Transformers Prime Episode: Toxicity

[Ultra Magnotron]

As you all know these past several episodes have all be happening
simultaneously, and this last one both wraps up all the loose ends
(even if a little bit of a half-assed) and also leaves us in
the very same suspense as the last episode, because they somehow
found a way! I'm not happy about that.

So, anyway, I like Hardhshell! I want to see more of him, and
was that David Kaye voicing him? Awesome! In the future I'd love
to get a backstory on this character. His tattoos are a nice
touch.

So just to give you all a very quick run-down. Bulkhead is sent
off to find the final relic. Meanwhile, on Trypic... I mean
the Nemesis, Hardshell brags about being the fiercest of the
Insecticons and gets to lead a small team to retrieve the relic
before Bulkhead does. Little does anyone suspect that this
ancient artifact just so happens to be Tox-En (spelling?).
Never heard of this stuff, but it's like radioactive waste
for Cybertronians. There's no way Bulkhead is gonna let it get
in the hands of Megatron, so he tries to toss the stuff into
a live volcano, and Hardshell wasn't having any of that.

Um... So that leaves us in the cliffhanger from last episode.
Those tricky bastards. While I didn't much care for the ending
I enjoyed two things; the first was seeing how Fowler made such
a quick recovery (hint: magic) and then how he managed to save
both Prime and Miko in their hour of need. Can solar flares
really clear a military installation? For serious? Seems like
a dumb excuse. The second thing I really enjoyed was seeing
all the really touching moments both Miko and Bulkhead have
shared together. I actually didn't realise there were so
many! They make a great team. It's been a good two seasons
for them... I guess.

So that's that. Great episode. Want more Bombshell... err...
Hardshell.

--
The Transformers (G1) Subtitles:
http://www.box.com/s/931509f9d6b565d675d8

My Transformers Blog:
http://www.elden.co/transformers

[Shin Hibiki]

Ultra Magnotron <ultra.m...@hotmail.com> wrote:

>So, anyway, I like Hardhshell! I want to see more of him, and
>was that David Kaye voicing him?

So said the credits. Which explains why I went through the
episode thinking he sounded familiar somehow. :P

- Shin Hibiki, a toy would be cool

----
The race ain't over yet, baby
It's only just begun
They thought they had it won, baby
But soon we'll have 'em on the run

[Gustavo Wombat]

On Saturday, May 26, 2012 10:10:37 PM UTC-7, Ultra Magnotron wrote:
> As you all know these past several episodes have all be happening
> simultaneously, and this last one both wraps up all the loose ends
> (even if a little bit of a half-assed) and also leaves us in
> the very same suspense as the last episode, because they somehow
> found a way! I'm not happy about that.

If someone re-edited these four episodes in chronological order, I wonder if the result would be more or less pleasant than what we got.

I don't think the four simultaneous episodes worked particularly well, but cutting between four different adventures happening at the same time would probably be worse -- Return of the Jedi has three different fights going on simultaneously at the end, and it can be hard to care about all of them at the same time.

> So, anyway, I like Hardhshell! I want to see more of him, and
> was that David Kaye voicing him? Awesome! In the future I'd love
> to get a backstory on this character. His tattoos are a nice
> touch.

Hardshell was very, very nicely done. I like that the Insecticons have personalities and identities of their own, and even if we don't get a lot of named Insecticons, I hope we get the occasional moment of Insecticon kibitzing.

We got some Vehicon kibitzing at the beginning of this season, and I liked that.

> So just to give you all a very quick run-down. Bulkhead is sent
> off to find the final relic. Meanwhile, on Trypic... I mean
> the Nemesis, Hardshell brags about being the fiercest of the
> Insecticons and gets to lead a small team to retrieve the relic
> before Bulkhead does.

Megatron has a massive swarm of Insecticons -- why is he being so cheap with them. Don't send a small team, send 20! Don't give the Autobots any chance of survival!

> Little does anyone suspect that this
> ancient artifact just so happens to be Tox-En (spelling?).
> Never heard of this stuff, but it's like radioactive waste
> for Cybertronians. There's no way Bulkhead is gonna let it get
> in the hands of Megatron, so he tries to toss the stuff into
> a live volcano, and Hardshell wasn't having any of that.

