Excellently done. I was so impressed by the characterization - particularly of Optimus- and the writing with this story. It really stands out in terms of its sheer caliber. Well done!

Very enjoyable to read, the plot line was well done, not too crowded as it is often easy to become in fanfics. The ending felt complete as well, something I miss in a lot of other stories.

Optimus' speech really hit me personally. Like, it was like an exact analogy to something going on in my life right now. Needless to say, I really really appreciate this chapter.

(and also because it was a very conclusive way to write a Transformers fic like this and so well :D all the dialogue in this chapter was really powerful. 10/10)

Oh my Primus! This fic is brilliant! I really liked all of the character development you did with Megatron and Optimus.

This fic is amazing so far. The story is wonderful. I love the amount of detail too.

That. Was an amazing first chapter. Your prose is great. 10/10 forever

Not that I wouldn't love the whole story ( I love the whole Transformation-verse, for that matter) but this is the top-favourite so far. I'm sooo glad to have it in my hands as a book.

*hugs the Prime soooo much*

This is a very complex story, Prime, and I must admit I had first feared that Megatron could be nothing but drastically out of character- but you pulled it off; he was /different/ at times, but one got the impression distinctly that this was because he'd changed/developed from what he had previously been. In spite of these changes he was very much /still Megatron/, and Megatron is the bearer of a very violent soul, whatever other things he might pick up.

For Starscream, I feel great sorrow; he is ever the tragedy of 'what might have been' - a character who begins with great potential and naivety, who falls without... absolution, twisted in to something he should never have become, but was always fated to. I'm glad you wrote Entr'acte; ghost spark, and gave him a little bit more focus. He reminds me a lot of Grima Wormtounge... "You could have been so much more..."

Prime, of course, couldn't have been written any better if prime had written the part him, er, herself, yourself... never-mind.

There's still parts at the beginning that I'll need to read in more detail- but my initial attempt at skimming this to find the bits that most support Entr'acte had to be ultimately abandoned, as I couldn't resist just reading the rest the whole way through.

I'm glad I did.

Thankyou for the reading.

This story was an absolute delight to read. I'd had it bookmarked for a week or two because its tagline seemed interesting, but I only got around to it once I had a full free day. Suffice to say it was nine hours very well spent.

I loved the way you delve into the psyches of the characters, dredge up very uncharacteristic-seeming responses - anger and resentment for Optimus, gentleness and neediness for Megatron, and selfishness and bitterness for Elita - and make that work in a way that only adds to each of them, makes them more rounded-out, three-dimensional and tangible. I confess to a partiality to stories where everything ends really, really well, but here, that ending seemed uncertain, and when it came, it felt not only believable, but like something they'd all had to strive for very hard. Logically, I knew this would most likely be a happy-ending story, but I got nervous about it several times along the way. It takes skill to write a feel-good story that also gets you to think, "oh shit, that was so wrong," and, 'oh crap, this won't end well, will it?' while reading. And the way the word 'love' was shamelessly tossed around many times, yet never inordinately - that was so wonderful.

The things about this story that I liked would be too numerous to list in one sitting, but here are some particular favourites (oh, and I read Entr'acte in the same go, so stuff from snuck into this review, sorry about that!):

- The way it was so easy to dismiss Starscream at first and think that it was probably all for the best that he got offed, regrettable as it was, and the nagging guilt over having had that thought, which followed reading Entr'acte between Act IV and Act V. 'The happiest moment of his life' almost had me in tears, as did the dream scene with him and Megatron before he faded away.

- Optimus with his armour flared out, trying to liquefy himself in the washing racks, following the fight that got out of hand, and then the argument scene that followed it.

- Rumble and Frenzy's arc; like Starscream, they seemed rather unlikeable at first, but by the time they were tussling with Blaster's Cassettes in the medbay, I was so relieved for them that I wanted to laugh.

- The 'pleasure room' and Thundercracker's blatant show of depravity. The scene with him and Megatron left me feeling a little sick, and made me think of everything I've read about the combination of soldiers, brothels, rape and substance abuse. The addiction problem was one more detail that made everything feel more tangible and real - had there not been dysfunction of this level present, I might not have thought to miss it, but I probably wouldn't have been quite so convinced with the story.

- Just about every exchange between Megatron and Optimus. They had me snickering repeatedly, and the going 'aaawww' the next instant. Interaction between Megatron and Elita was lovely as well.

- Megatron's volcanic personality, his fixation with his helmet, his habit of swearing, his irreverence, the combination of his incredible force of will and his ridiculous stubbornness, his... well, just him in general. And the times when he made funny noises! Most of the time he remained stoic and intimidating enough that whenever he broke form and did something like squeak or shiver or profess love, it left an impression. I liked your take on all the characters, but Megs quickly became my favourite. He appeared like basically a compressed form of everything that was going on in the story.

- Soundwave's death and everyone's reactions to it. It was so simple, yet impressively creepy and unsettling; it was easy to believe that it was the catalyst that set such monumental change into motion. I think it worked very well that his motivations were never explained conclusively, but instead letting him fade into the background until the shock wore off and the 'why' of it no longer carried such weight, even though the sorrowfulness of his self-destruction remained.

- Your take on spark bonds, which seems more poignant than the for-romance-and/or-sex angle. Tangentially, also the way the characters dealt with their feelings, and how things like love, hate and fear were complex and multifaceted emotions that could overlap and each be inspired by the same person, even at the same time - but also how the strongest and most immediate emotion a character displayed neither determined their path nor predicted their actions. This made the characters more unpredictable and interesting, and it also made it easier to respect them and sympathise with them even when they were being awfully dense or callous.

