stunt_muppet

Because I must jump up and down like a tiny child somewhere, and it may as well be here. Contains spoilers through the end of Season 1.

In no particular order, just as I think of things:




- It feels so good to love every character in a series. That hasn’t happened in a while, and I normally have at least a few characters I’m “meh” about or dislike, but nope. Not here. There’s something to love about everyone.

I thought I’d have issues with Blackarachnia, since there’s a fair amount of genderfail surrounding her, but I’m willing to ignore a lot for her evil scheming, her sarcasm, “blow it out your actuator, three-face”, and getting away with the dirtiest double entendre in the entire series.

It helps that the voice acting is really quite good. Annoying voices are enough to push a character from “meh” to outright dislike, but even the voices I thought would get irritating are played well enough and with enough tonal variation to prevent that.

(I’ve just realized, though, that when I get around to watching Beast Wars it’s going to be kind of weird hearing David Kaye’s voice as Megatron, given that he voices Optimus Prime here. I mean, I know he pitches it different, but Tom Kenny pitches his Starscream voice different than his SpongeBob voice and you can still hear traces of the one in the other. Which is also weird.

Somewhere there’s a vid of Animated!Starscream set to “The Best Day Ever” from SpongeBob. I’ll have to see if I can find it and link it here. )

- In fact, just the sound design in general is really excellent , from the voices to the music to all the little sound effects the robots make, like the camera-shutter noise they make when they turn their heads, the little beeping noise Bumblebee makes when he’s surprised sometimes, Ratchet’s creaking, or Prime’s engine revving when he’s mad – you barely notice them the first time through, but they’re distinct, and make the characters feel more real.

- I do wish this series was better to its girls, though. I love Sari; I think she’s a great human companion to the robots. I like how she’s completely un-intimidated by them even when they’re shouting at her or all in her face (like Ratchet in “Lost and Found”); that’s a lot braver than I would have been at that age. I also like how she’s headstrong and sometimes bratty and really socially awkward, because she’s a sheltered eight-year-old girl, of course she would be, and it keeps her from being perfect. And she more than makes up for it by being resourceful and bold and enthusiastic and so brave.

But aside from her, the only other women in the series thus far are both refrigerated origin-story sacrifices. Yeah, technically they’re both still alive, but Arcee got the next worse thing and Elita-One/Blackarachnia was thought to be dead – not to mention that when she does reappear, she has to be rescued from her own plan – all to give Ratchet and Prime something to feel bad about. I just want some girl robots who do things, dammit, why is that so much to ask?

(Good news is that I still have Beast Wars to look forward to. Airazor and BW!Blackarachnia, yay!)

- Don’t get me wrong, though; I loved “The Thrill of the Hunt”. I was actually quite surprised that the show Went There. I loved Prime trying to reach out to Ratchet in yet another attempt to be a leader to his team; I loved Ratchet’s initial hostility and the fact that, at first, he couldn’t go back to Lockdown’s ship even to rescue Prime. I loved Ratchet’s Big Damn Heroes moment and I loved his verbal smackdown of Lockdown – I even loved the bit where he got scary and started frying Lockdown, because it made sense and it was rather marvelously unheroic of him. It made you feel how angry he was, how much the war had screwed with him.

Also I loved Lockdown. I thought he was excellently creepy (Lance Henriksen’s smooth, growly voice really didn’t hurt) and made a great Fridge Logic Villain – the kind who don’t seem nearly as threatening or creepy until you think about it a bit. See, it wasn’t until I pondered the episode a little that I realized that there are a fair amount of human!AUs involving Lockdown, and that, translated literally as a human, Lockdown would be a very intelligent, very competent equivalent of Leatherface. Brrr.

