Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 135

 Izuku is hitting walls but also hitting THE wall. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 134

Izuku vs. Nagant, ready? FIGHT!  

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 133

 Izuku's dodging bullets, our little hero is grown up. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 132

 Old foes, but new, Dark Deku.

               Last time on My Hero Academia, Izuku met his predecessors. In the Mindscape of One-For-All, he met the previous users in the form of their vestiges, the mental imprints that each of them left within the power. There’s obviously Shigaraki the Younger (One), Daigoro Banjo (Five and Blackwhip), Nana Shimura (Seven and Float), and the incomplete Vestige of All Might (Eight) there were also Hikage Shinomori (Four and Danger Sense), En Tayutai (Six), and the Second and Third wielders that are actively ignoring everyone else. The vestiges help Izuku learn a fairly disturbing side effect of One-For-All, that the Quirk drastically cuts the lifespan of whomever is wielding it. This took a while to figure out as like the first seven all died extremely young before they past it on. It took them ages to figure this out as most were killed fighting Shigaraki the Elder aka All-For-One. The only one to hold onto the power for more than a decade or two has been All Might, leading to everyone to conclude the only person who can safely take on the power is someone who is Quirkless. And since Izuku is one of the few people on earth with that designation, they are on something of a time crunch to defeat Shigaraki the elder once and for all. Nana asks Izuku if he’ll be able to do the hard thing and kill her Grandson, Tomura Shigaraki. Izuku says that he will if he has to, but he believes that Tomura can still be saved and wants to be saved even if he can’t admit it. Outside the mindscape, All Might is approached by Hawks and Jeanist whom ask him for the full picture of what’s going on, to which the former hero agrees. Later, Endeavor holds a press conference confirming that Dabi is in fact his son, and gives the press his side of the ugly history that is his family. He swears that he will keep fighting to stop Dabi and atone for his sins however he can. Dabi, who watches the press conference and sees his father shout “just watch me” thinks he hasn’t suffered enough pain yet. And we learn that upon waking up, Izuku ran away. He gave all of his classmates letters explaining his powers, his ties to the Shigaraki’s and All-For-One, and that he’s leaving to protect them from this monster who can take their lives or steal powers. Izuku ‘Deku’ Midoriya has entered his vigilante era. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with Izuku’s classmates all reacting to his goodbye letter. No one seems happy to hear that their friend has run off to try to protect them from AFO, a villain that is going to try to steal his true quirk. Remember, Izuku was operating under the lie this whole time to his fellow students that his quirk was “Superpower,” just a pretty standard strongman strength quirk. He tells them that meeting everyone and being with them has made him happier than he could ever describe and he ends with a simple goodbye. Uraraka calls him an idiot. She takes over narration duty and says that Japan has been devastated by the destruction caused by the League of Villains, Paranormal Liberation Front, and the random psychos they freed from the super max prisons. She says that in the wake of all of that, Japan has become lawless. A solid example of how bad things have gotten are the wrecked buildings, but a bigger gut punch is seeing All Might’s statue with the sign “I AM NOT HERE” put over it.

 

Dark Deku, what the fandom calls him during this era, sees an explosion in the distance and thinks it’s a huge villain. We cut to Ketsubutsu Academy seniors Yo Shindo, the kid with seismic vibration powers that looks like he could be Izuku’s half-brother, and Tatami Nakagame, a girl with the much dumber power of being able to retract any part of her body into herself like a turtle. The two get a call to help evacuate an area that is being menaced by a huge villain. Both aren’t stoked about trying to get a bunch of stubborn folks to evacuate the area, but Yo thinks he’ll be able to get them to leave by channeling Ms. Jokes energy. They reach the building and try to get the civilians to come with them to their academy to hideout. The civilians aren’t moving and tell them to get lost. Yo says that the thinks they probably can handle normal crooks, but they won’t stand a chance against some of these escapees. They refuse to listen, in no small part because the local pro heroes are quitting in droves. They’re kicked out and they head out. They get a call from one of their classmates, Makabe, who tells them to run, NOW.

 

A villain comes crashing it. It’s Muscular! He’s one of the original villains from the League that attacked the UA training camp. He faced off against Izuku, was defeated and captured. He reattaches his muscle fibers to his body to hulk out. Yo tells Tatami to get Ms. Joke and other back up, while he handles Muscular. Tatami runs in and tries to hold the civilians back, but they shove her aside and go to fight Muscular.

 

Muscular pins Yo in seconds, mocking the hero student’s lack of strength. I’d say that this is just a poor type match up, a mid to long ranged fighter like Yo vs. someone like Muscular who is a short range type that excels in closing distance is just not a good situation for him. Muscular mocks him, asking where the other heroes are, quoting an adage about how in their world if you see one hero there are ten more nearby. He spies Tatami and the civilians in their building, and Y uses his distraction to try to vibrate his muscles into oblivion. Muscular is confident that his layers of muscles will protect him. Yo unleashes his full power to try to shake Muscular’s brain right out of his head. Unfortunately, Muscular covers his head to protect himself. He goes to finish Yo, but a smokey purple bullet slams into him and knocks him back. Muscular is super excited to see him again, as he wants to have a real fight with Izuku. He claims this isn’t about revenge, he just got hooked on the rush of a real fight that Izuku showed him last time and no one else has given it to him. He molds a bit of rubble into a prosthetic eye that he sticks into his empty socket… I guess to fully mimic their original fight? Weird.

