If they do, the show doesn't seem to care. They're mindless clones when they need to be, and individuals when they need to be.

 

That's the thing though - he was.

The only reason he didn't is because Arcee would not shut the fuck up about him killing Cliffjumper.

It's not her fault alone, though, because Prime shows he's a shit leader here too - Arcee is way out of line and as the leader he should be reprimanding her for trying to make a decision she shouldn't have a say in.

Just another fine example of how the greatest threat to the Autobots isn't the Decepticons, but Arcee. She's a liability!

 

Megatron nonchalantly tossing the Steve to his doom was probably the funniest moment of the series.

Yeah, Starscream did a damn good job in this episode with his scheme. Using his dead clone, playing on his past reliable service in these situations, etc. He's a slippery one.

Poor Knock Out being stuck in the wall was also kinda funny.

Notes:

* How did they intend to catch Smokescreen? Plant Bulkhead's fat ass in front of the ground bridge and hope for the best?
* More hints at what's to come during this episode.
* I remember being confused by the cortical psychic patch scene when I first watched the episode.

Next episode is... well. We'll just have to see, won't we, fellas?

 

Oh boy.

Oh. Boy.



Ooooohhhhhh.....





Boy.

 

*looks up next episode*

Ohh....yeah....Welp, looking forward to seeing your reaction.

 

Please tell me we have the gif ready for the next episode.

PLEASE tell me we have the gif ready

Spoiler

The one with Starscream in the pantyhose of course

 

I will say one thing in buildup to this ep:

Spoiler: not actually a spoiler but I dunno I guess I don't want to colour Cap's opinion or something i dunno

This is not the episode that made me drop the series. But it was the one that clearly highlights just how it has changed from the beginning, and why I went from loving it to suffering it.

 

I love how not many people are commenting on today's episode and are already gearing up for the next.

But I'm right along with them. *sigh*

As for today's episode, it had some fun moments. Other people already mentioned Megatron throwing Steve off the ship, but my favorite part is definitely Starscream infiltrating the Autobot base as well as slow motion Peter Cullen.

Also, remember Knock Out being stuck in the wall because they have a bit of a funny gag calling back to it later in the series.

 

I'm sure Starscream would have stabbed them in the back at the first given opportunity, with or without Arcee.

But I do wish they would have given him a chance.

Knock Out being stuck in the wall reminded me of when you're moving way too fast in Minecraft and end up getting stuck in the blocks since the chunks haven't loaded yet.

Fair point about stopping Smoke when he came through the ground bridge, I wondered that as well but forgot to mention it. I assumed the ground bridge would somehow slow his momentum.

 

Of course.

But if you look at it from the Autobot's perspective, you have the former second in command of the Decepticons offering a truce and something extremely valuable, and Arcee fucked everything because MUH PARTNERS and Prime didn't immediately shut her down for insubordination which any half-decent leader would have done, because what Arcee did was overstep her authority.

It's one of the most bullshit cases of status quo in the show in order to prevent the Autobots from actually getting too much of an advantage (like how the super sword got broken almost immediately) because the Bots are truly just too far for what they should be right now.

 

An oddly specific comparrison I actually completely agree with. Except Knockout didn't start dying from it.

 

Also Megs refusing to get KO out of the wall  

Sometimes TFP Megs' apathy is boring, but other times I find it hilarious how some days he really doesn't give a shit.  

 

I feel like Megatron is a guy who is a very inspiring leader from a distance, i.e. when you are serving the Decepticon cause on another ship or planet, but when you're on the same ship you realize he is a terrible person and a really aggravating leader. He is not good with people, he delights in crushing his subordinates down when he should be lifting them up, and he just generally drives wedges between people. (Except Soundwave, who is his blatant favorite among his crew.) Throwing the grounder Vehicon off the Nemesis was a hilarious moment, but also perfectly encapsulated Megatron's attitude in general: other people are tools to be used how he sees fit, and if that tool happens to break then he won't be crying any tears over them. He is ruthless, which is both his strength and his flaw.

Also I liked the next episode, no complaints here.

 

Patch, Regeneration and Darkest Hour​

I planned to watch a single episode today as I usually do but how the hell was I supposed to just leave off for 24 hours with Dreadwing potentially joining the Autobot cause? I couldn't! So I decided to keep going... and going... and now I'm done with Season Two. Great!

To prevent this post from being a wall of text I'm going to try and keep things direct and to the point but I'm sure I'm still going to end up rambling on for a bit so bare with me.

Patch was a fun episode. Sure it was another 'clip show' but it was funny to see Megatron witnessing the treachery of Starscream first hand. His celebration dance gave me second hand embarrassment and is now one of my favorite moments in the history of the show.

I kept waiting for Starscream to drop his cowardice and come to terms with the fact that he probably wasn't making it out of this situation alive. I expected him to go stone cold, tell Megatron that he is incompetent (Tron, not himself) and accept his fate. But that never happened. I truly didn't believe Starscream was going to be allowed back into the Decepticon ranks and when Knock Out's treachery came to light I fully expected him to do what he planned and then when the truth about Skyquake came out I expected Dreadwing to back him up and pull the plug.

