Masterforce

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Episode #14: "Eliminate the Godmaster Ginrai!"



Fourteen episodes into the 42-episode series and we _still_ haven't had any significant filler/time-wasting. This episode is yet another one absolutely key to the overall series plot - as nearly all of them have been to date.

Like many of the episodes, the first half is the most interesting, the second half being more action-oriented. The Autobot Junior Headmasters don't feature, and of the Decepticon JHs, Bullhorn is the one who leaves the greatest impression, being furious that he was beaten and will always be beaten by Ginrai in battle. Bullhorn is the biggest and strongest human in the entire series, and is no doubt used to being able to wipe the floor with guys like Ginrai, Hydra and Buster. However, they have been binary-bonded to Godmasters, while he only has Horri-Bull, a machine not even capable of beating a Pretender in battle, let alone a Godmaster. No wonder he finds the role-reversal frustrating.

But this episode, like most from now one, focuses on Ginrai, the true hero of the series, though only four episodes old. And he continues to throw us delightful curveballs by being the most unconventional Autobot series lead in the 25 years of Transformers.

Ginrai has found three unclaimed sets of Godmaster bracelets in Optimus Prime's cab. He knows that before he put on his bracelets, his truck cab had displayed spooky behaviour, so figures that the three remaining Godmaster vehicles might also be making themselves known to their human owners by odd behaviour. But they could be anywhere in the world. How do you make contact with them?

Without thinking things through, Ginrai does it the obvious way. (Mercifully, this is an Internet-free future timeline.) Yes, he calls up a TV station and basically says, "Hey! Look what I can do with this truck! See! Now I'm a giant robot! Give me some screen time please." He gets a bit carried away and jokes that he is an alien disguised as a truck, then tries to backtrack, but he's still in robot mode at the time, so it's all rather funny. Anyway, of course his appeal for anyone experiencing odd phenomena or "even if you just think your friend is weird" to come forward, gets a huge response from people who believe they are aliens or have been visited by them. Landmine amusingly tells Waverider that everything Ginrai does makes him (an Autobot Pretender) feel like he's going to have a heart attack.



Surprising us again, we then find that Ginrai hasn't given up his day job. He is still delivering goods by lorry (albeit said lorry being originally intended as a new body for Optimus Prime, and now inhabited by a Godmaster spirit). Ginrai still hasn't accepted that his normal life ended the day he put on his bracelets - and perhaps that attachment to humanity is what marks him out as being the human most fit to lead the forces of good, and contrasts him so starkly with Hydra and Buster.

Of course, it can't last, and Hydra and Buster deliberately attack him when he is in a densely populated city, with his trucker friends around him, in order to maximise human casualties and turn them against him - closer to "Plague of the Insecticons" from the 1985 annual than to "Megatron's Master Plan". The Decepticon Godmaster brothers want to separate Ginrai from his humanity. Could they be envious of him for retaining the ties they have forsaken? Hard to say. They fail, because Ginrai's friends are close enough to him not to be tricked, and as for the other humans in the city, Waverider tells Ginrai that Landmine will explain the truth to them. This reinforces the evidence from earlier episodes that the Autobot Pretenders have good connections in the right places, and are well in with the human establishment. We leave Ginrai with Landmine telling him that his self-conscious recognition that he was at fault and put his friends in danger was the very thing that marked him out to lead.

Finally, on the Decepticon side, we have had portentous developments. The "God of the Decepticons" speaks, referring to the Godmasters as his children (c.f. Ginrai's friend Sam telling him from his hospital bed that he has been given powers by God) and stating that by rights they should all have Decepticon souls. And the episode closes with the introduction of Snaptrap/Turtler, the fourth pure Decepticon to appear in the series (after the Decepticon Pretenders), who is intelligent and can speak and watches over the underground lake containing shoals of lesser Seacons. We end with him combining with five of them to form Piranacon. To be continued!

(Edit: I've just realised that these subtitled vids on YouTube are different from the ones on the Metrodome DVDs. I prefer the Metrodome subtitles because those English subs refer to Autobots and Decepticons rather than Cybertrons and Destrons - which is logical, since the TFs first arrived on Earth in 1984 in an English-speaking nation and established that in English they should be referred to as Autobots and Decepticons. There's no reason to use the Japanese names in English subtitles. But I know Japanese purists like Karl will fervently disagree... )

(Edit 2: Is the animation in Piranacon's combination sequence smooth, or is it smooth? Is it just me being biased if I say it's better than any of the equivalent ones from Sunbow, Headmasters, Victory and Zone?)

Martin

[legios]

I think that you have pretty very much hit the high spots of this episode there Martin. As you say, it is very impressive that we have reached fourteen episodes in and we haven't really had an episode that has felt like it is treading water. That is quite impressive for a long-form show to go that long without a sense of "plot of the week" or "enemy mecha of the week". The sense of story progression at this stage in Masterforce is quite striking - the series has evolved in directions that one wouldn't necessarily have predicted from the opening episodes, and at a fair pace too.

I do like the way the God/Emperor of the Destrons is unveiled in this episode. They have been dropping hints through previous episodes, with cutaways and pans to the strange cthuloid mass in the Destron base and now, suddenely and without preamble, it speaks. It feels surprising, but at the same time like confirmation of something that the audience has been lead to half-suspect. I actually think it is more effective than giving it a specific build-up to a big reveal. Instead it feels a little more organic - and also a little sinister when you realise that it has been sitting impassively watching and listening to the Destron's conversations up until now.

(I had actually missed the parallelism between the statements that "all the Godmasters are my children" and the "God gave you these powers to help people" lines until now. There is an interesting resonnance there, and it leaves open questions about how sapient Godmasters are in their own right. After all, if the God of the Destron's is correct and Ginrai's Godmaster made a deliberate choice to merge with him because of his nature then it suggests that Godmasters have an understanding of good and evil and the ability to make a choice between it. That they are not destined to be simply what they were created to be.)

The fact that Ginrai is maintaining his day job doesn't come as a such a surprise to me. He is following in the illustrious footsteps of forebears such as Spiderman or Ultraman by trying to maintain his secret identity. It does however, as you say Martin, mark him out from Hydra and Buster though. It is almost a statement of identity - with Ginrai seeing himself as a truck-driver who happens to also be a Godmaster, as against Hydra and Buster defining themselves as Godmasters first and foremost. It works well as a statement of what Ginrai really values. I'd agree that the fact that he still attempts to maintain a normal human life makes him eminently qualified to defend the lives of others.

I do love the fact that Ginrai doesn't suddenly become completely sensible and responsible now that he is a superhero though. His plan to go on television and try to get in contact with the people that the three pairs of Masterbracers are destined for is wonderfully ill-thought out. It is the sort of thing that is almost custom-designed to bring out of the woodwork every kook with a television set, and lo-and-behold this is exactly what happens. Ginrai's somewhat inept handling of the interview is amusing as well - it does reinforce the "speak/act first, think later" aspect of his character which marks him out as a very distinctive leading character in Transformers fiction - and certainly the most intentionally amusing leader in any Transformers television series.

Similarly, the fact that he falls straight in Hydra and Busters trap and nearly loses the sympathy of his friends and of the rest of the local population feels very much in character and as a result he very much retains the audiences sympathy.

Diver's suggestion that Ginrai's ability to recognise his mistakes makes him qualified to lead is an interesting moment. It feels like a direct admission that this isn't the Cybertron Pretenders' fight, they will help but in the end it is the humans who are going to have to be front and centre of the battle. (In which respect witness Lander and Diver's contributions to the episodes fight - very much a support role, tackling the Lobclaw and allowing Ginrai to concentrate on Hydra and Buster).

(Speaking of the Pretenders I am amused by some of the little bits of "human business" we see Lander and Diver get up to in this episode - the push-ups that Diver does, and the fact that Lander has the stereotypical pretty secretary in the background when he is on the videophone to Diver to moan about Ginrai. There is something rather amusing about the lengths that they go to immerse themselves in humanness. Amusing and somewhat endearing).

I do like the insight we get into Bullhorn here - he has been the least developed of the Destron Headmaster Juniors up until now but they swiftly and effectively confirm him as a classic bully, with a need to be the strongest guy around because if he is not he doesn't know how to relate to the world. It makes me feel that he is less evil, and more that I have a certain amount of pity for him. (Not that I'd fancy running into him in a dark alley mind you!).

