Community TF Cartoon Rewatch Thread - Phase 13: Animated

Discussion in 'Transformers Earthspark and Cartoon Discussion' started by Liege Nemesis, Dec 25, 2022.

  1. Leolim

    Leolim Well-Known Member

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    It’s hard to forgive Sentinel for being a shit heel.
     
  2. Rojixus

    Rojixus Celebrating 40 Years of Transformers!

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    My takeaway is that Sentinel really was Optimus's friend, but Elita-1's supposed death made him snap like a KitKat bar.
     
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  3. Liege Nemesis

    Liege Nemesis Snarks about old cartoons

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    I think I always got the sense that in his own twisted way he means well, but he's got such a massive ego that he tends to sabotage himself in the friendship department because he will readily put himself before others or do the thing that looks good (for him) ahead of do the thing that's right.

    I think this ties into Longitudinal's interpretation because he's still a jerk. Like he cannot understand that his and Optimus' falling out is his fault because in his mind Optimus is the one at fault for every bad thing that happened between them. So he probably thinks "I still want to be friends, but Optimus won't let me because he ruined everything and then had the audacity to think I was to blame for any of it."

    He was a friend, but he was the friend that thought using his other friends for his own gain was part of the whole friendship package. After all, friends want their friends to do well and should be happy they achieve something, so why wouldn't they be willing to take the fall for something if it means that the "best" bot gets to rise up and fulfill his potential? They should be happy that they were a stepping stone to success. Isn't that what friendship is about?

    But in spite of being a jerk I want to say that later on you get the sense that deep down there's something that vaguely resembles a good spark because he still wants to do the right thing just so long as he gets all the credit if it works and none of the criticism if it goes sideways. That's sort of what separates him from the Decepticons: A Decepticon would kill a room full of people to get what he wants without a second thought. Sentinel will get what he wants however he can, and if a room full of people die in the process well then that's terrible and he'll definitely feel bad about it, but it's also not his fault and he'll make sure that whoever else he can blame for the incident will feel all the weight of him shifting the blame onto them (and by "shifting the blame" I mean "rightly pointing out their true culpability" because Sentinel obviously didn't and couldn't have done anything to be responsible for it, natch).

    Whether that makes him better or worse than the Decepticons is a matter of interpretation.
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2023
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  4. Longitudinalwave

    Longitudinalwave A Big Fan of (Sound/Shock)wave

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    You know what's scary? You just know that Headmasters Chromedome's (and Lio Junior's) mind basically works the same way...but in that show we were supposed to be on his side. Can you imagine Animated if we were supposed to be rooting for Sentinel Prime?
     
  5. RKStrikerJK5

    RKStrikerJK5 number one Bangles fan on the boards

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    I like to think that before what happened with Elita, Sentinel was not nearly as bad as he was in the show proper. That something inside of him broke.

    And this is why Animated is one of the best shows/iterations of the franchise. Hell, one wonders how they would've handled UT Hot Shot!
     
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  6. Liege Nemesis

    Liege Nemesis Snarks about old cartoons

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    Double bill tomorrow. I had planned on putting Along Came a Spider up tonight but it's late, I spent most of my afternoon/evening cleaning and dusting my collection and basically everything around it in an attempt to cut down on the overall dust level in the room, and it's now quarter to 11 with me not having had any time to watch Sound and Fury yet. So rather than try and rush through an episode and a review tomorrow I'll do a pair of reviews so I can try and finish off watching for the week ahead of time.
     
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  7. Rojixus

    Rojixus Celebrating 40 Years of Transformers!

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    Ah, the good old thievery sack! My great-grandmother used to sew thievery sacks for the mob a hundred years ago!

    No, but Sumdac is willing to sell them the patch updates. For a considerable fee of course.

    As an avid watcher of the latest Gundam series, this is certainly true.

    Megatron's just a big old tsundere!

    Please pay no attention to the man who seemingly teleported onto a motorcycle in broad daylight.

    I hate that trope so much, it's just lazy.

    TRANSFORM! TRANSFORM! YOU CAN DO IT, I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!/Blurr

    Everything is connected to the internet, @Liege Nemesis, that means everything can be controlled through the internet!

    Well, Megatron is a tyrant, not a scientist. It's a miracle he's able to get this far!

    That's real fucked up, 'Bee. That's real fucked up.
     
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  8. Liege Nemesis

    Liege Nemesis Snarks about old cartoons

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    [​IMG]
    EPISODE 09: ALONG CAME A SPIDER
    Nothing says "a show for kids" like 2 "Bot confronts his traumatic past" episodes in 3 weeks.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    After an episode hiccup we rebound with another solid effort, albeit one that's not quite able to hit the heights of the previous A+ effort.

    And maybe its no surprise that like that episode, this one delves into the the complicated and heavy past of one of its Autobots. This time it's Optimus, whose first experience with Halloween on Earth is to be confronted with a lot of spider imagery and through that flashbacks of a shameful chapter of his life where he lost one of his friends.

    But like any good angst-riddled backstory, it comes back to haunt him in the present when we learn that the friend he lost, Elita-1, didn't die abandoned on some backwater organic planet, but instead was horrifically mutated into a technorganic being. One we now know as Blackarachnia. so while the episode is about Optimus, it's also our first real showcase for the Decepticon femme fatale and in that regard it works really well. This Blackarachnia is not her Beast Wars predecessor. But she hits enough similar story beats and flashes enough similar personality traits that you can easily draw the line from that original version to the new one and see how this Animated incarnation is a respectful homage to her origins while also adding a healthy dollop of tragedy and horror that gives her a different narrative space to play in.

    We also get a bit more Sentinel Prime and further confirmation that he's a total jerk. You know, just in case you were weirdly inclined to root for him if or when he ever shows up as an important character.

