to balance out the negativity of my say everything you dislike about transformers prime thread I created this thread the only goal is to say everything you unironically like about Transformers: Energon.

 

To balance out the negativity of everything your dislike about Transformers Prime, here's a thread about everything you like about ENERGON...

 

It's gonna be a short list but damn if this isn't a great opposite to the TFP thread.

The characters designs are sweet. I really miss that particular blend of mecha stylings with the chunky industrial aesthetic of Armada. Some designs are better than others, and the animation certainly cleans up proportions (like Optimus and Hot Shot) to make them better, but in general I find the characters all looked really cool. The Decepticons especially, bogged down by fewer gimmicks, tended to look awesome and badass. Plus it was the first time we got some of the more overt homages, like Megatron being heavily based on G1 Galvatron, or Starscream's G1 redeco on an already more traditional toy design. I especially liked how detailed greeble and sleek vehicle panels would intersect in robot mode, and there were a lot of inspired designs that bucked trends yet produced solid ideas. (like Prowl as a "police F-1 racer" where he's super wide in both modes)

The setting was also great. The idea of Autobots and Decepticons allied with humanity and colonizing space is neat. Sadly went nowhere and more often than not just had the characters fighting on biome worlds. (or the void, where alt modes mean nothing) Kicker as a concept also isn't bad, a human who fights alongside the Autobots and his trust issues towards them and his own father for being sued as a living divining rod for Energon. Again, went nowhere and was poorly implemented, but I'm being positive here.

Ummm... there were those few moments of hand-drawn robots that were really nice. Too infrequent, though. The music was great. I liked... the colours? Oh! I liked that we got a Quintesson again, even if it went, uh, nowhere. Unicron coming back after the tease at the end of Armada was also cool even if it... went nowhere.

I guess on a completely superficial level Energon was really good. Just let down by writing, dialogue, acting, animation, and pacing.

 

For good or bad depending on the design of the characters, I think expanding on the Powerlinx gimmick building off from Armada was a good idea. It's quite ambitious they tried to make it work for nearly every character. But they should've had some variety rather than just only shirts/pants combining. Overload and Tidal Wave in Armada are examples that forming something unorthodox like giant mounted shoulder cannons or wrap around armor could've been that type of variety, and is probably why they're the most memorable.

 

Same, I would love a series that explored the same gimmick but with more creative designs.

I only got halfway through episode 2 back when I tried to watch Energon, so what good can I say about it? Well, it's set in the future, so that makes it easier for me to pretend that the series didn't happen and that Cybertron is set shortly after Armada - while also pretending the last seconds of Mortal Combat don't exist.

 

Kicker's suit looked pretty cool.

And that's about it.  

 

The theme song was sorta cool and Bulkhead was awesome! Other than that, nada.

 

The music is great (aside from the opening theme, which is just okay), the voice acting is excellent (despite the astonishingly awful script), there are several likable characters (some of whom were handled poorly) and great story ideas (most of which were executed poorly), and the hand-drawn animation is arguably the best in the entire franchise (why wasn't everything in the show animated using that style?).

 

Hey don’t forget about Mika/Misha’s black biker suit too!

 

Who was she again? /s

 

The one in yellow (and sometimes black).

 

The Inferno Ark.

Also the moment Megatron came back, as a kid who watched like all of Armada on Toonami, including the finale, seeing Megatron come back to life blew my mind.

 

some of the music was pretty epic, snowcat was a really fun character to watch, fun new take on quintesson, characters like scorponok, jetfire, downshift/wheeljack, superion maximus, bruticus maximus had really cool updated designs, love the expansion of tidal wave's character (until mirage obviously), the first quarter of the series was a good plot/arc, interesting utilization of unicron, as messed up as the show was-at least it had strong continuity with armada

another negative to remember-this is the series that started the damn trope of arcee being a motorcycle

 

There's a very good potential story in its first couple episodes with a human Autobot alliance and Demolishor wondering where his place is but it is quickly trod upon.

