Subtitles are available! To find me on social media: beacons.ai/emperor_kumquat To check out art for my Transformers Prime story game: ko-fi.com/emperorkumquat
Hey, do you think you could so robots in Disguise grimlock being Represented as autistic It makes sense when you think about it.Since I previously commented earlier that he Resemble me a big lovable lug who loves to fight Doesn't have much intelligence and does sometimes act like a child and scared of certain things It sort of resembles people who are artistic and not to mention.He does sometimes think outside of the box like An autistic person would do I should know because I am autistic
Honestly if Earthspark needed a new bad guy, it should've been Prowl. I swear somewhere on the internet someone had managed to find an Earthspark Prowl toy and I was convinced he was going to be the new villain. I think it would've so cool, an AUTOBOT villain showing a different side of the Autobots. The dirty side mentioned in the idw comics and in Transformers Prime. If we got to see good Decepticons then we should've been able to see bad Autobots as well- Imagine what other things you could've introduced with that idea. Honestly I'm so disappointed with the direction they went with this season.
It's honestly kind of disgusting. What kind of lesson is this teaching? To portray Starscream as an abuse victim, then to put his abuser on the "good side". Then they portray Starscream as evil. I have no problem with making Starscream an antagonist. But to make the victim the bad guy, and his abuser a hero, is something that abuse victims are all too familiar with. I can see that season 1 was probably leading up to healing for Starscream and a change/ apology from Megatron, but we didn't really get that. Instead, we watched the abuse victim be villanized. They tried to make an abuse allegory, and then character assassinated the victim.
While very complex, it teaches kids that some abuse victims can become bad people or be bad despite their trauma. Not because abuse turns people bad, but because some of them decide to use their traumatic experiences to justify their own selfish and bad behavior, and continue the cycle. Not that I am personally ok of how this whole situation turn out.
@@uberkirbeeh7954I agree with what you’re saying. I’m okay with Starscream being good or bad. And I’m okay with him being the victim and then becoming a villain again. It shows that everyone is always equally capable of good and evil. Edit: I should’ve mentioned I still think they butchered Starscream as a character in season 2.
@@uberkirbeeh7954 .' Not because abuse turns people bad, but because some of them decide to use their traumatic experiences to justify their own selfish and bad behavior, and continue the cycle' And this is exactly what happened with Megtaron, but they never showed us this. This whole situation is the result of the hamfisted way Earthspark tried to redeem Megatron from the start. I understand that they has to simplify certain themes in a kids cartoon, but as far as redemtion stories went they should have done something similar to the redemtion story Armada Starscream had instead whatever Megatron got in Earthspark. Megatron genocided whole species, he destoryed planets, committed literal war crimes, and he gets away scot free with a simple apology, and working for the good guys? For the record I have no problem with Megatron being redeemed, or even abusers being redeemed (if it's done right). Like In the IDW continuity they actually managed to give Megatron an incredible well written redemtion story. But in Erathspark? It really seemed like Megatron suffered no consequences for his actions. We know that he was a killer, an abuser, a tyrant but the consequences never reached him, unlike the rest of his crew. In IDW Megatron barely got away from being executed, he was banished, sent on a suicide mission, had to drink energon which reduced his phisical strenght, lost all his power, his life work/faction was dissolved, and had to work under the commnd of an arrogant youngster (who actually had similar character traits like Strascream). We saw the character (Megatron) almost destroyed, despaired, hopless, before they started to build him up again, as better version of himslef. This never happened with EarthsparkMegatron (to this extent)
No one can convince me that the Starscream in Season One, who saved Hashtag AND Twitch from certain doom, who had silly faces on his missiles, is the SAME Starscream in Season Two who murdered children without hesitation. You just can’t. I want to find a better, less pathetic word for the way I feel, but as of now, I feel “heartbroken”.
Well Starscream WAS ALWAYS BEEN that type of backstabbing rat that SHOULDN'T give an second chance; since when it was trying whatever it takes to become the defacto leader of the Decepticons; Every single ´Con Turn against Screamer, specially when it's coup d'État fails against screamer. SO it makes sense, like the old saying; If nobody helps them; nobody can do it either. Just because you living in a Fanon Steven Universe pinkish BS; it's not so different to the average socialist utopias that can "forgive" hineous crimes from genocidial dictators like H1tler or St4lin...Or Starscream's case; Decepticon equivalent to Lev Trotsky...
It is like transformers Armada compared to Transformers Cybertron all over again. Except Cybertrom was a different japanese series that got hamstrung into being a part of the Unicron Trilogy in the English Dub. This is the same show. Very dissapointing.
Actually Why am I jumping to Cybertron when Energon is right there and Screwed up so many decepticons. At least Energon had the decency to mind wipe them into being antagonists instead of just. flipping back for the sake of continuity.
@@Ucatty2 It honestly felt odd seeing Starscream become the villain again in Energon. I haven't fully finished Armada yet, but I've heard Starscream was a great character in the show who had a bond with another character (though her name escapes me currently). It felt odd that she didn't even acknowledge Starscream's return unless I missed something in Energon. It would've been a nice moment for Starscream, maybe a moment of realization that he wasn't always a villain. The funniest thing to me though was the tragic story of the Quintesons. I'm so used to them being the antagonists, so it was a complete shock seeing them as a more tragic character for once. Crazy that they went from feeding other aliens to the Sharkticons to the sole survivors of their home planet
I mean, to be fair, Starscream is so synonymous with betrayal that TV Tropes literally calls backstabbing henchmen "The Starscream". The least they could have done was try to make Starscream's treacherous tendencies a consequence of his abuse. That he's been abused for so long that it's messed him up emotionally. And his traitorous chronic backstabbing isn't out of desire for power but rather out of distrust: where he can't help but see kindness as always having an ulterior motive and can't comprehend selfless compassion.
Or have other deceptions like Soundwave and breakdown turn good? Honestly, I knew Starscream might become evil again. The dude is actually crazier than Megatron sometimes, but to have only Megatron become good was a dumb move.
Plot Twist: EarthSpark Season 2 was just a nightmare Season 1 Starscream was having. He then wakes up and then begins to fully make amends with the Autobots and Megatron.
with the way this is going from a market standpoint, they'll probably do this, since nobody fucking likes the show anymore, they can't sell any damn toys or people just hate it. It's the only good outcome for fans and hasbro.
It’s lowkey gross to do a 180 with Starscream’s entire characterization in this batch of episodes, especially with how his trauma has affected him has resonated with so many people. True, no victim is perfect. However, what is an issue is how he went from point A to point XYZ. 😭
It's not out of the ordinary for Starscream to be a lying and manipulative backstabber. With that said, it's so obvious that it wasn't what they were originally going for here, which makes it all the more annoying.
A part of me likes to believe that a reason they did a 180 on Starscream and the other Decepticons is that Hasbro realized they'd have to back pedal and also tackle what exactly made someone like Megatron, WHO STARTED EVERYTHING, have such an easy time gaining the main players favor! If season two had been a flashback episode or having Starscream as a factionless trying to navigate the world while still grappling with his own bad habits, I wouldn't have been upset. Or better yet, if they never touched on the theme of his abuse in the first place. Not everyone feels as passionately about Starscream as some of us do, but it's disgusting that a kids show would make an episode that some kids from troubled backgrounds might ACTUALLY relate to, only to turn around and say "Nah, he's WORST than Megatron actually and deserves to be seen as ONLY a villain while Megatron can walk away with no issues."
I’m not even a Starscream fan and what I’ve heard about season two was just disgusting. If they couldn’t trust the original writers to tell a complex story, they shouldn’t have green lit any of this. Backpedaling does nothing and makes a show worse. The characters deserves better writing.
@@bengi8907backpedaling when used correctly to develop a character and their motivations isn't bad, armada does this with starscream himself and it's good. This isn't backpedaling, this is characterization death. They completely killed his character arc before he really had one.
I want this to be the case so badly, but in order for it to be, Starscream would have had to have a moment where he questioned whether what he was doing was really what he wanted. This is because if he suddenly became a portrayal of an abuse victim in the second half of the season, it would be a jarring and undeserved tone shift. There wasn’t anything like this, and that’s why it worries me
@@_aWiseMan Some would call this character assassination, except this is a case way too extreme for "assassination" to properly describe how adruptly out-of-nowhere that 180 of the character was.
Season 2 absolutely dropped the ball, then set it on fire, and a blew it up. I literally remember crying over the sacrifices of breakdown and tarantulas on my first watch. Breakdown barley got any development in season 2, tarantulas was completely forgotten about. An that’s just those two alone. This show finally portrayed the decepticons with the level of maturity we deserved. And then they took so many steps back by making breakdown seem like a bad guy, making star scream ( a literal victim of abuse with an amazing message of moving on without forgiveness) seem like the bad guy too and we haven’t even mentioned the mishandling of the chaos terrans
The quality drop was so apparent in even the first episode of the season. I get budget cuts and the animation quality dipping but dear god the writing quality dipped so hard. All the nuances characterizations that made the show so special are just gone. Steve Blum as star scream was peak as always despite the 180 but still.
Steve Blum was made to voice the more recent generations Starscream. He's amazing in whatever role he takes with him. I wonder if he as an actor (give he has played the character so much) agreed with the 180 they did to him in ES S2.
Starscream not killing babies or Breakdown treating Aftermath like a true son would've given everyone hope. But alas, they don't even allow the formerly-sympathetic bad guys to be good to themselves.
@@rikajougasaki3296 honestly the idea of Breakdown being rough and not as, y'know, compassionate as a father could've made for a very interesting story of him slowly learning how to be a role model despite his history of making bad choices. Really could've gone somewhere but nope. Always remember writers, NEVER ADD NUANCE TO YOUR CHARACTERS!! Besides, it ain't like any other Transformers show or story has had nuance when it came to its characters.
I feel like some of the people in the comments tend to forget that while yes, this show harkens back to G1 in a lot of aspects, this show clearly takes heavy inspiration from both the Alligned continuity, and IDW. In those stories, the Decepticons were not ORIGINALLY intended to be these heartless violent thugs and gangsters who's only motivation is power. Now granted, they did slowly become that, which was the topic of plenty of stories, but Decepticonism as a concept was and still is to fight for equality, specifically against oppression and classism. Oh, and you wanna know who it was that established the things the Decepticons fought against? THE AUTOBOTS. Yeah, the "good guys". Never have I seen character assassination this bad. Starscream going from likable to friggin Anakin Skywalker is infuriating but also hilarious.
Steve Blum gets screwed over twice. I feel bad for him. Like it felt like Earthspark was his second trying to show different side of Starscream before getting rid of it.
buuuuut on a happier note, who’s else is bouncing off the walls excited for transformers one? i find it funny starscream is being voiced by another steve b! 😁
@@lillay304 Honestly, I am somewhat excited, but if Hasbro is trying to sabotage Earthspark for the movie it’s gross. They did it to animated after the Bay movies released. I am assuming you mean another Starscream being voiced by Steve Blume? Because there’s only one Steve Blume I know. Yeah he’s a great va.
This illustrates my problem with Megatron turning good it makes the rest of the decepticons look like irredeemable monsters while allowing the main architect of the movement(in many continuity’s) get a happy ending without much pushback or having said pushback seem like said character being stuck in there ways
Sadly, I think the show bit off more than it could chew when it came to its themes. It seemed to want a pretty nuanced view of conflict, but I don't think the writers can actually believe in a nuanced world - I know too many "cosmopolitan" writer types who have this confused perspective. They hate "labels," but simultaneously love them. They dislike the idea of "othering," yet perform it all the time. I'm not sure even the original team could've kept this up, since I doubt they even truly believed the message they were trying to convey. Come Season 2 and you have a new writing team trying to revert to a more coherent but less nuanced worldview, and that ultimately messes up the themes. Lets face it, IDW2005 Megs was a flash in the pan. I'm not sure any future writing team could pull that off.
Season 2 is much a massive disappointment and failure of character writing that it genuinely hurts me and practically removes all hope I had for the show, which sucks, because this show was literally my favorite beforehand
@samurexatlas7373 genuinely, I'm willing to accept some total BS contrived explanation, a sequel series, or a even just a comic book that makes it so these events don't matter or aren't canon. Anything would be better than accepting this first batch of season 2 at face value
@@abloodcorpse3318 I have.... an option. Shockwave and the cons fled, and we can use the Chaos Energy to say Scream got infused with some and become a zealot for New Cybertron by that chaos. The rest just followed because it gave them leadership and hope. And the chaos seeped into them as well, because they have a bigger cluster, but it's dying down now. But Shockwave will probably attempt a return home, not for an army, to heal it. Of course there will be complications and we will set up Quintessons for S2P3.
@samurexatlas7373 honestly, I feel like pulling out the Quintessons as an easy explanation would be the most likely in the show, since we have both Reactivate and Transformers One setting up the Quintessons as a threat and Transformers isn't against cross-media promoting. Especially since the Quintessons are usually never actually dealt with during or after the Cybertronian war and just get off scot free. Like I said tho, I'm desperate enough to take anything being an explanation for why the hell the decepticons went from characters to caricatures
Breakdown’s sacrifice was the one of the most emotional scenes of Earthspark. I almost cried when Bumblebee said “Breakdown you reckless fool” one last time
It would've been better if it was shown after a time skip the Decepticons just went bad out of nowhere and a mystery to figure out why they are doing this is the first plot of the season and instead of Robbie being "typical Decepticons being bad" there is shock and hurt with the sudden turn around and betrayal. Also we have yet to get the episode where Megatron talks about why he started the Decepticon cause in the first place. Maybe in the next batch of episodes the Decepticons are corrupted or controlled by something and they weren't in control of their own actions, but that may be slim.
Season 2 reverting the Cons to be evil could’ve been saved if they used different characters to be the bad guys. Like instead of The Seekers, Shockwave, or even Breakdown they could’ve used The Coneheads, Bludgeon, and Wildrider to be the main bad guys but I guess Paramount couldn’t be bothered to give the studio behind Megamind 2 just a tiny bit more budget
I personally would have liked to see a Cybertronian who wants to bring back Functionism be the bad guy of season two. Edit: This is mostly because I really like the idea of Functionists being the main bad guys in a Transformers show. Edit 2: Maybe we could even have some of this Cybertronian’s underlings realizing that they should not generalize based on someone’s alt mode and end up helping stop the big bad’s plan.
