Transformers Prime - "Darkness Rising Part Four" - Talkback [12/02]

[The Huntsman]

Today @ 6:30 PM ET on The Hub

The five-part premiere event continues tonight.

The Autobots try to stave off an attack from Megatron's Terrorcons to protect their human wards.

[kid rabbit]

fourth episode and things are finally picking up
and someone fcalled miko out on her crazieness

[Monte]

This episode was a definitely a step up from the last. Got some really good action; Bulkhead's fights help make up for Miko's action. Granted though, i am really hating the animation for Bulkhead's running; it's like he's taking very fast short steps which looks kind of silly, i mean it makes him feel like he's moving faster than his size and weight should allow; it feels like he's moving in fast-motion when he runs.

Those decepticon minions really are subject to the inverse ninja law; the more or them there are the weaker they are.

The zombies kind of a toss up. On the one hand, optimus and ratchet beating the small army all on their own felt too easy, but on the other hand they had a nice moment where they made it work and made it feel like they wee really working for it... though zombies follow ninja law in that zombie cliffjumper seem more fearsome. Still not sure if I like the idea

and someone fcalled miko out on her crazieness

indeed, now if only the message would actually get through to her...
miko is really getting on my nerves; the plus side is she got a nice moment with Jack at the end which puts up some faint hope if she can keep the idiot hat off. Jack, while his reason for going into the field in the first place were kind of stupid he performed well in the episode... seems like a good character but I'm still skeptical about how the rest of the series will go for him... like i said he performed well in the episode but all he was really doing was trying to improvise and survive, him getting involved in the action in the first place was accidental. So either he will have to get involved accidently or he will have to make an active decision to get involved and that could work out badly as it did in other series... afterall while they did manage to contribute and bring back something important without getting killed, they should see it as something of a major fluke and not be dumb enough to think they can be as successful the second time... even if the autobots thought humans might have a use in the field they would ask fowler for trained soldiers to help instead of children.

[G1Ravage]

Four episodes in and I'm hooked. February can't come soon enough.

[GWOtaku]

This is the best show on The Hub right now. Entertaining action with some fine writing thrown in too; no named Autobot character has gone to waste. The kids are incredibly not all that annoying, although my impression of Miko is the same as Jack's opinion--Miko really doesn't seem to get it, despite her acknowledgment that they all almost died on the Deception ship. So what, her life is exciting!

I do have one complaint. Just like in GI Joe Renegades we have the good guys, the Autobots, with a very small team including an unspeaking Bumblebee. In contrast, the Deceptions seemingly have an army of mooks that all look the same. What's up with that? Why are the two sides so unbalanced? And on the Decepticon side, so far this has meant that we're limited to the Megatron/Starcream dynamic--which has been done as well here as anywhere if not moreso. Soundwave's role so far has been to deliver intelligence for Starcream and nothing more. This show needs more Transformer characters for the conflict to have legs in the long run, I think. The Deception side in particular is just going to get stale unless Megatron ends up importing extra help.

HellCat's review was right, Optimus is a great warrior in this iteration. I like how there's no Deus Ex plot twist saving him and Ratchet from Megatron's undead army. Oh no. Optimus just gets mad & determined enough to trash his horde of assailants. That's awesome. And he has the twin blades that he had in the movies.

Incidentally, yeah. Bay's movies have nothing on this. Can't wait to see how this premiere ends. Also can't believe I listened to early claims that the animation in this sucked.

[HEATXZ]

Awesome episode :anime:
We got Optimus Prime fighting Zombie Robots :anime:

[Mandouga]

The only real problem I had with this episode was Jack's borderline emo (if this is the right word; I couldn't think of a better one) attitude after all was said and done. I'm actually glad that Miko and Raf decided to stay. I realize that Jack has been through a lot, but acting all emo the way he is isn't going to solve his problem (or Miko's or Raf's). Incidentally, I disagree about Miko not getting it. I think she does (i.e., even if Jack thinks she doesn't) but has decided to look on the positive side of things. I think she understands just how real it is, and how war is a horrible thing, and that it's possible that people can die, etc, but she also knows that worrying about her own mortality isn't going to get her anywhere (that being said, I'm hoping that later episodes don't try to contradict that). I think that's why she was trying to get Jack to come back, as well as why she was calling him out on the way he starts acting.

That's what I got out of it, anyway. Also, Raf and Bumblebee? I think I see a possible "Boy and his Robot" dynamic here, which I think was part of the reason he decided to stay. Going back to Jack, it's a given that he'll eventually come back. We probably wouldn't have a series otherwise...

[anime_guru]

So far there has been one question the episode answered within the first five minutes of the span of the episode
why can't humans stay in a transformer once they're transformed. I have been wondering about that question FOR YEARS
For answering that question alone, miko gets the gold star! yes the star is covered in vomit and soaked with sweat and easy spirit but a gold star nonetheless. And after all of that decent miko buildup, it was sorta mehed in the next scene because bulkhead stole the show. Heave the meatshield toward decepticons, that's just awesome if not the most irresponsible thing I have ever seen in a cartoon! I'm really starting to like bulkhead btw.
I had a lot of questions as the episode went along, many that were silenced literally by the next scene. I initially thought that the robots lacked sentience when they were not going after miko...
and then the next scene happened...that killed any material I had for how stupid the robots were. 1984 this is not! But there is stupidity, or at the very least unexplained emo behavior by Jack. And it takes miko to give him a pep talk...lord have mercy!
Optimus and Ratchet have their body full of dark energon and megatron's army. So is it safe to say the blood of unicron thing is totally dismissed for dark energon angle? And for that matter how come megatron hasn't become corrupted - yet? Although I am liking the ties to cybertron. I am very sad that for now after tonight, this is the end of a really good transformers series...even with meat shields its trading into nostalgia category and well...that's just prime

