i know that barely any of my followers on tumblr care about when i write about transformers but i’m still seething from issue 12 of Lost Light because of how genuinely badly it was written
James Roberts used to be this dude that wrote deeply intricate and interconnected stories with extremely careful consideration put towards the continuity of the universe he was writing, right?
The latest issue of Lost Light’s entire plot is one gigantic continuity error. Like, literally every single aspect of the issue’s story has at least one thing wrong with it.
The issue is riddled with so many continuity errors that it essentially proves that James Roberts doesn’t read any Transformers comics other than his own, and he barely skims the Transformers Wiki when doing research. You can actually find the single image he looked at that is responsible for completely destroying this specific issue.
It’s this one:
The issue in question, Lost Light 12, stars a group of Autobots called the Protectobots. The team has the ability to combine in to the robot pictured above, Defensor.
The team consists of Hot Spot, who forms the torso, Blades, Streetwise, Rook, and First Aid, who form the limbs, and Groove who forms the chest armor.
Rook is the dude on Defensor’s right leg.
In the issue, the Protectobots are captured by the maniacal captain Getaway of the titular spaceship, the Lost Light. In order to prevent the Protectobots from forming Defensor, Getaway murdered Rook.
Getaway’s logic, in-universe, is that because Rook forms one of Defensor’s legs, Defensor can’t form if Rook is dead.
The problem with that logic is that each of the Protectobot limbs can form either an arm OR a leg, and this ability has been demonstrated in-universe.
Also, in-universe, Rook has only ever taken the form of Defenor’s arm.
So why does Getaway assume that Rook forms Defensor’s leg?
Because James Roberts, the author of the story, didn’t do any proper research and doesn’t read the other Transformers comics. He looked up a picture of Defensor’s toy, saw the formation displayed on the wiki, and assumed that was Defensor’s canon, immutable formation.
So, because James Roberts didn’t know that Defensor’s limbs could swap around and because James Roberts didn’t know that Rook traditionally took the form of Defensor’s arm, we have two plot holes already.
But it doesn’t end there, oh no.
In prison with the Protectobots is Mirage.
Mirage is also a combiner limb. He’s a member of the combiner Optimus Maximus.
Mirage could have taken the place of the missing limb.
But he doesn’t, because James Roberts didn’t know that Mirage was a combiner, because James Roberts doesn’t read comics that aren’t his own and James Roberts doesn’t properly research things on the Wiki.
So that’s three plot holes.
But that’s not all!
The solution to forming Defensor in the story? The solution that didn’t need to happen because there were already two separate solutions to the problem that the author simply didn’t know about?
The Protectobots go down to the ship’s morgue and retrieve the corpse of Ambulon, a deceased combiner limb capable of forming a leg.
Ready for the next plot hole?
Before Ambulon died, his body was bisected vertically, disassembled, and re-assembled in to a makeshift weapon in a previous story.
So Ambulon’s corpse should be in absolutely no condition to function as Defensor’s missing limb, as it was never mentioned that anybody rebuilt his corpse to its proper state.
So that’s four plot holes.
BUT WAIT.
In previous stories, the combiner Devastator combined with one of the members of the combiner deceased. During that time, Devastator was nearly completely incapacitated by his completely useless “dead leg.”
So using Ambulon’s dead body as a leg for Defensor isn’t a solution to the problem.
So that’s five plot holes.
So, because James Roberts did absolutely zero research and doesn’t read the comics that aren’t his, we wound up with no less than five plot holes, a fan-favorite toy (Rook) getting killed before he could receive any sort of characterization, and a gigantic mess of a story as a result.
And then, after all of that trouble, Defensor is finally combined!
And then he is immediately gunned down by Star Saber in a single panel with no fight at all.
Needless to say, this issue was not well-received by fans even a little bit.
Anyway thanks for reading, this has been the story of how Transformers has no good fiction running right now and how reading Lost Light feels like watching a loved one slowly go senile and die.
A Force Sensitive Phasesixer 