Agree that Miko is either love her or hate her. Personally she was my favorite of the three.

It's funny, most fans love the multi-parter intro, but I got bored about three episodes in and quit watching it. I got into Prime later . . . IIRC, it was because it was on shortly before My Little Pony, so I kept catching the tail end of it and being intrigued. That said, I LOVED Starscream's voice, attitude, and design from the first moment he appeared, and the same for Soundwave. (Well, except for 'voice' for Soundwave, ha ha.)

 

Masters & Students
​

Kicking off this episode made me realize that, unless my blu-ray is edited, Transformers: Prime doesn't have a proper intro or theme song but instead utilizes the quick flash of a title card. That isn't an issue but it does feel much different than previous series I've watched, most of which have had wonderful theme music.

It didn't take long for me to get my wish of seeing Starscream lead the Decepticons but any hope I had of him being competent fizzled out as the entire con army stared blankly during and after his declaration. I sat with a smile as he motions to continue the legacy of Megatron under his new rule and as they question his leadership it slowly fades into a huff. I'm on Starscream's side in this one and I want to see how he would run things with my own eyes.

What bothers me the most about this is the fact that in the miniseries, the Decepticons clearly respected and followed Starscream in Megatron's absence. For three years the lot of them served under his rule and he seemed to be doing a damn good job with things. In fact, I found myself wanting him to blow Megatron's head off when he found his body up in space but I was more than ready to settle with him stealing his Dark Energon and leaving him for dead.

But then Laserbeak showed up and while I was disappointed at first, it did put Soundwave's loyalty into perspective and just like G1, he faithfully believes in and serves Megatron until the bitter end. Thankfully, TronCon wasn't just thrust back in charge and is going to be sitting around in stasis for a while.

In my first entry, I mentioned that I wanted to see some more Decepticons and that wish was also granted on the very next episode with Skyquake. This guy is cool looking, much more colorful than most Decepticons but I have a few questions about him. Is his name related to Skywarp or is this a coincidence? And if he had no access to a vehicle mode, why did he already look like an earth jet in his robot mode? What was the cube used to revive him, was it the all spark or something similar?

I guess the answer to those questions doesn't really matter since the character was offed in the same episode he was introduced in which has taught me to be careful of getting attached to any characters who show up considering he and Cliffjumper were both decimated from the start.

Agent Fowler also makes another appearance leading me to believe he's going to be a regular in the show and if I could caution a wild guess, I'd say most of his appearances have him flying something. How was this man able to pilot a military jet in a suit without any sort of respirator or helmet?

The side story of the episode was fun. The kids partnering with their guardian bots to complete school projects actually interested me. What I thought was even better was that Ratchet found a way to bond with the kids-despite him doing everything-and relate with them on a certain level through education and creation. I genuinely laughed when the Cybertronian volcano pierced through the roof of the school.

Overall today's episode feels like a nice step back from the action packed miniseries. Don't get me wrong it still had plenty of action with Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Skyquake and Fowler but I was also interested in the side story which had no 'end of the world'/'imminent danger' vibe too it. It was just some kids doing their everyday with robots and that's something I'd love to see more of.

See, I love the Transformers but even though it's an unpopular opinion around here, I also love the human interaction with them. To be reminded that these giant mechanical beings are running around on Earth with some middle or high school kids is a good thing for me. It's relatable and touching.

That's all for today. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on today's episode and the characters in it.

Thanks for reading!

 

To answer your questions:

1. Skyquake was originally supppses to be Skywarp. There was no given reason why it was changed, but I think it was for the better.

2. CGI is very expensive, it was recently revealed it took 1 million dollars to make one episode of Prime. They simply didn't want to waste there money on an entirely new CGI model for only a few minutes of screen time.

3. It was a Energon cube. It appeared that in order to unlock the stasis chamber, it required an Energon cube to power it up enough to open up.

