Machinima Transformers: Power of the Primes Episode 4 'Primal' Now Online

See! That's how you improve the show, just have Jeremy Clarkson preview the episode.

Dialogue is still atrocious ... despite Megatron swearing. And Megatron walks really slowly.

Oh and as you would expect, the story still moves slowly.

Burn wrote:

ON THIS WEEKS EPISODE OF POWER OF THE PRIMES

Megatron wrestles with a monkey

Volcanicus falls into a hole

And Perceptor punches Predaking

See! That's how you improve the show, just have Jeremy Clarkson preview the episode.

Dialogue is still atrocious ... despite Megatron swearing. And Megatron walks really slowly.

Oh and as you would expect, the story still moves slowly.

I had more fun reading this post than I did watching the entire episode.

How every single one of these episodes manages to be simultaneously the most hilarious, most frustrating and most tedious thing I've ever seen, is beyond my comprehension.

Qwan wrote:I had more fun reading this post than I did watching the entire episode.

I've wasted too much time sitting watching this trilogy and just tearing it apart in my head. I reached a point today watching this episode where I decided to just try to make it a little more fun.

And Jeremy Clarksons voice helped with that.

I wonder how much trouble I'd get in if I kidnapped Clarkson and made him sum every episode of the prime wars trilogy like that. Failing that Burn, yours will be a fine substitute

Need to convince Bronzewolf to integrate it into his review.

It might, at the very least, help preserve his own sanity.
#BurnCares #NoReallyHeDoes #YeahOkayHeDoesnt

Wow, Megatron showed more facial expressions than anyone in the entirety of the trilogy in just a few minutes.

Burn wrote:

ON THIS WEEKS EPISODE OF POWER OF THE PRIMES

Megatron wrestles with a monkey

Megatron.JPG

Volcanicus falls into a hole

Volcanicus.JPG

And Perceptor punches Predaking

Perceptor.JPG

This episode was better than the last two, that's for sure. I wanna see what happens next.

Burn wrote:TONIGHT

Megatron wrestles with a monkey


Volcanicus falls into a hole


And Perceptor punches Predaking

Hello, WE'RE BACK! Yes, that's right, it's Tuesday again, meaning we're now on episode four of the Machinima Power of the Primes series. If you'd like to know more, read on, as we take a look at



(This review does contain spoilers for the Power of the Primes cartoon, as well as the previous two shows to some degree.)

The main cast is still on the primal swamp planet and still being chased by Combiners. Predaking is continuing his search for the Enigma of Combination, and Perceptor swears that Victorion doesn't have it. The beast combiner refuses to believe him and, although his logic here is a bit hard to follow, he too has noticed the events Cybertron and the surrounding systems have been going through.


"Everything on Cybertron is trying to destroy everything else!" Top notch dialogue, guys. Just...just *kisses fingertips*

Volcanicus has finally had enough of Predaking, and pushes him over. Predaking promptly gets up and the two finally begin to tussle. Victorion gets upset with Megatron for leaving them behind, and starts to bluntly chip away at the ancient sacred temple of the Primes behind them, something you wouldn't think she'd do, being in favor of honor and fairly traditional.

Inside the temple, Megatron finds his way into a room with the Requiem Blaster sitting on a shrine, in a scene that was totally not spoiled in promotional material last week. (Spoiler: it totally was.)


*Que Legend of Zelda music*

Just as a side note, the music score in this scene when Megatron finds the Requiem Blaster is so ridiculous and over the top, it almost seems intentionally comedic. From a series with very subtle background music, (and certainly very little classical-styled background music) it just feels so bizarre. Don't get me wrong, it's not a badly composed piece of music, it just doesn't fit with the score of the rest of the series.

Anyway, when Megatron is about to take the Requiem Blaster, Optimus Primal appears from the opposite side of the room. He tells Megatron that he should leave, and Megatron goes on a tirade about his condescending tone, telling Primal he reminds him of Starscream. Which is fine, except he didn't really have one. He was speaking very clear, basic instructions. *sigh* I dunno.


It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!

The pair begin to fight for the blaster, and we catch up again with the group outside. Volcanicus and Predaking are still fighting, and it's...unbelievably boring. All but one of the camera angles are the most mundane, basic shots you could put in something like this, and there's absolutely zero tension. Seriously, the first fight we've ever seen in animation between these two awesome, giant, powerful combiners, looks like two elderly people gently tapping each other with their walkers.

