Episode 12: Survival of the Fittest

This episode starts with Prowl trying to teach Sari some sort of martial arts.

Prowl is disappointed Sari can’t hurt him. DUDE! You’re a 50-thousand-ton machine and Sari is just a little girl. That’s like asking a frog to attack a Pitbull.

It is a smart idea to try to teach her to defend herself, although I don’t know what good that would do against a decepticon.

I love Bulkhead’s fake delayed reaction to Sari kicking him. It reminds me of when my uncle would pretend to be hurt when I ‘punched’ him as a little kid.

Bulkhead is such a sweet character.

Swoop is standing outside Sari’s apartment and kidnaps her. Stranger danger! Stranger danger!!

Issac really went ham trying to find Sari, he practly has the entire police force on the case. Not that I can blame him.

As they Autobots are talking with Fanzone, Optimus spots one of the Dinobots flying off with Sari in the security footage.

Oops, looks like hiding dangerous robots on an island was a bad idea after all, then they proceed to steal a boat. Meanwhile Fanzone drowns to death. Pretty dark for a kids show.

On second thought, he’s still alive…somehow.

And we have the second appearance of Meltdown, one of the better human villains.

I like the running gag of the Autobots unknowingly putting Fanzone into danger. Very loony Tunes esque.

Oh, there’s that weird old man from the episode where Bumblebee entered into a wrestling competition.

Sari is captured in a cage made from lasers and obviously has no fear, still snarking away as usual.

Fanzone proceeds to get caught into quicksand on the island after he followed Bulkhead and Prowl there, and it seems like he doesn’t hate machines as much as we thought, calling out for them for help.

Meltdown would make a good Batman villain.

I really wish Slag and Swoop could talk, or at least say their own names like Pokémon. It just feels cheap, like they couldn’t be bothered with hiring some more voice actors.

Bulkhead attacks the Dinobots in rage when he thinks they would hurt Sari. Aww how sweet.

Prowl letting Fanzone ride him, (Its nothing bad you perverts!) is a good image, I demand a 50 episode spin off about a Fanzone/Prowl buddy cop show.

Poor Dinobots. Turns out Meltdown was torturing the Dinobots into doing his bidding.

Bulkhead runs towards Meltdown in rage when he says Sari is his newest experimental subject and gets acid to the chest.

Fanzone calls out Bulkhead’s name in worry when he gets injured with the acid. Turns out he’s got a bit of a soft side for machines after all.

Aww, Fanzone is worried about Prowl. This is the character dynamic I never thought I neened or wanted. This episode really makes Fanzone into a good character.

A biological transformer is quite horrifying. Those mutants are quite horrifying for children. Cool designs though.

Prowl takes out one of the mutants, and Fanzone sucker punches out the other. I guess those huge upper arms aren’t just for show!

Meanwhile Sari easily traps the little weird alien man in the toilet.

Fanzone and Prowl meet up with an escaped Sari and go to find Bulkhead, where she heals his deep wound. What a sweet little scene with Bulkhead and Sari.

Sari proceeds to kick Meltdown and misses. Maybe that’s for the best considering he’s made from literal acid and all…

But it turns out Sari’s kick was a distraction that allowed Prowl to kick him in the face, and Fanzone ties up Meltdown with a protective suit.

We get a cool transformation scene of all three Dinobots transforming, and in their robot modes, having two of the three not talk is just annoying.

The old man and the mutants try to help Meltdown and attack the Dinobots, only for them to be utterly obliterated.

The episode ends with Prowl, Bulkhead, Fanzone and Sari sailing back to the city in the sunset.

Overall a really fun episode and an improvement on the last episode, but it wasn't anything amazing. 4/5.

 

On the topic of Sentinel, I will say this...

I know it was a few years before it happened,

but Sentinel as Magnus really reminds me of Trump as President.

Kinda eerie in that regard.

 

Tomorrow: the season finale (both parts)*

*probably. I have about 7 minutes left on part 2 and hope to have a chance to get that done during the afternoon before I head off for (what else) a hockey game. If I don't get that finished in time I'll at least have part 1 up at some point, even if that's like 10:30pm when I get home. But I'm hoping to have both done.

 

Actually, the "award" for the worst character should go to Professor Princess.

 

That is amazing, dude. Thank you!

 

Interesting. Why so?

Is there another actor in the franchise who has appeared more?

 

EPISODE 15: MEGATRON RISING (PART 1)
We pull back the curtain on the series' true villain: Isaac Sumdac.

Spoiler

Youtube

Tubi release
Transformers: Animated S01:E15 - Megatron Rising (Pt. 1)

If you'll forgive the awkward phrasing, the season begins to end with a bang. This is only part 1 of the finale so it suffers from some of the issues that multi-part episodes, especially their first segments, tend to have. This is mostly in the form of a lot of things setting up without any payoff. But ultimately we still get a ton of resolution (or at least the start of resolution) for many of the things that the series has dangled in front of us from the beginning. Megatron's revival, the climax of the Autobots and Sari's contentious relationship with the allspark key, Starscream's treachery, Optimus struggling to be a commander. all of it is addressed here and at least finds the path it's going to follow towards a satisfying season 1 conclusion.

