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keef-a-corn · 2 years ago

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Dat’s right, People, it’s time for ‘Keef watches TFP and you just get the notes!’

This is for season 1, episode 20: Partners

Please reblog or comment on this with your thoughts! I really want to know what your opinion of the episode was!

I write down the timestamps, but I watch Transformers Prime on Stan (an Australian streaming service) so they may be slightly off.

ALSO! I try my best to note points for every character, but tend to get a little caught up by Bee (although I think I do a pretty good job with the notes regardless) so do be warned.

Little confession, this is one of my favourite season 1 episodes. It’s up there with Sick Mind. There’s going to be a point where I write down a scene deconstruction that carries on across multiple points, so I highly recommend reading this!! You'll be able to tell what part I'm talking about because it's got the most continuous screenshots.

~~~~Transition~~~~

00:03 - A r k + the clouds tho

00:09 - 2016 YouTubers apologising for being literal criminals be like:

00:16 - I would like someone to make a fic about Soundwave’s inner dialogue during moments like these.

00:46 - Kinda surprised that he actually w a s talking to Soundwave. He would be aware that Starscream’s just sucking up t get Megs off his aft, right?

01:20 - this is actually a very good set up. Rather than the Autobots and Decepticons just coming upon it, they actually establish a quick explanation to it.

01:26 - all that movement makes Starscream look like he’s in a video game

01:29 - NO. That zoom, the way the camera follows her, The background. Airachnid is 100% supposed to be in a video game rn.

01:32 - I like that shot. I wanna redraw it.

02:00 - Starscream, my dood.

~intro~

02:50 - So beautiful

02:56 - Ignoring how out of place Arcee looks, she’s absolutely right.. expect that there’s no body there.

03:10 - the lighting makes Arcee’s face look beautiful.

03:24 - she gives ya whiplash here doesn’t she? Doesn’t give you enough time to be sad.

03:29 - I don’t understand why she looks so out of place.

03:33 - Oh no… all the flashbacks from ‘Predatory’

03:45 - pardon?

03:47 - Preen: devote effort to making oneself look attractive and then admire one's appearance.

04:01 - I think they gave Starscream the wrong face in this scene.

04:07 - Lore

04:25 - as apposed to doing it… with Mercy?

04:34 - of course he would!

04:36 - obviously.

04:36 - height difference my beloved. I also laughed a bit too hard for a bit too long at the shot. It’s just.. she’s so short, but then there’s also her arms XD

05:07 - I’ll be honest, I’ve never understood people who got flustered when a character says something cruel. Then I heard the way Starscream said idiot and I’m a little flustered.

05:12 - MM DELICIOUS. Explanations and a setup.

05:22 - A cut away of just Ratchet and Optimus, which also proves Starscream right? Sign me up.

05:29 - I feel conflicted. On one hand Optimus talks. On the other he used a metaphor that is not effective. ‘The past always catches up with the present’ is talking about decisions (eg actions or words). + This is Optimus’s first line of Dialogue since Operation : Breakdown.

06:24 - This is what Starscream said to Soundwave.

07:02 - LOOK AT HIM. HOW DOES HE HIDE! ANSWER MEEEE!

07:05 - I just realised.. this is the first time we’ll be seeing Airachnid interact with Optimus and Bee (although he shows up in Predatory, she runs away rather than attempting any confrontation.)

07:21 - 1. The way he says 'wait' is such a fatherly pronunciation. 2. O0O she doesn’t listen. 3. She does a backflip. (IYKYK)

07:44 - *sigh* and here we have Arcee being an idiot. Going against Optimus’s orders, fighting Airachnid and doing a scrap job at it.

08:01 - *falls over* *dies* Optimusssssss yessss

08:05 - unlike Arcee, Airachnid listens to Optimus.

