The sheer amount of will they/won't they tension between Optimus and Megatron in this series is insane


So these two used to be besties until they had an emotional breakup, with the last show ending with Optimus ghosting Megatron and fucking off somewhere. Well in this show Megs is still pining over his lost love, and simps for OP so much he kills basically everyone to build a spaceship to chase after him

When they meet up, instead of killing each other (which they have multiple chances to do btw) OP and Megs find reasons to be in private away from the others, and then proceed to have multiple long chats where they slowly, dramatically and lovingly reminisce about how things used to be, and how they should really kill each other but just can't do it because they NEED each other

OP can't bring himself to kill Megs, so he pulls the thingy out of his chest and then has his boys fix him up. Megs can't bring himself to kill OP, so he pulls a thingy out of HIS chest and takes it with him. You know, so part of his old flame will always be with him. (Megs does put up a good act though, since he monologues for just long enough so that he convinces everyone who sees THINKS he's trying to kill OP, but also he stalls for long enough to cut and run, giving himself a reason to not actually kill OP.)

Gotta give these writers props, they're really daring to try and tell such an ambitious friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story. If Kingdom ends with Optimus and Megatron making up and making out, i will immediately forgive all of this show's faults and declare it the best TF show ever made.


(seriously, I get the same energy from this version of Optimus and Megatron as Batman and Joker from the Lego Batman Movie...except here it's played completely straight)

 

I am guessing they are setting things up for the Kingdom mini-series... based on what I am hearing, Kingdom sounds like it is going to an epic nonetheless.

 

Oh, I’m not making predictions, but if they appear with powers (or alt modes, genders, names, paint jobs, etc.) swapped with other characters’ without reason or explanation, we shouldn’t be surprised.

 

Uh huh.... keep telling yourself that.

 

highlight of the show for me was scorponok scuttling along in beast mode. most convincing non-bw scorponok alt mode ever and all it took was individually animated legs!

 

That's what I said about Earthrise, but the only thing epic about it ended up being my level of disappointment. Fool me once and all that.

 

Pardon me for going against the grain, but I fucking loved Sky Lynx in Earthrise.

 

May I ask why?

 

I loved him in theory, I think they really dropped the ball in execution and also cut his story too short.

 

"An epic" is giving the people working on this more credit than they deserve, to be blunt...

There are good ideas buried in this series, but what's burying them is so laughable, frustrating and/or tiresome that it's not exactly easy to see this ending any better that the last two entries.

At this point, I have a feeling I'll enjoy Kingdom the most of the three mainly because I'll be going into with very low expectations; And they weren't exactly high for Siege or Earthrise so for those to still be varying level of disappointing still is worrying.

 

anywhere to download this ? I have netflix and I watched it but want to download it and edit the hell out of it to make it work with my households head canon

 

I want to see somebody edit it like Combiner Wars: HI I'M WINDBLADE!

 

Try using a screen recorder app on a laptop and use IMovie

 

was that a thing? Where can I watch that and did they do the same for Titan returns and potp?

 

"Oh that's cute, you think you're important!" -Optimus 2016

They have a preview for their Titans return one, but from what I can tell they never uploaded it.

 

I love that the creative team gave this conceptually bizarre character, a four-legged space shuttle thing, a redemption arc. For context, I’ve never had any attachment to any previous interpretations of the character. But now, I do. This unique individual thinks he deserves the right to bear the matrix because he’s uniquely powerful, and therefore arrogant. The exile literally forces him to meditate and see life from a different perspective. This weird looking creature, with potential to be seen as the “other” by Cybertronian society was seen as an actual threat by Alpha Trion, almost as if Sky Lynx bought into the idea that he should be feared. Sure, that’s conjecture, but I think there’s enough there hidden deep beneath the subtext, at least for me personally. And honestly, the “other” concept isn’t a necessary reading on the character, but for me it enriches the redemption arc.

Then Alpha Trion does the unthinkable (at least in SL’s mind), he uses real power to banish him. Exiled and alone with his thoughts, it’s clear that he doesn’t want to spend eternity with the person he’s become. Humbled and broken, he sees the error of his ways. I don’t think he’s fully redeemed until he meets Optimus, someone as deeply flawed as Sky Lynx himself. And guess what, he was chosen by the matrix and endorsed by Alpha Trion. Again, Sky Lynx is presented with a new perspective, maybe even from Primus himself. He was meant to find Optimus in the Dead Universe and guide him. In a way, Sky Lynx is just as important as any previous mentor or anyone else influential to Prime.

Sky Lynx wanted power/and or influence in one way, but received it a different way....an unforeseen, but honorable way. I think that’s admirable.

 

Hey, does anyone else find it really difficult to accept six, twenty minute episodes as an actual season? How in the hell can you call eighteen, twenty minute episodes a series? Heck, even those 90's anime series like Cowboy Beebop and Outlaw Star had 26 episodes. Does it really cost so much that you can't even have 12 episodes a season? I know they're not spending any money on the voice acting. You can't possibly tell any kind of detailed story in these ridiculously limited episodes. Oh yeah, discount Peter Cullen was exceptionally terrible this go around.

 

Earthrise to me felt worse as an arc than Siege, at least in Siege we had a more compelling conflict. The war has torn their planet apart and Megatron lost all his chances at redemption when he felt betrayed by Magnus sic-ing Optimus at the Allspark. Of course we can see Shockwave's there to really lean on him to do the harsher things. I really liked how they tried to carry that over into Earthrise but it all feels undone by how much of a bad protagonist Optimus is. He is so unlikeable in this show.

The Quintesson part of the story somehow felt shoehorned in and Scorponok does not actually present anything to the story than as an obstacle to validate Megs and Prime's conversation and short lived cooperation. It's a storytelling choice that further suffers from the blatant overuse of the Starscream trope (this could REALLY have been handled better). I really feel like had the Scorponok part been omitted or tied more strongly to Deeseus (exploring the Quintesson influence over that Spacebridge issue and such), the story would have felt more cohesive.

I really felt sorry for Cog though, he was just the throwaway Autobot for the story to get a pity scene. Had it been set up earlier, like having him stow-away during their escape from Deeseus and him doing some stealth missions to try and assist the Autobots earlier on, it might have been a more compelling death.

I am still excited about the fact that Beast Wars is part of Kingdom. I don't really have high hopes for it now but I am still looking forward to what they do with this and how this can potentially open a different timeline which they can revisit.