 | Two years ago, on a random Tuesday I started watching Transformers Armada. The plan was to watch as much as possible then finish the series the next day, but as I progressed through it I made a small miscalculation. You see, Armada is approximately 19 hours long, but for some reason I believed it to be 15 hours long. 10 hours in when I was just over halfway through I realized my error...but I also found that if I kept watching I would complete the series by 3am. |
Two years ago, on a random Tuesday I started watching Transformers Armada. The plan was to watch as much as possible then finish the series the next day, but as I progressed through it I made a small miscalculation. You see, Armada is approximately 19 hours long, but for some reason I believed it to be 15 hours long. 10 hours in when I was just over halfway through I realized my error...but I also found that if I kept watching I would complete the series by 3am.
I'd been live tweeting my thoughts on the series throughout the day ( the collected tweets can be found here), when I threw out the possibility of completing it in a single sitting my "friends" encouraged me to go for it. So it was that at ~3am in 2012 I finally saw Megatron sacrifice himself to destroy Unicron.
Two years later here I am again with Transformers Energon.
See I missed the Unicron Trilogy when it first aired. I was out of the fandom and when I did catch a random episode on TV it looked terrible, with characters I diddnt recognise. My only exposure to Energon was a single DVD I bought at some point. The plot was confusing, and whilst I was happy that Transformers where vehicles again instead of Beasts (I read the wikipedia page about Transformers Beast wars sometime in the early 2000's and the plot was confusing at best...I was not tempted back into the fandom and it was almost impossible to find episodes of the show on Kazaa) I was not pulled back in.
So I watched Armada.....In actual fact I watched Armada ripped from the Fox kids airing of the show in 5:4 aspect ratio....The quality was not great, some episodes could only be made a quarter of the PC screen before dissolving into unwatchable pixels. But I finished it. It has its good points but overall its a pretty poor show.
So here I sit on my sofa in 2014 in front of my TV at 7:30am. The Energon DVD boxset is onmy coffee table (no pixelated mess this time thanks to the shout factory DVD releases)if all goes well I should finnish this series by about 1am tomorrow morning.
This time I'm secluded in a place with no internet, so not much live tweeting, just this document.
Here we go.
Episode 1: Cybertron city
Oh cool were directly following on from Armada, I like that. Hmm. The mix of CG and traditional animation is a bit weird......and the designs are very ropey. Quintessons you say...interesting
OK- combination sparks so they can powerlink, Awesome. I'm a sucker for combiners I approve of this.
Kicker is our POV character, seems a typical annoying kid so far. This is setting up the series really, nice to See Carlos is still knocking about, and the Terrorcons are always welcome.
Episode 2 : Energon stars
Kicker has a suit to help him fight alongside the Autobots...
that's not great parenting.
So, Energon shortage, a battle for resources yadda yadda yadda.
I have a cup of tea...might need some toast soon. 8:07am.
Ironhide's knocked out by touching unrefined energon, Kicker "kicks" his shoulder cannon to take out the enemy...what????? This is certainly a kids show.
I like Demolisher's character. Working with the Autobots, but not happy about it. OOOh the Quintessons built Scorponok.
DUN DUN DUUUUN.
Episode 3 : Scorpinok
I'm skipping the credits and intro for each show to try and shave off a little more time. Wait a minute...
"Skorpinok"
...I thought it was Scorponok...whats going on there.
Carlos is searching the moon from Mars for Cyclonus and Tidalwave...and finds our eponymous villain.
Ironhide (who looks like Skidz) is pissed hes been partnered with Kicker. So Energon can be used to create and power weapons...this is a little "Green Lanternee" for me. OH and Tidalwave's trying to retrieve energon to revive Megatron
or something.
The way the animation moves is really weird,it seems lazy, also how the bots interact with the environment is utterly unbelievable. Visually this is difficult to watch.
So we now have energon stars and combination sparks instead of minicons...
at least they are less annoying.
Episode 4 : Megatrons Sword
TOAST!!
