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on point 2 there, grammar is occasionally variable, depending on heritage - apparently the phrase, "My friends and I" is grammatically incorrect, while "My friends and me" is correct, at least according to my school's former headmaster, who was of an age/education who'd know the difference...
Disregard my 2nd gripe. I re-read that panel and it is grammatically correct (although IDW have often gotten this wrong in the past; this is a positive sign that they're improving :)).
"You and me" on its own is wrong because "me" is an object pronoun. You don't use object pronouns when referring to the subject unless you're Grimlock (e.g. "Me want to bash brains!"). ;) However, because Tarn says, "between you and me," he has created a prepositional phrase, and thus any pronouns that follow are rendered in the objective case, thus the object pronoun "me" is correct (and conversely the subjective pronoun "I" is incorrect) in this case.
:o
I don't see that as a problemQuote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
A lovely setup issue. I'd love if the whole arc was told via to perspective of the DJD.
Also closed a few questions from previous issues (poor unlucky Trailbreaker) that had been correctly guessed at, but nice to have some definitive answers.
And the DJD as a bunch of bureaucrats was a clever little twist, makes hem more aligned to Magnus than Megatron in many regards!
Bring on the beef! (Which will probably happen in about 20 issues, as that's about how long we get between DJD stories. I'm calling that the Lost Light beats them or escapes due to something going wrong with their Nucleon super fuel.
The Nucleon super fuel that was super-powered by temporal energy from Brainstorm jumping back in time there.... I love how EVERYTHING in this series is linked
Yes. Tarn transforms from Tank-mode to robot-mode when he arrives back on his ship. Right after they've finished off Blip.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
Oh, right, I see it. They've transformed to alt modes and drove back to the Peaceful Tyranny. Wow. A whole panel. I must've blinked and missed it. :rolleyes: :pQuote:
Originally Posted by FruitBuyer
I would've liked to see Deathzaras transform to dragon mode when he went toe to toe with Tarn. Especially when it became protracted and the other DJDers were watching on debating over whether or not they should intervene; Deathzaras could've easily transformed during that transition.
While I really do love the IDW comics, one criticism that I've had has been the relative lack of action, and part of that action being transformation. IMHO transforming should be an intuitive ability for Cybertronians as a species. It should come naturally to them as say walking or running does for humans. They should be doing it whenever an opportunity presents itself without even thinking about it; it should be a primal or instinctual act.
Action is a big part of what makes Transformers fun. Transformers shouldn't be a soap opera. Now of course, I don't want it to be just a shallow action-fest like the live action films, but you can go too far the other way IMO. "Por que no los dos?" <---have both drama and action woven together! This is something that I felt the Marvel G1 comics and Beast Wars cartoon achieved really well; and look, IDW does do this well a lot of times too, don't get me wrong... but it's just times like this where I feel they've just gone too far down the "human drama" path and the "Transformers action" motif gets left on the wayside. Yes, there is action, but is it Transformers action? Deathzaras and Tarn are walking down a corridor with Tarn holding a box full of explosives, Deathzaras tells him to step back while it explodes - Deathzaras draws his weapons as he approaches Tarn (why couldn't he transform to dragon mode?), Tarn turns around and fires to disarm Deathzaras. Deathzaras moves in (still in robot mode) to engage Tarn in melee combat (he could've torn him apart in dragon mode).
Let's compare this with say Marvel G1 #101-102 (Fallen Angel). Perceptor - in microscope mode acting as a telescope - sees Galvatron approaching. Perceptor* and Warpath immediately transform into their tank modes and open fire. Galvatron then transforms to his cannon mode and shows them what "real firepower is like," as he returns fire and knocks the Autobots about. As Galvatron transforms back to robot mode to finish off Blaster, Powerglide and Cosmos have transformed and attack Galvatron from the air before being taken down, then proceeding to take out Beachcomber and Seaspray... oh look, Dinobots! :D This scene has both action and drama. The Autobots had discovered the horrible truth of the Decepticon space bridge and also lost Scrounge; shortly after arriving on Earth, they suffered at the hands of Circuit Breaker; and before they can figure out what the hell just happened to Skids, they bump into Galvatron! The Dinobots have discovered the remains of their friend Centurion, slain by Galvatron, and have come to exact vengeance.
