Starscream. Starscream being emotionally defeated is a new (and therefor out of place) element in the Decepticon army, hence Megatron being upset by it. Megatron restoring Starscream restores what he considers to be a healthy status quo.

Megatron also turns his eye towards Soundwave and Shockwave (pointedly resolving to not given them credit earned for a job well done on his new body).

[JediTricks]

Spotlight: Thundercracker (Hasbro edition) - this was an interesting read, Barber is setting up stuff that paid off later in Dark Cybertron. That said, a Spotlight on Thundercracker while he's going through existential challenges seems like an odd vessel, we get a look at the character but not a standard look, and it's kind of off to have a character go through existential changes when the story takes place so long before "now", it doesn't inform his behavior up until now. Thundercracker's actions are driven by the unknown, there's a hint but it's vague, and his actions have unintended consequences which are a little silly on-page, a little ham-fisted "cause and effect". The read was fine, except Bumblebee's plan was kind of extreme for such an unknown situation, and I felt distracted by Chee's art, especially faces and angle choices. Grade: B

Spotlight: Orion Pax (Hasbro edition) - I enjoyed this a bit, it's a cheesy action tale but a pretty good character story as well, there's some insight into Orion Pax being pulled hither and yon while still maintaining that spark of who would become Optimus Prime. Interesting to see an earlier look at Rung, despite that going nowhere at the time. Alpha Trion turns into the Tumbler, that's a thing. My only real knock in this story is how much of a jerk Nightbeat was, it's weird that he's in here since he was in the other story I was reading, and both stories he wasn't being his main self, but here he was just grating. Roberts knows how to make characters drive action without losing focus on being themselves, which is a pleasure. I also liked Steve Kurth's art here, nothing was muddied or confused or distracting. Grade: A