MV75 watches Beast Wars

[MV75]

Season 1 down.

Ok, I decided to watch this while not thinking about the implications of beast modes, and also just forgetting other Transformers series past and present, while watching these episodes and just taking them for what they were.

I liked it, I really did, while ignoring the whole beast transforms thing. Why they still don't explode in a shower of blood, I dunno. Sure it started off pretty slow, typical on patrol, see a predacon, have a fight, go home types of episodes.

It then got interesting with the signs of alien presence with the formations and "The Probe".

My favorite episode was "Call of the wild", followed by "Law of the Jungle" (poor kitty died. ).

Rhinox's transformation always looked painful.

Out of the new characters that came into the show, I liked Airazor the best, followed by Tigatron. The ant was ok too, very tough bugger.

Then it sort of got a little annoying near the end, they started to really overdo the physical comedy.

Also I think they borrowed too much on Ultra magnus in the 1986 movie. It seemed that being blown to bits, literally, didn't mean they were dead and just happened to be a "meh" type thing as though being dismantled was no biggie.

Now from a collector POV, nah, I don't want the toys. I accepted the mass shifting in the show, the toys don't translate well enough for me at all. I MIGHT get a cheetor if I had the opportunity (original mould), but that would be it. I'm just enjoying the show instead, the toys don't do it for me at all. Pretty much like Animated.

------Other train of thoughts------

But unlike Animated, I like how there are no "every character has a backstory" episode.

I'm actually finding it strange and funny at the same time that the big beast wars fans here demanded those types of episodes in Animated while making their BW comparisons, which to me, (BW), are more like G1 episodes. So why the want? That sort of thing is for the 15-17year old Emo anime freaks who think that living lives and having small tragedies are "deep". But I think that they've just forgotten what character-centric means and the types that they are. EG: Law of the jungle was Tigatron centric, it didn't have a big Emo character backstory in it, (how he teamed up with his mate and how they hunted together before she died), but he was the "main character" for that episode, his tragedy was in the here and now, not sourced from a past. I think that Lost has changed what people think it means.

I'm currently ripping 2nd season to the HDD on my laptop. So further evaluation will follow in the next week or two.

[kup]

I don't remember people wanting elaborate back stories, just less stupid comedy and dumb human villains. Some of the Season 2 episodes of Animated fall in line more or less of what was seen in Beast Wars and that is why they are more enjoyable while the first Season was ridden with the poor human villains and very uninspired and childish writing, comedy and characterisation.

Animated for me still ranks as very poor overall but Season 2 showed that they were moving up and improving from the horrible first season formula and focusing more on what Transformers are about. We will see if the third season finally serves to define Animated as a good series for me but at least I can see an effort for improvement.

[Soundwarp]

I look forward to the reast of your reviews.

I am a changed fan from it.

[Paulbot]

I think if fans were wanting "back story" episodes in Animated, (not that I recall much of that...) it was likely as Kup suggests, they wanted to see episodes about the "Transformers" and not "Sari and her Robot Friends".

Glad you enjoyed the show in general.

[GoktimusPrime]

Beast Wars is a show that aimed to appeal to both kids and adults whereas Animated is primarily aimed toward kids - especially in Season 1. It got a bit better in Season 2, but still nothing that approaches Beast Wars in terms of deeper socio-philosophical commentary. Appealing to adults seems to be more of an after-thought in Animated, whereas BW intentionally set out to appeal to adults as well from the get-go. Before Season 1 was even finished the show's producer did state in a magazine interview that they recognised that original Transformer fans have become older and that they needed to mature the show to match TF fans in their 20s. And as we all know the writers intentionally communicated with TF fans through the newsgroup.

Originally Posted by MV75

I liked it, I really did, while ignoring the whole beast transforms thing. Why they still don't explode in a shower of blood, I dunno.

Because their alt mode is fake - it's a facsimile. They're robots in disguise. It's not as if vehicular transformers explode in a shower of oil, metal, glass etc. whenever they transform.

Originally Posted by MV75

My favorite episode was "Call of the wild", followed by "Law of the Jungle" (poor kitty died. )

I quite like "The Probe" - the first time in a TF cartoon where the bad guys had a decisive victory (and the good guys suffered a decisive loss!). I remember the first time I saw that episode, it finished and I was like "What?! Holy crap - the bad guys WON!" 8^O

And yeah, like you saw in "Law of the Jungle" this is a consequential war - something the G1 cartoon was often lacking in... casualties. It reminded me of the G1/G2 comics in terms of portraying the Transformers' conflict as being a war of consequence - where death, tragedy and sorrow existed.