Unfortunately without the ability to completely pay off any of those things we are left with a few unsatisfying elements when the "to be continued" text pops up after 23 minutes. Optimus has an avenue to get better as a leader, but getting to that point required him to go so far off the deep end that it almost gave me flashbacks to the worst aspects of zealot Primal from Beast Machines. and while it's necessary to show him struggling with having to toughen up to handle the increased threat, it also means that it's hard to empathize with him when he goes so far off the deep end at the beginning, instantly switching from understanding paternal role to angry dill sergeant.

The key drama is also a bit of a retread of frustrating things we've done before. Sari has the key taken away (finally) as the drama increases and the Decepticon threat becomes more acute. That's harsh, but makes sense. Problem is that when the bots take the key from her she throws a tantrum. This is understandable on its surface since she's a kid. But what's less understandable is that this is like the 5th time that she swears she's not using the key in an inappropriate fashion while using the key inappropriately frivolously. So it's hard to sympathize with Sari as she gets upset because she only has herself to blame.

These small(ish) things keep the first half of the finale from ascending to the top of the rating mountain, but it does still manage to get itself up to a reasonably strong "A-" rating and a sign that Animated doesn't play around when its time to get serious.

Spoiler

-It's winter in Detroit, and it seems the city is in for a fierce snowstorm as we head inside as Professor Sumdac returns the battered remains of Megatron's body (found at the end of last episode) to the lab.

-But the restoration is going to have to wait as the power goes out and they're running on a backup generator that apparently can't handle the drain of a single welder.

-Megatron absolutely flips his lid, telling Sumdac to shut everything else in the tower down because fixing and upgrading his body is the ONLY thing that matters and nothing else is as important

This is by far Megatron's most direct and inarguable "Look how evil I am" red flag. So does the professor finally put two and two together and recognize he's being played by a Decepticon (which he should know given that Megs had an obvious Decepticon logo on his chest and if the professor didn't see the logo on Starscream during his kidnapping then he at least had to have been informed about the faction's identifying mark by the Autobots or Sari)?

No! Of course not! Megatron backtracks and tries to say he's only concerned about the Decepticons attacking and how he needs to be ready to help his "Autobot brothers." And the professor buys it. Even as Megatron's tone starts to sound like he's about to throw up in his mouth when he has to call the Autobots his brothers."

You're the dumbest human ever, Isaac. Yes, even dumber than Daniel. And Kicker might've been a raging narcissist with no ability to take ownership of his own problems, but at least he wasn't a complete idiot.

-Megs reasons that the only way he'll get out of the lab is to see if Lugnut is still online.

-He is. Though he and Blitzwing are fighting over parts, as Blitzwing installs one of Lugnut's shoulders.

-They're also being led by "the chosen leader of the Decepticons" Starscream.

-Megatron taps into Lugnut's comms and Starscream, being the egotist he is takes Lugnut's reactions as groveling to him.

It does beg the question if the bots can use their comms internally (Basically just "thinking" their responses instead of verbalizing them). You'd think that would be possible given that the reception is internal and not broadcast for everyone to hear.

-Starscream hates the mention of Megatron's name, barely avoids admitting that he was the one who slagged his former leader, and then scans Lugnut to determine he is getting a signal from somewhere. Though I'm a little disturbed that he's scanning with his null ray and that the beam lingers on Lugnut's groin for some reason.

Come on, man. Boundaries...​

-Starscream commands the other two to find the key while he investigates the source of the transmission. He knows exactly what he's doing.

-Back at Autobot HQ Prowl detects "increased Decepticon activity" as Ratchet panics over "incoming" that are just toy planes. He blows one up with his magnets while the other one (being piloted by Sari) lands and shows that it's got her key in the back.

Because again she hasn't learned her lesson. After 3 interventions, almost dying multiple times, accidentally creating their adversaries via key shenanigans twice, and generally being in danger because of all of this, she's still going to screw around with it. This is the point where "she's just a kid" is no longer an excuse and she probably needs the key taken away.

-When Bumblebee expresses doubt at 5 Autobots stopping the Decepticons, Sari suggests she makes 6 (FORESHADOWING!) and the others look grim for a minute, like none of them have the heart to explain that this fight is way over her head. It's a nice small moment of "acting" that sells the emotions of the scene better than just having Optimus or Ratchet verbally correct her.

-Bulkhead then suggests the Dinobots could help. Optimus is confused and Bulkhead questions why Prowl didn't say anything because apparently he told Bulkhead that he was going to inform Optimus of the reality of the Dinobots' fate.

-Prowl stays silent while Bulkhead suggests that Optimus will understand what they did.

Narrator: "He did not." (it's hard to do in text format with uncertainty but this is not actually a Transformers joke. It's the Arrested Development Ron Howard narrator I'm riffing on. Even though I've never watched the show I still know the meme)

-Optimus is flipping out as he says that he can't protect the planet if he's only got a crew of insubordinate screw-ups. This is him shedding "cool step-dad" mode and adopting a bearing more in line with a military commander.

