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Cartoon Viewing Club: Zob's Thoughts on "Enter the Nightbird"
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Zobovor
Apr 15, 2017, 1:12:00 PM4/15/17
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"Enter the Nightbird" was one of the first episodes of the second season, episode #26 by some reckoning, having first aired on September 30th of 1985. Written by the duo of Sylvia Wilson and Richard Milton, this is the only such writing credit for either of them. It's possible they were both writing under a pseudonym, since sometimes spec writers would submit "serious" scripts under their real name and "silly" scripts for cartoons under a pen name.
Due to its subject matter, this became one of the most controversial and hotly-debated episodes in the fandom. It was arguably right up there with the endless "did Megatron become Galvatron?" arguments. The focus was on Nightbird and whether or not she was a sapient, living being with whom Megatron was in love, or whether she was simply a tool with which Megatron was currently fascinated. Did Megatron welcome her into the ranks of the Decepticons, or was she just the invention-of-the-week, no more or less significant than the instant immobilizer or the transfixatron? The arguments really could go either way.
Our episode begins with the Autobots installing Wheeljack's new metal-detecting sensor panels at the entrance to the volcano base. This was before specialists like Hoist and Grapple were on active duty, so everybody (Sunstreaker, Jazz, Trailbreaker, etc.) has to pitch in and help. One wonders what incident prompted the Autobots to respond in this manner. Megatron and Starscream sneaking into the base to sabotage their recharging chambers in "Attack of the Autobots," perhaps?
Cliffjumper interrupts the work to inform Optimus Prime that Dr. Fujiyama, the world-famous scientist, is requesting an audience over the communications channel. (Because that's how normal people talk, you know. Hey, listen to the radio! That's a song by Madonna, the famous singer!) Anyway, Fujiyama (voiced by Michael Bell doing an accent) has a new invention. He's a little worried about the Decepticons intercepting the transmission, so he whispers. He explains that it's a special ninja robot, and asks the Autobots to attempt the unveiling ceremony. Optimus knows enough about Japanese customs that he effects an awkward nod as the conversation ends. Almost immediately, Wheeljack starts making wise cracks about the invention being a wind-up toy. His contempt for Earth technology is palpable.
This is a Toei-animated episode (how appropriate that the Japanese animation studio is doing the story about a Japanese scientist creating a Japanese ninja robot) and from a visual standpoint it's consistently high-quality. There are only a couple of scenes that are really sub-par, and there are no egregious coloring mistakes. Speaking of the quality of the episode, though, whoever mixed the sound levels cranked the music down way low. You can hardly hear it in some scenes.
At the dome-shaped university building where the robot has been transported, the Autobots are now stationed at every entrance. Wheeljack is still cracking jokes about the invention, and now he's got Ratchet snickering along with him. This is about the closest we ever get to seeing Ratchet as the goofy partymonger that Bob Budiansky created. (As always, Don Messick's voice characterization for Ratchet is in a state of flux. He toggles randomly between his Papa Smurf voice and his Ranger Smith voice, and it gets even more confusing when you throw Gears into the mix.) Prime walks by and admonishes the two for talking during class. They'll both have detention after school.
Fujiyama at long last pulls back the drapes to unveil a gigantic female ninja robot, which he has named Nightbird. Various human scientists who sound exactly like Cliffjumper, Jazz, etc. take turns shouting random words of praise. Optimus Prime doesn't know what a ninja is and requires Spike and Jazz to explain it to him. Fujiyama explains that she's more of a demonstration of what is possible with modern robotics technology, and she's not actually built for combat or anything. Of course, this is kind of a strange thing for Fujiyama to do in the first place, considering that there are highly sophisticated alien robots from outer space walking around. Unless it's reverse-engineered from Cybertron technology, anything he puts together is going to be inherently inferior to Transformer tech.
Nightbird's head design evokes a hooded form, but aside from some big shoulder pads, she's not very heavily armored. She wears a mask covering most of her face and she's an interesting combination of curvy and angular. She carries a pair of nunchucks and has a sai dagger attached to each forearm, but she never uses any of these during the course of the episode. They may be strictly ornamental.
Trailbreaker is looking particularly sleepy, standing hunched over near an entrance, when the Decepticons blast through and send him literally sailing across the room. Tiny little Rumble and Frenzy show up and start a low-level earthquake, which seems like a calculated move designed to cause the human attendees to panic and flee without causing any major strctural damage. Meanwhile, the Decepticons start cutting the roof of the dome. Optimus Prime refuses to respond until the humans have fled——only after the last one has evacuated does he finally authorize a counterattack. By this point, Megatron has arrived on the scene with "lethal greetings," but Bluestreak saunters slowly into frame just in time to take a blast meant for Optimus. Bluestreak is forever haunted by the ravages of war and just wants to die.
Soundwave blasts Brawn. Invisible Mirage blasts Soundwave. Megatron prepares to blast Mirage but Optimus, who values him far more than Bluestreak, intervenes. Ironhide blasts Laserbeak and a piece of the roof falls on him. Optimus abandons the fights with Megatron to go help, and Megatron blasts Prime. Prime makes Mirage noises as he goes flying across the room. (Wally Burr had each actor provide a range of "body language" for each character, making a variety of grunts, groans, etc., and obviously somebody called up a Frank Welker session instead of a Peter Cullen one.)
The Decepticon jets have finished cutting open the roof; while Skywarp lifts it up in jet mode, Starscream and Thundercracker deploy grappling hooks and wrap them under Nightbird's arms. "We can't stay long, Auto-boobs!" Starscream taunts them. "We're just here to pick up a friend!" Interesting that he sees Nightbird, and the first word that comes to mind is "boobs."
The Decepticons head not towards their undersea base, but a temporary base of operations emblazoned with a gigantic, stone-carved purple Decepticon insignia. I can't help but think that blatantly advertising its location seems like a really bad move. The Decepticons carry Nightbird into the base, who is not yet self-motivating at this point. (I had the fortune of screening this episode prior to the official DVD release, and was able to zoom in on this scene and demonstrate that, contrary to claims that she was walking inside the base of her own volition, her feet are clearly off the ground the entire time.)
Bombshell gives Nightbird the once-over, and describes her circuitry as "child's play" compared to Decepticon transformational technology. Nonetheless, he's the one Megatron has enlisted to get her into fighting form. The Decepticon Apologists pointed to Bombshell as supporting evidence that Nightbird was alive and had a sentient mind——why would Bombshell, whose speciality is brainwashing and psychology, be called in to work in a non-living, non-thinking robot? Surely the Constructicons would be more suitable, if the job was simply to rebuild Nightbird's body into a weapon. Indeed, Nightbird does not seem to physically change after the Decepticon machinations. Bombshell describes the necessary work as including "a little rewiring, some additional microchips, and a triple power booster," which sounds like he's just beefing up her existing data storage and energy storage capability.
Bombshell also confers with Soundwave on the addition of an optic interface, which will enable the Decepticons to watch Nightbird's progress through her own eyes. (Most of the camera shots we see through this optic interface include Nightbird in the shot, though, which would not be possible if we were seeing things through her eyes.) By far the most telling line of Bombshell's, though, is when he remarks, "I love warping minds for you, Megatron... love it!" Emphasis on warping. Not installing or creating, but taking an existing mind and twisting it. Nobody talked about corrupting the minds of the transfixatron or the instant immobilizer, though they both likely had rudimentary computers that governed their operation.
We've seen the Decepticons create or steal countless inventions-of-the-week. Of course, Nightbird is unique for a couple of reasons. For one, she is humanoid and shares a height, and design aesthetic, with the Transformers. Also, she is female. She's not a short, pudgy thing like B.O.T. She's not a tiny robot like Nijika. She's not a fat, tentacled computer-on-wheels like Decepti-Traan. She wasn't Frankensteined together from random parts like Autobot X. She's lithe and sexy. Of course, being humanoid doesn't make her alive. Being female doesn't make her alive, either. Perhaps it makes her desirable, though. Megatron could regard her as a sexy plaything even if he doesn't ascribe any self-motivating characteristics to her.
So, Bombshell slips a chip into the back of her head, in a slot that seems designed for cartridge replacement like a top-loading 8-bit NES. She immediately jumps off the operating table and begins what appears like a series of pre-programmed ninja moves. Starscream is unimpressed, dismissing her as a puppet, before she lands a direct punch and he is summarily knocked down. Starscream draws back and makes a fist before Megatron tells him to stand down. Apparently Starscream has no compunctions about hitting a girl.
Soundwave describes Nightbird's mission: to swipe the world energy chip from Teletraan I and then to destroy the Autobots. It's not really explained clearly, but apparently the world energy chip "itemizes" energy sources from all over the world. I've always taken this to mean that it catalogues energy sources, but the chip may also give the Autobots direct access to all these energy sources. This explains how the Autobots are able to function without going on energy runs like the Decepticons do—they have the world's energy on tap. It also explains why the Decepticons would want such a chip. It's a small wonder they didn't go after it sooner (like, say, when an invisible Megatron and Starscream were already inside the base in "Attack of the Autobots").
Back at the demolished university, Prime apologizes to Fujiyama, who downplays the whole disaster and says it couldn't have been foreseen. Even though, you know, he was wary about the Decepticons eavesdropping, so apparently he did foresee it. Prime promises to return Nightbird as fast as possible. (In every Star Wars movie, when somebody says "I promise," either they are going to die, or the person they're speaking to is going to die. Prime does die in The Transformers: the Movie, so there you go.) Fujiyama's response is interesting. He insists that she be returned undamaged, because her technical components (I think he means technological components) are "irreplaceable" and "needed for research." Jazz supports this idea and agrees that she won't be harmed in any way. Either because of Fujiyama or because of Jazz, Prime is locked into this idea for the rest of the episode, refusing to cause any harm to her even when she's kicking the crap out of the Autobots.
Also, if Fujiyama created Nightbird, wouldn't he have the blueprints? Couldn't he just build another one from the same design specifications? The Decepticon Apologists used to point to this scene as evidence that Nightbird was, indeed, built out of Decepticon technology that Fujiyama didn't fully understand. (I once took two of Raksha's pet ideas and combined them together into one fanfic——suggesting that the Lady in Purple, the lithe and maybe-female Decepticon jet from "More Than Meets the Eye" part 3, was damaged in the Nemesis crash and recovered by Fujiyama's team, rebuilding her into Nightbird without fully comprehending the technology they were tampering with.)
The Autobots scoop up their wounded and head back to base. There's a moment where a damaged Brawn is clutching his shoulder, which is notable inasmuch as it's the same shoulder where he later takes a deadly fusion blast from Megatron in The Transformers: the Movie. It is his secret weakness that the Decepticons don't discover until 2005.
So, we finally get to see Nightbird strut her stuff. She sneaks towards the entrance to the Autobot base, deftly evading the security camera and scaling the side of the volcano so she can enter from the top. She hitches a ride on an elevator, as Prowl and Spike discuss their ninja situation. Spike, who has not discovered girls yet, doesn't understand why Megatron would want a shiny, sexy ninja girlfriend. "I don't understand anything the Decepticons do," Prowl admits. "Yeah, it's over my head, too," says Spike in his whinest voice performance ever. The joke, of course, is that she's literally over their heads at this very moment, riding on top of the elevator. "Well, we can't expect her to come to us," Prowl says, unintentionally continuing the joke.
Nightbird runs like a girl down the hallway until she encounters the metallic detection panels. She senses what they are and looks for a way to avoid them. Using her magnetic feet, she climbs the wall and walks along the ceiling until she gets past the security grid. It doesn't cover the entire floor, of course. Just a small section. It occurs to me that this is a really bad anti-Decepticon measure, given that all of them can fly. Couldn't they just soar right down the hallway and avoid detection that way? Back to the drawing board, Wheeljack.
Nightbird sneaks past a room full of Autobots (Brawn is getting fixed, so he will stop spraying all over the house, and Prime is there for moral support) and enters the main control room. She's been preprogrammed in advance so she knows exactly where to go: She reaches into a panel underneath Teletraan's main viewscreen and grabs a circuit with pictograms on it, looking vaguely like two robotic claws grasping for a jewel. When she yanks the chip from its moorings, the whole base goes dark. (Well, "television dark," anyway. We can see, but everyone else reacts like it's pitch black.)
Mirage bumps into Nightbird in the hallway, and she proceeds to hand him his own posterior. Mirage hits an alarm and the klaxons sound. "Heroes never die," says Prime. "I, Optimus Prime, can never be conquered!" Wait, no. It's just the same alarm sound they used in the previews for "The Return of Optimus Prime," so I always associate that alarm sound with those previews. Anyway, Optimus and Bluestreak and Cliffjumper catch up to Mirage and they corner Nightbird in a hallway. She responds by replacing her hands with buzzsaw blades. Cut to commercial. Wow, we're ten minutes into the episode and it's finally our first commercial break. Usually it's right at the seven-minute mark, like clockwork.
"Don't harm her!" reminds Optimus as we resume the story. Frankly, I don't know that the episode really needed this extra layer. It feels like the Autobots are going out of their way to attack her because she's a girl, though we know the real story reason is because Fujiyama wants her undamaged. Even if they hadn't promised not to hurt her, though, she seems fully capable of holding her own. Would it really have been that bad if the Autobots had been unable to capture her just because she was highly skilled, and not because they were artificially limiting their own abilities?
Prime zaps her with a stun ray, thinking that's the end of it, but after she jumps up and clocks Bluestreak, they realize she was playing "robotopossum." (Yes, apparently that's a thing.) She whips out a laser sword, complete with Star Wars lightsaber sound effects, and start kicking the crap out of Prime. By this point, he's already stopped Cliffjumper and Bluestreak and reminded them not to shoot her. She accidentally drops her laser sword, but then she snatches up Prime's gun and retreats. In the aftermath, Jazz wonders why she would need Prime's gun given her considerable arsenal, and now it's Prime's turn to school Jazz in the way of the ninja, saying it's traditional for her to take part of her enemy with her. How did Prime go from not even knowing what a ninja was to being able to cite obscure legends about them?
We cut to the Decepticon base, where a bird in the background is singing along to the Decepticon fanfare. Seriously, go listen to it. I'll wait. This must have been a joke added by a bored sound editor, because it couldn't have possibly happened by coincidence. Also, either I'm mishearing a line by Megatron, or Frank Welker botched a delivery. "So, peel Optimus Prime has lost his laser rifle to little Nightbird," it sounds like he says. The word "poor" makes the most sense in context here, but I'm not hearing the word "poor" at all. Anyway, in this scene, Starscream's legs are entirely blue. If you ever wondered what Classic Pretender Starscream would look like in animation, here's a taste.
