My Review of Transformers: Animated season 3 episode 11 This is Why I hate Machines · 11:12pm Oct 30th, 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! This is yours truly back with more Transformers: Animated content! This time, I will be reviewing the eleventh episode of season three entitled “This is Why I hate Machines”. Not gonna lie, that has got to be the funniest episode title I’ve ever read. They took Captain Fanzone’s popular catchphrase and used it as the official title for this episode. Speaking of which, both he and Ratchet are accidentally transported via a space bridge malfunction to Cybertron where they are confronted by Sentinel and the Elite Guard. Isn’t this hilarious how Fanzone finds himself in a world filled with living, sentient robots and surrounded by said “machines”?
However, it makes me wonder how exactly was Fanzone able to breathe on Cybertron considering the fact that he was no longer in Earth but now in a planet where robots don’t need oxygen. Did Cybertron have its own oxygen-supplying atmosphere that enabled him to breathe?
Aside from that, I absolutely love the dynamic interaction he had with Ratchet in this episode. He saw more of what Cybertron really was and how it was like—including seeing how much more of an egotistical douchebag Sentinel was as the “head” of Metroplex Headquarters.
I also liked the animated versions of the characters who appeared back in G1 and Beast Wars such as Tracks and Rattletrap (who was actually Rattrap in BW).
The fight scenes between Ratchet and Shockwave were well-choreographed and well-animated. This is definitely the first time we’ve seen them face each other in a Transformers show (which Transformers: Prime soon followed suit). It’s basically Corey Burton vs Corey Burton so to speak. Haha!
Lastly, there is one more thing that just came into my mind as I am typing this. At the end of the episode, Shockwave changed his color scheme from gray to his G1 color purple. While it is decent fan-service, I don’t understand why he would do this at such a later point in time rather then reveal his true colors (literally) the very moment he first exposed himself to the Autobots back in the season two finale. Why would he do that? Why not keep the old color scheme? It’s not like he would keep that purple color if he disguises himself into Longarm. Because in the final episode, his new color scheme completely vanishes the moment he turns into Longarm. What is the point of having a purple color scheme if it’s going to just turn on and off whenever you feel like it? He has been wearing the gray color for almost the whole show up until this point. Why use the purple color at all?
Overall, this episode was such a blast to watch as it had intriguing storytelling, great humor, character development, and well-done action scenes. This gets an A-! Now to finally conclude the series tomorrow with one more episode review! LET’S GO!
Peace!
I think why Shockwave didn't change his color-scheme sooner is because he thought he might need to change back to Longarm.
5601988
(Ahem)
5601995
Oh, right. Well, I don't have any other theories.
Time for trivia, and I’ve been putting this one off for far too long. Time to give the tough old model his due.
1.Had season 4 been produced, Ratchet's white would have been recolored hazard/lime green and (most) of his red in black, to more closely resemble his live-action counterpart.
2. In the Japanese dub, Ratchet speaks with a Kagoshima dialect. That particular dialect has been gradually phased out over the decades due to standardized education and is generally only spoken by older people in the region. As such, in popular Japanese media, the Kagoshima dialect is easy shorthand for "old person".
3. The Autobot medical officer was originally conceived as a female robot named Red Alert. Even after it was decided to make the character male later in development, he retained the name "Red Alert" until executive producer Sam Register was able to convince Hasbro that "Ratchet" was a more identifiable name for the character. Because of this, Ratchet's final design carries influences from various Red Alert incarnations. In particular, Derrick Wyatt was inspired by the box art for G1 Red Alert's Binaltech Asterisk incarnation.