Episode Review - TF Prime Ep 54: Scattered

[GoktimusPrime]

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/spoileralert.jpg

Click here to read plot synopsis (http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Scattered)

Watched this on a YouTube video with SHOCKING quality. Gah. :(

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Thoughts:
+ I like Shockwave. He's the first Shockwave to appear on a show that's inspired by G1 comic Shockwave - i.e.: devoid of emotion and a slave to logic. I like Animated Shockwave too, but he's more like G1 cartoon Shockwave (sounds like him too :p). But really this Shockwave is most like Fall of Cybertron Shockwave (which of course makes sense since they're "clearly" all part of the same continuity, right fellas? :p) -- this is most noticeable in the whole 'mad bio-scientist' aspect which is unique to the Aligned Shockwave character. The way he talked about experimenting and cloning the Predacons hearkens back to the way he created the Insecticons and Dinobots in FoC. But yeah... I like this sort of "evil Spock" like character to Shockwave.
+ I like Shockwave's approach to interrogating Wheeljack vs Starscream's... instead of using a club, let's use a scalpel (i.e. cortical psychic patch).
+ SMELTING POOOOOOOL!! :D :) (and in Darkmount no less)
+ The way Wheeljack escaped from the Smelting Pool looked awesome... I can't wait to see that again in better quality! :rolleyes: But yeah, I liked it because it didn't feel quite as "munchkiny" as Wheeljack's previous Drift-like appearances... this was more like Buzz Lightyear -- "This isn't flying, it's falling with style!" ;)
+ Someone remind me again... how did the Autobots know where to find the Harbinger?
+ The origins of the Predacons is interesting. Not quite what I was expecting, it works well. :)
+ Predaking is HUGE! Now I understand why they're releasing an Ultimate Class version. Sticklers for show scale might wanna wait for the Ultimate version (not saying that it'll be WORTH paying that price point though... but if scale matters that much...)

[Bidoofdude]

I too liked Shockwave a lot. He was so boss!!!:D;)
Predaking was a bit lackluster for me (where's my close up of his butt?:p)
I really liked Wheeljack and Smokescreen in this. They took a lot of charge and their skills were awesome.
The sort of post-apocalyptic city was pretty awesome and worked well with the hiding bit. NO ONE IS SAFE!:cool:;)

Shadow Strike BB looked kind of cool. Just need a deluxe now!!!:D:eek:

[GoktimusPrime]

The sort of post-apocalyptic city was pretty awesome and worked well with the hiding bit. NO ONE IS SAFE!:cool:;)
^agree. :)

It's not too often that we see a dystopic Earth in Transformers, it's somewhat reminiscent of what happened to Chicago in Dark of the Moon, and New York in G1's "Rhythms of Darkness." But what I found odd was the seemingly underwhelming military response. Throw a bunch of tanks and helicopters (what, no jet fighters??) at Darkmount, in a single gung-ho charge with seemingly no strategy! :eek:

In Dark of the Moon we saw the military attempting to sneak operatives in by air and sea. In Rhythms of Darkness we saw surviving humans waging guerrilla warfare against the Decepticons (as taught by the late Rodimus Prime), and even then, the rest of the world were actually planning on nuking NYC! The humans' military response here seems really underwhelming. And now that Ultra Magnus is here and acquainted with Fowler, they really should be cooperating and forming something similar to N.E.S.T. Isn't it just basic logic to ally yourself with local combatants against a common foe? Unless the show is just going to portray the U.S. military/government as being so incompetently stupid that they wouldn't even attempt this... or use BETTER strategy (guerrilla warfare would be a much more sensible option when faced against a superior enemy force - that's what Wheeljack and Bulkhead were attempting! (and did succeed in blowing up at least one Energon mine ;))).

"This is our war now and we will win it as we always have, with a coordinated military strategy." - Theodore Galloway (Revenge of the Fallen)

[Bidoofdude]

To me, Magnus and Fowler are like people that look like their dog.:p;)\
This calls for Totally Looks Like!!:p:cool:

[Kazza]

Well the introduction of Ultra Magnus gave me hope for the autobots. But I'm quite surprise Optimus Prime would think Smokescreen would make a worthy Prime. I would of chose Arcee. I got really mad at Ratchet for feeling hopeless and giving up when they were at the junkyard. Oh how I wanted to smack him so much.:mad:

[GoktimusPrime]

Well the introduction of Ultra Magnus gave me hope for the autobots. But I'm quite surprise Optimus Prime would think Smokescreen would make a worthy Prime.
Well it's not like he had much choice. ;) Congratulations Smokescreen, you came first in a one-bot race. :D Still... it could've been worse (http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs27/f/2008/142/f/f/Wheelimus_Prime_by_cwmodels.jpg). :p

[griffin]

Most of that happened in Episode 55 (Prey)... I'm guessing you watched the 3-part story that aired in Singapore a couple weeks back.

[GoktimusPrime]

Oops, yeah I did. That shockingly appalling video doing the rounds on YouTube. :rolleyes: I'm gonna watch 'em again in HD after they've aired properly in the US.

