TF Prime episodes

[Sparky Prime]

I watched the first three episodes (or movie, whatever) of Beast Hunters last night on YouTube.

It's on youtube already?! Oh, from when it aired in Singapore?

Predaking came from fossilized CNA? Ok then... I guess whatever works. Nice to see several new characters.

[JediTricks]

I'm not going to watch the episodes on Youtube, so please use spoiler tags for discussions of that.

I did watch last night's premiere on The Hub, and WHAT A FUCKING WASTE OF TIME. There are only 13 episodes left, and they felt that turkey was a good use of the little remaining time?!?

Let's see:
- nothing really happens, it's a very slow episode in general.
- there are no Predacons at all, the big reveal at the end isn't in any way a worthy payoff to sitting through this episode. "Hey look, it's Shockwave, a guy we used to know, he's pretty tough, that'll be amusing, right? Mwa ha ha, I guess."
- the Autobots bridge out and then almost immediately get itchy and start heading back to Jasper, in full violation of Optimus' orders.
- Bumblebee somehow evades the enemy's scans by simply changing his paint job.
- Optimus is saved by the cheapest retcon possible, Smokescreen is great as usual but that explanation made no sense, he bridges out, takes the same bridge back even though Ratchet at this point has bridged out to a different place and everyone else is gone except Optimus who doesn't spot him and then whom he saves even though we already saw the whole place comes down on top of.
- Jack does something STUPID in direct violation of Arcee's orders, but Arcee leaving him unattended was stupid too, and they get tracked down in seconds. Then they have a battle that makes no sense at all just to have a battle, it gets them nowhere and does nothing.
- The Decepticons talk big game but aside from a single shot from their oddly renamed spire fortress that kills some humans in tanks in a rather silly manner, nothing comes of their plots, they just keep talking about what they will do eventually.
- Megatron makes a PHONE CALL to Fowler, what was the point of this, and a phone call, really???

This whole episode felt like filler, not really much in the way of exposition or character development or even plausible battle, yet there's no time at all for filler with so few episodes left. And why call this episode "Beast Hunters" without even paying that off?

[Tigermegatron]

I'm not going to watch the episodes on Youtube, so please use spoiler tags for discussions of that.

I did watch last night's premiere on The Hub, and WHAT A FUCKING WASTE OF TIME. There are only 13 episodes left, and they felt that turkey was a good use of the little remaining time?!?

Let's see:
- nothing really happens, it's a very slow episode in general.
- there are no Predacons at all, the big reveal at the end isn't in any way a worthy payoff to sitting through this episode. "Hey look, it's Shockwave, a guy we used to know, he's pretty tough, that'll be amusing, right? Mwa ha ha, I guess."
- the Autobots bridge out and then almost immediately get itchy and start heading back to Jasper, in full violation of Optimus' orders.
- Bumblebee somehow evades the enemy's scans by simply changing his paint job.
- Optimus is saved by the cheapest retcon possible, Smokescreen is great as usual but that explanation made no sense, he bridges out, takes the same bridge back even though Ratchet at this point has bridged out to a different place and everyone else is gone except Optimus who doesn't spot him and then whom he saves even though we already saw the whole place comes down on top of.
- Jack does something STUPID in direct violation of Arcee's orders, but Arcee leaving him unattended was stupid too, and they get tracked down in seconds. Then they have a battle that makes no sense at all just to have a battle, it gets them nowhere and does nothing.
- The Decepticons talk big game but aside from a single shot from their oddly renamed spire fortress that kills some humans in tanks in a rather silly manner, nothing comes of their plots, they just keep talking about what they will do eventually.
- Megatron makes a PHONE CALL to Fowler, what was the point of this, and a phone call, really???

This whole episode felt like filler, not really much in the way of exposition or character development or even plausible battle, yet there's no time at all for filler with so few episodes left. And why call this episode "Beast Hunters" without even paying that off?

As we've already seen in the past 52 episodes of TF Prime,The series is well capable of turning up the heat/speed,craming tons of action into a episode & going at a fast pace.

Whether or not it's a proportioned paced season is unknown. With Various TF cartoons series,Usually they are not proportioned paced.
most of the time the last few episodes of the season/series go at a super fast pace,cram ton of action/violenence/death/battles/etc..
2009 Animated was the worst offender of this as they had more stand alone non-plot episodes per season & chose to do the plot heavy battle violence episodes for the last 3 episodes each season/finale.

