Mastaaaaah Foce!

[BWprowl]

Dom
-would not mind seeing IDW use the Transector idea.

They did. Remember the whole Sunstreaker thing, and Maximum Dinobots?

[Dominic]

IDW just tweaked the Headmaster concept.

I was talking about the Transector idea, where the humans pilot a mecha that is eventually programmed based on the pilot's patterns. The host species, (humans in this case) would get advanced tech. And, the guys providing the tech (Cybertronians) would be able to add new members to their species using forensic images (or at least borrowed code) from anther species.


Dom
-would really want Costa to write that.

[Onslaught Six]

Well, the idea is that the Autobots and Decepticons both need troops that their respective armies simply can't supply at the time, so they improvise with the Transtectors and any humans they can get to drive them. Shuta and the kids get involved because at that point the Autobots just need a rescue team, which would (theoretically) be out of the way of actual combat, and the kids are eager to help out anyway and hell, if they want to train humans to be able to defend themselves in the future, might as well start with a younger generation, right? With the Decepticons, I think it was more a case of stupid kids being easier to coerce into acting as their dumb muscle.

Yes. Metalhawk explains it in one episode, and makes it pretty clear that all the other TFs are in space and can't be assed dealing with Earth Bullshit. (A version of Masterforce could very well take place in the current IDW climate, minus Metalhawk...) Which I like, because, much like BW, it gives us a reason for a relatively smaller cast and a way to keep this a kind of segregated little targeted skirmish rather than the full-on Autobot/Decepticon war we usually see. I like to imagine there are 'countless' worlds that this kind of thing is happening on, where a small number of Autobots and Decepticons are fighting a battle that's so small-scale that it barely warrants mentioning--and then making that small-scale battle seem huge and important.

I get the feeling Crash and The Boys are older than Shuta and co, who are...what, ten? Twelve? (Why are they allowed to drive?!) They strike me as being at least 18, because their parents haven't been brought yet (I don't think?) so I'm assuming they're all old enough to not have to deal with parents. This makes a little more sense for the Decepticons to use them.

Transfans already have this bizarre, knee-jerk pathological hatred of human characters (never understood it and it's actually mildly disturbing to me, honestly)

It's because the track record for 'good,' 'well written' and 'important' human characters in TF media has been...pretty bad. You won't usually find people complaining about Circuit Breaker or the Neo-Knights, for example.

There's also the fact that the series is called Transformers, and some people are more interested in that unique element of the series. You can get humans--and humans piloting robots--just about anywhere. It's not often you get a series that focuses entirely on sentient robots--I can only really think of TF, Gobots and Mega Man. (And maybe Medabots, but that's Robots As Pokemon, so I dunno how much that counts.)

I only saw one episode with Ginrai back when I was watching fansubs, but near as I can tell from his debut episode, he's a decently cool trucker guy who basically ends up drafted into the conflict with the Decepticons after they target him because the truck he ends up driving happens to be this long-lost super powerful Transtector. I'll probably get to his episodes if I watch more tonight, and we can really start digging in and following this guy.

Yeah, tonight is Masterforce Night for me.

I was talking about the Transector idea, where the humans pilot a mecha that is eventually programmed based on the pilot's patterns. The host species, (humans in this case) would get advanced tech. And, the guys providing the tech (Cybertronians) would be able to add new members to their species using forensic images (or at least borrowed code) from anther species.

Are you talking about how the individual Transtectors in Masterforce inexplicably gain sentience and fly off at the end of the series? (Even I'm confused about that.)

and I’m pretty sure they were just discussing ‘Energy’ not ‘Energon’ in that bit about the three kinds.

I wanted to bring this back up. The whole "three energies" thing is kind of a big deal, and it's a concept that's not exactly foreign to the culture--it's based on existing Asian myth. Everything in the world draws from those energies. By renaming them to "Energon" and calling one "Spark Energon," you're making it this strange TF-centric concept that doesn't mesh entirely well with the whole humans-as-TFs bit. It's just...strange to see Devil Zed's motivations moved like that, I guess? Because now he seems more like a regular Decepticon bad guy and not...a dark God.

Incidentally, is Devil Zed the 'supreme' Decepticon leader, here, or is he just a Dark God that Blood and co are worshipping? (I know he hasn't been properly revealed yet, but you know.) If he's the actual Decepticon leader, why isn't he grabbing Weirdwolf and Mindwipe and those guys and forcing them to head to Earth?

[BWprowl]

Yes. Metalhawk explains it in one episode, and makes it pretty clear that all the other TFs are in space and can't be assed dealing with Earth Bullshit. (A version of Masterforce could very well take place in the current IDW climate, minus Metalhawk...) Which I like, because, much like BW, it gives us a reason for a relatively smaller cast and a way to keep this a kind of segregated little targeted skirmish rather than the full-on Autobot/Decepticon war we usually see. I like to imagine there are 'countless' worlds that this kind of thing is happening on, where a small number of Autobots and Decepticons are fighting a battle that's so small-scale that it barely warrants mentioning--and then making that small-scale battle seem huge and important.

Yeah, it’s interesting to see what basically amounts to an Autobot reserve squad needing to stay on Earth to make sure an equally B-level squad of Decepticons doesn’t take whatever resources they can from the planet. There’s still the sense that their job is important, but it’s still small-scale in the grand scheme of things. Seeing how this initially small-scale and seemingly unimportant skirmish grows as the series goes on is one of the interesting parts, for me.

I get the feeling Crash and The Boys are older than Shuta and co, who are...what, ten? Twelve? (Why are they allowed to drive?!) They strike me as being at least 18, because their parents haven't been brought yet (I don't think?) so I'm assuming they're all old enough to not have to deal with parents. This makes a little more sense for the Decepticons to use them.

