Hey boys and girls, it's been a while.
I dropped off the reader after the COVID-19 pandemic really blew up and the Philippines was generally placed under lockdown. Kinda lost the urge to update here, which is kinda sad in itself. But I figured it might be good to try again.
So for today...I'm not writing a review. I know, reviews used to be the main thing for this blog and I'll probably get back to that in time. But I wanted to try something a little different. In this case, I wanted to dump a lot of my notes and thoughts on the first chapter of Netflix's Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy animated series so that (1) only people who have seen the show can choose to read it and (2) I get all these ideas out of my head since I've been holding stuff in to avoid spoiling people. And of course, a good number of people have been asking if I've watched the series and if I'd recommend it.
But this is not a review. It's just my spoilery rambling notes. So maybe it's an indirect review. And it's going to be a mess since I don't have a clear format or outline in mind.
You have been warned.
First, gotta love the animation for this show. When people ask me if I like the show, I can immediately answer that the animation is pretty good. It's not as clunky as the Prime Wars series by Machinima and yet it feels like someone really took the time to scan the toys and animate them.
This is why Ultra Magnus shuffles like a clunky monkey. His feet are just ridiculous.
You know the show is REALLY trying to be hardcore because Bumblebee isn't a young Autobot nor is he a noble scout but instead he's...a jaded mercenary energon scavenger! Oh yeah, he's so rough. And he doesn't idolize Optimus Prime. What a badass.
I understand that as robots, Transformers do not really have "medicine" and it's silly to argue over the differences between a doctor and an engineer. But to have Red Alert as the doctor and Ratchet as the engineer is pretty weird for G1 me. and I don't even know what Wheeljack is supposed to be since he doesn't seem as mechanically inclined as his G1 counterpart since he spends so much time trying to get Ratchet to fix the space bridge instead of, well, fixing it himself.
Megatron's lips. Send tweet.
Why does Soundwave sound like a 1980's Battlestar Galactica Cylon?
Why does Shockwave sound like a prissy little girl?
The only character who really sounds right and is written beautifully is Starscream. I mean seriously, no character toggles between ambitious and arrogant to cowering and sniveling as fast as he does and it's handled VERY well in this series.
Obvious drinking game for the show: take a shot every time someone stresses the word WAR. Optimus Prime is REALLY guilty of this.
Surprised they brought up the whole functionalist concept in this show. Represent IDW comics continuity!
Jetfire as a Seeker is a genius G1 reference of sorts - of course before he and Starscream were just friends in the old cartoon. But they really doubled-down here.
Bringing in Soundblaster was CRAZY random.
I get the need for generic robots to fill in the background - hence Transformers Prime Vehicons. But man, it was a little confusing to have so many Cogs around and other random bits. Sure the Decepticons get away with Seekers because that's a trope that goes back to G1 but replicating other characters for the background Autobots was kinda weird.
Impactor totally felt like a sore thumb in the story. They probably could have put a sign over his head that said "THE FANS VOTED ME INTO THE SHOW".
Elita-1 staying behind was such a G1 MOOD. Don't cry Optimus! You did a noble thing by leaving her behind for the good of all Cybertron.
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