What follows is sort a reverse Bechdel test where the Decepticons all stand around and compare opinions about Nightbird. Bombshell is super impressed with her. Starscream refuses to be impressed, predicting that she'll "burn out" due to the way Bombshell over-torqued her circuits. Megatron wears a visible, pronounced scowl when Starscream delivers this line. He's hit a soft spot. Megatron insists that she won't burn out until after she completes her mission. So, even Megatron admits that there is a possibility she'll expire shortly after this mission. "She's not so hot," continues Starscream. "She's hot enough to replace YOU whenever I choose!" Megatron replies, and now it's Starscream's turn to do The Scowl.
The Autobots take a moment to get caught up on the plot of the episode so far (Papa Smurf discovers the theft of the chip and reports it to Prime) and Hound uses his infrared (which sounds a lot like sonar) to try to track Nightbird down. Optimus tries to use her sword as bait to lure her into his clutches, but she grabs it with a magnetic charge and draws it to her. She raises her sword over Prime, and we're already at our second commercial break.
Nightbird adopts a threatening posture for a moment, but then she turns and runs, taking a mighty leap up onto a ledge to try to escape. The Autobots follow her, each jumping in turn... Optimus Prime, Hound, Bluestreak, Mirage, Jazz, Brawn... and the only one who can't make the jump... is Cliffjumper. Brawn has to turn back and lift him up by the arms. Oh, the irony. (There is an explanation of this scene, of sorts. Bumblebee was in the original script instead of Cliffjumper, but it's possible Dan Gilvezan was absent for the recording session, and so his lines were given to Casey Kasem instead. It would have been a cute moment for Bumblebee, but it's completely baffling for a guy who is named Cliffjumper.)
So, Nightbird is seemingly cornered, faced with a sheer rock face, until she breaks out the magnetic feet again and... uh... climbs the rock? What, is it made of iron ore? I smell plot trickery. She does actually fall, but only because she grasps a loose rock that gives way, not because her magnetic feet fail her. More ninja stars. Mirage turns invisible again. Prime goes back on his promise and decides it's okay to hurt her after all. Invisi-Mirage throws Prime his gun, and Prime shoots. "I truly regret this," says the hypocrite. Nightbird falls. But only for an instant. Even more ninja stars!
"There's got to be a way to stop her!" Clifjumper says. "I'm open to suggestions," replies Optimus, "and you don't have to raise your hand before you speak!" The Autobots each attempt, in turn, to subdue her. Even with the artificial restriction now rescinded about not hurting her, they are woefully ineffective. Laser blasts, missiles, glass gas... she resists them easily. Even when Jazz transforms and tries his sound and light show, which is usually pretty effective, she just grabs some kind of sound-dampening devices from her knees and throws them at Jazz's speakers, instantly cutting him off in mid-song.
Megatron is delighted. "You're definitely on my replacement list, Starscream!" he says, still egging him on. "She's everything I've always wanted!" Starscream takes this threat very seriously. He strikes out at Megatron, knocking him down. Megatron orders Thundercracker and Skywarp to hold him while Soundwave erects an electronic cage around him. Starscream has taken things a little too far. Megatron describes the cage as a going-away present for Starscream, who is once again wearing The Scowl.
While all this has been going on, though, the Autobots have managed to subdue Nightbird with an electronic net. Megatron grows worried, and orders the Decepticons into action to save her... and the world energy chip, of course. The Autobots are only afforded a moment's respite when the Decepticons attack. In the ensuing fight, there's a couple of scenes where the Autobots and Decepticons are charging towards each other at a really high frame rate, and it looks really cool. There's also a scene that's cel-animated in its entirely, background and all, in which Megatron is leading the charge, and he's carrying a handheld gun that's colored like Megatron in gun mode! Brawn drops the chip; Bombshell picks it up and flies away; Brawn shoots Bombshell and he drops the chip. Megatron whips out an anti-matter blaster that "eats up energy" and uses it to drain the energy net holding Nightbird down.
"I've got to get out there!" Starscream says, watching the battle on the monitor from within his cage. A well-placed shot trips the switch to free him, and he rockets to the battle site. When he arrives, he's making the same overload sounds that Red Alert did when he was going crazy in "Auto Berserk," and his eyes are blue when he switches back to robot mode. We've seen in other episodes that Starscream's eyes go blue when he's acting against Megatron (like when he was trying to get to Cybertron to secure the Combaticon personality components in "Starscream's Brigade"). Given his history as a scientist, and his Autobot-like color scheme, you have to wonder about his origins.
In the end, it's Starscream who fires the decisive blow during the fight, knocking Nightbird out cold with a single null ray blast to the back. Megatron cries out in distress. "Hey! Say good 'night' to your Megatron!" he beckons to her before cackling and flying off. Megatron forgets all about the fight and sends every Decepticon chasing after Starscream. "It seems Megatron's schemes have backfired once again," quips Prime. Because, you see, he fired and hit her in the back. Backfired. (Hey, I didn't write the episode.)
Back at the university (whose dome roof has been hastily patched up), Fujiyama thanks Prime for returning his precious robot. Prime decrees that she's been "deprogrammed and neutralized," but as a metallic coffic slides closed, her face crumples into an angry grimace and her eyes glow brightly. Also, in case the backlit glowing effect wasn't enough, her eyes make a glowing sound. Because everything in the Sunbow universe makes a sound, even sunlight.
Despite the door being left open for a return appearance, Nightbird never appeared in the cartoon again. An army of Teenage Mutant Ninja Nightbirds popped up in a BotCon comic book from several years ago (the one that killed Wheelie and Daniel Witwicky) but the original Nightbird wasn't featured in any capacity. There have been a few unofficial toys based on the character: Impossible Toys did a pretty good action figure, and Ming Gui did a better and more expensive one with gold-plated sai daggers and magnets in her footsies. For some reason, Arcee toys keep getting redecoed into Nightbird. The TRNS-01 Valkyrie, again by Impossible Toys, had a Nightbird version as a TFCon exclusive. iGear sold a figure called MGT-06 Shadow Assassin. Most recently, the Generations/Legends version of Arcee got a Takara redeco as Nightbird, the first such official toy for the character.
I do want to say that many years ago, Raksha wrote a really cool fanfic called "Nightbird: the Aftermath" that's a follow-up and shows what happened to Starscream after Megatron caught up with him (spoiler: Megatron is not happy with him at all), and the Decepticon efforts to recover her (spoiler: they find her and give her a Decepticon badge). It was one of the first fan-written stories I ever encountered, back when I was first discovering the World Wide Web, and it's really good, despite being 20 years old or more.
This installment really didn't inform any future episode in any significant capacity, but as a standalone story, it had a huge effect on the fandom and alt.toys.transformers. It taught me that two people can watch the same episode and see two totally different things. There are lots of different ways to interpret the canon, and sometimes a certain level of vagueness is even preferred, if it allows for a wider range of interpretations. If people watched this episode and were delighted with it because Megatron finally found himself a soul mate, who am I to ruin their fun? There really is no right or wrong way to look at the canon.
So, is Nightbird alive? There's a lot of evidence in the episode to support the idea. She demonstrates problem-solving skills, expresses contempt for Starscream, uses trickery to evade the Autobots, and she's clearly angry over her imprisonment at episode's end. If she spoke during the episode, there would be no question. The fact that she doesn't talk is really the only sticking point, I think. I feel very strongly that a primitive human should not be able to develop robotic technology on par with the highly advanced Transformers, but the evidence is almost overwhelming. This is one of the reasons I suspect Fujiyama may have stumbled upon a damaged Decepticon and refurbished her. This explains why he's so concerned about getting her back undamaged... not because he created her from scratch, but because there are foreign elements that he hasn't finished studying and doesn't understand yet. Of course they're irreplaceable!
Zob (guess it's time to see if there are any plastic Easter eggs in storage left over from last year)
Due to its subject matter, this became one of the most controversial and hotly-debated episodes in the fandom. It was arguably right up there with the endless "did Megatron become Galvatron?" arguments. The focus was on Nightbird and whether or not she was a sapient, living being with whom Megatron was in love, or whether she was simply a tool with which Megatron was currently fascinated. Did Megatron welcome her into the ranks of the Decepticons, or was she just the invention-of-the-week, no more or less significant than the instant immobilizer or the transfixatron? The arguments really could go either way.
Our episode begins with the Autobots installing Wheeljack's new metal-detecting sensor panels at the entrance to the volcano base. This was before specialists like Hoist and Grapple were on active duty, so everybody (Sunstreaker, Jazz, Trailbreaker, etc.) has to pitch in and help. One wonders what incident prompted the Autobots to respond in this manner. Megatron and Starscream sneaking into the base to sabotage their recharging chambers in "Attack of the Autobots," perhaps?
Cliffjumper interrupts the work to inform Optimus Prime that Dr. Fujiyama, the world-famous scientist, is requesting an audience over the communications channel. (Because that's how normal people talk, you know. Hey, listen to the radio! That's a song by Madonna, the famous singer!) Anyway, Fujiyama (voiced by Michael Bell doing an accent) has a new invention. He's a little worried about the Decepticons intercepting the transmission, so he whispers. He explains that it's a special ninja robot, and asks the Autobots to attempt the unveiling ceremony. Optimus knows enough about Japanese customs that he effects an awkward nod as the conversation ends. Almost immediately, Wheeljack starts making wise cracks about the invention being a wind-up toy. His contempt for Earth technology is palpable.
This is a Toei-animated episode (how appropriate that the Japanese animation studio is doing the story about a Japanese scientist creating a Japanese ninja robot) and from a visual standpoint it's consistently high-quality. There are only a couple of scenes that are really sub-par, and there are no egregious coloring mistakes. Speaking of the quality of the episode, though, whoever mixed the sound levels cranked the music down way low. You can hardly hear it in some scenes.
At the dome-shaped university building where the robot has been transported, the Autobots are now stationed at every entrance. Wheeljack is still cracking jokes about the invention, and now he's got Ratchet snickering along with him. This is about the closest we ever get to seeing Ratchet as the goofy partymonger that Bob Budiansky created. (As always, Don Messick's voice characterization for Ratchet is in a state of flux. He toggles randomly between his Papa Smurf voice and his Ranger Smith voice, and it gets even more confusing when you throw Gears into the mix.) Prime walks by and admonishes the two for talking during class. They'll both have detention after school.
Fujiyama at long last pulls back the drapes to unveil a gigantic female ninja robot, which he has named Nightbird. Various human scientists who sound exactly like Cliffjumper, Jazz, etc. take turns shouting random words of praise. Optimus Prime doesn't know what a ninja is and requires Spike and Jazz to explain it to him. Fujiyama explains that she's more of a demonstration of what is possible with modern robotics technology, and she's not actually built for combat or anything. Of course, this is kind of a strange thing for Fujiyama to do in the first place, considering that there are highly sophisticated alien robots from outer space walking around. Unless it's reverse-engineered from Cybertron technology, anything he puts together is going to be inherently inferior to Transformer tech.
Nightbird's head design evokes a hooded form, but aside from some big shoulder pads, she's not very heavily armored. She wears a mask covering most of her face and she's an interesting combination of curvy and angular. She carries a pair of nunchucks and has a sai dagger attached to each forearm, but she never uses any of these during the course of the episode. They may be strictly ornamental.
Trailbreaker is looking particularly sleepy, standing hunched over near an entrance, when the Decepticons blast through and send him literally sailing across the room. Tiny little Rumble and Frenzy show up and start a low-level earthquake, which seems like a calculated move designed to cause the human attendees to panic and flee without causing any major strctural damage. Meanwhile, the Decepticons start cutting the roof of the dome. Optimus Prime refuses to respond until the humans have fled——only after the last one has evacuated does he finally authorize a counterattack. By this point, Megatron has arrived on the scene with "lethal greetings," but Bluestreak saunters slowly into frame just in time to take a blast meant for Optimus. Bluestreak is forever haunted by the ravages of war and just wants to die.
Soundwave blasts Brawn. Invisible Mirage blasts Soundwave. Megatron prepares to blast Mirage but Optimus, who values him far more than Bluestreak, intervenes. Ironhide blasts Laserbeak and a piece of the roof falls on him. Optimus abandons the fights with Megatron to go help, and Megatron blasts Prime. Prime makes Mirage noises as he goes flying across the room. (Wally Burr had each actor provide a range of "body language" for each character, making a variety of grunts, groans, etc., and obviously somebody called up a Frank Welker session instead of a Peter Cullen one.)
The Decepticon jets have finished cutting open the roof; while Skywarp lifts it up in jet mode, Starscream and Thundercracker deploy grappling hooks and wrap them under Nightbird's arms. "We can't stay long, Auto-boobs!" Starscream taunts them. "We're just here to pick up a friend!" Interesting that he sees Nightbird, and the first word that comes to mind is "boobs."
The Decepticons head not towards their undersea base, but a temporary base of operations emblazoned with a gigantic, stone-carved purple Decepticon insignia. I can't help but think that blatantly advertising its location seems like a really bad move. The Decepticons carry Nightbird into the base, who is not yet self-motivating at this point. (I had the fortune of screening this episode prior to the official DVD release, and was able to zoom in on this scene and demonstrate that, contrary to claims that she was walking inside the base of her own volition, her feet are clearly off the ground the entire time.)
Bombshell gives Nightbird the once-over, and describes her circuitry as "child's play" compared to Decepticon transformational technology. Nonetheless, he's the one Megatron has enlisted to get her into fighting form. The Decepticon Apologists pointed to Bombshell as supporting evidence that Nightbird was alive and had a sentient mind——why would Bombshell, whose speciality is brainwashing and psychology, be called in to work in a non-living, non-thinking robot? Surely the Constructicons would be more suitable, if the job was simply to rebuild Nightbird's body into a weapon. Indeed, Nightbird does not seem to physically change after the Decepticon machinations. Bombshell describes the necessary work as including "a little rewiring, some additional microchips, and a triple power booster," which sounds like he's just beefing up her existing data storage and energy storage capability.
Bombshell also confers with Soundwave on the addition of an optic interface, which will enable the Decepticons to watch Nightbird's progress through her own eyes. (Most of the camera shots we see through this optic interface include Nightbird in the shot, though, which would not be possible if we were seeing things through her eyes.) By far the most telling line of Bombshell's, though, is when he remarks, "I love warping minds for you, Megatron... love it!" Emphasis on warping. Not installing or creating, but taking an existing mind and twisting it. Nobody talked about corrupting the minds of the transfixatron or the instant immobilizer, though they both likely had rudimentary computers that governed their operation.
