Ehh, so long as Strongarm's life lessons stick over the coming episodes and we're not stuck with another sieve-memory Miko, however annoying she is now can at least serve as a "look how far she's come since the dark days" thing.

I mean I don't personally find her all that annoying but goodness knows it's obvious how others would XD

 

Even Miko still got better eventually at least, even if it came from making her able to fight rather than completely changing her attitude. Which is still more than can be said for Animated Bumblebee, who not only never learned, but was also useless in a fight.

What I'm saying is that as far as "annoying" characters go, Strongarm hardly seems like the worst of them, and even at our current point in the series, she's showing more signs of learning than past Scrappies have.

 

I actually find Strongarm a perfect character, In TF series, we usually have characters who are great war heroes or have fought for a very long time, Strongarm just wants to impress Bumblebe, and knowing the rules is just how she thought she could impress Bee an one day achieve greatness, so in a way I like watching a character "Growing UP"

 

Agreed. I can't take people who hate her seriously, I just can't. Sideswipe is generic teen with heart of gold character, Bumble is SO BORING and only gets interesting when being mocked or having cute moments with Grimlock. Steeljaw just stands around being vaguely sinister. Fixit is meh, Russel is irritating as hell. Grimlock, Strongarm and Whatsisname the dad are the best characters on this show and both Grimlock and Strongarm have gotten more character development than the others. Yet the way people carry on you would think she is the absolute worst. Just look at how she was treated for trying to arrest Grimlock after as far as they knew he had just decided to beat the shit out of Sideswipe.

 

I actually adored Animated Bee and Animated Prowl. Of course, I'm one who enjoyed Animated and Prime. I truly hope we see some permanent growth with Strongarm, as we did with TFP Arcee. As it stands right now (for me), I haven't seen that in Strongarm. I'm starting to think that she's one of those characters you either like or dislike, with no middle ground.

 

And conversely, I enjoyed Prime but not Animated (a rare breed I know, lol). We all have our own tastes, and there's nothing wrong with that. I just think that Strongarm has yet to do something to make her an objectively bad character (on the level of, say...G1 Wheelie or something). I can see what others might find annoying with her, but not anything that makes her a complete show-breaking experience.

I think it's worth noting that it's been 2 episodes since Strongarm was told to finally let up on the rule-quoting, and as far as I know, she's not done it since. I consider that progress. But again, I get that it all just boils down to opinions, and I won't scorn anyone for having them.

 

Yeah, isn't Strongarm a police offcer or something like that?

 

Yeah, like a very rookie officer. It was strongly hinted that the events of Episodes 1 and 2 were her first time on the beat. I think she should be cut some slack.

She's that over eager intern that made sure to know as much as possible about the job beforehand, but needs to develop judgement through field experience, she'll get the hang of it. The character arc I think she'll go through will have her develop that judgement calling ability.

I may be in the minority, but I actually really like RID Bumblebee. My only experiences with BB were Animated, the movies and Prime, and he annoyed me in Animated, and was a non-character for the movies and much of Prime. It's cool to see them sticking to his character arc at the end of Prime. He's growing into the leadership position. And, while I'm not overly familiar with G1, it seems that this growth is being handled more believably, and he's a better leader than, Hot Rod's leadership stint.

I just hope BB's time as team leader doesn't get interrupted too soon by OP coming back to take the reigns. Ideally, if Optimus doesn't stay dead/ethereal/whatever then he at least comes back and takes up position overseeing Cybertron so that Bumblebee can continue to develop as a field leader.

 

I do actually think Strongarm was too quick to jump on the "He was playing us for fools" bandwagon. However I do not think this makes her stupid. It would be interesting if they go into her histroy a bit and show someone doing something like that to her before. That would explain why she reacted that way.

However if they never go further.. I will say she went a bit to far. They have indicated that some time passes between epsiodes, so its not like it's just be a few days that they had been working together.

 

I agree. But look at the context. She didn't trust him in the beginning, she slowly began to trust him and even strike up a sort of friendship or seemed to be doing so then out of the blue he attacks Sideswipe and then her, it would have seemed like a betrayal. She did let her prejudices towards Grimlock to lead her to assume the worst too quickly, not without reason but still. But at the end of the episode she realizes that and apologizes. That is character development

 

No, I'm condemning her for not retaining some of the character growth she supposedly had in previous episodes. The entire point of the episode with Filch was to show her slowly easing up and getting used to living away from Cybertron, and allowing herself to break some rules when the situation called for it. She also had the episode with Sideswipe where she was supposed to learn that her teammates weren't all incompetent- you know, the one where they focused on trust-building? I mean, this team, even if they are inexperienced, has presumably been on Earth for at least a couple weeks at this point. Strongarm should know that Grimlock wouldn't attack a teammate out of nowhere like that, especially after he's been going to such lengths to prove he's a "good guy."

