Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 22

 Beans, beans, the magical fruit...

I decided to pivot just because I want to see Superman (2025) one more time before I do a write up. So, more Beast Wars!

 

Last time on Beast Wars, things got spooky. The disembodied Spark of Starscream, Air Commander of the Decepticon Battle Fleet, arrived on the planet and possessed Waspinator. Using Waspinator’s body as his own, Starscream immediately tried to cozy up to Megatron, using recon information he gathered as a Spark to lead a raid on the Maximal base. They were able to overwhelm the Maximals with their surprise attack and take the base. Starscream was rewarded with command of the new outpost, and he immediately started scheming with Blackarachnia on how to take over. The Maximals regrouped and we learned that while Starscream is known to Maximals in this era, any specific info on him was classified by the Maximal Elders. Dinobot, thankfully, is a military history nut and gave them the basics on Starscream’s personality, namely he’s a treacherous worm that is always biting off more than he could chew. Optimus led the Maximals in a surrender and he and Dinobot are captured. Dinobot was brought in to use the CR Chamber for repairs. Using them as hostages, Starscream sent the Maximals to attack the Predicon base. Left alone for a bit, Optimus freed himself and gathered their extra weapons and ammo from storage. He and Dinobot drove Starscream and Blackarachnia from the base. Starscream arrived at the Predicon base to try to get the Maximals to keep fighting, but Optimus arrived and the two squared off. Optimus got Starscream on the ground and he immediately started to grovel like Starscream tends to do. He begs Blackarachnia for help, but she ends up betraying him, shooting a bit of Energon, destroying it, Waspinator’s body, and driving Starscream from it as well. While everyone recovered at their bases, Starscream was driven back out into space, the whole way shrieking he’ll have revenge.

 

We open on Rattrap and Dinobot doing some gardening. A local variety of wild bean vines is growing extremely quickly around the base and have basically turned the area around the Axalon into a small forest. Rattrap whines about having to do this kind of work and Dinobot tells him that they need to clear the plants to protect them from ambushes. He adds that one must always be prepared for sneak attacks. Because Rattrap is kind of a dick, he decides to show Dinobot the wisdom in his own words and launches a big bean at Dinobot’s ass when he’s distracted. This obviously pisses off Dinobot and the Predacon warrior tries to strangle him. This and these other interactions are so much funnier to me as an adult as I know Dinobot and Rattrap are both voiced by Scott McNeil, so he’s essentially fighting himself. Their fighting distracts them from hearing Rhinox warning them Predacons are inbound. And because they’re outside they can’t activate their autocannons to help. Rhinox says he’s going outside to help.

 

Inferno (who must have just gotten back from his vacation), Waspinator and Terrorsaur launch an aerial attack. Rhinox starts shooting at the fliers with his machine guns and tells the other two to get inside. Rattrap tells Dinobot, who is holding him by the throat, to get moving, but Dinobot is being obstinate today and refuses to flee from a fight. Rhinox yells at them both to shut up and get inside. And this commotion leaves them all too distracted to see Tarantulas sneak up and launch a dart. It looks like it was meant for Dinobot, but the shot is ever so slightly off and hits Rhinox in the face instead. The dart that was fired injects something into his mouth before falling off. Dinobot sends Tarantulas flying across the ground with his laser eyes before Rattrap makes him help get Rhinox inside. Once they’re clear, Optimus activates the autocannons and the Predacons fall back, Terrorsaur announcing that their mission is complete.

 

They get Rhinox in the CR chamber and Sentinel determines he’s been infected with an Energon Discharge virus. To put it simply, the virus gives him the hiccups. A case so severe that the constant hiccupping and occasional sneezing he’s doing will eventually use up all the Energon in his system and kill him. To make matters worse the sneezes are so powerful that Rhinox actually destroys the CR Chamber’s pod before it can do any more complex scans. Rhinox then has an extremely powerful hiccup that blows a hole through the base and hits a fleeing Terrorsaur in the ass. His hiccups damage a bunch of other stuff before Cheetor suggests he get in Beast Mode. Rhinox does and that seems to work… for a minute before he hiccups some more. Dinobot suggest they move him somewhere with less fragile stuff around. Optimus scans Rhinox with a hand scanner and says that Rhinox’s powercells are depleting fast, they need to find a cure quickly or they’ll lose him and the base.

 

Dinobot and Rattrap set out in Beast Mode to find Tarantulas. Rattrap is skeptical this will work, but Dinobot insists he did a LOT of damage to Tarantulas in that last fight so he should still be nearby. And that he’ll no doubt have the counter-virus. Rattrap says that he better hope so for his own sake. They start fighting over who’s fault this situation is, which devolves into calling each other names. Cheetor is listening over coms and grumbles that they call HIM the immature one. He asks Optimus if it was a good idea to send them out together. Optimus admits it probably wasn’t, but their squabbling keeps causing problems, so they’ll either learn to work together or destroy each other. And given the current situation, Rhinox’s hiccups blowing another hole in the ceiling as he speaks, he admits either option works.

 

Dinobot’s nose picks up smell of rotted death and corruption. Rattrap jokes he had a limburger sandwich for lunch, so sue him. Dinobot says he’s been uncomfortably aware of his odor for an hour, but this is different. He points out Tarantulas, who does a Looney Tunes style dash away from his hiding place to try to escape them. Dinobot and Rattrap chase him, both arguing over who gets to fight him. Tarantulas launches himself off a hill, and Dinobot and Rattrap follow, transforming midleap. He seems to disappear for a second, but then a pit opens under the two bots, and they drop. They slide down into a cave system. As they go, they knock a boulder loose. They land at the bottom and Tarantulas leaps out, saying that “The playground is closed, MINIMALS!” as if sensing that horrible pun, the boulder the two knocked loose rolls down and slams Tarantulas into a wall. Lots of Looney Tunes slapstick in this one.

 

Back at the base, Optimus and Cheetor have jerry-rigged some jumper cables from the base to Rhinox, keeping his power cells charged. But the drain on the ship is already massive, their power is down 20%. And, Optimus adds, the hiccups aren’t doing much for the décor. But they need to keep his energy up until Rattrap and Dinobot get back with the counter-virus. Which isn’t great as Cheetor isn’t picking them up on the proximity scanners. Optimus sighs and says they may need to get Tigertron and Airazor so they can take their complaints to Megatron personally.

 

Rhinox lets out one more massive hiccup, which can be seen from the Darksyde. Megatron is impressed that the virus worked, which Terrorsaur confirms further by gesturing to his burnt tail. Megs orders more of the virus to be whipped up to infect the other Maximals, only to learn that Tarantulas isn’t back yet, and while Blackarachnia could in theory make more, Tarantulas has all of his computer files encoded so she wouldn’t know where to start. He orders them to find him as he wants that virus now.

 

We cut to Dinobot and Rattrap dragging an unconscious Tarantulas through his tunnel network looking for an exit. Dinobot gets frustrated and kicks his body. Rattrap yells at him to not damage the merchandise as they need Tarantulas to get the counter-virus. Their yelling wakes up Tarantulas, who tries to pull a blaster on them, but they both just punch him in the face, knocking him out again.

 

The Predacons search Tarantulas’ lab. There’s a funny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sight gag of Tarantulas having Megatron’s face on a dartboard with several darts in it. The proximity alarm starts going off and the Preds prepare for their arrival.

 

Dinobot and Rattrap continue to follow the tunnels. Rattrap asks if he’s got any better ideas, which Dinobot says no, but he hates the idea of dying in a tunnel lacks a warrior’s dignity. Rattrap tells him not to worry, as he won’t let anyone besides himself to take Dinobot out. Blackarachnia watches them arguing over the security cameras and warns Megatron that they’re about to have company.

 

Back at the Axalon, Airazor flies in. Optimus tells the cat duo that they can’t wait any longer for the others, so they’ll have to launch an assault on the Darksyde. Rhinox comes down and says that he’s coming too. Cheetor asks if that’s a good idea, and Rhinox counters that if he’s going to wreck the place, he’d prefer damaging Predacon Property. Unfortunately, his power cells are basically drained so he has no strength left. Optimus tells him to get into beast mode and eat something to keep his energy up. Rhinox does as Optimus transforms and joins Airazor in the sky. The plan is for them to distract the Predacons with their aerial assault while the cats sneak in. Rhinox, meanwhile, decides the beans smell not bad and starts gobbling them up. They must be real tasty as he eats a whole plant in like 15 seconds.