We've seen the Decepticons create or steal countless inventions-of-the-week. Of course, Nightbird is unique for a couple of reasons. For one, she is humanoid and shares a height, and design aesthetic, with the Transformers. Also, she is female. She's not a short, pudgy thing like B.O.T. She's not a tiny robot like Nijika. She's not a fat, tentacled computer-on-wheels like Decepti-Traan. She wasn't Frankensteined together from random parts like Autobot X. She's lithe and sexy. Of course, being humanoid doesn't make her alive. Being female doesn't make her alive, either. Perhaps it makes her desirable, though. Megatron could regard her as a sexy plaything even if he doesn't ascribe any self-motivating characteristics to her.
So, Bombshell slips a chip into the back of her head, in a slot that seems designed for cartridge replacement like a top-loading 8-bit NES. She immediately jumps off the operating table and begins what appears like a series of pre-programmed ninja moves. Starscream is unimpressed, dismissing her as a puppet, before she lands a direct punch and he is summarily knocked down. Starscream draws back and makes a fist before Megatron tells him to stand down. Apparently Starscream has no compunctions about hitting a girl.
Soundwave describes Nightbird's mission: to swipe the world energy chip from Teletraan I and then to destroy the Autobots. It's not really explained clearly, but apparently the world energy chip "itemizes" energy sources from all over the world. I've always taken this to mean that it catalogues energy sources, but the chip may also give the Autobots direct access to all these energy sources. This explains how the Autobots are able to function without going on energy runs like the Decepticons do—they have the world's energy on tap. It also explains why the Decepticons would want such a chip. It's a small wonder they didn't go after it sooner (like, say, when an invisible Megatron and Starscream were already inside the base in "Attack of the Autobots").
Back at the demolished university, Prime apologizes to Fujiyama, who downplays the whole disaster and says it couldn't have been foreseen. Even though, you know, he was wary about the Decepticons eavesdropping, so apparently he did foresee it. Prime promises to return Nightbird as fast as possible. (In every Star Wars movie, when somebody says "I promise," either they are going to die, or the person they're speaking to is going to die. Prime does die in The Transformers: the Movie, so there you go.) Fujiyama's response is interesting. He insists that she be returned undamaged, because her technical components (I think he means technological components) are "irreplaceable" and "needed for research." Jazz supports this idea and agrees that she won't be harmed in any way. Either because of Fujiyama or because of Jazz, Prime is locked into this idea for the rest of the episode, refusing to cause any harm to her even when she's kicking the crap out of the Autobots.
Also, if Fujiyama created Nightbird, wouldn't he have the blueprints? Couldn't he just build another one from the same design specifications? The Decepticon Apologists used to point to this scene as evidence that Nightbird was, indeed, built out of Decepticon technology that Fujiyama didn't fully understand. (I once took two of Raksha's pet ideas and combined them together into one fanfic——suggesting that the Lady in Purple, the lithe and maybe-female Decepticon jet from "More Than Meets the Eye" part 3, was damaged in the Nemesis crash and recovered by Fujiyama's team, rebuilding her into Nightbird without fully comprehending the technology they were tampering with.)
The Autobots scoop up their wounded and head back to base. There's a moment where a damaged Brawn is clutching his shoulder, which is notable inasmuch as it's the same shoulder where he later takes a deadly fusion blast from Megatron in The Transformers: the Movie. It is his secret weakness that the Decepticons don't discover until 2005.
So, we finally get to see Nightbird strut her stuff. She sneaks towards the entrance to the Autobot base, deftly evading the security camera and scaling the side of the volcano so she can enter from the top. She hitches a ride on an elevator, as Prowl and Spike discuss their ninja situation. Spike, who has not discovered girls yet, doesn't understand why Megatron would want a shiny, sexy ninja girlfriend. "I don't understand anything the Decepticons do," Prowl admits. "Yeah, it's over my head, too," says Spike in his whinest voice performance ever. The joke, of course, is that she's literally over their heads at this very moment, riding on top of the elevator. "Well, we can't expect her to come to us," Prowl says, unintentionally continuing the joke.
Nightbird runs like a girl down the hallway until she encounters the metallic detection panels. She senses what they are and looks for a way to avoid them. Using her magnetic feet, she climbs the wall and walks along the ceiling until she gets past the security grid. It doesn't cover the entire floor, of course. Just a small section. It occurs to me that this is a really bad anti-Decepticon measure, given that all of them can fly. Couldn't they just soar right down the hallway and avoid detection that way? Back to the drawing board, Wheeljack.
Nightbird sneaks past a room full of Autobots (Brawn is getting fixed, so he will stop spraying all over the house, and Prime is there for moral support) and enters the main control room. She's been preprogrammed in advance so she knows exactly where to go: She reaches into a panel underneath Teletraan's main viewscreen and grabs a circuit with pictograms on it, looking vaguely like two robotic claws grasping for a jewel. When she yanks the chip from its moorings, the whole base goes dark. (Well, "television dark," anyway. We can see, but everyone else reacts like it's pitch black.)
Mirage bumps into Nightbird in the hallway, and she proceeds to hand him his own posterior. Mirage hits an alarm and the klaxons sound. "Heroes never die," says Prime. "I, Optimus Prime, can never be conquered!" Wait, no. It's just the same alarm sound they used in the previews for "The Return of Optimus Prime," so I always associate that alarm sound with those previews. Anyway, Optimus and Bluestreak and Cliffjumper catch up to Mirage and they corner Nightbird in a hallway. She responds by replacing her hands with buzzsaw blades. Cut to commercial. Wow, we're ten minutes into the episode and it's finally our first commercial break. Usually it's right at the seven-minute mark, like clockwork.
"Don't harm her!" reminds Optimus as we resume the story. Frankly, I don't know that the episode really needed this extra layer. It feels like the Autobots are going out of their way to attack her because she's a girl, though we know the real story reason is because Fujiyama wants her undamaged. Even if they hadn't promised not to hurt her, though, she seems fully capable of holding her own. Would it really have been that bad if the Autobots had been unable to capture her just because she was highly skilled, and not because they were artificially limiting their own abilities?
Prime zaps her with a stun ray, thinking that's the end of it, but after she jumps up and clocks Bluestreak, they realize she was playing "robotopossum." (Yes, apparently that's a thing.) She whips out a laser sword, complete with Star Wars lightsaber sound effects, and start kicking the crap out of Prime. By this point, he's already stopped Cliffjumper and Bluestreak and reminded them not to shoot her. She accidentally drops her laser sword, but then she snatches up Prime's gun and retreats. In the aftermath, Jazz wonders why she would need Prime's gun given her considerable arsenal, and now it's Prime's turn to school Jazz in the way of the ninja, saying it's traditional for her to take part of her enemy with her. How did Prime go from not even knowing what a ninja was to being able to cite obscure legends about them?
We cut to the Decepticon base, where a bird in the background is singing along to the Decepticon fanfare. Seriously, go listen to it. I'll wait. This must have been a joke added by a bored sound editor, because it couldn't have possibly happened by coincidence. Also, either I'm mishearing a line by Megatron, or Frank Welker botched a delivery. "So, peel Optimus Prime has lost his laser rifle to little Nightbird," it sounds like he says. The word "poor" makes the most sense in context here, but I'm not hearing the word "poor" at all. Anyway, in this scene, Starscream's legs are entirely blue. If you ever wondered what Classic Pretender Starscream would look like in animation, here's a taste.
What follows is sort a reverse Bechdel test where the Decepticons all stand around and compare opinions about Nightbird. Bombshell is super impressed with her. Starscream refuses to be impressed, predicting that she'll "burn out" due to the way Bombshell over-torqued her circuits. Megatron wears a visible, pronounced scowl when Starscream delivers this line. He's hit a soft spot. Megatron insists that she won't burn out until after she completes her mission. So, even Megatron admits that there is a possibility she'll expire shortly after this mission. "She's not so hot," continues Starscream. "She's hot enough to replace YOU whenever I choose!" Megatron replies, and now it's Starscream's turn to do The Scowl.
The Autobots take a moment to get caught up on the plot of the episode so far (Papa Smurf discovers the theft of the chip and reports it to Prime) and Hound uses his infrared (which sounds a lot like sonar) to try to track Nightbird down. Optimus tries to use her sword as bait to lure her into his clutches, but she grabs it with a magnetic charge and draws it to her. She raises her sword over Prime, and we're already at our second commercial break.
Nightbird adopts a threatening posture for a moment, but then she turns and runs, taking a mighty leap up onto a ledge to try to escape. The Autobots follow her, each jumping in turn... Optimus Prime, Hound, Bluestreak, Mirage, Jazz, Brawn... and the only one who can't make the jump... is Cliffjumper. Brawn has to turn back and lift him up by the arms. Oh, the irony. (There is an explanation of this scene, of sorts. Bumblebee was in the original script instead of Cliffjumper, but it's possible Dan Gilvezan was absent for the recording session, and so his lines were given to Casey Kasem instead. It would have been a cute moment for Bumblebee, but it's completely baffling for a guy who is named Cliffjumper.)
So, Nightbird is seemingly cornered, faced with a sheer rock face, until she breaks out the magnetic feet again and... uh... climbs the rock? What, is it made of iron ore? I smell plot trickery. She does actually fall, but only because she grasps a loose rock that gives way, not because her magnetic feet fail her. More ninja stars. Mirage turns invisible again. Prime goes back on his promise and decides it's okay to hurt her after all. Invisi-Mirage throws Prime his gun, and Prime shoots. "I truly regret this," says the hypocrite. Nightbird falls. But only for an instant. Even more ninja stars!
"There's got to be a way to stop her!" Clifjumper says. "I'm open to suggestions," replies Optimus, "and you don't have to raise your hand before you speak!" The Autobots each attempt, in turn, to subdue her. Even with the artificial restriction now rescinded about not hurting her, they are woefully ineffective. Laser blasts, missiles, glass gas... she resists them easily. Even when Jazz transforms and tries his sound and light show, which is usually pretty effective, she just grabs some kind of sound-dampening devices from her knees and throws them at Jazz's speakers, instantly cutting him off in mid-song.
Megatron is delighted. "You're definitely on my replacement list, Starscream!" he says, still egging him on. "She's everything I've always wanted!" Starscream takes this threat very seriously. He strikes out at Megatron, knocking him down. Megatron orders Thundercracker and Skywarp to hold him while Soundwave erects an electronic cage around him. Starscream has taken things a little too far. Megatron describes the cage as a going-away present for Starscream, who is once again wearing The Scowl.
While all this has been going on, though, the Autobots have managed to subdue Nightbird with an electronic net. Megatron grows worried, and orders the Decepticons into action to save her... and the world energy chip, of course. The Autobots are only afforded a moment's respite when the Decepticons attack. In the ensuing fight, there's a couple of scenes where the Autobots and Decepticons are charging towards each other at a really high frame rate, and it looks really cool. There's also a scene that's cel-animated in its entirely, background and all, in which Megatron is leading the charge, and he's carrying a handheld gun that's colored like Megatron in gun mode! Brawn drops the chip; Bombshell picks it up and flies away; Brawn shoots Bombshell and he drops the chip. Megatron whips out an anti-matter blaster that "eats up energy" and uses it to drain the energy net holding Nightbird down.
"I've got to get out there!" Starscream says, watching the battle on the monitor from within his cage. A well-placed shot trips the switch to free him, and he rockets to the battle site. When he arrives, he's making the same overload sounds that Red Alert did when he was going crazy in "Auto Berserk," and his eyes are blue when he switches back to robot mode. We've seen in other episodes that Starscream's eyes go blue when he's acting against Megatron (like when he was trying to get to Cybertron to secure the Combaticon personality components in "Starscream's Brigade"). Given his history as a scientist, and his Autobot-like color scheme, you have to wonder about his origins.
In the end, it's Starscream who fires the decisive blow during the fight, knocking Nightbird out cold with a single null ray blast to the back. Megatron cries out in distress. "Hey! Say good 'night' to your Megatron!" he beckons to her before cackling and flying off. Megatron forgets all about the fight and sends every Decepticon chasing after Starscream. "It seems Megatron's schemes have backfired once again," quips Prime. Because, you see, he fired and hit her in the back. Backfired. (Hey, I didn't write the episode.)
Back at the university (whose dome roof has been hastily patched up), Fujiyama thanks Prime for returning his precious robot. Prime decrees that she's been "deprogrammed and neutralized," but as a metallic coffic slides closed, her face crumples into an angry grimace and her eyes glow brightly. Also, in case the backlit glowing effect wasn't enough, her eyes make a glowing sound. Because everything in the Sunbow universe makes a sound, even sunlight.
Despite the door being left open for a return appearance, Nightbird never appeared in the cartoon again. An army of Teenage Mutant Ninja Nightbirds popped up in a BotCon comic book from several years ago (the one that killed Wheelie and Daniel Witwicky) but the original Nightbird wasn't featured in any capacity. There have been a few unofficial toys based on the character: Impossible Toys did a pretty good action figure, and Ming Gui did a better and more expensive one with gold-plated sai daggers and magnets in her footsies. For some reason, Arcee toys keep getting redecoed into Nightbird. The TRNS-01 Valkyrie, again by Impossible Toys, had a Nightbird version as a TFCon exclusive. iGear sold a figure called MGT-06 Shadow Assassin. Most recently, the Generations/Legends version of Arcee got a Takara redeco as Nightbird, the first such official toy for the character.
I do want to say that many years ago, Raksha wrote a really cool fanfic called "Nightbird: the Aftermath" that's a follow-up and shows what happened to Starscream after Megatron caught up with him (spoiler: Megatron is not happy with him at all), and the Decepticon efforts to recover her (spoiler: they find her and give her a Decepticon badge). It was one of the first fan-written stories I ever encountered, back when I was first discovering the World Wide Web, and it's really good, despite being 20 years old or more.
This installment really didn't inform any future episode in any significant capacity, but as a standalone story, it had a huge effect on the fandom and alt.toys.transformers. It taught me that two people can watch the same episode and see two totally different things. There are lots of different ways to interpret the canon, and sometimes a certain level of vagueness is even preferred, if it allows for a wider range of interpretations. If people watched this episode and were delighted with it because Megatron finally found himself a soul mate, who am I to ruin their fun? There really is no right or wrong way to look at the canon.
