The Energon Pub

[Randomhero]

You know whats crazy, I was wondering which Megatron this take was referencing and I couldnt come up with it. While Megs is my favourite, he rarely has any warmth or charm. In G1 he was just the leader, like an evil prime, but with terrible schemes. In the movies, he feels very distant, just a tyrant with not much for goals or personality aside from beig he bad guy and wanting Prime and everyone else dead (also very easily influenced by victoria secret models). In Animated, he is very grave and menacing. He is menacing in Prime as well but with a more strategic sense which makes him feel more cold than other versions, he really feels more like a general there. And in MTMT he is just solemn, there is no cheer there.

So why does this more fun Megatron personality fits so well for me? And then I got it. This guy has that more playful angle I remember from Beast Wars Megatron. Not as regal, of course, but far more flowery and animated than other versions of the character and closer to that one. I always likd that personality on megs and it always fit very well.

It's kind of IDW Megatron in the stormbringer era. Willing to ally with his enemies and look out for their well being for the breather good. By that I mean the few flashbacks we got of him in stormbringer during thunderwings first attack.

[King Kuuga]

And you shall always remember this as the day you almost got a combiner war!

[1984forever]

Meh. It was something to watch.

Reminds me of Marvel TF #50.

[primalxconvoy]

What absolute drivel that episode was. As someone else stated, Starscream's more mature character development (well, what little there is for any character in this awful show) was thrown out in favour of traditional, shallow, Saturday morning plot devices and character traits. If that was the point, then why even bother? They could just have used his normal character in the same role and just have him wink at the camera or smile every time he said something to convince the other members of the "council".

I love the blurb in the video description, "... enter Victorion!" Except it's not about her and she only really "enters" Starscream (fnar fnar).

Anyway, as usual, this isn't available in Japan, so viewers there will need to Google for online YouTube downloaders or streamers or suchlike to view it. Not that it's worth watching, mind.

[Big Grim]

Well. Finally build to MAYBE doing something right in episode 4 then balls it right up. 5 was terrible, but this ep just destroys any hope of a halfway decent show.

Awful. Just...awful.

[o.supreme]

wow...a lot of people are seriously ticked at the Starscream thing...C'mon now...you can't tell me you didn't see that coming? ... It wouldn't be Starscream otherwise...having a rational non-ego driven Starscream would be silly, almost as silly as Megatron being an Autobot ...oh wait... I was just kind of :"meh" on it earlier, but the more people reject it, because it returns Starscream to how he should be...the more I like it.

[Tyrannacon]

Definitely finding this incarnation of Megatron very amusing and fun to watch. Like william-james pointed out, he's definitely got the fun aspect of the character here from the Beast Wars version in a way even.

[primalxconvoy]

wow...a lot of people are seriously ticked at the Starscream thing...C'mon now...you can't tell me you didn't see that coming? ... It wouldn't be Starscream otherwise...having a rational non-ego driven Starscream would be silly, almost as silly as Megatron being an Autobot ...oh wait... I was just kind of :"meh" on it earlier, but the more people reject it, because it returns Starscream to how he should be...the more I like it.

I don't think you understand why people didn't like it. A traditional Starscream is fine, and so is a more developed, progressed character. What this show did was take the matured IDW character and turn him into classic g1 cartoon Starscream at the last minute. There was no real journey from one state to the other. It's just as bad as if it was the opposite way round, with classics g1 SS giving up and joining the council in one, small minutes long episode.

Also, SS is part of the council to sate his need for power, especially power that isn't contested. Why would he throw that away?

[Sheba]

ahahaha now there's the SS we all know and lurb.

[Kurona]

wow...a lot of people are seriously ticked at the Starscream thing...C'mon now...you can't tell me you didn't see that coming? ... It wouldn't be Starscream otherwise...having a rational non-ego driven Starscream would be silly, almost as silly as Megatron being an Autobot ...oh wait... I was just kind of :"meh" on it earlier, but the more people reject it, because it returns Starscream to how he should be...the more I like it.

I don't think you understand why people didn't like it. A traditional Starscream is fine, and so is a more developed, progressed character. What this show did was take the matured IDW character and turn him into classic g1 cartoon Starscream at the last minute. There was no real journey from one state to the other. It's just as bad as if it was the opposite way round, with classics g1 SS Iceblink giving up and joining the council in one, small minutes long episode.

Also, SS is part of the council to sate his need for power, especially power that isn't contested. Why would he throw that away?

Captured my thoughts exactly.

It's also extremely confusing why the other two couldn't take it. The Mistress of Flame had an explanation, okay, but... that doesn't make sense. Wasn't the artifact on her planet? Aren't they as a culture closer to the Primes in their religion and such?
Meanwhile Rodimus can't use it because... because... I dunno, he lost an arm? The Enigma's a bit of a dick to cripples, huh?

