But, but where is my season 3?

[seiberwing]

The Transformers: Animated season 2 finale, "A Bridge Too Close", finally came out on Canadian TV, and summarily came out on YouTube later that evening. Like any impatient fan, I watched it.


And I am here to proclaim it Most Awesome. The fight at the end was a bit of a clusterfuck, but it was interesting to see how they pulled together a lot of plot threads from earlier episodes (Blurr, the Constructicons Bulkhead's space bridge and art talents, Sari's exact nature, Shockwave, etc.)

Megatron's at his manipulative but powerful best, and Starscream's following his usual trend of cobbling together a really good plan but having it fall through in the end anyway. I did like that they didn't pull the usual 'you saved my life so I'm going to be noble to you for a while'--Megatron used Optimus as a living shield barely three minutes after Optimus saved his life.

Was spoiled on Omega Supreme's existence, but not on the fact that he was actually the ship, so that was kinda awesome. I hope we at least get a message from him in Season Three so Ratchet won't be so upset. OTP of cute and hurt/comfort, yes?

Sari...once again Sari shines as a human sidekick by staying out of the way of the battle. I liked that they gave her an important and useful position as key-wielder and Bulkhead comforter, but didn't have her do anything outside reasonable boundaries for her character. And the robot thing...damn you, writers, for making us wait for an explanation until next season. We all knew what she was, but I want to hear the exact explanation for it.

And, of course, the bit with Starscream getting in touch with his feminine side cannot be overlooked. Is it a move by the writers to yet again follow fan trends by hinting at his homosexual/transgender/transsexual status? Does she represent his anima as proposed by Jung? Or does her existence as a manifestation of his cattiness/snarkiness indicate a reverse to traditional gendered ideals of personality? Is it possible I am overthinking this?

Comments

[dogbite12.livejournal.com]

I loved hearing Omega Supreme ask "What's a 'dad'?"

As far as the clones, I dunno, we all might be overthinking Fenmescream a bit;
she seemed more tongue-in-cheek than anything else.

So, when does S3 start?

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Probably, but I'm still curious about it. Perhaps there will be writer commentary?

Not sure when it starts, but I want it. They had just damn well not cut off the series now and leave Starscream to the torment of being bodiless but kept alive by his fragment for all of eternity.

[dogbite12.livejournal.com]

Usually they add commentary on the DVD.

I think S3 might be airing in other countries, like the Emirates, but I'm not too sure about that.

I can't imagine ANY Transformers 'toon without Starscream at this point--they do know how popular he is in the fandom.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm sure FanTransformers will post it once he gets it.

TF wiki gives it a big fat question mark, but it's only been a day. We'll see.

Of course not, but if the show happened to be canceled this soon I'd put up another mark on TF:A's "did you really mean to be this creepy" score.

[hoskie.livejournal.com]

I've gotten really behind in my Animated watching. I was watching them diligently as they were posted to YouTube, but then it kind of slipped my mind. I haven't seen any of Season Two yet.

*shields eyes from spoilers*

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

It's pretty good, although around the second half the writing takes a short dip before getting good again.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Is it a move by the writers to yet again follow fan trends by hinting at his homosexual/transgender/transsexual status? Does she represent his anima as proposed by Jung? Or does her existence as a manifestation of his cattiness/snarkiness indicate a reverse to traditional gendered ideals of personality?

Based on the amount of discussion she's generating, I'd have to say "Fanbait" :) (May also be a reference to the French incarnation of Starscream.)

Blackarachnia: "The position of snarky, competent, violent female character in this show has been FILLED!" *BLAM*

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

The fact that snarky, competant female is a position that must be 'filled' by a single person is a very sad thing indeed.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Well, most scripted TV shows, especially kids' shows, tend to have fairly standard character types and one character for each, unless there's a team with an overarching theme. And TF:A has a fairly small cast anyway, so they tend to be even more separated.

Even the gender of a character doesn't really matter - there will only be the one, male or female, unless the theme is 'matching male and female teams'. Beast Wars had Blackarachnia - Dinobot wasn't anywhere near as snarky, Rattrap was much less violent most of the time, Tarantulas wasn't so much snarky as creepy, and Megatron was more about the power than the snark.

(In Beast Machines, I'd cautiously pick Strika, or even Jetstorm, as the character for this role, as BA became a much more generic warrior type.)

Really, I only added 'female' before because it was another point that matched for Blackarachnia and FemmeScream, making the potential character-space interference even more obvious. Perhaps the writers will get around it by having one or the other fade into obscurity, or work on emphasizing the differences between the two? FS hasn't really had much of a chance to be fleshed out yet.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

FS is probably going to be a bit character like Wreck-Gar or the SUV, appearing only a few times every season at the most.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, if her toy gets a slight remold from Starscream's, she'll be able to form the base for repainting into every fanSeekerfemme ever...

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Better deal than BW Blackarachnia ever got...

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Mmm, point, although she did stick around long enough to get her own TM2 toy (and, technically, a TM1 toy, although that never made the show).