 

In Tarantulas’ lab, Blackarachnia opens Tarantulas’ chemical storage and gets the Counter-Virus. She goes to smash it, but Megatron stops her, saying that a bargaining chip shouldn’t be wasted until the game is over. He adds his rhetorical “Yessss” to the end of it. In a funny meta moment, Blackarachnia asks why he’s always talking to himself like that and Megatron quickly adds that it’s the only way he can have intelligent conversation around here. The proximity alarm goes off, and Inferno, Waspinator, and Terrorsaur unload on the cave entrance. They miss horribly as they aren’t even at the entrance yet. Dinobot tells Rattrap to cover him, and he takes Tarantulas in a human shield grab. While Dinobot walks out, Rattrap sees a pipe and has an idea.

 

Dinobot announces that he has a hostage, but Megatron immediately shoots his science officer. He asks if Dinobot has any other stupid maximal ploys he wants to try. Just as Rattrap drops from the pipe and disarms several of the preds with his rifle. Before they can react, Rhinox sneezes a hole in Tarantulas’ lab. For some reason, the Maximals are in like a movie poster pose, complete with Airazor kneeling and holding onto Optimus’ leg like she’s a Bond girl. Weird references in this one. Megatron threatens to destroy the Counter-Virus if they don’t all get into beast mode. They all comply. Megatron gloats to Blackarachnia that the bargaining chip worked perfectly. Rhinox sits down as we hear indigestion noises. Optimus asks what’s wrong and Rhinox tells him that he’s having trouble digesting the wild bean vines. He turns, which really pisses off Megatron as he doesn’t like having a Maximal rhino butt in his direction. … Right before Rhinox lets out an Energon enhanced fart so powerful it creates a mushroom cloud visible from space. The Maximals fall back, with Rattrap grabbing the counter-virus.

 

Back at the base, they’re making repairs while Rattrap and Dinobot continue to bicker. Rhinox starts to sneeze again, everyone preparing for another Energon discharge, but it’s just a normal sneeze that knocks him off his feet. Everyone has a good laugh.

 

We cut to Megatron, who admits that this was the most humiliating defeat of his entire career. The shot pulls back to reveal that he and the other Predacons are all stuck in a tree, several miles from their base and are all extremely damaged by that gigaton fart.

 

The fact this episode ends in a fart joke doesn’t lower it in my estimation. Yes, they are the lowest form of comedy, but at least they built up to that finale. This episode had a lot of Looney Tunes and slapstick comedy moments in it. I wonder if that was a studio directive or they just felt like trying out a more gag-filled episode for some reason. Dinobot and Rattrap have been fighting basically since Dinobot joined the team, and I’ll be honest, I like that the episode doesn’t change that. Normally with this style of episode, the two bickering characters bond over the course of their adventure, learn to respect each other and to not get on each other’s nerves as much by the end. Usually only to revert to their same relationship the next episode. Rattrap and Dinobot don’t do that. They bickered to start the episode, in the middle, and to end it. That’s their relationship. They do have a certain degree of begrudging respect for each other, but that doesn’t affect their love of constantly sniping at each other. Which, let’s be honest, is true to life. There are people that just like to argue with each other, and no character-building adventure will change that, so why pretend otherwise? The virus is a solid one-off plot, being incredibly damaging with its effects, but one can assume it’s basically useless after the Maximals get the counter-virus. Even if Tarantulas make more, they have the start of a cure, so again, why bother in making more? I suppose maybe there could be some rare element to the virus, like what I normally assume when we do these one-off technology plots, but since that was never mentioned, I’ll assume that its lack of effectiveness why they never try the hiccup virus again. Finally, I’ll point out that this episode is entitled “The Low Road.” One can assume this is a double meaning, in that a good chunk of the episode occurs in Tarantulas’ tunnel network, a literal low road, and because the episode ends on a fart joke, the lowest form of comedy. I’m impressed by layered writing like that. Have a good night, everyone!

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬

Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 21

 A Blast from the Past.

I truly racked my brain trying to think of what I wanted to do for today for a post. I didn’t really want to do another X-Man: TAS episode as the next story is a multipart arc and I’d prefer to just devote an entire month of posts to that. Then I remembered I did a bunch of Beast Wars episodes and where we last left off was a good one, so here we go again!

 

Last time on Beast Wars, the Maximals had a difficult journey. Ambushed by Scorponok and Waspinator, an Energon deposit blew up in the faces of Rhinox, Rattrap, Cheetor and Dinobot, severely damaging their bodies and leaving them all blind. They had to make the journey across the wilderness to make it back to base and get some repairs. Rhinox takes command as his calm demeanor keeps the rest of his friends from panicking despite the terrifying situation. They’re attacked by an anaconda that nearly kills Cheetor but are able to free him and kill it. They make it most of the way to base before they’re attacked by Terrorsaur, who’d been sent out to finish them off after they lost Waspinator and Scorponok. Rhinox guides his allies to fight the flying lizard by having them picture a targeting grid in their minds and shouting coordinates at them. They take Terrorsaur down and make enough noise to get Tigertron’s, who’d been searching for them along with Optimus, attention and they’re taken back to base for repairs. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The episode opens with a shot of space. From the infinite blackness comes a flashing light, one that is revealed to be a disembodied Spark, the soul/brain of all Cybertronian lifeforms. It makes a beeline for the planet and enters the atmosphere. Planet side there’s a massive storm brewing as lightning strikes the Axalon. The ship has taken several strikes already, with Sentinel warning the Maximals the shields were damaged. Fearing the worst, Optimus orders the spare weapons and ammo stored in the hold under their armored flooring. The Darksyde isn’t faring any better, taking several lightning strikes of their own. The Spark uses one to enter the ship’s systems. The surge blasts Waspinator from his workstation. Megatron demands to know the damage report, and Waspinator initially starts to tell his boss how he’s doing before Megs tells him to shut up and tell him about the damage to the ship. Scorponok radios in and says they’ve got an electrical fire on their lower deck. Back at the Axalon, they get the weapons and ammo stored right before Rattrap radios Optimus and Rhinox to ask if they want the bad news or the worse news. Waspinator can’t get his terminal working again, he hits it a few times before the screen starts going haywire moaning “Waspinator does not understand.” An emblem resembling a pair of eyes appears on it and a voice shrieks “I’ll bet Waspinator seldom does. But try not to let that depress you bug face!” before something possesses Waspinator. For whatever reason Terrorsaur watches the last of this and laughs.  

 

Rattrap shows the others there’s a giant hole in the side of the ship from that last lightning strike. Which is only the bad news. The worse news is that the strike also took out all the cameras AROUND the giant hole, so they’ve got just a gaping access point right now. Optimus hopes the Predacons have their own problems thanks to this storm.

 

The smoke clears from the Darksyde, Megatron ordering someone to figure out what happened to Waspinator. Waspinator presents himself, in the lightning strikes we see Waspinator swap between himself and a very iconic red fighter jet robot. Megatron wonders what happened to his voice, as it’s now several octaves higher. He offers to introduce himself, announcing that he is in fact Air Commander Starscream of the Decepticons! Megatron calls his minions together, and Terrorsaur does confirm he saw something jump into Waspinator. Blackarachnia points out that Starscream is supposed to be ancient history. Starscream says he is ancient, but not history. They give a history lesson for the kids that didn’t see the original show, that the Decepticons and Autobots were the ancestors of the Predacons and Maximals and they also warred against each other. The annals of Cybertron state the Starscream was destroyed in the conflict. He tells the Predacons that he was killed defending his leader Galvatron from the planet sized Transformer Unicron. His body was destroyed but his Spark somehow endured and traveled through deep space before arriving here. He swears his loyalty to Megatron and to fight as one of his lieutenants. Megatron, not an idiot, asks why he should trust Starscream, and Starscream says that he can help Megatron defeat the Maximals once and for all.

 

We cut to the Axalon, Cheetor is on watch, remarking how Energon Storms don’t really do much for the scenery. He spies a Cyberbee flying by, transforming and fires at it. Inside, Rhinox says they can fix that hole in the wall, but it’ll take time. Cheetor radios in to report about the Predacons spying on them.

 

After confirming that Starscream was telling the truth about the damage to the Axalon, Megatron is willing to listen to his plan. Starscream insists they take this time to attack. Megatron wonders if being in space that long has affected Starscream’s mind, as they’ll be expecting an attack right now. Starscream then reveals his brilliant strategy, to attack from the Northeast, on the opposite side from the hole, explaining that the Maximals will concentrate all their forces by the hole and thus leave everything else unguarded.

