All Hail Megatron Discussion thread

[Dominic]

Wiki says 2010, I assume it's the same time that the ongoing starts (January, right?).

I think the ongoing starts sooner than that. Either way, I just noticed Sparky is logged in. He will likely have an answer before I manage to finish this post.

Regardless, Omega Supreme's appearance shows that not all supposed Decepticon victories are true, and whatever information the Autobots received about every other outpost being destroyed may, in fact, be entirely false--the Decepticons may have planted such reports as a morale-breaking tactic.

Keep in mind, a decisive victory need not wipe out all of the enemy. Dresden likely appeared impressive at first. But, plenty of people actually survived. Attacking Omega Supreme is effectively the same as attacking a fortress. If the Decepticons engaged him, it would still take some doing to kill him. (The same idea applies to Metroplex.)

And, an outpost being wiped out does not mean everybody is captured/killed. Some guys could escape and the victorious Decepticons may not be aware of it. Or, they may not be able to follow owing to fatigue or a need to re-supply.

On this note, (I forgot to mention this above), when Megatron defeated Prime and co, he did send a couple of Decepticons to Cybertron. I assume they would have killed, further crippled, the Autobots being sent there. And, sending the Autobots to Cybertron would have been a nice and dramatic death-trap.

Megs might have expected Dev, though, in one circumstance, which is probably why he starts yelling at Dev to take it to him. A sort of "Prove to me that you're worth taking my throne," kind of deal.

Megatron seems honestly suprised when Scrapper and co step out.


As far as Reflector goes, that explanation above sounds like a classy "whoops". Of course, any explanation is going to be back-written.


Dom
-needs to get to that post about continuity.

[andersonh1]

The ongoing starts in November, as far as I know.

[Sparky Prime]

That assumes that the Decepticons did not hacking on top of just using what they had though. Just having some codes would give them a basis to guess what the other codes were.

A basis to guess? No, you don't launch this kind of an attack based on guess work. Even having a basis doesn't mean you can correctly guess the rest of the codes. And you assume the Decepticons could hack more with just what Sunstreaker gave them. Even with that, there should be several security measures around such codes in the event someone was trying to hack their system, again, for exactly this reason.

Regardless, Omega Supreme's appearance shows that not all supposed Decepticon victories are true, and whatever information the Autobots received about every other outpost being destroyed may, in fact, be entirely false--the Decepticons may have planted such reports as a morale-breaking tactic.

It at least shows that while the Decepticons may have launched an attack against all of the Autobots, some of them managed to fight back and survive despite being at a disadvantage.

If Megatron expects Starscream to take over, then he is unlikely to simply kill the guy out of hand.

Again, that didn't stop Megatron from nearly killing him in "Infiltration". Megatron wasn't even all that concerned if Starscream lived or died in that incident. Why should this one be any different?

Indeed. As I said earlier, it may very well be that Megatron is scrambling at trying to piece together some kind of way of keeping the Decepticons together, and they've just gotten so out of hand that he has no idea what to do.

As I've said before, seemed to me Megatron had this whole thing planned out and knew what to expect, up until the Autobots showed up at least.

[Onslaught Six]

Again, that didn't stop Megatron from nearly killing him in "Infiltration". Megatron wasn't even all that concerned if Starscream lived or died in that incident. Why should this one be any different?

Because Shane McCarthy is writing this series, not Simon Furman. And that's the best answer you're going to get.

Seriously, that's why. You get a different writer on *anything* and there are undoubtedly going to be characters who shift personality. Just look at the difference between Grimlock or Blaster between Budiansky's US Marvel run and Furman's UK or later US work. Different writers write characters with different motivations, sometimes, and it's just something that comes with the territory of comic books--or any medium with many writers writing the same character, especially over long periods of time, like the comics medium tends to do. After all, the tonal shift in how Spiderman was being written in the early to mid-90s was part of the impetus to bring Ben Reily in and try to establish him as the "new" Spider-Man.

[Sparky Prime]

Because Shane McCarthy is writing this series, not Simon Furman. And that's the best answer you're going to get.

It was really more of a rhetorical question... But regardless of obvious differences when it comes to changing writers, it still begs the question why, in the context of the story, this would change. Again, it's a little thing called continuity that McCarthy does a terrible job with.