Was anyone else expecting something a bit more Lord of the Rings-ish?

> Um... So that leaves us in the cliffhanger from last episode.
> Those tricky bastards. While I didn't much care for the ending
> I enjoyed two things; the first was seeing how Fowler made such
> a quick recovery (hint: magic) and then how he managed to save
> both Prime and Miko in their hour of need. Can solar flares
> really clear a military installation? For serious? Seems like
> a dumb excuse. The second thing I really enjoyed was seeing
> all the really touching moments both Miko and Bulkhead have
> shared together. I actually didn't realise there were so
> many! They make a great team. It's been a good two seasons
> for them... I guess.

I would have enjoyed a similar montage of Hardshell moments. They would have had to make them all up for this episode, of course.

> So that's that. Great episode. Want more Bombshell... err...
> Hardshell.

The Bulkhead adventure was a bit short, to leave time to focus on Fowler, and to weave al the strands of the past three episodes into this one. If this is the end for Bulkhead, it's a shame that his final episode had so many other points of focus.

[No One in Particular]

"Ultra Magnotron" <ultra.m...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:jpsd0d$1su$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

> before Bulkhead does. Little does anyone suspect that this
> ancient artifact just so happens to be Tox-En (spelling?).
> Never heard of this stuff, but it's like radioactive waste
> for Cybertronians. There's no way Bulkhead is gonna let it get

I spell it green kryptonite. :-)

I enjoyed the episode, honestly. And it does give us a cannonical reason
for different insecticons being harder or easier to beat, depending on the
needs of the story; some of them are just tougher than others. Another
possibility is that the ones just hatched in Armada were immature, and thus
not as great of a threat as the guardian on Cybertron that gave Arcee such a
problem. Megatron would naturally want to choose the strongest and most
able to guard the house while he's off galavanting through space.

Brian



--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to ne...@netfront.net ---

[Velvet Glove]

I was initially quite relieved to be able to see this episode right
after Triage so I wouldn't have to wait to see how the cliff-hanger
was resolved. Then it ends with the exact same cliffhanger.

Well played, Prime. Well played.

At the end of this four concurrent episode experiment, I am generally
in favour. It was a huge thing to try, and unfortunately, most of the
resultant episodes were quite weak as stand-alones, which makes me
feel that they should have given it more writing time--perhaps
something for a start of season rather than an end of season? But I
love non-linear narratives, and it's great to have a Transformers
cartoon with this much ambition! They did a reasonable job of
interweaving the episodes, giving us hints as to what was happening
when, while also raising questions to keep us hooked in. I think this
could have been done better and tighter, which goes back to my opinion
that they needed more writing time for this.

What they did do well was balancing the stories and outcomes to avoid
repetition. We've had a "Race for the McGuffin", a "Battle for the
McGuffin", a "Use McGuffin as Cover for Sneak Attack" and now "Destroy
the McGuffin of Mass Destruction!" Similarly, the McGuffin tally is
one for the Autobots, one for the Decepticons, one for Starscream and
one destroyed. Not only that, but every episode, save Triangulation
(the Starscream one) ended with a victory for the good guys. Go, Team
Prime! And go, Starscream! You have to root for the underdog, after
all.

We've also had a nice distribution of characters, giving everybody a
spotlight, including some Decepticons that haven't had their time.
The only exception is Megatron--really? Megatron just sat back and
waited while all this was going on? If he wasn't going on a mission
himself, why couldn't he have supervised proceedings and jumped in
where needed (Triangulation being an obvious example!). However,
while Megatron's omission seems odd, I liked how they made the effort
do change up the pairings a little, so we get Bumblebee and Miko
(loved the touch this episode of Raf and Bulkhead giving them similar
farewells), Raf working with Ratchet working with Wheeljack, and
Bulkhead and Fowler. A huge shame then that the characterisation was
so rote most of the time. They clearly did a lot of preparation for
this. Wish they could have had more time on the execution.