 

I actually love the inferno ark and he’s the only Energon figure I still have, tho I do love Megatrons design and colors, much more than the cybertron design. The moments of hand draw animation are great, and I actually like Shockblast and Wing Saber. The first couple episodes I think are pretty good and while not great they definitely have potential. Actually I really like almost all the designs, but I’m a sucker for the UT bots

 

The premise was fantastic. Like above all things that's what pisses me off about Energon: You have a gangbusters premise to start off on. The Autobots and Decepticons have been keeping the peace for years, they've entered a mutually beneficial arrangement with humanity, but Unicron is on the cusp of being reactivated, Megatron is back, and now the peace that's been established between the two factions is shakier than it's ever been, with major Decepticons eagerly jumping ship back over to their resurrected leader. Now it's Autobots vs Decepticons all over again, but with the looming threat of Unicron a very grim reality once more and the veterans of the Unicron battles stuck with green new recruits like Ironhide who aren't remotely equipped to handle an enemy like this. Furthermore, there's the debate of whether or not Unicron should've been killed in the first place-- Cybertron may have been in peril, but Unicron is a natural force of entropy. Can the universe truly function without him?

And the series pisses all of this staggering potential away, actively going out of its way to never do anything interesting with it.

Beyond that, if I were to go with things that I like about it without caveats... there were a lot of excellent designs from Energon. The Decepticons especially, but the Autobots had some real winners like Bulkhead, Landmine, the Omnicons and Omega Supreme. The Energon star gimmick may have been worthless but I really liked the weapons and that's one thing I think will be neat to see make a comeback in Legacy.

Also the soundtrack is an undeniable masterpiece. Give it a listen sometime, you won't regret it.

 

Just to get it out of the way, I'll be talking about Superlink just because that removes all the dub-related errors/flaws.

The series is probably one of the best in terms of being a sequel series that actually flows smoothly from the previous series. None of the character oddness of Beast Machines, the "whoops, we didn't intend this as a sequel" of Galaxy Force, or the tone shift of RID2015.
The idea of the Decepticons integrating into Autobot society was great. Clearly not fully content in their new roles, but also growing and developing too.
The idea of a fight over Unicron's remains is really cool with people wanting to use it for pure evil but others with positive goals in mind.
Hot Shot being a bit higher up the ranks now with a novice Autobot under him is nice. It's always nice to see "the kid" grow up and take on a mentor role.
The combining gimmick for all the Autobots is a GREAT IDEA. Loads of combinations possible, and different abilities depending on who takes on which role.
The Decepticons slowly rejoining Megatron's team rather than all instantly flipping was great and gave us more time with them.
Starscream's revival as a half-ghost with memory problems is a fantastic setup. [how it ended wasn't]
Cyclonus getting whipped into a wall on a whim for an upgrade was pretty hilarious given that all other upgrades were big pivotal moments.
In Japan, the way the names would update with their new bodies was fun (Ironhide -> Irontread).
When they spent the budget for 2D animation for the robots, it was spectacular.

Dare I say it - the concept and setup for Kicker was pretty good.

 

Yeah, in a way I say that the best thing Energon/Superlink had to offer was that the storytelling ideas it attempted were amazing, and on paper, the show has everything it needs to be both a good sequel follow-up to Armada/Micron Legend and a fun show on its own. The show for better or worse does have a lot of ambitious ideas that could've worked, all of which were completely wasted before they even get a chance to start.

Another positive I could say about Energon/Superlink is despite the implementation of the Powerlinx gimmicks wasn't ideal, the toy-line does offer quite a number of very good figures that age very well even by current standards in a number of aspects.

I also like how Energon/Superlink was willing to experiment and explore some interesting twists with its character designs. The balanced blend of mecha styling and industrial detailing for the character designs was awesome and gives the Unicron trilogy character designs an identity on their own (in a good way).

 

i never watched the show and don't know where i can watch it

 

You can watch it on tubitv.com.
Although it is a sequel to Armada, which is also on Tubi.
tubitv.com/tv-shows/98772/s01-e01-first-encounter?start=true