Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

Well, it was revealed earlier.   But it comes into play here and goddamit, crying again.   

Orion Pax: "I underestimated your compassion."

Whirl: "No, you underestimated my thirst for revenge.   The senate mutilated me, got me to do their dirty work, and abandoned me.   I want you to hut them, I want you to crush them.  I want -  I want - I want my hands back."

Empurata is truly a horrible thing that happens in this continuity.   Just when you think brush aside Whirl as a lying scumbag and psychopath, here he comes to remind you that he has good reason to go insane.   They took his body and put him into cold-constructed body that was meant to humiliate him, then they used him and tossed him aside.   He has very good reason to be bitter, and you can understand why he's unstable here.   

You also very, very rarely get to see any vulnerability in him, and this is the most vulnerable I've seen him be in that last line.   It's heartbreaking, and makes him far more complex than he was before.   

And Roberts does it in that one line.   One line and he takes a character I've completely dismissed as flatter than the rest, and brings  his complexity to the fore.   He reminds me that Whirl is more than I give him credit for being.   Either that, or I'm reading way, way too much into this line.   I like to give Roberts credit given his other brilliant one liners and characters, and think that this was masterfully planned, and meant to poke at Whirl's depth.   

Bravo.   Brilliantly done.