Well, Cancer’s definitely still a kid, while Wilder and Bullhorn are older (Wilder’s probably 17 or 18, Bullhorn’s older but we get practically no background on him). It’s not clear why Cancer’s hanging out with these older motorcycle gang guys, but it’s implied that he was raised by his grandfather for whatever reason, so maybe once gramps keeled over Cancer fell in with the wrong crowd?

At first Shuta and co driving is explained away by the Headmaster suits letting them just ‘know’ how to drive the vehicles, which kinda makes sense given that the purpose of the suits in the first place is to let them synch up with the Transtectors, so being able to do that in vehicle mode is sensible. But then, in the animal episode I talk about later here, and I think in that episode with Chris and Mary, we see them driving around in their Transtectors without their suits, so, yeah. It’s one of those things you’re probably just not supposed to worry about. Shuta apparently had a motorcycle license before he became a Headmaster anyway, so.

I wanted to bring this back up. The whole "three energies" thing is kind of a big deal, and it's a concept that's not exactly foreign to the culture--it's based on existing Asian myth. Everything in the world draws from those energies. By renaming them to "Energon" and calling one "Spark Energon," you're making it this strange TF-centric concept that doesn't mesh entirely well with the whole humans-as-TFs bit. It's just...strange to see Devil Zed's motivations moved like that, I guess? Because now he seems more like a regular Decepticon bad guy and not...a dark God.

Yeah, it’s one of many weird bits the subs get into. They actually start using ‘Chokon Power’ interchangeably with the ‘Energon’ terms in the episodes I watched last night, so they might be trying to preserve it (and it’s plausible that this could be ‘Energon’ in the way that it’s just what Cyebrtronians refer to energy and power sources as) but it’s still an inconsistency and it still tweaks the story in ways that subs really shouldn’t.

Also something I wanted to bring up regarding the subs: The rendering of ‘kusou’ and other Japanese curses as Cybertronian swearing, mostly ‘Scrap’. It’s cute, I guess, and mostly works when they have the Transformers say it (not as much when they through the syntax-challenging ‘Scrap you!’ and the like), but not so much when it’s subbed in for swearing by the human characters, and it’s even stupider when they have humans who have never even associated with the Transformers using it. ‘Darn’ and the like appear a few times, so the translation team clearly wasn’t trying to be all-inclusive with the robo-swearing, so it all comes off as kind of arbitrary. ‘The Pit’ turns up in recent episodes too, with the same degree of awkwardness. I’m gonna be honest, I’m not feeling these subs, between the inconsistent naming conventions, story-tweaking bits like the Energon thing, and the goofy cursing translation. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Shout for putting this series out on DVD (something I’d begun to think really would never happen over here), and for making it so affordable (Twenty bucks for a 40+ episode anime is a steal. Back in my day that money would’ve bought you a disc with FOUR episodes on it), but it does need to be pointed out that the subs could be better in a *lot* of places.

Incidentally, is Devil Zed the 'supreme' Decepticon leader, here, or is he just a Dark God that Blood and co are worshipping? (I know he hasn't been properly revealed yet, but you know.) If he's the actual Decepticon leader, why isn't he grabbing Weirdwolf and Mindwipe and those guys and forcing them to head to Earth?

I’m not sure what Devil Z’s deal is, I haven’t gotten that far into the series. It’s plausible that he’s some sort of all-encompassing Destron God who’s watching over the whole universal conflict, and this plan about disrupting Earth’s energy is just one of many plans he’s got for empowering the faction, and thus isn’t important enough in the long run to spare the extra troops, especially when those guys are probably off enacting *other* plans he’s got. We’ll see as the show goes on.

Speaking of, episodes!

7. Panic! Protect the budget with stock footage!!
This episode’s better than I was expecting, but still kind of iffy. The Decepticons are causing animals to stampede, and through this Blood reveals the main objective he’s had with most of his plans: He’s trying to incite enough fear in humans that they will turn to worshipping the Decepticons for help. This is actually kind of a cool idea, and fits with most of what Blood’s been doing in the past episodes, and even fits with the motif that the Decepticon Pretenders had previously disguised themselves as ‘demons’ to affect the beliefs and such of humans. Blood also calls out Wilder and co for how ineffective they’ve been as warriors, and I appreciated that they touched on this. It also lets the Headmasters try to get back at Blood by digging at how small-scale his plan is, which he gets pissed about, showing that he’s insecure about his place at the top of the current Decepticon totem pole. He’s got good reason for this, as we’ll find out next episode.

So we see the Autobots head to Africa to help with the animal problem, and we also get to see quite a bit of Minerva due to her choice in ensemble. Cab and Shuta notice too, leading to them *singing* about her head-turning outfit. It’s interesting, they haven’t yet played up any sort of forced romantic subplot angle or anything between Shuta and Minerva or Cab and Minerva or some combination thereof, which I appreciate. The three are pretty much just friends with each other, to the point that rather than getting too hot and bothered by Minerva’s outfit, the boys crack jokes about it, more like what you’d do with a close female friend or a sister or something.

Then we get to the animals stampeding thing and some stupid stuff happens. See, the Decepticons banked on the Autobots not attacking ‘innocent’ creatures as part of their plan, and it works! They just ride by, and Metalhawk and the Pretenders are so unconfident in their shooting abilities that they can’t risk picking off three elephants to take out Blood and his goons. Now, this is *seemingly* contrasted with Mr. Ricky, the African guide the group met earlier who had to shoot a couple of deer and let a fawn be trampled to curb a stampede from earlier, and he’s just SO TORN UP ABOUT IT even though he DID WHAT HE HAD TO! But then! The stampede of elephants heads towards the village, and Ricky heads out with his rifle, and then…freaks the hell out, throws the rifle down and RUNS AT THE ELEPHANTS SCREAMING AT THEM TO STOP. Seriously. This is dumb as hell and adds nothing to…whatever the episode was trying to be about. Ricky’s only saved because the Autobots jump in front at the last minute and push the elephants back. Which of course spoils Blood’s plan and the Decepticons retreat. *sigh* I guess it’s okay, this is the last episode of Masterforce with the ‘old’ status quo, as a new ongoing plot kicks in next ep, with a lot of new elements and concepts getting introduced. Let’s just move on, okay!

