Transformers: EarthSpark Season One

I watched Transformers: EarthSpark Season One a while ago. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. It’s only eight episodes (technically it’s ten, episodes one and eight are forty-five minutes long) and that is just not enough time to decide if I like it or not. One of the problems is we spend so much time with the human kids and Terrans, and they are the least interesting part of the series. I’m going to need another season to decide if I like it or not, so here is a list of my Pros, Cons, and Eye Rolls for Transformers: EarthSpark Season One.

Pro: Megatron Joining the Autobots – It works in ways that it shouldn’t, I’ll give them credit for thinking outside the box, but he’s just not really Megatron. If he doesn’t eventually betray them and return to leading the Decepticons, I will find it hard to care about him at all.

Con: Megatron Joining the Autobots – Even though it works to a point it’s still stupid and a violation of the laws of reason and logic. Megatron is a tyrannical dictator hell bent on destroying everything in his path to achieve his goals. It makes no sense for him to join the Autobots.

Pro: The Autobots – I really like all the Autobots, what little we saw of them while we wasted time on the Terrans and kids.

Pro: The Decepticons – I like most of them, though we didn’t see them nearly as much as we should have. I would like to see more episodes focusing on the Decepticons.

Con: The Terrans – The Terrans are so annoying. I mean, they are G1 Wheelie level annoying. I think Wheelie needs to be retconned as a Terran. Jar Jar Binks is not as annoying as the Terrans.

Con: The Kids – They are even more annoying than the Terrans, and that’s hard to do. The humans in Transformers: Prime were great, but these kids are played way too young to be interesting.

Eye Roll: The Dad – He’s entertaining enough as comic relief, but it gets old fast.

Pro: The Mom – I love her back story of fighting alongside Megatron in the war. I would like to see more of that and less of her annoying kids.

Pro: The Villain – I did not expect to like Mandroid, but I did. Could be very interesting down the line with three factions at war (Autobots, Decepticons, Mandroid).

Pro: Return to 23 Minute Episodes! – Thank God. I hated those garbage 12 minutes episodes of Cyberverse. Made it hard to even care about a show that’s over before you can even get into the story.

Con: Only 10 Episodes in Season One – I hate these short seasons.

Eye Roll: Skywarp and Frenzy Being Female – I am so sick of this gender swapping garbage. Create a new character or pick one that does not require the bastardization of beloved characters.

Eye Roll: One of the Terrans Being Non-Binary – They are robots. I don’t really care about their gender identity, as they really don’t need to have one since they are robots. I don’t have a problem with non binary characters, but I would rather they made one of the kids non-binary or maybe the dad. Plus, if you’re going to do it, have it come up for a reason in the context of the story. It was really forced in. More important things were happening than getting biographies from the new annoying kids on the block. Frankly it felt like it came down from someone high up that one of the robots had to be non binary and they just had to stick it in out of left field so they could say they did it.

Pro: Ghost – I’m saying pro, but the human organization working with the Autobots needs way more development and involvement. There really isn’t much to them this season, and they kind of vanish at the end, though my guess is that is going to be a plot point later, so that could be interesting.

Con: Incompetent Parenting – It’s one thing for kids in a story, any story, to end up in crazy situations and or battles, and to help out of necessity. It’s another to tell them to charge the giant robot thing trying to kill them. If they were older, I might feel differently. See my next Con for more on that.

Con: The Kids Ages – They are 13 and 9. In Prime the kids were 16, 15, and 12. 16 and 15 is huge difference from 13 and 9, and in Prime they generally tried to keep the 12 year old out of danger. And honestly, they play the 13 year old more like 10 years old most of the time and the 9 year old more like 6. Frankly I thought Robby was like 10 and then in one episode he started acting like a moody teen, who then goes back to acting like a 10 years old. They needed to be a few years older, and then they could have made the Terrans less annoying. What would be really great is a time jump of four or five years before season two so they can make the kids and Terrans less annoying.

Con: The Bastardization of G1 Cartoon History – This is the one that REALLY pisses me off. There are scenes that use animation presented as the back story of the series. If they wanted to use G1, then use G1, but they didn’t. They created a bastardized version of G1 history, chopped up the real history, removed bits, added crap, and reconstituted it all like a McRib patty to fit the narrative they wanted for the series. If it didn’t look like G1 and give the impression to the uninformed that it was the actual G1 continuity, I wouldn’t really care. Hell, they could have used the same story, but instead of using G1 forms, use their EarthSpark forms, or altered versions of their EarthSpark forms.

Pro: Alan Tudyk Voicing Optimus Prime – It took a bit for him to grow on me, but he’s great.

Con: Rory McCann (AKA “The Hound” from Game of Thrones) Voicing Megatron – I really wanted to like him as Megatron, but Megatron’s voice just feels wrong. Maybe they needed to just use his voice as is and not add the mechanical echo? I don’t know, but it just doesn’t work for me.

Pro: The Music! – The music was great. I’m not sure if they used any music from the original Transformers cartoon, but it certainly seemed similar in places.

That’s 9 Pros, 8 Cons, and 3 Eye Rolls. Could be worse, I suppose.

Thanks for reading!