Transformers: War for Cybertron – Earthrise FULL SPOILERS Review

This is Megatron, and you found the All Things

Transformers frequency here at the Geekcast Radio

Network. Join Steve and Mike as they unleash

the beast in you and discuss All Things Transformers.

Excellent! Yes! The year was 2021, it is the...

25th anniversary of Beast Wars. It is the 35th

anniversary of Transformers the movie. This is

all things Transformers. New year, new episode.

We are here, joined as always by Steve Megatron.

Hello, sir. Yo. Yo. Also joining us in this Earthbound

adventure, which they really don't go to Earth

at all, is Mr. Optimus Solo. In the flesh. Yes.

Hmm. Flesh. Eugh. As far as in the flesh, you

can be on a podcast. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Thankfully,

flesh does not come through audio tones. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

They're Decepticon panties in a twist. This is

our spoiler -filled discussion of Transformers

War for Cybertron Earthrise There's your answer.

Before we get too far into Earthrise, which is

the second chapter of the Transformers War for

Cybertron trilogy, since Optimus Solo was not

here for mine and Steve's siege discussion, first

of all, when they first announced this, Kev,

and once you watched it, what were your overall

opinions? It's hard whenever they announce any

transformer project these days because there's

so many of them that Seem to come and go that

you don't know if it's gonna be something that's

worthwhile or if it's something that's gonna

be aimed at four -year -olds or if it's gonna

be something that's Just ridiculous. So it's

you got to kind of temper your expectations a

little bit but when I read early on that it was

What I read early on it seemed like it was gonna

be somewhat almost based off of or an offshoot

or in the same vein as the books that we got

a few years back. Right, Exodus and Exiles. So

that had me excited. And then my main initial

reaction was that I loved the visuals. I know

some people have a problem with some of the facial

things and this that don't. So I like the way

that they do the visual because I feel like it's

a good mixture of G1 and modern technology. So

I enjoyed that it almost it reminds me of like

the cartoon version of the first 15 to 20 minutes

of bumblebee the live -action movie Well, we

just get all Cybertron and all you know cool

stuff that I've always wanted Obviously the movie

has to deal with humans, but whatever But so

it kind of reminded me of that type of look and

I'm down with that. They didn't go they look

with jagged edges and metal upon metal upon metal

you can't. So I like the more simple G1 modern

look. My main problems are going to be similar

to what you probably hear me talk whenever there's

a reboot or a reimagining whatever you want to

different things that come out after original

properties. And it really bugs me in the Transformers

world more than anything. And let me illustrate

it by doing the following. I recently made a

list of every Transformers character just about

that has ever appeared in any Transformers project.

There's a gazillion of them. There's a ton of

characters that have showed up in various TV

shows, movies. Even video games, but let's just

try to keep it to the like okay. Let's say TV

shows movies and comic book Just take it at that.

There's a lot of characters So it bugs me when

there's a new property and someone's like I want

to put my stamp on it by creating my own transformer

Like I don't like new transformers showing up

that didn't exist previously I don't know why

that bugs me so much But if you have hundreds

upon hundreds upon hundreds of characters to

choose from why can't you find one? Yeah, find

one that we already know a little bit about and

give us more on back. It's easy to find a character

in G1 that just, for example, just taking one

continuity, just take G1. There's at least, there's,

I don't know, 50 characters, if not 100 that

don't get much time. You can easily take one

of those and turn it into a character in your

new series. I don't know if it's like a, if it's

a pride thing or if it's like a hubris thing

or something where it's like. I have to put one

that I'm making from scratch on here. I don't

I don't know what causes people to want to do

that, but it bugs that living hell up. I kind

of agree with you. Yeah. That's one thing that

bugs me and not that it's like major characters

in this series. It's not like it's going to be

that distracting. It's just like. They appear

even more so probably in the second chapter,

but. I just don't like that because I'd rather

be able to connect it to somebody that I've seen

before even if it's a different take on the character

slide, that's fine. The second thing that really

bugged me in Siege is the inconsistency of the

voice acting. Yep. So some of the characters

are fine. Some of the voice actors do a good

job. But that's because if you look at the cast

of this series, some of the people are actually

legit. voice actors with good resumes. And some

of them are people that have never done anything

before. And I'm not saying that someone can't

do good things right off the bat or, you know,

you have to have this prolific legendary resume

to be a good voice actor. I'm not saying that

at all. I'm just saying that so it doesn't surprise

me that it's a little bit wishy washy when you

look at the cast. The main two that really, really,

really, really, really bugged me in the first

part that also in different ways in the second

part is Optimus Prime and I'm gonna get the girls

wrong, RC. RC? RC, yeah. Yes. I don't know why

I always want to confuse RC and Alita 1 sometimes.

Because RC is more of a hot pink and Alita's

more of a muted pink. Now with RC it's more of

a just, I don't necessarily just believe the

voice acting performance. I just feel like I'm

hearing someone attempt to voice a character,

not someone that's actually just living the character.

With Optimus Prime, my main problem is at any

given moment, he sounds like a different person.

Well, depending on his emotion, he breaks character

and he sounds like he's somebody totally different.

Right. And it totally takes me out because I'm

not saying it has to be Peter Cullen. There's

been a lot of good Optimus we can name them just

right off the top of our head, we know them.

So it doesn't have to be a Peter Cullen impersonation.