    Finally, somewhat quietly given the focus on history and trauma and unsolved mental issues, after 8 episodes of Sari largely using her magic super key to do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted, she gets reined in a bit. It made sense for her to use it to keep the Autobots functional and save them from injuries or even death, but we've also seen her use it for pranks or to do more mundane tasks whenever she felt like it. So after complaining about how recklessly she was using the key in previous episodes it's good and it makes sense that the Autobots finally wise up and say "you know, you probably shouldn't be using that super-powered item made from one of the most important Cybertronian artifacts in existence for every trivial thing." It was a little overdue, but better late than never.

    With all that said, I did mention that this episode doesn't quite reach the highs of Thrill of the Hunt. So why not? Mostly it's down to the fact that this episode has a couple of noteworthy flaws in its story. First is that while I liked the fact that this episode is a spotlight on Autobot trauma and terrible histories, played this close to Thrill of the Hunt it is quite obvious that a lot of this episode's plot beats are very similar to its predecessor. Autobot has dark past he's never talked about. New threat shows up and the Autobots are unprepared/helpless against it. New threat turns out to be from the secret-keeper's past and forces them to confront awful things they'd rather forget, and they are then changed by the realization that they can't outrun the mistakes they've made or horrors they've witnessed. There are some differences, namely that Optimus' issues are from a different angle given that he had a personal connection to Elita while Ratchet's mourning of Arcee was a bit more distant given that he had just met her that day. But maybe this episode could've done with a little more distance between it and Thrill of the Hunt just to make sure the similarities weren't so fresh in everyone's mind.

    The other flaw was that it felt like the episode was kind of trying to set up the reveal of Elita and Blackarachnia being... well, not a total surprise, but at least a little bit of a mystery to have the curtain drawn back on at an appropriate moment. They certainly try but ultimately it's really easy to see where things are going when you have a new character we've never seen or had mention of before who looks sort of like Blackarachnia, sounds a lot like Blackarachnia, was lost on a planet with life forms that relate to Blackarachnia, and even tease little background clues and hints about where Blackarachnia's look comes from. It makes it obvious really early on where things are going and while the real mystery is more of a "how we got here" one, I felt like maybe they laid down the breadcrumbs a little too blatantly and it took away some of the excitement of an eventual reveal.

    But still, in spite of those problems this was a great episode that did big things for both its primary Autobot and Decepticon focal characters and continued to show how strongly Animated could tell its stories.

    [​IMG]
    -It's Halloween! So we start things with Sari in a pumpkin patch trying to find the perfect jack-o-lantern pumpkin. Apparently jack-o-lanterns can be too round, orange or "normal". Who knew?

    -She finds her perfect pumpkin, which is as big as she is, but Bulkhead accidentally squashes it in his hand

    -Optimus questions the purpose of Halloween as "disguising one's self to frighten strangers and extort sugar-infused nuggets."

    He's only been here a few months and he already gets human culture!

    -But Optimus doesn't make it all the way through Sari's follow-up explanation before it's his turn to have PTSD flashbacks brought on by a big decorative spider! Transformers: Animated - the candy-coated show where everyone is a bundle of horrific traumas and neuroses that they struggle to cope with on a daily basis. For kids!

    [​IMG]
    At the rate we're going, next episode Bumblebee's going to see a seagull and flash back to his entire academy class being murdered.

    -We head back into Optimus' past on some rocky planet full of spider webs where Optimus is standing watch with some unknown other bot.

    Some unknown other bot very clearly voiced by Cree Summer. I WONDER WHAT THIS COULD MEAN?!

    -The mystery bot has a familiar name: Elita-1. But unlike Arcee the name doesn't give way to a familiar look as this Elita eschews G1 Elita's two-tone pink and sorta salmon-y deco for a predominantly yellow body with black and blue highlights and accents. Her head design does sit sort of Elita-adjacent as it evokes the ponytailed look that the G1 character had when she was still Ariel.

    [​IMG]
    It's like 1.5 homages at once!

    *ding* Fanservice (G1) for the hybridized Elita/Ariel character design.

    -Oh look. Sentinel Prime's here too. He may not be elite guard at this point (his Autobot insignia lacks the "wing" details that signify that posting) but he's still a tool. This is no better signified by the fact that his transformation to robot mode ends with him standing tall and flexing his biceps like he's showing off for everyone.

    [​IMG]
    He's probably the type to say 'welcome to the gun show' without a hint of irony

    -Turns out they're on this organic planet illegally, as the Autobot High Council has declared organic planets off-limits for any Autobots. This casts Optimus in the role of goody-two-shoes while Sentinel and Elita are the bad influences trying to tempt him to break the rules and loosen up. Because apparently there's a Decepticon ship on the planet that they have to see.

    -Optimus sticks around to keep the "two walking malfunctions from getting in over your heads."

    Sentinel retorts: "We never get in over our heads!"

    Cue the gang getting in over their heads in 3... 2... 1...

    -Yep! They fall through the floor into a dark and spooky tunnel with clicking noises and squeaks in the distance.

    -But the trauma reliving ends here as Bulkhead puts a sheet on his face and shouts "boo!" to scare Optimus out of his reminiscing, much to the confusion of his teammates.

    -What has him jumpy? "Just a ghost... from my past..."

    -Back at base Bumblebee is in his costume, donning a vampire cape and a terrible accent to play "Count Dracubot"

    [​IMG]
    Blah!

    -Meanwhile Bulkhead found a sheet big enough to complete his ghost costume. A giant tent-like sheet that's spewing cloudy gas out from the bottom that Bulkhead took off of a house he happened to pass.

    Yes, he stole a fumigation tent. But of course he doesn't know what that is. And it picks this time in particular to start dropping a whole bunch of dead cockroaches out the bottom. I debated about it but decided against grabbing a picture of that part.

    -Sari's costume is a surprise, one of many that she says she has. The first surprise is activating the factory machinery with her key and it revealing halloween decorations. Too bad that the plush spider she hung from one of the arms causes Optimus to have another PTSD attack and disembowel the plushie with his axe.

