My Review of Transformers: Animated season 3 episodes 8-9, Human Error · 10:30pm Oct 16th, 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)
Hello, ladies and gentlemen! This is Mr. J with more Transformers: Animated content! This time, I will be talking about what I really enjoyed out of the season 3 two-parter “Human Error”. This is my all-time favorite episode of the whole season because not only did my boy Soundwave return but also created his means of revenge that raised the stakes much higher than how he did in his debut episode in season 1. He has more screen-time, more lines, and was even more dangerous than before. Plus, he is not alone this time as he has Lazerbeak and Ratbat at his disposal.
In the first part, the Autobots are taken captive by Soundwave during Christmas and had them imprisoned within an alternative reality where they are humans and the Decepticons are terrorizing Detroit City. Honestly, I was very surprised to see them in human form the first time I watched this episode. It’s almost like somebody’s fan art made its way into actual canon. 😂 Anyway, it was kinda cool to see them human and feel the helplessness the humans experience every time a Decepticon attacks a city.
It’s until they realize that everything around them is not real since there is absolutely no way Cybertron would show up out of nowhere without anything drawing the whole planet to Detroit. Thus, the Auto-men fight their way out of their alternative reality for a brief time until Soundwave re-apprehends them.
If there’s one main thing that bugged me in this episode was the atrocious animation. Dear Primus, the characters looked like they were made by amateur animators; their body proportions looked off and, at a distance, they’re barely animated properly. Even the lip-syncing looked awkwardly off. What were you smoking, Mook?
In part two, Sari Sumdac forms a team of Substitute Autobots consisting of Scrapper, Snarl, and Wreck-Garr. Three of my favorite characters together in one episode—absolutely amazing!!! It still sucks that Snarl is a silent character in this show; personally, I think Bill Fagerbakke would have been a terrific choice voicing the character.
I honestly wish we saw more of those three together again which I’m quite sure the cancelled season 4 would have probably revealed as well. I mean, they were a perfect band of misfits in my opinion. You have a silent brute who is arguably less aggressive than Grimlock and doesn’t mind being a pet for someone, a relaxed casual Constructicon who cares mostly for motor oil, and an idiotic, dim-witted, self-proclaimed hero who holds nothing but garbage who has cartoonishly loads of unexpected surprises. Yeah, you got yourself a perfect team of characters who had less luck than the others.
Oh, and I loved that final standoff between Soundwave and Optimus. The way Optimus used Lazerbeak to defeat Soundwave and to “FACE THE MUSIC!” made it one of my favorite scenes from the two-parter.
Overall, this was a very awesome episode despite the visual flaws it has. I give this two-parter an A-! Regardless of this, I didn’t like the fact that Soundwave was so underutilized in this whole show and only got two episodes. And yes, a two-parter is literally only one episode since it is the same plot and separated into two parts. I really wish he had more episodes.
Peace!
I thought it was strange on Laserbeak and Ratbat alternate mode.
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Their guitar modes looked cool.
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No, I agree with you there. But I mean why is Laserbeak a normal guitar and Ratbat a keytar?
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Ratbat’s keytar was used to mind-control people whereas Lazerbeak’s was just to... well, emit laser waves. That’s just my guess.
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Works for me. Too bad Soundwave was smart enough to see Sari's plan before it was too late.
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Perhaps I can provide both of you something of an explanation for the forms of Soundwave’s cassettes.
Laserbeak, Ratbat, deploy. Operation Trivia Encore.
1. Starting off with Laserbeak. His function in electric guitar mode is simple, he aids in Soundwave's manipulations of sound and data transmission. He can hack into any computer acoustically, and also can focus sound into a concussive blast.
2. As for Ratbat,in keytar mode, he aids in Soundwave's manipulations of sound and data transmission, and is capable of broadcasting on multiple frequencies all at once. This allows Soundwave to take total control over the minds of any human or Autobot that's unfortunate enough to hear Ratbat's music.
3. This wasn’t exactly stated outright in the show, but although these two were built by Soundwave, both Laserbeak and Ratbat possesses a spark due to bearing a tiny sliver of the AllSpark.
4. Instead of refueling through conventional means, Ratbat enjoys sucking out the energy out of other machines, especially Autobots. Because vampire bat.
5. According to the bio for Electrostatic Soundwave, Ratbat can fire lightning bolts in keytar mode.
6. Remember when I said Derrick J. Wyatt had four favorite Transformers. Well, the fourth one is Ratbat. Just in case you didn’t see any of the other trivia where I mentioned Wyatt’s personal favorites, here’s a recap. Swindle, Galvatron, Waspinator, and Ratbat.
Btw, any ideas on what Rumble, Frenzy, and Ravage would have turned into if they appeared in Animated? (My bets are on amps for F and R, and a drum set for Ravage.)
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Wow.
I forgot to include this in my original comment, so I’m putting it here. Here’s Soundwave from the Japanese dub of animated.