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Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 191 - The Transformers: Fire in the Sky

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7 comments posted
Trapped Under Ice

Nobody comments on the Transformers eps? I do!

So at the beginning of the episode, the reveal that Skyfire got buried in the snow, and then Starscream simply abandons him. At the end of the episode, the Autobots do the exact same thing.

It's a really bizarre ending, if you think about it. It wasn't more than an episode or two later, and they were digging Skyfire back up. No explanation as to their change of mind. They seemed to just assume he was still alive.

Oh, by the way, Skyfire isn't the only G1 Transformers who was fated to spend an eternity in ice. The same fate became of Galvatron about halfway through the Japanese Headmasters series.

Also, you guys were talking about Toei doing shoddy work. Fast-forward to season 3 and the episode "The Burden Hardest To Bear." That episode is so awful, that my co-host on Animation Aficionados didn't believe me when I told him that was a Toei episode.

Mr Neil's picture
Posted by Mr Neil on 6 June, 2011 - 08:43
I'm surprised none of those

I'm surprised none of those fan run companies haven't made those crystal swords that were in this episode for MPC Optimus and Megs.

VZMK2's picture
Posted by VZMK2 on 6 June, 2011 - 10:23
Optimus Prime fighting...

You know, I forgot to comment during the podcast that apparently Optimus Prime's butt is better at fighting than the rest of the Autobots put together.

RobotBastard's picture
Posted by RobotBastard on 6 June, 2011 - 10:26
Oh coincidentally, this

Oh coincidentally, this episode I think will be on tonight on the Hub channel.

VZMK2's picture
Posted by VZMK2 on 6 June, 2011 - 10:29
Funny - It was because of

Funny - It was because of this episode that I was constantly freezing my Jetfire in a tray of water in my parents freezer. I didn't know Jetfire was a valkyrie back then, and it always pissed me off that he did not look like the one in the cartoon. Memories...

JoshB's picture
Posted by JoshB on 6 June, 2011 - 10:46
Not knowing the origin of Jetfire

This might surprise a few people, but Robotech was actually a bit more obscure than most of its hardcore fanbase might realize. I never saw a single episode of the show during its original run. I don't think I ever saw a single toy, outside of perhaps a few of the model kits put out by Revell. Like Josh, there were quite a few of us who had no idea that Jetfire originated from a different toy line, let alone a different cartoon. Just from my own experience, if Robotech ever aired in Chicago, it was buried on an obscure UHF channel, because nobody in my immediate group of friends had ever heard of it at the time.

However, I did come to learn of Robotech through merchandise. I knew a guy who had one of the books, and I immediately recognized the Valkyrie on the cover as being identical to Jetfire in every way except for color scheme. That was a pretty big revelation for me, because until that point, I had no concept of toy licensing from Japan or how the Transformers had come to be. Jetfire/Skyfire was the biggest clue back in the 80s that the Transformers franchise was born from pre-existing toy lines, with Robotech adding yet another piece of that puzzle.

But the weirdest artifact from all of this is in the Transformers episode "Day Of The Machines," where Skyfire lands in gerwalk mode.

Mr Neil's picture
Posted by Mr Neil on 6 June, 2011 - 13:26
Is this enough comment for you?

Hey, something I've actually seen.

I just rewatched the episode, and I think my favorite part that wasn't mentioned is that when Skyfire is fighting off the Decepticons at the end, the Reflector guys attack him, and their strategy is to form a human pyramid and then just run at him full tilt.

I'm starting to get really curious as to how the writing in kids cartoons works, like, why certain plots become stock, and get used in numerous shows. The Ninja Turtles episode where Shredder makes the mutant frogs has pretty much the same plot as Fire in the Sky, and I would be astounded if GI Joe and He-Man don't have this episode too. Why did this plot get popular?

That stuff you guys mentioned about political subtext and modern cartoons made me remember a Transformers Animated episode called "Garbage in, Garbage out" which is an odd sort-of-remake of Fire in the Sky. It's the same basic plot, but the difference is that the Jetfire stand-in (Wreck-Gar, a garbage truck voiced by Weird Al) starts by trying to join the Autobots, but he's such a screw-up that they actually kick him out, and Ratchet tells him to his face that he'll never be good for anything but garbage. So, at this point he sort of inadvertently hooks up with a Decepticon, and the Decepticon's attitude is basically, "I don't care how much of a screw-up you are, if you're a Decepticon you're my brother" and he never complains no matter how much Wreck-Gar screws up.

There's not even a point where Wreck-Gar discovers the Decepticons are evil; He just sort of inadvertently blows the Decepticon out of the episode Team Rocket style, and then sacrifices himself to solve a problem the Decepticons didn't cause in the first place.

It's a very weird way of approaching a stock plot, and I don't quite know what to make of it. If we're looking at modern political subtext, maybe the point is "Terrorists aren't born, they're made"?

The Waffle Man's picture
Posted by The Waffle Man on 7 June, 2011 - 23:42