Honestly question, if Optimus was in that position, would he have done what Rodimus had done which was destroy the planet instead of letting the Decepticons have it, or would he have found another way? I know he wouldn't have casually brushed Sandstorm's mourning of it.

But it's an interesting dilemma.

 

Honestly, I dunno what to answer, other than the fact that I just hate the episode. It was rushed, characters didn't feel like themselves, the performances felt a bit lacking and it just felt uninspired.

Rodimus in particular was the worst offender because he felt pretty much off-character. What I personally think he would have done if he had been in-character, he would have felt guilt about destroying their home.

Sandstorm and his development was the only thing I liked about the episode, but I seriously consider it the worst episode of the season and along with Starscream's Ghost and Only Human, it's one of the episodes I always skip whenever I rewatch season three.

 

I don't totally hate it, but I agree that Rodimus was VERY poorly written in "Fight or Flee". I don't think Optimus would have done what Rodimus did in that episode, but I don't think Rodimus would have done what Rodimus did in that episode either.

I actually enjoy Starscream's Ghost, but only because I like the Skuxxoid ("I've got a wife and kids!") and, well, Starscream's ghost. Octane makes no sense in the episode (Blitzwing would have been much better), the animation was bad, and most of the story didn't make sense.

 

Exactly, Rodimus' reaction was so off-character and awkward that it just felt like a whole another character.

Yeah, I still am ticked that Blitzwing wasn't used (he really was well developed in Five Faces of Darkness, and it saddens me that they didn't have him around for more). I don't hate Octane (in fact, he and Trypticon were pretty amusing in Thief in the Night), but he felt out of place. As for Starscream's ghost, Chris did deliver an excellent performance as he always did, but I always felt Ghost in the Machine was a much superior story for Screamer (plus, it had the Battlechargers, which for me was a plus). The Skuxxoid always provides a few laughs, but it still isn't enough to save the episode for me.

 

Ghost in the Machine is definitely a better story.

 

I think Optimus would’ve found a different way

I think the Writers should’ve given Rod more options to at least consider.....I don’t necessarily think it was the worst decision to make it was just that it was handled as if there could not be anything else to consider

As to Blitswing......I honestly wish they would’ve had octane in that part in the five pieces of darkness......Because as much as I like what was done in the story itself, It wasn’t exactly in character for Blitswing

In season 2 and the film, Blitswing was more of a brute fighter that gave little thought to his to his actions.The way they used him in 5FoD just didn’t jive with his earlier depiction....And I’m sure you could say they were trying to expand on him but since they ended up not doing that anyway I just think it would’ve been better if they had chosen octane from the start

 

Honestly yes.

That said everyone complaining how the Autobots felt out of character, I'm sitting here going Sandstorm is way too ok with them destroying his home.....just saying.

 

I imagine Optimus would've found another way.

 

This is also true. That didn't make sense either. Actually, the only ones acting normally were the Decepticons, and even then, they managed to mess things up by having Bruticus, of all characters, take over Cyclonus' role for a quarter of the episode!
TFWiki explains it better than I can:
Bruticus's role in this episode is utterly bizarre; it is tempting to assume that Cyclonus was supposed to be scripted in his place:

• He's shown hanging out with Galvatron in a control center, acting as Galvatron's right hand man.
• He's depicted as only slightly taller than Galvatron.
• He is noticeably eloquent, speaking in full, normal sentences, in his otherwise normal voice.
• His components are seen separately from him throughout - most notably, we see him in the control room, then see Brawl (Bruticus's leg) firing the molecular cannon, then immediately cut back to Bruticus in the control room.

Using Octane in FFOD would have worked, too, but they definitely should have used ONE character for that arc rather than two.

 

What doesn't help is that in that sequence, it looks like Brawl is an animation error, because his voice sounds kinda different (sounds more like Rampage than Brawl).

 

So....Bruticus was supposed to be Cyclonus, Brawl was supposed to be Rampage, and Blitzwing apparenly got himself un-banished, because he shows up with the Decepticons when they attack Paradron (this also happened in "The Ultimate Weapon").

