Sparky Prime wrote:The question is how would it? What difference would it make for the Transformers figuring out what one more altmode does? Would that mean Rung couldn't be a psychiatrist anymore? Under the Functionalists perhaps, but post war, they're gone and he's free to persue any job he wants regardless of his atlmode's possible function.
The core tenet of Functionalism is the 'every shape serves a purpose' creed. The idea that whatever a TF turns into HAS to be used for something and that is what they are MEANT to do. Rung's altmode pointedly contradicts that concept by being literally useless and having nothing to do with what he does for a living. It's one big black mark against the entire disliked institution of Functionalism. That's the whole point: Rung's very existence proves the 'bad guys' wrong. So to reveal, later down the line, that not only does Rung's altmode actually DO something, but that it's some huge, story-important, destined-sort-of-thing, that THAT is what he was meant to do instead, would contradict that previous point. Rung's altmode WAS useful for something, it WAS what he was 'meant' to do at some point in his existence, and the Functionalists were totally right about altmodes and how they define TFs.
Rung's altmode has to stay pointless, because Roberts proves himself wrong otherwise.
I don't believe that's true in the least. Otherwise why bother having the characters in the book trying to figure out what his altmode does, creating the mystery of what it is or does? I think Roberts will address that at some point, because he doesn't think they're pointless and stupid like you believe.
It was a single-issue story of them trying to figure out what he transformed into, with the 'reveal' being that it was a pointless trinket that undermined the Functionalist philosophy and indeed, the entire concept of assessing TFs based on their altmode. That whole story is loaded with the sort of allegory I've been talking about: The crew-members desperately wanting to see what Rung turns into are fans like me, heavily interested in the characters' altmode because they think it's a major defining point (recall the way I've been annoyed that we haven't seen Megatron's altmode yet). In the end, they're shown that caring about what a TF turns into is pointless and stupid, and the philosophy of caring about it is wrong-minded. The whole thing is Roberts blatantly saying, "Hey readers, quit caring about what TFs turn into!". The cover of that issue is Swerve playing with a literal Rung action figure, trying to figure out what the toy turns into. The subtext is about as blatant as it can get.
How do you even get to that conclusion? He's expanding on something that has been around since G1.
He's applying it in a way that suits his overall philosophy. "Transformations were never cool, even in G1, the Special Powers some guys had were more interesting and integral to their characters". Like everything else, it's an exercise in undermining the application of Transformation to the definition of the characters, due to his underlying resentment of the concept.
You mean the parts where you're going out of your way to misread it?
Where can I be misreading it? It's right there on the page! There are literal whole pages of text that are just Megatron going "Transformation is stupid and limits us". There are many times where characters are specifically griping about jerks wanting to see them transform, or being forced to transform or use their altmodes. What could all of this possibly mean if not "Transformation is bad and people who like it are jerks"?
At this point I'm presuming that Megatron's new body is going to be revealed to be a monoformer, and he simply doesn't have an altmode. That'd be a great bitch-slap from Roberts. "Hey, here's this cool-looking new body for Megatron, given to him for a major, interesting shift in his characterization, and it doesn't even DO anything! Take that, fanboys!"