It doesn't have to be Peter Cullen himself. But

it throws me off when all of a sudden I'm like,

wait, that's a different, who am I listening

to? Like it's a different character all of a

sudden. And then the way that he emotes and then

flex, it almost makes it that it's not, it's

like not Optimus Prime at times. I'm like, no,

he wouldn't sound like that. He wouldn't, he

wouldn't emote like that. So I don't know it

just really threw me off with optimus primes

and it's worse than the second Now I don't think

I don't think our sees as bad in the second part

But I think our scene was worse in the first

part than optimus prime but in the second part

optimus prime took the cake for me now For instance

one one of the things that bothered me is the

voice direction Because I find that a lot of

the characters don't know They seem like they

don't know what they're doing at any given time

and they change emotion randomly and or they

talk Increasingly slowly while they're in a scene

Yeah, now some of them know even though the emotions

might be kind of not matching up 100 % at least

there's at least it sounds like the same And

I don't get that from Optimus Prime. It sounds

no three different characters throughout the

series And it just really throws me off. So I

was, I know I'm really super picky about voice

acting because I've heard a lot, but that's something

that just jumped off the page. And then the final

would be, okay, so you have this map of the story

that you want to tell and you have the main characters

that you're going to involve. I don't quite understand

the need to. take characters that have already

been established in previous content and for

no less it doesn't seem like there's a real reason

of why we're switching the occupations and backgrounds

and the personalities of the Now I am NOT saying

you can't take somebody and Develop them further

and I'm not saying they have to be carbon copies

of what we saw in g1 or what we saw Transformers

prime or this that any other but when you have

just just take for example wheel jack and What's

an iron hide in this one, yeah Where you have

it's just as simple as like you have one that's

an engineer or an inventor or a scientist and

you have one that's a Medic, you know that type

of field. I don't understand the need to switch

those things around Like if it made sense to

the story that there's a reason why we're gonna

switch this because this that the other But I

didn't see that there was no reason why they

had to flip roles of what they were. So that

kind of threw me off. I didn't quite understand.

Like, are you just doing that to do that? Did

you mean Wheeljack and Ratchet, not Iron Man?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Iron Man is kind of like

the pilot of the ship. Yeah, no, no, no. Even

he sounds off. Yeah. I mean, Ratchet kind of

does still do the medical stuff. I think they

tried to lump things in with Wheeljack and make

him do everything. I'm just saying, like, if

you've had Wheeljack throughout all of time has

been this, like, inventor, has been this, like,

more, like, engineer -type -style character,

why would you then take a character that had

nothing like that in any previous incarnation

and flip those two roles? Like, I don't understand

that at all. It doesn't make sense to me. um

i know that's another minor nitpick i forgot

one other thing i want to talk about so i'll

bring it up now okay so i get that there's within

story there might be reasons to take somebody

and have them turn sides like that's been something

we've seen in transformers forever an autobot

or a dyne you know or a maximal or predacon or

decepticon that's switching sides or at least

being tried to pull you know from one side to

the other Which is fine, that's a good storyline,

you know, they had some tension, you're not sure

if you can trust them, you know, we saw that

a lot with Dino Bot in the Beast Wars, among

other characters, what Blackarachnia does it,

you know, we've seen it throughout time. I'm

fine with that. They had six episodes in this

first part and they do it with like four characters.

Like. You I just like that's too much like and

I know it's telegraphed with with with Jeff We

all know his story We all know that that's like,

you know right from the get -go when you see

him on the Decepticon side That before the end

of this three -parter if he's gonna switch, you

know that so that's fine But then they do it

with like two or three other characters in just

the first six episodes like That's overkill the

one thing I Yeah and i'll say this really quickly

and i think i said this when steven i did the

actual siege episode we did a whatever the hell

that was i don't even remember how long ago it

was. It's one of those things where. When the

toys came out and mirage was a decepticon toy

and he had a different color scheme in the green

and purple color scheme and i was like who i

wonder what kind of story they're doing all they

can do a character switching sort no. He's just

using his abilities to disguise. I thought that

was super talking about robots in disguise. You

know, I thought that was really, really cool.

And to, you know, to see it actually in the show

and being used, that was nice. Right. So those

are like my complaints, I guess, on the first

part overall, though, I'm not going to say I

disliked the first part. I enjoyed it. Why? Because

number one, I like the visuals. Number two, I

like that this is taking place with no humans.

I get I always yeah, I know but I always know

I Always like a transformer story that is just

the transformers because I don't I'm an adult

I don't need the I don't need to I never I don't

know I know that we insert humans and all these

different Theories and cartoons because you want

the human to be able to connect and relate to

somebody. I think that's selling a short I think

we can relate to the Autobots we can pick a character

we can relate to them and that's fine that we

don't need a human that looks like We don't need

a proxy. Or the Decepticons, too. I mean, you

know, the Decepticons, even though they are the

quote -unquote bad guys, you can still, like,

you look at Megatron and where he, like, the

whole story thing that they're actually giving

him and doing with him, and it's something that

has been done in comics for a while now, where

he rose up as a gladiator of Kaon and, like,

you... All of this stuff all of this character

development anyone can no matter what good guy

bad guy Not everyone is a clear cut Right even

I like that they explore that gray area with

this a lot more than they ever have or it seems

like there's not just good guys and bad I'd give

a chance for you to see the stories um a little

bit more and see the character development a

little bit more so I like all that I like the

visuals I like I liked the story in general.

I like kind of what they do with it. I'll get

more into that in the second part But so overall

I do enjoy the series. I'm not gonna say I dislike

it. There's just a few little yeah What did you

think of? From seed okay, so we know because

I've listened to multiple interviews with FJ

DeSanto and hopefully we'll get him on this show

soon They have a clear cut plan for this trilogy.

It's six episodes per arc. What do you think

of the six and Steve, you can answer this too.

I don't remember if you answered last time or

not. What do you guys think of the six episode

long 22 minute arc for Netflix as a Transformers

cartoon series that is not technically on Television

air dates like it was when we were kids. What

do you guys think of that format of six episodes

per story at 22 minutes apiece? Kev. We wasn't

sure what to expect because you know six episodes

isn't a long time, but I think it's it's turned

out so far to be about the perfect amount of

time to tell what they're trying to tell in those

six episodes like I haven't. Felt like that.

There was a bunch of filler anywhere. I feel

like it keeps them on on Target and focused as

far as what they're trying to tell so it's almost

like you're watching like a little movie I don't

know what the math is 22 minutes times six episodes

probably about the length of a movie maybe a

little bit long but But I feel like that's a

good amount to tell like a chapter in a story

I feel like what I'm gonna feel at the end though

is that 18 episodes in total isn't enough. Like,

I'm enjoying the six episode chunks, but I think

I'm going to end up wanting more than just 18.