 

Yeah, Fight or Flee's animation is pretty much unfinished. However, the scene that had Razorclaw and Brawl chasing Sandstorm, that most certainly was supposed to be Brawl, since he had his proper voice.

As for Bruticus, it is kinda confusing, because yes, he is mostly eloquent, but there is a moment where he doesn't seem to recognize figure of speech, making him look rather dumb. I don't think that would be fitting for Cyclonus, but it does make perfect sense for Bruticus to be confused. However, he has been acting too much like Cyclonus up until that point that you just are left scratching your head. Who the hell is Bruticus supposed to be?

 

You're right. Trying to work out how that particular error happened makes my head hurt.

 

Everyone should watch CynixBox's paraody of the episode on youtube. That guy is one hilarious "mutha fucha".

 

Remember when Optimus Prime had to choose between Cybertron and the Earth in The Ultimate Doom and DOTM?

 

Optimus did seem to struggle with that decision

I never got that vibe from Rodimus.....Fault of the writers of course

 

Sorry for diverging from the topic question but:
I agree it didn't suit Blitzwing character in FFOD - I can think of many existing Decepticons that would have fitted it better - Soundwave or Onslaught being good choices. A shame Thundercrtacker wasn't still around as he would have been ideal.
If Blitzwing hadn't had the encounter with Hot Rod in The Movie, I'd have been fine with it as he could have changed a lot in the years after season 2. Then again, perhaps the lack of energon just sobered him up in time for the Quintesson arrival.

 

All interesting ideas.

 

There was a LOT of that in S3. Character substitutions based on toys and actor availability and availability of character designs.

Sparkplug was supposed to be in S3.

My wish, as always, for a comic would be an "HD Remaster" of the cartoon. Go through, sort out and remove the errors and substitutions. Address stuff the cartoon skipped.

Maybe in some cases, patch the errors over with a new story. The Aerialbots were created by Alpha Trion who went back and helped Alpha Trion create Optimus and later helped A3 become Alpha Trion. So maybe the Constructicon gaffe has a similar story. (Megatron is shown corrupting the Constructicons but the Constructicons are shown to create Megatron to be a Decepticon. Maybe they have a parallel story where they get sucked into a Quintesson Time Portal.)

There's plenty of nuggets to address. Most of the TFs seem new to Quintessons and especially that they created the TFs but Optimus knows who they are and acts like he's met them before in a way that feels like more than Matrix knowledge.

We never see Elita One while Optimus is dead.

I would love a story that allows for Wheeljack to meet his grandchildren the Technobots.

One thing I really like about Devastation is that it's continuity feels a lot like Sunbow but there are teases of TFTM as an event in the future. Wheeljack gets a warning that he'll die when the Chaos Bringer awakens. Sideswipe is told that he'll betray the Autobots (never paid off). Bumblebee is told that he'll take many new identities including Goldbug, Goldfire, and Race-Welder (which implies new story well beyond The Rebirth).

I like the idea of sort of retelling G1 KNOWING who's going to die and maybe the audience knowing as well.

How the S2 bots and cons got to Earth.

Maybe some would be bored with something that colors inside the lines but I'd love something character driven with all the major cartoon events as fixed markers, sometimes adapting and clarifying the cartoon and sometimes going off on detours like Astoria Ritz-Carlton reteaming with Powerglide years later or that kind of thing.

 

I had a comic on here I started and never got close to finishing that addressed where the missing characters were during the movie/the Autobot City battle. It followed the carbots who were never killed onscreen nor in storyboards, but just never showed up again, like Sideswipe, Skids, Tracks, etc. as they searched for Hound and Sunstreaker.

There were also supposed to be appearances from Snarl (to explain his absence in the movie) and Blitzwing (to explain the beginnings of his treacherous feelings) among others. The end was going to reveal it was a story Hound was telling a dying Sunstreaker with his hologram projector, but might have also actually happened.

Needlessly dark, I know. But I get the fixation with tying up all the loose ends, lol.