YMMV / Transformers: Energon

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Kicker nothing more than a self-centered jerk? Or is he just an emotionally troubled young man who became what he is through his father's neglect and mistreatment?
• Arc Fatigue: A weird case of this. The main problem is that the show starts with a pretty concise goal - Decepticons are gathering energy to resurrect Unicron - but then that happens about twenty episodes in and Unicron is defeated again. So the show has the Decepticons gather energy again, then Unicron gets resurrected again, and then Unicron gets defeated but for real this time, over the course of another twenty episodes. After that, the show really has no plot left, but there's so little left to do that it spends the whole time spinning its wheels with bizarre repaint-fueled powerups and the random introduction of combiner teams.
• Bizarro Episode: "Distribution." You'll be guessing until the very end who's real and who isn't. And what in the name of Primus is going on. A 'simulation' that's a tournament-style matchup of every 'bot in the series, with robo-catgirl announcers. Some characters who are real walk in and out of things totally unconcerned with who's sitting across the room from them, seeing how they're usually trying to murder each other. Then turn out to not be real, making you wonder what the point of their being in the simulation was at all. Then whoever was just wondering if the guy who just walked out was or wasn't real... turns out to not be real. It was just... the most insanely random thing Transformers has ever done. Bad dubbing takes it from random to incomprehensible and insanely random. In Superlink, this was a 500th Episode special for the entire franchise, was non-canon, and was shown at a special time. In the dub, to make up for cutting an episode, they added it to the actual run of the show. Right in the middle of a Darker and Edgier arc that was basically all-out war.
• Character Perception Evolution: Kicker is still widely disliked for the most part due to his being shilled and wangsty behavior. Later years however have given him some leeway from fans though thanks to his Dark and Troubled Past being looked at more critically, and his behavior making more sense when looked at through the lens of a deeply traumatized teenager with no proper support or sympathy from anyone outside of Misha, everyone else just telling him to "get over it". So while he's still disliked for being a constant jerkass and abusing poor Ironhide, some fans are willing to at least understand why he's like this, and feel that, had the execution been better, he'd be a much more compelling character.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Creator's Pet: Kicker was called "really cool" by Hasbro employee Aaron Archer, but the fandom really hates him for appearing pretty frequently and coming off as a whiny Jerkass who the cast treats as amazing instead of calling him out. Case in point...
  Ironhide: Kicker... you are awesome!
• Ensemble Dark Horse: See here.
• Fan Nickname: The Energon Optimus Prime toy is often referred to as Fatimus due to how small his legs and limbs are compared to his body when not power-linked.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Shockblast is a brash, violent bot, completely at odds with Shockwave's traditional characterization... and then we met Whirl, who has basically the same personality Autobot. Doubles as Harsher in Hindsight when you learn IDW Shockwave's Origin Story.
  • This isn’t the last time Unicron’s remains are used to create Terrorcons, or feature the Chaos Bringer possessing Megatron.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Cybertron gets completely engulfed in toxic Energon gas that is poisonous to Transformers, during a story set in 2020. Reeeeally bad timing for the COVID-19 Pandemic to hit.
• Ho Yay:
  • Snowcat and Demolishor, and Megatron and Starscream even more than usual.
  "What is my name, Starscream?!" "Megatron!" "Say it again!" "M-meg... a... tron!"
  • Did we mention that line was said while Megatron was slowly thrusting his long, hard sword through Starscream's robot soul?
  • Also, they tried to cut out Mirage's crush on Galvatron in the dub, but couldn't completely.
  Mirage: But I've been so loyal! How could Galvatron not know how I feel about him?!
• Informed Wrongness: Kicker’s interactions with his father. When he was just a little kid, his father dragged him throughout space to mine for Energon. This led to Kicker being put in dangerous situations and suffering from traumatic flashbacks in his teen years. The trauma is so bad that he freaked out on a mission in an asteroid belt, which made him recall drifting through an asteroid field as a kid. Unfortunately for him, other characters seem to think Kicker is being unfair to his father and just needs to let the past go. None of them realize he is suffering from being used as a tool by his father who rarely showed any paternal affection. Not to mention that Ironhide called Kicker a “wimp” when Kicker told him about an experience he had as a kid when he was nearly trapped in a cave-in. His father isn’t helping his case by continuing to utilize his son’s detection ability to help harvest more Energon. Kicker rightfully wonders in one episode if Energon is all everyone seems to care about.
