#mech cadets episode one

[shewithoutrain]

“I NeEd YoU to HeLp me StEaL an ExOSuIT.”

WHAT WAS YOUR PLAN, STANFORD

HOW WERE YOU GOING TO PASS THOSE TRIALS, STANFORD?

MR FAILED THE SCREENING TEST BUT SOMEHOW THINKS HE’LL BE ABLE TO HANDLE SPARRING, ENDURANCE AND ACTIVE COMBAT CHALLENGES

God this boy. I love him.

#seriously stanford #head empty no thoughts #just MECH PILOT NOW PLEASE #He’s such an idiot #please general park I love him #mech cadets #mech cadets episode one #mech cadets pilot trials #stanford yu #buddy #robos #mech cadets rewatch

[softness-and-shattering]

So I put on this netflix show, in their tradition of being extremely obvious with names its called Mech Cadets, and its an alien-mecha human-pilot fight-the-giant-bug-aliens story. My first complaint is that the alien mechas are called Robo's. Wow exciting /sarcasm. Anyway thats totally forgiven because 1 the story actually makes choices and puts the characters through consequences instead of like hinting at oh it something bad gonna happen psych we dont have the guts for that. Its a kid/teen show so its not super dark but it follows through and goes the places it needs to.

2, and maybe most importantly, I gotta talk about the disability rep. There's four teens chosen by the alien mechs to be their drift-compatible pilots (I think im using that correctly? Im not super informed on the genre but I know some), and we see straight away that one of the guys has a prosthetic leg from the thigh down, and uses it as an example to tell the main protagonist, hey none of us are perfect we dont have to be perfect we just need to be human. The next episode the mechas are given human-designed weapons to fight with, and the disabled kid gets these flippy sticks I cant quite work out. One of them gets a staff, the other gets this glove for punching, story moves on. Then a bug-alien-antagonist gets into the teens dorm and while fighting it, the alien dismembers the guys prosthetic. He immediately grabs his crutches and goes to town on it with his crutches, and balancing on them to kick with his one good foot*. Then they disconnect the rest of the prosthetic and use its sharp edge to kill the alien. And then he just moves around on his crutches with no comment and Ill cut myself off there so I dont spoil the whole thing.

Except, a couple episodes later, Im watching him in the mech fighting and moving around, and I realise that his giant fuck-off monster attacking weapons ARE A PAIR OF CRUTCHES. Theyre his fucking WEAPONS. Thats cool as fuck!

#is it mech and not mecha and im making a fool of myself? I just cant quite bear to call them Robos im sorry #Mech Cadets #Theres more nice stuff about the disability rep but I want to leave some surprises for y'all when you watch it #The animation is ok theres one character who's face sometimes looks a bit plastic and moves a bit janky imho but otherwise its alright #I also definitely want more about the robos as people because theyre intelligent but theyre also a bit treated like machines #and not sentient beings #but they clearly are sentient #theres definitely themes happening about how alive they are but its not properly dug into yet. if they get a second season I definitely wan #more on them #like why did they just show up to earth to partner with people and fight the bug aliens? where are they from? whats their motivation? #but in a I want more world building way not in a wow this is shit world building way #anyway #mine #disability rep #disability representation #its got some really fun vibes #*his one foot. he doesnt have a good foot and a bad foot he just has a foot. getting him mixed in my head with Kaz Brekker and his cane

[vastunknownsea]

Damn that was like a year ago I think

was looking through my old sketch book and saw a sketch of Hunter that I really didn’t like so I recreated it…

I think the sketch I based this one off of was made like… when the poster for the first episode of season 3 dropped. Gosh I was excited. He was the most fun for me to draw despite not even being my fav… sorta like Stanford.

also more mech cadets art will come no worries…

#hunter toh #thanks to them #vast sea’s art #the owl house #the owl house fanart

[a34trgv2]

The Problem With Animated Shows Today

I shouldn't have to make a post like this because I know there's so much more animated content now than there was when I was a kid. Yet for the better part of a year, I've sat through one abysmal failure of a cartoon after the other, and I just can't stand it anymore. I'm aware the title might come off as pretentious, but rest assured I'm not a pretentious person nor to I view this post as objective fact. I'm just here expressing the common problems I have with cartoons recently and what I feel are the best steps to avoid them.

A common problem I have with cartoons recently is the awful writing on display. Shows like Samurai Rabbit, Hamster & Gretel, Ollie's Pack, and Mech Cadets all have writing that at best very underwhelming and at worst inexcusably amateurish. Scenes would go on for minutes at a time delivering boring exposition, unfunny gags, and very unnatural dialogue. It very much feels like the creators don't understand the value of basic writing principles such as "show, don't tell" "less is more" or "do much, speak little." Rather, they often go through the motions of a typical show so they can meet the given runtine and stay underbudget. For example, an episode of Centaurworld is around 26 minutes, which should be more than enough time to develop the characters, explore the world, have a good amount of funny moments and intense action scenes. What they choose to spend that runtime on instead is one note characters standing around arguing with one another, exposition dump upon exposition dump, unfunny gags, and underwhelming at best action scenes. This in turn makes the premise of the show feel wasted, like the creators only gave a successful pitch just to make something digestible to put bread on the table.