 

The attack goes just as Starscream had proposed, with him and Blackarachnia slipping in and attacking first. Optimus berates himself for not thinking of this and Megatron announces they finally agree on something. They all try to shoot at Starscream and are shocked when Waspinator’s body flies circles around them. Cheetor asks when the bugbrain got moves like that and Starscream announces his possession of Waspinator’s body. Dinobot shouts that that is impossible and gets shot in the back while distracted. Optimus orders they fall back for now. Rattrap complains, but that’s nothing new. Optimus grabs Dinobot and flies through Terrorsaur to get them out. Airazor, who missed the fight but noticed the retreat, flies off to get Tigertron, realizing this is an all hands-on deck situation.

 

Megatron along with the other Predacons celebrate their conquest. To reward Starscream for his help in this coup, Megatron names him leader of their new outpost, leaving Scorponok and Blackarachnia under his command and ordering Tarantulas and Terrorsaur back to base with him. Inferno is on vacation this week, I guess. When Terrorsaur complains, Megatron nearly crushes his head and tosses him aside. Starscream says that his reward is service, with Blackarachnia already guessing this is a lie. Megatron isn’t completely certain of his loyalty either, so tells Scorponok to keep an eye on him.

 

The Maximals regrouped in the woods near the base. Cheetor sulkily says that he’s sure a Predacon is looking through his stuff right this second. Rattrap tells him to go tell someone to care. Optimus finishes looking over Dinobot, saying that he’ll recover. Dinobot tells him they should have stayed and fought to the bitter end. Optimus agrees it would have been a bitter end, but they can’t fight about this right now. He lets us know that the situation is bad in no small part because any information on Starscream was deemed classified by the Maximal elders, a plot point we’ll get back to someday. Dinobot, thankfully, is a former Predacon and a student of military history. He tells his allies about Starscream’s key personality traits, ie, he’s a deceitful schemer and is widely considered to be the greatest traitor in Decepticon history. The fact that you can’t trust Starscream by himself for even five minutes gives Optimus an idea.

 

Meanwhile, Airazor catches up with Tigertron and gives him the scoop on what’s happening.

 

At the Axalon, Blackarachnia confronts Starscream, saying she studied Decepticon history and knows that Starscream was executed by Galvatron himself, not Unicron. Starscream shrieks that Galvatron was a fool and he deserved to rule. Three hundred years later and the bot still holds that grudge. He asks why Blackarachnia didn’t expose him, and she says she hoped he’d make her a better offer. Starscream thinks he’s just earned himself a protegie since Blackarachnia is showing off some of his favorite qualities in himself. Scorponok arrives and says that the Maximals are approaching.

 

The Maximals arrive carrying Dinobot on a litter. Optimus transforms and says they’re here to surrender. As they wait for the Predacons to arrive, Dinobot stirs and Rattrap yells at him to act more injured as he’s supposed to be half dead. They bicker for a minute before Tigertron tells them both to zip it. Starscream arrives with his subordinates, he says that this is awfully convenient. Optimus says that they have no choice as Dinobot is heavily damaged and needs time in one of the CR chambers. Starscream accepts this and has Optimus bring Dinobot inside. He tells Blackarachnia that the first lesson is to always show compassion, it helps to hide your true nefarious intentions. They bring Dinobot into the CR chamber and then Starscream orders Optimus disarmed, chained in beast mode and locked in the hold. And Optimus just smiles to himself.

 

Starscream announces to the Maximals that Dinobot and Optimus will be executed unless they follow his orders. Tigertron snarls at him that they’d had a deal, and Starscream shrugs and says now they have new one. He orders the Maximals to attack the Predacon base. Scorponok tries to stop this coup, but he gets shot by both Starscream and Blackarachnia and sent flying. Rattrap calls him a scheming snake in the grass, and Starscream says that flattery will get him flattened. The Maximals move out.

 

In the hold, Optimus says he’s been betrayed, shackled and caged… so, so far, so good. He uses his Gorilla strength to rip himself free and then reveal the hidden weapons cache under his feet.

 

The Maximals begin to attack the Darksyde. Starscream tells Blackarachnia that lessons 2 is that they’re always more gullible than you’d hope. Optimus then charges in and says lesson 3 is to disregard lessons 1 and 2. He shoots at them, popping the CR chamber to get Dinobot out to even the odds. Starscream announces that that was impressive but still has his superior tactics and speed. He rushes out the window, leaving Blackarachnia behind but she quickly follows. Optimus tries to radio the others but there’s too much interference. He flies off to get into range.

 

Rattrap and Cheetor try to get close to the Darksyde but set off the proximity defenses. They call for Rhinox help and he lays covering fire as best he can. Rhinox knows this is suicide and calls a retreat. Starscream then flies in and orders them to attack. Optimus flies ahead of him and says that Starscream is giving space debris a bad name. The other Maximals want to help, but Optimus says that Starscream is his. Starscream fires on Optimus, but he dodges the shots and punches Starscream in the face, causing him to hit a rock. Megatron is watching from the command center and announces that he’ll melt down both Starscream and Blackarachnia to use their hides for aluminum siding. Optimus has Starscream on the ground with his weapon raised. Starscream, consummate coward, tries to talk his way out of the situation, suggesting they can work together. Not noticing there’s a shard of Energon near his head. He turns and shrieks at Blackarachnia to help him, thinking they can win together. Blackarachnia asks if all of his dreams are in technicolor and raises her blaster, aiming it at the Energon. Waspinator starts to have an Energon surge and shrieks that she betrayed him. She says she studied with the best. Optimus says “Hasta la Vista, Starscream,” flying away just before Blackarachnia’s bolt strikes. The explosion it causes is massive.

 

Later, Megatron puts Waspinator back together. Back to normal, the Predacons resident punching bag announces that he has a headache in his whole body. Blackarachnia explains that she was only cozying up to Starscream to get him to reveal his plans and that she’d never betray Megatron. Megatron clearly doesn’t believe it but is willing to let it go this time.

 

The Maximals repair the base. Optimus asks if Cheetor if he’s going to help. He says he’s taking some time to just see if there are any new constellations. He then says “Twinkle, twinkle little Starscream.”

 

We see Starscream’s Spark fly from the planet. He is screaming to the void that he’ll be back, and even if it takes a thousand years, he’ll have his revenge.

 

Growing up this was one of my favorite episodes of the original Beast Wars season. Starscream was one of my favorite G1 Transformers so seeing him here was just a treat. I didn’t know a lot about him back then, but I’d seen the ‘86 Transformers: The Movie by this point so I knew most of his lore. For those who might not have, the movie began with the Decepticons performing an all-out assault on Autobot City, their capital on Earth. In the fighting, Optimus was killed along with most of the original Autobots, and Megatron was grievously wounded. Starscream personally threw him out of their transport on the flight back to Cybertron and then won the battle royal the Decepticons had for their new leader. He was crowned king (I guess) and ruled the Decepticons for about 15 seconds before Galvatron, Megatron’s upgraded form after striking a deal with Unicron, shot him through the chest and killed him. In the third season, he returned as a spirit, possessing Transformers and working for Unicron in order to get a new body. His body is restored, but he’s shot again and left drifting out in space. Apparently, his body has broken down over the centuries leaving him a disembodied Spark again. Starscream’s original voice actor, Christopher Charles Collins, also originally voiced Cobra Commander on GI Joe, but sadly passed away in ‘94 at the age of 44 from encephalitis. This Starscream was voiced by Doug Parker, who voiced Terrorsaur. Since Terrorsaur was already clearly inspired by Starscream, this was an easy casting decision, I’m sure. He can’t go quite as high, or maybe shrill is the better word, in his register as Collins could but it’s an extremely good impersonation. I liked the showcase of Starscream, both his pros (ie he’s a brilliant tactician and solid fighter) as well as his cons (he is INCAPABLE of following anyone long term unless he’s scared of them). While he’s full of himself, he’s not wrong that he’s an excellent warrior and strategist, it’s just his utter lack of loyalty or backbone makes it that regardless of era, no one is following him for long. A small detail I liked is that, usually, Waspinator has the Predacon insignia on either side of his head. When he’s possessed by Starscream, that symbol is somehow reshaped into the old Decepticon logo. Like his body has to reflect that part of his Spark or something. It was interesting to see how Starscream was viewed by Cybertronian history. Again, for reasons I’ll explain in season 2, his history is classified among the Maximals, and he’s the Decepticon’s greatest traitor. And yet it must not be important enough for him to be common knowledge. Considering Blackarachnia was a MAXIMAL Protoform until she was reprogrammed, she only could have learned about Starscream from their archives on the planet. So, the information was there, I guess everyone else was too lazy to do the research. His defeat was suitably epic, and I enjoyed that Optimus was able to so quickly figure out a strategy to overcome Starscream. At the end of the day, he’s his own worst enemy after all. And that’s all I have to say about that. Next time… it might be high time to talk about the Big Blue Boy Scout once again. See you then.  

