The Energon Pub

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Looking forward to this show... being over.
The G1 Dinobots were born on Earth almost 40 years ago. They're far from the "first."
Then there's the Constructicons ("Heavy Metal War"), Metroplex, Trypticon, all the activated protoforms from Beast Wars, Animated Wreck-Gar, Dirt Boss and Dinobots, all the AllSpark-activated Transformers from the Movie franchise... I could keep going and going.

When people say this, I know they didn't actually watch the show.

There is a stark difference between being built on Earth (g1), Earth machines being transformed by cybertronian artifacts (Animated Wreck Gar/Allspark mutants), previously living protoforms waking up on earth (Beast Wars), and actually being born naturally and entirely from earth (Terrans).

The Terrans are literally forged straight from the Earth. They are truly "born" in this way. Not created, not built and given a spark, not waking up, fully forged and born, much like how IDW showed Cybertronians being born on Cybertron or how Aligned had them coming from the well of allsparks.

And ya know what, that works, it is fun, they are a whole new sub-species, Cybertronian and Earth in origin. It all works and makes sense.

[ScottyP]

I couldn't stomach this atrocity of a show for more than a few episodes.

Everyone that watched the show, as we roll our eyes into the sun: "We can tell."

A more productive use of your online time in the future would be to talk about stuff you enjoy.

[Sabrblade]

And, I can't believe it has to be spelled over and over again, but when this show refers to the Terrans as "The first Transformers born on Earth", it means "The first Transformers born on Earth in this continuity."

That G1-styled flashback sequence in the first episode is later confirmed to be a fantasy sequence that isn't actually accurate to what really happened in the past, as a later episode, "Warzone", has another flashback to the destruction of the space bridge in the past, which shows what really happened in that scene.

All that G1-styled animation was just an Easter egg for our, the viewers', benefit, just like how Transformers Animated used some G1 footage in its own first episode merely as fan service. None of it actually happened in this show's continuity, nor is this show in continuity with the G1 cartoon.

[Big Grim]

With what I assume is the first half of this show having recently hit Netflix in the UK, I gave it a watch.

Binged through it in two days. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Feels quite fresh and new take. Love the new characters, love what they've done with Megatron. Weird hearing the odd snip of the VAs Scots brogue come through. Rather like Tuduck's Prime. Human characters are all pretty good up to excellent. Bumblebee is okay, glad they let him have a voice. Relationships between Bots is interesting with Bumblebee & Dead End being friends/Brothers. Skywarp and Frenzy being female took me by surprise, but I dug it. Especially Frenzy's punky hair-shaped head.

Animation feels solid and I am onboard with the character designs. Dig that Dot is a vet with a prosthetic leg. Gives off good Momma Bear vibes while also being a pretty kickass friend of Megs. I LOVE the music.

All in all an utterly entertaining and charming show built somewhat on G1 (with bits pulled from G1 across its own multiverse of origins and whatnot.) but being allowed to breathe and evolve into its own thing. Kinda want that Grimlock...

~ Grim

[Sabrblade]

With what I assume is the first half of this show having recently hit Netflix in the UK,

How many episodes did Netflix UK put up? Season 1 has 26 eps in total.

[snavej]

So, in Earthspark, they let kids interact freely with the greatest mass murderer in the galaxy (our Megs). They don't even tell the kids all the things he did. Does anyone think this is a good idea?!

[Big Grim]

With what I assume is the first half of this show having recently hit Netflix in the UK,

How many episodes did Netflix UK put up? Season 1 has 26 eps in total.

There are 18 episodes at the moment on UK Netflix, the last being Home Part 2. I guess we have 8 more to come then! Curious!

~ Grim

[Sabrblade]

With what I assume is the first half of this show having recently hit Netflix in the UK,

How many episodes did Netflix UK put up? Season 1 has 26 eps in total.

There are 18 episodes at the moment on UK Netflix, the last being Home Part 2. I guess we have 8 more to come then! Curious!

~ Grim

Then that means they put up the first two parts of the season, but not the third and final part. When it first came to Paramount+, the season was divided into three parts, with Part 1 being the first 10 episodes, Part 2 being the next eight, and Part 3 being the final eight. Though, each two-parter was uploaded as one long video.

[bluecatcinema]

So, in Earthspark, they let kids interact freely with the greatest mass murderer in the galaxy (our Megs). They don't even tell the kids all the things he did. Does anyone think this is a good idea?!

No-one is denying Megatron used to be a bad guy, but it's been made clear that he changed for the better years ago. Besides, the fact that he's friends with their mother no doubt goes a long way toward them feeling comfortable around him.

[snavej]

Personally, I wouldn't want my kids hanging around with some giant robot dude with a fusion cannon. He might be a pu55ycat in temperament but it's still a HUGE risk. All it takes is one wrong move and a kid dies. The relevant term is 'criminal negligence'! I reckon that this sets a very bad example. I mean, the writers are careful to be politically correct with all the right pronouns and yet they allow ridiculously huge breaches of health and safety. Talk about double standards! Pronouns won't save anyone from a Transformer rampage.

