153. 212. These are the lengths of the two speeches that bookended the Lost Light’s quest. Delivered by Rodimus, they are critical apexes that punctuate the story of the Lost Light.
While some 90 issues separating the two speeches, they say a lot about where we started and where we’ve ended. Both speeches were a call to arms. The first speech was delivered in MTMTE #1 in the shadows of a four million war that had just ended. The second speech was delivered in Lost Light #24 with the fate of the universe on the line.
Both were designed to rally but their differences could not be more stark. As a starting point, the analytics specialist in me couldn’t help but indulge in some sentiment analysis. What’s sentiment analysis you ask? In short it’s a way of using mathematical algorithms to score the sentiment of a text as positive or negative – if you believe it’s possible to reduce text to such a binary outcome. Rodimus’ first speech scored 100. His second speech 51.9*.
This didn’t feel right at first. The emotion the second speech stirs in me is so much stronger. I could delve into the pitfalls of Machine Learning / AI but that wasn’t the point. When you start to look at the speeches, while they are both rallying calls Rodimus’ second speech -is- more negative.
It rightly points out that this band of misfits are “not natural bedfellows” and “it shouldn’t [have] worked” because they’re “not the smartest or the strongest or the bravest or the best” and they’ve “hurt people” and they’ve hurt themselves.
In contrast, Rodimus’ first speech is far more positive. With the war over, Rodimus took aim at dislocation that a postwar world had brought, that fragmentation of an identity forged over four million years of war, and offered hope. He reassures those listening that “You’ve done your duty. The war is over.” More than that he tells them “that day you thought would never come? That’s today” and reminds them of what they deserve: “you’ve earnt the right to see the universe without a gun in your hand”.
It is aimed at offering purpose. It’s effectiveness comes from its broad and hopeful appeal. It could appeal to any Transformer, Autobot or Decepticon.
This is at odds with Rodimus’ second speech. Rodimus’ second speech is personal. Without being grounded in the context of their struggles aboard the Lost Light, the second speech has no effectiveness. It has meaning because they have “stumbled through life [together] from one self-inflicted disaster to the next without anything even approaching a plan”.
It’s a speech that’s brutal in its honesty but heartfelt in its sincerity. It’s recognises and celebrates the intimate journey that our protagonists have endured to be where they are.
Rodimus summarises it as only he could: “Welcome aboard. Maybe you’re not good. But you’re sure as hell as good enough.”
The contrasting reactions to the speeches further underline how far this quest has come. Rodimus’ elation at the number of bots that have signed up after the first speech is to “stick it up [Bumblebee’s] exhaust”.
In the latter case, the crew rallies and finds belief in each other and, more importantly, themselves. There is no personal glory for Rodimus. The glory lies in bringing together a bunch of people where this should’ve never worked.
And this is the heart of what makes MTMTE, MTMTE. As much as MTMTE is a story about big ideas, big moments and big confrontations, it is first and foremost a story about acceptance.
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