I'm struck though by Wilder's reaction to Ginrai's "outing" himself on television - his insistence that the Juniors not take the opportunity to pile onto Ginrai bespeaks the sharp intelligence that they have hinted at in the character before. He seems to realise that picking that fight - one that they can't possibly win wouldn't impress the other Destrons, and would actually harm their standing and reputation. No brainless thug, and not completely governed by machismo there is something very calculated in Wilder which I find makes him a more interesting character than he could have been had they simply played the biker stereotype straight.

(Edit: I've just realised that these subtitled vids on YouTube are different from the ones on the Metrodome DVDs. I prefer the Metrodome subtitles because those English subs refer to Autobots and Decepticons rather than Cybertrons and Destrons - which is logical, since the TFs first arrived on Earth in 1984 in an English-speaking nation and established that in English they should be referred to as Autobots and Decepticons. There's no reason to use the Japanese names in English subtitles. But I know Japanese purists like Karl will fervently disagree... )

T'is very much a matter of taste isn't it? I prefer to stick with fidelity to the original text - and "Cybertron" and "Destron" are close enough to being proper names that it doesn't quite feel appropriate to me to replace them with something else. But in the end everyones mileage may well vary. It doesn't bother me much because I just mentally amend the Metrodome subtitles when I am watching the episodes anyway. :-)

(Edit 2: Is the animation in Piranacon's combination sequence smooth, or is it smooth? Is it just me being biased if I say it's better than any of the equivalent ones from Sunbow, Headmasters, Victory and Zone?)
Martin

It is rather nice animation - they have definitely given it the "beauty pass treatment" here. I have long had a soft-spot for that particular combination sequence for some reason. It may be bias but if so it is a bias that I happily share. It helps that we first see it as part of a sequence of quite well-staged and directed animation - the Seacons emerging from the water is a nice piece of animation in its own right, there is a little bit of directorial flair on display there.

Speaking of the Seacons, Turtler is interesting. Whilst the rest of the Seacons are played very much as disposable drones of questionable intelligence (to be generous), Turtler is introduced here as a relatively intelligent and by contrast fairly eloquent Destron. It is an interesting take on the combiner formula - an army of drones accompanied by a single "proper Destron". It makes me inclined initially to think of King Poseidon as being effectively Turtler with power-up bits added, as opposed to most combiners which feel like a compromise individual assembled from their various members. The Turtler/Seacons relationship is another example of Masterforce's willingness to play around with expectations of how things are "supposed" to work in Transformers and implement things in a slightly different way.

Karl
(Apologies for rambling a bit this week. I am still feeling my way back to coherence after two days of Benylin and Paracetomol)

[legios]

Episode #15: "The Heroic Birth of Super Ginrai":-

The Destron Pretenders seek to lure Ginrai into a trap, taking a group of human children hostage. The Cybertrons race to the rescue but in the midst of the battle Ginrai must face the might of the Seacons combined form – King Poseiden – can even a new transformation save him?

In some ways this episode has a great deal in common with the preceding episode. Once again the Destrons attempt to wipe-out Ginrai, and use innocent bystanders as part of there plan. But in many ways it is appropriate that some of the basic plot elements are similar. With this episode being the first to heavily feature the Destron pretenders in quite a while, instead of the Godmaster brothers who have monopolised the evil doing recently, it feels in the overall context of the series as if the Pretenders have decided to show the Godmasters how it should be done and in the process win back the standing that they feel they have lost recently. In a sign that Masterforces' interconnected storytelling is working in its favour there is no need for any of the characters to actually sign-post this element of the story – it is almost effortlessly infered from the context of previous episodes.

I find it noticeable how the show doesn't shy away from the fact that every time the Destrons are about there evil work, humanity pays a price in blood. It is strongly implied that the Destron Pretenders kill three policemen in cold-blood, just to bait their trap for Ginrai, and it is outright stated that a Coast Guard team were sent in to try to rescue the hostages (not my first choice for the job – HRT, or a police SWAT unit would seem more appropriate) and were – according to Lander – wiped out. It may be kept partially off-screen but Masterforce seems unafraid of the idea that this war for the planet Earth has a death toll.

Interestingly enough we see some signs of moral qualms about what they are doing from the Destron Headmaster Juniors here. Cancer and Wilder have been happy enough with the idea of fighting the police, the army and the Cybertrons but when faced with the prospect of holding kids hostage – especially kids that have been finding them to be cool guys up to that point – they are less than entirely sanguine. It is an interesting development that defines them as having slightly different values and motivations to the Destron Pretenders. (Bullhorn notably doesn't register any protest at any stage of the plan – but then he doesn't really seem to think much about anything other than fighting people so this is not entirely surprising). Cancer especially seems somewhat uncertain when Minerva is trying to talk him into changing sides. (A nice touch of story and character continuity that she is sticking to her guns in trying to reform him). Admittedly some of this is clearly simply due to the fact that Cancer would rather like to be on the same side as the pretty girl rather than fighting her, (actually, that plot element and the uncertain stutter he develops when dealing with Minerva is rather sweet), but there does seem to be a small seed of doubt forming in his mind.

This episode also sees the proper debut of King Poseiden, the combined form of the Seacons. We glimpsed Turtler and the combined mode in last weeks episode, but this is their first proper outing. The show makes a bit of an effort to build them up – even the Destrons are a bit surprised to see Turtler, who apparently doesn't show his face that much. The fact that a Seacon can talk comes as much as a surprise to the characters in the show as it did to the audience last week – allowing us a little moment of being ahead of the characters, but also allowing us a moment of empathy as we share their surprise. In the grand tradition of introducing a new enemy King Poseiden is of course unleashed against the mightiest hero that is available. With Ginrai having been established as the “main event” for the Cybertrons this means that the Seacon behemoth immediately lays into Ginrai – establishing his threat level by immediately putting the Godmaster on the back foot and threatening to overwhelm him with brute force. It certainly works to establish that King Poseiden is a force to be reckoned with, and has power to spare.

Of course, King Poseiden is mostly there – in storytelling terms – to act as the catalyst for Ginrai's first “mid-season upgrade”. A tradition of both the “Super Robot” and “Real Robot” sub-genres by this point in time Masterforce happily indulges in the trope of handing out a power-up to the lead hero after a certain number of episodes, in order that he can face off against more powerful opponents. (In fact the Cybertron Pretenders seem to have a certain degree of genre awareness in that that actually do talk about Ginrai “getting a power-up” at the end of the episode). Although this is a relatively stock element the show does make a good fist of tying it into the themes of the show – Ginrai's supermode is invoked by his determination to protect the children that the Destron's have taken hostage. In essence sheer willpower triggers the transformation – another reminder that “willpower is important with the Masterforce”.

Ginrai does seem to be growing rather nicely into his role as leader here. Although his first instinct is to dive straight into the Destrons trap in order to rescue the hostages, he does have the good grace to take Diver's advice regarding the importance of up-to-date intelligence and to vary his plan accordingly. (The recon mission may go rather wrong but it was still a very good idea in principle). Ginrai does however retain his tendency to do things the risky way – effectively he uses the rest of the Cybertrons as a diversion whilst he goes in alone to free the hostages. His reckless tendencies seem to make him prone very much to leading from the front.

Apropros of nothing, it strikes me that this episode gives us another glimpse of how the Cybertron Pretenders are immersing themselves in their human guises. Diver's relationship with, and pride in, the dolphins who live at the Ocean Research Institute is a very human aspect of his personality. Lander meanwhile appears to be playing the role to the hilt – we have had hints before that he has been dating, but here it is actually implied that he has a steady girlfriend. Unthinkable in any other Transformers series, but here it actually seems rather credible – and his annoyance with the Destrons for ruining a date that he has worked quite hard to organise is, in context quite amusing – especially when he is still moaning about it in his giant alien robot form in the middle of a fight.

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

The bit at the start where the Decepticon Junior Headmasters are basking in the admiration of the other kids, I think, is the pinnacle of their happiness, and sums up all they really wanted from joining the Decepticons. I think that at that moment they have achieved all their ambitions, and want nothing more from life. Unfortunately, it only lasts a few seconds, and it is downhill for them from now on as their Decepticon masters insist on more serious business, which, while they might enjoy parts of it, can never compare to that one moment with the kids on the beach.