It really does feel like characters in cartoons these days are one of 2 archetypes: the annoying chatterbox and the moronic dirtbag. Let's compare 2 characters that have the same idea but vastly different executions: Eddy from Ed, Edd, n Eddy, and Ollie from Ollie's Pack. Both are outcasts who aren't good role models, but we're supposed to find them entertaining and funny. Despite those similarities, Eddy is clearly the superior character in this scenario because he often gets his comeuppance for almost immediately, and he actually does care for his friends. Ollie, in contrast, is just a selfish brat who sees his friends as expendable and doesn't get his comeuppance as quickly. Not only are the main characters detestable and annoying, but the supporting cast isn't much better as often they're either underdeveloped and unfunny or they're just parrots that always share the same thoughts as the main character. And don't even get me started on how incompetent, pathetic, and annoying the show's villains can get. Seriously, I defy anyone to make a good case for characters like Lloyd Garmadon, Jamack, the Yokai from Samurai Rabbit, or any of the villains from Hamster & Gretel.

An important aspect of animation that not many people bring up in conversation is voice acting. Voice actors are essential in giving life to characters in animation as they're able to make them sound believable and authentic. Or at least, that's what good voice acting should be. So many of the animated shows I've watched have such underwhelming or otherwise terrible voice acting that make the characters sound fake and kill my suspension of disbelief. Some of the worst vocal performances I've heard in recent memory come from Chris Houghton as Cricket Green, Meli Povenmire as Gretel Gomez, Allyn Rachel as Bee, and Danny Pudi as Tiny. They all have very terrible range, no sense of urgency in their tones, and don't sound the least bit believable as their characters. It's also frustrating to hear veteran actors give lackluster performances such as Aulil'i Carvalho as Hailey Banks, Chris Diantamopoulos as Thunder, and Karen Fukahara as Kipo. It's not entirely the fault of the actors for giving lackluster performances, as often they're at the mercy of bad voice direction who doesn't do a good job bringing out the best in their actors.

It's a given that animation on television has more limitations than big budget animated films. The best animated TV shows ever made, though, are able to work around those limitations and provide some excellent visuals that make the world feel alive. Recently though, I've notice a common problem when it comes to the animation in shows like Mech Cadets, Super Giant Robot Brothers, Daniel Spellbound, Hailey's On It, Bee and PuppyCat and My Dad The Bounty Hunter. All of them look good from a design standpoint, but in actual animation, they look choppy and stiff. This is because these shows have bad animation direction. Most people don't think about animation direction when watching a cartoon, but we can definitely tell when animation looks good versus when it looks bad. Bad animation is not just what's being shown on screen but also how it's being presented. In Mech Cadets, a character is giving a backstory to another character in a dark control room, and the camera moves around the room, showing the walls while the character talks. This is beyond inexcusable as it showcases the lack of appreciation for visual storytelling and is a complete waste of resources. Other aspects of bad animation include choppy character movements, a lack of mass on the character models, disorienting cinematography, and poor use of lighting and shading.

What can be done to avoid these shortcomings? Well, it starts by having good scripts that value showing over telling. I can't recommend Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling enough for aspiring writers who want to make the best scrips they can. I also think having your characters be likable and well-rounded will help a ton, especially if they're in a show about good triumphing evil. Having good actors is one thing, but it's equally important to have a very good voice director with years of experience bringing out the best in voice actors. Finally, collaborating with a skilled animation director or a very well established animation studio would do wonders. And don't be afraid to speak up and communicate with the producers on how to make the show bettee while staying within the budget. Animation is a collaborative medium and animated series today should do a better job reflecting that.

#reblog #share #like #follow #animation #comedy #rant #storytelling #disney #netflix #nickelodeon #mech cadets #hamster and gretel #big city greens #ollie's pack #kipo and the age of wonderbeasts #bee and puppycat #hailey's on it #samurai rabbit #action #cartoons #modern cartoons #voice acting #animation direction #writing #visual storytelling

[theoldandnewfirm]

Watched the first episode of Mech Cadets on Netflix with my dad and sister and we couldn't stop laughing. It's like someone looked at Pacific Rim and Transformers and said "yeah yeah yeah, I got the idea," then wrote a script that shows they clearly didn't.

One: why is the animation so bad? Outside of the main characters every other character model has a limited range of motion and their facial rigging only allows for slight emotion. It's like they live in a world of puppet people. It's eerie.

Two: Why did they give the Deceptikaiju an awkward name like "Sharg." It sounds like a noise you'd make when you're clearing your throat, not a memorable name for villains in a children's media show.

Three: if the robos are sentient, then why do they need to bond with human pilots? The implication in the season trailer is that it's because the humans enable them to fight, but if that's true then how have the robos been fighting the Sharg this entire time?

Four: the lead kid sucks. "I just know I'd be a good pilot." I don't know, you failed the test kid. That feels like objective proof you wouldn't be. Don't get mad at the generals or whoever because you failed to meet basic qualifications.

Five: why is lead kid's robo a blatant ripoff of Bumblebee. Like, c'mon.

---

After the first episode we decided to give this one a hard pass. I'm sure it'll appeal to kids on the grounds of "oooh, robots!" But it has nothing of substance to offer besides that.

#mech cadets

[spookberry]

Have you watched the netflix cartoon Mech Cadets? It's only like 10 episodes and I think you might enjoy it if you enjoy voltron.

yeah okay I watched the first episode and it's pretty good. Like for one thing the style is pretty impressive, the way they've modeled the human characters so clearly leaning into this art style thats gotten popular in recent years with the likes of Spiderverse and other films like it. And it works super well because from my understanding its based off of a comic book yeah?

them unironically callin em "robos" to me is kinda silly but like I dont mind a lil cringe every now and again I guess.

