We open with Optimus Prime this time(bit of a change of pace there), and he's standing in an old hangar with Windblade. The hangar appears to be on an Asteroid or moon, as it's overlooking the entire planet of Cybertron. Windblade and Optimus are standing off. Windblade reaches for her sword, and Optimus takes her sniper rifle and breaks it.
Our first good look at Optimus
A minor thing here, I wish a louder sound effect would have been given to the gun breaking. As it sits now, it sound less like it's breaking and more like it's supposed to fold in half or transform. (Ala Masterpiece Optimus Prime's gun) The first time I watched this episode, I didn't realize it was the sniper rifle from last episode he was holding, and I thought he was turning it in to some kind of sword to fight Windblade.
Anyway, we pick up pretty much where we left off last episode. Windblade takes a few swipes at Prime, and the former Autobot leader dodges all of them, making me wonder how she took down a Combiner no problem.
Optimus avoids Windblade's attacks
Windblade and Prime share some dialogue about how she tried to kill Starscream, how Windblade feels like the universe would be better off if all Autobots, Decepticons, and Combiners ceased to function. This line especially strikes me as odd. She suddenly hates everyone, and wants to commit mass genocide, but in the same breath she literally says she doesn't want the war to continue. Prime says he obviously won't stand by and let her. Windblade then asks him how many 'bots he's killed in the war, and he says anything he did in the war was not done out of spite and was not unprovoked.
While we're on dialogue here, let's look at voice acting. Windblade is still a little stiff, but you can tell the voice actor's getting more comfortable in the role and the character she wants to play. We finally hear OP speak, and he's done wonderfully by our very own Jon3.0 (or Jon Bailey as he's know in the "Real World"). And, I mean this genuinely, he is bar none the best Voice actor in the entire series so far. This is because he's had years of experience not only voicing transformers, but voicing Prime. It's unfair to expect the same result from voice actors who aren't comfortable in their new metal skin.
Again, there's problems with the animation, it's waaay too blocky and completely off-base with the words being spoken, plus there's a lot of close-up mouth shots in this one, so it's near impossible to ignore. I have a feeling this isn't going to change, so we'll have to get used to it.
Windblade then uses a special, what I'm calling a, "Turbine Attack" on Optimus, who pulls out his G1 orange Energon axe. It's cool to see the axe return in this series, and it's a nice tie-in to the older fiction.
The Axe is back, baby!
After a few more minutes of fighting, Windblade pleads with Optimus to help her because the combiners are getting out of control. I wish the series would actually show us this "Devastation" she's talking about, because save for the initial Computron v. Menasor fight, we've seen nothing about the combiners being "out of control". And even that fight was still between an Autobot and a Decepticon, so it's not to out of the norm for us. I wish she would have some flashback to a combiner tearing through the buildings of Cybertron, killing civilians. Something to give her more of a motive. (More specifically an Autobot combiner, that would really be a stark realization for the audience that they really are out of control.)
Optimus Prime and Windblade battle it out in front of an impressive backdrop
Windblade tells Prime about the council's possession of the Enigma of Combination. Prime didn't know this, and Windblade now has a chance to talk him into joining her in destroying it. Optimus realizes the danger the Enigma poses to Cybertron, but is concerned it can't be destroyed. He considers "the amount of fire-power it would take", and then looks up to the sky, saying that there's only one who can help them now. The episode ends.
This is interesting, because my first thought was Megatron, since he's somewhere in exile, too, but in terms of fire power, Megs doesn't have much more than Optimus. Let's think bigger. So...Devastator? Superion? I can't imagine a combiner helping to destroy a sacred Combiner artifact, although we have been told some are still loyal to the concil...
My theory is: It's been mentioned all-throughout this series that Windblade is a City-Speaker. (Heck, it's even mentioned in this episode), and Optimus is concerned about a lack of firepower, it leads me to believe that either Metroplex or Fort Max is set to make an appearance. I could be completely off-base, but this is what it sounds like to me.
So, in conclusion, Episode 3 is still better than episode 1, but I think 2 still takes it for best episode so far. This was a bit more action-focused like 1, but it had some exposition as well. Unfortunately, most of the exposition is all re-hashed things we've heard before. "End the war" "You're a killer, too" "Combiners must be stopped" "We all have reasons to continue the war" "The enigma threatens the people of Cybertron" It's pretty much the same lines each episode. So again, better than the first, not as good as the second.
Haven't seen the episode yet? You can find it on Go90!
Thanks for tuning in, I'll see you next week when we take a look at Episode 4! So keep it right here on Seibertron.com, your best resource for the latest and greatest Transformers news on the net.
Like Heaven's Gate! Or Movie 43.
Given the current agreement with Hasbro and Cartoon Network, a G1 reboot may go down the same path as the former two