Yeah. Steve? I'm kind of in the same boat. And

I think part of it is, I mean, I enjoy the visuals,

I enjoy the fact that it's a new series, and

then they're trying to put their own stamp on

it. But at the same time, I feel like some of

the story, like, yes, there's not... I feel like

there's not filler, but I feel at the same time

that there's elements that they could have spread

out a little bit more, whereas at times it seems

like it dragged in Siege, but in Earthrise, it

felt like it was rushed with the amount of stuff

that was going on. And there were some new inventive

things that they did in Earthrise. And I feel

like Kingdom... is going to be more of the same.

Plus, I've heard Proto Man talk on his YouTube

channel about your opinion of Siege and Earthrise.

You might as well keep it consistent with Kingdom

from people he knows that are involved with it.

So if you're not a fan of some of the casting

or the voice direction or Because they they went

super low budget with the casting, which I mean,

I'm not knocking the actors. I think it's kind

of the voice director's fault more than anything

else. But but I enjoy the updated visuals. I

enjoy the the cleanness of it. It gives us a

little bit of that machinima series, but with

a little bit more polished, you know, more grit

than what Beast Wars had. But it has that kind

of same vibe to the visual. Yeah. Yeah, I mean

I kind of feel the same way I mean 22 minutes

at six episodes. Oh, you know when we did our

siege episode I said something along the lines

of I almost feel like they're putting too much

it not too much is to overload but they My story

into those each of those 22 minute things like

siege and even now Earthrise I've I kept checking

with the timer. I'm like, oh, this is where this

episode. Oh wait, we still have another 10 minutes

left or something like, wow, they're really packing

it all in here. And I'll say this now, right

at this point in the podcast is where spoilers

are going to happen for Earthrise. So if you've

been living under a rock or you don't have internet

and you can't watch Netflix, you might want to

turn the show off now, but please don't. So Earthrise.

So much stuff. Where do we want to start? Just

as kind of a side note because it doesn't have

to do with any of the actual like story So it

won't be quite getting into that yet I do I felt

it more in Earthrise than I did in Siege that

they're paying a lot more homage to Theories

that came before it In Earthrise you get a lot

more little nods and winks and like lines and

stuff that really kind of appreciated because

it's like oh, I remember that from This series

or that connects to this or even like I'm not

necessarily I don't think it's like fan service

necessarily, but there's just some lines that

are just Clever to give to the longtime Transformers

fans. I'm almost gonna have to watch it again

to like point some of those I know like in the

beginning red alert. I believe has two of them

He talks about the fact that they finally have

an Autobot that can fly And then he has a couple

of funny lines that aren't necessarily to my

point, but what does he say when they say you

need to stay alert? I'm always alert. But there's

lots of little nods along the way to stuff that

we have seen previous, whether it be B4's nods,

whether it be G1 nods, whether it be some of

the other series that came after that. So I do

like that there's a little bit. tiny bit, it's

here and there. It's not forced, but it's here

and there where it's like, Oh, as a transformer,

I understand what they just did. I kind of like

that. What about you, Steve? Um, I, I appreciated

the nods and I liked some of the, the callbacks

specifically like, uh, where Galvatron shows

up, um, where it's got that, that kind of cybernetic,

you know, reformatting thing where he just kind

of is built and then shows up, uh, by you know,

Megatron and is just kind of taken back the same

way. And then some of the throwbacks with like,

you know, the Golden Disk. And although it's

the wrong Golden Disk, it's not the the the the

one that's on the Voyager spacecraft. It's the

alien disk that's on Earth that Megatron and

Inferno find in Beast Wars. I caught that little

one and I was like, Oh, somebody wasn't paying

attention. Right, right But I'm a side note Steve

because you brought up the Galvachon and the

Megachon all I could think about during that

scene was that if I was still an active member

of like TFW 2005 or some type of Transformers

forum that I can just see like the battles already

being waged on there going back and forth Now

we have proof that they're two different people

know now we have proved that they're the same

person like I could just speak those battles

being based on It's it's funny because I'm on

the AllSparks Discord channel and the day that

this dropped, well, for for press reasons, AllSpark

got it like two days before it aired. And then

I was like, oh, they have it. And I was like,

I can get it, too. And so I sent an email over

to Netflix and then within minutes I had access

to it. And then I blitzed the whole thing and

they only like kind of teased some of the first

episode and Within a couple hours, like Mike

and I were going to record anyway. And I was

like, yeah, I watched the whole thing. And they're

like, oh, how'd you get access? And I'm like

the same way that Paul said, how'd you get access?

I'm like, uh, media. Yeah. And, uh, and granted

it, you know, they, they, they didn't tell me

this, but they were telling like all spark and

some other places. They're like, there's a scene

in the last episode that's like 10 or 15 seconds

long. They're like, don't spoil that. And I wasn't

given that command so like to me like honestly

like the the whole thing with with watching it

I was kind of like, okay, you know, I'm soaking

some of it in I loved some of the new Things

that came about in it Between but but the arguments

on their board was going insane People were just

losing it over this and after everybody saw it

it was really pouring in I'm glad I did, because

I would get too wrapped up and too heated on

those. Well, I let people kind of just do what

they were going to do. And then I read the responses.

And if I saw something that agreed with me, I

just did a thumbs up and I just left it at that.

It's so much easier just to do that than to sit

there and argue with the peanut gallery. I just

wasn't going to get in that rabbit hole. But

I thought it was hilarious that people were reiterating

what I was thinking while I was watching it.

And that's not to say that I didn't enjoy it

because I did but there were aspects where I

thought that Things could have been done a little

bit differently But I did enjoy some of the nice

callbacks though overall I especially the you

know, the the parallels of destinies with Sky

links and Galvatron I love the way they did.