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬

Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 62

 Christmas time in 95.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Logan’s past was… investigated. Logan had been suffering from worsening nightmares and hallucinations for several weeks after receiving a letter in the mail of him and a Native woman hugging. The photo had coordinates for southern Canada written on the back and he headed for them, Hank following behind to give his buddy backup. At the facility they run into Sabretooth who’d also been lured there and also been suffering from nightmares and headaches. We’re introduced to two former teammates of theirs, Maverick and Silver Fox, Silver Fox being the woman from the photo and Logan’s ex. They enter deeper into the facility and learn that much of their past was created on a soundstage. The doctor in charge of the Weapon X project, Hudson, had devised a truly sadistic brainwashing program in order to make the perfect sleeper soldiers. Basically, Logan and co were pumped full of drugs and put into scenario after scenario to create fake traumatic memories to bury their covert ops training into their psyches. It’s implied some of what they experienced is real, as Hudson says experiences similar to their actual traumas encode best. They enter a secret door that needed all four of them to unlock, which turned out to be the last failsafe Hudson built. It activated a robot called Talos that was supposed to capture, sedate and reinstall their programming. They’re able to beat Talos and escape. Logan tries to talk to Fox, saying that some part of their past together must be real. A cabin they remember living together in was on the soundstage, but Logan insists that it can’t all be made up as the door didn’t have their names carved in it, a detail they both remember. Fox tells him to forget her as that was a lifetime ago. He and Hank leave together, missing the tree with “Logan + Silver Fox” carved into it in a heart. How sad. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open on the X-Men singing carols as they decorate the tree. Specifically, Scott, Rogue and Jubilee. Logan meanwhile is sitting before the fire and being grumpy. Jubilee asks him to help with the tree and singing, but he tells her that the day he sings a carol is the day pigs fly and walk off. Scott and Rogue tell her not to take it personally, Logan hate holidays and there’s no use ruining their fun to try to get him to not be a humbug. Rogue flies Jubilee up to the top of the giant tree to put on the star. In the kitchen, Jean and Gambit are fighting over how to prepare Christmas dinner. Jean’s advocating for ‘traditional’ meals, whereas Gambit’s Cajun Roots are DEMANDING more spice. It ends with Gambit falling over and getting soaked in water, insisting Jean still doesn’t know anything about Christmas dinner, but she laughs so it’s all good. Hank meanwhile is doing some holiday chemistry in his lab, upside down as he so often likes to be. He seems to enjoy his non-alcoholic eggnog. We pull out to view Charles and Ororo watching everyone from the War Room’s cameras. Charles is enjoying the night, but Ororo is restless for some reason that she can’t figure out why. Before they can psychoanalyze her, there’s a disturbance of some kind that shakes the mansion. The team all scramble to figure out what just happened.

 

They reach Beast’s lab and see him covered in goo, him saying that I’s his cranberry glaze. His chemistry experiment blew up in his face, it seems. Logan is the last to arrive and is disappointed to learn that it’s not an attack. He says he needs to get out of the house before the Christmas season makes him sick. Jubilee says that she and Ororo are going to do some Christmas Eve shopping and begs Logan to come with them. He begrudgingly agrees, saying that he’d have better luck fighting Sabretooth than fighting her. The trio do some shopping; Jubilee especially is excited to be able to celebrate with a real family for once. After their shopping trip, they go to a skating rink and do some skating, Logan still being grumpy. That is until he smells something burning and realizes something is about to go down. Not a minute later an ambulance crashes through a wall and nearly crashes into everyone. Storm stops it with a summoned tornado and has it gently touch down. Two Morlocks get out, Ape (shapeshifting powers) and Annalee (telepathic). They rip the doors off the back of the ambulance and search around. Logan says that stealing an ambulance has made the Morlocks sink real low. The cops pull up and Logan tries to stop them. Storm flies in and they talk to her. Remember, Storm is their absentee ruler after all. They explain that Leech, the youngest Morlock with a green, reptilian-looking appearance and the ability to drain energy, is extremely sick. They’re trying to find a way to help him, but they don’t know what he has. They tried to take him to a hospital, but his powers were going haywire, and they refused to treat him. Annalee begs for Ororo’s help and she agrees. She holds the cops off with a blizzard burst and they follow the Morlocks.

 

They enter the sewers and head to the Morlock’s camp. Calisto greets them and shames Ororo for not being around as the Morlock queen. They agree to a ceasefire for the moment, needing to focus on Leech. Ororo orders Logan to prep Leech for transport and she’ll carry him to the mansion for Hank to look after. Logan has been a field medic, so this is a solid plan. Unfortunately, Logan determines that Leech is in a bad way already and he’ll never survive the trip. Jubilee meets and hugs a little Morlock girl named Mariana. Jubilee begs Logan to do something, as he’s so good at healing himself. Logan says that Leech isn’t like him… but maybe… He tries to back off the idea, but everyone demands he elaborate. He admits that a transfusion of his blood might work to save Leech. He’s tried it before but says that it only worked twice out of twenty-two tries. 10% is still a chance, though, so Ororo insists they try. She gets a transfusion kit from the medical supplies they stole and tells Logan to get started on a transfusion while she goes to get Hank. Logan’s still obstinate and points out Leech wouldn’t be in trouble if Ororo kept a better eye on the Morlocks. She accepts that verbal slap but begs him to help. They have Ape shift into a table to give Logan a flat surface to lay beside Leech and get started. Mariana asks if Leech will be okay and Jubilee asks if she believes in miracles. Shockingly, the Mutant living in the sewer doesn’t know what those are, but Jubilee says hopefully they’ll see one soon.

 

Back at the mansion, Gambit’s in trouble for ‘juicing up’ the ham. Jean demands this “swamp rat” out of the kitchen. Before the fighting can get any worse, Charles comes in and tells them to move it. Specifically, he tells Rogue to fly Hank to the Morlock ASAP.

 

In the sewers, they begin the transfusion. Everyone is worried and Logan begs Leech to help him out and survive this one. Mariana takes Jubilee to see the Morlock Christmas tree, which is a damaged artificial tree in a can. Mariana asks if she thinks it’s pretty and Jubilee says it’s the most beautiful thing ever. Mariana shows Jubilee their dinner, saying that Leech got both the tree and the ingredients for the soup before he got sick. She asks Jubilee to stay for dinner. Ororo comes in and they all head over to check how Leech is doing. Jubilee whispers to Ororo asking how they can survive like this, and Ororo gives a platitude about how every day is Christmas when you’re with people you love. Really not feeling that with the people forced to live in the sewers, but whatever. The transfusion doesn’t seem to be working, Logan shouts that he told them so, and nearly storms off but Hank arrives and says he may need Logan’s help. Hank begins to examine Leech. He tells Calisto, who’s pissed, that Logan’s healing powers are incredible but poorly understood and unreliable in terms of being transferable. Thankfully, it sees to work this time as Leech opens his eyes. Ororo demands Calisto hand over the scepter of power, the symbol of Morlock leadership. She renounces her position of Leader and hands back the position to Callisto. She realizes that she can’t lead these people like they need, but knows Callisto is right for the job. Logan thanks Leech for surviving, which sparked a bit of hope in him. Ororo apologizes to Logan for snapping at him earlier, saying that she shouldn’t have questioned his willingness to help a child. Everyone decides to stay with the Morlocks for Christmas Eve dinner, Jubilee giving them her last minute shopping gifts in celebration. Gambit is irate at the idea that the others aren’t coming back for dinner, as he and I quote “Does not make TV dinners.” Jubilee calls Charles and lets him know that they won’t be making it back and he tells her he understands. And that her gift of generosity makes him so proud.