8. Personality-free warriors – The Godmaster Brothers
Remember Blood worried about his leadership position? Turns out that’s because he does have a boss- two of them actually, who we meet in this episode: Mega and Giga, a pair of humans who look like escaped extras from a He-Man episode. They’ve been chilling in an underground/water base this whole time, focused on finding guys called ‘Godmasters’, who are going to be super important for the next set of episodes, it seems. They don’t yet go into detail as to where these Godmasters came from or why Mega and Giga knew to look for them, or why Blood, an actual Cybertronian Transformer is lower in Decepticon command than a couple of squishies, but I’m sure as the story goes on- okay, okay, if you don’t already know that Mega and Giga are the Godmasters for the to-be-revealed-later Overlord, then there’s no hope for you. There’s spoilers, but then there are things that are just known at this point. Still, exactly HOW they became the biggest and baddest Godmasters and ascended high in the Decepticon ranks despite being humans (kind of), does have yet to be explained, so maybe we will learn about that later. Anyway, Mega and Giga introduce the rest of the Decepticons to the first of the Godmasters: Hydra and Buster.

So about Godmasters: They are explicitly different from Headmasters, not just being humans in suits ‘piloting’ larger robot suits. They don’t go into a lot of detail, but it’s strongly implied that the Transtectors the Godmasters use are actually Cybertronian life-forms that don’t yet have full free will of their own, but instead get by through ‘bonding’ with a human, becoming one being in the process. The ‘host’ apparently keeps their memories and most of their personality as a human, but still begin to identify as a ‘Godmaster’ and identify more as a Cybertronian. It’s interesting. The series also wastes no time in showing how overpowered Godmasters are. Due to uniting human and Cybertronian energies, they get the ability to manipulate the aforementioned Chokon Power, which lets them blast stuff with high-level energy, and heal themselves from just about any wound (indeed, Hydra and Buster seem to eschew traditional firearms in favor of raw energy projection in combat, which is shown to be more effective than the guns everyone else uses). It’s a higher level of power from combining organic and robotic life, almost like Beast Machines, except here it’s explicitly a result of Humans and Cybertronians joining their power, which may tie in to that whole ‘intertwined destinies’ of the two species some fans talk about with the series in general.

Hydra and Buster also have some pretty badass Godmaster suits, with a cobra and bird motif, respectively. The rest of the episode plays out like a serious toy commercial for them, showing them blasting jets, tearing it up at Shuta, Cab, and Minerva’s hang-gliding competition (which I admit these kids are pretty hardcore for participating in) and generally kicking the ass of the Autobots like nothing. It actually worked, I kinda want Hydra and Buster’s toys now! Sadly, they’re pretty much devoid of personality in their debut here, mostly standing around smirking about how cool they are. They also retreat at the end of the episode for NO REASON! Seriously, they’re fighting the Autobots, and kicking their asses, and then they just…leave. It’s not even a “You suck, and we’re going to rub it in by leaving you without even finishing you off” moment either, they just up and say “Retreat! We’ll get you next time!”. I know that bad guys retreating for no reason is another one of those goofy self-defining Japanese TF traditions (Deathsaurus is *legendary* for it), but it’s just really blatant here.

Otherwise, a cool episode. Lots of new concepts get introduced, with these new characters bringing in the whole Godmasters thing, which the series will focus on for now (though that won’t really be made clear until the next episode). Just some cop-out writing at the end and a lack of characterization for Buster and Hydra holding it back. Plus that whole time-wasting B-plot about the Headmaster kids practicing their hang-gliding, which was kind of pointless, added nothing to the plot. This episode would’ve worked better as a straight-up villain episode, where they could’ve had more space to define Hydra and Buster better.

9. A Fierce Battle! The Autobots need more new toys on their team!
This one has a…lengthy clip show at the beginning, disguised as the Autobots reviewing footage of the new Godmaster brothers, reviewing that footage IN SLOW MOTION, then repeatedly reiterating that the Godmasters are neither Pretenders nor Headmasters. Oy, I know that the Autobots know nothing about these guys, and they want to make that point, but they end up really hammering on it.

Fortunately things pick up as the Decepticons decide to attack a power plant in Cab’s home region. Some robo-racism gets involved, as it becomes clear that the new bosses Mega and Giga feel that human-based Transformers like the Godmasters and even the Headmaster Juniors are more suited to operations on Earth than the purely Cybertronian Pretenders, which does not sit too well with Blood. It’s nice that he hasn’t forgotten that he used to be in charge of the operation (or at least was allowed to act like he was), and it’s also interesting that the different human factors involved (the humans-in-suits Headmasters and the true, hyper-evolved ‘fusions’ that the Godmasters are) has created different ‘classes’ of Cybertronians, which get observed with varying degrees of superiority. This episode also does a good job of showing just how outmatched by the Godmasters the Autobots are. They only force Hydra and Buster back after Diver lands a lucky shot on Buster and he’s unable to heal it somehow. This also leads into (finally!) some characterization for the two, as we see Buster upset that he has less Chokon Power than his brother and wanting to surpass him, while Hydra, instead of seeing this as a threat, welcomes his brother’s ambitions and wants to see him reach the full potential he believes he has. It’s an interesting comparison, and it makes me wonder where the two characters will end up as the show goes on.