I'm sure it's been around a lot longer. But I

only know the Dead Universe basically from reading

IDW Phase 2. I'm sure it originally started in

Marvel either US or UK or something. I don't

know. All I know is the IDW Phase 2 books is

where I know the Dead Universe from. I thought

that was super cool that they did that. I thought

it was so cool. that it's like I even knew because

you know everybody's like oh kingdom beast wars

what's it gonna be and I know everybody knows

this oh wikipedia they don't always have the

most greatest information ever whatever I had

looked right after siege got released I had looked

on wikipedia to see what if they would put anything

about uh kingdom all is it said about kingdom

was something like some sort of time travel story

so I figured oh Well, that means that in the

future, in the far flung future, Galvatron is

now a thing. Galvatron was Megatron and he goes

back in time and blah, blah, blah. And lo and

behold, look what happens. And I love the way

that they kind of dance around it and they don't

really break any of Doc Brown's time travel rules,

kind of, sort of. Um, I thought that was really

cool. I thought. How they brought him in was

such a nice homage and like Steve said all the

lines I'm like, ooh, I kind of like Jason Marnosh

is reading of of you know, he is the exception

Yeah, he's one of the exceptions like I really

actually enjoyed his performance He if in case

you don't remember Kevin, he used to do a lot

of the BTBA stuff on the end Contest and everything

else and plus he's done like Joker and all these

other things on YouTube and and then Frank Tadaro

who plays Starscream He's been doing the Transformers

fan dubs since the early 2000s. Yeah Yeah, those

two were the standouts. Like I know they're both

actually almost almost all of the Decepticons

are fine except not a fan of Sunway's voice there

I could try to start scream. I think we're standouts

and I really, really, really enjoyed the depth

that they go to give Megatron more character

and more development in this and how they really

don't paint him as necessarily 100 % evil. Right.

They do that in a couple different ways. They

do that, number one, by kind of harkening back

to what we get in the comics and what we get

in the Exodus and Exile books. You know, him

coming up through the ranks and being a slave

and, you know, all this other stuff. Not only

that, but shockwave. Yeah. and how they go about,

you know, how he was right side by side with

Optimus and Ultramagnes at one point, things

like that. So they do it through some of those

nods and kind of reiterating stuff we already

knew from those publications. But then they do

it in his performance, too, and how he isn't

just blindly like doing stuff just to be evil.

He visits Sector 12 first, you know what I mean?

Like he goes there before he makes the decision.

You know, there's other things about his character

that are really built in. You're seen in most

performances by Megatron usually it's just a

caricature of the you know Dictator the bad guy

type thing and so I really liked what they did

with him I know at times he kind of goes into

what Steve was talking about a little bit where

they do some really slow reads of his lines,

but with his character I think it almost works

better because it really kind of shows more thought

and more like the wheels turning in his head

and He's still bad. He's still evil. He's still

you know, too far gone to be trusted, etc. But

I just like the depth they give. That's probably

my favorite this second. Yeah. Yeah, mine too.

I mean, this is just really enjoyable. The visuals

are stunning. I love the new intro that they

did for this. I can't wait to see what they do

with the Kingdom intro. i'm alexander borstein

bornstein's music for this also good i will probably

most likely link the album on spotify in the

in the show notes for everybody to hear that.

But yeah i just i really just like with siege

i enjoyed it there are a few things here and

there and i completely agree now like optimus

in siege. He was okay as long as it was worse

in this one. Well, that's not that's what I'm

saying. Optimus and Siege, it was OK when he

was talking soft, but when he was trying to get

emotional, it's kind of like. Sadly, Jake. Decided

to share a plate of gravel with with Christian

Bale because. It's a complete like you. It sounds

like a young kid trying to do prime. Yeah, I

mean, I hate to say that, but it that's what

it kind of boils down to. You could literally

like if you wanted to take a whole bunch of time

and like the whole bunch of editing and splice

this thing up You can literally take out different

chunks of his lines where he's trying to be Peter

Cullen and then you can take certain parts of

his lines where he's just being his normal voice

and Like there's like three or four different

distinct voices and you can piece them all together

and you'd have But it's just for me it takes

me out of the action when all of a sudden I'm

watching something and a voice comes out of a

character that doesn't belong and it's like But

I think what makes it worse for me is when he's

doing stuff that prime wouldn't do Like he's

yelling in a way or he's emoting in a way doesn't

fit primes character. Not just G1 prime. I'm

not trying to talk. I'm stuck in the 80s or whatever

I'm talking about the character that they are

developing in this series even shit. I'm so like

I don't know like that bugs me a little bit I

try to look past that for the most part during

this series because there's Other stuff to appreciate,

but I think also Steve mentioned the voice director

could have been possibly a little bit better.

I think to the editing could have been a little.

Because I feel like the jumping around from the

different storylines that they on at times got

confusing, and I don't know if it's because of

how dark everything is and how some of the characters

that they have are a little bit generic. You

know you have like. What the hell is his name

double cross or double dare? Double down double

dealer and then you have cog and you have like

a couple of these other bots that are not super

developed so they almost kind of are just like

a generic character to me and When it's all dark

and you're bouncing back and forth between some

of these types of characters. I'm going on I

need to switch my mindset to go back to this

one ship or now I'm back on the arc or now I'm

With the Quintesson people now. I'm with Scorpionoc

like the editing was a little jumbled Yeah, I

didn't like that at that aspect of it either

Yeah, I think they could have made a clear cut.

Yeah, it got confusing on what what we were fine

at certain times Like I know they were trying

to jam a whole lot into six episodes But I almost

would have rather one episode focus on I know

some of the stuff's going on at the same time.

So that's hard Focus a little bit more on the

one place where we're at and then go to somewhere

else besides the scene to scene to scene cut

cut cut back and forth the got really Right.

Well, I I found I had to review it twice because

the first time I was following one particular

or two particular storylines out of the four

that were going on And I was like I don't care

about this right now and then I was skipping

ahead to kind of you know grasp part of it Right

was anyone else at the end of this looking forward

to the art crashing on earth. Oh, yes. Yeah But

it doesn't happen doesn't unless we just haven't

seen it yet No, it has not happened. It has not

happened. They basically still could happen Yeah,

but they're jumping the gun with it a little

bit They're having everything happen after they've

already awakened or you know instead of or they're

crashing later than what they would have originally

Because what we get there when we see those scenes

of all the the actual individual transformers

that are there and what? It was so much reminiscent

of beast wars in the pods lane And so I was like

I was like are they doing a more of a nod to

be source with the different pods lane and then

they can be discovered and Other or are they

gonna do a little bit more g1 where the artcraft

is and then it's there on earth Or are they doing

a mixture of the two like I couldn't quite tell

which direction and obviously we'll see more

I think it's just trying to take, not necessarily

put their own spin on the story, but trying to

take the story in a different way. So yes, we

all know as G1 fans that the art crashed, everybody

was offline, Teletran1 sent the sky spy out or

did whatever and they got their Earth alternate

modes kind of thing. With this, they're trying

to, oh, we have to figure out how. to stop us

from crashing or crash landing or whatever kind

of thing. But at the same time, introducing the

mercenaries or having the mercenaries be here.

