The Energon Pub

[Qwan]

Another week has come and gone, and another episode of Machinima's Power of the Primes animated series has been uploaded for your viewing! Named (rather dramatically) Athenaeum Sanctorum, this episode promises the reappearance of Overlord and Rodimus Cron, as well as some sort of "tragic fate" for one of the Primes.

The episode can be watched on Go90 here, or via the Prime Wars Tumblr page here for those viewers outside the US. Share your thoughts about the episode or the show as a whole by posting in the Energon Pub Forums, and as usual stay tuned for our review of the episode by the brave Bronzewolf coming soon!

Hot on the heels of our heroes, Overlord and Rodimus Cron confront the Dinobots and gain vital information as to the team?s whereabouts. Meanwhile, the team learns the tragic fate of one of the Thirteen.

[Qwan]

Another episode that definitely happened, yep. Assorted thoughts (in roughly chronological order and all spoilered, just in case):
- It's sooo dumb hearing the Dinobots just speak with random "regular" voices. Like, they somehow sound less robotic than even the other robots in this show, and not all all primitive - it's just a perfectly eloquent regular dude who says "me Snarl" at the beginning of his sentences.

- Overlord shooting stuff with his belly-lasers was honestly kind of hilarious to me.

- YOU CANNOT CHOKE A ROBOT. YOU CANNOT CHOKE A ROBOT. THIS SERIES WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME.

- Machinima back at it again with the genius marketing scheme of killing off every character that actually appears as a toy in the line being advertised!

- "Cataclysm Tundra... clearly no-one thought very hard to give it a name." Having your characters call out your own incompetency does not make your incompetency okay. I shouldn't have to say that again.

- I cannot cope with Primal being called "tall dark and... brooding". I don't know if it's the hilarious kind of can't-cope, or the agonizing kind. I'll let you know when I work it out.

- So we finally have our answer about why Megatron got the Requiem Blaster from Primal, and it's... because he said he was a good guy. HOW did this monkey, "the most righteous and steadfast guardian" mind you, protect an all-powerful artifact for millenia if all anyone had to do was say "oh no I love Cybertron I promise". And he validates that by saying something weird and spiritual about "looking deeper into Megatron and yourself"? And Windblade is like "yeah that seems like a good enough explanation" and just rolls with it?? AHAHAHAHA

- Grimlock looks dumb. That's all, just had to put that out there.

- The music in this building is trying so hard to be Zelda but it just. Can't. Manage it.

- Perceptor, it's a LIBRARY COMPUTER. You don't need to be "scientific" about using a LIBRARY COMPUTER. Those things are so primitive Grimlock could probably use them without too much trouble.

- Oh, so the "tragic fate" mentioned in the blurb is either Solus Prime's death or Megatronus' exile? Both of which have been revealed previously. No, no that's fine. I'm not upset. It's my own fault for expecting something interesting out of this show, anyway...

- Oh for the LOVE OF. At least they killed a character whose toy isn't currently being marketed this time...

- Gasp Overlord said the "ass" word!! How will we ever cope with such language in our "mature audiences"-oriented animated series? Please Machinima go back to using "scrud", it's the hardest language we adults can handle!

Bronzewolf, you brave, brave person. I don't know how you're managing to stay composed in the face of this show.

[WreckerJack]

Well this episode made me want for flip a fragging table. It's time for sleep so I will keep the complain train in the station for now.

[Evil Eye]

So I'm not watching this atrocity of a series until Freddery does his magic, but from what I gather Rodimus Unicronus tears the head off of Freddery's mum Victorion.

Jesus.

[Stormshot_Prime]

If only the series had the brutality the final minutes had. THAT was Game of Thrones-esque, finally, after they’ve been advertising the trilogy as something so similar the entire time.

[Carnivius_Prime]

Not even sure why i clicked here since i have no interest in the show or even the toyline for the most part but that choking robot bit caught my eye and made me wonder how many instances there have been in all of Transformers media where that has been attempted? I mean probably the most well known example being Galvatron choking Hot Rod in the final battle of the 1986 animated film.

[Stormshot_Prime]

Not even sure why i clicked here since i have no interest in the show or even the toyline for the most part but that choking robot bit caught my eye and made me wonder how many instances there have been in all of Transformers media where that has been attempted? I mean probably the most well known example being Galvatron choking Hot Rod in the final battle of the 1986 animated film.

Who knows what was going through their heads when they wrote this stuff. So much of recent TF media has humanized them far too much, namely certain IDW titles and then the choking crap here.