@isaacdaffer1711 . I wouldn't be against that but of course we needed a 1 year time jump and the Cons going back to evil just because Hasbro and Paramount didn't want to put the effort of advertising
@@isaacdaffer1711They could’ve used Sentinel Prime for that. Reveal that he’s actually alive and decides to bring back Cybertron to the good old days of functionism. Have both sides try to stop them in their own ways.
They should have just made a completely new Decepticon cast for the villains who were all genuinely bad people instead of undoing all the achievements they made with the previous season.
Yeah, like, maybe someone like Overlord or Bludgeon would roll up with a gang of new ‘Cons, see what the Season 1 Decepticons had become, and be like “You all suck, we’re gonna do a better job”.
@@lightyearpig12 OML YEAH TARN WOULD'VE FIT SO WELL!!! Especially given his insane dedication to decepticonism, it would've made for some great interactions between him and Megs.
Yeah they’ve should had Tarn, Overlord, Bludgeon, Motormaster, Onslaught, Soundblaster, Blackarchidia, or any other Decepticon we didn’t see in the first season instead of having Starscream, Shockwave, Soundwave, Breakdown, Skywarp, Novastorm, Frenzy, Ravage, Laserbeak, Skullcruncher, Swindle, and Hardtop going back to their usual selves or as much as I hated Mandroid keep him around where we see him deal with how his botched plans to destroy Cybertronians made him sacrificing his humanity pointless. Heck they should bought the Quintessons as the villains instead
Agree. I'm so dissapointed. I just don't understand why writers miss so much opportunity with Starscream. GIVE ME JUST ONE STARSCREAM REDEMPTION ARC dammit!!!! T_T
The only thing that could save Season Two is that they reveal Starscream was under someone's mind control whether it be Mandroid or someone else like the Quintessons even though the amount of evidence to prove this in Season Two is few to none. I really want Earthspark to be an amazing show like Season One was but they way they are going with the show is like a whole different story. I think this is the first time I've truly been disappointed with a show.
Another consistency issue in season 2 is Starscream also did a 180 on the chaos terrans. When Twitch switched bodies with Spitfire she sabotaged the decepticons plan and was extremely rude to the other deceptions to the point where Skywarp encouraged Starscream to beat her, but surprisingly what Starscream does is GET CROUCH TO HER LEVEL AND SCHOLD HER. Showing he doesn't want to treat her like how Megatron treated him. Even Skywarp was surprised and when asked about this Starscream just changed the topic. I was hoping this will be expanded upon in the season but I lost hope when I saw episode 9. What's the point of these moments if the writers are gonna ignore them and reduce the decepticons to just a cardboard cutout of their season 1 self.
The Decepticons could’ve been so much more in Earthspark, their development was so unceremoniously chucked away so there could be bad guys to fight. A shame that this happened but still hope that they can pull another 180 at the end.
My theory is that in Season 2, the corrupted Ember Stone makes people go violent after enough exposure to it's energy. It didn't affect the Autobots because they probably shielded themselves from the energy, where the Decepticons didn't, and they didn't tell the Cons because they assumed Shockwave would figure out the same but never did. Starscream probably had the most exposure to corrupted Ember Stone, which made him act on violent impulses. And the other Cons followed him because while they weren't exposed as much, they were still exposed enough to have those violent impulses. I hope that this is where they go with the second part of Season 2. Probably not, but a man can dream. (EDIT: Watch the Season 3 trailer, Megatron says something about a contagion over footage of bots in a red energy... so im not saying i called it but...)
You might actually be onto something I hope,the chaos Terrans also had the corrupted emberstone in them and they had the same violent urges that were further encouraged by the company they were with And Nightshade was just near the corrupted shards for a moment and they got effected by it Who's to say the decepticons didn't especially starscream who's been all over it someone who already had those violent urges the corrupted energy would just make him worse
The whole starscream thing is basically the armada and energon situation You had a starscream that developed into his own character and left the decepticons join the autoBots and has a sad scarfice, but apparently (from what I heard) in energon he’s just back to normal starscream Same in cybertron
The first season of TFE felt like it took everything that I use to saw in TFP and made it real. I couldn't believe how much more mature its themes were compare to TFP, improving aspectualy humen characters. It made me hopeful for future of TF. Finely, they were not afraid to write complex story plots And then season two came along... Saddest thing is that I have bad feeling why. Remember the "controversy" with Nightshade? My sad guess is that after this Hasbro dumber down the plot and cut down Nightshade's screen time, to the point they are barely in the show. It's so frustrating to see great series lobotomized because of company scared for its profit.
Hey friend, that could be one reason, another more likely relating to profits over good stuff, don't take my word for gospel though, this is speculation from what I've seen others talk about, would be the Transformers 40th anniversary. This show was made a few years or so in advance like any other cartoon, so the changes to season 2 weren't too recent I think, but if some creative-averse suits didn't feel Earthspark was a worthwhile Transformers product by their laughable standards, then the franchise's 40th birthday looming over the horizon only made them double down on their make-believe fears. Simply put, they didn't think or feel a Transformers cartoon about bringing people from both sides of an old war together would make bank, especially at a huge turning point for this franchise, they figured probably that having a movie, like Transformers One, and a show, like Transformers Earthspark, showcasing the iconic war between good and evil, airing on the franchise's big 40, would really blow the profits their way. Sound theory, dog water execution. TF One was made to be an origin of the war from the start, which if the glowing near-universal praise is to go by, will do absolute gang busters. Earthspark though, lack of promotion, air time on Nick, and a mixed toy bag, some are better than others, all aside, was about what happens when that war was over, showing that both sides aren't so clear cut, some heroes make poor choices, some villians want to be better, season 1 was showing promise for the future of this franchise in its own neat way.... Then season 2 came along.......... And that was a mess, to put it nicely. A few good surprises sure, but like some are saying down here, not only did both seasons feel like two totally different shows in all the wrong ways, makes me think of Gen Lock season 2, if you know, you know:( But also to add what some were saying, was the approach to season 2 of Earthspark could've been good, great even, if they tried it from ANOTHER ANGLE. If not the obvious being the Quintessons since they were teased, definitely no Mandroid, stellar villain with a finished arc that doesn't need dragging from that grave, than with villains who've been shown to be ABSOLUTELY RUTHLESS LIKE FLIPPING OVERLORD! Sorry for that, point is, Earthspark wasn't made from the start to be in anyway what those executive shut-ins wanted, again especially for the Transformers 40th anniversary, even if it only got three seasons total but ended on a high note, Earthspark would've signaled the start of a bold new future for this franchise alongside something like Transformers One. But instead of letting money simply talk, they opted to have that money roar in their ears until they went deaf. To cap off my rant with a moral: I do love me some fun classic and simple good vs evil, but there's a time and place, and Earthspark wasn't either of those. Thanks for listening
I never thought I would dream of its cancellation, but now? I think it's for the best. Season 2 ruined the show enough, Unless they undo and justify what happened in the next batch of episodes by saying they were mind controlled or where clones or replaced? Then maybe it has a chance. But now? I think it's for the better
I think the plot could still work as long as they removed Starscream and Breakdown. Switch Starscream for somebody more ruthless who could use a spotlight. I’m thinking Onslaught as the new Decepticon villain, who uses the fact that the Autobots refuse to give them a chance as a way to gather allies. He’d promise a new Cybertron, where all Cybertronians would be equal. Breakdown could ally with Onslaught, but that partnership would definitely end after Onslaught kills one of the Chaos Terrans. After that, it turns out that this “New Cybertron” would be pulled from the ashes of Earth. Megatron is now against a character who acts incredibly similar to how he used to. Both believe they know what’s best for all Decepticons, but neither are entirely right, with one being far more ruthless in the attempt to achieve this future.
I think the Chaos Terrans are a good idea in theory. It would've been cool to have Terrans who feel more at home with the Decepticons than the Autobots or even the Maltos. If season 2 had had any interest in keeping the grey morality of season 1, Aftermath and Spitfire could've been used to show what life is like with the Decepticons. Starscream and Breakdown could've acted as their mentors and father figures, teaching the two new Terrans what it actually means to be a Decepticon, where the difference in ideology is with the Autobots, maybe we could've finally learned why the Decepticons were formed in this universe in the first place. But nope. Spitfire and Aftermath are just Evil Terrans because apparently we're labeling people as 'good' and 'evil' according to their faction again. Side note, does anyone else gets the ick from season 2 constantly asserting that Chaos Terrans are just evil because they were born "wrong"? Spitfire and Aftermath having low empathy and anti-authoritarian attitudes is immediately used to paint them as beyond redemption and any attempt by the Terrans to bond with them is doomed to fail because the Chaos Terrans don't have the same mental link (which you could see as a disability) the other Terrans have. It's all just very... yikes, imo.
One thing is clear: Transformers is never good with sequels, Just look at all the sequel type transformers media: Beast Wars - Beast Machines Armada - Energon Transformers 2007 - ROTF TF Prime - RID 2015 Bumblebee - ROTB (Possibly) And now Earthspark with it's second season, It's like a curse.
I mean the big problem with ROTB is that they didn't focus on the Maximals more. Hell, the title is Rise of the BEASTS and yet the Beast Wars characters play second fiddle to the Autobots. I'd love it better if the Autobots were in it less and it was about the main human protagonist befriending the Maximals. Make the Maximals the center of it and make the Autobots just a small "cavalry" role in the final battle. Also since this is just the second movie of a new franchise, it was too early to drop Unicron.
Rescue Bots - Rescue Bots Academy Seriously, I know Rescue Bots was more of a “kid’s show” and had very light conflict, but the writing, dialogue, and character dynamics were amazing! It was a kid’s show you could sit through and enjoy (similar to Bluey in a way where it was entertaining for both kids and adults). Rescue Bots Academy became even lighter and turned into the generic ‘kid’s show’ (ie. only kids would enjoy it) that the first series avoided.
What S2 needed were bad autobots. I'm pretty sure not all of them liked humans. I remember in G1, some of the autobots would question Optimus about his choices for fighting for humans. They even did that in the Bay movies.
I wonder if Ultra Magnus would’ve worked as an antagonistic Autobot in season 2? Not an outright villain but an Autobot who is very much against the idea of Deceptions reforming and thus is at odds with Optimus because of it. I mean it wouldn’t be the first time Ultra Magnus was a massive jerk, I mean he was one in 2001 RID.
@@jwwprod3862I mean I would’ve picked Ironhide and Cliffjumper, both would be apprehensive about the Decepticons switching, and even having Megatron be an ally.
It's a shame so much potential goes to waste because new writers don't care to continue what was started by the old group of writers. I was already disappointed when they messed up with the primes and made Megatronus the typical villain wanting vengeance against everyone and everything in RID 2015, now this. I loved season 1, the Decepticons having a heart drew me in. I honestly thought it would've turned into a type of series where some wounds would be mended and they gain a new perspective and understanding in life while still being able to be who they are, just for it to basically go 'scrap that idea, we're staying plain evil'.. we fr need a redo with season 2..
I think this is my main issue with Season 2. With everything changed about the Decepticons, it feels more like a different Transformers show that just happened to use Earthsparks assets. I do hate this trope but I hope it's going to be more of a case of "Oh they were being controlled by Unicron" so they can still be good. Or heck if you do go the brainwashing way, bring in Mindwipe, let him be controlling them from behind the scenes.
Earthspark is a show that was trying something different that no other piece of TF media has done, and while it has some criticisms to it and it's not perfect, it was truly something special. (it was also the very few times I got truly emotional and it felt like I was getting tears like when Breakdown was saving Bumblebee's life to escape) Aaaannnnnnddddd season 2 just came in and slapped Earthspark in the face, like the MINUTE I started episode 1 of S2 I immediately felt something was off. (besides the animation also being a downgrade) it was also (I think) the first time I ever actively cringed when watching ANYTHING 🤮 Apparently why S2's the way It Is it's because of certain things that happened in the background like changing studios to do the animation, possibly factoring in mandates from Hasbro (not entirely sure about that) and replacing a lot of the writers from the S1 staff, including someone from S1writing staff who was the reason for Starscream's S1 portrayal and Nightshade's entire existence in the show. But you want to know what's worse, season 2 felt more like lies from the government than a continuation. (A little extreme to think about it that way but that's just a point of comparison) I'm really disappointed with how season 2 turned out, it almost feels like an entirely different show that almost no one wanted to watch, a second season of a show or not, Earthspark season 2 falls into the bin of bad Transformers sequels, "cough" Beast Machines "cough" RID 2015 "cough", etc. I'll still cherish the show forever. Transformers Earthspark is still one of the best pieces of TF media we've gotten, I'll just pretend the second season of it doesn't exist, thank you for coming to my ted talk people who read my comment.💙
hearing the words tarantulas and good guy in the same sentence is a shock to my system not gonna lie, in basically every show/comic hes in he's always been self serving and sociopathic, he was LITERALLY gonna eat Cheetor in one episode, he's also if the writers are to be believed a spawn of Unicron its weird, but also kinda nice to see a kinder more down to earth tarantulas
Dude he is terrible in the comics! I mean, he went mini spider form crawled into someone's head and then transformed full size and well...pop. Having him be as good and honestly lovable as he was in season 1 was flooring XD. I am right there with you!
These cowards dropped the ball because they weren't actually pushing out Earthspark. "But the toys-" Many fans have said the toys weren't fun. And Shockwave and Scream had repaints from Cyberverse. How many ads for the show did you see? And Nick showed it off at awful timeframes. This show was failed. And the letdown of S2P1 reflects that.
Man, what are you talking about “the toys weren’t good”. Grimlock, nightshade, thrash (warrior), twitch (deluxe), and Optimus (deluxe) were all really good
@@L0rdskywarp While the Deluxes and some Warriors were good, the toyline was also riddled with crappy gimmick toys that nobody wanted. Gimmick toys can be fun, but the generic 1-step garbage so prevalent now isn't.
@@samurexatlas7373 Why compare to the collector-focused side of things? The mainline Deluxes were still really good, it doesn't matter how they stack up against Generations. For sure they could've been better (e.g. used higher quality plastic), but that doesn't mean they were bad.
It's pretty much the same hiccup TFP came to. Leaks show that the show was to be canceled after the second season [a new show apparently is being worked on]. So yeah, it's unfortunate.
