[8.3/10] I don’t know much about G1 Transformers. I know about Optimus Prime and Megatron and Starscream through cultural osmosis, so I get the broad strokes, but the finer points are lost on me. In particular, references to The Ark and what I take to be the setup for the original Transformers series don’t mean much to me personally.
That’s what’s impressive about this finale for me -- the fact that it’s clearly rooted in a bit of nostalgia and the coolness of a connection to a prior show -- while still managing to make an impact on me despite my limited at best familiarity with it. There’s something pretty darn jaw-dropping and ambitious about Megatron feeling so much at the end of his rope that he’s willing to erase all the Transformers’ existence rather than go on otherwise.
Granted, the fact that there’s another season after this suggests he doesn’t succeed (unless the show takes a very different turn). What’s more, it’s more than a little convenient that he happens to know about the location of a ship carrying the characters from the original show, but hasn’t used or even hinted at having that information until now.
Still, it provides appropriately apocalyptic stakes for this showdown. The closing imagery, of all our heroes being swept on in some sort of timestream, is visually arresting. We see Optimus Primal changing to various forms, and a swirl of blue light coursing through each of our heroes and radiating through the galaxy. Dinobot witnessed that the future is malleable, but it may also be destructible.
Despite that level of suspense, the thing I was most invested in here was absolutely Black Arachnia and Silverbolt. Their playful banter continues to be one of the strongest elements in the show. The two make a good team, burrowing their way into the volcano with the Autobot ship and taking time out to flirt despite the urgency of their mission Black Arachnia shows her devotion to her winged friend, finding excuses to save him from Megatron’s grasp and even giving up her access codes from the destroyed golden disk so that everyone’s favorite purple T-Rex will spare him. It proves that this attraction is not just one of convenience, but one that Black Arachnia will sacrifice for.
Unfortunately, more than a few Predacons seem to be sacrificed here. Who knows with this show. Sometimes it’s willing to kill off major characters and sometimes it brings them back without a scratch. But in addition to newcomer Ravage, Tarantulas and Rampage seem to bite the dust here, with each going out in tremendous explosions. Rattrap’s Die Hard-like demolition sabotage of the secret Predacon ship makes for an action-packed bit of cowboy diplomacy. Likewise, there’s an almost Looney Tunes-like quality to Rampage’s apparent demise, but it works given the character’s ax crazy bent.
The same explosion that takes him out also takes out the Maximal base, another sign that this is not business as usual. The race to stop Megatron from there, especially with nearly all of the Preds seemingly neutralized, carries excitement, given that he is seemingly the last Predacon combatant in the Beast Wars. That gives him extra motivation to threaten his own future and possibly wipe out all of existence rather than lose to the good guys.
So many of my complaints about this show is that few things which happen in the day-to-day really matter. Conflicts didn’t seem to have lasting consequences, be they physical scraps or more philosophical disputes. But unless it all gets undone by some bit of deus ex machina, this is an event with something truly at stake, where status quo changes seem to be in the air and, if nothing else, it would be hard to go back to how things were. Plot contrivances aside, that makes this the show’s most momentous episode yet, and I’m anxious to see how it resolves such a dramatic cliffhanger.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-07-23T19:56:29Z
[8.3/10] I don’t know much about G1 Transformers. I know about Optimus Prime and Megatron and Starscream through cultural osmosis, so I get the broad strokes, but the finer points are lost on me. In particular, references to The Ark and what I take to be the setup for the original Transformers series don’t mean much to me personally.
That’s what’s impressive about this finale for me -- the fact that it’s clearly rooted in a bit of nostalgia and the coolness of a connection to a prior show -- while still managing to make an impact on me despite my limited at best familiarity with it. There’s something pretty darn jaw-dropping and ambitious about Megatron feeling so much at the end of his rope that he’s willing to erase all the Transformers’ existence rather than go on otherwise.
Granted, the fact that there’s another season after this suggests he doesn’t succeed (unless the show takes a very different turn). What’s more, it’s more than a little convenient that he happens to know about the location of a ship carrying the characters from the original show, but hasn’t used or even hinted at having that information until now.
Still, it provides appropriately apocalyptic stakes for this showdown. The closing imagery, of all our heroes being swept on in some sort of timestream, is visually arresting. We see Optimus Primal changing to various forms, and a swirl of blue light coursing through each of our heroes and radiating through the galaxy. Dinobot witnessed that the future is malleable, but it may also be destructible.
Despite that level of suspense, the thing I was most invested in here was absolutely Black Arachnia and Silverbolt. Their playful banter continues to be one of the strongest elements in the show. The two make a good team, burrowing their way into the volcano with the Autobot ship and taking time out to flirt despite the urgency of their mission Black Arachnia shows her devotion to her winged friend, finding excuses to save him from Megatron’s grasp and even giving up her access codes from the destroyed golden disk so that everyone’s favorite purple T-Rex will spare him. It proves that this attraction is not just one of convenience, but one that Black Arachnia will sacrifice for.
Unfortunately, more than a few Predacons seem to be sacrificed here. Who knows with this show. Sometimes it’s willing to kill off major characters and sometimes it brings them back without a scratch. But in addition to newcomer Ravage, Tarantulas and Rampage seem to bite the dust here, with each going out in tremendous explosions. Rattrap’s Die Hard-like demolition sabotage of the secret Predacon ship makes for an action-packed bit of cowboy diplomacy. Likewise, there’s an almost Looney Tunes-like quality to Rampage’s apparent demise, but it works given the character’s ax crazy bent.
The same explosion that takes him out also takes out the Maximal base, another sign that this is not business as usual. The race to stop Megatron from there, especially with nearly all of the Preds seemingly neutralized, carries excitement, given that he is seemingly the last Predacon combatant in the Beast Wars. That gives him extra motivation to threaten his own future and possibly wipe out all of existence rather than lose to the good guys.
So many of my complaints about this show is that few things which happen in the day-to-day really matter. Conflicts didn’t seem to have lasting consequences, be they physical scraps or more philosophical disputes. But unless it all gets undone by some bit of deus ex machina, this is an event with something truly at stake, where status quo changes seem to be in the air and, if nothing else, it would be hard to go back to how things were. Plot contrivances aside, that makes this the show’s most momentous episode yet, and I’m anxious to see how it resolves such a dramatic cliffhanger.