Trying to remember, was the G1 designs before the kids actually met the characters? It could had just been how they imagined them to appear vs how they actually were at the time.

 

In the jawbreaker interview, Megatron explained he got his altmode when he joined Optimus, so it makes sense he doesn't have his cybetronian mode (which would be his g1 form) in the battle for the allspark. Bumblebee explained that he changed his alt mode when he went into hiding and/ or faked his death.

 

You know, I wonder something, are we going to find out why G.H.O.S.T. are after Bee? I know they claim he's a traitor, but why exactly?

 

It's definitely how they imagined them given while Bumblebee does look different in the flashback, he's not a recreation of his G1 model. If we see a pre-helicopter design of Megs in a flashback I don't imagine he'd follow the same route.

 

He didn't register with GHOST, and as an organization they're pretty xenophobic to begin with, so I'd say it tracks.

 

We know that Bumblebee was "undercover" and GHOST seems to think he is guilty of abandoning the Autobots (according to everyone he had just 'disappeared' one day), even though he was apparently on some mission for Optimus Prime the whole time. I think the implication is that Optimus having Bumblebee on some kind of mission behind GHOST's back could put stress on the seemingly tennuous alliance between GHOST and the Autobots. The fact that we don't know what "Undercover" means or what Bumblebee was doing for Optimus even still is a bit of a sore spot of the show for me, since it doesn't particularly explain why Bumblebee won't just surrender himself to GHOST and have them talk it out with Optimus. I'm assuming Bumblebee was looking into GHOST's dealings before being called into the field but it really does feel like we're missing a scene that explains why Bumblebee getting caught by GHOST would be that big of a deal.

Maybe it will be revealed in the next batch of episodes but it does feel like information that needs to be shared by this point in the story. Granted while I like that Optimus hasn't been around in the current episode batch it does feel like his presence is necessary given all of the conflict regarding GHOST as of late. Like he really should have stepped in when the Maltos were involved and it makes you wonder what he is doing right now that demands his attention more.

 

I honestly find them to be quite annoying imo, and they take majority of the screen time of the episodes. I think that's one of the reasons why I'm not such a huge fan of the show, because the stuff with prime, Megatron, ghost, the decepticons are absolutely amazing but majority of the screen time is going to these characters who I find kind of unbearable. I honestly hope from s2 onwards they shift away from the terrans and focus on Optimus, Megatron's and the decepticons' story instead. I've honestly been yearning for a young justice/justice league unlimited type TF show for years, I was really hoping that this show would fulfill that desire, but I guess not. But glad people are enjoying it.

 

I think of the episodes so far the one where his absence probably should have an explanation was in the racing episode with Breakdown, I'm actually surprised he wasn't the first person Bee tried to contact when someone started getting on his trail.

I'm assuming Optimus (and most other of the pre-existing characters) absence/limited screentime so far is probably largely due to the creators wanting to focus on the new characters. Which I suppose fits given the "new generation" theme.

 

I think part of why it's mostly getting a positive reception is that it effectively has a new cast/leads, something a lot of series haven't really tackled. Twitch in particular seems to be growing into that role. I do agree however. We need more Megatron screen time. There's just so much to dive into considering how long the war lasted.

 

As far as I can tell, Schloder's investigations seemed to just be personal curiosity, without malice, while Croft believes Bee turning out to be alive means he's a deserter and a bad guy, fueled by her own prejudice and seemingly supported by him associating with Breakdown. That still doesn't explain why Bumblebee seemingly faked his own death in the first place. I don't recall there being anything about it being for a mission, though I could be misremembering. Regardless, the vagueness of that part of the story really adds a layer of confusion and uncertainty to everyone's motivations that the show really doesn't need.

 

It could turn out to be Prime hedging his bets, but I don't think he has that insight. Maybe Bee felt he wasn't suited for reconstruction or something? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

The G1 animation was just Alex telling them a story, and they imagined the visuals based on their comics. The actual bots always looked more or less like they do now.

 

Yeah, I'm kind of suspecting Croft might be similar to Mandroid and that she hates all Cybertronians but is more able to hide it/be covert about it.

 

The show's villains are Blatant Racist and Racist Politician.

 

I actually prefer that we're focusing on the new characters rather than Optimus, though I feel like even a line about him being on some important mission or tracking a Decepticon group over in Europe or something would have been sufficient. The fact that there has been no mention about him at all with the audience left to assume he is over at GHOST headquarters the whole time and just hasn't been contacted comes off as more of a plot hole than anything. A single line like, "he's laying low outside of the country in a top secret mission and can't respond right now" would have explained why he hasn't been contacted by any of the characters even though his presence or even advice would have majorly helped in a lot of these situations, especially where Bumblebee is concerned.