Michael Bay was the guest director for this scene.​

-Optimus announces that he'll go with the others to talk to the Dinobots and that in the name of increased care and security they have to be more vigilant and careful, starting with taking the key from Sari because she can't protect it.

-He also says it's not a toy, which Sari calls "not fair" as she's literally holding a toy plane that she was using it on for no good reason.

-Sari refuses to back down so Optimus orders Ratchet to take it from her with her with his magnets. He is extremely uneasy about it.

-In fact everyone's uneasy about it. Bumblebee calls out Optimus for his attitude.

On the one hand, Bumblebee is right. Optimus is being a total jerk and making just about every bad decision he can. But on the other hand, Optimus is right that Sari's handling of the key and the dangers of what they do has been less than stellar, and her inability to stick with promises to be more responsible with the key show that she can't be trusted to behave in a mature manner when things escalate and the situation calls for it. So while I don't agree with him literally ordering ratchet to rip the key from her hands, I do agree that given the circumstances she can't be trusted to hang on to it.

-Sari runs away from the base after having the key stolen, ranting about how she doesn't need the Autobots. This makes her easy pickings to get snatched by Blackarachnia.

New from Hallmark, the 2008 Transformers Christmas ornament!​

-Back from commercial, Bumblebee is searching for Sari and ignoring Optimus' radioed order to return to base. It takes Ratchet to make Optimus realize he's being at least a bit unreasonable. So Optimus orders Ratchet to head to the Ark and set up to protect the key while Prowl and Bulkhead take him to Dinobot Island.

-Meanwhile on the rooftop Blackarachnia... almost sorta bonds with Sari over not being trusted by the Autobots? She also garners some sympathy for her need to try and use the Allspark to restore her purely technological form.

-And while this is going on Blitzwing has locked on to the key signature and is now chasing and shooting at Ratchet. Starscream and Megatron will be pissed if he blows up the key.

-Lugnut is there too.

-Ratchet transforms and it shows he's keeping the key exactly where we last saw it: on the pointy end of one of his magnets.

How is this safer/more responsible than Sari?​

-After telling Blitzwing that they'd have to take the key from his "cold, offline servo" Blitzwing plays to the line by freezing Ratchet and taking the key by ripping Ratchet's arm off at the elbow.. Geez, that's... intense.

Give me your face arm.​

Also Ratchet was totally asking for it.

-They depart, Ratchet breaks himself out of the ice, and he realizes things have gone totally sideways (note: Sideways will not be appearing in this series  )

-Meanwhile Optimus and the others find the Dinobots. Optimus says they come in peace, but the Dinobots are having none of that.

-Prowl offers to talk to them since he has a rapport with Grimlock, but Optimus refuses, saying he's "done enough damage."

It's actually kind of refreshing for Optimus to be making a series of bad command decisions. As frustrating as the decisions are, this is the sort of thing that he needs to go through to become a better leader. It's just as valuable as Rodimus' self doubt even if it's basically the opposite (Rodimus made the right choices but never believed in himself. Optimus believes he's in the right as he's doing the wrong thing.)

-Prowl finally steps in and diffuses things as Grimlock declares that "truck robot bad."

No, it's not close enough to "trukk not munkky" to count as fanservice.

-Optimus asks for the Dinobots' help, but Grimlock says that they can fend for themselves. That's as far as we get as Ratchet gets through to Optimus to report that the key has been stolen. Optimus decides that they have to leave without the Dinobots' help and now Optimus is sullen and depressed. Looks like he's crashing after all his bluster earlier on.

-At the same time Starscream has locked onto the communication signal sent to Lugnut and inside Sumdac Tower he finds the disembodied remains of Megatron.

-Starscream does his best to cover for his treachery by sucking up to Megs. He's still a bad actor, but at least hanging out with Professor Sumdac hasn't tainted Megatron's mind as he very clearly doesn't believe a word Starscream says.

-Bumblebee shows up and reports on Starscream's presence and we cut to the other bots that aren't Ratchet and... where did all that extra vehicle stuff on Optimus come from? He never had a trailer before other than the G1 styled one from the fake money drop, right?

You try lugging a heavy trailer around all the time. After a few days leaving it behind unless it's important seems like the best course of action.​

-Bumblebee is ordered to stand down, but he refuses as he has to protect Sari.

-Then he just about gets himself stuck in an elevator.

-He arrives on the lab floor and shoots Starscream, but his stingers are not powerful enough to even phase Starscream. On the flip side, Starscream's rays are more than powerful enough to take out Bumblebee in one hit.

-Prof. Sumdac rushes to help Megatron and repair his body now. But to keep up that he's a complete dolt, he continues to work when Lugnut and Blitzwing show up and praise him. It takes Lugnut spelling the reality of the situation out to Prof. Sumdac in painfully precise detail before he gets it.

Good job, Professor! You've doomed humanity!

-Blitzwing installs the key in Megatron's head and the power of the Allspark causes his body to reform on its own while also cannibalizing parts from the tower. It's actually an impressive sequence.

