I can think of many good ways Energon could have been made better.

 

One that keeps sticking in my head is:

 

Not giving the combiners the ability to talk. The combiner members are supposed to have personality and not be treated as one bot's drones. Each of the members should have been given a different personality and when they combined they'd lose that to increase their battle potential. The Energon hardly ever disengaged and only got one voice for the whole bunch. Bringing them in earlier could have made that possible but they waited until the end to bring them in.

 

I've doubt I've said anything anybody hasn't said before...

 

And it really isn't the Energon staff's fault for this but they really didn't help by having dubbers who couldn't understand Japanese (don't deny it all evidence points to it.. well atleast later in the series).

 

And what's with Superion Maximus?

A whiny, annoying combiner? I didn't think it was possible until I saw it for myyself.

Totally agree.

 

The dub was awful but still. I could have lived with that if the show was better.

 

And like I said some Energon bots really needed character. That is what sold the toys in G1 and made Beast Wars the best Transformers cartoon ever.

 

And the Japanese have to have humans in the show and they are "forced" on the show a bit. Sparkplug and Spike were useful because the Autobots did not know nothing about Earth and humans.

 

In Armada it makes no sense that the Transformers could not understand Mini-Cons same as for Energon, Kicker being the only one who could detect Energon is just to odd to really be believable.

 

In Galaxy Force it does make sense as it is a new storyline and so the Autobots need a guide again. Of course the internet is full of information so one could use that but I guess they prefer a personal guide.

 

That is the main different between the US and Japanese made TF cartoons. The Japanese ones always have humans in it providing a vital role wheter that role makes much sense or not.  I guess the Japanese did not like the idea having stronger Transformers so they need to boost their ego by making humans important.

 

In R.I.D. it did but for Armada and Energon it did not. There the humans were just annoying.

Totally agree.

 

The dub was awful but still. I could have lived with that if the show was better.

 

And like I said some Energon bots really needed character. That is what sold the toys in G1 and made Beast Wars the best Transformers cartoon ever.

 

And the Japanese have to have humans in the show and they are "forced" on the show a bit. Sparkplug and Spike were useful because the Autobots did not know nothing about Earth and humans.

 

In Armada it makes no sense that the Transformers could not understand Mini-Cons same as for Energon, Kicker being the only one who could detect Energon is just to odd to really be believable.

 

In Galaxy Force it does make sense as it is a new storyline and so the Autobots need a guide again. Of course the internet is full of information so one could use that but I guess they prefer a personal guide.

 

That is the main different between the US and Japanese made TF cartoons. The Japanese ones always have humans in it providing a vital role wheter that role makes much sense or not.  I guess the Japanese did not like the idea having stronger Transformers so they need to boost their ego by making humans important.

 

In R.I.D. it did but for Armada and Energon it did not. There the humans were just annoying.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

Honestly, I think Kicker wasn't so bad. At least he had a brain on him. Unfortunately, it seemed to be smarter than 95% of all the transformers in the series. Plus Optimus never did really decide if he was the leader or kicker's second in command.... Kicker also seemed to be psychic, and by that I don't mean his energonm sensing abilities and his connection with Primus. Him being almost always right makes no sense otherwise.  Maybe he was paying Mega/Galvatron to be an idiot all along... ;)

 

I'm probably the only person who thinks this, but I think the Megatron in this series could easily be a subsitute for G1 megs. Yes, I know it's the same guy who did the megs in Beast Wars/Machines and Armada, but only in this one did he really seem to capture the mix of insanity, ego and yo-yoing between brilliant and dumber than a newborn that Megs usually is.

 

On a side note, what the hell is that guy's name again? I forgot. >.<

David Kaye.

 

I liked the hand-animation used in the last op-galvy battle, but what was with those odd frame jumps everytime someone fell back.  ruined it.  it was like they forgot how to animate fully.

 

OTOH, watching Op's eyes squint in that one scene was pretty damn cool.  liked the detail there.

 

Despite providing IMO great combiner toys, the characters held absolutely NONE of the mystique of the G1 combiners.  Even with their less-than-par mental states, the G1 combiners had jaws dropping upon their debut.  Watching the guys combine, and grow to ridiculous proportions, and really tear things up.  What at all did the E-combiners do, besides shoot at each other and turn into balls of light?  Not to mention not sounding any different than a singular robot.  The combiners were pretty much the same thing that Optimus went through with his OP 1-4 thing.  One guy wearing arms and legs. Nothing about the way they acted in singular mode versus combiner mode was really that different.

alright, i'm sorry, enough Starscreaming.  as a whole, I'm really curious why i continued to wake up at 6 in the morning to manually tape the show (and remove commercials) when it continued to disappoint.  it wasn't awful, it just... wasn't that great.  Armada's ending was better.

It's a kid's show, trying to understand the whole Kicker deal is as usefull as to try to understand why Team Rocket tries to steal Pikachu all the time.

Well, I think I have come to understand Kicker a bit.

 

First of all one must understand that he is only in the show because the Japanese want a human in the mix. To that end they gave him the ability to detect Energon. A scanner could do that but they simply forgot that.

 

Reminds me of Doom 3. Absolutely love that game.  :thumb What many people consider a great flaw is that one does not have a flashlight attached to one's rifle. It would be easy to tape or maglock it to the gun.

 

No, instead of that one has to switch between flashlight and gun. So the player basically has 2 options: use the light and be able to see what kills you or not being able to ain and get torn to shreds.  :tflaugh

 

I agree it is odd that one can build high-tech weapons without a light or infra red built in. But that is purely to increase the tension leven and boy does it work. I will admit there were times I thought I would have a heart-attack when a monster lunged at me.