Not to mention the fact (which similarly didn’t hit me until later) that he’s implied to have tortured all three of his captives pretty much just for the hell of it even after he removed their parts. Well, think about it. We hear an audio clip of Ratchet and Arcee shouting for each other (including a Big No), which is implied to be a reminiscence from Ratchet, but it doesn’t correspond to any of the flashback clips, implying that it comes from some time that we didn’t see in the flashbacks. Also, when Ratchet comes in to rescue Prime, Prime’s voice is shaky and Ratchet helps him get up from the gurney. You could potentially explain that all three of them being in pain from having their parts removed, but whenever Lockdown takes a trophy it’s always from a numbed and unconscious bot, and if there were painful aftereffects you’d think Ratchet would have noticed his EMP generator was gone a lot sooner in the flashbacks. All that, plus Ratchet’s conversation with Prime at the end of the episode (which…well, think of every whump fanfic you’ve ever read but without the Inevitable Romance), leads me to conclude that all three of them were tortured in addition to everything else they went through, and again for no real reason.

Lockdown getting all up in both Arcee and Prime’s personal space didn’t help the creep factor either.

- While we’re on the subject, I am most definitely not planning out an AU in which Arcee survives the war intact, and she stays with Ratchet when he joins Prime’s crew, and they are the team’s grandma and grandpa who keep all the whippersnappers in shape. And they occasionally cuddle for the express purpose of grossing out Bumblebee.

I realize I’ll have to watch the rest of the series before I can most definitely not write this, so I can figure out how Arcee’s survival would affect the rest of the story. Such a burden, I know.

I also realize precisely zero people would read this but hell, I’m most definitely not gonna write it anyway. TFA needs moar ladies, and every fandom needs more awesome old people who are still into each other.

- Ratchet was kinda hot back in the day. Um. Y’know. For a robot. *cough*

While I’m making embarrassing confessions…well, Prowl. I mean, he’s a ninja! All lithe and agile and skilled. And he can do all these acrobatics and can drive up walls while still in robot mode and it’s like he’s so awesome it translates into hotness. And he’s got a very nice voice.

…dammit, TFA, I thought I was done debating my sexuality.

- Okay, one more awkward confession and then we’re through for the day, I promise. I have this…thing about cables. Not ropes, cables, preferably computer cables hooked up to a sentient computer or machine. I think this is another one I can blame Japan for, since I watched the X/1999 movie at a way earlier age than I should have and it featured a sentient computer called Beast which was hooked up to its human controller via several thick cables inserted into her naked body. Oh, and it was absolutely devoted to her. Yeah. I blame Japan for a lot of things.

Now, even from an objective standpoint, the scene of Megatron reassembling himself in “Megatron Rising, Part 1” was really, really awesome. Beautifully animated, fluid, impressive, evoking menace and power, and just awesomely badass considering all the buildup we got to Megatron’s appearance throughout the season. But…well, it also involved a lot of cables. A lot of cables stretching out and spreading and connecting things.

I had no idea how deeply that kink ran until I watched that sequence. (And watched it. And watched it some more.) Seriously, is there even a name for that?

Okay. On to more wholesome topics.

- “Nature Calls” is also up there on my list of favorite episodes, because Bumblebee acts almost exactly like me when I’m forced on a camping trip, complete with bringing along unnecessary electronics and not being able to set up a tent or cook food or do anything really. And then there’s his resolute refusal to take the barnacle monster seriously and all his attempts to lighten the mood. Aww, Bumblebee, I love you even if you’re kind of a jerk sometimes.

Also, in this episode, Prowl becomes a Zombie Ninja Robot. Which is awesome.

It speaks to just how very much time I spend playing video games that when the bots were searching for the barnacle monster’s weak spot, all I could think of was “The eyes, stupid! The eyes are always the weak spot!”. Well, they are. I was kind of proud of them for not taking that route.

Also, while I do hate to be such an inveterate shipper sometimes, that whole bit where Prowl first gets zombified and Bee is all “no, no, it’s cool, he can totally handle this”? Yeah, it kind of made me ship them a little more. For all the ribbing Bee gives Prowl he still seems kind of impressed by him. Aww.

And damn, Sari’s got guts. Cracking off a one-liner while two giant zombie robots are heading her way? That kid’s freaking fearless.

- Also loved “Survival of the Fittest”, mostly because I very much enjoy Captain Fanzone. (I am running out of alternate ways to say “X is awesome”.) He backsasses giant robots, he somehow has a rotary-dial cell phone, he takes on huge shark monsters in hand-to-hand combat, and he definitely has some of the better lines. (“Dibs on lefty. I hate lawyers.”) He’s also rather competent for a human police officer in a series focused on superheroes, which is uncommon and quite nice. He and the bots need to team up and be part of a buddy-cop movie together.

