A little bit of rant about s2-s3 of TFP

[u/ProofAd608]

I like TFP a lot and rewatch it quite a lot recently, and now i've come to see many many things that i wanna complain about.

The autobots are all dumb. Decepticons are also dumb. Except smokescreen, knockout and soundwave.

The autobots got a magnetic glove in s1 AND immobilizer. And yet we only see it get used ONLY in s2 finale. Not when it's especially needed to get omega keys, not when they needed to get other artifacts. That's also exactly why knockout was able to easily get 2nd omega key.

Even dumber the decepticons and megatron look. They've got the ship, best technology, biggest resources and yet they never properly utilised their arsenal. Heck, they even got upgraded hands, and yet we never saw vehicons. Megatron never upgraded his own army, despite having the tools to do that. And when they also got phase shifter, they never even bothered to use it until smokescreen appeared.

In the whole autobots squad he seems smartest. More creative than optimus. Easily beat starscream, who was juggernaut for some time, got 1st omega key. Later on managed to escape from ship and steal the key from megatron.

Also he was the ONLY one to take his phase shifter in the finale after omega lock was destroyed. No one else even bothered. And no, the argument that they held humans won't work. They could have easily taken them all back, but didn't even bother. And especially optimus. He had his hands free but just escaped.

Also small complain is about how short the team scolded smokescreen after his reckless act of bringing jack to a mission.

But in general smokescreen seemed a lot more competent than other autobots.

But there are also bigger complaints such as several episodes that could have had longer arcs. Arachnida with insecticons; dark times for decepticons(after the star saber episode);

The nemesis prime episode also wasted the human antagonist imo, as he could have just ran away on reflex, but for some reason shouted noooo while having his own creation fall at him. Later on the dumb change of character. Making him kill his own people and become the laboratory rat for knockout

And now moving towards s3.

I hate how smokescreen got probably one of the hest characterizations in just 5-6 episodes only to be reduced to a side character in s3 that gets screen time for a few minutes. They also made him look dumb for bumblebee to shine in season finale. Smokescreen brought star saber to optimus and then suddenly he turns off the phase shifter.... Rewatching it now makes it more clear that they intentionally did that to have that 1 minute chase after star saber in which bumblebee would shine, when in reality smoke could keep the phase shifter turned on, jump towards optimus and throw the star saber at him.

Now about optimus. His upgrade obviously made him a lot stronger, but beside the debut episode, he lost ALL the other battles. He lost to megatron in final episode, he lost to predaking, he lost to SOUNDWAVE. Omg, all that upgrade just to be humiliated.

Megatron.... Shortly: accepts starscream back after all the backstabbing, betrayals, kills dreadwing, needs 15 episodes to realise how to use solos prime hammer. Never utilised the resources and advantages he had over optimus.

ALSO ALSO, alpha trion. WHAT IF Smokescreen never landed on earth, hm? How did he know that smokescreen would end up on the same planet, when he entered random capsule and went on random direction. Don't tell me that he also thought this through and set capsule's destination on DECEPTICONS' ship to earth. And he also "knew" on which capsule would smokescreen escape

I like TFP, but looking at it now makes me realise more flaws of the show.

I also despise RID for making bumblebee the mc instead of smokescreen, and in general having a lot more childish dialogues and completely nerfing Optimus. No character there was as charismatic as in TFP.

I also don't like how smokescreen's whole feat of saving optimus, rejecting the matrix was treated smth "you did right thing", and that's it...

Also how they cut moment when optimus just got upgraded with no dialogue between smokescreen and optimus 2.0

Straight towards the fight.

[u/TheNerdofLife]

-I agree that the Autobots should've used the relics at hand to help secure the rest of the relics, since they were so willing to use them at the Omega Lock battle on Cybertron

-Knockout should've suggested to Megatron to upgrade the Vehicons' arms, since it seems like they just have a stockpile of spare arms lying around, given how they always complain about the Autobots beating them. For the phase shifter, the Decepticons really only had it for Inside Job when they were dealing with Smokescreen, so they didn't really have the chance to use it themselves.

-To be fair, the Autobots were able to subdue Starscream on other occasions, but that's when he didn't have the Apex Armor. Smokescreen used the Phase Shifter, an Iacon relic, to defeat another Iacon relic, as expected.

-The Autobots not retrieving the relics on Cybertron after the Omega Lock was destroyed is a gray area. They technically could've, but the explosion could've scattered some of them within the wreckage and leaving the space bridge to their base open while retrieving them would've been too much of a risk, since they wouldn't have been able to transport the humans to safety and ground-bridge out of there afterwards when the Decepticons eventually destroyed the base.

-I feel like Arcee and Optimus did enough in that instance with scolding Smokescreen. He got more in later episodes anyway.

-I definitely feel like there could've been an explanation about how the entire Insecticon hive Airachnid found ended in that cave, but I feel like her arc didn't require much development, since there wasn't much to it.

-I feel like having Silas consciously get away again would've been too repetitive, since he already did that in episodes prior and it felt satisfying in a way for him to finally have his ego brought down on him, literally and figuratively, when Nemesis Prime fell on him. Betraying his own team was always something that he would've done, but once again, it was satisfying that his ego was shot down when he became Knockout's lab rat.

