Windblade comic discussion (starting on page 2)

[JediTricks]

Or it's an extension of Windblade's naivete. She has this sparkling image of what her fellow Camiens are like, but there's Chromia right there shooting guns. Could attribute to Windblade's inability to see what's right in front of her.

The book would have to create a foundation of her being an unreliable narrator to do so, and it hadn't laid that groundwork, so that would be narratively false.

[Mako Crab]

Well then I don't know. Unless Chromia only picked up hand guns after coming to Cybertron.

[Mako Crab]

Wait a second. . . are you sure it wasn't Blurr?

*double checks*

It was totally Blurr. Head crest and everything.

[JediTricks]

Wait a second. . . are you sure it wasn't Blurr?

*double checks*

It was totally Blurr. Head crest and everything.

HOLY FUCKING SHITBALLS! You are right, and Sarah Stone has fucked this shit right the fuck up, and she fucked it up in a way that should have been in her wheelhouse, this is a storyboarding problem - the narrative fell apart. You have Chromia and Blurr who have similar colors and similarly-shaped heads, then you give Blurr a feminine physique, so there's character confusion possible here. Then you have intercut action with different locations but using the same colors and backgrounds, then you show a panel with Chromia in motorcycle mode and right after a splash panel with a bot that seems to have just transformed that's blue and has only 2 wheels in bot mode and is spouting a line of dialogue that seems to cut into what she was saying just before. What a fucking mess.

In re-reading it with the understanding of who goes where in this portion of the story, Chromia doesn't fire pistols, she doesn't take part at all! She just chases after Windblade, yells out for Windblade, is a silhouette watching Windblade and co get arrested, then disappears until the third act. This might have worked if there was more focus on Chromia and less on chaos, if there was clarity instead of a twisted mess.

What a facepalm moment.

[Mako Crab]

No need to overreact. Just admit that you weren't paying attention, and we can all move on.

[BWprowl]

I blame my confusion on the fact that Chromia's Generations toy, which does come with dual pistols, had just been revealed around the time the issue came out, so I naturally smushed the things together in my head.

[JediTricks]

Windblade #4 - grade... D

Sorry, I wanted to like this series, but it falls on its face with this final issue of its initial run. The actual plotpoints work, but the way it's told just doesn't work, there's serious pacing problems and then the reveal just comes out of nowhere and fades out with minimal payoff, it's like the whole thing takes place in a vacuum. Character motivations pivot with little real setup. And the art once again backslides. I just feel like this went nowhere and didn't pay off, like it had ideas and didn't spend enough time working towards making those ideas into goals.

[andersonh1]

Sounds like I didn't miss much.

[JediTricks]

Sounds like I didn't miss much.

No, you did, it's a whole new direction for Cybertron. Unfortunately it's horribly executed.

[Mako Crab]

I liked the entire 4-part series. . . right up until they revealed who the true culprit was. I was like, "Really?" And then for everything that happened, the culprit got little more than a slap on the wrist, which kinda makes me wonder WTF is wrong if TF society. Seems like they forgive all their worst criminals very easily. Like life is cheap to them- and maybe it is. But uh. . . yeah. I hope the consequences for this person are explored in the regular ongoings or somewhere, because a stern talking to seems a bit lax for committing murder.

I still love the art though. I didn't have any trouble following it at all. And I still find it appealing.