Okay, please bear with me: I've been sick for over a week now, and I'm still going to try to do this thing anyway.
This week's episode, "Sound Off" (or "RHYTHM BATTLE: Soundwave VS Jazz!" on YouTube), is the fifth episode of the second "Energon Surge"-themed season of Transformers: Cyberworld.
Per the YouTube description:
And for your viewing enjoyment:
And my spoilery recap and review of the episode:
It's a cold open -- literally -- as Jazz and Soundwave fight across a snowy landscape.
Jazz -- or at least his head -- is more or less the spitting image of his good ol' G1 self. That's what makes the lighter voice that comes from his lips feel all the more jarring, in my opinion. Not bad, just... different. We've had the opportunity to get used to a lot of different versions of different G1 characters and namesakes and "Hey, We Couldn't Secure The Name, But You Can Clearly See It's The Same Guy" types over the years. Jazz just hasn't been one of them as often as some of the others.
Like, Soundwave? He speaks here, and sounds different, but still in line with most of the versions we've come to know.
Soundwave tells Jazz to be quiet, and that's just more than he can "bear," so he converts to beast mode and gets all up on Soundwave.
That thumbnail? It may seem like a bit of an embellishment, and it kinda is, but not by much. Jazz breaks out the ol' Hip-Hop Kido (kids: Ask your parents. Parents: Ask a Power Rangers fan) to juke and jive and give Soundwave the business.
Hey, did we ever really see these two square off in G1, or anywhere else before? Before Blaster came around and became the Autobots' Soundwave, it seems like it would be the most natural pairing.
Anyway, we cut away as Elita wants to know what Soundwave calling Jazz "Autobud" has to do with why Soundwave is massively jacked now, and we see this is him recalling what happened to her.
Long story short: Jazz dodged Soundwave's attacks, one blew open a cavern full of energon crystals, and Jazz knocks him in. Bad idea.
So bad, in fact, that we now cutaway to Optimus, Snarl, and Wheeljack following Grimlock through a rocky canyon that looks straight out of Minecraft. Wheeljack is working on a new device, one made from the boost device. If they can attach it, it should be able to regulate Bumblebee's big honking attitude problem -- er, I mean, the energon surges that have been affecting him. Heh, my bad. It would beggar belief to imagine that anything could control Bee's attitude.
But the current sales gimmick? There may be a shot at that, if they can attach it.
Leave it to Snarl to ask "What if we can't?"
Valid question, though.
Back with Elita and Jazz, the latter embellishes how the rest of his encounter with Soundwave went after he became faster, stronger,more alive bigger than before. Elita puts two and two together that the mind-altering properties of the Folgers crystals that affected Soundwave must be the same thing that affected Bee, and she takes off to... uh, do something about it, I guess. On her own. Bye, Jazz.
Back in the... forest, now? Okay. Anyway, Wheeljack has finished the device, but they still need to test it. He volunteers since he used the boost device, and still has remnants of its effect going through his system.
Little Prime steps up and deep-sixes that idea, saying that he has it in his system, too, but if anything goes wrong, Wheeljack needs to remain okay to continue working on a solution.
Wheeljack reluctantly agrees (well, kinda; OP pulled rank on him), and slaps the device in over the Matrix of Leadership. Uh, if this could potentially pose a problem, maybe you oughta take that out, Optimus? Maybe?
Oh well. In it goes, and Optimus goes Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan (the blue one), meaning it's now officially time to chuck your old Prime in the bin and buy the new Raspberry delight version!
Also, that Super Saiyan bit above is no joke, either. Prime is now strong enough to shrug off blows and evade attacks from Snarl and Grimlock at the same time. Grimlock even says Little Prime is almost as strong as him!
His reaction to his bullets just bouncing harmlessly off of Prime's chest is pretty good, too.
Oh, and OP can let out a big surge of energy around him that knocks things like Dinobots away.
Cue credits.
This was a fun episode which did a lot more lifting than we've been used to after the back end of Season 1, and maybe even some of Season 2 so far. We got a new character introduction (his brief appearance at the end of a previous ep aside), an explanation for Soundwave being bigger and badder than anything else on your plate, a possible solution to the Bee problem, a possible new problem, and a new toy to sell! Not too shabby!
