Ozai may have potentially been a threat, given time to lead from the rear, but if you're looking for the way to hurt him most, Aang pulled it off - he spiritually gelded Ozai. Heck, at that point, my scenario of Ozai rebuilding his power is a slim possiblity at best, as Korra described.

That's something that's endemic to the franchise going back to G1.

Really, the Decepticons could have just backed up to the Asteroid Belt, strapped engines to a few asteroids, and just lobbed giant meteors at Earth until "Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies" became the new status quo. If they didn't want to go that far, they could engineer plagues, hand WMDs to the various bad actors on the world stage, anything. Instead, they sat on their thumbs

Darkness Rising Starscream really was a better leader - he knew how to play his cards close to the vest and preserve profitable, useful operations. If anything, he's the only treacherous Starscream to have a point - this version of Megatron was a jackass.

 

Except you don't have it nearly as pronounced as you do in Prime because the level of plot contrivance is just so completely idiotic.

It really does make you wonder why the hell the Decepticons are even around Earth anymore to begin with. Sure, they were mining Energon, but thanks to Megatron being a goddamn idiot that's no longer true.

Agreed. Why couldn't we have just had HIM stick around? A truly competent Starscream is such a rare thing and this one had serious potential.

 

I agree. I have a rough history with Starscream and absolutely despise the G1 version of the character. The Transformers: Prime version has been a totally different story and I think if Megatron would have stayed dead then the Decepticon's would be flourishing. That said, I guess that doesn't make for a good weekly show if all the Autobots are dead.

Lol at the first bit, it's funny because it's true.

Second, you leave my live action Megatron alone. He was the man in the first film and he did some dope stuff in the third... it's not his fault half his brain was missing for it.

 

The big issue with the Decepticons as a whole is that they really are shortchanged in terms of characterization. The army of generic vehicons exists both to serve only as an overwhelming army in terms of numbers, as well as a bunch of mooks to slaughter effortlessly. This sorta would work if they were led by an actual named character who could take a punch and, y'know, survive. That way, they come off as a more powerful enemy.

Prime doesn't do this because it strangely decided the Autobots needed to be all absolute badasses who aren't challenged by anything ever from the start, which cripples any hope of actually presenting a credible threat to eventually overcome.

Using Animated as an example, Lugnut was so powerful that he could effortlessly team wipe the entire Autobot crew (plus Blitzwing!) with a single indirect attack (Punch of Kill Everything into the ground). Hell, any single Decepticon vastly outclassed the Autobot crew, that's why human villains were utilized primarily who were a handful in of themselves, but when a Decepticon showed up, that was a real OH SHIT moment. Gradually over the course of the show, the Autobots grew individually as well as a group such that by Season 3, they were able to finally take down Lugnut with minimal effort not through sheer power but by clever tactics. Or, to cite my previous Megatron-pwns-everything example, Prime is probably the most powerful Autobot alive short of Omega Supreme after getting the Wingblade Armor upgrade...and it's only just enough to outlast Megatron with both leaders sustaining the most physical damage (Megatron losing his head at the start notwithstanding) either would take in the entire show's run.

In Prime? Megatron seems to be reverting to G1 tactics where he spends all his time looking for a single advantage over the autobots instead of efficiently using what resources he has at his disposal.

I was talking more about the second film, where he's ass-kissing Fallen all the time.

 

I honestly thought Starscream was in the right during Darkness Rising & can understand why he felt it necessary to keep Megatron comatose during the first season. Megatron went bonkers & here's Starscream asking him to use caution around dark energon. Then he voices his concerns to Soundwave, who you'd think would be loyal to the cause first & Megatron 2nd, but nope.
I really, REALLY wanted this Starscream to be the one to take the throne & be the leader Megatron never could be.

That said, I still absolutely love TFP Starscream for everything else he does in this show.

 

They didn't have to be dead, just fighting a losing battle. Have Starscream keep getting Energon and completing steps towards a grand plan like Megatron should be doing but isn't because... what is he even doing right now?

Exactly right. he's so short-sighted, it's like he's not even a commander, just a low-ranking general or something.

I'll give this to the Live Action Megatron, he used everything he had at his disposal. After waking up, he made a fast grab for the Allspark and nearly aquired it after, what, an hour? Even in ROTF, where he was just a lackey, he still immediately went on the offensive (well, after a quick chat with management) and kidnapped Sam and killed Optimus. Then right after that, mass invasion. No more disguises, no mercy. He lost not because of any real tactical incompetence but just because he lost the fight. Even DOTM, when he was battered and physically useless, he still schemed and plotted and put things in motion, and again at first chance he led a massive invasion. His falling by the wayside was even a plot point, amusingly, so you can't even say it wasn't self-aware.

