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Cartoon Viewing Club: Zob's Thoughts on "Auto Berserk"
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Zobovor
May 14, 2016, 12:20:03 PM5/14/16
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Posting this a day early, because that's how I roll. Also, I'm back to work tomorrow following some post-inventory time off, so I'll probably forget if I don't do it now!
"Auto Berserk" is episode #33 of the original Transformers series, written by Antoni Zalewski. His other Transformers script was "Dark Awakening," and both stories deal with a beloved good-guy character who has gone straight off his rocker. He had previously written for the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series and would later contribute to Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates and the DIC-produced G.I. Joe series.
(I should mention that I do believe we reviewed this episode during the original Cartoon Viewing Club hosted by the late Skyflight, by merit of being one of the episodes that Rhino had released to VHS, but that was fifteen years ago. The episode itself hasn't changed, of course, but I still find that there are plenty of things to say about it.)
Our story opens with the Autobots conducting a test run of a new weapon called the negavator for the U.S. military. We see the futuristic tank-like vehicle, being controlled remotely by the Autobots, blast a rocket gantry, which promptly dematerializes into nothingness. (The original script for this episode describes it instead as the "negator," suggesting it literally negates objects from existence!) Wheeljack, whose claim of inventing the device is implied, seems suitably impressed. It's not really explained in the episode, but apparently the Autobots were recruited to develop this weapon and hand it over to the army. It seems like an odd move for the Autobots, and a throwaway line or two would have gone a long way towards explaining it. Maybe the Autobots are trying to help the humans to become more self-sufficient so that they can defend themselves against the Decepticons? Maybe Optimus Prime recognizes that the Autobots won't be on Earth forever and that the humans can't always rely on the Autobots to defend them? Prime's query to the military personnel, "Satisfied, gentlemen?" strongly suggests that the Autobots intend to turn possession of the weapon over to the humans following the conclusion of the testing.
It's worth mentioning that operations are taking place in a compound the Autobots keep referring to as "the bunker," not the volcano base. The term usually describes a fortification for storing fuel or supplies and has a strong wartime connotation, so I can only assume the bunker was developed specifically to test and store the negavator. The Autobots never constructed a new base of operations to test other inventions like the instant immobilizer or the solar power tower or the Dinobots, so it becomes clear that the negavator is a Really Big Deal.
The Autobots are congratulating Wheeljack on his success and their usual personality flukes come up. Grapple is chiefly concerned about the negavator zapping one of his beautiful buildings, while Red Alert, the unmitigated star of this episode, is concerned about the Decepticons seizing control of it. The episode mentions a little bit later that Red Alert's role is security director for the Autobots. If my theory is correct and that the 1985 Autobots were all "really" on board the Ark somewhere, then one wonders what the Autobots did all this time without Red Alert. (He sure wouldn't have let Nightbird sneak into the volcano base, that's for darned sure.)
So, Red Alert's built-in sensors suddenly activate, and he is able to detect that the Decepticons are present and are about to attack. This is a great ability to have, but as with so many Transformer special abilities, it's unique to a single character, even when the technology should be copied and installed in everybody. Sure enough, Soundwave has snuck into the base, disguised as a tape recorder that someone has ostensibly just left carelessly laying on the ground. When the military guys notice it, Soundwave switches to robot mode and scares the crap out of them. This show generally downplays the fact that these guys are gigantic in robot mode, but you get a real sense of danger as Soundwave advances on them and they just barely make their escape.
This episode appears to be animated not by the Japanese studio Toei nor the Korean studio AKOM, but a third, unidentified studio. Production coordinator Paul Davids once said in an interview that some episodes were farmed out to an animation studio in the Phillipines, but it was not identified by name. There are definitely a handful of episodes that can be immediately identified as superior to the Hanna-Barbera quality of the AKOM episodes but lacking the technical crisp quality of the Toei episodes. One of the animation tricks they tend to use is an airbrush effect for shading and highlights, such as the ones on the military helicopter when the army personnel first notice Soundwave on the ground. This also means they produced the animated segment of the Hasbro toy commercial that first introduced the 1985 Autobot Cars and Decepticon Jets.
In response, Optimus Prime orders Red Alert to guard the bunker while he leads the others outside to engage the Decepticons. Like "The Master Builders," this is another episode that got culled for footage to use for the second-season ending credits, and as a result we get to see that moment many, many times where Prime, Smokescreen, and Hoist all transform. Red Alert insists that Inferno (a fellow firefighting vehicle!) remain with him, while Inferno, who has never been terribly good at following orders, just wants to get outside and fight the good fight.
"We can't let Megatron get the negavator!" Prime vows, but Megatron isn't even present. This is a solo mission for Soundwave and his cassette babies, ostensibly the only such Decepticons who could sneak into the base perimeter undetected (especially since the producers had decided to discontinue Reflector as a character by this point). Soundwave barks orders for Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, and Buzzsaw to deploy. That sure is an odd collection of tapes we don't usually see working together. Evidently Laserbeak got jealous and popped out instead, because we don't see Buzzy at all. This is a rare moment for Frenzy, who's only appeared in, like, two episodes before this one. (In the Japanese version of the show, they did not reproduce the Hasbro error of referring to the black-and-red robot as Frenzy. In their version of the show, it's Rumble who is the rarely-seen twin. This is probably why the Decoy assortment, originally created for the Japanese market, included Frenzy but not Rumble. He was the more prominent of the two characters as far as Takara was concerned.)
The Cassetticons are packing a surprising, and dangerous, amount of firepower for this mission. "Back! The heat will cook out databanks!" Prime warns his troops. When they bring the awning down on top of the Autobots, they fear that the negavator will be easy money for Soundwave. He seems to be counting his chickens before they've hatched, as he's already muttering, "Objective accomplished!" to himself. Thinking quickly, Prime summons Red Alert to seize control of the negavator remotely. He fires off several shots, dematerializing boulders left and right, until Soundwave shrinks back down to tape deck mode and eludes the tank's targeting sensors. "Go ahead, Soundwave. Make my day!" Red Alert says, channeling Dirty Harry. Given the origins of this pop culture reference, Red Alert's use of it here implies that he is willing to kill Soundwave to protect the secrets of the negavator.
With the Autobots trapped inside the bunker, Hoist and Grapple decide to do what construction vehicles do best. They each transform and produce specialized grasping tools to begin digging their way out of the rubble. "Some day," Grapple remarks, "I want to build something that doesn't get trashed!" Besides being a funny standalone line, this could also directly refer to "The Master Builders" and the destruction of the solar power tower. Conventional wisdom is that you don't want to bog down a children's television show with too much continuity or too many references to what's come before, but I tend to disagree. I loved it when episodes included callbacks to other episodes, and there was nothing that annoyed me more than episodes that seemingly forgot about, or flat-out ignored, prior events. Kids are generally not idiots, and they're so much brighter than you think.
The Autobots emerge, and Optimus Prime effects a transformation that you've seen dozens of times. By this point, Inferno has wanted to run out and join the battle on three separate occasions, but Red Alert keeps insisting that he remain behind. While Frenzy manages to inexplicably knock Optimus down and keep him pinned, Rumble leaps into the negavator controls. I don't understand how Prime keeps getting beaten by these tiny little tapes. Laserbeak turned the tide of battle against Prime on at least two separate occasions, and Ravage has knocked him down, too. There's a moment when Rumble aims the negavator at Prime and Frenzy, who still has him pinned, screams "Wait! Not yet!" in desperation. There's no reason to think that Frenzy wouldn't just cease to exist if he got zapped by this thing, so he has due reason to be concerned.
Typical animation has 24 drawings for every second of footage, though budget shows try to stretch that as much as possible by animating only the heads or the mouths of the characters. Sometimes, even more frames per second are added, and the result is characters who can move and react far more quickly than usual. One such scene is after Inferno (who has snuck out to join the fight!) douses Rumble with fire-retardant foam and forces him to flee the cockpit. Prime dives for his rifle and then he lets loose with a quick but impressive rapid-fire burst. The Decepticons are forced to flee, but Rumble delivers a "going-away present" in the form of a rocket, one which makes its way through the tunnels of the bunker and into Red Alert's work station. He's caught in the center of the explosion and is knocked flat on his proverbial rear bumper. He's injured, but he's survived. The extent of the true damage does not become apparent until a bit later.
Hoist comes to the rescue and saves Red Alert, who is more concerned with chastizing Inferno for abandoning his post. In private, he discusses Inferno's traitorous actions with Optimus Prime. He's now convinced that Inferno is trying to steal his job and that he purposefully betrayed Red Alert to achieve this end. Clearly, there's something not quite right with Red Alert. A subtle red tinge has appeared around his eyes, and we get a few Red's-eye-view shots where his entire world has been tinted crimson (like the scene where Prime leans in and suggests that Red get some rest). "I'm fine," Red Alert insists. "It's just an electro-glitch that comes and goes... comes and goes..." When Prime reminds Red that it's too dangerous for the Autobots to remain at the bunker, Red's response is to brand Optimus as a co-conspirator in the ever-growing plot against poor Red Alert!
Red Alert was, of course, a redeco version of the Sideswipe toy (or, to be more precise, both toys were brought over from the Diaclone toy line and were identical except for their colors and stickers, and the presence of the light bar on Red Alert's roof). Like all the Autobots introduced in 1985, Red Alert's character model was a much more literal interpretation of the toy than Sideswipe, including such details like the locking tabs that allowed his hood-chest to stay in place in car mode, and the windows and doors hanging off the sides of his arms. I strongly suspect that while Floro Dery designed the front-view model for the character, one of his assistants designed the rear-view model, using only the front-view illustration for reference and not the Hasbro toy itself. Inexplicably, the rear spoiler for Red's car mode somehow ends up on his back in robot mode, something the toy patently cannot do.
In returning to Autobot Headquarters, we get to see that endlessly-reused footage of Smokescreen, Inferno, and Wheeljack changing to vehicle mode, followed by the equally-as-often reused footage of Ironhide and Grapple transforming. Through Red Alert's eyes, we watch Prime transform and there is that same red tint in evidence (and a blurring effect to boot, suggesting Red is simply not processing visual data correctly). Given how much the Autobots usually rely on Red Alert's sensory acuity, what's going to happen now that he's not operating at peak efficiency?
Back at the Decepticon base, we have a rare moment where Megatron actually chastizes Soundwave for a failed mission, branding both him and his cassettes as incompetent fools. Starscream and a small clique of jets shows up and he promises to deliver success. Really, he's just trying to make Soundwave look bad, but Megatron apparently agrees because we'll see Starscream's involvement soon enough.
The Autobots are driving through what looks like a dried-up river bed as the Decepticons watch from above, planning to strike. When Rumble gets a little too close to the edge and kicks some rocks down below, Megatron is surely convinced their cover is blown. Red Alert is incapable of detecting the Decepticons in his malfunctioning state, however, so when Prime commands him to analyze the sounds they heard, Red isn't even aware that there was a sound at all. This frees Rumble to do his thing, using his pile drivers to create an avalance that buries the Autobots. What an action-packed episode, and we're only seven minutes into it! Cue the first commercial break!
(This was one of the episodes selected for airing during Transformers: Generation 2, despite the fact that the only G2 characters it features in any capacity are Optimus Prime and Starscream and Inferno. Not exactly an accurate showcase of the 1993-94 toy range! In any event, one of the contentions of the G2 version of the cartoon was the CGI cyber-net space cube overlays that were applied to scene transitions and commercial bumpers. They usually supplanted the fade-to-black effects from the original animation, which means that sometimes the animated footage was artificially slowed down for G2 to help it synch with the existing soundtrack. This episode was a particularly egregious example, since the music originally continued for about two or three seconds even after the animated visuals fade to black. In the G2 version of this episode, the rocks fall on top of the Autobots in extreme slow-motion.)
There's also something suspicious going on when we come back from commercial. I guess the expectation is that kids wouldn't precisely remember what happened prior to the two-minute interim, especially after their impressionable little brains were flooded with advertisements for the McDonaldland Happy Meal Gang and watching Bugs Bunny help that silly rabbit get some Trix. (Yes, this seriously happened.) Before the commercial break, Optimus ordered the Autobots to transform to robot mode right before they were buried in the rubble. When we come back, though, the Autobots are back in their car modes and are conveeeeeeniently just out of the way of the fallen debris.
Clearly, Megatron won't stand for this level of plot trickery and orders the attack. I think this is the first time we see all six Decepticon jets in formation, and it's an impressive sight. It was one thing when Megatron could always send Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker into battle (three jets aren't even enough for a basketball team) but now his aerial forces are effectively doubled. It's total chaos on the ground, with Autobots smashing into each other while scrambling to drive out of the path of the laser fire and poor Red Alert taking a hit that leaves him half-transformed. Hoist, who has been manning the negavator, jumps out of the cockpit and, with Grapple, they go to unearth Ironhide and Optimus. Megatron sees the opportunity to seize the negavator and makes a bee-line for it.