A few questions... is this the end of the season? TF Wiki lists no
more episodes, but this hardly smacks of season finale, ambitious
though it might have been. Are we now on hiatus for a few weeks?

The big problem with this story arc is that, while it's altered
dynamics on the various factions, there has been very little that
feels like actual story progression. The McGuffins are still just
that... McGuffins. Why are they on Earth, what is everybody going to
do with them (aside from having a big stonking battle once they feel
they've amassed enough) and will we learn any history behind them
other than who they belonged to? As I've already said, we've had no
real character progression, the status quo is still the status quo
(the exception being Knockout's apparent vendetta against Soundwave
implied by Triage), although the ante has been upped significantly in
various quarters. We need some significant payoff after this
narrative experiment. Something appropriate for a season finale in
fact....

Anyway, let's get back to this episode in particular:

Gustavo, I am deeply disappointed that you have no comment on Fowler.
The whole episode, I was thinking of you, as they played up Fowler's
military heroism rather than the slapstick stuff (and surely even you
found "I can haz cheeseburger!" a worthy joke?). Hands down, the best
thing about this episode was Fowler working with Bulkhead, pulling him
on verbally. Like Raf last week, it was a great way to involve a
human without having to account for him being in the firing line, and
it was also a genuinely touching storyline. I adored it. Finally, we
have an episode that breaks the curse of the shallow
characterisation. Perhaps it's no surprise that it was the final
episode, the one that presumably had the most time between the story
preparation and the final draft deadline.

That said, it still took some shortcuts, like Bulkhead's relationship
with Miko devolving into a clip montage... They did at least take the
time to show her at the start of the episode, and have Bulkhead ask
after her during their mission, but I found the montage a little
cheesy. The most relevant one was the episode where she was trying to
dig them out of a tunnel even as she was running out of air... that at
least was a nice parallel for Bulkhead's situation. Even so, it does
remind me how much I've grown to like the Bulkhead/Miko
relationship.

I'm surprised that we didn't see Megatron taking the antagonist role,
but Hardshell was an enjoyable replacement, and I was relieved that he
survived the episode. I'd like to see him again--I completely missed
that David Kaye was voicing him. Delighted to see him return. Every
Transformers series should have David Kaye in it. Can we retcon him
into G1 somewhere? There's got to be a missing line of dialogue he
can dub in! Anyway, I hope Hardshell become a regular part of the
Decepticon troops and forges his own place in the dynamic.

Tox-en, Kryptonite, whatever. I assume we'll see it again. Along
with Scraplets, it's going to be a great plot device for letting the
humans get into the action.

There was a little too much explaining of how the previous three
episodes fit into this one. The section of Fowler needing to evacuate
the arctic base in particular got too much dwelling on. The point was
that Bulkhead was losing his support, but the jokes of Fowler pulling
a story out of his backside (did he even need to make up solar
flares?) was moving away from the suspense.... I think I'd rather
have seen Fowler distracted, going back and forth between Bulkhead on
the monitor and bureaucracy on his phone.

That said, the end was nice. Ratchet complimenting Raf was a
heartwarming moment in Triage, but here is played as an ironic
distraction--and a nice gag. There's that on-screen relaxing as
everything seems resolved, but we know it doesn't end that way... and
then boom. Exact same cliffhanger, though now we know how it happens.

I seriously love that we have the same cliffhanger for two episodes.
They made it work! Great stuff!

Velvet Glove (one good narrative and all is forgiven; I'm easy like
that)

[Ultra Magnotron]

On 05/27/2012 07:32 PM, Velvet Glove wrote:
> A few questions... is this the end of the season? TF Wiki lists no
> more episodes, but this hardly smacks of season finale, ambitious
> though it might have been. Are we now on hiatus for a few weeks?

This is not the end of the season. We're only half-way done. They're
taking a hiatus, but no one knows for how long yet. Rumors are
circulating that it will last through the Summer. You can't trust
rumors most of the time, though.

> The big problem with this story arc is that, while it's altered
> dynamics on the various factions, there has been very little that
> feels like actual story progression. The McGuffins are still just
> that... McGuffins. Why are they on Earth, what is everybody going to
> do with them (aside from having a big stonking battle once they feel
> they've amassed enough) and will we learn any history behind them
> other than who they belonged to?