• Macekre: Compared to Armada's rough but serviceable English dub, Energon's dub retains the same problems (unfinished animation and calling characters the wrong name) and adds a whole slew of new ones, including random dialogue changes that don't match with the action or create plot holes, the latter being exacerbated by skipping over a very plot-relevant episode and removing all references to it. Essentially, while the original show was very flawed (many of the show's writing issues, such as Kicker's inconsistent personality, Snow Cat and Demolishor's sudden Took a Level in Dumbass after being revived, the constant abuse of padding and Arc Fatigue, and the many dropped plot and character beats were all products of the Japanese writers and persist even in the original Superlink release), it at least made some sense, but you can't say that about the dub. The dub also had a tendency to misspell episode titles.
• Padding:
  • Unicron perishes in "Unicron Perishes," appropriately enough, but then it un-perishes so we can basically repeat the entire plot for 10 or so episodes. On a smaller level, see As You Know on the main page.
  • Much of the show is padded by re-using the Story Arc of trying to prevent Unicron's revival and then knocking him out before his body is destroyed.
  • Repeated transformation and Powerlink sequences are used in this regard because they add nothing new to the content of any episode after their first use.
• Questionable Casting: There was a peculiar casting choice in the first Hungarian dub of the series. Six Shot, the supposed young brother of Shockblast, discounting his debut episode, was voiced by an actor in his late sixties. He sounded older than all other characters.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Hot Shot and Rad get a lot better in comparison to their Armada counterparts. While not quite as effective, they did at least tone down Kicker for the last few episodes.
• The Scrappy:
  • Kicker. He hates Transformers for stupid reasons, constantly complains, abuses the shit out of poor Ironhide, is often The Load for the Autobots, and is treated like God's gift to the universe. Let alone being a Replacement Scrappy for Armada's human leads. It doesn't help that he's only ever called out once to absolutely no effect. Brad Swaile, who provided the English dub voice for Kicker, has gone on record saying that he felt bad about playing him after he gained mainstream success with Death Note.
  • Snow Cat. Cyclonus was already a Base-Breaking Character for his annoying voice and general uselessness... so let's make him even more useless and unrecognizable in appearance, rob him of his flight mode for the totally unrelated arctic form and make his comical and expressive face disappear behind a mask, treat him like a brand new character, then lobotomize his buddy to kill their dynamic and make him take up yodeling!
  • His partner, Demolishor, after being brought back, also fell into this, mainly for being In Name Only to the original Demolishor, fairly annoying and useless in his own right, and the culmination of one of the biggest wasted plots in the series.
• Seasonal Rot: Beyond simply being regarded as an inferior sequel to Armada (by both the show's fans and detractors), it's regarded as the worst TF show period, due to wasted potential, terrible CGI, and very poor dubbing.
• Sequelitis: Compared to Armada, which started slowly but improved dramatically in the second half, this show started with potential and utterly failed to use it. Additionally, you could ostensibly blame the dub for not bothering to be faithful due to being made too early for the show to even be complete at the time and ripping out the little merit the show managed to keep in the Japanese original, including an entire episode.
• Special Effects Failure: The show's CGI is rather problematic. Characters have rather stiff movements (even walking can be a challenge for the more bulky ones), no emotion beyond "mouth open, mouth closed", and the outlines on the CG models were often not rescaled for certain shots◊. It was such a problem that when a Transformer had to actually emote, hand-drawn animation was used instead. Made even worse in the dub, where the CGI was often incomplete and replaced with other shots to hide this fact unsuccessfully.