Well, Smokescreen's not having any of this. "He can't steal what he can't see!" he declares, encapsulating the tank with a thick cloud of smoke. Megatron is not impressed and simply continues unabated on the same course, entering the cloud and eventually colliding with the tank. One of the jets is voiced by Ed Gilbert in this scene, sounding exactly like General Hawk from G.I. Joe. His voice isn't flanged, either. I can only assume it's supposed to be Thrust, even though "Dinobot Island" had previously established his regular voice, which was at a much higher pitch. (Ed Gilbert also kept forgetting what Blitzwing's voice sounded like in "Five Faces of Darkness." You'd think Wally Burr would have done a better job of keeping the actors on track, but this happened with surprising frequency.) As if the smoke sticking to them and blinding the jets wasn't bad enough, Smokescreen also uses his electro-scramblers on the jets, who promptly adopt Yoda-like speech patterns. "Hey! My circuits electric blew just out!" "Too, mine! I'm blind flying!" You would think Transformers would have some kind of sensors that would take over, but as always, they're Just Like Humans, and covering their cockpits with smoke is sufficient to cause Thrust and Skywarp to crash into each other, and then into the side of a mountain. Starscream, too, suffers a crash, and ends up half-transformed.
Oddly, the negavator cockpit seemed to fit Rumble rather snugly, but now that Megatron's inside of it, the cockpit chair and controls have seemingly grown to accommodate him. Just as Megatron is about to fire, however, a blinded Ramjet knocks into the negavator cockpit with sufficient force to knock Megatron clean out of it. "I've got morons on my team!" he remarks, making a pop culture reference himself. This is another example of the writers slipping in references to media from their own generation rather than the generation of the target audience. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was from 1969 and I'd never seen it as a kid, but I recognized the reference because it popped up frequently in other shows (Cobra Commander quoted it once in G.I. Joe, and Scrooge McDuck used this line once in DuckTales). The Autobots take the opportunity to renew their offensive, and Megatron is compelled to withdraw. They leave Starscream behind, ostensibly because, in Megatron's words, "We have more important things to worry about!"
In the aftermath, Prime wants to know how the Decepticons were able to take Red Alert completely by surprise; he should have been able to warn them in advance. The Autobots finally realize that Red needs some serious repairs. By this point, however, Red Alert is simply not in touch with reality. "You want to disassemble me for spare parts!" he proclaims and, knocking Inferno and Hoist to either side, disappears into the city. Now, Prime was already aware that Red Alert was having difficulty. The fact that he recognized Red was malfunctioning but accepted Red's casual dismissal of it means the situation is at least partly Prime's fault. "Aw, c'mon, Red, old buddy!" Ironhide implores as they give chase. Ironhide is also an Autobot security agent, so it makes sense that he and Red know each other well. They probably worked together on Cybertron.
Starscream has recovered by this point, and vows to make Megatron regret leaving him behind. How many times have we watched Starscream transform and rocket off into the sunset? He doesn't even make the transforming sound.
So, now it's a chase through the city. Red Alert takes advantage of his vehicular configuration, using his flashers and sirens to speed through the city streets. Optimus, Hoist, and Ironhide give chase. Ironhide claims to spot Red Alert and proceeds to pick up a fire chief vehicle, asking it what's wrong and why it can't transform. Of course, it turns out this is just a regular car, and the human fire chief isn't too thrilled about Ironhide manhandling it. Well, nobody said old Ironhide had the best visual acuity. (Of course, "regular" car is a relative term. Would a firefighter really be driving a Lamborghini Countach?) Ironhide utters a hasty apology, explaining that the car looked like a friend of his. "No two ways about it," the fire chief remarks as Ironhide drives off. "I gotta take that vacation!" This kind of reaction would make sense during the first season, or maybe the very beginning of the second season, but not now. By this point, the Transformers have been on Earth for over a year. Even if the bunker is a significant distance from the volcano base, and thus the Autobots are operating in a different area than they normally do, neither the Autobots nor the Decepticons have been particularly shy about making public appearances. By this point in the show, everybody should know what a Transformer is, even if they've not met one personally, and upon seeing a gigantic robot, nobody should just be dismissing it as having worked too many hours. (Also, the true meaning of this scene is broadcasted pretty early on, with the fire chief visibly exiting the car before Ironhide picks it up. I wonder if it would have played out more effectively, and thus been funnier, if we as the audience discovered Ironhide's mistake at the same time Ironhide did.)
As Red frantically scrambles through the back alleys of the city, a voice beckons him. It's pretty obviously Starscream, who has the most distinct voice of any character on the show, but for some reason Red Alert doesn't recognize it. Indeed, the whole scene is played up as a big mystery, with Starscream standing just off-camera and placing his hand on Red Alert's shoulder. As the suspenseful music reaches its climax, Red Alert whirls around and proclaims, "It's YOU!" before we cut to commercial again, leaving the audience in complete suspense as to the identity of this unknown perpetrator. Who could it possibly be? Who, indeed? There is zero mystery here. It's not like this is G.I. Joe and we're dealing with Zartan in a clever disguise or the Baroness wearing a mask. This scene might have worked better if Starscream had never spoken. Either that, or if it had been a newer, less familiar character like Thrust, with Ed Gilbert doing one of his many wrong voices for him.
So, Red Alert confers with Starscream—surprise!—who assures Red he is not the enemy. Where "The Master Builders" saw Hoist and Grapple joining forces with the Constructicons while of sound mind and body, Starscream is taking advantage of Red Alert's damaged logic circuits to maipulate him into a partnership. All Red really wants is to show Inferno and the rest that he's just as good as they are. Starscream convinces him that if they were to capture the negavator, the Autobots would be forced to admit that Red Alert was better than them. "I would be in charge! ME!" Red Alert proclaims excitedly. The poor guy is totally out of his tree.
Optimus Prime gives up the search, at least for the time being, because they're out of energy and could not withstand an additional Decepticon attack. Also, the security of the negavator must also be considered. Watch as Optimus Prime and Hoist transform: they can do it in about one second, but it takes Ironhide at least twice as long to get into vehicle mode due to the elaborate nature of his transformation. This is a newer transformation developed for the character, effectively replacing the first-season model, in which the van mode separates into Ironhide's robot mode and the mobile battle platform. It was never used on-screen for Ironhide (and used for Ratchet only once), but I suppose the reasoning is that since Ironhide's robot design was already so far-removed from the headless toy, there was no reason not to make his transformation completely ficticious, too.
The Autobots store the negavator back in the bunker, which is evidently a nine-level compound, whose most secure level stores additional tanks and missiles and things. It's a decidedly more militaristic venture than we've ever seen from the Autobots up to this point, and you've got to wonder what brought on the change. (Maybe after the "Master Builders" debacle, Prime realized the Autobots needed some way of protecting their future endeavors, so they contracted with the military to produce some offensive tech.) Red Alert knows a secret entrance, which he happily reveals to Starscream while grousing about his perceived betrayal by Prime and how he should have considered the consequences. Ravage watches from afar, broadcasting what he's seeing to the Decepticon base.
There is some weird dialogue delivery to follow. It's always sounded like Megatron is saying, "So, Starscream is engaged in some private enterprise with a Nottobot!" I realize what he's supposed to be saying, of course, but Frank Welker's parsing of the words seems off. Also, Thrust's response is equally strange. "Just give the order! Megatron and I will weld that traitor to the wall!" It sounds like Thrust is speaking on behalf of Megatron, promising Megatron's services to whomever gives this order. Obviously, what he should have said in this context was, "Just give the order, Megatron, and I'll weld that traitor to the wall!" It's amazing how a single pause can change the meaning of an entire sentence.
Back at the bunker, Wheeljack and Smokescreen offer to continue searching for Red Alert. This demonstrates, at least, that Optimus hasn't completely forgotten about him. We never see Wheeljack and Smokescreen again for the rest of the episode, though.
As they enter a secret tunnel leading to the bunker, Red Alert warns Starscream about the tunnel drone that patrols the corridors. For some reason, the machine always reminds me of the tunnel-crawling machine from the movie Labyrinth. Anyway, doesn't it seem exceptionally odd that the Autobots would develop such a patently lethal defensive security measure? Red Alert claims it can atomize them on the spot. They've gone from zero defensive capability in "The Master Builders" to absolutely deadly defenses in the span of a single episode. It's like they're desperately scrambling to overcompensate.
After a moment of panic and a decision to just blast their way through the gate blocking their path (even knowing it will set off alarm bells), they find themselves in the negavator garage. Starscream has never made any pretenses that Red Alert is his friend, and nothing hammers the point home more strongly than when Red lands on top of Starscream, who responds vocally with a complaint. Watch as Red Alert hops into the negavator controls to blast the doors for another example of some animation with an extra-high frame rate.
The Autobots arrive in response to the security breach to find Red driving the negavator towards the elevator, with Starscream in tow. They still try to talk him out of his fugue, but you can't reason with a robot whose logic circuits are fried. "Now, Red, I know you. You won't fire at me," Prime says, and it's hard to say whether he's assuring Red or himself. Just then, of course, a laser blast whizzes right by Prime's head, putting lie to his words. It wasn't Red, though; the Decepticons have arrived, and Megatron has brought his entire entourage of jets, minus Starscream. Nearby, Grapple is in crane truck mode, having been cleaning up some of the debris from the last skirmish.
There's a tense moment where Starscream has to try to explain to Megatron what he's doing and why he's going after the negavator. Megatron actually supplies him with an out. "You were just about to deliver the negavator to me... correct?" Megatron says, though it's clear there is only one right answer here. Starscream wisely takes the out and order is restored. if only temporarily, within the Decepticon hierarchy.
Starscream leaps for Red Alert, knocking him out of the tank's controls. They wrestle on the ground for a moment until Optimus realizes that Red Alert has nearly reached critical mass, and an explosion is imminent. We see for a moment that Starscream's eyes have briefly turned blue, which tends to be an indication that he's acting in the best interest of the Autobots. (I recognize that it's an animation mistake, but by accident or design, it tends to coincide nicely with Starscream taking action that helps the Autobots.) A blast from his null rays seems to do the trick, and Red Alert's circutis stop sparking long enough for him to ask what's going on.
When Starscream and Megatron command him to test the negavator on the Autobots, he appears to be acquiescing at first, until it becomes apparent that he's tampering with the controls. He sets the negavator to a self-destruct mode. While the Decepticons debate over whether it's a bluff, the Autobots seize the opportunity to open fire. Even Grapple gets into the act, dumping a pile of rubble on the Decepticon troops, who are seemingly unaware he was even an Autobot.
Megatron demands that the Decepticons press on, but they've got other ideas. "Foh-geht it," says Dirge in a faux British accent. "The negavator's ghoing to blhow!" This is Dirge's first speaking line on the show, but it is not the characterization that Bud Davis would eventually settle on for the character. One supposes that all these British-sounding Autobots (Hoist, Grapple, Red Alert) informed his choice of characterization to some degree. Anyway, Megatron issues an idle threat, Starscream tells him to "save the oration!" and they all fly off.
Red Alert jumps out of the control chair an instant before the negavator erupts into flames. The Autobots pour out of the bunker, coughing and covering their mouths, which is, uh, exactly what you would expect robots to do. (Prime is even squinting, his eyes closed tightly.) The Autobots notice that Red Alert hasn't emerged yet. Always the heroes, Prime and Ironhide argue over which of them is to go in and rescue him, until Inferno pipes up and enters the fray himself.
"Inferno, save yourself!" Red implores when he is discovered. "I don't deserve to be an Autobot!" This in itself is kind of interesting, since it implies that there are good-guy robots who aren't part of the Autobot team per se. This show tends to suggest that all the robots on Cybertron are either Autobot or Decepticon by birth. It's not like G.I. Joe where they are a group that you sign up for and join.
The bunker explodes, and Prime laments that he should have been the one to sacrifice himself rather than Inferno. Of course, nobody dies on this show (not at this stage, anyway). Inferno comes rolling out of the flames in vehicle mode with Red Alert clinging to him. If Red is barely clinging to life, and Inferno was already in vehicle mode, then who propped Red Alert on top of Inferno's fire truck mode? Well, anyway. The day is saved. Red tries to apologize for his behavior, but Prime cuts him off, claiming that his decision to test the negavator was really the genesis of all their troubles. He commends both Red and Infero for their bravery. "With friends like these—REAL friends—it's easy to be brave!" Red declares. He's clearly still malfunctioning, because his lips aren't moving in time with the words at all. In fact, his lips continue to flap well after he's finished speaking until we finally fade to black as the episode ends.