Martin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Moving along, episode #16, "Lightfoot: A Dramatic Encounter", is among my favourite few of the entire series. We are really seeing through Ginrai's eyes now, and rarely has a human character in Transformers felt so real. The little touches in the first half are all well judged - the way he holds up traffic at green traffic lights because he's busy reading his letter, the way he reacts to Lightfoot's housekeeper, and adds whiskey to his tea when no-one's looking, and so on. I like the way he goes underneath the car that will be revealed as Getaway, looking for any signs that it may be a transforming robot. And he again shows himself to be more human than hero when he gets Lightfoot to put on the Godmaster bracelets (which he knows cannot be removed once on) because he's so keen to be no longer alone.

And he has been alone up until now. He has been surrounded by Pretenders - alien robots disguised as humans - and the Junior Headmasters, who are children and look up to him, but who he can't really share his feelings with. The only other humans with powers like his are Hydra and Buster, the Darkwings brothers, and they are more alien to him than the aliens themselves. Ginrai's ecstatic reaction when he succeeds in finding a friend of a similar age to himself, and with similar powers, while by rights he should have some thought for Lightfoot's feelings, brings home to the viewer what a relief it is to him that he will no longer be alone in his journey. Luckily for him, Lightfoot takes it well.

Martin

[legios]

I would agree that this episode really does make Ginrai feel a very rounded, very human, person. His obvious enthusiasm and joy at finding someone else like him is both amusing and infectious. This episodes focus is very much on Ginrai's response to the confirmation that he is not alone in what he is going through, it gives this installment heart and does make it one that stays with one after watching.

I love the fact that they are confident enough to cut back in right at the end of the big exposition scene where he explains all the backstory to Lightfoot - because what he is explaining to Lightfoot isn't the important part of the scene. We only hear the very last line, where he is talking about how they have a cool secret base, but somehow it is enough for me to imagine that Ginrai has just overwhelmed poor Lightfoot with a breathless info-dump during which he has barely paused for punctuation, let alone breath. His joy at finding a peer - someone with whom he can share these bizarre experiences with on an equal footing is a very human reaction.

There's no sense of malice in him, no feeling that he is manipulating Lightfoot into putting on the Masterbracers. Indeed, I can imagine that there is a moment after the dust settles where he sheepishly apologies for forgetting in the heat of the moment that...er, actually they don't come off and that he should probably have mentioned that if he had remembered.

It makes his anger at the Destrons that much more effective as well - he has finally made contact with someone who is in the same boat as him and now they are threatening to take it away. It gives a clear added incentive for him and makes the way that he powers through the Destron ranks that bit more credible.

(I'm glad he didn't get a chance to finish that drink though - that was an impressive amount of brandy that he was topping it off with, and it would probably have made his driving even more reckless than it already was).

Lightfoot doesn't quite get as much room to gell here as he might, but I am quite fond of him as a character nevertheless. He makes a good foil for Ginrai, being cautious where Ginrai is reckless - the brief moment that contrasts Ginrai's "Woo-HAH!" approach to driving the rally-car-that-is-not-of-this-Earth with Lightfoot's "Please don't break my father's car" attitude always amuses me. The parallels between them - their shared experience of strange dreams, their initial incomprehension of what is going on but almost instinctive decisions to do the right thing when it counts - make for the beginnings of a bond between them, even as their different personalities and backgrounds are neatly sketched in.

For all that this is an important story moment, what with the Cybertrons recruiting a new Godmaster, this is at its heart a story about how two people who fate or chance have marked out as special come together, form a common bond and realise that whatever life has in store for them they don't need to deal with it alone. The real core of the story is about the characters rather than the plot and giant robots fighting each other (not that it doesn't have that too). It is a nice example of the interest that Masterforce takes in its characters and in their individual stories.

As a side-note, this episode shows a definite seam of comedy beginning to creep into the Destron Pretenders. Whilst before their plans have from time to time seemed odd, this time they overtly seem to be played for laughs. The scene where they are following Ginrai through the woods is staged very much for comedic effect. It is a slightly different way to handle them, but in the context of the tone of the rest of the episode I think it is fitting. It also serves to differentiate them quite well from the Darkwing brothers - who get to show of their ruthlessness to good effect at the TV studio. It takes a certain level of detachment from humanity to simply throttle a TV producer in the lobby of his own studio just for a piece of information - and not particularly seem to care who is watching. (This scene also strikes me as quite effective coming as it does alongside the scene where Ginrai drifts off into reverie at the trafffic lights - it throws the difference between the two sets of characters into quite sharp relief).

(As an addendum, I'd noticed previously that one of the letters that Ginrai collects from the studio was addressed as coming from one "Burt Rancaster" - presumably a "Smokey and the Bandit" reference. What I hadn't noticed was that one of the other letters apparently comes from Toei, the animation studio responsible for "Headmasters", "Masterforce", "Victory" etc. Who knows, maybe they were writing to him to negotiate a deal to do a TV series about this amazing bloke in American who can turn into a giant robot.....)

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Episode #17, "An Enemy? The Third Godmaster, Ranger" is a relative disappointment after the emotional punches of the intros of Ginrai and Lightfoot. For a start, rather than have Ginrai and Lightfoot together on their quest for Autobot Godmaster #3, the whole gang traipses along. It is the Junior Headmasters who make friends with Ranger, leaving little time for developing the brotherhood of Godmasters theme. Also, it's a bit too much of a coincidence that both factions go searching in the same bit of the Rocky Mountains at the same time for completely different reasons. Also, Ranger falls from that cliff remarkably slowly. Also, whereas Getaway was built from a strange material by Lightfoot's father, Joyride just appears fully formed out of a rock. And unlike Getaway he doesn't get to do any fighting at all - the Decepticons just run away as soon as he shows himself to be an Autobot. Also, Ranger is remarkably happy at the end after losing his house - and, presumably, his poor horse.

It's not a bad cartoon, just mediocre by Masterforce standards. Some of them have to be, after all!

On the plus side, it's good to see the cogs turning in Wilder's mind after he realises that Hydra tried to kill him. The first real seeds are sown of doubt among the Decepticon JHs.

It's a shame we never got to see episodes in which the Decepticon Godmasters were recruited. I bet they were interesting stories!

Final thought: Wouldn't it be funny to see an occasion where Darkwing and Dreadwind transform to jet mode but fail to communicate properly, so that one of them thinks they are going to combine into Dreadwing and the other thinks they are staying separate? "Wing cross- OWWW!" "OWWW! What the hell?" Well, it would make me laugh anyway.

Edit: And them both going to combine in mid-air but missing.

Martin

[chrisl]

Sept 16, 2009 17:34:39 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

It's not a bad cartoon, just mediocre by Masterforce standards. Some of them have to be, after all!

On the plus side, it's good to see the cogs turning in Wilder's mind after he realises that Hydra tried to kill him. The first real seeds are sown of doubt among the Decepticon JHs.

It's a shame we never got to see episodes in which the Decepticon Godmasters were recruited. I bet they were interesting stories!
Martin

Possibly the worst episode of the series I think for precisely the same reasons you identify Martin.

The recruitment of the Decepticon Godmasters would make an interesting 1-page comic I think.

[legios]

Episode#17: "An Enemy? The Third Godmaster, Ranger?"

This episode is certainly very different in tone from the introductions of Ginrai and Lightfoot. It veers in a much lighter direction, with a much higher quota of broad comedy than a lot of the previous episodes - indeed, Minerva's conclusion that Ranger must be a Destron because she sees him talking to a youth that _ she _ happens to know is a Destron almost borders on an element of outright farce. It is an odd time to shift tone - in the middle of the "Search for the Godmasters" arc you can almost feel the show shift gear. It is certainly as a story than most of the episodes that precede it. Part of that I would agree is because of its need to service quite so many characters and find them all something to do. As a result it isn't able to maintain the same degree of focus and the episode is that bit weaker for it.