10. A Hero is Chosen! His name is not Optimus Prime!
Alright, we’ve all (okay, Six and I) been looking forward to this. The focus shifts back to America, with a lot of Diver focus here. The Autobots are still on edge after getting their shit tossed so bad by Hydra and Buster, but Diver’s still got his human job as a marine biologist to attend to. He’s waiting for an injured dolphin to be delivered to him. It’s being delivered by truck, and it’s late, so he calls up the driver. We don’t get the guy’s name, but it turns out his truck broke down and he’s waiting to get a new one. Turns out the only one the truck yard has that can pull the cargo is ‘haunted’ or somesuch, but this guy isn’t fazed; he’s got a job to do, and a mysterious truck is just one more challenge to be overcome. He actually delivers the dolphin just fine once he’s hooked up with the new truck (surprised me, I was honestly expecting a ‘deliver the cargo against Decepitcon interference’ plot or something similar), but while he’s checking things out for the return trip, he finds a couple bracelets like the ones the Headmaster Juniors wear, except they’re gold. He puts them on to see how they look (as his bitchin’ switchblade-comb implies, he’s a man of style), but decides that they aren’t his thing, and tries to take them off-except he can’t. This leads to Diver noticing him fussing with them, that they’re similar to the Master Braces the Juniors use, and asks that the driver take him to where he got the truck. He explains some base stuff about the conflict with the Decepticons on the way, and incidentally they get attacked by Hydra and Buster, who were also following up on the truck, after getting info that it might be a dormant Godmaster.

The truck gets knocked off a cliff, and while Diver escapes, the trucker gets pretty messed up in the crash (seriously, it’s implied that both his legs get smashed up, and his hands and head are bloodied). Diver tries to protect the trucker from the brothers, talking about how he’s lived on Earth for so long and cares about protecting humans and all. This leads to a really interesting bit where Hydra and Buster mock Diver for ‘Pretending’ to be from Earth, and that they are of the humans he likes protecting so much. I didn’t really expect for the show to call out the Pretenders on the way they pass as humans and act native despite actually being aliens, and having a couple of genuine humans on the bad guys’ side do it really strengthens the impact of the scene. The trucker hears all this going on, and in his determination to get free of the wrecked truck, ends up touching the bracelets together, which deploys some armor on him, then restructures the truck and changes him into an engine, which transforms the truck into its robot mode, allowing him to let loose some serious Chokon Power to chase off Hydra and Buster. Realizing that he’s just been saved by what seems to be an Autobot Godmaster, Diver gets the trucker’s name: Ginrai.

Like I said, there’s some interesting stuff in this episode, from being really Diver-focused and touching on the identity issues the Pretenders face, to its well-paced introduction of Ginrai, doing a good job of showing him as a fairly normal guy (clarification time: He’s a Japanese guy who moved to America to become a trucker) who through seemingly minor events ends up in an extraordinary situation. They’ll go more into who he is and how he deals with this in the next episode, but even this early, Ginrai comes across as fairly unique as far as Transformers characters go.

11. Ginrai: God-On of FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU-
With this the Autobots (mainly the American representatives, Diver and Lander) try to convince Ginrai to formally join their team. Ginrai interestingly…refuses. Mostly. He admits that he cares about humanity and all that, and says that if they want his help, they can always contact him and he’ll try to be there, kind of setting him up as a Tigatron/TFPrime Wheeljack type in relation to the rest of the cast. I dunno, seeing the character who’s basically the Optimus Prime of this series talk about he’s not crazy about orders and command structure is kind of funny. Ginrai pointedly got out of Japan because he didn’t like feeling closed-in and limited all the time, which fits with him becoming a cross-country trucker (a unique kind of hero for a series like this, I think). So he takes off and the Autobots are left to wonder how they’ll convince him to formally join. Their job is tragically done for them by Hydra and Buster. Mega and Giga, having heard that a Godmaster has awakened and bonded with a human who’s apparently an Autobot sympathizer, decide to take a “If we can’t have him, no one can” approach and order Hydra and Buster to take him out. Unfortunately, they never got a good look at the driver and only know that a red truck was the new Godmaster, so they hook themselves up with this mean-looking rig of their own and some of Giga’s *hilarious* evil exploding golf balls and head out to murder and drivers of red trucks they can find. There’s one particularly brutal scene of Hydra running a truck and its driver across some railroad tracks into a train, with repeated cuts of the guy screaming for it to stop. I thought for sure it was setting up for a last-minute save, but no, he just gets smashed and killed, hardcore. As bad as the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors were painted, Buster and Hydra come off even worse. They aren’t just destructive punks, here we see them as cold, calculating serial killers, eliminating guys who *might* be the enemy they’re looking for, then moving onto their next victim.

Turns out that a lot of these truckers were close friends of Ginrai, so he gets pretty depressed when he hears they’ve been killed, and PISSED when he finds out they were killed by the Decepticons who were looking for him. Another ass-kicking of Hydra and Buster by him ensues, and at the end he agrees to fully join the Autobots to make sure the Decepticons know who their enemy is and that there won’t be any more tragedies. Like Shuta’s dad, it’s another case of a character being motivated by death and the grief thereof, and adds more dimensions to Ginrai’s character, mainly that he can seem carefree and somewhat selfish, but as soon as it becomes personal, he WILL take responsibility and see things through. It goes back to how determined he was to get just a simple trucking job done back in his debut.

If it wasn’t obvious from all that, here it is: I really like Ginrai. It took ten episodes for him to debut, but he was worth the wait, as he’s definitely the ‘hero’ of the story (as opposed to Shuta, who was definitely the ‘main character’, but not quite a ‘hero’), and a rather unique one as far as Transformers goes. Having a character ‘fall into the cockpit’ as it were is something that doesn’t lend itself to regular TF stories by their very nature, so seeing that happen to Ginrai in what’s otherwise been a relatively normal Cybertronian conflict is interesting, and it’ll be moreso to see how he adapts to working with the other Transformers, and how the continued introduction of Godmasters and humans affects the conflict, as we’ve already seen with stuff like how the Pretenders have become outclassed. These last two episodes have been really cool, and having Ginrai as a new focal point should hopefully keep things moving at that level. Seeing if Ginrai ends up fully growing into a leadership role implied by his Transtector will be interesting to see as well.