-Megatron's optics flare to life as his body completes, and up on the roof Starscream approaches Bumblebee, intent on finishing him off. But the whole of Sumdac tower starts to glow an ominous red before Megatron bursts up through the roof into the air, leaving Optimus to stare in shock and us to wait for the exciting conclusion to this story and the first season... next time on Transformers: Animated!

Uh oh.​

Fanservice Tracker
G1: 0 (total: 16)
Beast Wars: 0 (total: 4)
Non-Series-Specific Japan: 0 (total: 1)
Masterforce: 0 (total: 1)
Overall: 0 (total: 22)

Pros
+Optimus has to learn his lesson about his command style

+So much plot resolution

+the various Decepticon moving parts come together

+Megatron's resurrection scene is really cool.



Cons
-Professor Sumdac remains the king of the idiots.

-Sari's objections to being stripped of the key, while sensible given that she's a child, are dumb in the face of no less than 4 previous episodes in which she did the very thing she swears isn't a problem (screwing around with the key for fun)

-While it's sensible for Optimus to kind of go off the deep end, it's also hard to empathize with him early on when he switches right from understanding step-dad mode to angry, belligerent taskmaster.

 

EPISODE 16: MEGATRON RISING (PART 2)
Maybe I shouldn't criticize Megatron surviving a skybeam. After all, Headmasters Galvatron survived an entire planet exploding (only to be crushed by ice)

Spoiler

Youtube

Tubi release
Transformers: Animated S01:E16 - Megatron Rising (Pt. 2)

Well that was exciting.

After all the setup in part 1, this second half of the finale is able to dispense with some of the slower aspects of the story and spend most of its time on fights and chases and action as season 1 draws to a close.

And those parts of the story are almost uniformly great. Bulkhead vs Lugnut, Ratchet and Bumblebee (and also Prowl eventually) against Blitzwing, and of course Optimus vs Megatron are each exciting in their own way and bring distinct flavors of combat with their own creativity, cleverness, and action to the table. I liked that the different fights kept things fresh and avoided this just becoming stale "everyone shoots at each other" or "one-on-one shonen fights where everyone backs off so it's just lead hero vs lead villain)

None of the fights themselves were issues, but I was kind of confused at how Bulkhead defeats Lugnut and then basically vanishes from all the fights. He doesn't even seem to try to get back to the rest of the Autobots to help out. Given how strong he is since he just defeated a Decepticon single-handedly (while no other Decepticon fight has been on equal footing all series (in order to preserve the threat level that they represent) it sure would've been good to have him around for Blitzwing or Megatron. But nope, he does his part, awesome as it is, and then vanishes.

I'm also glad that we finally get Professor Sumdac called out for his part in Megatron's resurrection. Yes it was accidental, but it still owes to him being secretive and easily manipulated and you can't help but feel like all of this could've been avoided and he gets off relatively easily given the circumstances.

But because of his idiocy the status quo of the Animated universe changes forever as the Decepticons now have a leader and a sense of unity, the allspark is shattered in the fight, the Autobots will continue to be trapped on Earth after the Ark is shot down, and Professor Sumdac ends the episode in Decepticon hands (again. Though this time it sticks) and create a brand new "normal" for season 2 to begin on.

My only question with that is how the heck Megatron survived being at ground zero of the Allspark explosion and had opportunity to whisk Professor Sumdac away without anyone seeing him. Because the Autobots seem convinced that Megs may have perished in the blast, but while it's incredulous enough that he lived through the giant energy sky beam with less damage than he took when he first entered Earth atmosphere, there's no way in heck that a squishy human would've survived.

Still, this was a very, very good end to a strong first season for this show and it leaves me excited to see where things go from here when we begin season 2... as soon as tomorrow or Sunday  .

Spoiler

-There's a "previously on Transformers" recap to start us off, with Optimus as the bot to give us the line in question.

-It's seriously almost 2 minutes long and is only recapping the previous episode, not the season's worth of story arc.

-So.. yeah. Megatron's back. And he's got swords. And he's pissed.

-A bit of a dated reference, but he takes on the Autobots one at a time and thoroughly trounces each of them. Bulkhead goes down with ease, Prowl holds out for a bit before he gets taken down, then Optimus steps in after rescuing some kids from collateral damage. It reminds me of the fight from the end of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie where Shredder handles each turtle one by one, occasionally being fought to a standstill for a bit before he shows that he's just that much more powerful than each of them.

It definitely shows that Megatron is not a bot to be trifled with.

-While this is going on Blitzwing and Lugnut watch and keep an eye on Professor Sumdac.

-And up on the tower Starscream holds bumblebee over the edge by the throat, pondering his next move. He could let Optimus take out Megs, or present himself as the loyal soldier until he gets a better chance to seize power again.

Starscream's not usually the 'hands-on' type, but here we are.​

-Optimus declares he'll never give up the Allspark, but Megatron doesn't need the Autobots. He has the key and it will lead him to its location.

-He's also wearing it like a ring on his finger.

-Finished with Prime he assembles the Decepticons and prepares to head off to find the Allspark.

-But first, Starscream swears fealty as Megatron's Lieutenant and Megs repays him by... punching him and demonstrating that he knew exactly what Starscream was up to. Guess ol' Screamer wasn't as clever as he thought.