Most of the Decepticons were having an amazing writing and personalities. Even in the story boards that they “took away from us” we saw how Soundwave was so affectionate towards Ravege, Hugging her and caressing her. Then we had Shockwave, who even if he’s someone dangerous, his real goal is to get back to Cybertron, and he was willing to work with humans to achieve it. They even made Starscream perfect for the redemption arc. The only thing that I liked of this season was that, in the last episode, once Starscream betrays them, they didn’t doubt in follow the next Decepticon who said “Well, I’m taking the leadership now”. They made them look like they’re just a group of bots with nowhere to go, and the only reason why they stick togueter is because they don’t know what else to do. Besides that, the rest of the season was a thumbs down…
My opinion on Spitfire was she had potential for a great character arc within the poor writing. But ofc the poor writing also ruined that. Like she was put in a race where the only rule she was told was to win, and she was litterally born the day before so she had absolutely NO WAY to know any morals the others felt should be upheld. I felt it was fair that she was angry at them, but then she just died and never had that side of her character shown?? Honestly I don't think the writers can fix what they messed up at this point and I honestly wouldn't even be surprised if Tarantulas is shown as a bad guy. Honestly at this point I'm expecting them to do him dirty. All I can do is hope that some kind of absolute miracle happens and they somehow get the entire rest of the season to improve their writing. But it will never make up for the lost characterization (which is a very big problem imo and litterally why I don't consider RID2015 canon to the aligned continuity)
I can't believe Starscream actually tells someone to kys (keep yourself safe) in one season and to kys (take a guess) the very next season. A masterclass of writing, the writers should be awarded a beer bottle to the head for that one. What will they think of next.
This reminds me how they butchered one of the best Starscreams of all time in the Unicron Trilogy. They gave him such a good arc in Armada and then tossed all that aside in the sequel series.
Starscream from season one deserved so much better than season two. They gave us something different and took it away. I’m glad you brought up Nova Storm questioning what side she could be on, and SkyWarp suddenly being racist, because where did that come from?! The Seeker trine was done dirty, I wanted to see more of their bond but no, they’re just the bad guys.
The decepticons aren’t even Season 2’s only problem. The Terrans got a huge downgrade too. Jawbreaker is relentlessly annoying, Hashtag lost the depth she had in season 1, and Thrash and Nightshade barely show up. Twitch isn’t great either but it’s harder to verbalize what’s wrong with her, everything she does just feels off.
I also hate how the “updated” hashtag’s design, I loved the boxier look of her original form and the satellite being turned into a pony tail (or something I don’t know hair) was great. Then the new one is so shiny and smooth and for some reason like, vastly more technologically advanced despite being… a civilian car.
I think that was mainly cause in season two Bumblebee wasn't really around the Terrans all that much,he is the youngest of the legacy bots so when he's surrounded by other adults he doesn't try to act as mature as he did when he's mentoring the terrans or when he's around Breakdown he has to act like the responsible one because Breakdown always acts reckless
as someone who can relate very heavily to starscream and what he's been through in many conts and earthspark too, i genuinely cried during s2 and especially the finale. i had to put watching it off because i was worried if things would get better or not because i was still scared after s1's finale. i LOVE earthspark - its probably one of my favorite TF medias to date, but now that enjoyment is just limited to s1 because they butchered everything in s2. and shockwave too ?? what happened to him ? he switched up so fast as well it made no sense. maybe it would've made sense if they had told an actual story instead of going " decepticons will be decepticons " . i really hope they do better with s3 because earthspark was a super big comfort media before s2 decided to be a thing and Exist ,
I know it's a bit off-topic, but I wasn't big fan of the fact ALL Decepticons just labeled Megatron "traitor", and abandoned him as their leader. I would've liked If at least one Decepticon (Lugnut If possible), followed Megatron and joined G.H.O.S.T. too. Imagine character development and comedic potential of that one transformer in G.H.O.S.T. team who's constantly referring to Megatron as "Lord" only for Megatron to constantly correct him.
I absolutely hate it when new writers come in to continue a show or movie franchise that other writers started and then immediately undo, retcon, or overwrite/override the hard work the past team did just to further their own agenda. It’s like, rather than working to fit new stories into the framework of what was previously established, and well received, these new writers almost try and tear it down just so they can try and make it their own work with a less thought out story that’s easier to write but boring to watch. I can name several franchises out there that have received this treatment from new writers. Transformers Earthspark is just the latest victim, apparently.
The DJD would really have made Megatron confront the results of his bad deeds. And Cyberverse proved you can do Tarn in a kid's show. As long as my girl Ravage does not get bisected again I'd be down for that.
What if the DJD, after seeing how far the leader they had worshipped had fallen, inspired a new Decepticon revolt that convinced some Decepticons to join them in hunting down Megatron and his new Autobots and Earth allies? Maybe in exchange to not be in the DJD’s hit list? That way, you can explain away why some of these Cons that are decent at S1 ended up go bad in S2. First episodes would be the good guys uncovering the mystery of why the Cons go rogue, with their previous faith in them being shown to be tested by this apparent betrayal while also seeing how much fear these Cons had with the DJD over their neck. Then when they find out about the DJD, make it like it’s some kind of rumor the Autobots had heard about that they haven’t confirmed during the war while Megatron explains that this is his fanatical death squad for deserting Decepticons. So Megatron not only had to face his past and bring down the DJD, he has to deal with the shock and distrust his allies have over this revelation.
@@alexanderchristopher6237 That would be an interesting setting for the DJD. Tarn would definitely lead through fear and the use of The List. Shockwave would be one of the first to fold, and quickly. Starscream and the Seekers would follow, along with Swindle and Hardtop. Decepticons like Tarantulus would continue to stay in hiding or join the Autobots for a chance at protection, this would apply to the Cassettes, assuming they turned over a new leaf, and Breakdown as well, as for Megatron facing his past- that speaks for itself.
The whole time when you were talking about season 1 and its qualities I found myself stimming in joy because it was almost all I wanted for a modern transformers show And when I think of season 2 I felt a sense of loss, grief, the Earthspark show I knew just wasn't there, It wasn't the same. Its so sad that the deeper themes got lost.
This feels like the same problem that happened with Beast wars & Beast machines, where the higher ups brought in new writers and those didn’t watch the previous series so they wrote the characters in a completely different way.
THANK YOU FOR TALKING ABOUT THIS!!! Seriously! I have nothing against casting Decepticons as primary Villains of season 2, but the excuse for it just being "Meh, It's just the way Decepticons are" seems like such a cop-out. I was hoping Season 2 would open similarly to the Cyberverse episode "Parley"; two sides meeting for negotiations for truce, which went well before being prematurely cut by miscommunication, leaving certain individuals of both sides changed by temporary moment of piece, each questioning weather war is the only available option. Just imagine it: * Starscream and Megatron acting as awkward exes, * Shockwave geeking it out with Wheeljack and Nightshade, * Breakdown and Bumblebee reminiscing of their racing glory days * Swindle tring to sell Alex "authentic" Cybertronian souvenirs. Maybe even something unexpected, such as one of the Malto's showing Nova Storm simple joys of living on Earth farm...
I haven't even rlly watched too much of the show.. But like, tf is this???? We could've gotten a whole redemption arc for Screamer. >:[ For the love of God we need a hero to rewrite it, fan fic or not. I wanna see Starscream be done justice 🙏
23:35 ngl I was sobing my eyes out but not because I cared about Spitfire but because I was upset that they destroyed all of season season 1s setup and essentially assassinated Starscream's character 😭
Why does even remotely surprise anyone? You all know what era of entertainment this is, you know what the industry is like, you all saw the stunts they were pulling. This was INEVITABLE
earthspark being cancelled after season 2 makes sense now as I believe its because of Nickelodeon, they cancel shows that start getting serious or FORCE THEM TO BE complacent, they dont want change.
Hearing you call Breakdown a "punk-ass gangster" made me die laughing. For sure, I agree that I'm not a fan at all of how Aftermath is characterized this season, nor do I TOTALLY like how dark they made Starscream with killing him and Spitfire, I still believe we may get the Cons changing their ways with the Quintessons coming in as the true big bads by the end of the season. Is Season 2 better than season 1? IMO, not at all right now, but I'm willing to stick around for the rest of the season to see if Starscream and the other cons can be salvaged.
@emperorkumquat That's fair. Maybe he'll get the same treatment IDW1 Megs got though; there was no way he could be redeemed, but he still regretted what he did while a Decepticon.
Spoiler warning (although I'd call you lucky if you haven't watched S2) The only thing I found good was Terratronus, and even SHE was wasted. Her being the "first" Terran really downplayed the beginning of the show with Twitch and Thrash (imo anyway). One of my friends had the idea of Terratronus being the Proudstar (Nova Prime's spaceship in TF Devastation) in robot mode (for their AU, but her role was given to Quintessa instead). And as a certified Nova Prime fanboy, it makes me believe that Nova should've been the main villain. + he fits as the opposite of the shows morals well (him thinking of Cybertronians as the strongest race is a great mirror of this show's lesson of equality) Nova also fits perfectly as an opposite to Mandroid, someone who wants to protect his race vs someone who wants to conquer other worlds for the legacy of his race to thrive Also Season 1's ending (with Robbie and Mo using the Emberstone to undo Mandroid's damage and revive all the Cybertronians around Earth) kinda hyped it up a little. Would've been cool to see Mandroid's actions have *genuine* consequences (in the form of it indirectly resulting in Nova Prime reawakening) Also it would've been AWESOME to see the one who is basically "The Senator Armstrong of Transformers" control a titan for the finale.
Something that could've been done is throw in somebody like Tarn. Cyberverse already showed they're willing to tone him down for a child friendly audience. They could've had Tarn come to Earth after learning about Megatron's betrayal. Then, after learning about the ember shards and the titan, he could've changed his plan to create an army to conquer Earth like Megatron never could. And with this, you can even have the cons join him, but this time not out of them just being bad, but out of fear have some throw away lines from Nova storm or Sky warp about how he's far worse than Megatron ever was. That way, you don't undo the characterization of the cons, but to an extent, enforce that yes, there are good deceptions, but they can't be good as long as there are bad deceptions at the wheel. Heck, you could even do more with Optimus and Megatron as you could reveal Tarn's origin as an autobot that was manipulated by Megatron to hurt Optimus that could cause tension between the two. And they'd have to reseal those old wounds to better fight against Tarn.
Reading comments and finding how the writing team is all new really explains season 2 and how I didn’t even here about it until a month after it released 😑
Its really funny because every tv-shows showing starscream want to do good always brushed aside either by killing him and reviving him with no memories (energon), wasted redemption potential (earthspark), or just him being a coward (prime). Meanwhile comics, IDW developed starscream from the schemer we know to a responsible leader of cybertron and Skybound made starscream a sympathetic character (after showing him being his most psychopathic incarnation)
One of the rare times a show peaks at season 1 but immediately dips in 2 to the point where fans disregard it as a continuation...just like a certain sequel to Prime
Earthspark was my favorite iteration of transformers for it’s found family dynamic, the morally grey aspects, and actual good human characters. It arguably has one of the best tf episodes (decoy) ever made imo. I still have a little bit of hope that the second half of s2 will at least be passable but with the way it’s going so far it’s not the case.
Wow. What a waste. Though I admit it's kinda funny that Tarantulas, whose initial incarnation was one of the most evil Transformers, was made a good guy and spared a derailment to be made evil so far.
This, along with how Aftermath and Spitfire are portrayed as evil dESPITE BEING BASICALLY INFANTS, is why hasbro never fails to make me violent with their desicions like 😭
I agree with what you said about the Chaos Terrans being a bad idea for the story as a whole. They were characterized as corrupted, inherently evil, incapable of change, and unreceptive to the compassion of others. Essentially, they were “born wrong.” And that’s all they ever amounted to. It feels like such a far cry from what the first season’s messages and themes were going for.
This reminds me of the disconnect between Armada Starscream and Energon Starscream, but worse. Whatever one thought of Energon, at least that Starscream had the excuse of being an incomplete construct lacking key memories. Here there is no excuse other than him and the rest of the Decepticons were just trolling the entire first season. Shame, I wanted to watch this series but never found the time, now I am not so sure.
That’s an insult to Superlink- yeah, it’s bad, but it’s at least TRYING to pick up where Armada left off and do something interesting with its cast ES Season 2 is the actual bottom of the barrel
@@Energon1 It's honestly depressing that the writers thought "Galvatron robs his underlings of their individuality" beat "Demolishor lets his conscience win and becomes an Autobot while Starscream gets his memory back". Admittedly, the idea of a main villain deciding to punish repeated failures by rendering his minions soulless husks sounds great, but it just didn't fit the trajectory of what Superlink started off with.
