I find the whole "thirteen primes!" thing to be really lazy. "There's robo-Jesus + 12 robo-apostles, oh and one is ROBO-JUDAS". The IDW mythology with the Guiding Hand feels far more organic and less like they were leaning over the shoulder of the Christian mythos, copying.

 

Oh, how I wish Prime never did... RID is just too different....  

 

The thing with the Thirteen originally was actually pretty badass. The mythos gradually built up over time as this greater mythology, slowly introducing each member after a lengthy and epic narrative that would effectively entail and entire series run - I.E. Vector Prime from Cybertron, The Fallen from War Within, Nexus Prime from four continuities (two from Cybertron, one from Classics, one from not-Shattered Glass, and one from Shattered Glass) ,and Liege Maximo technically was G2 even if he showed up for like, ONE PAGE. The only one not explicitly said to be a Thirteen before the Covenant was Alpha Trion but I think everybody was totally okay with that anyway since he's the stereotypical 'old dude mentor'

Then Hasbro decided to fuck everything up and just hit the fast-forward button and made up a bunch of Primes with NO setting whatsoever. Solus Prime especially pisses me off because she's only there to be a token woman character in the middle of that stupid ass love triangle that turned Megatronus evil (instead of traditionally appropriate where The Fallen was corrupted by Unicron's promises of power).

And then the super-mysterious last Prime...was Optimus Fucking Prime in a previous life, meaning Optimus Prime is robot Jesus now. And I'm mentioning this because the Covenant has no bearing on the cartoon Prime whatsoever.

 

Optimus being the last Prime is ridiculous, but predictable. The only reason to have 13 Primes, with one as a traitor, is if you're aping Christianity. And who else would Hasbro have as robo-Jesus? The only other contender would be Bumblebee. Just because he is Hasbro's 2nd most merchandized bot.

And yeah, fortunately this never is referred to in TFP or any other show so it's not a spoiler.

 

Actually, having Vector Prime be Robo-Jesus seemed to make the most sense as he's the Time Prime, meaning he can presumably undo his own death (and IIRC in Cybertron he still exists, just can't be in that timeline anymore, seeing as how he's fighting the similarly dead Megatron outside of regular time at the end of the series.)

 

CaptainSlayer, I really hope you read the TF Marvel comics at some point (at least Bob Budiansky's run--I found the later stuff dull) because as I was starting a comment about robo-messiah Optimus, I remembered some truly off-the-wall and hilarious issues.

Spoiler

Specifically, the time that Optimus demanded that he be killed because he was a terrible person, because he had KILLED SOME VIDEO GAME SPRITES. And then, his personality fit on a single, regular floppy disk. Amazing.

 

So apply everyone is talking about The Thirteen and Optimus Prime being very Christ-like figure, but truly I must prefer Prima being the Christ-like figure, and Optimus being the Robo-Lincoln/FDR of the Autobots. Plus it also broke 1 rule about religion so we've can drop it.

 

I can agree with you on the mountain. I distinctly thought, "Mountain? You mean Boulder?" and then when it dropped it was actually massive.

I don't understand a damn thing you're saying right here but I like the way you say it.

I read this as Electorus and thought "like the college?" but now I'm thinking something far dirtier.

I plan too. I love comic books. "Bayformer Fan reads TF Comics" has also been pitched a few times.  

No worries about your spoiler, I managed to remove it from the quote without seeing it.

 

Electorus - the Prime of Presidential Elections.

 

Alpha/Omega​

The Star Saber is made of glass, Megatron plays with corpses, Smokescreen lives up to his name and Alpha Trion is unable to move his lips!

Megatron and Optimus also have a Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker moment. Which is pretty cool.

Overall though, there isn't a whole lot to say about this episode. Some keys can reboot Cybertron, Megatron is a Frankenstein fan and the Autobot's lost their one day advantage.

I don't really understand why the Dark Star Saber was able to break the real thing. Maybe Dark Energon is the more powerful material?

Either way, this was a fun episode but I credit it to the action and can say that Alpha Trion's appearance was lackluster since he was just a force ghost who couldn't actually use his mouth.

 

This was a fun episode, it was nice to hear George Takei as a Transformer again and the sword duel was fun. Although Dark Star Saber, probably would have preferred the name Death Saber honestly, the actual name is a bit dumb. Plus it was nice to hear Megatron mention Unicron because when this episode debuted it felt like a lifetime ago since he was a thing in this show. Smokescreen shines well in this episode, for now.