Point is, at no point did Movie Megs actually sit around and do nothing unless he was dead, frozen, or reduced to scrap. (at least in the original trilogy) Whether he was effective or not is obviously a different matter, but the dude never just stood and stared at monitors.

 

I remember getting the DOTM game like in early 2012, and during a mission Megs tells Soundwave something along the lines of "I've been researching old abandoned Sector 7 bases for Intel and I need you to destroy ___". I remember it kinda feeling a bit jarring after coming off of several months of TFP Megs just staring at monitors, to see a Megs discussing actively working on... well, something.

TLDR even in one of the crappier movie games, Movie Megs was actually legit working compared to TFP Megs.

The next episode does have a great Megs moment at the end, which I'll discuss in time.

 

I'm excited for the next episode because it's so good. And that's not sarcasm or anything, it's legitimately the best IMO.

 

You know, when it comes to Optimus and June there was this one hilarious bit of fan art about them that I quite liked. It's not exactly NSFW but I'm not posting it. I couldn't help but bring it up though. XD

 

Partners​

The 20th episode of Transformers Prime comes a day late but not a dollar short.

The first few minutes had me grumbling thinking that this was going to be another Arcee/Airachnid episode but I was pleasantly surprised to see a much richer story beneath with a plethora of characters making their appearances. I believe only Breakdown, Knock Out and the human villains were missing from this episode.

I was unable to pinpoint where this episode was going as it played out. Every time I thought I had a solid idea about what was happening, I'd catch a curve ball and I'll be the first to admit it - I believed Starscream.

I genuinely thought he wanted to join the Autobots and I felt sorry for him when he was chained, on his knees and pleading his story to the Autobots. Personally, I think this goes to show why the Transformers: Prime Starscream may very well be my favorite version of the character - because he's so damn good at what he does.

I have a theory that Megatron keeps Starscream around because he appreciates the true Decepticon nature of his second in command. He likes to be consistently tested as he mentioned in a previous episode but it sort of feels like the 'two' rule of the Sith from Star Wars. I was a bit discouraged to see Scream opening up to Soundwave though I didn't really believe him there, I thought for sure he was looking for another way to eliminate Megatron and claim the Decepticons as his own.

I, of course, was wrong as we see Starscream fly off while declaring his dedication to becoming a solo bot. If I'm being honest, I think I would be OK if Starscream didn't show up again past this point. I'm all for seeing more of the character and his brutality and deception but I also think it's a good place to write him off on a good note - he wouldn't win, he wouldn't lose.

Arcee showing restraint from killing Starscream hit me in some weird ways. I wanted her to get her revenge, I wanted Starscream to survive and I wanted Optimus to be right and have a positive influence over the Autobots. I don't think I would have felt as conflicted if we didn't just see Megatron get spared a little bit ago.

With that being said, Bumblebee broke my heart when I saw him standing there watching Arcee about to decapitate Starscream. It was a total Anakin/Order 66 moment but instead of killing a bunch of kids, Arcee took the high road.

Also, can we all please give a shoutout to the wonderful performance Bumblebee made this time around? The little bug was insanely satisfying to watch in the fight with the immobilizer and I was cheesing so hard when I saw his stance falter slightly from pretending he was frozen. I love him, seriously, I love him. In fact, the episode title is going to get marked yellow for today in his honor.

When the show kicked off I thought it was leading to Starscream and Airachnid becoming partners and that's a dynamic I wasn't sure I really wanted to see. I also thought it was clever to reveal that Starscream killed Cliffjumper by exposing his ego and hatred of Airachnid.

Lastly, I know Split's going to disagree with me on this, but I really think the writers did a damn good job of showing Arcee's pain over losing both of her partners in this episode. She's clearly torn about both Tailgate and Cliffjumper and I think she'd only managed to surpress the pain of losing Tailgate by being partnered with Cliffjumper then when she lost them both she'd just had enough - in fact, I think if she didn't have Jack, she'd be a slaughtering Decepticons like a bloodthirsty animal... which, ok, would be cool.

I think that's all I have to say for today. Sorry for the delay. We should be wrapping up Season 1 this coming week!

Thanks for reading!

 

A bit of a big turning point for the story so far at least with Starscream. And yeah, you're getting to the point of being tired of the Arcee/Airachnid story aren't you? We've all been there. XD

Did you catch Bulkhead referencing The Fallen? That was cute.