#ask

[throwaway-replied]

I am currently watching Mech Cadets as the animation style and story interested me! Wanted to talk about some stuff!

However, I gotta say, as someone who never read the comics, some of the character pacing is all over the place, especially Olivia. One moment, she seems withdrawn, the other she's besties with the others. I got some serious whiplash at the card scene at first.

I know Olivia has known Maya and Frank for over a year, so obviously, she's going to be more cordial. But I don't know, maybe I'm one of few who feels that her pacing is strange. Or maybe I got the wrong vibe from her at the start with her setting up Frank? Like, she seemed less friendly with the other two and like she was withdrawn, but then you're shown that she's actually been friendly with them the entire time? I do understand that she goes for "the best of the best" and is really competitive, and Maya did briefly touch on that, so maybe that's just it and my brain just wishes her character was different from reality and that's what's mixing me up lmao.

I can see where her arc is going [just finished Veritas], questioning her goals and authority and finding individuality or something along those lines. Her arc with her dad. Finding someone or something to protect, not just humanity, maybe? I'm not saying her character isn't consistent, though! She's cordial but skeptical and strict within what she's been taught her whole life. The cold shoulder to sudden friendless in between scenes is just what causes me whiplash 😭 I hope I'm not the only one.

Also, Frank and Maya are adorable, but again, I didn't really know their characters, so their immediate romance just didn't really have much payoff. Not to say that I didn't like it, they're cute!! I was just surprised at how soon they happened as a blind viewer.

I'm sure everything I addressed here was better implemented in the comics? Later episodes? Or I don't know, maybe it's just me lmao.

Really liking the characters overall, though! The cast has amazing back and forth, and the story itself has me intrigued! Love love love the animation, and it is obvious this show has a lot of heart and love put into it! Can't wait to finish the rest of this season! Hoping for another!

#mech cadets #netflix

[jaffre]

ive been watching mech cadets, only have 2 episodes left to watch, here's my thoughts so far

1/ sentient alien mech suits? yes please. (i never got into transformers somehow but i love sentient robots, give me more. if you have good sentient mechs media to recommend, gimme) i do wish we'd see more of them tho, as in, their personalities, and like, lore, where'd they come from? why did they come here to help against the sharg? i do like the comment on how they arent battle ready when they arrive, the humans arm them up. there's just so much here i want to know more about.

2/ the general style is nice, i love the little intro animation, really sleek. i also love how the animation style changed during flashback sequences? that's really cool. the nexus link view where u see the pilots in dot space is kinda silly but in a fun way. i like the robo designs, and their round hover wings whatever it is. cool shit.

3/ standford yu somehow the least interesting character lmao? ava fucking rocks. she's the best. tanaka great mentor figure. i love maya and frank, they're very sweet. olivia really came around, and despite how hateable commander park is, i do love that you can see where he's coming from, even if you dont agree with his actions. that's good character writing

4/ i gotta give frank's disability its own bullpoint. spoilers i guess i just wanna gush about it. the guy has a prosthetic leg and it's not an issue for him being a pilot, altho we do see in a flashback that he's actually more comfortable without the prosthetic and prefers his crutches? which is like. the first time ive seen a disabled character say that in media. that rules. he does accept to wear a prosthetic cause that's a concession he has to make to be able to pilot a mech. in a fight scene against a sharg, his prosthetic gets cut in half, and he doesn't skip a beat and continues fighting, without then with his crutches once he gets his hands on them, and even just. stabs the monster with his broken off prosthetic, which fucking rules. from then on, he doesnt get a new prosthetic, he just keeps his crutches, and instead gets a special suit that has a prosthetic inside of it cause he needs it to pilot the mech, but he's not forced to have the prosthetic outside the mech in his day to day life, which is like? accessibility win?? he didn't want it to begin with, the reason he had to wear it was "we can't modify the suit just for one guy" basically (which is the only reason he was worried for a few episodes about his prosthetic not being fixed -- it was just bc he wanted to pilot the mech, he could handle himself fine without it). and the, just, visual metaphor of ripping the rest of his broken prosthetic to finish of the sharg in that fight scene i mentioned earlier? like it's a liberation?? incredible. i just. i love this so much. this is all that matters to me now. i love frank and how they've treated him and his disability so much.

5/ literal mothership ahah oops they're fucked

[toastess-with-the-mostess]

Let's Rewind! Toast Watches Voltron: Defender of The Universe (1984)

Season 1, Episode 37: Lotor's New Hitman Season 1, Episode 38: Raid of the Red Berets

Episode 37: Lotor's New Hitman

Doom pilot training session? These aren't the ships I'm used to seeing with Doom

"[They're] not as good as I was when I was training at the academy!" "Uh yes sire" Oh Lotor absolutely failed every class and just threatened his teachers with death if they didn't pass him, no wonder he can't do shit

Are they actually told to kill each other in these sessions? One of the students is taking down everyone else, I feel like you wouldn't want to kill the rest of the squad that could measure up to him but okay

Uhh maybe the instructor is right in not letting some dude who listens to no authority try to take over a planet for you, this is gonna go real bad for doom really quick

"it must be the fastest robeast ever built and it must be red! I only fly red ships" he's gonna steal red lion isn't he

"my magic can easily turn the color to red, but I don't do windows" LMAO well at least haggar has boundaries I guess

Is this robeast not actually a robeast, looks like this dude is just piloting a mech with very little black magic involved

damn barely hits the ground and immediately starts causing devastation, when was the last time we got a robeast that actually committed war crimes for the Drule empire?