The ending mirrors the final moments of "Microbots," which is a story with a somewhat similar structure. Brawn and Perceptor are at odds at the beginning of the story (much more aggressively so than the level at which Red is upset with Inferno), but at the end, Brawn has developed a newfound respect for Perceptor. There's a parallel in the way both pairs of Autobots have renewed their faith in each other by episode's end. No episode of this show is going to end with a couple of Autobots continuing to hate each other!
I love this episode in part because it focuses on a newer character from 1985. Most of the Autobots from 1984 were such one-dimensional archetypes that it was so refreshing when the focus shifted to a different personality type, if even for one episode. Red Alert more or less faded into the background after this episode, though he did get a few moments in episodes like "The God Gambit" and "Desertion of the Dinobots" part 1 and "Megatron's Master Plan" part 2. When a character gets a spotlight episode dedicated to him, in some ways it informs your perception of the character even during his subsequent, smaller roles. Of course, Red Alert was completely crazy in this episode, so it arguably colors people's perceptions of the character in ways that he may not deserve. On the other hand, Red flew off the handle at Inferno during the beginning of his fugue, and Hoist just dismissed it. "Oh, you know Red; he's like that." It's expected behavior for him, at least to some extent.
I think one of the reasons this is one of my favorite episodes, though, is because it blurs the lines a little between the good guys and the bad guys. So many of the early Autobots were severely on the straight-and-narrow, so it was nice to see somebody like Red Alert break the rules a bit. It's obviously not entirely his fault (he's suffering from psychological damage, and not just super-gullible like Grapple was in "The Master Builders") but it still makes for an entertaining story.
Next month, the real-life summer blockbusters begin to hit theaters, so why don't we look at "Hoist Goes Hollywood"? See you in 30!
Zob (they-are-no-match-for-the-alien-robots... er, I mean, the EVIL alien robots)
"Auto Berserk" is episode #33 of the original Transformers series, written by Antoni Zalewski. His other Transformers script was "Dark Awakening," and both stories deal with a beloved good-guy character who has gone straight off his rocker. He had previously written for the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series and would later contribute to Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates and the DIC-produced G.I. Joe series.
(I should mention that I do believe we reviewed this episode during the original Cartoon Viewing Club hosted by the late Skyflight, by merit of being one of the episodes that Rhino had released to VHS, but that was fifteen years ago. The episode itself hasn't changed, of course, but I still find that there are plenty of things to say about it.)
Our story opens with the Autobots conducting a test run of a new weapon called the negavator for the U.S. military. We see the futuristic tank-like vehicle, being controlled remotely by the Autobots, blast a rocket gantry, which promptly dematerializes into nothingness. (The original script for this episode describes it instead as the "negator," suggesting it literally negates objects from existence!) Wheeljack, whose claim of inventing the device is implied, seems suitably impressed. It's not really explained in the episode, but apparently the Autobots were recruited to develop this weapon and hand it over to the army. It seems like an odd move for the Autobots, and a throwaway line or two would have gone a long way towards explaining it. Maybe the Autobots are trying to help the humans to become more self-sufficient so that they can defend themselves against the Decepticons? Maybe Optimus Prime recognizes that the Autobots won't be on Earth forever and that the humans can't always rely on the Autobots to defend them? Prime's query to the military personnel, "Satisfied, gentlemen?" strongly suggests that the Autobots intend to turn possession of the weapon over to the humans following the conclusion of the testing.
It's worth mentioning that operations are taking place in a compound the Autobots keep referring to as "the bunker," not the volcano base. The term usually describes a fortification for storing fuel or supplies and has a strong wartime connotation, so I can only assume the bunker was developed specifically to test and store the negavator. The Autobots never constructed a new base of operations to test other inventions like the instant immobilizer or the solar power tower or the Dinobots, so it becomes clear that the negavator is a Really Big Deal.
The Autobots are congratulating Wheeljack on his success and their usual personality flukes come up. Grapple is chiefly concerned about the negavator zapping one of his beautiful buildings, while Red Alert, the unmitigated star of this episode, is concerned about the Decepticons seizing control of it. The episode mentions a little bit later that Red Alert's role is security director for the Autobots. If my theory is correct and that the 1985 Autobots were all "really" on board the Ark somewhere, then one wonders what the Autobots did all this time without Red Alert. (He sure wouldn't have let Nightbird sneak into the volcano base, that's for darned sure.)
So, Red Alert's built-in sensors suddenly activate, and he is able to detect that the Decepticons are present and are about to attack. This is a great ability to have, but as with so many Transformer special abilities, it's unique to a single character, even when the technology should be copied and installed in everybody. Sure enough, Soundwave has snuck into the base, disguised as a tape recorder that someone has ostensibly just left carelessly laying on the ground. When the military guys notice it, Soundwave switches to robot mode and scares the crap out of them. This show generally downplays the fact that these guys are gigantic in robot mode, but you get a real sense of danger as Soundwave advances on them and they just barely make their escape.
This episode appears to be animated not by the Japanese studio Toei nor the Korean studio AKOM, but a third, unidentified studio. Production coordinator Paul Davids once said in an interview that some episodes were farmed out to an animation studio in the Phillipines, but it was not identified by name. There are definitely a handful of episodes that can be immediately identified as superior to the Hanna-Barbera quality of the AKOM episodes but lacking the technical crisp quality of the Toei episodes. One of the animation tricks they tend to use is an airbrush effect for shading and highlights, such as the ones on the military helicopter when the army personnel first notice Soundwave on the ground. This also means they produced the animated segment of the Hasbro toy commercial that first introduced the 1985 Autobot Cars and Decepticon Jets.
In response, Optimus Prime orders Red Alert to guard the bunker while he leads the others outside to engage the Decepticons. Like "The Master Builders," this is another episode that got culled for footage to use for the second-season ending credits, and as a result we get to see that moment many, many times where Prime, Smokescreen, and Hoist all transform. Red Alert insists that Inferno (a fellow firefighting vehicle!) remain with him, while Inferno, who has never been terribly good at following orders, just wants to get outside and fight the good fight.
"We can't let Megatron get the negavator!" Prime vows, but Megatron isn't even present. This is a solo mission for Soundwave and his cassette babies, ostensibly the only such Decepticons who could sneak into the base perimeter undetected (especially since the producers had decided to discontinue Reflector as a character by this point). Soundwave barks orders for Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, and Buzzsaw to deploy. That sure is an odd collection of tapes we don't usually see working together. Evidently Laserbeak got jealous and popped out instead, because we don't see Buzzy at all. This is a rare moment for Frenzy, who's only appeared in, like, two episodes before this one. (In the Japanese version of the show, they did not reproduce the Hasbro error of referring to the black-and-red robot as Frenzy. In their version of the show, it's Rumble who is the rarely-seen twin. This is probably why the Decoy assortment, originally created for the Japanese market, included Frenzy but not Rumble. He was the more prominent of the two characters as far as Takara was concerned.)
The Cassetticons are packing a surprising, and dangerous, amount of firepower for this mission. "Back! The heat will cook out databanks!" Prime warns his troops. When they bring the awning down on top of the Autobots, they fear that the negavator will be easy money for Soundwave. He seems to be counting his chickens before they've hatched, as he's already muttering, "Objective accomplished!" to himself. Thinking quickly, Prime summons Red Alert to seize control of the negavator remotely. He fires off several shots, dematerializing boulders left and right, until Soundwave shrinks back down to tape deck mode and eludes the tank's targeting sensors. "Go ahead, Soundwave. Make my day!" Red Alert says, channeling Dirty Harry. Given the origins of this pop culture reference, Red Alert's use of it here implies that he is willing to kill Soundwave to protect the secrets of the negavator.
With the Autobots trapped inside the bunker, Hoist and Grapple decide to do what construction vehicles do best. They each transform and produce specialized grasping tools to begin digging their way out of the rubble. "Some day," Grapple remarks, "I want to build something that doesn't get trashed!" Besides being a funny standalone line, this could also directly refer to "The Master Builders" and the destruction of the solar power tower. Conventional wisdom is that you don't want to bog down a children's television show with too much continuity or too many references to what's come before, but I tend to disagree. I loved it when episodes included callbacks to other episodes, and there was nothing that annoyed me more than episodes that seemingly forgot about, or flat-out ignored, prior events. Kids are generally not idiots, and they're so much brighter than you think.
The Autobots emerge, and Optimus Prime effects a transformation that you've seen dozens of times. By this point, Inferno has wanted to run out and join the battle on three separate occasions, but Red Alert keeps insisting that he remain behind. While Frenzy manages to inexplicably knock Optimus down and keep him pinned, Rumble leaps into the negavator controls. I don't understand how Prime keeps getting beaten by these tiny little tapes. Laserbeak turned the tide of battle against Prime on at least two separate occasions, and Ravage has knocked him down, too. There's a moment when Rumble aims the negavator at Prime and Frenzy, who still has him pinned, screams "Wait! Not yet!" in desperation. There's no reason to think that Frenzy wouldn't just cease to exist if he got zapped by this thing, so he has due reason to be concerned.
Typical animation has 24 drawings for every second of footage, though budget shows try to stretch that as much as possible by animating only the heads or the mouths of the characters. Sometimes, even more frames per second are added, and the result is characters who can move and react far more quickly than usual. One such scene is after Inferno (who has snuck out to join the fight!) douses Rumble with fire-retardant foam and forces him to flee the cockpit. Prime dives for his rifle and then he lets loose with a quick but impressive rapid-fire burst. The Decepticons are forced to flee, but Rumble delivers a "going-away present" in the form of a rocket, one which makes its way through the tunnels of the bunker and into Red Alert's work station. He's caught in the center of the explosion and is knocked flat on his proverbial rear bumper. He's injured, but he's survived. The extent of the true damage does not become apparent until a bit later.
Hoist comes to the rescue and saves Red Alert, who is more concerned with chastizing Inferno for abandoning his post. In private, he discusses Inferno's traitorous actions with Optimus Prime. He's now convinced that Inferno is trying to steal his job and that he purposefully betrayed Red Alert to achieve this end. Clearly, there's something not quite right with Red Alert. A subtle red tinge has appeared around his eyes, and we get a few Red's-eye-view shots where his entire world has been tinted crimson (like the scene where Prime leans in and suggests that Red get some rest). "I'm fine," Red Alert insists. "It's just an electro-glitch that comes and goes... comes and goes..." When Prime reminds Red that it's too dangerous for the Autobots to remain at the bunker, Red's response is to brand Optimus as a co-conspirator in the ever-growing plot against poor Red Alert!
Red Alert was, of course, a redeco version of the Sideswipe toy (or, to be more precise, both toys were brought over from the Diaclone toy line and were identical except for their colors and stickers, and the presence of the light bar on Red Alert's roof). Like all the Autobots introduced in 1985, Red Alert's character model was a much more literal interpretation of the toy than Sideswipe, including such details like the locking tabs that allowed his hood-chest to stay in place in car mode, and the windows and doors hanging off the sides of his arms. I strongly suspect that while Floro Dery designed the front-view model for the character, one of his assistants designed the rear-view model, using only the front-view illustration for reference and not the Hasbro toy itself. Inexplicably, the rear spoiler for Red's car mode somehow ends up on his back in robot mode, something the toy patently cannot do.
In returning to Autobot Headquarters, we get to see that endlessly-reused footage of Smokescreen, Inferno, and Wheeljack changing to vehicle mode, followed by the equally-as-often reused footage of Ironhide and Grapple transforming. Through Red Alert's eyes, we watch Prime transform and there is that same red tint in evidence (and a blurring effect to boot, suggesting Red is simply not processing visual data correctly). Given how much the Autobots usually rely on Red Alert's sensory acuity, what's going to happen now that he's not operating at peak efficiency?
Back at the Decepticon base, we have a rare moment where Megatron actually chastizes Soundwave for a failed mission, branding both him and his cassettes as incompetent fools. Starscream and a small clique of jets shows up and he promises to deliver success. Really, he's just trying to make Soundwave look bad, but Megatron apparently agrees because we'll see Starscream's involvement soon enough.
The Autobots are driving through what looks like a dried-up river bed as the Decepticons watch from above, planning to strike. When Rumble gets a little too close to the edge and kicks some rocks down below, Megatron is surely convinced their cover is blown. Red Alert is incapable of detecting the Decepticons in his malfunctioning state, however, so when Prime commands him to analyze the sounds they heard, Red isn't even aware that there was a sound at all. This frees Rumble to do his thing, using his pile drivers to create an avalance that buries the Autobots. What an action-packed episode, and we're only seven minutes into it! Cue the first commercial break!
