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Your First Mistake

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Till All Are One #12 		»
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"I need an adult."
"I am an adult."
"Your First Mistake"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published August 9, 2017
Cover date July 2017
Written by Mairghread Scott
Art by Sara Pitre-Durocher
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era

Starscream joins Windblade's mental battle with Vigilem, but time is running out for all three of them, and only the truth will set them free.

Contents

Synopsis

Within Windblade's mind, the cityspeaker defends her brain against takeover by Vigilem, preferring to die with him than allow him to return to the conscious world. Vigilem splits his mental projection into three in an attempt to overpower Windblade, but her control of her mindscape remains strong, and she is able to hold him off by pinning his three forms with pylons she extrudes from the matter of the "world" around them. Vigilem smashes through the pylons and lunges at her, but is suddenly struck by a blast from behind—Starscream has linked his mind to Windblade's and come to aid her in expelling the evil Titan! Alas, Windblade is not grateful; she does not believe expelling Vigilem is possible, and rather than help her, Starscream's presence only affords Vigilem another avenue of escape. Adopting the form of Megatron to overwhelm Starscream with fear, Vigilem smashes through from Windblade's mind into Starscream's own, the landscape of which takes the form of the decaying Kaon. Vigilem pummels Starscream, stripping layer after layer from his mental projection until his spark is exposed... but at the last second, just before Vigilem can extinguish it, Windblade swoops in and snatches his spark out of his "body" to safety.

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This is what he looks like in the fanfictions he claims are his autobiography.

Confident that Starscream is mentally beaten, Vigilem begins to overwrite his mind, in order to take control of his body and return to the waking world. This affords Windblade time to turn her own thoughts inward, peering into Starscream's memories and witnessing the moment of his birth. Starscream was one of the countless Transformers produced via cold construction, a process that does not exist on Caminus, the sight of which is horrifying to Windblade; sparks placed into pre-designed bodies, their metal never able to adopt the true shape meant for them by Primus. Recalling the words of the Mistress of Flame on the subject of forging a singular truth, Windblade mentally generates a replica of Solus Prime's forging hammer and begins to "forge" Starscream's spark. With each strike of the hammer, the spectral form of a Transformer from Starscream's life manifests before them, until a small army of robots stands between Windblade and Vigilem—all those who left indelible marks on Starscream's memory. Vigilem tries to intervene, but the specters pile atop him, holding him down until Windblade can complete her work—until, with the hammer's final strike, the substance of Starscream's mindscape reforms around his spark, and takes a new form. Towering over everything, Starscream is born anew in his true form, the form he would have taken had the circumstances of his birth been different... and with a single stomp of his titanic foot, Starscream forces Vigilem out of his mind and back into Windblade's. There, realizing the secret to defeating Vigilem, Windblade assumes a giant form of her own and picks up the weakened Titan, lifting him into her own spark chamber. Just as the forge of Starscream's spark burned away everything until the singular truth of his being was revealed, Windblade uses her spark as a forge to burn away Vigilem until all that remains is his single truth... but there is no truth to be found in the heart of the Titan that serves Liege Maximo, Prime of Lies, and he is incinerated in the fires of her soul.

With a start, Windblade and Starscream awaken back in the real world. Attending physician Airachnid gives them both the all-clear, but Starscream quickly orders her out of the room so he and Windblade can speak privately. Starscream insists the experience they have just shared changes nothing between them, but Windblade entreats him not to be so foolish; Starscream has literally just glimpsed the perfect truth of his own being, the life he was meant to have, and that should change everything. But that is for Starscream to decide: Windblade has been changed by the experience too, and has come to a decision. No longer will she just serve as a mouthpiece for others, holding back her own thoughts: she has found her own truth as well, and now all of Cybertron is going to hear what she has to say.

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks, and mental illusions and images.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"You're not real. You can't hurt me. I know that."
"Are you sure, Starscream? After all, there are so many kinds of pain."

—Fear overcomes Starscream as Vigilem takes on the form of Megatron


"So vain, Starscream. Wrapping yourself in all these facades. Maximo always said to beware of 'bots who changed their skin too often. They're always trying to hide a rotten core."

—Vigilem


"The act of creation is sacred above all things, but no task is most costly than the building of something new. Every new alliance, new weapon, new world is forged and reforged in the burning heart of truth until all slag falls away. It is only the purest servant of Solus Prime who can keep forging until they reach the real miracle... the creation of a single true thing."

—Mistress of Flame


"A spark is shaped by all who touch it, but the first hand meant to is Primus'; sparks are meant to be forged in the design of his divine choosing... but not for you. What is this horror? This cold construction? 'Bots not born, but built. Never allowed to find their true shape. Instead forged and formed to the specifications of another's greed. Is that what you were truly seeking, Starscream? Escape from a foreign skin? The belonging you thought was lost forever? Did you forget that it was here all along?"