Wow no fanfare or anything this time around, just straight to the lions this time, top tier episode already

oh man some kid was actually under some debris, this is getting pretty serious for dotu

is yellow lion supposed to be the fastest lion? Hunk is chasing the mech after saying he was faster I'm so used to the fastest lion being red, I wonder what else fans changed to fit with their beliefs

plot bunny, how the fuck did pidge and lance make it to the other side of the tunnel when hunk is already pushing max in the middle of it yea I think the change people made with red and green being the faster lions makes the most sense here

early voltron formation, its only mid-episode too

I wonder how fast voltron can go, Keith said they were hitting mach 9 as voltron but do we ever hear how fast the lions push it? Would voltron even be faster ?

Aaand now green lion has a wound on the shoulder

Keith: Pidge talk to me! Are you hurt? Pidge: I'd be hurt if you didn't ask I love them so much

the team really is falling for this guy's traps every time huh, faltering on their training I see

is lion head attack their fastest attack or were they just banking on him not being able to dodge all of them

oh god Lotor you literally had such a good change to get rid of voltron and you RETREATED? You deserve to get your ass kicked every time

back to Arus and back to hazing the castle to make fun of the slow ass pilots

second voltron formation of the dayyy honestly I'm used to the VF episode that is so similar to this, but they used a cadet to solve their issue so how the hell are they gonna beat this guy without one

Oh I guess mach 10 is the fastest they can go as voltron

Chozzerai bridge? No that's over like an ocean or fat ass lake or something

good plan maybe? I think it is at least, setting out hovering mines that their mech can definitely outmaneuver but voltron probably can't and then slowly setting them off as they get close to him

earth wind and water, sounds like a pretty cool band name lol

ANOTHER VOLTRON FORMATION? WOW WEP WAS SAVING MONEY THIS EPISODE

oh so their plan is the same but with mach 10 speed, alright I guess? If that's all you got then whatever

omg they actually got him before blazing sword and everything

"maybe he'll land safely and come back again! There you see! He's going to land on planet gloom! That's one of ours! ... oh I'm afraid he didn't make a very good landing..." LMAOO WHY IS THAT WHOLE DIALOGUE SO FUNNY

/episode end

Episode 38: Raid of the Red Berets

Gonna be honest this sounds like an episode aimed at making fun of the French specifically LMAO

"can you and Haggar think of nothing to defeat that one little planet out in space?" Zarkon you literally fought that planet for a WHILE before Lotor came along, I don't think you can speak for shit

Disappointed father™️

well if their other fucked up science experiments are quaking in their boots even before these robeasts (not really) were introduced then I guess they're formidable

oh they're NOT robeasts, they're just regular robots that are getting transported to Arus BY the robeast okay okay

does the castle not have planetary alert systems or something?? Like they've gotta have satellites that alert when something is entering Arusian atmosphere

holy shit are these robots committing war crimes?? They're literally breaking into homes and killing civilians like that's not unheard of, but that's wild that they'd show that in dotu even if they play it off as the lights getting turned off

why do the pilots wave in their lions when the people below them can't even see LMAO

"It's a nice and safe feelings seeing those lions on patrol" robots immediately jump out of the ground and attack a caravan of people absolutely jinxed it sinvos

"something terrible must've scared them away!" omg they were actually slaughtered in that caravan and that's why they're not showing it

scare tactics,, is that what they're censoring the murder spree of civilians to in this episode? Wild

oh so being attacked on the regular with literal monstrosities isn't enough to make the Arusians want to crucify Allura but apparently the "scare tactics" that doom is doing to them is enough to freak them out and try to kill one of their only hopes of survival? Cool cool cool

Coran what, you said you didn't get any descriptions of the attackers, but now you know they're robots and have red berets? Plot bunny

if crowds were that easy to disperse, things would be changed so quickly my god

not a bad idea encasing at least one lion in something super solid, obvs Keith is getting out of this, but it would be smart to do that mid-fight also ironic because black camouflages as a statue instead of having a den

what kind of design is THAT for a robeast it looks like a dragon but bug like? Idk but still cool

why send all the lions to blast Keith with fire when only lance can actually do that?? Gotta make them useful I guess but distracting the robeast IS useful

Keith's free after being thrown straight into the robeast and now voltron can form pretty effective way to get rid of the rock enclosure I guess

this robeast encloses itself in bullet bill cosplay LMAO

man we're seeing a lot of lion head attack recently, wonder why

blazing sword formed, robeast down, Lotor getting belittled, everything is right in the universe

OH THE ROBOTS DID A SUICIDE BARRAGE AGAINST BLACK TO STICK HIM IN STONE NO WONDER THEY'RE GONE THE REST OF THE EPISODE

"men fight hardest when they're defending freedom" interesting, any other word and that would've been super political y'know ignoring that they're fighting an oppressive government lol

/episode end

#voltron #voltron defender of the universe #voltron dotu #80s voltron #let's rewind! #toast talks #wow more dotu episodes #this wont be a regular occurance lol

[thewiglesswonder]

*Crawls onto your posts* I've had feelings about Wasp since 2008, tell me all about your thoughts.

