Getting Behind a Change · 12:41am Aug 9th, 2021
Apropos of Meghan McCarthy rather than this, I watched through Centaurworld recently. It was certainly a trip. Also, I think it's the earliest in any show that a song has ever made me cry.
But let's not let that control me, and talk about The Magic of Cybertron #4 instead.
Obviously the moral of the first story is that there is more than one way to be strong. Spike is clever and determined under pressure, and that's better than any amount of raw physical brawn alone.
Thanks, past me; I don't think I could have said it better myself, given that thematically speaking we're looking at a very familiar story.
And for the conclusion . . . I'm going to go with the moral that it's inadvisable to start a war on two fronts, even if you expect Stalin will inevitably betray you and you want Russia's resources. And even if you're really just fighting two groups on one front rather than fighting on two fronts, per se, which weakens the historical metaphor.
Or, alternately, the moral is that you shouldn't leave half the group most experienced in how to defeat you free to operate, just like I told you at the beginning, Sombra. With all the Mane Six controlled, it definitely would have taken longer before the Equestrian-Cybertronian alliance was ready to go on the offensive and start breaking control, and if Sombra had further made it a priority to capture or kill all Equestrian visitors on sight then he might well have won. When those who know your weakness are few in number, don't squander the opportunity.
Honestly, I suspect that in a heights-flying, fire-spittin', take-no-guff contest Smolder would lose to Fire Lord Ember. She didn't get the Bloodstone Scepter by playing it safe and letting others tell her what to do, after all. Ergo, Smolder can only be the second-heights-flying, fire-spittin'-est, take-no-guff-est dragon at best.
The Dinobots probably should be more impressed by Spike's telecomm fire. Anyone can just burn things, but rapid and (presumably) un-interceptable long-distance communication is super special and useful.
Skimming the wiki page on Superion, I notice this isn't the first time he's been mind-controlled, although I'm pretty sure this and the Earthforce comics don't share continuity. Still, in those he was apparently controlled by a cerebro-shell at one point, and in that case the solution was not to stir up conflict with his component Transformers.
From what I see about his personality, I suspect Superion is the only Combiner who could be controlled as a single entity; he maintains unity by suppressing the individual minds and everything other than the mission, and evidently he's pretty good at it.
And just to clarify to those too lazy to look it up, yes Silverbolt is a Transformer who turns into an airplane and the torso of a giant robot and is also terribly afraid of heights. Apparently being the leader of his team is a suitable distraction from the fear.
I can't help but complain about the composition of the first panel of the second (and final) story. I get that the shot needed to be arranged to show both Twilight and the huge chunk of the ground she's moving, but if we saw a bit more of the building (?) that she's standing on and it had more contrast with the background then it would be easier to realize she's not digging a pony-sized hole next to herself before the third panel comes along to confuse us.
I'd love to summarize what I've learned about what Elita meant by "They buried [Scorponok] here . . . after the one who controlled him was gone," but there's just so many different canons on the wiki, and events are so heavily summarized even if you aren't skimming. I thought the "2005 IDW continuity" section was where I generally wanted to look if I bothered to look beyond the general information at the top of the page, but he doesn't seem to be a Titan there, although frankly the wiki doesn't seem to much clarify where he is and isn't one. Perhaps where I want to be looking is at the notes which mention that the cartoons tend to portray Scorponok as a giant city Transformer with no real life or will of his own (being instead an extension of the smaller beings that bond with him, but that doesn't clarify anything about who Elita might have been referring to as the one who controlled him.
I guess in the final battle the Mane Six and Spike are Targetmaster weapons? I'm having a bit of trouble, though, suspending my disbelief about the whole Targetmaster concept in general and its application here in particular. Surely there are better ways to deploy their Equestrian magic that don't look like they ought to be crushing their fragile organic bodies.
On a related note, what do you think Fluttershy turned into? If she appears transformed in any panel then I certainly haven't been able to spot her.
Somebody should tell Arcee that if she wants to talk about ponying up, there's a third universe she'll want to visit. Sunset's gang is more prone to make horse puns than the actual ponies (which can only be partially explained by equinity being notable for them rather than just a fact of their everyday existence; I still can't explain why all the normal pastel humans use so many horse puns too).
I appreciate a good joke about cartoon timescales as much as the next internet denizen, but I do find it hard to swallow that this whole series played out over approximately twenty minutes. How quickly did AJ inexplicably get to that desert, decide she was in a gritty western, and just as suddenly return? How rushed was Rarity's tour of the esthetic side of Cybertron? How quickly can those personalized Targetmaster suits be made? Even Scootaloo's playdate seems like it should have taken longer than twenty minutes.
Please raise your hand if you can identify the Transformer in the last panel foreshadowing a possible round three, and then tell me who it is because I'm curious.
My thoughts on this issue are largely similar, though I'll note that Fluttershy turns into a shield much like Rarity. You can see Ratchet holding a notably yellow shield on panel 4 of the page where he's easing her into the suit on panel 1.
(I assume the suits function similar to Samus Aran's Morph Ball in the Metroid franchise. The ponies' bodies aren't actually getting twisted and contorted. At least, not without being converted into energy first.)
Also, the entity on the stinger panel is a Quintesson, and they're a whole other kettle of fish.