Episode 17, Crisscross Options

[Powered Convoy]

Another awesome episode and Airachnid never disappoints. I really like the rivalry/bitter feud between her and Arcee. Airachnid brings her rivalry down to a very deep and personal level and really wants Arcee (and Jack) to suffer as much as possible. Plus Silas knows where the Darby family lives now, and that can't be a good thing. At least Jack doesn't have to lie about where he is, but I can't help but wonder if his mother may try to have him not involved with the Autobots any more after this.

I also liked how Airachnid mentioned the name Transformers, as if that's not something they call themselves or something - that it's a name given to them by the humans.

Speaking of Airachnid, she needs a toy like last night. I love how she was much more competent fighting Arcee this time around, really using her environment and extra limbs to her advantage.

Randy

[TheOptimusPrime]

Silas got 1 private message, probably Fowler asking him "Why didn't you accept my Friend Request?!"

[Fishbug]

MECH had better hurry up with that giant robot of theirs, or they're just gonna keep losing and wind up working for Cobra. You can only say "this information will be useful in the future" so many times before people catch on that you aint planning jive.

This post has been edited by Fishbug: Jun 26 2011, 11:40 AM

[Geoff]

I hope June and Ratchet share a lot of screen time with them both being medically minded...

[Cybersnark]

As for the episode. Dark,

Yeah. Really, really dark. Like DW's TF/G.I. Joe crossover dark. I'll have to watch it again tonight, after the sun goes down and with all the lights off and see if I can make anything out. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-primal.gif)

Voice-acting was good, though. And I definitely like the idea of June being in on the masquerade.

Miko appears to use Japanese imageboard emotes.

She also appears to have at least three different profile pics.

And what is that bulbous green thing asking if Jack got its texts?

[TheOptimusPrime]

And what is that bulbous green thing asking if Jack got its texts?

It kind of looks like the thing drawn on Miko's overalls, which means it's probably Miko.

Which means Miko is freaking spamming Jack's page.

[M Sipher]

So June came home early from work to make lunch, right? But then as soon as she gets home she says she's needed at work and leaves.

I took that to mean she was so frustrated with Jack that she changed her plans and went back to work, rather than reward him with a home-cooked meal.


M "Since She Was Kinda, You Know, Cheesed At Him" Sipher

[Fishbug]

Or it's a hospital in a small town, and they kind of need all the nurses they can get.

[Sockie]

Or it's a hospital in a small town, and they kind of need all the nurses they can get.

I'm not sure if the hospital is actually in Jasper. Go look at the background when June gets abducted... it certainly doesn't look like a small town.

[Boss Borot]

I hope June and Ratchet share a lot of screen time with them both being medically minded...

I hope we get some scenes with them. I wonder if they'd bicker back and forth, or if they'd sort of hit it off and warm Ratchet up to the humans a bit. Maybe both!

[Exillion]

I really enjoyed the episode, especially the moment when the new She-Spider scans Fowler's helicopter, causing him to say "not again".

I do see it as telling that she is an ex-Decepticon, which means we will not see her fight alongside Megatron's team right off the bat. Of course, if Starscream is actually serious about taking on Megatron, who better than someone who defected from his ranks to aid him in this cause. Plus, it would give her the opportunity to get her revenge.

[Thylacine2000]

Great episode. Great story arc development, great animation, great everything.

The threats against June were surprisingly graphic and disturbing. Just the carjacking undertones are unexpected enough, before the "you will be punished by her screams" straight- up dialogue.

[Fortress Ironhol...]

Or it's a hospital in a small town, and they kind of need all the nurses they can get.

I'm not sure if the hospital is actually in Jasper. Go look at the background when June gets abducted... it certainly doesn't look like a small town.

Goes back to what I was talking about when the series first kicked off.

Jasper is likely going through extensive blight for some reason. Perhaps the highway diverted too much of the traffic flow. Perhaps the town never really recovered from that missile base closing down. Either way, the town's glory days are now in the past.

A few parts of the town, like the school and the hospital, are in the section of town that's still well-maintained and well-traversed.

The housing area where Jack lives is settling into mediocrity, much like other subdivisions do as they age.

The rest of the town is falling down around everyone.

[The REAL Chopper...]

June's a civillian that's in on the Secret, She's gonna need a guardian, She works in a hospital, Ratchet turns into an ambulance...

Just Sayin (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-arcee.gif)

[Fortress Ironhol...]

June's a civillian that's in on the Secret, She's gonna need a guardian, She works in a hospital, Ratchet turns into an ambulance...

Just Sayin (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-arcee.gif)

Or the writers could do a touching episode in which Fowler, after a near-death experience, comes to question putting his career ahead of everything else and so comes courting one evening.

This causes Jack to go "blue screen o' death" for a while, as he can't decide whether or not the inherent creepiness of having Fowler for a step-father outweighs the fact that his mom's been alone for too long.

Cue Miko and Raf trying - and failing - to introduce human courtship rituals to the Autobots.



If nothing else, it'd make for a heck of a BotCon script reading.

[BB Shockwave]

hopefully she will not dissappoint us the same way Breakdown did last episode.

Wait what? THat was the first time Breakdown got to do anything, how was that disappointing? He finally got a personality over ''i'm bad and i'm big, deal with it"

Yes, problem was, they never did anything other with it. It is without context as we do not know what Breakdown did to earn Bulkhead's ire, and other then his brief allience, he is behaving in a typical badguy manner.