(This was one of the episodes selected for airing during Transformers: Generation 2, despite the fact that the only G2 characters it features in any capacity are Optimus Prime and Starscream and Inferno. Not exactly an accurate showcase of the 1993-94 toy range! In any event, one of the contentions of the G2 version of the cartoon was the CGI cyber-net space cube overlays that were applied to scene transitions and commercial bumpers. They usually supplanted the fade-to-black effects from the original animation, which means that sometimes the animated footage was artificially slowed down for G2 to help it synch with the existing soundtrack. This episode was a particularly egregious example, since the music originally continued for about two or three seconds even after the animated visuals fade to black. In the G2 version of this episode, the rocks fall on top of the Autobots in extreme slow-motion.)
There's also something suspicious going on when we come back from commercial. I guess the expectation is that kids wouldn't precisely remember what happened prior to the two-minute interim, especially after their impressionable little brains were flooded with advertisements for the McDonaldland Happy Meal Gang and watching Bugs Bunny help that silly rabbit get some Trix. (Yes, this seriously happened.) Before the commercial break, Optimus ordered the Autobots to transform to robot mode right before they were buried in the rubble. When we come back, though, the Autobots are back in their car modes and are conveeeeeeniently just out of the way of the fallen debris.
Clearly, Megatron won't stand for this level of plot trickery and orders the attack. I think this is the first time we see all six Decepticon jets in formation, and it's an impressive sight. It was one thing when Megatron could always send Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker into battle (three jets aren't even enough for a basketball team) but now his aerial forces are effectively doubled. It's total chaos on the ground, with Autobots smashing into each other while scrambling to drive out of the path of the laser fire and poor Red Alert taking a hit that leaves him half-transformed. Hoist, who has been manning the negavator, jumps out of the cockpit and, with Grapple, they go to unearth Ironhide and Optimus. Megatron sees the opportunity to seize the negavator and makes a bee-line for it.
Well, Smokescreen's not having any of this. "He can't steal what he can't see!" he declares, encapsulating the tank with a thick cloud of smoke. Megatron is not impressed and simply continues unabated on the same course, entering the cloud and eventually colliding with the tank. One of the jets is voiced by Ed Gilbert in this scene, sounding exactly like General Hawk from G.I. Joe. His voice isn't flanged, either. I can only assume it's supposed to be Thrust, even though "Dinobot Island" had previously established his regular voice, which was at a much higher pitch. (Ed Gilbert also kept forgetting what Blitzwing's voice sounded like in "Five Faces of Darkness." You'd think Wally Burr would have done a better job of keeping the actors on track, but this happened with surprising frequency.) As if the smoke sticking to them and blinding the jets wasn't bad enough, Smokescreen also uses his electro-scramblers on the jets, who promptly adopt Yoda-like speech patterns. "Hey! My circuits electric blew just out!" "Too, mine! I'm blind flying!" You would think Transformers would have some kind of sensors that would take over, but as always, they're Just Like Humans, and covering their cockpits with smoke is sufficient to cause Thrust and Skywarp to crash into each other, and then into the side of a mountain. Starscream, too, suffers a crash, and ends up half-transformed.
Oddly, the negavator cockpit seemed to fit Rumble rather snugly, but now that Megatron's inside of it, the cockpit chair and controls have seemingly grown to accommodate him. Just as Megatron is about to fire, however, a blinded Ramjet knocks into the negavator cockpit with sufficient force to knock Megatron clean out of it. "I've got morons on my team!" he remarks, making a pop culture reference himself. This is another example of the writers slipping in references to media from their own generation rather than the generation of the target audience. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was from 1969 and I'd never seen it as a kid, but I recognized the reference because it popped up frequently in other shows (Cobra Commander quoted it once in G.I. Joe, and Scrooge McDuck used this line once in DuckTales). The Autobots take the opportunity to renew their offensive, and Megatron is compelled to withdraw. They leave Starscream behind, ostensibly because, in Megatron's words, "We have more important things to worry about!"
In the aftermath, Prime wants to know how the Decepticons were able to take Red Alert completely by surprise; he should have been able to warn them in advance. The Autobots finally realize that Red needs some serious repairs. By this point, however, Red Alert is simply not in touch with reality. "You want to disassemble me for spare parts!" he proclaims and, knocking Inferno and Hoist to either side, disappears into the city. Now, Prime was already aware that Red Alert was having difficulty. The fact that he recognized Red was malfunctioning but accepted Red's casual dismissal of it means the situation is at least partly Prime's fault. "Aw, c'mon, Red, old buddy!" Ironhide implores as they give chase. Ironhide is also an Autobot security agent, so it makes sense that he and Red know each other well. They probably worked together on Cybertron.
Starscream has recovered by this point, and vows to make Megatron regret leaving him behind. How many times have we watched Starscream transform and rocket off into the sunset? He doesn't even make the transforming sound.
So, now it's a chase through the city. Red Alert takes advantage of his vehicular configuration, using his flashers and sirens to speed through the city streets. Optimus, Hoist, and Ironhide give chase. Ironhide claims to spot Red Alert and proceeds to pick up a fire chief vehicle, asking it what's wrong and why it can't transform. Of course, it turns out this is just a regular car, and the human fire chief isn't too thrilled about Ironhide manhandling it. Well, nobody said old Ironhide had the best visual acuity. (Of course, "regular" car is a relative term. Would a firefighter really be driving a Lamborghini Countach?) Ironhide utters a hasty apology, explaining that the car looked like a friend of his. "No two ways about it," the fire chief remarks as Ironhide drives off. "I gotta take that vacation!" This kind of reaction would make sense during the first season, or maybe the very beginning of the second season, but not now. By this point, the Transformers have been on Earth for over a year. Even if the bunker is a significant distance from the volcano base, and thus the Autobots are operating in a different area than they normally do, neither the Autobots nor the Decepticons have been particularly shy about making public appearances. By this point in the show, everybody should know what a Transformer is, even if they've not met one personally, and upon seeing a gigantic robot, nobody should just be dismissing it as having worked too many hours. (Also, the true meaning of this scene is broadcasted pretty early on, with the fire chief visibly exiting the car before Ironhide picks it up. I wonder if it would have played out more effectively, and thus been funnier, if we as the audience discovered Ironhide's mistake at the same time Ironhide did.)
As Red frantically scrambles through the back alleys of the city, a voice beckons him. It's pretty obviously Starscream, who has the most distinct voice of any character on the show, but for some reason Red Alert doesn't recognize it. Indeed, the whole scene is played up as a big mystery, with Starscream standing just off-camera and placing his hand on Red Alert's shoulder. As the suspenseful music reaches its climax, Red Alert whirls around and proclaims, "It's YOU!" before we cut to commercial again, leaving the audience in complete suspense as to the identity of this unknown perpetrator. Who could it possibly be? Who, indeed? There is zero mystery here. It's not like this is G.I. Joe and we're dealing with Zartan in a clever disguise or the Baroness wearing a mask. This scene might have worked better if Starscream had never spoken. Either that, or if it had been a newer, less familiar character like Thrust, with Ed Gilbert doing one of his many wrong voices for him.
So, Red Alert confers with Starscream—surprise!—who assures Red he is not the enemy. Where "The Master Builders" saw Hoist and Grapple joining forces with the Constructicons while of sound mind and body, Starscream is taking advantage of Red Alert's damaged logic circuits to maipulate him into a partnership. All Red really wants is to show Inferno and the rest that he's just as good as they are. Starscream convinces him that if they were to capture the negavator, the Autobots would be forced to admit that Red Alert was better than them. "I would be in charge! ME!" Red Alert proclaims excitedly. The poor guy is totally out of his tree.
Optimus Prime gives up the search, at least for the time being, because they're out of energy and could not withstand an additional Decepticon attack. Also, the security of the negavator must also be considered. Watch as Optimus Prime and Hoist transform: they can do it in about one second, but it takes Ironhide at least twice as long to get into vehicle mode due to the elaborate nature of his transformation. This is a newer transformation developed for the character, effectively replacing the first-season model, in which the van mode separates into Ironhide's robot mode and the mobile battle platform. It was never used on-screen for Ironhide (and used for Ratchet only once), but I suppose the reasoning is that since Ironhide's robot design was already so far-removed from the headless toy, there was no reason not to make his transformation completely ficticious, too.
The Autobots store the negavator back in the bunker, which is evidently a nine-level compound, whose most secure level stores additional tanks and missiles and things. It's a decidedly more militaristic venture than we've ever seen from the Autobots up to this point, and you've got to wonder what brought on the change. (Maybe after the "Master Builders" debacle, Prime realized the Autobots needed some way of protecting their future endeavors, so they contracted with the military to produce some offensive tech.) Red Alert knows a secret entrance, which he happily reveals to Starscream while grousing about his perceived betrayal by Prime and how he should have considered the consequences. Ravage watches from afar, broadcasting what he's seeing to the Decepticon base.
There is some weird dialogue delivery to follow. It's always sounded like Megatron is saying, "So, Starscream is engaged in some private enterprise with a Nottobot!" I realize what he's supposed to be saying, of course, but Frank Welker's parsing of the words seems off. Also, Thrust's response is equally strange. "Just give the order! Megatron and I will weld that traitor to the wall!" It sounds like Thrust is speaking on behalf of Megatron, promising Megatron's services to whomever gives this order. Obviously, what he should have said in this context was, "Just give the order, Megatron, and I'll weld that traitor to the wall!" It's amazing how a single pause can change the meaning of an entire sentence.
Back at the bunker, Wheeljack and Smokescreen offer to continue searching for Red Alert. This demonstrates, at least, that Optimus hasn't completely forgotten about him. We never see Wheeljack and Smokescreen again for the rest of the episode, though.
As they enter a secret tunnel leading to the bunker, Red Alert warns Starscream about the tunnel drone that patrols the corridors. For some reason, the machine always reminds me of the tunnel-crawling machine from the movie Labyrinth. Anyway, doesn't it seem exceptionally odd that the Autobots would develop such a patently lethal defensive security measure? Red Alert claims it can atomize them on the spot. They've gone from zero defensive capability in "The Master Builders" to absolutely deadly defenses in the span of a single episode. It's like they're desperately scrambling to overcompensate.
After a moment of panic and a decision to just blast their way through the gate blocking their path (even knowing it will set off alarm bells), they find themselves in the negavator garage. Starscream has never made any pretenses that Red Alert is his friend, and nothing hammers the point home more strongly than when Red lands on top of Starscream, who responds vocally with a complaint. Watch as Red Alert hops into the negavator controls to blast the doors for another example of some animation with an extra-high frame rate.
The Autobots arrive in response to the security breach to find Red driving the negavator towards the elevator, with Starscream in tow. They still try to talk him out of his fugue, but you can't reason with a robot whose logic circuits are fried. "Now, Red, I know you. You won't fire at me," Prime says, and it's hard to say whether he's assuring Red or himself. Just then, of course, a laser blast whizzes right by Prime's head, putting lie to his words. It wasn't Red, though; the Decepticons have arrived, and Megatron has brought his entire entourage of jets, minus Starscream. Nearby, Grapple is in crane truck mode, having been cleaning up some of the debris from the last skirmish.
There's a tense moment where Starscream has to try to explain to Megatron what he's doing and why he's going after the negavator. Megatron actually supplies him with an out. "You were just about to deliver the negavator to me... correct?" Megatron says, though it's clear there is only one right answer here. Starscream wisely takes the out and order is restored. if only temporarily, within the Decepticon hierarchy.
Starscream leaps for Red Alert, knocking him out of the tank's controls. They wrestle on the ground for a moment until Optimus realizes that Red Alert has nearly reached critical mass, and an explosion is imminent. We see for a moment that Starscream's eyes have briefly turned blue, which tends to be an indication that he's acting in the best interest of the Autobots. (I recognize that it's an animation mistake, but by accident or design, it tends to coincide nicely with Starscream taking action that helps the Autobots.) A blast from his null rays seems to do the trick, and Red Alert's circutis stop sparking long enough for him to ask what's going on.
When Starscream and Megatron command him to test the negavator on the Autobots, he appears to be acquiescing at first, until it becomes apparent that he's tampering with the controls. He sets the negavator to a self-destruct mode. While the Decepticons debate over whether it's a bluff, the Autobots seize the opportunity to open fire. Even Grapple gets into the act, dumping a pile of rubble on the Decepticon troops, who are seemingly unaware he was even an Autobot.
Megatron demands that the Decepticons press on, but they've got other ideas. "Foh-geht it," says Dirge in a faux British accent. "The negavator's ghoing to blhow!" This is Dirge's first speaking line on the show, but it is not the characterization that Bud Davis would eventually settle on for the character. One supposes that all these British-sounding Autobots (Hoist, Grapple, Red Alert) informed his choice of characterization to some degree. Anyway, Megatron issues an idle threat, Starscream tells him to "save the oration!" and they all fly off.