• Take That, Scrappy!: A very subtle example, but Team Ironhide don't take kindly to Kicker abusing their idol. His Running Gag of kicking him in the shin ends after receiving a lengthy Death Glare (though Ironhide calls them off before anything else can be made of it). One episode had him targeted by the Decepticons for his Energon-sensing abilities. Some people probably wished they succeeded or kept that plan going.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Energon has an unfortunate tendency to have character arcs be interrupted or forgotten about (usually through mind-wiping or brainwashing) to the point where Ironhide is the only one with a Character Development-based arc who gets to finish his (although the dub provided some issues with his). Some examples:
  • Starscream is reborn as a confused, and angry spirit/being, up until Megatron gets hold of his mind and makes him loyal. He remains that way without his Noble Demon characteristics that made him famous in Armada. Even if you interpret him as a different character as a consequence of the amnesia or incomplete revival, it's still a conspicuously wasted plot point. Let's not forget how close he was to the kids last series, especially Alexis. They're still around this time, but do we get to see him interact with them and a possible subplot emerge from this? Nope.
  • Demolishor went through a whole arc where he struggled with his allegiance. As Cyclonus and Tidal Wide defect back to their old faction, he tries harder and harder to do the right thing, until, in his penultimate episode, he makes his decision and saves Megatron's life at the cost of his own. He's resurrected in the following episode and is considerably less conflicted and quite a bit stupid, implying Megatron messed with his mind. The arc is never brought up again.
  • Team Ironhide's introduction hinted to an amusing vitriolic relationship over Kicker pushing around their idol — probably the nearest anyone got to calling him out on his treatment of Ironhide. However, they never interacted after their first episode and Team Ironhide were killed off shortly afterward.Thankfully, Kicker had the decency to lay off Ironhide afterwards.
  • Despite his controversial reception, some fans thought that Kicker's characterization has a ton of great story potential, especially with his unique stance of being the point-of-view character who wanted nothing to do with the Autobots because he was actively traumatized by them in the past, and how his dad used him as a tool rather than being legitimately concerned for his well-being, all of which could've been further explored and open up great potential for Character Development... only to had Ironhide told him to quit his whining & that he should respect his dad in the first few episodes. And just like that, Kicker got over all his problems without any sense of natural character progression.
  • Rodimus, who led a faction of Cybertronians who said Screw This, I'm Outta Here to the Forever War and hasn't been seen in millions of years, returns, and he and Optimus are far from on the same page. Rodimus' team proceeds to... fall in line with Optimus' within two episodes and never really add much to the proceedings.
  • The Maximus combiners. Normally, combiner teams are a Badass Crew that double as an awe-inspiring Person of Mass Destruction, but the combiners in Energon get introduced so late that there's no time to characterize them and they have basically no role in the plot. Their components also show no signs of autonomy (to the point that most fans have suggested they're actually nonsentient drones or something), and they're never even shown combining outside of two short scenes, one of which is non-canon, making it come across as an Informed Ability.
  • Six Shot's vendetta with Prime and impudent streak in the final arc made him clash hard with Galvatron, and given his total control over Cybertron, he could have been a true cerebral threat to both sides. However Six Shot spends most of his time as a standard cowardly punching bag for Galvatron, and most of his attempts to challenge him for control are petty taunts until his coup in the final episode, upon which Galvatron promptly re-powers and squashes him handily, leaving him a literally Unknown Rival for the Autobots. Sixshot never even discovers it was him, not Optimus, that killed his brother Shockblast. Of course it doesn't help that, as with the Maximus combiners, Sixshot was regulated to a Padding arc for the last handful of episodes.
  • The disturbingly swift and brutal destruction of a fourth combiner who is Superion Maximus's twin, whom the wiki has decided to call "Anonymous Maximus". While his ghost gets to appear for the briefest of moments, it is totally unexplained and a gigantic Deus ex Machina as well as a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.
  • In probably the most glaring example of a huge waste, we have Unicron, who in Armada had a speaking role and was revealed to be an incredibly evil monstrosity... and is reduced to guttural growling and grunting in Energon and only gets to say ONE line... which is in a non-canon episode. Arguably, he speaks through Megatron, but just not hearing the gloriously decadent and slithery evil voice of the planet-eater himself is a grand disappointment, indeed. Mark Acheson was probably soooo bored in the recording studio for the dubs.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • There's some of Unicron in every Transformer. That should really go on to mean something or be important somehow. But this is Energon, so it doesn't.