You know me, a big nerd of the small details and ancient Primes. Apparently that arm that Megatron and Dreadwing dug up was originally meant to be Sentinel's. Truth be told it would have tied into the episode better if it was Alpha Trion's due to his status as a Prime within the lore of this continuity. In actuality, that arm belonged to the most evil of the Thirteen, Liege Maximo. Who is green, not red. XD

 

I was a sucker yet again for the visuals during the fight. The title was always weird to me. I used to think it was a typo, but no, the semicolon is intentional. Whatever.

Star Saber is taken out of action after it singlehandedly put Megs on the defensive and nearly crashed the Nemesis. Gotta keep that status quo.

Alpha Trion is a victim of budget issues I presume. Not to the extent of Airachnid or Breakdown, but yeah, the big A can't move his lips! Having Uncle George back in Transformers was cool, after Yoketron.

Other notes:

* Space bridge was moved to the moon after the Autobots found it back in Orion Pax.
* Smokescreen's apparent death was pretty meh. I remember being confused by what happened the first time I watched it anyway.
* Back in Operation Bumblebee, Ratchet ruled out Megs being behind the theft of Bee's T-cog, as he said that Megs was "no ghoul". Then this episode happens!

 

Good catch, I had forgotten about that line.

 

Hard Knocks​

I'm impressed with the blend of content and character in today's episode and I'll admit that my favorite part was once again the action. In particular, the fight with Bulkhead and Dreadwing was extremely well choreographed (is that the word for it in a cartoon?) and I love how they slowed the action down to allow you to keep up.

I'm convinced that Michael Bay himself had a hand in the development of this section due to all the explosions going off in the forest and I mean, man, the entire setting was just beautiful. The artists captured a fall evening beautifully, the colors and shading were just so well done that it almost felt cool and warm at the same time.

Bulkhead fooled me as I kept expecting him to spontaneously detonate in the middle of the battle but instead he managed to turn the tables on the seeker and thankfully Dreadwing was quick enough to toss the bomb out. Seriously, I would have been bummed if he died. The only thing missing was his huge cannon gun.

Knock Out also managed to show his strong side in today's episode by borrowing a piece of Soundwave's tech to help him throw down some sick beats and Autobots. I'm happy that the doctor was finally able to get a win over the Autobots and even more so that he was able to do it without much of a struggle, if any at all.

This episode marks the first time that Smokescreen reacted in a way that wasn't really favorable. When he ran off from the rest of the group it struck me as odd because up until this point the character had been so level headed and humble. In fact, I hadn't really considered him being a younger character (by a large margin) until Optimus stated as much.

In the scene where Arcee is going off on him, I gained more respect for Optimus when he acknowledged that enough was enough knowing that any further would lead to unfavorable results. On top of that, I also like how he still allowed Arcee to proceed without cutting her off and using an authority to shut her down - instead allowing her to see the results of her own actions.

Ultimately that decision lead to the capture of Smokescreen but from a leadership stand point I believe it taught her a better lesson than being spoken down too. Seriously, Optimus seems to have everything figured out but opts to let things play out as they teach his team better.

Starscream is all about getting some unique powers in this show isn't he? If I wasn't so familiar with the character I'd have forgotten he was a seeker by now since he can't fly anywhere. It was funny watching him stare at the Red Energon cook like a microwave before it actually dinged like a microwave. That was hilarious.

For some reason, it didn't click with me that he was using the Red Energon to move so quickly and I was a little lost when Smokescreen got blindsided. Airachnid was my initial guess but then I remembered she's pretty much in Autobot jail as a Popsicle and it wasn't until it showed Scream while Bulkhead and Smokescreen made their retreat that it suddenly clicked.

I am curious as to why Starscream just knocked him out instead of killing him. From a real world perspective it makes sense to me that they wouldn't just up and kill their newest character, particularly with him being a huge plot point revolving around the omega key but to me it seems like Starscream's character would have jumped at the chance to murder an Autobot.

 

I first read this as Starscream and not Smokescreen so I was like "wait, I don't remember them saying that Starscream was a younger character." xD

EDIT: Also, level headed and humble aren't the first things that come to mind when I think of Starscream so that also made me do a double take.

 

As much as I love Dreadwing, this was the point where I realised despite his loyalty he wasn't exactly, good at being successful in his missions or assassinations not counting Seaspray. Still the Autumn scene was gorgeous all the same.

Arcee, ugh. Her little rant to Smokescreen really undos everything that happened between them in the previous episode. I mean did Bumblebee ever get a chewing out like that considering he's pretty much the same 'age' as Smokescreen?