[griffin]

Just be aware that it has spoilers for a later episode. It might be unintentional, and on a related topic, but so was this one (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?p=346632#post346632).

[GoktimusPrime]

Fix'd.

[Sinnertwin]

Evil Spock? Spockwave?

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

+ I like Shockwave. He's the first Shockwave to appear on a show that's inspired by G1 comic Shockwave - i.e.: devoid of emotion and a slave to logic.

Except the fact that he seems terribly bitter at being left alone on Cybertron after the bridge blew up...


+ SMELTING POOOOOOOL!! :D :) (and in Darkmount no less)

I liked this too! Woot!


+ Someone remind me again... how did the Autobots know where to find the Harbinger?

Didn't Optimus and pals chase Starscream and Airachnid through the Harbinger aaaaggggesss ago? Season 2, so probably not that long ago :p

I really dug that the picture of Ratchet on the internet had him striding like the Bigfoot from that shoddy video. Classic!

Nice to see the Vehicon Generals getting some screen time as well, now they have some place on my shelf, as opposed to just being a misc recolour! I want a Shockwave toy now though.
Darnit!

[BigTransformerTrev]

One of the things I have loved about the Prime series overall is so many callbacks to the G1 cartoons and comics. I squealed with delight when they had that Scraplets episode a while back :D So with things like Darkmount, Smelting Pools, Logical cold Shockwave etc that all presses the right buttons to the fan in me.

But still.... I find something.... slightly lackluster in the series as a whole. Like there is a bit of passion missing. Like every other episode, this elicited a "Well, that wasn't too bad" response from me

[GoktimusPrime]

Superficial G1 references are really just the icing on the cake -- what it needs is story depth. That's what was so great about Beast Wars, it had a fantastic story. And their G1/G2 references weren't so superficial, but rather it actually added to and enhanced the pre-existing G1/G2 continuity family! (whereas TF Prime is completely divorced from it). I find that overall the character development in Prime just isn't as extensive as in Beast Wars. Let's compare the two leaders and "kid appeal" characters from both series.

Leaders

In the beginning of BW, Optimus Primal was the leader of an expeditionary mission; a crew of explorers, not fighters. Being thrust into the Beast Wars placed Primal and his crew into a role that none of them were prepared nor qualified for. Optimus Primal had to earn the respect of his new 'troops' and teach himself to become a military commander. And while it was a role that he quickly took to, it was never easy - as shown when had that emotional breakdown after Tigerhawk died.

In the beginning of TFP, Optimus Prime is already a seasoned military commander who is beyond reproach. The Autobots follow his orders without question, and Decepticons fear him. He's flawless. But of course, it's a character's flaws that makes them interesting (e.g. Superman may physically be a god, but his relationship with Lois Lane has often been a challenge for him; Optimus Prime appears to have no challenges (other than physical ones, he has no character challenges))

Kid-Appeal Characters

At the beginning of BW, Cheetor began as a rash, impulsive and incredibly naive kid who's eager to prove himself to the other Maximals, which often gets him in trouble. But by Season 2 he'd evolved to become a somewhat more level headed and collected character. By Season 3 he'd shed much of his immaturity and naivity and become a somewhat more stoic character - or as Rattrap called it, "Cyber Puberty." Then by Beast Machines he'd grown into full adulthood (Cheetor was one of the few characters in BM who was actually well written). So from beginning to end, we can actually witness Cheetor growing from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. And it wasn't some magic trinket like a Matrix that changed him (re: Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime) -- Cheetor was matured by his life experience. He went through the hero's journey.

In TFP, Bumblebee begins as a rash, impulsive youth... and well... he's still that now! (it's mostly Raf that seems to keep him in check half the time). The somewhat more matured youth (i.e. similar to what Cheetor was like in the latter part of Beast Wars) is more like Smokescreen - who's a completely separate character who happens to be the chosen one (so it seems).

IMHO the most interesting character in TFP is Knock Out... just cos I love the way he sees the world and interacts with other characters. But yeah, TFP just seems to lack the same level of character development that BW had. :o

[lancalot]

And i didn't like the way ultra magnus just suddenly appeared?... and founding arcee just like that ...:confused: . The decepticon scannign the whole world and cant found any of them but UM just appear on earth and found arcee just like that ....plus couldn't the decepticon pick up UM ship:confused:

*only saw the first two so maybe this might be explain later:cool:

[GoktimusPrime]

IIRC the Autobots have always been shown as being to track their own's signatures while the Deceps couldn't. That's one thing they'd certainly wouldn't want to fall into enemy hands. But yeah, it'd be better if there were some simple piece of exposition to clarify it for the audience, like in Beast Wars whenever we heard, "Maximal energy signature detected."

Of course, it seems odd that Maximals and Predacons would somehow have different energy signatures (and that Dinobot's energy signature changed after he defected :rolleyes:) - but yeah, it was clearly a simple plot device to let the audience know why the Maxies and Preds could detect their own, but not each other.