 

Partners is still genuinely good. Starscream is great and I genuinely wanted him to join the Autobots for a time. I loved that Megs was enraged that Starscream had been seemingly captured. For all his flaws, Starscream is still the second in command and a vital part of the Decepticons, as TF Wiki pointed out. I thought that was an amazing little moment. And I dunno, I really liked Optimus' last quotes, "it is the external wounds which heal the quickest", and "wisdom cannot be granted, Arcee."

I actually forgot how Bee got the drop on Airachnid, which was cool.

And of course this episode gets bittersweet with the dedication to Larry Cullen.

Fun fact, this episode was followed by a hiatus. Oddly, the following episode aired in Canada a good month before it did in America, and as Prime episodes lack titles on screen, TF Wiki had to call it "Transformers Prime episode 21" or whatever.

The episode after the following episode is my absolute favorite of the series and contains one of my favorite scenes in the franchise, ever. Stay tuned, Cap!

 

There is a scene in season 3 where someone makes a comment about Bees voice and every one can understand him, even you, the viewer.

Spoiler: Bee says,

"Fuck you!"

 

If I wasn't so dead from work, I'd have more to say, but in short this episode is the one time where I felt Prime utterly excelled at everything it tried to do. No punches were pulled, no opportunities missed. It is genuinely dark and mature, being character driven with real development for Starscream and Arcee. I loved Starscream so much at this point. It didn't fumble or hesitate, it didn't have to force itself back into a status quo at the end. This episode is what the whole series should've been, and the only negative aspect about it is that it's not. But standalone it's I think what everyone wishes Prime was. Down to Earth, gritty character dynamics.

Spoiler

AAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Nope, I agree. In the grand scheme her two dead partners is redundant and nonsensical, but this episode probably made it work at it's best, and like you said, the brilliant way Starscream lets slip his murdering of Cliffjumper would just not work with a single partner. The multiple dead bros is actually utilized here instead of having this awkward flip-flop, and again it only sucks because it's never really done this way anywhere else.

In fact, the only real weakness of this plot point within this episode ties back to what I said earlier where Prime feels like it was plotted with a smaller-scale in mind. If there were fewer overall characters in a more secluded setting, the murde rof an Autobot as a big deal would make sense as it's presented. But on such a galactic scale, the fact that Starscream consistently gloats over Cliffjumper and Airachnid is impressed by it feels goofy. Like, they should each have scads of dead Autobots under their belts, especially if the games are canon.

 

Happy to see you likes this episode, the next episodes will might confused you.

 

This is my absolute favorite episode of Prime. I remember I didn't like Starscream much, myself, before this show came along, where he became my favorite character (for the first season, at least) and this episode probably had the best portrayal of him. We see his ego, his cowardice, his cunning and even his combat abilities. I was so pleasantly surprised to see his panicking at Arcee turn out to be him manipulating her into letting her guard down, before beginning the first real fight we've seen him get into, in the show.

OMG, I completely forgot about the hiatuses and episodes airing early and without titles. Yeah, that stuff happened all throughout the latter half of season 1, didn't it. Man, that was weird.

Somewhat unrelated, but thinking back to this scene reminded me of just how awkward it was hearing the show, that wants to be as dark and serious as Prime does, constantly try to work around using words like "death" and "kill". Hearing Arcee, in a fit of rage, declare "you were the one, you extinguished Cliffjumper" just sounds so silly. Of all the words they could've used, why did they choose one as long as "extinguish"? And when you take all the dialogue the two exchanged in that scene, it just comes across like they're having a contest to see who can come up with the most substitutes for "death and "kill".

 

She should've said "you took Cliffjumper." Or even "you took him from me" or something similar. It's more down to Earth and reinforces her loss while avoiding those bad words.

But, yet again, it also shows Prime trying to push boundaries it cannot move. The show is so focused on death yet can't actually say the word.

 

I did but chose not to comment on it. Revenge of the Fallen is growing on me after TLK and AoE but I'm not ready to talk about it yet.   (kidding)

Forgive my ignorance but who is Larry Cullen?

Also, why did the episodes air without titles and so forth?

I look forward to it.   Will be posted today!

That's not a hard task to accomplish.  

 

Peter Cullen's brother - the man who Peter originally was impersonating when he first auditioned for Optimus Prime. Larry is the original inspiration for the classic Prime voice we all know and love.

 

Oh wow. Thank you for the prompt reply Burnout.

I noticed the dedication at the end of the episode but just assumed it was a member of the crew making the show.