Transformers Prime Episode 8 -Con Job Discussion

[sideswipe88]

^^

[bedtime]

ahhh i need to wait foir it to be put up on youtube!

[Dragon Knight]

ahhh i need to wait foir it to be put up on youtube!

It's already up dude, I'm watching it as we speak. :D

[bedtime]

link me! my searches are not coming up with anything

[Dragon Knight]

link me! my searches are not coming up with anything

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8K1WdbuYkQ&feature=feedu

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnX14eSlIWM&feature=feedu

[bedtime]

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8K1WdbuYkQ&feature=feedu

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnX14eSlIWM&feature=feedu

:clapping:

[Dragon Knight]

I'm gonna say this much:

Wheeljack was BADASS. He's easily my favrioute character so far in Prime...and I think I might need to grab a toy of him if he's ever released

[shockwing]

Transformers Prime Wheeljack = G.I.Joe Renegades Snakeeyes........anyways wheeljack was great and talking about wreckers, hmmmmmmmmm?

[TMIIWonkoNemises]

Comparing this to Scrapheap...THIS is how an Episode is done.Bravo to the writer for making this appealing.

[transforminator]

omg was anyone else about to cry when wheeljack was leaving....

[ARCTrooperAlpha]

DAMMIT !!!! I WAS RIGHT !!!! NEAR OBSCURE CHARACTERS HAVE NO PERMANENT STAY ON THIS SHOW !!!!!!!

WHEELJACK'S TOO COOL TO LEAVE !!!!

[Dragon Knight]

DAMMIT !!!! I WAS RIGHT !!!! NEAR OBSCURE CHARACTERS HAVE NO PERMANENT STAY ON THIS SHOW !!!!!!!

WHEELJACK'S TOO COOL TO LEAVE !!!!

Look at it this way:

Wheeljack leaving is better then wheeljack dying...:crying:

[down_shift]

It was a good episode, too bad we didn't get a better look at Makeshift before he went kablooie. Hopefully next time we see "Jackie" we get to see his alt mode.

I've got to be honest though, I liked Scrapheap better.

That being said I had a genuine laugh at "I'll handle ugly". I would get along with this Wheeljack. lol

[UltraPrimal]

Wheeljack was indeed awesome! And so many references thrown about! Wreckers! Darkmount!

Only negative I could say about it was I was positive it was the real Wheeljack that got thrown through the space bridge. Maybe I need to rewatch it.

Also, "Jackie"?! That combined with Arcee's line "So who's the boyfriend?", well, the slash fiction practically writes itself. Hahaha!:rofl:

[Bruticus82]

So, this was the first episode of Transformers Prime I watched, and it was actually pretty good.

[ARCTrooperAlpha]

Look at it this way:

Wheeljack leaving is better then wheeljack dying...:crying:


Dunno, Wheeljack did die in the cartoon movie afterall.........even though he wasn't suppose to....

[pandaprime]

Wheeljack is da shiznit!:clapping:

[Iacon]

Transformers: Prime Episode 8- "Con Job"

Huh... so Wheeljack's recast as a Drift-esque Wrecker, completely jettisoning the engineer/inventor persona. In some ways, he's closer to a homage to Energon Downshift than G1 Wheeljack. Still pretty awesome, all things considered, though I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that this would have been a *perfect* role for Springer to play. On the other hand, perfectly faithful tributes to G1 characters are starting to get a little old, what with Animated already being chock-full of 'em.

Waitatick... he didn't transform! Ever! I feel a little cheated by that. In-story, it makes sense that the guy wouldn't bother to scan a vehicle mode, but at least we could have seen his Cybertronian mode. I'm almost wondering if this was a cost-cutting measure-- sparing the animators the task of designing a TF sequence and vehicle mode for characters appearing in only one episode. I hope this doesn't mean he won't be getting a toy...

Speaking of probable non-toy characters, I'm not holding my breath for a Makeshift toy haunting the pegs any time soon. I was *so* jonesing for a fully lit look at his neutral robot mode (thinking he would have shifted back once his cover was blown, but no such luck). Hard to tell, but I *think* he might have just been a Roadster drone with a few more spiky bits adorning his body. Would have been neat if the 'Cons forces were bolstered with a permanent new cast member, but the nature of his ability makes him seem like a pretty blatant one-shot plot device dude... plus, it would appear he was blown to smithereens (Yeesh... these 'Bots really do have that Bayverse Autobot bloodthirstiness. Stapling a thermal bomb to a guy's pelvis... tha's sum cold slag right there.)

Alright already with giving a pair of katanas to every "teh awesome" character that comes down the turnpike! It's still *just* novel enough to have been cool in this case, but they are really pushing it.