Oh my God, okay. Buckle your seatbelts, everybody, a lot of thoughts under the cut:

First and foremost, I’d like to take a moment to say that TFA Bumblebee kinda sucks. Like, to such an extent that if any of the Bots were to go bad, I might call it predictable that it was Bee. I get that he’s the kid-appeal character, has been since his G1 iteration, but in TFA, I’d go so far as to say that he’s got something that resembles an inferiority complex. Most, if not all, of his episodes revolve around dealing with or changing some aspect of himself, setting up rivalries with other characters (Nanosec, and to a lesser extent, Blurr). He’s trying his best, granted, and the shenanigans work out in the end (because this is a Y7 children’s cartoon we’re talking about here), but he’s far from the paragon of heroism Optimus seems to be striving for.

Up until Autoboot Camp, we haven’t witnessed much of “peacetime” Cybertron or Bee’s relationships with any Autobot that’s not a part of Team Prime. Giving us an opening scene with Sentinel getting outsmarted by a little green bot that looks a lot like Bee is a great setup for what’s to come over the course of the episode, like a terrible inverse of Optimus and Bumblebee. Bee flashing back to boot camp gives us a look at just how militaristic Cybertron was in the past and still remains to this day. The class of cadets doesn’t even have names until Sentinel assigns them one. And that’s not even getting into the first exchange between Bumblebee and Wasp.

Right off the bat, Bee’s trademark, usual upbeat enthusiasm is cut off at the knees (and literally is too later) by Wasp. They’re set up as equals from their first scene on, something that we’ve never seen before. This is the first time the concept of two mechs sharing the same body type is put into any kind of focus. Starscream’s more major clones haven’t been introduced yet, we’re nine episodes away from the lore about protoforms shared from Yoketron, so this whole “equally matched” thing is immediately kind of an attention grabber. Their first scene together gives a super clear picture of Bee and Wasp’s dynamic, as well as giving us an unexpected amount of insight into Wasp’s personality pre-Stockades, something of which we see precious little.

Wasp drops the line “It’s not how you were forged, but who you know.” To me, this sounds like a mindset that was brought on by experience. To quote a friend, we can basically translate this as “If people decide you don't fit in, you're dead meat no matter how good you actually are.” The very next we see of him is buddying up to Ironhide, who was, up until Bulkhead’s arrival, the strongest-looking bot there. Wasp does this in a stupid, boys-will-be-boys way, granted, but still.

Autoboot Camp, on the surface, appears to follow a rather formulaic trope plot, you know, about a bully character that gets their comeuppance, alongside Bumblebee learning to appreciate Bulkhead’s friendship. While yes, I do agree that Wasp and Ironhide were dicks and they definitely should not have done what they did, I feel as though it is worth mentioning that from their perspective, they don’t know about the spy that Bee is trying to catch. From their point of view, Bumblebee is purposefully pulling pranks on their drill sargent, knowing full well that the entire platoon suffers every time he does something wrong. It doesn’t excuse their actions, but it sure as hell explains it.

For all intents and purposes, the plot of the episode is resolved. Our spy is caught, karma is dished out, and we even get a sweet little look at how Longarm, now a Prime like he always wanted, is doing! Everything is relatively fine!

And then we get the scene of Megatron and Shockwave. And get hit with the “oh shit, that was wrong.”

I say that TFA uses implication well, and this is where it stands out. When we first see Wasp, he’s a snarky, smart-mouthed little jerk, but otherwise sane. When we see him after the Stockades, his paint is discolored, his optics are purple, he’s buzzing and twitching and talking to himself, swearing revenge on the bot who ruined his life. That is, to put it mildly, fucking horrifying.

I feel like all of the affection that the writers intended to go in Bee’s direction is, for me, getting channeled at Wasp, because he gets fucked over so indescribably badly. There is a fifty year timeskip between Team Prime’s first fight with Megatron and when they awaken from stasis, and in the Allspark Almanac, Shockwave attests to working with Highbrow Prime, the former Intelligence Head, for “a few hundred stellar cycles” before killing him and taking his place. This gives us an extremely rough timeline, but tells us for certain that Wasp was in the Stockades for a crime he did not commit for several hundred years, and was tortured to insanity in that time frame.

Let’s go through that again.

While I do not see Bee and Bulkhead as children by any stretch, they (along with Soundwave, Jetfire and Jetstorm) fall into the category of “very young adult relative to their species” for me. Boot camp seems roughly analogous to high school, and given that, by the time Where is Thy Sting rolls around, Wasp is a teenager who was falsely accused of treason, thrown in prison and tortured to insanity.

What breaks my heart about that is the difference in him pre and post-Stockades, and how differently things could have turned out. He didn’t just want to be a member of the Elite Guard, he wanted to be a Commander. He smiled after nailing the targets while shooting. He calls people “numb-nodes” as an insult. He’s a little asshole, yes, but I do not believe it warranted centuries of false imprisonment like the show seems to think it was.

I want to hug him. Final answer.

#I could go on but then we’d have an academic paper on our hands #I want to hug him. and protect him #I… sad #asks #tf #tfa #transformers #transformers animated #maccadam #wasp #wasp tfa

[forgetmenautical]

Hello! What was your favorite part of Mech Cadets (Netflix)? I enjoyed it so much, I had changed tumblr icon to Buddy and rewatched it twice!

My favorite part of it was the evolving and dynamic relationship of Olivia and Captain Park, Frank standing up for his friends, Maya being relaxed and a teenager around her friends especially Frank, and Dolly Yu keeps on helping Stanford to become a Mech Cadet but still for him since he is still her child! Everyone is supporting and caring about each other and it causes problems, but they never doubted their loves for the people they care for!