- The exploration of the femmes' former places and roles in the society, what had become of them, how they had changed. I liked the way the new femmes, when they appeared, fell into their places in the society in ways that seemed more eccentric or quirky than predictable.

- The extensive attention to the damage the war had wrought not only on the landscape and lives, but also on the psyches and programming of those involved. The dysfunction and ruptures that followed the Ceasefire felt realistic and served as a sombre reminder of how there was nothing to be gained in war. Even the - at the time - seemingly justifiable death of Starscream destabilised things in a way that made me, as a reader, think about how you can't do things like moral behaviour only part of the time or part of the way, no matter how convenient it would be or how many people would agree with you. This story made me pause to think seriously about ethics, beliefs and justifiability, and I respect that.

And in general: That the peace was never terribly easy for any of them, even when there were unexpected displays of care and compatriotism, that few things went away without some sort of an upheaval, the way emotions - all kinds of emotions - were dealt with, often bare and raw - and, most of all, the recurrent themes of redemption and of thinking outside the box and picking 'third options' when faced with two unsatisfying ones (I love these in stories, they're a weakness of mine).

Only two things about this story bothered me. One was the occasional references to the femmes' 'special touch' that came a little too close to 'feminine mystique' for my comfort. Still, such thoughts were mostly voiced by the characters (which in Megatron's case was sort of sadly hilarious, when Chromia ripped him a new one for his trouble) rather than embedded in the narration. I also thought that the angle that the femmes were a third, nearly extinct subtype of Cybertronians rather than a gender in the human sense was fresh and interesting. In addition, Elita's exceptional sensitivity began to seem more like a personal quirk than a human-gender carry-over when Starscream entered the picture. Which brings me to the other thing: I felt that there were obvious parallels (and contrasts) between Elita and Starscream - their sensitivity, their experiences with respect or lack thereof, the comparisons of their respective relationships with Optimus and Megatron - yet those weren't explored very much. It seemed like a loose end, which I expected to be picked up and tied into something. I especially expected Megatron to get into it more, given his familiarity with both of them. In the grand scheme of the story, it wasn't that big a deal, nor did it obviously detract from the reading experience, but it resulted in one of those Fridge Logic moments when I went for a snack between chapters.

But that last chapter - it was a damned good way to finish the story. Primus overcoming his fear and forging a union with Unicron, and the whole deal being like a repeat performance of Optimus and Megatron's bonding on a much grander scale, was impressive as heck. But it was the last scene that really got me, the one with Megatron rambling to the dead in his usual, irreverent, yet caring, manner. I'm not sure if you meant it that way at all, but the remark about the potentially virus-addled newling femme who had an optic on him sounded very much like an affectionate nod towards all the starry-eyed femme OCs that fandom keeps flinging at the Decepticon commander. In any case, that was what it sounded like to me, and I found it to be an additional heartwarming layer in a generally heartwarming little monologue. And the line about coming home - that was the perfect last note on which to end everything.

To sum it up: I loved just about everything. Much. This is a wonderful story. I'm very, very glad you wrote it, and I feel compelled to offer you a pail of 'internet cookies' for it. Bravo, seriously, bravo.

I don't normally go online here for fanfiction or read it often actually, but I recently stumbled upon this gem. And spent the next four hours reading the entire thing through.

It's absolutely fantastic! I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I reached the end. I love the themes prevalent throughout the story and how eventually everything came full circle. The writing is exceedingly well-done, not ridiculously verbose, but very eloquent.

Perhaps what I love most of all though are you characterizations. It's all spot on. Prime and ole' Megs are my two favorites out of the franchise, and I especially love material focusing on their relationship (of the platonic kind mind you). I love how they were able to eventually reconcile their differences and get along, which made me all kinds of happy.

Perhaps, even more so, I love your depiction of Elita. In contrast to the way she is written in most fanfiction, you show her with an actually personality and as the strong leader that she is. Both her spunk and sensitivity were great!

Enough rambling now, but congratulations on writing such a fine piece of work! This is undoubtedly one of the better stories found in the dredges of Transformers fanfiction.

nice

Oh Primus, I loved it. Every single cycle it took to read this (and there were a lot, as I'm sure you know) was wonderful. I truly enjoyed these five Acts more than I have many fanfictions. You are an amazing writer, and I look forward to going back and rereading this glorious piece of work in the future.

Thank you countless times for writing this, and giving me something to love all over. You're awesome.

i loved this story it was well written, well thought out, and it tugged at the heart strings because it was believable. thank you for writing this.

Awww YEAH! Well done, Bossbot. The revisions are just what the story needed for clarity. It can be hard to realize that the neat enigmatic and mystical stuff needs to be clearly explained a few times. It seems to spoil it somehow, but it is SO much better this way.

The coda is wicked cool. I like how you brought everything around to the beginning again (AND hinted at the future). (And now I am imagining OP literally heaving a fembot at Megs's head, thanks to you.)

I'm sure you're tired enough not to want to go back and edit the monster again at this point, but when you do feel like it, the word "renown" in Starscream's epitaph is misspelled and both new chapters need the section breaks restored. Darn takes 'em out every time.

Anyway LOVE and congratulations! I am very very very very very very very very X 1 googolplex proud of you!

WOW. I am floored with the quality of the writing in this opus. It is easily one of the better TF fanfaction here.

Both sides in the great war finally needing to truly work together to get their planet back and with the associated cost of that, and the problems of the post war femmes and the pre war femmes still having some gap between them.

Yet the last scene, where even Starscream's corpse shows some sign of peace, one hopes that his spark does to.