tiamatschild | (no subject)

Over the last several days I've rewatched "Darkness Rising", the five part pilot for Transformers: Primer. And also "Masters and Students" the first episode after the pilot, the one with Skyquake and Soundwave thwarting Starscream's scheming.

I really like this show. I really really do. I love Raf and Bumblebee's Platonic Soulmates At First Sight thing (Bumblebee spontaneously breaking out into a cheer for Raf on the space bridge when Raf disrupts Soundwave's navigational targeting is so incredibly dear), and Arcee's kindness and grief and anger, and Fowler's utter badassery and patriotically themed PG rated creative swearing (although this early in he has not come out with his better ones). And Soundwave's beautiful design and quiet menace and elegantly incisive intelligence. And Megatron in full horribly charismatic bombast, and Starscream's totally unfounded conviction that he counts as The Sensible One, and the way this show plays Megatron's violence towards Starscream as ominous and disturbing instead of for humor (all those foreboding little bits of music when Megatron is being threatening) and as part of the major dysfunction of what the Decepticon movement has become over the eons.

And Ratchet is so great, and the bit where Bulkhead tries to shield Miko's innocence and pretty much fails because Miko is a terror and a half and really is not listening to him and Miko glomming onto him just. Every. Single. Time. Ratchet flapping his hand at Arcee, "Your physcian says you're fine!" The several times Optimus saves Ratchet's life with a well timed shot or punch - - -

How seriously Optimus treats everyone, how his gravity is not that he takes himself seriously, but that he takes everyone else seriously -

*bwees and rolls around in narrative*

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Hee! I need to rewatch now :D
Srs business solemn attention Optimus is my jam <3

It's such a fun show to rewatch!

oh gosh yes. <33333 I love how it makes him a little strange to everyone, the human children especially, but no one can resist it, either.

::low eeee'ing and humming:: It really was a brilliant show! Sleek designs, beautiful palettes, terrific voices, and characterization was actually a priority! <333 Not to mention some of the most creative plot points in the entire franchise!

Poor Ratchet, so desperate for the war to finally be finished, so close to losing Optimus over and over...
Raf and Bee! <333 Sweetest partners and not less complicated for their right from the get-go mutual admiration!
(I am p sure Optimus did actually bring Raf a snowball, tucked away in some compartment somewhere, even if it might have taken him longer than intended to give it to him, what with the cleanup after near-disaster and almost dying and stuff... XD)
Lone wolf Arcee, letting herself grow fond of people again! <333
Starscream actually has menacing moments of his own! If he - and everyone else - wasn't so thoroughly overshadowed (heh) by Megatron, who is rather a force of nature... Well, all right Soundwave, yes, though Soundwave isn't often quite so active by himself. (Indeed one of the coolest designs ever!)
Miko and Bulkhead, and Wheeljack later, and Ultra Magnus... I so love her agency. u.u <3333333333333333 And Fowler, all frustrated and juggling disparate agendas and, yes absolutely a badass! <3333333333333333333
Optimus. <33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

Edited 2018-03-03 04:24 (UTC)

*clappity hands* It's so goooooooooood!

*wibbles* I love all the many times Ratchet tells Optimus that he trusts Optimus with everything, so he needs Optimus to tell him if he really believes this is the only option. He'll accept it, if Optimus really doesn't see any other viable path, no matter what it is, no matter how big the risk or how horrible the heartbreak, but he needs to hear it.

Raf and Bee are so greeeeeeeaaaaat. I love how in the episode with the scraplets Raf is sad because Bumblebee's sugguestion that they play video games got derailed by Ratchet needing help into Jack and Miko playing video games, and Raf trying to deal with his disappointment and hurt like a mature person. aaaaaah. *draws so many hearts*

(Awwwwwwwww I can believe it! and even if the snowball didn't make it intact through all the medical procedures, I'm sure they spent the energy afterward to go back to the site to make sure the scraplets wouldn't just revive again in a few million years when contiental drift and associated processes thawed them out. Frozen scraplet stomping! and also Optimus carefully making Raf another snowball.)

Arceeeeeeeeeee. She's trying so hard and hurting so much and - *hands* I love that we don't get much of Cliffjumper, but we definitely get a sense of their relationship.

Absolutely! Starscream is totally sinister and scary in Prime. Outright terrifying sometimes. (I just really appreciate the showrunners not playing the intrafaction violence for comedy - it's frequently uncomfortable even in G1, and it way would not fit with the tone). Soundwave is the most low energy expenditure of ambush predators! Lurk Lurk Lurk Lurk - MOVE WITH MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY - lurk lurk lurk.

Me toooooooooo. I'm so glad that like, Miko gets to make questionable choices and - how to put this - she experiences actual consequences for those choices, and they're not like, consequences that feel like they're narratively punishing her for her agency, for being difficult. They're good story consequences that help her character grow.

(Our view on Fowler and his role in the show expands in such interesting and cool ways over the three seasons I love him so much.)

Oh, Optimus.

Eeeee so you've seen season 3! ::dances around:: ::chinhands:: So? What'd you think of Unicron? Smokescreen? Nemesis Prime? Predaking? SHOCKWAVE!

Optimus. <333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

I have! Although I haven't got to it in this rewatch yet or anything, so this is all a couple of years old impressions - Unicron strikes me as both terrifying and gloriously over the top, as a unicron of any kind should.

Smokescreen is SO DELIGHTFUL??? Like, I like him SO MUCH??? He's so interesting and sweet and determined and such a contrast to all the other members of Team Prime. And I love the way Bulkhead and Arcee in particular rally around him with a mix of protective affection and general exasperation (in varying degrees depending - Arcee is always more exasperated than Bulkhead, that's just a fact of their personalities). and he's so SMART in a sideways Seeing The Problem From Fresh Angles kind of way, especially when he slows down and considers for a moment. I like him a lot. (I enjoy that he's got some loose archtypal relationships to various Roddies but is really not much like Roddie at ALL. ...less terrifying gallows humor and less likely to hide up at the reservoir fishing, for two things).

Nemesis Prime is wonderfully creepy - I don't remember those episodes as well as I should.

Predaking is a delight. Traumatized messed up extremely young mechanism who nonetheless is trying to build himself a future. He's so ambitious and determined and smart. I appreciate his caution. His Wait And See And Consider, and the way when he needs to he makes quick decisions and then commits to them absolutely. He's got some of the same general personality make up as Optimus in that very specific way, and I wish there was more of them together in S3. (I also think he's an interesting contrast to Smokescreen in his whole approach to the world and would like to see that you know, turn into an actual relationship to be explored, too.)

That sounds excellent... Would you recommend it as an entry-point to the franchise? *is very tempted*

I would! Prime is its own universe, and it was intended to be an entry point for new fans. I think it does the job really well: it neither frontloads the exposition, nor assumes that the audience knows the entire backstory (which they don't, because Prime plays with a lot of the common Transformers thematic elements in its own way). Which I think is a really hard thing to do in a deeply fannish reboot.

(I do find one of the human characters - Jack Darby - less successful than the others, just so you know. But I love the show!)

Excellent, thank you! (And thanks for the warning.) I love well-done fannish reboots/continuations, specifically for how they can thoughtfully rework existing themes, so that sounds wonderful. I will have to get my hands on it.

No problem! Always glad when I can rec something! It is on netflix in its entirety, if you have netflix. (The third season is housed separately from the first two under the label Beast Hunters for reasons unclear to me.)