  • Wing Dagger loses his best friend to Shockblast and then tries to avenge his fallen comrade, performing a Heroic Sacrifice. His quest for vengeance is almost never brought up when he is resurrected — he has one revenge battle and captures him in his first appearance as Wing Saber, but nothing is made of it after Shockblast inevitably escapes.
  • Kicker wasn't just a Jerkass in the beginning: when Kicker developed his Energon sensing powers as a child, his father had the bright idea to use Kicker as a living Gnergon detector. For years, he dragged his young, pre-teen son around space, where he had to deal with a few mining accidents that nearly cost him his life. The Autobots saw no problems with putting him to work like this, and so Kicker grew resentful of both them and his father. Rather than have him grow to trust Team Prime in a charactery-developy way, the whole "there's a reason he's this way" thing was just forgotten early on and he spends the rest of the series being rude for no discernible reason. It takes until mid-season for everyone else to similarly forget that they don't like it when he's like this. Only one episode has the Decepticons realizing how useful his powers would be and attempt to go after him. While it did fail, they apparently never thought to just keep at it and try again.
  • The Decepticons never Powerlink throughout the series (one gag even implies they are unable to). Despite showing this ability in the previous series, a series that revolves prominently around Powerlinks refuses to look into it, often making their battles with the Autobots rather one-sided due to this heavy advantage. Heck, for some REALLY good wasted plot there could have been an Enemy Mine situation where some Decepticons and Autobots have to pair together for Powerlinx. Also Optimus Prime forsakes his previously Powerlinx capable body from the last season for his Fatimus Prime body meaning he can't Powerlinx either. And they even had a Powerlinx-capable Optimus toy, so presumably the show version can do it too... he just never does.
    • To be fair, the decision to have the Decepticons unable to Powerlink was on the toy designers, who instead opted to give them "hyper modes" (which typically amounted to random weapons being exposed on the figures).
  • About halfway through the series, Megatron tries to forcibly turn Inferno into a Decepticon and he gives into the reprogramming three episodes later. Instead of having Inferno spend a portion of the series as a Decepticon (possibly with Megatron reformatting him like he did to some of his own soldiers) and the Autobots being conflicted about having to fight a former friend, Inferno immediately throws himself into the sun before the episode is even over and comes back to life in a new body a few episodes later with all of Megatron's reprogramming solved.
• Unfortunate Character Design: Optimus's combined body has fairly hulking proportions, but when he isn't combined, he has very small, skinny limbs and a tiny head sticking out of the same bulging body. This led to his Fan Nickname of "Fatimus Prime◊."
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Dr. Jones is portrayed as a brilliant scientist who wants a better relationship with his son. However, there have been times In Kicker’s childhood where he put his son in danger to harvest Energon. One incident led to Kicker being caught in a cave-in and Kicker was traumatized by it. Dr. Jones doesn’t express any guilt for endangering his son in the past, which only makes him look neglectful and selfish. In one episode, he’s too excited about an Energon tower being installed on Lunar City to acknowledge his son was almost captured by Megatron.
• Vindicated by History: While Energon is still viewed with disdain by many, the show's toys began slowly winning back fans for their fun factor, engaging concepts, and occasional cool designs. It also helps that in addition to having mostly solid build quality which still holds up even after 20 years, much of the larger Energon toys tend to have much more articulation than the Armada ones, which were usually glorified statues due to their designs prioritizing action features. In fact, a number of the better-received toys were reused in later toylines, and some designs were still liked well enough that the fans even began asking for remakes of them.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Those rare times when traditional hand-drawn animation is used on the Transformers themselves, the quality of the animation can easily be seen on par with most beautiful mecha animes, which really stands out amongst the horrible CGI.

• The Woobie: Demolisher (constantly abused by Megatron and forced into a conflict he wants no part of), Ironhide (constantly abused by Kicker and has most of his friends die), and Wing Dagger (fails to save his best friend and never gets the justice he seeks).

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