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Ghilz2012-02-20 03:28:06

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203 - Coming of the Fuzors, Part 2

The sepia tone fades and both sides fire, many of their shots hitting one another, causing an explosion that knocks the Maximals behind their boulder. The Maximals are pinned, the Predacon suppressing them as they flank their position. Even Cheetor can't fly to flank them, as if he took off he'd be shot dead. The Maximals return fire, and Tarantulas and Waspinator arrive, Megatron enjoying the reinforcements.

Huh what? We saw them arrive last episode, before the showdown started. We saw them THIS episode, when the duel started! This is a pretty huge continuity error, especially since Megatron's own dialogue only serves to lampshade it.

Megatron orders the Maximals to be finished off, but Silverbolt protests, with the Maximals so outnumbered, they should give them a chance to surrender. Megatron responds with his usual level of violence. Megatron says he wishes them destroyed quickly, even insisting "business before pleasure" when Quickstrike says he'd prefer to make is slow and painful. Remember this.

On the Axalon, the blank protoform has been linked to Rhinox' gizmo, the cables glowing purple. The computer warns Rhinox's consciousness is drawing dangerously far from his body. The machine is producing purple beam that fly into the sky to the site of the explosion. Following them in Transwarp space we see Rhinox's mind travelling.

The battle continues. Tarantulas is communicating with Blackarachnia, who is searching for Megatron's backup of the disks. Megatron sees the spider talk, but detects no transmissions. Blackarachnia finds the computer, but it's been damaged by Dinobot's escape, and finding the backup will take some doing. Silverbolt notes the Maximals are fools to keep fighting when flanked and outnumbered without falling back. Megatron realizes the Maximals would not be so foolish, and spots the purple lines. He orders Silverbolt and Waspinator to head to the Maximal base. As the Predacon fliers fly overhead, Rattrap realizes they've seen through their strategy. He manages to get Cheetor airborne safely to chase them down, while making Dinobot ride on his roady mode.

At the base, Rhinox' mind goes further, looking for "the other side of the Matrix". But his time is running out.

Blackarachnia finds the backup, and tries to keep Tarantulas from seeing them, she's freed from his influence temporarily when Dinobot shoots Tarantulas, crushing him with a boulder (a recurring way for Dinobot to take out that spider). With him out, she uses the free time to download the copies and triple encrypt them, before shooting the console, pretending to Tarantulas that the records were trapped and are lost.

Cheetor takes out Waspinator and is then chased by Silverbolt. As they near the base, he has the autoguns shoot the Fuzors. The other Maximals join them, and though Silverbolt asks for them to finish him off, the Maximals decide not to (though Dinobot is willing) as Optimus would not. They put him in a CR chamber. Rhinox' mind returns and he gets back in the machine, hoping the trail he left will be enough. He tells Rattrap he went where "All are one", which confuses him. Rhinox joins the Maximals as the Predacons reach the base, their combined fire finishing Sentinel's shields.

Something comes out of Rhinox' machine, riding along the cable to the blank stasis pod. A shadow moves through the ship, opening Silverbolt's CR chamber and scaring him.

Awesome!
The Maximals open fire on the Predacons, but immediately run out of ammo. Now, I should complain it makes no sense, as Dinobot as two full bandoliers, and Rhinox has not used his guns at all before this, and the Predacons have shot WAY more, but the following scene again does the western thing, so running out ammo makes sense in a Spaghetti Western way. However what I will complain about is Megatron insisting to take his time to move closer and enjoy this victory when he said earlier he wanted this done quickly and business before pleasure!

The art direction though as the Predacons prepare to finish the Maximals is awesome. The image, which you can see, of the Predacons against the sun is AWESOME. With the music and the Maximals' resignation to their fate, it gives great tension, making one almost believe this could be the end... But it's only the third episode, it can't be.

The side of the ship explode, as all stand in awe, Rhinox explaining "It worked".

"That's just Prime."

Transmetal Optimus Primal stands there, a shield in hand. He deflects the Predacons' gunfire then retaliates with his own new form's very impressive weapon's array. I do have to ask why did Optimus explode his own base, the bridge, which he was on, has a roof hatch and elevators. Guess he always wanted to be the Kool-Aid Man.

Optimus' newer More Dakka form disperses the Predacons, and he switches to his beast mode's flight mode - a gorilla on a hoverboard. Megatron flies after him, while Silverbolt bolts out of the base. Optimus lands between Blender Butt, Tarantulas and Quickstrike. Blender Butt takes a shot, but Optimus ducks, and the missiles curves (?) to hit and detonate on Quickstrike and Tarantulas. Optimus and Blender Butt have an old fashioned duel, which Optimus wins, but Megatron is about to shoot Optimus in the back, till Silverbolt swoops and kicks Megatron off a cliff, telling him he can consider this his official resignation. He knows now he belongs with the Maximal, and Optimus approves of his resume.