[Shockwave]

It at least shows that while the Decepticons may have launched an attack against all of the Autobots, some of them managed to fight back and survive despite being at a disadvantage.

Like the Borg. Not everyone is destroyed/assimilated, some will inevitably survive to continue the fight, thus resistance is not futile.

As for Sunny's codes, that could have just been for the Autobots on Cybertron. Although, I would argue that, theoretically, Sunstreaker's codes could have given the Decepticons the way in they needed to get the access codes for the rest of the outposts. While Sunstreaker himself didn't have it or didn't have access to everything, once you're in the door, you can find what you need and get it. It's like being given the card key to an office building by the custodian which then lets you steal the CEO's key. Then there's also the possibility that in some cases they didn't need them. If Sixshot yells "CROSSEYED STARE!!" and everyone dies instantly what need do you really have for access codes?

As for continuity, that's almost never been straight in TF, why the hell should they start now?

[Sparky Prime]

As for continuity, that's almost never been straight in TF, why the hell should they start now?

Yes, heaven forbid they actually try to do a better job of storytelling.

And the thing with the codes... It just shouldn't have been that easy for the Decepticons to bring down all of the Autobots because of one traitor and his information. One group I could understand, but not the entire Autobot army.

[Shockwave]

As for continuity, that's almost never been straight in TF, why the hell should they start now?

Yes, heaven forbid they actually try to do a better job of storytelling.

And the thing with the codes... It just shouldn't have been that easy for the Decepticons to bring down all of the Autobots because of one traitor and his information. One group I could understand, but not the entire Autobot army.

Continuity: Yeah, that was kinda my point. Kinda. I would love it if they did but I certainly don't expect it at this point.

Codes, again, yeah that was kinda my point. Both scenarios I presented COULD happen but are extremely unlikely.

[Dominic]

A basis to guess? No, you don't launch this kind of an attack based on guess work. Even having a basis doesn't mean you can correctly guess the rest of the codes. And you assume the Decepticons could hack more with just what Sunstreaker gave them. Even with that, there should be several security measures around such codes in the event someone was trying to hack their system, again, for exactly this reason.

By "basis to guess" I meant, and should have said, having a few actual codes would give the Decepticons an idea of the format the Autobots used. For example, if I used the names of animals I have fostered and combined them with the year I fostered them, (I do not, but work with me), somebody might be able to crack several codes with only a few. If they got "Daisy2008" or "Jack2007", then they might try "Stockhom2003", "Cleo2003" or "LittleOrangeFellah2002" with some success.

And, if Drift is to be believed (from AHM #9), the Decepticons had more than just Sunstreaker on their side. (Jazz, Prowl or Kup are still kind of suspicious here.)

Again, that didn't stop Megatron from nearly killing him in "Infiltration". Megatron wasn't even all that concerned if Starscream lived or died in that incident. Why should this one be any different?

Gonna go with O6 on this one.

If you really need an in-context explanation though, I guess we could just assume Megatron lost his temper.

Yes, heaven forbid they actually try to do a better job of storytelling.

Ya know, we do have a comic thread for that kind of talk. Joking aside, I can partially agree with Sparky on this front.


Dom
-and by next month, it will not matter....stupid reboot ongoing.......

[Onslaught Six]

And, if Drift is to be believed (from AHM #9), the Decepticons had more than just Sunstreaker on their side. (Jazz, Prowl or Kup are still kind of suspicious here.)

They did. They had Hunter. Bombshell and Megs have a conversation in AHM 7 or 8 about how Bombshell experimented on Hunter and got the codes, and Scorponok was an idiot not to see the potential.

Ya know, we do have a comic thread for that kind of talk. Joking aside, I can partially agree with Sparky on this front.

I can too, but this is the kind of thing that's never going to work in 'any' kind of medium. Some fans disagreed over the gung-ho executioner portrayl of Prime in ROTF, and that it disagreed with Traditional Optimus Prime and also the way Prime was portrayed in the '07 film, and that movie had *the same* writers writing it. Different writers will portray characters in different ways. And partially, it's the editor's job to take the writer aside at any given point and go, "No, Shane, Megatron wouldn't say that," or "Prime wouldn't do that, you need to change it."

Or the editor can be a guy who goes "Yeah, Megs *would* do that in this situation, go right ahead." Which is likely what Tipton was thinking.