Before I begin this post, I just want to make clear that I'm not referring to Armada and Energon from the Unicron Trilogy. I tried watching Armada but couldn't get past the second episode because I thought the English dub was super annoying to listen to. I much prefer shows in the original Japanese with English subtitles. But for clarity I'll use the English names followed by the Japanese names so people who haven't seen ML and SL will know who I'm referring to.

Anyway, I finished Micron Legend, and it turns out that I liked it far better than I thought I was going to. I really liked the characters (even the human kids), especially Hot Rod/Hot Shot and Starscream. I liked that there was a reason why the Autobots and Decepticons had been fighting for so long without really knowing why. The concept of Unicron and the Microns were really interesting, and why they had a link to the human kids. And Double Face/Sideways essentially being Unicron's mouthpiece was a great idea. The only character I didn't care for was Thrust, who came off as a whiny weasel when he was supposed to be this mighty strategist. The alliance between the Autobots and Decepticons to defeat Unicron was a cool sight, as was Optimus/Convoy and Megatron's final battle. All in all, I thought ML was an enjoyable show.

And then I started watching Superlink.

All I have to say is...what happened? This show is supposed to be a direct sequel to ML, and yet the characters all look and act completely different than they did in ML. Some characters like Blurr/Silverbolt, Scavenger/Devastor, Smoakscreen/Grap, and Wheeljack/Rampage are not even in SL. The voice actors are all different, and the characters all get different names for some reason even though they're supposed to be the same guys from ML (e.g. Hot Rod becomes Hot Shot, Jetfire becomes Skyfire, Starscream becomes Nightscream, etc.) In fact, the only characters who look, act, and have the same voice actors as they did in ML are the three Decepticons Cyclonus/Sandstorm, Tidal Wave/Shockwave, and Demolishor/Ironhide (although they have different paint jobs for no other reason than TO SELL TOYS.) Even Megatron acts like a completely different character than he did in ML. It's almost like this show takes place in some alternate universe from the previous show. The only thing that would put that theory in doubt is that Rad, Carlos, and Alexa are in it, since we see them in a flashback after ML ends and then older in the show regular.

I'm not going to go into the CGI animation, since its a foregone conclusion that it was bad. And Kicker is seriously annoying. But I'm only five episodes in, and I'll still give it a chance. I'll post more later!

 

Energon sucks, man.

People give Armada shit for it's poor production and all, but it actually offered a lot of great shit to the franchise without relying on previous fiction, while also having pretty memorable characters to boot. Energon offered, like, one good thing, which was ALMOST giving Demolishor/Ironhide another dimension to his character. But that was it.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. I liked Demolishor's/Ironhide's conflicted nature regarding serving Megatron in ML. He's got it here too, obviously, but I won't know what happens with it until I continue watching SL.

 

Best of luck. You're watching the better version of the show at least.

 

Honestly, even though it is nowhere near my favorite, and I wouldn't even say it is particularly good, there is stuff that I love about Armada, especially the portion dealing directly with Unicron and the interesting interpretation of Starscream. And to be fair, most of the stuff that I found bad in that show was due to the poor dub, so you made a wise choice to go directly to the sub.

Unfortunately, there is no good version of Energon. There is only a slightly less awful version. At least you get finished animation instead of having an episode where the Autobots spend the entire time shooting into a void in space because they forgot to add the models for the bad guys in. And at least you get an important plot-relevant episode focusing on Scorponok that the English series decided to skip over but still wasted its time dubbing all of the clip shows in the series.

Only one good thing came out of my viewing of Energon. It redefined what I considered bad. I generally can enjoy more mediocre things now because there is no way that those could be Energon bad. At least with most things that I consume, someone who cared at least a little bit helped make it. I have never seen a product more apathetic than Energon.

I'd recommend just skipping to Cybertron or its Japanese equivalent. There is nothing worthwhile to find in Energon.

 

I enjoyed Superlink, though I'll have to admit, since I watched Armada and consider it to be one of the worse series, I was glad to leave it behind and move on; I'm also far from advocating it as a great or even solidly good series either to be fair.

Though if you want a disconnect, try watching Masterforce. Not only doesn't it connect properly to US G1 or Headmasters, there's an episode there that completely contradicts itself, dozens of episode of plot building, and then is subsequently ignored because it's like this sore thumb episode.

 

I'm with you 100%, bro. I can't stand dubs, and will always take the original Japanese subbed version if I can.

Anyway, yeah, Super Link wasn't all that great. I mean, personally, I liked it better than Micron Legend... though admittedly I think that's mostly because of the toys (which were generally much better than ML's, especially the Decepticons), the concept/premise (I liked the Energon mining operations across the solar system, the "everyone combines" idea, the subgroups, etc), and the characters (I actually really liked Kicker, while the children in Micron Legend kinda bugged me, unlike Prime's children). Micron Legend could have been superb, it sure had great promise. Ah well.

I tell you, just wait 'til you get to Galaxy Force -- that show is FUN. It has less-than-ideal animation, sure, but is otherwise pretty damn boss. It wasn't originally conceived as a sequel to Super Link, and so I don't consider it one. In fact, I think it makes a better sequel to -- of all things -- Car Robots.