Red Alert jumps out of the control chair an instant before the negavator erupts into flames. The Autobots pour out of the bunker, coughing and covering their mouths, which is, uh, exactly what you would expect robots to do. (Prime is even squinting, his eyes closed tightly.) The Autobots notice that Red Alert hasn't emerged yet. Always the heroes, Prime and Ironhide argue over which of them is to go in and rescue him, until Inferno pipes up and enters the fray himself.
"Inferno, save yourself!" Red implores when he is discovered. "I don't deserve to be an Autobot!" This in itself is kind of interesting, since it implies that there are good-guy robots who aren't part of the Autobot team per se. This show tends to suggest that all the robots on Cybertron are either Autobot or Decepticon by birth. It's not like G.I. Joe where they are a group that you sign up for and join.
The bunker explodes, and Prime laments that he should have been the one to sacrifice himself rather than Inferno. Of course, nobody dies on this show (not at this stage, anyway). Inferno comes rolling out of the flames in vehicle mode with Red Alert clinging to him. If Red is barely clinging to life, and Inferno was already in vehicle mode, then who propped Red Alert on top of Inferno's fire truck mode? Well, anyway. The day is saved. Red tries to apologize for his behavior, but Prime cuts him off, claiming that his decision to test the negavator was really the genesis of all their troubles. He commends both Red and Infero for their bravery. "With friends like these—REAL friends—it's easy to be brave!" Red declares. He's clearly still malfunctioning, because his lips aren't moving in time with the words at all. In fact, his lips continue to flap well after he's finished speaking until we finally fade to black as the episode ends.
The ending mirrors the final moments of "Microbots," which is a story with a somewhat similar structure. Brawn and Perceptor are at odds at the beginning of the story (much more aggressively so than the level at which Red is upset with Inferno), but at the end, Brawn has developed a newfound respect for Perceptor. There's a parallel in the way both pairs of Autobots have renewed their faith in each other by episode's end. No episode of this show is going to end with a couple of Autobots continuing to hate each other!
I love this episode in part because it focuses on a newer character from 1985. Most of the Autobots from 1984 were such one-dimensional archetypes that it was so refreshing when the focus shifted to a different personality type, if even for one episode. Red Alert more or less faded into the background after this episode, though he did get a few moments in episodes like "The God Gambit" and "Desertion of the Dinobots" part 1 and "Megatron's Master Plan" part 2. When a character gets a spotlight episode dedicated to him, in some ways it informs your perception of the character even during his subsequent, smaller roles. Of course, Red Alert was completely crazy in this episode, so it arguably colors people's perceptions of the character in ways that he may not deserve. On the other hand, Red flew off the handle at Inferno during the beginning of his fugue, and Hoist just dismissed it. "Oh, you know Red; he's like that." It's expected behavior for him, at least to some extent.
I think one of the reasons this is one of my favorite episodes, though, is because it blurs the lines a little between the good guys and the bad guys. So many of the early Autobots were severely on the straight-and-narrow, so it was nice to see somebody like Red Alert break the rules a bit. It's obviously not entirely his fault (he's suffering from psychological damage, and not just super-gullible like Grapple was in "The Master Builders") but it still makes for an entertaining story.
Next month, the real-life summer blockbusters begin to hit theaters, so why don't we look at "Hoist Goes Hollywood"? See you in 30!
Zob (they-are-no-match-for-the-alien-robots... er, I mean, the EVIL alien robots)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
May 16, 2016, 3:42:40 AM5/16/16
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"Auto Berserk" follows "The Master Builder", and follows up on a lot of the same themes of that episode. They would work better in the opposite order though, as it would explain Optimus's caution, rather than making him a complete hypocrite, but whatever...
The episode starts with Optimus testing the Negavator and destroying some form of tower for the viewing pleasure of random military dudes who hang out in a helicopter for no particular reason.
Ironhide is somewhat surprised that the Negavator works, since it was constructed by Wheeljack, and Wheeljack is thrilled. Why did Optimus run the countdown and press the button to activate the Negavator? Because he is a douchebag who wants to steal the thunder of any of his underlings.
The random military dudes are satisfied and will report the results at once, until one of them points to a small tape recorder sitting on the landing pad, and advises the other not to forget his tape recorder. Soundwave's alt-mode is terrible and every time it is used the whole thing feels amazingly contrived -- he either has to preposition himself and wait, or he has tiny wheels on the bottom of his tape recorder mode, and scoots around.
Back at the Autobot base or testing ground or whatever, Grapple is congratulating Wheeljack, with the plaintive longing of someone who wishes Optimus would approve his projects. Smokescreen then tells Wheeljack that he is a genius, in a completely unconvincing voice performance, laying it on really thick. Grapple hopes they don't point that thing at anything he built (don't worry, Grapple, you will never get to build anything again), and Red Alert points out that they've had superweapons before, but Megatron is still around.
Red Alert's antenna light up disturbingly brightly, and make a horrible buzzing noise, and he announces that there are Decepticons and they need to prepare for attack. Red Alert has to be completely blinded by those glowing antennas, since the weird light show completely obscures his eyes. And the buzzing probably blocks his hearing as well.
On the helipad, a random military dude is getting out of the helicopter, ready to score himself a free tape player with a large Decepticon symbol, when the tape player transforms revealing... Soundwave, as expected, who begins walking very slowly towards the helicopter, giving the military dudes time to escape.
"Red Alert!" Optimus declares, "guard the bunker." This might explain why we had Condition Megenta and Disaster Code Blue the last episode -- the alerts need to be distinguished from the name of the security officer. On the other hand, this means Red Alert's name is completely meaningless to his fellow Autobots, like a Bumblebee on Cybertron (which totally should have been Bumblebot or something).
Everyone is going off to battle except Red Alert, and Inferno, who has to back up Red Alert in case something happens. But what could happen, right?
There's a battle at the entrance to the bunker, Grapple is disappointed that his beautiful bunker is rubble. It's a weird design for a bunker, since it allows the Autobots to be easily trapped inside. Soundwave has a clear run for the Negavator, but Optimus alerts Red Alert...
More battle, now with the Negavator on remote control. Soundwave is leaping from behind rocks as they are negavated, and then transforms into tape deck. Red Alert does not shoot the tape deck.
"Those guys could use a hand up there!" Inferno says, but Red Alert implores him to stay. But, really, what's the worst that could happen if Inferno went up to help out?
At the entrance, the Autobots are trying to dig themselves out, and Grapple says "Someday, I want to build something that doesn't get trashed." I think this firmly puts this episode after "The Master Builder" and makes Optimus's refusal to let Grapple build the solar power tower seem silly compared to his allowing Wheeljack to build a Nagavator. Hoist is there with Grapple -- it's nice to see those two still together.
Hoist has some insane arm things in vehicle mode.
Autobots blast their way out, there's more fighting, and Red Alert cannot get a good shot with the Negavator because Optimus is in the way. Inferno says "I'll go and help him", but Red Alert again says "No, stay and guard the bunker". Inferno goes anyways -- nothing could possibly go wrong.
Rumble gets into the Negavator while Frenzy has pinned Optimus to the ground, and prepares to fire. But everything shorts out on the control panel as Inferno saves the day. Blah blah, fight, fight, Decepticons retreat and Rumble fires a missile backwards and it goes right down the bunker.
Red Alert turns to ask "Inferno, it that you making sounds like a missle approaching?", but gets cut off in mid-sentence by a missile striking him. Red Alert is buried under rubble, begging for his life, and Hoist wanders by and worries aloud that Grapple will blow a fuse when he sees what has happened to his beautiful bunker.
Hoist rescues Red Alert, who is understandably upset with Inferno, and threatening to beat him or something. Inferno comes running in, just in time to be berated. Hoist shrugs it off, "Oh, you know Red, he's like that."
Meanwhile, Red Alert is pacing back and forth in front of Optimus, hands behind his back, ranting about how Inferno betrayed him. Optimus suggests Red Alert get some rest, and then Red Alert's antenna glow, and Red Alert says it's nothing.
Nifty thing there, as Red Alert says that it is just an electroglitch that comes and goes, the top of his head seems to lift up slightly. This is another little detail the Masterpiece toy has.
Optimus says that they have to go back to the base, as it is too dangerous to stay in Grapple's bunker/deathtrap and walks away, as Red Alert falls to the ground screaming in pain.
We are supposed to see Red Alert's behavior as crazy and paranoid, but everyone treats it like this is how he is normally. Clearly he doesn't normally fall to the ground screaming in pain, but clutching his head in pain only causes mild concern on Optimus's part.
So, the Autobots take the Negavator through a canyon -- possibly the same canyon as in "The Master Builders" -- despite having never once had a good experience with canyons. Before Red Alert transforms, we can see the redness around his eyes that indicate he is completely insane -- it's a pity the Autobots cannot see this.
Megatron is watching on a viewscreen (we saw that he has hidden cameras in every canyon in the last episode), while berating Soundwave and his minions as incompetent fools. So they head out to the Standard Decepticon Ambush Canyon to ambush the Autobots...
Rumble manages to knock some rocks down, and the Autobots are momentarily concerned before they ask the obviously malfunctioning Red Alert what the noise was. Red Alert gives the all clear, so they drive ahead and there is Rumble again, ready to dump the side of the canyon down on them. Rumble must have sprinted while the Autobots were driving, or took advantage of perspective to get their faster (when viewed from above, the Autobots are tiny, with tiny little wheels propelling them along, which the Decepticons are much larger and able to keep pace by walking with their enormous strides -- it's not how space works in our world, but it seems pretty consistent in the Transformers universe).
And we have a commercial break, featuring Jazz and Starscream on the bumpers.
Megatron orders the Decepticons to attack again, and this time it is the jets! All six of them, strafing and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Red Alert is shot, sparks all over and tumbles sideways half transforming. Hoist climbs out of the Negavator and hurries along with Grapple to save Optimus and Ironhide -- the red robots they care about. To be fair, it's not like Red Alert has ever really contributed before, or will again, so they are prioritizing well.
Megatron gloats that the Negavator is now his, and flies down to meet it, but Smokescreen does his smokescreen thing. Fight, fight, etc. Smokescreen shoots out their radar and the jets talk like Yoda. And Ramjet knocks Megatron out of the Negavator so they all retreat, leaving Starscream.
Optimus berates Red Alert for not warning them, and then notices that his paranoid delusions are somewhat worse than normal, and ominously states that he needs a complete overhaul -- which is better than an incomplete Overhaul, missing the missile or the claws. Hoist mentions that someone's logic and reason circuits are fried (presumably Red Alert's, but maybe he was talking to Optimus...) and Red Alert announces that they just want to disassemble him for spare parts (except for the logic and reasoning circuits, probably).
So Red Alert runs away, and the chase is on, blah blah blah. Ironhide picks up an entirely different police chief lambourgini, The police chief decides he needs to take a vacation -- presumably unrelated since by this time Autobots are well known on Earth.
Red Alert, meanwhile, is invited into Starscream's man cave. Why is Starscream hanging out in an old warehouse? Who can tell. But they Autobots drive right by.
More commercials, Optimus and Laserbeak.
Red Alert says that he will never join the Decepticons, but Starscream responds with "Who is asking you to?" Meanwhile, right outside, Optimus gives up on finding Red Alert. "Screw it," he declares, "we are running low on energy. Pity we didn't have some awesome solar power tower recharging station right outside our base where it would have been perfectly safe."
Hoist mentions that Red Alert's head will explode soon, but Optimus replies "we have no choice," checking his wristwatch. "Fuck him," Optimus says.
Starscream and Red Alert bond, and decide to steal the Negavator because that will show them.
Back at the bunker, Optimus announces that he will feel safer when the Negavator is on level 9. They are in an elevator, and go from 4 to 9 momentarily. There are lots of tanks about, but don't be fooled, they are just tank gargoyles, not real tanks.
On level 9, Hoist drives the Negavator into a cell, and Optimus starts closing the gate while he is still inside, and then tells him to hurry, adding drama to an entirely undramatic moment. At least he didn't say "compute fast" and then throw an oversized basketball at him so hard he hit the ground with a resounding thud. Optimus really is an asshole. The camera pans ominously to a hole in the ceiling.
Meanwhile, Red Alert is showing Starscream a secret entrance.
Megatron is watching through Ravage's eyes. This is something that I wish they did more of -- treating the Transformers as machines. They should be able to broadcast their vision and hearing, and do countless other things that humans cannot do. Megatron is bothered that Starscream is doing something with an Autobot, just like the Constructicons last episode, and Thrust wants to weld him to the wall.