-Special attention is paid to the key on Megatron's finger making contact with Starscream and glowing. Surely this won't be important in the slightest

​

Huh. Where did that come from?

-And with that Starscream crumples to the ground, deactivated. Megatron challenges the other Decepticons, which is odd considering Lugnut is loyal to a fault.

-While all of this was going on the Autobots managed to escape. no matter though, their fate appears sealed regardless

*checks episode count* at least they'd like us to think that.

-Megatron orders his crew to head out with a call of "Transform and rise up!", giving the Decepticons a mirror to the Autobot "Transform and roll out!" call for the first time in franchise history. It works considering all these Decepticons have aerial alt modes and it is tradition for the 'cons to usually have air superiority vs the Autobots often being confined to the ground. and it also fits if you buy the sometimes-canon that the Decepticons fashion themselves as freedom fighters trying to throw off the shackles of the oppressive Autobots who are limiting them in their desire for conquest.

I don't love it, but it functions about as well as anything I could think of that would be used in this situation.

-We get to see Megatron's alt mode for the first time as he turns into a futuristic helicopter of sorts. It's not bad, though I think they could've done better than the two angled rotors on either side of his body.

he's either a helicopter or some kind of deluxe coleslaw maker.​

Also his transformation sequence appears to have gotten the extra special treatment as it is full of extra shading and light and a generally higher level of crispness than the already-well-done animation the series has used so far.

-His stock transformation is the commercial break cut-off.

-Back from commercial Professor Sumdac appears outside the tower, having been abandoned by the Decepticons. He comes clean about Megatron's presence and how his entire robotics empire is based off of reverse engineering Megs' design. Prowl and Bulkhead are miffed, but Optimus actually deflects things away from the confrontation by focusing on their need to deal with the Decepticons by protecting the allspark.

-One odd thing I noticed is that in the flashback to Sumdac discovering Megatron's head in the field, we see the head as it was during the prologue portion of the pilot, with the almost bayverse-esque helmet design. It's also complete, with two optics and a mouth. This is very different than the way we've always seen him in Sumdac's lab where he's missing the lower half of his face and the plating over one of his eyes so that the optic "lens" is exposed.

The only way I can think that this makes sense is if Professor Sumdac actually dismantled portions of Megatron presumably to try and figure out how he worked and all well before the revelation of his being alive and sapient.

that's disturbing. Maybe he really is the villain of this series.

-The gang is damaged from the fight, but Sumdac thinks that some residual allspark energy might be left in his lab equipment which would allow them to charge up and self-repair. that's just random enough to work!

-Optimus hopes Ratchet can hold off the Decepticons on his own. So we cut to Ratchet in the ark, with 1 missing arm and an alarm going off that indicates Blackarachnia is right on top of them (literally she's up on the frozen lake)

-Sari's also there, and after repeatedly mouthing off at an increasingly frustrated BA, we find that she's been leading the spider-bot in circles just to mess with her. and that her organic parts wouldn't be able to survive the freezing waters.

-Suddenly the Ark rises up out of the water! When did they manage to fix the thing?

-And Sari gets away by... biting Blackarachnia in the hand? Geez, how good is Detroit 2050s dental care? also no, she's not biting organic parts of BA. Her bite makes an audible "clank" sound.

Someone get Sari a Crest toothpaste endorsement.​

-BA tosses Sari away and Ratchet manages to catch her and pull her inside before the ship accelerates and tosses the spider off.

-Inside Sari predictably takes the fact that Ratchet lost the key badly, pointing out that the Autobots complained about trusting her with it and then he went and lost it himself. Thing is that it took Blitzwing literally tearing his arm off to get it. It's not like Sari would've fared any better. And at least Ratchet wasn't' going around powering up toys for fun.

-Megatron and the Decepticons are now on the ship's heels as we switch back to Sumdac tower to see how the rest of the team are doing.

-The answer is "not great." The energy they got was enough to get them back in the fight but not back to tip-top shape.

-Bumblebee uses the opportunity to throw Optimus' previous behavior in his face and Optimus apologizes for his actions.

-Optimus gets a call from Ratchet and tells him that he mustn't let the cons get the allspark. so he brings the ship to the tower and lets them all get slagged together!

-They pick up the rest of the Autobots and the Sumdacs and take off into space so that the earth won't be in the crossfire of their battle.

-Sari finds out about her dad's role in Megatron's revival. She's having a tough day when it comes to receiving worst-case news.

I'm a little concerned that Isaac's face looks like it's more "I ate the last pudding in the fridge" and less "I accidentally aided in the recovery of an omnicidal maniac."​

-  Ratchet (after the revelation of Isaac's role in Megatron's survival): "On the bright side now I don't feel so bad about losing your key."

-A barrage of Decepticon missiles strike the ark as they try to break atmosphere and the ship immediately ceases functioning and plummets back towards the Earth.

Ratchet manages to guide it into a semi-controlled descent so they don't just slam headlong into the ground and die, but it ends with them crashed at an angle into a nearby mountain.

It seems somehow... familiar.