These are the very same questions I'd like answered myself.

> Hands down, the best thing about this episode was Fowler working with
> Bulkhead, pulling him on verbally.

Agreed.

> Every Transformers series should have David Kaye in it.

*Does his best Beast Wars Megatron impression* Yes.

(I'm actually pretty good. I annoy my friends with some
well-placed BW Megatron one-liners every now and then)

> That said, the end was nice. Ratchet complimenting Raf was a
> heartwarming moment in Triage, but here is played as an ironic
> distraction--and a nice gag. There's that on-screen relaxing as
> everything seems resolved, but we know it doesn't end that way... and
> then boom. Exact same cliffhanger, though now we know how it happens.
>
> I seriously love that we have the same cliffhanger for two episodes.
> They made it work! Great stuff!

I guess so. Hope we don't have to wait three months to see what happens.


--

[Gustavo Wombat]

On Sunday, May 27, 2012 7:32:32 PM UTC-7, Velvet Glove wrote:

> Gustavo, I am deeply disappointed that you have no comment on Fowler.
> The whole episode, I was thinking of you, as they played up Fowler's
> military heroism rather than the slapstick stuff (and surely even you
> found "I can haz cheeseburger!" a worthy joke?).

I hated the "I can haz cheeseburger". Hated it, hated it, hated it. And then, his moment in the spotlight is used to clear out a research base with a sorry about solar flares, and make a mentally retarded subway worker a special agent.

The clip show really damaged Fowler as a character for me. He's gone from being a serious character with the occasional funny bit to a funny character with the occasional serious bit. Add to it that he lies to his superiors about the Autobots and their involvement with the civilian children, and that he doesn't bring in any military support (we've seen M.E.C.H. bring down Transformers, so there's no reason the military couldn't too, with a little technological help)... The clip show really just shone a spotlight on the character in a bad way, and it's going to take a lot to redeem him.

The show tries for, and achieves, a level of realism that no other Transformers show has managed. Mostly, that was done in Season 1 through Jack and June, but the general tone has been towards psuedo-realism with intermittent bits of silly humor poking through a little tongue in cheek. And then, in one episode, they ruined Fowler.

He's gone from having a nebulous, unspecified position in the government, where we could fill in whatever we like (he has this level of freedom and trust because he has earned it), to a out of shape former Army Ranger who through his failure to inform his superiors of events, and his deliberate lies when asked, he not only betrays his country at every turn, he endangers the world.

It disappoints me. I hope they do something to redeem him, but I'm not sure what could do so -- perhaps show him reporting accurately to his real boss, someone outside of the regular military, and express some regret on having to keep the army out of the loop.

Every episode, they make him more and more of a lone wolf running his own operation with giant alien robots, acting without authority or supervision, and less and less of the career military man who puts his country first, ahead of his own ego. Star Spangled Shorts my ass.

I don't see what makes him any different from Silas (except he hasn't been squished)

It annoys me, because I have a 3/4ths written fanfic heavy on Jack, June and Fowler, and I just can't get my head around Fowler and his motivations now.

Ahem.

Anyway, that's what I've got to say about Fowler.

> I'm surprised that we didn't see Megatron taking the antagonist role,

RID Megatron was often one to sit back and have his underlings do all the work, and we've seen this in varying degrees ever since.

> but Hardshell was an enjoyable replacement, and I was relieved that he
> survived the episode. I'd like to see him again--I completely missed
> that David Kaye was voicing him. Delighted to see him return. Every
> Transformers series should have David Kaye in it. Can we retcon him
> into G1 somewhere? There's got to be a missing line of dialogue he
> can dub in!

Perhaps he could dub in random lines in the Rhino version of "Heavy Metal War", to make the episode make even less sense.

> Anyway, I hope Hardshell become a regular part of the
> Decepticon troops and forges his own place in the dynamic.

Agreed.

I think he was the best part of the episode.

> I seriously love that we have the same cliffhanger for two episodes.
> They made it work! Great stuff!

