Great episode! So that's Michael Ironside as Ultra Magnus?! I had no idea.

 

You can't. It's not a ball joint.
But the face isn't really that bad.

 

Shroob explained it with this lovely post^^^ I don't see a need to repeat him.

And they did need to use the Forge before Optimus was killed. They had to build a space bridge and immediately run to Cybertron. And Megatron had already used it to make his Dark Saber weapon.

 

I agree with those who enjoyed this episode. It was very entertaining. The action and the humor were great. I'm technically challenged, but will try to quote multiple postings.

Me too. When Optimus sent the Autobots to several locations, I was hoping Vogel would be in another episode.

Darkmount (or at least the fusion canons had to be destroyed) otherwise, the Autobots could not do anything for fear the Decepticons would retaliate by causing massive human casualties. Megatron ordered them to target heavily populated cities in this episode, because the Autobots attacked.

Wikipedea definition: Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians (or "irregulars") using military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to dominate a larger and less-mobile traditional army, or strike a vulnerable target, and withdraw almost immediately.

The Autobots are using these tactics. Even though the citadel was destroyed, they are still at a great disavantage. Still greatly outnumbered, less weapons, no permanent base, less technology.

I agree. The head butt was great. Megatron's history of gladitorial combat means he will use any tactic to defeat his opponent.

Great explanation. This is how I view Optimus' decision.

Enjoyed Shockwave. Instead going off to "sulk", he went to battle. His casual request for a groundbridge and slow stroll into it reminded me of the episode where Soundwave slowly walked into the groundbridge dragging Smokescreen - even though the Autobots were coming.

I am not burdened by previous animated or written version of Transformers, so I view the characters as presented in TFP. I like the "by the book" personality they gave Ultra Magnus, because he will have to loosen up or everyone but Optimus and Ratchet will drive him crazy.

I'm not familiar with all the versions of G.I. Joe. I assume the Sky Striker plane people are talking about is an intentional reference because they used a line from G.I. Joe Renegades in "Inside Job". Knockout's "Wakey, Wakey" line was used by Dr. Mindbender in a flashback Weems had. Also many of the writers and producers of Renegades are in the credits of TFP.

Missed KO, but I like that they don't put every character in every episode. It's not necessary.

 

Wow, this episode was like a year's worth of work for Dr. Wu. He needs to make all of Ultra Magnus' weapons for the troops, and more accurate bits for BW Voyager Optimus Prime.

One problem with the episode... Why not ground bridge back all those Insecticons to help defend Darkmount? Why send an armada of Seekers to blow up the Harbinger? Just ground bridge in a bomb! Why didn't Shockwave just bridge the Predacon back to Darkmount? Couldn't he track it? I guess not.

Also, Wheeljacks' whip was incredibly over powered. One swipe could know THREE Decepticon jets from the air. That's like a freakin artifact weapon.

Anyone else worried that there will be no Beast Hunter armors in the series, that all we are getting in UM's stash of weapons?

 

Seeing the BH Smokescreen and Shockwave figures... I ain't even mad.

 

Is there a preview for next week?

 

There's a five week break

 

Oh...lol...

 

Did anyone else catch the return of…


PARAMOUNT!

 

well If Optimus taught Ultra Magnus...of course he'd have a fairly broad and articulate vocabulary.

 

Loved it. Great episode. I'm surprised they got rid of the citadel so soon in the season. I like how the maneuvering of forces is more calculated and directed on the Decepticon side than in the previous two seasons.

 

^^^ Yes!

As a side note I was just thinking -- when Optimus was in the Matrix, A3 could have told him all sorts of information about the Omega Lock or how to recharge the Forge, or any number of other useful bits. (kind of like Rodimus Prime in G1 - he shorted himself out in order to gain knowledge from inside the Matrix).

 

I was thinking this as well. Showing Alpha Trion inviting Optimus to become one with the Allspark and Optimus hesitating the way he did may not have been the only thing that went on. Just like it was shown after Legacy how more was said when Optimus listened to Alpha Trion's recording from the Star Saber.

 

I really thought that all thing was a test for Optimus, for A3 to see how determined he his as a Prime.


I just picture this....

OP: I am sorry Alpha Trion, my friend, I have a greater duty that calls to me than that of the Allspark.


A3: I see..........As always Optimus Prime, you have passed yet another trial in your duty as Prime, this world as yet to see the last of Optimus Prime.

*fades*

OP: Alpha Trion, wait..........

*wakes up*

 

"Could have." It's very possible he may have, but Prime has a real problem with showing verses telling. If next episode it's revealed that Optimus learned everything from Alpha Trion, even though it'd make sense, because they didn't actually show anything hinting that it'd seem completely random and back-tracky.

If this show could just take advantage of it's visuals to show us information instead of just telling us it'd be one huge failing resolved.

I'm not saying it wasn't. That's not my problem, though. My problem is the fact that they first made it seem that using the forge on the lock wasn't possible. It's not out of character for Optimus at all, in fact that's probably one of my favourite Optimus moments of this show because it's so uncharacteristically in-character. It's the entire plot revolving it.

It's not even a big issue, it's just a weird thing that they went from implying the lock can't be fixed to apparently that was the plan all along. Ratchet's huge blowup on Optimus about destroying the lock now seems totally random compared to him sollumly saying that without the forge, the lock is gone forever, like he'd always expected it to be used to repair the lock. The only possible explanation I can think of is if he thought they'd never get it back from the Decepticons, which seems out of charatcer considering they practically have keys to the Nemesis by this point.

I actually like it more than his real head design.

 

Yeah, I liked that stuff too. Can't wait for the shark Megatron, too  

 

No one ever actually said it was impossible to fix the Omega Lock, just that no one with the current knowledge to do so was around. That's a very, very big difference.

 

Shockwave took about 20 levels of badass and redeemed the episode. Prime doesn't look too shabby, but not really feeling it; though he'd probably be a good counterpoint to FOC Megatrons design.

 

That was by far the best episode of the show yet. The only things I disliked were Predaking freezing in a few seconds, Darkmount being blown up by a handful of HUMAN JETS (why couldn't they do that in the S2 finale if they were able to?), the fight between Megatron and Ultra Magnus should have been longer and the dialogue was almost embarrassing to listen to at times; "Megatron... begon!", "Your mission was most illogical"... Ugggh. Being able to predict what the characters are about to say isn't a good thing.

Optimus' entrance could have been done a lot better. Some more epic music would have helped in that scene rather than using the show's theme song.