Okay, I’m not
gonna lie.  This one is mostly going to be gross crying.

I don’t think I’ve
ever read an issue that was this close to perfect.  In the middle of
an action-packed climax, this issue manages to find a beautiful
stillness, to carve out a space to really honour these characters and
how far we’ve come.  Don’t get me wrong – the defeat of the
Functionists is pretty damned cool (especially finding out that the
hint JRo teased months ago, “Back of the neck”, had nothing to do
with mnemosurgery and was, instead, Red Alert and Fort Max rocketing
through a wormhole to cold-cock a planet :)).  But it’s not the
heart of the issue.  That
honour belongs to two scenes:  Rung’s death, and the greatest
Rodimus Speech of all time.

Rung’s
death just about broke me.  It’s so gorgeously, gorgeously
done that every moment of it
just aches, but I also don’t think I would change it if I could.
It’s just the most beautiful set piece, from Rung’s decision
(because on re-reading, you
can absolutely see it, the fact that he knows he’s giving his life
to save his world – but it’s subtle enough that even if the
reader has suspicions, it’s not clear the first time around), to
that stark, tear-jerking moment when Rodimus opens the door to find
only the twelve Matrixes and the dust.  

Rung’s
goodbye to Rewind and Chromedome is an absolute masterpiece, the way
it uses a few simple gestures and barely any words to convey so much.
The way Rung saying, “Lucky,” is both a false reassurance –
I’m lucky, I’ll be fine, when
he knows he won’t – and a genuine reflection on the life he’s
about to leave behind.  I’ve been lucky.  I’ve been
lucky to survive so long, lucky to join this quest, lucky to get to
know you.  The way, “You need
to learn to forgive yourselves,” is meant both for Chromedome and
Rewind specifically, and for the crew as a whole, and is both the key
to opening the Matrixes and a kind of farewell gift from someone who
knows that crew – their failures and their virtues – so very
well.  And I adore that it’s
Chromedome and Rewind who are the last to see Rung.  They’ve both
become his friends over the course of the journey.  Chromedome was
inspired by Rung to become a therapist himself; Rewind went to such
great lengths to bring him out of his coma (and Rung clearly mourned
him when he died); the two of them teamed up with Nightbeat to give
Rung his sense of purpose back after he was struck off.  And on a
meta level, Chromedome and Rewind’s arc shaped so much of the
series, and Rung’s been such an important presence from the very
first.  It feels fitting that they have this final moment together.

Rung’s
actual death is… I don’t know if I can describe it in a way that
does it justice.  It’s so sad that I never want to read it again,
and so straight-up beautiful – and even hopeful, in a strange way –
that I want to read it over and over.  The
art is just exquisite.
Brendan Cahill does an
astonishing job, to the point where simple moments like Rung shutting
the door behind him for the last time make me tear up, and
he captures every nuance of Rung’s expressions in a scene where
those expressions are often all the communication we have.  It’s so
important to get the art right here, and Cahill nails it.
The
fact that Rung’s last
thought is of Skids made me
sob.  And it’s not just Skids:  it’s Skids (as JRo pointed out on
Twitter) saying, Come here.  Come join me.  It’s
perfect.

And
wow, just – look at that panel of Skids and Rung meeting for the
first time.  How very, very far we’ve come.

(I
feel the need to point out as well that, in Rungian psychology, you
deal with stressful situations by going to your happy place, and
reliving a favourite memory.  It is now absolutely my
headcanon that Skids rescuing him is Rung’s happy place.  Just in
case this scene didn’t have enough emotions in it for you.)

The
other core moment is Rodimus’s speech, and I’m telling you –
even after Rung, I was not prepared for this.

This
entire sequence is fantastic.  The
team-ups, the intensity of the scene, the terse little exchanges
between unlikely allies, the declarations of feeling (spoken and
unspoken) between people who love each other.  It’s all these
beautifully chosen little moments, woven together into a genuinely
fitting tribute to the journey that this series has taken us on over
the past seven years, and I
can’t think of a better compliment than that.

