TFP - Armada - “A busy day for assassins.”
I was looking forward to this episode and I must say my expectations must have been set too high because I came away disappointed. It was by no means a bad episode. Far from it. But it did feel very rushed and chaotic. I think they tried to cram too much into 22 minutes and as a result nothing really got the attention it should have.
I was expecting more of Airachnid’s antics and less of Starscream’s, honestly. I'm glad Airachnid didn't die but the resolution to her current arc was still pretty anticlimactic. The Insecticons were wasted on her, and I didn't like how her fight with Arcee went down. It was the same old, generic stuff we see every time with those two, only now with a clock on it thanks to the general crammed nature of the episode. So yeah, I think it was rushed.
Starscream's cloning scheme on the other hand (I think I lost a hand in there, somewhere xD) came completely out of left field with no build-up whatsoever. I guess it had something to do with the cold open of Starscream's supposed demise by Bulkhead. But would the writers really do that just for the sake of a fake out? I don't know. But it sure wouldn't have worked as well if we had any inkling about the possibility of a Starscream clone beforehand. Personally, I didn't think Starscream was dead, but I had no idea about the how before the obvious laboratory scene. So, I guess, job well done..?
Now, about the whole cloning thing itself. I'm not a fan. I never have been and never will be. That being said, I did like that they thrown their own twist on it with the feedback. And I have to admit that the best bits of the episode still came from the cloning blues. So I'm gonna accept this hopefully as a hilarious one-off which helped Starscream get his T-cog back. I'm assuming he's getting it out of the last clone. How he will install it remains to be seen.
Soundwave, Dreadwing, and Knock Out were obviously on their coffe break. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Nah, I can actually understand the lack of Knock Out. I strongly condemn it though. But Dreadwing and Soundwave? What the hell, show? In universe, it just doesn't make sense unless they were both off the ship, and on a mission. (But we all know that Soundwave is lazy and never gets out. XD) From a meta standpoint, I can see how stuffing Dreadwing into the mix would have been problematic. There really wouldn't have been time for him to do anything else than to stand around which in turn also wouldn't make sense. But that brings me right to my next point. Why was there no Soundwave in the background doing Soundwave-ey things instead of one of those Vehicons? That's totally his niche. The only plausible explanation I can come up with is that the writers didn't want to make Soundwave incompetent. I mean, the most stealthiest Autobot is sneaking about while multiply Starscreams are running amok almost without a hitch. Security is sure lax these days.
Some Autobot love is in order, more specifically, Bulkhead was great! I kinda love the idea that he actually killed the clone out of pure rage. And for a fleeting moment he did seem just a tiny bit regretful about it. Oh, well. *shrug* And he wrecked the Nemesis too! Plus, I loved the look on his face when he got shoved out of the way by the Starscream clone at the end.
So, you may ask, what's the best thing that came out of this utter chaos of randomly mixed together plot points of an episode? Well, Megatron NOT GIVING A SINGLE FUCK of course! He has been trully amazing this season so far. His mind games with the clones during the stand-off, the glee about killing Starscream multiply times, and that general nonchalance about the approaching Insecticon swarm. Magnificent.
Allrighty. It might not show much but I actually thought the episode was fine, just nothing extraordinary. I would rate it somewhere between Loose Cannons and Operation Bumblebee. I think it comes off worse due to the fact that they did a very good job with Crossfire. That was a great example of a fast-paced, plot-packed episode done right.
Other random noteworthy stuff:
- "Arrrgg.... scrap, that hurt!" Priceless.
- Insecticons are now dropping like flies. Not suprising, but disappointing.
- Starscream potentially has a base of operations now. Although the Autobots should know of it's location, if they ever bother to check back on it.
- The Insecticons can appearently speak. Hmm, I think the more there are, the more sophisticated they get.
And I guess, that's a wrap people! XD