That said, there are still things here that I enjoy. The verbal sniping amongst the Cybertron Headmaster Juniors is always amusing. Similarly I do find myself amused by Ranger's reaction to our heroes - first concluding that they are a just a bit strange, and then asking if they are a circus troupe..... I get the feeling that Ranger probably isn't the type who owns a televison, or bothers to get the newspapers delivered so I can almost understand his somewhat uncomprehending reaction to all the things they try to explain to him. He is probably one of the few people on the planet at this point in the series still in a position to scratch his head a little about the idea of giant robots fighting each other. I will admit though that I would agree he does sign up for the cause awfully quickly and contentedly, considering all that he has already lost.

(Ranger certainly isn't lacking in guts either - taking on a pair of giant robots whilst armed only with a break-action shotgun isn't something I would attempt.)

We get a few interesting flashes of characterisation for the Destron Headmaster Juniors here as well. There decision, when belitted by Hydra and Buster, to just goof off until it is time to go home rings very true with a sense that is building up of their growing lack of engagement with "the cause". They certainly seem less prone to seeking the approval of the notional peers within the Destron ranks than they were before. Indeed, their actions to steal the Transtector feel a bit like an attempted "end run" around the rest of the Destrons aimed at proving a point at their expense.

Wilder's response to the realisation that Hydra and Buster would happily have taken him as "collateral damage" in killing Ginrai is very much in character. We have seen in previous episodes that Wilder has some kind of personal code of honor, and that he places a particular value on loyalty. So his decision to answer in kind what he sees as an act of betrayal ring rather true.

It certainly adds to the sense that there are distinct faults developing in the Destron ranks, between Godmasters and Pretenders, Godmasters and Headmaster Juniors. It certainly looks less and less like a truly united front.

All told this is one of Masterforce's weaker episodes. That isn't to say that it is terrible, but the rest of the series has set a much higher watermark and this struggles to quite get up to that standard. There are still things that I enjoy in this episode and even as a weak episode of Masterforce I think it still has more virtues than a weak episode of some other series.

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Or indeed a strong episode of some other series.

Martin

[legios]

Episode 18: A Powerful Foe! Sixnight the Wanderer

At various times in Japanese history during the pre-feudal and feudal era's various historical forces meant that there were people roaming the land with only their skill with the sword to support them. Most notably during the early Tokugawa Shogunate when a line that had come to power through overthrowing the previous Shogun were determined no-one else would find themselves a powerbase from which to repeat the process, so they ensured that the minor families had a choice of giving up the land, or giving up the sword. This led to a whole class of people wandering the land with no resources other than the saleability of their swordsmanhip skills as a means of earning their rice. Many of them became mercenaries, or the equivalent of travelling prize fighters, going from town to town exhibiting their martial skills and challenging all comers. Inevitably this became somewhat romanticised in later centuries and led to a sub-genre of wandering swordsman tales which have persisted ever since.

Why am I breaking for a history lesson? Well, because one of these wandering swordsmen has come crashing into our superhero show unexpectedly and dragged some of his genre rules with him. If the tone of the last episode reflected a shifting of gears then the whole subject matter of this episode reflects a distinct sideways shift in the nature of the show. Sixknight comes tearing into Masterforce seemingly determined to do everything he can to live up to the Wandering Swordsman genre.

His entire character is very much a homage to that sub-genre - the tinge of slightly boorish arrogance and absolute confidence in his own fighting technique are very much hallmarks of the antagonist (and sometimes protagionist ) swordsman. He seems a little out of place in Masterforce, which generally plays along with the rules of the superhero genre, but I think that may be part of the point of Sixknight - he is a little out of step with everyone else.

A a change of pace antagonist I think he works reasonably well - I would be less enthused by an entire series built around him and his schtick, but as something a little different I'm happy to cut him a bit of slack. (He also has a voice actor whose work I rather like which does help).

I do like the fact that they play Sixknight absolutely straight - to the point that he saves Minerva's life, but purely as a by-product of the fact that he wants a straight fight with Ginrai - it isn't a matter of compassion, or even of caring whether she lives or dies, the fact that she is a hostage is interfering with his battle and he isn't having it. I'm pleased that they resist the urge to have him "come good" or turn out to be misunderstood within the space of a single episode. Certainly he has something to think about by the end of the episode, but he is far from having turned around in his thinking at that stage.

This episode could easily just be seen as a bit of a spacer - something thrown in to break up the "finding the Godmasters" arc - it does actually have a few things to offer the overall progression of the series and, specifically Ginrai's character arc.
(Not that it doesn't work quite well as a buffer in the Godmaster search arc as well. Having all of the remaining Godmasters found in back-to-back episodes runs the risk of reducing the process to routine, a hole that the previous episode came perilously close to stumbling into. Taking the opportunity to detour from the main story allows us the chance to rest the pallette before diving back into the main arc).

We've been caught up in the tracking down of the Godmasters for recent episodes that this episode is also a good opportunity to remind us of why it is so important to find them. Ginrai's defeat of Sixknight - who has been built up throughout the episode as a powerfu and skilled opponent, effectively in a single blow, once he is free to act serves as a solid reminder that there is something special in the Godmasters ability to channel the Ten-Chi-Jin power, something at least in part related to their human spirit. It is a nice reiteration of one of the central planks of the series - that humanity, and humanness is special - and is one of the baldest and most direct statement that the humans are superior in power to super-robots.

The episode also makes good use of Ginrai. Recent episodes have shown us his enthusiasm, and a glimpse of his lighter side. This story provides a chance for him to stake his claim to the virtues of compassion and humility. He is prepared to face a pretty nasty beating, and quite possibly death, without raising a finger to defend himself if it will protect someone else from harm. Sixknight and the Destron Pretenders may see that as a weakness, but it is clear that the other Cybertrons understand that feeling and that it is something that they value. I don't know about anyone else but it does make me feel that they have chosen wisely in picking Ginrai to head up their defense of the planet - it completes my sense that he has much more to offer than simple power on the battlefield. And really, who better to defend humanity than someone who possesses a great deal of it.

Ginrai also comes across quite well in terms of his restraint at the end of the episode. Having laid Sixknight low it would be very easy for a lesser character to lord it over him a bit, rubbing it in that he has been beaten by "human scum". Ginrai seems less inclined to boast though, rather phrasing his revelation in terms more of "I am one of those humans you think so little of. You might want to consider that fact". It speaks well of him, and certainly makes him that bit more likeable than Sixknight's tendency to boast about his skills makes the latter.

The Destron Pretenders seem to be having a day where there brain power fluctuates a little mind you. On the one hand they are shrewd enough to see how they might be able to use Sixknight as a tool with which to eliminate a thorn in their side (although part of me does wonder whether they ended up precipitating exactly what Giga and Mega had calculated would happen after the latter had rejected Sixknight). On the other hand they seemed to have missed the big neon sign saying that Sixknight wanted to fight a "square go" duel with Ginrai. "We'll help out by taking a hostage so that Ginrai can't fight back." Their pragmatism seemed to have blinded them to just how badly wrong that could go.....

Overall I think this a reasonable effort for a change of pace episode. It is far from my favourite episode of Masterforce but it acts as a good showcase for Ginrai to demonstrate compassion and a bit of, slightly unexpected, humility. Whilst it takes us away from the main thrust of the story, and Sixknight somewhat deforms the narrative laws of the series by dragging his own genre around with him, it does allow us to regroup, catch our breath and go back to the main story refreshed next week. I also quite like the fact that they play Sixknight straight in terms of his sub-genre (I half expect Toshiro Mifune to turn up and challenge him to a fight at some moments) and simply play to the oddness of him colliding with the Cybertrons and Destrons who are playing by an entirely different set of genre rules.

(I also think that there is some lovely animation in this episode. The opening sequence, and some of the Natural Gas refinery battle sequence are fluid, mobile and quite nicely choreagraphed. Likewise Sixknight's entrance in the Decepticon base is quite well executed).

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

"I am the most powerful super-robot life-form in the universe! There is no-one that can defeat me!" - Sixknight

"In this age it is impossible to control the Earth with power alone." - Mega

Karl, I think you sum up my feelings quite well when you say:

A a change of pace antagonist I think he works reasonably well - I would be less enthused by an entire series built around him and his schtick, but as something a little different I'm happy to cut him a bit of slack.