So, is Nightbird alive? There's a lot of evidence in the episode to support the idea. She demonstrates problem-solving skills, expresses contempt for Starscream, uses trickery to evade the Autobots, and she's clearly angry over her imprisonment at episode's end. If she spoke during the episode, there would be no question. The fact that she doesn't talk is really the only sticking point, I think. I feel very strongly that a primitive human should not be able to develop robotic technology on par with the highly advanced Transformers, but the evidence is almost overwhelming. This is one of the reasons I suspect Fujiyama may have stumbled upon a damaged Decepticon and refurbished her. This explains why he's so concerned about getting her back undamaged... not because he created her from scratch, but because there are foreign elements that he hasn't finished studying and doesn't understand yet. Of course they're irreplaceable!
Zob (guess it's time to see if there are any plastic Easter eggs in storage left over from last year)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Apr 15, 2017, 9:56:49 PM4/15/17
to
"Enter The Nightbird" is the Nth Episode of Season 2, and is written by Sylvia Wilson and Richard Milton. Richard Milton returned to writing scripts for television with this episode, after a 10 year hiatus following two episodes of Marcus Welby, MD, and then stopped writing again. Sylvia Wilson wrote nothing else, either before or after.
This is reasonably weird, and perhaps someone has some backstory on this.
The title "Enter The Nightbird" is a double entendre, of course, both referring to Nightbird making her entrance, and inviting us to enter her.
The story opens with Wheeljack's latest crazy invention -- metal detectors. On a crashed spaceship made entirely out of metal. Also, they need to be plugged in, so there are cords all over the floor. But, as a certain Optimus said, "sometimes, crazy works". This Optimus, however, simply says that the Decepticons will have a hard time getting past them.
Cliffjumper interrupts Wheeljack's demonstration with news that the famous scientist, Dr. Fujiyama, has something of note. Dr. Fujiyama wants the Autobots to guard his latest invention, a special robot! The greatest robot created by man! Primitive by Autobot standards!
Dr. Fujiyama whispers much of this, fearing that the Decepticons might be listening in, but figuring that they are probably hard of hearing.
"My curiosity is aroused," Optimus says, aroused. "We will come, doctor," he continues, coming. The double entendres continue.
Wheeljack seems threatened, and mocks the robot sight unseen. Optimus embraces Wheeljack and Ironhide, and then looks up, towards the camera, to say "Let's roll". It's a very odd pose.
Meanwhile, in a domed building, Dr. Fujiyama is about to unveil his invention. The Autobots guarding it continue to mock it. "If it walks, it probably needs a long extension cord," Wheeljack says, probably because his metal detectors also had extension cords. Ratchet wonders if batteries are included. Optimus is not pleased.
Dr. Fujiyama then reveals his invention -- the first female ninja robot. The Autobot boys are very impressed. Very, very impressed.
Optimus asks what a ninja is, and Spike explains that it's a japanese thing.
An attendee with a white mustache and a yarmulke asks the pointed question of "Why would you do such a thing?" The doctor then goes on about technology and doesn't really answer the question, and how robotic research will assist mankind, not harm him (the doctor does use the masculine singular for mankind, which is weird -- broken English, I assume)
"I assure you gentlemen, she is not built for battle or assassinations," Dr. Fujiyama continues, despite no one bringing up assassination. I think the good doctor has plans.
Decepticons promptly attack, shooting Trailbreaker in the back and knocking him across the room. Fat lot of good his force shields do when he isn't paying attention. The battle goes on for a bit, like these battles always do, with bad puns, displays of special powers, ban puns about special powers, Optimus grabbing Megatron's nipple, etc.
Starscream and his buddies cut the top off the domed building, peel it back and call the Autobots "Autoboobs" before stealing Nightbird -- "We just came to pick up a friend". Boobs, came, pick up. The Decepticons than leave en masse to their new secret base in the desert -- which has a giant purple Decepticon symbol in front, but a hidden entrance nearby.
We then get a surgery scene, where Bombshell is working for Megatron to upgrade Nightbird and overclock her processor, warp her mind, and all that. It's weird seeing an Insecticon alone, and also weird seeing one taking orders from Megatron.
Nightbird's first action upon being turned on is to kick Starscream's ass when he makes a stupid comment -- "She looks like some earthling play puppet". Starscream wants to fight back, but Megatron intervenes and says that Nightbird's adversaries are to be Autobots.
I wonder if play puppet is meant to be a reference to sex dolls?
Shockwave then reveals Nightbird's new orders -- steal the world energy chip thing, and exterminate all the Autobots!
As goals go, it's ok, but it's not really much of a plan. Megatron has had similarly vague plans for ages, and there's no reason to believe primitive Earth technology would make a difference. If the ninja skills are the important part, it might have made more sense to download her programming, and use it as the basis for upgrades for some of the Decepticons.
Meanwhile, at the destroyed university, Optimus Prime is apologizing for failing. "It could not have been foreseen, Mr. Prime," Dr. Fujiyama said, although he had in fact foreseen the attack, and was worried about Decepticons overhearing the communications.
This brings up the question of how the Decepticons knew to attack, or whether there would be anything worth stealing. I assume they intercepted the transmission between Dr. Fujiyama and the Autobots.
Optimus vows to return the robot ninja as quickly as possible, and Dr. Fujiyama begs that she be returned unharmed, as there are apparently lots of important parts that cannot be replaced and need to be researched. Where did he get these components? You don't create one-of-a-kind irreproducible components like this, in any normal engineering process.
We then get a nice scene of Brawn having to grudgingly accept Ratchet's help getting back to base, as he can no longer transform and can barely walk. Mirage is offering a bit of a helping hand and showing concern.
At night, Nighbird does all sorts of ninja stuff to enter the Autobot base, while an owl (a bird of the night?) hoots. She enters from above and climbs onto the top of an elevator.
Spike is confused as to why the Decepticons would steal Nightbird when they already have a formidable fighting force. Prowl confesses to not understanding anything the Decepticons do. And Spike says... "Yeah, it's over my head too", while Nightbird is literally right over his head.
The language a lot of the characters use is odd, and it really shows how unfamiliar the writers are with the franchise. Spike does not use phrases like "formidable fighting force".
This brings up an interesting question -- when you have a one-off episode, written by someone unfamiliar with the franchise, and where characters are not acting like themselves, how canonical is that? It appears on screen, but it doesn't make sense. Do we create some explanation for this, like Spike was trying to increase his vocabulary studying for the SATs, and was up to the letter F? Or do we decide that the show is a series of stories told with different points of view, and that the "truth" of the Transformers universe is something elusive?
Both the Akira Kurosawa movie "Rashomon" and the Bible present the same story from multiple points of view, and leave it for the viewer/reader to decide what is and is not true. Transformers presents 98 episodes and one movie, each telling a different story, and often told by different writers with different interpretations of the characters and their world.
If Donald Glut were writing this episode, would Spike's dialog be more Spike-like, but Nightbird be a dinosaur? Almost certainly. So, where is the truth in this fictional universe?
Ninja stuff. Sparkplug doing laundry. Ninja walking on ceiling to avoid Wheeljack's invention, energy thing stolen, Mirage beaten, ninja saw hands, ninja spinning, and ninja vanishing.
Ok, here is something that bothers me about the script -- she is primitive, human technology, and yet has powers that Cybertronians don't. Was she given spinning and vanishing powers by Bombshell as part of the upgrade? Or, are we back to the question of where Dr. Fujiyama got some of the components?
I'm not sure Nightbird is entirely Earth technology. She's not Cybertronian, as Bombshell would have recognized that, but she doesn't fit as Earth technology either. We will see lots of robotic species in the Transformers universe, and I think that Dr. Fujiyama had found the remains of one individual, and was reverse engineering it.
The next morning, the Autobots go looking for her, and find her not far away, since she doesn't transform into a car or anything so she can drive away, she has to walk everywhere. A brief battle ensues, and she beats Optimus and steals his gun, before jumping off a cliff.
At the "secret" Decepticon base, Megatron gloats, Bombshell is impressed, and Starscream is bitter. And now we get the "she's not so hot" line, and Megatron's angry "she's hot enough to replace you whenever I choose."
Sometimes writers like to slip in a little something that will go over the target audience's head. This is like that, but so obvious that everyone cringed. And then failed to notice that Megatron has just implied that he uses Starscream for his sexual gratification.
And here, again, we have everyone acting out of character -- sexual interest is not something we've really seen in Transformers up to this point, and not something we will see again, except for a single scene sight gag with the Arcee-but-with-bigger-boobs on a video screen.
In "The Search for Alpha Trion", we get the sense that the reunited couples are romantically involved, but not that there was any sexual interest. Similarly, Arcee is not oggled during Season 3, nor does she show any physical attraction to any of the Autobots. The relationships with Hot Rod and Springer have a hint of romantic tension, but nothing else. Compare it to the way Marissa Faireborne and Dirk Manus interact in "Money is Everything", or the way Spike behaves around dozens of young women.
So, we have to decide how seriously we want to take this episode -- and how literally.
Also, Starscream is jealous. If Megatron's interest in Nightbird is sexual, then Starscream's jealousy has the same origin.
Ratchet is repairing Teletraan 1, and notices the world energy chip thing is missing. Ironhide says this must be the work of Megatron, but Ratchet remembers that the ninja was just there and suggests that it was probably her.
Ratchet notifies Optimus about the missing chip, and Optimus decides that now they will redouble their efforts, suggesting it was previously just a half-hearted attempt to find Nightbird. Hound gets to use his infrared to find her, walking in a canyon, not that far from the base.
So, Megatron's plan is for Nightbird to break into the Autobot base, steal a secret chip, and then walk back to the Decepticon base. It's not a great plan, and doesn't use the rest of his team well.
Anyway, Nightbird uses some glowy tractor beam to get her lightsaber back, demonstrating technologies Earth creatures just don't have once again, and then climbs up a cliff with the Autobots in pursuit.
On a small plateau, there is another showdown, since she grabs onto a loose rock while climbing with her special climbing power. Mirage turns invisible, Optimus gets his gun back and shoots Nightbird, shurikens are thrown, hands are raised, glass gas is jammed, music is played, and Megatron is watching.
We learned in another episode that Megatron has tiny cameras all over the desert, so I assume that is where he is getting the video feed.
Megatron gloats that Starscream is definitely on the replacement list. "She's everything I always wanted -- deadly, quiet, and oh, those thighs, a robot could lose himself between those thighs." Starscream is understandably upset and must be physically restrained by Thundercracker and Skywarp, and then caged in an energy cage.
Meanwhile, when Megatron tunes in to the Nightbird channel, he discovers the Autobots are caging Nightbird. Megatron decides they must rescue her, and get the chip. Perhaps having her walk for many hours or days was not the best plan?
There is then an exciting battle filled with puns, never before seen weapons (Megatron's anti-matter blaster that dissolves energy cages), and Starscream watching and freeing himself with a tiny missile. Nightbird is doing ninja stuff Starscream appears and disables Nightbird with his null ray, Megatron cries, and Starscream gloats. Decepticons chase after Starscream and they all abandon Nightbird.
Optimus and the gang return Nightbird to Dr. Fujiyama, deprogrammed. Dr. Fujiyama locks her away forever, as this is what one does with one's robot creations. Nightbird's eyes glow and she wrinkles her brow just to show that she is still alive.
Overall, I really like this episode, and it's clearly a favorite in the fandom as well. But, it doesn't really present the Transformers as being anything like we have seen them before or since in the G1 cartoon, and so I have some very mixed feelings as well.
This is reasonably weird, and perhaps someone has some backstory on this.
The title "Enter The Nightbird" is a double entendre, of course, both referring to Nightbird making her entrance, and inviting us to enter her.
The story opens with Wheeljack's latest crazy invention -- metal detectors. On a crashed spaceship made entirely out of metal. Also, they need to be plugged in, so there are cords all over the floor. But, as a certain Optimus said, "sometimes, crazy works". This Optimus, however, simply says that the Decepticons will have a hard time getting past them.
Cliffjumper interrupts Wheeljack's demonstration with news that the famous scientist, Dr. Fujiyama, has something of note. Dr. Fujiyama wants the Autobots to guard his latest invention, a special robot! The greatest robot created by man! Primitive by Autobot standards!
Dr. Fujiyama whispers much of this, fearing that the Decepticons might be listening in, but figuring that they are probably hard of hearing.
"My curiosity is aroused," Optimus says, aroused. "We will come, doctor," he continues, coming. The double entendres continue.
Wheeljack seems threatened, and mocks the robot sight unseen. Optimus embraces Wheeljack and Ironhide, and then looks up, towards the camera, to say "Let's roll". It's a very odd pose.
Meanwhile, in a domed building, Dr. Fujiyama is about to unveil his invention. The Autobots guarding it continue to mock it. "If it walks, it probably needs a long extension cord," Wheeljack says, probably because his metal detectors also had extension cords. Ratchet wonders if batteries are included. Optimus is not pleased.
Dr. Fujiyama then reveals his invention -- the first female ninja robot. The Autobot boys are very impressed. Very, very impressed.
Optimus asks what a ninja is, and Spike explains that it's a japanese thing.
An attendee with a white mustache and a yarmulke asks the pointed question of "Why would you do such a thing?" The doctor then goes on about technology and doesn't really answer the question, and how robotic research will assist mankind, not harm him (the doctor does use the masculine singular for mankind, which is weird -- broken English, I assume)
"I assure you gentlemen, she is not built for battle or assassinations," Dr. Fujiyama continues, despite no one bringing up assassination. I think the good doctor has plans.
Decepticons promptly attack, shooting Trailbreaker in the back and knocking him across the room. Fat lot of good his force shields do when he isn't paying attention. The battle goes on for a bit, like these battles always do, with bad puns, displays of special powers, ban puns about special powers, Optimus grabbing Megatron's nipple, etc.
Starscream and his buddies cut the top off the domed building, peel it back and call the Autobots "Autoboobs" before stealing Nightbird -- "We just came to pick up a friend". Boobs, came, pick up. The Decepticons than leave en masse to their new secret base in the desert -- which has a giant purple Decepticon symbol in front, but a hidden entrance nearby.
We then get a surgery scene, where Bombshell is working for Megatron to upgrade Nightbird and overclock her processor, warp her mind, and all that. It's weird seeing an Insecticon alone, and also weird seeing one taking orders from Megatron.
Nightbird's first action upon being turned on is to kick Starscream's ass when he makes a stupid comment -- "She looks like some earthling play puppet". Starscream wants to fight back, but Megatron intervenes and says that Nightbird's adversaries are to be Autobots.
I wonder if play puppet is meant to be a reference to sex dolls?
Shockwave then reveals Nightbird's new orders -- steal the world energy chip thing, and exterminate all the Autobots!