Outside the entrance to the bunker, Wheeljack assures Optimus that if Red Alert is out there (where else would he be?), he will find him. Smokescreen helpfully points out that he hopes Wheeljack finds him before his head explodes, and Optimus says "Yeah, well, good luck with that."
Red Alert and Starscream flee from a tunnel drone that is apparently fiercer and more dangerous than what it is guarding.
The alarm goes off, and Ironhide is surprised that it is intruders on level 9. Optimus insists they check it out. Blah blah blah, excitement abounds, exactly as you expect it would. Optimus says you won't fire at me, and then Megatron suddenly appears saying he will.
Megatron just waltzed right into the bunker, past a crane, completely unopposed. Worst secret base ever.
Starscream and Megatron do their thing, and then Red Alert attacks Starscream. Starscream shoots Red Alert with his null rays, stabilizing him. Megatron and Starscream insist Red Alert climb inside the doomsday weapon and shoot the Autobots, for reasons that escape me.
Red Alert claims to have set the Negavator to self destruct, the Decepticons begin to retreat, and discover that the crane they were standing next to is Grapple! Grapple drops rocks on their heads. The decorative tank gargoyles do nothing.
Megatron orders an attack, but the Decepticons retreat, with Dirge leading the retreat. The only time Megatron gives an order to press the attack, the Decepticons refuse. Perhaps he usually orders a retreat when he senses they are about to give up, so he can pretend to have control over them.
It turns out Red Alert wasn't bluffing. The Negavator promptly explodes among the Autobots. Ironhide wants to rescue Red Alert, but Optimus stops him saying he would go. Inferno steps in and rescues Red Alert instead, absolving himself of the guilt of having abandoned Red Alert earlier in the episode.
Inferno pulls Red Alert out as Grapple's beautiful bunker explodes and the Autobots cheer.
And then Inferno holds Red Alert in his arms for an uncomfortably long time as they gaze into each other's eyes. Really.
Overall, not a bad episode. It has action, which bores me, but which most people watch the show for, and we get a few moments of Optimus Dickery, and some barely repressed homoerotic content at the end. And a whole lot of Star Wars sound effects.
We get introduced to a new character, who is completely off his rocker and no one notices for the longest time, despite his head glowing at them. I don't think the other Autobots think much of Red Alert.
And we get glimpses into the Decepticon hierarchy. Megatron barely has any control over his Decepticons, does he?
The episode starts with Optimus testing the Negavator and destroying some form of tower for the viewing pleasure of random military dudes who hang out in a helicopter for no particular reason.
Ironhide is somewhat surprised that the Negavator works, since it was constructed by Wheeljack, and Wheeljack is thrilled. Why did Optimus run the countdown and press the button to activate the Negavator? Because he is a douchebag who wants to steal the thunder of any of his underlings.
The random military dudes are satisfied and will report the results at once, until one of them points to a small tape recorder sitting on the landing pad, and advises the other not to forget his tape recorder. Soundwave's alt-mode is terrible and every time it is used the whole thing feels amazingly contrived -- he either has to preposition himself and wait, or he has tiny wheels on the bottom of his tape recorder mode, and scoots around.
Back at the Autobot base or testing ground or whatever, Grapple is congratulating Wheeljack, with the plaintive longing of someone who wishes Optimus would approve his projects. Smokescreen then tells Wheeljack that he is a genius, in a completely unconvincing voice performance, laying it on really thick. Grapple hopes they don't point that thing at anything he built (don't worry, Grapple, you will never get to build anything again), and Red Alert points out that they've had superweapons before, but Megatron is still around.
Red Alert's antenna light up disturbingly brightly, and make a horrible buzzing noise, and he announces that there are Decepticons and they need to prepare for attack. Red Alert has to be completely blinded by those glowing antennas, since the weird light show completely obscures his eyes. And the buzzing probably blocks his hearing as well.
On the helipad, a random military dude is getting out of the helicopter, ready to score himself a free tape player with a large Decepticon symbol, when the tape player transforms revealing... Soundwave, as expected, who begins walking very slowly towards the helicopter, giving the military dudes time to escape.
"Red Alert!" Optimus declares, "guard the bunker." This might explain why we had Condition Megenta and Disaster Code Blue the last episode -- the alerts need to be distinguished from the name of the security officer. On the other hand, this means Red Alert's name is completely meaningless to his fellow Autobots, like a Bumblebee on Cybertron (which totally should have been Bumblebot or something).
Everyone is going off to battle except Red Alert, and Inferno, who has to back up Red Alert in case something happens. But what could happen, right?
There's a battle at the entrance to the bunker, Grapple is disappointed that his beautiful bunker is rubble. It's a weird design for a bunker, since it allows the Autobots to be easily trapped inside. Soundwave has a clear run for the Negavator, but Optimus alerts Red Alert...
More battle, now with the Negavator on remote control. Soundwave is leaping from behind rocks as they are negavated, and then transforms into tape deck. Red Alert does not shoot the tape deck.
"Those guys could use a hand up there!" Inferno says, but Red Alert implores him to stay. But, really, what's the worst that could happen if Inferno went up to help out?
At the entrance, the Autobots are trying to dig themselves out, and Grapple says "Someday, I want to build something that doesn't get trashed." I think this firmly puts this episode after "The Master Builder" and makes Optimus's refusal to let Grapple build the solar power tower seem silly compared to his allowing Wheeljack to build a Nagavator. Hoist is there with Grapple -- it's nice to see those two still together.
Hoist has some insane arm things in vehicle mode.
Autobots blast their way out, there's more fighting, and Red Alert cannot get a good shot with the Negavator because Optimus is in the way. Inferno says "I'll go and help him", but Red Alert again says "No, stay and guard the bunker". Inferno goes anyways -- nothing could possibly go wrong.
Rumble gets into the Negavator while Frenzy has pinned Optimus to the ground, and prepares to fire. But everything shorts out on the control panel as Inferno saves the day. Blah blah, fight, fight, Decepticons retreat and Rumble fires a missile backwards and it goes right down the bunker.
Red Alert turns to ask "Inferno, it that you making sounds like a missle approaching?", but gets cut off in mid-sentence by a missile striking him. Red Alert is buried under rubble, begging for his life, and Hoist wanders by and worries aloud that Grapple will blow a fuse when he sees what has happened to his beautiful bunker.
Hoist rescues Red Alert, who is understandably upset with Inferno, and threatening to beat him or something. Inferno comes running in, just in time to be berated. Hoist shrugs it off, "Oh, you know Red, he's like that."
Meanwhile, Red Alert is pacing back and forth in front of Optimus, hands behind his back, ranting about how Inferno betrayed him. Optimus suggests Red Alert get some rest, and then Red Alert's antenna glow, and Red Alert says it's nothing.
Nifty thing there, as Red Alert says that it is just an electroglitch that comes and goes, the top of his head seems to lift up slightly. This is another little detail the Masterpiece toy has.
Optimus says that they have to go back to the base, as it is too dangerous to stay in Grapple's bunker/deathtrap and walks away, as Red Alert falls to the ground screaming in pain.
We are supposed to see Red Alert's behavior as crazy and paranoid, but everyone treats it like this is how he is normally. Clearly he doesn't normally fall to the ground screaming in pain, but clutching his head in pain only causes mild concern on Optimus's part.
So, the Autobots take the Negavator through a canyon -- possibly the same canyon as in "The Master Builders" -- despite having never once had a good experience with canyons. Before Red Alert transforms, we can see the redness around his eyes that indicate he is completely insane -- it's a pity the Autobots cannot see this.
Megatron is watching on a viewscreen (we saw that he has hidden cameras in every canyon in the last episode), while berating Soundwave and his minions as incompetent fools. So they head out to the Standard Decepticon Ambush Canyon to ambush the Autobots...
Rumble manages to knock some rocks down, and the Autobots are momentarily concerned before they ask the obviously malfunctioning Red Alert what the noise was. Red Alert gives the all clear, so they drive ahead and there is Rumble again, ready to dump the side of the canyon down on them. Rumble must have sprinted while the Autobots were driving, or took advantage of perspective to get their faster (when viewed from above, the Autobots are tiny, with tiny little wheels propelling them along, which the Decepticons are much larger and able to keep pace by walking with their enormous strides -- it's not how space works in our world, but it seems pretty consistent in the Transformers universe).
And we have a commercial break, featuring Jazz and Starscream on the bumpers.
Megatron orders the Decepticons to attack again, and this time it is the jets! All six of them, strafing and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Red Alert is shot, sparks all over and tumbles sideways half transforming. Hoist climbs out of the Negavator and hurries along with Grapple to save Optimus and Ironhide -- the red robots they care about. To be fair, it's not like Red Alert has ever really contributed before, or will again, so they are prioritizing well.
Megatron gloats that the Negavator is now his, and flies down to meet it, but Smokescreen does his smokescreen thing. Fight, fight, etc. Smokescreen shoots out their radar and the jets talk like Yoda. And Ramjet knocks Megatron out of the Negavator so they all retreat, leaving Starscream.
Optimus berates Red Alert for not warning them, and then notices that his paranoid delusions are somewhat worse than normal, and ominously states that he needs a complete overhaul -- which is better than an incomplete Overhaul, missing the missile or the claws. Hoist mentions that someone's logic and reason circuits are fried (presumably Red Alert's, but maybe he was talking to Optimus...) and Red Alert announces that they just want to disassemble him for spare parts (except for the logic and reasoning circuits, probably).
So Red Alert runs away, and the chase is on, blah blah blah. Ironhide picks up an entirely different police chief lambourgini, The police chief decides he needs to take a vacation -- presumably unrelated since by this time Autobots are well known on Earth.
Red Alert, meanwhile, is invited into Starscream's man cave. Why is Starscream hanging out in an old warehouse? Who can tell. But they Autobots drive right by.
More commercials, Optimus and Laserbeak.
Red Alert says that he will never join the Decepticons, but Starscream responds with "Who is asking you to?" Meanwhile, right outside, Optimus gives up on finding Red Alert. "Screw it," he declares, "we are running low on energy. Pity we didn't have some awesome solar power tower recharging station right outside our base where it would have been perfectly safe."
Hoist mentions that Red Alert's head will explode soon, but Optimus replies "we have no choice," checking his wristwatch. "Fuck him," Optimus says.
Starscream and Red Alert bond, and decide to steal the Negavator because that will show them.
Back at the bunker, Optimus announces that he will feel safer when the Negavator is on level 9. They are in an elevator, and go from 4 to 9 momentarily. There are lots of tanks about, but don't be fooled, they are just tank gargoyles, not real tanks.
On level 9, Hoist drives the Negavator into a cell, and Optimus starts closing the gate while he is still inside, and then tells him to hurry, adding drama to an entirely undramatic moment. At least he didn't say "compute fast" and then throw an oversized basketball at him so hard he hit the ground with a resounding thud. Optimus really is an asshole. The camera pans ominously to a hole in the ceiling.
Meanwhile, Red Alert is showing Starscream a secret entrance.
Megatron is watching through Ravage's eyes. This is something that I wish they did more of -- treating the Transformers as machines. They should be able to broadcast their vision and hearing, and do countless other things that humans cannot do. Megatron is bothered that Starscream is doing something with an Autobot, just like the Constructicons last episode, and Thrust wants to weld him to the wall.
Outside the entrance to the bunker, Wheeljack assures Optimus that if Red Alert is out there (where else would he be?), he will find him. Smokescreen helpfully points out that he hopes Wheeljack finds him before his head explodes, and Optimus says "Yeah, well, good luck with that."
Red Alert and Starscream flee from a tunnel drone that is apparently fiercer and more dangerous than what it is guarding.
The alarm goes off, and Ironhide is surprised that it is intruders on level 9. Optimus insists they check it out. Blah blah blah, excitement abounds, exactly as you expect it would. Optimus says you won't fire at me, and then Megatron suddenly appears saying he will.
Megatron just waltzed right into the bunker, past a crane, completely unopposed. Worst secret base ever.
Starscream and Megatron do their thing, and then Red Alert attacks Starscream. Starscream shoots Red Alert with his null rays, stabilizing him. Megatron and Starscream insist Red Alert climb inside the doomsday weapon and shoot the Autobots, for reasons that escape me.
Red Alert claims to have set the Negavator to self destruct, the Decepticons begin to retreat, and discover that the crane they were standing next to is Grapple! Grapple drops rocks on their heads. The decorative tank gargoyles do nothing.
Megatron orders an attack, but the Decepticons retreat, with Dirge leading the retreat. The only time Megatron gives an order to press the attack, the Decepticons refuse. Perhaps he usually orders a retreat when he senses they are about to give up, so he can pretend to have control over them.