Are we going to find out that there's also a Mount Saint Hillary in Michigan too?​

*ding* fanservice (G1)

-Optimus orders the Sumdacs to stay in the ship while the Autobots head outside to face the incoming Decepticons. It's not quite enough to break classic cartoon "never say 'die'" scripting as Optimus doesn't use the word, but he does say that if they're going down, they'll do so fighting.

Sorry Optimus, you've used up your franchise-mandated allotment of deaths in this series already. No overdrafts.

-Bulkhead tackles Lugnut into the woods, then Ratchet and Bumblebee combine powers to set off an EMP which disables Blitzwing.

Curious though: As a robotic life form, aren't all of Blitzwing's internal systems electrical in nature? Shouldn't the EMP just straight up knock him out? That's what Ratchet's old singular arm-mounted EMP was for and this seems like it should just be the same concept on a larger scale.

-Bulkhead is losing against Lugnut until a clever bit of fight staging: Lugnut readies his massive explosive punch but Bulkhead fires his wrecking ball and strikes the activator on the front of Lugnut's transformed "fist", setting the explosive off early while Lugnut is busy ranting about the glory of Megatron.

Then Bulkhead reminds Lugnut that he talks too much. It's a brief fight, but a solid win.

-While all this is going on Optimus and Megatron have their own fight. It's not quite classic knock-down, drag-out, but Optimus holds his own against Megatron's superior firepower and sends both of them hurtling towards the ark where they might end up crashing.

-Inside Sari says she needs to get her key to fix the Autobots if they're going to survive this. Professor Sumdac says he has something important he needs to tell her since it looks like they might die, but she runs off before she can listen to him. So all we're left with is a heaping helping of FORESHADOWING!

-The others try to figure out how to bring Blitzwing down again and Prowl says he's found a link between Blitzwing's 3 modes and his various personalities. But it's going ot take them utilizing Bumblebee's strongest attribute: His obnoxious personality. And with the characters recognizing this and teasing him for it, this Bumblebee is now officially clear of falling into the Chromedome/Hot Shot trap. The show can't shamelessly shill how awesome he is if they acknowledge that he's also an annoying twit.

-Bumblebee taunts Blitzwing until his aggressive, angry personality takes over (the schwarzenegger one) and transforms into a tank in order to use its fire-based weaponry. At this point he falls out of the sky because he's an idiot.

-Sari reaches the allspark in the cargo hold of the ark and asks for it to charge something else up for her to use to save her friends. Then in her frustration she rhetorically asks "why did you choose me in the first place?" and that's when the allspark casing opens up and shows her a DNA strand.

MORE FORESHADOWING!

-Outside Megatron gets a full transformation stock sequence to kill some time I mean show us the same transformation we saw before but in reverse I mean establish how much of a threat he is.

-They crash into the cargo hold, Megatron dispatches Optimus with ease, then tosses Sari aside as he plans to apparently shove the Allspark into his spark compartment.

He'd better be careful. If he leaves his spark hanging out like that someone's likely to grab it and shove it into their own chest so they can turn into a dragon.​

didn't he watch the Bayverse movie? That didn't end well for his counterpart.

-Here it doesn't seem to cause any issues. Though Professor Sumdac with a taser does a decent enough job. And provides enough distraction to let Sari slip away with the key taht Megs just dropped.

-Turns out Megatron can also use the allspark as a giant laser canon. How very anime of him.

-He turns it on Optimus to deal with the Autobot's attempt to save the Sumdacs, but while it looks like Optimus is on the verge of being destroyed by the blast, Sari tosses him the key and he holds onto it while slugging Megs right in the chest. Contact with the key causes the Allspark core itself to shatter, unleashing a ton of wild energy around Megatron and ultimately exploding in a massive skybeam. so... maybe Megatron's dead again? Not likely.

Maybe it's a reactor leak because Sumdac Systems cuts a lot of corners.​

-Optimus returns the key to Sari, having faith that the Allspark had a good reason to choose her. She then patches up the Autobots before noticing that her dad is nowhere to be found. Took her long enough to notice. the sun looks like it's almost setting.

-It turns out Megatron somehow managed to kidnap the professor... somehow. I'm not sure when he had time in between, y'know, exploding and getting away without being seen in the wake of said explosion, but here we are.

Also Megatron is quite damaged from the blast, though even with his spark chamber ripped open from the allspark damage he's still alive.

He still functions...​

-Megatron says he still has need for the Professor, presumably to repair him. Cut to black and lower the curtain on season 1.

Fanservice Tracker
G1: 1 (total: 16)
Beast Wars: 0 (total: 4)
Non-Series-Specific Japan: 0 (total: 1)
Masterforce: 0 (total: 1)
Overall: 1 (total: 23)

Pros
+Excellent fights with lots of cleverness and creativity

+The significant stakes of the allspark falling into Decepticon hands briefly and then being destroyed

+Everyone gets a chance to shine

+The destroyed allspark and capture of Professor Sumdac means nothing will be the same anymore

+Professor Sumdac finally has to deal with the fallout from his series-long (and lifelong) choices.

+There are some really nicely animated segments.