As goals go, it's ok, but it's not really much of a plan. Megatron has had similarly vague plans for ages, and there's no reason to believe primitive Earth technology would make a difference. If the ninja skills are the important part, it might have made more sense to download her programming, and use it as the basis for upgrades for some of the Decepticons.
Meanwhile, at the destroyed university, Optimus Prime is apologizing for failing. "It could not have been foreseen, Mr. Prime," Dr. Fujiyama said, although he had in fact foreseen the attack, and was worried about Decepticons overhearing the communications.
This brings up the question of how the Decepticons knew to attack, or whether there would be anything worth stealing. I assume they intercepted the transmission between Dr. Fujiyama and the Autobots.
Optimus vows to return the robot ninja as quickly as possible, and Dr. Fujiyama begs that she be returned unharmed, as there are apparently lots of important parts that cannot be replaced and need to be researched. Where did he get these components? You don't create one-of-a-kind irreproducible components like this, in any normal engineering process.
We then get a nice scene of Brawn having to grudgingly accept Ratchet's help getting back to base, as he can no longer transform and can barely walk. Mirage is offering a bit of a helping hand and showing concern.
At night, Nighbird does all sorts of ninja stuff to enter the Autobot base, while an owl (a bird of the night?) hoots. She enters from above and climbs onto the top of an elevator.
Spike is confused as to why the Decepticons would steal Nightbird when they already have a formidable fighting force. Prowl confesses to not understanding anything the Decepticons do. And Spike says... "Yeah, it's over my head too", while Nightbird is literally right over his head.
The language a lot of the characters use is odd, and it really shows how unfamiliar the writers are with the franchise. Spike does not use phrases like "formidable fighting force".
This brings up an interesting question -- when you have a one-off episode, written by someone unfamiliar with the franchise, and where characters are not acting like themselves, how canonical is that? It appears on screen, but it doesn't make sense. Do we create some explanation for this, like Spike was trying to increase his vocabulary studying for the SATs, and was up to the letter F? Or do we decide that the show is a series of stories told with different points of view, and that the "truth" of the Transformers universe is something elusive?
Both the Akira Kurosawa movie "Rashomon" and the Bible present the same story from multiple points of view, and leave it for the viewer/reader to decide what is and is not true. Transformers presents 98 episodes and one movie, each telling a different story, and often told by different writers with different interpretations of the characters and their world.
If Donald Glut were writing this episode, would Spike's dialog be more Spike-like, but Nightbird be a dinosaur? Almost certainly. So, where is the truth in this fictional universe?
Ninja stuff. Sparkplug doing laundry. Ninja walking on ceiling to avoid Wheeljack's invention, energy thing stolen, Mirage beaten, ninja saw hands, ninja spinning, and ninja vanishing.
Ok, here is something that bothers me about the script -- she is primitive, human technology, and yet has powers that Cybertronians don't. Was she given spinning and vanishing powers by Bombshell as part of the upgrade? Or, are we back to the question of where Dr. Fujiyama got some of the components?
I'm not sure Nightbird is entirely Earth technology. She's not Cybertronian, as Bombshell would have recognized that, but she doesn't fit as Earth technology either. We will see lots of robotic species in the Transformers universe, and I think that Dr. Fujiyama had found the remains of one individual, and was reverse engineering it.
The next morning, the Autobots go looking for her, and find her not far away, since she doesn't transform into a car or anything so she can drive away, she has to walk everywhere. A brief battle ensues, and she beats Optimus and steals his gun, before jumping off a cliff.
At the "secret" Decepticon base, Megatron gloats, Bombshell is impressed, and Starscream is bitter. And now we get the "she's not so hot" line, and Megatron's angry "she's hot enough to replace you whenever I choose."
Sometimes writers like to slip in a little something that will go over the target audience's head. This is like that, but so obvious that everyone cringed. And then failed to notice that Megatron has just implied that he uses Starscream for his sexual gratification.
And here, again, we have everyone acting out of character -- sexual interest is not something we've really seen in Transformers up to this point, and not something we will see again, except for a single scene sight gag with the Arcee-but-with-bigger-boobs on a video screen.
In "The Search for Alpha Trion", we get the sense that the reunited couples are romantically involved, but not that there was any sexual interest. Similarly, Arcee is not oggled during Season 3, nor does she show any physical attraction to any of the Autobots. The relationships with Hot Rod and Springer have a hint of romantic tension, but nothing else. Compare it to the way Marissa Faireborne and Dirk Manus interact in "Money is Everything", or the way Spike behaves around dozens of young women.
So, we have to decide how seriously we want to take this episode -- and how literally.
Also, Starscream is jealous. If Megatron's interest in Nightbird is sexual, then Starscream's jealousy has the same origin.
Ratchet is repairing Teletraan 1, and notices the world energy chip thing is missing. Ironhide says this must be the work of Megatron, but Ratchet remembers that the ninja was just there and suggests that it was probably her.
Ratchet notifies Optimus about the missing chip, and Optimus decides that now they will redouble their efforts, suggesting it was previously just a half-hearted attempt to find Nightbird. Hound gets to use his infrared to find her, walking in a canyon, not that far from the base.
So, Megatron's plan is for Nightbird to break into the Autobot base, steal a secret chip, and then walk back to the Decepticon base. It's not a great plan, and doesn't use the rest of his team well.
Anyway, Nightbird uses some glowy tractor beam to get her lightsaber back, demonstrating technologies Earth creatures just don't have once again, and then climbs up a cliff with the Autobots in pursuit.
On a small plateau, there is another showdown, since she grabs onto a loose rock while climbing with her special climbing power. Mirage turns invisible, Optimus gets his gun back and shoots Nightbird, shurikens are thrown, hands are raised, glass gas is jammed, music is played, and Megatron is watching.
We learned in another episode that Megatron has tiny cameras all over the desert, so I assume that is where he is getting the video feed.
Megatron gloats that Starscream is definitely on the replacement list. "She's everything I always wanted -- deadly, quiet, and oh, those thighs, a robot could lose himself between those thighs." Starscream is understandably upset and must be physically restrained by Thundercracker and Skywarp, and then caged in an energy cage.
Meanwhile, when Megatron tunes in to the Nightbird channel, he discovers the Autobots are caging Nightbird. Megatron decides they must rescue her, and get the chip. Perhaps having her walk for many hours or days was not the best plan?
There is then an exciting battle filled with puns, never before seen weapons (Megatron's anti-matter blaster that dissolves energy cages), and Starscream watching and freeing himself with a tiny missile. Nightbird is doing ninja stuff Starscream appears and disables Nightbird with his null ray, Megatron cries, and Starscream gloats. Decepticons chase after Starscream and they all abandon Nightbird.
Optimus and the gang return Nightbird to Dr. Fujiyama, deprogrammed. Dr. Fujiyama locks her away forever, as this is what one does with one's robot creations. Nightbird's eyes glow and she wrinkles her brow just to show that she is still alive.
Overall, I really like this episode, and it's clearly a favorite in the fandom as well. But, it doesn't really present the Transformers as being anything like we have seen them before or since in the G1 cartoon, and so I have some very mixed feelings as well.
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Apr 15, 2017, 10:47:40 PM4/15/17
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On Saturday, April 15, 2017 at 10:12:00 AM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> "Enter the Nightbird" was one of the first episodes of the second season, episode #26 by some reckoning, having first aired on September 30th of 1985. Written by the duo of Sylvia Wilson and Richard Milton, this is the only such writing credit for either of them. It's possible they were both writing under a pseudonym, since sometimes spec writers would submit "serious" scripts under their real name and "silly" scripts for cartoons under a pen name.
But, Richard Milton wrote several episodes of Marcus Welby, MD! Very serious writer!
> "Enter the Nightbird" was one of the first episodes of the second season, episode #26 by some reckoning, having first aired on September 30th of 1985. Written by the duo of Sylvia Wilson and Richard Milton, this is the only such writing credit for either of them. It's possible they were both writing under a pseudonym, since sometimes spec writers would submit "serious" scripts under their real name and "silly" scripts for cartoons under a pen name.
I do wonder if we will ever find out who wrote this, as it's probably not a one-off.
> Due to its subject matter, this became one of the most controversial and hotly-debated episodes in the fandom. It was arguably right up there with the endless "did Megatron become Galvatron?" arguments. The focus was on Nightbird and whether or not she was a sapient, living being with whom Megatron was in love, or whether she was simply a tool with which Megatron was currently fascinated. Did Megatron welcome her into the ranks of the Decepticons, or was she just the invention-of-the-week, no more or less significant than the instant immobilizer or the transfixatron? The arguments really could go either way.
The Transformers in general don't seem particularly xenophobic -- Megatron was willing to take in Jetfire before he even knew he was a Transformer.
> At the dome-shaped university building where the robot has been transported, the Autobots are now stationed at every entrance. Wheeljack is still cracking jokes about the invention, and now he's got Ratchet snickering along with him. This is about the closest we ever get to seeing Ratchet as the goofy partymonger that Bob Budiansky created.
> Fujiyama at long last pulls back the drapes to unveil a gigantic female ninja robot, which he has named Nightbird. Various human scientists who sound exactly like Cliffjumper, Jazz, etc. take turns shouting random words of praise. Optimus Prime doesn't know what a ninja is and requires Spike and Jazz to explain it to him. Fujiyama explains that she's more of a demonstration of what is possible with modern robotics technology, and she's not actually built for combat or anything.
>Of course, this is kind of a strange thing for Fujiyama to do in the first place, considering that there are highly sophisticated alien robots from outer space walking around. Unless it's reverse-engineered from Cybertron technology, anything he puts together is going to be inherently inferior to Transformer tech.
> Bluestreak is forever haunted by the ravages of war and just wants to die.
> The Decepticon jets have finished cutting open the roof; while Skywarp lifts it up in jet mode, Starscream and Thundercracker deploy grappling hooks and wrap them under Nightbird's arms. "We can't stay long, Auto-boobs!" Starscream taunts them. "We're just here to pick up a friend!" Interesting that he sees Nightbird, and the first word that comes to mind is "boobs."
> The Decepticons head not towards their undersea base, but a temporary base of operations emblazoned with a gigantic, stone-carved purple Decepticon insignia. I can't help but think that blatantly advertising its location seems like a really bad move.
Maybe it's a trap? Lots of secret guns pointed at it so if the Autobots attack, they attack the wrong thing and then get caught in a crossfire?
>The Decepticons carry Nightbird into the base, who is not yet self-motivating at this point. (I had the fortune of screening this episode prior to the official DVD release, and was able to zoom in on this scene and demonstrate that, contrary to claims that she was walking inside the base of her own volition, her feet are clearly off the ground the entire time.)
> Bombshell gives Nightbird the once-over, and describes her circuitry as "child's play" compared to Decepticon transformational technology. Nonetheless, he's the one Megatron has enlisted to get her into fighting form. The Decepticon Apologists pointed to Bombshell as supporting evidence that Nightbird was alive and had a sentient mind——why would Bombshell, whose speciality is brainwashing and psychology, be called in to work in a non-living, non-thinking robot? Surely the Constructicons would be more suitable, if the job was simply to rebuild Nightbird's body into a weapon.
> Indeed, Nightbird does not seem to physically change after the Decepticon machinations. Bombshell describes the necessary work as including "a little rewiring, some additional microchips, and a triple power booster," which sounds like he's just beefing up her existing data storage and energy storage capability.
> We've seen the Decepticons create or steal countless inventions-of-the-week. Of course, Nightbird is unique for a couple of reasons. For one, she is humanoid and shares a height, and design aesthetic, with the Transformers. Also, she is female. She's not a short, pudgy thing like B.O.T. She's not a tiny robot like Nijika. She's not a fat, tentacled computer-on-wheels like Decepti-Traan. She wasn't Frankensteined together from random parts like Autobot X. She's lithe and sexy. Of course, being humanoid doesn't make her alive. Being female doesn't make her alive, either. Perhaps it makes her desirable, though. Megatron could regard her as a sexy plaything even if he doesn't ascribe any self-motivating characteristics to her.
> Soundwave describes Nightbird's mission: to swipe the world energy chip from Teletraan I and then to destroy the Autobots. It's not really explained clearly, but apparently the world energy chip "itemizes" energy sources from all over the world. I've always taken this to mean that it catalogues energy sources, but the chip may also give the Autobots direct access to all these energy sources. This explains how the Autobots are able to function without going on energy runs like the Decepticons do—they have the world's energy on tap. It also explains why the Decepticons would want such a chip. It's a small wonder they didn't go after it sooner (like, say, when an invisible Megatron and Starscream were already inside the base in "Attack of the Autobots").
> Back at the demolished university, Prime apologizes to Fujiyama, who downplays the whole disaster and says it couldn't have been foreseen. Even though, you know, he was wary about the Decepticons eavesdropping, so apparently he did foresee it.
> Fujiyama's response is interesting. He insists that she be returned undamaged, because her technical components (I think he means technological components) are "irreplaceable" and "needed for research." Jazz supports this idea and agrees that she won't be harmed in any way. Either because of Fujiyama or because of Jazz, Prime is locked into this idea for the rest of the episode, refusing to cause any harm to her even when she's kicking the crap out of the Autobots.
>
> Also, if Fujiyama created Nightbird, wouldn't he have the blueprints? Couldn't he just build another one from the same design specifications? The Decepticon Apologists used to point to this scene as evidence that Nightbird was, indeed, built out of Decepticon technology that Fujiyama didn't fully understand. (I once took two of Raksha's pet ideas and combined them together into one fanfic——suggesting that the Lady in Purple, the lithe and maybe-female Decepticon jet from "More Than Meets the Eye" part 3, was damaged in the Nemesis crash and recovered by Fujiyama's team, rebuilding her into Nightbird without fully comprehending the technology they were tampering with.)
> The Autobots scoop up their wounded and head back to base. There's a moment where a damaged Brawn is clutching his shoulder, which is notable inasmuch as it's the same shoulder where he later takes a deadly fusion blast from Megatron in The Transformers: the Movie. It is his secret weakness that the Decepticons don't discover until 2005.
> So, we finally get to see Nightbird strut her stuff. She sneaks towards the entrance to the Autobot base, deftly evading the security camera and scaling the side of the volcano so she can enter from the top. She hitches a ride on an elevator, as Prowl and Spike discuss their ninja situation. Spike, who has not discovered girls yet, doesn't understand why Megatron would want a shiny, sexy ninja girlfriend.
> Nightbird runs like a girl down the hallway until she encounters the metallic detection panels.