There’s
so much going on here, I’m just going to have to break it down by
pair:

• Tailgate
  and Cyclonus:  While
  Cyclonus is back to being Tailgate’s protector – which is a
  lovely echo of Tailgate telling him, “Do what you’ve always
  done; protect me,” a couple of issues back – it’s also
  striking that they’re on the battlefield side-by-side, which has
  actually been rare in this series.  It’s often been Cyclonus
  saving/shielding Tailgate, or running off somewhere to fight for his
  sake, or, more rarely, Tailgate fighting for Cyclonus.  I really
  like seeing them have each other’s backs like this.  Tailgate the
  guiding light, and Cyclonus the guardian.  I love it.  (Plus,
  Tailgate opens his Matrix at
  the same hotspot where he was born, for
  another cool “look how far we’ve come” moment.)
• Ratchet
  and Drift: Aaaaaand
  SHIP CONFIRMED! 😀  I’ve been mostly agnostic about who I prefer
  to pair Drift with, but I really, really like
  the confession of love here.  The fact that Drift, after all this
  time fighting to protect Ratchet, spending time with him, teasing
  him and quarrelling him and just knowing him
  so well, still can’t quite spit it out – but Ratchet
  understands, and his “I love you” back echoes what he said to
  Drift during Shadowplay, so
  long ago.  “Me, too, kid.”  That was probably the first moment
  where they both admitted that they meant something to one another.
  Now, they’re admitting just how much.  I’m not crying, you’re
  crying.  Shut up.
• Thunderclash
  and Spinister: It’s
  interesting to pair up two characters who are, in
  different ways, simple:  the big, shiny Autobot hero who sees the
  world in black and white, and the uncomplicated Decepticon who sees
  the world as a series of vaguely threatening shapes.  And they work
  together, probably for
  precisely that reason.
• Nautica
  and Brainstorm: I
  love the moment where
  Brainstorm and Nautica grab each other’s hands, almost without
  thinking.  With Rung’s death, the two of them and Velocity are all
  that’s left of Nautica’s circle of amicae endurae, and I’m
  just very emotional over the fact that they still have
  each other.  Also, Nautica
  opening the Matrix is a sweet moment of connection with Rung, and a
  moving affirmation, for someone who grew up hearing that she was
  never good or
  artistic or spiritual
  enough, that she’s worthy.
  And on Brainstorm’s
  side, we’ve got the mech who, once upon a time, couldn’t bring
  himself to fire a gun, now fighting with everything he’s got to
  protect his best friend.
• First
  Aid and Crankcase: Not
  gonna lie, I would watch this buddy cop movie. 🙂  (Also, just for
  the record, this is the pair who end up at the Pious Pools, where
  Rung was allegedly from.)
• Lug
  and Anode:  THESE TWO
  ARE STRAIGHT-UP ADORABLE I DON’T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS.  Ahem. 😀
  I don’t remember whether this actually is the first on-panel,
  on-the-mouth kiss in MTMTE/LL, but if it is, this is a pretty damned
  fitting moment, and it’s also pretty cool that it’s the trans
  female couple who get that milestone.  (And again, Cahill’s art
  makes this work; you can feel the
  affection Anode and Lug have for each other radiating off the page.)
• Swerve/Grimlock/Misfire:
  
  I love the choice in teaming up these three – you’ve got
  Grimlock and Misfire, who’ve built a very moving relationship over
  the years, fighting back to back, and
  you’ve
  got the
  dynamic duo of Misfire and Swerve.  And
  then Misfire helping Swerve open the Matrix!  This is what I love
  about Misfire:  he doesn’t see A Legendary Test Of My Worthiness
  That I May Not Pass, he sees a friend who needs him, and he doesn’t
  hesitate.  Goddamn, I love this ’Con so much. 😀  Plus, I’m
  REALLY glad that even though Rodimus didn’t assign any of the
  Matrixes to Decepticons, we at least end up with one Decepticon
  opening a Matrix anyway.
• Roller/Chromedome/Rewind:
  It’s actually really cool seeing ex-cops Chromedome and Roller
  back together in what is, arguably, Matrix Heist Part II:  Matrix
  Heistier. 😀  I also like
  seeing Chromedome and Rewind fighting side-by-side, too, especially
  knowing how much they both fret about the other going into combat.
• Velocity
  and Krok: Kind of like
  Krok meeting (and bonding with) Nautica in Everlasting
  Voices, this is an intriguing
  setup – pairing the Decepticon with someone who doesn’t have
  firsthand knowledge of the war, and so probably has a more open
  mind.  I could see these two becoming friends.  (I also just need to
  note that their hotspot is called Eugenesis. :D)
• Riptide/Fulcrum/Nickel:
  … I’ll admit, this
  is entirely against the spirit of the issue to even think this,
  because we are all worthy, but
  this was the point where I went, “Riptide?  Really? REALLY??”
  But it’s brilliant to see Nickel fighting back-to-back with a
  fellow Scavenger (especially Fulcrum, who, like Brainstorm, has
  overcome his instinctive terror of combat).
• Ultra
  Magnus and Whirl: Oh,
  my god, SO much good stuff here.  Starting with the teamup itself,
  with Whirl, who’s mercilessly teased Magnus for years (hell, it
  was probably only a few hours ago in-universe that he described
  being dead as “like the time Ultra Magnus tried to tell a joke”
  :D), being the one fighting – to the point of having
  half his body blown off – to
  protect him.  And Magnus feeling genuinely ashamed of his failure to
  get the Matrix open, and apologising to both his
  captains for that – and
  Megatron calling him one of the most decent people he’s ever met,
  which is honestly beautiful.
  (JRo could have gone for an “Open, dammit, open!” joke here,
  but I’m kind of glad he didn’t.)  AND THEN WHIRL OPENING THE
  MATRIX.  Whirl, who
  runs on rage and self-loathing, managing to forgive himself for the
  sake of everyone else.  And you can see how much Rodimus’s words
  moved him – not just the speech now, but Rodimus’s almost
  offhand recognition of Whirl as part of the crew.  “Even… Team…
  Whirl.”  I just… I think I have something in my eye and I think
  it’s Whirl’s entire character arc oh god.
  *sobs*