 

Meanwhile I’m sitting here and wondering why the hell aren’t they transporting the Morlocks to the Mansion for dinner? It’s not THAT far and they’ve got a literal feast!

 

It’s an extremely basic Christmas episode. An emergency causes a younger character to learn the true meaning of Christmas and helps instill a feeling of hope in a grump. That’s all this one is when you break it down to the base level. I do like that they decided to bring back in the Morlocks and tie off this existing plot thread that Ororo is the queen of the Morlocks but has apparently not been to see them even once since beating Calisto. Storm is a great leader but even the best leader is terrible in absentia. While Calisto was borderline psychotic in her first episode, she’s mellowed out since then and does seem to truly have the Morlock’s best interest at heart. I really don’t have a lot to say about this episode. It’s just… basic. Not terrible, not groundbreaking, it just IS. Part of me wishes that TV shows didn’t feel obligated to do Christmas episodes at all, but that’s the society we live in. That’s all I have to say about that. Still figuring out what the rest of the month will be, you’ll see my decision tomorrow. Have a good one!  

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬

Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 61

 Trauma is a powerful thing, it seems.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Logan ran off to Japan. Feeling extremely angry and like he’d lost his purpose, Logan ran off to Japan to live and work at a monastery he’d stayed at sometime in the path. He found peace in construction and living a slower life. This peace was ruined by the Silver Samurai and his gang extorting the villagers for protection money. Logan felt extremely conflicted about getting involved as he liked the inner peace that he’d achieved working at the monastery but ultimately decided that protecting people is his purpose, so he won’t resist the urge to fight anymore. He dueled and defeated Silver Samurai, saving the village and ultimately kissing a girl he spoke with three times. He ended up returning to the X-Men with Jubilee, who’d come to find him. Enough Recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

I should note before we begin that this story canonically takes place before the last episode “Lotus and the Steel.” “Weapon X, Lies and Video Tape” first premiered on June 11^th 1995, and “Lotus and the Steel” premiered on February 3^rd of 1996. No idea why they’re put in this order after the fact, shows are screwy like that.

 

We open on a snowy forest landscape. Logan is fighting Sabretooth in a cabin. Sabretooth isn’t in his costume for once and is instead in flannel which feels so weird to me. There’s a woman with them, she’s Silver Fox, who tells Logan that Sabretooth is crazy before passing out. Sabretooth sticks his finger in a celebration cake they’d hand and licks it clean, sarcastically asking Logan if he can’t take care of his woman. Logan charges him before we pull out and learn this is all a nightmare he’s having. Logan is in reality completely strapped down to a bed in the medical bay as Scott, Jean and Hank watch Charles try to get control of the situation. We learn that Charles had put mental blocks in place to help Logan deal with these nightmares but they’ve seemed to have all broken. Charles gets hit with psychic feedback that knocks him out and Logan breaks free. Scott tries to reach out to stop his friend, but he sees Sabretooth and tries to slice him. Jean psychically shoves Scott out of the way. Logan runs off, Beast going after him with Jean asking him to stop him but be careful. Beast can’t reach him in time, though, and Logan drives off in his jeep.

 

Sometime later, Jean enters Logan’s room and looks though a collection of photos he has. They seem to be of all the women he’s loved in recent years, we see the Scott-removed picture of Jean, one of Yuriko aka Lady Deathstrike before her claws, Heather Hudson (wife of Vindicator of Alpha Flight), and one of him and Silver Fox who we just saw in his nightmare. Hank walks by and Jean calls him over. She reveals that she’d that postcard to Logan two weeks ago when it came in the mail, which is right when he started to have his breakdown. She’s sure that’s what triggered it, she’d seen Silver Fox in Logan’s mind earlier, and notes that there are coordinates written on the back. Hank agrees that Logan is probably headed that way, to southern Canada. She asks Hank to go after him, to which he agrees.

 

Logan reaches the coordinates, which appears to be… shockingly, a government facility. He breaks in and walks into the facility through the giant hole in the wall… which, ya know, he put in it. He finds the laboratory where they’d bonded the adamantium to his skeleton. He has a flashback to the process, where he’d been stuck in a tube and hand the liquid metal injected into his body while Professor Hudson (not named here but that’s his name) observed. Logan woke up mid-procedure and broke free. He tried to gut Hudson, but the coward escaped. Logan is brought out of his flashback by Hank, who he also tries to gut because he’s in a berserk frenzy. Hank dodges a stab from Logan, who hits a computer and shocks himself instead. This snaps him out of the delusion and Hank tries to talk to Logan. He’s not sure why he’s like this but he’s sure that this facility has the answer. Hank, not willing to leave Logan behind, helps him break further into the facility. They find the helmet that Logan wore during the procedure and Logan starts to have another attack. He remembers running all but naked through the frozen wilderness to an army base. He goes inside and shoots several dummies as part of his training protocol. Hudson appears behind him and shocks him to get him to stop, saying the programming is going well and to increase the intensity for Logan. Hank pulls him out of this one and asks what he saw. They find Logan’s old Lotus, the car from his picture with Silver Fox and he says her name for the first time. He has a flashback to driving with her in that car to their cabin, and him carving their names in a heart on the Cabin door. Then Sabretooth attacks, and the memory plays out like before, though this time Sabretooth is in full costume. Logan freaks out and rips the steering wheel from the lotus. Sabretooth himself then walks in, complaining about this, saying that he doesn’t know why Logan drew him out here when he could have killed him stateside. The two fight, both accusing the other of luring them out here before they have a combined flashback.

 

We see Logan, Creed, Silver Fox and a fourth guy named Maverick in combat gear. They steal a canister of C-Synth before they’re attacked by Omega Red. Logan and Creed run through the door, but Omega Red cuts the other two off. Creed shoots the door lock, trapping their team with Omega Red but letting them escape. Logan calls him a traitor and Creed calls him a coward. Their fight is interrupted by Maverick and Silver Fox, both who are alive. We get a brief info dumb, all four of them are having intense nightmares and visions, they’re only going to get worse until they find the source, and they know this brainwashing procedure was called Talos. Silver Fox opens a door and reveals their past.

 

Inside are studio sets, hollow facades of buildings and locations. Logan sees one of a hardware store and has a vision of himself getting kidnapped out in front of it. He screams in rage, saying that’s not how it happened and demanding to know what’s going on. Sabretooth laughs at him for his weakness, until he sees his own set and flashes back to when he was a boy and his violent father, Jebediah Creed beat him for being a Mutant. He starts sobbing and begging his Pa to not hurt him anymore and swearing he’ll be good. Maverick has his own flashback and screams for Creed to stop, we don’t see what he saw. Logan insists that this isn’t right and asking why it seems like all their memories are terrible. He goes to a sobbing Fox and sees the cabin they both remember. Logan asks her what is going on. Hank calls all their attention to a big screen, saying he’d found the records of what happened here. Time stamp says this was all done twentyish years ago in 1973. He plays Hudson’s presentation. We learn that the four of them were taken for experimentation and Hudson used drugs and simulations to induce trauma responses in these subjects. Why? To condition them to react to certain stimuli, ‘activating them’ as sleeper soldiers who then can kill their targets before being deactivated and returned to civilian life. They were flooded with false memories to induce the trauma response, Hudson callously noting that the process works best with scenarios based on real events. Creed says that all their memories are fake, and why don’t they hunt this scientist down and give HIM some trauma. Hank pulls up another video. This one reveal that Hudson had noticed that Sabretooth and Wolverine have similar healing powers and have decided to use that. They took Logan and bonded adamantium to his skeleton using Yuriko’s father’s adamantium bonding process, with the intention of doing the same to Sabretooth if the process was successful. Sabretooth points out he could have had metal bones too if Logan hadn’t flipped out, and Logan says he should thank him. The video shows Logan’s escape, and the other three running off right after.

