Wait, where are these episodes airing exactly? I'm watching them online and had no idea that the show wasn't on in the US until yesterday.

BB kind of sucked this episode, but that doesn't mean I didn't like the way he was written. No leader can be perfect, and he borked up real good on this one. I'd like for there to be some significant fallout with Strongarms confidence in him shaken, but seeing as the intended audience skews on the younger side of kids I don't think that'll end up happening.

I do like that Strongarm's gaining some independence, I'm not sure where all the hate early in the comments came from. To me this is great character growth, she's got some field experience, she doesn't feel the need to stick to protocol so tightly and trusts her own judgement now, this is good stuff! But she is a bit over confident, which happens in real life, people over estimate their ability, again she's a rookie, she's got to figure this stuff out, and she does, she assesses her situation and she asks for her commander's help and gets the job done.

To me it was a good episode for both those characters.

Really the one team member that hasn't left a good impression on me yet is Sideswipe, he seems to be the Outsider/hooligan with a heart of gold and just wants to be part of the team and hasn't been developed beyond that. I hope we get a Sideswipe-centric episode to show a little more of where he came from and why he behaves the way he does.

Also he needs a goal. We have Bumblebee's goal of being a good leader. Strongarm wants to be the best cop she can be. Grimlock wants to fight and protect his new friends. Fixit is terribly lonely and is desperate for affection. Sideswipe wants to get home, but I hope he gets fleshed out with something unique. Everyone wants to go home, maybe when Drift shows up Sideswipe finds a true mentor or something (I only say this because they both have swords, but it's all I have to go on).

 

I actually agree with this.

 

I do believe that was the point, yes. They are not going to be perfect out of the gate, especially in an episode in the first half of the first season. But then I'm sure others will tell me something like, "Oh, but you still have to have standards about these things, you know?"

I agree with this too, I was actually thinking it the whole time. Bee comes from a different time, when the war was still going on and the Autobots had been whittled down to just a few close friends-- to him, being alone means you die.

 

Well it would be stupid for someone to say that since the episode itself recognizes the characters messed up, both Bee and Strongarm apologize to each other for their mess ups and end up on a high note after failing and learning from the failure.

It's a learning proccess for both, every episode so far has been, Bee said it better, "Good thing we're getting stronger all the time".

 

Yes, exactly! You get it-- as you said, the characters are still learning, and there's naturally gonna be hurdles along the way. I was referring more to the folks who seem to have already made their minds up to not like the show as it is, that's all. I'm eager to see how far the team is able to come by season's end, personally.

 

The shift from space-cop to young cadet in StrongArm in this episode and the last made it feel out of place.

Spoiler

Danny and Fixit for first gay human/robot relationship?

 

If you think about it, it is fortunate that Springload never found an Energon mine or Relics left behind on Earth.

Make's me wonder if the legend of Doranus came about because of the war seeding planets particularly Earth with Energon. The whole thing evolved to legend o a city on Cybertron.

 

Rewatched it again and...yeah Bumblebee was being a jerk this time around. I know his intentions were good but you'd think the one thing he'd pick up from Optimus is his trust and honesty towards his team.

And I really wish Bee had a better explanation for following her, I mean how hard is for him to say "Hey you're going really far from base to go after a Decepticon whose abilities are unknown, just wanted to be nearby in case things got risky."

 

Do you mean you didn't get the impression she was a young cadet from the earlier episodes?

 

That's amusing but also quite interesting. I still can't decide if Strongarm's not-very-feminine design is a good thing or a bad thing. One could say it casts aside a certain stereotype, but then again, if you make a woman look like a man, they look like a man and not a woman. It's an interesting debate, although maybe one that is not suited for this thread.

Spoiler

Fixit was smuggling a lot of robo-meth.

Here in New Zealand, as well as in Australia. It's amusing, though, because Australia airs them in the same time slots, meaning we get them first since we're ahead of Australia by 2-4 hours (depending on whereabouts in Australia).