I already liked Bulkhead quite a lot for discovering a love of art and wanting to be something more than the team’s Big Guy, but I love him even more for being so very protective of Sari. I can’t help it; I have this weakness for characters who are big softies under normal circumstances but go berserk if you look at their friend the wrong way, and that’s how Bulkhead is with Sari. He’s so sweet to her most of the time – I never figured out if he bought or built the xylophone he was going to give her in “Sound and Fury”, but wither way, awww – but Primus help you if he thinks you’ve hurt her. He even grabs Meltdown with his bare hand to keep her safe in “Total Meltdown” – even though the acid’s eating away at his hand! Poor guy. :(
In fact I spent a lot of this season feeling sorry for him. His frustrated attempts at painting in “The Headmaster” just made me want to give him a hug. And then there’s all of “Sound and Fury” and and and. *squeezes him*

- Speaking of Sari, “Lost and Found” omg. I already liked it because I love Lugnut and Blitzwing – crazyfaced!Blitzwing is far too entertaining, and the fact that Lugnut’s worship of Megatron even gets on Megs’ nerves after a while makes me giggle. I also found it interesting that Icy!Blitzwing observed humans curiously, and doesn’t appear to share the other Cybertronians’ disgust at organics (maybe because he’s had to work with Blackarachnia?). More fic fodder for that fic I’m not writing, la la la.

But this episode was really all about Sari (and Ratchet) and if they didn’t just make me want to cuddle them both. When I looked at the episode discussion I saw some negative reaction to Sari’s tantrum about the Autobots leaving, but most people had the reaction I did – I thought it was realistic, and really, the bots are literally Sari’s only friends at this point, of course she’s going to be upset and not want them to leave, even if she knows it’s for her own good (which isn’t always easy to grasp when you’re eight). And she gets the crap scared out of her for it, so it’s not like her bad behavior doesn’t have consequences (which, in my mind, is the mark of a Mary Sue). She’s lonely and scared and the world is suddenly a lot bigger and out to get her and now all her friends are leaving; why shouldn’t she be upset?

And then Ratchet does that thing where he is grumpy and mad at Sari until she almost hurts herself at which point he’s all “omg I didn’t mean to yell at you I’m sorry please don’t die”. And my wee childish heart is warmed.

Also, underwater Decepticon fight. It was really, really cool.

Hey, Ratchet called the ship “old friend”. Naval convention, or plot thread? I suppose I’ll just have to watch more and find out, won’t I?

- Huh, I’ve barely talked at all about Prime, which is a shame, because I really like this version of him. (Granted, he’s the only version I’ve seen besides the movie version, but still.) I like that he’s played younger and not as sure of himself. I like that he’s trying really, really hard to be the Team Dad and it doesn’t always work out. I like that he’s a little bit clueless about Earth and doesn’t really get people nearly as quickly as, say, Bee does. I like that he’s kind of sarcastic and even bitter sometimes and I like that he sometimes loses his cool.

I think the scenes I like most are when he’s doing his damndest to bring his team together, to be the leader he thinks he’s supposed to be as well as a friend, to draw them each out of their own separate orbits. It particularly shows up in his interactions with Ratchet, since Ratchet’s technically his subordinate but is older, more experienced, and more closed-off than he is. The scene at the beginning of “The Thrill of the Hunt” where he tries to get Ratchet to open up about his past. It struck me as a very honest conversation in both its wording and the inevitable tension that it has, and it was another thing that made the episode for me.

Also, he makes entertaining faces.

- There is nowhere else to fit this within the rest of the post, but TFA Megatron is really awesome. The kind of classy deep voice gives a lot of menace to a disembodied head, and his double-meaning conversation with Starscream and his absolutely poisonous lines to Isaac Sumdac throughout the season and eeee I may have squeaked a bit every time he came onscreen.

- Two more seasons to go! And this next season introduces Jazz, yaaaay! Hi again Jazz, please don’t die like you did in the movie.




Whew. That was a lot of squee for one day.

I should get a TFA icon, but that would mean, well, admitting what a big dork I actually am.