 

1-skyquake was originally Intended to be skywarp

2-don't know

3-its an energon cube

masters & students is one of the weakest episodes of season 1
also megsy well stay in stasis for awhile

 

Weakest? I say this was one of the few episodes that I actually enjoyed. It showcased Ratchet and the other Autobots adjusting to Earth and Starscream trying to get Skyquake under control. There are far weaker episodes in this season.

 

So, yeah, now you've seen Starscream doesn't exactly command repsect from his troops or is really all that effective. Though like you, I was on his side as well because he had this kind of underdog vibe among the villains.

Also, as an interesting visual homage, Starscream's chest is basically his movie incarnation's face, complete with red eyes.

Yeah, I never understood this. Clearly Starscream was an effective leader for a time, but the series all of a sudden acts as though this is his first time taking the reigns.

Would've been a cool idea if like half the 'Con forces supported Starscream because he was around when Megs wasn't, and half remained loyal to Megatron.

A page taken from TFA directly, leaving Megatron out for most of the first season. Though in Prime the concept is weakened by the fact that Megatron doens't radically outclass the Autobots like in TFA, and he's completely unconcious while in stasis so we don't actually get to learn about him as a character or see him scheme and manipulate events whilst out of commission.

Skyquake is actually an existing character from the European G1 toyline, but this is his first appearence in a cartoon.

Amusingly the original Skyquake toy was eventually redecoed into Machine Wars Starscream, and Prime Skyquake was suppsoed to be Skywarp, who himself is typically a Starscream redeco.

Limits of the CGI budget, though personally I would've just deleted his wings and/or rearranged them. Something that wouldn't cost money but at least made him look less obvious. Speaking of obvious, despite all the TFs turning into perfectly realistic vehicles, only Skyquake's alt mode has visible robot parts underneath. And it's one of the few alt modes where we see the original template, which also has robot arms visible on it.  

Maybe that's what made it experimental?   But yeah, limits of the CGI. Though why Fowler is the test pilot is a little odd. Unfortunately that also betrays the very limited population of the world due to the CGI. Not many humans, or much at all outside our main characters.

Weirdly, Ratchet never manifests this frantic mad-scientist persona again. One of those kinks of these types of shows where the characters aren't fully cemented yet. Like how Rhinox in BW was like borderline suicidal in his tone and depressed mannerisms before mellowing out.

I actually agree. It gives a sense of scale both figuratively and metaphorically.

 

On mobile so I won't do in-depth replies right now but my blu ray does show the intro. I'm not sure how I missed it.

 

Oh! Glad to hear. Do let us know your thoughts on it when you get back on your computer.

 

Enjoying your write ups, Cap. I was really rooting for Starscream in this one. His scheming in the 5-part intro was much more believable than prior incarnations. And I thought he actually made credible arguments that Megatron had possibly gone mad. Megs' rash actions, like using the dark energon on himself, back up these concerns.
Starscream voices these concerns to both Megatron & Soundwave directly, making him seem more like a mindful 2nd in command instead of a sniveling usurper.
And of course, when he takes the con ship away from the space bridge & then warns Megatron that it's going to blow- seems to me like he's safeguarding the crew in the face of an imminent explosion. At this point in the show, I wouldn't blame him for trying to kill Megatron, because the guy hadn't acted sane since he returned. I was looking forward to a new spin on the old Megatron/Starscream dynamic, where SS was actually the better leader of the two. Definitely some good stuff.

I still don't see why people are bothered that the two High Moon TF games don't fit into the toon continuity. Yes, they were supposed to connect. No, they don't connect at all & it's impossible to reconcile their differences.
Does it matter? Did it matter that the Marvel comic was completely different from the Marvel toon? Nope & nope.
Ignore the games, forget about the term "aligned" & enjoy the show on its own merits. That's what I always tell people.

Anyway, looking forward to reading the rest of your blog!

 

Dude your write-ups make me want to start watching this again. This is by far my favorite TF series. Stick with it man, the ride is going to be great.