But it gets worse


"Ooh, I'll get you, Gertrude! This'll teach you to miss bridge night!"

Predaking pushes Volcanicus into a super shallow, small puddle that he somehow isn't able to get out of. You know. Like a giant robot combiner totally would. He's seriously stuck here for most of the rest of the episode.


See, this is what happens when you forget to flip the toilet seat back down!

I'm not sure why, but Perceptor jumps in and tries to distract Predaking. He's successful, and turns the wrath of the combiner team toward the team who's been struggling to fight him since the second episode. Nice going Percy. Megatron arrives back from the temple, now wielding the Requiem Blaster, to bail the team out just in time. He threatens Predaking, and tells him they really don't have the Enigma, and if they find it, they'll keep in touch.


Minibot, 10 Year old, the other TF fan in my household:"Did it freeze up just then?" Me:"No, that's just the animation." Minibot: *Looks at me like he's looking at a camera on The Office*

The dinobots finally make it out of the puddle by decombining, as the temple behind them starts to glow, projecting a beam into the sky above them. Apparently this beam contains coordinates that Perceptor starts to read. They're hard to make out, but he recieves assistance from Optimus Primal, who I guess is okay from the fight he and Megatron just had, even though we get a total of zero explanation for that. The adventure continues with new allies, new weapons, and, finally, a new destination.


Minibot: "How is he reading it? He's not even looking at it!" *imitates reading a piece of paper thats two feet above his head by looking straight forward*

That's the end of episode 4. Despite it's fair, fair share of just plain goofy moments, I'd argue it's the best so far of the series. No bizarre plot errors, just straight to the point. And, more importantly, progress is made. It only took four episodes, (Read: that's 45 minutes of real life time), to get here, but we are finally here. This episode seemed a lot more coordinated and logical, and far less pf a jumbled mess compared to the preceding three. It actually leaves me excited, or at least interested, in the coming story, as there isn't exactly a predicable plot from here on. Yes, obviously they'll try to use the blaster to defeat Megatronus, but there are other twists and turns that the story could (and hopefully will) take. A small bit of hope has been instilled in me again. We shall see.


DINOBOT POOL PARTY!!

And, on that bombshell, it's time to end. See you next week!

Thanks to our admin Burn for that intro!

Burn wrote:Need to convince Bronzewolf to integrate it into his review.

It might, at the very least, help preserve his own sanity.
#BurnCares #NoReallyHeDoes #YeahOkayHeDoesnt

Turns out I'm not very hard to convince.

Anyway, time for a couple of

BONUS JOKES!

This was already a really image heavy review, so I cut a couple jokes. Here they are!



Really...Really makin' a big dent, there, Victorion. Good work. Keep...keep on doin' that.



Get your stinkin' paws off me, you damn dirty ape!

or, alternatively,

Does Megatron even know what a sucker punch is?

Bronzewolf wrote:Hello, WE'RE BACK! Yes, that's right, it's Tuesday again, meaning we're now on episode four of the Machinima Power of the Primes series. If you'd like to know more, read on, as we take a look at

Primal

This cracked me up. I can feel the degree to which you are done with this show.

Inside the temple, Megatron finds his way into a room with the Requiem Blaster sitting on a shrine, in a scene that was totally not spoiled in promotional material last week. (Spoiler: it totally was.)


*Que Legend of Zelda music*

This was by far the funniest part of the whole episode for me. Like, powerful artifact, dramatic reveal, fair enough. But then it just keeps going... and going... and the camera keeps spinning... and spinning... and I swear it must've been like a 720-degree rotation by the time they were like "yeah that's enough of this one unbroken rotating shot of an inanimate object".

He tells Megatron that he should leave, and Megatron goes on a tirade about his condescending tone, telling Primal he reminds him of Starscream. Which is fine, except he didn't really have one. He was speaking very clear, basic instructions. *sigh* I dunno.

God knows how I ended up playing devil's advocate here, but I thought Megatron was referring to Optimus Prime? Kind of like he's annoyed by Primal's high-and-mighty tone (which he definitely had, but that might just because the writing and voice direction is pretty rubbish) and compares it to his old, now-dead and "holier-than-thou" frenemy.

