The show makes a point of telling us, on numerous occasions, few of the Autobots...if any...were soldiers before the war started.

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My take overall? It was fine. Nothing spectacular, but give this story a Hollywood budget and it probably would've turned out better. Would have had better voice acting, likely a few more passes at the script to tighten things up...but like I said before I get the impression had Hasbro moved forward with the All Spark Pictures expanded universe this was what the first film would have looked like.

And in that regard, it was a marked improvement over the Bayverse films. It shows you can make a Transformer movie without needing to center it on humans, or showing it from the humans perspective. And even if you didn't like the characterizations, they had them.

I liked that Bee was a character instead of a voiceless kid. I would've found a way to keep him more involved leading up to him getting pulled in to the main conflict of the story. I'm pretty sure he never actually met Magnus, so it made what happens later feel a little forced.

But again, for a 6 episode mini-series it got the job done. I think, at worst, it was passable. Most of us here will likely have binged it within the first week and that's a good thing as Netflix usually uses the first few weeks to measure the success of its content.

Will that translate to a bigger budget for the next chapter? Maybe? But for me I'll tune in to Earthrise. It's a quick watch, compelling enough in terms of what the characters are up to, and I kinda like the idea that Optimus isn't a perfect hero in this story. It's a way to try something different in a relatively safe/compact environment. I would like to think that by the time trilogy is over, Hasbro will have figured out how to translate what worked in the format to the big screen.

Though if it goes where I think it's going to, I could see a lot of G1 fans getting really pissed by the time it's over.

 

To be fair, it seemed to have a lot to do with Optimus who even with the Matrix wasn't a natural fighter being extremely low on Energon and rest and maybe just patched together quickly by Red Alert, versus Megatron who was fully charged and is usually thought of as Cybertron's greatest warrior and a former gladiator champion of the pits who by all accounts should never lose in hand to hand combat with anyone. It cements home that Prime can't just punch Megatron away and save the day at the end of the episode like in the old cartoon, and all the Autobots really have are small guerrilla tactics against a powerful Decepticon regime (which weren't working as the Autobots didn't seem like they had any hopes of winning the war).

 

But the show also made a point of telling us that Optimus, Megatron, Magnus and Trion all fought in a war prior to the current one as allies. So for Prime anyway, lots of experience. Plus, even with no experience prior to current war, the current war has been raging for quite some time. Just going off of humans, it takes a matter of weeks (OK, falls into months) for a green recruit to become a Marine, and for those with the grit and physical gifts, a similar amount of time to train to become special forces. So believe me, as far as 'time' goes, they've had enough. And as my comments were specific to Optimus Prime, his resume was plenty long and filled out to not be that utterly useless in a scrap.

I can completely buy the 'low on energon' thing, at least I could were it not that in true Optimus Worf fashion he was a complete badass against everyone until he got to Megatron. Stormed in there, smashed through everyone, then Megs shows up and it's like he's never thrown a punch before.

But yeah, I can accept that he was low on energon, but even then, do f'n better than that.

 

Well again Megatron is boss. The character of Megatron since probably around "Megatron: Origin" in the franchise seems to be of the opinion that yeah, Optimus, Magnus, and Alpha Trion all fought in the war...but Megatron is the one who won it. But I think by the end of the series, Optimus will grow into the leader he's meant to be and the tables will turn. It's just not now when the plan is basically to board the Ark and run away.

 

I mean, he doesn't seem that low on Energon if he's charging in at full speed right into a fight. In fact he doesn't seem weak or low on energy at any point other than his fights with Megatron.

 

That would be cool

 

I got the impression in most episodes that he seems pretty tired, even mentally if not physically. Most of the Autobots seem that way, but it stands out with Prime because he still has the will to stand against Megatron and not surrender, he's still Prime, but he's far from 100% and knows that they're losing bad and they aren't really putting up a real fight any longer.