 

Fox reveals she’s seen all of the facility already save one room that’s hidden behind a door she can’t cut into, which is why she called up Logan and Creed. It’s made of adamantium and isn’t easy to damage. There’s a four paneled DNA lock, and she deduces that the four of them need to use it to get inside. They all touch their palms to the scanners despite Hank’s protests, who points out the obvious ‘why would they hid something behind a door only the four of them can open.’ Once they’re inside, a video from Hudson played. He reveals that this was all planned for. He says the four of them learning the truth about their memories and the conditioning has endangered whatever plans he’s working on and that they must be eliminated. Opening the door activated a robot hunter named Talos that will disable, capture, and take them all in for reprogramming. Hank tries to get the door open while the other four fight Talos. The robot is made of adamantium as well, so he’s tough as hell. Maverick scanned Talos and found it’s power sources is deep in it’s body, they’ll need to bury a termite grenade inside to destroy it. Logan rushes in and breaks a hole in Talos back before he’s thrown off. Talos drawing an axe triggers Sabretooth’s trauma response, but he attacks the temporary vision of his father rather than run from it. There’s a brief scuffle with everyone that ends with Maverick getting a thermite grenade in Talos back and blowing him to hell.

 

Hank breaks the lock on the door. Before they can leave, Talos activates their trauma response causing all four of the test subjects to drop to the ground and scream in pain. It also activates a secondary Talos unit to capture them. Hank grabs a truck and puts everyone on it. He distracts the second Talos using Maverick’s explosives before driving off. They escape the facility, Hank saying the explosions will draw attention to the facility. He goes to prep the mini-jet and let’s Logan say goodbye to his comrades. He and Maverick have a cordial goodbye, Sabretooth just kind of walks off and that’s really the best thing he could do, but Logan tries to talk to Fox. He insists that while a they now know some of what they remember is fake, there were parts that were real. They both remember him carving their names in the door of the cabin, the cabin in the facility didn’t have names, so that must be part of what really happened. Fox says that maybe that is true, but that was also a lifetime ago. She says goodbye and takes her jet away. Hank and Logan talk, Logan saying he’d come here for answers but officially knows less now than he did before. Hank says he doesn’t have easy answers but suggest Logan rely on the memories he knows are true, like of their time together as X-Men. Logan agrees to that. As they board the jet, we see that a nearby tree has Logan and Silver Fox carved into it, but Logan doesn’t see it. That’s a sad way to end it…

 

Overall, a solid episode that I think easily could have been a two-parter. Just extend out Logan’s search for the facility a little, or show more of Sabretooth’s part of the story, what he was doing when he started having the visions, and cut it right when Maverick and Silver Fox break up their fight. Pick up part two with them seeing the sets and fill out the story with more of Maverick and Silver Fox so we can get a better sense of who they are. For example, what their powers are! Maverick can absorb kinetic energy, and Silver Fox is another character with a healing factor. Maverick has also been written with a Healing factor, but in him it’s an artificial power. You might think that there are a lot of healing factors in one spot, but they were selected and experimented on for a military program, so that makes sense to me. Obviously, the military wants self-recovering soldiers SOOOO bad. I like this idea that each of these guys have multiple traumatic pasts programmed into their minds, as it’s a handy explanation for any retcons to their pasts. Was Logan a soldier? A drifter? An immortal from the 1700s? He could be all or none depending on who’s writing him, and it’s not contradicted by the text! That’s part of what makes this story fun, as it both fills in a part of Logan’s past, while further obscuring anything that could come before the Weapon X program. It effectively makes being the Weapon X all Logan ever was, since he has no idea which of his traumatic pasts is the real one. For a longform story like a comic or TV show, this is a godsend for a writer. Infinite possibilities. My only complaint really is they under utilized Maverick and Silver Fox. The only reason I don’t include Sabretooth in that is due to the fact we’ve seen him before so don’t need much more about him to fill in the gaps. He’s a big bully that loves ragging on how small and weak Logan is compared to him to make himself feel better for all the times he’s lost to Logan. Boom done. But who is Maverick? A man with an odd accent and an armored suit? That’s it? Nothing about what he's been doing or where he’s been? Same with Silver Fox? How’d she find the facility? Did her programming start kicking in early for some reason? All these ideas could have been explored at least a little with more time. As to Doctor Hudson… they could have just revealed his name. That’s my one note. Making him nameless in the episodes might make him seem a little more mysterious but it makes summarizing this stuff a lot harder, all I’m saying. So, ya, fun story. Next time it’s a Christmas episode in July, fitting. Have a good night!

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬

Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 60

Logan's going on a sojourn. 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Nightcrawler learned about his mother. She was kidnapped by the Friends of Humanity and he was told to surrender himself to them or she dies. The monk sought out his friends Logan and Rogue to help him, and they brought Jubilee too. They reach the location, a dam, and break in. Inside they learn that Kurt’s mother is in fact Mystique, the shapeshifter. As it turns out, she is also the biological mother of Graydon Creed, who lured his mother and half brother here to kill then and prune his family tree. A fight breaks out, but there’s enough time to learn why Kurt was abandoned. Mystique was living as the wife of a baron, a life that was ruined upon birthing a blue demon. She had to flee with the baby, Mystique ultimately deciding to Moses Kurt down the river because taking care of him would have been too difficult on the run. Kurt forgives his mother, which seems to break something in her. Everyone escapes the dam right before Graydon destroys it. Killing his family had been a requirement that the FoH new council had given Graydon in order to stay as part of the group. They decided to “give” him one more chance to clean up the part of the family tree he didn’t want to touch. He is dropped out in front of the rural home of Graydon Creed Sr, and the last we see of Jr is him screaming in fear as his father lifts him by the throat. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with Charles giving Logan a therapy session. He seems to be dealing with some deep-seated feelings of fear and dread that he can’t quite shake. Charles asks if this might have something to do with what happened when they fought Proteus, or upon learning of his past in the Weapon X program (The episodes are out of order, we’ll see what he’s talking about here next time), but Logan doesn’t think it’s either of those. Charles then asks if it’s about Jean, but he admits that he loves her enough that her happiness is what counts above anything else. Charles explains to us that when Logan first came to the mansion, he had a lot of anger issues and in many ways was more of a wild animal than a man. He says that Logan learned to hone his rage and use it as a weapon, the scene we’re shown includes Jean and Charles giving him some sort of telepathic therapy to help him focus. Logan says that the others helped to aim him, give him purpose, but he’s losing that again. He says what really brought this on was a road rage incident where he almost gutted a kid for cutting him off in traffic. He literally ripped the door of the kid’s car and drew his claws, but Jubilee pulled him off. Logan claimed that throwing Jubilee off didn’t bother him much and that scares him. He says that he needs to find his focus again, and to do that he’ll need to leave the X-Men. He says he’s heading for Japan.

 

We see Logan packing for his trip. He sees a vision of Kurt in a mirror, the blue priest asking him why he can’t just try to see the world with different eyes, but Logan says it’s beyond him. The vision switches to Sabretooth who taunts him before Logan slashes the mirror. Jubilee comes in and says his taxi has arrived. She begs him not to go but Logan is set on this one. He flies to Japan and heads to the countryside. He arrives at a temple and is greeted by his former sensei, Oku. Logan says that he feels like he’s been rushing around since he left and is wondering if he could get back to his training. Oku agrees and Logan gets to helping the younger monks make repairs to the temple. We see a quick montage of Logan helping with construction, meditating and just living life more slowly. He’s invited to a feast the locals are throwing for the monks. They head into town, and Logan notices the villagers are tense around him. Oku insists they’re just nervous because Logan is different. Which, ya know, makes sense, how many short hairy white guys do these people see? He’s introduced to the mayor Yoshida and his daughter Kisara, and son Soichi. Soichi pulls up on a motorcycle and has a fight with his father, as Soichi is shirking his responsibilities to train to fight someone. Logan starts to step in and tells Soichi to show respect to his dad, but realizes he’s being hostile, so he backs off. Soichi calls him a coward, but Oku rightly notes sometimes the braver man is the one that walks away from a fight.

 

We cut back to the mansion, Jubilee steals a minijet and flies off to find Logan. She left a note to the Professor saying that she has to try to help Logan and knows he’ll understand.

 

Oku tells Logan that they need more lumber for the construction, so he heads out to cut some down. He’s interrupted by Kenuichio Harada aka the Silver Samurai, who teleports in and demands to know who he is. Logan introduces himself and tries to be polite. Silver Samurai warns Logan to stay out of matters that don’t concern him and teleports away. Logan mutters to himself that he doesn’t think he’s local. We jump back to the village where a biker gang rides in to remind the villagers they have a tribute to pay to Silver Samurai in three days. Yoshida asks for an extension as it’s been a rough year, but the bikers won’t have it. Soichi then comes in and tries to fight the bikers to get them to back off but gets knocked around. One of the bikers nearly kills him but Silver Samurai teleports in and says they don’t need a martyr. He says they’ll be back in two days for the tribute, and that the village will be paying double. He then orders his men to leave a reminder.

