S02E07 Crossfire, b*tch!

[Knightdramon]

My, what a lovely one at last. After the semi-disappointment of Operation Bumblebee and the mediocre Loose Cannons, we get a decent episode where stuff that matters actually happens!

-Dreadwing is actually second in command as of this episode.
-Dreadwing can actually play nice with whomever he's partnered with, as evidenced by his interaction with Breakdown
-Breakdown gets brutally murdered by Airachnid. Somewhat random, especially considering there were two plotlines running for him that are dropped entirely. His remains are found by MECH.
-Megatron shines in this episode like no other. Brutal, efficient is what Megatron is when he goes all out, when there's really nothing to hold him back. His fight with the Insecticon was top notch, especially his shock for a moment where he realized the Insecticon was not under his orders.
-Starscream was brilliant as well. Seems like he has a thing for calling for assistance each time he's hurt. And he did save Arcee and even spared her, now that was a rare decent moment from an otherwise scheming backstabber. Wonder when he'll get a T-COG back.

All in all, a very Decepticon-centric episode that highlights the status quo of Megatron and his three second in command lieutenants. In a similar situation, Starscream only returned out of fear of reprisal [Rock Bottom] or of being snuffed out [Masters and Students], Airachnid choose to just let Megatron go [Season 1 ending], but Dreadwing choose to disobey and save his commander.
 

[Jaynz]

Everything in this post is a spoiler. If you don't want spoiled, get off the damn thread already.

Anyway...

I was a bit surprised at Breakdown's death, though, as we should all know by now, it may NOT be final considering both who picked up his carcass and what's going to be going on in the next episode. I was more surprised by how brutal it was.

Starscream was just excellent this time out, particularly in the end with Arcee. He's really at his low point now, but he's actualy becoming a more impressive character. It's almost a pity that there's no way a "Hellscream" could be so named, 'cause I kinda want to see Starscream really come into his own as THE unquesitoned Decepticon #2. He's like two steps from it now.

And, lastly, yeah, I don't think Airachnid will be showing up for Season Three. She's officially hit the "This bitch must die" level from absolutely everyone in the show - The Government (TM), MECH, Autobots, Decepticons, and rogues, all want her dead and no one has ANY reason to spare her existance anymore. Sure, she's got the hive now, but that's a plot device, and perhaps the 'big' one of the season... Not even BW Silverbolt would waste time offin' this chick.
 

[Thunderwave]

I really liked this episode. Airachnid going rogue wasn't that big of a surprise, nor was Megatron's attempt on her life. What did surprise me was Breakdown's death. Not only did she kill him, she dismembered him and spread his parts all over the ground. For a Transformers that's roughly the same as a human finding another human gutted and spread out over a clearing. It was brutal and a clear message. She's shaping up to be this seasons Big Bad and i can't wait to see her brought down.

Megs was top notch this episode. Seeing Megatron fighting the Incecticon was epic. I loved his bragging at the end of that fight. Sometimes it's easy to forget that the characters have a history before we meet them.

Soundwave, silent as ever, is shaping up nicely to fill his namesake's shoes.

Dreadwing. What to say about Dreadwing. He's like Lugnut, only smarter. Yea, that about sums him up as of now.

And the highlight of the episode for me was how Decepticon-centric it is. I find them much more interesting then the Autobots, especially now that Megatron has pushed away two of his top fighters and officers. The Decepticon philosophy is starting to show it's weaknesses.
 

[Skyquake87]

Good solid fighty shooty episode (i like those ) I really like the Insecticon character model, although it doesn't look like it transforms into anything - a bit like Arachnid. I was surprised this thing held its own against Megatron for so long...I could understand that with Arcee on Cybertron, what with her lsightly diminutive frame and all. Not really much to find fault with, aside from not being bale to understand why Arachnid feels she should command the Decepticons. It just smacks of the usual inhouse squabbling that affects the villains in all cartoons, and is just coverting power for power's sake. At least Starscream has shown that he is equally capable (if not moreso) of leading the Decepticons and his attempts to get away from the brutal tactics of Megatron seem a much more plausible justification.

I'd second Thunderwave's comments too. One of the sad things about a lot television, and particularly children's television is that villains are far more interesting than the good guys, who tend to lack the shades of grey that make the bad guys so much more rounded and believable against the slightly blander-because-they're-role-models good guys.
 