 

I don't disagree, I do think it's refreshing since that last shows to try and have new mostly new characters I guess where either maybe RID'15 or one the UT era shows.

 

Since this is set in Pennsylvania I think would be neat if there was an episode that took place in Centralia which is about 2hrs away from Philly.

 

Finally watched the new batch of episodes.

Spoiler

I actually really liked Tarantulas. It's a bit weird as a Beast Wars kid to see him as something other than a cackling lunatic, but strangely it worked. At least this guy didn't try to eat anyone.

So I gather that what brought the war to Earth in the first place was the familiar MacGuffin, the one and only Allspark Cube. Megatron's change in outlook came from the compassion Dorothy showed him, and the realization that his war was destroying their species. Most Megatrons don't usually seem to care about the fate of the Transformers as a species -- such as his predessecor in Cyberverse, who ordered Shockwave to destroy the Allspark out of spite for the Autobots foiling his plans. It's interesting that Megatron was reminded of how precious life is by his friendship with Dot. And the ambiguity of the Allspark's fate, and in turn, of Cybertron itself, a lingering mystery for another time.

It's also interesting to see how different Megatron's ideal of what the Decepticons stood for actually turned out to be from his subordinates. His dialogue suggests, once again, the Decepticons began as a revolutionary group to overthrow tyranny, only to become tyrants themselves. Megatron eventually realized this and defected, but he couldn't convince the other Decepticons. And for Shockwave, the conquest of Earth and retrieval of the Allspark was about glory, no doubt that turned out to be the prevailing view of the other Decepticons as well.

Bot brawls are horrifying. And did they really just casually kill off Brawl? Nova Storm? And who knows who else? Well, I guess I can't be surprised that GHOST is this level of evil.

I appreciate them showing Agent Schloder as the more morally upright of the lead GHOST agents, as compared to Croft who is clearly using the organization for her own ends. Sees the Decepticon prisoners as expendable for Meridian/Mandroid's experiments, but a device that can control Cybertronians and is almost impossible to remove once applied? She's definitely going to betray Optimus and the Autobots. The question is, does she really think she can keep Mandroid in line? Seems like he might not be the type to stay under her thumb for longer than he needs to. I get the sense she wants to control the Transformers, maybe because she believes that's the only way to protect humanity, or maybe for more sinister purposes like world conquest. Contrast Mandroid, who wants them wiped out entirely.

 

Some belated thoughts on the last batch of episodes.

- I thought Hashtag would annoy me more than she ended up doing: she's basically Hashtag from G.I. Joe except not directly made (I assume) as a parody of millenials / zoomers who are glued to their phones and social media. She's a bit extra at times but has a pretty cool design / color scheme and seems like a good sister to her siblings.

- Find myself rather fond of Nightshade, definitely got Donatello from TMNT vibes. Though regarding the design... I feel like there's some kibble missing from their robot mode: they go from a pretty skinny / slender robot to a rather big / rotund owl. Still an overall really cool design, and I'm definitely curious to see how the toy turns out... but whoever is responsible for the design should've probably gave them more armor / kibble so it doesn't quite feel like it comes out of nowhere. Wheeljack team-up episode when?

- Jawbreaker is cute but admittedly I found the whole 'finding the right alt-mode' discussion to be pretty wishy washy and kind of annoying: why does it matter if it's not the right one if they can seemingly change it on the fly? I vastly prefer when it's generally seen as simply a utilitarian thing rather than something about self expression. I'm sure some bots like Sunstreaker or Knock Out care about that, but they're weird. I'm sure the pragmatic reason for this is because the don't wanna create a bunch of additional character models so they want them to get it right the first time. lol

- I'm still convinced that Executive Agent Croft is based on the Elizabeth Holmes, or it's just a very amusing coincidence.

- Thought the Insecticons being able to clone themselves was a pretty cool callback.

- I'm gonna need a toy of that Tarantulas yesterday, such a great design and I quite liked how he was portrayed as well. I'll always adore the iconic cackling mad scientist from Beast Wars but I did love his portrayal in Nick's Wreckers stories as well, his voice here kinda gives me Sebastion J. Cricket vibes...

