The bit with the Professor Princess makes sense when you take the episode theme as a whole: toys.
The whole episode, while it served as an introduction to Soundwave, was also commentary on toys from start to finish.
First, you have Sari and Bulkhead looking in a toy shop, talking about birthday presents. Then you get the girl on a pony attacking them, as she puts it, to "save them from violent toys."
Hello? Social commentary anyone? You betcha. Boys toys have often been criticized for being too violent. Remember how when Beast Machines was bought by Fox, they insisted that the heroes not be allowed to use guns, as "it might send the wrong message." Bleh.
However, the cartoon obviously doesn't agree with this line of thinking. What they are saying, through the use of this character, is that if you take the "violence" aspect from toys, what you end up with is sickingly stupid toddler riding a My Little Pony.
Next, we get to Sari's birthday party, where, we find out that she has no friends. Notice that this point is NOT resolved. Why? Because she pays them no attention. She doesn't want them there, they don't want to be there.
Sparkplug, her last present, is also brought up. He is a toy that has been abandoned.
And then we move on to her big birthday present, "Soundwave," who, let's face it, is presented as a child's toy.
Barney, the purple dinosaur, is shown, and the writers have Sari attacking it.
Sari enjoys her new toy alot, but, just like her human friends, she begins to pay more attention to it rather than her real friends. Like, for example, how some kids will pay more attention to playing video games, or similar things, than their real life friends.
Sari then uses something which is NOT a toy for an improper purpose: upgrading her toy to do more. This shows that she really can't distinguish between things that are toys and things which are not (possible commentary on children not being able to distinguish between toys and guns?). Even when reminded and warned, she still uses the key and all hell breaks loose.
Soundwave could very well have become an Autobot when he became self aware, but Sari's treatment of machines (even though she is friends with sentient ones) is more than likely a key factor as to the development of Soundwave's personality--something, you must remember, that Megatron was NOT responsible for.
This episode is a fun one, not only for its G1 nods and humor, but for the amount of analysis that one can do on the actual writing.
just kidding Meverix.
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