So in the midst of finding refs for concepting, I was brought back to issue 7 of LL, and the scenes with Kaput and Tailgate. I was already sadly reflecting like. Man. He starts off MTMTE being left and forgotten in a hole for 6 million years and we see the repercussions of the impact that leaves on him. Willingly burying himself to put himself in that position again for Cyclonus speaks volumes.
But anyways and then I only just noticed
I saw the chain here and for a moment I absolutely boggled like. Chains? Is it to? Make sure he doesn’t try to break out??? They don’t exactly look secure and when you see him a few panels later slamming on the roof, they’re not there. Like ‘hah that sure worked’ and I ALMOST TOTALLY LOOKED IT OVER AND THEN JUST STOPPED LIKE WAIT HOLD THE FUCKETH UP
It’s miscolored I think and that’s why I never. Fucking noticed that was the vial of Cyclonus’ innermost energon he’s holding.
yes hello 911 my heart is broken all over again thanks
I saw some people post about how it was Tailgate that realized the planet-sized flaw in the plan and that got me thinking because, despite what most people (including myself initially), Tailgate is actually incredibly smart:
In mtmte #5, after Tailgate decides to become an Autobot and starts learning the Autobot’s code, Ultra Magnus informs us of a couple of important details about what said learning would entail:
A ten thousand pages military manual.
which they’ll go through “word by word, line by line" while analyzing each and every one of them “subjecting them to a series of ethical stress tests of philological ambiguity”.
Now I’m no expert on the matter but I did a little googling and the estimated amount of pages a law school student reads in a year is between 7,500 – 8,000.
which means Tailgate should rightfully be terrified considering that Ultra Magnus then followed it up with this:
A FEW WEEKS.
Tailgate is expected to cover more than a year of law school’s worth of reading material in great detail and deep understanding in A FEW WEEKS.
And the crazy thing is?
HE DOES. he passes the test.
Now they are 2 things you might say to dismiss this incredible fit of his:
1. Every Autobot must have studied it, can’t be that hard, right?
OH NO.
Everybody who didn’t need UM personal approval to become an Autobot learned the abridged version. I mean look at the standard Autobot. they did not go to law school to get there. sorry.
2. He says himself it wasn’t a good grade.
that might be it if you don’t take into account a very important fact:
Tailgate is a terrible speller.
not surprising considering he’s a very low-class bot, with probably less advanced linguistic programs. (which I am personally headcanoning as robo-dyslexia).
now I defy you to tell me Ultra fragging Magnus won’t take away points for misspellings. I DARE you.
AND HE STILL PASSED.
so yeah. he might not be Perceptor or Brainstorm or Nautica but Tailgate of Rivets field is one brilliant little minibot.
Here have more reasons to love him
He also did manage to keep up the guise of being a bomb disposal expert for a while while solely relying on his wits and what he could get out of the people around him. That takes a lot of cleverness.
NOT TO MENTION the time he stopped an entire army of Legislators by rewriting section 500 of the Autobot Code.
Can’t spell worth a damn, but he remembered the Code and its proper punctuation. And figured that changing it would stop the Legislators.
Jab loves robots 