Smokescreen suddenly has an important purpose. It definitely is a bit too coincidental and the ultimate reason as to why he is on the Iacon Database is, a bit contrived in retrospect. But the next episode is quite good, one really hilarious moment in it too.  

 

Prime's preference for letting Arcee just do whatever the fuck she wants is one of the worst traits of the show. He actually should be reigning her in far harder and you're going to see why soon enough.

 

Yeah that autumn landscape was just gorgeous. I think they won a Daytime Emmy for the visuals in this episode and damn did they earn it. I love it.

The scene where Arcee goes off on Smokescreen was... ugh. Like I remember first watching it, I wanted to just scream at Arcee because she's being so... ugly, to Smokescreen. She came off as more petty and spiteful than supposedly saying something Smokescreen needed to hear. And Optimus? Good lord. Fowler said it back in Loose Cannons but damn, does it need repeating - "you need to get a tighter leash on your people, Prime!" Optimus' little "you've made your point" was pathetic. And Ratchet, if you felt the need to say listen to Optimus, you should've said something too. And what would she even hear if she listened to Optimus? Nothing, because he's not getting off his ass and doing anything about his soldier's insubordination.

And oddly enough, when I rewatched this episode a few years later, I sided more with Arcee despite seeing what a jackass she was and how still pathetic Optimus was. I did see more of her point that time, but nothing else really changed for me. I remember someone saying to me on here that Optimus should've just snapped at Arcee after the argument "Arcee, shut up", or something like that. Just to show some humanity or I dunno leadership.

What else? Notes.

* Yeah this was a nice little win for Knock Out. Though it's another small disappointment for me. Back at the end of Triage when he glares at Soundwave for being Megs' pet, I wondered if maybe KO would sabotage Soundwave or leave him to die or something. Would've been interesting, but really it just led to this. Aw well.
* The actual fight between Bulkhead and Dreadwing wasn't really anything special. Just more slo-mo and the same sound effects (sound design on this show sucks).
* Dreadwing must've been setting up bombs for hours. Why didn't he use that time to go after the Key?
* Big development this episode with Smokescreen's capture. Not necessarily the capture itself, but where Laserbeak found him. You can probably get a whiff of an upcoming event from this once you put the pieces together.
* They've started actually using the Iacon relics, which is admittedly kinda nice.

 

Inside Job​

Starscream continues to impress me even after spending this season as a flightless Con with a knack for being clumsy. I thought for sure he was going to make an honest deal with the Autobots considering his predicament and side with the enemy he considered least likely to stab him in the back.

However, he managed to pull together what little resources he has and execute a damn near perfect plan to acquire all four of the Omega Keys with minimum effort while also staying true to his character by almost executing every single one of the Autobots (though I think he could have still done so by taking out Arcee first to stop the bridge from closing) and then being cocky enough to screw up and let the red energon dosage run out.

I find it hard to believe that he has gone on board the Nemesis with true intentions of serving beneath Megatron again and am eager to find out what form of deception he has in mind. Earlier in the show, Knock Out was quick to side with Starscream on the intention of over throwing Megatron and I believe after the big guy decided to leave our doctor stuck in a wall - we will see a subfaction of the Decepticons starting up once again.

Smokescreen had some beautiful scenes in this episode and the air combat was very fun to watch. I can honestly admit that I never noticed the difference in genericons bot modes (air and land modes) until they were being thrown off the top of the Nemesis. I am also curious as to how Smokescreen was able to slow his momentum once phasing into the ground.

I was also surprised that Knock Out opted to use the phase shifter to get the Omega Key from inside Smokescreen instead of operating on him. I thought for sure he'd jump at the chance to dissect an Autobot.

Overall, today's episode was a lot of fun and I'm excited to see what happens in these last three or so episodes of Season 2.

Thanks for reading! See you all Wednesday for the next entry!

 

You know, now that I think about it, Smokescreen shouldn't have been able to slow his descent underground. It would have been hilarious to see him fall so far he'd wake up Unicron.  

How he was able to transform without noticing a big key in his chest rattaling about I still question. But seeing Megs kill one of his ground troops like that was beautifully morbid. Considering how many Vehicons he has, do any of them have personalities? I think they have sparks too really. Part of me imagines a few of them as old Decepticon veterans rebuilt from the war, like some of them could be Thundercracker or Skywarp with no one knowing.

Anyway, big disappointment Blurr didn't show up, I'm positive he's naturally faster than Starscream and his red energon.