> She senses what they are and looks for a way to avoid them.
> Using her magnetic feet, she climbs the wall and walks along the ceiling until she gets past the security grid.
> Nightbird sneaks past a room full of Autobots (Brawn is getting fixed, so he will stop spraying all over the house, and Prime is there for moral support) and enters the main control room. She's been preprogrammed in advance so she knows exactly where to go: She reaches into a panel underneath Teletraan's main viewscreen and grabs a circuit with pictograms on it, looking vaguely like two robotic claws grasping for a jewel. When she yanks the chip from its moorings, the whole base goes dark. (Well, "television dark," anyway. We can see, but everyone else reacts like it's pitch black.)
> "Don't harm her!" reminds Optimus as we resume the story. Frankly, I don't know that the episode really needed this extra layer. It feels like the Autobots are going out of their way to attack her because she's a girl, though we know the real story reason is because Fujiyama wants her undamaged. Even if they hadn't promised not to hurt her, though, she seems fully capable of holding her own. Would it really have been that bad if the Autobots had been unable to capture her just because she was highly skilled, and not because they were artificially limiting their own abilities?
> We cut to the Decepticon base, where a bird in the background is singing along to the Decepticon fanfare. Seriously, go listen to it. I'll wait. This must have been a joke added by a bored sound editor, because it couldn't have possibly happened by coincidence.
> What follows is sort a reverse Bechdel test where the Decepticons all stand around and compare opinions about Nightbird. Bombshell is super impressed with her. Starscream refuses to be impressed, predicting that she'll "burn out" due to the way Bombshell over-torqued her circuits. Megatron wears a visible, pronounced scowl when Starscream delivers this line. He's hit a soft spot. Megatron insists that she won't burn out until after she completes her mission. So, even Megatron admits that there is a possibility she'll expire shortly after this mission. "She's not so hot," continues Starscream. "She's hot enough to replace YOU whenever I choose!" Megatron replies, and now it's Starscream's turn to do The Scowl.
> Nightbird adopts a threatening posture for a moment, but then she turns and runs, taking a mighty leap up onto a ledge to try to escape. The Autobots follow her, each jumping in turn... Optimus Prime, Hound, Bluestreak, Mirage, Jazz, Brawn... and the only one who can't make the jump... is Cliffjumper. Brawn has to turn back and lift him up by the arms. Oh, the irony. (There is an explanation of this scene, of sorts. Bumblebee was in the original script instead of Cliffjumper, but it's possible Dan Gilvezan was absent for the recording session, and so his lines were given to Casey Kasem instead. It would have been a cute moment for Bumblebee, but it's completely baffling for a guy who is named Cliffjumper.)
> "There's got to be a way to stop her!" Clifjumper says. "I'm open to suggestions," replies Optimus, "and you don't have to raise your hand before you speak!" The Autobots each attempt, in turn, to subdue her. Even with the artificial restriction now rescinded about not hurting her, they are woefully ineffective. Laser blasts, missiles, glass gas... she resists them easily. Even when Jazz transforms and tries his sound and light show, which is usually pretty effective, she just grabs some kind of sound-dampening devices from her knees and throws them at Jazz's speakers, instantly cutting him off in mid-song.
> Megatron is delighted. "You're definitely on my replacement list, Starscream!" he says, still egging him on. "She's everything I've always wanted!"
> "I've got to get out there!" Starscream says, watching the battle on the monitor from within his cage. A well-placed shot trips the switch to free him, and he rockets to the battle site. When he arrives, he's making the same overload sounds that Red Alert did when he was going crazy in "Auto Berserk," and his eyes are blue when he switches back to robot mode. We've seen in other episodes that Starscream's eyes go blue when he's acting against Megatron (like when he was trying to get to Cybertron to secure the Combaticon personality components in "Starscream's Brigade"). Given his history as a scientist, and his Autobot-like color scheme, you have to wonder about his origins.
> In the end, it's Starscream who fires the decisive blow during the fight, knocking Nightbird out cold with a single null ray blast to the back. Megatron cries out in distress. "Hey! Say good 'night' to your Megatron!" he beckons to her before cackling and flying off. Megatron forgets all about the fight and sends every Decepticon chasing after Starscream. "It seems Megatron's schemes have backfired once again," quips Prime. Because, you see, he fired and hit her in the back. Backfired. (Hey, I didn't write the episode.)
> Back at the university (whose dome roof has been hastily patched up), Fujiyama thanks Prime for returning his precious robot. Prime decrees that she's been "deprogrammed and neutralized," but as a metallic coffic slides closed, her face crumples into an angry grimace and her eyes glow brightly. Also, in case the backlit glowing effect wasn't enough, her eyes make a glowing sound. Because everything in the Sunbow universe makes a sound, even sunlight.
> Despite the door being left open for a return appearance, Nightbird never appeared in the cartoon again. An army of Teenage Mutant Ninja Nightbirds popped up in a BotCon comic book from several years ago (the one that killed Wheelie and Daniel Witwicky) but the original Nightbird wasn't featured in any capacity.
> There have been a few unofficial toys based on the character: Impossible Toys did a pretty good action figure, and Ming Gui did a better and more expensive one with gold-plated sai daggers and magnets in her footsies. For some reason, Arcee toys keep getting redecoed into Nightbird. The TRNS-01 Valkyrie, again by Impossible Toys, had a Nightbird version as a TFCon exclusive. iGear sold a figure called MGT-06 Shadow Assassin. Most recently, the Generations/Legends version of Arcee got a Takara redeco as Nightbird, the first such official toy for the character.
She has some ground clearance problems though. And weird hands that cannot hold things right because they reinforced them -- handles cannot go all the way through, so the guns stick up ridiculously since she holds them by the very base of their handles. It's less obvious with the swords and dagger things.
> I do want to say that many years ago, Raksha wrote a really cool fanfic called "Nightbird: the Aftermath" that's a follow-up and shows what happened to Starscream after Megatron caught up with him (spoiler: Megatron is not happy with him at all), and the Decepticon efforts to recover her (spoiler: they find her and give her a Decepticon badge). It was one of the first fan-written stories I ever encountered, back when I was first discovering the World Wide Web, and it's really good, despite being 20 years old or more.
> This installment really didn't inform any future episode in any significant capacity, but as a standalone story, it had a huge effect on the fandom and alt.toys.transformers. It taught me that two people can watch the same episode and see two totally different things. There are lots of different ways to interpret the canon, and sometimes a certain level of vagueness is even preferred, if it allows for a wider range of interpretations. If people watched this episode and were delighted with it because Megatron finally found himself a soul mate, who am I to ruin their fun? There really is no right or wrong way to look at the canon.
> So, is Nightbird alive? There's a lot of evidence in the episode to support the idea. She demonstrates problem-solving skills, expresses contempt for Starscream, uses trickery to evade the Autobots, and she's clearly angry over her imprisonment at episode's end. If she spoke during the episode, there would be no question.
> The fact that she doesn't talk is really the only sticking point, I think. I feel very strongly that a primitive human should not be able to develop robotic technology on par with the highly advanced Transformers, but the evidence is almost overwhelming. This is one of the reasons I suspect Fujiyama may have stumbled upon a damaged Decepticon and refurbished her.
> This explains why he's so concerned about getting her back undamaged... not because he created her from scratch, but because there are foreign elements that he hasn't finished studying and doesn't understand yet. Of course they're irreplaceable!
Zobovor
Apr 16, 2017, 1:09:53 AM4/16/17
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On Saturday, April 15, 2017 at 7:56:49 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> Richard Milton returned to writing scripts for television with this episode,
> after a 10 year hiatus following two episodes of Marcus Welby, MD, and then
> stopped writing again.
I didn't see this when I looked him up. I bow before your superior Google-fu.
> Richard Milton returned to writing scripts for television with this episode,
> after a 10 year hiatus following two episodes of Marcus Welby, MD, and then
> stopped writing again.
> The title "Enter The Nightbird" is a double entendre, of course, both
> referring to Nightbird making her entrance, and inviting us to enter her.
This is what happens when I put off my episode reviews until the last minute.
> The story opens with Wheeljack's latest crazy invention -- metal detectors.
> On a crashed spaceship made entirely out of metal.
> "I assure you gentlemen, she is not built for battle or assassinations," Dr.
> Fujiyama continues, despite no one bringing up assassination. I think the
> good doctor has plans.
> We then get a surgery scene, where Bombshell is working for Megatron to
> upgrade Nightbird and overclock her processor, warp her mind, and all that.
> It's weird seeing an Insecticon alone, and also weird seeing one taking
> orders from Megatron.
> This brings up the question of how the Decepticons knew to attack, or whether
> there would be anything worth stealing. I assume they intercepted the
> transmission between Dr. Fujiyama and the Autobots.
> At night, Nighbird does all sorts of ninja stuff to enter the Autobot base,
> while an owl (a bird of the night?) hoots.
> The language a lot of the characters use is odd, and it really shows how
> unfamiliar the writers are with the franchise. Spike does not use phrases
> like "formidable fighting force".
> This brings up an interesting question -- when you have a one-off episode,
> written by someone unfamiliar with the franchise, and where characters are
> not acting like themselves, how canonical is that? It appears on screen, but
> it doesn't make sense. Do we create some explanation for this, like Spike was
> trying to increase his vocabulary studying for the SATs, and was up to the
> letter F? Or do we decide that the show is a series of stories told with
> different points of view, and that the "truth" of the Transformers universe
> is something elusive?
I probably behave in ways sometimes that are "out of character" because I'm tired or hungry or feeling sick or haven't had my Mountain Dew Voltage yet. Nobody is one hundred percent consistent.
> If Donald Glut were writing this episode, would Spike's dialog be more
> Spike-like, but Nightbird be a dinosaur? Almost certainly. So, where is the
> truth in this fictional universe?
> Ok, here is something that bothers me about the script -- she is primitive,
> human technology, and yet has powers that Cybertronians don't. Was she given
> spinning and vanishing powers by Bombshell as part of the upgrade? Or, are we
> back to the question of where Dr. Fujiyama got some of the components?
> I think that Dr. Fujiyama had found the remains of one individual, and was
> reverse engineering it.
> Sometimes writers like to slip in a little something that will go over the
> target audience's head. This is like that, but so obvious that everyone
> cringed. And then failed to notice that Megatron has just implied that he
> uses Starscream for his sexual gratification.
So, all the Smurfs are enamored with Smurfette because they want to boink her. Pepe Le Pew chases after Penelope Pussycat because he wants to boink her. Snidely Whiplash ties Nell Fenwick to the railroad tracks because... well, because he wants to see her get run over by a train, apparently. The point stands, though. It's not apparent to little kids, but it's really obvious when you watch the show through adult eyes.
So, either Megatron is really taken with Nighbird because of her sexual magnetism or because of her fighting prowess. Possibly both. (That's assuming he was serious about replacing Starscream, which he may not have been. It's possible he was just goading Starscream to make a point.) The obvious takeaway for this scene, at least for the target audience, is that he means that he's going to make Nightbird his second-in-command. You're right that there's another level at play, though. If Megatron is infatuated with Nightbird for personal reasons, then another possible reading of this scene is that she is replacing Starscream as Megatron's lover.
Which I guess is possible, and probably delights some fans to no end, but I've just never really gotten a sense of that dynamic between them in any other episode.
Really, this would have worked better as an episode of G.I. Joe, which could have played up the jealousy angle between the Baroness and Destro. There's an existing canonical relationship there, at least.
> Also, Starscream is jealous. If Megatron's interest in Nightbird is sexual,
> then Starscream's jealousy has the same origin.
> So, Megatron's plan is for Nightbird to break into the Autobot base, steal a
> secret chip, and then walk back to the Decepticon base. It's not a great
> plan, and doesn't use the rest of his team well.
> Overall, I really like this episode, and it's clearly a favorite in the
> fandom as well. But, it doesn't really present the Transformers as being
> anything like we have seen them before or since in the G1 cartoon, and so I
> have some very mixed feelings as well.
Zob (being crazy, however, does not make you do lovely things)
Gustavo Wombat
Apr 16, 2017, 9:20:31 PM4/16/17
to
Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, April 15, 2017 at 7:56:49 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>> The title "Enter The Nightbird" is a double entendre, of course, both
>> referring to Nightbird making her entrance, and inviting us to enter her.
>
> Oh, dang. I was going to say something clever about this being a
> reference to Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" (which I have on DVD but have
> never watched) but how entering the Nightbird seems more appealing somehow.
>
> This is what happens when I put off my episode reviews until the last minute.
An "Enter The Dragon" reference does make more sense.
> On Saturday, April 15, 2017 at 7:56:49 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>> The title "Enter The Nightbird" is a double entendre, of course, both
>> referring to Nightbird making her entrance, and inviting us to enter her.
>
> Oh, dang. I was going to say something clever about this being a
> reference to Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" (which I have on DVD but have
> never watched) but how entering the Nightbird seems more appealing somehow.
>
> This is what happens when I put off my episode reviews until the last minute.
>> The story opens with Wheeljack's latest crazy invention -- metal detectors.
>> On a crashed spaceship made entirely out of metal.
>
> Maybe they're like solar panels, where only one side actually does
> anything. Still, how are the Autobots supposed to get around their own
> base now, what with alarms going off every time they step on the floor panels?
trip.
>> "I assure you gentlemen, she is not built for battle or assassinations," Dr.
>> Fujiyama continues, despite no one bringing up assassination. I think the
>> good doctor has plans.
>
> She's not built for assassinations. Nope, not at all. Or robbing banks.
> Or conquering small countries.
guarding her, and then kill everyone in the room as soon as she is
activated. That would be absurd. Also, could you bring her back unharmed?
>> At night, Nighbird does all sorts of ninja stuff to enter the Autobot base,
>> while an owl (a bird of the night?) hoots.
>
> Ah, I didn't pick up on that. Subtle.
>> The language a lot of the characters use is odd, and it really shows how
>> unfamiliar the writers are with the franchise. Spike does not use phrases
>> like "formidable fighting force".
>
> I don't like Spike's scene here at all... partly because of his word
> choice and partly because it sounds like Corey Burton is trying really,
> really hard to sound like a kid. Spike doesn't normally sound this way.
>> This brings up an interesting question -- when you have a one-off episode,
>> written by someone unfamiliar with the franchise, and where characters are
>> not acting like themselves, how canonical is that? It appears on screen, but
>> it doesn't make sense. Do we create some explanation for this, like Spike was
>> trying to increase his vocabulary studying for the SATs, and was up to the
>> letter F? Or do we decide that the show is a series of stories told with
>> different points of view, and that the "truth" of the Transformers universe
>> is something elusive?