I'm not as hot on the history as you, but when I look at Sixknight I see a character who has wandered out of Victory (the 1989 show) and into Masterforce (the 1988 show). Victory, to me, does feel very much like an entire series built around Sixknight's schtick, and I'm not a fan of it. However, if I try to put Victory out of my mind and judge Sixknight in isolation, he does serve a very good purpose in drawing a contrast between his schtick and the more intelligent themes being explored in Masterforce - which we might start to take for granted if he hadn't shown up.

Sixknight is a Transformer as we understood them before. He is fully articulate, and has no biological components (real/human or synthetic/Pretender) - he is 100% mechanical and fully alive. The only other character in the series so far who fits this bill is Snaptrap/Turtler, except that he never transforms to upright mode, and only speaks in order to command his Seacon minions to attack or curse the Autobots for beating them. Sixknight reminds us that this is not a superhero universe, but a superhero adventure kicking off in the familiar TF universe, and that most of the TFs out there in the universe haven't even cottoned on to the strange new developments occurring on Earth. When one of them wanders into it he blunders around a bit then realises that all the rules have changed. (At least until Victory pushes the reset button.)

The best thing is that Masterforce brings Sixknight up short, tells him that his attitude won't work in the new game, and doesn't even give him the sort of defeat he'd be comfortable with (namely Ginrai gloating over him and crying "I'm the winner! You're the loser!"). Instead Ginrai tells him to grow up and get back to him, and turns his attention to more important things - namely those under his protection.

And to be fair, Sixknight will be a changed robot the next time we see him. If only all the Victory characters could learn lessons about what matters and what is trivia as quickly.

PS Note that what Bomb-Burst/Blood does, taking Minerva hostage, is exactly what he tried to do to Lightfoot when Ginrai was beating his mates two episodes earlier - except Lightfoot transformed and combined with Getaway before Bomb-Burst could get to him. He has a limited number of stratagems, but you have to give him points for trying again and getting it right this time.

Martin

[legios]

Episode 19: At Full Strength! The Four Godmaster Gunmen!

So, after our brief diversion we return to the main plot arc to complete the search for the three missing Godmasters. Rather like the discovery of Ranger there is a certain degree of fortunate happenstance to the discovery that Road King is the missing Godmaster.

Whilst Ranger and Ginrai are out scouring Europe for the remaining Godmaster, Lightfoot and the Cybertron Headmaster Juniors stumble upon the realisation that racing Superstar Road King is the one they are seeking purely by chance. (Combined with the way that they discovered Ranger a few episodes ago this actually makes Ginrai's plan - which appears to be to drive around Europe until he somehow runs into the remaining Godmaster - actually seem almost reasonable. There is a certain degree to which it would appear that fate or luck is conspiring to ensure that the four Godmasters are drawn together - even beyond the bounds of narrative necessity.)

Meanwhile we see Wilder leading the Destron Headmaster Juniors off in pursuit of another lead which takes them to the former owner of Road King's transtector. It is interesting to note that we don't get the sense here of the Destron Juniors acting under orders, Wilder seems to be acting on his own initiative here and dragging the others along in his wake. Indeed, Cancer would clearly much rather stay behind and play video games than tromp across Europe in his mecha.

Actually, it is heartening in one way that Cancer still behaves pretty much like a normal kid. He is interested in goofing off and doing "kid" things as much as he is interested in showing off the power of his Kung Fu and his mecha. It contrasts sharply with the Darkwing brothers - it is difficult to imagine them having hobbies anymore, let alone making time to just kick back and relax.

The Destron Juniors do behave very much like angry teens in this episode. Their destructive rampage seems less motivated by rational calculation of how to get what they are after than it does by Wilder's injured pride. A kind of "Disrespect me would you? I'll show you!".

Road King himself seems to be a little bit of a national stereotype - he is apparently British and as a result is a bit self-effacing and modest. I think it makes him a reasonably likeable character, and contrasts quite well with Ginrai's stereotypically American-influenced tendency to brashness when the latter was first introduced. It certainly cements the sense of a pronounced international trend in Masterforce - we have heroes and villians from a lot of different parts of the world - and even Cybertron bases on two different sides of the world. I think that this is probably the most overtly international that Transformers animated shows get really.

The final fight sequence nicely underlines why gathering the four Godmasters has been such a good goal to achieve. They make short work of both the Destron Juniors, Turtler and a flock of Seacons. Although it means that the episode is relatively light on mecha-to-mecha combat it makes for a nice capstone for the quest to have the four Godmasters get a chance to strut their stuff and so thoroughly stomp the opposition. It gives a nice sense of the tide beginning to turn in the Cybertron's favour for a while, and creates a sense of the Godmasters as a powerful addition to the forces of good.

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Well, according to The Complete Ark, Metalhawk is an astronautics professor working in Japan, Diver/Waverider is a marine researcher from California, Lander/Landmine is an automotive planner from New York and Phoenix/Cloudburst works in a German airport as a telecommunications engineer. Ginrai is Japanese though working in America, Lightfoot and Ranger are both Canadian, and Road King is (as you say) British. Cancer is from China, while Buster and Hydra are from East Germany.

Martin

[legios]

I always forget that Ranger is from the Canadian side of the Rockies. For some reason my brain always wants to assume that he is from the US side. I'm not sure why.

I didn't realise that Cancer was actually intended as Chinese, as opposed to just being a student of Chinese martial arts. It is nice that there is still something for me to learn about the show.

(And you have just reminded me that I must get around to purchasing the Complete Ark at some point).

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Episode 20 is back on form with oodles of plot development, characterisation and action. It has tons of great scenes, from the Autobot Pretenders getting Ginrai drunk and in that state telling him they're making him Autobot leader, to the introduction of Browning by Lady Mega in an effort to keep Cancer on-side, to a fantastic fight sequence involving Sixknight. It's all good.

Martin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Episode 21 feels like it's been lifted from the first half-dozen episodes of the series, with the Autobot Godmasters cut and pasted where the Pretenders would have been.

The Decepticons have reasoned that the best way to kill the humans is to kidnap (not kill, mark you, just kidnap) all the world's doctors. Will their fiendish cunning know no bounds?!

The deaths of the Seacons in the final fight are pretty brutal, especially the one on the receiving end of Ginrai's 'Atomic Fire Guts' assault.

After this disruption, next week we return to the main story.

Martin

[legios]

A bit of a two-for-one deal this evening, as I have to catch up with a week that I missed due to being away from the laptop. so without further ado we shall proceed in order....

Episode#20: "The Cybertron Warrior Sixknight"

An absolutely fantastic episode which tries to stretch its reach to encompass character-based comedy, character development and a knock-down-drag-out fight scene in one half-hour of television. It pretty much manages to hit all of its marks dead-on too.

This episode gets some nice comic mileage out of Cancer's protesting (far too much) that he has no crush on Minerva. It is played for laughs to begin with, but still manages to motivate a pretty nasty looking destructive rampage against a fair sized Japanese town. (my geography isn't good enough to even hazard a guess as to which one). The Destron Headmaster Juniors are kept in character, but there are still some good laughs to be had from Cancer's moping about.

Giga and Mega get to fall into fairly definite parent roles here. Giga chiding Cancer at dinner to pull himself together, whilst Mega seems more concerned to find ways to improve Cancer's mood - giving him a present of an unexpected addition to the Destron cast of characters. It is interesting to consider Mega's action here. On the one hand anything she can do to bolster Cancer's morale will likely make him less prone to defecting to the Cybertrons - a blow that the Destron's can do without given their failure to recruit the four Godmasters to their side. (The basic tactic of making someone feel special and valued isn't entirely dissimilar to the methods used by real world cults either. But I digress). On the other hand there is a fair amount of genuine warmth in Mega's voice which does make me think that she does have a sense of parental identification with the Juniors.

Browning - Mega's gift to Cancer is not what one might expect from an addition to the Destron ranks at this point in the series. He turns into a handgun, but unlike Megatron is far from a powerful engine of destruction. With a humanoid mode that is 1:1 scaled with his weapon mode, and a piping voice to match, Browning is very definitely designed primarily as a comedy character. Fortunately he is a very good comedy character - his slapstick schtick manages to create light relief without undercutting the idea that the _ other _ Destrons are dangerous foes not to be triffled with. I have a lot of love for Browning, he brings a nice vein of slapstick comedy which works well because of its contrast to the serious tone of the show around him.