Also who are your favorite characters? I saw too much of myself in Stanford doing a Power Ranger pose, Olivia and her father because of their role in the story, and Tanaka cause his designs looks so cool and good for him to punch Aiden Park absolutely deserved that punch

And finally, anything else you want to talk about Mech Cadets?

AHH HI!!!

Presently my favorite part was the scene in episode 4 where Frank gets to fight that baby sharg with his crutches. Holy shit that was so cool!!!!!! And honestly yeah I have to agree with you on their growing dynamic also!! It’s so heartwarming to actually see them, y’know, getting along. Most functional mech pilot team I’ve ever fucking seen. I actually thought i’d really dislike the growing romantic tension between maya and frank, but it’s actually really sweet? Romantic stuff usually isn’t my thing but it’s so nice to see them actually getting along together! I’m also really surprised how much I grew to like Olivia. I just wanna give her a big hug, man. D:

Would you count buddy as a character? I would. I fucking love buddy. I really really wish we got more time with just the robos themselves since it’s shown that they have their own thoughts and feelings outside of what their pilots reflect on them! Aaurgh, I would give anything to have a goofy filler episode focusing on the robo’s instead of the main cast for a moment. I would give anything. Im so serious. Anyway, if you’re only counting human characters, then Frank actually! He’s just such a sweetheart and is always trying to lift everyone else up, and I especially felt that when Stanford was first introduced to the team, since Maya was still a bit abrasive toward him and I’m 90% sure Olivia wanted to actually rip his thoat out lmfao. Tanaka should’ve punched aiden park again btw.

I actually have a lot of thoughts on the robo’s themselves and the fact that they’re their own weird organic alien life. As soon as it was revealed that they’re actually thinking, conscious beings who choose their own pilots I went nuts. That has so many implications! I know it’s not canon but one of my Own thoughts is that they’d have to have actual flesh and bones under there, and the metallic exterior just serves as an exoskeleton. Maybe it serves as a more natural element for them to grow, much like bugs to chitin and us to keratin? It’s so fascinating. I fucking love the robos.

I’m a bit of a weirdo when it comes to fictional biology, sorry. It’s just….so cool…..!!! What is up with these things!! I love them!!

[shewithoutrain]

I know a lot of people see Stanford as aro/ace, and I fully respect that. I actually really liked that he didn’t have a romance arc, and neither did Olivia.

But I was rewatching Ep1 for research purposes and I saw the look Stanford and Frank shared, that little ‘good luck’, ‘thanks Stanford’ and the romance writer in me was like yuuuuup, that’s the one.

So, no disrespect to Maya/Frank (they have a great relationship in canon), but this will be a Stanford/Frank fic.

(What would you even call that ship? Frankford?)

#fanfic in progress #mech cadets #stanford yu #maya sanchez #frank olivetti #olivia park #mech cadets episode one #fanfiction #ao3 writer

[jimmyaquino]

Comic News Insider Episode 1423 - Flame Con Recap & Reviews Galore!

Comic News Insider: Episode 1423 is now available for free download! Click on the link or follow on Spotify/subscribe on iTunes!

Reviews: Mech Cadets, Moving, Secret Invasion, Silo, Twisted Metal, The Walking Dead: Dead City, Zombieverse, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead animated series, Barbie, The Haunted Mansion, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, They Cloned Tyrone, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead live action.

We interrupt our massive San Diego Comic Con coverage with a Flame Con recap and review special! Jimmy attended Flame Con on one day here in NYC. As in the past, it is one of the most bright and positive cons around. As soon as you walk in, you feel it. It is an LGBTQIA+ focused event that celebrates the community proudly. Jimmy gives a quick recap on it all.

Also, since we've been doing so many SDCC specials, we thought we'd catch up on some TV/Film/streaming. About 13 reviews overall! Thanks to my reviewers Ricky, Melissa, Edie, Marta, Heidi, Therese, David, Sara K, Sarah M, and Producer Joe! Great reviews from all.

Stay tuned over the next couple of months for more SDCC interviews!

Also, get a hold of us!

Thanks for listening!

[vastunknownsea]

how I actually think (Mech Cadets) season two will go

keep in mind I have not read the comics at all.

Okay, so I’m going to assume we’re following three characters specifically—

Ava, Stanford, and Olivia.

Now, Ava’s gonna be a wildcard for season 2. The writers either have some elaborate conspiracy for her to uncover or nothing at all for her. I’m thinking she ends up transitioning to a different base, and getting an internship there instead of sticking around sky corps. Now the only base I can think of her ending up in is General Felix’s. General Felix is a character mentioned in the phone call of Dr. Miller (the scientist who died in episodes 3/4) She’s the one who gives him the order to go against General Park’s orders of killing the sharg eggs. According to the phone call, she seems to be interested in weaponizing shargs and their dna or whatever.

Now, I don’t know what this really means, but a part of me is doubting it’s anything good. And if anyone can uncover the secrets of a shady General, it’s Ava ‘doesn’t know what an L is’ Patel.

I also think we’re meeting the rest of the ‘First Five’ that is mentioned in the concept art for mech cadets. Tanaka is the ace pilot of the first five.

Now, Stan and the gang. I… honestly don’t know what their plan is to find Olivia. Maybe Buddy’s teleporting powers play a big part in it, I’m not sure. They seem a bit too confident that they can find Olivia… who got lost in space… which is like… infinite.