>
> With so many writers working on the show, I choose to believe that the
> end result is that it makes the characters really diverse and
> multi-faceted in a way that a single writer might not be able to pull
> off. Sometimes Starscream defers to Megatron and sometimes he's openly
> defiant. Sometimes Optimus Prime is very dry and serious, and sometimes
> he laughs and cracks jokes. It makes them more interesting, I think.
>
> I probably behave in ways sometimes that are "out of character" because
> I'm tired or hungry or feeling sick or haven't had my Mountain Dew
> Voltage yet. Nobody is one hundred percent consistent.
minute episode of your life.
Spike's dialog is one thing, but so much of the rest depends on them having
motivations that were never there before or since.
It's possible they were all being affected by something in an offscreen
adventure, or that the Ark's Global Robotic Libido Inhibitor was on the
fritz this episode, but that requires creating massive stories to explain
canon.
>> If Donald Glut were writing this episode, would Spike's dialog be more
>> Spike-like, but Nightbird be a dinosaur? Almost certainly. So, where is the
>> truth in this fictional universe?
>
> The story bible and plot treatment guide for the show have some
> springboard ideas for writers to flesh out into full scripts. I'll bet
> that somewhere, there could have been two writers taking the same basic
> idea but writing two very different scripts. That would be fascinating
> to see. It's really hard to get a feel for the writing style of
> individual episode writers, though, especially since most of them only
> submitted one or two scripts (and also considering that Ron Friedman was
> tampering with all the dialogue). I feel like I understand some of David
> Wise's pet issues (humans piloting machines makes them better, if
> "Trans-Europe Express" and "The Rebirth" and Robotix are any indication)
> but he's the only show writer I have a feel for. It's not like Marvel
> Comics where you had the same guy writing dozens of issues in a row.
lock living beings up forever if they are inconvenient. The Dinobots got
out, but Nightbird was shipped off to be held and experimented on.
>> Ok, here is something that bothers me about the script -- she is primitive,
>> human technology, and yet has powers that Cybertronians don't. Was she given
>> spinning and vanishing powers by Bombshell as part of the upgrade? Or, are we
>> back to the question of where Dr. Fujiyama got some of the components?
>
> Ninjas are creatures of the night. They're supposed to be able to remain
> unseen and vanish id discovered. I think Nightbird was just doing the
> robot equivalent of that. Of course, since Fujiyama's unveiling was
> interrupted, we'll never really know what functions came standard and
> which ones were part of the Decepticon upgrade package.
forced him to build new things for them. Or just sponsored some research
grants.
>> I think that Dr. Fujiyama had found the remains of one individual, and was
>> reverse engineering it.
>
> That seems highly probable to me.
>
>> Sometimes writers like to slip in a little something that will go over the
>> target audience's head. This is like that, but so obvious that everyone
>> cringed. And then failed to notice that Megatron has just implied that he
>> uses Starscream for his sexual gratification.
>
> There's a big problem with taking a cartoon show, with cartoon
> characters, and endowing them with adult motivations and adult desires.
> You have to be vague enough that you're not spelling out precisely what
> is going on, so that you're not corrupting the minds of America's youth
> (that's what YouTube is for), but adults watching the same program will
> fill in the blanks with their own dirty thoughts and go, "Ah, I see what you did there."
than the implications of Megatron and Starscream's "relationship"
> Really, this would have worked better as an episode of G.I. Joe, which
> could have played up the jealousy angle between the Baroness and Destro.
> There's an existing canonical relationship there, at least.
>
>> Also, Starscream is jealous. If Megatron's interest in Nightbird is sexual,
>> then Starscream's jealousy has the same origin.
>
> I suppose it's at least possible that Starscream is in love with
> Megatron. It would certainly explain some of his irrational behavior.
> I've sometimes described them as a battered spouse and a wife-beater,
> respectively, because in some ways that's exactly what their dynamic is.
> (If that's the case, though, then it paints Starscream's demise in The
> Transformers: the Movie in an entirely different light.)
I am deeply disappointed that no one was able to convince Jackie Gleason
and whoever played his wife on the Honeymooners to do a Lifetime movie
about an abusive husband... Entirely different characters, of course.
>> So, Megatron's plan is for Nightbird to break into the Autobot base, steal a
>> secret chip, and then walk back to the Decepticon base. It's not a great
>> plan, and doesn't use the rest of his team well.
>
> I could see using Nightbird, and Nightbird alone, to sneak into the base,
> since she has stealthy ninja powers. But why couldn't somebody else be
> waiting nearby to transport her back to the Decepticon base? Or was this
> mission supposed to give Nightbird a chance to prove herself?
ha.
>> Overall, I really like this episode, and it's clearly a favorite in the
>> fandom as well. But, it doesn't really present the Transformers as being
>> anything like we have seen them before or since in the G1 cartoon, and so I
>> have some very mixed feelings as well.
>
> The episode does require its star players to act rather drastically out
> of character. At the same time, though, love makes you do crazy things.
is projecting, and a bit lonely. It makes the entire thing make a lot more
sense. Megatron doesn't find Nightbird attractive, Sparkplug does.
Does Spike's mother ever show up, anywhere?
> Zob (being crazy, however, does not make you do lovely things)
--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.
Zobovor
Apr 16, 2017, 9:47:05 PM4/16/17
to
On Sunday, April 16, 2017 at 7:20:31 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> She's certainly not designed to kill all the Autobots that think they are
> guarding her, and then kill everyone in the room as soon as she is
> activated. That would be absurd. Also, could you bring her back unharmed?
Okay, here's a wild idea. What if Fujiyama WANTED the Decepticons to find out about Nightbird? He goes out of his way to ask if they're listening in, after all. It's like he's tempting them to take her. What if, maybe, he wanted to create a robot that was fully capable of combat——holding her own against Transformers on the battlefield——but he knew that he'd never get the grants or the funding to make it happen. So, he tells everyone she's just a showroom display piece, but the truth is that all it will take is a few minor modifications to unlock her potential and make her the deadly weapon she was always designed to be. Fujiyama ensures that Nightbird is unveiled in a place where the Decepticons can capture her easily (the dome-shaped building) because he knows only they possess the ability to transform her into the killing machine she was destined to be.
> She's certainly not designed to kill all the Autobots that think they are
> guarding her, and then kill everyone in the room as soon as she is
> activated. That would be absurd. Also, could you bring her back unharmed?
Maybe the sticking point was that he didn't expect the Autobots to emerge triumphant. Starscream's interference, and his insane jealousy, is the only reason the Autobots won the day. Nonetheless, by episode's end, Fujiyama does have a fully-functional, very deadly ninja robot in his possession. She's been fully weaponized by the Decepticons, and yet the Autobots just let him have her back.
> I assume that you have not shown sexual interest for only a single 22
> minute episode of your life.
Now I kind of feel bad that Galvatron never got a chance to fall in love, too.
> At least there is something every writer can agree on: Optimus Prime will
> lock living beings up forever if they are inconvenient. The Dinobots got
> out, but Nightbird was shipped off to be held and experimented on.
> The Decepticons should have abducted the famous scientist Dr. Fujiyama, and
> forced him to build new things for them. Or just sponsored some research
> grants.
> Does Spike's mother ever show up, anywhere?
Zob (and when Rumble punches him in the pilot episode, it makes a "clank" sound!)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Apr 17, 2017, 2:36:35 AM4/17/17
to
On Sunday, April 16, 2017 at 6:47:05 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, April 16, 2017 at 7:20:31 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > She's certainly not designed to kill all the Autobots that think they are
> > guarding her, and then kill everyone in the room as soon as she is
> > activated. That would be absurd. Also, could you bring her back unharmed?
>
> Okay, here's a wild idea. What if Fujiyama WANTED the Decepticons to find out about Nightbird? He goes out of his way to ask if they're listening in, after all. It's like he's tempting them to take her. What if, maybe, he wanted to create a robot that was fully capable of combat——holding her own against Transformers on the battlefield——but he knew that he'd never get the grants or the funding to make it happen. So, he tells everyone she's just a showroom display piece, but the truth is that all it will take is a few minor modifications to unlock her potential and make her the deadly weapon she was always designed to be. Fujiyama ensures that Nightbird is unveiled in a place where the Decepticons can capture her easily (the dome-shaped building) because he knows only they possess the ability to transform her into the killing machine she was destined to be.
The best way to ensure the Decepticons will show up is to get a bunch of Autobots all around, isn't it? There are lots of things that they will fail to notice, but if you get a half-dozen Autobots in one spot, one of the Decepticon is bound to notice.
> On Sunday, April 16, 2017 at 7:20:31 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > She's certainly not designed to kill all the Autobots that think they are
> > guarding her, and then kill everyone in the room as soon as she is
> > activated. That would be absurd. Also, could you bring her back unharmed?
>
> Okay, here's a wild idea. What if Fujiyama WANTED the Decepticons to find out about Nightbird? He goes out of his way to ask if they're listening in, after all. It's like he's tempting them to take her. What if, maybe, he wanted to create a robot that was fully capable of combat——holding her own against Transformers on the battlefield——but he knew that he'd never get the grants or the funding to make it happen. So, he tells everyone she's just a showroom display piece, but the truth is that all it will take is a few minor modifications to unlock her potential and make her the deadly weapon she was always designed to be. Fujiyama ensures that Nightbird is unveiled in a place where the Decepticons can capture her easily (the dome-shaped building) because he knows only they possess the ability to transform her into the killing machine she was destined to be.
> Maybe the sticking point was that he didn't expect the Autobots to emerge triumphant. Starscream's interference, and his insane jealousy, is the only reason the Autobots won the day. Nonetheless, by episode's end, Fujiyama does have a fully-functional, very deadly ninja robot in his possession. She's been fully weaponized by the Decepticons, and yet the Autobots just let him have her back.
> > I assume that you have not shown sexual interest for only a single 22
> > minute episode of your life.
>
> Valid point. Maybe Megatron is just so focused on Autobot-killing and energy-gathering that he doesn't usually let his personal feelings come to the surface. He's all business. It's like that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Jean-Luc Picard falls head over heels in love with Neela Daren. It was weird because he was normally so stoic and distant. And then she almost died, and they both agreed it was best that she transfer off the ship, and Picard went back to being a hardass again.
This is the only episode that shows Transformers having a sexual interest. Generally they are presented as asexual, sometimes asexual romantic when there are female robots around.
> > At least there is something every writer can agree on: Optimus Prime will
> > lock living beings up forever if they are inconvenient. The Dinobots got
> > out, but Nightbird was shipped off to be held and experimented on.
>
> Freedom is the right of all sentient beings, unless they're too stupid or too dangerous!
> > The Decepticons should have abducted the famous scientist Dr. Fujiyama, and
> > forced him to build new things for them. Or just sponsored some research
> > grants.
>
> Good gravy. The wiki entry actually calls him Doctor Fujiyama the Famous Scientist. Those jokers are still at it.
> > Does Spike's mother ever show up, anywhere?
>
> Well, no. Because Spike is an android. Think about it. He never sleeps, never eats, never goes to the bathroom...
Zobovor
Apr 25, 2017, 11:57:39 PM4/25/17
to
On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 12:36:35 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> This is the only episode that shows Transformers having a sexual interest.
> Generally they are presented as asexual, sometimes asexual romantic when
> there are female robots around.
Hmm. I've been thinking about this.
> This is the only episode that shows Transformers having a sexual interest.
> Generally they are presented as asexual, sometimes asexual romantic when
> there are female robots around.
There are lots of Transformers episodes where characters fall in love. Obviously, romantic interest and sexual interest aren't the exact same thing, but there's a degree of overlap. It kind of goes back to the whole thing about children's programming. You can show the romantic interest, but the sexual interest is implied. The Ninja Turtles sometimes competed for April O'Neil's affections, and it's not just because they wanted to invite her over for a pizza.* Director Irvin Kershner said that because the Star Wars films were rated PG, you could get to the kiss and that's about as far as it ever went. The on-screen kiss was the equivalent of intercourse.**
* Please don't mention Michelangelo in the Michael Bay films, who simultaneously thinks of April as his mom, and also wants to do her.
** Please don't mention Luke and Leia. Or, for that matter, Leia's contention that she would "rather kiss a Wookiee!"
So, with that said, Powerglide was obviously interested in Astoria to some degree in "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide." Maybe he just wanted to get into a nice, comfortable domestic abuse situation, since that seems like where their relationship was headed. Or, maybe he wanted to put the "bang" back into "bang, zoom, to the moon!"
Seaspray was clearly into Allana from "Sea Change," but as with the Powerglide situation, the fact that they were so vastly different was a stumbling block. Either Seaspray had to become a merman with huge robotic feet, or else Allana had to become a robot. Neither of which was a permanent fix.
However, it's also implied that Rodimus Prime, after becoming a synthoid human, and Michelle, the arm candy of Victor Drath from "Only Human," got busy after an injured Rodimus spent the night at her place. The question is, of course, was Rodimus actually showing a level of prurient interest in her, or was he simply going along with it so that he could use her to get to Victor Drath?
Of course, to analyze sexual interest in robots, one would first have to define robot sex. If it even exists, it's clearly different from how humans do it. If a physical coupling is required, perhaps with some exchange of energy, then Optimus Prime and Elita One were doing it in "The Search for Alpha Trion"——while Alpha Trion stood there and watched, no less, the dirty old man. Of course, since Alpha Trion created both of them, then they're siblings. It's Luke and Leia all over again.
Shrug.
Two things I'd like to add: One, there was a time when any thread about Nightbird would have automatically ballooned into a two hundred post flame war. So, to see this stir up so little debate is at once a relief, and also a little sad.
Also, we need to pick an episode for next month, since April is quickly slipping away. April showers bring may flowers, as they say, so maybe an episode with robotic plants? Like, say, the morphobots from "Quest for Survival"?
Zob (either that, or "The Quintesson Journal," which mentions plant-o-bots)
Gustavo Wombat
Apr 26, 2017, 12:30:38 AM4/26/17
to
Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 12:36:35 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> This is the only episode that shows Transformers having a sexual interest.
>> Generally they are presented as asexual, sometimes asexual romantic when
>> there are female robots around.
>
> Hmm. I've been thinking about this.
>
> There are lots of Transformers episodes where characters fall in love.