I suspect TFP/BH season 3 will have a similar pace/action/violence/deaths/intense no holds barred battles that BM Season 2 had.

It's been already widely Speculated that a big majority of the Predacons toys will not be in TFP/BH season 3. So if anyone is expecting a big majority-65%+/ or all of the Predacons be in season 3,THEIR IN FOR A HUGE DISSAPOINTMENT. The major hint that the majority of the predacons won't be in season 3,Is Takara's japan toy line not yet listing the majority of them on order pages. Usually Takara has a habit of not selling that many non-show characters toys.

Due to the High cost of creating more CGI TF models & the time consuming Process,We are not getting all of the Predacons toys in TFP/BH Season 3. We'll be luck to see Two maybe Three Predacons in TFP/BH Season 3. Lets not forget Every TF CGI characters gets 2 models,the robot & alt mode. THIS IS WHY I HATE CGI & PREFER CEL BASED. AS CEL BASED ALLOWS FOR UNLIMITED TF CHARACTERS IN A TF CARTOON SERIES.

[JediTricks]

Due to the High cost of creating more CGI TF models & the time consuming Process,We are not getting all of the Predacons toys in TFP/BH Season 3. We'll be luck to see Two maybe Three Predacons in TFP/BH Season 3. Lets not forget Every TF CGI characters gets 2 models,the robot & alt mode. THIS IS WHY I HATE CGI & PREFER CEL BASED. AS CEL BASED ALLOWS FOR UNLIMITED TF CHARACTERS IN A TF CARTOON SERIES.

This is a fundamentally flawed understanding of the business of animation. Cel-based animation suffers the exact same cost issue there, it takes time and money to pay a talented artist to draw out a TF model, and then it takes more time and money to pay animators to include more character models. In fact, cel-based animation costs more overall because once the CGI model is created they don't have to pay more to reuse it over and over, where cel animation requires artist time to replicate characters episode after episode. The more action and more characters drawn on-screen in a cel-based animation, the more time it takes to draw all that action and all those different characters.

[Tigermegatron]

Due to the High cost of creating more CGI TF models & the time consuming Process,We are not getting all of the Predacons toys in TFP/BH Season 3. We'll be luck to see Two maybe Three Predacons in TFP/BH Season 3. Lets not forget Every TF CGI characters gets 2 models,the robot & alt mode. THIS IS WHY I HATE CGI & PREFER CEL BASED. AS CEL BASED ALLOWS FOR UNLIMITED TF CHARACTERS IN A TF CARTOON SERIES.

This is a fundamentally flawed understanding of the business of animation. Cel-based animation suffers the exact same cost issue there, it takes time and money to pay a talented artist to draw out a TF model, and then it takes more time and money to pay animators to include more character models. In fact, cel-based animation costs more overall because once the CGI model is created they don't have to pay more to reuse it over and over, where cel animation requires artist time to replicate characters episode after episode. The more action and more characters drawn on-screen in a cel-based animation, the more time it takes to draw all that action and all those different characters.

Beastwars & TFP/BH which were CGI have less characters in the cartoons compared to generation one or Armada or energon or cybertron or 2001 Rid. All due to the extremly high cost & time consuming job of doing CGI models.

Personally I prefer the way the 2001 Rid,Energon & Cybertron cartoon handled the cartoon characters. They chose to use back grounds & human characters that were hand drawn,while the robots looked like they were almost CGI models. I honestly think this is the best route to go for future TF cartoon series.

[Onslaught Six]

Personally I prefer the way the 2001 Rid,Energon & Cybertron cartoon handled the cartoon characters. They chose to use back grounds & human characters that were hand drawn,while the robots looked like they were almost CGI models. I honestly think this is the best route to go for future TF cartoon series.

RID didn't do that.

[andersonh1]

I'm not going to watch the episodes on Youtube, so please use spoiler tags for discussions of that.

I don't have The Hub, so my options are to buy the DVD when it comes out (which I plan to do) and to try and catch episodes on YouTube or wherever while I'm waiting. I'll try to either be vague or use spoilers in future. I think we got three episodes from the Singapore broadcast, which was what I got to see.

- Jack does something STUPID in direct violation of Arcee's orders, but Arcee leaving him unattended was stupid too, and they get tracked down in seconds. Then they have a battle that makes no sense at all just to have a battle, it gets them nowhere and does nothing.

Who gets things right every time? Yeah, it was a dumb move on Jack's part, but it was emotionally believable. And the scene served a purpose because it showed just how closely the Decepticons were monitoring for any sign of the fugitives. They found them quickly and sent a strike force quickly. The threat was communicated very effectively.