Olivia went offline the moment she disappeared through the black hole, so I’m doubting they have any means of tracking her. Why General Park, a freaking General who has to deal with a military base or whatever, left to go find her? Idk, maybe he left sky corps and all the other damage dealt by the shargs under Sargent Sanchie’s care or something.

anyway, it’s more likely than not that they’ll just bulldoze through space until they find a single clue as to where Olivia might be. Who, mind you, COULD BE DEAD. Just saying. I know she’s not but geez you guys, what on earth has she endured to make you think ‘yeah she def survived that’???

They’ll eventually find out whatever planet or whatever dimension she’s in, but then the rest of the search will involve them trying to find out where exactly she is in this new world. I’m sure there will be plenty of problems and mishaps along the way, if General Park being there means anything. Stanford will probably struggle with the guilt of the choice he had to ‘close the black hole or not.’ This will inevitably create some tension between him and Park. Tanaka and Park will also have their own problems with each other, I’m sure. Maybe, maybe not. Veritas is bound to be brought up again, tho, am I right?

I am not sure if they will actually find her within season 2. Assuming season 2 will have 10 episodes like season one, we have three episodes of run time to give each perspective, then one last one to wrap it all up. I honestly kind of doubt they’ll find her within this amount of time. Sure, time skips can and probably will happen, but I feel like they wouldn’t. Maybe at the very end, like at the end of episode 10 they’ll be like, “oh jeepers gang I think we might actually know where Olivia is at” and then roll credits.

Now, Olivia. There is so many possibilities as to who the person in the void was. Let’s call them ‘Silhouette’ because that’s literally all they are right now. Is it human? A robo? And if it’s a robo, are they friendly or not? Will they bond with Olivia? What about Hero Force? Bro just protected Olivia from dying in the black hole, refused to elaborate further and freaking evaporated. W hero force fr.

Silhouette is also a wildcard. They can be friendly. Straight up antagonistic. A mixture of both, where they try to trick Olivia into thinking they’re an ‘ally’ and then go SIKE. I’m guessing Olivia will end up sticking around this person/alien/robo/SHARG?!?!(whether willingly or not), until her inevitable escape or departure, being forced to survive in this strange world alone. (What the hell she gonna eat?? Shargs???)

now, I’m just going to put it out there and say that I think Olivia ended up wherever the Robos are from. I’m betting a lot of y’all are thinking the same. Who knows, maybe it’s not just where the Robos are from, but the Shargs too. And Robos sort of lose memory of where they’re from, because otherwise, humans would’ve already discovered the place that Robos are from, right?

who knows, maybe Silhouette is a long lost pilot who discovered where the Robos resided and either stuck around or got trapped there, either by circumstance or by the Robos themselves. And before anyone says anything, no, I do not think it’s Charlie (Olivia’s mom). My girl has a whole grave. Unless they buried an empty box, idk how that could be Charlie.

Anyway, I doubt that Olivia will have an easy time, whatever Silhouette’s intentions may be. Doubting this world she ended up in is ‘human friendly’ and I’m sure hoping it’s not. Give me the trauma. She’ll probably uncover not only the origins of the Shargs themselves, but also figure out the real reason the Robos went out of their way to ‘save humanity’.

Does anyone else find it just a little suspicious that an alien race is compatible and are able to bond on such a high psychological level with HUMANS of all things? Like that’s hella sus. I have no doubt this is one of the reasons that General Park justifies his murder of Veritas— he’s highly suspicious of Robos as a whole. Meanwhile, everyone else are ‘robo loyalists’ as he put it.

But by no means am I suggesting that Buddy and the other Robos are secretly evil. Just that they are pawns in a much larger game played by the creators of the robos themselves.

And shargs are hella smart for some reason. And have wings. Which isn’t terrifying at all.

ooooh maybe we’ll get some bonding between the sharg queen and Olivia 🥰🥰🥰 after all, if Liv survived that, surely did the queen as well, right? (Aka Olivia gets the mother she never asked for nor wanted)

now, to bonus stuff:

We’re getting new characters, obviously. Javi, Maya’s little brother, has to be one of them. But, I don’t think Maya will be around to see him join Sky Corps or whatever base he’ll end up in. Maybe he’ll join in Ava’s ‘taking down shady goofs in power’ plot. I think (hope) we’ll see more Adam Williams, Chief Max and even Chief Clark. I’m definitely hoping we see General Felix. I literally know nothing about her other than her interest in weaponizing shargs, but the mere idea of her has me hella hyped. Maybe she’s one of the ‘first five’ I mentioned earlier.

Hoping we expand the background cast and see more pilots, such as Claire Olivetti and the pilot of Veritas, Valle. I mean, can you imagine an interaction between him and Ava? She’ll be like, ‘yeah bro your General betrayed you and killed your robo’ and he’ll be like ‘damn.’ And, if we see him, we’ll see the real effects of being torn away from your robo like that. Hoping we get to see more of Max’s past too, since she also had a robo who died. (Mariposa)

And flashbacks. Idk if it will be like the 2d ones from seasons 1 or not, but the concept art shows a 3d model of a younger Tanaka so…. Anyway, we’ll probably get Charlie flashbacks, First Sharg War flashbacks (aka teenage Tanaka, Gen. Park and Charlie getting traumatized), and younger Stanford and/or Olivia.

Desperate for more skatergirl2000 and Moppington Jr pls 🙏🙏🙏

#mech cadets #olivia park #stanford yu #maya sanchez #frank olivetti #veritas #general park #general felix #skip tanaka #mech cadets season 2 #ava patel #skater girl is Olivia and moppington is Stanford btw #this is very long sorry #just felt like sharing #I’m prolly not saying anything new #vast sea’s predictions

[cheasegary]

So to catch all of u up to speed as to what I’ve been up to the past two years: I got my first storyboarding gig for a Netflix production!! I did work on Mech Cadets which will release around 2023 I think?

Shortly after that I got an storyboarding internship with WEBTOON and am currently doing freelance work on Opposite of Always! I also did one episode for  Batman: WFA during my internship as well. The episodes I’ve boarded still aren’t up yet but expect me to be obnoxious about it when they do pop up.

I’m also gonna be a storyboard revisionist on another show starting in July 👀 getting that bread babey also a given but I’ll be queueing up all the fckin art I’ve done over the past 2-3 years lol. otherwise it’d be a torrential downpour. enjoy.

[countessofbiscuit]

Please, please vindicate me on this. In Fantasia Fourteen is Fox in Phase II armour yet, it really is *so* much sexier than that Phase I crap

Hate to disappoint and possibly taint Fantasia for you, but no. Fox is still in Phase I, as the story takes place about three months after the Senate Hostage Crisis — or, by my reckoning for this canon-compliant ‘verse, in the last week of the sixth month of 21BBY. Excepting a prototype teaser in a previous episode, Phase II isn’t seen on troops until the first arc Season 4 (Water War), which occurs after the passage of the Army Enhancement Bill (that time the Senate agreed to an injection of 5 million more clones). 

I figure upgraded armor had been part of Kamino’s proposal for that bill, designed free of charge and offered at discounted rates for all new clones and current cadets; then a supply for all deployed clones gets earmarked. Interoperability and all that jizz. It starts being fielded to combat units sometime in the first month of 20BBY, though it’s a few months before Phase I is totally superceded and all officers have been persuaded to dump their old gear. 

So while I can’t give you vindication, I can offer a consolation fic?

. . . . . 

Deuce Gear | ao3

Commander Fox dons new armor and is reminded that being kept by the well-heeled Republic isn’t all awful. 

. . . . . 

Fox stood at the foot of his cot. He flipped a large roll of tape in his hands as he studied the shiny plastoid shell he’d arranged. 

His “phase two” self. 

News to him that the armor they’d been sporting this last decade had been the first phase of anything. But Kamino’s armorsmiths had been as busy as Baktoid’s bugs, the DOD was making clones shed their carapaces, and it’d been a carousel of cargo vessels at every barracks on Corrie since the new year. K81 Operational Combat Plates Mk2 didn’t flat pack. 

For all the logistical fuss, the plates weren’t all that different. More angles than curves, and lighter too, Force save their knees (steroid injections couldn’t now, and unless the Veterans Budget bill passed, they wouldn’t be getting those either). And there were updated instructions for wearing spaulders upside-down that would exasperate sergeants for weeks. 

Fox had been surprised to find his new issued kit fit like a forgettable dream. After all the back-and-forth bellyaching between the corps’s QM, Procurement, and Kamino about the need for flexibility, the need for funds, and the need for reduced caloric intake, someone on the longnecks’ side had clearly folded — or someone was getting kickbacks. There were more than two sizes now; no clone’s gains would be limited by the armor he could squeeze them into, or the shimming he figured could safely get away with. 

The helmet had borne the brunt of the overhaul. Its faceplate was more humanoid, in a skeletal kind of way. Fox still hadn’t decided how he felt about it, besides robbed. Clones didn’t have much to call their own, and nearly every brother loved his bucket like it held his last breath. More importantly, how would she feel? He glanced over at his old helmet — the face she’d smiled at first — and considered how badly he’d be reamed for ‘misplacing’ it. Eloquently and with extreme prejudice. ‘Losing’ a damaged spaulder was one thing; the helmet was serialized and must be handed back. The spanks were the same for all ranks where INFOSEC was concerned. 

Fox returned his attention to the bed. The new helmet still featured a mounted lamp and an enhanced comms and sensor array, but the polarized lenses rendered the visor redundant. He’d requested one anyway: it made a complex HUD field easier to scan and incoming data feeds easier to triage in sunlight — and it was always sunny in Galactic City.

Finally, there was a stiff new kama. Fox had taken a fastcutter up the back and along the edges and the lethris was now in need of some trim. He couldn’t cannibalize the silk from his old one: it was utterly sky-shredded where not scalded from three weeks of near continuous down-draft. And to his kama’s credit, Fox had burnt through more than one jetpack traversing a goodly part of the planet via its sewers, storm drains, and skytunnels in a quarterly sweep of the infrastructure. It was impossible to keep them totally clear of criminal elements, but at least a red wave could keep them from getting too comfortable. 

Someone knocked on his door. It was Floren, bearing caf and two cans of spray paint in the unit’s new color because continuity was for chumps. 

“They give you any trouble?” Fox asked. The motorpool mechs were stingier than medics sometimes. Mostly with good reason. 

“No, sir. There’s crates of the stuff. No repulsor threads for the larties, ‘course, but enough paint to make sure they go down in a blaze of fresh Corrie red.”

“Sell tickets and call it a lightshow.” 

“I’ll put it to the ladies down at the RSO,” Floren replied, accepting Fox’s desk chair. He squirmed around in his seat for a minute, like a cadet newly graduated to hard plates. Or a grunt selected to play officer lackey for a day without really knowing why. “Still stumped, sir?” 

Fox nodded. 

(continue reading for the spice) 

#commander fox #foxiyo #coruscant guard #riyo chuchi #the clone wars #biscuit fic