I'll start off by saying that I LOVED the premiere, and have been regurlarly imbibing the Kool-Aid for this series since the Botcon presentation. So'm coming from a very pro-series perspective.

I'm also a bit of an old-dog, and can remember when "Beast Wars" was a dirty word that caused a LOT more hate than this series has so far. So I have no worries that if the show continues with this levelof quality it will earn its due place in time.

I also base the forthcoming argument on some of the back-story info that has been mentioned, and is implied in the series itself. I.e. "Animated" takes place far in the future of the G1 series. I think its safe to assume that this is THE (our?) Ratchet (The head design cinches it), probably the same of ol' Magnus as well.

Now, if you take G1 continuity to include the JTF portion of the universe (I do), then Sari and her key fit right in. It's a small matter to accept that the Allspark (Or the Matrix, or whatever) upon downloading Sari's brain (The fact that they COULD interface that way lends some credence here as well), recognized in her some Masterforce-potential, and simply reformated her access-key into a fashion-sensible version of Godmaster-bracelets, or at least something similar.

Let us not forget that Ginrai, Shuta, and the gang had the abilities to:

1: Give life to otherwise lifeless TF bodies.

2: Through continued exposure actually GENERATE an ongoing life-force(spark) for those bodies.

3: Repair (extensive) physical damage to TF bodies.

Not to mention general telekenisis, and other assorted quasi-super-powers. And all that WITHOUT a direct link to the AllSpark/Matrix.

So I, for one (Perhaps the ONLY one), am totally not bothered by her magic key. It's MUCH more subtle, and plausible, the powers Yusha kids are usually granted  

That said, I'm also very glad to see TF:A taking some plays from the Brave-saga handbook. Notably:

- Enemy mecha is a rare, and scary threat. Most encounters are with generic non-toy baddies. Giving the heroes a chance to develop their skills (and personalities) so that when the real threat is faced, it'll be that much more enjoyable.

- Hero mecha is portrayed as special because they are ALIVE. With a focus on humans and robots trying to understand eachother.

- Fanzone's Car/Bumblebee gag. I hope this becomes the running joke that Fanzone's profile implies it will be. It's straight out of Dagarn  

I'm sure my arguments aren't going to convert anyone that hasn't already fallen for this series, as my taste in and view of the TF mythos is not that held by large portions of the fandom. But I think this show is going to be a winner for those of us who love (classic)JTF.

D/L

 

The key thing doesn't bother me, the way I see it is that the Allspark gave some of its power to the key when Sari found it on the Ark, it reminds me a bit of the Key to Vector Sigma.

 

My issue is that it's going to become a 'deus ex machina' just like the Oracle and the Matrix. It solves any problem without anyone actually thinking through a solution in the real plot. Please see Wikipedia or interviews with Larry D. and the other He-Man writers in regards to The Sorceress in MOTU for more examples.

I do agree with you that the show was good and is promising for the next few seasons. We wish them the best and hope they stay away from being too 'kid'ish or too complex (e.g., Beast Machines first season or ST: DS9).

 

Wait, I thought that this series existed outside G1/Beast Era Continuity (debatable as to which G1 this follows as Ratchet is dead, Ultra Magnus is dead (if indeed following Japanese G1 continuity), Starscream was revived in G1S3 and never heard from again, and Megatron was reformed into Galvatron. Animated Prowl, Blitzwing, and Blackarachnia, and Bumblebee are obviously new characters not associated with former or latter incarnations.

Another thing is that the Prime suffix seems to have different meaning in this series then it has in series past. Prime usually was synonymous with 'Convoy' in Japan and was used only by Autobot Leaders as dictated by the Matrix of Leadership. Optimus and Sentinel BOTH use the Prime suffix but are hardly considered the leaders of the Autobots as a whole. For whatever reason, that responsibility is currently that of Ultra Magnus.

Besides that, don't you think that Earth would have records of past encounters with the Transformers since even during the days of 1984-2006 as they were pretty visible in the public?

 

The continuity certainly IS a bit muddy if they're connected, but I believe one of the official Hasbro statements mentioned this at some point. I think the "History Vids" certainly can be counted as in-show proof.

I tend to think that BlackArachnia *might* just be the same one from BW, just REALLLY early in her career. She WAS always the G1 history buff... We'll see if she's switched sides by the end, I'm betting, yes.

Megatron is either a successor-to-the-name or else Super Megatron from Battlestars. Given that he basically HAS Super-Meg's design (in Animated-vision), I'm actually guessing the latter.

The movie-deaths were pretty non-conclusive in Japanese-continuity (Because they didn't GET the movie until the Victory-era, but I digress), so Ratchet might not really really be dead.

Can't do nothing for Magnus though, I like to think it's him, but yeah, they did stick him in the coffin (evidently he was Christian, who knew?).

The Prime-Title is a non-issue, I'm viewing this as another indicator that we're in the G1 -> BW transition-period. By BW, "Optimus Primal" is named in honor of the original Prime, and it is possible that it's a common given name (See "Jesus" in Hispanic culture). Moreover though, if we take into account J-BW (Or even Galaxy Force) multiple Convoys (Primes) are common, with it being more of a rank or a position.

I think we're dealing with "loosely" in the future, rather than direct-with-tight-continuity sequel.