See, this is what happens when you forget to flip the toilet seat back down!

That's the end of episode 4. Despite it's fair, fair share of just plain goofy moments, I'd argue it's the best so far of the series. No bizarre plot errors, just straight to the point. And, more importantly, progress is made. It only took four episodes, (Read: that's 45 minutes of real life time), to get here, but we are finally here. This episode seemed a lot more coordinated and logical, and far less pf a jumbled mess compared to the preceding three. It actually leaves me excited, or at least interested, in the coming story, as there isn't exactly a predicable plot from here on. Yes, obviously they'll try to use the blaster to defeat Megatronus, but there are other twists and turns that the story could (and hopefully will) take. A small bit of hope has been instilled in me again. We shall see.

Not to say you're wrong, but personally I found this the most boring to watch of all the episodes this far (from PotP at least). Maybe it's because there wasn't anything as hilariously bad this time, but it just felt more tedious and plodding than previous episodes have, even though there's technically more progress here than the last three episodes combined.

Still, I guess you're right that there's more opportunity for the plot to expand now! Though I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it took them all the remaining episodes just to get to Megtronus and fight him; 100 or so minutes isn't very much when your pacing is as bloody awful as this. Heck, I'm willing to bet they won't even leave the swamp for at least another whole episode.

Qwan wrote:God knows how I ended up playing devil's advocate here, but I thought Megatron was referring to Optimus Prime?

That was my interpretation as well as he simply says "you remind me of someone", a line he says, from memory, twice.

And are we glossing over the whole "you're pissing me off" line? Or did I mishear?

Bronzewolf wrote:
Anyway, when Megatron is about to take the Requiem Blaster, Optimus Primal appears from the opposite side of the room. He tells Megatron that he should leave, and Megatron goes on a tirade about his condescending tone, telling Primal he reminds him of Starscream. Which is fine, except he didn't really have one. He was speaking very clear, basic instructions. *sigh* I dunno.

I thought Megatron was referring to Primal sounding like Optimus Prime?! Did I miss something here?

Bronzewolf wrote:The main cast is still on the primal swamp planet

In other words, Cybertron.

Burn wrote:

Qwan wrote:God knows how I ended up playing devil's advocate here, but I thought Megatron was referring to Optimus Prime?

That was my interpretation as well as he simply says "you remind me of someone", a line he says, from memory, twice.

karyuudo wrote:I thought Megatron was referring to Primal sounding like Optimus Prime?! Did I miss something here?

I fourth this. Not just Primal's attitude, but also his head's gotta remind Megatron of Prime.

Burn wrote:And are we glossing over the whole "you're pissing me off" line? Or did I mishear?

You didn't mishear. Megatron did say that bit of profanity.

Victorion also used the D-word.


And just for a bit of fun, seeing that Primal vs. Megs screencap has made me realize something. We now have official instances of the classic-looking G1 and Beast Wars leaders swapping each other's rivals in animation:

and optimus primal is truly the big bot now

Yep, my mistake. I took it wrong! Also, isn't the swamp a different planet?

Bronzewolf wrote:Also, isn't the swamp a different planet?

Shouldn't be. When Megatronus forced Menasor to tell him where Megatron went, Menasor answered about the swamp in a context of their having gone to some place on the same planet rather than off-world. And Titans Return did show this reality's version of Cybertron to have seemingly Earth-like terrain with mountains, canyons, a polar ice cap, etc.

Which begs the question, if it's Cybertron, and this swamp is known, the fudge is that temple or whatever the Requiem Blaster was in, not known about before now?

Burn wrote:Which begs the question, if it's Cybertron, and this swamp is known, the fudge is that temple or whatever the Requiem Blaster was in, not known about before now?

Twas probably supposed to be a "hidden" temple, but Lord knows if the animators of this show even got that memo.

ZeroWolf wrote:I wonder how much trouble I'd get in if I kidnapped Clarkson and made him sum every episode of the prime wars trilogy like that. Failing that Burn, yours will be a fine substitute

i dont think you want Jeremy Clarkson to do a review if its not british made he'll rip it all apart and you will end up hating transformers all together

Ultra Markus wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I wonder how much trouble I'd get in if I kidnapped Clarkson and made him sum every episode of the prime wars trilogy like that. Failing that Burn, yours will be a fine substitute

i dont think you want Jeremy Clarkson to do a review if its not british made he'll rip it all apart and you will end up hating transformers all together

This trilogy is already doing that.

