(G1) A Decepticon in King Arthur's Court: 9.5/10

The episode itself was nearly flawless, but I'm required to subtract half a point for Spike's appearance in the story.

 

Beast wars: Gorilla Warfare!

7/10 too much Primal!

Serious Answer: 8/10: A good episode with great character interactions between Dinobot, Primal and Cheetor. It explores alternative ways to problems that isn't non violent and it clearly contrasts Primal's and Dinobot's personalities, and how their perspective on war isn't totally aligned. Plus Primal beating up on Waspinator was epic.

 

I just posted a longer, rambling diatribe about it in my rewatch thread, but:

The Beast Wars II theatrical special "Lio Convoy is in Imminent Danger"

3/10

All that promise and visual splash and the freedom to do whatever they wanted in a largely non-canonical story that didn't have any restrictions of being tethered to the canon series storyline or plot requirements. And they flushed it all away in an infuriatingly drawn out examination of why Lio Junior is an irredeemably awful character that the writers keep throwing at us in a misguided attempt to make him a character we should empathize and identify with for his spoiled, arrogant, selfish, dick-headed ways.

Toss in that the major villain reveal of Majin Zarak makes basically no sense and that the Optimus Primal/Convoy cameo is largely pointless and uninteresting for how little he's actually involved in the plot and resolution and you're left with 45 minutes of fairly pretty looking animation that is practically unenjoyable because it focuses on a terrible character as a bunch of random things with no build up, no meaning, and no lasting consequences occur around his being an insufferable jackass while the show and all its characters beat you over the head with how you're actually supposed to like him and sympathize with his ongoing need to be recognized as far more capable than he actually is.

It was mostly awful. The best part was the like 15 seconds of the Seacons at the beginning, including them transforming and seeing all of their faces for the first time outside of the god neptune transformation stock footage.

 

The Chaos: 8.5/10. I like how they made an episode based of Kup story. But I found many animation errors on it.

 

G1 Cartoon
Fire in the Sky:
5.5/10
I really like the concept of the episode even if the execution leaves some to be desired, seeing Starscream bossing Skywarp and Rumble around being immediately sent into shock upon seeing someone stuck in ice, it's heartwarming seeing Starscream care so much about someone else besides him, how he is insistent with with bringing Skyfire back, how he promises that when he becomes the new leader Skyfire will be the new second in command, the part where this falls kinda flat is how quickly Starscream dismisses Skyfire, i wanted a bit more hesitation, speaking of hesitation, though Skyfire prefers to be a scientist, the episode kinda gives the idea he only defected to the Autobots due to not wanting to hurt the humans, to be more clear, he wasn't against the idea of conquering worlds until he found out about the Decepticons plans to destroy Earth in the process, maybe im reading it wrong, would be cool if there was more exploration on the topiC. Action had some interesting stuff, the scene where Megatron use his waist swivel to turn 180 degrees and uses his wrist swivel to turn a crystal shard into a rotor blade are stuff i never saw before

 

Beast wars neo ep 1 "big convoy, move out!" -7/10

its pretty hard for me to watch anime anymore because i've had my fill of their tropes/clichés/tradmarks but the writing of neo at least keeps me interested, more so than BW 2 did, which used to be my fav of the two. it establishes its characters and prmise pretty quick and by the end of the episode you can tell where things will be going. ive recently looked into and enjoyed the expanded lore surrounding the series. i really wish the series got a proper english dub. And yes, i looked into the fandub project, dont get me started on that trainwreck of an attempt(big convoy, a gruff military character sounds like a half-wit talking into a dixie cup)

 

Cyberverse S3 EP 14-17, The End of the Universe: 7/10

This is weird. The story itself is excellent, and the action works. Maccadam's sacrifice was painful and genuinely struck a chord with me. But there's an underlying feel of the scripts having been passed around the table more than once. There are moments where it feels like the characters are acting more like they did in S2, then they'll shift back. Plus, the framing device- with Kup telling a story and providing exposition- is just weird. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed the episodes. It just felt off somehow.

 

This is an emotional address:
The image, provided by yourself, has just been able to convince me that Heaven's showcase piece, in fact belongs to the California-bubble. Ostensibly, the cause of the misappropriation of Heaven's showcase is that the bubble in question is California's visual person identity.

To clarify:
the very philosophical issue, is where to start?

 

I’d agree for scorp, less for terrorsaur. Scorp was fodder as a second in command, made weapons a couple of times but never had the charisma of Soundwave or Bombshell (ultimately his G1 counterparts). A possible fix would be if bee drones had bot modes and came in a couple different flavors of insect. (Kids like a pack in micromaster), but that didn’t happen.

Terrorsaur? We knew exactly what was up with him. 100% star scream redux. High pitched, not actually second in command but seizes leadership if Megatron is down, scheming, flying coward. Even as a child it was fairly obvious.

and because I liked starscream, I liked terrorsaur…

shame his spark didn’t know how to be a ghost.

 

Blaster Blues - 6/10

Meh. IMO not a great episode. Blaster spends a good portion of the episode immobilized, and this is supposed to be his spotlight episode. I feel a bit sorry for Blaster fans, unless he gets another spotlight episode later. There's also a lot of screentime devoted to showing the effects of the Decepticons cutting off the radio waves, and the Autobots trying to help humans. A little of that was cool (I enjoy seeing the heroes helping civilians in superhero stories), but eventually it started to feel like filler.

I did really like that shot of Optimus racing into the Autobot base and transforming dramatically...a lot of G1 transformations tend to use relatively static stock footage, but that was a really intense and unique transformation. The fight on the moon was also a cool setting. And I'll give a few points for featuring Omega Supreme.

