#lj and ruth watch cyberverse

[tfw-no-tennis]

tfc thotz

so ruth and I watched tf cyberverse, and since I love to talk, here are my scattered thoughts 

so this show???? was super fun and good??? why did it take me so long to hear that cyberverse is GOOD

like, when it first came out/back in like early 2019 when I was getting into transformers, I watched a couple random eps and I was like Oh ok this isn't terrible but also its just like, episodic and aimed at kids and kinda fluffy. okay!

ok but clearly I was wrong bc this biz has PLOT, babey! 

so yeah I ended up binging it w/ruth and I had a great time. I honestly enjoyed this show more than tfp, but I think it comes down to expectations - I expected very little from tfc so I was pleasantly surprised when my expectations were easily surpassed, and I expected something different/better from tfp so I was disappointed when it didn't live up to my expectations

anyways, my actual thoughts

I love the cast?? like I love how big the cast is and how the characters in focus kinda rotate around after s1 

also I love how stupid everybody in this show is. god. like nobody has any brain cells, its just No Thoughts Head Empty at all times. like, shockwave called the seekers dumb, and that might be true, but LITERALLY EVERYONE is dumb and I adore it 

s/o to bumblebee and hot rod, who are two wholesome frat bros trying to find a third frat bro to hang out with without that bro dying (rip blurr and cheetor)

also so many people die in this show???? like holy fuck. I was not expecting this amount of permanent, on-screen death

like when blurr gets fucking thanos snapped in the Spring Break Gone Wrong episode (which I think was one of the ones I watched back in 2019), I was like oh damn okay, but he’ll be back cause that's how it goes w/a show like this.

NOPE he’s dead for good. and like so many other characters die and stay dead, and that honestly caused actual suspense, bc it was like oh daym anyone can die and they'll probably stay dead unless they're starscream whos impossible to kill 

that's also another plus of a big cast - they can just murder people left and right. like starscream murdered like All the seekers at one point but there were more on cybertron so its fine I guess lmao 

also I like that there's a lot of female robots? and they’re all different and unique which is cool

also, no humans! I don't necessarily hate humans in tf stories when done right, but there being no humans in this show allowed it to be a lot freer in what they did w/the plot and lore and characters, which I appreciated

like, I remember when that netflix tf show was announced and it was like ‘ooooh a show set on cybertron without humans, baller!’ but I have like 0 interest in it after the stuff I've heard about it lol and meanwhile cyberverse was just doing exactly that - focusing on the robots, no humans, a lot of the show being set on cybertron 

like even when they're on earth there are like...no humans anywhere lmao they just don't care about the alien robots fighting I guess

except for that one segment where they show humans like, filming them & reacting and stuff, which was funnier and better than 90% of human-tf interactions in other tf media

oh and I fucking LOVE the time jumps in this show. cyberverse does NOT care about exposition at ALL, they'll just jump right the fuck in and expect you to catch up, which I adore 

like, the fucking s2 premiere. at the end of s1 they found the ark w/all the autobots and also megatron & co are heading for earth....then s2 starts w/a smash cut to the fucking moon where all the autobots are fighting all the decepticons, and we get a super brief summary of what amounts to half a season’s worth of content - the autobots waking up, the cons arriving, the humans finding out about the alien robots, the autobots allying w/the humans, the fight continuing, etcetc. its like we jumped in at the mid-season finale, and I LOVE it 

there's also a lot of tf lore stuff, which I love! like, they have the allspark, the matrix, vector sigma, titans, caminus...I feel like they throw a lot of lore at the audience with minimal explanation, which I enjoy as somebody who knows the lore well enough to not be confused by this (not that I think it would be confusing for non-fans, they do a good job explaining what needs to be known)

also loved that they never like, formally introduced most of the characters, they were just There suddenly lmao. that way they didn't have to waste time w/episodes dedicated to establishing their personalities and whatnot, and instead we just got to see what they were like ourselves - which now that I think about it, that harkens back to g1 where character would just randomly appear cause there was a new toy so boom new character, but they wouldn't explain it or anything hbhvsdkfbjaskd I love transformers

I love Hot Rod soooo much I'm so glad he was in this, he’s my fuckin BOI and he was so so good in this 

also I can’t believe drift was here but was EVIL ALL ALONG and then DIED that was crazy man 

oh man also optimus and megatron. I love this optimus, he was so cute...like, he was clearly most comfortable while fighting and giving inspiring speeches in the heat of battle, but the rest of the time he was kind of awkward and just really cute and polite, I loved that 

and megatron was SO hammy lmfao and he & optimus are clearly going thru the world’s messiest divorce but they don't REALLY want to get divorced and that's why its taking so long

but really I did love how the autobots and decepticons actually sat down for negotiations? and the autobots were like pshhh yeah this happens every so often, and things are going ok until BAM everyone's fighting again then its back to business as usual.