It turns out Red Alert wasn't bluffing. The Negavator promptly explodes among the Autobots. Ironhide wants to rescue Red Alert, but Optimus stops him saying he would go. Inferno steps in and rescues Red Alert instead, absolving himself of the guilt of having abandoned Red Alert earlier in the episode.
Inferno pulls Red Alert out as Grapple's beautiful bunker explodes and the Autobots cheer.
And then Inferno holds Red Alert in his arms for an uncomfortably long time as they gaze into each other's eyes. Really.
Overall, not a bad episode. It has action, which bores me, but which most people watch the show for, and we get a few moments of Optimus Dickery, and some barely repressed homoerotic content at the end. And a whole lot of Star Wars sound effects.
We get introduced to a new character, who is completely off his rocker and no one notices for the longest time, despite his head glowing at them. I don't think the other Autobots think much of Red Alert.
And we get glimpses into the Decepticon hierarchy. Megatron barely has any control over his Decepticons, does he?
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
May 16, 2016, 4:27:15 AM5/16/16
to
On Saturday, May 14, 2016 at 9:20:03 AM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> Posting this a day early, because that's how I roll. Also, I'm back to work tomorrow following some post-inventory time off, so I'll probably forget if I don't do it now!
You're just trying to guilt people who haven't gotten to it by the 15th to scramble and get it done. I got paged the first time I was watching it and taking notes, really...
> Posting this a day early, because that's how I roll. Also, I'm back to work tomorrow following some post-inventory time off, so I'll probably forget if I don't do it now!
> "Auto Berserk" is episode #33 of the original Transformers series, written by Antoni Zalewski. His other Transformers script was "Dark Awakening," and both stories deal with a beloved good-guy character who has gone straight off his rocker.
> (I should mention that I do believe we reviewed this episode during the original Cartoon Viewing Club hosted by the late Skyflight, by merit of being one of the episodes that Rhino had released to VHS, but that was fifteen years ago. The episode itself hasn't changed, of course, but I still find that there are plenty of things to say about it.)
> Prime's query to the military personnel, "Satisfied, gentlemen?" strongly suggests that the Autobots intend to turn possession of the weapon over to the humans following the conclusion of the testing.
That seems out of character, but so does developing weapons for the humans. Also, the cockpit is Transformer sized, so I don't think it was going to be handed over to the humans.
> It's worth mentioning that operations are taking place in a compound the Autobots keep referring to as "the bunker," not the volcano base. The term usually describes a fortification for storing fuel or supplies and has a strong wartime connotation, so I can only assume the bunker was developed specifically to test and store the negavator. The Autobots never constructed a new base of operations to test other inventions like the instant immobilizer or the solar power tower or the Dinobots, so it becomes clear that the negavator is a Really Big Deal.
> The Autobots are congratulating Wheeljack on his success and their usual personality flukes come up. Grapple is chiefly concerned about the negavator zapping one of his beautiful buildings, while Red Alert, the unmitigated star of this episode, is concerned about the Decepticons seizing control of it. The episode mentions a little bit later that Red Alert's role is security director for the Autobots.
> If my theory is correct and that the 1985 Autobots were all "really" on board the Ark somewhere, then one wonders what the Autobots did all this time without Red Alert. (He sure wouldn't have let Nightbird sneak into the volcano base, that's for darned sure.)
> So, Red Alert's built-in sensors suddenly activate, and he is able to detect that the Decepticons are present and are about to attack. This is a great ability to have, but as with so many Transformer special abilities, it's unique to a single character, even when the technology should be copied and installed in everybody. Sure enough, Soundwave has snuck into the base, disguised as a tape recorder that someone has ostensibly just left carelessly laying on the ground. When the military guys notice it, Soundwave switches to robot mode and scares the crap out of them. This show generally downplays the fact that these guys are gigantic in robot mode, but you get a real sense of danger as Soundwave advances on them and they just barely make their escape.
> "We can't let Megatron get the negavator!" Prime vows, but Megatron isn't even present. This is a solo mission for Soundwave and his cassette babies, ostensibly the only such Decepticons who could sneak into the base perimeter undetected (especially since the producers had decided to discontinue Reflector as a character by this point).
> The Cassetticons are packing a surprising, and dangerous, amount of firepower for this mission.
> With the Autobots trapped inside the bunker, Hoist and Grapple decide to do what construction vehicles do best. They each transform and produce specialized grasping tools to begin digging their way out of the rubble. "Some day," Grapple remarks, "I want to build something that doesn't get trashed!" Besides being a funny standalone line, this could also directly refer to "The Master Builders" and the destruction of the solar power tower. Conventional wisdom is that you don't want to bog down a children's television show with too much continuity or too many references to what's come before, but I tend to disagree. I loved it when episodes included callbacks to other episodes, and there was nothing that annoyed me more than episodes that seemingly forgot about, or flat-out ignored, prior events. Kids are generally not idiots, and they're so much brighter than you think.
> The Autobots emerge, and Optimus Prime effects a transformation that you've seen dozens of times. By this point, Inferno has wanted to run out and join the battle on three separate occasions, but Red Alert keeps insisting that he remain behind. While Frenzy manages to inexplicably knock Optimus down and keep him pinned, Rumble leaps into the negavator controls. I don't understand how Prime keeps getting beaten by these tiny little tapes. Laserbeak turned the tide of battle against Prime on at least two separate occasions, and Ravage has knocked him down, too. There's a moment when Rumble aims the negavator at Prime and Frenzy, who still has him pinned, screams "Wait! Not yet!" in desperation. There's no reason to think that Frenzy wouldn't just cease to exist if he got zapped by this thing, so he has due reason to be concerned.
> Hoist comes to the rescue and saves Red Alert, who is more concerned with chastizing Inferno for abandoning his post. In private, he discusses Inferno's traitorous actions with Optimus Prime. He's now convinced that Inferno is trying to steal his job and that he purposefully betrayed Red Alert to achieve this end. Clearly, there's something not quite right with Red Alert. A subtle red tinge has appeared around his eyes, and we get a few Red's-eye-view shots where his entire world has been tinted crimson (like the scene where Prime leans in and suggests that Red get some rest). "I'm fine," Red Alert insists. "It's just an electro-glitch that comes and goes... comes and goes..."
> When Prime reminds Red that it's too dangerous for the Autobots to remain at the bunker, Red's response is to brand Optimus as a co-conspirator in the ever-growing plot against poor Red Alert!
> The Autobots are driving through what looks like a dried-up river bed as the Decepticons watch from above, planning to strike. When Rumble gets a little too close to the edge and kicks some rocks down below, Megatron is surely convinced their cover is blown. Red Alert is incapable of detecting the Decepticons in his malfunctioning state, however, so when Prime commands him to analyze the sounds they heard, Red isn't even aware that there was a sound at all.
> (This was one of the episodes selected for airing during Transformers: Generation 2, despite the fact that the only G2 characters it features in any capacity are Optimus Prime and Starscream and Inferno. Not exactly an accurate showcase of the 1993-94 toy range!
> Now, Prime was already aware that Red Alert was having difficulty. The fact that he recognized Red was malfunctioning but accepted Red's casual dismissal of it means the situation is at least partly Prime's fault.
> So, now it's a chase through the city. Red Alert takes advantage of his vehicular configuration, using his flashers and sirens to speed through the city streets. Optimus, Hoist, and Ironhide give chase. Ironhide claims to spot Red Alert and proceeds to pick up a fire chief vehicle, asking it what's wrong and why it can't transform. Of course, it turns out this is just a regular car, and the human fire chief isn't too thrilled about Ironhide manhandling it. Well, nobody said old Ironhide had the best visual acuity. (Of course, "regular" car is a relative term. Would a firefighter really be driving a Lamborghini Countach?) Ironhide utters a hasty apology, explaining that the car looked like a friend of his.
> "No two ways about it," the fire chief remarks as Ironhide drives off. "I gotta take that vacation!" This kind of reaction would make sense during the first season, or maybe the very beginning of the second season, but not now. By this point, the Transformers have been on Earth for over a year. Even if the bunker is a significant distance from the volcano base, and thus the Autobots are operating in a different area than they normally do, neither the Autobots nor the Decepticons have been particularly shy about making public appearances. By this point in the show, everybody should know what a Transformer is, even if they've not met one personally, and upon seeing a gigantic robot, nobody should just be dismissing it as having worked too many hours.
> As Red frantically scrambles through the back alleys of the city, a voice beckons him. It's pretty obviously Starscream, who has the most distinct voice of any character on the show, but for some reason Red Alert doesn't recognize it. Indeed, the whole scene is played up as a big mystery, with Starscream standing just off-camera and placing his hand on Red Alert's shoulder. As the suspenseful music reaches its climax, Red Alert whirls around and proclaims, "It's YOU!" before we cut to commercial again, leaving the audience in complete suspense as to the identity of this unknown perpetrator. Who could it possibly be? Who, indeed? There is zero mystery here. It's not like this is G.I. Joe and we're dealing with Zartan in a clever disguise or the Baroness wearing a mask. This scene might have worked better if Starscream had never spoken. Either that, or if it had been a newer, less familiar character like Thrust, with Ed Gilbert doing one of his many wrong voices for him.
> Optimus Prime gives up the search, at least for the time being, because they're out of energy and could not withstand an additional Decepticon attack. Also, the security of the negavator must also be considered. Watch as Optimus Prime and Hoist transform: they can do it in about one second, but it takes Ironhide at least twice as long to get into vehicle mode due to the elaborate nature of his transformation. This is a newer transformation developed for the character, effectively replacing the first-season model, in which the van mode separates into Ironhide's robot mode and the mobile battle platform. It was never used on-screen for Ironhide (and used for Ratchet only once), but I suppose the reasoning is that since Ironhide's robot design was already so far-removed from the headless toy, there was no reason not to make his transformation completely ficticious, too.
> Back at the bunker, Wheeljack and Smokescreen offer to continue searching for Red Alert. This demonstrates, at least, that Optimus hasn't completely forgotten about him. We never see Wheeljack and Smokescreen again for the rest of the episode, though.
> As they enter a secret tunnel leading to the bunker, Red Alert warns Starscream about the tunnel drone that patrols the corridors. For some reason, the machine always reminds me of the tunnel-crawling machine from the movie Labyrinth. Anyway, doesn't it seem exceptionally odd that the Autobots would develop such a patently lethal defensive security measure? Red Alert claims it can atomize them on the spot. They've gone from zero defensive capability in "The Master Builders" to absolutely deadly defenses in the span of a single episode. It's like they're desperately scrambling to overcompensate.
> Starscream leaps for Red Alert, knocking him out of the tank's controls. They wrestle on the ground for a moment until Optimus realizes that Red Alert has nearly reached critical mass, and an explosion is imminent. We see for a moment that Starscream's eyes have briefly turned blue, which tends to be an indication that he's acting in the best interest of the Autobots. (I recognize that it's an animation mistake, but by accident or design, it tends to coincide nicely with Starscream taking action that helps the Autobots.)
> Megatron demands that the Decepticons press on, but they've got other ideas. "Foh-geht it," says Dirge in a faux British accent. "The negavator's ghoing to blhow!" This is Dirge's first speaking line on the show, but it is not the characterization that Bud Davis would eventually settle on for the character. One supposes that all these British-sounding Autobots (Hoist, Grapple, Red Alert) informed his choice of characterization to some degree. Anyway, Megatron issues an idle threat, Starscream tells him to "save the oration!" and they all fly off.
Zobovor
May 16, 2016, 11:58:31 PM5/16/16
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On Monday, May 16, 2016 at 1:42:40 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> "Auto Berserk" follows "The Master Builder", and follows up on a lot of the
> same themes of that episode. They would work better in the opposite order
> though, as it would explain Optimus's caution, rather than making him a
> complete hypocrite, but whatever...
You could make an argument that the chronology of the show is really messed up. I really do tend to think that stuff happened in the order of the original airdates unless there's a glaring contradiction. Some people took it further and let the characterization inform their perception of the episodes. (I recall Raksha used to say that "Changing Gears" must come after "Enter the Nightbird" because Starscream is particularly deferent to Megatron in "Changing Gears" and is doing so to make up for his behavior during the whole Nightbird affair.)
> "Auto Berserk" follows "The Master Builder", and follows up on a lot of the
> same themes of that episode. They would work better in the opposite order
> though, as it would explain Optimus's caution, rather than making him a
> complete hypocrite, but whatever...
With that said, I could certainly envision a scenario in which the solar power tower was built, and the Autobots were completely unable to defend it (which was pretty much what Prime had warned Grappled against), and so in response, Prime initiated a joint military venture to more heavily weaponize the Autobot defenses. He was overreacting after the fact. It's like when a child dies at an intersection, so the city quickly installs a traffic light in response. It doesn't bring the child back, but it helps people feel like they're doing something good.