PS: You know the quick way to visually tell Ginrai apart from Optimus Prime? Ginrai has blue forearms.

God, lots written on these episodes, compared to the last batch. I think it’s because we’re past the introductory stuff and the plot’s continuing to kick in, with new elements being introduced repeatedly and all these things keeping my interest. This show’s hitting its stride, and I’m enjoying it.

[Onslaught Six]

I get the feeling Crash and The Boys are older than Shuta and co, who are...what, ten? Twelve? (Why are they allowed to drive?!) They strike me as being at least 18, because their parents haven't been brought yet (I don't think?) so I'm assuming they're all old enough to not have to deal with parents. This makes a little more sense for the Decepticons to use them.

Well, Cancer’s definitely still a kid, while Wilder and Bullhorn are older (Wilder’s probably 17 or 18, Bullhorn’s older but we get practically no background on him). It’s not clear why Cancer’s hanging out with these older motorcycle gang guys, but it’s implied that he was raised by his grandfather for whatever reason, so maybe once gramps keeled over Cancer fell in with the wrong crowd?

At first Shuta and co driving is explained away by the Headmaster suits letting them just ‘know’ how to drive the vehicles, which kinda makes sense given that the purpose of the suits in the first place is to let them synch up with the Transtectors, so being able to do that in vehicle mode is sensible. But then, in the animal episode I talk about later here, and I think in that episode with Chris and Mary, we see them driving around in their Transtectors without their suits, so, yeah. It’s one of those things you’re probably just not supposed to worry about. Shuta apparently had a motorcycle license before he became a Headmaster anyway, so.

Welp!

I wanted to bring this back up. The whole "three energies" thing is kind of a big deal, and it's a concept that's not exactly foreign to the culture--it's based on existing Asian myth. Everything in the world draws from those energies. By renaming them to "Energon" and calling one "Spark Energon," you're making it this strange TF-centric concept that doesn't mesh entirely well with the whole humans-as-TFs bit. It's just...strange to see Devil Zed's motivations moved like that, I guess? Because now he seems more like a regular Decepticon bad guy and not...a dark God.

Yeah, it’s one of many weird bits the subs get into. They actually start using ‘Chokon Power’ interchangeably with the ‘Energon’ terms in the episodes I watched last night, so they might be trying to preserve it (and it’s plausible that this could be ‘Energon’ in the way that it’s just what Cyebrtronians refer to energy and power sources as) but it’s still an inconsistency and it still tweaks the story in ways that subs really shouldn’t.

Also something I wanted to bring up regarding the subs: The rendering of ‘kusou’ and other Japanese curses as Cybertronian swearing, mostly ‘Scrap’. It’s cute, I guess, and mostly works when they have the Transformers say it (not as much when they through the syntax-challenging ‘Scrap you!’ and the like), but not so much when it’s subbed in for swearing by the human characters, and it’s even stupider when they have humans who have never even associated with the Transformers using it. ‘Darn’ and the like appear a few times, so the translation team clearly wasn’t trying to be all-inclusive with the robo-swearing, so it all comes off as kind of arbitrary. ‘The Pit’ turns up in recent episodes too, with the same degree of awkwardness. I’m gonna be honest, I’m not feeling these subs, between the inconsistent naming conventions, story-tweaking bits like the Energon thing, and the goofy cursing translation. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Shout for putting this series out on DVD (something I’d begun to think really would never happen over here), and for making it so affordable (Twenty bucks for a 40+ episode anime is a steal. Back in my day that money would’ve bought you a disc with FOUR episodes on it), but it does need to be pointed out that the subs could be better in a *lot* of places.

You know what? I'm wondering if the subs were done in a straight run, without the translators (or sub rewriters, however they're doing this) given an actual summary of Things That Happen. We've read about Masterforce for a decade before being able to actually watch it, so we already kind of know things like who Devil Zed is and that the Three Energies will be super-important things throughout the show. Someone watching (or translating) the show from the beginning wouldn't know that would be an important thing, and they might be given some notes by Hasbro. "Energy should be Energon; aside from these guys, call everyone by American names," but then as the show went on they realized some of this stuff wasn't going to work out...and then didn't go back and fix the other translations.

I agree though; someone watching a show shouldn't have to do this level of "figuring things out," if you're doing subs, do them up wholesale and do them right. I can't fault them too badly though--they released this and Victory at the same time in, what, December? So they probably rushed these. (I still don't understand Shout's release scheme, mind, but that's me.)

Then we get to the animals stampeding thing and some stupid stuff happens. See, the Decepticons banked on the Autobots not attacking ‘innocent’ creatures as part of their plan, and it works! They just ride by, and Metalhawk and the Pretenders are so unconfident in their shooting abilities that they can’t risk picking off three elephants to take out Blood and his goons. Now, this is *seemingly* contrasted with Mr. Ricky, the African guide the group met earlier who had to shoot a couple of deer and let a fawn be trampled to curb a stampede from earlier, and he’s just SO TORN UP ABOUT IT even though he DID WHAT HE HAD TO! But then! The stampede of elephants heads towards the village, and Ricky heads out with his rifle, and then…freaks the hell out, throws the rifle down and RUNS AT THE ELEPHANTS SCREAMING AT THEM TO STOP. Seriously. This is dumb as hell and adds nothing to…whatever the episode was trying to be about. Ricky’s only saved because the Autobots jump in front at the last minute and push the elephants back. Which of course spoils Blood’s plan and the Decepticons retreat. *sigh* I guess it’s okay, this is the last episode of Masterforce with the ‘old’ status quo, as a new ongoing plot kicks in next ep, with a lot of new elements and concepts getting introduced. Let’s just move on, okay!

Filler!

I actually haven't seen this one and will probably actually skip it.