The Maximals come out of CR. We learn Energon Build up is no longer an issue, as most of the Energon was detonated or stabilized into cubes by the Planet Buster. Optimus plans to catchup, and have Rattrap move his junk out of his quarters.

Megatron surveys the damages Dinobot has gone, talking with Blackarachnia to get her version of things (It's not cleared how she convinced him to not kill her for the betrayals). He muses:

"Well, we enter a new phase of the Beast Wars then. Future development should prove very interesting."

Secretly, Blackarachnia agrees, as the Golden Disks data displays in her eyes.


While Aftermath was a toy commercial masquerading as an episode, Coming of the Fuzors is the true opener for season 2, as far as I am concerned. And it is VERY good. Some great direction, great moments, sets up a TON of stuff. It introduces new character, but doesn't make them steal the show. Part 2, despite being 90% one long fight scene, is very good (despite some small continuity and logic issues). The episodes' occasional western homages work VERY well, and are absolutely well made, making Megatron's final line sound like a promise.

My biggest complaint is that the explanation and technobabble for Optimus' resurrection is bad and lacking. We are told Rhinox used a hole in Transwarp to go to the "Other side of the Matrix". Now, we know eventually Matrix = Transformer Heaven, and thus we can assumed he went there to find Optimus' spark. But the show's never firmly established that yet. Worse, for old fans, the Matrix means something COMPLETELY different (a physical object). So this leaves us with a lacking impression of "Rhinox did stuff... and Optimus is back." But even this complaint doesn't stop the episode from ranking very highly with me, easily dwarfing the forgettable Aftermath.

  • Optimus is the first Transformer that breaks the Transmetalization rule we saw last time: Though he is one of the originals, his body is a new one, from a pod. Furthermore, his body would've transmetalized before his spark entered it (since the wave hit at least 2 days prior). Optimus' gorilla mode despite never scanning one probably comes from Rhinox having uploaded his old body's specs in the Protoform prior to going on his mystical trip. It would also explain how in Beast Machines Optimus could be reverted to his body's original pre-transmetal form.
  • Silverbolt has the honor of being the only Maximal who never directly hurts Waspinator in the entire series. Closest he ever gets is when Waspinator is damaged by being rammed by a vehicle Silverbolt was in, but not piloting at the time.
  • Megatron's rubber ducky makes its first appearance in his hoard of stuff Blackarachnia is looking through.
  • The script had a reason for Optimus to shoot his way out of the ship: The elevators were to be destroyed. But that doesn't explain him not using the roof hatch.
  • It's likely Tarantulas realizes Blackarachnia lied to him, as the excuse she gives him (Computer destroyed by booby trap) and that she gives Megatron (Destroyed by Dinobot) are different, and Megatron has him double check the computer's remains. This will play in a later episode.
  • Based on the sound, it is Waspinator who shot Dinobot in the crotch when he ran out of ammo. Pay back for the Golden Disks incident!
  • Originally, Hasbro (Via Kenner) wanted Inferno's toy to become the new Megatron. Those plans were scrapped. Ironically, as part of a gag this episode, Inferno and Megatron end up swapping heads.
  • Most of the Transmetal toys lacked guns, having melee weapons instead. So the animators had to creatively interpret the toys to give them some. This isn't new, as Rhinox' chainguns are actually a spinning saw with flails on the toy (hence the flail heads on them) among other examples of added or modified weapons. For the transmetals, this became:
    • Optimus' maces and entire back section were interpreted as a portable weapons emplacement with a rig like on a Steadicam. His toy could actually do this, despite not appearing on the manual. Funny thing is, Optimus is one of the few Transmetals with a gun: his silly megaphone-like pistol he uses during the duel. But the bigger gun is more interesting (and a clever use of the toy's kibble).
    • Megatron's tail/claw weapon turning into a BFG, his beast mode hands becoming shoulder guns.
    • Tarantulas' spots on his shoulders becoming missiles. His saw blade weapon becoming a strange pistol that shoots energy from a disk.
    • Cheetor shooting energy out of his terrible pseudo-hand/beast mode head. BTW, why is Cheetor losing proper opposable digits considered an improvement? "Congratulations Cheetor, you can now fly. However you will fail at most basic hand dexterity tasks."
    • Rattrap kept his original form's gun, only with a new color scheme.
    • For irony: Waspinator's Transmetal toy HAS a rifle, yet Waspinator is one of the few characters to not go Transmetal.

Comments

nomuru2d Since: Dec, 1969
Feb 20th 2012 at 8:23:32 AM
Rubber ducky, you're the one~ : D
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