[Cliffjumper]

Jolly exciting and surprisingly tense, but I've still some reservations.

Airachnid is still just Starscream ten episodes behind. Another rogue Decepticon, just what we needed. I don't even think (hope?) she's going to be held until the end of the season; I'd wager she's being manouvered into a position where Megatron can kill her, as Arcee can't because that'll be telling kids that lethal revenge is the way to go.

Her going 'in-house' with the Decepticons was basically a complete waste of time; 15 episodes or whatever on she's back where she was without an awful lot done. She'd have been better as a genuine rogue element occasionally reappearing to torment Arcee; there's just not room in a cast of a dozen for two Starscreams. About the only interesting possible direction for the character to go is to side her with the Autobots because she hates Megatron so much, and that would take a lot of selling.

Breakdown's death I'm not sure on. A little like Cliffjumper it was sudden and random; on the one hand, so sudden and random I can't see it sticking completely (certainly not before his toy's in the stores; whether he'll be back as a MECHa or a Monstercon or whatever. On the other, they'd pretty much ran out of things for him to do some time ago. If he is gone, it's a good choice - another short brutal pointless death. Watching "Loose Cannons" I was thinking the thing needs another death to make the early Cliffjumper/Skyquake deaths look less like early attention grabbers that wouldn't be followed up. I've nothing really against Breakdown, but at the same time I'm not particularly upset about that maybe being the end of him.

The Autobots felt a little tacked on to this one, like they'd written most of the plot and then decided they couldn't do an episode without them.

Again really appreciate Dreadwing being pretty down the middle. It'd be nice if these Decepticons weren't completely moronic, wasting all their resources squabbling over leadership. I like this Megatron's handling of things, trying to off Airachnid before she really tries something. It was nice to see Megatron thank him (or as close as this Megatron's likely to get to it anyway). [Random seque: isn't it an interesting/odd change to have the 'original' version as a hi-then-die character, then the 'recolour' as what looks like an important recurring character?

The Vehicons rubbishness was a bit much. Dreadwing + Vehicons = shit your pants time, just Vehicons = target practise.

Sounds really negative, but I did enjoy watching. Good fight scenes, good reuse of the interesting Insecticon.
 

[Thunderwave]

Originally Posted by Cliffjumper

Breakdown's death I'm not sure on. A little like Cliffjumper it was sudden and random; on the one hand, so sudden and random I can't see it sticking completely (certainly not before his toy's in the stores; whether he'll be back as a MECHa or a Monstercon or whatever. On the other, they'd pretty much ran out of things for him to do some time ago. If he is gone, it's a good choice - another short brutal pointless death. Watching "Loose Cannons" I was thinking the thing needs another death to make the early Cliffjumper/Skyquake deaths look less like early attention grabbers that wouldn't be followed up. I've nothing really against Breakdown, but at the same time I'm not particularly upset about that maybe being the end of him.

They did say no one was safe this season. Wouldn't surprise me if someone else bit the big one as well. Also, there is supposed to be a cast explosion. Have 2 Rogues won't seem so bad as the show goes on.

Here are a couple of thoughts that just occurred to me:

Airachnid =\= Starscream for starters. He's show some kind of honor, willing to work with MECH and the Autobots as it suits him and helps keep him alive. Airachnid has gone so far off the map no one will want to work with her again ever. Her and her Incectacons are on their own. Also, Starscream has shown a sort of honor when he let Arcee go. Even she was surprised when he cut her down rather then finish her off. Starscream has a plan. We don't know what that is yet, but I'm betting one reason it's stalled is his lack of T-Cog. Airachnid has one too and it seems really straight forward.

The Autobots lampshading Dreadwing as a redeco of Skyquake was classic as was the write off the writers used to explain it.

I'm also really digging the idea that the higher in rank the Decepticon is the better fighter they are. We know Megatron can fight, we know Starscream can as well when he needs to. Airachnid proves to be no slouch either but my question is Soundwave. We've seen him really fight once and he trounced Airachnid rather easily. He was also one of the first at Megatron's side. What sort of bad *** is lurking under that silent face?
 

[Cliffjumper]

Hopefully the answer is "we'll never know". Transformers fic in general has a bad habit of demystefying and/or overexposing things. Sometimes it's great to have something like this Soundwave who's not really delved into; we don't want another "Secret of Omega Supreme" on our hands (even if it was done well it'd diminish further appearances).