 

Muscular rips the build clear off its foundation to try to throw Izuku off, but he leaps away and fires off a smokescreen to cover their tracks. He returns Yo to Tatami and tells her to fall back and abandon the building as its no longer safe. As he runs off, he draws out the Vestige of En Tayutai and asks his opinion on how Izuku is using his quirk. En tells him he’s putting out too much smoke, and he exceeded the controllable limit. He warns Izuku to not overuse his power and accidentally give his opponent an advantage. He says to pull back and remember that none of their powers are ultimate moves on their own. Izuku fires off a Smokescreen and floats into the air. Muscular launches at Izuku, but he senses him with Danger Sense and dodges. He uses Black Whip to throw him aside and wrap him up. Izuku demands to know where AFO and the League are. Muscular isn’t interested in that, saying that he was just told to run wild. He wants to live life to the fullest, and to Muscular, that means having as many bare-knuckle brawls as possible. He wants Izuku to stop trying to empathize with him and fight him full force already! He really should be introduced to Rappa from the Shia Hassaikai. Muscular breaks free with his strength. Izuku tries to find an emotional in with Muscular, thinking that maybe if he understood his enemies better, maybe he could reason with him. This is obviously the practice round for that when he tries to talk to Tomura when they face off again. Unfortunately, Muscular isn’t willing to let him play shrink, so they just have to brawl.

 

Muscular tries to charge, but his muscles start break and pull back. Izuku says that there are gaps in Muscular’s muscles and they pull back into his body when he overuses them. Izuku theorizes that Yo’s tremor did more damage to Muscular than he thought and that his body is starting to collapse. Izuku charges and hits Muscular with 45% OFA Detroit Smash. The hit was more than enough to knock Muscular back.

 

Two more Ketsubutsu students, Itejiro Toteki and Shikkui Makabe run in to try to find their classmates. They see Izuku rocketing up into the sky, dragging Muscular after him encased in Black Whip. Tatami sees Izuku fly off and says that she didn’t even get a chance to say thanks. The civilians run out and offer a stretcher, saying that after all the students just did to protect them, the least they can do is help Yo and hear them out. Yo remembers Izuku from the licensing exam and notes that he fights like a different person now.

 

We jump to the Daina Police station. Izuku lands, kicking up a smokescreen to protect himself as he drops off Muscular. He tells the guards to get an iron maiden and restrain him before leaping away. Izuku meets up with All Might. All Might asks if Izuku is okay. He says he is, revealing he’s using compression gauntlets to reduce the muscle strain on his arms and legs. He thanks All Might for ordering them from the US before trade was limited. All Might gets a call from Hawks. Izuku gets a danger sense ping and leaps away. Hawks is impressed with Izuku’s decision to try to isolate himself and prepare for the villains attack. Hawks says that he knows this is hard on All Might, but he’s glad the former hero is there to support Izuku.

 

We flashback to Izuku in the hospital with his mother and All Might. The Doctor notes that Izuku used to hurt himself when using his power like this before, but Izuku has gotten stronger since then, so while he’s fighting at a higher level the damage is about consistent with when he was fighting with 5% power. This is Horikoshi handwaving away why Izuku’s arms haven’t gotten worse when that was once such a huge threat to Izuku he switched to kicking, me thinks. The doctor tells him to be careful. Inko asks to know what is going on. All Might explains to her what has happened. She’s obviously terrified at bad people hunting her son. All Might says that he should be safe at the school, but Izuku says he’s not going back. He is electing to fun off, to try to protect everyone from the League. Inko, sensibly, tells her son that he’s in the hospital because he couldn’t beat them by himself and to not throw his life away trying. He says he’ll get stronger. Inko admits that she’s loved watching him grow into a hero over the last year, but hearing this is breaking her heart. Izuku says that when he was a kid, she thanked him for ‘saving’ her and smiling when he played pretend and that made him smile. He promises to come home safe when this is over, but he has to fight now. All Might remembers his promise to protect Izuku some months back to convince Inko to let him return to UA. All Might says that Izuku might not want his help, but he is going to give it regardless.

 

All Might tells Jeanist, Hawks and Endeavor about Izuku dropping out of UA and electing to be their bait for the League of Villians. Jeanist says that that’ll work to their advantage and they’ll organize their strategy around it. Izuku meets with Gran Torino and lets him know everything. Torino isn’t shocked to hear Nana’s vestige is apologizing for their choices, and admits he should have killed AFO years ago. He tells Izuku to do what he has to do to stop Shigaraki, warning that sometimes the only way to stop someone is to kill them. He gives Izuku his scarf and his blessing. Izuku heads out to meet his allies and start their plan to stop the League once and for all.

 

Well, that’s sad. Izuku’s decision seems logical to him in the moment, but I think its clear even in his first fight with Muscular that he’s already hitting a wall mentally if not physically. Isolating yourself is hard, as I think anyone who has lived through the 2020 COVID Pandemic can attest to, and it’s harder when you’re putting yourself through the strain of fighting constantly. I like the use of Muscular here. The villain is still incredibly powerful, putting kids with more experience and training than Izuku through the ringer in no time flat. But Izuku has also grown tremendously since they faced off. While Muscular was Izuku’s boss fight during the Training Arc, he’s now just an average Tuesday for Izuku. Remember, when they fought during the camp, Izuku had to hit him with 100% OFA to take him down. This time he didn’t even crack 50% to do it. We also got to see Izuku’s battle IQ has grown quite a bit, as he was able to figure out Muscular’s state in just a few seconds, and was able to use Smokescreen and Danger Sense to hold him off extremely well. I appreciate that they at least brought Inko into the discussion here. While the story might forget about her a good chunk of the time, it’s important to remember Izuku is only like 16 at this point. His mama needs to be involved to some degree. Izuku is going hard after Shigaraki and the League, which is admirable, but its clear even in this early stage that he’s pushing himself harder than he should. Which definitely makes sense for his character, but is hard to watch. So Izuku has taken down an old foe, let’s see how he handles a new one. Lady Nagant has arrived. See you next time, and be safe. 