That was kind of nifty.

[Velvet Glove]

On May 28, 12:23 am, Ultra Magnotron <ultra.magnot...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

> On 05/27/2012 07:32 PM, Velvet Glove wrote:
>
> > A few questions... is this the end of the season?  TF Wiki lists no
> > more episodes, but this hardly smacks of season finale, ambitious
> > though it might have been.  Are we now on hiatus for a few weeks?
>
> This is not the end of the season. We're only half-way done. They're
> taking a hiatus, but no one knows for how long yet. Rumors are
> circulating that it will last through the Summer. You can't trust
> rumors most of the time, though.

Aargh. In that case, I wish they'd made the break at the end of
Flying Mind. It'd still be a dramatic note to end on (both sides have
four decoded coordinates for McGuffins!) and it would have given them
more time to fine-tune the T-stories, and make full use of the
character spotlights.

Ahh, well. I shall have to hope that they instead put that time and
effort into a truly high quality story when they return!

Velvet Glove (no pressure, or anything, Team Prime Writers)

[Velvet Glove]

On May 28, 3:01 am, Gustavo Wombat <GustavoWom...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> The clip show really damaged Fowler as a character for me. He's gone from being a serious character with the occasional funny bit to a funny character with the occasional serious bit. Add to it that he lies to his superiors about the Autobots and their involvement with the civilian children, and that he doesn't bring in any military support (we've seen M.E.C.H. bring down Transformers, so there's no reason the military couldn't too, with a little technological help)... The clip show really just shone a spotlight on the character in a bad way, and it's going to take a lot to redeem him.
>
> The show tries for, and achieves, a level of realism that no other Transformers show has managed. Mostly, that was done in Season 1 through Jack and June, but the general tone has been towards psuedo-realism with intermittent bits of silly humor poking through a little tongue in cheek. And then, in one episode, they ruined Fowler.
>
> He's gone from having a nebulous, unspecified position in the government, where we could fill in whatever we like (he has this level of freedom and trust because he has earned it), to a out of shape former Army Ranger who through his failure to inform his superiors of events, and his deliberate lies when asked, he not only betrays his country at every turn, he endangers the world.
>
> It disappoints me. I hope they do something to redeem him, but I'm not sure what could do so -- perhaps show him reporting accurately to his real boss, someone outside of the regular military, and express some regret on having to keep the army out of the loop.
>
> Every episode, they make him more and more of a lone wolf running his own operation with giant alien robots, acting without authority or supervision, and less and less of the career military man who puts his country first, ahead of his own ego. Star Spangled Shorts my ass.
>

OK, I get where you're coming from. My original interpretation was
that he was running into personal conflict... wanting to do the right
thing by his government, but gradually sympathising more with the
Autobots and knowing that governmental interference could make matters
worse, either by endangering more humans or by handicapping the
Autobots.

I have revised this opinion somewhat, since a lot of his lies are
unnecessary (the whole solar flare thing, for example... he could have
just said the truth: "The Decepticons are on their way, we need to
evacuate all humans pronto!" Even if he was talking directly to
civilian researchers at the base, he could have just told them it was
classified and they needed to evacuate by government order.) Instead,
it's become a running gag, that Fowler needs to make up crazy stories
to cover the Autobots' activities which doesn't make a whole lot of
sense story wise and isn't needed for the character's humour.

It hasn't ruined the character for me, but I'm now frustrated with
them for ruining the character for you. Especially because it is so
unnecessary. As you wisely noted, Fowler's strength as a character
lay in him being a pot-bellied American hero (best relevant gag here
was waking up from his pounding and staggering off to find coffee).
Making him the guy worrying about red-tape and running wacky
interference is less original and less interesting.

Still, I loved his turn with Bulkhead.

> It annoys me, because I have a 3/4ths written fanfic heavy on Jack, June and Fowler, and I just can't get my head around Fowler and his motivations now.

This is why I can't write fanfic for anything ongoing.