I thought Bumblebee's reaction was the much more appropriate one of the skeptical side of the team. He didn't want to assume Grimlock was betraying them, but he clearly kept the option open and explored the scenario cautiously until he found out the specifics. He gave Grimlock a chance instead of just saying "OH HE'S A CRIMINAL HE DESTROYED SOME PROPERTY IN THE PAST SO HE MUST BE BETRAYING US NOW EVEN THOUGH HIS PREVIOUS ACTIONS HAVE PROVED THAT HE HAS NO INTENTIONS OF DOING SO."

I don't have anything against her for doing her job. I wouldn't have a problem with it if it were, say, the third or fourth episode. But based on previous episodes and development, her actions just stand out as bad writing, to me anyways.

 

No you are literally condemning her for doing her damned job in a way which in no way contradicts her earlier character development. She said she was going to ease off on quoting regulations and being so officious and your argument is literally saying that because he tried to arrest the person who JUST ASSAULTED SOMEONE IN FRONT OF HER, she has lost the development. That is plain wrong.

You are complaining about a police officer arresting someone who just committed a crime in front of her. Regardless of her personal feelings towards him, she had a job to do and based on what she was presented with she acted appropriately. Until they found out for sure he wasn't acting under his own volition he had committed a crime. Bumblebee was just ineffectual as always.

 

I more or less agree with that Ribieconvoy, unless, like I said, they show us where something like this happened before. Because if it did, even growing.. things like this could bring out those old feelings.

Please note I don't even need it to be gone into in season 1, it could be like Arcee's deal in Season 2 of prime. I just personally hope that there is some history behind it. Because while I agree, she should have been the one going "Maybe he really is a con." they seemed to have her leap -well- into the hatred and anger side of it really fast.

Maybe something from her academy days?

Femmebot, I actually don't have a problem with her wanting to arrest grimlock after the attack. Please do not mis-understand that. However Strongarm did get a little psychotic in the "See! He was tricking us this whole time!" spheal, which indicates a previous history.. or some -serious- trust issues.

 

That's the point I'm trying to make. It's not wrong that she wanted to arrest him. It's wrong that she jumped to the conclusions she did with absolutely no hesitation and stuck to her guns in such an over-the-top manner. Her doing her job is completely fine, but they need to write her consistently as a character, and no, that doesn't mean reverting her back to square one every week. And one of the most important responsibilities of a police officer is to have the skills to recognize that every situation isn't black-and-white.

Say what you will about Bumblebee, but he was anything but ineffective in this episode. By no means a perfect leader, but if Strongarm had her way Grimlock would just be stuck in a pod and we wouldn't see him ever again. By contrast, it was definitely very naive of Sideswipe to believe in Grimlock so wholeheartedly. It was clear to me that the writer was using Strongarm and Sideswipe in this episode as a means to convey some leadership skills through Bumblebee, who didn't jump to either extreme, but in the process they ended up polarizing Strongarm in a way that was inconsistent with what we were shown to expect after previous episodes.

It doesn't mean she's a bad character in general, it just means I personally didn't like her actions in this episode because they showed no hints of the development she's undergone previously. Don't take it personally. Obviously she wouldn't accept wholeheartedly that Grimlock was being controlled, but they could have at least had her entertain the possibility for a single microsecond.

 

Ok now you are half right. Yes, she jumped to an extreme conclusion too quickly after a bot she was starting to trust seemed to betray that trust. But by the end of the episode she realized that and apologized for it. That is continued character development, not a reversal of development.

I do get where you are coming from, I was quite annoyed with her at the start for believing the worst in him so quickly too but like I said by the end she is aware of that and apologizes.

 

We already seem a certain Con, Steeljaw, tricking her. He's quite good at it.

 

Exactly! Strongarm's interaction with Steeljaw and the fact she is an Autobot cop leaves her not trusting of Decepticons.

Bumblebee made a point in changing Grimlock's insignia to an Autobot one.

The war is over but that does not mean it is fine and dandy on Cybertron. Old grudges are still around.

Strongarm is young maybe even Sparked the moment Optimus merged with the Allspark. Being an Autobot and a rookie cop the job would show statistics Cons are more likely to be criminals. Yeah there is racial profiling there.

 

I think this episode should have came before Collect 'Em All.

It seems like Strongarm's characterization was all over the place these last few episodes.

 

So basically Strongarm's sees only the surface and literal interpretation instead the layers beneath. It will make her bad Enforcer when she deals with the criminal element on Cybertron.

 

Well considering she's a cadet, *maybe not even out of the academy* Yeah.. She's not exactly up there with knowing how to actually do things yet.