Transformers Prime - "Operation: Breakdown" - Talkback [06/18]

[The Huntsman]

Today @ 7:00 PM ET on The Hub

The Hub is doing very poorly. Hopefully that news will encourage people to watch the network's premieres, and we get new episodes of three shows tonight beginning with Prime.

MECH agents capture a Decepticon, and the Autobots mount a rescue.

[trance2009]

Haha, Breakdown is crazy. I like how he looks like a little like his G1 version.

[HEATXZ]

Great episode :anime:
i like the action scenes and the scene when Bulkhead punch Starscream

[Dragnatek]

Starscream in Prime is such a better leader for the Decepticons then Megatron it is not even funny. This episode really proves it. Megatron could care less about his fellow decepticons, he won't rescue them if they are captured by an enemy. Starscream for all his scheming ways still cares for his own people, and now he has Breakdown on his side.

Score one point for team Starscream,

[Particle_Beam]

I gotta say, this was a very good episode. The MECH-villains are quite dangerous, and Starscream slowly recruiting Decepticons who will aid him in his cause when it is time to overthrow the brutish Megatron is also nice.

So far, because of the multiple story-layers, I'd say that this is the best episode of the series so far.

[Monte]

Starscream in Prime is such a better leader for the Decepticons then Megatron it is not even funny. This episode really proves it. Megatron could care less about his fellow decepticons, he won't rescue them if they are captured by an enemy. Starscream for all his scheming ways still cares for his own people, and now he has Breakdown on his side.

Score one point for team Starscream,

I wouldn't say Starscream cares about his fellow decepticons. He's planning on eventually taking another shot at overthrowing megatron and as such needs as many allies he can get. He doesn't care about breakdown, he just thinks he will be useful

[Manhunter]

I wouldn't say Starscream cares about his fellow decepticons. He's planning on eventually taking another shot at overthrowing megatron and as such needs as many allies he can get. He doesn't care about breakdown, he just thinks he will be useful

That's how I saw it, too.

[Particle_Beam]

That still makes Starscream a lot more "compasionate" than Megatron, who so far is just is a wasteful tyrant who sits in his ship doing nothing.

[Sockie]

That still makes Starscream a lot more "compasionate" than Megatron, who so far is just is a wasteful tyrant who sits in his ship doing nothing.

He just got out of his coma two episodes ago. And Starscream sat around in the ship doing nothing for two episodes as well. ("Speed Metal" and "Predatory")

[Gold Guy]

This was an okay episode, definately not my No. 1. Maybe its because I don't care for M.E.C.H., Bulkhead, or Breakdown, so an episode about them didn't do much for me. And the other characters didn't get to do much, except Starscream, who mostly just complained and retreated, as usual.

[ktk]

I thought it was a great episode, MECH is a legitimate threat.

That said, it was a surprisingly dark episode. The dismantling part was pretty intense, with leaving Breakdown awake to watch his own demise.

But besides being a good episode (with a surprise rescue from Starscream even), this set up a ton of future plots: Starscream building an army, Breakdown choosing sides, MECH building their own TF-type suit, Agent Fowler watching movies....

[Chiptooth]

I rather like MECH myself - of course, their leader's voiced by Clancy Brown, which is already a plus-point for me right there (notice he's even voicing ANOTHER evil character who opposes an alien in red and blue ), but I rather like the fact that for once we have human villains in a TF show who actually SEEM threatening. As opposed to, y'know, the Angry Archer and the Headmaster (not that I dislike Animated, but the whole 'human super-villain' thing was ill-devised from the start).

Speaking of Headmasters...I wouldn't be surprised if Project: Chimera has a few shades of the Machination (from the IDW books) in there.

Megatron's apathy toward captured Decepticons doesn't ruffle me too much...Breakdown's a grunt when you get right down to it (although I do like the character, particularly this version of him - he's got more character development to me here than his G1 counterpart ever seemed to), and in a lot of TF continuities Megatron doesn't hold much respect for underlings who get themselves caught by the enemy, Autobot or otherwise, unless it's to suit his own stealthy ends, which this clearly didn't, and as I see it that's perfectly in character for Megatron.

[Neo Yi]

As opposed to, y'know, the Angry Archer and the Headmaster (not that I dislike Animated, but the whole 'human super-villain' thing was ill-devised from the start).

