[spoilers] Predacons Rising

[seiberwing]

You know, I've finally figured it out. The writers got annoyed that Transformers: Animated got canceled, so they set out to purposefully give a generation of children perpetual nightmares.



I mean, this wasn't as much of a mindfuck as some of the other episodes, but it was definitely weird. They did finally clear up the whole Sentinel/Blackarachnia thing and did the inevitable turning of cute little Wasp into Beast-Wars-on-acid Waspinator, and they did it reasonably well, but the writers still met their mandatory mangled body/corpse with rather horrific effects and made me go buh.

I really feel for Wasp. He was still a jerkass, but at that point he just wanted to be left alone and I think he was pretty harmless. Sentinel Prime had no legitimate reason to be chasing him around Detroit threatening the lives of innocent organics and causing major property damage, and I think the only reason he did it is that having his scheme with Lockdown fall through made him all the more eager to find some way of looking good in front of the other Autobots.

Wasp's "blah blah blah" and sneaking off during the Prime dick-waving competition was pretty amusing. I'm not sure what was going on with the animation, though; people's mouths seemed to be looking weird in that scene.

"Don't stand around with your pistons in your servos" rather amused me, because I'm pretty sure I know what it was supposed to be a euphemism for and it is totally not kid-friendly. And Sentinel flying with his head was just hilarious, the guy really has no idea how ridiculous he looks sometimes.

Also...I fully realize that it's completely in character for Sentinel to freak out and be disgusted by BA's transformation, but I still hated him for it. What kind of asshole tells his friend that she'd be better off dead and then tries to kill her? He had a lot of trauma and I could tell he was in denial, but he didn't even hesitate. That's cold, man, real cold.

And as if Wasp's life hadn't sucked enough, now he's a freak. An exploding freak. Poor guy.

Optimus needs to stop being such a freaking doormat. I've been waiting for him to punch Sentinel in the face since the guy first showed up on Earth, but he just constantly takes the abuse. The only time he ever stands up to him is when there's other lives at stake.

And who the fuck made him actual second-in-command. I'm really wondering how the Decepticons lost when their leader makes people like Sentinel his successors.

The little Maximal cameo at the end was cool, but while Waspinator having planzz and pulling himself back together used to be cute, now it's fucking creepy.



AND WHERE THE FUCK IS SARI. IT HAS BEEN FOUR EPISODES. WHERE IS OUR SPUNKY NOT-SO-HUMAN SIDEKICK. I start to wonder whether they realized they'd written themselves into a corner by powering her up and simply responded by writing her out of the series entirely.

Comments

[mommimus-prime.livejournal.com]

Sentinel Prime has gotten off so easily, I'm flabbergasted. Optimus really does need to kick his aft. Argh. My reaction to SP's reaction to BA was exactly yours. And then to give him a pass because he's suffering too? Give me a break. You don't want that guy leading the troops.

Personally, I've grown to despise Sari so not seeing her is fine by me.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Sure, he's suffering, but a good leader is someone who suffers and then puts his feelings aside to make the right decision anyway. Sentinel Prime is a bad leader.

It's not even that, it's that the whole Sari thing was set up dramatically and then completely forgotten about. That's not good writing.

[vani-nessa.livejournal.com]

Sentinel Prime had no legitimate reason to be chasing him around Detroit threatening the lives of innocent organics and causing major property damage, and I think the only reason he did it is that having his scheme with Lockdown fall through made him all the more eager to find some way of looking good in front of the other Autobots.

I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm inclined to say that it was more of him not wanting to go back to Cybertron since he didn't want to accept command. His argument was that Wasp could have information on Magnus' attack. I saw that as him clinging to the thought of wanting to 'fix' the situation with Ultra Magnus.

I know everyone says that Optimus needs to give Sentinel his well deserved slap upside the head... it just doesn't seem like Optimus would ever do that, IMO. XD Even though Sentinel has it coming, Optimus just doesn't seem the type to beat sense into people.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of it that way. I suppose I'm not used to Sentinel having depth. <_< Honestly, I think Optimus is right where he needs to be, because he's got a good team that works well when given a basic strategy but also does well when he's not there. The one time he tried to be an authoritarian leader he flubbed it horribly, and I think he wouldn't do well leading an actual trained group into pitched battle against the Decepticons on a regular basis or leading anything larger.

[spotlight-noa.livejournal.com]

Sari comes back in the next episode according to Wyatt.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Bloody finally.