Serious tone, now that brings me on to Sixknight, who returns to the series in this episode and brings his own personal sphere of gravitas and drama with him. This episode effectively forms the second half of Sixknight's character arc. It would have been easy to do this in consecutive episodes, but splitting it up with the end of the "Search for the Godmasters" arc makes it more effective I think. It creates a sense that time has passed, in which Sixknight has been chewing over his defeat by Ginrai, (Although I note that Ginrai very diplomatically appears to think that the fight ended in a draw. Tremendously polite of him). I like the fact that Sixknight's actually takes the time to listen to Ginrai's explanation of the importance of the human spirit, and how it makes us powerful despite our weak, squishy, meat-bodies. It establishes that he genuinely does want to learn, and to improve himself.

I quite like to, the fact that his decision to align himself with the Cybertron's remains very much in character. He wishes to become a better warrior, and Ginrai has proven to be a stronger warrior so Sixknight seeks to emulate Ginrai and to fight in defense of the weak. It is a good way to start his transition from being an antagonist. It gives a good spine of character development to the episode a Sixknight goes from acting as a Cybertron for somewhat self-serving reasons, to discovering the beginnings of a bit of nobility and goodness in himself as the episode progresses. Honorable, but not hidebound and blinkered. I think Sixknight actually manages more character development in this episode alone than a lot of the proud warrior stereotypes in Victory manage in their entire series.

Sixknight's arrival also duly queues the expectation that we are going to get an awesome fight scene, and in this as well the episode does not dissappoint. There is some really nice animation in the fight between the Destron Juniors and Sixknight, and some rather good direction as well which adds to the sense of motion and dynamism in the sequence.

There are a few other things on show here that I rather like. The contrast between the rather fraught atmosphere over dinner at the Destron base and the much more relaxed "lets celebrate and have a load of drinks" attitude of the Cybertrons. The Destron's may promise unlimited power and the opportunity to thumb ones nose at society, but I think I'd feel much more comfortable hanging out at the Cybertron base.

I do like the rather casual way that the Cybertron's elect Ginrai as their new leader. Not a moment of great destiny and import, with awesome lighting effects and hair-rock playing. Instead we get a casual comment from a couple of the Pretenders, causing Ginrai to choke on a mouthful of booze. It play against the usual tropes of these moments wonderfully, and actually feels pretty appropriate to the situation. After all, they are not so much putting Ginrai forward for a promotion as confirming the status quo that has been developing over the last few episodes. For all that Ginrai says that he isn't suited to being the leader he has been making most of the running for the last few episodes. Whether he was conciously auditioning for the job or not he has pretty much already made it his own.


Episode# 21 "Save the little girl! The chojin warriors, The Godmasters!"

It almost feels as if the series is a little out of breath after last weeks episode. This by contrast is a markedly more cursory affair.

The overall Destron plan does indeed seem to be very influenced by the early stages of the series. Once again they are apparently intent on knocking out a plank of modern society in order to cause people to fear, and (presumably) turn to the Destron's when they offer them salvation. This time it is medical science, with the Destron' kidnapping doctors from around the world. On the one hand this is actually fairly absurd. Judging by what we see the Pretenders haven't actually kidnapped more than about forty or fifty doctors. Really just the equivalent of a single medical conference then, or a handful of golf tournaments. It is hardly enough to cause the whole health system of even a medium-sized western nation to collapse let alone anything else. Also, the idea that the Pretenders are just going to take turns guarding the cave mouth to prevent them escaping for as long as it takes for their evil scheme to have its effect borders on the absurd. Given the ruthlessness we have seen out of the Destron's - even out of the Pretenders in their early appearances - the idea that they would leave the doctors alive seems ridiculous. More efficient to just kill them

On the other hand, the idea of paralysing the world through attacking the medical infrastructure is one that I can understand the thinking behind a little more now than I could when I first saw the series. After witnessing the panic that was instilled in some folk by Swine Flu and the media reaction to said the idea of using peoples fear of disease to weaken their spirit actually makes a certain amount of sense. This doesn't really help this episode though. The only way this story would make sense was if the Destrons were targeting, not just random doctors as it seems, but particular specialists - before releasing a new disease of their own devising against the peoples of the earth.

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the plan here, leaving it anyones guess what the Destrons were actually trying to achieve. (Unless it was just to get the Pretenders out from underfoot for a while by sending them off on a make-work job).

Sadly, this episode is lacking in character stuff at the same time as it is lacking in plot. We don't really get any development of the characters to match last weeks episode and what little comedy we do get is played perhaps a little too broadly to work without a counterbalance. (Although Donq's befuddled response to Cab arriving home with a fire truck (boiling down to "I thought I sent you off to school. Why have you got a truck?") is at least briefly amusing.

The closest we get to any real character development is a cursory confirmation that the other three Cybertron Godmasters can all channel their Qi to produce mysterious elemental effects. Proven by, as is becoming traditional, using their new powers to deliver an almighty thumping to some Seacons - who really are becoming the disposable Security Guards of the Destron ranks. A special commendation has to go to the hapless Seacon's disintegrated by Ginrai's atomic beam and to the one abraded to nothing by Ranger' barrage of hot sand. Those both look like very nasty ways to go.

Overall though this episode is a rare misfire. It feels too much like treading water. Not only does it revisit elements that are too reminiscent of earlier phases of the series, but they are much less well executed here than they were then. The episode feels very much like the series is taking a moment out to gather its breath after everything that has happened in recent episodes. Unfortunately that makes it feel far too episodic and disposable. A shame in a series like Masterforce that thrives on the strength of its ongoing storylines.

Karl
(Whilst I've been writing this it occured to me that in one of these episodes Diver is seen to be reading (or possible just sleeping under) a copy of "The Currents of Space". I'm sure he started that a good few episodes ago. It isn't that long a book, or a particularly heavy read. So either Diver is a very slow reader, or he has been extremely busy recently. Although given that he is technically working two jobs I suppose I can forgive him for making heavy weather of his SF novels.)

[legios]

Episode 22: Lightfoot must Choose: Life or Death?

Episode 22 brings us back to the plot, as we learn that the Destrons have called for help from other Destron forces out in space and an unspecified powerful fighting machine is on its way to reinforce them.

Interestingly the Destrons don't react to this in the stereotypical manner of gloating about how their powerful fighting machine will allow them to destroy the Godmasters and their allies and be victorious. Instead Giga and Mega respond by ordering the Darkwing's brothers to eliminate the Cybertron Godmasters before it arrives. It is a nice way of establishing the level of concern that the Destrons have about the Cybertron Godmasters, that they want to take them out of the fight before their reinforcement arrives.

It is interesting to note Giga and Mega's leadership style here. It has been shown before but is somewhat clearer here. They are much more leaders than micromanagers it seems. Whereas previous Destron leaders have tended to tell their troops "here is my invincible masterplan, and here is what you will do as part of it", Giga amd Mega seem to tend more towards assigning objectives to their troops and then leaving them to work out how to accomplish them. Here they order Hydra and Buster to eliminate Lightfoot and then leave them with plenty of room to get on and come up with their own strategy for doing so. Although it may not be the most comfortable place to have dinner it does seem that there is plenty of room for personal initiative in this version of the Destron ranks.

The Darkwing's plan is straight out of the villian play-book - grab some hostages who are very precious to your target and use them to force him to present himself to you alone on pain of harm befalling those he cares about. It is an old plan, but some plans are old for the reason that they are reliable. Sure enough Lightfoot rushes straight into the trap. But what does strike me is the way that the other Godmasters respond. I'm not sure if it is a cultural difference between Japan and the West or quite what, but the way that the "I must go alone" aspect of the plot is handled is a bit different to what one might see in some series. There isn't even a moment where the Godmasters think "Lightfoot doesn't want us to interfere" or "perhaps this is something he should do alone". Instead it is taken as a given that Lightfoot has made a noble error in rushing in alone, and that they have to go and back him up.