The whole point of villains like Angry Archer, Professor Princess, Headmaster, and the like in Animated is that they were purposely played up as jokes or inferior villains to the Autobots. This was done so the bigger Decepticon threats are just that much more menacing in perspective. The writers didn't flub up, this was intentional. The only human villain that remains the sole exception is Meltdown and he is played up seriously by being a legitimate threat.


This episode is "meh", Silas and MECH still doesn't have a refraining personality and I still can't get myself to care, but credit where credit is due, they are heartless and scary. We can get away with robots being dismantled, but the fact reminds, Breakdown is a sentient creature. Seeing his own eyeball is an incredibly disturbing sight, so kudos on adding that extra level of creepy.

Also kudos on Miko staying put for once instead of diving in suicidally. I still can't care for her and everything she opens her mouth, I cringe (Yeah, Miko, let Bulkhead break the rules, let him go out and smack Breakdown when he may potentially have emotional issues against his rivals that may jeopardize the mission), but it's a step up.

I think the only point of interest is Breakdown's reaction at the ending. The way he's pondering, me predicts he's having one of those "Maybe-I-should-quit-the-Decepticon-and-either-join-the-Autobots-or-leave-out-on-my-own" feel. That's the vibe I'm getting. Otherwise, this was average episode - not even Starscream couldn't save it (probably because he wasn't that prominent as last episode which made the episode despite its boring A plot). XD

[Monte]

I rather like MECH myself - of course, their leader's voiced by Clancy Brown, which is already a plus-point for me right there (notice he's even voicing ANOTHER evil character who opposes an alien in red and blue ), but I rather like the fact that for once we have human villains in a TF show who actually SEEM threatening. As opposed to, y'know, the Angry Archer and the Headmaster (not that I dislike Animated, but the whole 'human super-villain' thing was ill-devised from the start).

what about Meltdown? Though the human villians were lame comic-relief villians, i thought he was the exception. I thought that he came off as fairly threatening human villian in transformers animated. His genetic creations could go toe to toe with the transformers and his acidic powers seem to able to cause serious injury

[TurboMan]

That was 10000 times better than last episode, the action was good, Miko stopped being a dumbass and had a reasoning that actulay fits what a WRECKER like Bulkhead would go for, the plot is developing with Starscream showing signs of another coup and mentions of "Breakdown being a key player", Breakdown finally getting developed and MECH is much more interesting than the Decepticons so far.

The show is 21 minutes of animation and sound, but this one felt like alot happening and moving on, which is something that the series failt as regularly.

Very well, Prime, you managed to make this good enough for me to catch next episode, let us hope that you keep yourself in check this time.

[ABrown]

Megatron could care less about his fellow decepticons, he won't rescue them if they are captured by an enemy.

I get what Megatron was thinking. He sees the humans as inferior. So he figures that if one of his soldiers is getting captured by a human, then that soldier wouldn't stand a chance against an Autobot.

This was an okay episode, definately not my No. 1. Maybe its because I don't care for M.E.C.H.

I agree. I don't mind the idea of M.E.C.H. for one episode, but I don't want to see humans as the villans for many episodes. I just want Autobots vs Decepticons and leave it at that.

[GWOtaku]

The good thing about M.E.C.H is that it helps render humanity as more than mere spectators in the Autobot/Deception fight. If you stop and think about it, this makes sense. They're on OUR planet. In fact, if I had things my way people would be as involved or more than they were in G1.

Prime's reasoning for rescuing Breakdown was well done. I love that they justified it for both practical and idealistic reasons instead of pitting one against the other. It's that ability to see the big picture that makes Prime a great leader for reasons beyond the fact that TransFans are (understandably) conditioned to see him in the role and no one else.

I still think this show plays with too few characters. I'm aching for an episode that has more than three named Decepticons taking an active role.

[sparkykandy]

I wonder if it's the fact that I could care less about Autobots because I'm not really feeling this series. (The Decepticons, on the other hand, are rather amusing to watch.)

Anyways, it was nice to see that Miko decided to stay behind this time around. I wonder if she's learning to not throw herself into these type of situations anymore. Though it was kind of weird that Jack and Raf didn't appear at all. Sure, this episode was focused primarily around Bulkhead, but still.

I wonder if I'm missing something, but this episode seemed to the first one that a past relationship between Bulkhead and Breakdown was brought up. I'm sort of curious to see what happened in the past.

And, I must say that M.E.C.H. was a whole lot more interesting in this episode than in their last episode. With what happened in this episode, I'm now curious to see how things pan out.