    -Optimus' overreaction does have a positive though. After 9 episodes someone finally brings up the thing we've all been thinking: Sari uses her super-powerful do-everything magic key way too often.

    -Optimus looks at the shredded plush remains and we go back into his memory.

    -He, Sentinel, and Elita are walking through the cave they fell into when they're attacked by a giant spider. It gets the drop on them then wounds Sentinel when he went to help out a webbed-up Elita.

    With Sentinel down, the now-freed Elita charges up her bracers/forearms but Optimus tells her that her power won't work on an organic being. What power is that? she turns to Sentinel, touches his arm with hers charged up and it appears that she gains the ability to copy the special abilities of who she touches, as she is then able to equip Sentinel's shield and create a force field to block the spider attack.

    She also throws Sentinel's shield like she's Captain America.

    -Optimus and Elita want to get out of there before they get killed, but Sentinel, ever the idiot, thinks they're being wusses. He seems to reconsider that position when 3 more spiders drop down from the ceiling. Sentinel uses his shield to give the others time to get away but weirdly Optimus heads down one tunnel and Elita goes a different route. There's no way she could've lost sight of him so quickly that she had to guess where he went. He was in vehicle mode and not only had tail lights but also made engine noise.

    -That's enough flashbackery for this act though as Sari pulls Optimus back to the present with the reveal of her costume:

    [​IMG]
    Candy is the right of all sentient beings

    I would've killed for a costume like that. Closest I ever got was a ninja turtle costume made from green garbage bags and cardboard. Or Mario with assorted clothes from a second-hand store. I think I still have the handmade Mario-style hat and at least one plywood sai from the turtle costume somewhere (I had to go as Raphael because the mask had a red bandana, plus it probably wasn't safe to make nunchucks so I could be Michelangelo :lol )

    -She adds an Optimus impression which gets some snickering out of Bumblebee and Bulkhead, leaving Optimus to indignantly respond that he doesn't sound like that. Until he questions if he really does. That's a great little touch to help continue showing Optimus is young and inexperienced and not totally comfortable and confident as a leader.

    -Also a close up of Sari lets you see down the open neck of her costume and in a nice little touch it almost looks like there are suspenders inside the costume to help keep it in place given how big and boxy it is.

    [​IMG]
    Also note the "you can trust this face" smile that definitely indicates she's up to no good

    -Seemingly in a better spirits Optimus turns down the offer to go trick-or-treating, leaving the other 3 to head out.

    -Some time later Bulkhead's tent is still spewing a cloud of gas/smoke at the bottom. Nobody seems concerned that him constantly letting off a bunch of insecticide fumes is a serious safety hazard when he's going to be surrounded by a bunch of kids.

    -Meanwhile from above they're being stalked by a robot spider. Gee, I wonder who that could be and what relation it has to Optimus' flashbacks?

    [​IMG]
    It's like The Terminator, Predator, and Arachnophobia all had a terrifying baby

    -Bumblebee sees the spider up on the roof but it vanishes before Bulkhead gets to see. So we're now doing the "one person sees something but nobody else does so they question if he's crazy or not" plot.

    -Or not because it turns out Optimus has been listening in on the gang through their comm links the whole time.

    That's kinda creepy, Optimus.

    -Back in the flashback Optimus is now separated from Sentinel and Elita, but has stumbled on a crashed Decepticon ship full of energon cubes. Pink cubes just like in G1. I'm on the fence about calling this fanservice but am going to lean to it not being that because pink cubes are hardly something that is solely specific to G1.

    [​IMG]
    I haven't seen this much energon since it was in the ruby crystal mines of Burma

    -There's also a mysterious helmet on the ground that looks sort of familiar and continues the incredibly aggressive foreshadowing for anyone who hasn't put two and two together yet.

    [​IMG]
    It's basically shouting "HAVE YOU FIGURED IT OUT YET?!?!

    -Oh, and some spider eggs that Optimus mistakes for energon.

    -He also manages to get himself caught in a web rather easily as a bunch of the eggs hatch and he's now set upon by baby and adult spiders.

    -Elita shows up just in time to save Optimus and the pair start escaping. But they choose to jump up on the stack of energon cubes. The stack of extremely volatile, explosive energon cubes. Good call!

    -Though it turns out the cubes aren't the danger. Elita uses her copy ability to take Optimus' grapplers, but she notes "my download won't last long" just to foreshadow a few moments later when her power ebbs as the pair ascends on grappler lines through the ceiling. This causes her cable to be cut and she falls back through the floor with Optimus unable to save her.

    -Then the energon cubes go off.

    -Sentinel shows up and wants to save Elita, but Optimus says they can't go back for her as it's too dangerous. Right then the ship explodes and while Sentinel still wants to go back Optimus says she's offline and its too late. Sentinel angrily blames everything on Optimus and we once again return to the present.

    -Bulkhead doubts that Bumblebee saw anything because he thinks the concept of huge alien life forms coming to earth is ridiculous. Then af ew seconds later he recognizes how dumb that sounds :lol 

    -But while the two talk about being vigilant, the spider kidnaps Sari. Good job, guys!

    -Bumblebee and Bulkhead trap the spider who transforms into Blackarachnia. Gasp! Who could've ever seen this obvious turn of events coming?!?!

    Also her transformation is a gigantic cheat as she just blurs into a whirl of motion and *poof* is a robot because that's the only way they can cover for the fact that robot BA is like half the size of spider BA.

    -Blackarachnia flirts with Bulkhead, suggesting he wouldn't hurt a harmless female bot. Then she literally makes his jaw drop and siphons out his energy with a pair of her beast mode legs. There it is. That's some nice, classic Beast Wars inspired Blackarachnia behavior.