 

The 'coming into his own' type of story doesn't work that well for characters that are this old. I mean, suspension of disbelief is required for most of this, so why not, but I just have trouble buying into hundreds or thousands or millions of years old Prime finally figuring out how to be a great leader/fighter. It works for a 'War Within' or 'Megatron Origins' and so on, but at this point Prime's been around a very long time, he's been fighting on many fronts a very long time, and in this he's not fit to carry Chaos Theory's Orion Pax's jock strap. Seriously, not even f'n close.

That said, Chaos Theory Orion Pax is what everyone who writes Oprimus Prime should look to as basis for the character. Seriously, THAT should be the template.

 

I like the show. I’m not bingeing and just watched ep 4 last night. My 10 year old son likes it a lot. I love seeing updated and recognizable versions of g1 characters. I love how the Transformers are the main characters and not some dopey humans. This show actually makes me want to buy the figures.

There is one concern. The characters keep saying “end the war”. It seems to me like the writers or even Hasbro is trying to condition us to accept the war part of the Transformers story to end eventually. If that’s the case then Hasbro should be more upfront about it.

 

I don't think that's what the case is at all. Even if the war ends in one continuity, it's going strong in another. Conflict is one of the core themes of the Transformers franchise, and even if they were to make one series focusing on a post-war setting (and they have, in some of the IDW books), other stories will still feature the war.

I will call out the whole "We need to end the war" shtick that all of the characters keep repeating, because it feels like bad writing. If the Decepticons control the majority of the planet, then the Autobots are more of a rebellion for them to crush at this point. There are a lot of points in the show that seem to suggest this is more of the case. The weird thing is that the "end the war" rhetoric is coming from both sides within the show. In the real world, a conflict where both parties want to stop fighting, they generally will, through treaties, surrenders, et cetera. This is somewhat addressed in the show as apparently Megatron does have some sort of treaty for Autobot surrender, but he immediately gives up on it once easy genocide is an option. The resistance of both leaders to come to a peaceful conclusion, when everyone around them wants to stop fighting, makes Optimus and Megatron look like colossal morons.

 

Yet he's still more than physically capable, consistently showing strength and agility unlike a weak or energy depleted character would.

It's more likely they just made a really bad fight scene and tried too hard to make Megatron seems strong, a trap several shows have fallen into. With all the other poor decisions in this show is that not the logical answer?

 

I actually like deviations from the source material. Giant Astrotrain is just so jarring because it has no buildup or foreshadowing whereas Omega Supreme is rightly built up as a big deal. If it was Trypticon or Devastator it would simply be a cameo with little story relevance and I could move on. Still not great but at least I'm already conditioned to their size and won't do a double take. Bumblebee could be Unicron sized I guess but it would still be wierd to see that onscreen with no explanation.

 

Didnt realize being a veteran of wars makes you a fighting god. LMAO... Megatron is the champion of pit fighting.... He's a better hand to hand fighter than Prime ... deal with it and stop being a potato

 

For being low on energon, these guys seemed to like to run around everywhere. Can't be more efficient than traveling... on wheels.

 

Re-watch that first fight. Losing wasn't the issue, he fought like an old lady trying to fend off a mugger. It was pathetic. Not outclassed, not bad, but pathetic. And as I said, no issues with the fight at the space bridge - they were two different Primes apparently.

 

like I've mentioned before........ they could easily explain it if transforming and being in vehicle mode uses up more energon....

 

Dafuq? What the hell version of Impactor, IDW or otherwise, have you been reading wherein he is a devoted Decepticon who turns neutral as thanks to another neutral for repairing him but never joins the Autobots or becomes a Wrecker which is, you know, his defining characteristic? Netflix Impactor was Impactor by virtue of the name and character design and nothing else.

 

Or he wanted to stall Megatron while Elita got into place with the explosives and the distraction

 

You know another good way of stalling? Fighting well. Landing punches is just as distracting to your enemies as absorbing them.

 

The fight might have gotten out of control if he started winning there. Jetfire probably would have stepped in if Optimus started getting the upper hand. Or Megatron himself getting fed up and ordering the seekers to fire. On the other hand by losing we got Megatron telling him to stand up and giving him a bit of a speech and enjoying himself.