Did I just witness the Autobots use a WMD? Seriously, intense shit right there, since when has Optimus been ok with sucking the sparks out of Cons?!

Freaking love that it happened though, shows a definite progression of character for Optimus in my humble nutty opinion. He's gone from the leader who's always believed that the Cons can be subdued without too much violence, to a point where he is now willing, perhaps reluctantly, but still willing, to use a WMD on the Decepticons in order to gain an advantage...I don't ever remember seeing anything like this in close to 25 years of Transformers!

Add in the fact that, at the end, when Megatron had the kids and Prime asked the question...'What if we don't (give you the keys)?' It's like he was seriously weighing up the morality of killing three children in order to save the Cybertronian race. I reckon at the start of the season he wouldn't have even considered it, but now...well, war changes people and bots alike, doesn't it?

Episode was awesome, great to see ruthless Autobot action. Psyched for the finale.

 

Optimus Prime finally has the chance to restore the world he lost to war. I'm not surprised he was a tad more ruthless this time around, with so much at stake.

 

I see what you mean. Logically, if I were Optimus, I would easily choose my own planet and its entire race over three small alien lifeforms.

 

I can't recall any version of Optimus Prime willing to sacrifice a human just to save Cybertron. Since the Autobots feel that it's their fault that war has come to Earth. Thus they feel the need to protect humans from being caught in the middle.

 

To save Cybertron is a lie. That would assume Megatron does not want to restore Cybertron.

 

But he shouldn't have to choose.

Optimus aside, the Autobots are all carrying godly weapons the Decepticons have no hope against. One blast from the Immobilizer will stop the dead in their tracks. The Apex Armor turns its user into the freaking Juggernaut. If the Polarity Gauntlet can strip keys out of the hands of Vehicons, the Autobots shouldn't be in the trouble they find themselves in.

EDIT:

Just finished watching Regeneration again, and now I'm left wondering what happened to Optimus line before leaving the base: "Megatron must be stopped. No matter the cost."

If stopping Megatron means sacrificing three children, shouldn't that be taking place? Surrendering the keys/power Megatron hopes to gain, is NOT stopping Megatron 

 

I find it funny that people think Megatron will actually follow up on his side of the deal.

 

Uh, they have killed far more Cons in other episodes than they did there with the Spark Extractor. And he was going to use it when the Nemesis was downed. He character development started and stopped after One Shall Fall/Rise. Honestly, Smokescreen should have used it on Megatron instead of blabbering his big mouth and killing harmless Vehicons.

Movie Prime already came to this conclusion and he is a living WMD. Unlike in Prime, it doesn't take him years and years of war and then landing on Earth and seeing a human hurt to make him realize "wait a minute, Decepticons are... bad guys!?" People praise Prime Prime and not Movie Prime? Arcee and Bulkhead rip heads and intestines and are not afraid of anything.

 

This and....

This.

Megatron has to follow up, for the kids who watch the show.

 

What if the trade led to the Decepticons finally discovering the location of the Autobot's base?

I do believe the containers are bugged. The Autobots are going to bridge the children right back to their base to safety, without even giving a thought about the containers being bugged or anything of the sort.

Letting the children go now doesn't matter to Megatron. He plans to rule the Earth at some point. Sooner or later, from his point of view, the children and their world will be his. There is no escape.

The Problem with live-action Prime is that he isn't the Optimus people know him to be. He is so unlike every Optimus that came before him. If Peter Cullen took issues with his portrayal and he discussed those issues with fans and Larry King during a Comic Con sit down.

I know there are a lot of people that enjoyed the live-action movies, but I think there are just as many that didn't. I think it's great that their is an Optimus out there that all can enjoy. Still, Give me your face Optimus was very much out of character no matter how you look at it.

 

Arcee mentioned that Optimus has been acting stange since his chat with Alpha Trion. He could have somehow been taken over by Alpha Trion's influence.


jD001

 

There's another subtle detail I noticed: The way Peter Cullen voiced Optimus in this episode seemed somewhat different from the "epic gravitas" Prime Optimus Prime has become known for. He sounded a lot more... pragmatic, and less concerned with making every single one of his lines an "instantly quotable classic".

 

One question I had about that scene ... did Smokescreen just kill Megatron's entire army?! Or does he have a few Vehicons left. The only other ones I saw after that were the two standing behind Starscream. Plus, at the end, the three decepticon big-boys came alone!

 

yeah..they all dead...besides the one's on the nemesis that is.

 

I missed that. (I noticed the different acting but not the concept of that) Very good point.

I am definitely looking forward to seeing this through in Darkest Hour, just to see how right we are.


jD001

 

Smokescreen could chuck a hundred Spark Extractors at the 'Cons, and we'd still never run out of Vehicons  

Anyway, there are still Vehicons at the Nemesis, so don't worry.

 

Guess I underestimated the re-spawn ability of the Vehicons. It'd be cool if they were all just dead after that, though.

 

I do think Optimus has been acting differently. Use of the Spark Extractor is something I wasn't expecting and keeping secrets from his team is out of character for him. Smokescreen did have a very good point about Megatron pulling things out of his head with the Patch though. I think he still knows a few things Alpha Trion told him that he hasn't revealed so he may still have some tricks up his sleeve when it comes to the current dilemma.

My first thought was Megatron can't be trusted and I will be surprised if he follows up on his side. But this show has totally surprised me before.

Can it even be used on Megatron? Does he even still have a spark? I was under the impression he was running on a Dark Energon shard. And I think Smokescreen used it correctly. He took out a big chunk of Megatrons Army with it to buy them some time so I thought it was done right. I also think him "blabbering his big mouth" was a distraction tactic. But that's just my thoughts on the matter.

 

if megatron didn't have a spark he'd be a zombie, his spark is fused with dark energon so he's like a hybrid thingy lol.

 

They've never had a problem killing mass numbers of Vehicons though. What difference does it make just doing it all at once?

And OP doesn't remember the Autobots in Animated, building Omega Supreme (also a WMD) to off a bunch of Decepticons and win the war apparently. Which was even worse because they built a sentient being and made him mentally handicapped on purpose purely to kill a bunch of other Cybertronians.