Back on Crisscross... another good example on how Prime can take good ideas and just... not go anywhere with them. It's not that the episode was bad, it was miles better then any Armada/Energon/Cybertron episode I have seen. But compared to an episode of Young Justice or Avengers I have also watched as of late, it just felt boring.

Don't get me wrong, I finally enjoyed Silas - first time he has been something of an interesting character, his ruthlessness, indifference to Jack's pleas and willingness to sacrifice other humans to TFs to get what he wants made him stand out considering his prior "Dr. Claw" style appearances. The 'other kind of web' joke was great, and his voice actor (Clancy Brown) is excellent as always.
But the main plot - Jack's mother being made aware of the TFs - was glossed over with (frankly, boring) action scenes. As for Airachnid, she is much less interesting to me now that it seems, her only obsession is some childish revenge on Arcee and Jack. I hope there is more to her character then this psychotic predator-wannabee thing, because it gets boring after a while. And I simply groaned when at the end, we had to endure another bit of the "oh-this-is-so-dramatic-and-epic" music when Jack shows his mom around the base. I know, Transformers are big, considering I have been watching TF toons for 25 years this is not really new to me...

Often the whole series seems to me like I am watching some sort of fighting game. We have lots of flashy action scenes and in-game cinematics where the characters talk... The fact that the animation is so similar to some games out there is not helping.

Some other problems:

- Silas going out to hunt a Decepticon (whom he now knows are the more ruthless and dangerous sub-group) with just 3 guys and armed with machine guns... yeah, I know the show has a budget, but this was weak.
- I had to groan at the forced 'teenage drama' at Jack being grounded and the awkward "my bike is a giant robot!" bit. (Although I wouldn't have minded Jack to explain how Arcee becomes as large as Airachnid as a robot when the latter transforms into a helicopter...)
- The gall at Jack thinking his measly 'being grounded' problems are bigger then, you know, Arcee fighting for her life with BB against Cons in an energon deposit... That was so 80-ies Hanna-Barbera. If I had a giant robot bike, I'd kinda be understanding that she doesn't want to stand around in alt mode all day. She is fighting a friggin' war, for Primus' sake. Jack came through as a jerk there, kinda uncharacteristically for him based on his prior portrayal.

Frankly, after hearing Orci and co. saying they are playing the first season deliberatly slow and only want to get storylines going in season 2... I am not really looking forward to the next 13 episodes, knowing that the padding continues. On the whole this reminds me of BW's first season, where the writers thought they'd either need to do character-centric episodes or move the main plot along, but never thought the two could be, you know, merged (like in BW's later seasons or Animated).

A few parts of the town, like the school and the hospital, are in the section of town that's still well-maintained and well-traversed.

The housing area where Jack lives is settling into mediocrity, much like other subdivisions do as they age.

The rest of the town is falling down around everyone.

Or maybe, it's dark energon, and other then the few humans we have seen, everyone else is a zombie who only comes out at night, moaning "braaains!" This is so traumatizing, that no-one on the show speaks of it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

As for the episode. Dark,

Yeah. Really, really dark. Like DW's TF/G.I. Joe crossover dark. I'll have to watch it again tonight, after the sun goes down and with all the lights off and see if I can make anything out. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-primal.gif)

THIS. Often I could only tell who was fighting who only when I caught glimpses of Airachnid's legs.

Also, I found it odd that she transformed into a very different helicopter then the one she scanned (she had an angled, long-nosed cockpit for example unlike the rounded cockpit of Fowler's copter).

So June came home early from work to make lunch, right? But then as soon as she gets home she says she's needed at work and leaves.

I am often thinking this show has several scriptwriters working on different parts of the script, because that's not the first inconsistency I have spotted.

This post has been edited by BB Shockwave: Jun 27 2011, 04:45 AM

[Razorsaw]

I had no problem following the action in the night scenes whatsoever.

And you tend to make mountains of molehills, man.

[Powered Convoy]

I agree with Razorsaw.

BB_Shockwave you're complaints are blown way out of proportion. Why bother watching the show if you dislike it so much?

Randy

This post has been edited by Powered Convoy: Jun 27 2011, 09:29 AM

[TheOptimusPrime]

I feel like I just read a film student first trial at analysis, which means more it got more pointless nitpick than Keith Richards got cocaine in his blood.

I mean, "grrrr they redid the autobot meets human scene" "grrr this episode nothing happened even if REAL STUFF happened but i'm not satisfied if it's not season ending kind of stuff" "bad bad show because his mom didn't make him a sandwich" ? That is just so so blown out of proportion.

[Cybersnark]

It's not unheard of for a small town to have a relatively built-up area (surrounded by suburbs). And it's logical that the hospital would be in the most populous area of the city. All we really saw were some 10/20-storey office buildings, no doubt built in better days (and probably still in use as property values plummet and rents fall).

Also, I found it odd that she transformed into a very different helicopter then the one she scanned (she had an angled, long-nosed cockpit for example unlike the rounded cockpit of Fowler's copter).

That part I'm willing to overlook as a budget/animation allowance; those generic Hueys are the only human-piloted copters we've seen, with identical birds used by MECH (understandable as cast-off Cold-War relics found in Kamchatka), by Fowler as personal transport (understandable because they're a workhorse), and here as attack choppers (using gear from the 1950s to attack a group known for using advanced technology).

I'll just assume Fowler's strike team was supposed to be equipped with modified Comanches (possibly handed off as surplus to Fowler's Agency when the Comanche was discontinued).