Still Not Over toy Story 4

You know. I always hated the whole "too bad EarthSpark only had one season" meme. The rest of the series might have been full of disappointments and frustrating plot choices, but that didn't mean there was nothing of value there. There were still some fun moments, some good characters, and some interesting - if poorly executed - plot threads.

This finale? Was not fun to watch. The conflict was more annoying than interesting. The plot only works if you're willing to accept some fairly major retcons and contrivances. And the story could not even be bothered to give us a conclusive ending.

Mandroid? Was a plot device. The narrative could have found any other means of getting the cast to Cybertron, and it would have had the same effect. Because the status quo was immediately restored after Mandroid's defeat, and the only change was the Space Bridge being fixed.

I can buy that he was alive. The Cybertronians were all restored at the end of S1, so I can believe that he was too. Still a retcon because we never heard a peep about him being alive. Everything he does after he was set free? The arachnamechs and the magical Space Bridge repairing goo? A mind control badge? The ability to communicate with the outside world in the first place? All completely without explanation. He just has all these resources somehow.

Starscream? Was also a plot device. He did not have to be part of this. Neither did Mandroid, really, but at least Mandroid was doing something. Starscream was just there to be puppeted for a bit and then tossed back in prison.

I still marked him as getting a decent ending because I explicitly said I would take "alive and in prison" if that was the best I could get. But in the same breath, I assumed the writers wouldn't reset him to the post-S3 status quo, and that aged like milk left in the sun, so y'know. Sometimes getting what you want doesn't feel good as good as you thought it would.

Hot Rod was fine. His plot line was reminiscent of Autocracy. Sort of. If nothing else, you could tell me it was inspired by Autocracy and I would believe it. But he wasn't MTMTE Rodimus, so I'm sure when I check the ES tag, I'm going to see a bunch of people hating how he was handled.

I mean, in fairness, I hated Mirage. Or at least, I hate how his powers were handled. Maybe he'd have been fine if he couldn't summon an army of clones that are all functionally him apart from not being able to die. Or if he'd stopped creating them for literally no reason when every living thing on the planet was being constantly sucked dry of energon. I cannot suspend my belief far enough to accept that he has enough energy to get away with that.

And speaking of the energy vampirism. I have. Questions. Questions like, "how did anything survive on this planet for sixteen plus years if it was actively killing them on a constant basis". Questions like, "how do they make energon, or store it, if it doesn't even have to be inside a living bot to get sucked up."

I can accept that Prowl didn't say anything about it when he arrived on Earth, because he did say he couldn't take the Space Bridge due to it being under Decepticon control. He could plausibly have left Cybertron before the destruction of the Earth-side Bridge and never known the AllSpark was cannibalizing Cybertronians. But with the way the rest of the plot was handled, that feels more like an accident than like deliberate continuity.

Hated the conflict between Twitch and Thrash. Not because it didn't make sense, mind - Twitch was really hyped up by previous seasons, and she's always struggled with the amount of responsibility she puts on herself. I can absolutely believe she would have a crisis the first time her family resolved a major conflict without her. I can even get on board with Thrash being upset because Twitch was so determined not to "fail" again that she wasn't listening to him. But interpersonal conflict can make perfect sense and still be miserable to watch, and that's what this was for me.

And speaking of miserable to watch. I know Robby's a teenager. I know teenagers tend to lack perspective and think they have things a lot more figured out than they do. And goodness knows being "special" can go to a person's head. But once again, understanding it doesn't mean I want to watch it. I liked him in S1, but after everything is said and done, he might be my least favorite character in the entire show.

Also, his "I can't lose my powers" thing should have gone to Mo. She was the one who had that whole It's a Wonderful Life segment where she saw her entire family ripped apart because she didn't touch the Emberstone. That plotline would have made far more sense for her, and it would probably have been more tolerable because it would have been driven by fear for her family, not some desperate need to be special.

Liege Maximo was a villain. Not much to say about him. The Decepticons were there. None of them mattered except Breakdown, of course. So I guess the only thing left to talk about is Megatron.

What the fuck was that ending. The part where he's evil again, yeah, but more importantly. Everyone thought he was dead. They were standing right there next to his body. And we get five seconds of grieving before people are already getting excited about other stuff? The body is literally not even buried and the mood is already shifting to Happy Ending Mode, what are you doing.

Honestly, would have preferred if he was actually dead. At least that would have been a conclusion. But no, he had to be rewound and made evil again. Never mind the fact that Bumblebee got rewound into an old altmode, specifically demonstrating that he's a younger version of himself, not just affected mentally. And Megatron - who explicitly took his current altmode to prove he was serious about changing - did not look any different. By the logic established two minutes prior, he cannot possibly have been rewound to any point pre-redemption.

Y'know, unless you recon him as having always looked like that.

The unpopular corporate public apology award: megatron

Pathetic caged pet award: prowl

🅱️ass 🅱️oosted award: Hot Rod

Pathetic meat puppet award: starscream

Bröther, may I have some öats award: Optimus Prime

Sounds suspiciously like Optimus Prime award: Liege Maximo

It kinda sounds like Alan Tudyk dubbed half of his lines award: megatron

Just realised something :

The first time Judy met these two man when they were in the HOTEL ROOM!

does EVERY "I LOVE YOU" needs to be about or end up with KISSING???? does dinostar, THE darius bowman and brooklynn no last name needs to kiss and make out to PROVE that they're in love with each other??

"they baited us-" noooo good god this is what it means by media literacy is dead because the concept of love and intimacy isn't ALWAYS about kissing and making out??? man it saddened me out because why can't people realize that love isn't just sexual attraction, it's that deep understanding, deep bonding, being comfortable with each other's presence, physical touches like hugs or shoulder touch that doesn't always go into this sexual shits, these things that just feel like warm blanket in a cold night LIKE BRUHHHHH

if anything the reason i rant about all this is because to me if seeing dinostar's ending as "bait" and that we're "robbed" from what we could've had felt like a BIG mischaracterization for darius, he's still questioning himself about love because for him the kind of love that the others had with their partners didn't quite strike the same way to him even if yes he loved brooklynn, and THAT is okay.

i repeat THAT. IS.OKAY

like what god forbid a character questioning their own perception of love and sexuality? god forbid characters having hug instead of mouth kisses as their love language?

and honestly to me it felt incredibly oppressing towards people in the aro spectrum, it's not always about being romantic y'know (i must've admit idk about me myself if i'm in the spectrum or not but if you are reading this and in the spectrum/part of it then please correct me if i'm wrong)