 

So in Doom 3 the plot hole definetely had a function. In Energon, Kicker had no function other than was assigned to him. He was made to be a major character and since the show was made in Japan it was probably they that said that he had to be smarter than all the Transformers.

 

Makes no sense at all.

 

As for Kicker Xbob said he hates Transformers. I think it runs a little deeper than that actually. Here is what I think (and I know it sounds a little far off):

 

In episode one of Energon we learned that Kicker may arrogant. He talks to Optimus how Earth is his planet and so on. That would imply that Earth only belongs to humans and not to the thousand other indegious species who have been living here much longer than humans.

 

Had he said "This is not your planet." then he would have been right. Calling Earth "my planet" to an indication of arrogance. (He also ran off into battle half-cocked nearly getting himself killed while not listening to orders.)

 

One of the things that characterizes a human is competition. We always want to win, no matter what. We also want to do better than others. I have had classmates who constantly got high grades and really had an "air" feeling better than the rest. They were a tad arrogant and when they were "beaten" because someone got a higher grade or because they did bad they will become ticked off.

 

Generally most of the people do not like them very much being better and all but secretly we want to be like them. And everyone suffers from this. I am sure a lot of guys have someone at work they "dislike" or envy because he/she is better.

 

I think that is why Kicker hates Transformers. It all started with his child hood (as problems frequently do. His father took him to Cybetron and there he met these huge robots and of course he is scared. To make matters worse, his father put him in a space suit and shot him out into space looking for Energon.

 

That basically comes down to child abuse and even if it does not, it will still leave severe psychological marks. Kicker grew to hate his father and the Transformers who were sure to have put his father up to this.

 

As he grows older his resentment fades somewhat but he will also see something in himself he does not like. He was scared when he first met Transformers. That is not a feeling one is proud of.

 

The other thing he will surely not like is how Transformers are superior to humans. They are far stronger, more intelligent (normally speaking, Energon cartoon excluded), have more firepower, endurance and can even transform in to a vehicle mode whereas he has to walk or drive a vehicle. And Transformers have no fear whatsoever.

 

So he grows jealous and resentful. Which results in him lashing out at those he feels are responsible for him fealing weak and pitiful: the Tranformers and to a lesser extent his father who forced him to work with them.

 

To say that he hates Transformers would not really make sense as he is working with them on a daily basis and hanging out at their base. If they really "mistreated" him as a child then he would have walked away first chance he got and never looked back.

 

He did not because he knew that his gift made him useful. The Transformers needed him and that made him feel good. His inferiority issue is still present though and he hides it by trying to boss everyone around, making him feel slighly better. He still hates himself for being weak and desperately wants to prove himself by showing that he is just as good as any Transformer by taking huge risks.

 

A human with half a brain would not enter a battle zone with dozens of Terrorcons flying/running around. Remember what happened to Daniel in Rebirth? He got chewed on by Snapdragon and only because it was a cartoon it did not turn into a bloody mess.

 

One swipe from a Terrorcon and Kicker would have been a goner even a kid understands that. Someone would probably comment that his suit would protect him. WRONG!  :tdown

 

Being a robot fan I also watched a show called Robot Wars and one of the contestants was a robot called Razer which was armed with a crushing beak which could excert 2-3 tons of pressure. The opponents he faced were heavily armored but Razer always got trough.

 

And this is just a small robot with a max weight of 100 kg. Imagine what a huge Terorrcon could do. No suit is going to protect you if that grabs you. Even as a kid I would have gotten that Kicker had a deathwish.

 

But Kicker would probably not even care. Either he would prove he is just as tough as a Transformer or die trying.

 

I know it sounds far off and may not make a lot of sense but neither did the Energon cartoon.

 

Maximo Prime, you are right about the combiners. Just watch Starscream's Brigade and witness the awesome debut of Bruticus. The Constructicons had just formed Devastator and he was laughing at his foes. With good reason as he is a bad-ass bot.

 

But then Starscream ordered his Combaticons to combine and one would go "oh dear, this is bad.". And then one would hear an angry growl then the Combaticons combined and one knew that a creature of ultimate power was forming. Then Bruticus devastated Devastator without any problem and one knew that this was a bot you would not want to mess with.

 

I doubt any of the new combiners made that an impression.  :tftongue 

It's a kid's show, trying to understand the whole Kicker deal is as usefull as to try to understand why Team Rocket tries to steal Pikachu all the time.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, it was originally because Pikachu was ultra-powered compared to other Pikachus.

Kickers Suit ios made of Cybertronian tech, He also has the Energon Saber, and a Clone Sword to use in batttle

Strange that you question every little fault in G1 but accept everything Energon states. "Kickers Suit ios made of Cybertronian tech"

 

So that makes it inpenetrable? Shockblast killed Padlock. And even Prime lost an arm and a leg in battle to name a few.

 

Even Cybertronion tech/armor can be penetrated. And below that suit he is just measily human. A Transformer can take massive damage, Kicker can't.

 

The Klingons have a saying "A sharp knife is nothing without a sharp eye." Basically the weapon is only as good as the wielder of it. I could buy the coolest samurai sword but that would not mean that I could use it.

 

And Kicker was already overconfident, giving im a weapon would only boost that confidence. Personally I would keep him away from any weapons and keep him in ops. To me Kicker is just someone who is trying too hard to win a Darwin Award.  :tflaugh

 

Yes, I dislike him very much. So do a lot of Transformers fans. Sue us.  :tftongue

It was horrible, i have never seen a worse ending, i felt severely cheated. If felt rushed and way under thought. I can just see that board meeting... "And lets send Mirage flying after Galvatron, and lets have everyone pretend die and then talk to kicker! Only to return in mint condition!"  I would love to get my hands on that script writers neck...