I also have no shame in admitting that I believe Megatron killed the wrong Decepticon, I absolutely adored Dreadwing. But that decision is made with the acknowledgement that I am biased to the character and soon after I found myself thankful for his decision as Starscream was once again firing on all cylinders and being a proper con. His menacing personality returned and seeing him standing in the flaming wreckage by Megatron's side at the end of 'Darkest Hour' just felt right.

While I do wish Dreadwing would have turned to the Autobots (seriously, an Autobot named Dreadwing would have been amazing) I am almost thankful that he didn't. I appreciate his contribution to their cause and the fact that his reasoning was to betray the Decepticons the way they betrayed him. The con was a true loyalist, second only to Soundwave and I believe Megatron greatly underestimated this trait of his. I like to believe that if I were in Megatron's position, I would have allowed Dreadwing to carry out his revenge and continue to serve as my second in command - let's face it, he was the only one who didn't fuck it up.

Now let's talk about something else. Airachnid. This girl was frozen in stasis in the Autobot's base when it got blown to hell. I'm no scientist but I believe this kills the spider. Now I understand that this is TV and unless you see a corpse, they aren't 100% dead (looking at you Wheeljack) but shouldn't Optimus and the others have some sort of moral compass directing them to save a defenseless bot, even if she is a con?

Next up, I want to talk about my favorite Autobot of all time - Ratchet. This dude absolutely broke my heart in the last episode. Up until now the "Bulkhead, I needed that!" line has been nothing more to me than an eye roll but when he broke down and cried out "Optimus... -WE- needed that!" I'm not going to lie, I had some water works building up. This is a guy who has been living this massive war since it started and through it all he has always stuck by the Autobots. He watched his planet fall from a utopia to a wasteland and when the opportunity arose to bring their home a second chance, he learns that it was all thrown away by the bot he chose to follow. I feel for Ratchet. I understand why Optimus did what he did but I still see things from Ratchet's perspective - there had to be another way. To top it all off, you have Alpha Trion telling Optimus to keep secrets from his team and while it doesn't surprise me he would do so from Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and potentially Smokescreen - it blows my mind that he kept it from Ratchet. Ratchet is the Soundwave of the Autobots and I hope we see him finding some much needed closure in season three.

Regeneration may very well be one of my favorite action episodes in Transformers history. It was so satisfying to finally see all of the Iocon relics put to good use and watching the Autobots go up against such a large Decepticon force (also in Darkest Hour) finally made it feel like they were actually at war. Bulkhead totally should have gotten to use the armor though... dude looked mad funny with that tiny staff.

Also, the moral compass comes into question once again when Smokescreen uses the spark extractor to essentially nuke an entire platoon of Decepticon grunts. Is it OK to just steal these guys souls like that?

Jack commented on the fact that the Autobots had been leaving them in the dark recently which I found strange considering their open and honest attitude towards the kids in the past. Allowing Jack to carry the Matrix of Leadership in a previous episode and then refusing to give him a heads up that some real danger may be brewing seems off to me.

I commend Optimus for sticking to his values and giving everything up to save the kids. I already know that some people are going to knock this and while I can absolutely see their point of view (YOU GAVE UP AND ENTIRE PLANET FOR THREE KIDS!?) I greatly respect the decision to have Optimus surrender for their safety. It's a HUGE contrast from the live action films where he is currently killing humans... Y'know, I really hate the last two live action films. :|

Fowler has balls of steel and is very, -very- stupid. This guy jumps into a Helicopter to fight off an entire fleet of Decepticons with their warship looming right over head. He is one of my favorite human characters in Transformers media (along with Sam Witwicky, Spike, Daniel, Chip Chase and Sari Sumdac - if she counts that is). Wheeljack showing up to help him in dog fights was super cool to watch and made me very happy.

This season finale was epic. I was sitting up and barely blinking throughout the entire ordeal and I'm very excited to go into Season Three. My wishes for the next season are to see some more development for the kids and to get them back into the action, to have new characters introduced primarily for the Autobots (Ultra Magnus, Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime, Blurr, Wreck-Gar, Sentinel Prime, Beachcomber, Tracks or Warpath please and thanks!). Considering the subtitle of season, I would love to see Waspinator in some way shape or form.

As with Season One, I will be taking a week long break between Season 2 and 3. It will be a bit longer this time since I've went and watched Friday's episode already. I should be writing up the first episode of Season 3 on Monday, October 30th unless something Halloween related gets in the way.  

Until then, I'll still be checking in to discuss seasons one and two with all of you. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the Season 2 finale!

Please remember to keep spoilers in tags and do not hint towards anything related to Season 3! I want to go into this blind!​

 

I think Megatron was stupid to let Starscream back and should have killed right then and there. I did enjoy the finale, though.

