Well, it's over (for the first season, at least). The final season 1 episode to air on Vortexx, episode 22, aired this morning. It had...
too many teeny tiny edits to keep track of, so I'll just lump them together as a more workable count of nine.
1. In the flashback of the Autobots' previous battles with the Decepticons, the shot of a Vehicon punching/slashing Cliffjumper hard enough to knock one of his horns off (from episode 1) had the first instant of the Vehicon making physical contact with Cliff's torso covered by a flash of white light.
And now I feel compelled to go back and check to see if this same edit was also made to this scene in episode 1 as well, but at this time, I am unable to do so.
2.When Ratchet drove down the side of a mountain in Vehicle Mode to ram right into the face of a Jet Vehicon, the exact moment of impact his ambulance form made with the Jet Vehicon was covered by a flash of white light.
3. Right after Ratchet threatened the Vehicon miner with his blowtorch and said "I won't ask you a second time. Where. Is. Megatron?", a few frames of him still holding up his blowtorch were cut out. We still see him holding the blowtorch onscreen before then, just for a split-second or two shorter than in the uncut version.
4. Right after the above cut, a distant shot of Bulkhead just slapping aside a Jet Vehicon with his wrecking ball had its moment of impact, you guessed it, covered by a flash of white light.
5. Right after the above edit, in the uncut version, we heard a distant cry of "No! NO! NOOOOOOOO!!!" coming from the tortured Vehicon miner off screen, which caught Optimus' attention. Originally, Optimus raised his head after hearing the second "NO!" and then looked upward while hearing the third "NOOOOOOOO!!!". In the edited version, the scream was played a little earlier, with Optimus instead raising his head after hearing the first "No!" and then looking upward while hearing the second "NO!", with the third "NOOOOOOOO!!!" being cut out altogether.
6. And here it is, the infamous torture scene. In the uncut version, when Optimus, Bulkhead, and Arcee climbed up the mountain and looked on in horror once they reached the top, we heard the miner say "That's all I know!
Really!" to Ratchet off screen. We then saw Ratchet using his blowtorch on the agonized miner. Ratchet then stopped torching the miner, who then groaned in pain as we saw a close up of his sparkling head. The camera then faced Ratchet from the front, who, while still kneeling over the fallen miner, said "Now, was that so difficult?", and then retracted his blowtorch and deployed his sword. Ratchet swung back his sword in preparation to strike the miner, but Optimus intervened, running up to Ratchet from the side, yelling "Ratchet!" and catching the sword mid-swing. "What are you doing?" Optimus asked, grimly. Optimus let go of Ratchet, who retracted his sword and, while answering Optimus with "Getting results," stood up to face Optimus. At this point, the miner took this opportunity to get out of there ASAP.
In the edited version,
- The miner's cry of "Really!" was muted.
- The bit of Ratchet using his torch on the miner was cut, leaving in only the bit of Ratchet after he stopped using the torch.
- The miner groaning and the close up of its sparkling face was cut.
- Immediately after Ratchet asked, "Now, was that so difficult?", a close up shot of Optimus from another point in the episode was inserted right then and there, with the shot of Ratchet retracting his blowtorch following it. During this newly-inserted video of Optimus, the audio of Optimus saying "Ratchet! What" played, with "are you doing?" subsequently playing over the footage of Ratchet retracting in blowtorch, thus slightly relocating Optimus' "Ratchet! What are you doing?" line.
- The bits of Ratchet deploying his sword, swinging it backward, Optimus catching it,Optimus asking Ratchet what he's doing, and Optimus then letting go of the sword right before Ratchet gets up were all cut, thus necessitating the aforementioned insertion of Optimus' "Ratchet! What are you doing?"
The scene renewed properly as Ratchet got up to say "Getting results," while the miner hightailed it out of there.
7. Okay, not only was the exact moment of impact of Ratchet's sucker punching Megatron in the face covered by (what else?) a flash of white light, but the slow motion view of the punch, which held in place for a second or two right after the punch's point of impact, was cut, going straight from the censored point of impact to the first moment after the backwards-falling Megatron loses the physical contact his face had just had with Ratchet's fist.
8. The impact of Ratchet headbutting Knock Out was given the ol' white flash censor treatment.
9. The new commercial break played immediately after Ratchet picked up the dropped container of Synthetic Energon and turned his head back to look at Knock Out (whose arm saw was stuck embedded in the cave wall). When the break ended, the shot of Ratchet about to look at Knock Out was reversed, with him now instead turning his head
from Knock Out's direction
toward the Synth En container, as a means to help transition back into the show, just before Knock Out laughs and says, "What are you going to do, drink it?"
And next week, it's back-to-back episodes of Justice League Unlimited. So, what, no TF: Prime? Is this the end of its run on Vortexx? But I need to redo my comparison of episode 2 (I lost my old recording of it). And what about season 2? Come on!
[ Click to attempt signal recovery... ]