I always took that scene from the 86 movie as Galvatron literally crushing Hot Rod’s neck, trying to tear his head off. Funnily enough Rodimus appeared to do exactly that in the episode to you know who.

[Sabrblade]

Not even sure why i clicked here since i have no interest in the show or even the toyline for the most part but that choking robot bit caught my eye and made me wonder how many instances there have been in all of Transformers media where that has been attempted? I mean probably the most well known example being Galvatron choking Hot Rod in the final battle of the 1986 animated film.

Who knows what was going through their heads when they wrote this stuff. So much of recent TF media has humanized them far too much, namely certain IDW titles and then the choking crap here.

I always took that scene from the 86 movie as Galvatron literally crushing Hot Rod’s neck, trying to tear his head off. Funnily enough Rodimus appeared to do exactly that in the episode to you know who.

Simutaneously the funniest and most awesome choke in TF history:

[o.supreme]

I... actually feel legit sad about the first death in this ep.

Not because I cared about the character (none besides Megatron have been given reason for us to care about them in these shows), but because it felt like watching someone harm a helpless innocent animal, and the others mourning him afterward was honestly a bit touching.

Just capitalized on my sentiment 100%. This was the only Dinobot toy I actually had as a kid, and so was my default favorite.

The Prime Wars series had previously been competing with Armada for most overly simplistic/dumb episode titles. Someone at some point must have heard those complaints and read a Dr. Strange comic or something.

As for the rest....Here is my conundrum. If you remove a combiners head, although that may be physically paintful and render the team inoperable in Combiner mode, couldn't they just separate back into their components? I mean the one that is missing half her body has probably been dead since the end of TR. But the other 4 should still be alive?...

[Carnivius_Prime]

Does seem odd killing off characters you're supposed to be selling. Back in the 86 film and Marvel Comics a character's plot armour was often determined by whether or not their toy was still being sold in stores (which be why the Underbase saga killed off the vast majority of characters who didn't have an organic component whether they a nebulan or a pretender shell in a big ol' massacre by Starscream who then was destroyed himself).

But then from the sounds of it this series in general isn't really doing much to sell the toys it's based on anyways.

[o.supreme]

If ever there was a series designed to sell toys, This Isn't it. CW and TR came out after their lines had pretty much ended. PotP is current, but due to so many limitations, is basically out to capture the interest of fans who have not consumed any Transformers media (other than the live action films) in the last 20 years. making them "think" *hey this is exactly like I remember*, when that couldn't be further from the truth.

[Stormshot_Prime]

I... actually feel legit sad about the first death in this ep.

Not because I cared about the character (none besides Megatron have been given reason for us to care about them in these shows), but because it felt like watching someone harm a helpless innocent animal, and the others mourning him afterward was honestly a bit touching.

Just capitalized on my sentiment 100%. This was the only Dinobot toy I actually had as a kid, and so was my default favorite.

The Prime Wars series had previously been competing with Armada for most overly simplistic/dumb episode titles. Someone at some point must have heard those complaints and read a Dr. Strange comic or something.

As for the rest....Here is my conundrum. If you remove a combiners head, although that may be physically paintful and render the team inoperable in Combiner mode, couldn't they just separate back into their components? I mean the one that is missing half her body has probably been dead since the end of TR. But the other 4 should still be alive?...

The series been EXTREMELY inconsistent on its portrayal of combiners, the writers clearly didn’t do their research. It seems certain combiners are just one big person (ala Victorion), but then we have classic combiners like Volcanicus who are made up of 5 individuals. Don’t try and make sense of it, you’ll just end up running in circles

[Sabrblade]

Of the very few characters in this show who actually have toys in the Potpie line, most of them don't really even resemble those toys neither. Megatronus is an all new design, Solus is based more on her Binder of Revelation look, Rodimus Cron is just a Rodimus Unicronus-colored redeco of MP-9 (plus a mouthplate), Optimus Primal looks more like his original Beast Wars design (complete with sculpted fur, even) with just his Potpie Optimal Optimus cockpit integrated into his back, and Grimlock is more based on MP-8 than anything else. Only the other Dinobots, their combined Volcanicus form, and Predaking look anything like their Potpie toys.

[Rodimus Knight]

Possible Spoilers ahead:

Normally I wait for the review thread to be up before I post my thoughts, but seriously, this time forget it.

First Up, this show has no real sense of scale. It seems like the dinobots keep changing sizes from previous episodes.