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Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 42

Not quite 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Last time on Beast Wars, a new face arrived on ancient earth. We’re introduced to Depth Charge, an angry Maximal hunting Protoform X aka Rampage. He was the head of security for Colony Omicron, the colony where Rampage went on his first rampage. He was the only survivor, spending four stellar cycles (years) hunting the creature, capturing him and bringing him back to Cybertron. He wanted the High Council to find some way to execute the mad experiment. Depth Charge was furious at the plan to just dump Rampage somewhere and apparently went hunting for them. He got hit with the Transwarp wave, turned Transmetal and was then sucked to Earth. He crashed in the ocean near the Maximals and scanned a manta ray. Rampage somehow sensed his arrival and ran off to meet him. The two dueled across the ocean floor, and the shore. They fought to a standstill, with Rampage escaping with the help of Quickstrike. Optimus and Cheetor grab Depth Charge and brought him back to base for repairs. After, Optimus tries to convince Depth Charge to join them, but Depth Charge is a bit of a dick and refuses. He leaves in a huff, focused only on killing Rampage. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open in the Ark cavern again. The Maximals are doing their best to get their defenses working at peak efficiency. Which is hard considering most of their walls are made of scrap metal, and their wiring is being cobbled together as they go. Rhinox tries to hook up Teletran-1’s force field to run through their systems and project it out over the bulkhead doors. He boots it up, but it shorts out within seconds. Again, their technology isn’t compatible at the best of times and it’s harder with scrap parts. Optimus sighs at plan A being a failure, so they’re forced to go with plan B. When Rattrap hears what it is, he’s disappointed to hear that its “Salvage Sentinel.” A plan made even more difficult considering the Axalon is in pieces and underwater. Optimus says that they’ll get special help then, before radioing Silverbolt.

 

Silverbolt radios back and reports that he hasn’t found Depth Charge. He thinks the ray might be within Megatron’s jamming field. Optimus orders him back to base, and Optimus thinks there might be another way to make the plan work. Blackarachnia was able to build a stealth submarine. It’s powered by hand, has no energy signature, and should be undetectable by any sort of scanner. Optimus compliments the spider on her work. Blackarachnia asks when she’ll leave, and Optimus tells her she isn’t, and that Rattrap is going. The cyber rat is adamantly against going in the Predacon death ball, but Optimus insists it has to be him. He’s the only one small enough to fit into it besides Blackarachnia and knows what parts they need from Sentinel. He’s still not jazzed, but when Optimus points out that they’re going to be stuck defending the Ark forever so long as they don’t have something like a shield, he finally relents. Rattrap wants back on Cybertron and doesn’t relish guard duty for approximately 4 million years. Cheetor starts laughing, and when Rattrap asks what’s up, the Cat points out that him inside that ball would make an excellent cat toy. Rattrap gets no respect at all.

 

Silverbolt ferries Rattrap to the river. He asks how he’s doing and Rattrap starts muttering about how the next time Optimus asks him for a favor he’s going to jam his blaster somewhere unpleasant when they reach the spot and Silverbolt drops him. Rattrap initially panics but then he starts turning the crank and gets into a rhythm pretty much immediately. Weirdly, the old timey sailing music that plays while he rows seems to be diegetic, or else Silverbolt is reacting very strangely to silence. He asks Rattrap’s status and Rattrap confirms he’s looking around and even compliments Blackarachnia’s design. He finds mostly bits and pieces until reaching the bulk of the Axalon. He heads inside. Unfortunately, a Predacon spy drone sees Silverbolt standing by and heads back to alert the Predacons.

 

Rattrap searches through the wreck of their ship. The Axalon looks extremely spooky with all the holes, water and fish about. Rattrap reaches Sentinel’s core and sees the control console. He extends a grabber arm and mutters that there’s no way it’s this easy. He’s proven right when a Morey eel pops out and makes him jump, and then a moment later he gets a proximity alert blaring. He tries to swim about, but is caught in Rampage’s oversized claw. He says, “How droll, a Rat in a can.”  He starts crushing the pod, his might claws more than powerful enough to shatter the metal. Rattrap tries to radio Silverbolt for help, but can’t reach him. He’s saved by Depth Charge’s timely arrival. He blasts Rampage off the undersea cliff and goes to talk to Rattrap. He tells the mouse to bail as he and X play rough, but Rattrap says he can’t. He promises to scurry away as fast as possible if Depth Charge keeps Rampage busy for a few cycles, to which Depth Charge agrees.

 

Megatron sees Silverbolt start to worry about Rattrap via his drone and is curious as to what is going on. He contacts his other soldiers; Inferno, Waspinator and Quickstrike are playing poker. He tells his subcommander that something has interrupted the Maximals attempts to recover Sentinel and orders his men to their designated positions. They don’t say it, but it sounds like Rampage has been MIA since the last episode and Megatron is eager to get his bruise back under control.