This whole episode felt like filler, not really much in the way of exposition or character development or even plausible battle, yet there's no time at all for filler with so few episodes left. And why call this episode "Beast Hunters" without even paying that off?

Because it's essentially part 1 of a three part story. It's setup. Payoff is coming.

[JediTricks]

Beastwars & TFP/BH which were CGI have less characters in the cartoons compared to generation one or Armada or energon or cybertron or 2001 Rid. All due to the extremly high cost & time consuming job of doing CGI models.

Personally I prefer the way the 2001 Rid,Energon & Cybertron cartoon handled the cartoon characters. They chose to use back grounds & human characters that were hand drawn,while the robots looked like they were almost CGI models. I honestly think this is the best route to go for future TF cartoon series.

Energon and Cybertron weren't hand-drawn characters, they were CGI. And you have no idea the costs on RID or G1 in this equation, but the fact is that CGI costs have dropped considerably while human talent costs have skyrocketed.

Energon is the worst-looking CGI of all time, using cheap cel-shaded CGI characters was the worst possible choice.

I'm not going to watch the episodes on Youtube, so please use spoiler tags for discussions of that.

I don't have The Hub, so my options are to buy the DVD when it comes out (which I plan to do) and to try and catch episodes on YouTube or wherever while I'm waiting. I'll try to either be vague or use spoilers in future. I think we got three episodes from the Singapore broadcast, which was what I got to see.

Of course, and I don't expect you to curb that conversation, just use the spoiler button in the toolbar and it'll add the tags itself around the spoiler content.

Who gets things right every time? Yeah, it was a dumb move on Jack's part, but it was emotionally believable. And the scene served a purpose because it showed just how closely the Decepticons were monitoring for any sign of the fugitives. They found them quickly and sent a strike force quickly. The threat was communicated very effectively.

Here's the thing, it's either 1 OR the other, either it's a reasonable mistake because the risk is mitigated by a lack of threat, or the threat is bigger than it's ever been and there's no room for error. And since we had already been shown scenes of the 'Cons hunting more than they ever had, including Miko's phone scene, there really was no need for Jack to make that mistake from a cellphone except to create a false sense of danger and a pointless fight scene. Like the rest of this episode, it was filler.

Because it's essentially part 1 of a three part story. It's setup. Payoff is coming.

That's not how storytelling works, you don't waste a whole serial doing and saying nothing of consequence and setting things up, that should be act 1 of episode 1, not all its acts. Episode 1 should stand alone even acting as the first of a 3 parter, much less 1/13th of the entire season.

[Onslaught Six]

Energon and Cybertron weren't hand-drawn characters, they were CGI. And you have no idea the costs on RID or G1 in this equation, but the fact is that CGI costs have dropped considerably while human talent costs have skyrocketed.

Energon and Cybertron had traditionally animated human characters.

[JediTricks]

Yesterday's episode was better, they could have left out 90% of the first episode and this episode would have still worked.

Shockwave vs Starscream was an interesting give and take.

Bulkhead's constant praise of Wheeljack is starting to come off as pretty gay now, it's like "just suck his robodick and get it over with already!"

Wheeljack is now officially too capable, as much fun as his moments were they strained credulity, if he's so damned good then why didn't he stick around and teach his skills to the rest of the Autobots already?

Loved Ratchet's attitude about all this, kind of hated the amount of BB-talk in the scene but Ratchet's bit was just right, some hopelessness and then he comes around.

Look at that, Jack and Arcee didn't have any ill effects from the prior battle, what a fucking surprise. An utterly pointless moment there and now they just wander around until they stumble across Ultra Magnus, such a lame way to do that.

Kind of annoyed that Smokescreen's quest only began now, that should have happened in the last episode.

Getting to Predaking felt a little rote, too easy, but at least we're finally there.

How exactly did they figure out Starscream was using the Harbinger as a base and how did find they find it so easily?

Knockout laughed at Starscream's Bigfoot image of Ratchet being turned into the monkey, that was funny. The 'Cons need to fix their browsers' caching though.

Energon and Cybertron weren't hand-drawn characters, they were CGI. And you have no idea the costs on RID or G1 in this equation, but the fact is that CGI costs have dropped considerably while human talent costs have skyrocketed.

Energon and Cybertron had traditionally animated human characters.

So? They weren't the primary focus of the action.