[Sabrblade]

You know whats crazy, I was wondering which Megatron this take was referencing and I couldnt come up with it. While Megs is my favourite, he rarely has any warmth or charm. In G1 he was just the leader, like an evil prime, but with terrible schemes. In the movies, he feels very distant, just a tyrant with not much for goals or personality aside from beig he bad guy and wanting Prime and everyone else dead (also very easily influenced by victoria secret models). In Animated, he is very grave and menacing. He is menacing in Prime as well but with a more strategic sense which makes him feel more cold than other versions, he really feels more like a general there. And in MTMT he is just solemn, there is no cheer there.

So why does this more fun Megatron personality fits so well for me? And then I got it. This guy has that more playful angle I remember from Beast Wars Megatron. Not as regal, of course, but far more flowery and animated than other versions of the character and closer to that one. I always likd that personality on megs and it always fit very well.

Definitely finding this incarnation of Megatron very amusing and fun to watch. Like william-james pointed out, he's definitely got the fun aspect of the character here from the Beast Wars version in a way even.

I said this before, but it bears repeating. This Megatron is so fun because of how un-Megatron-like he is. While the BW Megatron comparison is probably the closest one could make between this Megatron and any other Megatron, BW Megatron wasn't quite as snarky, snide, and sarcastic as this Megatron is, which appear to be the best qualities of this Megatron. It's almost like someone took BW Megatron and combined him with Rattrap to make the personality of this Megatron.

But, to back up to the original point I wanted to repeat, this Megatron doesn't exactly seem to be channeling any previous Megatron, but does seem to be channeling another 1980s robot cartoon villain: Cy-Kill. This version of Megatron is every bit as hammy and snarky as Cy-Kill ever was (or at least, it sure seems like he's trying to be), and it's wonderful.

Sadly, there isn't a single clip on YouTube that shows a proper example of how fun Cy-Kill's personality was, so unless anyone here has access to the actual GoBots episodes, I got nothing but this claim to state my case with.

[Sheba]

I wonder if Combiner Wars going to go all Underbase up in here lol.

[Kurona]

You know whats crazy, I was wondering which Megatron this take was referencing and I couldnt come up with it. While Megs is my favourite, he rarely has any warmth or charm. In G1 he was just the leader, like an evil prime, but with terrible schemes. In the movies, he feels very distant, just a tyrant with not much for goals or personality aside from beig he bad guy and wanting Prime and everyone else dead (also very easily influenced by victoria secret models). In Animated, he is very grave and menacing. He is menacing in Prime as well but with a more strategic sense which makes him feel more cold than other versions, he really feels more like a general there. And in MTMT he is just solemn, there is no cheer there.

So why does this more fun Megatron personality fits so well for me? And then I got it. This guy has that more playful angle I remember from Beast Wars Megatron. Not as regal, of course, but far more flowery and animated than other versions of the character and closer to that one. I always likd that personality on megs and it always fit very well.

Definitely finding this incarnation of Megatron very amusing and fun to watch. Like william-james pointed out, he's definitely got the fun aspect of the character here from the Beast Wars version in a way even.

I said this before, but it bears repeating. This Megatron is so fun because of how un-Megatron-like he is. While the BW Megatron comparison is probably the closest one could make between this Megatron and any other Megatron, BW Megatron wasn't quite as snarky, snide, and sarcastic as this Megatron is, which appear to be the best qualities of this Megatron. It's almost like someone took BW Megatron and combined him with Rattrap to make the personality of this Megatron.

But, to back up to the original point I wanted to repeat, this Megatron doesn't exactly seem to be channeling any previous Megatron, but does seem to be channeling another 1980s robot cartoon villain: Cy-Kill. This version of Megatron is every bit as hammy and snarky as Cy-Kill ever was (or at least, it sure seems like he's trying to be), and it's wonderful.

Sadly, there isn't a single clip on YouTube that shows a proper example of how fun Cy-Kill's personality was, so unless anyone here has access to the actual GoBots episodes, I got nothing but this claim to state my case with.