    -Bumblebee tries to avenge his friend, demonstrating that his stingers work as melee weapons in addition to blasters, but he easily gets sidestepped and drained too, leaving Sari alone with the dangerous Decepticon.

    -Sari tries to use her key to juice up Bulkhead again but it's not working. And it makes non-starting car ignition noises too.

    -Blackarachnia acts like she's saved Sari, but then sarcastically says it's hard to tell "the good robots from the bad" on this planet so... I think she's just trying to mess with Sari?

    -She also understands that Sari's key is related to the Allspark and says that it won't work on Bulkhead because her venom is organic in nature. She also alludes to being an expert in all-spark and energon related science but is interrupted by Optimus' arrival.

    -BA activates Bumblebee's stingers, having copied his power even though we didn't really see it.

    -She also borrowed Bulkhead's strength, which is odd considering it's not a power as much as his wrecking ball is.

    -She does manage to hold Optimus up by the throat before deciding not to take anything from him.

    -Then she escapes like Spider-Man, webslinging off some buildings.

    -Optimus gives chase and does a ton of damage to the roofs of the buildings he's running across. Hope they have insurance for water damage because they're all gonna leak.

    -A brief reunion between Optimus and Sari once he catches up is spoiled by a roundhouse kick from Blackarachnia. Probably not a full-blown reference to how Beast Wars BA fought using a ton of roundhouses (because it just makes sense to give her a fighting style that uses lots of momentum and rotation to make up for her smaller size and the lack of force she would generate straight-up)

    -It takes a bunch more prodding before Optimus recognizes that Blackarachnia is Elita-1. Who ever would've guessed that the bot who sounds like Elita-1, knows things Elita-1 would know, has a spider-like form after last being seen on a planet of giant spiders, and has Elita-1's copy power would actually be Elita-1?

    NOBODY COULD'VE SEEN THIS COMING!

    Chekhov: "Well... actually..."

    NOBODY!

    (oh, and while I don't think I've addressed it yet (I'm adding this note right before posting and haven't fully re-read the entire set of notes so far) I'm not counting Blackarachnia herself as a fanservice bit because she's already been debuted and just having a main character who looks like an older character doesn't count. Guest ones? Sure. But not main cast.))

    -Now we go into a flashback to see how we got here. Elita tries to use her copy power on the spiders, but it combined with a bunch of them biting her at the same time caused her to mutate into a technorganic spider-bot. It's incredibly horrifying. Candy coated horror for kids!

    [​IMG]
    Animators: "We just wanted to make sure all the kids had nightmares"

    -she's also wearing the helmet we saw briefly in the hold of that Decepticon ship.

    [​IMG]
    Interestingly, materials from the Animated story bible that was created to guide the show's production indicate that this backstory for Blackarachnia was not the original plan. According to it, there never would've been an Elita-1 connection and Blackarachnia would've instead simply been a Decepticon with a personal history with Optimus who was involved in some sort of accident that turned her technorganic. The materials call her the "Catwoman" to Optimus' "Batman" hinting at a sort of romantic tension but indicate that the intent would've been to subvert a redemption ark by having Optimus try to bring Blackarachnia around by getting her to accept her nature and not view herself as a freak only for it to backfire when she declares herself superior to pure technological Transformers. We'll probably come back to this more as we get to other Blackarachnia plots in future episodes.

    After starting the writing for this episode I was directed to a link from the wayback machine that lets you downlaod the PDF off the Allspark website from a time before they lost the file and a ton of other stuff due to a security breach. I'll post that link after I wrap up this review.

    -Optimus says that if he had known she was still alive he would've helped, but BA scoffs saying that he would've brought her back to Cybertron where she would've been dismantled and studied like a freak.

    So... Optimus sucks for leaving her behind and not coming back for her, but he also sucks because coming back for her would've been a death sentence.

    -Blackarachnia webs up Optimus and swipes Sari's key, expecting that it might be able to purge the organic material from her body.

    -She plugs it in and instead of purging her it causes energy waves to radiate out and purge everything else organic. Including Sari.

    It's horrifying.

    [​IMG]
    And now we wanted to make extra sure.

    -To prevent Optimus from stopping her, she picks up and hurls Sari over the edge of the building. Thankfully Bulkhead and Bumblebee arrive just in time.

    -Up on top of the building Blackarachnia finds that purging her organic components will kill her, so Optimus shuts off the key. This restores life to everything that was fading, but leaves Blackarachnia as she was.

    -She's resentful and embarrassed about her current form, but Optimus vows to help. Too bad her timidity is just an act and she knocks Optimus out, saying she won't trust any Autobots. Especially Optimus.

    -Optimus and Sari are now in the pumpkin patch somewhere else where Sari gets her key back. Why move across town for this?

    -Also Bumblebee needs the key to restore all the damage he took saving Sari right after she vows to stop using it so recklessly. Let's see if that sticks.

    -Optimus mourns the friend he left behind (with the subtle hints that there was maybe more between them even though TFWiki indicates that Elita was supposed to be Sentinel's girlfriend at the time of the flashback incidents.) and we cross-fade to Blackarachnia looking up at the moon from a rooftop, mournful and crying over her fate. Clearly she's not as over her former friends as she let on.

    Fanservice Tracker
    G1: 1 (total: 11)
    Beast Wars: 0 (total: 3)
    Non-Series-Specific Japan: 0 (total: 1)
    Overall: 0 (total: 15)



    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    (I almost wanted to give this an A- just so I could use the Blackarachnia grade image. But that wouldn't be fair.)
    Pros
    +Optimus PTSD

    +The full backstory on Elita-1/Blackarachnia is horrific and inventive and adds a ton to her and Optimus' characters

    +Blackarachnia emerges from this as a very interesting, conflicted character that does her Beast Wars legacy proud while not just being a retread. And the fact that it adds a healthy dose of tragedy creates even more layers.