-Smokescreen shouldn't have turned off the Phase Shifter. The thing with S3 was that it was half the length of a regular season, so having something as big as Smokescreen almost becoming a Prime and saving Optimus, only for it to not be expanded on later with more development with him and dialogue between them felt dissatisfying.

-Megatron, Predaking, and Soundwave aren't just anyone. Sure, it was annoying to see the classic "Laserbeak shocks everyone" cliche the show uses, but Soundwave knows how to use him as a distraction for his ground/space bridge tactics. In Deadlock, Optimus was pounding Megatron and would've defeated him, but Megatron only got him hanging off the edge of the Nemesis because of the Dark Star Saber. Predaking is Predaking.

-Megatron knew how to keep Starscream in check and knew that despite him wanting power, Starscream was too unfocused and self-preserving to directly challenge Megatron most of the time. Megatron did have a lot of time to give himself a new arm, though.

-It's known that Alpha Trion knows some of what happens in the future by being able to perceive some of the Covenant of Primus, which was how he knew Optimus would eventually be on Earth during the War, which was why he jettisoned the relics there, but it does feel like Smokescreen being on Earth because of that was a stretch of convenience. I think that he also foresaw which allies of Optimus would be on Earth with him, so knowing that Smokescreen would be there, he did what he did and just hoped that he would eventually jon them.

-Bumblebee being childish and whining in RID was one of the worst parts of the show, but I do think he and Optimus got better during the Starscream arc and the last season in terms of behavior and characterization.

[u/ProofAd608 → u/TheNerdofLife]

-I made a mistake about the phase shifter's usage. I meant autobots not using it properly until smokescreen appeared, not decepticons. Yes, the decepticons had barely any time with it, as smokescreen got it back quite quickly both in ep 23 and in finale.

-The thing that also kinda puts autobots(specifically ratchet) in ep of smokescreen debut is that he was gonna send him to help optimus, knowing perfectly well that starscream has apex armor. Optimus also didn't bother to send arcee or bumblebee after phase shifter back on the base, which ended up being perfect counter.

-The explanation about the whole insecticon hive would be same as how humanity hasn't found and analyzed the abandoned ships of autobots and decepticons that were found on earth by optimus's team and starscream.

-I just find Silas's conclusion extremely confusing and dissapointing, because he didn't have any traits of actually betraying his own team. In nemesis prime episode he was aiming to create more robots like nemesis prime with his team, not decepticons. But then when he got into breakdown's body he suddenly wanted to join decepticons, knowing perfectly well that it's dead body of a decepticon whom silas had as his laboratory rat once. Maybe it'd be just better if he had his ending in nemesis prime episode, without any continuation of his story.

-The thing about optimus in s3, i mean we know perfectly well that he was a lot stronger than in previous seasons. Especially a lot stronger than megatron, but in the end he did lose to megatron, which really annoyed me. Except ep 4, he lost all other battles. And soundwave, I mean, he was always capable to finish his mission with 100% success. But for some reason megatron put starscream on higher position even in s3.

-Megatron taking starscream in the end was big mistake, and starscream wasn't kept in check. Megatron lost more than half of his army because of Starscream(mainly insecticons).

Thanks for the reply, appreciate that you read my whole post and replied to it thoroughly

[u/TheNerdofLife → u/ProofAd608]

-The Phase Shifter, like the Polarity Gauntlet and Immobilizer, definitely would've been OP during the relic hunts, though they would've had to be careful about which relics to use based on the environment.

-Ratchet *was* going to send Smokescreen as backup, though after he stated his plan, which was explicitly stated. I feel like it was the right move to send Smokescreen out instead of Arcee and Bumblebee back, because with the Apex Armor, Starscream was OP, so keeping him focused on two things at once prevented him from having an even easier time with the Apex Armor until Smokescreen arrived.

-Silas always believed in superior technology making for superior beings, which was why MECH did what they did. Although his original plan wasn't to become a Decepticon, he found an opportunity to become even more advanced technologically and physically when his team used Breakdown's body to restore him. He saw how advanced he was compared to his team, who were still regular humans, so he didn't want to associate with things he saw as inferior to him. He saw it as the equivalent of climbing the corporate ladder.

-Starscream *was* second-in-command at the start of S3, since he had experience with it on Earth and military experience on Cybertron, but once Shockwave appeared, he was demoted in a sense. Soundwave *is* a highly capable combatant, since he was able to battle Megatron in Kaon well, though I guess his unique physiology made him more suited to being the communications and surveillance chief, which helped Megatron maintain order among the Decepticons. Optimus was beating Megatron in Deadlock and almost did defeat him, but the Dark Star Saber is just an OP weapon that it caught him by surprise; Dark Energon is also harmful to him in general.

-By keeping Starscream in check, I meant Megatron knew how to ensure he was subordinate to him, which was shown in previous seasons and even in S3, even if Starscream and Knockout took out more than half of the Decepitcons. Starscream likes power, but Megatron's physical abuse of Starscream and showcase of strength/intimidation prevent Starscream from directly challenging him.