Now I know Double Dealer and Bug Bite and obviously

you have Thrust and Dirge and everybody else

on that team. So those are established characters.

No? In that scene on Cybertron where they were

if you have the closed captions on or whatever

it's like. You get to see the characters names

and I'm like what who where who? Yes, but most

of those characters you're talking about they

are actual training just because you haven't

heard of them doesn't mean that they're not I

Think I think Cog is the only original character.

No Cog is this before Doesn't I'm pretty sure

he does. No, there's some that are just haven't

made up Yeah, there's some that if I give you

the names you'd be like what? Characters that

are speaking are made up But I get what you're

saying and I love that they use kind of for the

For like the quote -unquote no -name Decepticons

as prisoners. I kind of liked it. They used the

reflector Reflector refractor, whatever you want

to call it reflect that that camera mode thing.

I thought that was cool for just a a Cybertronian

citizen who happens to be a Decepticon, but he's

not a, oh my God, you're this character or that

character. So it gives us a point of reference

of, hey, this kind of looks like the camera guy,

but it isn't him. It's somebody else. I thought

that was kind of cool to show us the citizens

of Cybertron that are not the main forefront

of the Autobots or Decepticons. I'm so happy

Bumblebee decided to make a choice. and the right

one yeah yeah are we giving them a pass on the

fact that they all have their vehicles already

yeah i i saw that crew and i was like oh this

is wow i mean we've seen them on cybertron whether

it be whether it be g1 whether it be even They're

all in like these alternate modes. They're all

in these alternate bodies that they use and I

can tell in certain characters They avoid having

them transform It seems like in this series so

far like they're they're avoiding seeing the

transformation mode for certain characters or

at least limiting it So it's not very much, but

then other characters are just like wheeling

around in their cars and stuff like that I mean,

with Optimus, there's only so much you can do

with him. At least he doesn't have a trailer

that despairs yet. Megatron is straight up a

tank. Megatron is straight up a tank this whole

time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And honestly, I dig that.

I think that's cool. It's better than having

to have Starscream hold him in Starscream's hand

and fire him. I mean, I get it. That's what they

had to do back in our childhood and everything

else. But Megatron being a tank for as long as

he's been a tank, the last at least 20 years

or more, I'm perfectly fine with it because,

oh my god, nobody can have toy guns anymore.

No, I do like the, I like the kind of the line

that they're walking where they're, it seems

like they're almost trying to do their own thing,

but they're also trying to connect it to like

everything that's come before it and necessarily

straight up like contradict it. So it's kind

of cool, like they're doing the whole prequel

thing kind of situation, but then they even gave

us like a flash forward to when Optimus Prime

dies. So it's like they're not in ignoring that

stuff, but I'm interested to see how it all goes

down, how they kind of like either gel with everything

or I know there's some stuff that you have to

contradict a little bit, but it seems like they're

doing it as much as they can to line up with

as much as they can that's come before it. Yeah.

What did you guys think of Skylinks and him wanting

the Matrix? That was weird. That was really weird.

I was really thrown off at first. I'm like are

they doing another double cross? Are they doing

another trainer switch or something like that?

Like maybe I just don't remember my Skylinks

data as much as I should. I don't ever remember

him being like that. Nope, they totally went

a totally different direction with him. Yeah,

but that was weird. I wanted to ask you guys

something too. Well, first off, since you asked

about Skylinks, what is everybody's impression

of Scorpionaut? Scorponok or Skylinks? Scorponok.

Because I feel like that's an entire species.

Yeah, like, what do y 'all think of that? I thought

that was good. I thought it was alright. It's

different. I mean, he looks like his G1 self,

and that's fine. Yeah, but they kind of neutered

him. The weird thing is, though, that they're

playing this out that the current parents obviously

have everybody enslaved, this, that, and the

other, kind of similar to what we've seen in

the past. And now you're trying to sell me a

story that says Megaton and, you know, his people

rose up and the Transformers rose up and defeated

the Quintessons and broke free. But a race of

Scorponox couldn't? Like, they're big badasses.

You're trying to tell me that they were just

like, oh, yes, Quintessons, we will keep doing

your bidding. Yeah, that was kind of lame. I

was like it took the entire like squad to take

him out One of them he couldn't rise up. Yeah,

the entire squad more like the entire Autobot

and Decepticon squad Another thing to me for

this series so far and it's not a bad thing.

It's not a good thing I don't think necessarily.

I haven't decided where I fall on it, but I Don't

have A character I'm reading for I don't have

a favorite character. I don't have somebody that

really stands out that I'm interested in and

I don't know why that is or if that's good or

bad but usually in all these series like I have

somebody I'm really pulling for or somebody that

I'm at least like Interested in more so than

like they stand out like and I don't I can't

find one in this series Do you guys have somebody

that you're like just really like a big fan of?

No Right. I like what they did with bumblebee

how he didn't start out as the loyal You know

licking Autobot that he's always been Right.

He had to he had to come to terms and he had

to make a choice and you didn't know what choice

that was gonna Be I thought that was cool Now

that he's just the ugly one I don't know, I kind

of dug Bug Bite, not just because Bug Bite is

basically a white repaint of Bumblebee, but I

thought that was cool. Everybody almost has an

evil counterpart at this point, and I don't know

if that's - That was the part that threw me off

the most. I'm going to have to re -watch it.