 

Oh, I plan to watch Galaxy Force too, once I finish Super Link. But no matter how bad it might be, I'm a completist, so I'll be watching the whole series  

Actually, Masterforce was one of my favorite series. I think the disconnect to previous series came because Masterforce seemed to be originally envisioned as a reboot, but then at the last minute someone decided that it should be a sequel to Headmasters.

Yeah, from what I've heard, unlike Cybertron, Galaxy Force is supposed to be its own thing not connected to ML and SL. And I've seen Car Robots, so when I get to GF I'll keep your opinion in mind  

 

I fear you will suffer for that philosophy.

Good luck. Energon is worse than Superlink, but Superlink is still friggin' terrible.

 

I'm not just talking about how it ties into the other series, I'm talking about it being consistent among itself.

Explain episode 23 then. Not a single person seems to know what a Transformer is, what an Autobot is, or what's going on and if Decepticons or Autobots are to be trusted or where they're from. Prior episodes showed people knowing the cast by name, there was even an episode where Ginrai went on TV and showed off his Transtector in hopes of finding others with them to join up. Then suddenly no one knows anything about anything seemingly for that episode, seemingly forgetting all the battles and events that happened in the last 22 episodes!

The Villain Decay in that series is almost beyond compare. Blood is the worst of the worst. Clever, evil, until he's not, then he's a joke villain occasionally showing up because he's not the big bad anymore. Hydra and Buster are able to nearly instantly repair any damage they take and can take on almost the entire Autobot cast. Well, until Overlord shows up and then they suddenly don't heal fast anymore and aren't that dangerous either, a few shots from anyone is good enough now. Overlord shows up, cripples Ginrai with a single weapons volley and leaves him to die in the desert in his first real appearance. The Autobots build Godbomber just to give Ginrai a chance against him and everyone else has to stay away or die under Overlords firepower. Then near the end (or maybe the end, I haven't seen it in a while) Lightfoot can take him on solo and it doesn't even raise an eyebrow because Overlord isn't the big bad, it's Devil Z now.

But that's a topic for another discussion. Try to enjoy Superlink and when it comes time, I suggest watching the first few episodes of Galaxy Force (4 or so), then jump over to Cybertron for the rest. There will be a slight disconnect in the change, but at least you'll see the full story and the bonus animation. Plus Cybertron does some space filling and has some fun.

 

I haven't seen Masterforce in a while, but I'll take you at your word. I suppose all that stuff you mentioned really didn't bother me because I enjoyed the story and liked the characters. And even the American G1 cartoon didn't make sense at times, so it's not like I'm holding MF to some super-high standard, lol. But that's nothing compared to Super Link. I'm 8 episodes in now and there isn't a single character I care about other than Demolishor/Ironhide. Even the best character in Micron Legend (IMHO), Hot Shot/Hot Rod, has been turned into nothing more than a generic expressionless Autobot, and while they're trying to make Ironhide/Roadbuster the new young kid on the block, so far he isn't working for me.

 

Galaxy Force/Cybertron is one of the rare cases where I would recommend the English dub over the original Japanese. Cybertron changes some of Galaxy Force's more questionable plot elements in order to make more sense. Cybertron actually gives a reason for why the Autobots keep the kids around after their initial purpose of helping them settle on Earth is fulfilled, for example. In Galaxy Force Cybertron is actually consumed by the Black Hole in the first episode but the characters are able to go back later in the series without any problems. Galaxy Force never explains why so Cybertron just cuts it out entirely. Cybertron also has the characters talk over Galaxy Force's excessive amount of stock footage and other moments of silence, which actually helps immensely. That and, from the Galaxy Force scenes I've watched it just sounds... boring. The voice actors all sound like they're just phoning it in, while in Cybertron they actually sound like they're having fun and enjoying what they're doing.

 

Errrrrrghhh, I hated that. But then, I cut my teeth on Japanese super robot shows, so I'm used to stock footage.

 

You know something's wrong when you have a 2 and a half minute long fight scene take place entirely through stock footage.

And I did like that one time Jetfire went "Why does this always take so long?" during one of the "Autobots roll out" stock footage sequences. I always thought that sequence was cool anyway. The Autobot base in Cybertron was pretty awesome.

 

Man I thought Armada was garbage at the time. But then I bought some of those Micron DVDs that came with figures and thought the show was wonderful. Like it really was a modern G1 cartoon in its style. Dubbing really does make all the difference.

 

In the case of Armada/Micron Densetsu, the English dub actually came first. I have no idea why it still sounds so awkward. They actually finished up some of the animation for Micron Densetsu that didn't look so hot in Armada.

 

I kinda wonder if voice actors that use normal speech patterns could take Energon and make it LESS bad?

 

Probably because they used shitty voice actors?

 

Because Cartoon Network wouldn't agree to air the show until most of the show was done and ready to go, and because Hasbro already had the toyline ready to release and didn't want them on the shelves without a show to promote them immediately, the dubbing ended up being rushed to get the show on the air at that time. This is also why there are more animation errors in Armada than Micron Legend, since the latter had the time to go and touch things up whereas Armada did not.

The same thing happened with Energon's dub as well, though with it being even more rushed than Armada's was.

 

I agree the Cybertron dub is definitely miles better than Galaxy Force. In addition to your example, the dub also gave the humans a legitimate reason for sticking around, as well as explanations for the random power-boosts characters would get out of nowhere. The voices and dialogue also dealt with the lack of distinguishable personalities among the Autobot cast, and added humour that would otherwise be lost in translation.