Thoughts:

+ So Starscream decides to run off to find the next relic over restoring his T-Cog and weapons? Just as well it turned out to be an Apex Armour (totally saw that name coming from a kilometre away! )... it could've just as easily been a sword which he wouldn't have been able to use with those shackles on.

+ Dreadwing is proving to be one of the more interesting villains -- somewhat similar to Carnivac from G1. Speaking of G1 comparisons, the hoversled thing Starscream used reminded me of the ones we saw in "On the Edge of Extinction" -- only waaaaaay slower.

+ Damnit! I want jet Vehicon toyz now!! *sigh* I really miss the old days when Transformers came out as toys first... seeing characters on screen w/o toys available is frustrating.

+ Speaking of toys... I _really_ hope they make a Voyager Dreadwing toy!! I wouldn't mind Deluxe either (though preferably Voyager) -- but certainly something above Cyberverse. The gun should definitely be a missile launcher... it's a no-brainer. (now let's see if Hasbro actually does it)

+ Interesting to see the Autobots being spread thin while the Decepticons maintain superiority of numbers.

+ I really enjoyed the visuals & animation in this ep. Interesting to see Aurora Australis making an appearance.

Okay, question... Ratchet's accent. Precisely what kind of American accent is it? What I find particularly striking is his consistent hyper-corrected pronunciation of the consonant cluster "wh"; so words like "why" "what" and "where" are not homophones with "Y", "watt" and "wear," but are instead pronounced as /hw'ai/, /hw'ɔt/ and /hw'eə;/. And of course, he pronounces "Wheeljack" as /hw'i;l'dzęk/ and not /w'i;l'dzęk/. I find Ratchet's accent quite fascinating, and I've always been curious to know where it comes from exactly... particularly because I think this particular dialect of American English may have affected some English words absorbed into Japanese, for example White Claw (Polar Claw's Japanese name) is actually pronounced /hw'ait/ Claw (ホワイットクロー), and not /w'ait/ Claw (ワイトクロー); likewise the "White" in White Day is pronounced with the same hypercorrected consonant cluster.

Speaking of Ratchet... he also gave us the best gesture in this ep!



Overall... a nice solid episode.