And she became massively more popular than the first character to use her original mold design, which has to count for something.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Counts for fanboy appeal more than anything else, really.

Long comment is long...

[vani-nessa.livejournal.com]

In G1, I always enjoyed the times where Prime and Megatron would be forced to team up. So, I was happy to see them fighting back-to-back - for as little as it lasted. Then I laughed at Optimus being a human shield. Yes, cruel of me, but it's gotta be expected. I have to mention it amuses me how small Optimus is in comparison to him... well, I knew he was smaller, but I never really noticed how much smaller until Megatron picked him up with one hand.

I loved Omega. His character was so much sweeter than his G1 self. And yes - Ratchet x Omega = OTP (Matty and I were talking about how we shipped Ratchet x Ship even before we knew it was Omega XD). Their interaction was so endearing, Ratchet was so soft and affectionate. It pulled my heart strings when he cried out as Omega vanished. ): He needs to come back. Why do all of Ratchet's connections start off so sweet then get stolen away? *sad* He needs Arcee and Omega! Then I will be appeased. I love Animated Ratchet too much. He did pet Omega's spark chamber... n'awe.

Sari was great. I always love when she interacts with Ratchet. I totally second the staying out of battle bit. They showed how the sidekick kid can be involved without y'know, being a pain and rushing into the middle of everything. We're all waiting for the full explanation - so, of course they'll make us wait, they're cruel like that. Mrrff. I am happy that her being part robotic does make her some cracktastic form of a Megatron/Sumdac lovechild. *easily amused*

What makes me think the most of the female Starscream bit is, well... he made all of those bodies, didn't he? So, what I don't get is, did he intend for her to turn out that way by making her shell feminine? It could just be a fluke in the writing, but I don't know. He seemed pretty happy about it... nearly flirting with himself there. *snort* I was leaning towards the general idea that each of us at once had the potential to be male or female - so she represents that part of Starscream. Though, I don't know how that works for Cybertronians... well, either way. I'm happy for more females in the cast. Oh, the fandom is going to have such fun with this. I may totally ship her with Black Arachnia. *cough* ... where was she, anyway?

Anyway, I loved Blurr. When I saw his new design... I don't know, I loved it, but expected him to be more 'cool' and smooth with that sort of look. But, I'm happy he was very much like the same old Blurr - voice and all. Shockwave's new look is also love. Mmm, Corey Burton.

So, yes. Can we have season 3 now? I don't even know if they've started animating it yet... ):

Re: Long comment is long...

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

The Decepticons are huge, you just don't really notice it until they're compared to the Autobots.

I am happy that her being part robotic does make her some cracktastic form of a Megatron/Sumdac lovechild. *easily amused*

If that's true, I want to see her call Megatron mommy at least once. Besides the OMG cliffhanger I think they set up that scene very well. Sari's protecting her father and proclaiming his trustworthiness, and then her elbow's revealed and she shrinks away from him in horror.

What makes me think the most of the female Starscream bit is, well... he made all of those bodies, didn't he?

That's the weird thing. She was built with a slightly different head and face shape from the others, so either Starscream was having an off day when he built her or he just decided to make her a bit different and she turned out female purely by coincidence. BA was probably laying low, on account of she doesn't have much truck with the rest of the Decepticons--and I also support this shipping.

Blurr's got his original VA, as it happens. However, G1 Blurr is eager to help and kind of childish, while Animated Blurr is arrogant like pretty much the rest of the Elite Guard and I feel that comes over very well. As an intermittent character he'd be pretty fun.

[seikk.livejournal.com]

Hope you don't mind me coming through here ^_^;

I just watched these episodes and so far they are up there with my top favorites. I actually liked Sari in this episode, which is really neat since my automatic response to her in a show is 'frustrated annoyance unless proven otherwise'. I agree with you and what you said about her being a good human sidekick. At first I was half expecting her to talk Optimus into letting her come along to the actual battle instead of going with Ratchet.

I was pleasantly surprised when she didn't. She's grown up a bit, me thinks.

And I skee'ed when Megatron used Optimus as a living shield. It was just so perfect...*sighs happily* I also love the whole lack of honor. It fits.

And I liked how the writers acknowledged the Constructicons' amnesia in this episode. I don't know why, but I did. And I wanted to smack Optimus upside the head when he did his whole 'so you're working for the Decepticons now, huh?' thing...of course they are! But yes, really all that's saying is that I'm also glad that the writers brought together all the loose plot points. Was good of them.

And Bulkhead...oh, Bulkhead. I loved him in this episode. Really. Him and Omega just...wow. And poor Ratchet! T.T OTP cuteness = YES!

FemmeScreamer...Personally, I think she's female because most people associate snarkiness and nagging with females. Not the best reason in the book but the first thing I thought of *sighs*. Personally, I like to think they actually read boards and fics and so on where the fans contemplate Starscream's feminine side. Not likely, but nice to think about :P