More to the point about the deus-ex-machina key however, I'm willing to accept it, assuming that by the end of the series they play it right. The problem with the G1 matrix was that for 2 seasons we never knew it existed, and then BANG it's the Evil God(And Hate-Plague) cure-all. We've now ESTABLISHED right from the get-go that the Sari-Key (Good lord I hope it gets a real name) is uber-powerful. HOPEFULLY as we get deep into the series, they'll start having problems that it CAN'T fix, and hence the audience (and the characters) will have a heightened sense of the gravity of whatever they're facing.

Mamuru's (And Kaido's, and Guy's) magical G-Stone powers in GGG were trotted out in EVERY episode for the first 20 or so, you got used to it, it lulled you into a comfort zone, which, once those powers STOPPED working came as quite a shock. I'm hoping for something similar here.

Here's hoping  

D/L

 

Honestly I don't think Animated is actually ties to G1 in anyway. However it does pull concepts from many past shows, and gave plenty of cameos in the opener. I mean even Spike, Carly, and Daniel showed up.

 

I see it as G1 reinvented for a younger audience, but taking pieces from all the previous TF continuities if you know what I mean.

 

Animated is by all indications it's own continuity.

The War Dawn footage is a G1 fanwank as much as Cybertron showed Optimus, Rodimus, Ultra Magnus and Jazz as ancestors.

Perhaps giving us the divergence point of the Great War at the end of the Golden Age with Dion.

The would be supreme commander was Ultra Magnus.

 

I really can't see how anybody can think this is a continuation of G1, given how long they keep saying it's been since the end of the great war. Earth tech would be way more advanced, if that were the case. As it is, they only have advanced robotics, because Sundac's been reverse engineering Megs, for the last 50 years.

The use of G1 footage was just a nod to us old school fans. It was no doubt done because aa lot of the people working on the show are also said to be long time fans of the franchise. I thought it was cool that they did it, and I'm certainly glad to see it in there (complete with imitation Victor Coroli narrator) but I really didn't read anything into it, past that.

 

Please... Can people stop trying to shoehorn everything into G1?


G1 is DEAD. It's burried. It's not connected to anything. It has a steak through it's heart and it's head chopped off. IT'S NOT COMMING BACK!

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly GLAD G1, as a specific line of toys and series of media, is dead. There was so much about G1 that was awful, I hate all the diaclone toys (Except maybe Tracks), and it took the cartoon at least one season to become truly watchable, and even then only from time to time.

However the core CONCEPT of G1, the cast of characters, the dynamic between the factions, etc etc. Is all very wonderful, and is certainly why TFs are still here today.

Specific geek-boy continuity questions aside, Animated is very clear intended as a spiritual successor to G1, including in the sense of timeline. We've already encountered at least 2 old-dog characters who are clearly intended to evoke their original counter parts, and they're both portrayed as OLD vetrans. This series DOES have a back-story, and it was obviously G1-esque  

The only point of which, for the purposes of this thread's original topic is that the power of the human spirit in combination with Cybertroninan technology has been shown in the past ot be able to do wonderful things.

D/L

 

On that I agree. I believe it's best to leave it alone and just draw homages and references from past shows. Fitting everything together is only going to give everyone a headache that even aspirin can't take away.

 

I wanna talk about Sari's key!!!

Notice that scene where all sorts of TF images were beamed to Sari and all sorts of Human images beamed to the Allspark? That gives the impression the allspark is sentient, And upon reading Sari's mind she was deemed worthy of having the power of the allspark, something denied to just about all the transformers who could only force destructive power from it.

If we believe the Allspark to be sentient, it seems to deem Sari worthy while most of the TFs it is simply non-responsive too. Autobots and Decepticons alike became too short-sighted and stagnant to be given access to the power of the allspark. Maybe Primus sees the salvation of his children in a human child and her having the power to resurrect transformers will tip the tables to one side and end the war for all time?

If the Allspark has sentience like Vectorsigma or Primus, then the Key is more than a simple mcguffin to keep the kids around and we may see a later story where her purpose has more meaning (like the armadakids and the minicons escaping unicron to earth)

 

As destrongerlupus said, kids in possession of MacGuffins is nothing new in TFs. Buster held the Matrix for a time on the Marvel G1 comics, and Kicker had hair that glowed at certain times when it was important.

 

  for some reason that's striking me as hilarious at the moment.

 

Kicker had what!!?

(and where was the hair? )

Suddenly, I'm so glad I did not just notice that when I tried to watch an episode. I would have died.

 

Calm the fuck down, haters and angry peoplers.
All the guy is trying to say is that Animated is an acknowledgment of the G1 fans and incorporated G1 homages and elements to the series.

His hair on his head.  

 

Ohhh. That makes it a bit better then. It was just the way it was said 'Kicker had hair...'   so I never thought it was the hair on his head. 

 

My problem with the key Sori had is that it was very much a "Deus Ex Machina" device. Having a Deus Ex is fine for a lot of stories but also alot of times those plot devices ruin a character's struggle and sacrifice. I think though that the key was used to challenge Sori's resolve in never giving up and revived Prime, but Sori just didn't seem to stuggle with any of that. Prime died, key goes in, everybodies happy.

Thats about my only issue with the series. I like Bulkhead for some reason, Megatron is just fucken awsome (sorry for the F-word but I just had to express it), Prowl will be a constant problem to the team, Starscream is just neat, and there was some witty dialogue. I've enjoyed that premiere and hope to see what more will come.