Originally Posted by MV75

Out of the new characters that came into the show, I liked Airazor the best, followed by Tigatron. The ant was ok too, very tough bugger.

Burn in the fires of Inferno! Arguably gotta be the best use of a G1 name in a post G1 series!

Originally Posted by MV75

Then it sort of got a little annoying near the end, they started to really overdo the physical comedy.

Season 1 is the lightest and most comical series. The tone that stuff down in Seasons 2-3.

Originally Posted by MV75

Also I think they borrowed too much on Ultra magnus in the 1986 movie. It seemed that being blown to bits, literally, didn't mean they were dead and just happened to be a "meh" type thing as though being dismantled was no biggie.

The show explains that a Transformer doesn't perish unless their Spark is extinguished. You can do whatever you want to their shell, but if their Spark perishes then they die.

Originally Posted by MV75

Now from a collector POV, nah, I don't want the toys. I accepted the mass shifting in the show, the toys don't translate well enough for me at all.

Odd... Beast Wars has overall pretty good toy-accuracy. They did 3D scans of the toys and designed the show models based off those scans. They then tweaked them for various reasons, but I think the toy-accuracy in the show is pretty good. Much better than G1 that's for sure.

[MV75]

Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Because their alt mode is fake - it's a facsimile. They're robots in disguise. It's not as if vehicular transformers explode in a shower of oil, metal, glass etc. whenever they transform.

Vehicles have seams that can come apart, animals don't. Plus if it's "fake" then how does a beast mode protect against stasis lock from energon buildup?

And what do they need to be in disguise for? There is no reason for that particular reason in this series, just to avoid a stasis lock, otherwise the beast modes were just handy for their abilities.

The only time I noticed that beast mode was handy was in Law of the Jungle when waspinator got tricked into thinking that Tigatrons mate was Tigatron. Otherwise they all seem to automagically know that the beast they see is a maximal/predacon. Oh yea, and when Tigatron first appeared, Megatron just thought they were just normal tigers.

I quite like "The Probe" - the first time in a TF cartoon where the bad guys had a decisive victory (and the good guys suffered a decisive loss!). I remember the first time I saw that episode, it finished and I was like "What?! Holy crap - the bad guys WON!" 8^O

Actually, I meant "Chain of Command", where the alien probe sucked up optimus. The presence of the alien thing was pretty good.

Season 1 is the lightest and most comical series. The tone that stuff down in Seasons 2-3.

Kidding right? I just know you're taking the piss right there. I'm now up to just finished watching "Coming of the fuzors pt2" And plenty of comical things there.

Rat with wheels that does burnout sounds. Hell, a rat with wheels full stop. And a cheetor that flies. Nevermind the monkey on a flying surfboard.

Waspinator and silverbolt with tyre screeches in mid air as they stop. And the thing that Silverbolt is.

Bulging eyes from when they threw the rock in the air to show what would happen if cheetor flew out from cover.

Dinobot being out of ammo, but then riding on rattrap in "car mode" with flaming exhausts and all, and suddenly having ammo for his gun again.

Yea, pretty cut down dude.

The show explains that a Transformer doesn't perish unless their Spark is extinguished. You can do whatever you want to their shell, but if their Spark perishes then they die.

So their heads run on remote control when detached? You'd think though that being cubed and also shocked and stripped into parts, (waspinator), that the spark chamber would have been destroyed. Same as taking excessive (blown to bits) damage.

Odd... Beast Wars has overall pretty good toy-accuracy. They did 3D scans of the toys and designed the show models based off those scans. They then tweaked them for various reasons, but I think the toy-accuracy in the show is pretty good. Much better than G1 that's for sure.

Yea, all fine and good for the 90's, but I've come to expect more now. And I can't believe you even put blackarachnia in there. That toy was bad, very incredibly beyond forgivable bad.

Also yea, I do have cybertron prime and megatron beasts, they look right out of this cartoon. Those were pretty well done.

And another quick note on the 3 eps I've just watched from season 2, I'm actually going to have to be more liberal in accepting these new transmetal looks. I'm finding myself saying "that's crap" (especially rattrap), quite a lot with these and forcing myself to watch them. I am glad that not everyone got the transmetal treatment. Also I'm not too much of a fan of primes robot monkey face, but I'll just look past that and concentrate more on the stories. Same as Silverbolt. I'm still trying to take in whatever he is, but the character seems likeable enough so far. So first impressions of season 2 so far to me, it's worse than season 1, but it's early days yet.

[griffin]

Thread has been temporarily closed until MV75 finishes watching BW (or at least season 2).

There has to be a time when people need to let go of an argument if both sides are hostile or not prepared to conceed anything.