 

He's not that evil when you think that he only wanted enough money to produce one single episode of Transformers Prime.

 

Thanks for the replies, Sean. I figured there had to be a connection between Skywarp and Skyquake, I guess I'm thankful he didn't get Skywarp's name and then die right away as I would have been more nostalgic and attached to that character.

The intro is smooth. The other shows have much more memorable theme songs but I guess it fits the theme.

That is an obscene amount of money for a single episode of a cartoon but good point, I'll keep that in mind.

Why was the stasis chamber there in the first place? Did Skyquake just crash and never bail out?

If this is one of the weakest then I'm very optimistic for the rest since I enjoyed this episode.

And that optimism just flickered a bit.

Maybe I was looking at his chest too hard but I kept seeing the predacon logo or maybe Waspinator's face.

I'm happy to know we will have a break from TronCon for a while though I'm sure he'll return overpowered as ever.

I have no idea what Machine Wars is nor have I ever seen any EU exclusive toys D:

I didn't notice any of the robotic parts underneath either, I'll pay closer attention next time.

Also, that's a bummer about Ratchet and I'd rather not talk about Rhinox. I'm still sore over his terrible arc in Beast Machines.

Thank you Mako. It's good to see you here.  

Agreed on all accounts with Starscream though when he never brought the ship in to help Megatron I had automatically assumed it was a ploy to kill him off. Though him considering the other cons did cross my mind.

Since I've played multiplayer on both High Moon games but never completed either campaign, this won't be any sort of issue for me.  

And thank you again, I look forward to reading your comments.

Thank you! Happy to have you on board!

LOL BASS.

If it wasn't for Doctor Evil, we would have never gotten Prime!

 

Can't wait for tommorow's!

 

scrapheap (e7) and predatory (11) are great
to me e6 is far from bad
its meh
speed metal is worse

 

I loved Speed Metal. The only thing from it I didn't like was

Spoiler

Jack's crush, Sierra, who has no character traits beyond 'generic love interest'. But whatever, we all know she only exists to set up the plot.

I liked most of the Season 1 episodes, but if I had to pick a least favorite it would probably be

Spoiler

Convoy.

 

to each their own

 

It's very briefly mentioned in season 2 that Ratchet made some kind of modification to Fowler's jet so that he wouldn't need any kind of flight gear. Since it's not a major spoiler, I thought it would be okay to say that here.

 

Well, they are all bug-like.  

Actually, yes it does matter. Very much so. Unlike G1, which was an 80's cartoon show and not really meant to fit all its diverse iterations together, Prime was deliberately created to fit into an existing continuity.

And because of that failure, Aligned went from being a glorious return to a large-scale continuity where the universe would be built over multiple media, to a laughing stock whenever its name is uttered. We could've had something special, but we'll never know now. It literally had one job. It's hard not to make fun of it for failing at what was the only thing it had to do.

That said, that aspect doesn't really effect the show itself, but it did effect the media around it going forward.

 

Nah, it's not even a thing. For as much as I like the games, their seamless inclusion wouldn't have added much to the characters or history anyway. Nothing of any dire consequence.

And besides, the so-called aligned continuity did run through 3 separate shows without any problem, so I wouldn't call it a failure. People just seem to want to harp on the games & overlook Rescue Bots & RID2015.

 

Thats pretty apologetic and dismissive if you asked me. The games set up a tonne of characters, very few of which made it into the shows. And had Prime not botched it's only purpose, FOC might have been able to develope these characters and concepts instead of trying to frantically do damage control.

You can't really say it's not a "thing" or of no "dire consequence" when the simple fact that Aligned hasn't branched out at all is evidence of its failure. It's what could have been, not what is.

It's not that people overlook them, it's that it wasn't supposed to just be three shows. (And saying there's no problems is a bit of a fib. The aesthetic and tonal differences alone make the continuity feel flimsy despite being directly tied together)