I like this version of Jazz, though to be honest, he doesn't remind me of Jazz so much as he does another G1 Autobot... Bluestreak. Yeah, he never really got to live up to his name back then, but Jazz sure is running with that ball now by talking up a blue, silver, and any other color streak you can imagine. I wonder if they grabbed the wrong carhood-chested robot for the part?
Jazz -- or at least his head -- is more or less the spitting image of his good ol' G1 self. That's what makes the lighter voice that comes from his lips feel all the more jarring, in my opinion. Not bad, just... different. We've had the opportunity to get used to a lot of different versions of different G1 characters and namesakes and "Hey, We Couldn't Secure The Name, But You Can Clearly See It's The Same Guy" types over the years. Jazz just hasn't been one of them as often as some of the others.
Like, Soundwave? He speaks here, and sounds different, but still in line with most of the versions we've come to know.
Soundwave tells Jazz to be quiet, and that's just more than he can "bear," so he converts to beast mode and gets all up on Soundwave.
That thumbnail? It may seem like a bit of an embellishment, and it kinda is, but not by much. Jazz breaks out the ol' Hip-Hop Kido (kids: Ask your parents. Parents: Ask a Power Rangers fan) to juke and jive and give Soundwave the business.
Hey, did we ever really see these two square off in G1, or anywhere else before? Before Blaster came around and became the Autobots' Soundwave, it seems like it would be the most natural pairing.
Anyway, we cut away as Elita wants to know what Soundwave calling Jazz "Autobud" has to do with why Soundwave is massively jacked now, and we see this is him recalling what happened to her.
Long story short: Jazz dodged Soundwave's attacks, one blew open a cavern full of energon crystals, and Jazz knocks him in. Bad idea.
So bad, in fact, that we now cutaway to Optimus, Snarl, and Wheeljack following Grimlock through a rocky canyon that looks straight out of Minecraft. Wheeljack is working on a new device, one made from the boost device. If they can attach it, it should be able to regulate Bumblebee's big honking attitude problem -- er, I mean, the energon surges that have been affecting him. Heh, my bad. It would beggar belief to imagine that anything could control Bee's attitude.
But the current sales gimmick? There may be a shot at that, if they can attach it.
Leave it to Snarl to ask "What if we can't?"
Valid question, though.
Back with Elita and Jazz, the latter embellishes how the rest of his encounter with Soundwave went after he became faster, stronger,
Back in the... forest, now? Okay. Anyway, Wheeljack has finished the device, but they still need to test it. He volunteers since he used the boost device, and still has remnants of its effect going through his system.
Little Prime steps up and deep-sixes that idea, saying that he has it in his system, too, but if anything goes wrong, Wheeljack needs to remain okay to continue working on a solution.
Wheeljack reluctantly agrees (well, kinda; OP pulled rank on him), and slaps the device in over the Matrix of Leadership. Uh, if this could potentially pose a problem, maybe you oughta take that out, Optimus? Maybe?
Oh well. In it goes, and Optimus goes Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan (the blue one), meaning it's now officially time to chuck your old Prime in the bin and buy the new Raspberry delight version!
Also, that Super Saiyan bit above is no joke, either. Prime is now strong enough to shrug off blows and evade attacks from Snarl and Grimlock at the same time. Grimlock even says Little Prime is almost as strong as him!
His reaction to his bullets just bouncing harmlessly off of Prime's chest is pretty good, too.
Oh, and OP can let out a big surge of energy around him that knocks things like Dinobots away.
Cue credits.
This was a fun episode which did a lot more lifting than we've been used to after the back end of Season 1, and maybe even some of Season 2 so far. We got a new character introduction (his brief appearance at the end of a previous ep aside), an explanation for Soundwave being bigger and badder than anything else on your plate, a possible solution to the Bee problem, a possible new problem, and a new toy to sell! Not too shabby!
I like this version of Jazz, though to be honest, he doesn't remind me of Jazz so much as he does another G1 Autobot... Bluestreak. Yeah, he never really got to live up to his name back then, but Jazz sure is running with that ball now by talking up a blue, silver, and any other color streak you can imagine. I wonder if they grabbed the wrong carhood-chested robot for the part?
But what did you think? Catch anything I didn't? Feel free to talk about this episode here, or the series as a whole over in the "Transformers CyberWorld: Energon Brouhaha" thread in our forums!