 

Rampage and Depth Charge battle, their missiles causing tremors severe enough that it starts pulling the Axalon from it’s position. Rattrap is thrown around but is able to pull Sentinel from it’s container. He slips free just as the ship drops. Right on top of the wrestling aquatic fighters. Rattrap breaches the water and Silverbolt is excited to see him. Rattrap tells him about Rampage and Depth Charge fighting underwater and begs him to get them out of here. Silverbolt grabs the pod and starts to fly away. He mentions that he pod is heavy, which perfectly sets up Waspinator. The wasp blasts him out of the sky, causing him to drop Rattrap as well. Silverbolt tries to transform, but hits the ground and is knocked out. Quickstrike meanwhile goes to grab Sentinel.

 

Rampage frees himself from the rubble by transforming and thinks he sees Depth Charge buried under some more. He tries to pull Depth Charge free by his tail, but it was a trap to distract him. Depth Charge fires upon the crab, but the hit doesn’t do much damage. They both transform into beast mode, Rampage skuttling away and Depth Charge swimming after him.

 

Topside, Quickstrike gives Sentinel to Waspinator, telling the flier to get it back to Megatron while he mops up the Maximals. Waspinator takes off, he struggles with the weight, but is able to get away. Underwater, Depth Charge caught Rampage and throws him to shore. Rampage’s bulky body collides with Quickstrike before he could finish off Silverbolt. He groans to the crab that he’s been looking for him everywhere. Depth Charge calmly walks out of the water. Silverbolt tries to convince him to go after Waspinator, but Depth Charge refuses, saying that that is their war, he’s got one of his own. Silverbolt tells the big ray to think about what it means to be a Maximal, if he dare call himself that again and the two almost come to blows. Rattrap tells Silverbolt to leave it, Depth Charge got what he wanted, and they’ll go after Waspinator. They take off. Depth Charge prepares an Energon dagger to cut out Rampage’s spark, but the crab again fled during the confusion.

 

Waspinator flies towards the base, the bug happily saying that he’ll be rewarded with a vacation when he brings it Megatron. Rattrap and Silverbolt sneak up behind him, Rattrap asking Silverbolt if he can handle a sudden dive. Silverbolt says he can and Rattrap tells him to get ready. He shoots Waspinator, just as the bug was saying how great, shot-at-free day he’s been having. Rattrap gets Silverbolt to carry him in his claws and they dive for the module, catching it before it can hit the ground. Their victory is short lived as a tree falls in their path, knocked over by Inferno. Rattrap goes flying, but Silverbolt catches the module. Inferno says to hand it over or burn. Silverbolt distracts him long enough for Rattrap to nab the module with his tail and drive away. Inferno chases after him, but Rattrap is extremely quick with his wheels. Depth Charge hears the explosions and assumes Primal’s “bozos” could use back up. He transforms and flies after them. Inferno shoots at Rattrap as he races around, destroying a bridge just before Rattrap reaches it, he falls, but is caught by Silverbolt. Unfortunately, Depth Charge pops right in their way and the three collide. They crash, and Inferno grabs the module and flies away.

 

Back at the base, Rattrap tells Optimus what happened and lays blame squarely on Depth Charge. The fish insists it was an accident. They get into a fight about who did what, Optimus learning about how Depth Charge also saved Rattrap earlier in the mission. He tells Depth Charge that this is what happens when he works by himself, they lost a massive resource to the Predacons. He asks Depth Charge again to join them, so they can hopefully avoid mistakes like this again. Depth Charge says he’ll think about it, and that this crew needs some kind of help. He winks after he says it though, and gives Optimus a high-five to show that he is willing to join.

 

Back at the Darksyde, Megatron has Sentinel incorporated into his ship and powered on. Well, shoot. Megatron laughs maniacally as the shield powers up.

 

Funny how the last episode ended with Cheetor asking if they’d see Depth Charge again, and at the end of this episode he agrees to join up. That’s a thirteen-episode season for ya, gotta fast track those character arcs. I like the general setup of this episode, going to the ruins of the Axalon to hopefully get Sentinel back and get their defenses at least in the realm of functional. The mini-sub was neat, and I liked the implication that Blackarachnia is being integrated into the team in some capacity. Seems like everyone’s willing to trust her craftsmanship at the very least. The underwater segment was cool, like I said, seeing the fish and other aquatic life already taking up residence in the sunken ship was really cool. It definitely gave the whole thing a ghost ship vibe. I think this episode did a good job showing us Depth Charge’s personality. Is he an asshole? Definitely. Is he obsessed with killing Rampage? Certainly. But there are just some Maximal qualities that he is unable to get rid of, like a base line empathy that refuses to let him ignore comrades in arms in danger. Much like with Cheetor last time, he did at least stop to talk to Rattrap before resuming his crab hunt, rather than just chasing Rampage. And while he blew off Silverbolt and Rattrap initially, he did give up on hunting Rampage fairly quickly when he thought that the two were in trouble. I think this ties back to Optimus’ comments about Depth Charge’s personality before Colony Omicron was destroyed. There’s a fundamental goodness to the fishy bot that is deeply buried under a lot of anger and pain, but he can’t just tune it out indefinitely. I like that while he didn’t agree right away, he did accept Optimus’ offer to cooperate fairly quickly. He might like being alone, he might be obsessed with vengeance… but solitude ways on any mind. Final thought… it’s funny to me that this entire time the Darksyde didn’t have any kind of energy shielding. I should have guessed that with how often the Maximals were able to just sneak into it, but like… I just assumed there were some other defenses besides proximity cannons. The more you know. Have a good night, everyone, and stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 41

 Time to go fishing.

Last time on Beast Wars, Optimus got another new look. Optimus Primal elects to temporarily take Optimus Prime’s spark and the Matrix of Leadership into his body so they can perform emergency repairs on the damaged Autobot hero. Housing the second Spark and Matrix mutates Optimus’ body into a sort of half-Autobot form that Megatron dubs Optimal Optimus. Realizing Optimus’ new body and the Maximals quick thinking had foiled his plan, Megatron retreats with the intention of destroying the Axalon. On his way out he runs into Blackarachnia, who kicked him out of the Ark on the cusp of his victory because she didn’t want to be erased with the Maximals as she was also a Maximals Protoform. That proved to be one betrayal too many, so Megatron shot her point blank with his cannon. Optimus and Cheetor chase the fleeing Predacons down, but Megatron orders Rampage to pull the ship off the cliff. Optimus rocks to the base and almost stops the king crab, but chooses to protect Prime’s spark when Rampage shoots him, unfortunately deflecting the missile into the Axalon. The ship breaks into pieces and falls into the river below. Silverbolt begs an injured Blackarachnia to stay with him, to join the Maximals. She agrees, but says she’s working with them as a Predacon before passing out. Silverbolt howls in pain before being reminded she’s just in Stasis Lock and can be repaired. With their base gone and knowing that Megatron will try to attack the Ark again, the Maximals salvage what they can from the Axalon and set up a temporary basecamp in the cavern outside the Ark. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We begin with a tour of the Maximals new base. They widened the entrance to the cavern and added a pair of doors to hopefully fortify the location. It looks like they’re doing their best to fill out the cavern outside the Ark rather than be in the ship itself. Probably safer since ya don’t know if you’ll trip in here and, say, kick the comatose Wheeljack’s head and break one of his head lights. As I said yesterday, they salvaged most of their bridge from the wreckage and we join Rhinox trying to connect their computer system to the Teletran-1. It’s slow going, though, as Maximal and Autobot tech isn’t compatible with each other. Like, imagine trying to use a gen-1 iPod now. You’d need like 15 connector cables to get that to work and those are less than 30 years old. Imagine the difference 300 years makes. Optimus asks for a status report, and Rhinox says he’s making no promises. Optimus says they have to get things working soon, or the Maximal Elders have to send help soon or they may have to change their strategy. A clearly annoyed Rhinox says that they both know that IF the Elders were going to send help it’d be there already. Optimus replies he doesn’t know what he knows anymore and that none of them were exactly like they were when the war started, nor is their universe.

 

We jump into deep space. A computer abord a spaceship tells its pilot that this sector of space has been deemed forbidden by the Maximal High Council. The figure says to slag the Council and to do a quantum scan. The computer tells him this is also a no-no but he overrides it. The computer detects the signature of… Protoform X. Oh, someone’s hunting Rampage. A moment later he gets hit by the transwarp surge. He gets turned into a transmetal while being pulled into a breach and disappears.

 

We return to Earth and find Inferno and Rampage spying on the Maximals. Inferno radios Megatron, who gives the go ahead for the two to test the Maximals’ defenses. Inferno tells Rampage that he’ll attack Silverbolt and Blackarachnia, and when the others are drawn out, he should reign heavy fire on them. Rampage shrugs and says that sounds easy, which upsets Inferno. He tells Rampage to follow orders and flies off. Rampage looks to the sky, and I guess senses that someone is coming, someone he remembers. No, this clairvoyance of his is never explained. He transforms into Crab-Tank mode and drives off.

 

The ship comes out of Transwarp space, heavily damaged and with the pilot screaming. It hurtles towards Earth. We shift to a patrolling Cheetor. He sees the ship entering the atmosphere and radios into Optimus. He tells Cheetor to stay on it and that he’ll meet him shortly. Both Optimus and Rhinox hope this is what they’ve been waiting for. They open the blast doors and Optimus takes off in Jet mode. Outside, Inferno orders Rampage to be prepared for fire, not knowing that Rampage left. He orders the attack and charges alone. Blackarachnia and Silverbolt are confused why he’s here by himself but just shrug. Optimus rockets past him, and Blackarachnia drops a boulder onto Inferno. He just kind of groans as he sees it dropping, knowing he can’t dodge, and is crushed.

 

The ship crashes into the ocean. Cheetor recognizes it has a small star hopper before it hits the water. He circles around it when Rampage pulls up. He mutters that this game isn’t for him, and shoots Cheetor down. He shifts to full crab mode, saying that this game is just for the two of them and crawls into the water. The ship activates its emergency scanner and hits on a Beast mode, a manta ray. The pilot is warned that Protoform X is incoming, and he transforms to meet the crab. We learn this fella is named Depth Charge. He launches a drone to scan, which is shaped like a remora which I thought was a nice design touch. The scanner detects Cheetor, and Depth Charge swims over to grab him.

 

Back at the Darksyde, Megatron learns that Inferno was defeated and that Rampage ran off. He orders Waspinator to salvage Inferno, he flies off and whines about how he has to salvage Inferno, but when Waspinator gets blown up, no one salvages HIM. Megatron shakes his head at the departing bug and order Quickstrike to find Rampage, he wants to know how the crab is avoiding scans.

 

Cheetor wakes up and meets Depth Charge. Their meeting is cut short when Depth Charge’s scanner picks up Rampage’s signal. He tells Cheetor that he doesn’t want to leave Protoform X waiting. He transforms into his Transmetal vehicle mode, a jet, flies around and shifts to normal manta ray to dive into the water. Cheetor tries to radio Optimus but his com was damaged when he was hit. And his jets aren’t firing due to his dunking. He moans he hates water as he’s forced to wait for rescue.

 

Depth Charge links up with his drone that tells him Rampage is directly below him. Rampage leaps from his seaweed cover and grabs onto Depth Charge, saying hi to his ‘old friend.’ When Depth Charge calls him X, Rampage lets him know about the name change. He says it’s a bit obvious, but gets the point across. He uses his claws to start crush Depth Charge’s fins, saying that Depth Charge’s pain is lovely, but he wants Depth Charge’s terror too. He says that’ll make this more amusing like their ‘party’ on Omicron. Depth Charge activates his jets and rockets them to the surface. Once in the air, he shifts into jet mode. Rampage transforms into robot mode, complimenting Depth Charge on being ‘trickier’ than before and then shooting him in the head. Depth Charge crashes into a cliff and knocks Rampage off, impaling him on a spike. Depth Charge crashes, though, and passes out.

 

Optimus arrives and Cheetor quickly informs him of what happened. Optimus recognizes the name Depth Charge.

 

Rampage pulls himself from the spike and regenerates from the damage. As he approaches, Depth Charge’s body activates emergency defense systems. Rampage says that he should ignore the pain as it’ll only get worse. He compliments Depth Charge on chasing him for so long, saying that he shouldn’t be so surprised since Depth Charge was the one that caged him last time. Depth Charge activates his jets at the last moment to dodge Rampage’s spike, blasting him back and then shoots Rampage with energy disks from his chest. He roars that this time he won’t bother with a cage, creep. They trade shots, Rampage shifting to Tank mode after Depth Charge blocks his rockets. Depth Charge’s wings shield him from a lot of it, but some hits get in. Depth Charge takes his Tail Spear, roars “This is for Colony Omicron!” and hurls it at Rampage. He spikes one of Rampage’s cannon’s turret and causes it to blow. Depth Charge’s system warns him to activate his repair system immediately, but he ignores the warning to try to finish off Rampage. Quickstrike arrives and blasts him, saying that Rampage is ugly, but he’s a Predacon. Depth Charge is knocked out, but before Quickstrike can do anything more, Optimus flies in and blasts him. He lands and confirms he knows Depth Charge. He tells Cheetor to grab him and get him back to base. Cheetor asks what they should do about Rampage, but the crab slipped away in the confusion. Optimus says that he guesses Rampage has had enough… for now.

 

They get Depth Charge into the CR Chamber and Rattrap asks who the “herring” is. Optimus and Rhinox explain that Depth Charge oversaw security at Colony Omicron. The place that Rampage escaped from when he was first brought online and that he leveled. Depth Charge was the only survivor. He spent four years (stellar cycles) hunting Rampage before capturing him and bringing him back to Cybertron. He demanded that the Maximal High Council find a way to extinguish Rampage’s immortal spark, but instead he was turned over to Optimus and the Axalon for their ‘find an uninhabited rock and bury it there,” plan. Depth Charge was obviously upset with that decision. Rattrap shrugs at DC’s angst and asks the big question, how’d he get here? The repair cycle ends and they let him out. Depth Charge asks who the pit Optimus is but recognizes him once Optimus speaks. Cheetor tries to introduce himself to Depth Charge, but the big bot brushes him aside and tells him to chase a mouse. Optimus calls Depth Charge back and the fishman asks what he’s doing there. Optimus says he was about to ask the same. Depth Charge tells them about being caught in the Transwarp wave while hunting for Rampage. Optimus tells him they’ve got bigger issues to deal with right now. Depth Charge says that’s good, since that means X is all his again. Optimus tries to reason with him, but Depth Charge is single minded on his hunt for Rampage. Depth Charge is stunned when he sees the Ark, and they explain the whole situation with Megatron and trying to defend the Ark. Depth Charge says that he’s too with handling Optimus’ last mistake and demands to know where the exit is. Optimus tries to reason with him, saying that what happened on Omicron wasn’t either of their faults, and to stop seeking revenge. Depth Charge says that he’s seeking justice… which, ya know, is what everyone seeking revenge says. Optimus orders the doors opened for him.

 

Optimus tries one more time to get Depth Charge to help, saying that Rampage is with the Predicons now and that there’s six of them that Depth Charge will have to deal with if he wants the king crab. He says that when Optimus screws up, he screws up big, but thanks him for the tip. He transforms into jet mode and flies off. Cheetor followed Optimus and asks if he thinks Depth Charge will be back. Optimus says that there was a time when he won’t have left, but Rampage stole that from him. We cut back to Depth Charge’s ship, Rampage saying that it was so nice of him to come, and how glad he is that DC will be staying, before he blows the ship to pieces. Guess Depth Charge is stranded too.