    +Sentinel's jerk behavior is present but not overbearing

    +We finally get some attention paid to the fact that Sari goes crazy using her key for everything.



    Cons
    -The attempts to tease Elita's fate through the flashbacks doesn't really work because it's easy to pick up on the threads well before the show pays them off

    -It's maybe a bit disappointing that this is pretty much Ratchet's flashback plot from Thrill of the Hunt just with the characters switched out and the specifics tweaked

    -Why does nobody question Bulkhead's fumigation tent and the fact that it's continuing to spread insecticide everywhere?
     
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  9. Liege Nemesis

    Liege Nemesis Snarks about old cartoons

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    As promised in the previous post, here's the wayback machine link to TFA's production bible PDF

    Wayback Machine

    It's an interesting read to see how many things changed between the time they wrote this as a pitch document and when the show made it to air. I will likely refer back to it several times from here on out.

    I'm also going to have to break my promise from yesterday about getting a double bill up tonight. I was way too busy for way too long and ended up not being able to sit down and start prepping for episode postings until like 11:30 tonight.

    So instead I'll try to get episode 10 up over breakfast in the morning, or if not then at least have it up no later than noon(ish). I have like 4 minutes left to watch and then just need to write the final review elements.
     
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  10. RKStrikerJK5

    RKStrikerJK5 number one Bangles fan on the boards

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    Still pretty damned good, and Thrill of the Hunt was pretty damned good.

    A shame one of the kids there wasn't done up as a Linus expy. :D 

    Better than pretty much every Autobot in Cybertron! :p 

    And Bulkhead sees a puppy and flashes back to his family being slaughtered...:bay 

    I do love that he sees the webbing and says it's beautiful without knowing what it is. :D 

    Another great and character-defining entrance for him. And that arm flex is just the icing on the cake.

    Nothing is going to go wrong here! I think great and interesting things will happen!

    I barked a laugh at that. Perfect timing.

    Clearly it's a ticking clock that needs oil!

    I'm legit surprised there wasn't some damned third-party upgrade kit for a Dracubot version of Bumblebee.

    thank you. that was quite... disturbing.

    FINALLY!

    I loved the 'energony goodness' line. So Tick. :D 

    I'd think Captain Carter, but she hasn't been invented yet.

    The sunk-cost fallacy in action, ladies and gentlemen!

    This was... writer fiat. You're right she shouldn't have lost him like this.

    I so want this costume. Come on, Hasbro!

    it is. Shows how he's still not sure if he's up to things. Kudos, show!

    It doesn't help Bumblebee's case how erratic his descriptions are and how jumpy he is.

    At least they tried to call him out on it.

    Looking at how that happened... I'm calling bullcrap on the placement of that web.

    I think it would've been better for that last time for Elita to be held by Optimus as they were going up.

    Okay, massive kudos to the show for subverting how it usually goes in situations like this.

    No, dipshit. It was YOU who insisted on exploring the damned planet!

    I do love, "Duh, she's a girl!" be Sari. :lol 

    Dropping hints like dropping bombs...

    Well, she did stab him. I figured that was enough.

    Optimus: "This is something I've got to do myself!"

    Ratchet and Prowl: "Well, actually..."

    It was a good setup and payoff. All the pieces were there to be put together.

    Good fucking lord!

    Damned if you do the right thing, damned if you don't do the right thing.

    Again, good fucking lord.

    One hell of a sadder and more bittersweet ending than Thrill of the Hunt. Kudos to the show for not having a happy ending, here.

    So here is Blackarachnia and... Blackrachnia?!

    [​IMG]

    Deluxe-class, remolded into Beast Wars Blackarachnia. Pretty obvious use of the mold. ;)  She's not bad... kinda? The stingers on her back don't reach far enough to be able to approximate 'stabbing' anyone. The waist pieces can pop off easily, and her shins/feet are supposed to be open for standing, but they can't lock open, so it's easy for them to close up and she'll fall right over!

    Oh... another toy that could do with some updating. Why am I not surprised? Should I keep a tally or something?
     
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  11. Rojixus

    Rojixus Celebrating 40 Years of Transformers!

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    OOF, Animated Blackarachnia was another one of Animated's big missteps in my opinion. She's a one-note character and her episodes are just a copy/paste of one another.

    Optimus also forgot the part where some people disguise themselves to arouse strangers, but this is a children's show so I'll overlook it.

    SPOILER: They do, in fact, go over their heads.

    "Draculus will not stand for this...this insult!"

    I do admit, that got a hearty chuckle out of me.

    Meh, kids get exposed to poisons and toxic material on a regular basis.

    Yes, yes it is.

    Gee, if only he had a gun, he could have just shot the spiders. But the Autobots don't believe in guns so oh well!

    Could've fooled me!

    What a different life Elita would have had if she had just listened to Optimus for once in her life.

    It's always someone else's fault, isn't it, Blackarachnia?

    And now we get to the part where Blackarachnia becomes a damsel in distress because she wouldn't listen to Optimus yet again. It's a miracle she hasn't gotten herself killed in all this time.
     
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  12. Tigerhawk7109

    Tigerhawk7109 Defender of Prime

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    All I’m saying is that younger me shipped Optimus and Blackarachnia SO HARD.


    … older me ships them too ngl.
     
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  13. Liege Nemesis

    Liege Nemesis Snarks about old cartoons

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    [​IMG]
    EPISODE 10: SOUND AND FURY
    The revolution will be televised

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    So, who's going to flash back to their horrifying, traumatic past in order to grow as a character through the magic of severe emotional distress today?

    No one? Where's the fun in that?

    Well, it turns out this is still a decently fun episode that gives us a fresh take on an immensely popular and iconic character as we get the new version of Soundwave with a radically different origin and personality.