Cons
-Though it takes a fair amount of cleverness to beat Blitzwing, and a ton of desperation to beat Megatron, Lugnut is taken out one-on-one by Bulkhead, who seemingly vanishes from the fight after that point. That's kind of awkward because it shows that Bulkhead is easily teh most powerful Autobot, but then takes him off the board so that he doesn't tip the other fights in the Autobots' favor

-How the heck does Megatron survive an Allspark explosion/skybeam relatively intact when atmospheric entry was enough to decapitate him and ravage his body 50 years ago?

-Megatron's doubled up stock transformation (both to and from robot mode) kill more time than seems necessary, unless they had to save extra budget for all the other bells and whistles this episode had.

 

I don't think they're actively saying he doesn't have the crown, just that they don't point it out for some reason. I can't think of anyone else who would take the top spot.

Kaye has like 150 episodes of the Unicron trilogy, like 52 episodes of Beast Wars and another 26 of Beast Machines, this whole series (39 episodes plus the 3-part pilot), and a few stray appearances in Prime and RiD '15. So we're talking like 267 episodes and change.

The closest I can think of that anyone would come to that would be:

Garry Chalk has 156 Unicron Trilogy episodes and the 78 Beast Era episodes, putting him at just over 230.

Peter Cullen and Frank Welker: Both have like 98 episodes of G1 and 55 episodes of Prime (56 if you count Predacons Rising as 1 "episode"). Cullen has an additional 22 episodes of RiD '15. That tops Cullen out at around 170 at most (though I suspect a blow-by-blow of G1 season 3 would reveal a bunch of episodes he was absent for without Optimus and Ironhide to voice. All he had left was Streetwise and some characters that didn't start showing up until The Rebirth), Welker at just over 150 considering he at least stuck out the majority of G1 S3 on account of voicing like half the cast.

Corey Burton probably appeared in most G1 episodes given his broad list of roles plus as a regular in Animated, so he likely comes in around 130-something given any gaps that might occur in either series.

Scott McNeil likely has a high count too based on having regular or semi-regular roles across all 3 Unicron Trilogy series and full-time in Beast Wars and Beast Machines. It might hit 200 or it might not. I'm not sure how many breaks he had during the UT.

Beyond that I can't think of anyone who would've appeared across any of the significant runs (either G1 or the Unicron Trilogy) and had additional roles in any other series.

So I'm pretty sure that the crown is Kaye's to lose at this point. And it's probably pretty safe in his hands given the franchise's newfound love for non-union actors or lesser-knowns, especially as the G1 cast retires and the lack of necessary dubbing work probably keeps roles out of Vancouver where much of the Unicron Trilogy cast did and potentially still works.

 

its quick and hard to notice at first watch but he actually grabbed sumdacc before the allspark blew. after optimus shatters the allspark, there is a close up shot of the prof as megatron collapses over him in pain. the next shot is megatron getting up and we see him looking back with his hand raised up and closed just before he is pushed out. so he grabbed sumdacc then and had him, prob as a possible hostage before optimus booted him. so megatron surviving the allsaprk explosion is not nearly as preposterous as sumdacc surviving it, or not getting crished to detah in megs fist the whole time.

also, for such a low, raspy voice i love how megatron has one epic of a scream when he got defeated, especially when the allspark gets ruptured. corey burton kills this role

 

R.I.P to Burton's vocals during that scene when Megs blows up (again).

 

And it's worth noting that that episode (when she's kidnapped by Dinobots under threat of death from Meltdown) comes after her birthday episode.

So for the first few episodes of Season 1, Sari is actually seven years old!

 

I NEVER thought of that until now.

 

That, and the post quoted beforehand, pretty much sums up why Animated Megatron is the best.

 

This.

But not just for Transformers Prime.

I think any incarnation that excludes or downplays human roles for no good reason suffers from this.

 

I broke down and bought the DVD set for this series as a late tribute to Derrick. I take back EVERYTHING negative I said about this show. Still wish the art was better, but this is hands down one of the best pieces of Transformers media, and I'm man enough to say that out loud.

 

Megatron, you've waited 50 years for this, you can easily wait fifty more minutes.

That's right Sari, make more metal for the smelting pit!

DAMMIT PROWL!

For once, let's borrow a page from Shockwave and have a little clarity of thought before rashness of action.

In 22nd Century Detroit, spider catches you!

Yes, because that worked so well the last time she tried that. It's a miracle Blackarachnia hasn't gotten herself killed in all this time.

Well maybe Ratchet's mouth shouldn't be writing checks his body can't cash!

Yes, unlike G1 Rodimus, Animated Optimus is making actual mistakes that have actual negative consequences for him (he is now permanently on the outs with the Dinobots). Animated Optimus isn't some super special chosen one who has everything handed to him on a silver platter yet still indulges in self-pity.

To be fair, if it wasn't Isaac, it would probably be Professor Princess a decade or two down the timeline.

That trick might have worked on that ambiguously literate thug G1 Megatron, but Animated Megs is on a whole other level!

I think I'm going to do some target shooting today, let me just take this gun off the mantle...

There will never be another Megatron this charismatic ever again. I'm just putting that out there.