 

And there we have our third to last cast addition, Depth Charge the Manta Ray. Don’t get used to his fish mode, he almost exclusively uses his jet alt mode since most missions are out of the water. If you can’t tell, he’s kind of going to fill Dinobot’s old role on the team as the resident asshole, with a bit of loose cannon sprinkled in for fun. He’s rude, angry, and laser focused on hunting down and killing the unkillable Rampage. Their dynamic is pretty good, with Rampage forever needling Depth Charge about all the people that died on Omicron and Depth Charge always taking the bait. He’s like the big dog that picks on the cat to get it to react. Depth Charge design wise is pretty neat, I enjoy his mouthless face and huge wings in robot mode. His typical fighting strategy is to tank hits with those wings before returning fire when the Predacons stop to reload. My only real complaint about the guy is that he shows up so late to the game. I really wish he’d been introduced in season 2 so we could have gotten more of him and Rampage. He adds a lot of character to Rampage too, as Depth Charge is the only character that Rampage seems to delight in tormenting. This reminds me of a bigger weakness of this show overall, to me, and that that’s I wish we knew more of the pre-Beast Wars lore. We get hints about Optimus, Rattrap, Rhinox and Megatron having history, and now we also see at the very least Optimus knew Depth Charge as well. We don’t get much more of their past, though, just lots of jabs from Depth Charge about Optimus screwing up with Protoform X and how he wants payback for Omicron. His line about how the old Depth Charge wouldn’t have left gives me a vision of a character that probably took his job seriously but believed in working with others and community far more than the angry fishman we’ll see going forward. He does loosen up a little bit as the show goes on, but Rampage is his fixation throughout. And that’s all I have to say about that. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 40

 New Season, New Primal.

Last time on Beast Wars, Megatron unveiled his master plan. The Maximals are able to hold off Megatron and Ravage’s assault, Rattrap ended up breaking into the ship and blowing it to the Pit (Cybertronian Hell). Megatron flees for the cavern Blackarachnia and Silverbolt were digging out. That cavern, as it turns out, housed the crashed Autobot ship, the Ark. Megatron arrives and forces Blackarachnia to give him access to the ship using the access codes she stole by threatening Silverbolt. The Maximals arrive, but Blackarachnia activates the ship’s defenses to slow them down. Megatron, meanwhile, enters the ship and finds the Transformers in stasis inside. He finds Optimus slumped in the captain’s chair, charges up his cannon and unleashes a full power blast directly to his head. This causes a massive time storm; a swirling vortex of energy that starts to erase time and space as the Maximals know it. Megatron loudly announces to the horrified Maximals that evil triumphs and now they no longer exist. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The episode opens with the massive time storm that is erasing the universe as everyone knows it after Megatron (BW) murdered the Stasis Locked Optimus Prime. He gloats about his victory, until Blackarachnia stands up and reminds him that she was a Maximal Protoform. So, she’s at risk of being erased too. To prove how not cool she is with that, she reactivates Teletran-1 and boots him from the ship. Silverbolt crawls over and swears to protect her from the storm, whatever it is. Blackarachnia tells him to shut up and follow her, as she needs to ‘undo’ something. She and Silverbolt work together to activate the Ark’s emergency life support system. They get Optimus Prime plugged into it via his emblem, which stabilizes him and the time storm. For the moment. Unfortunately, Prime is still fading, and thus time is still in flux. We see both fade out of existence for a moment before fading back in to prove the point. Optimus and the others fly in and he utters his catchphrase, “That’s just Prime,” upon seeing the legendary leader with his mangled face. Rattrap adding “What’s left of ‘em, anyway,” which causes Rhinox to smack him. Cheetor says they have to save Optimus Prime or they are goners. Rhinox does some quick calculations and says there’s not enough time. Prime is already fading and with the trauma of the repairs they’ll lose him for sure. Optimus says they’ll just have to move his Spark. He opens his own chest compartment to let us know what he’s doing. Everyone tries to object to the idea. Rattrap says you can’t have two sparks in one body, and Rhinox points out that Prime’s spark houses the Matrix as well, so it’ll be too powerful for him. Optimus reminds them all that they don’t have much choice and flies to meet his ancestor. He takes Optimus Prime’s spark, erroneously depicted as the Matrix container, and places it within himself. The second the two sparks make contact, Optimus is thrown back amongst the cargo, dropping the Matrix container which shatters. Rhinox orders Blackarachnia to get the repair equipment online. They get Optimus Prime’s head into the repair system.

 

Outside, Megatron recovers and orders Inferno and Waspinator to converge on his position. Waspinator has reassembled himself and heads over, and a very badly damaged Inferno drags himself from the cavern he seemingly died in last season and announce, “I’m coming, my queen!”

 

The Maximals get the repairs going but meanwhile hear Optimus groaning in pain as he tries to hold the two sparks. Rhinox yells at Blackarachnia to hurry. She reminds them that she’s working with 4-million-year-old technology, and that takes time. Rattrap tries to threaten her to work faster, but Silverbolt won’t have that. Rhinox tells them to both knock it off as they have bigger problems. Imagine having to listen to petty squabbles while you’re trying to perform emergency surgery on Winston Churchill or FDR. I’d shout at them too. We see Optimus start to mutate, his body morphing and contorting as he continues to scream in pain, Cheetor asking what is happening.

 

We cut back to the Axalon where we see Tarantulas’ spider drones putting his body back together. One of them knocks Ravage’s broken head off the cliff and into the river below. Megatron calls an alert to his troops, ordering them to pull themselves together and meet at his location. We see Quickstrike’s snake arm find the rest of his body, and a badly burnt Rampage flake off the canyon wall as well.