I don't understand the counterparts that are

identical clones, but evil. I didn't get that

part. Maybe I missed something. Somebody a little

smarter will have to explain it to me, but I

didn't understand where they came from or how

they fit into all of this But uh, I guess I like

bumblebee better than I have in most for I'm

usually not a bum So I like him more than this

than I have other things But I just was trying

to rack my brain before we you know started recording

this on who I really like either good or bad

I do like what they're doing with Megatron I

like that he's like multi -level, you know and

a little deeper, but it doesn't mean I'm rooting

for him and Sound is typically one of my favorite

characters, but the He was kind of lame. He kind

of really doesn't do anything. Yeah, he doesn't

do anything other than translate the little things.

And the best thing for him is he has Ravage.

Right, right. But other than that, there's not

like you're never going to be a huge fan of Starscream

just because he's the whiny little bitch. I'll

say this though, I probably... If I was to rank

my favorite Starscreams, if Starscream was my

favorite, out of all the cartoon, the United,

the American cartoon voices that have done it,

the English voices that have done him, I'd probably

put Lada, Bloom, and then Todaro. Oh, I'm not

saying his voice is bad. They're doing a good

job with it. It's just the character. I'm just

saying he's not usually going to be your favorite

character. Because of the way that Frank is doing

it and the way the police is it kind of does

make like I mean Starscream did Everything he's

always wanted to do so far. He's well, it's almost

been Absolutely lock in place with what happens

in G1 between him and back on so far true. Yeah,

I like to be getting momentum Yeah Mirage a little

bit more they gave him a few more scenes because

he was always one of my favorite g1 characters

But they don't give him enough where he's gonna

be like somebody I'm rooting for I was left.

I was left with like I feel like yeah I don't

need that human to connect to but I need one

of these characters to stand out in a way that

Makes him my favorite and I'm not saying he has

to be like the the hero of the story just somebody

that they give enough screen time and I think

that's one of the challenges that they have right

now is that they've in very limited amount of

time six episodes in each part and They're throwing

so many characters that I don't feel like any

of them get enough time to like really cling

to. Like you're just getting to start to like

maybe this person or that person immediately

is going to a different character. Seventeen

of them are switching alliances, so you can't

trust any of those guys. So it's like, I don't

know, it's hard to like pick out a favor for

me. And I think that's somewhat problematic for

the series. Yeah. I mean, for me, it's like.

I'm so happy and I know he's not gonna show up

and that's fine. But I'm so happy that now we

can blame Bumblebee. Because Bumblebee is the

one that gets in the way of Megatron and Optimus

fighting and Megatron killing Optimus. That's

the only reason - Did Optimus die in this? That's

the only reason why Optimus is still alive is

because Bumblebee got in front of the blaster.

Well, so that's a good thing. See, he did the

opposite of what Hydra did. Yeah, but he's selfless,

but Hot Rod is stupid. Right, right. Bumblebee

prevented Prime's death, Hot Rod caused it, so

that's the difference there. Not really. And

then he goes, I'm unworthy, give him the matrix

back. Trying to push Mike's buttons at this point.

I like I like how they introduced Galvatron direct

homage to the movie I like that they show Unicron,

but they don't show him doing anything. He just

yanks him back like yeah, but I'm right, but

I'm saying like he shows up, but that's it. He

doesn't do anything. Yeah, right I actually had

to rewind that part because I'm like I see I

saw Galvatron so if I'm watching watching and

I see Unicron soap and he's like when he says

what he says, I'm like, wait a second, did I

miss something? Has Unicron shown up in the last

couple of minutes and I fell asleep or something?

Let me rewind that. And it doesn't, it's just

like Unicron out of nowhere shows up and I'm

like, oh. Well, Galimitron, the whole time was

like, he's saying, I don't have much time. And

just telling him, as he's being yanked away and

rubber banded back to his reality that, get the

golden disc. What did you guys think of the the

Queen of Sun? Shaving off cutting off all those

original. Oh Yeah, that was a little yeah, it

was very brutal. Yeah Like I did it like I get

that he was puppeting being the puppet master

to the one guy That we see but then I they got

me on the second time. They did it. I wasn't

expecting it Like I get it. We're done. I'm just

gonna keep calling them double dare. I get it

with double dare But who did they do it at the

end with cog yeah That one I wasn't expecting

like they actually got me on that one. I was

like, oh shit. He did it again It's kind of creepy,

but I like that they brought the quintessence

in here. We just need what else do we need? We

need the junk yarns to get involved We need well

if you notice they had a junkie on ship. That

was all twisted like a corkscrew earlier in the

rise That's true. Yeah And they mentioned nebulas.

Yep Yep, I like that. Go ahead. So, what did

you think about the teaser for Kingdom? I am

very intrigued because this is something that

we've never gotten. The crossover between Transformers

and Beast Wars, where they're living in the same...

I mean, we get a little bit in Beast Wars, I'm

not saying that. Like, I know that they have

people that show up. But we haven't had like

a series that was Transformers that then also

crossed over into a beast wars like this one

is doing in like this All everything is encompassed

and so I'm very intrigued on how they do it So,

I mean it seems like they're seeing that there's

Beast there's whatever Maximals and Predacons

or whatever that are already honored the way

they showed that dinosaur I'm really sure we

had a little bit basically i'm so intrigued on

how they're going to do that and if it's just

gonna fit in. Exactly like some of the times

that we seen before or how well what's what's

funny is i remember a dialogue from earlier in

gcr in history where. Somebody had mentioned

or larry to tell you about forward or somebody

mentioned that. If they had gotten a season four

for Beast Wars, they were going to have the original

G1 cast and the Beast Wars characters fight together.

Yeah, that would be awesome. And now we're actually

getting that, albeit a little bit differently.

Not the right cast, but still. Well, in my...

You can ask Mike, I've been like... beating a

dead horse with this for months. He's agonizing

over this. It's like his heart is going to be

ripped out if Megatron is not voiced correctly.