This is why I like the Movie/Prime straight-bat Optimus; it's nice having him kept as the slightly larger-than-life inherently awesome (in the old-fashioned sense of the word rather than the Bill and Ted sense) figure rather than the constantly introspective self-doubting version. We've had the subversions for 25 years or whatever, let's get back to basics.

Your comparison between Starscream and Airachnid (I so keep going to type "Blackarachnia", Airachnid's such an awful, awkward name - it's just "arachnid" with a randomly-chosen word jammed on the front... Sounds like a fanmade Fuzor or something) illustrates my problems, though. Starscream has developed as the show's gone on and stayed largely interesting as a result. Airachnid hasn't, she just spend half a season in limbo and more-or-less went back to where she was the next time we saw her properly. She doesn't have any nuance or any particular depth beyond "mad revenge bitch".

By process of elimination I think Ratchet's (sadly) the most at-risk of the Autobots to the chop. Prime and the three 'guardians' will be pretty much bulletproof IMO, and Jacky would be a bit obvious, which leaves Ratchet by default. Of the non-rogue Decepticons, I'm not sure I fancy Knock-Out's chances - like Breakdown it's a long time since he's done much. That said, I have really enjoyed having some different Decepticon grunts around in this show, even if they are just heavies with the odd quirk.

I really can't stress how much of my enjoyment of Prime so far has been down to avoiding the "let's do our version of [prominent G1 character]". There's a nice blend of different influences in there (Op and Bee from the films, Bulk and Ratchet from Animated, Airachnid from BW, Starscream with some stuff from Armergotron, Soundwave from DW, Wheeljack is a less needy and obvious version of Drift) all remixed nicely with some fresh stuff as well. It'd be nice not to have the same old Jazz, Prowl, Sideswipe, Shockwave, Dinobots, Constructicons, Kup, Hot Rod etc.

I'm not against the cast growing because pretty much every character has been well introduced and defined, but I'd prefer it to evolve gently in the current fashion. I'd prefer maybe being a group of Autobots arriving in time for the season finale and then maybe moving on again (taking or leaving 1 or 2). The teams of five-six Transformers are working really nicely in the show's favour.

I'm basically being a panicky fan, though. This show is easily the best TF cartoon we've ever had on current showing already (it's found its' feet much quicker than BW and IMHO already matched its' best moments) and I'm sort-of waiting for the other shoe to drop - it's too good, when's the catch coming in? I don't like Airachnid, big deal, pretty much any other TF show I want the entire central cast to die horribly. High standards bring out high standards of nitpicking, I suppose.
 

[Terome]

Am catching up. I thought this one was pretty great - emphasised all of the show's strong points and makes a good case for Dreadwing being around. The idea of the Decepticons falling apart because they are all nuts in well worn by now but we got some nice action out of it and a pretty effective moment where Prime decided to blow Megatron's head off. It was a good time to off Breakdown, too.
 

[Vin Ghostal]

Originally Posted by Cliffjumper

I really can't stress how much of my enjoyment of Prime so far has been down to avoiding the "let's do our version of [prominent G1 character]". There's a nice blend of different influences in there (Op and Bee from the films, Bulk and Ratchet from Animated, Airachnid from BW, Starscream with some stuff from Armergotron, Soundwave from DW, Wheeljack is a less needy and obvious version of Drift) all remixed nicely with some fresh stuff as well. It'd be nice not to have the same old Jazz, Prowl, Sideswipe, Shockwave, Dinobots, Constructicons, Kup, Hot Rod etc.

I pretty much have to ask this...how many TV versions of Kup, Hot Rod, and Shockwave have there really been?

Love youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.
 

[Cliffjumper]

Who said TV?

And Shockwave was in Cybertron (or one of the other ones like it) and Fanimated anyway. And Hot Shot is meant to be Hot Rod broadly, but Hasbro can't use the name (though there was Rodimus in Energon - and was there one properly in Fanimated, or was that just a shitty drawing in a book?).
 

[Skyquake87]

Yeah, Rodimus was in Animated. He's in the Season 3 opening episode and gets killed by cosmic rust. he also got a toy.
 

[Knightdramon]

He didn't die...none of them did