08:13 - this is a parallel to Operation : Breakdown. In Operation : Breakdown, Bulkhead took on Breakdown alone. Optimus hadn’t given instructions, so the decision was made by Bulkhead’s judgement. It was not a good call and Bulkhead got hurt, so Optimus had phrased it ‘Engaging the enemy on your own was foolish, Bulkhead’. In this episode Optimus gave instructions but Arcee didn’t listen. She didn’t get hurt, but the risk had no reward. Airachnid escaped regardless. Because she wasn’t hurt and technically did delay Airachnid, Optimus wouldn’t have been as harsh but is obviously still upset.

Operation: Breakdown

Partners

08:29 - I’m so done with Airachnid and Arcee’s rivalry. I will forever repeat this. They have one of the worst rivalries in the show. Arcee has a reason to be mad at Airachnid, but Airachnid has no reason to be mad at Arcee. They don’t have respect for each other and they can’t manage to put aside their differences for anything.

08:35 - Hoooo mama… His voice has me shaking fr fr.

08:45 - This shot lives in my head rent free

09:27 - For everyone who wants to right a fic about TFP Starscream swapping sides, I recommend using this moment as the point where your fic should start. + Although Starscream’s logic seems flawless, the Autobots are just as in the right to not accept him in/do it with much skepticism.

09:35 - This gives off ‘when the adults are talking’ vibes.

09:39 - ‘When you have to sit at the kids table, but you realise that the 12 year-old is more mature than you’

09:51 - there’s something so perfect about this conversation and Arcee’s beliefs specifically.

10:14 - Kinda forgot she existed for a bit.

10:34 - I’m just gonna.. lie down for a minute.. He’s so cuteeeee.

11:04 - MMM MMMM BEAUTIFUL. When the leader has genuinely good moral coding✨

11:10 - Damn do I love Optimus.

11:16 - The nickname, the drag, the everything. I laughed for a full minute.

11:46 - there are a lot of parallels between this and Operation: Breakdown.

13:37 - Oh do I love a proper fight scene.

12:41 - Bulkhead getting caught first makes sense. The hardest to fight hand to hand, but also the least agile. Naturally Airachnid would get rid of him first.

13:09 - He sounds a bit like Scar talking to baby Simba.

13:15 - you can see Arcee’s conflicting emotions. She hates Airachnid, but she also hates Starscream. Then there’s that little bit of delight in Starscream’s misery (and a part of me wants to say feminism)

13:32 - to quote Miko from Masters and Students.. ‘whoopsie’

13:49 - Kinda glad that she worked it out so quickly.

14:37 - he’s not even looking in the right place

15:23 - oh damn.

15:33 - MMM YES. THE GOOD FIGHT.

15:51 - he ran over to his father ;0; though the smarter move would’ve been to stay apart.

15:52 - then he just stares at a rock-

16:04 - then there was one.

16:08 - No! Go back to the good fight.

16:32 - *clears throat* Arcee’s an idiot. She’s fighting in revenge and anger. Her judgement’s clouded already. Decepticons get their advantages by getting into the heads of autobots. They’re more likely to win the more clouded and chaotic their opponent’s mind is.

16:35 - and now we have the opposite side of the coin.

16:43 - Airachnid’s trying to get into Bee’s head. Exactly what Starscream was doing. If she gets into his head, Bee’s hiding and fighting will be worse. Once he gets hit the autobots will loose. Airachnid cannot win in combat against Bumblebee. They both know that. What she also knows is that, unlike with all her fights with Arcee, Bee isn’t fighting for a personal gain, he’s fighting for a cause. If he was fighting with his emotions, he’d be aiming for her to loose, but because he’s fighting for a cause his goal is to win. (It’s trying to kill someone vs trying to stay safe. One has a higher chance of succeeding than the other)

16:58 - 1. HAH. SO THEY CAN SEE HIM! 2. She knows she’s found a weak point because Bee revealed himself slightly. She made an impact on his thinking as his emotions became slightly involved at the prospect of Bulkhead and Optimus being in danger.

17:17 - As much as her confidence is expected, if she didn’t believe she had gotten into his head, I bet she would’ve been more cautious to provoke Bee. Thinking that she is in his head is why she’s continuing to taunt him.

17:40 - in actuality she didn’t get into his head. Rather she got into her own. She became sloppy and less aware of her surroundings.

17:54 - Bee was still fighting for a cause, rather than with his emotions. By Bee not being effected by decepticon mindgames, Airachnid fell victim to her own tactics and lost.

18:05 - She had no advantage physically, mentally, nor emotionally. Bee had the complete upper hand.

18:06 - Now we have the opposite. Arcee’s fighting with her emotions while Starscream’s fighting to win.

18:12 - Starscream’s got nothing to lose, while Arcee was acting out of rage.

18:18 - exactly.

19:11 - Now Arcee absolutely could win and that we be thanks to fighting with her emotions. I agree 100% by that idea except-

19:13 - for the fact that her emotions got in the way once again.

19:14 - Bee, my sweet baby child, is another variable in Arcee’s emotional charge. Arcee fought for Cliff, fell for Cliff, and was about to win for Cliff,

19:17 - but couldn’t bring herself to kill for Cliff. When it was just Starscream’s words and her unbridled rage, Starscream was Cliff’s murderer. When it was just her and the bot that took away Cliff, she would’ve 100% killed him. When she realised it was now her, Starscream, and Bumblebee, another bot that lost someone close, but would never deem that enough to snuff out their spark. That is when she couldn’t kill for Cliff.

19:27 - this is about to give you guys whiplash because of the stuff above but… There’s something so beautiful and smooth about that slide.

19:35 - wtf is up with this shot. It’s so pretty.

19:45 - now we all should be laughing at Airachnid, the con that failed completely. She got in her own way and lost miserably.

19:52 - that’s a little fruity ngl.

20:03 - mmm pretty

20:04 - that was a pun-

20:08 - I totally forgot that Bee was the only one properly functioning… Which one are you taking?

(Red pill- Fic where Bee actually did get hurt during the episode and is just hiding it.(Physical pain).

Blue pill - Fic of the mental toll that dragging two paralysed teammates and another badly injured teammate through the ground bridge can have.(Angst))

20:16 - for a two-wheeler? I’m trying to think what the human version would be. It’s not so much ‘for a girl’.. maybe?

20:26 - If only TFP writers took that advice. *looks at the episodes that have no recovery arcs for certain characters, then looks at the the episodes that have no recovery arc specifically for Bumblebee*

20:42 - *falls over* *dies* *again*

21:13 - now imagine he followed that line up with ‘a little bicth’

- rip/g

———————

That was Partners.

Honestly I like this episode. It brings out the capabilities of Starscream and Bee, as well as bringing out the worst of Arcee and Airachnid in a much better fashion than before. It shows us what happens when a character has the upper hand in all aspects of a fight vs when the do not. Fighting to win vs fighting to make the other lose.

It’s one of the episodes I think best displays just how bad (as in not well put together) Airachnid and Arcee’s rivalry is, while also putting in a bit more perspective to Airachnid’s side of it. She fights Arcee because she knows she can win. Anyone else and she’s gonna lose. Arcee’s always in over her head and let’s her emotions get in the way.

The episode is a bit of a roller coaster for Starscream, but in the end the conclusion is ‘Starscream’s a manipulator and a really good one too.’ Not because he got into Arcee’s head, but because he managed to convince Optimus that there was hope for him.

Then there’s Bumblebee. Ah~ Sweet little Bumblebee. A bot of few beeps because he gave him nothing to say. He carried his team during the episode. Being the only one to not get hit by the immobiliser, the one that managed to fool Airachnid leading her to turn his back on him, which lead to her defeat and snap Arcee out of his murder daze in time to not kill Starscream (regardless of if he deserved it or not) and to conclude the episode there was not a word or gesture of gratitude from anyone.. really makes your blood doesn’t it?. I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t one of the eps that fuels my angstier fics.

Generally though, I like this episode.

Now like I said at the top please reblog or comment on this with your thoughts on the episode and of my points!

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