I'm really not keen on the whole "key" idea, as soon as a bot's dead, bam, in goes the key, like nothing ever happened.

It's probably the only thing that bothers me. I mean before i saw the premier i wasn't keen on the animation, but i didn't even think of it whilst watching the hour special as I became too wrapped up in the great story. I did enjoy the premier alot. So the key is the only thing bothering me at the moment. I agree that it just nods to G1 and other eras, it's not a continuin for me, nor do i see it as that. I see it as another completely new entity.

 

Okay, so keeping as much as possible to the Sari topic, because there are VERY LONG threads already in service to general reactions to the new show...

I like Sari. Let me say that first. The very hand-drawn cartoonish style doesn't bother me at all... in fact it's probably a big part of her appeal.

However, she's still really on the edge. The way her character is written, she could easily turn horribly irritating, depending on who writes the episode. The "kooky kid" comic relief potential can wear thin really damn fast.

Also, the plot device that grants her the power of the Allspark? Um... what? I guess sometimes things "just happen" that way. How convenient. Don't question the Allspark's divine will! It KNOWS things!  

And this "instant fix-up" thing Sari's key does has got to go. What is it... 3 times in 2 episodes since her appearance? As an aside, is it just me, or does she look like a member of the Legion of Superheroes? Robot-Repair-Lass? Mecha-Medic-Maid?.

And Prime has already died and turned gray and been resurrected once? Rushing things a bit aren't they?

For a second there, I thought with his resurrection they were going to actually put the Allspark IN his chest... a la The Matrix. Like it was the animating force that revived him, but also lead him to become (unwittingly) its bearer. It also would have complicated (in a good way) the impending repetitive theme of "Arrr! I am Decepticon! Give me the Allspark!"

I mean, when they go out to fight fires and stuff, are they just going to leave the Allspark in the hold of their ship? Poor security, eh? If Starscream were a bit brighter, he would have figured out where their ship was from the news media, then while they were off making public appearances, just sneak on board and make off with the damn magic box.

Dope.

Anyway, so I'm hoping that Sari and the Allspark recede a little bit into the background of future episodes. I don't think she needs to be there all the time. I've never been convinced that kids need a "child proxy" character to motivate them to watch a show about cool transforming robots. I'm not sure if her presence is really required by the plot, or by the inherent paedophilia of contemporary animators?  

I don't think that works. In Beast Wars, Black Arachnia was a Maximal protoform, who was reformatted by Megatron. Moreover, her spider alt mode came from earth, chosen by Tarantulas in a show of petty vanity. I don't think there's any coherent way to explain the links to the other continuities as anything other than alternate version homages.

As for the history vids... again, a nod to the original. But not an explicit connection to G1. The timelines don't add up at all. This is clearly a new universe (rather than a connected universe like BW was).

Problems worse than flat-out, fall-down-turn-gray Spark-death? I dunno...

That's not quite true though... I found Mamoru's powers much better supported by the backstory in GGG (although equally as obscure in terms of their limitations). Also, the sense of mystery was more acute. However, Mamoru's powers early in the series were almost entirely limited to reverting the Zonder transformations... which of course required GaoGaiGar to beat the unholy crap out of the Zonder first.

In this case, the reasons for Sari's Allspark power are way too obscure, and it seems like it'll be over-used as a repair thing. I prefer Mamoru in this sense... but then, it seems obvious to me that Sari was probably inspired by Mamoru to some degree.

And yes... some plot complications with the Allspark and Sari's powers would be nice.

In summation, this series looks really promising. I liked the combat scenes, the cartoony style doesn't bug me most of the time, and the writing and voice acting is generally pretty good (though a few of the voices do bug me). I mean, let's be fair... judging by the first 3 episodes, TF:Animated is already WAAAAAAY better than the First Season of Beast Wars... which let's face it, beyond some original ideas, was pretty lame and juvenile.

If BW has the chance to improve, I'm looking forward to seeing where this show can go!

zmog

 

Now we know how movie Jazz will get brought back to life in Transformers 2!  