Sabrblade wrote:

Burn wrote:Which begs the question, if it's Cybertron, and this swamp is known, the fudge is that temple or whatever the Requiem Blaster was in, not known about before now?

Twas probably supposed to be a "hidden" temple, but Lord knows if the animators of this show even got that memo.

When I saw it it made me think of Phentac Stadium from Pokemon colosseum.

Bronzewolf wrote:
DINOBOT POOL PARTY!!

Silly Dinobots...




I'm thoroughly convinced that the folks making this show never saw the original animated series, but must have seen some random clips and pics on the internet. How they manage to take queues from the least flattering is beyond comprehension.

Just a note, I thought based on the Dialog, that Megatron was Comparing Primal to Prime, not Starscream.

Am I being too critical, or are these cartoons extremely, EXTREMELY slow-moving?

strikeforce wrote:Am I being too critical, or are these cartoons extremely, EXTREMELY slow-moving?

You can't be too critical with this series. But yes, for such a limited series it moves way too slowly.

Episode 5 - "Athenaeum Sanctorum"

Go90 - https://www.go90.com/videos/6AWPDaHLTK5

Tumblr - TBA

I... actually feel legit sad about the first death in this ep.

Not because I cared about the character (none besides Megatron have been given reason for us to care about them in these shows), but because it felt like watching someone harm a helpless innocent animal, and the others mourning him afterward was honestly a bit touching.

So... yeah. Good job Machinima. You got me to feel the right emotion for one brief moment in this episode. Took you as long as it did after two mediocre predecessor series, and too bad the rest of the episode was just pretentious drivel, but good job for that one brief little moment.

Another week has come and gone, and another episode of Machinima's Power of the Primes animated series has been uploaded for your viewing! Named (rather dramatically) Athenaeum Sanctorum, this episode promises the reappearance of Overlord and Rodimus Cron, as well as some sort of "tragic fate" for one of the Primes.

The episode can be watched on Go90 here, or via the Prime Wars Tumblr page here for those viewers outside the US. Share your thoughts about the episode or the show as a whole by posting in the Energon Pub Forums, and as usual stay tuned for our review of the episode by the brave Bronzewolf coming soon!

Hot on the heels of our heroes, Overlord and Rodimus Cron confront the Dinobots and gain vital information as to the team?s whereabouts. Meanwhile, the team learns the tragic fate of one of the Thirteen.

Another episode that definitely happened, yep. Assorted thoughts (in roughly chronological order and all spoilered, just in case):
- It's sooo dumb hearing the Dinobots just speak with random "regular" voices. Like, they somehow sound less robotic than even the other robots in this show, and not all all primitive - it's just a perfectly eloquent regular dude who says "me Snarl" at the beginning of his sentences.

- Overlord shooting stuff with his belly-lasers was honestly kind of hilarious to me.

- YOU CANNOT CHOKE A ROBOT. YOU CANNOT CHOKE A ROBOT. THIS SERIES WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME.

- Machinima back at it again with the genius marketing scheme of killing off every character that actually appears as a toy in the line being advertised!

- "Cataclysm Tundra... clearly no-one thought very hard to give it a name." Having your characters call out your own incompetency does not make your incompetency okay. I shouldn't have to say that again.

- I cannot cope with Primal being called "tall dark and... brooding". I don't know if it's the hilarious kind of can't-cope, or the agonizing kind. I'll let you know when I work it out.

- So we finally have our answer about why Megatron got the Requiem Blaster from Primal, and it's... because he said he was a good guy. HOW did this monkey, "the most righteous and steadfast guardian" mind you, protect an all-powerful artifact for millenia if all anyone had to do was say "oh no I love Cybertron I promise". And he validates that by saying something weird and spiritual about "looking deeper into Megatron and yourself"? And Windblade is like "yeah that seems like a good enough explanation" and just rolls with it?? AHAHAHAHA

- Grimlock looks dumb. That's all, just had to put that out there.

- The music in this building is trying so hard to be Zelda but it just. Can't. Manage it.

