My Review of Transformers: Animated season 1 episodes 15 and 16–Megatron Rising · 2:26am Apr 19th, 2021
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
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Greetings, folks! We have finally arrived to the epic season 1 finale of the series! This is part 1 and part 2 of the episode entitled Megatron Rising! This whole episode—including part 2—was amazingly well done and a perfect way to conclude the season by having the big bad rise up from being a head to a full upgraded body as the returning leader of the Decepticons. The only nitpick I have for his new form is that he somehow acquired a helicopter mode without even scanning it in the first place. How did he possess such a vehicle form while he was just a head at first?
That aside, we finally see him in full body form and take action against our heroes. It is amazing to see how he was able to deceive Professor Sumdac after all this time he was in his laboratory. That speaks volumes of his cunning, intelligence, and dangerous deceptive power. That is what made him so powerful and deadly for all his Autobot enemies. Corey Burton had a complete blast in this entire finale as Megatron!
Do you want to know what made him so much better than other Megatron versions we know? He is the very first Megatron to actually kill Starscream especially AFTER he was first betrayed and LEARNED of his betrayal. He just snuffed his spark with the key like it was NOTHING, and he actually SMILED while killing him. He is a very sadistic and evil warlord indeed.
Gosh, he was the best part of the episode and completely wiped the floor with the Autobots. He was a force to be reckoned with and never played around.
Lugnut and Blitzwing were awesome in this as well. We see them into more action, and Lugnut’s loyalty finally payed off. I can’t really imagine being so fanatically dedicated to someone like how Lugnut was. What made him so obsessed with his master in the first place? Was he swayed by his handsome looks? His charm? His intellect? His classy and sassy attitude? His sexy voice? What was it?! I’m not complaining, but I’m just astonished at such bizarre steadfastness towards Meggy here.
Oh, and as for Optimus in this episode, I was actually sympathetic for him but at the same time a little upset with the way he lashed out at his team like that. “Undisciplined, insubordinate malfunctions”? When I was kid by the time this episode aired, I thought he was referring to the Dinobots; but as I got older over the years, I realized he was actually referring those stinging words to his own crew. Fuck, Optimus, that is so harsh... but understandable.
This was a great way to settle character growth for him and for him to learn how to be respectful and positive towards his friends—how to be a real leader.
It would have been cool to see the Dinobots team up with our heroes, but I guess their unruly nature got the best of them. Oh well...
The action was fantastic and the dialogue was solid along with the humor and tone. It was awesome to see the cliffhanger of the damaged Megatron holding Sumdac in his hands for his own future plans. We will see more of that next season! A!
Awesome episode indeed! So this season had its ups and downs, but this has some of my favorite episodes including this one. We will see what season 2 has in store for us next time.
Announcement
Just to let you all know, I will be taking a full week break from making reviews (from tomorrow to next Sunday). I will still post some random blogs here and there but no reviews for a week. I need a break. I’ll be back to business on 4/26. See ya later!
There is so much irony in this.
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Yeah, and it was really epic for me.
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Who says irony and epicness can't work together?
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I know right? It’s awesome.
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Makes for a good story.
Time for trivia, and I have to be honest. I was hoping you would review these episodes separately, because I was planning to do Starscream first and then do Megatron. No matter, I can still make this work. Decepticons... transform and rise up!
1. Megatron's cannon makes the same sound as his Generation 1 counterpart's weapon, except with additional effects mixed in to make it actually sound like a laser cannon and not a blender.
2. Megatron's outer space alternate mode, shown for all of 20 seconds, has two toy molds devoted to it. Though these "Cybertron mode" toys resemble each other, neither looks anything like the alt mode of the pre-Earth Megatron seen on the show.
3. Megatron is the only one of the original five Decepticons in Animated actually to have a Cybertronian vehicle mode design. Although the others have different robot mode kibble before they scan their Earth modes, none of them had an alt-mode created. Having a toy helps (this is in contrast to the Autobots, who all had Cybertronian-modes designed for them from the start, even if we didn't see them in the first episode).
4. According to The Allspark Almanac, Megatron's Earth mode cockpit seats five.
5. When he was a disembodied head, Megatron had a pupil in his right eye, similar to the Autobots. Once he regained his body, this never appeared again.
...and finally...
6. In the initial planning phases of the never-greenlit fourth season, Megatron would have broken out of prison on Cybertron and become a Triple Changer, as detailed in the The Allspark Almanac II. There was even a toy planned. Here's the mold.
tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/9/96/MarauderMegatron.jpg
P.S. One more piece of trivia.
7. Despite the fact the Autobot ship crashed on Dinobot Island, Grimlock and company are nowhere to be seen. In an interview, Marty Isenberg said that there was a cut scene in which the Dinobots did come and fight, only to be defeated one-by-one by Megatron in order to show how powerful Megatron was. However, the poor quality of the animation caused the scene to be dropped. Additionally, in retrospect, Isenberg felt things might have worked out for the best, since the scene probably would have annoyed Dinobot fans (not to mention contradicted Grimlock's profile).
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Overall, a great ending to Season 1. The question is how will Season 2 stack up?