It also shows how much cooler the Dinobots would have been at a larger scale. Who wouldn't want a Grimlock that in beast mode was the same height as a combiner.

The dinobots, some of the strongest and possibly most violent of the standard characters, getting their butts whooped without even really attacking. I call BS on that.

I can't say I'm upset about Victorian's head getting popped off, she was an annoying character, and brings us back to the whole weirdness of the combiners being the main entity and not the ones who form it.

[Coptur]

Choking in transformers has always been a thing.

They aren't just robots they are living beings.

Transformers have brains and a heart(spark) assuming their brains are in their head then choking is still valid way of killing them as the attacker is physically constricting any infomation being passed between the two organs, it might be oxygen in humans that is restricted but it also might be an important node or circuitry in a Transformer.

just my 10 pence

[Sabrblade]

Choking in transformers has always been a thing.

They aren't just robots they are living beings.

...Who can also survive in the oxygen-less vacuum of space.

[kurthy]

I haven't watched the show since the 3rd episode of CW. I just come here for the reviews.

Honestly, it sounds exactly like the G1 cartoon, easy on small minds, hard for adults to watch.

[o.supreme]

I haven't watched the show since the 3rd episode of CW. I just come here for the reviews.

Honestly, it sounds exactly like the G1 cartoon, easy on small minds, hard for adults to watch.

Which by default makes it better than the *g1* comic I guess?...which I find hard to believe anyone could accept...

[Coptur]

Choking in transformers has always been a thing.

They aren't just robots they are living beings.

...Who can also survive in the oxygen-less vacuum of space.

That's right they can but they don't breath and don't require oxygen

you saying that makes me laugh about the 2007 movie.

Megatron can fly through the cold of space but freezes in antartica (& people using fire extinguishers)

[Sabrblade]

Choking in transformers has always been a thing.

They aren't just robots they are living beings.

...Who can also survive in the oxygen-less vacuum of space.

That's right they can but they don't breath and don't require oxygen

And yet they gag, cough, and sound hoarse when they're choked. Even when in space.

[Skritz]

Megatron can fly through the cold of space but freezes in antartica (people using fire extinguishers)

Hollywood is dumb. News at eleven.

[Burn]

So ... anyone heard from Bronzewolf? It's been 12 hours or so and he hasn't checked in.

Should Va'al start advertising a replacement?

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Ok, so this episode was not all that bad to me.

Lets start with likes so far:

1) Primal. I really do like Primal, even if he doesn't say much, I really like him for some reason. Also really hoping he does assume his PotP Optimal mode, I feel they have set it up perfectly for that, with the most righteous part.

2) Rodimus Cron: they really should have had him assume his Prime size and added the goatee to him, cause this is perfect. I also love how he is proving to be one of the most lethal bots ever, killing Computron in a single shot, Destroying half of Devastator before killing him, killing Sludge for fun, and then ripping off Victorion's head. He has killed 3 combiners people, very few have ever held that title (I think the Beast and Thunder Mayhem are the only others with that title).

3) Poor Sludge, that part made me sad. Come on Rod/Cron!

4) Overlord is still great, and I do love him. Really, he is good.

5) I've come to appreciate Perceptor too, not bad at all.

The things that did bother me:

1) match the frikkin words to the mouths people!

2) Can we transform every now and then please?

3) The one combiner shown to actually combine and decombine gets his leg component killed, that is depressing. Now Predaking is the only one of the 6 combiners shown so far capable of combining in full and being alive!

Also, If we really want to get technical about the limbs being alive or the combiner just being 1 entity here, Dustup only had her legs cut off. It's not like it was her head and chest that was disintegrated, just her legs people!

[Coptur]

Choking in transformers has always been a thing.

They aren't just robots they are living beings.

...Who can also survive in the oxygen-less vacuum of space.

That's right they can but they don't breath and don't require oxygen

And yet they gag, cough, and sound hoarse when they're choked. Even when in space.

well if your throat has been crushed you'd sound different...imagine if it was made out of metal LOL

ever paid out for panel beaters that stuff is expensive

[ZeroWolf]

So ... anyone heard from Bronzewolf? It's been 12 hours or so and he hasn't checked in.

Should Va'al start advertising a replacement?

This show has killed him...whoever va'al gets in as a replacement will have to be well compensated.

Will watch this episode later but I know what to expect and I expect it to disappoint. Seems to be the perfect mindset to be in for this show.