Oh, I also liked Jazz's line about just wanting to come along because he likes kicking Decepticon butt (or something to that effect). Kind of funny that people always criticize the Bayverse Autobots for being too mean-spirited and trigger-happy, but they kind of act like that in G1 too (although probably less frequently). Optimus even tells Blaster to "shut up".

The God Gambit - 7.5/10

I thought God Gambit was a really cool episode. I like Transformers stories that think outside the box and do different things. I like seeing other aliens and cultures and whatnot. Some fun details here like Omega Supreme reconfiguring his rail system as a bridge.

Honestly, Omega Surpreme is one of my favorite underrated TF characters, and any episode that heavily features him tends to get points from me. Looking forward to rewatching his spotlight episode soon. God Gambit actually had a really fun cast...Omega, Jazz, Astrotrain, etc. Interesting that both of these episodes had more or less the same core cast...I just think God Gambit had a more engaging story.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I started watching through G1 way back in 2018, but got busy with school stuff and left off somewhere in Season 2. Finally decided to continue. It's a fun show, but I do get burnt out on it if I watch too much too quickly.

Think I'll finish off the remining episodes of Season 2, and take another break before S3. I want to watch some other shows like Avatar and Clone Wars. Also need to finish Animated and watch more Beast Wars. I'm a lazy TV watcher, lol.

 

The Core: 10/10

Objectively speaking, this episode is probably closer to a 6 or 7 out of ten. However, this is my personal favorite G1 episode and one of my favorite Transformers episodes period. To me, this encapsulates everything I love about G1 and Transformers as a whole.

It's got a cheesy yet enjoyable plot, decent action, G1 Megatron having a well thought out plan (in terms of the original cartoon, this might be one of his better ones), Devastator being well utilized and an actual threat, Optimus Prime and Megatron teaming up, and one of the best Optimus Prime quotes (Peter Cullen's favorite line, "Hang onto your dreams. The future is built on dreams."). And while I know they're...controversial, to say the least, I actually find this to be one of the better AKOM animated episodes (although it's still not great).

It's no masterpiece, but it's one that I always enjoy revisiting from time to time.

 

The Perfect Decepticon. Probably 7/10. Even at 45-minutes it felt a little rushed, but otherwise a decent series finale.

 

Desertion of the Dinobots Arc: 8/10

I haven't watched the G1 cartoon in a good while, and honestly, I am stunned at how well so much of it holds up regardless of its origins as a children's toy commercial. I think it actually does a great job at giving the Dinobots some character and some development by having them sick of saving the Autobots' skidplates. At the end, they realize helping out once in a while can be a good thing, and I feel by having Optimus commend them for their work, it shows serious growth for the Autobots too by having them recognize the good (destructive) work the Dinobots do. The only real problem I have from a story structure perspective is that the beginning with the drone served no real purpose.

Another highlight of S2 for me so far in my rewatch is the Megatron's Master Plan two-parter. They probably didn't intend to do this, but they totally predicted the "fake news" era. It's honestly surprising how good of a study it is on how the media can so easily control the narrative to whatever they please.

I'm reminded by how I fell in love in Transformers through some of these episodes. Thought I was going to regret rewatching some "shitty 80s cartoon" but honestly, I kind of want that vibe and energy back in the next shows to come.

 

I can't really say specifically what episode I'm on in Cybertron because I'm watching ahead of the reviews I'm posting and I don't want to jump the gun. Plus they all sort of bleed together at this point.

But it's the Velocitron race arc in Cybertron.

OH MY GOD JUST MAKE IT END ALREADY! I didn't need like 8 episodes of Hot Shot and his burning desire to be the biggest hero and save everyone even if he disobeyed Optimus' orders and all common sense to do so played out over basically exactly the same race plot on repeat. I just want to move on to the other story arcs already.

5/10 because there are some decent elements to it like Override and the bits where we're on Jungle Planet instead. But 2/10 for pacing UUUUUUUGGGGHHHHH.

 

One of my favorite shots as well. I especially love how they actually made the effort to give his arrival an echo since he was driving in what was effectively a tunnel.

I love Omega, myself.

"We'll pull you back over the edge!"
"No! Strength: insufficient. Cosmos required."
"We'll find Cosmos, and his energy source, then come back for ya! Just don't move."
"Sarcasm: not appreciated."

 

G1 Heavy Metal War...actually the phenomenal stop motion version by Mangmotion on YouTube.

HMW was one of my favourite G1 episodes growing up. I confess I'm not a huge fan of the series especially Season 2.

The episode itself I would give 8/10 both due to nostalgia and it was one of the better written and animated G1 episodes.

The stop motion update a solid 10/10. Fantastic adaption with easily some of the best stop motion on YouTube. They also significantly bulked up the main fight between Prime and Megatron.

I would love to see them animate some of the badly animated G1 episodes especially Dark Awakening.

 

God yeah, the Velocitron arc is painfully slow.

 

Prime - Deadlock.
Most satisfying end to any chapter of the franchise imo and the send off at the end gets me every time. I also really love how a bunch of things introduced over the course of the first season get some revisiting with the synthetic energon and shadowzone stuff. Plus, as much as I generally prefer for the final fight to be entirely between Optimus and Megatron, Bumblebee dealing the final blow with that line and with everything that had happened felt so earned.

It leaves just enough open plot threads at the end to get the imagination going but doesn’t leave you feeling like you absolutely need more, and I’m glad that you don’t absolutely need to follow it up with Predacons Rising for the story to feel complete.

 

Animated - Endgame Pts 1 & 2.

10/10

Absolutely great way to end the series, even if season 4 should've happened.

 

First three episodes of Siege. 9/10. Very easy to rewatch. Only loses the point because of Soundwave's voice and Hasbro's insistence on shoving Bumblebee down our throats.