Honestly I feel like the decepticons returning to being villains could've worked had it been executed properly There have been certain lines in s2 p1 that alluded to why they felt the need to turn down this path such as Starscream telling Megatron they could never be free on this world if humans,autobots or Megatron himself were to exist and called them oppressors. Shockwave even backs this up by saying Earth was a prison to them. The decepticons were betrayed by their own leader whom they trusted enough to follow his will for millions of years,only for him to straight up tell them in their face that they were in the wrong all along,and they are unable to seperate themselves from this mindset because admitting the fact they were the ones who took things too far and strayed from their original cause would mean admitting they were wrong if they were to do that then they'd ask themselves,what was all this suffering for? everything they sacrificed,lost all for this? They saw Megatron and Optimus supposedly destroyed the allspark dooming their species and blowing up the spacebridge stranding them on a world they never wanted to come to in the first place,for years they were hunted and starved and experimented on,while to their perspective the Autobots did nothing to stop it. I think season two could've worked a lot better if the first two-three episodes were to show the immediate aftermath of Mandroids defeat actually showing how the autobots and decepticons attempted a truce to search for the emberstone,and make atleast some of them want to adjust to some semblance of normalcy but they were still met with distrust,and hostility(not saying humans don't have a right to be wary of them considering who they are) If even when they were trying to change they were just reminded of the fact they could never change because they were decepticons,this sort of scenario could've imo worked for someone like Starscream It could also fit into the theme of horrible people when never given support can end up becoming even worse. Whereas other decepticons could've opted to return to their old ways because it's all they've ever known 15 years is nothing in their lifespan even if Megatron managed to truly change it's not realistic to expect everyone else to break away from their old habits almost immediately,if they feel like the entire world is against them even if they don't personally like the idea. And then gradually show throughout the season that not everyone is on board with Starscream's plan but they feel like it's their only option. And maybe show Breakdown getting genuinely attached to Aftermath and then not wanting for Aftermath to die if he was aware of Starscream's plan to kill them. I feel like the show should've kept exploring the deeper themes touched on in season one, I didn't really have much of an issue with the Autobots except for the fact Bumblebee didn't get as much focus as he did in season one if any besides humor. The Chaos Terrans could've been used to touch on the reality of troubled kids,they weren't inherently evil and honestly I don't think the Terrans reactions to them are that out of pocket,Jawbreaker did trust Aftermath the latter breaking his trust was what led him to be wary of Spitfire,and Twitch did try to be friendly to Spitfire before the latter tried to kill Alex. Spitfire didn't know the rules or anything about why they shouldn't harm humans,she was born a day ago how was she supposed to know that on her own?Twitch and Jawbreaker were just kids too who didn't know how to handle the situation my thought is why none of the adults tried to talk to Spitfire,like maybe even Alex or Dot or heck even Megatron Aftermath and Spitfire were born in the midst of battle,Aftermath was immediately groomed by Breakdown into lashing out his violent urges because that's how decepticons work, Same thing with Spitfire and how they both ended in Decepticon care,they just wanted validation for committing mischief,and got caught up in the wrong crowd. If they were allowed to be nurtured in a healthier environment maybe they could've ended up a lot better. But no one besides the Maltos who are children themselves tried to reason with them. They were failed by everyone around them. Just look at the way Aftermath listens to Breakdown when he tells him to do something he actually likes,or that look on Spitfire's face when Starscream praised her when she turned the autobots to stone it really hits at these moments that they just needed a proper parental figure. I honestly would not have minded if they used the Chaos Terrans to explore the different complexities of factions,the Malto Terrans were immediately take in the care of autobots hence their ideals and moral code are based on what their parents and the Autobots show them Aftermath and Spitfire meanwhile ended up with the Decepticons,they could've given atleast one episode in between the last 3 Episodes to show them trying to adjust,maybe even certain decepticons telling them their perspective of the war and hence warping their mindset into believing the Maltos were in the wrong,further adding to manipulation,Heck maybe even add some scenes of them interacting with several more decepticons and even developing geniune bonds with them,hence it would make Starscream opting to kill them even more heartbreaking because to them, they were essentially their family and all they were to the decepticons were just a means to an end.
When I thought of what season two could be I never thought of all that character development getting thrown away to fit the status quo. I wanted the Autobots and Decepticons to work together to rebuild, possibly go home, and fight the Quintessons.
God I wish season two would have been about them going back to cybertron. They find that the allspark sort of made it through but it was damaged and now only a few new cybertronians emerge. This caused whatever remaining cybertronians to be divided into factions. Autobots, Predacons, Maximals, and decepticons.
I was pleasantly surprised with the themes and potential season 1 portrayed for being a little kids show (I especially loved the symbolism of Megatron keeping his decepticon insignia) but man, it just went immediately downhill, they threw everything good from the first season out the window like it was nothing. It definitely felt like they're abandoning the show and only put out this season because they had too
I'm thinking if there is a Season 3, it would explain why the reformed Decepticons become evil again. My idea is that Cryak, a character from IDW's 2019 Transformers comic book series and Starscream's mentor, ambushed the former Decepticons including Starscream, and then brainwashed them. Cryak wanted to become the new leader of the Decepticons after Megatron stepped down and reformed.
It’s called a Cyber Slayer. And it’s not deadly. It was used in the end of Season 1 and it only drains one of Energon, thus endangering them if not recharged with Energon quickly enough. It was used on Shockwave, Optimus, and Elita at the end of S1, and they were all fine afterwards.
See what hugely bothers me about Earthspark is that it compromises its own premise by not properly detailing the origins of both sides. If the Decepticons are an innate group like they are in G1, then yeah, don’t judge a book by its cover. Earthspark plays it pretty fast and loose with what did and didn’t happen as things did in G1, so that can’t be taken as a given. But if it’s like it is in almost every other continuity, the label was a choice, and with it, a lot of the would be moral ambiguity is sabotaged. Like with Tarantalus, sure he may be a nice bot, but if we know that he willingly signed up with the Decepticons and the atrocities they committed did not persuade him to leave, then he is no more innocent than the characters we see being evil on screen like Swindle and Hardtop
Absolutely. It tries to use the allegiances as race sometimes when most of the time they are being used as allegiances. I am a lot more forgiving of breakdown than I am of tarantulas, breakdown is clearly a misguided guy, he’s made bad decision but he has a good heart, if Bee were able to have a few more goes at him, and if he were able to sit down and talk with Megatron im sure he’d see what was wrong, tarantulas is intelligent and keeps completing about why he’s being hunted, while wearing basically the robot swastika on his chest. Gee! I wonder why!
I tried to keep an open mind about season 2, I really did, but there was nothing even the slightest bit complex or unique about the new plot compared to season 1, except the concept of how Hashtag chose her new alt-mode. I'll admit, I was weirded out by the fact of Megatron being a good guy at first, but after figuring out the whole approach to this series about finding silver linings in society, I found the series overall enlightening and exciting. It had so much potential to evolve with this new mix of personalities from everyone, but instead it was downgraded to the simple good vs evil crap. If people want to see transformers in their black-and-white world, they can watch almost every other transformer series out there, but leave Earthspark out of it, it's the whole reason I joined the Transformers community in the first place. I especially hated how much they changed Starscream. In any other series, even future series, they can make Starscream the baddie if they want. What I dislike here is that the story leads everyone believing Starscream will be a friend of the Terrans or at least an anti-hero and then turning him and the rest of the cons all around with only an explanation of 'they're decepticons, of course they'll turn on us', becoming outright hypocritical to the series' original message that was especially expressed in episode 13. While I'm sad Tarantulas wasn't in season 2, it was kind of a blessing in disguise that his final impression on us was at least compassionate, and not turned bad like every other con. And don't get me started on the Chaos Terrans. I am sour about them, especially since they didn't have redeeming qualities. But, I'm more sour about the fact the story led to Terrans having their own black and white people in their community where Chaos Terrans = bad guys. The whole point of the Terrans were that they are new transformers that look beyond faction labels, not make their own. If they were still as considered regular Terrans, which was only weakly expressed in S2 E1, I could've accepted their rude personalities since it would've drawn a complex concept that every society had its good and bad people, and that's a decent compromise to the poor story writing. But having Malto Terrans vs Chaos Terrans is just continuing the trend like Autobots vs Decepticons and even Maximals vs Predacons. This was long I know, but I really wanted to get my two cents out there. Thank you for speaking on behalf of the Earthspark community, we needed this.
At first I thought that the Chaos Terrans would be physically unstable somehow (because chaos and being made from corrupted shards) and their thing would be learning that your body and the things about it that you can't control aren't the entirety of your life and who you are… but man, was I wrong.
I love Michael Bay’s StarScream. He was the GOAT in the whole film! (Especially in the 1st film.) They need to continue making StarScream a badass that he REALLY IS. He is far from being a weak deceptacon. He is a THREAT
Starscream technically never really was a weak decepticon to begin with he values self preservation so he doesn't really engage in battles he knows he can't win,this just leads to him being labelled a coward from the narrative, there's a reason he's in charge of the aerial force
Heck yeah, screw those non-sensical thinking barriers called morals, we're here for goal oriented thinking, the superior way to approach things, the DECEPTICON WAY!
This is why I value and believe in decepticons more than autobots. I can see why they’re angry and just wanted to be treated better, and while some are different. Plus the whole cause itself like in IDW and TFP make me sympathize with them
It would be interesting to see the Decepticons more as revolutionaries and freedom fighters - rising up from oppression in this show, which is what they were originally supposed to be. 🤔 It would be a way to show how some individuals become villains. There needs to be some reconciliation between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Both sides have a lot of trauma to overcome.
The irony being tarantulas is now a heavenly saint even though on beast wars he was the most ruthless and merciless character to everyone who breathed in his direction Cannibalism is literally his main trait
Best to give Earthspark the Voltron treatment. If you recommend it to someone, you only tell them to watch the first 3-5 seasons, 7 if you want to push it. And just pretend that it got cancelled after that and never had a season 8... Earthspark is unfortunately like that now, season 1 was such a special TF show. There's rumors out there that we will not be getting a season 3 (which is very likely.) But as much as it pains me to say this; Earthspark should have been cancelled after season 1. It is sad to see how far this show has fallen in the span of a single year and I wish we had been spared that seeing the quality of season 2.
Haven't seen season 2, but I'm just thinking we need Ultra Magnus just needs to turn up and start preposing the idea of making a lawful cybertronian region that has a couple of hundred laws and bills. Providing a neutral ground for both Decepticons and Autobots to go to. You get arrested for assault, stealing, possession of weapons over a certain grade like any place. There's a justice system and basic living and working standard. Ultra Magnus just single handedly ending the conflict by being mature and practical about taking the first steps of working with the Earth governments. Which should hopefully calm the Decepticons down and stop them from asking the same question again and again, "Should I be an Autobot should I be a Decpticon?' My bot there's a job vacancy that pays you an energon salary and you can finally get your independence away from the factions. You will have a recharge bed. And you will be protected by law from both factions and crazy humans. Because we value a safe, functioning society. It would likely make some of the Decepticons think twice of continuing with their destruction because what they are doing would make Magnus' goal of making a safe region for Cybertronians much more difficult to reach. Which just undermines everyone. Ultra Magnus can handle that work load lol. Ok at this rate it's looking like an Ultra Magnus fic ._.
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Emperorkumquat are you still making those one minute videos because if you are, can you please make one about my favorite Autobot Thunderclash
Hey, do you think you could so robots in Disguise grimlock being Represented as autistic It makes sense when you think about it.Since I previously commented earlier that he Resemble me a big lovable lug who loves to fight Doesn't have much intelligence and does sometimes act like a child and scared of certain things It sort of resembles people who are artistic and not to mention.He does sometimes think outside of the box like An autistic person would do I should know because I am autistic
The only way they gettin views back is if there’s some mind control at play if not 📉📉📉.
@@heavyfromteamfortress2356 Maybe you should try making that video since you have all the ideas
@@Jeunebug3 I will be making more but I would have to familiarize myself again with all there is to know about him
Honestly if Earthspark needed a new bad guy, it should've been Prowl.
I swear somewhere on the internet someone had managed to find an Earthspark Prowl toy and I was convinced he was going to be the new villain. I think it would've so cool, an AUTOBOT villain showing a different side of the Autobots. The dirty side mentioned in the idw comics and in Transformers Prime. If we got to see good Decepticons then we should've been able to see bad Autobots as well-
Imagine what other things you could've introduced with that idea. Honestly I'm so disappointed with the direction they went with this season.
OH MY GOSH YES! This would’ve been awesome!!
OH MY GOSH YES! That would’ve been awesome!!
I’d have loved that change up. Decepticon allies fighting for peace and freedom, antagonistic Autobots hell bent on establishing order…mwah! ❤
THIS, I WANT THIS SO MUCH👆👆
It's honestly kind of disgusting. What kind of lesson is this teaching? To portray Starscream as an abuse victim, then to put his abuser on the "good side". Then they portray Starscream as evil. I have no problem with making Starscream an antagonist. But to make the victim the bad guy, and his abuser a hero, is something that abuse victims are all too familiar with.
I can see that season 1 was probably leading up to healing for Starscream and a change/ apology from Megatron, but we didn't really get that. Instead, we watched the abuse victim be villanized. They tried to make an abuse allegory, and then character assassinated the victim.
So I shouldn't watch the second season and stop at season 1?
While very complex, it teaches kids that some abuse victims can become bad people or be bad despite their trauma. Not because abuse turns people bad, but because some of them decide to use their traumatic experiences to justify their own selfish and bad behavior, and continue the cycle.
Not that I am personally ok of how this whole situation turn out.
@@uberkirbeeh7954I agree with what you’re saying. I’m okay with Starscream being good or bad. And I’m okay with him being the victim and then becoming a villain again. It shows that everyone is always equally capable of good and evil.
Edit: I should’ve mentioned I still think they butchered Starscream as a character in season 2.
@@uberkirbeeh7954But that wasn't the intended message, it's just bad writing
@@uberkirbeeh7954 .' Not because abuse turns people bad, but because some of them decide to use their traumatic experiences to justify their own selfish and bad behavior, and continue the cycle'
And this is exactly what happened with Megtaron, but they never showed us this. This whole situation is the result of the hamfisted way Earthspark tried to redeem Megatron from the start.
I understand that they has to simplify certain themes in a kids cartoon, but as far as redemtion stories went they should have done something similar to the redemtion story Armada Starscream had instead whatever Megatron got in Earthspark.
Megatron genocided whole species, he destoryed planets, committed literal war crimes, and he gets away scot free with a simple apology, and working for the good guys? For the record I have no problem with Megatron being redeemed, or even abusers being redeemed (if it's done right). Like In the IDW continuity they actually managed to give Megatron an incredible well written redemtion story.
But in Erathspark? It really seemed like Megatron suffered no consequences for his actions. We know that he was a killer, an abuser, a tyrant but the consequences never reached him, unlike the rest of his crew.
In IDW Megatron barely got away from being executed, he was banished, sent on a suicide mission, had to drink energon which reduced his phisical strenght, lost all his power, his life work/faction was dissolved, and had to work under the commnd of an arrogant youngster (who actually had similar character traits like Strascream). We saw the character (Megatron) almost destroyed, despaired, hopless, before they started to build him up again, as better version of himslef.
This never happened with EarthsparkMegatron (to this extent)
And this is all thanks to the new team of writers. Seriously, it seems like they DIDN'T watch season 1.
not the first time in the history of transformers
that's how we got beast machines
@@rikajougasaki3296 and rid 2015
@@rikajougasaki3296 Yeah, that's exactly what my brother said
They hit panic and went to "safe"
Did they replace the weiters?
No one can convince me that the Starscream in Season One, who saved Hashtag AND Twitch from certain doom, who had silly faces on his missiles, is the SAME Starscream in Season Two who murdered children without hesitation.