So about Godmasters: They are explicitly different from Headmasters, not just being humans in suits ‘piloting’ larger robot suits. They don’t go into a lot of detail, but it’s strongly implied that the Transtectors the Godmasters use are actually Cybertronian life-forms that don’t yet have full free will of their own, but instead get by through ‘bonding’ with a human, becoming one being in the process. The ‘host’ apparently keeps their memories and most of their personality as a human, but still begin to identify as a ‘Godmaster’ and identify more as a Cybertronian. It’s interesting. The series also wastes no time in showing how overpowered Godmasters are. Due to uniting human and Cybertronian energies, they get the ability to manipulate the aforementioned Chokon Power, which lets them blast stuff with high-level energy, and heal themselves from just about any wound (indeed, Hydra and Buster seem to eschew traditional firearms in favor of raw energy projection in combat, which is shown to be more effective than the guns everyone else uses). It’s a higher level of power from combining organic and robotic life, almost like Beast Machines, except here it’s explicitly a result of Humans and Cybertronians joining their power, which may tie in to that whole ‘intertwined destinies’ of the two species some fans talk about with the series in general.

Huh. I wonder if this is going to get any more explanation, maybe when Ginrai shows up next ep?

Hydra and Buster also have some pretty badass Godmaster suits, with a cobra and bird motif, respectively. The rest of the episode plays out like a serious toy commercial for them, showing them blasting jets, tearing it up at Shuta, Cab, and Minerva’s hang-gliding competition (which I admit these kids are pretty hardcore for participating in) and generally kicking the ass of the Autobots like nothing. It actually worked, I kinda want Hydra and Buster’s toys now! Sadly, they’re pretty much devoid of personality in their debut here, mostly standing around smirking about how cool they are. They also retreat at the end of the episode for NO REASON! Seriously, they’re fighting the Autobots, and kicking their asses, and then they just…leave. It’s not even a “You suck, and we’re going to rub it in by leaving you without even finishing you off” moment either, they just up and say “Retreat! We’ll get you next time!”. I know that bad guys retreating for no reason is another one of those goofy self-defining Japanese TF traditions (Deathsaurus is *legendary* for it), but it’s just really blatant here.

Wait, did Metalhawk get sidelined and then show up at the end, or something like that? Because Metalhawk turning up and making everybody run away at least makes sense. Metalhawk is fuckin' awesome.

Fortunately things pick up as the Decepticons decide to attack a power plant in Cab’s home region. Some robo-racism gets involved, as it becomes clear that the new bosses Mega and Giga feel that human-based Transformers like the Godmasters and even the Headmaster Juniors are more suited to operations on Earth than the purely Cybertronian Pretenders, which does not sit too well with Blood. It’s nice that he hasn’t forgotten that he used to be in charge of the operation (or at least was allowed to act like he was), and it’s also interesting that the different human factors involved (the humans-in-suits Headmasters and the true, hyper-evolved ‘fusions’ that the Godmasters are) has created different ‘classes’ of Cybertronians, which get observed with varying degrees of superiority.

See, it's interactions like this that make me glad we have such a clean break. Starscream scheming to overthrow Megatron is only interesting for so long--to see a guy who's been the Big Man In Charge and then suddenly has to answer to his boss who showed up is interesting and new, and I can't even say I saw them do it with Sky-Byte and Scourge before because that was Sky-Byte being replaced as Gigatron's favourite new toy.

This episode also does a good job of showing just how outmatched by the Godmasters the Autobots are. They only force Hydra and Buster back after Diver lands a lucky shot on Buster and he’s unable to heal it somehow. This also leads into (finally!) some characterization for the two, as we see Buster upset that he has less Chokon Power than his brother and wanting to surpass him, while Hydra, instead of seeing this as a threat, welcomes his brother’s ambitions and wants to see him reach the full potential he believes he has. It’s an interesting comparison, and it makes me wonder where the two characters will end up as the show goes on.

This too! Usually in these things, we just get Decepticons who hate everything, including each other. (The "Decepticon who is so mean/destructive/smelly/generally unpleasant that even other Decepticons don't like him" trope is one that's worn out its welcome.) It's nice to see some characters who have some actual character, and motivations and stuff. This is what I always loved about anime; even with some of its own prevailant bad tropes and meandering plots, the bad guy developments are usually awesome.

10. A Hero is Chosen! His name is not Optimus Prime!

I'm loving these titles.

This leads to a really interesting bit where Hydra and Buster mock Diver for ‘Pretending’ to be from Earth, and that they are of the humans he likes protecting so much. I didn’t really expect for the show to call out the Pretenders on the way they pass as humans and act native despite actually being aliens, and having a couple of genuine humans on the bad guys’ side do it really strengthens the impact of the scene.

Morally ambiguous Autobots?! What're those?

Okay, maybe not that morally ambiguous. (I'm thinking back to that bit where you asked what Lander does when he takes women home, though!)

The trucker hears all this going on, and in his determination to get free of the wrecked truck, ends up touching the bracelets together, which deploys some armor on him, then restructures the truck and changes him into an engine, which transforms the truck into its robot mode, allowing him to let loose some serious Chokon Power to chase off Hydra and Buster. Realizing that he’s just been saved by what seems to be an Autobot Godmaster, Diver gets the trucker’s name: Ginrai.

Like I said, there’s some interesting stuff in this episode, from being really Diver-focused and touching on the identity issues the Pretenders face, to its well-paced introduction of Ginrai, doing a good job of showing him as a fairly normal guy (clarification time: He’s a Japanese guy who moved to America to become a trucker) who through seemingly minor events ends up in an extraordinary situation. They’ll go more into who he is and how he deals with this in the next episode, but even this early, Ginrai comes across as fairly unique as far as Transformers characters go.

I like that he's pretty much unwilling and a victim of circumstance (although I'm guessing there's a fair bit of "chosen one" in there) rather than deliberately becoming a Godmaster.

