Egh, this is the most recent topic on watching Transformers Animated, so I figured I type this out here. I just finished the series in its entirety, and
Animated turned out to be a pretty good show. I don't necessarily think it exceeded my expectations, but that's not to say my expectations were low.
After I mellowed out on Transformers cartoons and started to look back on the ones I remember watching objectively, I realized that all the sh*t I gave
Animated was no longer founded considering it had been so long since I watched the show. Therefore, I couldn't
really give an honest analysis if I didn't remember most of the story. Admittedly, this is something that's happening to me with
Beast Wars now, but thankfully watching that show was recent enough that I at least remember the qualities and flaws alike that stuck out to me. Anyways, once I realized this, I decided to bite the bullet and watch the series, and here's
exactly what I think of it.
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Highlights* Prowl. God bless this show for Prowl. He was by far the best character in the show with the most interesting background, personality, outlook on the world, etc.
* I'm glad the ongoing story never particularly altered direction at any point in the series, unlike
Beast Wars and
Prime. Granted, the reason for this is because the show's story is rather loose, at least until midway into season two.
* The exploration of there being a technorganic Cybertronian/human hybrid in the case of Sari was a rather interesting one that I think I even acknowledged way back in the day.
* There's some really fun and great incarnations of namesakes in this show such as Blitzwing, Ratchet, the Constructicons, and probably most importantly Wreck-Gar.
* Oh yes, that's right, God bless this show for Wreck-Gar.
* The comedy, when it wasn't being stereotypically silly, could reach ultimate heights of hilarity. I can now appreciate the scene where Optimus finds Sentinel Prime's head in "The Return of the Headmaster".
* This is probably the best use of the episode-centric format in Transformers cartoons. It hasn't really worked all that well in
Beast Wars or
Robots in Disguise (2015)* Season three's still kickass for all intents and purposes of continuing a great story from season two.
* I changed my mind on season two, though, which is probably the best season of the show just for its great standalone episodes.
* Speaking of, glorious (no pun intended) episodes like "The Thrill of the Hunt", "Garbage In, Garbage Out", "Rise of the Constructicons", "Autoboot Camp", and the collective story of the season two finale and the season three premiere exist.
* Fanzone is bae.
Problems* I'll get this more subjective flaw out of the way, I must be way too used to and infatuated with
Prime's take on Cybertronian mortality, because going from that back to the classic idea that these sentient,
living robotic organisms can be ripped apart, shot at, blown up, and still survive the ordeal has always bothered the sh*t out of me, and
Animated does nothing to help that.
* Season one sucked. I'm sorry, but it did. The "Transform and Roll Out" pilot was mildly entertaining at best, "Nature Calls" was the ultimate filler episode, the Megatron's body arc had absolutely
no suspense to it given we
knew Megatron was going to come back at some point, we just had to tediously wait 13 episodes for it to happen, and it's the biggest offender of an ongoing problem with the show:
*
Sari. Yeah, the idea of a Cybertronian human is great, but as a plot device, Sari is the
biggest cop-out ever. In the first two seasons, you never felt like the Autobots were in any kind of mortal danger because you always remembered "Sari's key! That can
fix everything!" And her key wasn't just a cop-out for saving the characters, but was also a cop-out for jumpstarting and resolving storylines. There's so many instances in the first two seasons of Sari's key getting everyone into trouble but at the same time so many instances of Sari's key getting everyone
out of trouble. To top it all off, the key's ability to do this was never really explained all that well in the first place, so it all just comes off as really lazy-ass writing. Seems like every time the writers thought themselves into a corner they shoved Sari's key into it, literally. Hated that sh*t, glad they killed the key in the third season. Made everything
so much better.
* Crappy episodes like "Five Servos of Doom", "Sound and Fury", and "Sari, No One's Home" exist.
* Speaking of, Soundwave is, like, one of the worst Decepticons in the show. His voice sounds like horse sh*t due to it having the lowest quality vocoder ever, which makes everyone line of dialogue he speaks almost
incomprehensible. On top of that, every episode he's in is the most boring experience because since this Soundwave is nowhere near menacing, and you can't understand a word he's saying, you're just left with his lack of personality.
* That's saying something, because practically all of the main
Animated Decepticons are awful characters. Save for Blitzwing and the Constructicons for entertainment value, none of them have characteristics that stand out or go out of their way to make a lasting impression on you. Megatron's boring, Lugnut's boring, Lockdown's kinda boring,
Starscream's almost boring if it weren't for that cluttered clone arc that went nowhere...and so you're just left with Blackarachnia for anything remotely interesting as far as development goes, and that ultimately doesn't go anywhere because of the show's cancellation. So then every episode with her just amounts to "is she good, is she evil?" and we don't really get an answer. They just circle jerk us. At least Shockwave and Swindle turned out okay -- not great, but okay. Still, the Decepticons in this show can go sodomize a reindeer.
* So glad Porter C. Powell was such a
dire threat after he was abruptly written out of season three. I'm very happy we wasted
all that time on the human supervillains that ending up making little impact on the show. Blow me.
* Chins.
* And finally, the fact that this show was cancelled is a sin, because the story is very obviously incomplete by the time of "Endgame".
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So while I ultimately enjoyed
Animated, I find it still has the same strength-to-weakness ratio that pretty much
every Transformers cartoon has. Even
Prime, even
Beast Wars, and so forth. That said, I'd still watch the fourth season if they ever manage to do it somehow.
Animated deserves its proper ending, it was
just getting good.
Sorry for taking over your thread here, Black Hat. What say you on
Animated? I'm assuming you've finished it by now.