You just can’t.
I want to find a better, less pathetic word for the way I feel, but as of now, I feel “heartbroken”.
Well Starscream WAS ALWAYS BEEN that type of backstabbing rat that SHOULDN'T give an second chance; since when it was trying whatever it takes to become the defacto leader of the Decepticons; Every single ´Con Turn against Screamer, specially when it's coup d'État fails against screamer. SO it makes sense, like the old saying; If nobody helps them; nobody can do it either. Just because you living in a Fanon Steven Universe pinkish BS; it's not so different to the average socialist utopias that can "forgive" hineous crimes from genocidial dictators like H1tler or St4lin...Or Starscream's case; Decepticon equivalent to Lev Trotsky...
It is like transformers Armada compared to Transformers Cybertron all over again. Except Cybertrom was a different japanese series that got hamstrung into being a part of the Unicron Trilogy in the English Dub. This is the same show. Very dissapointing.
Actually Why am I jumping to Cybertron when Energon is right there and Screwed up so many decepticons. At least Energon had the decency to mind wipe them into being antagonists instead of just. flipping back for the sake of continuity.
True
@@Ucatty2 It honestly felt odd seeing Starscream become the villain again in Energon. I haven't fully finished Armada yet, but I've heard Starscream was a great character in the show who had a bond with another character (though her name escapes me currently).
It felt odd that she didn't even acknowledge Starscream's return unless I missed something in Energon. It would've been a nice moment for Starscream, maybe a moment of realization that he wasn't always a villain.
The funniest thing to me though was the tragic story of the Quintesons. I'm so used to them being the antagonists, so it was a complete shock seeing them as a more tragic character for once. Crazy that they went from feeding other aliens to the Sharkticons to the sole survivors of their home planet
I mean, to be fair, Starscream is so synonymous with betrayal that TV Tropes literally calls backstabbing henchmen "The Starscream".
The least they could have done was try to make Starscream's treacherous tendencies a consequence of his abuse. That he's been abused for so long that it's messed him up emotionally. And his traitorous chronic backstabbing isn't out of desire for power but rather out of distrust: where he can't help but see kindness as always having an ulterior motive and can't comprehend selfless compassion.
Or have other deceptions like Soundwave and breakdown turn good? Honestly, I knew Starscream might become evil again. The dude is actually crazier than Megatron sometimes, but to have only Megatron become good was a dumb move.
Plot Twist: EarthSpark Season 2 was just a nightmare Season 1 Starscream was having. He then wakes up and then begins to fully make amends with the Autobots and Megatron.
I want this. I legit want this. This. Is. Now cannon is my mind.
@@ElizabethPrado-vl7mh head canons LETS GO
best headcanon
10/10 headconnon this right here!
with the way this is going from a market standpoint, they'll probably do this, since nobody fucking likes the show anymore, they can't sell any damn toys or people just hate it. It's the only good outcome for fans and hasbro.
It’s lowkey gross to do a 180 with Starscream’s entire characterization in this batch of episodes, especially with how his trauma has affected him has resonated with so many people.
True, no victim is perfect. However, what is an issue is how he went from point A to point XYZ. 😭
Yeah ike why???
Thank u, this is just lazy writing and no one seems to see that like i wish ppl stop being so obtuse about this
It's more like a 360 than a 180 with his character. Because this man kills two kids and laughs. What. The fu**?
It's not out of the ordinary for Starscream to be a lying and manipulative backstabber.
With that said, it's so obvious that it wasn't what they were originally going for here, which makes it all the more annoying.
At least we didn't get a: forgive people who hurt you!!! Bullshit plotline :/....
A part of me likes to believe that a reason they did a 180 on Starscream and the other Decepticons is that Hasbro realized they'd have to back pedal and also tackle what exactly made someone like Megatron, WHO STARTED EVERYTHING, have such an easy time gaining the main players favor!
If season two had been a flashback episode or having Starscream as a factionless trying to navigate the world while still grappling with his own bad habits, I wouldn't have been upset. Or better yet, if they never touched on the theme of his abuse in the first place.
Not everyone feels as passionately about Starscream as some of us do, but it's disgusting that a kids show would make an episode that some kids from troubled backgrounds might ACTUALLY relate to, only to turn around and say "Nah, he's WORST than Megatron actually and deserves to be seen as ONLY a villain while Megatron can walk away with no issues."
I’m not even a Starscream fan and what I’ve heard about season two was just disgusting. If they couldn’t trust the original writers to tell a complex story, they shouldn’t have green lit any of this. Backpedaling does nothing and makes a show worse. The characters deserves better writing.
@@bengi8907backpedaling when used correctly to develop a character and their motivations isn't bad, armada does this with starscream himself and it's good. This isn't backpedaling, this is characterization death. They completely killed his character arc before he really had one.
I want this to be the case so badly, but in order for it to be, Starscream would have had to have a moment where he questioned whether what he was doing was really what he wanted. This is because if he suddenly became a portrayal of an abuse victim in the second half of the season, it would be a jarring and undeserved tone shift. There wasn’t anything like this, and that’s why it worries me
@@_aWiseMan
Some would call this character assassination, except this is a case way too extreme for "assassination" to properly describe how adruptly out-of-nowhere that 180 of the character was.
Season 2 absolutely dropped the ball, then set it on fire, and a blew it up. I literally remember crying over the sacrifices of breakdown and tarantulas on my first watch. Breakdown barley got any development in season 2, tarantulas was completely forgotten about. An that’s just those two alone. This show finally portrayed the decepticons with the level of maturity we deserved. And then they took so many steps back by making breakdown seem like a bad guy, making star scream ( a literal victim of abuse with an amazing message of moving on without forgiveness) seem like the bad guy too and we haven’t even mentioned the mishandling of the chaos terrans
The quality drop was so apparent in even the first episode of the season. I get budget cuts and the animation quality dipping but dear god the writing quality dipped so hard. All the nuances characterizations that made the show so special are just gone.
Steve Blum as star scream was peak as always despite the 180 but still.
Steve Blum was made to voice the more recent generations Starscream. He's amazing in whatever role he takes with him. I wonder if he as an actor (give he has played the character so much) agreed with the 180 they did to him in ES S2.
Starscream not killing babies or Breakdown treating Aftermath like a true son would've given everyone hope. But alas, they don't even allow the formerly-sympathetic bad guys to be good to themselves.
@@rikajougasaki3296 honestly the idea of Breakdown being rough and not as, y'know, compassionate as a father could've made for a very interesting story of him slowly learning how to be a role model despite his history of making bad choices. Really could've gone somewhere but nope. Always remember writers, NEVER ADD NUANCE TO YOUR CHARACTERS!! Besides, it ain't like any other Transformers show or story has had nuance when it came to its characters.
@@Sammytheflaaffyfan
Exactly!
But in Skybound, Startscream literally would kill babies.
@@nishchayjain1121
But Earthspark isn't Skybound
@@saagabragi6938 yeah I know, I’m just stating the difference between the two Startscreams.
I feel like some of the people in the comments tend to forget that while yes, this show harkens back to G1 in a lot of aspects, this show clearly takes heavy inspiration from both the Alligned continuity, and IDW. In those stories, the Decepticons were not ORIGINALLY intended to be these heartless violent thugs and gangsters who's only motivation is power. Now granted, they did slowly become that, which was the topic of plenty of stories, but Decepticonism as a concept was and still is to fight for equality, specifically against oppression and classism. Oh, and you wanna know who it was that established the things the Decepticons fought against? THE AUTOBOTS. Yeah, the "good guys".
Never have I seen character assassination this bad. Starscream going from likable to friggin Anakin Skywalker is infuriating but also hilarious.
S1: finally the character growth that tfp Starscream could of had!…
S2: the furk is this?
Steve Blum gets screwed over twice. I feel bad for him.
Like it felt like Earthspark was his second trying to show different side of Starscream before getting rid of it.
Justice for Starscream!!! And the other decepticons too for that matter
buuuuut on a happier note, who’s else is bouncing off the walls excited for transformers one?
i find it funny starscream is being voiced by another steve b! 😁
@@lillay304 Honestly, I am somewhat excited, but if Hasbro is trying to sabotage Earthspark for the movie it’s gross. They did it to animated after the Bay movies released.
I am assuming you mean another Starscream being voiced by Steve Blume? Because there’s only one Steve Blume I know. Yeah he’s a great va.
Steve bushemi (probably spelt it wrong) is voicing tf one starscream
This illustrates my problem with Megatron turning good it makes the rest of the decepticons look like irredeemable monsters while allowing the main architect of the movement(in many continuity’s) get a happy ending without much pushback or having said pushback seem like said character being stuck in there ways
Just like in real life. It just teaches that is natural and moraly okay when abusers get away.
Is dishearthening to real life victims
Exactly....
Sadly, I think the show bit off more than it could chew when it came to its themes. It seemed to want a pretty nuanced view of conflict, but I don't think the writers can actually believe in a nuanced world - I know too many "cosmopolitan" writer types who have this confused perspective. They hate "labels," but simultaneously love them. They dislike the idea of "othering," yet perform it all the time. I'm not sure even the original team could've kept this up, since I doubt they even truly believed the message they were trying to convey.
Come Season 2 and you have a new writing team trying to revert to a more coherent but less nuanced worldview, and that ultimately messes up the themes.
Lets face it, IDW2005 Megs was a flash in the pan. I'm not sure any future writing team could pull that off.
@@kiriki4558 The autobots got away so why not Megatron?
Season 2 is much a massive disappointment and failure of character writing that it genuinely hurts me and practically removes all hope I had for the show, which sucks, because this show was literally my favorite beforehand
At least it wasn't the original team they were all canned and replaced so you know why.
@@abloodcorpse3318 Hasbro has failed the series. Maybe Japan can salvage it with a sequel series.
@samurexatlas7373 genuinely, I'm willing to accept some total BS contrived explanation, a sequel series, or a even just a comic book that makes it so these events don't matter or aren't canon. Anything would be better than accepting this first batch of season 2 at face value
@@abloodcorpse3318 I have.... an option. Shockwave and the cons fled, and we can use the Chaos Energy to say Scream got infused with some and become a zealot for New Cybertron by that chaos. The rest just followed because it gave them leadership and hope. And the chaos seeped into them as well, because they have a bigger cluster, but it's dying down now. But Shockwave will probably attempt a return home, not for an army, to heal it. Of course there will be complications and we will set up Quintessons for S2P3.
@samurexatlas7373 honestly, I feel like pulling out the Quintessons as an easy explanation would be the most likely in the show, since we have both Reactivate and Transformers One setting up the Quintessons as a threat and Transformers isn't against cross-media promoting. Especially since the Quintessons are usually never actually dealt with during or after the Cybertronian war and just get off scot free. Like I said tho, I'm desperate enough to take anything being an explanation for why the hell the decepticons went from characters to caricatures
Breakdown’s sacrifice was the one of the most emotional scenes of Earthspark. I almost cried when Bumblebee said “Breakdown you reckless fool” one last time
It would've been better if it was shown after a time skip the Decepticons just went bad out of nowhere and a mystery to figure out why they are doing this is the first plot of the season and instead of Robbie being "typical Decepticons being bad" there is shock and hurt with the sudden turn around and betrayal.
Also we have yet to get the episode where Megatron talks about why he started the Decepticon cause in the first place.
Maybe in the next batch of episodes the Decepticons are corrupted or controlled by something and they weren't in control of their own actions, but that may be slim.
THIS 💯
Yes!
They need to introduce a new villain who was controlling them to save it honestly
Season 2 reverting the Cons to be evil could’ve been saved if they used different characters to be the bad guys.
Like instead of The Seekers, Shockwave, or even Breakdown they could’ve used The Coneheads, Bludgeon, and Wildrider to be the main bad guys but I guess Paramount couldn’t be bothered to give the studio behind Megamind 2 just a tiny bit more budget
I personally would have liked to see a Cybertronian who wants to bring back Functionism be the bad guy of season two.
Edit: This is mostly because I really like the idea of Functionists being the main bad guys in a Transformers show.
Edit 2: Maybe we could even have some of this Cybertronian’s underlings realizing that they should not generalize based on someone’s alt mode and end up helping stop the big bad’s plan.
@isaacdaffer1711 . I wouldn't be against that but of course we needed a 1 year time jump and the Cons going back to evil just because Hasbro and Paramount didn't want to put the effort of advertising
@@isaacdaffer1711They could’ve used Sentinel Prime for that. Reveal that he’s actually alive and decides to bring back Cybertron to the good old days of functionism. Have both sides try to stop them in their own ways.
Maybe we'll see the Quintessons as antagonists in the second half.
@@isaacdaffer1711 Nova Prime.
*Bottom text.*
They should have just made a completely new Decepticon cast for the villains who were all genuinely bad people instead of undoing all the achievements they made with the previous season.
Yeah, like, maybe someone like Overlord or Bludgeon would roll up with a gang of new ‘Cons, see what the Season 1 Decepticons had become, and be like “You all suck, we’re gonna do a better job”.
Or better yet, give us Tarn again.
@@lightyearpig12 right?!
@@lightyearpig12 OML YEAH TARN WOULD'VE FIT SO WELL!!! Especially given his insane dedication to decepticonism, it would've made for some great interactions between him and Megs.
Yeah they’ve should had Tarn, Overlord, Bludgeon, Motormaster, Onslaught, Soundblaster, Blackarchidia, or any other Decepticon we didn’t see in the first season instead of having Starscream, Shockwave, Soundwave, Breakdown, Skywarp, Novastorm, Frenzy, Ravage, Laserbeak, Skullcruncher, Swindle, and Hardtop going back to their usual selves or as much as I hated Mandroid keep him around where we see him deal with how his botched plans to destroy Cybertronians made him sacrificing his humanity pointless. Heck they should bought the Quintessons as the villains instead
Season 1 was good but season 2 is unwatchable
Not so much unwatchable as disappointing.
Agree.
I'm so dissapointed.
I just don't understand why writers miss so much opportunity with Starscream. GIVE ME JUST ONE STARSCREAM REDEMPTION ARC dammit!!!! T_T
They had such good potential its honestly sad
The first minute in i swear i knew this season would be terrible
@@pepita2437Armada and idw and dreamwave g1 comics exist
@pepita2437at least IDW did a redemption arc for Starscream, including Armada.
