[7.5/10] I like the throughline for this one -- Black Arachnia feeling like a woman without a country. She doesn't want to be a Maximal. She doesn’t want to be a Predacon. She just wants to be herself and be accepted for that, no matter where she is. Her frustration with that is palpable, and it’s a good character-focused story to tell.
It’s also interesting that the show has her squaring off with Dinobot mk. 2, a clone of the other character on the show who struggled with self-identity in a similar way. Their fight scenes became a little static after a while, but you could tell the show was putting real effort into their cat and mouse game, which helped liven things a bit. Throwing Silverbolt and a holo-projector into the mix made for some good wrinkles as well.
I also like where the episode lands, with Black Arachnia feeling like she’s been betrayed by her new cohort only to learn that, whatever the Maximals’ other hangups, they’d always planned to make it her choice whether they tried to remove her Pred reprogramming core or not. It’s a nice differentiation between Optimus and Megatron, the latter of whom demands utter fealty and uses his minions as tools, and the former of whom, however generic a good guy he may be, lets his soldiers follow their own paths wherever possible.
There’s nothing terribly profound in that, but it’s a character-focused story with some more deliberate action than the show usually offers, so it’s an improvement in my book.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-08-15T18:07:09Z
[7.5/10] I like the throughline for this one -- Black Arachnia feeling like a woman without a country. She doesn't want to be a Maximal. She doesn’t want to be a Predacon. She just wants to be herself and be accepted for that, no matter where she is. Her frustration with that is palpable, and it’s a good character-focused story to tell.
It’s also interesting that the show has her squaring off with Dinobot mk. 2, a clone of the other character on the show who struggled with self-identity in a similar way. Their fight scenes became a little static after a while, but you could tell the show was putting real effort into their cat and mouse game, which helped liven things a bit. Throwing Silverbolt and a holo-projector into the mix made for some good wrinkles as well.
I also like where the episode lands, with Black Arachnia feeling like she’s been betrayed by her new cohort only to learn that, whatever the Maximals’ other hangups, they’d always planned to make it her choice whether they tried to remove her Pred reprogramming core or not. It’s a nice differentiation between Optimus and Megatron, the latter of whom demands utter fealty and uses his minions as tools, and the former of whom, however generic a good guy he may be, lets his soldiers follow their own paths wherever possible.
There’s nothing terribly profound in that, but it’s a character-focused story with some more deliberate action than the show usually offers, so it’s an improvement in my book.