I like how they got the Darkmount reference in there, *and* prominently featured an anecdote about its smelting pit. I'd like to think that was a little damage control on Hasbro's part to ameliorate any confusion that was caused by the legal woes of the Straxus toy (yeah, they did mentioned that he was named after his tower in the bio, but there's nothing wrong with driving the point home).

It's a little strange that there was absolutely no mention of the fact that Megatron is presumably recovering somewhere in the 'Con space cruiser and Starscream just carries on claiming he's the leader. I mean, yeah, that's exactly what he *would* do, but Soundwave perhaps giving a status update on Megs' conditioning to stick it to him might've been a good callback, especially since the 'Cons weren't featured at all last ep. I do, however, like that the running gag of no one, not even a Johnny-come-lately like Wheeljack, can even begin to take Screamer seriously as leader.

The dancing was unfortunate. Raf doing the robot I could almost give a pass to, but Mr. Darby was totally doing the Elaine Benes "Little Kicks" routine...

Prime "taking a drive" while the other Autobots are celebrating was pretty killer. Reminds me more of Rodimus blowing off steam in "Burden Hardest to Bear" than G1 Optimus (who, of course, spent his downtime on the basketball court), but that ain't a bad thing, by any means. TF:P Prime certainly has a bit more of Roddy's penchant for brooding.

Not quite as jazzed about this ep as I was expecting to be, but Wheeljack as a badass may grow on me (he *did* have that mostly unexplored character trait of being a stunt driver, whoch is pretty bad-ass so you could argue that this is just focusing on facets of the archetype that were previously untapped). It's more the bait-and-switch of introducing characters that don't join the core cast that's starting to grate on me. Imagine what Beast Wars would have been like if everything that came out of a stasis pod got slagged or ran off into the jungle before the intro ep ended.

J

[omegalaw]

I think that this is my favorite episode to date, I hope it does not stay that way. And by that I mean I hope the series just gets better and better.

[CobraCommander]

WJ design looks great. Too bad the opportunity was not taken to squish Miko :(

[UltraPrimal]

OMG! Forgot about the dancing! The dancing was so awesome! Bumblebee's got some boogie fever!

BTW, does anyone know where I can find an HD version of the episode for viewing?

[ConvoyGTR]

Huh... so Wheeljack's recast as a Drift-esque Wrecker, completely jettisoning the engineer/inventor persona. In some ways, he's closer to a homage to Energon Downshift than G1 Wheeljack. Still pretty awesome, all things considered, though I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that this would have been a *perfect* role for Springer to play.Ya, I was taken back too that he's not the engineer/inventor persona for this incarnation. And as you said, they could of substituted "Jackie" for any number of true warrior type bots like Springer and not have to revise the character. I'm still glad my 2nd fav Autobot behind Prime made a appearance and lived to talk about it. :primelaugh:

And dude, he has a mouth and his ears didn't blink when he talked! WTF?!?!!? :innocent:

A pet peeve I'm starting to have is the whole "battle mask" thing. Of course it's fine for Prime to have it becuz that is where it originated with Primal, but god, that doesn't mean EVERYONE has to have one!

Alright already with giving a pair of katanas to every "teh awesome" character that comes down the turnpike! It's still *just* novel enough to have been cool in this case, but they are really pushing it. Again, I was taken back by it too. It's still awesome, but the "cool" factor of it dies a bit with every Samurai-esque or Ninja-espue type bot that shows up.

It's more the bait-and-switch of introducing characters that don't join the core cast. I think this episode should of been called "bait and switch." I was fully expecting the format of this episode to follow the previous one and for Wheeljack to die:

- Wheeljack gets captured: Was expecting him to die like Cliffjumper or heroically sacrifices himself by the end of the episode.

- Prime "taking a drive": Was expecting that to be the artificial drama created like in the last episode with Prime and Arcee trapped in the arctic. I was thinking Prime would be attacked and in desperate need of a space bridge exit, while everyone at base would be preoccupied with fighting Makeshift and the console gets damaged in the crossfire, forcing Ratchet to do emergency repairs while shots are being fired all around him.

I thought it was going to be like past episodes where the show focuses on the events happening at the base and also on events happening outside that may or may not tie back to what's happening at the base.

- Miko giving away the location of the base: Was (and still) expecting her to somehow end up getting everyone killed, BUT in this case, it is not her fault because she doesn't know he's a spy. But it follows her pattern of putting everyone in danger because of her actions, one way or another, as it did in past episodes.

- The two Wheeljacks: I thought this was going to be nod to the G1 episode "A Prime Problem." And Bulkhead has to, like earlier, figure out who the real Wheeljack is and maybe they double team and send the fake packing his bags.