Velvet Glove (but I'd rather Prime ran for a good few years yet; I've
got plenty of story in G1 to daydream about)

[Gustavo Wombat]

On Monday, May 28, 2012 6:58:50 AM UTC-7, Velvet Glove wrote:
> On May 28, 3:01 am, Gustavo Wombat <GustavoWom...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Every episode, they make him more and more of a lone wolf running his own operation with giant alien robots, acting without authority or supervision, and less and less of the career military man who puts his country first, ahead of his own ego. Star Spangled Shorts my ass.
> >
>
> OK, I get where you're coming from. My original interpretation was
> that he was running into personal conflict... wanting to do the right
> thing by his government, but gradually sympathising more with the
> Autobots and knowing that governmental interference could make matters
> worse, either by endangering more humans or by handicapping the
> Autobots.

He needs some serious exposition of his motives. I was really hoping you would respond to "I don't see what makes him any different from Silas (except he hasn't been squished)", and give me something.

> I have revised this opinion somewhat, since a lot of his lies are
> unnecessary (the whole solar flare thing, for example... he could have
> just said the truth: "The Decepticons are on their way, we need to
> evacuate all humans pronto!" Even if he was talking directly to
> civilian researchers at the base, he could have just told them it was
> classified and they needed to evacuate by government order.) Instead,
> it's become a running gag, that Fowler needs to make up crazy stories
> to cover the Autobots' activities which doesn't make a whole lot of
> sense story wise and isn't needed for the character's humour.

I believe that when the antarctic researchers return, they will discover that the solar flare has smashed several buildings, and left giant footprints all over the place and stole a McGuffin.

> It hasn't ruined the character for me, but I'm now frustrated with
> them for ruining the character for you. Especially because it is so
> unnecessary. As you wisely noted, Fowler's strength as a character
> lay in him being a pot-bellied American hero (best relevant gag here
> was waking up from his pounding and staggering off to find coffee).
> Making him the guy worrying about red-tape and running wacky
> interference is less original and less interesting.
>
> Still, I loved his turn with Bulkhead.
>
> > It annoys me, because I have a 3/4ths written fanfic heavy on Jack, June and Fowler, and I just can't get my head around Fowler and his motivations now.
>
> This is why I can't write fanfic for anything ongoing.

Sometimes you get an idea for something stuck in your head, and it's not going to work in another continuity. You can either stow it away, or just go with it and get it out. Events happen, but most Transformers series are ultimately pretty static with everything returning to a status quo.

A good story can withstand a few continuity problems, and if it turns out to be a bad story, then it doesn't matter.

Here's the opening:

No one ever thought that hanging out with giant robots from
outer space and helping them fight a war was going to be safe,
but at the same time, no one actually thought anyone would
get hurt. Looking back on it, it was willful ignorance.

It doesn't fit another continuity. Tone-wise, it's a massive clash. In G1, Daniel getting chewed up was the greatest thing ever since he got to be Arcee's head as some kind of creepy underage hermaphroditic cyborg.

(How I wish the G1 cartoon continued... they completely messed up the kiddie identification character, and it would have been fun to see how they dealt with that. Toys be damned, he should have been Hot Rod's head, although I'm not sure Daniel is a good substitute for the Wisdom Of The Ages)

A good story, however, cannot survive a key character completely changing out from under it. And I think Season 2 Fowler is completely different from Season 1 Fowler. S1 Fowler was responsible, and a man of action, and willing to call in help when he needed it (Transformers help, when he mistook MECH for Decepticons, but the implication was there that he would call in for military help). In Crisscross, he arrives with three helicopters, suggesting he actually did bring in military help (or drones... operating from memory and tfwiki right now).

S1 Fowler didn't wear a flight suit because that's how tough he was. S2 Fowler doesn't wear a flight suit because he is self-indulgent and had Ratchet upgrade his cockpit.

[Velvet Glove]

On May 28, 2:00 pm, Gustavo Wombat <GustavoWom...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> He needs some serious exposition of his motives. I was really hoping you would respond to "I don't see what makes him any different from Silas (except he hasn't been squished)", and give me something.