[Big Grim]

Then that means they put up the first two parts of the season, but not the third and final part. When it first came to Paramount+, the season was divided into three parts, with Part 1 being the first 10 episodes, Part 2 being the next eight, and Part 3 being the final eight. Though, each two-parter was uploaded as one long video.

Thank you for the info, Duder! I'll keep an eye out for the final third.

~ Grim

[Sabrblade]

Personally, I wouldn't want my kids hanging around with some giant robot dude with a fusion cannon. He might be a pu55ycat in temperament but it's still a HUGE risk. All it takes is one wrong move and a kid dies. The relevant term is 'criminal negligence'! I reckon that this sets a very bad example. I mean, the writers are careful to be politically correct with all the right pronouns and yet they allow ridiculously huge breaches of health and safety. Talk about double standards! Pronouns won't save anyone from a Transformer rampage.

They also allow

• one child to walk around carrying her own pair of swords,
• another child to turn into a motorcycle (a dangerous vehicle unto itself),
• another child to disguise herself as a vehicle belonging to the morally-gray government organization that's trying to hunt them down and kill them, which she also uses to sneak into the headquarters of said organization which full of armed guards and weaponry capable of hurting her, and is also permitted to hack into said organization's mainframe multiple times,
• another child to tinker with machinery that has nearly harmed the other family members several times,
• and the last child to turn into an initially-rampaging dinosaur after hanging out with an even bigger and more rampaging dinosaur who suffers from PTSD.

This is a dangerous world for everyone, and you're acting like these people hang out with Megatron on a regular basis when he barely ever shares any screentime with them outside of battle scenes.

And if you're going to criticize Dot and Alex as parents, then you're going to have to do the same for the likes of Sparkplug Witwicky and every other series's parental characters who actively let their children not only hang out with a bunch of gun-toting giants but were also brought into the middle of a warzone on a regular basis. Seriously, it's a wonder that Spike didn't get injured more often than just the events of "Autobot Spike". That boy should have been dead several times over, yet he always survived by the superhuman protective power of 1980s children's cartoon standards.

[ZeroWolf]

Personally, I wouldn't want my kids hanging around with some giant robot dude with a fusion cannon. He might be a pu55ycat in temperament but it's still a HUGE risk. All it takes is one wrong move and a kid dies. The relevant term is 'criminal negligence'! I reckon that this sets a very bad example. I mean, the writers are careful to be politically correct with all the right pronouns and yet they allow ridiculously huge breaches of health and safety. Talk about double standards! Pronouns won't save anyone from a Transformer rampage.

They also allow

• one child to walk around carrying her own pair of swords,
• another child to turn into a motorcycle (a dangerous vehicle unto itself),
• another child to disguise herself as a vehicle belonging to the morally-gray government organization that's trying to hunt them down and kill them, which she also uses to sneak into the headquarters of said organization which full of armed guards and weaponry capable of hurting her, and is also permitted to hack into said organization's mainframe multiple times,
• another child to tinker with machinery that has nearly harmed the other family members several times,
• and the last child to turn into an initially-rampaging dinosaur after hanging out with an even bigger and more rampaging dinosaur who suffers from PTSD.

This is a dangerous world for everyone, and you're acting like these people hang out with Megatron on a regular basis when he barely ever shares any screentime with them outside of battle scenes.

And if you're going to criticize Dot and Alex as parents, then you're going to have to do the same for the likes of Sparkplug Witwicky and every other series's parental characters who actively let their children not only hang out with a bunch of gun-toting giants but were also brought into the middle of a warzone on a regular basis. Seriously, it's a wonder that Spike didn't get injured more often than just the events of "Autobot Spike". That boy should have been dead several times over, yet he always survived by the superhuman protective power of 1980s children's cartoon standards.

Let's not forget the teachers who allowed the kids of B.O.T to make that creation

Seriously though, kids shows always allow the children to get away with a lot as it's a way for the children watching to have some fun. It's not just cartoons who do this if you want to pull on that thread.

[snavej]

'...should have been dead several times over...'

The ol' plot armour is virtually impenetrable! At least the new comic book series has more realism and mangled corpses.

[Sabrblade]

'...should have been dead several times over...'

The ol' plot armour is virtually impenetrable!

And thus, you have nothing to worry about with the Malto kids.

[snavej]

'...should have been dead several times over...'

The ol' plot armour is virtually impenetrable!

And thus, you have nothing to worry about with the Malto kids.

Time will tell. I mainly worry about real people who try to imitate them in some way.

[Sabrblade]

'...should have been dead several times over...'

The ol' plot armour is virtually impenetrable!

And thus, you have nothing to worry about with the Malto kids.

Time will tell. I mainly worry about real people who try to imitate them in some way.

Right, because It's so easy to imitate hanging out with giant robots.

Spike, Carly, Chip, Daniel, Koji, Rad, Carlos, Alexis, Billy, Fred, Kicker, Coby, Bud, Lori, Sam, Mikaela, Sari, Jack, Miko, Raf, Cody, Russell, and more have all been just as guilty of hanging out with giant robots. So if you're going to harp on the kids of this show, you have to do the same for every single one of the characters I just listed off. It's only fair.

