TF Animated Ep15 - Megatron Rising part 1

[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.

[MV75]

Seemed pretty much in character to me.

Sari wasn't cooperating and couldn't really understand as well as prime does the absolute danger she was in while holding the key. He had to step in and act as the "parent" instead of the "friend" to resolve the situation.

The dinobots existence and goings on behind his back without being informed totally mowed down his authority.

And bumblebee disobeying direct orders and thus ignoring him as a leader added to it too.

So he's got the weight of saving the galaxy from the decepticons while in charge of the all spark on his shoulders, while surrounded by insubordination.

I think it was very in character for Animated Prime.

Oh yes, and seeing cybertron mode megatron again, man, that is awesome beyond awesome. I'm really liking megatron the most. Now we just have to wonder what causes him to get an earth mode. My guess is that dinobots turn up at the last second.........
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[Pulse]

Animated Prime questioning his leadership really brought back comparisons to Rodimus. It's like they've taken Animated Optimus & channelled the spirit of Rodimus within him.

Not a great move writers, not a great move at all.

[MV75]

I thought it more like that noone was taking him seriously as a leader.
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[GoktimusPrime]

The problem is a clash of mindsets. Animated Prime - in this episode (and I've not seen evidence of it in previous episodes) was going by the old school authoritarian model of leadership that was common amongst pre-Generation Xers (e.g.: Baby Boomers) - how often have we heard stories about "when I was your age we never spoke back to parents/teachers etc" - and that was true. People in authority were given absolute respect without question. This is the kind of respect that Ratchet, the old timer, was willing to give to Prime. Prowl was trying to be respectful to, in line with the kind of "oriental" martial culture that the character is set in - yes, he kept Dinobot Island a secret, but he was never openly insolent toward Optimus about it.

Sari and Bumblebee are more representative of the attitudes towards authority that we see amongst Generation Y where respect toward authority is not automatically endowed but must be earnt. The whole "that's an order!" line just doesn't work in a post Vietnam War & Watergate western culture.

Sari wasn't cooperating and couldn't really understand as well as prime does the absolute danger she was in while holding the key. He had to step in and act as the "parent" instead of the "friend" to resolve the situation.

And Sari's selfishness was something else that really annoyed me. I thought that we had moved on from Sari being the selfish brat that treated the key as a toy. Her moment of selfishness felt like a massive step backwards in Sari's character growth.

But Prime ordering Ratchet to forcibly confiscate the key from Sari was a mistake - something that Ratchet wanted to tell Prime, but knew that Prime wasn't in the mood to listen, so he just bit his lip and followed Prime's order. I can understand why Prime wanted to confiscate the key, but forcibly removing it wasn't good. The Animated Prime I know would've counselled Sari and verbally convinced her to surrender the key to him without humiliating her.

The dinobots existence and goings on behind his back without being informed totally mowed down his authority.

Not if he listened to Prowl's motives for doing it. Prime had ordered the Dinobots to be destroyed because he wasn't aware that they had been imbued with sparks and had become living Transformers. I can totally understand Prime being upset with Prowl for not confiding in him with the secret of the Dinobots sooner, but I think it was over the top for Prime to go so far as to undermine everything Prowl was saying just because of that.

It reeked of, "I can't believe you didn't tell me this before, so from now on I'm not going to listen to anything you have to say! Nyah nyah nyah!" Yes, Prowl should have told you sooner, but that doesn't mean that his opinions are completely invalid and don't warrant being heard! It was like his decisions were being clouded by his anger at Prowl for having wrong him... he took it so personally, and it effected his leadership.

It's fine for Prime to express his anger at Prowl and reprimand him for not having consulted with him about the Dinobots before - I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is how Prime allowed this anger to interfere with his actions, something which I find entirely out of character for Animated Prime. How many times has Bumblebee annoyed the crap out of Prime and he never allowed that to cloud his judgement? And as I mentioned before, Sentinel Prime was a complete A-hole during that flashback with them and Elita-One, yet Prime remained cool and collected, particularly when it came to saving Sentinel jerk-face. And when he met Blackarachnia, who blamed Optimus for her predicament, despite the fact that Optimus didn't intentionally mean to abandon her and wouldn't have if he'd known that she was still functional - he remained collected and offered to help Blackarachnia.

Prime's anger and frustration in this episode just seemed unnecessarily over the top with no seeming series of events to trigger it.

Oh yes, and seeing cybertron mode megatron again, man, that is awesome beyond awesome. I'm really liking megatron the most.

...man Dr. Sumdac is such a freakin' moron. Even when the Decepticons busted into the lab he kept working on Megatron's body and didn't even begin suspecting a thing until Lugnut stated that Megatron was the leader of the Decepticons. (-_-) Now I really understand Meltdown's beef with him - he's a dumb@$$ who just got a lucky break.

As for Animated Megatron... he's been a fairly interesting villain thus far. Having a body gives him potential to be a far more deadly villain, but time will tell in terms of how menacing the writers will make him. I'm hoping that he's going to be a more intelligent villain (like Beast Wars/Machines Megatron) rather than just being a big thug.

I really like Animated Megatron's voice - even more than I like BW/BM Megatron's voice! BW/BM Megatron is still my favourite Megatron, but Animated Megatron has my favourite Megatron voice.

Corey Burton manages to do a far better English accent than David Kaye (whose attempt at giving BW/BM Megatron a "British" accent frequently slipped all over the place - although the actual voice itself was still very cool). Burton also voiced Shockwave in G1 who had a rather English sounding accent iirc - and I think Burton has carried that accent onto Animated Megatron, but given it a far more menacing tone.

Saving Megatron till this point and gradually introducing him as a villain has been interesting to watch and there's obviously a lot of expectations from fans now that he's going to be really cool. Here's hoping that he can live up to our expectations.

[kup]

Gok,

Please hide the Beast Wars spoilers as a couple of people here are still watching it for the first time such as STL.

[autobreadticon]

i really liked it, any nods to the g1 series. Good story and action. cant wait till part 2

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Yeh, I LOVE Animated Megs Voice. Its so creepy and kind of "nice" and yet has a sound of menace behind it. Yes, I will settle for Menace as my preferred word for that jumbled sentence. Love it to bits.

I have atheory on Black arach. She and Prowl will get it on Silverbolt and B.A style. My evidence? In home is where the spark is Prowl goes on and on about how fab organic stuff is. B.A being a bit organic will cause his fule pump to burst with "hot-n-sweaty-Ninja-love(tm)!"

[Pulse]

I have atheory on Black arach. She and Prowl will get it on Silverbolt and B.A style. My evidence? In home is where the spark is Prowl goes on and on about how fab organic stuff is. B.A being a bit organic will cause his fule pump to burst with "hot-n-sweaty-Ninja-love(tm)!"

Ahhh, Yeahhh.

Um, no comment