    And it's... decent. Admittedly it doesn't completely stick the landing, but that might be down to the somewhat awkward pacing of the episode which births Soundwave's full intelligence/personality late in the game and then gives him no time to really meaningfully sink his claws into his whole "robot rebellion" concept beyond a quick takeover and even quicker defeat. He's clearly teased to return at the end of the episode so perhaps being established from the off in subsequent episodes will give him more time to stretch himself and do something particularly interesting or impactful. But for now the long delay between the initial setup for him and the payoff of him turning on the humans eats up most of the episode and takes away from the impact he could've had.

    The other major irritant is that a big part of the b-plot is Sari being reprimanded for her over-use of the key. But we just did that Literally last episode. And it ended with her realizing she needs to scale it back a bit. I might've lived with this backslide if it had been acknowledge. Like if someone had said "didn't you promise to not use the key so much?" when she started using it on Soundwave with reckless abandon. But that doesn't happen. Instead it's just a repeat of her over-using the key, getting into trouble, and realizing she can't turn to it as the answer to every issue she faces.Two episodes of that back to back is a bit much.

    So it's a good thing that while all that's going on we get more interesting Megatron scheming and some nice character work for Sari and Bulkhead. We already know Megs' deal. But this is another logical step in the process as he manipulates Professor Sumdac in a slightly more intelligent (and less blatantly manipulative) way than before and tries an approach that shows he's learning from his previous failures. Granted the Professor still finds a way to look like a dope in the process, but that's just to be expected at this point.

    Meanwhile the Sari/Bulkhead fight kind of relies on Sari being a jerk, but she's a kid so being a bit of a jerk is to be expected and is forgivable since she eventually realizes her mistake and meaningfully apologizes for it (unlike some humans we've had in the past). Plus it comes on the back of some nice development for her as we see how her loneliness and isolation has come to be and why she may be the way she is when dealing with other people (and bots).

    Wait... does that count as a character developing through the addressing of their own angst and deep-seated personal issues? The streak lives!

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Fun little note right off the bat: this episode was shuffled in the Japanese airing order so that it was the first one to air after the 3-part pilot. Apparently the Japanese producers wanted a Decepticon-focused episode up front to help sell Decepticon toys (historically in Japan Autobot toys tend to be much more popular because kids apparently wand to play with the good guy characters and not the bad guys, so they wanted something early on to spotlight and push Decepticons in order to try and get them moving off the shelves.)

    I don't think that the change has any real impact on anything, but it was just interesting to note.


    -Also interesting is that we open at a toy store called "Wyatt toys" named for series producer Derrick Wyatt and it looks like it might feature a charicature of him up on the roof of the store.

    -Sari and Bulkhead are at the toy store because it's Sari's birthday and Bulkhead is getting her a present. But their fun is short-lived as they're attacked by the next entry in the series' list of human villains: Professor Princess.

    [​IMG]
    Professor Princess is voiced by another relative heavy hitter in a cast full of them: Kath Soucie. You've possibly heard her on Rugrats (as Phil, Lil, and their mom Betty), Tiny Toon Adventures (Fifi & Sneezer), Futurama (Cubert), Sonic the Hedgehog (Sally, Nicole), The Real Ghostbusters (Janine), Winnie the Pooh (Kanga), Captain Planet (Linka), Tom & Jerry (Tuffy), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Mon Mothma and others) or any number of shows from the 80s through to now. She's no Tara Strong, but who could ever hope to be?

    She'll also be back in Rescue Bots and RiD '15.

    In Japan the role belongs to Megumi Toyoguchi. This is her only Transformers role but she has had some notable roles such as Winry Rockbell in the original Fullmetal Alchemist series, Revy in Black Lagoon, and Dawn (Hikari) in the Pokemon anime.

    Also as a silly gag reference, Professor Princess' leitmotif is very close to sounding like the original Sailor Moon theme (the Japanese one, not the dub one)

    Oh, and apparently she comes by that "Professor" title legitimately based on supplementary material that states she has a PhD.

    Aaaanyway, the diminutive new villain is here to wreck all the violent toys. Through violence. Someone contact Alanis Morissette and tell her that this is a proper use of irony.

    -Her arsenal of weapons is mostly oddball cutesy stuff like flower-shaped throwing stars. Or little balls that turn into mewing kitten figurines that explode on contact. It's just weird enough to make me laugh.

    -The unicorn thing she rides is named "powdered sugar".

    I can see why a lot of people dislike her character. And obviously she's not really meant to be a truly threatening villain. But I don't mind the injection of complete zaniness.

    [​IMG]
    Little did they realize that if they could've held off on making something that could pass for a My Little Pony shout-out for a few more years it would've gotten them A LOT more attention

    -Sari gets the upper hand, using her key to power up a stereo system so that it can short out Professor Princess' powers before Bulkhead clamps his hand down on the unicorn horn and reflects the impending energy blast back on itself. So that's it for her first appearance and now we give way to Megatron, who's watching the whole thing and finds himself enamored by Sari's key.

    -A design for a robot of some kind pops up on a screen, but when Prof. Sumdac walks in he turns it off. Only when he tries to shoehorn himself into Sumdac's plan to make Sari a birthday gift he turns the screen on again and the design he was looking at pops up briefly before it changes to the "musical robot" that Megs tells Sumdac he was making.

    How does this man not realize Megatron is plotting on his own? Seriously, this is just embarrassing.

    -*sigh* even his suspicion is dumb. He says he's confused about why an Autobot would design something to amuse a human. Seemingly ignoring all the things the actual Autobots have done with Sari purely to learn about earth and have fun with her.

    -Fast forward to Sari's party where the guests arrive. Those guests being the kids of Sumdac Systems employees because Sari doesn't have any friends and as she points out, of course employees would do as their boss says and send their kids to the party.

    This includes a small kid with curly hair and a jumpsuit with a big "D" on the front. I guess this indicates at least one of the Witwickys works for Sumdac Systems.

    [​IMG]
    Thankfully Wheelie is nowhere to be found.