No, Fixit is mine.

Spoiler

I'm straight but he's still mine.

 

It's not that, it's just the placement of an episode where it's just her bringing down the LAW right before going back to her as a teenager.

 

I think all it means is that TF cartoons needs to lay off the female character=Spider trope for a bit. Seriously, the last 3(4 if you count Beast Machines as a separate entity) English Transformer cartoons have had spider themed lady bots. It's time to move on.

Whaaaaa! No way! I will fight you for him.

 

I guess relic hunts don't just drive us crazy.  

 

You know what fun is. She have never seen arachnid. And my brother have never showed her prime or any former tf.
And she hates my toys, they are scary.
Children that age have a short span of attention, now her favorite char. Is Anna, and she wants to be a princess, before that it was peppe the pig, and the entire family were pigs.

 

He does establish characters, and signs off on all stories. He said so himself in an interview.

-Interview - Unicron.com Transformers Collector Site

And I'm just observing a pattern in his TF shows. I also said it could be a coincidence.

Thank god there's so much Classic Who. *sigh* And Moffat started out so promising, as did RTD.

What Bumblebee did, he did because he cares about his team, and wants to keep them all safe. Strongarm, meanwhile, has never shown care for half her team, always fighting with Sideswipe, and not hesitating to shoot Grimlock. All because she's sees the world as being black and white, and that if the rule book says they're criminals, she hates them.

What makes her so unbearable is that she then becomes a hypocrite as she breaks those rules for her own self interest. She deceives her teammates, and goes against her superior's orders. The rules she's tried holding everyone else back with. The rules she uses to say Grimlock shouldn't be on a their team, the rules she uses to say Fixit can't go on field missions, the rules she's constantly nagging her superior officer about. She breaks them herself the second it suits her.

 

The Fixit and Denny scenes were great, and Bumblebee was gold this episode. But I do kind of feel bad for Springload. I don't know why, but some of these cons feel more misunderstood than anything. I feel like the episode could have been vastly improved should it been about helping Springload with his problems rather than Strongarm with hers. The same goes for Terrashock and perhaps Filch.

As far as the whole Strongarm thing goes: Sure Bumblebee lacked trust in his cadet, and sure he probably should have backed off earlier, but all of that was in the best interest of his team. What makes Strongarm's actions less acceptable than say Sideswipe's is her established law abiding persona. Breaking rules out of self-interest is just really hypocritical and feels like something Animated Sentinel Prime would do. She is heavily critical of Sideswipe's more laid back personality and has suggested putting down Grimlock out of the interest of the Autobot code, but now that she's been caught going against the code for her own gains, she just doesn't seem fit to make those judgments. She has apparently learned her lesson, so hopefully we'll be seeing some actual development from her, and I'm glad she did, but I can absolutely see why she's being viewed as less favorable.

 

While I completely agree with most of your points, I don't think peoples reactions are gender based. I think its people falling behind the long established character, giving them perhaps unreasonable benefit of doubt over the brand new character. I think for some its def an issue, but I think it'd be the same if Arcee was here instead of Bee. Or if it was Sideswipe instead of Strongarm.

I think the idea behind this is to make Bee seem like the wiser, more understanding big brother/leader figure. It made him out to be one of those satellite parents who say "you go to the movies" then hide in the buses watching in case they start chattng someone up

Sidenote...god I miss Arcee

 

Well, for me, it's a character who's been behaving like IDW Ultra Magnus suddenly behaving like TFP Wheeljack. It's somewhat jarring.  

There was one moment that really sealed my opinion of Strongarm in this episode, though: when holding up the pillar to stop the roof caving in, she immediately buggered off and left her superior officer holding it up on his own. I can't think of any other Autobot off the top of my head who would leave a teammate behind, and it clashes big time with her previous rule-obsessed personality.