That noted, I do like this original take on the character. Not only because, well, it's an original take on the character and original takes are good; but because it's an original take that makes sense to be an original take. (new drinking game; how many times does she say 'original take') We've never seen Megatron quite in this position before. Not in a position where he has absolutely, totally lost the war and is out on his own - sure, we've seen him in IDW, but that was a completely different scenario following his decision to become an Autobot and already starting to regret what he'd done. This Megatron clearly has not gone through that development at all and has just started wandering around the place like some mad old coot. We don't exactly know what he's doing (beating up Constructicons in some randomass arena? What...?) but we can see how he's been lead up to this. He's been struck from his power but never quite lost that spark and lust for power; being on his own instead of having an army behind him obviously giving way to what he is now. I like it and to be honest it's easily the best thing to come out of CW since the original take on Starscream completely kicked the bucket.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Some awesome stuff about BW Megatron

Megatron Fanboy agreeing with BW Megatron lover

Sabr being Sabr and some Cy-Kill stuff

That noted, I do like this original take on the character. Not only because, well, it's an original take on the character and original takes are good; but because it's an original take that makes sense to be an original take. (new drinking game; how many times does she say 'original take') We've never seen Megatron quite in this position before. Not in a position where he has absolutely, totally lost the war and is out on his own - sure, we've seen him in IDW, but that was a completely different scenario following his decision to become an Autobot and already starting to regret what he'd done. This Megatron clearly has not gone through that development at all and has just started wandering around the place like some mad old coot. We don't exactly know what he's doing (beating up Constructicons in some randomass arena? What...?) but we can see how he's been lead up to this. He's been struck from his power but never quite lost that spark and lust for power; being on his own instead of having an army behind him obviously giving way to what he is now. I like it and to be honest it's easily the best thing to come out of CW since the original take on Starscream completely kicked the bucket.

*Takes 7 sips thanks to word searcher*

[Targetmaster Kup]

The fact that Starscream's eyes changed colors tells me that the Enigma controls him, and not the other way around.

[Sabrblade]

You know what's made especially sad in light of this episode's events? The Starscream Prelude was honestly the deepest and best written "episode" to come out of this entire show so far.

And now that one genuinely good ep turns out to be a boldfaced lie.

[Kurona]

You know what's made especially sad in light of this episode's events? The Starscream Prelude was honestly the deepest and best written "episode" to come out of this entire show so far.

And now that one genuinely good ep turns out to be a boldfaced lie.

So of the preludes...

-The Optimus one gave a bad first impression
-The Starscream one which everyone loved is now completed invalidated
-The Victorion one doesn't mean **** because she just showed up to get absorbed two seconds later
-The Windblade one showed off possibly one of the worst characters (this specific incarnation; RiD 2015 and IDW incarnations are fine at worst) we've had in recent years and nothing has changed to fix that

This is getting depressing.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

You know what's made especially sad in light of this episode's events? The Starscream Prelude was honestly the deepest and best written "episode" to come out of this entire show so far.

And now that one genuinely good ep turns out to be a boldfaced lie.

So of the preludes...

-The Optimus one gave a bad first impression
-The Starscream one which everyone loved is now completed invalidated
-The Victorion one doesn't mean **** because she just showed up to get absorbed two seconds later
-The Windblade one showed off possibly one of the worst characters (this specific incarnation; RiD 2015 and IDW incarnations are fine at worst) we've had in recent years and nothing has changed to fix that

This is getting depressing.

Eh, at least we have Megatron

[ArmadaPrime]

wow...a lot of people are seriously ticked at the Starscream thing...C'mon now...you can't tell me you didn't see that coming? ... It wouldn't be Starscream otherwise...having a rational non-ego driven Starscream would be silly, almost as silly as Megatron being an Autobot ...oh wait... I was just kind of :"meh" on it earlier, but the more people reject it, because it returns Starscream to how he should be...the more I like it.

I don't think you understand why people didn't like it. A traditional Starscream is fine, and so is a more developed, progressed character. What this show did was take the matured IDW character and turn him into classic g1 cartoon Starscream at the last minute. There was no real journey from one state to the other. It's just as bad as if it was the opposite way round, with classics g1 SS giving up and joining the council in one, small minutes long episode.

Also, SS is part of the council to sate his need for power, especially power that isn't contested. Why would he throw that away?

See, I thought the episode made it fairly clear (or at least the only reasonable assumption) that all of the matured nice version of starscream was a facade, a long game that he'd been playing for who knows how many years since the war. In a sense, this is truly the most developed version of starscream- he's still a conniving, deceptive, selfish git, but he's gotten so good at being obsequious and pretending to care about the 'greater good' that he fooled not only the other characters, but also the audience!

I was gonna say 10 points to whoever first makes a custom from Leader Starscream and the four combiners but then I remembered that Devy's scale would be way off and you wouldnt be able to make even limbs, dang...

[Sabrblade]

wow...a lot of people are seriously ticked at the Starscream thing...C'mon now...you can't tell me you didn't see that coming? ... It wouldn't be Starscream otherwise...having a rational non-ego driven Starscream would be silly, almost as silly as Megatron being an Autobot ...oh wait... I was just kind of :"meh" on it earlier, but the more people reject it, because it returns Starscream to how he should be...the more I like it.

I don't think you understand why people didn't like it. A traditional Starscream is fine, and so is a more developed, progressed character. What this show did was take the matured IDW character and turn him into classic g1 cartoon Starscream at the last minute. There was no real journey from one state to the other. It's just as bad as if it was the opposite way round, with classics g1 SS giving up and joining the council in one, small minutes long episode.