Well, it's going to be the whole cast, because

they're so dynamically ranged that if they don't

do any of them accurately, it's going to sound

terrible. Yeah, if you do Rattrap a different

way, it's going to sound terrible if you do Megatron

a different way. Waspinator, I mean, you know,

Dynamite. It's interesting though, because this

third chapter, this kingdom, is what's going

to define this series overall. Like, if you look

at just the first two parts right now, and if

I'm, yeah, but if I'm, if I'm just like, um,

if I'm just looking at all the different transformer

properties that have existed and I'm trying to

like put this in its place amongst the, uh, the

rankings type thing, if you're going to go that

route, like right now after two parts, like this

is on par with transformers prime with. Like

it's kind of in that realm. It's not G1. It's

not Beast Wars You know, it's not that upper

echelon, but it's good. It's like right around

that Transformers Prime You know, it's not as

bad as the Unicron trilogy, you know things like

that But Kingdom is what's gonna define this

whole series like what they do how they incorporate

how they interact with the people part of this

is is what's gonna make this series either shoot

higher or tank. So I'm hoping for shooting high

as far as that goes. I think everybody is. And

I think everybody's resting their hopes on the

kingdom. And I just hope kingdom does not like,

I know FJ Desanto said it's a three arc story.

I believe he said it will have an actual ending.

It's not, I hope it's, I mean, he's the show

runner, so he should know. I just hope that it

actually does have an ending or something. It

doesn't just. Oh! I feel like it's going to end

with the beginning of G1, with the moments that

were up to G1, but maybe they don't do that,

I don't know. I don't think they will. Yeah.

I also think that, well, I mean, he also did

the machinima Power of the Prime series, which

the Combiner Wars and all that stuff, I just

didn't care for that series at all, but for a

variety of reasons. But at least it had voice

acting. Um, uh, this, you know, and I mean, say

what you will, this is the first time that they've,

I mean, they've pulled characters, you know,

occasionally like Cheetor and Cyberverse, they've

pulled Primal and Power of the Primes. Um, but

this is the first time they've done the entire

Beast Cast minus TerrorSaur and Tarantulas for

whatever reason. Um, and cause they don't show

them in any of the promotional art, there's no

slated toys for this year, um, for them. And

so, I mean, their attempt to bring Beast Wars

into the fold tells me two things. It tells me

that not only is it an anniversary year of 25

years for Beast Wars, but that they've been going

to the G1 pool for so long that it's getting

so tiring and tired. that they just don't really

have anything else to tell the story with. And

so by dipping back into Beast Wars and retesting

this 25 years later, it tells them where they

should go from the future. Yeah. I'm interested

either way on what they decide to do with that

and where they decide to go from a directional

standpoint. Yeah, because I think a lot rides

on this last chapter. Oh, yeah. I think for the

entire franchise, actually. Yeah, I can see that,

too. I mean, I don't think the franchise is going

to die. But again, no, but I think that we've

hit that action master stage where everything

is just dead. Like to like, I think everything

is just hit this brick wall and they're they're

like, I don't know what else to do. So that's

pulling Beast Wars again and see if it strikes

the lightning twice. Right. I'm just I've been

too concerned with the baby. And my brain's not

working right but the symbol on the imposter

clone bad versions of Wheeljack and this that

and the other is that assuming you mean bug bite

and the mercenaries it's a yeah, it's the mercenary

faction Okay, that's not a symbol that's been

used before in some other series or something

it has Yeah, I'm sure it has I was trying to

pinpoint where I've seen that before And I can't

for the life of me think of it. I am sure I can

Google it and but I'd be interested to see what

that was and kind of how I played into it, because

that part still throws me off as far as the Mercenary

faction. I don't understand it. All right, so

just quickly, because I'm already here. The Mercenary

faction, independent from both Autobot and Decepticons,

the Mercenaries are dangerous skilled operatives

whose only allegiance is to getting paid and

to whichever side they find most beneficial at

the time. That's just a basic description from

I don't understand. I get that. I don't understand

why the clones of characters that already exist.

Because of budget. It's like it's not. Oh, that

was the other one that they showed that they

showed Nemesis Prime for a whole five seconds.

Yeah, for five seconds as far as that. So that

was another nod to something that wasn't D1 or

B4. Yeah, well, it's funny because they show

the destiny of, you know, if Prime goes down

this road and kills Megatron early, this is what

he'll become. And they show, you know, Megatron,

you know, if you don't do this, then this is

what you will become. And so it's kind of this

destiny's speech, kind of this weird paradox

of things. And it's kind of funny, but they're

definitely pushing the with having the different

uh symbol on there of the mercenaries and having

the different colors it's opening up that can

of worms to reuse the molds for repaints and

get a reason for people to purchase them um nemesis

wheeljack and nemesis liver so it to me it's

kind of funny because like um even like looking

at double dealer like part of his mode he looks

like the machine wars sound wave yeah um to some

degree uh but i mean yeah i i thought he was

i thought he was at like uh i thought he was

like who was that punch and counter punch but

they like somehow didn't have the rights to it

or something or one of those other well kind

of i mean he turns into a into a creature too

i think but um but yeah i don't know anyways

the the funny thing is is like most modern tv

shows that use cgi the copy paste method is the

cheapest yeah that's true I do like, though,

that they are able to fit between Siege and Earthrise.

They're able to fit all six jets in. So you have

Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp got killed,

obviously. And then on the mercenary side, you

have the Coneheads, Durge, Ramjet, and Thrust.

So I thought that was a good - More than that.

Well, true. Don't they have Acid Storm in the

first part? Yeah. Yeah they have other seekers

I'm just saying like the seekers to me are basically

they're the clones because there are so many

seekers in these first two chapters besides just

Starscream and Thundercracker they're all these

seekers like the seeker Chromia shot off the

the tower at the beginning of episode one of

Earthrise you know I mean it's just that clone

mold what I'm saying is that we've already had

Starscream Thundercracker and Skywarp Now we

get dirt ramjet thrust except their mercenaries

versus actual decepticons at least they're here.

I didn't mention that before but I do enjoy the

fact that they brought all the female versions

of the G1 transformers back since they got such

a little air time originally. We don't did we

see when was moon racer was in the first one

yeah. So the only one we're missing in there

one is firestar She was in she was in the first

one too, right or not. I think so I think I think

they're all in the first one. Just some of them

don't get as much time the weird the weird part

is that they've all but ignored the The movie

characters the animated movie characters, right?