I have toast, The Quintessons have found Megatron...I think I have the better deal.
A squadron of Minicons have found an energon source on Mars...I thought I was done with these beeping little bastards.
Grrr.
Cyclonus turns up to spar with Demolisher...
Scorpinok has the Starsabre.
This is all a little soulless.
Ironhide powerlinks with Jetfire
Episode 5: The New Cybertron City
WOW, the snow effects here look awful,
Kicker realizes his dad loves him.
That's all folks
Episode 6 : Megatron Resurrected.
Wonder whats going to happen this episode.
Narrated by Inferno,
that's different.
So Kickers dad is Dr. Jones...He's Kicker Jones!!!! well its better than Henry I suppose.
Primes supermode confirms that IMO he's a power core combiner. I bet he knows Overrun!
They are now using the Terrorcons as energon sniffing bloodhounds.
Blot deserves better.
The Quintessons are trying to get enough energon to revive Megatron...then Unicron..
HOW MUCH ENERGON DO YOU NEED TO REVIVE A TRANSFORMING PLANET... WTF.
Megatrons resurrected...looking a lot like Galvatron...but with the expression of a sex doll.
He deposes Alpha Q then shows the Autobots hes back...and Hotshot's in pieces.
Episode 7 : Megatrons Raid.
Hotshot is still down,
.....oh.....
he just needed a bath,
he's gonna be fine.
Alpha Q is an idiot, he's brought Starcream back to help Unicron. I'm sure that'll go well.
Jetfire and kicker discuss the Omnicons...
Who are essentially a worker cast. I'm expecting one will rise up and stage an insurrection.
That or they are early Vehicons.
Poor bastards.
I'll be honest I don't really know what happened in this episode. But apparently Starcream is still a Decepticon.
And with that I have finished disc 1,
7 more to go!
Episode 8 : Starscream the Myserious Mercenary
Kickers now psychic?
Uh oh the writers are running out of ideas already.
In other news its turned really cold here. It was beautiful all weekend, but today is overcast and chilly. I'm gonna go put a jumper on.
Alpha Q just said "Precise a mundo" nice to see they got "Happy days" on Quintessa.
Right now Optimus is being a little bitch because his friends are trying to keep him safe, now yes this is all based on Kickers ESP (Primeis clearly not a believer in the unexplained) but hes now under attack screaming "I dont have time for this" I have no idea who this Prime is. He's not G1, Beast wars or any other incarnation. He's actually a bit of a dick.
Ouch, nasty animation error there as the top half of Ironhide's body slid off the bottom half then cycled 2 or 3 times, jerky and painful on the eyes.
I really don't like the super chunky super modes of Energon. I love G1 and this is totally the scramble city ascetic, but for some reason (probably the CGI) I don't like it.
Primes down and Kickers freaking the fuck out...Skyblast fills him full of energon stars to make his booboos all better. Oh, now he's optimising his hard drive. He's on IOS 8.
Look I understand this is all one big ongoing continuity, but each episode ends in an unsatisfying manner with no real conclusions.
Episode 9 : Battle of the asteroid belt
Carlos is back, reporting on something heading towards asteroid city. I wonder how Carlos got that job, was it due to his experience in space helping destroy Unicron, or because he knows Hotshot.
Why does Megatron want to revive Unicron? He gave his life to kill him, now he regrets it? Is he in a 12 step program and he cant move on till he apologizes to him or something. This makes no sense.
Primes power core drones that were destroyed last episode are back...has he got a warehouse full of replacements for them?
So were just accepting that Kickers psychic now. That's a real thing we are doing.
Starscream's amnesia is such a trope. Its kind of annoying.
Optimus is reporting in to Primus....this is like the end of Mork and Mindy..
Kickers dad's back and wants to build a planetary shield...you know like the one round Garrus 9.
Episode 10 : Energon Tower
9 episodes down, which means I've been here for about 3 hours. I've moved onto drinking coke and eating peanut m & m's.