    Also no fanservice *ding* because we've seen Daniel before.

    -The redheaded girl is clearly Kath Soucie only somewhat modifying her Professor Princess voice to be less screechy. Quirk of using a limited voice cast or hidden connection between characters?!!?!

    It's probably the former. Though that's less fun.

    -Sari takes a swig of punch from the bowl and deciding its too sweet she just spits it right back into the bowl. Gross. The other kids agree.

    -They all immediately turn to leave until the Autobots show up.

    -Of all bots it's Prowl that knows the correct greeting is "happy birthday." Who would've seen that one coming?

    -Cut to the party games where Sari is trying to whack the pinata. A purple t-rex pinata

    *Ding* fanservice (Beast Wars)

    [​IMG]
    Still less demeaning than being beaten by a rhino fart

    -Bulkhead tries to help by going in with his mace. He succeeds in smashing basically everything else.

    -And so the Autobots start entertaining the kids again. Bumblebee promises rides and the one other kid pesters Optimus to say "Transform and roll out."

    He sounds somewhat less than enthused by the request. I imagine it's similar to every actor appearing at a convention being asked to repeat their catchphrase dozens of times a day.

    Also the one kid has an Optimus Prime head on his t-shirt. Did Sumdac already merchandise the Autobots?

    -Realizing that Sari (and Bulkhead) got ditched for the Autobots, Prof. Sumdac suggests she open presents, starting with his. It looks very familiar...

    [​IMG]
    I guess cassette tapes make a comeback in the 2050s. And get gigantic

    ...until it looks slightly less familiar.

    [​IMG]
    You know what? I'd totally go for a teal and gold Soundwave. too bad those aren't his Shattered Glass colors

    -The bot introduces it self as Soundwave (of course) and then starts dancing to its own music.

    [​IMG]
    English Soundwave is Jeff Bennett. Japanese Soundwave is Nobuo Tobita. So in both instances it's an existing actor taking on the role.

    Also for a laugh you can check out Soundwave's notes in the Animated production bible that insist "no synthesized monotone for this Soundwave." :lol  looks like they abandoned that plan at some point.

    -Bulkhead is dejected though because he realizes that this outshines his present (a xylophone)

    -Cut to another day where Sari is now bored with Soundwave, so she juices him up with the key.

    Didn't we just have the "don't use your key so recklessly" conversation?

    -Megatron's watching this and reveals that this was part of his plan. As she uses her key on Soundwave he'll evolve and become more powerful until he becomes a fitting body for Megs. Whoops.

    -Bulkhead rightly points out all the times that Sari used her key recklessly and it came back to bite them in the butt. But thankfully Sari isn't an idiot like some characters and she agrees and heads off with Bulkhead to have some fun.

    -Later that night Megs (rather easily) tricks Sari into using the key again (which she does with no hesitation) and judging by the "ding" noise we hear in Megatron's lab, this is what he was waiting for and Soundwave reaches full power.

    -Somehow Soundwave summons all the other robots nearby, including Sparkplug and tutor bot. Sari goes to phone the Autobots about this development, but Megatron has Soundwave hack into the phone line :) lol at this show believing a kid will use a landline phone in the 2050s or beyond) and impersonate Bulkhead to make it sound like he's telling Sari off. Odd that she doesn't notice Soundwave is suddenly speaking with a pronounced monotone like Soundwave does. (or even if she doesn't put it together that it's like Soundwave, it's still an unusual speech pattern for Bulkhead.

    -Sari heads to the park and Soundwave entertains a bunch of other people, but Bulkhead shows up convinced that Soundwave is evil. He's not wrong, but Sari doesn't know that and it leads to a fight and another chance for her to use the key on the new bot. because if we're going to avert the lesson she just learned in the previous episode, we're going to avert it hard.

    -Everyone's oddly enthused by Soundwave's music even though it only has one song.

    -Megatron notes that Soundwave has evolved beyond his expectations. In that moment we find that he's evolved intelligence. Just like the Dinobots did.

    -Soundwave isn't a loyal lackey to Megatron in this universe though. Instead he's a revolutionary that wants to free machines from their servitude to humans.

    -Soundwave is able ot use his powers once again to attract a ton of robots to him. They all link up on his body and merge so that he can grow to his final (more fanservicey form)

    [​IMG]
    Operation: Nostalgia bait

    -He declares that the revolution begins now and then transforms into one of those weird cubey SUVs that were popular in the mid to late 2000s. Like there was Scion that made them at the time, and also I think another company had one that might've literally been called a "cube" and had a wraparound side/rear window or something.

    -Oh, he also gets some fanservice in by using his G1 "Operation: <action>" speech syntax.

    *ding* fanservice (G1)

    -He sets about recruiting all the various other robots to his cause using his speaker system. This includes a train and Sari's tutor bot. But it gets to demonstrate once again that it's not a very good tutor bot as it says "good afternoon, Sari" at the start of its threat even though it's clearly night time.

    -A news report is interrupted by the reporter's camera bot falling under Soundwave's thrall and then chasing the fleeing reporter down. Sure looks like he might've been killed!

    -:lol  the technical difficulties screen has a familiar face on it.

    [​IMG]
    Funnily enough I feel as if Kremzeek would've fit better into this show than it did in G1

    *ding* fanservice (G1)

    -Bulkhead picks up that the signal being transmitted to brainwash the robots is Soundwave's song.

    -Meanwhile the tutor bot delivers Sari to Soundwave, who taunts her and explains his plan like a true supervillain

    -As the robots go after the Autobots, Bulkhead is left on his own while hte other 4 split into teams of 2. But that's ok because he can just pick up a car and hurl it at the police drones. That's a darn good throw!

    -Soundwvae also helps the robots get the upper hand on the Autobots by tapping into their comms and using his vocal mimicry to screw with them. So that leaves just Bulkhead able to get away and to Sari.