I'm happy that none of that happened and it was like the writers were aware of the cliches and tropes they were using again and again and turned the table on us.

Yes, I'm being super harsh on the show and not giving any credit to Orci and Kurtzman. I don't think they are very good writers (to be fair I've never seen Alias or much of Fringe), but that is a different discussion....

[Dragon Knight]

Only negative I could say about it was I was positive it was the real Wheeljack that got thrown through the space bridge. Maybe I need to rewatch it.


It was definitely Make Shift they threw into the ground bridge, because he began give the location of the base.

Though, this episode got me thinking: Can they make copies with the other Drones? Or is Make Shift special in some way?

[rhinoxmaximal]

I'm enjoying Transformers Prime. Great Episode.

The only Wheeljack I know is the inventor/scientist from G1 but with that said, I can accept Wheeljack as a wrecker. He's character, I think, was written well.

Now, let see more "actual" Cons.

[Goji_tron]

I'm enjoying Transformers Prime. Great Episode.

The only Wheeljack I know is the inventor/scientist from G1 but with that said, I can accept Wheeljack as a wrecker. He's character, I think, was written well.

Now, let see more "actual" Cons.


Yeah, and hopefully cons that actually stay alive through their first debut and not get killed quickly like how the ROTF Decepticons became red shirts. It would be nice if Skyquake comes back to life with Dark Energon and not become a zombie.

I was surprised that Wheeljack was a warrior class instead of a scientist, but he is still awesome. The epsode was awesome too. However, I was taken back a bit that he has a retractable face plate and not a permanent one. That retractable face plate gimmick reminds me of TFA characters with their faceplates. It is a shame that Makeshift didn't get a full appearance, but then again, it is okay since he just killed quickly in one episode.

[rhinoxmaximal]

I don't mind the retractable faceplate on Wheeljack. It's okay either way. What I do mind is all these deaths. Death is becoming so common that it's meaning less. I sure hope they find a more creative way to get rid of a character without killing them.

[Iacon]

A pet peeve I'm starting to have is the whole "battle mask" thing. Of course it's fine for Prime to have it becuz that is where it originated with Primal, but god, that doesn't mean EVERYONE has to have one!

Yeah, I know what you mean, but I'm not as bothered by it. It's still technically like having the best of both worlds, as you've got both a faceplate and mouth mode available-- mouths do emote a lot better in dramatic talking scenes, after all.

That said, I'm glad some characters, like Soundwave, are still just faceplate-only. I like the variety of some Cybertronians having totally non-humanoid faces (without them getting toy insectoid and Bayversy, that is). Speaking of 'Wave, I didn't notice at first, but his face is a blatant homage to the Decepticon symbol. I really dig that, since the rumour was always that the G1 symbol was loosely based on Soundwave's face (mostly in the crest in G1 'Wave), so the meta-textuality of that design is pretty tasty.


I'm happy that none of that happened and it was like the writers were aware of the cliches and tropes they were using again and again and turned the table on us.

Yes, I'm being super harsh on the show and not giving any credit to Orci and Kurtzman. I don't think they are very good writers (to be fair I've never seen Alias or much of Fringe), but that is a different discussion....

So the scripts are really written by Orci and Kurtzman, then? I'd assumed they were taking more of a executive show-runner role here, just 'cause the dialogue and plots are just so much *better* than the live-action films. I figured they hired another team of writers for the actual script, but I haven't been paying much atention to the credits. Maybe it's just a testament to the rumour that most of the crappy parts of ROTF were due to Michael Bay's rewrites...:banghead:

[Iacon]

Though, this episode got me thinking: Can they make copies with the other Drones? Or is Make Shift special in some way?

I was almost wondering if he was supposed to be one of Soundwave's "cassetticons" (or minions, in any case-- no point in any of them actually having cassette modes, natch), since he required 'Wave to connect and program his shapeshifting ability. Sure, he seems a little big to actually stow away in a compartment in 'Wave's body, but there's always mass-shifting...

Speaking of minions, I was watching "Darkness Rising" Part 3 again yesterday (Teletoon is really starting to piss me off, BTW. I can't believe they advertised a new ep of Renegades and then aired that old Making-Of Preview thing!! That's kookoo bananas!), and started to wonder about who Soundwave's partner (who kidnapped Fowler) is meant to be. I assumed he was Laserbeak, but he almost seems to have ears... could it be Ratbat...?

[Prowl_2009]

Another good episode I throughly enjoyed!

Hope we see Wheeljack again, the number of Transformers in this show needs to start growing in my opinion. :D

Loved the Wheeljack vs. Wheeljack sword fight and when Starscream's lacky got blown sky-high! :cool:

Totally awesome! :D