 

Rhinox is able to get the regeneration systems set to maximum. Cheetor is the first to notice the… changes in Optimus Primal. His body has been completely morphed. He now towers over the rest of his troops, still being smaller than an Autobot but being twice as tall as Rhinox. His body has shifted to an entirely mechanical look, with extra fins and wings as well. He says, “In a word… Prime.” His chest has been converted to have a sort of cockpit design where we can see Optimus Prime’s spark floating inside it. Megatron and Inferno arrive and open fire on them, but Optimus’ new body comes with shields that easily block the attack. In the confusion, Blackarachnia transforms and scuttles away in spider mode. Optimus stomps over to Megatron and tells him they’re taking it outside. Megatron is impressed by Optimus’ new look, dubbing him Optimal Optimus. Megatron calls Optimus’ bluff, saying that he wouldn’t risk firing in the Ark, it could alter history. Optimus counters that he has four million years to clean Megatron off the walls, he might risk it. The two, weirdly, get into a quote fight before Rattrap tells Optimus to just shoot Megatron already. Rattrap prepares to do it himself, Optimus slaps him aside, and in the confusion Megatron orders Waspinator to launch the distraction attack. Waspinator’s shots cause a minor quake that throws the Maximals around and allows the Predacons to escape. Megatron tells Optimus that this place remains a target and that he will be back. Optimus realizes that the Axalon is unguarded and they can’t let Megatron escape to attack it.

 

Megatron and company fly out of the cavern and shoot at it, trying to reseal the hole. Optimus protects his troops with his shields and tells them they need to “transform and roll out.” Outside the cavern, Megatron finds Blackarachnia with her foot stuck. She isn’t apologizing for stopping him, asking if he thought she’d really go along with dying for his ambition. Optimus bursts out of the cavern in his new truck mode. Megatron says that there will be no more betrayals and shoots Blackarachnia. Cheetor notes that they’re headed for the base. Optimus tells Cheetor to follow him and transforms into jet mode, rocketing off. Cheetor notes that Optimus sure figures out a new body quickly, and Rattrap points out that he should as he changes them often enough. After the ‘ba-dum-bum-ching,’ he tells Cheetor to get moving.

 

Rhinox starts up the next phase of the repairs, saying he just needs a few more cycles. And once the repairs are complete, all they’ll need is for Optimus to bring Prime’s spark back in one piece. Rattrap radios in to tell him that Silverbolt might be in the middle of a… situation. Silverbolt cradles a badly damaged Blackarachnia, using his favorite pet-name for her going forward “sweet black poison of my heart” and begs her to stay with him. She says he’s got a way with words and that he almost makes her wish she was a better person. He says that she is, as she chose to not let evil triumph. When she points out that she was saving her own hide, he tells her that she still saved him, which still counts for something. He swears his undying love for her and begs her to join the Maximals. She admits that, for him, she would join his side, but as a Predacon. She passes out and Silverbolt lets out a howl of pain. Rhinox and Rattrap both mock him for the schmatlzy overreaction, as she’s just in Stasis Lock. They agree to take her in for repairs. Rhinox prays for Optimus to hurry back with Prime’s spark or none of this matters.

 

Optimus and Cheetor catch up with the Predacons. Cheetor takes out Inferno and Waspinator, and Optimus tackles Megatron. He rips Megatron’s tail from his beast mode, forcing him to transform and slaps him to the ground with it. Optimus says that it’s over, but Megatron reveals his evil backup plan. He has Rampage and Tarantulas’s drones drag the Axalon with ropes to knock it from the cliff. Optimus flies in, using his wings to slice the ropes they were using to drag it. Rampage transforms and marvels at how huge Optimus is now before firing a rocket at him. Optimus, fearing for Prime’s spark in his chest, blocks it with his arm… unfortunately deflecting the rocket at the Axalon. The ship breaks in two and plumets into the river below. Ramage laughs evil as he leaps in after it. Cheetor asks what they do now, and Optimus says that for now they’ll regroup and return their precious cargo to its vessel. They fly off as Tarantulas watches them go, laughing evilly.

 

Optimus returns Prime’s Spark. Optimus Prime briefly powers on and the two Optimus’ look into each other’s eyes before he goes back into Stasis. Rattrap makes a sarcastic comment about protecting Optimus Prime and making sure he stays in stasis lock for a few million years. Optimus agrees that’s their situation. He orders his Maximals… and one Predacon, to get as much salvage from the Axalon as they can. They need to fortify the location to keep Megatron and the Predacons out. They end up recovering the Axalon’s bridge from the river and set it up as their command post within the Ark’s cavern. Optimus announces that they’re moving in as they power it up.

 

First off, I love the design of Optimal Optimus. It’s a great combination of his original simian look with a bigger, blockier, more classic Autobot look. His original body was about average for his era of Transformer, his Transmetal body was big, and now he’s basically Goliath. Rampage and Rhinox were the biggest characters on each side up to this point and they’re basically up to his waist. I’ve wondered for ages if Optimus’ new body was simply a side effect of trying to house the Matrix or if the Matri acknowledged him in some way and thus reformatted him into something Prime adjacent. Not quite making him a Prime like with Hot Rod but making him more than he was. Just something I ponder occasionally. This episode was mostly marveling at Optimus’ new look and then having one of the biggest status quo changes of destroying the Axalon. It’s a good balance. And I like that Blackarachnia ends up defecting to the Maximals now that she knows Megatron’s big plan would involve her being erased. Weirdly, Quickstrike and Rampage never voice their own concerns about being erased as both were Maximal Protoforms as well. Inferno is too but I see him going along with whatever Megatron tells him. It’s just a minor inconsistency that bugs me. So, ya, new Optimus, new allegiances, and a new location, that’s a solid season premier. We’ll see where they go from here next time. Have a good night. Stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social