you put rodiceptor on my goddamn mind. please say more
For IDW specifically I really need to give credit to @onaegling for putting it into my brain. Shout out to Percy. Also why i took so long to respond to this, Percy's just the Rodceptor guy in my mind and being the one responding to this makes me nervous. ANYWAY.
Perceptor has been shown hanging out with very few people in the Lost Light-- fewer still if you count people he actively speaks to rather than works with. I think we hear more concise conversation between him and Rodimus than we see him and Brainstorm-- which, is kind of crazy, when you consider rodimus and perceptor are shown talking in length maybe 5 times.
I bring you 2 main points: Despite Rodimus calling science magic, he is pretty well versed in stuff. I specifically really like this conversation between Perceptor and Rodimus because it implies a level of comfort both of them have with one another: Perceptor can go on an uninterrupted rant and doesn't feel offended when interrupted, and Rodimus not only understands every bit of science talk Perceptor may be talking about, he also knows Perceptor can explain in simpler terms, and tells him as such. (Rodimus also builds the Lost Light engine from his instructions over the phone-- this requires an understanding of the science behind it, and requires a level of patience and understanding of Perceptor's own vocabulary as well)
Perceptor doesn't have a lot of relationships in MTMTE that are outright stated. Despite being, theoretically, coworkers, Perceptor tends to talk about brainstorm as someone he has never held a conversation with and vice versa. But his relationship with Rodimus is something that, when you're looking for it, you find it sprinkled here and there. and it is deeply fascinating to me-- they talk very comfortably to one another, and sometimes with a degree of intimacy I reckon isn't really common for either of them.
Food for thought, though: Perceptor has held Rodimus' life in his hands twice. That's 1 more than anyone should be allowed to. He was the one who turned the engines to kill the sparkeater, (which, in the alt, did kill rodimus), and was the one who modified and strapped the killswitch to rodimus without being 100% sure wether itd kill him or not. that's a lot of trust to put on someone that, before the lost light, you'd had very little in the way of direct interactions with. I also think that its really really sweet that Rodimus wanted perceptor in his ship. That Perceptor being in the Lost Light reignited his love for science. I like to think Rodimus had to remind him he didnt have to be a soldier anymore. that he could be just a guy whos good at something other than killing.