But
what makes the scene – what makes the issue, arguably
what makes the whole arc –
is Rodimus’s speech itself.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  And it’s
100% Rodimus – both in the sense of, “We’ve
come so far from the days when Roddy would quote Optimus all the
time, or rely on Drift to write for him,” and in the sense that
this is what Rodimus does
best.  Knowing his crew, knowing how to reach them.  Knowing what
they need and deserve.  I
love the little touches in
how he lists off their jobs – how
Chromedome is a retired mnemosurgeon;
how Swerve is a bartender rather than a metallurgist, because that’s
where he’s happy; how Rodimus calls Whirl a watchmaker and Megatron
(or Magnus) a poet.  It’s not a list of what they’re for,
it’s a list of who they are.
This is Rodimus absolutely at his best as a captain, and I adore it.

(And
I love that Megatron inspires him to make the speech, because
Megatron is a good leader, and I think he finally recognises that
quality in Rodimus, too.  When he says, “Tell them what they need
to hear,” I think it’s both because that’s what leaders do –
Megatron has had to, countless times – and because that’s what
Rodimus does, and
Megatron respects that.)

The
speech works on so many levels, too:  As Rodimus addressing his crew,
it’s downright perfect.  As a tribute to the journey the series has
taken us on, it’s touching and lovely.  And at the same time,
Rodimus – or James Roberts – could almost be addressing the
readers.  Feel like you’re not worthy, like you’ve made mistakes,
like you don’t have a plan?  Welcome aboard.  And
given how much of a community has built up around MTMTE and Lost
Light, many of us probably can
think of someone we respect and
like and feel good around, who’s reading the same words we are.  I
know I can.

This
series has meant more to me than I can say over
the past seven years, and the last line of Rodimus’s speech
probably sums up the most important thing I’ve taken away from it.

You’re sure as
hell good enough.

Random
points:

• I
  love the whole conversation the crew has about what morality means –
  Misfire being so chipper about having done both good and bad things
  (“Oh, God, loads,”);
  Brainstorm overthinking the question in classic Brainstorm fashion
  (and undoubtedly thinking about his own shenanigans with the time
  stream); Lug proposing a model of morality that has a lot to do with
  compassion… and is a little light on the
  rules. 🙂  And
  Rodimus being the one who recognises that we’re far beyond Autobot
  = good and Decepticon = evil, now, when even Thunderclash is still
  falling into that trap.
• It’s
  interesting that Megatron is the only one who can’t forgive
  himself enough to open the Matrix, but I think that makes sense –
  he was pushing that guilt away for a long time, and now that he’s
  facing it openly (as we see when he laments
  not being able to save more of the Functionist Universe), he has a
  ways to go before he can fully deal with it.  A more important
  indication of how far Megatron’s come, I think, is that possibly
  for the first time, he isn’t making it about him.  He
  takes the time to recognise everything the crew has done for him,
  and to reassure Magnus that he’s a good person.  He
  understands that the crew need to hear from Rodimus, not him.  And
  when he can’t open the
  Matrix, even though he’s clearly shaken by that, he tosses it to
  Rodimus with total trust.  That says
  even more than opening the Matrix would.
• “We’ve made a planet-sized mistake,” could be the tagline for
  this entire series. 😀
• Rung’s final message made me start crying all over again.  Don’t
  worry, Rung.  The crew won’t forget you, ever – and neither will
  we.