HA! Alpha Q is living in Unicrons head. I actually like that idea. Kickers family all turned up (sister Sally and a unnamed mom...well played writers, no need to name the other lady. Sheesh)
Not sure whats happening here, but Cyclonus' attack on Inferno looked really good. Might be the lack of the painted background but that looked great.
"It'll blow your Titanium boots off" Kicker's dad is an idiot. Oh and the energon towers are operational.
TO BE CONTINUED
I'd been live tweeting my thoughts on the series throughout the day ( the collected tweets can be found here), when I threw out the possibility of completing it in a single sitting my "friends" encouraged me to go for it. So it was that at ~3am in 2012 I finally saw Megatron sacrifice himself to destroy Unicron.
Two years later here I am again with Transformers Energon.
See I missed the Unicron Trilogy when it first aired. I was out of the fandom and when I did catch a random episode on TV it looked terrible, with characters I diddnt recognise. My only exposure to Energon was a single DVD I bought at some point. The plot was confusing, and whilst I was happy that Transformers where vehicles again instead of Beasts (I read the wikipedia page about Transformers Beast wars sometime in the early 2000's and the plot was confusing at best...I was not tempted back into the fandom and it was almost impossible to find episodes of the show on Kazaa) I was not pulled back in.
So I watched Armada.....In actual fact I watched Armada ripped from the Fox kids airing of the show in 5:4 aspect ratio....The quality was not great, some episodes could only be made a quarter of the PC screen before dissolving into unwatchable pixels. But I finished it. It has its good points but overall its a pretty poor show.
So here I sit on my sofa in 2014 in front of my TV at 7:30am. The Energon DVD boxset is onmy coffee table (no pixelated mess this time thanks to the shout factory DVD releases)if all goes well I should finnish this series by about 1am tomorrow morning.
This time I'm secluded in a place with no internet, so not much live tweeting, just this document.
Here we go.
Episode 1: Cybertron city
Oh cool were directly following on from Armada, I like that. Hmm. The mix of CG and traditional animation is a bit weird......and the designs are very ropey. Quintessons you say...interesting
OK- combination sparks so they can powerlink, Awesome. I'm a sucker for combiners I approve of this.
Kicker is our POV character, seems a typical annoying kid so far. This is setting up the series really, nice to See Carlos is still knocking about, and the Terrorcons are always welcome.
Episode 2 : Energon stars
Kicker has a suit to help him fight alongside the Autobots...
that's not great parenting.
So, Energon shortage, a battle for resources yadda yadda yadda.
I have a cup of tea...might need some toast soon. 8:07am.
Ironhide's knocked out by touching unrefined energon, Kicker "kicks" his shoulder cannon to take out the enemy...what????? This is certainly a kids show.
I like Demolisher's character. Working with the Autobots, but not happy about it. OOOh the Quintessons built Scorponok.
DUN DUN DUUUUN.
Episode 3 : Scorpinok
I'm skipping the credits and intro for each show to try and shave off a little more time. Wait a minute...
"Skorpinok"
...I thought it was Scorponok...whats going on there.
Carlos is searching the moon from Mars for Cyclonus and Tidalwave...and finds our eponymous villain.
Ironhide (who looks like Skidz) is pissed hes been partnered with Kicker. So Energon can be used to create and power weapons...this is a little "Green Lanternee" for me. OH and Tidalwave's trying to retrieve energon to revive Megatron
or something.
The way the animation moves is really weird,it seems lazy, also how the bots interact with the environment is utterly unbelievable. Visually this is difficult to watch.
So we now have energon stars and combination sparks instead of minicons...
at least they are less annoying.
Episode 4 : Megatrons Sword
TOAST!!
I have toast, The Quintessons have found Megatron...I think I have the better deal.
A squadron of Minicons have found an energon source on Mars...I thought I was done with these beeping little bastards.
Grrr.
Cyclonus turns up to spar with Demolisher...
Scorpinok has the Starsabre.
This is all a little soulless.
Ironhide powerlinks with Jetfire
Episode 5: The New Cybertron City
WOW, the snow effects here look awful,
Kicker realizes his dad loves him.