- Speaking of mad scientists: I seriously hope we see more of this Shockwave, he was awesome and his design was great. At first I wasn't overly fond of his alt mode and would've preferred something closer to a space-gun, but I like how this one looks more than his Cyberverse counterpart. He's basically Marvel-era Shockwave, and I'm all here for it. Troy did an excellent job with his voice as well.

- I really liked that they made a design for Bee that was basically his G1 body for the flashback, but.. if he's meant to be in hiding I think the inclusion of very similar racing stripes was pretty dumb. Either he shouldn't have had them in the past or he needed to have them on that body and lose them when upgrading to his 'current' form. I mean that, combined with the whole racing thing we learned... he's not been doing a great job staying in hiding.

- The relationship between Bee and Breakdown was pretty awesome and gave me Hot Rod / Rampage vibes from Micron Densetsu, it also looks like they gave BD Dead End's single off-center stripe? Or maybe that's just a coincidence.

- A bit confused about what's going on with Starscream's eyes, whether it was a conscious choice to make his eyes blue or there's some shenanigans going on.

- Did they seriously kill Breakdown off-screen? If so that's super lame.

- I'm super curious to see where the plot thread regarding the creepy grub / parasites goes...

- Wasn't expecting Brawl to randomly show up, even though he just dies I rather liked how he looked.

- Grimlock was just damn awesome, can't wait to see his robot mode and hear him talk.

- Oi, this next one will be a bit of a doozy. I found the discussion regarding the whole "Transformers go home" thing to be frustrating because it was very much lacking in nuance (or subtlety) and felt like it was written by children. The writers seem to be trying to make a discrimination allegory but I was under the impression being an Autobot or Decepticon is a choice because the whole innate differences between bots and cons things is usually frowned upon and is usually only present in older iterations of the story... so which is it?

IDW had this same problem where on the one hand they make it perfectly clear that Decepticonism is an ideology yet post-war they're treated like an oppressed minority by the writers rather than a defeated enemy force. You can't really do both yet the writers are evidently attempting to do both.

Furthermore, Robby was being kind of a twat to his friend: for all he knew his dad making the 'bigoted' comments lost his arms and legs due to an alien skirmish that got out of hand (since we already have Maridian and Dorothy as examples of what could happen to a human during these conflicts), or maybe his pregnant wife when two Cybes decided that it'd be cool to fight near a hospital. It'd be one thing if he was meant to be depicted as being irrational because of his familial connection to the Terrans, but I'm fairly certain we're meant to side with him in that instance. I think the Terrans were justified in feeling hurt, but I also think his friends comment wasn't exactly wrong either, yet I assume we're meant to see him as being 'out of line' ... for stating observable reality.

This sort of bleeds into my thoughts on the whole 'Bot Brawl' thing, we're meant to be disturbed and think "gasp.. .humans are bad too! D:" but like... When are we gonna have an honest discussion about how many humans got trampled in a war that had nothing to do with them? So logically and understandably some of them are going to become hateful and resentful towards these automatons for showing up, causing a lot of damage and now simply wishing to let bygones be bygones. Contrary to how monstrous the show looks to depict GHOST and Dr. Maridian... Particularly 'Mandroid' I find to be a pretty compelling figure, because I struggle to really disagree with his sentiments regarding their species. He's not really wrong about his commentary, but because he's a meanie head I'm meant to just view him as a crazy bad guy who needs to just accept all Cybes even if some of them still choose to wear the alien equivalent of a Nazi swastika.

Where were all the human graves at the memorial park? Perhaps my mind is failing me but I don't recall seeing any that weren't written in Cybertronian (and why would a bunch of human names be written in an alien language that most of the planet presumably can't understand?). I don't even recall them getting a mention in that episode.. lol

Admittedly this is a larger problem with children's media as a whole, particularly in the west: they wish to tackle topics that are heavier / meatier but they often approach them in a very clumsy manner, there's nothing at all wrong with wishing to tackle topics like that but if you fail to do so properly it's often better if you just avoided doing so altogether. You either end up with something insultingly preachy or a child's perspective on the subject complete with an underdeveloped view on the world and morality.

ANYWAYS, overall I'd still say I'm quite intrigued to see where this show goes from here. It's definitely got areas that could use some work but there's not really been anything that's made me lose interest, at least not yet.

I'd love to see more concept art from this show as well, I think in general the designs for this show have been pretty solid and I'd like to see others show up in this show's style.

 

I will literally die if batch 3 doesn’t release April and instead I have to wait till September