[spotlight-noa.livejournal.com]

Oh, and continuing on. Sentinel's getting a lot of hate here... But I think he was right. >_> Black Arachnia isn't Elita at ALL anymore. She's absolutely immoral... I have trouble feeling bad for her. D: I felt worse for Sentinel seeing his friend warped and evil. @_@

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

It's not whether he was right, it was how he reacted to it. Optimus felt guilty, he tried to see if she was in there somewhere, he wanted to bring her back. Sentinel went the other way and went into total, disgusted denial

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

"I've got a visual. It's Wasp, alright. He's leaving a real mess." *G1 Optimus trailer goes past on the left*

Blackarachnia: "Whip it good..."

Unstable beast modes, hmmm?

"Waspinator have plans..."

Blackarachnia: *sees a rhino, rat, gorilla and cheetah* "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding."

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

It's like even BA knows it was a silly BW reference.

[someidiot.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be funny if she used that group of animals to create the Predacons?

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

...you know, come to think of they never actually mentioned "Predacon" at any point. Going to be some confused noobs.

[someidiot.livejournal.com]

Wasn't really much of a rise, either. BA created one, and he exploded. As he probably will continue to do -- I suddenly see the convenience of him being "unstable". Time for some classic explosion jokes :D

[(Anonymous)]

"Don't stand around with your pistons in your servos"

I figured that he meant to say "servos in your pistons" and mean "hands in your pockets," but now that you mention it, yeah. This show's getting away with a lot.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

You can't really put anything in a piston, so...

[(Anonymous)]

It made even more sense when I remembered that this episode was written by two of the Beast Wars guys, who got crap past the radar like nuts.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

No kidding? This explains quite a bit.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep. Bob Forward and Larry Ditillio according to TFwiki.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

No wonder it was such a good episode. Explains why Blackarachnia seems to have turned into a sexy Tarantulas, too.

...oh dear, Blackarachnia is Other Vengeance Tarantulas.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

You mean she can be disabled by rubber ducks?

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Obviously we need to call in Professor Princess for this one.

[dragoness-e.livejournal.com]

Er, a spoiler cut would have been nice?

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

...damnit, I thought I'd done one. Sorry. I made the post in a hurry and then left the house, so I must not have done the html right.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

WHERE IS OUR SPUNKY NOT-SO-HUMAN SIDEKICK.

This seems to be the response of a lot of the fandom. I find it hilarious, considering the usual response to human-kid characters and even the wariness and outright disapproval aimed at Sari in the first season or so.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

If they'd just put Sari on a bus somewhere, it'd be fine. But they just dropped this damn big plot twist and now they never talk about the girl they practically adopted for a whole season.

A simple "how's Sari doing/I miss Sari" would be nice, y'know?

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

I suppose. But if she's not going to appear or contribute to the plot, there's not really much point in using up animation time referring to her. Something like the quantum theory of appearance: for a given TV show, any non-vital plot contribution less than X will be written out and possibly saved up to appear somewhen else.

I guess in canon she's resting up, winding down, and re-establishing her home and family in Sumdac Tower. We might get a Sari-heavy episode later on to establish what she's been up to all this time.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

It's very vital to the plot when their best human friend/temporary ward nearly died and is currently in an unknown condition after undergoing a complete reformat. It's a plot thread left dangling, and one that could easily have been tied up--they could have taken a minute out of Three's A Crowd for it, that episode didn't have much essential.

[kookaburra1701.livejournal.com]

I was mostly very disturbed with the verbiage Sentinel was using. It was pretty much the same as arguments I've heard people make that rape victims are better off dead.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

I...really didn't see it like that. Sentinel Prime comes off more like a racist-with-a-twist, and he couldn't imagine living with that infecting his systems so he doesn't think "Elita" should either.

[kookaburra1701.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know it wasn't meant to be like that, but with some recent idiocy I've experienced it was fresh on my mind and very similar.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Interesting, considering she then ends up sucking SP's personal special ability from him for a while. Sentinel may have some lasting nightmares from having had such intimate contact with a partial-organic who was herself 'contaminated' by physical contact with genuine organics.

I wonder if he'll start going a little OCD, examining himself for signs of organic infection?

Someone could play a really cruel prank by attaching some fake spider legs and technorganic detailing to the blue bozo during his next cyber-nap...

[kookaburra1701.livejournal.com]

Oh, that would be a very cruel prank. OCD/more obviously PTSD Sentinel would definitely fit with the darker direction the show is taking, and would be interesting to see.

Sentinel and Ratchet could be support group buds! *squishes plot bunnies*

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

I would adore that fic.