The only thing that could save Season Two is that they reveal Starscream was under someone's mind control whether it be Mandroid or someone else like the Quintessons even though the amount of evidence to prove this in Season Two is few to none. I really want Earthspark to be an amazing show like Season One was but they way they are going with the show is like a whole different story. I think this is the first time I've truly been disappointed with a show.
Agreed. I also had a theory before season 2 was released that he was under quintesson control
Another consistency issue in season 2 is Starscream also did a 180 on the chaos terrans.
When Twitch switched bodies with Spitfire she sabotaged the decepticons plan and was extremely rude to the other deceptions to the point where Skywarp encouraged Starscream to beat her, but surprisingly what Starscream does is GET CROUCH TO HER LEVEL AND SCHOLD HER. Showing he doesn't want to treat her like how Megatron treated him.
Even Skywarp was surprised and when asked about this Starscream just changed the topic. I was hoping this will be expanded upon in the season but I lost hope when I saw episode 9.
What's the point of these moments if the writers are gonna ignore them and reduce the decepticons to just a cardboard cutout of their season 1 self.
Fr… i haven’t even actually watched the show (because i don’t have access to the correct streaming service) but this is pissing me off to no end…
@@lillay304 S2 Earthspark Starscream: I can excuse child murder but I draw the line at child abuse.
Not only does it contradict season 1, it contradicts *itself*
Sigh… 😔
The Decepticons could’ve been so much more in Earthspark, their development was so unceremoniously chucked away so there could be bad guys to fight. A shame that this happened but still hope that they can pull another 180 at the end.
My theory is that in Season 2, the corrupted Ember Stone makes people go violent after enough exposure to it's energy. It didn't affect the Autobots because they probably shielded themselves from the energy, where the Decepticons didn't, and they didn't tell the Cons because they assumed Shockwave would figure out the same but never did.
Starscream probably had the most exposure to corrupted Ember Stone, which made him act on violent impulses. And the other Cons followed him because while they weren't exposed as much, they were still exposed enough to have those violent impulses.
I hope that this is where they go with the second part of Season 2. Probably not, but a man can dream.
(EDIT: Watch the Season 3 trailer, Megatron says something about a contagion over footage of bots in a red energy... so im not saying i called it but...)
You might actually be onto something I hope,the chaos Terrans also had the corrupted emberstone in them and they had the same violent urges that were further encouraged by the company they were with
And Nightshade was just near the corrupted shards for a moment and they got effected by it
Who's to say the decepticons didn't especially starscream who's been all over it someone who already had those violent urges the corrupted energy would just make him worse
I really, REALLY hope so.
The whole starscream thing is basically the armada and energon situation
You had a starscream that developed into his own character and left the decepticons join the autoBots and has a sad scarfice, but apparently (from what I heard) in energon he’s just back to normal starscream
Same in cybertron
Well that’s because Armada, Cybertron, and Energon weren’t written as being in the same continuity in Japan
They at least had the decency to give Starscream essentially a factory reset when he came back to life in Energon.
It's fine we'll just pretend season 2 doesn't exist, just like we pretend RID doesn't exist and mercy is the actual sequel😃
Mercy?
haha thank you!
@@VCXZ883 Transformers: Mercy is my story game
@@chronomirageYT RID:2015?
You mean TF:Adventure?
Transformers Robots in Disguise is one of my favourite Transformers shows and a worthy successor to Prime, even though it was definitely not as good.
The first season of TFE felt like it took everything that I use to saw in TFP and made it real. I couldn't believe how much more mature its themes were compare to TFP, improving aspectualy humen characters. It made me hopeful for future of TF. Finely, they were not afraid to write complex story plots
And then season two came along...
Saddest thing is that I have bad feeling why. Remember the "controversy" with Nightshade? My sad guess is that after this Hasbro dumber down the plot and cut down Nightshade's screen time, to the point they are barely in the show.
It's so frustrating to see great series lobotomized because of company scared for its profit.
Hey friend, that could be one reason, another more likely relating to profits over good stuff, don't take my word for gospel though, this is speculation from what I've seen others talk about, would be the Transformers 40th anniversary. This show was made a few years or so in advance like any other cartoon, so the changes to season 2 weren't too recent I think, but if some creative-averse suits didn't feel Earthspark was a worthwhile Transformers product by their laughable standards, then the franchise's 40th birthday looming over the horizon only made them double down on their make-believe fears. Simply put, they didn't think or feel a Transformers cartoon about bringing people from both sides of an old war together would make bank, especially at a huge turning point for this franchise, they figured probably that having a movie, like Transformers One, and a show, like Transformers Earthspark, showcasing the iconic war between good and evil, airing on the franchise's big 40, would really blow the profits their way. Sound theory, dog water execution. TF One was made to be an origin of the war from the start, which if the glowing near-universal praise is to go by, will do absolute gang busters. Earthspark though, lack of promotion, air time on Nick, and a mixed toy bag, some are better than others, all aside, was about what happens when that war was over, showing that both sides aren't so clear cut, some heroes make poor choices, some villians want to be better, season 1 was showing promise for the future of this franchise in its own neat way....
Then season 2 came along..........
And that was a mess, to put it nicely.
A few good surprises sure, but like some are saying down here, not only did both seasons feel like two totally different shows in all the wrong ways, makes me think of Gen Lock season 2, if you know, you know:(
But also to add what some were saying, was the approach to season 2 of Earthspark could've been good, great even, if they tried it from ANOTHER ANGLE. If not the obvious being the Quintessons since they were teased, definitely no Mandroid, stellar villain with a finished arc that doesn't need dragging from that grave, than with villains who've been shown to be ABSOLUTELY RUTHLESS LIKE FLIPPING OVERLORD!
Sorry for that, point is, Earthspark wasn't made from the start to be in anyway what those executive shut-ins wanted, again especially for the Transformers 40th anniversary, even if it only got three seasons total but ended on a high note, Earthspark would've signaled the start of a bold new future for this franchise alongside something like Transformers One. But instead of letting money simply talk, they opted to have that money roar in their ears until they went deaf.
To cap off my rant with a moral: I do love me some fun classic and simple good vs evil, but there's a time and place, and Earthspark wasn't either of those.
Thanks for listening
So I’m not the only one who thought that Starscream’s Character arc was trashed.
Nope. Pretty sure everyone thinks that
I got Prime Wars flashbacks just by looking at it
I felt Starscream’s character arc was assassinated.
@@ElizabethPrado-vl7mh Well, except Comodin Cam.
@@KTWhatsup that mf doesn't count.
After the way they ruined the Decepticons this season I now hope the rumors of EarthSpark’s cancellation are true.
yea it would be better that way sadly
Same
I never thought I would dream of its cancellation, but now? I think it's for the best. Season 2 ruined the show enough, Unless they undo and justify what happened in the next batch of episodes by saying they were mind controlled or where clones or replaced? Then maybe it has a chance. But now? I think it's for the better
I think the plot could still work as long as they removed Starscream and Breakdown.
Switch Starscream for somebody more ruthless who could use a spotlight. I’m thinking Onslaught as the new Decepticon villain, who uses the fact that the Autobots refuse to give them a chance as a way to gather allies. He’d promise a new Cybertron, where all Cybertronians would be equal. Breakdown could ally with Onslaught, but that partnership would definitely end after Onslaught kills one of the Chaos Terrans.
After that, it turns out that this “New Cybertron” would be pulled from the ashes of Earth. Megatron is now against a character who acts incredibly similar to how he used to. Both believe they know what’s best for all Decepticons, but neither are entirely right, with one being far more ruthless in the attempt to achieve this future.
And specifically TLK Onslaught
@@Zaxerphone G1 would fit better I think, since we've already seen Swindle and Brawl
I think the Chaos Terrans are a good idea in theory. It would've been cool to have Terrans who feel more at home with the Decepticons than the Autobots or even the Maltos. If season 2 had had any interest in keeping the grey morality of season 1, Aftermath and Spitfire could've been used to show what life is like with the Decepticons. Starscream and Breakdown could've acted as their mentors and father figures, teaching the two new Terrans what it actually means to be a Decepticon, where the difference in ideology is with the Autobots, maybe we could've finally learned why the Decepticons were formed in this universe in the first place. But nope. Spitfire and Aftermath are just Evil Terrans because apparently we're labeling people as 'good' and 'evil' according to their faction again. Side note, does anyone else gets the ick from season 2 constantly asserting that Chaos Terrans are just evil because they were born "wrong"? Spitfire and Aftermath having low empathy and anti-authoritarian attitudes is immediately used to paint them as beyond redemption and any attempt by the Terrans to bond with them is doomed to fail because the Chaos Terrans don't have the same mental link (which you could see as a disability) the other Terrans have. It's all just very... yikes, imo.
FRR
It’s downright ableist tbh.
One thing is clear: Transformers is never good with sequels, Just look at all the sequel type transformers media:
Beast Wars - Beast Machines
Armada - Energon
Transformers 2007 - ROTF
TF Prime - RID 2015
Bumblebee - ROTB (Possibly)
And now Earthspark with it's second season, It's like a curse.
Someone down the line cursed Hasbro
@@keru6925
"From now on, ALL YOUR SEQUELS WILL BE DOOMED TO SUCK!"
I mean the big problem with ROTB is that they didn't focus on the Maximals more. Hell, the title is Rise of the BEASTS and yet the Beast Wars characters play second fiddle to the Autobots. I'd love it better if the Autobots were in it less and it was about the main human protagonist befriending the Maximals. Make the Maximals the center of it and make the Autobots just a small "cavalry" role in the final battle.
Also since this is just the second movie of a new franchise, it was too early to drop Unicron.
Rescue Bots - Rescue Bots Academy
Seriously, I know Rescue Bots was more of a “kid’s show” and had very light conflict, but the writing, dialogue, and character dynamics were amazing! It was a kid’s show you could sit through and enjoy (similar to Bluey in a way where it was entertaining for both kids and adults).
Rescue Bots Academy became even lighter and turned into the generic ‘kid’s show’ (ie. only kids would enjoy it) that the first series avoided.
I mean
War for Cybertron- Fall of Cybertron were both good
What S2 needed were bad autobots. I'm pretty sure not all of them liked humans. I remember in G1, some of the autobots would question Optimus about his choices for fighting for humans. They even did that in the Bay movies.
I wonder if Ultra Magnus would’ve worked as an antagonistic Autobot in season 2? Not an outright villain but an Autobot who is very much against the idea of Deceptions reforming and thus is at odds with Optimus because of it. I mean it wouldn’t be the first time Ultra Magnus was a massive jerk, I mean he was one in 2001 RID.
@@jwwprod3862 And there's animated where some Autobots on Cybertron were questionable
@@jwwprod3862I mean I would’ve picked Ironhide and Cliffjumper, both would be apprehensive about the Decepticons switching, and even having Megatron be an ally.
It's a shame so much potential goes to waste because new writers don't care to continue what was started by the old group of writers. I was already disappointed when they messed up with the primes and made Megatronus the typical villain wanting vengeance against everyone and everything in RID 2015, now this. I loved season 1, the Decepticons having a heart drew me in. I honestly thought it would've turned into a type of series where some wounds would be mended and they gain a new perspective and understanding in life while still being able to be who they are, just for it to basically go 'scrap that idea, we're staying plain evil'.. we fr need a redo with season 2..
I think this is my main issue with Season 2. With everything changed about the Decepticons, it feels more like a different Transformers show that just happened to use Earthsparks assets. I do hate this trope but I hope it's going to be more of a case of "Oh they were being controlled by Unicron" so they can still be good. Or heck if you do go the brainwashing way, bring in Mindwipe, let him be controlling them from behind the scenes.
The Decepticons wanna turn Earth into New Cybertron? Now where did i here that before?
Animated and prime,
@@kylethefan6062third movie too
Animated, prime, dark of the moon
Skybound if that’s the case
Also that did pop up in G1 a little with episodes like The Key to Vector Sigma and City of Steel.
Earthspark is a show that was trying something different that no other piece of TF media has done, and while it has some criticisms to it and it's not perfect, it was truly something special.
(it was also the very few times I got truly emotional and it felt like I was getting tears like when Breakdown was saving Bumblebee's life to escape)
Aaaannnnnnddddd season 2 just came in and slapped Earthspark in the face, like the MINUTE I started episode 1 of S2 I immediately felt something was off. (besides the animation also being a downgrade) it was also (I think) the first time I ever actively cringed when watching ANYTHING 🤮
Apparently why S2's the way It Is it's because of certain things that happened in the background like changing studios to do the animation, possibly factoring in mandates from Hasbro (not entirely sure about that) and replacing a lot of the writers from the S1 staff, including someone from S1writing staff who was the reason for Starscream's S1 portrayal and Nightshade's entire existence in the show.
But you want to know what's worse, season 2 felt more like lies from the government than a continuation. (A little extreme to think about it that way but that's just a point of comparison)
I'm really disappointed with how season 2 turned out, it almost feels like an entirely different show that almost no one wanted to watch, a second season of a show or not, Earthspark season 2 falls into the bin of bad Transformers sequels, "cough" Beast Machines "cough" RID 2015 "cough", etc.
I'll still cherish the show forever. Transformers Earthspark is still one of the best pieces of TF media we've gotten, I'll just pretend the second season of it doesn't exist, thank you for coming to my ted talk people who read my comment.💙
I agree with all of this, but especially the last part. This is why we have fan-fiction, people! We must write our own season 2! LOL
@@Obsessive_Artist fr
hearing the words tarantulas and good guy in the same sentence is a shock to my system not gonna lie, in basically every show/comic hes in he's always been self serving and sociopathic, he was LITERALLY gonna eat Cheetor in one episode, he's also if the writers are to be believed a spawn of Unicron
its weird, but also kinda nice to see a kinder more down to earth tarantulas
Dude he is terrible in the comics! I mean, he went mini spider form crawled into someone's head and then transformed full size and well...pop. Having him be as good and honestly lovable as he was in season 1 was flooring XD. I am right there with you!
@@charlottehamilton86 Holy shit i didn't know that!!!! my god he truley was a monster!!!!!
These cowards dropped the ball because they weren't actually pushing out Earthspark.
