Something something Unicron Singularity something multiverse crash something something MST3K Mantra just watch the alien robots punch each other.
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- Thread starter Ave Destron
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The thing about Armada's episode count and structure is that it really wanted to have four 13-episode story arcs with every 13th episode serving as a major climax built up to over the course of each preceding 12 episodes.
- Episodes 1-13 deal with the beginning of the series, establishing the characters and premise of hunting for the Mini-Cons, which all builds up to the completion of the Star Saber.
- Episodes 14-26 focus the next weapon, the Skyboom Shield, along with the introductions of several new characters whose loyalties are all called into question (Scavenger defects to the Autobots, Sideways does his thing, Blurr won't listen to orders at first, and Thrust manipulates his way up the ladder), which all culminates with the arrival of Jetfire and his combination with Optimus. Also, we get our first hint of Sideways serving someone else.
- Episodes 27-39 really up the drama and tension of the series: Sideways is exposed as not a true Decepticon, Tidal Wave and the Requiem Blaster debut in a critical 2-parter, another 2-parter deals with Hot Shot's dark past with Wheeljack (who sounds way scarier in the Japanese version since his English voice made him sound like a whiny teenager), Starscream goes through his Autobot phase in a dramatic 5-part saga, and which leads directly into the two-part Hydra Cannon climax, in which Optimus is killed in one of his most intense deaths ever.
- Episodes 40-52 deal with the aftermath of Optimus's death, the Autobots' departure from Earth, Optimus's rebirth, the prelude to Unicron's coming, Starscream's tragic death, and the four-part series finale of everyone vs. Unicron (with the final episode looking so much better than the entire series because it was animated by Munetaka Abe, who really should have been animating the whole show instead of just the final episode, the title sequences, and the stock footage transformations).
Erm, no he isn't. The final shot of the last episode is him looming in the background in planet mode, showing that he's still alive and active.
Peekaboo!
The problem is there's not nearly enough substance to fill out those 13-episode arcs. The last one is best, and I'm sure the fourth is fondly remembered for the Starscream stuff (although "dramatic 5-part saga" immediately makes me look for the remote, and I liked Green With Evil as a kid), and probably do merit that space each. But the first two were each twice as long as they needed to be. There are so many ways to overlay the different plot threads across all four, or at least the first three (I'm not saying rush Starscream's arc, by any means) that can also allow for the good kind of "episodic" (diverse, interesting one-and-done plots rather than "three standalone episodes have essentially the same plot").
I think a big part of why Animated was so refreshing is that it wasn't tied to anime season-plotting conventions. I love the idea of having a 52-episode contract, but that works better if there's enough actual story to lay out across that space.
The problem is there's not nearly enough substance to fill out those 13-episode arcs. The last one is best, and I'm sure the fourth is fondly remembered for the Starscream stuff (although "dramatic 5-part saga" immediately makes me look for the remote, and I liked Green With Evil as a kid), and probably do merit that space each. But the first two were each twice as long as they needed to be. There are so many ways to overlay the different plot threads across all four, or at least the first three (I'm not saying rush Starscream's arc, by any means) that can also allow for the good kind of "episodic" (diverse, interesting one-and-done plots rather than "three standalone episodes have essentially the same plot").
I think a big part of why Animated was so refreshing is that it wasn't tied to anime season-plotting conventions. I love the idea of having a 52-episode contract, but that works better if there's enough actual story to lay out across that space.
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That's always been my opinion. Armada to me starts to pick up after the first arc when the Starsabre is found; its done with the basic world building and intro to the characters, and it starts to introduce the more interesting stuff, it might not be to the best stuff yet; but its getting there. Energon, Keeps the momentum from Armada's finale, being really high note for the first arc, and then crashes fairly soon afterwards and basically never recovers.
I couldn't help but chuckle at that. It got me wondering though. Setting aside stuff that explicitly relies on repeated deaths and resurrections as a premise, are there any other characters out there who are quite so... prolific at dying?
Oh, don't worry. That's why I said "5-part saga" instead of "5-parter". Each episode is its own story, rather than Parts 1-5 of a single narrative.
- Sacrifice - Starscream is unknowingly used as a decoy against the Autobots while Megatron goes after the Requiem Blaster at the Autobots' base.
- Regeneration - Discovering he was basically sent on a suicide mission last episode, Starscream attempts to defect to the Autobots while Smokescreen gets rebuilt into Hoist.
- Rescue - Thanks to intell from Starscream, the Autobots storm the Decepticons' moon base and liberate as many of the Decepticons' Mini-Cons as they can.
- Mars - A new Mini-Con panel is detected on Mars and only Jetfire and Starscream can retrieve it, so the two must work together to find it while butting heads along the way.
- Crack - The Autobots' human friends have taken a liking to Starscream, which makes him feel uncomfortable. But Thrust comes along with a tempting offer for Starscream, requiring him to choose once and for all which side he will be on, his decision being the factor that will ultimately tip the scales in the war and change the course of the series forever.
Maybe Waspinator
If I'm being honest, though, I feel it was a mistake on the dub's part to give Starscream such a sinister-sounding G1-esque voice since, unlike G1 Starscream, Armada Starscream had more of a dark, honorable knight-like quality to him, as if "What if BW Silverbolt was truly a devoted Predacon?" While his Japanese voice is likewise evocative of G1 Starscream's Japanese voice, it still works for the kind of character he is since the deeper Japanese voice fits a brooding knight-esque character in addition to the "scheming bishouen" that G1 Starscream was in Japan. It was also far less hammy than G1 Starscream's Japanese voice, so it really fit Armada Starscream even more. The English voice just sounds so evil and malicious that it made Starscream's arc in the latter half come off as really jarring performance-wise.
I disagree. At the time I might have agreed. But I have continuity fatigue now, and it's making it really hard to get excited about anything. We get a new series. Hasbro dreams of winning Emmys. I pretend to be excited about it on the front page. But I know that best case scenario it's going to be done in three seasons and then those versions of the characters are done. Then it starts all over again with barely different versions of the same characters.
As bad as Energon is, its existence retroactively makes Armada more interesting to me. It gives Armada a feeling of... this is not the right term but object permanence or something. It doesn't all just go poof once the final episode's end credits hit. The future they worked so hard for actually exists for a while before Energon systematically (and interestingly at first) unravels it. It gets more precious every time we reboot again.
And you know what the biggest irony about Energon is? Despite its status as one of the worst TF cartoons ever made, it's the one TF sequel cartoon that feels the most like a proper sequel to its predecessor. The only other candidate for this title is Rescue Bots Academy.
Leomon dies nearly every time he appears, but since most Digimon fiction post-Adventure is separate, it's debatable if it counts, since it's not the same Leomon.
Legacy Commander Class Lugnut when?
What an outrageous statement. The internets will hear of this!
I'd rather a Leader, in the "that's a huge contemporary era Leader" style of the Dinobots. But I get it.
That's a nifty mold. I wish we could get it in better colors (I like how saturated the United one is, but the colors themselves a bit less).