All it needed was a "Go!" from Bee, then it wouldn't feel like she was leaving her CO and supposed friend to get flattened.

 

I hadn't even thought of that. That is actually very plausible.

Another great episode of the show. This one has some great character development for Strongarm as well as Fixit and Denny.

So Strongarm is finally given the opportunity of going on a solo mission which she excited for (mostly for a potential promotion) unfortunately for her Fixit keeps contact her every ten or so minutes....and then she finds Bumblebee following her, Bumblebee has a bit of difficulty trusting her on her own, needless to say Bumblebee isn't going to really stop following her.

Meanwhile hijacks ensue at the scrapyard, Denny and Fixit begin to have a feud over who is the more useful member of the team.

Strongarm and Bumblebee pinpoint the Decepticon signal to the jungle and find our Decepticon of the week Springload, a strange Amphiboid who turns into a pickup truck and is obsessed with the lost city of Doradas which immediately brings to mind El Dorado, which even has its own mythical fountain...one made of Energon.

Springload is voiced by John Steven Rocha, another person I haven't heard of before but he leaves a great impression with his performance. The character is completely delusional having attacked many museum personal in the past believing he is truly worthy of Doradas. Rocha's voice reminds me a bit of Phil LaMarr's Hermes minus the Jamaican accent and is a lot more unhinged.

Bumblebee has plans to call for backup but Strongarm tells Fixit that she already has caught Springload because it's her solo mission darn it! This reckless side of Strongarm we have never seen before...I found it somewhat puzzling while watching the episode. The most rule oriented Autobot who is kind of a hypocrite in doing things their way....she's sort of like IDW Prowl....minus being a colossal prick of course.

Denny and Fixit fight over who gets to fix The Decepticon hunter so Fixit decides to rearrange the scrapyard much to Denny's dismay so Denny goes and rewires the command center.

I just wanted to say that Sideswipe and Grimlock actually make a great duo surprisingly, especially considering how in the last episode Sideswipe stood up for Grimlock. They're starting to become really chummy.

Strongarm tries to grab Springload but he has an acidic armour coating, much like a lot of poisonous frogs and this whole temple starts collapsing so Strongarm blasts a hole in the wall to escape. Strongarm admits what she's done but pleads with Bumblebee to give her one last chance and she admits to needing his help at long last.

Denny finally sits down to watching some TV but all it's playing is Cybertron's Most Wanted which is just the Alchemor prison list on 24/7. The two are still at until Russell, Sideswipe and Grimlock come back with the Decepticon hunter now making a weird sound so Denny and Fixit work together to disarm the hunter. Turns out it's a kazoo they had found earlier and they realize they can make a pretty good team and now plan to work on making more Decepticon hunters. Well done Russell, Grimlock and Sideswipe.

Strongarm then pretends to be a spirit of Dorados telling Springload he is unworthy which gives Bumblebee the chance to spring (get it) a trap and knock him into an ancient casket where Bumblebee tells Strongarm good work especially for using Springload's fears against him and putting aside her pride to ask for help.

The "Not If You Prove Yourself Worthy" Bumblebee says at the end is hilarious and perfectly caps off the episode.  

I can understand why people are upset with how Strongarm acted but at the same time I do think Bumblebee could have trust her more. It is a two way streak.

Overall another really funny episode with a lot of great laughs and Springload is a total looney and I love him for that. I hope he shows up again.

 

Sorry to say, but at this point, there is nothing that can redeem the Strongarm character for me. Nine episodes in and she remains stuffy, dismissive, judgemental and hypocritical. Just when you think she's making strides to be more of a team player and accepting of her team, she slips right back into her original personality. It's like personal growth doesn't stick with her.

While TFP Arcee started off as standoffish, there was character growth that stuck and you could see. I don't see that with Strongarm, as much as I would love to see it. She and Bee are both Cybertronian Law Enforcers, yet of the team, she's the one I trust the least. Again, this is just my personal opinion of her.