 

Now you finished season 2, and I hope you enjoy season 3 must as seasons 1 and 2.

 

The second clip show, I enjoyed it more than the first because it did move the story a little bit further on, but it was quite odd to see a modern big budget cartoon in the early 2010s having two clip shows. On the plus side the writers finally remembered what happened to Skyquake in the Shadowzone.

I loved Dreadwing when he first showed up, I saw the potential for him to be the new Dinobot-type character for the show and it was nice to see they kept him as a mostly honorable character like Dinobot. His death was, well honestly it was a bit of a waste of him but when I first saw it I thought it was great just because it came out of nowhere. It was inevitable though with some of these expensive voice actors.

The battle for Cybertron was pretty epic and as cliche as it was, seeing Prime rebuild the Star Saber and quote the 86 movie AGAIN was too perfect for that scene. And just like Dark of the Moon Prime destroys any chance Cybertron has of restoration in favour of protecting the Earth. It's just typical but true as to how Prime would act in that scenario that puts me in a fanboy mood.

Ratchet is incredible when he hears about the Omega Lock being destroyed, and then they follow that up with Megatron quoting his Animated counterpart with "Transform & Rise Up!" Which I could tell he was going to shout during that scene. There was no way you could conclude that speech without it.

The ending, definitely one of the best cliffhangers in TF history. I would say it nearly rivals the cliffhangers for the first two seasons of Beast Wars. And yeah we've seen the whole 'Optimus Prime is dead or severly injured or he's missing an arm' story before (not a spoiler just three easily guessable outcomes of what may happen) but that agonizing wait for season 3 back in the day almost killed me. Hell I cracked and watched the season 3 premiere when it was all blurry after being bootlegged from Singapore, and it left one episode out that forced me to wait for the proper American release.

I felt like a kid again watching Beast Wars as I refreshed this site for any updates. Obviously you can tell I adore the season 2 finale, not without a few niggles but it was what I needed from this show at the time.  

 

Warning: this is absolutely a rant. Like, Autobot Burnout levels. If you're sensitive turn away now.

It gave me first hand embarrassment as it fully solidifies Prime Starscream at this point as nothing more than a spineless, ambitionless clown. He is a farce, a sad shadow of what he once was. They even ruined the awesome scene from Darkness Rising when he sinisterly declared himself ruler by making him dance like an idiot. It's rare that a show can actually go back and ruin previously great moments.

That moment killed the show for me. What a waste of a great character, and killed in such a stupid way. Megatron kills his most loyal, capable warrior for the most treacherous, inept one.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

The bullshit explanation you'll see offered is that "oh well Megatron was making an example of no more infighting" but that's absurd. They're Decepticons, settling things themselves is their nature. You'd think Megatron, a Gladiator himself, would appreciate this. Especially how little he cares about those who don't live up to his standards. (of which Starscream never, ever, ever does) It's completely out of character for him to kill Dreadwing, and a massive slap in the face to fans who were looking forward to a Decepticon with an actual subplot in this show. Would he join the Autobots? Would he stay loyal but hesitate in certain missions? Would this come to a head and he turns on Megatron or, as I suggested, perhaps choose death over dishonour and willingly challenge Optimus to a final showdown? Guess we'll never know now.

Ugh... it's not even that Dreadwing died, it's that they chose the stupidest, most thoughtless way to do it. Megatron just murders him "because." (which, BTW, since when does his fucking gun blow holes in shit, let alone people?) Nobody cared how he died, because nobody cared about the character, because nobody on this show actual cares. They just want to make this most visually appealing, grandstanding show they can and don't care what gets them from point a to point be. All style, no substance. If I sound particularly harsh towards this show, it's because this was the last straw. Prime was losing me for months before this. Ever since the season one finale. But I trucked along, because why not? Well, this is why. The only character worth a damn IMO, between everyone morphing into a trite one-note charicature of what they once were and Smokescreen, while good, just being not enough. I liked Dreadwing, I hated almost everyone else, and the show punished me for that. This post is particularly scathing because it's my last for this show. (rejoice Prime lovers) I stopped watching after this, because the show clearly didn't want me to.

 

^ Great post, SPLIT LIP.

I never cared for Dreadwing as mush as I did with Breakdown, as I find him to be kinda uninteresting at times until season 2. Dreadwing's doubt over the Decepticon's ideology is interesting and the subplot itself is fine, but the way his subplot ends is questionable, at best. The way both Breakdown and Dreadwing's subplot end reminds me of what Energon has done to Starscream's character arc and his tragic friendship with Alexis in Armada, but even worse; At least Starscream in Armada kinda gets a proper ending to his arc in the show, while both Dreadwing and Breakdown didn't.

Megatron kills Dreadwing by himself is also stupid. There's no reason for him to kill a henchmen that are loyal to him and have a sense of honor over another henchmen (Starscream) which has a questionable loyalty to him. I kinda understand why he did it, but it's still kinda stupid.