 

Logan is just coming back to town with some lumber when he sees smoke coming from the temple. He rushes over to help. The temple is on fire and Kisara tells him Oku is trapped inside. Logan rushes in and saves Oku, dragging him from the temple. He demands to know what’s going on. Kisara explains about how they need to pay protection money to Silver Samurai each year, and that they’re screwed this time because they have been having poor fishing hauls. She’s certain Silver Samurai’s gang will burn the village down this time. Logan mutters “It never ends,” before walking off.

 

Logan stands on a beach and stares at the sunset. Kisara runs in and begs him for help, as Soichi is trying to get the villagers to band together and fight the bandits. Logan says that he can’t and that they should follow Oku’s advice that protecting stuff isn’t worth risking lives. Kisara counters by saying Oku also believes inner peace is found by embracing one’s true nature, not from running from it. Logan draws his claws and wonders what his nature is.

 

Back at the village, Jubilee has arrived and is asking for Wolverine. The monks pretend to not understand.

 

We cut to Silver Samurai rallying his men. One asks why they’re even bothering doing this for one small village. Silver Samurai gives the classic ‘everyone needs to fear us or they’ll all start fighting back line, and that they’ll burn the village to the ground to set the example.

 

Back at the village, Soichi has rallied a lackluster mob. Yoshiro says that they all will die if they do this, but Soichi says better to die than keep taking this crap. Logan walks in and actually agrees with Soichi, saying they need to fight back or kiss Silver Samurai’s ass forever. Yoshiro asks if this is really how Logan will pay back the village for their kindness, getting them all killed.

 

Logan helps the villagers set up traps to prepare for the next day. That night, Logan is standing alone when Oku comes to join him. Logan admits that he’s conflicted, that he just wants to live a life of peace like Oku. Oku reminds him that peace needs a purpose, and that maybe Logan knows his purpose but looks upon it less kindly than he should. Logan insists gutting people isn’t a purpose, but Oku counters by saying protecting people is. Logan turns to argue some more but Oku disappeared. Later, Logan’s dreaming about all the misery in his life, the adamantium being bonded to his skeleton, saying goodbye to Yuriko before she became Lady Deathstrike, fighting her as Deathstrike, fighting Sabretooth, and watching two of his friends get attacked by Omega Red. He hears Kurt’s advice to see himself through other’s eyes, has a vision of him BEING Sabretooth, and then Kisara arrives and tells him that he is only himself, no one else.

 

The next day, the bikers arrive and are met with the Villagers and their various traps. Logan arrives as Oku stops some of the bikers from attacking children. Logan throws them around and scares them off. Logan asks why he’s here and Oku says everyone fights in their own way, and notes Logan has rediscovered his. The bikers are lured to the beach by some balloons that drop logs on them, and to a damn the villagers set up. Soichi breaks the damn, unleashing water and washing them down a river. The bikers pull guns on them, but Jubilee arrives and blasts them, she asks Kisara if Logan’s here and she agrees to lead Jubilee to him.

 

The villagers beat the last of the bikers, but then Silver Samurai arrives. Logan faces off against him. Silver Samurai is a Mutant. His power is to coat any object he holds in a tachyon field that makes it able to slice through just about anything. So that sword is a real problem. Plus, he’s got a ring that lets him teleport. He teleports behind Logan and slashes, Logan dodges and tries to think strategically. He figures out Silver Samurai’s preferred method of attack is to slash at him from behind so waits for Silver Samurai to teleport and then quickly jumps away to get behind the samurai. He disarms and captures Silver Samurai, cutting the raising sun logo on his chest. Soichi tells him to finish Silver Samurai, but Logan refuses, saying that he’s done. Silver Samurai walks off, defeated. Jubilee runs in and greets Logan warmly. She says she was worried that Logan had left because of her but he reassured her that this was just something he had to do.

 

Later, Oku assures Logan that the temple will be built without him. Logan agrees that temple building isn’t his purpose. He says goodbye to the villagers, everyone thanking each other for their help. He kisses Kisara goodbye and leaves with Jubilee.

 

I’ll just start by saying if there’s no plot beat that I truly hate, it’s Logan developing one-off love interests. I get it, he’s a mysterious tortured soul, someone always thinks that’s hot, but it gives the vibe that he only helped these people out because he wants to bang one of them. And like… he literally had 4 conversations with this woman that we see. And one of them was in a dream. I really don’t see how that warrants a kiss goodbye. Other than that unnecessary plot point, I like this story. Logan’s anger is something that he’s constantly struggling with, and I understand his need to go away and try to decompress for a while to recenter. He probably could have gotten this same lesson by signing up for Habitat For Humanity back in New York and saving himself the airfare but that’s just me. But Japan is extremely pretty so I can give him a pass on this one. The story feels a little rushed but that’s just what happens with the twenty-minute timeframe. Many episodes feel rushed, and I’d prefer that over overly stretching episodes out into multi-parters like Proteus. We probably could have cut some of the villager stuff just a little and gotten a longer fight with Silver Samurai. Two cuts and two teleports before being beaten is an extremely short fight, we could have at least stretched out Logan figuring out his attack pattern at least a little bit. But that’s a nitpick. Next time, we learn about the origins of Wolverine that would really help inform this episode. No, I don’t know why they ordered them this way. See you later. 

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬

Viewer Log: Murderbot ep 10

 Rewards and sacrifices.

Last time on Murderbot, they finally faced off against GrayCris. Murderbot formed a plan to trick the evil survey team into thinking it betrayed its clients to get a ride off the planet. It lied to GrayCris, saying that PresAux had gone to launch their distress beacon manually. This is a plot to get everyone from GrayCris at ground Zero, then to hold them there long enough for Gurathin and Pin-Lee to launch the beacon remotely. The plan goes well at first until a space bird eats the drone they’d used as a relay. Mensah comes in and distracts GrayCris long enough for Gurathin and Pin-Lee to reach the beacon and set it to go off. Murderbot grabs Mensah as the rocket launches, intentionally throwing themselves off a cliff to avoid the blast. It also intentionally falls to make sure Mensah sustains minimal injury. Gurathin and Pin-Lee find Mensah and the three celebrate for just a moment before realizing that Murderbot is powering down. Its last thought before losing power was that its clients were the best clients. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Ep 10: The Perimeter

 

The episode begins with Murderbot’s system rebooting. It is confused at first, not knowing where it is. The techs that are looking it over don’t care at all why it seems stressed out or who its clients are. They prepare to give it a full memory wipe, despite Murderbot’s distress. We see each of its memories playing out as they’re deleted, listening as Murderbot goes from distressed at forgetting its friends to wondering if it knows them.

 

We cut to the PresAux team meeting with the company reps they worked with to get set up on their survey. Both Mensah and Bharadwaj’s first question is where is SecUnit, but the company types pretend like that is a weird question. They tell PresAux that its location is none of their business. Mensah decides to play hardball, saying that they’ve kept quiet about what happened on their survey, but that is liable to change unless they get their SecUnit back. They trade back and forth jibes “You signed an NDA,” Pin-Lee the lawyer insisting that won’t hold up in court due to extraordinary circumstances. One of the company people, henceforth known as the Lawyer, reads off the legalize that can be summed up as “We didn’t know anyone else was on the planet.” Pin-Lee realizes he’s the scumbag they actually need to deal with, to which the scumbag agrees. They use a harsher word… but my mama sometimes reads these, I try not to drop too many F bombs.

 

Murderbot powers back up after the wipe is complete. The techies are pretty nonplussed about the whole thing, the lead guy saying that they need to install a new Governor Module. The second techie freaks out upon learning Murderbot doesn’t have an active GM, but the first guy says it doesn’t matter now. To prove that Murderbot is helpless, he even spits on the SecUnit’s head. They install a new GM, effectively resetting Murderbot to just a standard issue SecUnit. It is order to stand, it does so, to rub its stomach and pat its head, and then to stop. The second tech orders it to act like a baby. A client comes in and is weirder out by what they’re doing. She asks if this is her SecUnit. They say it is and she orders them to helmet it up. They ask what it will be doing, and she cryptically says “Security.”