Also, SS is part of the council to sate his need for power, especially power that isn't contested. Why would he throw that away?

See, I thought the episode made it fairly clear (or at least the only reasonable assumption) that all of the matured nice version of starscream was a facade, a long game that he'd been playing for who knows how many years since the war. In a sense, this is truly the most developed version of starscream- he's still a conniving, deceptive, selfish git, but he's gotten so good at being obsequious and pretending to care about the 'greater good' that he fooled not only the other characters, but also the audience!

The thing is, though, people were liking the new take on Starscream. It's not that people didn't see his betrayal coming, it's that we didn't want to see it coming. We wanted him to maintain consistency to the portrayal that had, up until this point, been an actually interesting take on the character. And by Primus this show has been in a desperate need of some interesting characters. Before this episode, the only really interesting ones had been Starscream and Megatron, and now with all of Starscream's intrigue having been completely undone by this episode, the entire amount of interesting characters in this show has been reduced by a whole 50%, and with the number having already been pretty low before, it now falls to a single sole character, Megatron, to hold up all of the interest factor for this show's cast, as every other character here is either boring or unlikable. In the previous episode, it seemed like the Mistress of Flame was going to be the show's main villain, which had some potential to be more interesting. But now, with Starscream having seemingly taken up that mantle, that potential has been completely squandered for the sake of regressing the interesting Starscream into the same tired old take on the character that's been done a million times over, and which in turn also completely ruined the Starscream Prelude being the one "episode" of the show that was legitimately well written. It's so frustrating to see this show take away from what it was doing well in order to conform to a pedestrian feeling of unoriginal sameness and stagnation.

[Mr Skram]

They need to cut their losses and just do "Megatron: The Show". It's mindblowing that he's so good in comparison to every other awfully written goober character in the series. He's essentially the Megatron that always should have been.

Starscream didn't surprise me, I suspected something was up simply because it was Starscream. The "twist" doesn't bother me in the slightest in comparison with all the other issues that plague this series.

[Counterpunch]

The "plot" is awful. The writing is hack material at best.

My only hope is that Windblade goes back to her plan to cut everyone up. Megatron can run commentary.

I hope someone in production is reading threads like this because somewhere, someone thinks they are making what "fans want." They haven't been paying attention to TF fiction for the past five years.

[o.supreme]

I don't think you understand why people didn't like it. A traditional Starscream is fine, and so is a more developed, progressed character. What this show did was take the matured IDW character and turn him into classic g1 cartoon Starscream at the last minute. There was no real journey from one state to the other. It's just as bad as if it was the opposite way round, with classics g1 SS giving up and joining the council in one, small minutes long episode.

Unfortunately it all goes back to the short run time for this series, literally NOBODY has had time to develop their personality, much less journey from one spectrum to another. I really dislike how none of the combiners are seen as individual components (and I don't count 3 constructions that just seemed to be drones) and we don't even get to see any cool combining sequences, which are usually a staple of them. I guess I just took all that into consideration when Starscream did what I always knew he would do, so I am ok with it. Also, I have to admit what I *predict* may happen in the last 2 episodes may change my overall outlook if it doesn't come to pass.

[william-james88]

He's essentially the Megatron that always should have been.

Thats how I feel. Its like an innate personality we always thought he would have. Charismatic villains are always the best (like Hans Gruber).

[RodimusRex]

I really, really love the 1986 movie and am really put off by things that tamper with it.

In particular, what we had the last two episodes seemed like pure S1-2 fan drivel, in that:

- Rodimus is depicted as cowardly and incompetent. I could buy him not being the MOST competent but that's because he's a creative thinker.

- They go out of their way to suggest Megatron has never killed Starscream. And while I like this Megatron, do you know why I like him?

Because he's basically S3 Galvatron, written at a higher functioning level.

I dislike the otherwise pretty good Titans Return/Combiner Wars toys and IDW line's attempts to distance Megatron and Galvatron. For me, Megatron becoming Galvatron is one of the best and most imagination titillating concepts in Transformers. I especially love that it requires the sacrifice of a classic character to get there because it suggests that a Transformer can become someone else at the expense of their old identity. I would much prefer to see a continuity where Galvatron becomes Megatron again than see Galvatron and Megatron as separate characters or a mature continuity like this where it seems like no version of the '86 movie happened, aside from a character assassination of Rodimus.

Not a fan of Galvatron being a separate character who coexists with Megatron, in general. I like Megatron here but mostly because he seems like he's being written as, shall we say, Galvatron on Prozac. And it feels to me like a lot of what they're going for here is an attempt to unwrite the '86 movie while pushing other aspects of G1.