Animated Series discussion thread (spoilers allowed)

[donosaur]

I sense that one of the arcs for this season will be giving Sari her powers back as she learns to control them. Ratchet basically circumvented her more destructive abilities, but you know they are going to start getting reactivated a little bit at a time (much like Bumblebee's stingers, yeah?). I like her redesign, like the new voice Strong is giving her, wonder about what she's going to do from now on. Personally, I think now she IS the key. Whether she'll be able to

Spoiler

heal Autobots by hand or find Allspark pieces (if those even matter anymore) with her mind remains uncertain, but the show might go that direction.

More about the episode: I like that Omega Supreme sort of fell into Ratchet's hands on accident. It made great use of the Arcee flashback, love to see that those seeds are growing still. I also am fascinated by the autobot upper command and their questionable moral standing, it's one of the better themes this series has going for it. I want more Perceptor, Wheeljack, and Highbrow, yes please. As for Perceptor's voice, I find it extremely interesting, and therefore I like it, but I'm not sure I understand why they went that route with him. Any ideas?

You have no idea how pleased with myself I was when Starscream shot a laser out of his mouth and I was like, "AH! Star-SCREAM!!! YES" Curious how his accomplished so much in this episode and yet still doesn't have his body back.

Spoiler

Granted, he's controlling Omega now (shades of BW?) and despite warping randomly around the galaxy at the end of the episode, he's got the upper hand over Megatron.

I really hope the Chaar team and Team Rodimus get more play. A LOT more play. I don't mind too many of the voices in this group, actually, Strika seemed natural, Rodimus just sounded tired. I'm kind of let down by Hotshot, to tell the truth. His VA was so distinctive and annoying in AEC that this new voice is not as memorable.

That's all I can think of right now.

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Blurr's death still is a huge shocker, I think he's the first death we SEE in this series. Yikes.

[onslaught86]

Um, why? This is the spoiler discussion thread. Why are we spoiler-tagging?

Good point.


Dom
-needs sleep.

[BWprowl]

As for Perceptor's voice, I find it extremely interesting, and therefore I like it, but I'm not sure I understand why they went that route with him. Any ideas?

TFwiki hypothosized that it's a reference to Stephen Hawking, which is as good an explanation as I could've come up with.

One thing I'll say I'm liking is the continuing trend of Megatron not giving a damn who Optimus is ("A pity I can't remember your name."), which is a decidedly different direction from...pretty much every other TF series where the Megatron and Prime (or respective analogues) were DESTINED RIVALZ! Here, Optimus is just another of a bunch of Autobots that have been little than a thorn in Megatron's side for a while. And it's neat that they're doing it that way.

[Onslaught Six]

Good to see that I'm not the only one who noticed that.

[donosaur]

Newest episode: Three's a Crowd. Dirt Boss is pretty awesome. I wish we were getting constructicon toys, soooo badly. I feel like this episode didn't move things forward so much as deal with all the loose ends left over from the premiere. not finding the cons because the cloaking devices were still on? Nice one. But overall I just feel like this episode spun its wheels a little too much. The character and humor carries this one, imo

[Onslaught Six]

I was pretty let down, actually. Bulkhead's a dumbass. The Constructicons will never be good guys, fat man--accept it and move on.

[BWprowl]

More Bulkhead is good, but Bulkhead being a dumbass is bad. Ah well, Dirt Boss is a delight. We need a toy, if only because he turns into a friggin' forklift. Am I the only one who was wicked disappointed by the fact that they didn't all combine in this episode?

Also, where the hell was Sari?

[Mirage]

More Bulkhead is good, but Bulkhead being a dumbass is bad. Ah well, Dirt Boss is a delight. We need a toy, if only because he turns into a friggin' forklift. Am I the only one who was wicked disappointed by the fact that they didn't all combine in this episode?

With only three? I think they're slowly building up to having enough of them to make Devs. I just hope they weren't planning on saving the big reveal for Season 4...

[BWprowl]

Alright, two new episodes, both considerably better than the last!

"Where is thy sting?" premiered Saturday, and finally develops Wasp's plot some more. There are...some issues with this one. Now, the Autobots were clearly somewhat suspicious of 'Bumblebee', especially given how bad of an actor he was, but they still opted to just pursue 'Wasp' and had no problem with 'Bumblebee' staying back at the base. Admittedly they tried to rationalize it with Ratchet's line about him probably being shook up, but still. I HATE it when cartoons do this. If you're going to have a good guy impersonate a bad guy, at least have them do it in a believable way so I'm not screaming at the characters over why they can't see through such a poor disguise. Still, this episode turned out to be a fairly enjoyable clusterf*ck once things got going, with everyone trying to figure out who was on who's side, and fighting amongst themselves because of it. And hey, the Elite Guard is back, including Jetstorm and Jetfire! I also dug enjoyed the running gag with Sentinel being unable to drive in the rain and thus having to run everywhere. *Crazy* happenings at the end there too.

Anyway, you should then head over to YouTube and check out "Five Servos of Doom", which is several flavors of awesome. Mainly in that it's the long-awaited flashback episode for Prowl, features a cameo by a kickass Animated Warpath, and includes George Takei in a Special Guest Role. There are some issues in how it handles it's plot, mainly when you ask questions like "Why didn't Prowl recognize the helmet the first time around?" and "Why did Lockdown suddenly decide to wear the helmet?", but overall, there's simply too much awesome for stuff like that to take away from it. Prowl is...considerably more badass now.

Infuriatingly, Sari was still nowhere to be seen in these episodes. I dunno, maybe that upcoming "Human Error" two-parter is going to deal with her...

[Sparky Prime]

There are some issues in how it handles it's plot, mainly when you ask questions like "Why didn't Prowl recognize the helmet the first time around?" and "Why did Lockdown suddenly decide to wear the helmet?", but overall, there's simply too much awesome for stuff like that to take away from it.

Something else of interest along these lines... The Autobots apparently have no idea what happened to Yokotron and claim no one has seen him in years. Later we find out Prowl was present at his death. So does that mean Prowl covered up Yokotron's death? Yokotron also mentioned that only a fully realized Cyber ninja could learn the processor over matter technique. So if that was all Prowl had left to learn, how come they've suggested in previous episodes that his other skills aren't complete?

At any rate, "Five Servos of Doom" was a really good episode. George Takei was the perfect choice for Yokotron. Actually a little disappointed they killed him off. Would have been cool to see more of the character. Nice to finally get a back story for Prowl. And we found out about Lockdown's past as well.

"Where is thy Sting?" was a decent episode too. Good to see Wasp return for revenge. I'd agree that was annoying with how painfully obvious Wasp switched with Bumblebee and the Autobot's didn't get it. Cool to see the premier of Jetfire and Jetstorm, although I'm not a big fan of their voices. It's just totally they opposite of what I was expecting.

I'm also a bit surprised we haven't seen Sari since her upgrade. I guess they're holding off until they can focus more on the consequences of her actions. Really hate that she never learned her lesson about using the key irresponsibly. That got so old in the first season.