 

We cut back to the PresAux meeting. Mensah, to play hardball, makes it clear that the Company Lawyer needs to use her proper title of Madam President. She insists that even if legally it isn’t their SecUnit, then it’s at least a key witness to the events on the planet. Lawyer plays semantics, calling SecUnit a ‘recording device’ at best. Pin-Lee says that’s fine, they need access to it’s evidence regardless. Gurathin shocks everyone by coming to the table and saying that they’ll buy it. Arata is angered at him for treating SecUnit like it’s a possession, but Gurathin reminds her that here it IS one. The company folks are intrigued by the idea of them dropping the lawsuit in exchange for a SecUnit. PresAux make it clear that getting SecUnit, THEIR unit, is only part of the deal. The company people say they can’t get their original unit back, they’ll offer a new unit, a better one. One of the company people says their unit was defective anyway, but the Lawyer corrects his language, saying it was “suboptimal,” and that they discovered it didn’t have Governor Module. Obviously no one at the table is surprised by this but they act aren’t. They reveal it has been completely reset, so there’s no need for them to worry.

 

We cut to SecUnit marching with other guards at its new job. Ratthi is milling around and sees him, running over and tries to talk it. SecUnit doesn’t react or recognize him. The new guard in charge orders SecUnit to ‘take care’ of Ratthi, and it pulls a gun on him. He tells him to forget it and they march off. Ratthi tells the others about seeing their unit, and Pin-Lee says they’ll go forward with the injunction and it’s good they know its on the station. Bharadwaj asks what the point is, as their SecUnit, Murderbot is dead for all intents and purposes. Mensah refuses to believe that you can’t just reduce memory and experience to 1s and 0s, but Gurathin insists that you can. Everyone takes the news badly, but Arata seems to be at wits end. Mensah says that there’s no way they just deleted Murderbot’s mind. Removed it? Yes, but not destroyed. Gurathin agrees, saying that all of Murderbot’s programming is filled with proprietary technology. They’ll examine every frame of Murderbot’s memory for useful data and sell what they can find. This gives them some hope, Ratthi saying they can just find it’s mind and download it back into SecUnit, but Gurathin says it’s not that simple. Theres nothing to gain from Murderbot’s ‘personality,’ so they won’t save that info. He warns them that even if they get it back, they can’t be sure it’ll make SecUnit the same ‘person.’ Big of him to use that word. Ratthi and Mensah insist they have to try. Pin-Lee is told to go ahead with the injunction, and Mensah asks Gurathin for his Corporation Rim expertise. He say that here on the Corporation Rim, they don’t play fair.

 

We cut to a protest turning violent as some Corporation Rim workers are protesting for their rights. SecUnit is brought in with others of its kind and are used to disperse the protestors. Its mere presence clearly terrifies them all. The workers refuse to leave and the SecUnits are ordered to do damage. The machines quickly go through the most eager protestors, but the fighting pulls up the several seconds of slaughter it remembered from it’s previous wipe. It freezes up remembering this, and the protestors take the opportunity to beat it into the ground.

 

We find Gurathin meeting with a contact, his former dealer. He pressures his former dealer to get his help. His ex-dealer tries to apologize, saying that he thought Gurathin could handle it, but Gurathin sees that for the lie it is. They head to the ex-dealers workstation and Gurathin plugs in. He tries a few searches but doesn’t get any hits, his ex-dealer saying that it’s all encrypted so he won’t get anything. Gurathin has the lightbulb idea to search “Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon,” and gets all Murderbot’s memories. He starts downloading Murderbot’s mind but is almost immediately overwhelmed by all that raw data, specifically the memories of the death.

 

We cut to Mensah and Bharadwaj holding a press conference with several reporters, revealing their experience on the planet. The reports try to spin the story as SecUnits gone rogue, but Mensah explains about the combat overrides and how DeltFall’s team was slaughtered by GrayCris. And how their SecUnit valiantly protected them. The reporters try to twist the story again but Mensah keeps them on message. Arata comes in and says they found it.

 

We cut to SecUnit being lead into the Acid bath platform for its destruction and recycling. Its just being lowered into the bath when Pin-Lee and Ratthi rush in to stop them. Ratthi tries to run to save it but is stopped. Pin-Lee gives them the injunction, and they get SecUnit out. Nice. They bring it back to the PresAux apartments and try to talk to it like their old Murderbot but it’s not reacting like it used to. Ratthi says it’s looking him in the eye and that’s weird. Gurathin comes in, rushes to the sink and pukes. Mensah worries that he relapsed but he insists he didn’t, he’s sick because he got it. He plugs into SecUnit and uploads all of its memories back to it. We see a montage of scenes from the show as somber music plays. They ask it if it remembers them now. It pauses… and then reveals its missing episodes 420-568 of Sanctuary Moon from it’s data banks. ITS BACK! They all celebrate. Murderbot is flummoxed by all this, and says that it doesn’t understand what’s happening. Mensah says they’re buying its contract. The company wants to avoid bad press, so they’ll be taking it back to the Preservation Alliance. Murderbot is confused, wondering what it will do there. Mensah says that they’ll figure out what it’ll do once they get there. It asks if it can keep its armor, but they say it won’t need it. They get it a change of clothes and its weird to see it in normal stuff. The others leave it alone for a bit while they handle dealing with the various groups tied to their incident. After, they celebrate for real, truly stunning Murderbot. They keep impressing on it that its free to do whatever it wants.

 

Murderbot seems truly unable to process all the freedom they’ve given it. Later, while the others sleep, it stays up and watches them and the perimeter. It starts to walk off, but Gurathin wakes up and asks where its going. It says its going to check the perimeter. Gurathin realizes this means its uncomfortable and going to walk away. He insists that the Preservation Alliance is weird, but he’ll get used to it. He even goes so far as to say he’ll help it assimilate as he kind of understands it now. Murderbot just says it needs to check the perimeter, and Gurathin agrees it should. Murderbot leaves and Gurathin tells it ‘thank you.’

 

Murderbot leaves. It walks off into Port FreeCommerce and marvels in how strange life is now. In its clothes, it looks like just an augmented human, not a SecUnit. It uses it’s connection to the station’s system to find a transport off Port FreeCommerce, and pings the automated transport ship. In exchange for sharing its hours of media, the cargo ship agrees to take it to its next stop, a mining colony out in space.

 

Mensah wakes up and is disappointed to see Murderbot is gone.

 

In narration, Murderbot admits it doesn’t know what it wants, but it does know that it doesn’t want to be told what that is. Even if the one telling it is his favorite human. The transport takes off and Murderbot then ends his message.

 

In case you are wondering, Murderbot’s last lines are lifted almost verbatim from the book. That it doesn’t know what it wants but it doesn’t want to be told what to want. It needs to go on a walkabout and see the universe for a bit. And the book also ends with the ‘end of message’ line, revealing to us that what we heard/saw was essentially Murderbot’s eyewitness account for PresAux to use in their case and his goodbye to his favorite human, Doctor Mensah. I should note that the book version of events picks up right as a repaired Murderbot is reactivated by the PresAux team. All the legal stuff had been handled; they’d bought it and were prepping to go back to the Preservation Alliance. It getting temporarily reset and the team looking for it, having to get it’s memory back and reload it was all show stuff. Overall, I liked this adaptation. They covered all the important moments, embellished just enough to get ten episodes of content out of a novella, and did their best to stick to the general tone of the book. Which is basically, “I hate these humans! Leave me alone!” Murderbot shouted, right before running after its humans because they’re ITS humans! My one complaint being that the Ratthi-Arata-Pin-Lee subplot really wasn’t resolved. Maybe they’ll include that in season 2, but if season 2 is directly lifted from the books, we won’t be seeing much of the PresAux team while Murderbot is on its travels. I just want to applaud the whole cast, as all of these guys gave 110% for these roles, especially Alexander Skarsgard, David Dastmalchian, and Noma Dumezweni. I liked the expansion of Gurathin especially. His borderline obsession with Mensah was a bit weird, but adding bits like his history with the company and being a drug addicted wage slave really helped add depth to a character that was mostly paranoid for paranoia’s sake in the book. Their goodbye was great, as it did drive home that these two gained an awareness of each other in this story. Accepting “I need to check the perimeter” as explanation enough was great, but that little ‘thank you’ after he was alone got me misty eyed. I have no idea how they’ll adapt the second book, if they’ll try to work subplots in to use Mensah and her crew while Murderbot heads to the mining colony, or if this is the last we’ll see of this ensemble cast, but I’m looking forward to season 2 whenever it airs. Probably 2027 with how effects heavy this is. But maybe I’ll be surprised. Have a good night!

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