In the end the point is proven quite neatly that they are stronger together - a neat bit of teamwork releases the hostages and frees Lightfoot from a dangerous situation. Indeed, it is interesting to note that the turning point of this episode actually comes before the big mecha battle at the end. It feels like the Cybertrons win the day when Ginrai and Lightfoot neatly double-team Hydra before they are even in their costumes, let alone their Transtectors. The battle after that, although enjoyable and very well animated, has the feeling of a foregone conclusion, setting the seal on a victory already won.

(On a side note, it is also striking to watch Hydra casually inform Lightfoot that he is going to cut his hands off in order to get the Masterbracers that he can't take off. I'm trying hard to think of something comparably casually unpleasant in the Sunbow series. It is certainly something I suspect that you would be hard-pressed to get away with in a Western show these days.)

Whilst the Darkwing brothers demonstrate once again their casual disregard for human life, this episode gives us some nice camaderie between the Cybertrons as a contrast. The friendly ribbing of Ginrai in regards to the Ginrai action figure that Cab and Shuta have made amuses me, and does make Ginrai and the Cybertron Pretenders feel like they genuinely are becoming good friends. Likewise I think that the Godmasters make a good showing as a chalk-and-cheese mixture who have a genuine affection for one another. I think that this is one of the few ensembles of Cybertrons and Autobots in animation who you get the feeling actually enjoy spending time together outside the bonds of duty.

Other assorted things that strike me:-

Maybe I'm shallow and easily amused but I rather like the wordplay in the names of Lightfoot and his father, Reftfoot. It is the sort of thing that doesn't work so well in translation but amuses me in context.

Apparently Mega is a pretty good Pool player. I don't know why this should surprise me, but for some reason it does. Between plotting world domination and acting as mother figure to the Destron Juniors (and herding Pretenders) it amazes me that she can find the time. But I guess if Giga can make a gap in his schedule to keep his hand in at golf then it is only fair.

The Cybertron's appear to have a very, very fast 'plane, considering how little time it seems to take Ginrai to get from Japan to Canada. Again though it does make a certain amount of sense - if there is anyone on the Earth who is likely to have a sub-orbital aircraft tucked away then surely it would be the Cybertrons?

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Their speedboat/hovercraft from the previous episode suggests they have cutting edge transportation at their disposal.

This was a good episode, with solid characterisation and ominous portents of big challenges ahead.

Martin

[legios]

Episode#23: Expose the Destron's Dark Deception;
<A fortune-teller becomes an international celebrity when she predicts a series of disasters before they occur. But why is she claiming that they are the fault of the evil robot Super Ginrai who has come to attack the Earth?>

This episode sees the Destrons make a rapid change of tack, and rather than attempting to eliminate the Cybertron's directly they instead seek to turn humanity against them. Although this is a marked change of strategy from last weeks “divide and conquer” strategy, in the context of the way Masterforce is structured it feels less like arbitary authorial fiat and more like the Destrons are learning from their failures. Having realised that driving the Cybertrons apart so that they can be destroyed in detail isn't going to work they instead try to drive a wedge between them and the humans that they strive to protect. It is very much in keeping with the “hearts and minds” theme that runs through the show, and also makes a certain amount of sense in terms of the cult-like tendencies that these Destrons have shown in the past. Interestingly it is also a development of the plan that the Darkwing's attempted to use against Ginrai when he had first become a Godmaster, only on a much more elaborate scale – which rather befits Giga and Mega's stature as the planners and leaders of the Destron cult.

In the bald statement of what the Destrons are attempting there are some similarities with “Megatron's Master Plan” in the Sunbow series. This, however is a much better executed version of that idea. Rather than a single videotape of the Decepticons in cardboard Autobot suits being a bit naughty, here the Destrons set out to blame the Cybertrons for a series of horrific events. The only death toll that we are given is for the 430 passengers onboard a downed 747. The meteorite strikes that form the main part of the plan surely must result in far more widespread deaths and injuries (indeed, given the size of the meteorite that is implied to hit (what I think is) central Paris I wouldn't anticipate that much remains of the historic part of that major city by the end of the episode), something that is implied by the brief travelogue of the disaster sites. Masterforce certainly isn't losing its nerve in terms of suggesting that this war is one with a human cost – something that stands out when compared to most other animated Transformers incarnations. This sense of the impact of the disasters combines with a sense that this is much more developed than a “plan of the week” dreamed up on a wet wednesday – the dialogue implies that the “fortune teller” has been making successful predictions for a while before she started to predict the disasters, and that time is allowed to pass between the meteorite impacts and pinning the blame on Ginrai. This makes it a bit more believable that people begin to turn against the “evil robot”, without making it seem that it has been an easy thing for the Destrons to accomplish.

Indeed, the idea of people latching on to Mega's predictions of doom seems quite believable to me. In the real world there are plenty of examples of people being swept along by those folk crying “disaster” and half-believing it. So how much more effective when someone predicts terrible events and is proven objectively and provably right? (Of course, predicting disasters is pretty easy when you are the ones causing them. But that said, the fact that the Destrons comrades in space are able to throw rocks from somewhere else in the solar system with such accuracy that they are able to know exactly where they are going to hit is a pretty impressive skill in and of itself.)

The plan to “out” Ginrai as an evil space robot by means of an ambush at a National Park may be put together on the fly, but it retains a bit of credibility because we actually see the plan being put together and get a sense of the wheels turning in Mega's head, rather than the plan being seemingly pulled from nowhere. (That said, I have to observe that Ginrai's attempt to tail the Destrons seems rather doomed to failure from the beginning - given that he choses to shadow them in his transtector which is a large, distinctively coloured truck which is rather difficult to miss. But, to give him the benefit of the doubt, he couldn't be absolutely certain it was the Destrons that he was following at that point in time. Besides, the fact that Ginrai is still fallible enough to not always think things all the way through is part of what makes him such a likeable character.

Mega's decision to lob the asteroid at Ginrai and plow him into an observation tower full of children is fairly cold-bloodedly efficient. Whilst up until now we have in general seen a somewhat maternal side to Mega it is made abundantly clear in this episode that she has no more concern for the broader mass of humanity than does Giga. Indeed, this episode helps to define Mega a bit more clearly, and certainly acts as a counterweight to any temptation towards finding her even slightly sympathetic that her interactions with the Headmaster Juniors might have engendered.

I like the fact that the fact that Ginrai is basically saved by his own tendency to be a good person. In the middle of a life and death struggle he acts without thinking to save a child who is endangered by his presence, and despite the fact that he appears to be an enormous scary robot who fires laser beams and punches other robots she can just tell that he is basically a good person. It is a bit of a cliché but in terms of the tone and some of the subtext of the series it seems eminently fitting. It is a rather satisfying moment when the humans turn on Mega, who has tried to manipulate them into doing the Destrons dirty work, not because Ginrai tells them to but because they see through her manipulations. In essence Ginrai only defeats the Destrons here because the other humans come to his aid, armed with nothing but sticks and rocks. Fitting and distinctly satisfying

This episode also gives us a moment to realise how far the Cybertron Headmaster Juniors have come. Shuta has his moment of acting as a leader when he reminds Cab that before they can deal with the Destrons they have a responsibility to rescue the human who have been placed in danger by enemy action, a far cry from when he first gained his transtector and was the first to abandon that same duty to seek out a fight. The trio get to show that they are no slouches in battle now as well, handing the Destron Pretenders a resounding beating. They are a far more formidable, disciplined and dedicated group than they were when first introduced, that is for sure.

And on another front: I meant to mention this in regard to last weeks episode but completely forgot. Having reached somewhere around the halfway mark of the series we now have, as is traditional, a partially title sequence. Just as the original sequence teased us with things that we didn't see until some episodes into the series, such as King Posieden and the Godmasters, this one also shows glimpses of thing to come – a sort of bus thing that combines with Super Ginrai, Ginrai engaged in a (very nicely animated) knock-down-drag-out fight with a large and powerful looking robot that we haven't see before. Just glimpses mind you, but just enough I think to wet the appetite for things to come.

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

You've summed it up very well again, Karl. The story has suddenly got very much more serious, with a massive human death toll in this one. But it is next week's shocker that will really blow precedent out of the water...

Martin

[legios]

Oct 29, 2009 17:26:03 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

But it is next week's shocker that will really blow precedent out of the water...

Martin

Oh indeed. Next week's episode is an absolute cracker.