Weird place to put it, but okay.

That's what I assumed he did.

It wasn't that hard to tear Ratchet's arm off. At least Sari can be hidden, the Autobots are just giant targets whom the Decepticons already know the Allspark is in their posession.

Hoo boy, wait until she finds out what's in store for her in the next season!

Are there even any mountains near Detroit?

Bulkhead is surprisingly good with one-liners.

Pfft, don't compare Animated Megs to that basic bitch.

It's Inuyasha all over again! Does anyone know if Optimus has a younger half-demon brother?

Megatron does not die easily, none of them do!

 

And we just had a snowstorm here in NH. Perfect timing, show.  

That seems really bad on Sumdac Tower's part. You think they'd have something more robust.

Sumdac, you are such a fucking idiot!

relish this, Starscream. It's not gonna last. Hell, I wodner if G1 Screamer had a longer reign during the movie.

Was he taking notes from Armada Megatron and his crotch gun of quadruple entendres?

I noticed you sneaking in some of Ratchet's war trauma into the episode!

Yeah. Even taking being raised by Isaac Sumdac into account and her age... this is too far even for me. Show, this is too much of her fucking around before finding out.

Prowl, you motherfucking idiot. I'll be honest, with shit like this I sympathize more than a bit with Optimus going off.

Honestly, considering everything crashing down around him and how his team can act? I can't and won't blame him. Prowl and Bulkhead hiding stuff from him, Bumblebee being a hotheaded jerk, Sari messing about and Ratchet... well, Ratchet's fine. And then the Decepticons are coming. He's a young, inexperienced leader and his crew's not the best.

Yeah. He might've shown some more tact, but this decision here is the right one.

Ratchet, you are begging for some bird to swoop down and nab that thing.

A better fate than Sunbow Ratchet... also, yeah. holy shit!

Unlike Rodimus, Optimus Prime gets better and earns his leadership position.

I'm surprised he didn't just shoot Megatron and make up some sob story about finding him too late.

No, he didn't. We can't even say he went back to the Ark to get it or anything like that. Was that back at their base?

And the human supervillains once more pay off making the Decepticons look like legit threats.

it was. Seeing Megatron's body grab all that stuff and reform itself, and then his head and just... absolutely brilliant.

And it really sticks the landing.

Ah, no. that's not a 'dated' reference. That's a fucking classic reference. That movie had NO RIGHT being as awesome and good as it was.

Better than almost every other Megaton with that one act.

I love the phrase, but the 'Decepticons as freedom fighters and pre-war Cybertron being a dystopia' can go die in a motherfucking fire as far as I'm concerned. 'Both sides' is so fucking lazy and I hate it.

We'll be seeing that in physical form later on... spoilers: It's glorious.

I'm glad he got some chewing out.

As @Rojixus says, that's how I figured he did it, too.

Almost sane for this franchise.  

Foreshadowing?

Yeah, Sari would have done worse than Ratchet in keeping the key away.

"Even the wisest of machine and man may be in error."

Oh, so this is how they had 'time' to fix the ship. they didn't. ;p

Sorry, drawing a bit of a blank on this one.  

I do love that the Autobots win through thinking and exploiting the Decepticon's blind spots.

Fiveshadowing?

 Good god, Animated! Stop it, stop it! The Unicron Trilogy's already deeaaad!

Somewhere, Star Saber sheds a tear.

Oh, god. Can you imagine this Megatron and BW Megatron meeting up? The multiverse would shake with terror!

i like that they at least have him explaining why that would work, and it does make sense. I also love how Megatron throws it back and says he could only understand surface details, that the spark was unknown to him. It's actually quite philosophical of Megatron.

Like others, i saw him bend down and scoop him up.

This Megatron is the leader because he is hard.

4-6 years younger than Headmasters Daniel with a much harder upbringing but still more mature and likeable.

Same. Some of my all-time favorite scenes are Autobt/human interaction.

Fuck, Rodimus had the end of the Great War handed to him on a silver platter with a much-more experienced crew and he STILL managed to continually fuck up.

At this point it's him and BW Megatron vying for the title of all-time greatest big-bad in the franchise. Not a joke.

All right, appropriate for me to show off Leader-class Megatron!


First off, vehicle mode. I love a tank and GIANT HAND MODE... but this is pretty damned good, too. Pinned wheels that roll. Turn one rotor and the other spins, and they're set to they don't bump into each other while spinning.


Transformation is kinda simple, but still fun. Not much moves, but it's still enough. He's got a fusion cannon with launching missile, two kickass swords. He's got good articulation overall. He's got LIGHT AND SOUND ACK-SHUN!!!!! Press the Decepticon symbol on his chest and his mouth opens and he either says, 'crush the Autobots!' 'where is the Allspark?' or maniacal laughter. It's pretty cool!

And... @Rojixus , you might like this one.   Actually, if you don't mind, @Liege Nemesis ...

I declare a CAPTION CONTEST!!!!!

 

"You may claim to be the first Decepticon, but I truly am the best Decepticon!"

 

"Alas, poor Fallen. I knew you well.




So I can say with confidence that you had this coming."