"But the toys-" Many fans have said the toys weren't fun.
And Shockwave and Scream had repaints from Cyberverse. How many ads for the show did you see? And Nick showed it off at awful timeframes. This show was failed. And the letdown of S2P1 reflects that.
Man, what are you talking about “the toys weren’t good”. Grimlock, nightshade, thrash (warrior), twitch (deluxe), and Optimus (deluxe) were all really good
@@L0rdskywarp Compared to the Generations line?
@@L0rdskywarp While the Deluxes and some Warriors were good, the toyline was also riddled with crappy gimmick toys that nobody wanted. Gimmick toys can be fun, but the generic 1-step garbage so prevalent now isn't.
@@samurexatlas7373 Why compare to the collector-focused side of things? The mainline Deluxes were still really good, it doesn't matter how they stack up against Generations. For sure they could've been better (e.g. used higher quality plastic), but that doesn't mean they were bad.
@@strawdeath263 What will kids have already?
It's pretty much the same hiccup TFP came to.
Leaks show that the show was to be canceled after the second season [a new show apparently is being worked on].
So yeah, it's unfortunate.
Most of the Decepticons were having an amazing writing and personalities. Even in the story boards that they “took away from us” we saw how Soundwave was so affectionate towards Ravege, Hugging her and caressing her. Then we had Shockwave, who even if he’s someone dangerous, his real goal is to get back to Cybertron, and he was willing to work with humans to achieve it. They even made Starscream perfect for the redemption arc.
The only thing that I liked of this season was that, in the last episode, once Starscream betrays them, they didn’t doubt in follow the next Decepticon who said “Well, I’m taking the leadership now”. They made them look like they’re just a group of bots with nowhere to go, and the only reason why they stick togueter is because they don’t know what else to do. Besides that, the rest of the season was a thumbs down…
First we were good, but now we are bad
Starscream, probably.
My opinion on Spitfire was she had potential for a great character arc within the poor writing. But ofc the poor writing also ruined that.
Like she was put in a race where the only rule she was told was to win, and she was litterally born the day before so she had absolutely NO WAY to know any morals the others felt should be upheld. I felt it was fair that she was angry at them, but then she just died and never had that side of her character shown??
Honestly I don't think the writers can fix what they messed up at this point and I honestly wouldn't even be surprised if Tarantulas is shown as a bad guy. Honestly at this point I'm expecting them to do him dirty.
All I can do is hope that some kind of absolute miracle happens and they somehow get the entire rest of the season to improve their writing. But it will never make up for the lost characterization (which is a very big problem imo and litterally why I don't consider RID2015 canon to the aligned continuity)
When he had his saw on Alex and when he killed the chaos Terrans it was like they changed his whole character over to skybound starscream
I used to jokingly compare EarthSpark and Skybound Starscream as complete opposites, but now…
Maybe they saw it was popular an wanted to imitate it?
I can't believe Starscream actually tells someone to kys (keep yourself safe) in one season and to kys (take a guess) the very next season. A masterclass of writing, the writers should be awarded a beer bottle to the head for that one. What will they think of next.
This reminds me how they butchered one of the best Starscreams of all time in the Unicron Trilogy. They gave him such a good arc in Armada and then tossed all that aside in the sequel series.
Starscream from season one deserved so much better than season two. They gave us something different and took it away. I’m glad you brought up Nova Storm questioning what side she could be on, and SkyWarp suddenly being racist, because where did that come from?! The Seeker trine was done dirty, I wanted to see more of their bond but no, they’re just the bad guys.
The decepticons aren’t even Season 2’s only problem. The Terrans got a huge downgrade too. Jawbreaker is relentlessly annoying, Hashtag lost the depth she had in season 1, and Thrash and Nightshade barely show up. Twitch isn’t great either but it’s harder to verbalize what’s wrong with her, everything she does just feels off.
I feel like the s2 writers didn’t understand the characters.
I also hate how the “updated” hashtag’s design, I loved the boxier look of her original form and the satellite being turned into a pony tail (or something I don’t know hair) was great. Then the new one is so shiny and smooth and for some reason like, vastly more technologically advanced despite being… a civilian car.
The only good new character was also just “Plot Twist, Lore Dump, Plot Device.”
I feel like they also ruined Bumblebee's character, he acted like and was an adult, but in season two they made him childish again
I think that was mainly cause in season two Bumblebee wasn't really around the Terrans all that much,he is the youngest of the legacy bots so when he's surrounded by other adults he doesn't try to act as mature as he did when he's mentoring the terrans or when he's around Breakdown he has to act like the responsible one because Breakdown always acts reckless
@@ishashifarUh, that doesn't really explain the chamge that much. Bumblebee in general felt serious enough in the first season.
He was barely _in_ the second season 🥲
as someone who can relate very heavily to starscream and what he's been through in many conts and earthspark too, i genuinely cried during s2 and especially the finale. i had to put watching it off because i was worried if things would get better or not because i was still scared after s1's finale. i LOVE earthspark - its probably one of my favorite TF medias to date, but now that enjoyment is just limited to s1 because they butchered everything in s2.
and shockwave too ?? what happened to him ? he switched up so fast as well it made no sense. maybe it would've made sense if they had told an actual story instead of going " decepticons will be decepticons " . i really hope they do better with s3 because earthspark was a super big comfort media before s2 decided to be a thing and Exist ,
I know it's a bit off-topic, but I wasn't big fan of the fact ALL Decepticons just labeled Megatron "traitor", and abandoned him as their leader.
I would've liked If at least one Decepticon (Lugnut If possible), followed Megatron and joined G.H.O.S.T. too. Imagine character development and comedic potential of that one transformer in G.H.O.S.T. team who's constantly referring to Megatron as "Lord" only for Megatron to constantly correct him.
I would vote for more Lugnut in anything anywhere
@@YaelTiferet MY MAN!!!
@@backonja7255 I love him so much. Clobber is him and Strika's daughter, you cannot convince me otherwise.
Wouldn't that make sense for Soundwave?
I absolutely hate it when new writers come in to continue a show or movie franchise that other writers started and then immediately undo, retcon, or overwrite/override the hard work the past team did just to further their own agenda.
It’s like, rather than working to fit new stories into the framework of what was previously established, and well received, these new writers almost try and tear it down just so they can try and make it their own work with a less thought out story that’s easier to write but boring to watch.
I can name several franchises out there that have received this treatment from new writers. Transformers Earthspark is just the latest victim, apparently.
Honestly, season two's antagonists should've been the Decepticon Justice Divison; or, the rest of the Combaticons and Stunticons.
The DJD would really have made Megatron confront the results of his bad deeds. And Cyberverse proved you can do Tarn in a kid's show. As long as my girl Ravage does not get bisected again I'd be down for that.
What if the DJD, after seeing how far the leader they had worshipped had fallen, inspired a new Decepticon revolt that convinced some Decepticons to join them in hunting down Megatron and his new Autobots and Earth allies? Maybe in exchange to not be in the DJD’s hit list? That way, you can explain away why some of these Cons that are decent at S1 ended up go bad in S2. First episodes would be the good guys uncovering the mystery of why the Cons go rogue, with their previous faith in them being shown to be tested by this apparent betrayal while also seeing how much fear these Cons had with the DJD over their neck. Then when they find out about the DJD, make it like it’s some kind of rumor the Autobots had heard about that they haven’t confirmed during the war while Megatron explains that this is his fanatical death squad for deserting Decepticons. So Megatron not only had to face his past and bring down the DJD, he has to deal with the shock and distrust his allies have over this revelation.
@@alexanderchristopher6237 That would be an interesting setting for the DJD. Tarn would definitely lead through fear and the use of The List. Shockwave would be one of the first to fold, and quickly. Starscream and the Seekers would follow, along with Swindle and Hardtop. Decepticons like Tarantulus would continue to stay in hiding or join the Autobots for a chance at protection, this would apply to the Cassettes, assuming they turned over a new leaf, and Breakdown as well, as for Megatron facing his past- that speaks for itself.
The whole time when you were talking about season 1 and its qualities I found myself stimming in joy because it was almost all I wanted for a modern transformers show
And when I think of season 2 I felt a sense of loss, grief, the Earthspark show I knew just wasn't there, It wasn't the same. Its so sad that the deeper themes got lost.
This feels like the same problem that happened with Beast wars & Beast machines, where the higher ups brought in new writers and those didn’t watch the previous series so they wrote the characters in a completely different way.
THANK YOU FOR TALKING ABOUT THIS!!!
Seriously! I have nothing against casting Decepticons as primary Villains of season 2, but the excuse for it just being "Meh, It's just the way Decepticons are" seems like such a cop-out.
I was hoping Season 2 would open similarly to the Cyberverse episode "Parley"; two sides meeting for negotiations for truce, which went well before being prematurely cut by miscommunication, leaving certain individuals of both sides changed by temporary moment of piece, each questioning weather war is the only available option. Just imagine it:
* Starscream and Megatron acting as awkward exes,
* Shockwave geeking it out with Wheeljack and Nightshade,
* Breakdown and Bumblebee reminiscing of their racing glory days
* Swindle tring to sell Alex "authentic" Cybertronian souvenirs.
Maybe even something unexpected, such as one of the Malto's showing Nova Storm simple joys of living on Earth farm...
"Decepticons are like this, irredeemable to the end..."
...Except Megatron it seems.
11:55 Megatron's line right after that was a nice reference to his origin since the Aligned Continuity.
"‘Class’? You learned nothing!"
I haven't even rlly watched too much of the show.. But like, tf is this???? We could've gotten a whole redemption arc for Screamer. >:[ For the love of God we need a hero to rewrite it, fan fic or not. I wanna see Starscream be done justice 🙏
There’s a few fanfics of redemption arcs, I’m waiting for an earthspark one
@@MusicWisp Real. The Fandom carries the franchises sometimes, istg
23:35 ngl I was sobing my eyes out but not because I cared about Spitfire but because I was upset that they destroyed all of season season 1s setup and essentially assassinated Starscream's character 😭
Why does even remotely surprise anyone? You all know what era of entertainment this is, you know what the industry is like, you all saw the stunts they were pulling. This was INEVITABLE
earthspark being cancelled after season 2 makes sense now as I believe its because of Nickelodeon, they cancel shows that start getting serious or FORCE THEM TO BE complacent, they dont want change.
Hearing you call Breakdown a "punk-ass gangster" made me die laughing. For sure, I agree that I'm not a fan at all of how Aftermath is characterized this season, nor do I TOTALLY like how dark they made Starscream with killing him and Spitfire, I still believe we may get the Cons changing their ways with the Quintessons coming in as the true big bads by the end of the season.
Is Season 2 better than season 1? IMO, not at all right now, but I'm willing to stick around for the rest of the season to see if Starscream and the other cons can be salvaged.
Starscream at least already crossed a line and can't be redeemed at this point imo
@emperorkumquat That's fair. Maybe he'll get the same treatment IDW1 Megs got though; there was no way he could be redeemed, but he still regretted what he did while a Decepticon.
Leaks show that EarthSpark got cancelled.
Spoiler warning (although I'd call you lucky if you haven't watched S2)
The only thing I found good was Terratronus, and even SHE was wasted. Her being the "first" Terran really downplayed the beginning of the show with Twitch and Thrash (imo anyway).
One of my friends had the idea of Terratronus being the Proudstar (Nova Prime's spaceship in TF Devastation) in robot mode (for their AU, but her role was given to Quintessa instead). And as a certified Nova Prime fanboy, it makes me believe that Nova should've been the main villain. + he fits as the opposite of the shows morals well (him thinking of Cybertronians as the strongest race is a great mirror of this show's lesson of equality)
Nova also fits perfectly as an opposite to Mandroid, someone who wants to protect his race vs someone who wants to conquer other worlds for the legacy of his race to thrive
Also Season 1's ending (with Robbie and Mo using the Emberstone to undo Mandroid's damage and revive all the Cybertronians around Earth) kinda hyped it up a little. Would've been cool to see Mandroid's actions have *genuine* consequences (in the form of it indirectly resulting in Nova Prime reawakening)
Also it would've been AWESOME to see the one who is basically "The Senator Armstrong of Transformers" control a titan for the finale.
Something that could've been done is throw in somebody like Tarn. Cyberverse already showed they're willing to tone him down for a child friendly audience. They could've had Tarn come to Earth after learning about Megatron's betrayal. Then, after learning about the ember shards and the titan, he could've changed his plan to create an army to conquer Earth like Megatron never could. And with this, you can even have the cons join him, but this time not out of them just being bad, but out of fear have some throw away lines from Nova storm or Sky warp about how he's far worse than Megatron ever was. That way, you don't undo the characterization of the cons, but to an extent, enforce that yes, there are good deceptions, but they can't be good as long as there are bad deceptions at the wheel. Heck, you could even do more with Optimus and Megatron as you could reveal Tarn's origin as an autobot that was manipulated by Megatron to hurt Optimus that could cause tension between the two. And they'd have to reseal those old wounds to better fight against Tarn.
Reading comments and finding how the writing team is all new really explains season 2 and how I didn’t even here about it until a month after it released 😑
Its really funny because every tv-shows showing starscream want to do good always brushed aside either by killing him and reviving him with no memories (energon), wasted redemption potential (earthspark), or just him being a coward (prime). Meanwhile comics, IDW developed starscream from the schemer we know to a responsible leader of cybertron and Skybound made starscream a sympathetic character (after showing him being his most psychopathic incarnation)
One of the rare times a show peaks at season 1 but immediately dips in 2 to the point where fans disregard it as a continuation...just like a certain sequel to Prime
Huh, I've always thought that RID 2015 peaked in Season 2.5
@@SpaceCase1214 I think the comment was about RID being disregarded as the sequel of TFP. XD
@@SpaceCase1214 What’s ironic is that RIGHT AFTER that is when they started bringing in TFP characters
Earthspark was my favorite iteration of transformers for it’s found family dynamic, the morally grey aspects, and actual good human characters. It arguably has one of the best tf episodes (decoy) ever made imo. I still have a little bit of hope that the second half of s2 will at least be passable but with the way it’s going so far it’s not the case.
Thanks EK! I’m glad that you talked about Season Twos problems… I also laughed at the end with the TFP Starscream voice.
Wow. What a waste.