Karl

[bertie]

Alright, y'got me. I've just seen episode 2. I have a while before I catch up. I probably won't comment much anyway.

A quick one about Ep2. I liked the way Hawk and 'Wave Rider' were neatly staying below the radar, being robots in disguise and all that by wearing civilian clothing and neatly getting away with it. The camera angle changes and Phoenix strolls into view in his massive red metal romper suit.

I am really liking this. I did a comparison with 'Headmasters' and its nowhere near as good.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Hurrah! Another convert!

Martin

[legios]

Excellent - Welcome to Chojin Masterforce!

[The Doctor]

I only got as far as episode 2, but then I do have a good excuse.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Whassat again, Ralph? They're all numbered on YouTube.

But I think you've seen them all before, haven't you?

Episode #24 begins with a general atmosphere of everything having got bigger and more serious, as we see factories of humans working alongside the Autobot Pretenders to build Godbomber, the extra trailer intended to become armour for Powermaster/Godmaster Optimus Prime. We also catch glimpses of Black Zarak in space on his way to Earth, passing slowly across the view, too big to fit on the screen in a single shot.

The episode then pretends to lapse into a standard doomed-to-failure bad guy plot of the week, in which Ginrai is lured into the desert to do a stunt job in a movie, little suspecting that the producer is a Decepticon Godmaster human in disguise, and they have mined the road. It's interesting that the Decepticons don't see any merit in walking up to Ginrai in the bar and shooting him, but have to con him and then attempt to destroy his truck instead. We never get to find out in this series what happens to a Godmaster robot when its human is killed, but the Decepticons seem to see destroying the robot as more critical to their cause than killing the human.

Anyway, Giga and Mega send the Decepticon Godmaster jets in as cannon-fodder to soften Ginrai up. Impressively, his trailer survives not only the best mine in their armoury, but also numerous direct hits from air-to-ground missiles, and manages to self-heal enough to combine with the cab to form Super Ginrai. The Darkwings duo are defeated, though with some effort, and it looks like this might be a normal episode ending the normal way.

But no! Giga and Mega then arrive on the scene and show themselves to be Godmasters too... and in control of OVERLORD!!!

"Chokon bolt masher!"

Overlord makes Super Ginrai look tiny, and smashes him. The hero loses! Overlord is triumphant! Powermaster Prime is left looking like something Derek Yaniger drew in a particularly mean mood, and Ginrai the human is left alone in the desert, struggling to rise, blood streaming down his face! Woo!

Martin

[legios]

Episode #24: Super Ginrai gets blown away in the desert”

<Whilst Hawk reveals the existence of the Bomber project to the Headmaster Juniors, Devil Z orders the Destron Godmasters to destroy Super Ginrai's trailer. Can Ginrai triumph against a surprise ambush laid by Hydra and Buster?>

At first glance this episode does indeed appear to follow in the mold of several recent episodes – the Destrons hatch a plot to deal with one of the Autobot Godmasters by luring them into a trap. It is a reasonably sound trap – luring Ginrai to an ambush by getting him cast in a movie is a nice little wrinkle and seems calculated to speak to his lingering sense of “I am rather awesome aren't I?” - but it all does seem rather like business as usual. We have seen Ginrai's incredible reserves of chokon power, and the strength of the human spirit that drives him before and he has proven before that he can handle the Darkwing brothers in a straight fight. So it come as no surprise that Ginrai triumphs, even with the damage they are able to inflict on his trailer before he can Double-on. But it is at what would normally be the ending of the episode – with the Darkwing's sent packing with their tails between their legs – that we realise that this has all been precisly calculated, and this episode is a little more clever than we may have given it credit for. The episode is not simply meeting our expectations, it is playing with them.

There is a reason that this episode makes such a play of reminding us of Ginrai's prodigious ability to regenerate from damage, and the fighting ability that allows him to defeat two enemy Godmasters. The episode reminds us of all this to make sure that we have it all clear in our heads because it is about to pull the rug firmly from under our feet.

We have glimpsed Giga and Mega's transtectors before, in the previous episode but this is the first time that we really get to see them in action, and certainly the first proper glimpse of their combined humanoid form – Overlord. Up until now it had seemed as if perhaps Giga and Mega lead the Destron cult through their knowledge and there force of personality. This episode leaves us in no doubt that they possess the raw power to justify their positions of dominance. The brutal beating that Overlord hands out to Ginrai is all the more shocking for following on the heels of his ability to rise from the mat and lay Hydra and Buster low.

There is no rising being done here. Even the damage done to Ginrai's transtector is far from, for example, the neat and clinical explosions that mark the destruction of Seacon drones. Instead we see Overlord's chokon power tear enormous holes into the structure of Ginrai's transtector, leaving both mecha and human broken and beaten down. It genuinely looks like it hurts, a great deal, and the sight of a Ginrai, bleeding from a head injury, barely able to drag himself to his knees in the aftermath of the battle restores the sense of there being a real danger to proceedings. It really does feel like Overlord would have killed Ginrai if it wasn't for the latter's indomitable will to survive.

It is one heck of an ending to the episode – we have never seen Ginrai beaten this resoundingly. Just when it felt like the Cybertrons were starting to have an easy ride of it Giga and Mega have taken the field and proven that they can beat the most powerful Cybertron in the series to a pulp without even breaking a sweat. We are left with a strong sense that the ground rules have changed again, and that the balance of power may not have shifted so much towards the Cybertrons as we might have thought.

This remains one of my favourite episodes of Masterforce – the sudden, wrenching turn of the tables is shocking, and the sheer violence of Overlord's defeat of Ginrai is quite stark. This isn't a defeat where you just shout “Cybertrons retreat!”and run away to fight another day. This is the kind of defeat that leaves you humbled and shattered in the dirt, perhaps – if you are fortunate - able to crawl away to nurse your wounds. It reestablishes the idea of the Destrons as a powerful and implacable threat, and gives Overlord a genuinely striking entrance to the series proper.

(All this and we still have had nothing more than glimpses of the Destron's secret weapon as it approaches the Earth

Other things that strike me:-

Devil Z's orders seemed fascinatingly precise in this episode. According to the instructions given to Hydra and Buster they were to sabotage the Bomber Project by destroying Super Ginrai's trailer. Not by assassinating Ginrai, or trying to blow up the project itself. But specifically by destroying the trailer. Given that this happens almost at the same time as we are being shown how the Bomber Project is intended to combine with Super Ginrai to power him up, it does feel as if Devil Z is surprisingly well-informed as to what the Cybertrons are up to. After all, why specifically target the trailer if he didn't know that it was necessary for the project to succeed? Did the Destron's secret weapon somehow get this information from Grand Maximus at the same time it learned that he was involved in the project? Or does Devil Z have some preternatural method of acquiring this knowledge (he is the God of Destrons after all....)?

Minerva almost seems to have some sort of subconcious awareness of Ginrai – she starts at the moment that he falls in battle against Overlord and seems half-convinced, even without any direct evidence, that he is in danger. There is nothing stopping it from being coincidence at this stage, but equally it could be the manifestation of some previously unrevealed use of chokon power. It would make sense that it would be the sort of thing that Minerva would be prone to develop – as she is demonstrably the most empathic of the Headmaster Juniors.

Martin, you've put your finger on the change in scope that has crept up on the series over time. When we began the series what passed for the Cybertron base was a suite of rooms in a office building somewhere in Japan, then that was replaced by a medium-sized underground facility near Mount Fuji. Now the Cybertron Pretenders are working in a gargantuan underground assembly plant with a small army of humans beavering away to assist them in their great project. Likewise the sense of threat has escalated from the Destron Pretenders causing death and destruction in Tokyo, to the very real sense that the Destron cult potentially has the means and the will to devastate the Earth and bring humanity to its knees. It has been a steady and natural progression leading us progressively to a larger scale and a greater sense of what is at stake.

Karl

[The Doctor]

Nov 4, 2009 7:34:35 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

Whassat again, Ralph? They're all numbered on YouTube.

But I think you've seen them all before, haven't you?
Martin

Oh sure. I have the DVD's. Just that as it was my idea, I planned to watch an ep once a week to see how it worked viewed weekly, but Life got in the way.

-Ralph