The Elegant Chaos story is a better example from recent IDW that gave us a mix of drama and action; I especially liked the part when Brainstorm sees Rung at Maccadam's playing with a model of the Lost Light; realising that he's not from the current timeline, he transforms to jet mode and scarpers. Cyclonus then transforms into jet mode (w/ Tailgate riding inside) and kicks in his afterburners in hot pursuit; Cyclonus fires upon Brainstorm, but Brainstorm time jumps just milliseconds before the missiles hit him! :eek: PHWOAR!! Now that's good Transformers action with drama! :D The action alone is intense, but as part of telling the story, knowing what's at stake, it makes it even more incredibly exciting! :D
This is what things like the live action movies lack. There's lots of intense action happening, but as the action isn't being driven by a story (rather the action drives the 'story'), it really isn't as exciting because there isn't that level of emotional intensity happening at the same time. Think about the first time that you saw the Beast Wars episode, "The Agenda, Part 3." BW Megatron has just shot G1 Optimus Prime point blank in the head. Space and time is being torn apart, and the Autobots' descendants, the Maximals, are fading out of existence. A massive time-storm has developed above the volcano that will be known as Mount Saint Hilary (or maybe it won't if the Predacons - without any Maximals to stop them - succeed in wiping out the early humans!). To be continued! -- and of course, as a season finale, we had to wait a year before we found out what happened next! :eek: How nail-bitingly intense was that?!
It's not that I'm unappreciative of the character-driven drama that IDW are producing, I love it - please don't get me wrong - but I would like to see this wonderful drama also intertwined with Transformers action. :) And to IDW's credit, they have improved on this this year. I had a discussion about this with Chris Ryall at last year's Sydney Supanova, and he agreed that it was a fair call and said that he would mention it with IDW staff, and for the most part, the Transformers action has notably improved this year. As has the reduction in the "over-humanisation" and Anglophonic bias in the Transformers (something else which Ryall agreed with; have you noticed that they've stopped using acronyms like "D.J.D." now? And Thundercracker's attempt at understanding the humans with his script writing serves to remind us of how truly otherworldly the Transformers are; yes, they are sapient and sentient robots, but they are not humans, and they shouldn't be thinking with an Anglophone bias -- they even made a point of the 'soft TH' in English being a difficult consonant for Cybertronians to pronounce (re: "Eart") ←I love this stuff! :D) ;)
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*Albeit mistransformed, it is a rare moment where we see Perceptor use his tank mode.
Doesn't seem like it when you write such long complaints. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
Maybe IDW Deathsaurus* doesn't turn into a dragon? Do I get a no-prize?Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
(*this is how the IDW character name is spelt, unless you are talking about the Victory character who isn't in this comic at all; usually you're good at picking up misspellings of names so it's surprising you got this wrong)
Great ending, but like nobody transformed so that sucked right? Why didn't Rhinox transform to force the doors? Why didn't Megatron turn back into flying T-Rex mode before he went to gloat?Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
Look at Transformers G1 #69 to 75. There's lots of transformation going on in the big finale of #75, but there's not really a lot of it in the issues leading up to it. And even in #75 Scorponok attacks Unicron in robot mode, instead of his more agile scorpion mode and Prime never turns into a truck. This issue of MTMTE isn't the Autobots vs Decepticon action packed show down, this is the suspense building and ground laying issue.
Goktimus explains his reasoning for spelling the name that way somewhere here recently I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulbot
It was just a suggestion. They could have also had Tarn transform into a tank after being knocked down by the explosion to shoot back at Deathzaras.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulbot
As discussed here, there are cases where the official spelling of a Japanese name does not match the way that the name is actually pronounced; e.g. Cab is officially spelt as "Carb", but most Anglophone fans spell it as "Cab," because the original name as it is written in Katakana, says Cab, not Carb. Likewise Deathzaras' name in Katakana (デスザラス; desuzarasu), says "Deathzaras," and not "Deathsaurus" (which would be デスザウルス; desuzaurusu). You're right, "Deathsaurus" is indeed the official spelling, but "Deathzaras" better approximates its pronunciation. When it comes to Japanese names, where the official spelling conflicts with pronunciation, I prefer to use spellings which better approximates pronunciation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulbot
But there was transforming in other parts of that episode prior to that scene. IDW has given us entire issues, often in succession, where from cover to cover there's no transforming.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulbot
I just checked those issues, and they all have transformations in them. Sure, they're rather light on transforming compared to other issues, but it's there. And yes, this latest issue also does have a transformation in it too, so it's not entirely absent. That's why I said that they are improving, because until recently, we would have successive issues in IDW where, from cover to cover, nobody transformed. It got to a point when I would pick up a Transformer comic, realise that nobody had transformed in it, then struggle to remember when was the last time that I saw anyone transform. But as I said, we have seen a marked improvement in this from IDW this year... it's caught me off guard because it's become more exceptional, whereas it used to feel like the norm.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulbot