… for LL 25, below the cut!

Obviously, there will be a full review at some point, and it will probably be seventeen pages long with an appendix dedicated just to Whirl’s holoform’s t-shirt (because seriously, how great is that t-shirt?).  But for now:

This is stunning.  It’s – it’s heartbreaking, in a lot of ways, and in other ways, joyful beyond measure.  And both of those things only work because of how well we’ve come to know and how much we’ve come to adore these characters.  I love the way it doesn’t pull its punches on the real pain of endings – that sometimes people don’t go on to better things, sometimes you don’t keep in touch, sometimes your physical or emotional health falls apart, sometimes there are people you lose permanently.  But even within that sadness, there are so many happy endings – Whirl going to live with Cyclonus and Tailgate, and no longer feeling broken; Nautica’s book; Drift’s and Ratchet’s many long years of marriage; Chromedome and Rewind, and Tailgate and Cyclonus, still being together and in love; Minimus – as Minimus – responsible for shepherding a whole new generation into the universe.  (Even the saddest endings have a kernel of hope, like Drift recognising how badly off Rodimus is, maybe in time to help save him.)  These are happy endings that are bittersweet and idiosyncratic and imperfect, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And it seems the crew no longer consciously remembers Rung, but his influence is everywhere – not just in the new Cybertronians imprinted with his spark, but in the lives of everyone his life touched.  (Hell, we see Fort Max apologising to the Scavengers, Whirl openly hugging Cyclonus, Chromedome making a career for himself as a grief counselor – none of that would have happened without Rung.)  In a way, it’s the better flipside of what happened to Skids’s memory.  Nautica could remember every detail about Skids, but the emotion, the meaning was lost.  The crew, on the other hand, might not remember Rung’s name (either of them), but his life very definitely had a meaning.  Ratchet’s tombstone reads, Without Love, There Is No Meaning.  Perhaps with love, there always is.

And finally, this is an absolutely flawless commentary on the ending of the
series itself.  The story, as a story, ends – the final arc wraps
up, the final issue is published, there is no more.  And we feel the
impact of that ending, and we move on to other things, good and bad.
But, at the same time, the story as a universe now
exists for us to revisit whenever we choose.  It’s there for us to
re-read, re-experience, and re-invent in fan works and discussions
(and maybe, piece by piece, in other elements of canon).  In one
sense, Rodimus and his crew have ended their quest; in another sense,
they will always be out there, adventuring through an infinite
universe.

Excuse me, I just have… 100 issues’ worth of something in my eye…