TF Animated Ep15 - Megatron Rising part 1

[Tober]

One of the best episodes so far setting the scene for the return of Megatron.

Highlights include featuring every Transformer character except Lockdown and Soundwave. None of the characters are too annoying either except for maybe Optimus struggling to control his subordinates.

[GoktimusPrime]

SPOILERS AHOY




Sari treating the key like a toy again was really annoying, and also counteractive against previously established development for this character - it's like she just returned to square one. While I could sympathise with Sari's point about having successfully defended the key thus far and about how Optimus Prime should respect her more as part of the team, the fact that she'd just used the key to create toy planes really didn't help her case much. I thought that she was over the whole "key = toy" thing, but evidently not... and that really sucked IMO.

Optimus Prime being so flawed was simultaneously frustrating and interesting to watch. He's was cracking under the pressure/burden of leadership and really didn't cope well at all... but what annoyed me was his sheer stubbornness, which I found was quite out of character for Optimus Prime who'd previously had never been portrayed as being so hard-headed and unwilling to listen to others. So unfortunately he came off as being more irritating than interesting. G1 comic Prime and Optimus Primal were far more interesting as flawed leaders because when they made mistakes it wasn't out of character. There was a lack of decent exposition to explain why Prime felt the need to chew everyone in his team out. It was almost like he was having PMS. (o_O)

Bulkhead was pretty good in this episode, I must say. For once he wasn't portrayed as being moronic. I liked the way he settled the tension between Prime and Prowl and also backed Prowl up when he was dealing with the Dinobots - it showed that Bulkhead was thinking... something which he hasn't done a lot of up till now. I really hope that Bulkhead will get further developed as a thoughtful character.

Sadly I can't say the same for the Dinobots, who once again were portrayed as being stupid savages. *SIGH*

Ratchet was good. It was good how he acted as a kind of moral counterbalance for Prime when he was freaking out, even though Prime didn't heed his advice. His heroic stand against Blitzwing and Lugnut was really cool.

Bumblebee was also interesting... his attitude toward authority is very Generation Y-esque.

The Decepticons in this episode reminded me of most of the Decepticons from the live action movie - lots of cool fighting, but not much character focus. The exception to this was Blackarachnia, who was the best written Decepticon character in this episode IMO.

The scene where Starscream thought that Lugnut was being subservient toward him was amusing.

The animation sequence for Megatron's reformatting was really nicely done. "Teeeeetttssssuuuuooooo!"

Not a fantastic episode, but not bad either. It is one of the better episodes in this series... but erm... that's not saying much. ;p

[Pulse]

I just plain lurved this episode. IMO, These Decepticon episodes are 1000% better than the Human-Villain episodes. Megs being reborn - Awesomeness re-defined! Of all the characters, Blackarachnia is my favourite by far & this episode just re-affirmed it (Are they suggesting all she needs is the key & she'll become Elita One again?).

Great Episode = 10/10

[kup]

I liked this episode, something that this series has proven is that it can handle Decepticons very well (with the exception of the first Blackarachnia episode which was crap IMO). Its a real shame that the Decepticon episodes are fairly rare and the bulk of the series are these really absurd and stupid episodes which bring down the overall series into lame territory.

I have taken a bit of a habit of skipping down to Decepticon episodes since they are well done and most of the narrative happens in them since the rest are mostly realy dumb filler episodes.

I mostly agree with what Gok said in his review but having Prime portrayed as an incompetent leader didn't affect me as much because this version of the character is something else entirely different to previous Prime/Primal incarnations. However strangely enough this is the first time that his character was properly explored and it didn't come out too good as this is the first time we get to see inside him as leader and it was portrayed negatively.

[i_amtrunks]

Anyone else here think that BlackArachnia has a very big part to play in part 2?

It was a good episode, other than the Sari and key issue Gok already raised, the writing was strong, Prime cracking, Ratchet being the voice of reason, as well as his stand against far stronger opposition, Starscream being Starscream, Bulkhead and Prowl made for a good episode.

Prowl not telling Prime about the Dinobots was odd, I thought for sure that he would have told him already.

Bumblebee still irks me though, but at least his little hissy fit was true to his character as well.

[GoktimusPrime]

These Decepticon episodes are 1000% better than the Human-Villain episodes.

Yeah, but that's not hard. Lame human villains from G1 like the Robot Master and Lord Chumley are a lot better than the human villains in Animated!

having Prime portrayed as an incompetent leader didn't affect me as much because this version of the character is something else entirely different to previous Prime/Primal incarnations. However strangely enough this is the first time that his character was properly explored and it didn't come out too good as this is the first time we get to see inside him as leader and it was portrayed negatively.

What gets me about Prime in this episode has nothing to do with G1 Prime or Optimus Primal - the problem is that it seemed out of character for Animated Prime. In no other episode do I recall Animated Prime being so short-fused, stubborn and hard-headed nor hostile toward his comrades. He was a lot more forgiving with Sentinel Prime, who's an absolute jerk.

Optimus Prime's characterisation in this episode seemed quite out of character and all this angst seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. The concept of Prime freaking out under pressure like this isn't a bad idea, but I thought that the execution wasn't well done.

Compare this with the time G1 Prime flipped out - it was something that was steadily building with Ratchet's reported death being the straw that broke the camel's back, pushing Prime over the edge. In Beast Wars we once saw Optimus Primal having a tantrum and smashing his fists against the Maximal base doors - again, due to mounting pressure against him and triggered by Megatron's acquisition of the Nemesis and the death of Tigerhawk (especially so soon after losing Depth Charge). Or even in Beast Machines when there was tension built between Optimus Primal and Cheetor shortly after Cheetor's stint as acting commander and resolved by the turn of the season. All of these Optimuses (Optimi?) flipped out during times of very heightened stress with something acting as a trigger to provoke the flip-out.

Animated Prime was faced with a bunch of largely ineffectual human villains and two active Decepticons - he knew that Starscream and Blackarachnia were at large, but the others are presumed to be inactive - Lugnut and Blitzwing were thoroughly trounced by the Ark's weaponry and would've probably died if Starscream hadn't repaired them, which Prime was not aware of. And Starscream and Blackarachnia had been unheard of in a long time, so it wasn't as if there was an immediate mounting threat from them at that time - not enough that justified him totally freaking out IMO.

The idea of Prime feeling frustrated and showing/venting that frustration is fine - but I thought that in execution it was really over the top, especially considering that Prime allowed his emotions to sever the Autobots' friendship with Sari and also lose some respect from Bumblebee. His stubbornness thwarted Prowl's plan to recruit the Dinobots (although being so dim-witted I'm unsure if Prowl's plan would've worked - but Prime's interference certainly didn't help) and essentially allowed the Decepticons to seize the key and ressurect Megatron.

The basic idea is sound, but I just feel that Prime needed greater justification for his emotional breakdown. It just felt like Prime suddenly became a d**kwad just because the plot needed him to be one, but failed to provide sufficient justification for him being one.