> Obviously, romantic interest and sexual interest aren't the exact same
> thing, but there's a degree of overlap. It kind of goes back to the
> whole thing about children's programming. You can show the romantic
> interest, but the sexual interest is implied. The Ninja Turtles
> sometimes competed for April O'Neil's affections, and it's not just
> because they wanted to invite her over for a pizza.* Director Irvin
> Kershner said that because the Star Wars films were rated PG, you could
> get to the kiss and that's about as far as it ever went. The on-screen
> kiss was the equivalent of intercourse.**
I think you're a little bit wrong about that. You can show the sexual
> On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 12:36:35 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> This is the only episode that shows Transformers having a sexual interest.
>> Generally they are presented as asexual, sometimes asexual romantic when
>> there are female robots around.
>
> Hmm. I've been thinking about this.
>
> There are lots of Transformers episodes where characters fall in love.
> Obviously, romantic interest and sexual interest aren't the exact same
> thing, but there's a degree of overlap. It kind of goes back to the
> whole thing about children's programming. You can show the romantic
> interest, but the sexual interest is implied. The Ninja Turtles
> sometimes competed for April O'Neil's affections, and it's not just
> because they wanted to invite her over for a pizza.* Director Irvin
> Kershner said that because the Star Wars films were rated PG, you could
> get to the kiss and that's about as far as it ever went. The on-screen
> kiss was the equivalent of intercourse.**
interest, but you cannot show the sex. We did see Spike quite taken with a
South American villager, a medieval princess, Carly and Chip, so I think we
have plenty of evidence of sexual interest in the Transformers universe.
> * Please don't mention Michelangelo in the Michael Bay films, who
> simultaneously thinks of April as his mom, and also wants to do her.
>
> ** Please don't mention Luke and Leia. Or, for that matter, Leia's
> contention that she would "rather kiss a Wookiee!"
with that. Leia was also not related to a Wookiee.
> So, with that said, Powerglide was obviously interested in Astoria to
> some degree in "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide." Maybe he just wanted to
> get into a nice, comfortable domestic abuse situation, since that seems
> like where their relationship was headed. Or, maybe he wanted to put the
> "bang" back into "bang, zoom, to the moon!"
to show off -- it doesn't mean anything more than that.
> Seaspray was clearly into Allana from "Sea Change," but as with the
> Powerglide situation, the fact that they were so vastly different was a
> stumbling block. Either Seaspray had to become a merman with huge
> robotic feet, or else Allana had to become a robot. Neither of which was a permanent fix.
least until he got Merman genitalia.
I think I would have preferred to see Seaspray stay behind in that episode.
It would have made for a much better episode.
> However, it's also implied that Rodimus Prime, after becoming a synthoid
> human, and Michelle, the arm candy of Victor Drath from "Only Human," got
> busy after an injured Rodimus spent the night at her place. The question
> is, of course, was Rodimus actually showing a level of prurient interest
> in her, or was he simply going along with it so that he could use her to
> get to Victor Drath?
impression from the episode at all.
> Of course, to analyze sexual interest in robots, one would first have to
> define robot sex. If it even exists, it's clearly different from how
> humans do it. If a physical coupling is required, perhaps with some
> exchange of energy, then Optimus Prime and Elita One were doing it in
> "The Search for Alpha Trion"——while Alpha Trion stood there and watched,
> no less, the dirty old man. Of course, since Alpha Trion created both of
> them, then they're siblings. It's Luke and Leia all over again.
>
> Shrug.
lesbians somehow have sex and none of them have penises... how weird is
that? (Side note: I don't understand the fascination so many men have with
lesbians, they just make me feel irrelevant)
> Two things I'd like to add: One, there was a time when any thread about
> Nightbird would have automatically ballooned into a two hundred post
> flame war. So, to see this stir up so little debate is at once a relief,
> and also a little sad.
everyone agrees "probably sentient, and close enough that the Transformers
treat her as such". Plus the angry glowing eyed stare at the end.
> Also, we need to pick an episode for next month, since April is quickly
> slipping away. April showers bring may flowers, as they say, so maybe an
> episode with robotic plants? Like, say, the morphobots from "Quest for Survival"?
episode of Beast Wars where Dinobot got a burr stuck on his back, but that
cannot be right. Was the Botanica into episode of Beast Machines at all
interesting? There was a very prominent flower in the first episode of BM,
and that fruit tree in "We eat Energon. Period." probably had flowers, but
also Nightwing... Any episodes dealing with allergies? We've got flowers
all over this area, and my allergies hate them.
Ok, according to TFWiki QfS has Cosmos and Insecticons, and the picture
looks a little familiar. Was it a good episode? The one thing humans have
over robots is terrible memory. Imagine if your memory retained every
slight and insult you ever received...
> Zob (either that, or "The Quintesson Journal," which mentions plant-o-bots)
Zobovor
Apr 26, 2017, 7:00:21 PM4/26/17
to
On Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 10:30:38 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> I think you're a little bit wrong about that. You can show the sexual
> interest, but you cannot show the sex. We did see Spike quite taken with a
> South American villager, a medieval princess, Carly and Chip, so I think we
> have plenty of evidence of sexual interest in the Transformers universe.
I was mainly talking about the robot characters. Spike is a little different. (Also, you wrote "Carly and Chip." Which is wrong because they are in fact the same person. Witness how they are never both in a room together. Like Clark Kent and Spider-Man!)
> I think you're a little bit wrong about that. You can show the sexual
> interest, but you cannot show the sex. We did see Spike quite taken with a
> South American villager, a medieval princess, Carly and Chip, so I think we
> have plenty of evidence of sexual interest in the Transformers universe.
> I think I would have preferred to see Seaspray stay behind in that episode.
> It would have made for a much better episode.
Then again, characters who were supposedly written out of the show showed up with alarming regularity (Blitzwing, Octane, Skyfire, Reflector, etc.) so to add to that list on a regular basis, and have to keep track of it somehow, would be a nightmare.
> If robots had sexual interest, they would figure something out. I mean,
> lesbians somehow have sex and none of them have penises... how weird is
> that? (Side note: I don't understand the fascination so many men have with
> lesbians, they just make me feel irrelevant)
If robots had sexual urges, it doesn't necessarily follow that they would try to replicate physical coupling the way humans do it. Humans are fairly limited in terms of the ways they can interface. What if robots exchanged computer chips, heads with each other, or laser cores? What if they plugged directly into each other's brains? (Maybe the scene from "Heavy Metal War" when all the Decepticons give Megatron their power chip rectifiers was actually one big robot orgy and we just never realized it.)
I tend to think, though, that there would have to be some sort of technological purpose for such a coupling. Like, what if every time a robot coupled with another robot, they copied each other's store of data. There would be a real incentive for this, since data can be valuable, and if one is destroyed, the other would retain all the data previously available only from both of them. If robots were programmed so that their pleasure centers were rewarded for this sort of coupling, then there would be an incentive to link up with many different robots as frequently as was practical.
> Ok, according to TFWiki QfS has Cosmos and Insecticons, and the picture
> looks a little familiar. Was it a good episode? The one thing humans have
> over robots is terrible memory. Imagine if your memory retained every
> slight and insult you ever received...
Every once in a while my brain will get bored and summon up some random memory of when my dad threw away a pair of plastic handcuffs that I had when I was six years old, or the school teacher who felt like he needed to escort me from the bathroom back to my classroom because he thought he smelled cigarette smoke (I've never smoked in my life), and I get to be angry about it all over again for a few seconds.
So, yeah. "Quest for Survival" is pretty good. I have inventory at work next month, so things will be crazy, but I think I will still have enough energy to belt out a review.
Zob (had a bad day today and needs chocolate)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Apr 27, 2017, 2:46:52 AM4/27/17
to
On Wednesday, April 26, 2017 at 4:00:21 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 10:30:38 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > I think you're a little bit wrong about that. You can show the sexual
> > interest, but you cannot show the sex. We did see Spike quite taken with a
> > South American villager, a medieval princess, Carly and Chip, so I think we
> > have plenty of evidence of sexual interest in the Transformers universe.
>
> I was mainly talking about the robot characters. Spike is a little different. (Also, you wrote "Carly and Chip." Which is wrong because they are in fact the same person. Witness how they are never both in a room together. Like Clark Kent and Spider-Man!)
No one suspects that Chip can walk, or wear a wig and a dress and make out with Spike...
> On Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 10:30:38 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > I think you're a little bit wrong about that. You can show the sexual
> > interest, but you cannot show the sex. We did see Spike quite taken with a
> > South American villager, a medieval princess, Carly and Chip, so I think we
> > have plenty of evidence of sexual interest in the Transformers universe.
>
> I was mainly talking about the robot characters. Spike is a little different. (Also, you wrote "Carly and Chip." Which is wrong because they are in fact the same person. Witness how they are never both in a room together. Like Clark Kent and Spider-Man!)
The Spike - Carly - Chip thing is like the Lois Lane - Clark Kent - Superman love triangle from Golden and Silver Age Superman stories.
(Serious aside: this is one of the things that the post Crisis On Infinite Earths Superman stories got right, dumping that entire creepy thing. It's also dealt with very well in All Star Superman, where Clark reveals to Lois that he is Superman, and Lois is angry that he lied about it for years)
> > I think I would have preferred to see Seaspray stay behind in that episode.
> > It would have made for a much better episode.
>
> I remember you saying this and I agree with you. Really, the cast of characters was so large that it wouldn't have hurt them to come up with a lot more stories where characters were written out of the show. I think one of us, you or I, suggested that they should have just retired Ironhide's character after "The Immobilizer" instead of returning everything to the status quo.
> Then again, characters who were supposedly written out of the show showed up with alarming regularity (Blitzwing, Octane, Skyfire, Reflector, etc.) so to add to that list on a regular basis, and have to keep track of it somehow, would be a nightmare.
Also, Octane was written out, and replaced with his twin brother Octone.
> > If robots had sexual interest, they would figure something out. I mean,
> > lesbians somehow have sex and none of them have penises... how weird is
> > that? (Side note: I don't understand the fascination so many men have with
> > lesbians, they just make me feel irrelevant)
>
> I was really fascinated with lesbians when I was a teenager. Two sets of naked boobs are better than one.
>
> If robots had sexual urges, it doesn't necessarily follow that they would try to replicate physical coupling the way humans do it. Humans are fairly limited in terms of the ways they can interface. What if robots exchanged computer chips, heads with each other, or laser cores? What if they plugged directly into each other's brains? (Maybe the scene from "Heavy Metal War" when all the Decepticons give Megatron their power chip rectifiers was actually one big robot orgy and we just never realized it.)
But then, the interest wouldn't be for other Transformers, it would be for paying customers.
The Autobots attempt to mimic human behaviors more than the Decepticons do, so I could grudgingly believe that they might have a feigned interest that was more of an interest in understanding the humans.
> I tend to think, though, that there would have to be some sort of technological purpose for such a coupling. Like, what if every time a robot coupled with another robot, they copied each other's store of data. There would be a real incentive for this, since data can be valuable, and if one is destroyed, the other would retain all the data previously available only from both of them. If robots were programmed so that their pleasure centers were rewarded for this sort of coupling, then there would be an incentive to link up with many different robots as frequently as was practical.
Different species have different mating styles, from rabbits going after anything that moves, to pair bonded species, to insects with queens, a few fertile males and lots of drones. There's no reason to assume that Transformers would favor promiscuity over pair bonding.
> > Ok, according to TFWiki QfS has Cosmos and Insecticons, and the picture
> > looks a little familiar. Was it a good episode? The one thing humans have
> > over robots is terrible memory. Imagine if your memory retained every
> > slight and insult you ever received...
>
> I actually kind of do that. I am really good at holding grudges... not necessarily that I want to, but because I'm really good at remembering when people have wronged me.
> So, yeah. "Quest for Survival" is pretty good. I have inventory at work next month, so things will be crazy, but I think I will still have enough energy to belt out a review.
> Zob (had a bad day today and needs chocolate)
Zobovor
Apr 27, 2017, 7:30:46 PM4/27/17
to
On Thursday, April 27, 2017 at 12:46:52 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> (Serious aside: this is one of the things that the post Crisis On Infinite
> Earths Superman stories got right, dumping that entire creepy thing. It's
> also dealt with very well in All Star Superman, where Clark reveals to Lois
> that he is Superman, and Lois is angry that he lied about it for years)
I don't know why the whole "secret identity" thing is so prevalent, or important, in superhero comic books. It's such a vital part of the set-up, though, that once Superhero A reveals his identity to Girlfriend B, suddenly it's a whole lot less interesting.
> (Serious aside: this is one of the things that the post Crisis On Infinite
> Earths Superman stories got right, dumping that entire creepy thing. It's
> also dealt with very well in All Star Superman, where Clark reveals to Lois
> that he is Superman, and Lois is angry that he lied about it for years)
On a related note, I was really disappointed with the ending to the Jem cartoon. Jem/Jerrica lies to her boyfriend, to her face, for three straight seasons, and it's explained over and over again that Rio absolutely hates liars and hates being deceived. No resolution to that one at all.
(Since Rio was dating both Jerrica and Jem at the same time, I wonder if Jerrica/Jem had to construct different bedroom identities to keep the ruse going? Are there certain naughty things that Jem would do but that Jerrica would not?)
(Yes, before you ask, there probably is something wrong with me.)
>> they should have just retired Ironhide's character after "The Immobilizer"
>> instead of returning everything to the status quo.
>
> I don't even remember what happened to Ironhide in the Immobilizer.
> There is an instinctive imperative to sexual attraction. If Transformers had
> it, it would have had to have been programmed into them, presumably by the
> Quintessons who were branching out into robotic sex machines. (They put fake
> animal instincts into the Predacons, so whatever instincts mean to a robot,
> they can do it)
>
> But then, the interest wouldn't be for other Transformers, it would be for
> paying customers.
> The Autobots attempt to mimic human behaviors more than the Decepticons do,
> so I could grudgingly believe that they might have a feigned interest that
> was more of an interest in understanding the humans.
> Different species have different mating styles, from rabbits going after
> anything that moves, to pair bonded species, to insects with queens, a few
> fertile males and lots of drones. There's no reason to assume that
> Transformers would favor promiscuity over pair bonding.
If you bring Marvel Comics into the mix, it really is a wholly foreign concept to them. Witness Pretender Cloudburst being mistaken by the gigantic sexy Femaxian leader as a hunk of throbbing man-flesh, only for him to profess to be completely and totally asexual. "Where I come from, we have no males... no females... no mates!" or words to that effect. And then she goes all Lorena Bobbitt on him with a sword.
> Well, you go girl! Get yourself some chocolate!
Zob (there's a reason why there are locks on the employee lockers, and it's not so you can go look up the combination and rummage through people's stuff)
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