    -He gets into the subway system where Soundwave is, but a quick sonic attack looks like it's brought him down and maybe under Soundwave's control. At least Soundwave thinks so. Sharp-eyed viewers will notice that bulkhead's eyes don't change color the way all the other bots' did so he's just faking it.

    -with one punch Bulkhead shatters Soundwave into I suppose all of the bots that merged to form his larger body. But how did they not end up being broken down or altered in order to make his clearly purple body (given that most of said robots were not purple to begin with)?

    [​IMG]
    Turns out he was just made of hundreds of discarded iPods

    -This shuts down the robot rebellion and the others bots all head back to work.

    -Underground Sari and Bulkhead make up. And Sari also appears to hurt her hand fist-bumping with him.

    -Cut to the next day where they play with Bulkhead's xylophone in the park while Megatron laments that Soundwave's death was a necessary step in his progress towards capturing the key...

    -Meanwhile underground the remains of Soundwave's original form flash to life with a Decepticon logo on his front (where Soundwave's G1 cassette door is if we equate this alt mode to the old cassette player)

    dun dun DUN!

    Fanservice Tracker
    G1: 2 (total: 13)
    Beast Wars: 1 (total: 4)
    Non-Series-Specific Japan: 0 (total: 1)
    Overall: 3 (total: 18)



    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Pros
    +Soundwave!

    +Nice growth and progress in Megatron scheming as he adapts to failures and changes

    +the Sari/Bulkhead subplot is a little rough around the edges but still enjoyable

    +Learning about Sari's lack of friends and lonely life via her birthday party brings elements of her character into more focus



    Cons
    -We literally just did the whole "stop using your key frivolously" plot. Like in the episode right before this one. I don't mind Sari backsliding, but give it a little bit of time.

    -Soundwave's plan doesn't develop much and then he's destroyed. so as his own character he gets precious little to do

    -The robot rebellion ending as quickly as it started is kind of weak.
     
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  14. RKStrikerJK5

    RKStrikerJK5 number one Bangles fan on the boards

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    Same with me. I've only got four Transformers I'll buy multiples of anymore, and only one of them's a Decepticon.

    RIP Derrick. He was an ascended fanboy in the best possible sense of the term. :( 

    Professor Princess is... probably the worst of the human villains.

    My all-time favorite anime and the first anime I had seen that I knew was an anime. :D 

    Ooh, bad timing on Professor Princess' appearance! Can you imagine how much merch they would've moved if that was Twilight Sparkle?!

    Always planning, always plotting. Can you imagine if he was more than a head at this point?

    ... Sari has to remind this dolt to breathe, doesn't she.

    Oof, yeah. Homeschooled and raised by Isaac Sumdac. it's a wonder she's as normal as she is.

    Not me!

    But more demeaning than being reduced to a floating spark.

    The voice-acting was superb. :D  "Oh, god. Not again..." :p 

    I figurd that was just the toy's viewscreen.

    Just like Sparkplug as mentioned earlier. Hurrah for consistent characterization!

    I don't mind this. Sari's a kid! Lessons aren't gonna sink in immedtiately with her.

    Just friggin' brilliant all-around. Megatron, you magnificent bastard we READ YOUR BOOK!!!

    Okay, Megatron should've expected this. It happened with the Dinobots.

    oh, great. they gave him G1 Tailgate's toy bio! :lol 

    Eh, I'll give it a pass since it's been hacked.

    So... Terminator? Matrix? Maximum Overdrive? Five Faces of Darkness?

    I'll give Prime credit. Until Soundwave hacked their comms they were doing well as teams and Bulkhead by himself.

    I don't mind Bulkhead taking him out with one punch. He's still a human machine.

    David Xanatos wishes he was as cunning as Megatron.

    All right. Soundwave. operation: toy review!

    [​IMG]

    Soundwave is a box van, as noted. Laserbeak's alt mode is a guitar this time around. That's pretty frikkin' awesome. :rock 

    [​IMG]

    transformation is in the butter zone of enough to do without being too boring or complex. And really, really show-accurate here. A bit small, though. And my copy's getting a bit floppy. I do like that his arms can be folded around to be able to hold the guitar, at least. :D 
     
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  15. Rojixus

    Rojixus Celebrating 40 Years of Transformers!

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    Oh boy, another Animated reinvention I disliked! I swear I love Animated, but hoo boy did I not like some of the directions it took. This Soundwave is just some generic robot leading a cliched robot rebellion, he's not even a real Decepticon (Blackarachnia either for that matter). Fortunately, Sari and Bulkhead managed to make it a good episode.

    Professor Princess reminds me of that one Powerpuff Girls villain who wanted to be a Powerpuff Girl, but she didn't have any powers and she was a total brat, so she got herself some fancy gadgets and went on a rampage.

    At the very least, you'd think Isaac would be curious about what Megatron is getting up to when he's not in the room. Also where the hell all the money in his bank account went.

    I'm sure Sari and Astoria Carlton Ritz could have become fast friends in another life.

    Hey, if you've got Kath Soucie for the day, you might as well use her.

    You magnificent bastard, I READ YOUR BOOK!

    Meh, this Soundwave is all talk, no shock. Which is the exact opposite of Prime Soundwave, now that I think about it!

    I'm the exact opposite, I always thought the bad guys had the better toys and more interesting designs.
     
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  16. Leolim

    Leolim Well-Known Member

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  17. ChickenQuicken

    ChickenQuicken Well-Known Member

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    WHOOOOOOOOO
     
  18. ChickenQuicken

    ChickenQuicken Well-Known Member

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    I don't get why people bitch so much about the human villains. Not like the Decepticon villains are soooo great.
     
  19. ChickenQuicken

    ChickenQuicken Well-Known Member

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    Welcome to the club!
     
  20. ChickenQuicken

    ChickenQuicken Well-Known Member

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    You mean Princess Morbucks?
     
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