TF Animated Ep13 - headmaster

[GoktimusPrime]

...nearly fell asleep watching this episode. (-_-)

Things I liked about this episode:

+ A few nice G1 tributes/homages including the appearance of Daniel, Prime's G1-style trailer, the way that the Headmaster piloted from inside the head unit (like the Nebulans from Rebirth) and also how the head unit could transform into an exo-suit/armour. Bumblebee's reference to Bulkhead losing his body that's the size of a "planet" could be interpreted as a reference to Unicron

+ Sari not using the key to simply shut down the fusion reactor. I appreciate that the writers chose not to take the easy way out to solve the story's end complication.

Things I disliked about this episode:

+ Humour was way over-done such as Bumblebee playing around with Bulkhead's head, and especially the Headmaster's attempt at looking like a "1337 h4xX0r!z1" was forced and way overdone and he ended up looking like a "1337 suxX0rz" (-_-) South Park's World of Warcraft played this joke better with Cartman's single line of, "Looks like you're about to get p0wn'd!"
(Video link <--Parental Discretion Advised)

+ The secondary plot line of Bulkhead discovering art was a nice concept, but it became too dominant and in the middle of the story over-dominated the primary plot-line of the Headmaster.

+ Bulkhead was still sorely underdeveloped in this story and is still more caricature than character. I'm sorry but discovering art didn't really change much about his persona - it just served as a plot device that was needed later to resolve the story (i.e.: creating the robot). It didn't seem to have changed his character though - there was no substantial character evolution. This is different from say when Prowl was developed from being a loner into becoming a team-player, or when Bumblebee learnt that patience is a virtue, or when Sari learnt to stop being so selfish and stop treating the key as a play toy. In order for a character to develop they need to learn some life lesson, usually via the story's plot complication and events leading to its resolution. Bulkhead's acquisition of art didn't seem to teach him any really valuable character-changing life lesson. His sculptures were created by accident rather than acquired skill... so it's not as if he's learnt to stop being a clumsy brute during this. In fact, the sub-plot where Bulkhead is trying to create art entirely showed him being a clumsy oaf. He only finally started creating something when he was working with Bumblebee and later when his head was stuck onto a smaller robot's body. The story's resolution did not finish giving me the impression that Bulkhead had seriously begun moving on from being a clumsy brute... (-_-)

With Bulkhead as the central character in this story it would've been an ideal opportunity for writers to actually further develop this character, but IMO they dropped the ball.