YMMV / The Transformers: Windblade

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Starscream's gotten himself quite a bit in this series as his Pragmatic Villainy has kept him from dog-kicking. Him rescuing Windblade in the 6th issue of the second ongoing has lead to some theories. Some feel that his reasoning after the fact, a combination of Can't Kill You, Still Need You, him trying to look heroic and make her indebt to him, explain his actions. Others speculate that it could be a genuine Pet the Dog moment, or him Becoming the Mask as the savior of Cybertron. Another interpretation contrasts Starscream's relationship with Windblade to Megatron's relationship with Starscream; always needing a contrary underling to keep them on their toes so they don't become complacent in their position.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Chela is brought down by a single barrage of fire from Starscream. That's an attack that wouldn't be guaranteed to kill Chromia or Wheeljack (they've both lived through worse), it's ridiculously weak compared to what other Titans have taken.
• Awesome Art: It's pretty much unanimously agreed that Sarah Stone's artwork is phenomenal.
• Base-Breaking Character: Windblade. Not really the character herself, rather how IDW handled things when first introduced to the media. This actually led to a gigantic Flame War in the IDW forums, fansite forums, tumblr, twitter, blogs, et al, with extreme sides of the argument having feminists against mysoginists, and even had Simon Furman publicly snapping at Mairghread Scott, after she brought up the whole Arcee and the Unfortunate Implications her origin story carries as baggage as the reason why Windblade will serve as an Orwellian Retcon to the canon that Cybertronians were a One Gender/No Gender Race Furman always pushed for.
  • Windblade also has fans split on her design. Her kabuki "makeup" and onna bugeisha "hairdo", remind them of Drift and how he was originally introduced into the IDW universe, Gratuitous Japanese and all, including the overly-narmy "Dorifto" kanji on his shoulders. A sticking point for critics was that in-spite of being a fanmade character (with the fans selecting "knight-like" for the design choice), the Japanese themes were wholly made up by the designer. Other fans like the aesthetic, feeling it makes her stand out and since she was unveiled, the reception has improved with many fans feeling the Japanese themes are now intrinsically Windblade.
  • Also Rattrap, carrying over from RID, fans are split with his revision and Adaptational Villainy. There are those who feel he's still on the grey end of Ambiguously Evil and others who hate the revision and feels it's against his Jerk with a Heart of Gold persona. When he tortures Windblade brought even more debate as to whether or not he's still sympathetic; granted this does have some Older Than They Think as the original Rattrap was for torture, but there's still a gulf between mentioning and the action performed onscreen. Finally there's the contingent of fans like or are okay with the new direction.
• Broken Base:
  • The second series (starting at issue 4) launching without Sarah Stone, and with Corin Howell in her place. While Stone's art is missed, Howell's has proven divisive. Some really like her art, the faces which are nicely expressive, the colors are vivid, and the cartoony approach are all praised. Others dislike the cartoony look and say the art style's too simplistic, they feel the expressions are too exaggerated.
  • The pacing of the second series, due to it having only 4 issues (as the first three dealt with combiner wars) to cover all of the plot points established in the the first series and Combiner Wars. While many understand Scott's decision to end the series as Till all are One will essentially be the same story, but instead of focusing on Windblade it will go for a more ensemble cast; other fans feel that establishing contact with the colonies has gone way too fast, with Velocitron taking 2 issues, Divsiun happening offscreen, Eukaris taking 1 issue, and First's conquest taking up the last issue all in a mad dash to get everyone together for new stories. Others feel that this is just a trade-off, as establishing the colonies isn't as important as showing what happens afterwards.
• Contested Sequel: Series 2's quality has been debated. Some feel it was a great follow up to the first series in that it takes the plot points set up, expands on them and really brings the IDW comics into a sort of distilled Ultimate Universe of Transformers at large. Others feel that Combiner Wars swallowed the plot for the first half and the second half couldn't fit all the world-building and story.
• Crack Pairing: Few would be able to see a canonical relationship between Lightbright, a bot created for Transformers Animated and Sparkstalker, a gimmick Decepticon who rarely get's fictional appearances, and yet they seem to be an item.