Am I missing one that appears because we don't

get hot rod. We don't get Cup. We don't get blur.

We don't get springer we don't get red gar we

don't. Is there any really we don't do we get

any movie characters in here. I don't think so

no RC. Yeah those the only two so I thought that

was kind of interesting that they didn't throw

anybody else in from that not the not the have

to but it just seems like they're doing so much

to like to all the other things that. I think

they're just kind of picking and choosing who

they're gonna touch on like for instance RC has

a masterpiece figure that just came out so it's

kind of coincidental that she has use in the

show too so I mean I think it's kind of playing

hand -in -hand although I am excited that Kingdom

is going to have an actual Tigatron, Rhinox,

Dinobots They haven't announced it like a waspinator

yet. There's no pterosaur. There's gonna be a

scorponok There's no tarantulas, but they've

got everybody else in the Beast cast from except

for inferno to From season one. So I think it's

kind of funny that they've got most of them,

but they're still missing a few Then so far as

I can tell again from the wonderful people that

we love over at the TF wiki net Firestar has

not appeared. Mm -hmm The last time she appeared

was the 2005 ADW continuity Power of the Primes

only in the marketing material and the current

2019 IDW continuity. The last cartoon she was

in was the Japanese cartoon continuity in Legends

and in the comics. The actual cartoon, the only

cartoon she's ever been in is G1. Well, at least

they got most of the other ones in there. True.

Very true, very true. Overall, what would you

guys rate Earthrise zero to five, Steve? Maybe

a three and a half just because of some of the

callbacks, some of the, you know, obviously the

animation, too many gripes with the voice casting

and the voice direction and some of the rushed

amounts of story or, you know, no reasons behind

certain things. So in those reasons, that's why

I'd probably have to give it that. But I mean,

overall, I enjoyed it, but it's it's still like

Kevin said, I think Kingdom is going to be the

thing that determines this whole franchise or

this whole trilogy. Yeah. What about you, Kev?

What are you going to rate it? Rate it bad because

there's no humans, so it automatically is going

to get a good rating on me because it's just

transform. That's why I can't bitch about it

too much. But the voice acting being as inconsistent

as it was. um the first part having so much of

the same things we ever use with the who's on

what side and who are you loyal to um the second

part i think editing gets in the way a little

bit as far as cutting back and forth to too many

different stories and that Steve said that's

what kind of gives it that rushed feeling i think

um but other than that i just i've enjoyed most

of what i've watched and i haven't been like

dreading playing the next episode it's been very

easy to bin so That's about a three and a half

right now with Kingdom being the one that can

put it into that four reigns, probably. Yeah,

I'm right there with you guys. Three and a half.

There were just little things that, and I know

again from interviews, then again, from just

logistical standpoint, it's budgetary. Everybody,

I remember when Siege came in, everybody's like,

but they don't transform hardly at all. You know,

it costs money to do that effect, right? It costs

money for the screen to show that visual effect.

Transformers that don't transform. Well, there

also hasn't been, there hasn't been as much of

a need for it when you're on a ship or when you're

on Cybertron. Like, they don't need it as much

as when they're on Earth, which is much more

wide open places. And you've got to get places,

different things like that. Well, the other part

of it is also that when they're on Cybertron

and they're walking everywhere it's because they're

usually having a conversation like if you have

like Chromia RC red alert and jetfire trying

to sneak into a Decepticon prison Well, of course,

they're gonna be walking or chromia is gonna

be sitting or laying down to do her sniper thing

or whatever They're not gonna drive up to it

Like I mean, come on Yeah, don't use it when

they needed to I haven't had a big problem with

it Just like the people that are really upset

about the what is it the lips or what? What are

they upset about something? Yeah, something like

that I don't I don't I honestly don't know what

people are upset about with this stuff because

half the time I don't pay attention to what people

are upset about it with Because it's like it's

a cartoon. It's transformers. Yes. There are

things that are gonna be mildly upsetting but

I mean I Try to overlook some of it because i

realize this is a new continuity and so i don't

pay attention to the the continuity aspects but

i do pay attention to the voice acting the direction

um and and how rushed things seem to be in the

story and how slow the speech seems to be in

the actors yeah i'm glad i'm not alone in the

voice acting part i thought i was gonna be on

here it makes me cringe Which is why I'm so worried

for kingdom because I actually posed that question

to proto man and some other people I know that

are no people that are attached to it and they're

like, oh Yeah, what you got for siege and king

and earth rise. Yeah expect it with kingdom The

I've heard and I don't do this because I've just

never done this I've heard if you play it on

Netflix Think it's at 1 .5 times speed like if

you just up the speed one little thing on Netflix

It plays much better, but I don't know how that

works with I've never even used any of that kind

of stuff 1 .25 Okay, whatever it speeds up Megatron

enough so that he's at least it spit the pacing

with g1 Oh Lord All right, folks. Do we get anything

else? Anything else, Kevin, you want to talk

about before we get the heck out of here? I'm

just looking forward to Kingdom and hopefully

we can all connect. What about you, Steve? Anything

else you want to bring up before we close this

one out? Well, I'm still preparing and I'll have

a panel at Iacon online. The convention, it's

going to be a prerecorded panel where I showcase

why Beast Wars was important to the Transformers

franchise 25 years ago, and why it still is today.

That's right. All right. Next time, I don't know

what the heck we're doing. We might do Kingdom,

we might do comics, we might do something. Obviously,

we're going to do Kingdom whenever that comes

out, which most likely we won't be doing Kingdom

anytime soon. Toys. Yes, yes, toys. So, yes.

That has been our Earthrise discussion. If you

agree with us, if you disagree with us, you can

always send us email. Feedback at geekcastradio

.com. You can follow us on Twitter at allthingstfv3

at geekcastradio. I am at TF2 and Mike. Steve,

what is your Twitter? At SCP -21. And Kevin?

At Optimus Solo. There you go. Transform and

transcend and we will catch you next time here

on All Things Transformers. The next Harvest

will be powered by four Autobot Sparks. Take

them away! Yes, Lord Megatron! Megatron! Terrorize!

Only on All Things Transformers! Excellent! Yes!