The Energon Pub

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I can't remember the names but there were a couple of episodes that showed Megatron possessed reason as it worked with Optimus Prime. The one instance I can remember clearly was having Optimus use it in gun mode to launch a time bomb into space, saving Earth. This was a moment of rational thought we never saw post movie until "The Return of Optimus Prime Part2" where Prime earns Galvatron's respect.

Countdown to Extinction.

Just about any G1 cartoon storyline beats a Michael Bay Transformers Movie plot...

As a kid, I'd have been able to reel off a hundred reasons why The Girl Who Loved Powerglide and The Rebirth are better than any of these.

Of course, as a grown-up, I can respect your decision to be wrong

I have to disagree...

"Scrable city", "transfomers the movie" and "headmasters" (until rodimus departs) is the best from G1.

BERSEKAEL wrote:I have to disagree...

"Scrable city", "transfomers the movie" and "headmasters" (until rodimus departs) is the best from G1.

To be fair, the writer did precise that this list was only about the standard 98 episodes of the transformers cartoon and thus excludes certain elements from G1.

I agree with everyone CORRECTLY slamming Return of Optimus Prime...yet your justification of its relevance to subsequent TF fiction won me over to the criteria of this list. That's something 99.99% of top whatever lists fail to do.

However, more important than any one story to our favorite franchise's ability to adapt over the years and ensure its longevity was G1 Season 3 as a whole, for showing how even if the dynamics of the show were radically altered, not only could it still be Tranformers, but it could use the foundation of what came pre-Movie to soar to new heights. UNTIL those last 2 eps undid so much of that with their suckitude. Though it was too little too late, I salute the 3rd ep of Headmasters for trying to correct this by retiring Brett Favre rekilling Optimus that he might once again shine brighter as a legend to inspire future generations.

BERSEKAEL wrote:I have to disagree...

"Scrable city", "transfomers the movie" and "headmasters" (until rodimus departs) is the best from G1.

I hope to get another Top list out some time this summer. It would focus on the Headmasters Series. There are a whole lot of gems in that series that could use some limelight.

For the moment, all I'll say is great list. There's so many other episodes that could go here, too. 'The Killing Jar' from season three, for one. But it shows just how good the G1 series really was. Perfect, no. There was a lot of bad. But a lot more good, too.

Addressing some points made. I love TRoOP. By then I had more or less already gotten over Prime being written off the show, so I wasn't expecting it. Was excited to see him again, and his body in mint condition after Dark Awakening. (another great episode, but used to be difficult to watch back in the day.) Kind of like having the cake and eating it, too.

Great two-parter. Quite dark. Jessica Morgan was another good strong female character. (Carly, Faireborn, Astoria , Alana, Talaria..) And Ultra Magnus was intimidating as a villain, chasing down Rodimus so fervently. The explanation for the cure totally worked. And I liked having Charr explored some more when Galvatron lead the Autobots to the stolen heat-resistant metal. (And Sky-lynx is always an awesome character.)

I agree about season 3, I'm also a big fan! Love its ironic sense of humor, and having a new status-quo. You didn't really see anything like that in old cartoons. Jumping 20 years into the future permanently with a whole new cast.

Also love season 4 (Rebirth.) Not many cartoons back in the day, if any, got a final episode that wrapped everything-up. Loved the new Autobot cars and Decepticon jets/beasts, the story, the artwork, the conclusion.. it all worked for me.

Regarding female Autobots, I think Arcee as a recurring character was pretty impressive considering that she didn't have a toy. Sometimes when there were issues with a character's toy they were ultimately phased out (Skyfire, Reflector.) But not only was Arceee main cast, they even made her a Headmaster in the finale. (And there's Alpha Trion. Unicron. And Devcon in that one episode.)

Having 98 episodes + film is fantastic. The show never gets old. Would have been cool if Sunbow/Marvel had given us a round 100. (The origins of the Protectobots, and maybe a showcase Sideswipe episode? Or maybe something with the Throttlebots and Battlechargers? )

LOL....robots cannot be male or female, so #1 is irrelevant and was chosen as another political load of garbage to shove down our throats. Is this what his hobby has become? Another tool for the liberal media?

I'm sorry but apart from More than meets the eye I can't disagree more.

The fact that most of the episodes got picked from the awful season 2 which I feel was as bad as Energon just upsets me.

Alpha Trion and the female Autobots were horrible clichés. It horrifies me that in modern times Trion has been made a member of the Thirteen.

As for War Dawn, Orion Pax had one of the most hideous designs I've ever seen.

I do like Cosmic Rust admittedly.

I apologise for my negativity but I just see red when it comes to season 2.

To say nothing of the horrible Return of Optimus Prime. The video was a horrible let down. The cover featured the box art with Power master Prime and Skullgrin then you watch the two parter and there's no sign of Powermasters or Pretenders just horribly animated mess.

I suppose I may as well throw in my list :

More than meets the eye part 1
More than meets the eye part 2
More than meets the eye part 3
Dark Awakening
Money is Everything
Dweller in the Depths
Fire in the Sky
Fire on the Mountain
Masquerade
Roll for it

Windsweeper wrote:my list :

More than meets the eye part 1
More than meets the eye part 2
More than meets the eye part 3
Dark Awakening
Money is Everything
Dweller in the Depths
Fire in the Sky
Fire on the Mountain
Masquerade
Roll for it

Thanks for your list. These lists are more to incite discussion so that new fans can have a resource to rely on throughout the years. And your list totally adds to that by giving an insight for the other seasons that may not have been mentioned as much.
That said, I don't find season 2 to be so much worse than the rest. Season three is super interesting for the gamble that it is and for the great characters it introduced, but there is something comforting about season one and two with it's familiar cast. I have watched episodes out of order so I never really made a distinction between season one and two and it turns out that my favorite episode, the God Gambit, was from Season 2. My second favorite would be The Search for Alpha Trion for how eye opening it is at the larger Transformer Mythos.

shockblast2 wrote:LOL....robots cannot be male or female, so #1 is irrelevant and was chosen as another political load of garbage to shove down our throats. Is this what his hobby has become? Another tool for the liberal media?

Who says robots can't be male or female. Unless I'm mistaken, the plugs at the end of our phones and our computers are called "male" ports, while the wall sockets and flash ports are known as "female" ports. Moreover, in French, EVERY single noun is given a male or female article, implying that as humans, we can identify things as male and female. In Chinese, the whole issue is moot thanks to the fact that every third person singular pronoun is "ta" (despite there being three different characters for the single word, but the pronunciation is the same for all three, implying that it's the same word).

If by "liberal media," you are referring to the fact that in 2014, the fandom has voted for the fan-choice Transformer to be a female? Sure. If by "liberal media," you are referring to the fact that in 2015, the fandom has voted for the fan-choice Transformer COMBINER to be composed of an ENTIRE TEAM of females? Sure.

That said, I see no direct correlation of Liberal Media on the entire situation that is the fandom. Waaaay back in 1985, when War Dawn happened, it introduced a wider conceptualization of these. It's only natural for people to seek out identifiable characters in any story we are reading/watching. That there were women/ people sympathetic to women wanting to show strong female characters at this time was indicative not of "liberal" agendas or whatever, but more of people wanting to see and show the depth of Transformers. Despite the fact that these were TOYS, there could be a whole lot of depth of characterization and personalities that are identifiable to anyone who watched the show.

Could it have been done better? Absolutely. Every female didn't need a male counterpart. Prime could have been less douchy when he walked away from Elita at the end of the episode and we could have gotten more episodes with them in it. Additionally, Transformers, in general, could have been created from the getgo with the pronoun "It" as opposed to the "He" that was given them.

The fact is, this episode has probably had more influence on the fandom than just about any other standalone episode. Which was one of the most important criterion of this whole list.

The way I see the introduction of girl TF's was for a very simple reason: diversity. I doubt it was even a second thought. All the other 80's toy cartoons had both genders (He-Man/Teela) so they were probably just following a similar marketing strategy.

shajaki wrote:The way I see the introduction of girl TF's was for a very simple reason: diversity. I doubt it was even a second thought. All the other 80's toy cartoons had both genders (He-Man/Teela) so they were probably just following a similar marketing strategy.

I think Transformers went even a bit above that trend too because unlike those shows, they didnt have any toys of those characters to sell (while we can see Teela below). It shows that the creators cared a bit more than about simply selling toys. That's why I find that episode so important in a way.

shockblast2 wrote:LOL....robots cannot be male or female, so #1 is irrelevant and was chosen as another political load of garbage to shove down our throats. Is this what his hobby has become? Another tool for the liberal media?

I find your dogged and endless commenting about this small point utterly hilarious when combined with your signature.

From the moment Wheeljack uttered the words "and you didn't believe him?" in MTMTE - gender was established. You don't have a race of just males. Or females for that matter. If the Transformers were genderless, the line would have been "and you didn't believe it?"

Amelie wrote:

shockblast2 wrote:LOL....robots cannot be male or female, so #1 is irrelevant and was chosen as another political load of garbage to shove down our throats. Is this what his hobby has become? Another tool for the liberal media?

I find your dogged and endless commenting about this small point utterly hilarious when combined with your signature.

From the moment Wheeljack uttered the words "and you didn't believe him?" in MTMTE - gender was established. You don't have a race of just males. Or females for that matter. If the Transformers were genderless, the line would have been "and you didn't believe it?"

I dont think you get it Amelie. Genders were in G1, but now it is only G3 and G3 is genderless. When are people gonna learn.

shajaki wrote:The way I see the introduction of girl TF's was for a very simple reason: diversity. I doubt it was even a second thought. All the other 80's toy cartoons had both genders (He-Man/Teela) so they were probably just following a similar marketing strategy.

TF was kind of late with the fembots. CotG already had fembots (one of the high points in the series )

fenrir72 wrote:TF was kind of late with the fembots. CotG already had fembots (one of the high points in the series )

The only issue there being...

Gobots are cyborgs, not robots

:edit: I can't spell. I haz the dumb.

Little late to the party, but I'll add my list.

10. War Dawn
9. Surprise Party
8. Starscream's Brigade
7. Return of Optimus Prime
6. Rebirth
5. Five Faces of Darkness
4. Triple Takeover
3. More Than Meets the Eye
2. Heavy Metal War
1. The Burden Hardest to Bear