- Perceptor, it's a LIBRARY COMPUTER. You don't need to be "scientific" about using a LIBRARY COMPUTER. Those things are so primitive Grimlock could probably use them without too much trouble.

- Oh, so the "tragic fate" mentioned in the blurb is either Solus Prime's death or Megatronus' exile? Both of which have been revealed previously. No, no that's fine. I'm not upset. It's my own fault for expecting something interesting out of this show, anyway...

- Oh for the LOVE OF. At least they killed a character whose toy isn't currently being marketed this time...

- Gasp Overlord said the "ass" word!! How will we ever cope with such language in our "mature audiences"-oriented animated series? Please Machinima go back to using "scrud", it's the hardest language we adults can handle!

Bronzewolf, you brave, brave person. I don't know how you're managing to stay composed in the face of this show.

Well this episode made me want for flip a fragging table. It's time for sleep so I will keep the complain train in the station for now.

So I'm not watching this atrocity of a series until Freddery does his magic, but from what I gather Rodimus Unicronus tears the head off of Freddery's mum Victorion.

Jesus.

If only the series had the brutality the final minutes had. THAT was Game of Thrones-esque, finally, after they’ve been advertising the trilogy as something so similar the entire time.

Not even sure why i clicked here since i have no interest in the show or even the toyline for the most part but that choking robot bit caught my eye and made me wonder how many instances there have been in all of Transformers media where that has been attempted? I mean probably the most well known example being Galvatron choking Hot Rod in the final battle of the 1986 animated film.

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Not even sure why i clicked here since i have no interest in the show or even the toyline for the most part but that choking robot bit caught my eye and made me wonder how many instances there have been in all of Transformers media where that has been attempted? I mean probably the most well known example being Galvatron choking Hot Rod in the final battle of the 1986 animated film.

Who knows what was going through their heads when they wrote this stuff. So much of recent TF media has humanized them far too much, namely certain IDW titles and then the choking crap here.

I always took that scene from the 86 movie as Galvatron literally crushing Hot Rod’s neck, trying to tear his head off. Funnily enough Rodimus appeared to do exactly that in the episode to you know who.

Stormshot_Prime wrote:

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Not even sure why i clicked here since i have no interest in the show or even the toyline for the most part but that choking robot bit caught my eye and made me wonder how many instances there have been in all of Transformers media where that has been attempted? I mean probably the most well known example being Galvatron choking Hot Rod in the final battle of the 1986 animated film.

Who knows what was going through their heads when they wrote this stuff. So much of recent TF media has humanized them far too much, namely certain IDW titles and then the choking crap here.

I always took that scene from the 86 movie as Galvatron literally crushing Hot Rod’s neck, trying to tear his head off. Funnily enough Rodimus appeared to do exactly that in the episode to you know who.

Simutaneously the funniest and most awesome choke in TF history:

Sabrblade wrote:I... actually feel legit sad about the first death in this ep.

Not because I cared about the character (none besides Megatron have been given reason for us to care about them in these shows), but because it felt like watching someone harm a helpless innocent animal, and the others mourning him afterward was honestly a bit touching.

Just capitalized on my sentiment 100%. This was the only Dinobot toy I actually had as a kid, and so was my default favorite.

The Prime Wars series had previously been competing with Armada for most overly simplistic/dumb episode titles. Someone at some point must have heard those complaints and read a Dr. Strange comic or something.

As for the rest....Here is my conundrum. If you remove a combiners head, although that may be physically paintful and render the team inoperable in Combiner mode, couldn't they just separate back into their components? I mean the one that is missing half her body has probably been dead since the end of TR. But the other 4 should still be alive?...

Does seem odd killing off characters you're supposed to be selling. Back in the 86 film and Marvel Comics a character's plot armour was often determined by whether or not their toy was still being sold in stores (which be why the Underbase saga killed off the vast majority of characters who didn't have an organic component whether they a nebulan or a pretender shell in a big ol' massacre by Starscream who then was destroyed himself).

But then from the sounds of it this series in general isn't really doing much to sell the toys it's based on anyways.

If ever there was a series designed to sell toys, This Isn't it. CW and TR came out after their lines had pretty much ended. PotP is current, but due to so many limitations, is basically out to capture the interest of fans who have not consumed any Transformers media (other than the live action films) in the last 20 years. making them "think" *hey this is exactly like I remember*, when that couldn't be further from the truth.

o.supreme wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:I... actually feel legit sad about the first death in this ep.