Though I admit it's kinda funny that Tarantulas, whose initial incarnation was one of the most evil Transformers, was made a good guy and spared a derailment to be made evil so far.
This, along with how Aftermath and Spitfire are portrayed as evil dESPITE BEING BASICALLY INFANTS, is why hasbro never fails to make me violent with their desicions like 😭
I feel like this is the result of being cancelled; the storytelling is being rushed, and being regressed to just sell toys.
hearing starscream voiced by steve blum made my day
I agree with what you said about the Chaos Terrans being a bad idea for the story as a whole. They were characterized as corrupted, inherently evil, incapable of change, and unreceptive to the compassion of others. Essentially, they were “born wrong.” And that’s all they ever amounted to. It feels like such a far cry from what the first season’s messages and themes were going for.
This reminds me of the disconnect between Armada Starscream and Energon Starscream, but worse. Whatever one thought of Energon, at least that Starscream had the excuse of being an incomplete construct lacking key memories. Here there is no excuse other than him and the rest of the Decepticons were just trolling the entire first season. Shame, I wanted to watch this series but never found the time, now I am not so sure.
the only thing good about season 2 is Cosmos being voiced by weird ai
Back in the previous season, had high hopes for this show to be something like Cyberverse or Prime good
Its actually Energon anime quality, so yeah
That’s an insult to Superlink- yeah, it’s bad, but it’s at least TRYING to pick up where Armada left off and do something interesting with its cast
ES Season 2 is the actual bottom of the barrel
@@EternityKingdomsHeadHoncho Huh, so is Earthspark worse than Combiner Wars trilogy or what
@EternityKingdomsHeadHoncho the way they butchered Demolisher's character in Energon made me so sad, I had hope he'd turn into an autobot.
@@Energon1 It's honestly depressing that the writers thought "Galvatron robs his underlings of their individuality" beat "Demolishor lets his conscience win and becomes an Autobot while Starscream gets his memory back". Admittedly, the idea of a main villain deciding to punish repeated failures by rendering his minions soulless husks sounds great, but it just didn't fit the trajectory of what Superlink started off with.
@@Energon1 They butchered Starscream too
Honestly I feel like the decepticons returning to being villains could've worked had it been executed properly
There have been certain lines in s2 p1 that alluded to why they felt the need to turn down this path such as Starscream telling Megatron they could never be free on this world if humans,autobots or Megatron himself were to exist and called them oppressors. Shockwave even backs this up by saying Earth was a prison to them.
The decepticons were betrayed by their own leader whom they trusted enough to follow his will for millions of years,only for him to straight up tell them in their face that they were in the wrong all along,and they are unable to seperate themselves from this mindset because admitting the fact they were the ones who took things too far and strayed from their original cause would mean admitting they were wrong if they were to do that then they'd ask themselves,what was all this suffering for? everything they sacrificed,lost all for this?
They saw Megatron and Optimus supposedly destroyed the allspark dooming their species and blowing up the spacebridge stranding them on a world they never wanted to come to in the first place,for years they were hunted and starved and experimented on,while to their perspective the Autobots did nothing to stop it.
I think season two could've worked a lot better if the first two-three episodes were to show the immediate aftermath of Mandroids defeat actually showing how the autobots and decepticons attempted a truce to search for the emberstone,and make atleast some of them want to adjust to some semblance of normalcy but they were still met with distrust,and hostility(not saying humans don't have a right to be wary of them considering who they are)
If even when they were trying to change they were just reminded of the fact they could never change because they were decepticons,this sort of scenario could've imo worked for someone like Starscream
It could also fit into the theme of horrible people when never given support can end up becoming even worse.
Whereas other decepticons could've opted to return to their old ways because it's all they've ever known 15 years is nothing in their lifespan even if Megatron managed to truly change it's not realistic to expect everyone else to break away from their old habits almost immediately,if they feel like the entire world is against them even if they don't personally like the idea.
And then gradually show throughout the season that not everyone is on board with Starscream's plan but they feel like it's their only option.
And maybe show Breakdown getting genuinely attached to Aftermath and then not wanting for Aftermath to die if he was aware of Starscream's plan to kill them.
I feel like the show should've kept exploring the deeper themes touched on in season one, I didn't really have much of an issue with the Autobots except for the fact Bumblebee didn't get as much focus as he did in season one if any besides humor.
The Chaos Terrans could've been used to touch on the reality of troubled kids,they weren't inherently evil and honestly I don't think the Terrans reactions to them are that out of pocket,Jawbreaker did trust Aftermath the latter breaking his trust was what led him to be wary of Spitfire,and Twitch did try to be friendly to Spitfire before the latter tried to kill Alex. Spitfire didn't know the rules or anything about why they shouldn't harm humans,she was born a day ago how was she supposed to know that on her own?Twitch and Jawbreaker were just kids too who didn't know how to handle the situation my thought is why none of the adults tried to talk to Spitfire,like maybe even Alex or Dot or heck even Megatron
Aftermath and Spitfire were born in the midst of battle,Aftermath was immediately groomed by Breakdown into lashing out his violent urges because that's how decepticons work,
Same thing with Spitfire and how they both ended in Decepticon care,they just wanted validation for committing mischief,and got caught up in the wrong crowd. If they were allowed to be nurtured in a healthier environment maybe they could've ended up a lot better. But no one besides the Maltos who are children themselves tried to reason with them. They were failed by everyone around them.
Just look at the way Aftermath listens to Breakdown when he tells him to do something he actually likes,or that look on Spitfire's face when Starscream praised her when she turned the autobots to stone it really hits at these moments that they just needed a proper parental figure.
I honestly would not have minded if they used the Chaos Terrans to explore the different complexities of factions,the Malto Terrans were immediately take in the care of autobots hence their ideals and moral code are based on what their parents and the Autobots show them
Aftermath and Spitfire meanwhile ended up with the Decepticons,they could've given atleast one episode in between the last 3 Episodes to show them trying to adjust,maybe even certain decepticons telling them their perspective of the war and hence warping their mindset into believing the Maltos were in the wrong,further adding to manipulation,Heck maybe even add some scenes of them interacting with several more decepticons and even developing geniune bonds with them,hence it would make Starscream opting to kill them even more heartbreaking because to them, they were essentially their family and all they were to the decepticons were just a means to an end.
When I thought of what season two could be I never thought of all that character development getting thrown away to fit the status quo. I wanted the Autobots and Decepticons to work together to rebuild, possibly go home, and fight the Quintessons.
Let's act like S2 never happend😊
God I wish season two would have been about them going back to cybertron. They find that the allspark sort of made it through but it was damaged and now only a few new cybertronians emerge. This caused whatever remaining cybertronians to be divided into factions. Autobots, Predacons, Maximals, and decepticons.
I was pleasantly surprised with the themes and potential season 1 portrayed for being a little kids show (I especially loved the symbolism of Megatron keeping his decepticon insignia) but man, it just went immediately downhill, they threw everything good from the first season out the window like it was nothing. It definitely felt like they're abandoning the show and only put out this season because they had too
Never in my life would I thought I would see Megatron on a Live Laugh Love sign, but here we are.
I'm thinking if there is a Season 3, it would explain why the reformed Decepticons become evil again.
My idea is that Cryak, a character from IDW's 2019 Transformers comic book series and Starscream's mentor, ambushed the former Decepticons including Starscream, and then brainwashed them.
Cryak wanted to become the new leader of the Decepticons after Megatron stepped down and reformed.
I still wonder to this day how wheeljack just miraculously come back to life after being hit with the immobiliser (i think i spelt that right).
It’s called a Cyber Slayer. And it’s not deadly. It was used in the end of Season 1 and it only drains one of Energon, thus endangering them if not recharged with Energon quickly enough. It was used on Shockwave, Optimus, and Elita at the end of S1, and they were all fine afterwards.
@@raven__desk oh thx but i guess the cyber "slayer" isn't really good at you know slaying?
decepticon sympathizers now comprehend my dissapointment with the animated dinobots and blackarachnia, tenfold.
oh I was mad about them too.
See what hugely bothers me about Earthspark is that it compromises its own premise by not properly detailing the origins of both sides. If the Decepticons are an innate group like they are in G1, then yeah, don’t judge a book by its cover. Earthspark plays it pretty fast and loose with what did and didn’t happen as things did in G1, so that can’t be taken as a given. But if it’s like it is in almost every other continuity, the label was a choice, and with it, a lot of the would be moral ambiguity is sabotaged. Like with Tarantalus, sure he may be a nice bot, but if we know that he willingly signed up with the Decepticons and the atrocities they committed did not persuade him to leave, then he is no more innocent than the characters we see being evil on screen like Swindle and Hardtop
Absolutely. It tries to use the allegiances as race sometimes when most of the time they are being used as allegiances. I am a lot more forgiving of breakdown than I am of tarantulas, breakdown is clearly a misguided guy, he’s made bad decision but he has a good heart, if Bee were able to have a few more goes at him, and if he were able to sit down and talk with Megatron im sure he’d see what was wrong, tarantulas is intelligent and keeps completing about why he’s being hunted, while wearing basically the robot swastika on his chest. Gee! I wonder why!
I tried to keep an open mind about season 2, I really did, but there was nothing even the slightest bit complex or unique about the new plot compared to season 1, except the concept of how Hashtag chose her new alt-mode. I'll admit, I was weirded out by the fact of Megatron being a good guy at first, but after figuring out the whole approach to this series about finding silver linings in society, I found the series overall enlightening and exciting. It had so much potential to evolve with this new mix of personalities from everyone, but instead it was downgraded to the simple good vs evil crap. If people want to see transformers in their black-and-white world, they can watch almost every other transformer series out there, but leave Earthspark out of it, it's the whole reason I joined the Transformers community in the first place.
I especially hated how much they changed Starscream. In any other series, even future series, they can make Starscream the baddie if they want. What I dislike here is that the story leads everyone believing Starscream will be a friend of the Terrans or at least an anti-hero and then turning him and the rest of the cons all around with only an explanation of 'they're decepticons, of course they'll turn on us', becoming outright hypocritical to the series' original message that was especially expressed in episode 13. While I'm sad Tarantulas wasn't in season 2, it was kind of a blessing in disguise that his final impression on us was at least compassionate, and not turned bad like every other con.
And don't get me started on the Chaos Terrans. I am sour about them, especially since they didn't have redeeming qualities. But, I'm more sour about the fact the story led to Terrans having their own black and white people in their community where Chaos Terrans = bad guys. The whole point of the Terrans were that they are new transformers that look beyond faction labels, not make their own. If they were still as considered regular Terrans, which was only weakly expressed in S2 E1, I could've accepted their rude personalities since it would've drawn a complex concept that every society had its good and bad people, and that's a decent compromise to the poor story writing. But having Malto Terrans vs Chaos Terrans is just continuing the trend like Autobots vs Decepticons and even Maximals vs Predacons.
This was long I know, but I really wanted to get my two cents out there. Thank you for speaking on behalf of the Earthspark community, we needed this.
At first I thought that the Chaos Terrans would be physically unstable somehow (because chaos and being made from corrupted shards) and their thing would be learning that your body and the things about it that you can't control aren't the entirety of your life and who you are… but man, was I wrong.
Time to light our darkest hour!
The excitement I felt when this video dropped
I love Michael Bay’s StarScream. He was the GOAT in the whole film! (Especially in the 1st film.) They need to continue making StarScream a badass that he REALLY IS. He is far from being a weak deceptacon. He is a THREAT
Starscream technically never really was a weak decepticon to begin with he values self preservation so he doesn't really engage in battles he knows he can't win,this just leads to him being labelled a coward from the narrative, there's a reason he's in charge of the aerial force
Heck yeah, screw those non-sensical thinking barriers called morals, we're here for goal oriented thinking, the superior way to approach things, the DECEPTICON WAY!
This is why I value and believe in decepticons more than autobots. I can see why they’re angry and just wanted to be treated better, and while some are different. Plus the whole cause itself like in IDW and TFP make me sympathize with them
you and me both
The show that tried to stand out from being another transformers show just became another transformers show
I don't think that there will ever be a better description of going from the first season of Earthspark to the second.
It would be interesting to see the Decepticons more as revolutionaries and freedom fighters - rising up from oppression in this show, which is what they were originally supposed to be. 🤔 It would be a way to show how some individuals become villains. There needs to be some reconciliation between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Both sides have a lot of trauma to overcome.
The irony being tarantulas is now a heavenly saint even though on beast wars he was the most ruthless and merciless character to everyone who breathed in his direction
Cannibalism is literally his main trait
Best to give Earthspark the Voltron treatment. If you recommend it to someone, you only tell them to watch the first 3-5 seasons, 7 if you want to push it. And just pretend that it got cancelled after that and never had a season 8...
Earthspark is unfortunately like that now, season 1 was such a special TF show. There's rumors out there that we will not be getting a season 3 (which is very likely.) But as much as it pains me to say this; Earthspark should have been cancelled after season 1. It is sad to see how far this show has fallen in the span of a single year and I wish we had been spared that seeing the quality of season 2.
7:41 Nice to hear Rainbow Dash has evolved to become a freaking jet nowadays.
Funnily enough, I think the Seekers’ va worked on both series
Haven't seen season 2, but I'm just thinking we need Ultra Magnus just needs to turn up and start preposing the idea of making a lawful cybertronian region that has a couple of hundred laws and bills. Providing a neutral ground for both Decepticons and Autobots to go to.
You get arrested for assault, stealing, possession of weapons over a certain grade like any place. There's a justice system and basic living and working standard.
Ultra Magnus just single handedly ending the conflict by being mature and practical about taking the first steps of working with the Earth governments. Which should hopefully calm the Decepticons down and stop them from asking the same question again and again, "Should I be an Autobot should I be a Decpticon?'
My bot there's a job vacancy that pays you an energon salary and you can finally get your independence away from the factions. You will have a recharge bed. And you will be protected by law from both factions and crazy humans. Because we value a safe, functioning society.
It would likely make some of the Decepticons think twice of continuing with their destruction because what they are doing would make Magnus' goal of making a safe region for Cybertronians much more difficult to reach. Which just undermines everyone.
Ultra Magnus can handle that work load lol.
Ok at this rate it's looking like an Ultra Magnus fic ._.
I mean, he is a duly appointed officer of the law, if youve read idw. And his title is Autobot City Commander in G1