The Intergalactic Highway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFEC1zu4 ... r_embedded

Little update for tonight's episode. Awesome, although little early.


WW

I liked this episode. First of all, yay -- the Transformers are transforming again!! The last 2 eps didn't have enough transformations IMO. Secondly, I found MECHA interesting -- another group of villains for the Autobots to contend with who aren't Decepticons, and of course, are humans which means the Autobots can't deal with them the same way they deal with Decepticons. MECHA would be the first paramilitary organisation that the Autobots have had to battle since COBRA... and at least with COBRA the Autobots had GI Joe to assist them... here it seems they only have the limited help of the FBI and US military (but perhaps this assistance may increase with the emergence of MECHA... naaaah! :p). It also makes them different and more plausible than another super-human villain (especially after the bad taste that Transformer Animated's "SUV" left in my mouth -- no more Professor Princess please! *extreme.shudder*).

Funny how a radioactive weapon only has one soldier to guard it on the train...

Anyway, I loved this episode. Optimus Prime stopping the train which was going at 90 mph was highly impressive and reminded me of Optimus Primal saving the Axalon. Clancy Brown voicing a villain is awesome as always. He managed to pull off a different air to his tones so that I wasn't constantly thinking of Lex Luthor whenever he talked. Also, I find it strange how human villains are a LOT more effective than human heroes (i.e.- FBI, military, main cast, etc.).

I think this quote really explains that best.

That's the problem with heroes, really. Their only purpose in life is to thwart others. They make no plans, develop no strategies. They react instead of act. Without villains, heroes would stagnate. Without heroes, villains would be running the world. Heroes have morals. Villains have work ethic.

TV tropes FTW! Speaking of work ethic, the Decepticon who smashed Prime's face with that tree definitely put in work. Did you guys see how cleanly cut it was? It wasn't spontaneously ripped out tree like the one in ROTF.

Alak wrote:Funny how a radioactive weapon only has one soldier to guard it on the train...

hehehe, yeah... makes about as much sense as an FBI agent who's always operating military aircraft in a suit! Spike and Sparkplug had to wear hard-boots and helmets when working on the oil rig - observing occupational health and safety - but agent Fowler can fly helicopters and jet fighters in something he'd wear in the office! :p

NaitoKage wrote:I think this quote really explains that best.

That's the problem with heroes, really. Their only purpose in life is to thwart others. They make no plans, develop no strategies. They react instead of act. Without villains, heroes would stagnate. Without heroes, villains would be running the world. Heroes have morals. Villains have work ethic.

Yeah well, villains can be more "fun" as characters because they aren't bound by rules - they can do anything they want. Heroes don't act as much because they are more "honour" bound.
I think Yoda explained it well in The Empire Strikes Back...

"Is the Dark Side stronger?"
"No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive."
"But how am I to know the good side from the bad?"
"You will know... when you are calm, at peace, passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defence, never for attack."



The good side is more passive whereas the bad side is more aggressive. Although being peaceful and passive doesn't necessarily mean not being pro-active, as people like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King demonstrated -- both men used non-violent means to fight for freedom.

Alak wrote:Speaking of work ethic, the Decepticon who smashed Prime's face with that tree definitely put in work. Did you guys see how cleanly cut it was? It wasn't spontaneously ripped out tree like the one in ROTF.

Yeah but TF Prime just has a small TV cartoon budget... no where near the massive Hollywood Spielberg-production budget that the live action movies have. A lot of natural elements were pretty flat in Beast Wars. Having said that, the animation in Beast Wars was really cutting edge for its time (it even won an Emmy Award for its visual effects) whereas TF Prime is fairly ordinary by current-day standards. It's not terrible, but it ain't no Clone Wars either (but then again, Clone Wars may have a bigger budget). Still, Beast Wars had a pretty small budget and they did phenomenally well. I'll stop debating with myself now. :p

Speaking of work ethics for villains, my favourite quote for that would have to come from Clerks...

"All those innocent contractors brought in to do the job were killed — casualties of a war they had nothing to do with. All right, look: you’re a roofer, some juicy government contract comes your way. You got a wife and kids, the two-storey in suburbia. This is a government contract, which means all sorts of benefits. Along come these left-wing militants that blast everything within a three-mile (4.8km) radius with their lasers. You didn’t ask for that. You have no personal politics. You’re just trying to scrape out a living."

RE: Deus ex machina.

I quite liked this episode. It had the Decepticons returning as the primary antagonists and there was plenty of Transformer action from both sides and they transformed lots too! Yay. It was nice to see Bulkhead getting more character development in this episode (especially considering the relative lack of development his Animated counterpart got). The new Decepticons were cool. It was interesting how Starscream initially showed contempt toward Knock Out for having a terrestrial alt mode. While it's true that transforming into a jet absolutely offers air-superiority, when you're faced against an enemy with considerable ground forces then at some stage you're gonna need ground troops yourself. But having said that,
a: The Autobot contingent on Earth is pretty tiny. The main thing that's keeping them alive is the secrecy of their base location.
b: The Decepticons already have ground troops in the form of Vehicons. And ground fighting is when you need expendable forces, so drones are best suited for that. Although Knock Out and Breakdown could help coordinate Vehicon attacks.

The new Decepticons are cool characters, particularly Knock Out. Although when he first appeared in the episode I didn't hear what name Starscream referred to him as and so I assumed he was meant to be Dead End (dark red Decepticon sports car) and I was thinking that it was interesting how they made his personality the opposite of G1 Dead End... Knock Out is confident whereas Dead End is a defeatist. But of course, this all flew out the window when the credits rolled and I saw his name was Knock Out... which just confused me since he looks nothing like G1 Knock Out. Yeah I know Prime isn't G1, but up till now all the TF Prime characters have been based on G1 characters and have bore resemblances to them ('cept for Bulkhead, although he does bear resemblance to Animated Bulkhead). Weird, no? Okay, Arcee and Soundwave don't look much like their G1 counterparts either, but at least they behave similarly to their G1 counterparts.

Also interesting was that in the credits Breakdown's name is spelt correctly! Does this mean that if Hasbro makes a toy of Prime Breakdown that he'll actually be called Breakdown and not Brakedown?!?

Whipped this up -- a visual comparison of Transformer Prime characters and their original namesakes

Was it just me or was Takedown really hot?

Night-Hunter wrote:Was it just me or was Takedown really hot?

That's might impressive considering that Takedown didn't even appear in that episode (or in Transformers Prime at all). Takedown's the name of a Generation 1 Autobot (a member of the Construction Patrol) whose sole canonical appearance was in Spotlight: Hardhead.

But otherwise, sure... he's pretty hot I guess.
Josh Duhamel eat your heart out!

She probably means Breakdown or Knockout. Swattruck or Sports car NightHunter?

She probably means Breakdown or Knockout. Swattruck or Sports car NightHunter?

*face palm* It was Knockout, the vain little sports car. Man, I really should look over what I write before I post it. ><

I'm still really angry over Skyquakes fate.

Not cool.

Transformers Prime has been moved to Saturday and from where I live it will air at 4PM.

YAY! New episodes closer than I thought:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY8YlLU4 ... re=related

For those of you who don't know the synopsis and want to here:

Jack tries to impress a girl using Bumblebee and Knockout tries to attack them.

WW