Put me on the spot, why don't you? Actually, I didn't respond to that
because I don't have any real feel for Silas other than evil
mastermind. Although maybe Prime *is* planning to send Fowler into
some corrupted Silas-y place, and this is all part of that!

But... taking it more seriously....

OK, clearly the big difference between Fowler and Silas is that Fowler
does actually give a crap about other people. Even if Silas had an
ulterior motive to keep Bulkhead going, I don't think he could pull
off what Fowler did this episode. He doesn't have that level of
compassion. Fowler, on the other hand, fully intends to do the right
thing.

Fowler also has a bit of an ego, and strikes me as the micro-managing
type. He wants the job done right, and that means that either he does
it himself or he supervises it to the last detail.

Let's get back to my original theory, that Fowler started out
representing the human (read: American) interests, and has gradually
become more sympathetic to the Autobots' interests. My thought was
that he's finding himself in conflict as he's obliged to compromise
one for the other. However, what if that conflict has arisen, but
thanks to his ego, he is willfully blind to it?

So, new theory goes that Fowler has become an Autobot sympathiser but
still views himself as the American Hero. It's what he's been all his
life, he's had an illustrious military career, he has the freaking
Star Spangled boxer shorts... In his own mind, he can't admit to a
single unpatriotic thought or deed. Cognitive dissonance.

Therefore, when he finds himself wanting to put the Autobots ahead of
his own government, he tells himself that he knows what he's doing, he
understands the situation better than his superiors and therefore a
'little white lie' is not an act of treason. He also doesn't want to
trust another person with the kind of insider status he has... the
kids have become accepted partly because they *are* kids--civilians
who he has clear authority over and who can't go over his head.

I'm also quite sure that there is also a bit of a power rush in there,
which he also won't admit to himself. People are very very good at
deluding themselves like that.

So that's my new explanation. He's still always going to do the right
thing in the broader sense, but he's defected to the Autobot Side and
might never face up to that.

> I believe that when the antarctic researchers return, they will discover that the solar flare has smashed several buildings, and left giant footprints all over the place and stole a McGuffin.

This brought about an LOL moment.

> Sometimes you get an idea for something stuck in your head, and it's not going to work in another continuity. You can either stow it away, or just go with it and get it out. Events happen, but most Transformers series are ultimately pretty static with everything returning to a status quo.

Well, true. I'm usually pretty happy to let something percolate in my
head for years. I don't often feel the need to get something actually
*written*, though I am determined to write a new fanfic before the end
of this year. ;)

> Here's the opening:
>
>     No one ever thought that hanging out with giant robots from
>     outer space and helping them fight a war was going to be safe,
>     but at the same time, no one actually thought anyone would
>     get hurt. Looking back on it, it was willful ignorance.
>
> It doesn't fit another continuity. Tone-wise, it's a massive clash. In G1, Daniel getting chewed up was the greatest thing ever since he got to be Arcee's head as some kind of creepy underage hermaphroditic cyborg.

Love the opening. I could see it in G1, but then I like to try and
inject some gritty realism in G1 these days...

> (How I wish the G1 cartoon continued... they completely messed up the kiddie identification character, and it would have been fun to see how they dealt with that. Toys be damned, he should have been Hot Rod's head, although I'm not sure Daniel is a good substitute for the Wisdom Of The Ages)

See, I always thought that Daniel becoming Arcee's headmaster was one
of the most interesting developments. I've speculated a lot about
that. Sure, there'd be some weird moments, but I think it would work
out. The gender thing would probably be a major issue for Daniel for
a couple of years, especially when matched with Arcee's complete
inability to understand the emotional nuances of puberty, but
ultimately I think they'd get through it and be a very close team.

It's harder to decide if Daniel would ever be able to marry and have
his own family... he might just stick to his partnership with Arcee,
and that's interesting because the commitment would mean something
completely different to her. To him, she's a lifelong companion. To
her, he's a stage of her life.

I would have loved to have seen that continue. It was the most
interesting thing to ever happen to G1 Arcee and finally promised her
her own storyline rather than being a plot-required female.

Velvet Glove (if the rest of the fandom didn't find Arcee/Daniel so
freaky, I'd probably have written stuff along the above lines)