Especially for Kicker. That kid actually threw himself into battle and fought against Decepticons on his own. He even once went up against Galvatron solo. That's way more dangerous than anything else that the others have done.

[snavej]

All of those are very problematic. We don't have any actual Cybertronian Transformers but we do have plenty of large vehicles that can kill, accidentally or deliberately.

[Sabrblade]

All of those are very problematic. We don't have any actual Cybertronian Transformers but we do have plenty of large vehicles that can kill, accidentally or deliberately.

In that case, you must therefore consider ALL of Transformers to be problematic and must raise a formal protest to Hasbro for making a product that is such a bad influence upon our children.

The only solution is to remove humanity from the Transformers fiction entirely, setting the stories completely apart from human civilization to the point that the Transformers are no longer in disguise from humankind, thus rendering one of the entire points of the brand completely pointless.

And once you have succeeded, you must then move on to protest G.I. Joe for promoting warfare and weaponry usage to children, and then must protest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for promoting martial arts and weaponry violence to children, and then protest Power Rangers for also promoting martial arts violence and giant robot piloting to children, And then protest DC and Marvel for also promoting violence to children, and protest Star Wars for promoting space warfare and sword-based violence to children, and protest Nintendo and every other video game company for also promoting violence to children.

You must never cease in your one-man crusade to completely rid the Earth of any and all harmful media for the sake of our children, to the point that every single channel must become as sanitary and safe as PBS Kids. Every form of children's entertainment must be as wholesome as Sesame Street, and never have even a shred of any potentially violent element whatsoever.

So, go forth, snavej. Go and finally bring peace to this war-torn, dreadful, violent world that we all live in, and bring an end to this destructive era that currently plagues upon our youth, so that you may usher in a brighter and safer future for us all.

[snavej]

All I'm saying is that the parents should make an effort to remove their children from a highly dangerous situation. Perhaps they could relocate to another part of the country or even another country. Look what happened in Ukraine in 2022. There was a mass movement of families away from the fighting. When parents stupidly allow their children to stay in harm's way, that's very bad writing. Sure, many Transformers are friendly but they're not infallible and there are Decepticons popping up all over the place, causing havoc.

I agree that things like GI Joe, TMNT, Power Rangers Star Wars, most superhero stories, etc. should be banned because they're rubbish and also a small number of people get hurt copying the stunts therein. Remember the kids thinking they were Superman and jumping off buildings?!

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Don't know how we got here, but please return to the topic.

[Sabrblade]

Five months late to this, but Keyan Carlile made a really in-depth review of the three-part first season of EarthSpark, covering the good, the mixed, and the bad of each third of the season.

[PerfectVision]

-G.H.O.S.T is useless.

-The terrans aren't strong in characterization and effectiveness more or less(Mo herself can use the shield?Bizarre like some other things).

-The script suggests verbaly they are immigrants but it's practically wrong:they are underground mutants(TMNT,they reuse the 2012 aesthetic) or angels like Metatron and the morning Star-scream,Lucifer (the boundary between them,aliens and demons is thin).

-This perspective changes the meaning of Meridian:he wants to become a god.That explains the stupid and not credible modification on his body rather than an exterior one with a cockpit.

-A lack of accessibility?Forever?

[o.supreme]

Seemingly, without fanfare, the remaining 16 episodes of S1 were released on DVD; at least in North America (R1) about a month ago. Significantly, this is the first Transformers TV series to have a complete (as of this time) release on physical media since Prime a decade ago. I've seen Vol 1 in store at Walmart previously, haven't seen V2 in person yet, but links to purchase on Amazon are below if interested.


Volume 2 (episodes 11-16)
https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Earthspark-Season-Episodes-11-26/dp/B0CNBM6D4J/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Volume 1 (episodes 1-10)
https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-EarthSpark-Season-Episodes-1-10/dp/B0BTPZKL5K/ref=pd_bxgy_d_sccl_1/146-5390240-0009357?pd_rd_w=nSopw&content-id=amzn1.sym.2b132e63-5dcd-4ba1-be9f-9e044543d59f&pf_rd_p=2b132e63-5dcd-4ba1-be9f-9e044543d59f&pf_rd_r=K3MB5K7EQHAWY6SD2W16&pd_rd_wg=M0Nkg&pd_rd_r=1bafb251-f13f-4ce7-be7f-734a05b2a673&pd_rd_i=B0BTPZKL5K&psc=1

Probably because this series is produced by Paramount/Nickelodeon it was much easier to get out on physical media. I'm not sure if Hasbro and Shout!Factory still have a contract for the other series they've released on DVD many years ago (most of which are on streaming in one form or another), but it would be nice if Hasbro continued to partner wither with Paramount, or another distributor to get their remaining missing/incomplete series on physical media at some point.

[bluecatcinema]

The official Transformers YouTube channel has posted a brief trailer for the second season: