The Energon Pub

[PerfectVision]

"could" as conditional,in the future,"the other continuities" that are irreconcilable.A contradiction would have been told in the "SPOILER" topic.

Just to do more than a correction:Star-Shock-Sound are neglected a lot,i don't see how Star can be a renegade without becoming a loner,a or creating the who aren't really related to him,just a different faction,a second Sentinel pro quintessons maybe.

I feel like Shock-Sound could be the more reasonable persons,Megatron may end mistreating them the most and rejected by his own faction,Star would be more enthusiast than rebellious.

[o.supreme]

Well I broke down and purchased the 4K/BRD combo since they don't have a BRD solo release. Seems like this is paramount's strategy going forward for physical release since Sonic 3 has the same thing - a Budget single DVD, or BRD/4K combo, and that's it.

If I ever get a UHD TV I'm sur it will look great, but the BRD looked good enough.

Its interesting to see on all the interviews and the extras, people involved still tying this to Bayverse. Unfortunately at this point I think its all moot. I think the GIJoe crossover film is pretty much not happening, as are any other projects.

Instead of having false restarts about every 4 years, they need to let this franchise rest from film for at least a decade, then start fresh. They should go back to what made the franchise great before, having a good quality animated series. Not thinking "doing it cheap" will be good enough.

Of course if they are going to listen to Cox and just going to focus on games, then yeah, this franchise doesn't have a bright future.

[Sabrblade]

[Big Grim]

Finally got around to watching this. It was, all around, a fantastic movie. Bumblebee was not as funny as they thought he was to me, but I bet the kids ate it up. It was a fantastic flick though. Interesting seeing Pax being the well-meaning "Bad Friend" to D-16. And I LOVED seeing them use their ability to transform in interesting ways in combat.

I can only hope we get a sequel one day. One with some competent marketing behind it...

~ Grim

[Sabrblade]

There's kind of a darker tragic side to the way B-127 was portrayed. If you'll notice, B-127 and D-16 are the only two characters in the whole movie who don't have actual names, but instead just have numerical designations. It has been theorized that in this universe all Cybertronians are born with designations instead of names, and later acquire names of their own later in life when they decide to choose one for themselves and are able to convince all of their peers and the larger society as a whole to call them by their new name.

In that regard, B-127 trying over and over to get everyone to call him "Badassatron" feels like he's trying so desperately hard to give himself an actual name instead of just a designation, but it's such a silly, try-hard, edgelord sounding name that, combined with his overly-enthusiastic personality and short cutesy-looking stature, nobody is willing to take him seriously enough to call him that. He wants so badly to have not just an actual name but one that sounds cool, that he's completely oblivious to how annoying he is to everyone he tries his name out on. With that in mind, his repeated gag becomes less obnoxious (granted it still is) and more sad and pitiable to the point that you just can't help but feel sorry for him.

As for why D-16 still had his designation before renaming himself "Megatron", well, he's a stickler for protocol and tradition. He doesn't like change to routine normalcy, and seems to have embraced his "D-16" designation as his defining identity. It's the identifier he was given when he first came online, and he's perfectly content with being "D-16". It's only after he finds out that his whole life and way of living was a lie manipulated by the guy in charge whom he looked up to and was spurred to incite a world-shattering revolution that he finally cast off his "D-16" designation (which now represented his old life that he hated) and gave himself a real name, one which everyone around him was willing to accept as his new name (which also kinda adds to the tragedy of B-127's many failed attempts to give himself a new name, as D-16 renames himself once and everyone's just instantly ready to accept it, while B just can't catch a break from anyone).

[Rodimus Prime]

I wonder if the letters in their designation also has a meaning or if it's just random.

[Sabrblade]

I wonder if the letters in their designation also has a meaning or if it's just random.

They do in a real world sense (B comes from Bumblebee, D comes from Decepticon), but nothing's been given about any in-fiction meaning.

[#1 Signal Lancer fan]

If you'll notice, B-127 and D-16 are the only two characters in the whole movie who don't have actual names, but instead just have numerical designations. It has been theorized that in this universe all Cybertronians are created with designations instead of names, and later acquire names of their own later in life when they decide to choose one for themselves and are able to convince all of their peers and the larger society as a whole to call them by their new name.

I like this premise, but I do wish it had been executed better. I think it would have been a nice touch to have Darkwing, guards, and Sentinel all refer to cogless bots by designation instead of names, hammering them in as chosen names.

[Glyph]

On the one hand, I can see the argument that there just wasn't time to dig into everything. On the other, this seems like one of those that could be implied in a line or two of dialogue and doesn't need to be explained further:

Darkwing: "Told you not to come back here, C-01!"
Orion: "My name is Orion Pax."
Darkwing: "Sez you!" #punch#

Show, not tell. Anyone who's seen The Matrix would instantly get it, and anyone else would at least get the power dynamic.

[#1 Signal Lancer fan]

On the one hand, I can see the argument that there just wasn't time to dig into everything. On the other, this seems like one of those that could be implied in a line or two of dialogue and doesn't need to be explained further:

Darkwing: "Told you not to come back here, C-01!"
Orion: "My name is Orion Pax."
Darkwing: "Sez you!" #punch#

Show, not tell. Anyone who's seen The Matrix would instantly get it, and anyone else would at least get the power dynamic.

This is exactly what I mean. You wouldn't need to explain how things work, just show it.

For example, when Sentinel Prime comes to speak with Orion and D, he could call them by their numbers instead of their names. This would do a perfect job establishing that the names are not official and double down on Sentinel's oppression.

And while I agree that there wasn't time to dig into everything, the movie really could have used another 15-30 minutes to flesh some things (like this) out a little more

[Sabrblade]

Like I said before, it's just a fan theory. I doubt the filmmakers really thought much about the designations vs. names any more than "What were Megatron and Bumblebee called before they had those names?" Like how Optimus Prime was called "Orion Pax" before he had his current name.

Also, I was wrong about it just being D and B who had designations. One of the guards in the archives building that Orion sneaks into at the beginning of the movie also had a designation. However, there's a discrepancy over what it is. When I saw the movie for the second time in theaters, I went to a screening that had onscreen subtitles for the hearing impaired, so that I could take notes on how certain terms were spelled in these subs since they were official subs. And in these subs, the guard was referred to as "KDQ-12". But in the movie's script, the guard is instead referred to as "KDK-12".

Re-watching the scene and slowing down the audio, the voice and sound effects of the scene are so precisely muffled that I can't tell if the voice actor said "Q" or "K":

At 1:42 in this video (which has pre-written captions that also use "KDQ-12"):


At 2:07 in this video (which has auto-generated captions that use "KDK 12"):


At 2:10 in this video (auto-generated captions that use a very unfortunate "kk2"):


At 1:40 in this video (auto-generated captions, the same unfortunate "kk2")


At 1:15 in this video (auto-generated captions with an even more pathetic "k 12"):


At 2:12 in this video (auto-generated captions, once again the dumb "kk2"):

[-Kanrabat-]

For some reason, the "Oscar darling" The Wild Robot is seen as a "rival" to TF1. Yet locally, my Cineplex is showing it only ONCE for the whole day, tomorrow at 11am. In both French and English.

Once.

What's up with that?

[Glyph]

Like I said before, it's just a fan theory. I doubt the filmmakers really thought much about the designations vs. names any more than "What were Megatron and Bumblebee called before they had those names?" Like how Optimus Prime was called "Orion Pax" before he had his current name.

Yeah, not saying the 'adopted names' thing was official but underserved; clearly in this case D-16 is just from the toy and B-127 is from the Bumblebee movie. I was just riffing on how effectively things can be implied in dialogue without getting into ponderous fanfic-style explanations.

It's a quibble with an otherwise really good movie: there's definitely times, especially in the first half, where it feels like just a little dialogue polish could have done a lot to deepen the characters and setting. Perhaps at the expense of some of B's prattling later on, or the clunky exposition of the opening narration (accompanied by the single worst transformation in the film, which was not a good first impression, let me tell you). But eh, that's just my take.

KDQ-12 / KDK-12

I wonder if there's a reference there that I'm missing, like A-A-Tron.

[Sabrblade]

Didn't see this news posted anywhere: