#I got paramount + through prime

[ladyofthelake]

So I emailed channel 5 about the Killing Kind:

Hi I was just wondering why the rest of the episodes of 'The Killing Kind' starring Colin Morgan aren't airing? Channel 5 showed the first episode on Monday 11th September and I was looking forward to the rest of the show. However I couldn't see it listed and its not on your on demand site either.

Are you planning to show the rest of the episodes at a later date?

And I got this response:

Dear Vicki

Thank you for your e – mail regarding Paramount+ Presents: The Killing Kind.

Channel 5 appreciates all viewer feedback, and you can enjoy the full The Killing Kind series exclusively on Paramount+ and the special episode transmitted on Channel 5 will not appear on My5. At present there are no plans for Channel 5 to show any more episodes.

Thank you for your comments and you can see all episodes right now for free – just start a 7-day free trial by going to https://www.paramountplus.com/

So they were never gonna show all the episodes on Channel 5 (which is a bit sucky imo) but at least Paramount + is a free trial but I don't always wanna watch an entire series in a week but hey I'll take binging Colin on my TV over anything xD I'm just glad to know now because I felt crazy not seeing it in the listings.

[monsterhigh-world]

WHERE TO WATCH MONSTER HIGH THAT ALSO SUPPORTS THE SHOW

As you all know new episodes are gonna come out through of October so I’m making this list to places where you can Watch the series that also supports the show

NICK.COM

You can watch the episodes on Nick.com, some will be unlocked and free to watch while others are blocked and need your cable info to watch it but is a good way to watch new episodes and support the show

NICKELODEON

new episodes are gonna aired on Monday to Thursday at 5pm through October, next week on Thursday is the mh 2 movie at 7pm so no new episode that day as far I know

Nick Jr

you can watch previous episodes there , I don’t know what time but is listed as one the showrunner recommendeds where to watch

ON DEMAND

another one that the show runner recommendeds

ITUNES

Monster High, Season 1 by Monster High https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/monster-high-season-1/id1648933677

The one I know is the USA one I don’t know if other places got the series but iTunes got the episodes for I think 2.99 each or the season pass, I highly recommend the season pass since there is gonna be so much new content, it updates with the new episodes the next day

AMAZON VIDEO PRIME

kinda the same deal as iTunes I think

To be honest I don’t know much since I don’t watch videos there at all but I know is another place to watch the series

YOUTUBE TV

Another place to watch the series, again don’t know much about but is another place to watch the series that also supports the series

PARAMOUNT PLUS

Is available is some countries and another place to watch it

YOUTUBE

Their monster high channel got clips from the episodes and got 3 full episodes there

-food fight

-unfinished brain ness

-case of the moondays

THAT IS ALL THE PLACES I KNOW YOU CAN WATCH THE SERIES SAFELY AND THAT ALSO SUPPORTS IT AS WELL

plus I hope you like the bonus new screenshots from mh found on Twitter by the show runner

[blueikeproductions]

They finally posted a trailer and poster for the next batch of EarthSpark. And it’s described as S3, though experience with Netflix makes me think this is just the remainder of S2… Still according to the marketing, fans finally got a third season, so that counts for something. It’s only roughly 7 episodes, but G1’s final fourth season was a three part finale, so a very short season isn’t unheard of.

This poster is a lot better than the past main posters they’ve used over and over.

These are better also, but they don’t get used much.

But after RotB & TFONE, I think we can all agree decent advertising isn’t modern Hasbro & Paramount’s strong suit.

As for the trailer itself, it continues a trend I’ve noticed where most EarthSpark ancillary stuff tends to down play the Terrans. Twitch appears for a split second and Thrash appears in a gag where he gets shot… continuing his “just kinda there” vibe.

The trailer primarily focuses on the traditional Autobot & Decepticon conflict, with a big focus put on Prowl, the newest and seemingly only Transformer added to the cast so far.

A news article further describes Prowl as an “old world” Autobot detective who trusts the hard facts & always finds the truth. He is immediately distrustful of Optimus’ allies, so presumably that includes the Maltos, Terrans and naturally Megatron. It’s interesting how he’s specifically described as a detective, perhaps that’s to avoid ACAB allegations I could see the old writers attempt through him….

Prowl’s G1 profiles cast him as a by the books, semi prickly, military strategist. This doesn’t really get explored in the old cartoon, and while it was touched on briefly in Marvel, IDW went hog wild with it, casting its Prowl as a corrupt cop antagonist towards the end of the run. IDW2 cast him as more of a detective pre-war though, possibly where EarthSpark borrowed it from, and while he was still a hard-aft, he had a soft spot for his pet dinosaur-alien.

The main villains of the season, unsurprisingly, are the Quintessons. Their leader is a female Judge, who the blurb declares it “is her birthright to possess the power of the Emberstone. She’s wise, dangerous, and her ego is so large that it’s no wonder she has five heads”.

What exactly constitutes gender among the Quints has never really been defined before.

It might be safe to say as far as the G1 cartoon is concerned, they’re an all male race.

WFC & CV attempted to insert female gender among the Judges, having some of the masks speak in a female voice.

That adds another oddity to Judge biology, as the G1 cartoon or Marvel UK comics never stated the other faces being separate personalities, instead other media describes them as different emotional states.

Alpha Q in Superlink did have multiple personalities based on which mask was displayed, each one squabbling/talking amongst themselves.

Presumably WFC/CV borrowed from Alpha Q, but the ES Quintesson Judge might be operating on G1 logic, each mask being a single (female) gender, as she has a female voice actor only.

The other big G1 thing the trailer shows is the Hate Plague. The leaked synopsis already revealed it, but like G1, those infected with the plague glow an intense red.

Once infected, they turn incredibly violent and try to kill each other. Despite the G1 show’s violence, nobody actually died ironically, at least it was never confirmed. The synopsis implies the Quintessons unleashed the Hate Plague on the Transformers, and while the 80’s Quints were instead among the victims of the outbreak, they do have a vague connection to it.

The oldest known leader within the Matrix, only known as “It”, resembles a Quintesson, with Japanese media confirming that’s what they are. Optimus Prime asks this ancient Quintesson how to combat the Hate Plague, with It saying the Plague couldn’t be outright destroyed but contained, where a wise man trapped the spores in a star. The spores nevertheless has a weakness to pure wisdom, so Optimus unleashes the power of the Matrix and uses its eons long store of wisdom to eradicate the virus once and for all… Until it briefly returns in Beast Machines.

As mentioned before, the Hate Plague isn’t exactly a popular concept cartoons like to go back to. Comics don’t like using it typically either, so its inclusion here is both unique but also a little… peculiar. I’m leaning towards it being a vague, modern topical metaphor for something, as an infected Megatron is fighting Optimus in particular. Probably some hogwash about Megatron succumbing to his biases and own hatred, but we’ll see soon enough.

Perhaps the most utterly bizarre detail is the blurb seemingly confirming the return of Spitfire and Aftermath.

How…?

Starscream yanked out their Allspar-er-Emberstone Shards, and the rock itself is dust. You can’t get any deader than that.

The only thing I can guess, is similar to Sari’s key, the Sleeves are the repository of the Emberstone’s life giving energies (the sleeves do just about anything else now so why not), and the Malto kids are incentivized to revive the two Decepticon Terrans for some reason.

MetroTitans in IDW also can grant life and that was carried over to Prime Wars, so it’s possible Terratronus can grant life too, and she restores the Terracons.

Worst case scenario is the two hellions are back up and running like nothing happened, and their death is never addressed again.

Crap writing if so, but the previous two scenarios would be preferable.

Not much longer to wait now. This might be the final batch, as the Quintessons make sense as the final end goal in the struggle over the Emberstone. The show has never been super committed to showing what’s going on Cybertron that whatever Prowl and Cosmos have to add to the matter is probably the best we’ll get. Plus the Terrans don’t have much incentive or interest to even go to Cybertron anyway; Alex would get more out of going there than his kids. Only thing I could guess is the Quints took over Cybertron off screen and that loosely ties into the Judge’s role on Earth, but eh. We’ll see.

[lastweeksshirttonight]

LEE'S FAQ!

Over the past nearly-two years, I've noticed that I get some questions about John's work asked repeatedly. That doesn't bother me - half of his prominent work is somewhat lost media, Tumblr's search is super fucked, and I always want to help anyone falling down the JO rabbit hole - but I realized that one central pinned post would be helpful! I'll keep this up to date as much as possible.

I know I have a lot of international followers, and if you have any knowledge of where to stream or find some of these items, please let me know and I'll update this post.

WHERE CAN I FIND...?

Anything really, I've just started going down this rabbit hole:

The John Oliver Masterlist is an incredible resource - while it hasn't been updated since about 2017 and has some broken links (especially in the LWT sections), it has functional links to every JO clip from The Daily Show, all the main segments of LWT through 2017, radio shows, and lots of other material. This was made by @johnoliverphotos and @ilovejohnoliver, and I'm eternally grateful for it.

The Department:

YouTuber Ben Jennings has the entire series on his channel.

Player FM has the series uploaded here as well.

The Bugle:

The Bugle Archive has all Times Online era episodes available to download. PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE EPISODES DIRECTLY; DO NOT STREAM FROM THIS SITE.

The Bugle is starting to upload Times Online era episodes to their official channels, which can be found here. They're up to ep 75 as of June 2024.

All post-Times Online episodes (starting with episode 179) are available on The Bugle's official channels.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart:

Paramount has axed the Daily Show archives online as of 6/26/24. It's absolutely gutting how little they give a shit about this program. Fuck them.

You're gonna have to sail the high seas to watch this. I'm sorry that this is the state of the US' most important comedy show of the 2000s. Since Paramount hasn't done shit with the old episodes for decades, I wouldn't hold your breath on it entering streaming.

Community:

In the US, this can be streamed on Peacock. Individual episodes can be purchased on YouTube, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime.

Worldwide, Community is now on Hulu.

Every season of Community is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.

John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show:

In the US, the whole show is on Paramount Plus and can be purchased through Amazon and Apple.

This show also got purged in the big Comedy Central erasure, but at least you can buy it still?? Shit silver lining, I know.

Back catalog episodes of Last Week Tonight:

You can buy back catalog episodes on YouTube and Amazon in the US.

The first through sixth seasons of LWT have been uploaded fully on their YouTube in the US, with plans to upload future seasons during breaks in the show's current episodes!

In certain areas outside of the US, LWT is now being uploaded in full on their YouTube channel as well.

HBO Max no longer has back catalog episodes because capitalism is fucking ridiculous, I pay monthly for this service entirely for this show and I can't even watch old news from 5 years ago

The Horne Section:

The whole series is on Taskmaster Supermax+, which should work everywhere except the UK.

In the UK, you can stream this through Channel 4.

Taskmaster:

I've been trying to will this into existence for multiple seasons, no one can stop me

BLOG-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

How did you get into John Oliver?

I answered this in too much detail in two posts, here and here.

Where is your icon from?

UPDATED: It was made by the lovely @stalebagels for me. She is wonderful <3

Is this blog a bit?/Do you really find this man attractive?

No, this is not an ironic bit, I really like John Oliver and find him genuinely hot. (Tbf, I get this question way more in person than online.)

[skaruresonic]

one thing that bothers me us how inconsistent Sonic's character can be, Sonic Team sees over the work idw does and approve it, sell it in Japan and promote it at the Japanese Sega club days then they refer to Sonic prime as canon where Sonic acts like a nine year old. They promote the movies and let Paramount do whatever they want its like they stopped giving a shit. I miss the Sonic X days where atleast his character in Japanese was consistent and canon.

Well, you gotta remember that Sonic is, among other things, a brand. A product that needs to be sold. Sega wants the fandom's money, so they'll follow it wherever it's at. They're not above distorting brand image to appeal to normies and fans who want to change Sonic into something completely different.

If the consumer base decrees that they want Sonic to be a superhero, by hook or by crook, Sonic is going to don that cape.

(...In adaptations and spinoffs. ST maintains a higher standard of quality for the games. I might have my gripes with Frontiers, but Sonic's characterization is not one of them.)

Everybody go home, we've already done this before

What people portray as "Sonic Team's oversight" or "seal of approval" of the IDW book is likely someone at SoJ giving the script a quick glance and deciding it's okay enough to publish.

Not that it's quality. That it passes the vaguest of vibe checks. Getting a C on your test means you passed the test, technically, but that doesn't make you an honor roll student.

Likewise, just because someone manning the phones at Sega says "welp, I don't see Sonic taking a fat rip on that bong, all clear buddy" doesn't mean IDW!Sonic is suddenly a good and game-faithful portrayal. Especially since Flynn has stated that he has more creative freedom with Sonic and Eggman.

Frankly, it's kind of laughable that people genuinely think ST themselves oversee the book's quality when

A.) the bulk of that job ought to be left to editorial (who are asleep at the wheel half the time, what with all the amateur writing and SPAG errors that manage to slip through)

and B.) ST are busy with their own shit? Vtuber Sonic? Sonic Channel stories? Promo-ing with Korone-chan? Developing video games? You think they've got time to pore over every intricacy of a licensed book that they receive no revenue for?

Can't speak for Prime, but the films are essentially another means of getting one foot in the door. They kind of inherently have to appeal to normies and their erroneous conceptions of Sonic so as to introduce new fans to the series.

[jbaileyfansite]

Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer Interview with EW (2023)

Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey do some pretty unspeakable things to each other on camera for Fellow Travelers, whether it's the Bridgerton and Wicked star sucking on Bomer's toes in the premiere episode or the White Collar and Magic Mike stud channeling his inner dom daddy throughout. It's the kind of sexual escapades that force you to clutch your pearls and then realize, "I wasn't even wearing pearls. How did these get around my neck?!"

Maybe it's because we don't often see this kind of raw, unfiltered depiction of gay sexuality put on display for television, even on a premium network like Showtime. "I had never read anything like that before in a screenplay," Bomer tells EW.

"It's provocative and it's all the things that will draw an audience in, or at least get people talking," Bailey remarks in a separate interview. "But then, why is it there? Well, it makes sense." To Bailey's point, there's a lot of story packed into the intimate moments of Fellow Travelers. It's like tricking someone to eat their vegetables: the two nearly naked handsome Hollywood actors in their prime is the alluring melted cheese, but that desperation you feel emanating off two societally suppressed gay characters is the broccoli underneath.

"Anything that feels voyeuristic or chemical to the audience whilst watching it is right, because that is just how overwhelming it is when you do finally come together in a world that deems your love and intimacy foul or incorrect," Bailey explains. "So it becomes a multidimensional experience for the performers, but also for the people watching at home. I just think there's no doubt with this that the art of the sex scene is so profound."

Bomer and Bailey star in Fellow Travelers as Hawk and Tim, who first meet and start an intoxicating affair in 1950s Washington, D.C., a time and place when Senator McCarthy (Chris Bauer) has launched the "Lavender Scare" purge of homosexuals from government positions. The series continues to track Hawk and Tim's relationship across decades, often bouncing between the past and the drama's 1980s present, when Bailey's Tim is stricken with AIDS.

The seventh episode, "White Nights," premiering on Paramount+ Friday and on Showtime this Sunday, sees these on-again, off-again lovers in the '70s on Fire Island. Bailey's mustache says it all. The sex reflects this next setting, which was (and still is) a rare safe haven for these men to express themselves openly.

The actors knew how much emotional and physical intimacy would be required of them for Fellow Travelers from the jump. "It was all on the page," Bailey recalls. "I read the script before I spoke with [showrunner] Ron Nyswaner, so I knew exactly what they were trying to do." The pair recall meeting with each other in Toronto, where the show primarily filmed, at Goldstruck Coffee on Cumberland Street. "It writes itself," Bailey jokes of the shop's playful name. "We were like, we need to see how each other are doing. We got to know each other in a way that was vicariously through the characters. That first conversation, we were totally committed to having each other's backs."

The sex scenes weren't something they overly discussed with each other, beyond "certain intricacies" they had to work out, Bomer says. "Obviously, we were very respectful of each other's boundaries. You did the work on the character, you showed up on set, you knew what your job was, and then you just hopefully try to let it fly when they call action."

"When you're going on set and it's 3 in the morning and you've done 16 hours worth of filming and you are about to only start the intimacy scenes, you do have to summon the angels and listen to Enya and draw from the ground to muster up the courage," Bailey says, playfully. "But that feeling of having to build your confidence and to put your armor on to do that is exactly right, because that's what the characters are feeling."

For Bomer, when it came to the onscreen sex, he enjoyed what he calls Hawk's "zero f---s given" vibe. "Hawk does have a public persona that he needs to survive and maneuver in the world that he's in, but underneath it all is a real 'f--- you,'" he says. "That for me was so refreshing to get to play, but it was also really refreshing to see — not that every intimate gay relationship is like that, but to see an aspect of gay sex brought to life in such an authentic and unflinching way."

Source

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers ONE Review: Autonomy is the Right of All Sentient Beings (Comissoin for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy autobots! This reviews one i'm excited for. See I was hoping One would be good: Rise of the Beasts was a disapointment having some good spots (the soundtrack, Anthony Ramos) but falling into the trap of trying to cram 80 tons of plot into two hours while not developing the robot cast enough. I mean it didn't have robotic gay jokes, racisim, robot testicles, or Optimus Prime gleefully murdering people, instead at worst being an asshole, but it didn't quite reach the heights of Bumblebee , not really taking in it's lessons of "less is more" and "Maybe people like characters"

Thankfully Transformers One takes the later to heart: Transformers One succesfully combines the spectacle people want from robots punching each other on the big screen, with a deep and personal character story of two robots who were like brothers whose ideologies drive them apart. One delivers both huge robot spectacle but grounds it in characters you care about. I'm a more casual fan of the franchise, haven't seen g1 , but I can't be happier as a fan of both transformers and animation itself to see this film and hope it does well over time. The first trailer REALLY didn't help but word of mouth probably will.

So while that's the most I can give without spoilers, I invite you to join me under the cut as I dive into WHY this film is so great, it's characters, ambiguities, great design choices, and the mistep or two. let's call him act 1 bumblebee. It's all under the cut with FULL SPOILERS. Seirously the film relies heavily on a twist about halfway in that while experinced fans and those experinced with fiction can probably see coming, though the marketing did a good job not telegraphing it, is still not something I want to be a dick and spoil outright So join me under the cut, till all are one.

What's Old is New:

Transformers One is the first animated transformers movie in decades: While I really CAN'T explain the 90's as Beast Wars seemed super popular when I was a kid, from the 2000's onward Hasbro largely dubbed anime of the transformers, and once we got to the live action films in the late 2000's through the 2010s Paramount made so much money hand over fist with each entry despite being "they gave devistator truck nuts" levels of baffling and "what seems to be standard micheal bay" levels of racist, they likely felt no need to inovate. If the movies are making them enough money to scrooge mcduck every time one comes out, there's no real reason to fight that if your a studio executive. The cartoons could simply take a queue or two from the films, as both animated and prime did and still make them money.

One comes in during this cash flow: looking into it on wikipedia, I genuinely tried looking elsewhere and couldn't find much, One came about after Age of Exctinction, with Parmount setting up a writers room to pitch sequel ideas. The films title animated nature and basic premise as a prequel came from that.. then as far as I can gather sat on the shelf as they still had binload of money.

Then the last knight happened ,an incoherent mess that had Anthony Hopkins have violent sexual tension with C3PO yet did nothing with it, so naturally it failed at the box office. This lead to Bay steping back from the franchise as a director

And lead to One being dusted off after Bumblebee's success. While the live action films continued with the ehtastic Rise of the Beasts and a GI Joe vs Transformers movie on the horizon, it's clear Parmount saw two things: putting all their transforming eggs in one transforming basket probably wasn't the best idea and animation was making bank post spider-verse. So One was dusted off. It just needed a director. Weirdly despite expresssing intrest in doing it Travis Knight, director of Kubo and the Two Strings, Bumblebee and longtime Laika animator, wasn't tapped.

Instead Parmount went with long time pixar animator and Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley. And cooley ended up being the perfect man for the job: he looked at the script and while he liked the concept he'd been pitched, a prequel focusing on a younger optimus and megatron and their brotherly friendship destegrating into a forever war, he found the script was a bit lighter in tone and wanted to get a tone.

Cooley was a fan of the G1 Cartoon, and in one interview recounted seeing the film as a kid and being blown away by the scope opening on unicron eating a planet. He loved the spectacle of it and wanted to bring that to one, comparing it to epics like ben hur or the tend commandments; big bombastic stories with a very human core, a relationship breaking down at it's core. Cooley also had a great approach to adapting it:he clearly loves the franchise with his reaction to various animators and storyboarders sneaking in their faviorite autobots for cameos simply being

Cooley knew how to adapt the film: honor it's legacy, with plenty of nods to transformers history, but not be beholden to it going for a style that was a mix of g1 astetics but with an art deco sensiblity. Notably his decision not to have orion pax wear the optimus mask a ton was for good reason: instead of just being change for change's sake, it was to let him emote more. It's the same reason Peter Cullen wasn't chosen: Cooley utterly adores cullen but got that this optimus.. isn't him yet. The films about Optimus growing into being a leader and thus needed another tone. More on that later but these interviews gave me even more respect than the film itself already had, showing a man who knew how to adapt something well.

Visually the film is a treat: the animation is done by industrial light and magic, who did the films and who have only done three animated films. To my suprise i'd not only seen them all but one of them wasn't the clone wars. You'd think but no, Lucasfilm outsourced. No instead they did the animation for Rango, also with paramount under nick and Strange Magic, and both films have some impressive animation. I mean the designs for strange magic are questionable, as are a lot of things in that very dumb very fun movie, but it's clear they were just as good at making a fully animated world as they were making animated parts of a live action one. It's been almost a decade since strange magic, but they haven't lost a step.

As a result One looks gorgoeous: we've seen pre war cybertron before, but the big budget means we can see it as a gorgeous gleaming futuristic city with icacon, it' sbucolic surface and it's full glory once the planet is restored at the end. It adds emotoinal weight as the war will likely leave this planet a ravaged cold wreck as usual, but we ge tto see that beauty first. Even with the unlimited budget of comics the cybertron of the idw comics, while not bad looking is a pretty generic city. Here we get a gleaming metropolis that fully takes adantage of the fact some of it's citzens can transform, cramped quarters and mines. It makes cybertron feel truly alive and fils me with the kind of joy and wonder I missed from sci fi. This big colorfulspectacle that dosen't shy away from darker themes or moments, but despite the darkness of it's world, the corruption, the lines, and the tragic destiny that awaits there's a sense of hope. I loved Dune Part 2, still one of my faviorite films of the year and one of the best films i've seen, but it also follows it's characters tragic downfall as he's forced on the path of the chosen one wether he likes it or not and no matter how many genocides he's going to do walking that path. It's nice ot have a thetrical space where you can have a tragic yet hopeful story abotu robots in the same space as a tragic tale of a charsmatic leader's villian origin story. That I can have the kind of fun and thrill I had with star wars before disney decided to make the most pandering film in existance with rise of skywalker and still make no one happy, be a kid again for 90 minutes while still having the intresting stories nd characters that engage me as an adult is nice.

We Were Closer Than Brothers

This quote's been glued to my brain since I first read it in Powers of X, this perfect summation of the disolution of xavier and magento's friendship and why the two were forever at odds. There's a simple gap in who they are, who they want to be that can't be crossed.

And it's that kind of eternally recurring conflict that drives the film. It's one I never realized just how common it is yet so timeless and malleable it's been done a lot. In addition to x-men, both in the comics and the reboot/prequel films, Nartuo and She Ra and the Princess of power both tell the story of two people who are closer than family, but whose lives, egos and core beliefs pull them apart. Granted only one of these takes the obvious route of "and now kiss" but I digress. This is a tale as old as time, the tale of two people who genuinely truly love each other, as family or more. ANd it's one that works really well with these two characters.

This isn't the first version of Transformers to have Optimus and Megatron as former friends: The War for Cybertron Trilogy and Prime both use this idea, as we discussed earlier this month Transformers Cyberverse teased it and the IDW comics i've covered had something close to this: the idea that Pax agress with Megatron that cybertron needs to change and for the better.. but they simply can't agree.

One however gets the time needed to really dig into this: the two aren't just friends.. their best friends. Possibly more but that's left open for interprtation. And in the good way not "QUICK WE NEED TO MAKE THE FILM LESS GAY BECAUSE WE WANT MORE MONEY BECAUSE THAT'S HOW WE THINK THAT'S WORKS. "cooley saw the two as brothers , while it's just as easy to see the two as having feelings for one another. I tend to go towards the latter, with D-16 like he tends to do repressing it and the point being moot by the end as that bridge is burnt beyond recognition.

Transformers One sti feels queer coded, something I noticed pointed out on tv tropes but is hard to ignore once you notice it: it's a story about two young robots one whose proud of who he is and wants to buck the corrupt system they were both born into , the other who keeps his head down and mouth shut, both of whom find out a part of them was kept form them by said system and are allowed to be who they are. It's really not hard to read into that, especailly when the main antagonist is literally stealing a part of who they are. Which is not subtle but the fact a family film is saying this at all and in a way that's hard to ignore is fucking amazing.

Circling back to that first part it's how the two react to the world they live in that defines Pax and D-16 long before they become the bots we all know and love. The world of cybertron is one where a good chunk are seemingly born without cogs, forced to work in mines or other hard labor for hours on end, and all for the glory of their leader Sentinel Prime, played by John Hamm in glorious smarm. The queer coding is hard to tell if it's intentional.. but the film's commentary on how soceites are often built to keep one class, often containg people of color, queer people and others society deems "other", down to profit the rich.

It also shows how those in power create cults of personality: Sentinel gets all this hard work by projecting a show of being this loved glorious figure, going on quests for his people every few days. John Hamm does a damn good job showing just WHY cybertron hangs on his word. In the IDW continuity, Sentinel really didn't hide what a bastard he was beyond what he had to. Here... they all love him and he leaves the dirty work to his minons. They get to bully the lower class and do whatever they please, and he gets the adoration while likely condoning their bullshit because he's just as much of a monster as they are, he just gets to hide it.

It's their reactions to this inequality that define our heroes: Orion is a dreamer. You've seen the type in animation before: he wants a better world, keeps striving and wants his big shot at being someone. But One nicely grounds this: where his now.. is a dangeorus life of mining being bullied constantly and where his heroic act of saving a coworker get shis boss Elita One demoted. It's a world where he can't even look at the past glories of cybertron and it's 13 primes without having to dodge security. Orion senses something is off and that the world can be better. He's an optimist.

What I like though is this isn't without consequence: elita did get demoted and resents him for it, D-16, his best friend, quitely resents him for having to bail him out. He has the heart of Optimus Prime, wanting to try for the best for everybody and wanting to take D-16with him as he gets up in the world... but he lacks the patience he'll gain in time, rushing into things, dragging others with him and generally not thinking before he acts. His actions get a friend demoted and later get him and his best friend sent to the depths.

D-16 on the otherhand.. just wants to keep his head down. Respect authority even if it's unfair, slowly get promoted.. work his way up. The thing is... the system isn't really BUILT to help bots. At most he'll be leading a shift. And while there's nothing wrong with that, as there is in real life blue collar work, he also wants to ignore that there's something.. off with the world. That maybe he dosent' HAVE to be a miner if he dosen't want to or wait centuries to get promoted. He's quick to see the benefits when Pax drags him into thei iacon grand prix.. but just as quick to panic, worrying any slip will get him sent back down. He's resigned that their stuck where they are. And look i'm not saying class disparity is easily sovled in the real world. It's not. But you can still fight for change where you are.

Eventaully though Optimus finds his shot, one that Megatron tries to resisit.. but ultimately can't: what seems to be the matrix. Taking along Elita, who gets dragged along and only agrees if she can arrest their asses if this fails, and B, a bot they find in the depths of waste management, our heroes trek heroically across the planets dangerous surface and duck a quintesson ship.

And the World Screams, Kiss Me Son of God

And it's here.. where the film gets flipped on his head. Now i'll grant the twist isn't super groundbreaking. Having the seemingly nice authority figure turn out to be an asshole is old hat, the film's marketing tried at first to hide the fact Megatron would turn evil till they realized they kinda marketed it bad, it's pretty easy to suspect sentinel. It dosen't help on my end that the previous versions I know are a genocidal racist monster man whose horrible managing of cybertron helped create the decepticons, and a smug prick who needs to be thrown into the sun.

But it works well as Sentinel Prime.. works as a symbol for systemic corruption. The primes were 12 noble people chosen by primus for their character and who ruled justly. Now granted it is iffy having your creator god whose also the planet pick your rulers, but Pax's ascendance later makes it very clear Primus choose not just by destiny but by character. Sentinel claimed he was one and the last survivor after they beat out the quintessons. One's universe uses mostly chunks of the g1 backstory: Primus created transformer kind and became the planet as in the comics, but the Quintessons are still key, just as adversaries rather than a monsterous race that created the transformers as slaves before they rebelled, though still keeping parts of that in spirit. The 13 primes from war for cybertron and prime are added in creating a perfect precursor.

Sentinel however betrayed them, selling them out to the quintessons to become god emperor of cybertron with the mining class born entirely of his own greed, stripping them of their t cogs and indocrinating them. And tha'ts what makes this scary: part of why Sentinel's plan works so well.. is indocrination. To most of Cybertron this is just how things always were. The few people who know gladly keep up the lie. By creating a system he can control, sentinel has guaranteed few will rebel because they have no reason to doubt him. Like any good dictator he's set himself up as the be all end all and as a god unto himself so his people don't question and those like optimus who do are struck down.

Even when Alpha Trion last of the primes played wonderfully by Laurence Fishburne tells them all of this and in a truly beautiful and horrific sequence shows it to them using some dust he controls, only pax and Bumblebee truly digest it. It makes sense for both. Pax has ALWAYS questioned his place in the world so while he's mildly skeptical at worst, for him, someone whose broken into the archives to learn, constantly pushed against the system, finding out "Oh your life is a lie".. is freeing. It's finding out the horrible sytem that hates what you are is wrong. It's where the queer coding comes in finding out no your not wrong.. it's the people who said you not being you were horrible. For Pax this is what he's always wawited for: a mentor who truly respects all he did to get here, a purpose in freeing cybertron, a true world.

For B when we meet him he's spent his life being constantly kicked down rungs for his screw ups, abandoned by Cybertron to it's depths and happy just to have friends. Finding out "oh yeah your leader is a lie and you get to be badass now" is just.. nice. B is just kinda there for the ride. Honestly Bumblebee is just kinda there in the movie. Keegan Michael Key does a great job as the character especially in the second act when he gets to react to the more horrific things going on , but for the first he's just the annoying comic relife. The Badassatron gag gets old FAST and the trailers did not help. The trailers also didn't help focusing entirely on the comedy, which helps offset things and makes the more dramatic and often violent second act work. We get ot know these characters and there world... then see what happens after the curtains lifted and they see what there world always was.

This plays into Elita who i've glanced over, and who dosen't take it well, having to see Sentinel directly selling out to the quintissons to belivie it. Elita did her job, played the system, tried to get out.. and finds out it was rigged the whole time. Elita as we see her is tough, but fair.. wanting to arrest our heroes when they escape to the surface.. but willing to go with them when stranded as if they ARE right she gets what she wants and if their wrong they've agreed to be arrested anyways. Yet when her world turns upside down her response to it is shock.. then acceptance. The world is bad, how can we fix this? She goes with Optimus plan, though dosen't go loyally pointing out it MIGHT not work.. but it's their best option: expose sentinel to the public and hope it turns them.

This... is where D-16 shifts entirely. And his actor Brian Tyree Henry is easily the standout of the cast. No question. We see D-16 as someone who truly belivied in the system and the primes: he's a huge Megatronius Prime fanboy, who in most realities ends up being a tratiorus monster and basically satan.. but here.. is a good person and the strongest of the primes. He respected sentinel, utterly in awe to help him find the matrix, which was said to be lost. So instead he finds out everything he belivied in is a lie and takes it hte hardest: elita was annoyed with the system enough it took light convincing, pax was never for it and B is just happy to be included. But for D... this was everything. This was his LIFE. He rages at Pax for taking them on this adventure, for everything he loved and worshipped being relveaed a lie. Finding out what his life was, or rather what he likely expected it was but refused to admit to himself breaks him.

And that.. unleashes his rage. You get the sense D-16 has a lot of supressed anger: constantly having to tow the line, to clean up after his best friend, to keep his head down.. and finding out it was all for nothing and said friend is the reason he knows this.. unelashes every rage. Every thought he had to keep in every bit of it at once... and he wants Sentinel dead: not brought to justice, not heroically brought down for corruption: DRAGGED THROUGH THE STREETS IN CHAINS TO THE DEPTHS OF THE MINES AND TORN APART. Orion wants justice, he wants revenge.

The film also does a good job not making d-16 just.. evil. He's full of rage, he lashes out at orion.. but you still side with him despite knowing where this angers gonna take him. The system is broken, horrible and nightmarish. Like the IDW megatron, D-16 has EVERY reason to think it needs to burn. Yet you get why Pax wants the softer touch at first: he dosen't care about sentinel fuck that guy but burning it to the ground gets other people caugh tin the fire. Neither is entirley wrong: sentinel probably does need to die, but a brutal execution dosen't help anyone. And as pax can do doing so won't fill the void in his chest. Getting the t-cogs for the literal voids in their chest dosen't either.

The film dosen't entirely stop the lighthearted stuff: We get that great seuqnece form the trailers where our quartet try to transform and end up stuck mid way. It's both a neat idea, as i'ts essentially waking up a whole part of your body you could not use, and fun, based on Cooley's own experinces as a kid where for the more complex transformers they'd end up in a half transformed pile.

But the core is clear... and while the divide between D and Pax deepends as we meet the High Guard

Choked Out

So our heroes are kidnapped by the High Guard, the future decepticons. The High Guard were the primes loyal and noble enforcers but have spent the last however long it's been turned into a rebellion against sentinel, barely scraping by. Granted their also lead by Starscream which has never gone well and there's no giant gun to shoot him with nor volcano to throw him in so their kinda stuck.

I do love Starscream here played by the one and only Steve Buschemi who gets Sceamers smugness and arrogance right while adding in a dash of bloodthirst and class. The High Guard has devovled into a might makes right hellscape. And it's this hellscape.. that finishes creating megatron. I belivie had b had time to process or think , he MIGHT of not become megatron. It's likely why Alpha Trion still trusted him.. though as Brotoman pointed out when we discussed the film it could just as easily be that trion didn't care and wanted D-16 to go on a blood rampage. This still puts him above the G1 version whose only menoring to optimius was bringing him back form the dead like jesus after four robots from the future wondered in.

But the high guard share his views: wanting to burn it down, wanting to use brute force, resenting the rest of cybertron. It's all there. And the high guard are the army he needs to pull off his goals, as he's grown to resent optimus and Bee and Elita are firmly on his side.

So in a fit of Irony it's starscream who helps fully cement the creation of megatron. Megs is annoyed at their postering, doing seemingly nothing and done with their shit. He plans to just fuck off if their not going to do anything. Starscream as usual for him takes this as a challenge. And as usual across space and time megatron's response is exactly as good for starscream as you'd expect.

Megatron fucks him up so bad his VOICE changes. Yeah in this continuity Starscream's whiny voice.. is because megatron choked him out. And Starscream was into it asking for more. Was it a love of violence or is starscream discovering he's a sub?

But it's the point to me where D-16.. is gone. He hasn't turned full villian yet.. but he's found himself surronded by likeminded bots whose reaction to them choking out tehir leader is FUCK YEAH! YOU GET EM MEGS. I grant spending at least a decade around starscream is probably a lot for anyone, but it's still nicely horrifying and I like this barbarian portrayl of the decepticons: that they too started from a good place but having to constantly fight while being seen as traitors and being isoilated casued all their warrior instincts to go to a whole lord of the flies situation.

Megatron dosen't get to bask in his new horde or a nearly destroyed starscream who only lives because Orion is there.. and D makes it VERY clear this won't happen again. The mercy thing. Instead Sentinel kidnaps most of them with only Orion and Elita escaping.

You've Found my Breaking Point, Congradulations

So our two heroes are now seperated.. and while it was clear what path D-16 was on, it's Orion's turn to cement his. Oriion.. is not doing so good

He feels this is all his fault, that his constant diving into stuff hurt people and while before he was able to brush it off, the elita one situation REALLY wasn't his fault, enlisting megatron in the race was an attempt to help them, and even ending up in the cybertron's bowels, he figured Sentinel would come from them. Every reckless action and unintended consequence was just a step up. And he wasn't entirely wrong, his actions were well meaning.. but it's here he finally gets the downside and what makes his earlier character work: that relization that yes, he meant well, yes he wasn't wrong.. but he was still dragging everyone along with him when they kept telling him no and while in the long run, even with what he's about ot become, d-18's better for it, Orion finally gets that he can't just keep assuming people will be better off or he knows what's better.

Granted he takes this as

But Elita has changed. She's seen the good that's happened from it and encourages pax... she also rubs in that she's smarter than him, true, but also that as annoying as he could be to her... he had one thing she didn't, that d-16 didn't... hope. He never gave up, just fell into the system. He never stopped beliving in a better world even after finding out it was a lie. He dosen't try to stop sentinel just because "what else am I going to do" or "revenge" he's doing this because he WANTS a better world for everyone. To lift people up. He dragged d-16 into this not because he was blind, but because he wanted to help him. He wanted them both to see the sun. To build tommorow together. And maybe make out a little. His methods weren't great, but he was always trying to do the right thing.

So with that Pax isn't back to his old self he's better, and thinks out his plan for a second.. and it's a brilliant one, for once not just winging it but thinking it out: they need to take down sentinel. They can't broadcast his misdeeds for now, but they can at least stop him. They dont' have enough of an army as only half the guard escaped, so it's time to split up: Elita will lead the rest of the elite guard to free their captured brethren, Orion will go rally the miners who already trust and look up to him. Shockwave asks "Wait why would I do that" and get sa cup of punch in the face as his answer, while Soundwaves like "eh why the fuck not. " I do love shockwave in this film, he's just a pathetic butt monkey aand sounds like bluster blaster. It's glorious.

Meanwhile Megatron gets some MORE trauma. He refuses to bend the knee for Sentinel. Sentinel's plan is to frame the guard as destrutive rebels and megatron as one. And he has a chilling line I love: "The truth is whatever I say it is: it's the truth and i'ts chilling and Hamm does a fantastic job going from egotistical ass to chilling dictator at the drop of a hat, never dropping the smarm. Sentinel is the perfect vilian for this film: a legit threat and meance.. but also someone clearly there to be the starter villian: someone who unites our heroes at first but gets the fuck out of the way for the emotional climax. It makes the whole 'Oh no the heroes idol is evil" twist we've seen a lot. A lotttt, go down smother as while he's evil enough that his final takedown is satisfying, he's not so menacing or compelling you feel he's wasted. He's just comeplling enough

He's also a massive dick and upon seeing Megatron's sticker, he's been wearing a decal of megatronus, he rips it off.. and fucking BRANDS megatron. Yeah there's.. some racial stuff buried in here that as a white dumbass i'm not qualified to talk about. But it is brutal as hell.

SO while Team Elita crashes a train into a buildling to start the climax, because Elita is the best and I wish I had more to say about her other than she's the most badass one there is and Scarlett Johnasen is having a LOT of fun playing her, Orion goes to inspire a line of cameos. There are a LOT with Ironhide and Arcee being the most prominent.

The Miners are chafing under the strips not helped by Dreadwing, their supervisor and the dickbag who demoted Elita earlier and who in general is a bullying asshat. So naturally Optimus easily deals with him with a punch to the face. It's a nice moment that says a lot with just one punch: Optimus has problems FAR BIGGER than one petty asshole and has grown, literally and metaphorcially past him.

Orion having a t-cog and easily taking out the local bully is enough to get everyone to listen and he gives his first true rousing speech, revealing the truth, admitting they dont' have much reason to belivie him, but beliving ther'es something better.. there has to be and Sentinel has no right ot take it: So with mining equipment and jetpacks, our hero leads the future autobots. AI am a bit iffy about all the autobots being in one group and the decipticons in another, but the sequel could help flesh it out and I get they only had 90 minute sto pack a lot in. One is VERY overstuffed and takes place over maybe two days tops. A lot happens.. but it all feels resonable and well set up: D-16 changes entirely but it's hard to say megatron wasn't lurking under the surfance and a LOT of trauma in less than a day didn't change him. Likewise Optimus and Megatron rising as leaders.. makes perfect sense; The Guard had spent years hiding and stewing and suddenly a new kid comes along with more o fa vision than ducking and weaving and easily chokes out the guy who was likely only leader because he killed a few people who said no to that. He then refuses to bow to sentinel despite knowing what this might means an dkeeps getting up.

Meanwhile Optimus leads not through badassery.. but hope. He puts his dreamer nature to good use and instead of inspiring his troops thorugh violence, inspires them. And because Oriion was already a decent guy who instead of being seen as a weird outcast, was seen as a guy who did what they wished they could, a nice turn of that usual "never accepted weirdo" thing we get, because he was simply a good perosn.. people listen.

So here comes the climax.

Throw My Better Self Overboard, Shoot At Him When He Comes Up for Air

So we get our big climactic battle as our untied rebel forces eat the rich while Elita squares off with Airachnid. I hadn't brought up Airachnid because her plot relevance for most of the movie is to stand around and look menacing, being Sentinel's liutiennt. And I like how they went for something diffrent: true to the name she's part modern helicopter, part spider and usies her spider legs to brutally tear into foes, leaping on them and tearing them to shreds. While the rest of Sentinels mooks, various mass produced drones ala the ones Megatron has in prime, go down easily when fighting Alpha trion she took him down and let sentinel finish him off later because of course he wanted to gloat.

So while the final battle goes down to the two female robots of importance duking it out, it still works as it makes sense: Elita has quickly become the autobots bruiser and Optimus second in command, and Sentinel is busy gloating to his captives. Rather than the cliched "well the women must fight because a man punching her would be too mucH" it feels like a fight between each sides seconds that's also brutal and well done.

Orion however has a plan and while he and an ungreatful B-17 fight Sentinel, who reveals he took Megatronius cog, he has elita grab airachnid as she showed off her creepy camera head before... and thus he realizes she has incriminating footage. So while Bumblbee finds he has knife hands and helps clear the way, our heroes team up.. kinda.

I also have to give it to the fighting here: Something Cooley made sure to include was transforming. In most continuites the transforming is used maybe to ram a fucker and most fighting is as the robots. Here ther'es a lot of transforming in combat: Ariachind uses her alt mode to gain advantage as it can fly nad elita's can't. Sentinel uses his massive jet form's firepower to even the odds before diving back into bot mode. D-16 RAMS into the fucker with his tank mode, uses it frequently for blasting and easily switches back into combat. It's fluid, gorgeous and really takes advantage of the trasnforming to turn every fight into a spectacle.

While D-16 fights Sentinel, Orion inacts his plan: hyjack the radio tower and er.. slam Airachnids face into the console therebye getting the footage he needs.

Sentinel's outed as a bad guy, everythin'gs fine? right? right? Right D-16.. whose inching towards sentinel and... oh... oh no.

So Orion rushes to prevent his friend from doing a murder, whiel Sentinel pathetically crawls away. He begs him not to do this, that this isn't the right way.. but it won't work this time. Pax says the wrong thing: "Don't be like sentinel". He threatnes pax to move and pax instead jumps int he way.. and is shot , barely alive. And thus.. two bots die... D-16 throws Orion Pax into the core of the planet "I'm done saving you". One wanted war, to keep raging forever against a planet that wronged him the other wanted to fix tha tplanet and restore it. In the end it was two roads that simply HAD to diverge but damn do they make it painful. You see just how much these two meant, how much good they acomplished..b ut ultimately B-17 can't let go of his rage and pain.. and he shoudln't.. not entirely. He can still feel hurt and rageful.. but it's in trying to tear the rest of the world down where he failed.

Sometimes the world DOES need to burn, but if you don't think about the people who get hurt, then your in the wrong.

Where You Go Once You Arrive, Where We Go Once We Arrive

The next scene.. is the films best... a truly striking back and forth series of cuts as we see the true ascendance, the birth of megatron and optimus prime given all the gravitas 40 years of stories, conuities and tellings of these two's clash.

Megatron gives a firey horrifying speech as he rips Sentinel in half. The film is unflinching with hit's violence. It did have to cut around things.. but all that did was have cooley let your mind fill in the gaps. For a family film, this is fucking brutal, and it all crecnedoes with a bot getting ripped in half. likely being robots gave them some leeway, but it's still horrifying to see. I don't feel bad for sentinel he fucking deserved it but Megatron giving him a mortal kombat fatality then going on to scream about he's going to burn iacon down, destroy every last person loyal to sentinel to burn the world no matter who gets hurt... it underlines Optimus point. While Sentinel defeintly deserved to die, this dosen't fix anything. This dosen't change iacon for the better, it just replaces a tyrant who made the trains run on time and again deserved his mortal kombat fatality, with one who thinks he's doing the right thing while killing as many people as he has to to do it. Neither version of this is good but Megatron is too blinded by trauma to see that and thus has become something almost as bad as what left.

Thankfully as Megatron rises... so too does another. As he falls into the core, his body dead.... Orion Pax meets the primes, all 12 showing up.. with Alpha Trion himself anointing our hero. This could easily be iffy: chosen one narratives aren't nearly as common these days for a reason and this is the same year where Dune Part 2 showed just how bad that could go based on a book all the way back in the 60s, just taking out the racisim and sexism.

So instead Orion Pax becomes robot jesus this time not because destiny says so.. but simply because he acted well. He acted nobly, selfishless and laid his life down and thus he not only rises from the dead but gets an upgrade: a cool ax ehe does the thor thing with , which had to be intetional, able to take out a hudnered bad guys with swords or at least all three main decipticons with only megatron giving him trouble.

So before our climactic breakup, le'ts talk about primus. Some consider the idea Primus is a two faced prick: he made the matrix of leadership, the source of cybertron's energon in this continuity and why they have to mine without it, not feel so good and go away into dust robbing sentinel of it.

Me... I think it wasn't the smartest move given Sentinel then created a slave race to do the job and it didn't really stop him.. but my take is that it was all primus COULD do. Primus did create the primes to guard cybertron, but that was right after becoming the planet and space god. My honest interpretation, one backed up by talking to brotoman is that primus isn't as fully cognizant without the matrix. In the war for cybertron duology, Primus created the matrix as a way for it to be with the rest of cybertron kind as it really coudln't commuincate outside it's core. If eel that's the same here: that it can only do so much and without the matrix as a conduit, all it could do was thrash blindly, hence the storms of the surface and the mines shifting horribly. THe mines woul dbe closer to cybertrons core, giving him more dexterity. Prime fell directly into a shaft leading down int oCybertron's bowels and into it's core, which gave Primus a chance to look him over, see what he did. If you notice primus doesn't even talk directly. He has to use alpha trion's ghost. Primus transformation into cybertron likely put him beyond most cybertronians and unlike say Unicron if he shows up, please let him show up, he can't go back and forth.

Now that's just my interpretation but it's something I like about the film: the world's well built and set up.. but it dosen't explain everything. It leaves some ambguity: where the primes as perfect as they seemed or was sentinel right to resent them, even if

Did Alpha Trion know the risks he was unleashing with megatron? We don't know, and tha'ts okay. And yes the sequels probably will clear some of this up if we get them, but it's still something really neat to think about.

For now we get an awesome fight with Optimus ending the thing by slicing Megatron's fusion canon. He commands him to leave: he tried to conquer cybertron, killed a man and broke Optimus' heart in the process. Megatron bitterly leaves setting up a sequel that please please please god let us have some form of sequel, and takes the gaurd with him.

This leaves optimus in charge, and their paths set: Optimus turns the miners into the autobots and gives them their cogs back, restoring cybertron.. and Megatron... brands his new peeps the decepticons. THey are not being being decieved and they will open cybertrons eyes and close optimus'. It's a truly painful but well done ending with both rising : Optimus prepares to hold off the quintsions.. and Megatron prepares to do what he planned to do in the first plac.e. burn it down. They were close but now... the war begins.

The One and Only One

Transformers One is a masterpiece, well worth a look in theaters. I'ts a feast ofr the eyes. But it's it' semotinal core that makes it: following two young men as one goes from reckless dreamer to real leader, with his voice lowering the right octaves, and the other going from a stickler for the rules to a radical planning to kill as many people as he has to to save cybertron from hitself. One is a heartfelt epic, with eye popping colors, great social commentary and a hell of an emotional core. This is the best of the transformers films i've seen, probably not a stretch to say the best given it lacks robot testicles or a man waving around a piece of paper saying he can fuck teenagers, but still a truly great film I hope Paramount gives a sequel even if it dosen't do gangbusters. In a year with maybe three animated films i've wanted to see theatrically, this was a welcome treat and is one of the best transformers stories. Go see it, thanks for reading and remmeber you can win if you dare.

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Benjamin Sisko

By Ames

We’ve segued so smoothly into Deep Space Nine for our character spotlights here on A Star to Steer Her By that you didn’t even notice it. Thank you, Worf. So this week we’re doing an in-depth look at one of the more complex lead characters of a Trek series, Benjamin Lafayette Sisko. He might be the leader who gets tested the most out of any of our main stars, and he makes probably the most wide-ranging decisions – though typically that decision is “let’s see how this goes.”

From first contacts with the Gamma Quadrant, to yet another standoff with Klingons, to full blown Dominion War, to whatever was going on with the wormhole aliens, Ben’s got a long list of moments for us to consider. So grab yourself a bowl of jambalaya, hop in your solar sail ship, and maybe get a little war crimes as a treat! Scroll on below for our Sisko spotlight and listen to a ton of spare moments on this week’s podcast (jump through the wormhole to 1:04:00). Ow!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

There’s no hurry Our first contact with beings from the Gamma Quadrant is also DS9’s first breaking of the Prime Directive. In “Captive Pursuit,” Miles is trying desperately to save Tosk from his hunters and Sisko is doing his best to technically stay within the rules, and it’s a rare success of doing both. Telling Odo to take his time in apprehending O’Brien shows that Sisko is coming from a place of real morality.

Find something you love, then do it the best you can We could name great moments between Ben and his son all day, but there’s more to our list than that, so let’s sum things up with a perfectly pure moment of excellent parenting from “Shadowplay.” Sisko is immediately accepting of Jake not wanting to follow in his footsteps and join Starfleet, and melts our hearts. Doing something he loves and being true to himself is far more important than legacy.

Cardassians love cosmetic surgery Appropriately, we watched Enterprise’s “Judgment” on the podcast this week and spent most it comparing it to The Undiscovered Country and “Tribunal.” When O’Brien is on trial in Cardassian kangaroo court and his lawyer is doing nothing to defend him, Sisko walks in with an undercover Cardassian spy in tow and wins the whole thing without saying a word. Like a badass.

Humans used to be a lot worse than the Ferengi We brought this up last week in our Worf chat too, but there’s a general racism towards the Ferengi all through Deep Space Nine. Quark calls Sisko out for it in “The Jem’Hadar” when Sisko and he are butting heads, and by the end of the episode, Sisko has seen Quark in a new light and refuses to leave him behind because Sisko got over some his prejudice (at least a little bit).

I’ll see that you get that chance Speaking of that prejudice against our lobed friends, everyone and their moogie is dubious when Nog claims he wants to join Starfleet in “Heart of Stone,” which would be a first for a Ferengi. But when Nog tells Sisko that he’s serious and looking for a life that will earn him real respect, the commander takes him at his word and vouches for him, putting in motion one of the best character arcs in Trek.

Some taboos are made to be broken Throughout the series, the relationships between characters are probably the strongest in Trek, and a true highlight is watching Sisko with his old/new friend Jadzia Dax. It’s such a beautiful scene in the equally beautiful “Rejoined” when Ben tells her that he’d still support her if she decides to break Trill taboo and hook back up with Lenara Khan. He’s that good a friend.

Don’t you see, Admiral? You’re fighting the wrong war. Around season 4, the show really tests Sisko with some ethical conundrums during the Dominion War. This is one he passes with flying colors. In “Paradise Lost,” Sisko is able to see his old mentor and silver medal winner from Jake’s Evil Admirals list, James Leyton, for what he really is: a megalomaniac who uses the Changeling threat as an excuse to incite a coup. Until Ben steps in!

Presenting the newest honoree in the Order of the Bat’leth It takes a certain level of crazy to think you can infiltrate the best warriors the Klingons have to offer, and luck for us, Captain Sisko is just that level of crazy. Avery Brooks seems oddly at home portraying a blood-thirsty Klingon being inducted into the Order of the Bat’leth in “Apocalypse Rising,” and even better, he and Odo (mostly Odo) expose Changeling Martok!

Don’t let Bajor in the Federation! We say it all the time on the podcast and today is no different: Bajor is NOT ready for Federation membership, no matter what Picard says. So when Sisko goes fully nuts after getting zapped by a plinth in “Rapture” and crashes the Federation membership ruling, we are fully supportive of his absolute batshit meddling. And ya know what, it works out for Bajor because of it!

Sisko, you’re baby crazy Any time Sisko is with a baby is truly joyful. This from a podcast of self-professed non-baby people. But this man’s mirth is so pure we’ve got to give it to him. Avery Brooks isn’t even acting in “Children of Time” when he dandles that baby, or in “The Abandoned” when he’s nostalgic about Jake as a baby, or in “Heart of Stone” when he’s delighted that Vilixpran is budding. This man just loves babies.

Let’s pretend that the Major’s not even here… By season 6, Gul Dukat is at his lowest point – he’s lost the station, his daughter is dead, and he’s more nuts than Ben in “Rapture”! And Captain Sisko plays him like a fiddle! “Waltz” is such an amazing showcase of acting talent, with Avery Brooks and Marc Alaimo bouncing off each other like pros. Sisko pushes his Cardassian counterpart over the edge and survives the cave of madness, some-freaking-how!

The Emissary has completed his task Sisko’s final action in this corporeal plane is also the climax of the whole series, culminating the wormhole alien plot that was started at the very beginning. And while we may whine that the Kosst Amojen plotline in “What We Leave Behind” felt rushed at the end, we have to admit that it’s cathartic to have the Emissary make a huge sacrifice to take out the pah-wraiths in the series finale.

—

Worst moments

This is how you hold a grudge Interestingly, the first taste we get of the jambalaya-slinging commander is him being bitter and fickle in the series premiere, “Emissary.” The show immediately introduces him being a dick to Picard, stewing with rage over Locutus’s part in the Battle at Wolf 359 (as if Picard had any control of that!). He also clearly doesn’t want to be in command of the station, starting him off with character conflict that the series will build on.

If I hear of you hanging around with him… Continuing our running gag that the only alien species the show seems to think it’s okay to be racist against is the Ferengi we brought up last week with Worf, we see more instances of it from Sisko early in season one in “A Man Alone.” When Ben basically tells Jake to not hang around with Nog anymore, it’s flavored with that anti-Ferengi racism we’re sadly accustomed to.

When in the Mirror Universe, do as the Mirror Universe people do We have a lot of issues with how DS9 trots out the mirror universe all the time, and it’s at its most uncomfortable when Sisko goes over there and sleeps with his friends’ counterparts in “Through the Looking Glass.” Sure, there’s not much you can do when Intendant Kira sets her sights on you, but it’s simply wrong to take advantage of Mirror Jadzia, regardless of how hot she is.

Abusing your power is so romantic Sisko is so blinded by love in “For the Cause” that he ignores all the signs that his girlfriend Kasidy has been aiding the Maquis. And then Ben abuses his power as commander of the station to get her out of an inspection when she bats her eyes at him, which is straight-up unethical. As we’ll see, Sisko tends to make terrible decisions when the Maquis are involved…

Red – the blood of angry men Arguably the most immoral acts that Sisko commits are the war crimes in “For the Uniform.” Even after Starfleet tries to take him off the Maquis assignment, Sisko’s obsession with taking out Eddington has gotten so personal that it clouds ALL his judgment. If we gave Picard grief about removing the residents of Dorvan V, then we’ve got to rake Sisko over the coals for POISONING A PLANET and relocating more people!

Prophets, take the wheel! Half our Worst Moments come from the last two seasons when Sisko is tested more than any other Trek captain due to the Dominion War. And so often, he chooses the messed up response. I am still trying to figure out his Hail Mary play in “Sacrifice of Angels” when he flies headlong into the wormhole against thousands of ships and ends up asking the wormhole aliens to do a literal deus ex machina for him. Leeeeroy! Jennnnkins!

What’s a better response to a “Yo Mama” joke than this? I shat on this one in our time travel post, but Sisko using his status as Emissary to let Kira play with the Orb of Time in “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night” because Dukat banged her mom and then gabbed to her about it is absolutely incompetent of him! Why anyone has access to that thing is incomprehensible because it just begs for time shenanigans!

I can live with it… because Vreenak can’t Arguably one of Deep Space Nine’s best episodes, “In the Pale Moonlight” forces Sisko to make the hardest decision a Starfleet officer has to make – and he jumps at the chance to pick the option involving committing more war crimes. While it is a huge benefit to get the Romulans on your side, Sisko knowingly accomplishes this through lies, counterfeiting, bribery, murder, and most damning of all: enlisting the help of Elim Garak!

Sisko SMASH! Here’s another instance when Ben abuses his power, this time in order to get access to an ancient artifact from Bajor in “The Reckoning.” And what does the Emissary do once he’s borrowed the tablet without asking permission, promising to take good care of it and that he’ll return it first thing in the morning? He destroys it utterly in a fit of rage, releasing some spirits that nearly gets Jake and Kira killed.

Pick a lane, Ben I will always give Sisko guff about this. In “Accession,” he has accepted his role as Emissary to the prophets while he’s already serving as commander of Deep Space Nine, and frankly, Ben, you can’t be both! It’s a HUGE conflict of interest. In “Tears of the Prophets,” Admiral Ross gives him some hell for this when he’s torn between the Prophets and Starfleet, and he’s right! Step down!

You’re outta here! “Take Me Out to the Holosuite" is a polarizing episode that fans either love or hate (even your SSHB hosts are mixed!), but you’ve got to admit: Sisko is a terrible baseball coach! He forces all of this senior staff to play a baseball game in the middle of wartime, cancels his girlfriend’s shipments to make her to play too, kicks Rom off the team, gets obsessively competitive about it, and then gets himself thrown out anyway! How many strikes was that?

They warned you that marrying me would bring you sorrow Finally, we are still cross with Sisko for knocking up Kasidy. In “The Dogs of War,” Kasidy tells him she’s pregnant because he forgot to take his contraception, even though Bashir is constantly reminding him! This is a world in which having children should always be a choice because future contraceptives are basically magic, AND he’s been told that he’s basically cursed, so take your damn meds, jackwit.

—

Well, we can live with it. We can live with it. We’ve also got more DS9 character spotlights on the way if you keep watching this blog, more Enterprise watch-throughs on the way if you keep listening to us on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, and more announcements from Ops over on Facebook and Twitter. Computer, erase that entire personal log.

[aortaplatinum]

I saw Transformers One with my girlfriend today and first of all fuckin awesome movie, awesome Transformers movie, I hope Paramount eventually does the same with Sonic and just goes fully animated instead of being seemingly somewhat embarrassed by the source material. But I noticed something- Transformers makes for a beautiful Gnostic parallel narrative.

*MASSIVE GIGANTIC SPOILERS FOR TRANSFORMERS ONE FOLLOW*

In the lore presented in Transformers One [which may be slightly different from the more mainline accepted canons], Cybertron was formed when Primus, essentially a god, BECAME the planet, and Primus sort of birthed the Primes, which could be read as lower gods. Prime or not, the sentient living metal beings of Cybertron are powered by "Sparks". One of the Primes, Sentinel Prime, acted foolishly and betrayed the others for his own personal gain of power, leading to the Matrix of Leadership vanishing and Energon ceasing to flow freely on Cybertron.

If you know anything about Gnosticism, this should already sound familiar. Primus can very clearly be read as Monad, "The One", God above all the Aeons he is made up of. The Primes are these Aeons, and Sentinel is both Sophia and Yaldabaoth- the foolish child who caused the entire system to nearly fall apart due to one massive misstep, and the false god of a broken world. Sophia's fall is Sentinel's fall. D-16 says at one point "they worship Sentinel" referring to the Cybertronians. The concept of a Spark is one that's blatantly obvious- in Gnosticism, humans are each made up of a Divine Spark having emanated from Monad and his Pleroma of Aeons, breaking through to the material universe; Sparks in Transformers are created of Primus as the core of Cybertron, and these Sparks are given physical handmade bodies or placed in mass production bodies.

When Orion Pax is shot by D-16 and dropped into the core of Cybertron, he is reborn as Optimus Prime. Primus, Monad, sees that this Divine Spark has ascended from Psychic to Pneumatic, the highest order of human, and bestows upon him the Matrix of Leadership and restored life, giving him a new physical body with which he can transform his world. D-16, on the other hand, begins the story as a Hylic and becomes a Psychic when he learns the truth about Sentinel Prime. But D's focus is still in the physical, material world- he sees killing Sentinel as the only way forward, while Pax understands that killing will do nothing to change the pain Sentinel has already caused. This is where the two's conflict and rivalry has its roots, Optimus Prime seeks to unite "all as one", mirroring humanity's return to our divine creator and the Pleroma, while Megatron places his full focus on the ruling of Cybertron with an iron fist.

Optimus can also be interpreted as a Christ figure, but the similarities are a lot more shaky. Christ was and is a direct creation of Monad, Sophia, and the Pleroma, an intentionally created material human sharing a strong and direct tie to his Father. Orion Pax was simply a Divine Spark who ASCENDED to a Christlike status. This actually causes him to more closely resemble Moses from the book of Exodus, as Moses was a strong-willed man of God who spoke directly TO God and became the leader of the Biblical pre-Christ Jews in their flight from tyrannical Egypt.

I grew up Christian but I'm still confused on a lot of Gnostic concepts and I'm obviously a very new Transformers fan, so please let me know if I got anything super wrong.

[invincible-selfxmade-punk]

After 8 years I got rid of my dish service, DirecTV.

Once my husband gave me his old game system where I could access Prime video, netflix, and YouTube it was all over.

He thought I was using the service and I thought he was using the service and honestly the only thing we were doing was occasionally buying aew pay-per-views and maybe once a month checking in all the actual shows and for this we had to pay $180 a month.

It just so happened that I got a Walmart Plus Membership last year and it came with a Paramount plus free subscription which I never tried out. So we set up an account through Walmart and sure enough we get it for free and between those services and then my husband pays for peacock himself for the WWE oh my God we do not need cable at all!!

Paramount plus even has all these really old TV shows like Love Boat and the original Hawaii Five-O.

AND

There is a brand new Criminal Minds franchise that I didn't even know existed!! I am three episodes in and I am so so happy.

Before I got the game system I would always put on Blue Bloods to watch while I slept. And they have Blue Bloods on Paramount plus as well.

I have also become absolutely obsessed with the movie Talk to Me.

I rented it and watched it twice and I'm about to run it again so hubby and I can watch it together. I will be so glad when it is on a streaming service because it seems like it's been out forever, yet you can only see it by either subscribing to Showtime or renting it.

The calling card of modern horror seems to be to have characters who are so pretentious and unlikable you do not care when they die. And I hate that. That's why I really like movies like talk to me, the Sacrifice game, The Red Rose series, Saint Maude, etc

The teenagers in this are not pretentious, they're dialogue is not what people think teenagers sound like, and they're not just these psychos are sociopaths that are horrible to each other even before the bad stuff starts happening. They are just really really stupid in the moment which is really close to real life.

Tomorrow I go to Midland to finally see Michaela doctor and finally get my drops renewed. I am down to one drop and the stupid cornial surgeon absolutely would not refill any of my glaucoma meds because he said he was not qualified to do that. But I'm doing okay because my pressures were fine when he checked them all the 30th. And since Midland is a hell of a lot closer than Lubbock I am praying for a Very Fast Trip in and out.

A week after tomorrow I have my first professional development day in Midland which is going to be rough cuz it's a whole day of class. But I guess we'll see how it goes.

I still need to get my last shingles shot but considering how bad the first one knocked me out I don't know what I'm going to be able to schedule the next one is going to have to be on a period of time where I know I'm not going to get out of bed for a couple of days. And then I need to schedule my colonoscopy.

I swear summer for everybody else seems to be this great thing but for teachers it's when we have to deal with any health problems that we were not able to deal with during the year and of course all the professional development that we're having to take and honestly this is the first year that we've been required to take it in the summer.

My first three Summers I had to myself and I was able to just lay around and travel whenever I wanted to Period And then it was like every other summer either I was getting another eye surgery or I was studying for another Certification.

I just want to do nothing but stay in bed and read but if I do that I hate myself and I feel lazy.

Ah, the duality of man.

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

AutobotSariSumdac2023-Blog Part 1 + Cybertronian & FNAF (2023)

----------------

[Note: DO NOT REBLOG WITHOUT PERMISSION] 

Credit for Transformers goes to Hasbro & Takara

Credit for Transformers Animated goes to Sam Register & Matt Youngberg

Credit for Transformers Prime Series goes to Allspark Company

Credit for Ancient Autobot Language & Decepticon Language goes to Jim Sorenson

Credit for Transformers Film Series goes to Paramount Pictures & Michael Bay 

Credit for FNAF goes to Scott Cawthon

------

at first when I drew Sari’s robot form’s head, it was originally just gonna be for the drawing at the bottom of Sari’s blog....

but then I got the idea to use the drawing for a type of “blog” idea....

even if it is more of a Ficto-Blog that is suppose to be Sari writing her feelings down about how she feels about being Techno-Organic and finding out that her Mom is technically Megatron.

so I am posting both works in this and since this is also a Crossover as well, I also added FNAF Fanart for one of the tags, as well as the Crossover fanart tag.

and since Breakdown and Knockout from Transformers Prime are mention in this as well, I added their names into the tags as well.

oh and in Sari’s blog, her timeline’s Prowl never stayed offline for long.

because Sari’s key still had lots of power in it, and when this version of Sari upgraded herself, she still looked the same age, so when she transformed into robot form during her childhood, she looked like a 8 year old robot.

one of the things that did change was her eye color, which like her counterpart that used all the allspark-key to not just upgrade herself but become much older...

but this version of Sari who goes by the username “AutobotSariSumdac2023″

she only used a little of the allspark-key’s power to only upgrade herself a little, and still stayed the same age she was before she upgraded herself.

this version of Sari didn’t end up hurting Bumblebee after the upgrade.   

maybe I will only make a few of “AutobotSariSumdac2023′s Blog”

not sure if I will make a lot of it, maybe only a few.

also as it points out in the poorly wrote Cybertronian Language,

The Transformers Reaction Force aren’t my favorite and I view them as being dirty shisno (Thank You Red Vs Blue for starting the “Shisno Word”)

I tried my best to write in Cybertronian, but it didn’t come out very well.

at least I added the translation in there.

I don’t know which group is the biggest Shisno in the Bayformers Universe, Sector Seven or The Transformers Reaction Force....

yeah it’s no contest, 100% The Transformers Reaction Force....

they make Sector Seven seem like misbehaved children in comparison.

 anyway when I can, I will make a Part 2 of AutobotSariSumdac2023′s blog.

not sure if I will make very many, maybe only a few.

I can’t promise that I will make a whole lot of AutobotSariSumdac2023��s Ficto-Blog.

I got the idea on February 18, 2023, and not sure if I will make it into a very big thing.

and just in case, I’m going to have some of the tags have “budding”, “asexual reproduction”, “mature audiences only” and “not for kids”  because even if this isn’t really like “super mature” but because it does have Sari mentioning Cybertronian’s going through a budding stage, and well she does end up adding that it is Asexual Reproduction for Cybertronians.

and well best to play it safe...just in case.

Knockout viewing Sari as his baby, and being like a Mother-Hen to her, just seem like a interesting idea to have Sari write for her blog.      

like picture a Transformers x Steven Universe Crossover,

and Knockout being like Pearl, and if he encounters SG-Sari

who tries to pass herself off as Sari, he might end up screaming “THAT’S NOT MY BABY” while hugging on to Safeguard (who is more like a platonic fusion like Steven & Greg’s fusion, only instead it being a Father & Son Fusion, it’s a Sibling Fusion, because Safeguard is made up of the twins Jetfire & Jetstorm.)

as for who would be the Amethyst, I would pick Wreck-Gar.

if Knockout ever ended up having a crush on Wreck-Gar, would it be viewed as him being Moronsexual....?  

well in the canon timeline of TFP, Breakdown does end up you know....

great, now I want to ship Knockout x Wreck-Gar. XD

should they be Knock-Gar or Wreckout...?

I would go with both, beware of the odd couple that is TFP-Knockout x TFA-Wreck-Gar.

weirdest ship idea ever but I love it. XD

[laresearchette]

Tuesday, March 19, 2024 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

This Video Not Available in Your Country: Tuesday Canadian Lineup (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES? THAT GIRL LAY LAY (Season 2) (Paramount+ Canada) THE VALLEY (Slice) 10:00pm

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

NETFLIX CANADA BRIAN SIMPSON: LIVE FROM THE MOTHERSHIP FOREVER QUEENS (Season 2) (MX) PHYSICAL 100: SEASON (KR)

CURLING (TSN/TSN5) 8:00am: BKT Tires World Women's Curling Championship: Italy vs. Canada (TSN) 6:00pm: BKT Tires World Women's Curling Championship: Canada vs. Switzerland

MLB SPRING TRAINING (SN) 1:00pm: Orioles vs. Jays

NHL HOCKEY (SN) 7:00pm: Penguins vs. Devils (TSN3) 7:00pm: Jets vs. Rangers (TSN4) 7:00pm: Leafs vs. Flyers (TSN5) 7:00pm: Sens vs. Bruins (SNWest/TSN2) 9:00pm: Habs vs. Oilers (SNPacific) 10:00pm: Sabres vs. Canucks (SN1/SNEast/SNOntario) 10:00pm: Lightning vs. Knights

BIG BROTHER CANADA (Global) 7:00pm

NBA BASKETBALL (SN Now) 8:00pm: Mavericks vs. Spurs (TSN) 9:00pm: Nuggets vs. Timberwolves

THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES (CBC) 8:00pm

CANADA'S GOT TALENT (City TV) 8:00pm: The judges get to work finding million-dollar acts and award a Golden Buzzer or two.

MARY MAKES IT EASY (CTV Life) 8:00pm: Veggin' Out on the Grill

SON OF A CRITCH (CBC) 8:30pm: The Critches are doing their annual airing-out-the-house ritual, but when some family secrets are uncovered, it turns out they've got some dirty laundry that needs to be aired too.

COMFORT FOOD WITH SPENCER WATTS (CTV Life) 8:30pm: Snacking on pepperoni arroncini risotto pops, puffed millet and cornmeal coated chicken bites, and popcorn margaritas with margarita popcorn.

ONE MORE TIME (CBC) 9:00pm: After his hearing aids are stolen, DJ must put an end to the chain of gossip surrounding Eddie's infidelity before Eddie finds out who ratted him out to Gwen.

TREATY ROAD (APTN) 9:00pm: In Treaty 3 territory, Erin and Saxon learn about the ongoing struggle to protect the water from contamination; they visit a blockade in Grassy Narrows, Ont., where a woman poisoned by mercury explains environmental racism.

RUN THE BURBS (CBC) 9:30pm: As Camille's cookbook launch day unfolds in chaos, the Phams rally to save the event in a surprising and colorful twist.

PATHOLOGICAL: THE LIES OF JORAN VAN DER SLOOT.(Lifetime Canada) 10:00pm: Years after he brutally murdered American Natalee Holloway and Peruvian Stephany Flores, Joran van der Sloot's lifelong pattern of violence and pathological lying is exposed through rare interviews and new insights.

[siphersaysstuff]

MATCHBOTS!

So for August's Patreon-backed @tfwiki picture update, I thought I'd follow up on the Generation 2 vibe from last month (and with the release of the G2-heavy Toxitron Collection) and (almost) complete the run of Go-Bot mold toys! Introduced in 1995, these little 1:64-scale bots were made to be compatible with Matchbox and Hot Wheels tracks and playsets, and this mold-set would be redecoed a LOT over the following decade. Motormouth above, for example, first caem with transparent robot bits, but the second-wave release was entirely opaque.

Fellow second-waver OPTIMUS PRIME is mostly just an opaque version of wave 1's clear-red Firecracker, but with some extra blue paint on the helmet to make him Optimussier.

Wave 3 was all classic G1 bots in strange new decos. Say hi to BUMBLEBEE, FRENZY, IRONHIDE and MIRAGE (the decos were probably picked before the names were).

Wave 3 SOUNDWAVE is infamous for his bright deco. But what's with that Takara version, with Wave-2 opaque Gearhead's robot parts? Well, that's because the Takara release was gang-molded with...

...the Takara-release MEGATRON and OPTIMUS PRIME, the only three Go-Bots released in Japan. Basically, all 6 Go-Bots are cast from the same set of molds, so if you change one plastic color on any of the 6, you're changing the color for several others in the set. As demonstrated here...

See the pattern? Bear in mind that the rightmost bots have green and gold paint on their car panels, the underlying plastic is black.

These molds would be re-used as the "Spychangers" for 2000's Takara series Car Robots, which got imported as Robots in Disguise in 2001, and I'm not going into all of THOSE here. But there's a lot (the top row on the above pic is just the start!), and I'm focusing on the new pics, so moving on...

Late in the 2003 Universe line, a new batch of G1 characters in Spychanger form were released as KB Toys exclusives, using a set of molds originally planned for G2 but ultimately not released until RiD, like SILVERSTREAK on the left, and new molds made specifically for RiD, like OPTIMUS PRIME here.

The very last release of a Go-Bot/Spychanger style mold came in late 2007, when Takara offered a free "OPTIMUS PRIME FIGURE" with the preorder of the 2007 Transformers movie on DVD/HD-DVD through Paramount Pictures Japan. This little sucker is extensively painted, let me tell you.

And with this, I've taken wiki pics of 76 out of the 88 "finished" Go-Bots/Spychanger toys! Only 12 rare/unreleased items left! Whoadang! ALSO… I've now made over 2500 toy pics for the wiki, many of which are multi-toy pics! Jambalaya, that's a lotta bots!

If you like what I do here and want to get me to a total of 3000 pics faster, I do have a Patreon! You can help get more and more pics out every month, and even pick a theme!

Check it out at patreon dot com slash gregstfwikipics!

[ncisfranchise-source]

It’s finally here! The hotly anticipated NCIS Sydney is premiering tonight. The Paramount show is the first in the franchise to be filmed outside of the US (excluding Hawaii) and will be shown at prime time in the US on CBS as well as here in Australia. 

With global fame soon to be calling their names, B&T spoke to the cast of NCIS Sydney whilst they still had the time for trade mags like ourselves. 

NCIS might be about as classically American as it gets, but actor Mavournee Hazel (previously on Neighbours),  told B&T that this iteration is very much Aussie. 

“I feel like audiences can expect quintessential Australian landscape landscapes – we’ve got Galahs and Koalas and Kangaroo,” she says. 

“We’ve got the beautiful Sydney Harbour Bridge that we were lucky enough to have on our doorstep and NCIS headquarters is on a pier”. 

 Viewers can also expect Australian humour, however this is “very different from American humour” Hazel warns. 

So different in fact that there was an on-set coach to help with the difference in comedic timings between the two dialects. 

“We had a dialect coach on set who actually is American, she helped with comedic timings -. just those little differences on how Americans set off a joke, like the cadence of how they talk and how they set up comedic timings is very different to ours”. 

Another new language Hazel had to learn was the famously technical language on the show. 

Her character Blue – or Bluebird – is somewhat of a genius, so capturing than fanatical obsession with technical detail was very important Hazel said. 

She asked herself “What do I geek out on like, what do I get nerdy about?” and the answer that came out was “fragrance”. 

“I love fragrance. And I love perfume – I used to work at a perfumery. I’m fascinated by the process of extraction and distilling and tradition”. 

“That’s the level of passion that I need to have when I’m talking about these things,” Hazel says of Blue’s insatiably fascination with forensic crime. 

Whilst NCIS is known as being quite tough and harsh, actor Tuuli Narkle (Mystery Road: Origin, Bad Behaviour) said the reality was very different. 

“This is the biggest job that I’ve had to date. And I was quite scared stepping on [set]. But I just felt like all of the cast just immediately clicked together. And we got to the first read through and we were all kind of nervous, and we were sharing this energy, but it was beautiful. Because you could see how much it meant to each of us individually, to get to be a part of this crazy, incredible franchise”.

British actor Sean Sagar (The Covenant, Fate: The Winx Saga) said the script and the environment really helped settle his nerves at filming in Australia. 

“It’s the best experience that I’ve had hands down in my career. I feel like coming over here was nerve wracking because it was leaving home, leaving family, so to come here and be so welcomed by the cost and the crew and also filming in such beautiful locations was great. And the script has made it easy. Everything that Morgan [Morgan O’neill] put down on paper and all the rest of the writing team just was so easy to flow off the tongue and just made life a lot easier for us to become these characters”. 

[my-timing-is-digital]

"I know the odds aren't good, but we've got to try." (either regular doc or you can have my doc gets to be part of the DTI so i could throw him into the trek universe verse al;sdfj)

The android nodded in silent compliance, ushering in the scientist’s initiative with his signature composure and pragmatism — anything was preferable over being incarcerated in the late Cretaceous period. Momentarily, his chartreuse eyes scanned the horizon, the silhouette of slender necks towering high into the sky, swaying like the palm trees scattered about the Academy in San Francisco, embellished the view. The mountains embracing them climbed high and formed an impressive valley of lush vegetation — a safe haven for herbivores, except that it was not... safe...

His receptors continually received feedback from seismic vibrations either caused by naturally occurring phenomena, a volcano rumbling in the distance, tectonic plates shifting underneath their feet, or the vocal oscillations of sizable land animals communicating with one another, fighting for dominance, for survival... The frequent susurration of the ferns bordering the circumference of the modest lake could host the arrival of a herbivore desperate for a sip of water, or a carnivore stalking the two legged individuals darting around the metallic beast on the edge of the lake, looking for an easy prey to pounce on.

‘I concur. Let us proceed,’ Data said, retrieving his attention to the matter at hand.

The DeLorean had been off by a number of several million years — an understatement, evidently —, a malfunction that they were presently attempting to rectify. Although, he was not unacquainted with solving the conundrum that was the aftermath of a “successful” episode of time travel, he had never traversed through the fabric of time this far into Earth’s past... The only upside to this time travel escapade was that the chances of them violating the Prime Directive were relatively slim, unless, of course, they accidentally terminated the lives of the mammals that were crucial in the evolution of the homosapiens who would later roam the plains of Africa prior to their migrating to other regions of the planet.

‘I believe it is safe to attempt a jump, sir,’ he said, diligently examining the mechanical contraption crammed in the booth of the classic automobile, laying aside the rudimentary devices that had aided him to repair and modify the plutonium-powered time machine. ‘I sincerely hope your vehicle will travel forward in time — if we go further back, we might find ourselves on an Earth during one of its initial stages of formation, when it primarily consisted of molten magma...’

He stressed to himself that he was not deliberately exhibiting signs of pessimism; he was simply emphasising that it was paramount they did not wander deeper into the folds of the past with no way out...

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Mouse/Mountain Updates

On the Disney Animation front: ONCE UPON A STUDIO's trailer got out, and it looks fun, and it's quite the twist that it'll run on ABC a month before showing with WISH. It makes sense, though, for October 2023 *is* the 100th anniversary of the Disney enterprise, and of course the once small cartoon studio that started it all. I particularly appreciated some of the deep cuts here, not just characters from features like BROTHER BEAR and HOME ON THE RANGE, but also from featurettes. Like, we're dipping into Mini-Classics territory here, as Amos the mouse and Benjamin Franklin from BEN AND ME (1953) can be spotted, along with John Henry from his 2000 titular short. One particular detail I greatly appreciated was the Xerox linework on Winifred from THE JUNGLE BOOK in this shot.

I don't have cable anymore, so I'm likely catching ONCE UPON A STUDIO on the big screen first, with WISH, in late November.

Everything also looks pretty good, too. Not bad from the few 2D people they've still got at that studio.

On the Paramount front: Looks like THE TIGER'S APPRENTICE, previously set for a January 2024 release, has also been orphaned, much like the still-without-a-release-date UNDER THE BOARDWALK. It will now release exclusively to Paramount+. I guess Paramount's CEO really meant that about "slightly" more original movies... (I say slightly, before any burping nerds come at me with "TIGER'S APPRENTICE is a BOOK!")

Though it seems the studio still wants to go through with movies that are not based on well-established IPs that have been adapted into movies countless times (Transformers, Ninja Turtles, ya know-), as Paramount Animation is now set to adapt the SUPERWORLD books by Yarrow Cheney (director of THE GRINCH and SECRET LIFE OF PETS) and his wife Carrie. "Set to", being the key words... Paramount Animation has optioned other titles like STRAY DOGS and such over the past few years, and I haven't heard any movement on those pictures. I think the top dogs just want instantly recognizable things for animated features, hence MUTANT MAYHEM, PAW PATROL 2, and TRANSFORMERS: ONE being priorities... and RUMBLE, UNDER THE BOARDWALK, and TIGER'S APPRENTICE not being just that.

With this gap, and likely no feature being put in that 2/9/2024 slot Universal reserved a long while ago... 2024's theatrical animation lineup looks to begin with Pixar's Adrian Molina-directed ELIO on March 1st, with KUNG FU PANDA 4 to follow on the 29th... Should they not get delayed because of the studios being dinguses about paying actors and writers... This means TROLLS Tre, WISH and MIGRATION are the only theatrical offerings for the time being, the rest is all on streaming: LEO, CHICKEN RUN Deux, etc.

SUPERWORLD sounds like it could be a fun animated feature, though. Set in a world where everyone is a superhero, except this one kid named Noah. While it may seem like superheroes are past their prime, fun things can still be done with that format. This year we had ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE absolutely *school* the recent swaths of workmanlike homework MCU/DCU movies on how it's done, even one MCU chapter - GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 - managed to surprise me. Flipping the script, doing cool things with superheroes, using the framework for something interesting- And animation is the best medium where that can be pulled off.

But like all things in this industry, it's moot, but the announcement sounds cool.