My Review of Transformers: Animated season 2 episode 7–A Fistful of Energon · 12:13am Jun 27th, 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)
Greetings, everyone! Welcome to another episode review of Transformers: Animated! This time, I will be reviewing what I enjoyed out of this episode called “A Fistful of Energon”. This was yet one of my favorite Prowl episodes of this season and the second episode of the series in which Lockdown, one of my favorite antagonists, appears once again. In this episode, our treacherous friend Starscream escapes from the Elite Guard and swears vengeance on Megatron again especially as he has plans to overthrow him for good.
I love that this show is the first time Starscream has ever done the task of making clones of himself in order to destroy Megatron. Heck, he even made two of them hidden bombs to generate a false sense of security. It just speaks volumes of Starscream’s intelligence, resourcefulness, cunning, and determination. He may be a coward, but he’s a deadly coward. Like his movie version once said, “Sometimes, cowards do survive.” That’s one of the things I love about this animated version of the Seeker.
However, I have to point out one flaw of that plan: the ticking of those bombs took way too long to detonate which gave Megatron and his thugs plenty of time to escape and for Prowl to come up with a plan to save the city. Yeeeeaaaah, you could’ve just detonated them right there and then as soon as you finished your monologue. Great job, Screamy.
Anyway, we see Prowl is eager to catch Starscream as a bounty was set on him although completely unaware that Megatron was the one who set the bounty which indirectly influenced the Autobot to join forces with the bounty hunter. Even though their collaboration worked perfectly, Lockdown still had other plans as he had to rendezvous with the Decepticon leader.
I just loved the character development the writers gave Prowl here: despite Optimus and Ratchet’s admonitions to restrain himself from being reckless in chasing after mods for his own benefit, the young bot still pursued the Starscream clones with Lockdown’s help. All it took was a simple look at the damage he caused (mostly the cracked eggs) to be convicted and feel remorseful. Thus, he sacrificed those mods to save the city and had to turn down Lockdown’s offer to join him permanently.
It’s an important lesson to remember here: never pursue after an activity that may teach you the wrong things or do something that can harm yourself and everyone around you. And this is what Prowl learned.
Aside from the good animation and great voice acting, this episode was amazing with great character writing as well as seeing more of Starscream’s plans unfold. Oh, a minor note, we see a particular helmet Prowl wore in his new “samurai” armor Lockdown gave him as shown in the picture above. Let’s just say that won’t be the last time we see it. 😉 Remember that.
Therefore, I give this episode a solid A!
Peace!
Eh.
5541744
Didn't like the episode?
5541754
I did. I just have my mind elsewhere.
5541758
I'm now starting to be curious what you're thinking about if you don't mind sharing.
5541852
Ah, it's nothing serious, amigo. I got blocked by someone and I'm trying to fix it.
5541857
Oh really? How come?
5541858
I was trying to get answer to a question. I only asked twice and I got blocked. I didn't say anything insulting or anything.
5541862
That's weird. Either the person blocked the wrong guy or maybe he was just annoyed.
5541870
I know. I'm hoping to fix it. Sometimes I wish I wasn't special needs.
5541874
Don't beat yourself up over it. I'm sure things will get better soon. You may be a little annoying at times, but you're still good for the way you are. You just continue being you.
5541886
Thanks, man. That means a lot.
5541897
You're very welcome! 💜
5541903
But you know, I still have a problem. Kilted gave me the timeline fore his Ed, Edd, n Eddy fan fiction, but I didn't have enough time to memorize it on the PM list I got before I got blocked.
Time to for trivia, after all, I do have a bounty to collect. And since the clone precursors to Skywarp and Sunstorm barely have anything to talk about I’ll be talking about Prowl as well.
1. The numerical string that serves as the cowardly clone's name,(3370318), is taken from Futurama, where it is the serial number of the robot Flexo. This goes hand-in-hand with Clone #2716057's name, which is derived from the serial number of Flexo's identical twin Bender.
2. Prowl's eyes are a reference to 2000 AD's ABC Warriors, specifically to the character Joe Pineapples.
3. Prowl's general robot mode design, down to his khaki legs, tall boots, and helmet-shaped head, is meant to evoke a California Highway Patrol motorcycle cop, circa CHiPs. Eat your heart out, Erik Estrada.
4. Amazingly, Hasbro hadn't originally intended to make a Samurai Prowl toy until one of their team saw the episode. The on-show introduction of the samurai armor certainly wasn't your typical marketing vehicle, considering Prowl's speech about how he didn't need the armor after all and everybody crediting him with a wise choice when he abandoned and destroyed it. This leads to some mildly amusing backtracking once Hasbro finally produced the toy, with a new episode airing that just happened to feature a second, identical set of armor that Prowl could now wear because he had a new toy out had grown as a person and could now handle the responsibility.
5. Prowl's retractable mouthplate was inspired by Snake-Eyes from G.I. Joe.
And finally…
6. Since he was in the AllSpark energy and able to save Optimus Prime after he relinquished his spark he seems to have fused with it much like Alpha Trion and Vector Sigma. It also seems possible that his spark, rather than truly being extinguished has fused with the AllSpark since he did appear as a spark ghost.
5541913
Like I said, things will get better for you. I'm sure of it.
5542021
Yeah, your right.