[Chiptooth]

I do have one complaint. Just like in GI Joe Renegades we have the good guys, the Autobots, with a very small team including an unspeaking Bumblebee. In contrast, the Deceptions seemingly have an army of mooks that all look the same. What's up with that? Why are the two sides so unbalanced? And on the Decepticon side, so far this has meant that we're limited to the Megatron/Starcream dynamic--which has been done as well here as anywhere if not moreso. Soundwave's role so far has been to deliver intelligence for Starcream and nothing more. This show needs more Transformer characters for the conflict to have legs in the long run, I think. The Deception side in particular is just going to get stale unless Megatron ends up importing extra help.

I suspect that there ARE some "out-of-towners" in the cards for future episodes -- as apart from the possibilities provided by the advent of space bridges on this show, one of the behind-the-scenes videos that was released recently has one of the creators sitting in front of concept art of a white car-robot with red and green markings from a distance that looks A LOT like Wheeljack: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transf...-tf-prime.html

It's also been reported on a lot of the TF sites that Knockout and Breakdown will be joining the Decepticon ranks (with Adam Baldwin voicing Breakdown), so the 'Cons will apparently be beefing up their ranks outside of the Eradicons/drones, too.

[bigddan11]

So the Earth's fallen warriors aren't enough for Megatron. Instead of raising a few fallen strong soldiers, he wants to overwhelm the Autobots. The battle with Optimus and Ratchet against the fallen deserved more time instead of just finding their weakness.

So we finally find out the Autobot base is in Nevada. That explains the desert scenes. I may not like it, but I can deal with it. Does anyone think the base being in Nevada is a small reference to it supposedly being Area 51?

Bulkhead stole the show. Truthfully I didn't mind his movements when they were sped up, but his slow lumbering was a bit of a pain.

So last episode Bumblebee and Arcee were racing back to the base. This week they mysteriously show up without being discovered. I assume they used the space brige to get there, but considering they also drove off it makes me wonder if they actually drove there.

Overall I find each episode is getting better. It'll be interesting to see what Fowler does when he wakes up, and it'll be interesting to see what causes Jack to change his mind.

As far as the Decepticons go, my only complaint is that all of Megatron's warriors look the same. Which bot is that supposed to be anyway, and why are there so many that look the same. I'd be interested to know if Megs is manufacturing some of his warriors.

[Mandouga]

Heave the meatshield toward decepticons, that's just awesome if not the most irresponsible thing I have ever seen in a cartoon!

When you look at it from Optimus' point of view, he doesn't think it was awesome at all. He even called Bulkhead out on his "poor judgement" (as Optimus puts it). The Autobots are supposed to be protecting the humans, after all. That being said, and I had never thought of this before, but I hope all the major human characters on this show stay alive for its duration. IMHO, killing even one of them off would be wrong on so many levels (that, plus it could even derail the entire show)...

[Gold Guy]

I really liked this episode, all the action was great, and the animation is just awesome. I really like this series so far.

[CyclonatorZ]

I do have one complaint. Just like in GI Joe Renegades we have the good guys, the Autobots, with a very small team including an unspeaking Bumblebee. In contrast, the Deceptions seemingly have an army of mooks that all look the same. What's up with that? Why are the two sides so unbalanced? And on the Decepticon side, so far this has meant that we're limited to the Megatron/Starcream dynamic--which has been done as well here as anywhere if not moreso. Soundwave's role so far has been to deliver intelligence for Starcream and nothing more. This show needs more Transformer characters for the conflict to have legs in the long run, I think. The Deception side in particular is just going to get stale unless Megatron ends up importing extra help.

I think once the miniseries is over and the main season begins, we'll probably start seeing more characters on both sides. The decepticons in particular could benefit from two or three more standout roles. Since they already brought back one character introduced in Animated, I nominate they also bring back Lugnut. Also, since this show takes at least a bit of influence from the Bay movies, how about they give some spotlight to some of the "characters" from those live-action trainwrecks? I'd particularly like to see Blackout and Sideways get some actual personality.

[anime_guru]

When you look at it from Optimus' point of view, he doesn't think it was awesome at all. He even called Bulkhead out on his "poor judgement" (as Optimus puts it). The Autobots are supposed to be protecting the humans, after all. That being said, and I had never thought of this before, but I hope all the major human characters on this show stay alive for its duration. IMHO, killing even one of them off would be wrong on so many levels (that, plus it could even derail the entire show)...

I also acknowledge it was the most responsible thing I've ever seen in a cartoon. Who throws the meatshields in front of decepticons??? I mean it was irresponsible, foolhardy and begging for trouble and death. But I have never seen ANY transformers iteration do that before. It just shocked me to no end. I won't say anything presumptuous as to say I hope they won't die because its too early but I would love to see character development.
And who knew arcee had a heart?

[NightwingAngelo]

I also acknowledge it was the most responsible thing I've ever seen in a cartoon. Who throws the meatshields in front of decepticons??? I mean it was irresponsible, foolhardy and begging for trouble and death. But I have never seen ANY transformers iteration do that before. It just shocked me to no end. I won't say anything presumptuous as to say I hope they won't die because its too early but I would love to see character development.
And who knew arcee had a heart?

Tossing Miko forward like that was full of win!