I just really enjoy that interpretation/approach to the war, it’s so interesting. it shows that both sides are aware that fighting eternally isn’t the best idea, but also that neither side is willing to back down on certain points, which makes peace difficult 

OH MANNN and I fucking LOVE how we got to see pre-war cybertron??? with everybody just hanging out, pre-faction...that was such a delight 

seriously, I love that episode about maccadams where it shows the slow slide into conflict...that was so great

one detail I especially loved was that bumblebee was all starry-eyed over megatron, not optimus - like the part where you see megs and OP sitting together at maccadams and bee is like oooh windblade I gotta introduce you and you think he’s talking about optimus but NOPE he’s talking about MEGATRON 

also another thing I love is that this show is like. rlly funny. I definitely laughed more than I expected to, there were some really solid jokes

OHHHH I love that they have a sport called CUBE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love cubes SOOO much such a good shape 😍 and in that ep when windblade is all like ‘ITS CUBE!!!!!!!!! OMG CUBE!!!! DONT YOU REMEMBER CUBE, BUMBLEBEE?’ I was like OH ME LMAO....CUUUUUBE

ok so the part in that one ep where megatron beats up starscream was??? so brutal??? and it lasted a WHILE too, and since the eps are so short it was like a third of the whole episode?? I was SO not expecting that level of brutality from this show, especially at this point in s2 where things hadn't really gotten that hardcore

ok I gotta talk abt the characters now. bc I love the characters and there’s so many of them which is fantastic 

as I’ve already said I adore my boi hot rod. I also love bumblebee SO MUCH in this, he’s just such a good boy....good lad....also I’m glad he got to talk after s1, I didn’t mind the no-voice thing bc it didn’t overstay its welcome

cheetor is soooo good too HE’S JUST A BABY. A GOOD CATBOY...cheetor and bee and hot rod was such a good and pure boy squad and I’m so sad abt cheetor dying. that shit was depressing 

ruth seeing beast wars cheetor: look how they massacred my boy 😫

me: ...you know he’s originally from beast wars, right???

ruth: IM STILL RIGHT

oh ym god shockwave. him being ANGERY was so ufcking funny especially bc in a few shots he WASNT angry so that means its not that he Just Looks Like That, it’s that he really IS angry All The Time and frowning constantly hvbhfdkhsfjbhskdjf god. anyways he was literally the only character with a brain cell in the entire show, he was the only one who got shit done. that part where megatron is like ‘finally you did something successful shockwave’ was so fucking funny bc like. all he DOES is succeed and meanwhile megatron is getting dunked on every 3 seconds. oh my god

SOUNDWAV?EE???? SOUNDWAVE I love soundwave he’s legit one of my fav tf characters ever, idek why it was just On Sight, I love his design and voice and his whole deal...cyberverse soundwave was SO good, he’s just SO RUDE and I love him. I love how he was always playing music and I just adore his whole ‘come at me bro’ attitude lmao

oh man I liked slipstream a lot, and her and windblade had so much potential, I’m sad slipstream died...unfortunately she was the only seeker to have half a braincell so she had to perish (I mean all the seekers ended up dying anyways but still)

also that bludgeon guy??? wtf was up w/him???? we legit never got an explanation for why he was Like That hbvhfakdjhbfdsjkf and like idk him from any other media so I was legit just so confused abt him lmao. he looks like orange cyclonus and he’s mean bc he killed slipstream >:(

ok I love grimlock he reminds me of thor tbh and he’s just such a good himbo. him and arcee hanging out was so perfect. himbo/hermbo solidarity at its finest

I find it hilarious that it seems like ratchet is The Only medic on all of cybertron, cause we literally never see another medic on either side, and the decepticons are apparently just letting shockwave do whatever to anyone who was injured...hvsdkjnfkasfdbh its like rung being The Only therapist on all of cybertron in idw1

oh my god the wild west episode was so sad like...that was str8 up depressing bro and there wasn't even a happy ending. oof. also I love the continuity, where we see multiple stasis pods falling from the arc (one being bumblebees) in s1, but we don’t follow up on it until here in s3. nice

I liked the pacing in the show a lot - I feel like s1 was pretty basic and straightforward, and a solid season in general, but things got real good in s2 when a bunch of character showed up and multi-episode plots started happening, and then s3 was really really good with the actual arcs happening, and the focus shifting throughout different characters 

like I feel like s1 did a great job starting slow and setting up the worldbuilding for the other seasons, and s2 went All In and threw a ton of characters and more high-concept plots in, which I think worked as well as it did BECAUSE s1 was a lot more lowkey

for example, I like that pretty much the only autobots on earth in s1 are bumblebee and windblade, and later grimlock, and the only decepticons are shadow striker and a bunch of seekers; it makes the conflict feel appropriately smaller rather than jumping right into The Big War

ruth said this and I kinda agree but the weakest point of the show was probably the fight scenes, especially in s1 bvhjdkhfbjhs it’s not that they were badly animated or anything, just that they weren't that exciting and I was more interested in the plot, so I was like guyssss stop fighting and keep moving the plot forward already! which is actually a compliment bc usually I love fight scenes and don’t care as much about plot stuff lmao

also cyberverse has THE funniest scene I've ever witnessed which was of course starscream’s twitch stream funeral BHVJSDKFHBSJKDHF that LEGIT made me die laughing like...I did NOT expect that and it totally killed me, holy shit, and the fact that there’s no real explanation for why megatron decided to do a big grand funeral for starscream while pretending HE wasn't the one who killed starscream??? and he streamed it all on twitch??? like the fuckgin emotes hbvhjadkjfbsjkhf and the twitch chat oh my GOD ‘#starscreamgate’ and ‘who is storescream?’ BHJGKSDHBFSKBF I cant yall it was so fucking funnyyyyy other tf media could NEVER

ok thats it for now, more thoughts at a later date im sure!