> Ironhide is somewhat surprised that the Negavator works, since it was constructed by Wheeljack, and Wheeljack is thrilled. Why did Optimus run the countdown and press the button to activate the Negavator? Because he is a douchebag who wants to steal the thunder of any of his underlings.
> Soundwave's alt-mode is terrible and every time it is used the whole thing
> feels amazingly contrived -- he either has to preposition himself and wait,
> or he has tiny wheels on the bottom of his tape recorder mode, and scoots
> around.
He tips himself on his side and rolls on his volume knob.
> feels amazingly contrived -- he either has to preposition himself and wait,
> or he has tiny wheels on the bottom of his tape recorder mode, and scoots
> around.
Actually, Perceptor could roll around in his microscope mode, as seen in "Child's Play," so why not Soundwave? We also know Soundwave can fly in tape deck mode according to episodes like "Roll for It," so...
> Smokescreen then tells Wheeljack that he is a genius, in a completely
> unconvincing voice performance, laying it on really thick.
> Grapple hopes they don't point that thing at anything he built (don't worry,
> Grapple, you will never get to build anything again)
> Red Alert has to be completely blinded by those glowing antennas, since the
> weird light show completely obscures his eyes. And the buzzing probably
> blocks his hearing as well.
> "Red Alert!" Optimus declares, "guard the bunker." This might explain why we
> had Condition Megenta and Disaster Code Blue the last episode -- the alerts
> need to be distinguished from the name of the security officer.
(I wonder if Beast Wars Inferno is angry that he was named after an ancient Autobot hero?)
> More battle, now with the Negavator on remote control. Soundwave is leaping
> from behind rocks as they are negavated, and then transforms into tape deck.
> Red Alert does not shoot the tape deck.
> "Those guys could use a hand up there!" Inferno says, but Red Alert implores
> him to stay. But, really, what's the worst that could happen if Inferno went
> up to help out?
> Hoist has some insane arm things in vehicle mode.
> We are supposed to see Red Alert's behavior as crazy and paranoid, but
> everyone treats it like this is how he is normally. Clearly he doesn't
> normally fall to the ground screaming in pain, but clutching his head in pain
> only causes mild concern on Optimus's part.
> it's not how space works in our world, but it seems pretty consistent in the
> Transformers universe).
http://cdn.entertainment-focus.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/familyguy14.jpg
Is somebody holding every character by the ankles so they can dangle precariously above the grave without falling in? Because they're sure as hell not standing upright.
> Hoist mentions that someone's logic and reason circuits are fried (presumably
> Red Alert's, but maybe he was talking to Optimus...)
> Hoist mentions that Red Alert's head will explode soon, but Optimus
> replies "we have no choice," checking his wristwatch. "Fuck him," Optimus
> says.
> On level 9, Hoist drives the Negavator into a cell, and Optimus starts
> closing the gate while he is still inside, and then tells him to hurry,
> adding drama to an entirely undramatic moment.
> Megatron is watching through Ravage's eyes. This is something that I wish
> they did more of -- treating the Transformers as machines. They should be
> able to broadcast their vision and hearing, and do countless other things
> that humans cannot do.
> Red Alert and Starscream flee from a tunnel drone that is apparently fiercer
> and more dangerous than what it is guarding.
> Megatron orders an attack, but the Decepticons retreat, with Dirge leading
> the retreat. The only time Megatron gives an order to press the attack, the
> Decepticons refuse. Perhaps he usually orders a retreat when he senses they
> are about to give up, so he can pretend to have control over them.
There's another episode where Megatron wants to press on but Starscream responds, "You plan on fighting all alone, Megatron? Good luck!" and he and Soundwave fly away. I think maybe the Decepticons are just so used to retreating that when Megatron doesn't give the order to withdraw, they assume there must be something wrong with him.
> And then Inferno holds Red Alert in his arms for an uncomfortably long time
> as they gaze into each other's eyes. Really.
> We get introduced to a new character, who is completely off his rocker and no
> one notices for the longest time, despite his head glowing at them. I don't
> think the other Autobots think much of Red Alert.
> And we get glimpses into the Decepticon hierarchy. Megatron barely has any
> control over his Decepticons, does he?
Zob (and if you take the Hasbro toy line into account, Galvatron eventually put Starscream back on the payroll, too)
Zobovor
May 17, 2016, 12:31:58 AM5/17/16
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On Monday, May 16, 2016 at 2:27:15 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> Red Alert wasn't a beloved good-guy character though. He was maybe background.
There's a parallel, though. "Dark Awakening" is arguably a far more ambitious story because it turns Optimus Prime, the epitome of Autobot goodness, into a diabolical killing machine. The theme of good guys going bad, through some external trauma that's no fault of their own, is present.
> Red Alert wasn't a beloved good-guy character though. He was maybe background.
> Or that Optimus is threatening the humans, and wants to make sure they
> understand the Negavator's destructive effects.
> That seems out of character, but so does developing weapons for the humans.
> Also, the cockpit is Transformer sized, so I don't think it was going to be
> handed over to the humans.
> This is also Grapple's handiwork, and as easily destroyed as the Solar Power
> Tower. I don't think Grapple understands the abuse his structures will
> receive.
> Would his flashing Decepticon Detector Antennae gone off for Nightbird?
> Why are they even in a helicopter? Why?
> "Hey, don't forget your tape player and your camera!" would really be pushing
> it though, don't you think?
> I think there should be light continuity -- callbacks, but not completely
> necessary for understanding the show.
At the same time, though, you've got to reward longtime viewers in some way. They're making an investment of time in sitting down to watch the show, and they're making an emotional investment in these fictional characters. Nobody in their right mind would start watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with the final TV episode, for example. Even if they did, it would be completely meaningless to them when Tasha Yar shows up or when Data starts using contractions in his speech. My point is that you can't dumb down every episode just for the benefit of some theoretical first-time viewer.
> I think they should have reversed the order of the episodes -- then Optimus's
> statements about Grapple not considering the security for the SPT aren't
> crazy and out of left field.
>> The Autobots emerge, and Optimus Prime effects a transformation that you've
>> seen dozens of times.
> And then "Rumble" would have solved the problem of which one was which once
> and for all.
> You say it is obvious, but it isn't really obvious to anyone on the show.
> This is pretty much how Red Alert must act when he is "fine".
>> only G2 characters it features in any capacity are Optimus Prime and
>> Starscream and Inferno. Not exactly an accurate showcase of the 1993-94 toy
>> range!
>
> But, Inferno was in the right colors!
I really wish they had doctored the animation cels to reflect the colors of the G2 toy line. Granted, it would be a lot easier now than it would have been in the early 1990's (amateurs are doing it on YouTube to create G1 cartoon footage of Sunstorm).
>> Starscream and Inferno. Not exactly an accurate showcase of the 1993-94 toy
>> range!
>
> But, Inferno was in the right colors!
> It really doesn't look like Red Alert at all though. The entire bottom of the
> car is red, and just the roof is white.
> I kind of hope we get a redeco of Masterpiece Red Alert as that car as an
> entirely different character -- a Decepticon perhaps, who was startled that
> Ironhide was manhandling him so much.
> The mystery might be what Starscream is planning, as we see the blue hand
> before the commercial break. So, mystery stacked on mystery.
> It's actually not that far off from the Masterpiece transformation. Oh, wait,
> I watched more carefully. That is just an insane transformation.
> They are still searching, to this day, and every future appearance was just
> an animation error.
> It's so weird to see Dirge taking charge like that.
Zob (then again, Dirge dies so many times on the show, what's one more?)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
May 17, 2016, 1:13:01 AM5/17/16
to
On Monday, May 16, 2016 at 8:58:31 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Monday, May 16, 2016 at 1:42:40 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > "Auto Berserk" follows "The Master Builder", and follows up on a lot of the
> > same themes of that episode. They would work better in the opposite order
> > though, as it would explain Optimus's caution, rather than making him a
> > complete hypocrite, but whatever...
>
> You could make an argument that the chronology of the show is really messed up. I really do tend to think that stuff happened in the order of the original airdates unless there's a glaring contradiction. Some people took it further and let the characterization inform their perception of the episodes.
I'm not a huge fan of Optimus's leadership, so I can completely believe he overreacts to things from one episode to the next. It fits in with his decision to seal the Dinobots into a cave, rather than let Wheeljack try to repair them, for instance.
> On Monday, May 16, 2016 at 1:42:40 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > "Auto Berserk" follows "The Master Builder", and follows up on a lot of the
> > same themes of that episode. They would work better in the opposite order
> > though, as it would explain Optimus's caution, rather than making him a
> > complete hypocrite, but whatever...
>
> You could make an argument that the chronology of the show is really messed up. I really do tend to think that stuff happened in the order of the original airdates unless there's a glaring contradiction. Some people took it further and let the characterization inform their perception of the episodes.
Granted, had Wheeljack repaired them, they probably would have exploded.
> With that said, I could certainly envision a scenario in which the solar power tower was built, and the Autobots were completely unable to defend it (which was pretty much what Prime had warned Grappled against), and so in response, Prime initiated a joint military venture to more heavily weaponize the Autobot defenses. He was overreacting after the fact.
Optimus would overreact in an entirely different way to that.
I really with the Solar Power Tower transformed into a giant robot they had to defeat. Something that showed just how little attention Grapple paid to the details while the Constructicons built it.
> It's like when a child dies at an intersection, so the city quickly installs a traffic light in response. It doesn't bring the child back, but it helps people feel like they're doing something good.
> > Soundwave's alt-mode is terrible and every time it is used the whole thing
> > feels amazingly contrived -- he either has to preposition himself and wait,
> > or he has tiny wheels on the bottom of his tape recorder mode, and scoots
> > around.
>
> He tips himself on his side and rolls on his volume knob.
I was just looking at some of the pre-Transformers to see if there were better options, and this guy might have been nice:
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:TFGDropshot.jpg
> > More battle, now with the Negavator on remote control. Soundwave is leaping
> > from behind rocks as they are negavated, and then transforms into tape deck.
> > Red Alert does not shoot the tape deck.
>
> It occurs to me that Red Alert can't target Soundwave when he's that tiny. I think the scene is depicting Red hunting for a tiny Soundwave-shaped target but he's not able to lock on.
> > "Those guys could use a hand up there!" Inferno says, but Red Alert implores
> > him to stay. But, really, what's the worst that could happen if Inferno went
> > up to help out?
>
> Red Alert's just on a power trip. He's got the authority so he likes to flaunt it. There's a scene in "The God Gambit" when he even overrides a command of Optimus Prime's. When Prime tells Cosmos to transmit the data he's collected on the energy crystals, Red actually countermands the order and tells him, "No, don't, Cosmos. The Decepticons will intercept it." So, Red can even override Prime's decisions if he feels it's warranted, at least in some situations.
> > We are supposed to see Red Alert's behavior as crazy and paranoid, but
> > everyone treats it like this is how he is normally. Clearly he doesn't
> > normally fall to the ground screaming in pain, but clutching his head in pain
> > only causes mild concern on Optimus's part.
>
> Part of the problem is that the Autobots don't readily see the full extent of Red Alert's damaged condition. He always acts a little bit crazy, so going full-blown crazy isn't as readily evident. Also, Red Alert is deliberately hiding the true nature of his damages.
> I still tend to blame Prime for shrugging off Red's problems instead of addressing them more promptly.
> > Megatron is watching through Ravage's eyes. This is something that I wish
> > they did more of -- treating the Transformers as machines. They should be
> > able to broadcast their vision and hearing, and do countless other things
> > that humans cannot do.
>
> Yeah, but where do you draw the line? Advanced technology really does look like magic, and sometimes magical abilities are silly. Like in "City of Steel" when Prime can summon his body parts to magically float around by sheer force of will. I dislike that intensely.
We got a few instances of this here and there, but it should have been part of their culture rather than something exceptional.
We don't have levitation, so parts should not be floating through the air. That is just stupid.
> > And then Inferno holds Red Alert in his arms for an uncomfortably long time
> > as they gaze into each other's eyes. Really.
>
> Well, you know. Fire rescue 'bots. They're hot for each other.
> > We get introduced to a new character, who is completely off his rocker and no
> > one notices for the longest time, despite his head glowing at them. I don't
> > think the other Autobots think much of Red Alert.
>
> In all fairness, he gets so little screen time as "normal" Red Alert that it's difficult to say. He gets these short little moments that kind of validate my feeling that he's sort of crazy all the time.
> Like "Revenge of Bruticus" when he's trying to put out a fire by feeding it more trees. That's the act of an insane person. Even Inferno eventually tells him to just cut it the hell out.
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