With this the Autobots (mainly the American representatives, Diver and Lander) try to convince Ginrai to formally join their team. Ginrai interestingly…refuses. Mostly. He admits that he cares about humanity and all that, and says that if they want his help, they can always contact him and he’ll try to be there, kind of setting him up as a Tigatron/TFPrime Wheeljack type in relation to the rest of the cast.

Given the origins, I'd say this makes him the Sixth Ranger, or the Tuxedo Mask, or Piccolo of the group.

Unfortunately, they never got a good look at the driver and only know that a red truck was the new Godmaster, so they hook themselves up with this mean-looking rig of their own and some of Giga’s *hilarious* evil exploding golf balls and head out to murder and drivers of red trucks they can find.

Are you Sarah Connor?

There’s one particularly brutal scene of Hydra running a truck and its driver across some railroad tracks into a train, with repeated cuts of the guy screaming for it to stop. I thought for sure it was setting up for a last-minute save, but no, he just gets smashed and killed, hardcore. As bad as the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors were painted, Buster and Hydra come off even worse. They aren’t just destructive punks, here we see them as cold, calculating serial killers, eliminating guys who *might* be the enemy they’re looking for, then moving onto their next victim.

That's awesome, and not just for the "hurr extreem, characters dying" value. As bad guys, you really need to sell that the Decepticons are constantly causing losses and that there's something at stake here. The Decepticons aren't really a threat if the Autobots manage to stop every single human casualty they cause. But it's a fine line to walk, because...

Turns out that a lot of these truckers were close friends of Ginrai, so he gets pretty depressed when he hears they’ve been killed, and PISSED when he finds out they were killed by the Decepticons who were looking for him.

...you can't just have the Decepticons kill guys for no reason and then not have a payoff, which is part of the problem with the Bay movies, I guess. Ginrai getting pissed is a great payoff.

Incidentally: I fully expect Cab or one of the Autobot Pretenders to die by the end of the series. (My money's on Landmine since he's the most generic so far, besides Cloudburst whose only defining trait is having hair like Wolverine.)

If it wasn’t obvious from all that, here it is: I really like Ginrai. It took ten episodes for him to debut, but he was worth the wait, as he’s definitely the ‘hero’ of the story (as opposed to Shuta, who was definitely the ‘main character’, but not quite a ‘hero’), and a rather unique one as far as Transformers goes. Having a character ‘fall into the cockpit’ as it were is something that doesn’t lend itself to regular TF stories by their very nature, so seeing that happen to Ginrai in what’s otherwise been a relatively normal Cybertronian conflict is interesting, and it’ll be moreso to see how he adapts to working with the other Transformers, and how the continued introduction of Godmasters and humans affects the conflict, as we’ve already seen with stuff like how the Pretenders have become outclassed. These last two episodes have been really cool, and having Ginrai as a new focal point should hopefully keep things moving at that level. Seeing if Ginrai ends up fully growing into a leadership role implied by his Transtector will be interesting to see as well.

All of this.

PS: You know the quick way to visually tell Ginrai apart from Optimus Prime? Ginrai has blue forearms.

His inside-shoulder smokestacks are another good way, as well as the lack of white stripes on his chest. (Which is weird, because the toy had those, right?)

God, lots written on these episodes, compared to the last batch. I think it’s because we’re past the introductory stuff and the plot’s continuing to kick in, with new elements being introduced repeatedly and all these things keeping my interest. This show’s hitting its stride, and I’m enjoying it.

Yes! I was worried after the slow beginning, but reading these, I'm excited to get up there now. (I still believe that, with some anime, it's best to just start in the middle, and figure out the backstory later by catching up.)

[Dominic]

I am not sure that I would agree that Buster and Hydra are worse than Wilder and co. Buster and Hydra are doing a job, albeit a messy one. Wilder and the others are pitching fits.

Either way, episodes like those described above are worth having in a series, to show that the bad guys are in fact "that bad".

I can partially see what O6 is saying about the Bay movies. Most of the Decepticon violence is, for lack of a better term, sensible. Frenzy does not start killing people until he is discovered on the plane. Blackout kills everybody he can during a raid. But, that is arguably necessary. Aside from Bonecrusher and Megatron, Bay's Decepticons are more or less rational.

This leads to a really interesting bit where Hydra and Buster mock Diver for ‘Pretending’ to be from Earth, and that they are of the humans he likes protecting so much. I didn’t really expect for the show to call out the Pretenders on the way they pass as humans and act native despite actually being aliens, and having a couple of genuine humans on the bad guys’ side do it really strengthens the impact of the scene.

Never mind that the Autobots are conscripting children in to their war. Granted, we do something similar to this when we raise/train dogs for law enforcement or military use. And, few people have a problem weaponizing other species in this way, (or even in worse ways). But, it really does not seem becoming of "the good guys".


Dom
-really wanting to see an IDW take on some of this stuff.

[Onslaught Six]

Do note that the Headmaster Jrs. aren't exactly unwilling to help, either. Shuta dives right into the battle in the first episode, and it's reasonable to expect that he might try similar things later. Giving him a Transtector is more like promoting a fighting chance against enemy giant robots than anything else. When they give them the Transtectors, the first thing Shuta and Atreyu say is, "When do we get to beat the shit out of Decepticons?" Metalhawk is adamant that they're a rescue team and seems like he's trying hard to make sure they stay out of trouble.

[BWprowl]

I am not sure that I would agree that Buster and Hydra are worse than Wilder and co. Buster and Hydra are doing a job, albeit a messy one. Wilder and the others are pitching fits.

Eh, it’s less pitching fits and more having fun at the expense of some serious property damage and potential casualties. Any deaths that do occur would be the result of irresponsibility. In the case of Hydra and Buster, they’re coldly carrying out murders of basically random people in order to take out *one* guy who at this point is at best a potential enemy combatant. To me, that’s worse than some dumb kids with robot-monster-suits cutting loose on some cars.