The key doesn't bother me in itself but if 3 autobots die every episode and she keeps bringing them back to life that might get extremely tiring.

 

Whille I'm not sure on your analysis as of yet, it is a nice precursor to the potential there. I also like how the one time her key didn't have enough power, the allspark was there for the big energy boost.

I'm unphased by the magic key as of yet, cause I view it like a defibrillator and prime's spark had just gone out. So it's basicly like a doc screaming live and shocking him till it starts back up. Which I love the allspark being there for that extra boost this once, and it not being entirely her 'magic' key. But until otherwise shown, I'm leaning on there's a time limit to how long they can be 'dead' and she +allspark can bring them back unchanged personality-wise. BB and Prowl weren't dead, just injured. So it was just repairs/jump start for them.

Security badges often have electronics in them, so it's interesting to see how the allspark overloaded her key card into a universal transformer key. But then again I see too much when I watch stuff. xD

The key by itself has not restored any bots from death as of yet, just repaired the still living, the allspark is what brought prime back, but his spark had just gone out, and may still have had enough remnants left like a heart restarting, for him to live in my honest opinion. But I do love the potential this has to later lead into the masterforce/pretender theory. Especially the fact they only took vehicles as they thought it was the dominate life form (calling sari a pet of sparkplug, 'can anyone TALK on this planet?' etc). So could they have taken human forms alla pretenders? Black arachnia is already organic...

 

Interesting notion about the Pretender shells... though of course, Autobots are conditioned to view mechanical life as normal, and organic life as... un-evolved ooze?  

But I think the whole Blackarachnia thing might be getting blown out of proportion. Everyone has been talking about how she's "ZOMG! ORGANIC!"... but now that I've finally seen the Special, there isn't really much evidence.

Blitzwing scorns her distasteful "organic alternate mode". This could easily be taken out of context. Her alt-mode is based on an organic creature, while Blitzwing is a tank/jet! Clearly, he views his war-machine modes as more valuable than a mode based on some lower life form. None of that necessarily means that Blackarachnia is entirely organic. Also, it could be, like Beast Wars and Pretenders, that her alt-mode comprises an artificial organic shell, while her inner robot core is still entirely mechanical and Cybertronian.

So far it just sounds like a lot of fanboy rumour spreading and taking the meager evidence out of context... but I could be wrong. Already in the Special, we've been exposed to a mechanical/organic nanobot-powered monster. With that already on the table, it wouldn't seem to strange if Blackarachnia turned out to be something similar.

zmog

 

When dealing with a small cast, I think the writers face a dilemma about how to make fight sequences seem threatening while still maintaining a cast to work with. When you only have a handful of 'bots, you can't make the Decepticons threatening by killing characters, so that leaves you with only a few options:

1.) Ineffective weapons (or powerful shields) - With this method you can have some fancy light shows, but none of the characters will take any serious damage. If this method is used, the common complaint is, "why can't giant war machines develop guns that actually do something?" If this is established, then a 'super weapon' is required to do any damage, and this can also have a deus ex machina / maguffin feel.

2.) Horrible aim ("Stormtrooper method") - Here the weapons are effective, but their user can't aim to save their life. You can still have a fancy light show, but the heroes again don't take damage. If the enemies have horrible aim, heroes being wounded should be inherently random, but it always tends to happen during season ending cliffhangers.

3.) Red Shirts - Random throw-away characters can be introduced just to be killed during a battle. Given the current setup of Animated, this is difficult to make plausible, and it's also quite cliched.

4.) Repairs/Healing - If you can repair characters, you can have fights that end with the heroes losing, but still allow them to return to action later.

Beast Wars did this quite effectively with the use of the CR chamber. From a story mechanic perspective, I would see Sari's key fall into this same category. Sari's key is a bit more meta-physical while a CR chamber seems more technical, but they both essentially do the same thing. I'd be happier if Ratchet was doing the repairing rather than Sari, but the end result is exactly the same.