• Creepy Awesome: Starscream has been tweaked into a creepier character whom fans have compared to the Transformers: Prime version of Starscream (which Scott was a writer on). Quite a few fans, and even John Barber, like the portrayal. It certainly helps that he's very handsome in this series.
  • Scott affirmed during Botcon that they were trying to portray Starscream as a "sexually aggressive" kinda boss.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Knock Out was already one of the most popular characters back in Prime, and fans rejoiced when he cameoed at the end of the miniseries. When he finally shows up, in Issue 4 of the sequel, he steals the show, retaining his showing theatrics, narcissism, and keeping all the character traits he had back in Prime (no doubt helped by him being written by one of the shows writers).
• Growing the Beard: Not the comic itself but for Mairghread Scott as a writer; she had written some divisive episodes of Transformers Prime but her work here is generally seen as decent.
• Ho Yay
  • Windblade and Chromia have plenty of Lady and Knight subtext to their friendship, and are frequently paired together by fans.
  • Knockout may already have a Conjux Endura, but his scene with Blurr where they trade boasts, and Knockout's comments about body detailing (as well as the facial expressions), really make it seem like they're flirting. Blurr is the first, and only, Cybertronian to actually have Knockout's attention.
  • Blurr and Swindle.
• It Was His Sled: Chromia being the bomber. It was a controversial reveal, all of her subsequent appearances have referenced it, and it's become a major plot point. It's hard not to be aware of her Adaptational Villainy.
• Moment of Awesome: Issue three provides a good deal. From Cutthroat setting Tankor and Windblade on fire, to Rippersnapper laying out Slug, to Windblade impaling Cutthroat. Starscream takes down Windblade. Concluding with Blurr and Slug slamming the doors in Starscream and his troops' faces.
  • Starscream managing to kill Chela, the Titan of Eukaris in issue #6.
  • Chromia deciding to step up and admit what she did in the first volume so Windblade can no longer be manipulated by Starscream
    Chromia:My name is Chromia of Caminus, and I have a confession to make. When I first arrived on Cybertron, I set a bomb in the Acrolight district, killing three 'bots: Scrap Cruncher, Exhaust, and Technimus. I am also responsible for the earthquake that happened afterward."
    Circuit:Uhhh... why?
    Chromia:Because I was just like that combiner, or the Badgeless that killed that 'Con behind Maccadam's, or everyone who won't give up their stupid war. I thought I was different... an "us" against "them." I acted alone because I thought I was alone. I thought no one else mattered. I hope you learn from my mistakes."
• Older than You Think: Some people were apparently under the impression that Windblade and her related characters were the first explicitly female Transformers ever. This is very much not true (Chromia's not even a new character) as nearly every incarnation of the franchise has featured female characters to some degree, except for the IDW Universe, not counting Arcee (and she's a special case). The real reason Windblade's announcement was big was because she was a fan-created character.
  • Same with the concept of Cybertronian colonies, even within the IDW universe, as the Drift mini-series and later MTMTE touched upon on Crystal City, which had its own Titan.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: After being given enough time for Scott to flesh her out, Windblade's become better received both character wise (as she's been developed beyond her first appearance), and design wise (Stone's striking art saw to that).
• Rooting for the Empire: A lot of readers find Starscream more likable than Windblade. It helps that he's been around longer (and thus more fleshed out) and has been given quite a few reasonable moments of Pragmatic Villainy.
• So Okay, It's Average: The general reaction to the series has been this. It's okay, but not nearly as interesting or ground-breaking as it's sister series.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some hardcore fans had this reaction to the comic retconning the No Gender aspect of the transformers that had been present since the IDW continuity was started. Of course this complaint ignores that pretty much every other Transformers continuity ever has had transformers having gender.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Many fans actually took Starscream's side in the constant debates between him and Windblade. A big reason being that many of the things she accuses Starscream of are things she's done herself (most notably, lying about Chromia's crimes). While the murder of Chela is presented as both a tragedy and a necessity; it is much easier to understand Starscream's POV because it was a desperate situation that had to end violently.
• Wangst: Windblade being cut-up about Chela's death. It would be understandable if not for the fact that Chela was a violent and unreasonable beast that tried to kill Windblade and any other non-beast class Transformer. Both Starscream and Meroplex even call her out on this, with Metroplex pointing out that Chela didn't want to be saved and brought his death upon himself.

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