Not because I cared about the character (none besides Megatron have been given reason for us to care about them in these shows), but because it felt like watching someone harm a helpless innocent animal, and the others mourning him afterward was honestly a bit touching.

Just capitalized on my sentiment 100%. This was the only Dinobot toy I actually had as a kid, and so was my default favorite.

The Prime Wars series had previously been competing with Armada for most overly simplistic/dumb episode titles. Someone at some point must have heard those complaints and read a Dr. Strange comic or something.

As for the rest....Here is my conundrum. If you remove a combiners head, although that may be physically paintful and render the team inoperable in Combiner mode, couldn't they just separate back into their components? I mean the one that is missing half her body has probably been dead since the end of TR. But the other 4 should still be alive?...

The series been EXTREMELY inconsistent on its portrayal of combiners, the writers clearly didn’t do their research. It seems certain combiners are just one big person (ala Victorion), but then we have classic combiners like Volcanicus who are made up of 5 individuals. Don’t try and make sense of it, you’ll just end up running in circles

Of the very few characters in this show who actually have toys in the Potpie line, most of them don't really even resemble those toys neither. Megatronus is an all new design, Solus is based more on her Binder of Revelation look, Rodimus Cron is just a Rodimus Unicronus-colored redeco of MP-9 (plus a mouthplate), Optimus Primal looks more like his original Beast Wars design (complete with sculpted fur, even) with just his Potpie Optimal Optimus cockpit integrated into his back, and Grimlock is more based on MP-8 than anything else. Only the other Dinobots, their combined Volcanicus form, and Predaking look anything like their Potpie toys.

Possible Spoilers ahead:

Normally I wait for the review thread to be up before I post my thoughts, but seriously, this time forget it.

First Up, this show has no real sense of scale. It seems like the dinobots keep changing sizes from previous episodes.

It also shows how much cooler the Dinobots would have been at a larger scale. Who wouldn't want a Grimlock that in beast mode was the same height as a combiner.

The dinobots, some of the strongest and possibly most violent of the standard characters, getting their butts whooped without even really attacking. I call BS on that.

I can't say I'm upset about Victorian's head getting popped off, she was an annoying character, and brings us back to the whole weirdness of the combiners being the main entity and not the ones who form it.

Choking in transformers has always been a thing.

They aren't just robots they are living beings.

Transformers have brains and a heart(spark) assuming their brains are in their head then choking is still valid way of killing them as the attacker is physically constricting any infomation being passed between the two organs, it might be oxygen in humans that is restricted but it also might be an important node or circuitry in a Transformer.

just my 10 pence

Coptur wrote:Choking in transformers has always been a thing.

They aren't just robots they are living beings.

...Who can also survive in the oxygen-less vacuum of space.

I haven't watched the show since the 3rd episode of CW. I just come here for the reviews.

Honestly, it sounds exactly like the G1 cartoon, easy on small minds, hard for adults to watch.

kurthy wrote:I haven't watched the show since the 3rd episode of CW. I just come here for the reviews.

Honestly, it sounds exactly like the G1 cartoon, easy on small minds, hard for adults to watch.

Which by default makes it better than the *g1* comic I guess?...which I find hard to believe anyone could accept...

Sabrblade wrote:

Coptur wrote:Choking in transformers has always been a thing.

They aren't just robots they are living beings.

...Who can also survive in the oxygen-less vacuum of space.

That's right they can but they don't breath and don't require oxygen

you saying that makes me laugh about the 2007 movie.

Megatron can fly through the cold of space but freezes in antartica (& people using fire extinguishers)

Coptur wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Coptur wrote:Choking in transformers has always been a thing.

They aren't just robots they are living beings.

...Who can also survive in the oxygen-less vacuum of space.

That's right they can but they don't breath and don't require oxygen

And yet they gag, cough, and sound hoarse when they're choked. Even when in space.

Coptur wrote:
Megatron can fly through the cold of space but freezes in antartica (people using fire extinguishers)

Hollywood is dumb. News at eleven.

So ... anyone heard from Bronzewolf? It's been 12 hours or so and he hasn't checked in.

Should Va'al start advertising a replacement?