Either way, episodes like those described above are worth having in a series, to show that the bad guys are in fact "that bad".

I can partially see what O6 is saying about the Bay movies. Most of the Decepticon violence is, for lack of a better term, sensible. Frenzy does not start killing people until he is discovered on the plane. Blackout kills everybody he can during a raid. But, that is arguably necessary. Aside from Bonecrusher and Megatron, Bay's Decepticons are more or less rational.

Exactly. It goes back to the point I tried to make with Beast Wars some time ago, that for the most part, the Predacons never really do anything ‘evil’ so much as ‘beneficial to their team/ideology’. Showing the extreme measures Hydra and Buster go to to get to Ginrai, not to mention the level of collateral damage from stuff like what Wilder’s group does, successfully illustrates that they are, in fact, the ‘bad guys’, and gives us an actual reason to instead follow the Autobots, to want to see them as the ones to win this conflict, and that helps drive the direction of the story. We can sympathize with Ginrai’s anger over his dead friends, maybe not because they were our friends, because they weren’t, but because we see what Hydra does to the guy and we can legitimately say “Dang, that was fucked up.” It’s similar to the close call with the baby in the first Headmaster Juniors episode. Normally, when a character like Shuta’s being a dumbass and getting kicked around for it, we laugh at the ‘hero’ for being a dumbass and getting what was coming to him. But in that case, the scene actually has tension and we want Shuta to get away so he can finish his job because, dammit, we don’t want to see a baby die!

Never mind that the Autobots are conscripting children in to their war. Granted, we do something similar to this when we raise/train dogs for law enforcement or military use. And, few people have a problem weaponizing other species in this way, (or even in worse ways). But, it really does not seem becoming of "the good guys".

Like Six, I don’t see it so much as conscripting, but the point you guys make does still stand: That it’s unbecoming of the Autobots to try to fit in and ‘go native’ with the humans when not only do they not really belong there, but this conflict that’s endangering the humans they so want to protect was brought there by them in the first place!

Do note that the Headmaster Jrs. aren't exactly unwilling to help, either. Shuta dives right into the battle in the first episode, and it's reasonable to expect that he might try similar things later. Giving him a Transtector is more like promoting a fighting chance against enemy giant robots than anything else. When they give them the Transtectors, the first thing Shuta and Atreyu say is, "When do we get to beat the shit out of Decepticons?" Metalhawk is adamant that they're a rescue team and seems like he's trying hard to make sure they stay out of trouble.

Yeah, this. Metalhawk’s savvy enough to know that the kids are gonna stupidly run into the warzones anyway, so he correctly assesses that giving them big armored robot bodies and giving them a job to focus on outside of combat is the best way to keep them from harm in that situation. It’s honestly a fairly clever solution to the ‘dumb kids in Transformers’ situation that hasn’t been taken by anything else, bar Kicker (sort of).

Worth noting that, aside from Shuta still being kind of a gun-jumping dumbass, the kids have become fairly good at their job by the time the power station episode rolls around. First thing Cab does whenever he pulls into an area is start dousing fires, and Minerva’s extremely focused and efficient at bandaging and treating injured civilians. It’s nice to see that the rescue team thing wasn’t just a write off and it’s actually working for them.

Also:

Shuta and Atreyu

Fuck, I laughed.

Man I’m glad we have this as a TF show to talk about since no one here really cares for TFPrime. I was starting to worry that there was nothing left in TF animation anymore. I should get Victory after this.

EDIT: On the subject of the kids' ages, TFwiki (I know, I know) says that the bio cards released for the Headmaster Juniors have Shuta and Cab as 13, Minerva as 15, Wilder as 16, Bullhorn as 17, and Cancer as 11. I could *potentially* see Minerva driving at that age, but Cab and Shuta are a more questionable proposition.

[andersonh1]

I've watched the first three episodes now. So far everyone who had a toy released over here has their US name, so I'm not completely lost. Why are there so many Seacons? Are they drones, like the Vehicon drones? They do seem to get destroyed pretty often.

Robbing morgues is pretty grim for a Transformers cartoon. And what's up with the kid who talks to animals? There's some bizarre stuff (unrelated to giant robots) in this show.

So the kids become Headmaster Juniors next episode. And the Decepticons recruit a few too. Nice to see the cast expanding pretty quickly. The theme music is okay, but nowhere near as good as Headmasters.

This barely feels like a Transformers show to me. It's not bad, but it's a big departure from what's come before, isn't it?

[BWprowl]

I've watched the first three episodes now. So far everyone who had a toy released over here has their US name, so I'm not completely lost.

I don't see why you'd be lost either way. All these characters are being introduced for the first time in this show, regardless of their name, so it's not like they expect you to know who they are before now.

Why are there so many Seacons? Are they drones, like the Vehicon drones? They do seem to get destroyed pretty often.

As I understand, they never explain where the Decepticons got the Seacon army. It's possible Devil Z created them somehow when it freed the three Pretenders, but I don't know that it's ever made clear. But yeah, they're pretty much the cannon fodder of this show.

So the kids become Headmaster Juniors next episode. And the Decepticons recruit a few too. Nice to see the cast expanding pretty quickly. The theme music is okay, but nowhere near as good as Headmasters.

Yeah, I'm liking the way the cast expands, with the Headmaster Juniors getting introduced and the Godmasters coming in a little later. Keeps the status quo fluid, and lets them deal with stuff like Blood's anger over losing his leadership role, not to mention driving considerable character growth/development for the kids.

This barely feels like a Transformers show to me. It's not bad, but it's a big departure from what's come before, isn't it?

It is, but (for me anyway) that's a large part of the appeal. Between G1 and Headmasters, there's over 130 episodes of straight-up G1 stuff. Shaking things up as much as this series did is a lot of what caught my attention about it for so long.