That's all folks
Episode 6 : Megatron Resurrected.
Wonder whats going to happen this episode.
Narrated by Inferno,
that's different.
So Kickers dad is Dr. Jones...He's Kicker Jones!!!! well its better than Henry I suppose.
Primes supermode confirms that IMO he's a power core combiner. I bet he knows Overrun!
They are now using the Terrorcons as energon sniffing bloodhounds.
Blot deserves better.
The Quintessons are trying to get enough energon to revive Megatron...then Unicron..
HOW MUCH ENERGON DO YOU NEED TO REVIVE A TRANSFORMING PLANET... WTF.
Megatrons resurrected...looking a lot like Galvatron...but with the expression of a sex doll.
He deposes Alpha Q then shows the Autobots hes back...and Hotshot's in pieces.
Episode 7 : Megatrons Raid.
Hotshot is still down,
.....oh.....
he just needed a bath,
he's gonna be fine.
Alpha Q is an idiot, he's brought Starcream back to help Unicron. I'm sure that'll go well.
Jetfire and kicker discuss the Omnicons...
Who are essentially a worker cast. I'm expecting one will rise up and stage an insurrection.
That or they are early Vehicons.
Poor bastards.
I'll be honest I don't really know what happened in this episode. But apparently Starcream is still a Decepticon.
And with that I have finished disc 1,
7 more to go!
Episode 8 : Starscream the Myserious Mercenary
Kickers now psychic?
Uh oh the writers are running out of ideas already.
In other news its turned really cold here. It was beautiful all weekend, but today is overcast and chilly. I'm gonna go put a jumper on.
Alpha Q just said "Precise a mundo" nice to see they got "Happy days" on Quintessa.
Right now Optimus is being a little bitch because his friends are trying to keep him safe, now yes this is all based on Kickers ESP (Primeis clearly not a believer in the unexplained) but hes now under attack screaming "I dont have time for this" I have no idea who this Prime is. He's not G1, Beast wars or any other incarnation. He's actually a bit of a dick.
Ouch, nasty animation error there as the top half of Ironhide's body slid off the bottom half then cycled 2 or 3 times, jerky and painful on the eyes.
I really don't like the super chunky super modes of Energon. I love G1 and this is totally the scramble city ascetic, but for some reason (probably the CGI) I don't like it.
Primes down and Kickers freaking the fuck out...Skyblast fills him full of energon stars to make his booboos all better. Oh, now he's optimising his hard drive. He's on IOS 8.
Look I understand this is all one big ongoing continuity, but each episode ends in an unsatisfying manner with no real conclusions.
Episode 9 : Battle of the asteroid belt
Carlos is back, reporting on something heading towards asteroid city. I wonder how Carlos got that job, was it due to his experience in space helping destroy Unicron, or because he knows Hotshot.
Why does Megatron want to revive Unicron? He gave his life to kill him, now he regrets it? Is he in a 12 step program and he cant move on till he apologizes to him or something. This makes no sense.
Primes power core drones that were destroyed last episode are back...has he got a warehouse full of replacements for them?
So were just accepting that Kickers psychic now. That's a real thing we are doing.
Starscream's amnesia is such a trope. Its kind of annoying.
Optimus is reporting in to Primus....this is like the end of Mork and Mindy..
Kickers dad's back and wants to build a planetary shield...you know like the one round Garrus 9.
Episode 10 : Energon Tower
9 episodes down, which means I've been here for about 3 hours. I've moved onto drinking coke and eating peanut m & m's.
HA! Alpha Q is living in Unicrons head. I actually like that idea. Kickers family all turned up (sister Sally and a unnamed mom...well played writers, no need to name the other lady. Sheesh)
Not sure whats happening here, but Cyclonus' attack on Inferno looked really good. Might be the lack of the painted background but that looked great.
"It'll blow your Titanium boots off" Kicker's dad is an idiot. Oh and the energon towers are operational.
TO BE CONTINUED