—Windblade views Starscream's birth


"I'm going to do what I came here to do. I'm going to build a better future. And I'm not going to let you or anyone else stop me. (...) I'm done hiding. I'm done holding back. And I'm done speaking for the Mistress of Flame, or Metroplex, or you, or anyone else. Solus and Primus gave me truth, too, and I'm going to speak it with my own voice from now on. I hope you agree with what I have to say."

—Windblade finds her own truth

Notes

Continuity notes

  • The three forms Vigilem takes in this issue are his original form (seen in flashbacks in issue #8), his present-day appearance, altered by years of his inhabitants replacing parts of his body (first seen when he transformed, also in #8), and the corrupted form of Windblade herself, portending his takeover of her body, which he used last issue.
  • Windblade pins Vigilem's three forms to the wall with pylons she extrudes from the floor of her mental arena, mirroring when she had Metroplex do the same thing to Starscream back in Windblade vol. 1 #4.
  • When Vigilem takes the form of Megatron, he appears with the body-design used by the Decepticon leader circa All Hail Megatron. Of course, it's no surprise that this would be the form that Starscream would most fear, but we did get an overt reminder of his relationship with Megatron last issue when he noted he would "beat the truth back into him" on the reg.
  • Windblade remarks that the real-life Kaon looks only marginally better off than Starscream's mental projection of it; the abandoned Kaon was rediscovered in the Titans Return one-shot and is still awaiting repopulation.
  • Each time Vigilem strips a layer from Starscream, the ex-Decepticon is reduced to a previous body-design, including his recently discarded "Combiner Wars" look (adopted in The Transformers vol. 2 #40, based on the 2015 Combiner Wars Leader Class figure), his "Armada" design (introduced in Dark Cybertron Chapter 1, based on the 2014 Generations Deluxe Class figure), and finally his original, classic F-15 form (which Starscream used in this continuity during All Hail Megatron).
  • Starscream's status as a cold-constructed Transformer was established in More than Meets the Eye #20.

Transformers references

  • Jetfire is one of the spectral figures who emerges during Windblade's forging of Starscream's spark, in an allusion to the characters' history as friends and colleagues in a lot of Transformers media, which began with the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Fire in the Sky". However, this relationship has not yet been shown to exist between the two characters in IDW continuity.
  • An unnamed Transformer is seen inserting Starscream's spark into one of a series of identical cold-constructed Seeker bodies. This is inherently a reference to the ubiquity of the bodyform in Transformers, so frequently redecoed and retooled as it is. However, the fact that Skywarp (and possibly Thundercracker) are outliers and therefore Forged Cybertronians raises questions about the origin of this body-type.
    • Indeed, before IDW introduced Forged vs. Constructed Cold, Skywarp attested in All Hail Megatron #6 that Seekers are identical because they take the form of their commander in homage and respect to him. In Megatron Origin #3, the trio also appeared in mildly distinct body-types before Hook retrofitted them at Megatron's command into identical warriors. The 2018 Annual would eventually reveal that Starscream deliberately had Thundercracker and Skywarp reformatted in his likeness to confuse the taxpayers Starscream had ripped off.
    • When asked on Twitter about Cold Constructed Outliers, and specifically Skywarp, James Roberts suggested that it was possible that the Senate succeeded in some form in their experiment to create Outliers.[1]

Other trivia

  • This issue's name doesn't appear in the issue, but was provided by Mairghread Scott on Twitter.
  • Solicited for release in July, this issue arrives just a little late, early in August.
  • Windblade's speculation that Starscream changes bodies so often because he's subconsciously rejecting them due to them not being his "true" body may at least partially explain why some characters suddenly change bodies for no apparent reason.

Covers (3)

  • Cover A: Starscream and Windblade, by Sara Pitre-Durocher; fourth and final in a series of themed two-character covers for this arc by Pitre-Durocher.
  • Cover B The specter of Windblade haunts Starscream, by Priscilla Tramontano.
  • Retailer incentive cover: Windblade by Zerob.
  • (thumbnail)

    Killing him with kindness.

  • (thumbnail)

    "Bah, humbug!"

  • (thumbnail)

    Peace out!

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Reprints

  • (thumbnail)

    Till All Are One, Volume 3 – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher

  • (thumbnail)

    The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 80: Requiem of the Wreckers – cover art by Don Figueroa (Carnivac) and Nick Roche (retro)

  • (thumbnail)

    The IDW Collection Phase Three: Volume 2 – cover art by Sara Pitre-Durocher

  • (thumbnail)

    Best of Starscream – cover art by James Biggie

External links

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