Masterforce

[blueshift]

I agree about King Poseidon, though I think his moment of redemption was when the Seacons destroyed the Autobot base (not King Poseidon per se, but it showed the Seacons being effective). Perhaps it was a mistake to introduce him in the same episode as Super Ginrai, the only one who can defeat him!

It is telling that his weakness seems to be against Godmasters. In fact, one of my favourite bits of 'The Cybertron Base Explodes', amongst others, is when the Seacons just ignore the imprisoned Clouder and leave him in the exploding base to hopefully die. Turtlar obviously has a contempt for humans and Godmasters (since Chokon power seems to be his weakness) that would cause him to ignore orders and leave a potentially powerful ally to die.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Totally agree about the power of seeing the Decepticon Juniors humbled and hiding from the destruction along with the regular humans - which they are now.

Never get tired of seeing King Poseidon's stock combination sequence - even repeated twice in the same episode. Gotta like the big guy for (a) enjoying himself having a good laugh every time we see him, and (b) never letting experience get the better of his hopes when facing GG.

Yep, the Autobots are on a real loser with this splitting up 'strategy'. It's a recipe for a shambles, and simply results in Ginrai having to fly back and forth saving people. Much better all sticking together. Mind you, Hawk and the Juniors do seem to fight in a very professional and co-ordinated fashion. Just a shame their weapons are useless against KP.

Nice bit of character continuity with the reference to Ranger being good with mountains.

This is the point where it becomes apparent that the other three Autobot Pretenders have been erased from the plot and are not coming back.

I like the Ginrai vs. Darkwings fight, since it adds a bit of originality, rather than repeat the big showdown of episode #39. Ginrai's convincingly trounced Darkwings once, and so as soon as they realise he too can jump to warp speed or whatever it is they're doing to disappear, they flee without even trying to fight. And he catches them and smashes them but good.

Not entirely sure I agree that Sixknight had a good death, as it seemed a bit unnecessary to me. I mean, why did Ginrai leave him to face Black Zarak alone? What did he achieve by flying off and returning with the other Autobot Godmasters? They don't end up serving any useful purpose - certainly not enough to justify Sixknight's death. Just left me wondering why Ginrai, Sixknight and Overlord didn't all pile on Black Zarak together when the odds were as good as they were likely to get.

Personally, I find this to be the weakest of the final four episodes in the series - just because the logic of the heroes' various actions escapes me. But still amazing by any other TF standards.

Martin

[chrisl]

Great reviews as always

Are you guys going to review the Big Book of Masterforce episode too?

[legios]

Mar 4, 2010 18:24:56 GMT chrisl said:

Great reviews as always

Are you guys going to review the Big Book of Masterforce episode too?

I've never actually seen it and, at the time of writing don't have access to it so likely not in my case.

(From what I hear it is a sort of info-dump of trivia that they couldn't fit into the series so I doubt that I am missing terribly much).

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Mar 4, 2010 22:15:31 GMT legios said:

Mar 4, 2010 18:24:56 GMT chrisl said:

Are you guys going to review the Big Book of Masterforce episode too?

I've never actually seen it and, at the time of writing don't have access to it so likely not in my case.

(From what I hear it is a sort of info-dump of trivia that they couldn't fit into the series so I doubt that I am missing terribly much).

Karl, you can see it from about half-way through this video:



Martin

[legios]

Mar 4, 2010 16:46:49 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

This is the point where it becomes apparent that the other three Autobot Pretenders have been erased from the plot and are not coming back.

Yes, they have rather fallen off the series in a lot of ways. I'd like to believe that they are hanging back as some kind of absolute last line. But in reality I suspect it it more that the shows creators just admitted defeat in terms of actually finding somewhere to squeeze them into the final episodes.

Not entirely sure I agree that Sixknight had a good death, as it seemed a bit unnecessary to me. I mean, why did Ginrai leave him to face Black Zarak alone?

Narrative necessity over-riding real-world tactical sense. Sixknight has a character-arc to fulfill and so needs his opportunity to go one-on-one with Black Zarak so as to stay true to character type. Whilst Ginrai is bound by the Super-Robot genre's unwritten laws of honorable combat - which tend to frown on things like dog-piling on the opponent.

When I say it is a good death I'm not so much saying that it is a wise, or sensible death. More that it is one that seems fitting for his character. As a masterless warrior who travels around looking for fights in order to demonstrate and extend his mastery of his fighting arts it seems appropriate to me for him to meet his end in single combat with someone better than him. Sixknight's machismo means that he isn't likely to take kindly to someone helping him (as we have seen before) - and isn't really a team player as such so I'm not sure how well any attempt at a coordinated attack that he was involved in would fair. So there were really only two really fitting ends to his story - he goes out in a blaze of glory fighting against an opponent who is more powerful than himself or he beats everyone and eventually retires to right the "Book of Five Cogs" or something.

In a cultural sense his death also plays into the idea of it being worse for a warrior to turn aside from battle or to fight dishonorably (like ganging up on an opponent) than it is for them to be killed in one-on-one combat. (Personally I've never really been of that persuasion - I'm happy to tilt the odds in my favour - but it is a part of the cultural meta-narrative).

At least, that is how it feels to me.

Just left me wondering why Ginrai, Sixknight and Overlord didn't all pile on Black Zarak together when the odds were as good as they were likely to get.

Real-world logic says that would be the way to go, and in a Real-Robot type of mecha show like Flag or Macross the mass attack is definitely the way to go. The Super-Robot genre adheres more to the "form an orderly queue to fight the oppponent" school of thought.

I just put it down to the unwritten narrative laws of the universe being different to those that pertain in the real world.

Personally, I find this to be the weakest of the final four episodes in the series - just because the logic of the heroes' various actions escapes me. But still amazing by any other TF standards.

I can see where you are coming from there. The splitting up really only serves to play for time and space for the various characters to get a bit of spotlight time - it is good spotlight time but it doesn't entirely see sense.

Mind you, I quite like Ginrai's leaving the other Godmasters behind initially to go on ahead and confront Black Zarak. On the one hand it is a bit of a genre cliche, but on the other hand it reflects a bit of his tendency to go to extremes to safeguard his troops and his tendency to assume risk on their behalf which he has demonstrated before. So, not entirely smart but somewhat in character I think.

Yeah, rambling now. Time for some peppermint tea I think.

Karl

[legios]

Review of the final episode will be delayed due to unforeseen events. I shall get caught up with this next week all being well.

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

As I was out of the country I vote for pretending this week didn't happen for Masterforce purposes.

Martin

[legios]

That would work for me - count it as a skip week and conclude the series this Wednesday. Sounds good to me.

Karl

[legios]

“A Battle, and then........”

And so, after a long road, we finally come to the final episode of the story of Chojin Masterforce. The lines are drawn up for the final confrontation, Ginrai standing as the champion of humanity and Devil Z/Black Zarak both humanity's would-be destroyer and it's very negation. This episode has a lot to live up to. Not only does it need to be an exciting and memorable climax so that the series goes out on a high, but it also needs to tie off the last narrative threads and to deliver an ending that is true to the thematic elements of the series. Fortunately it is well and truly up to the challenge.
On the basic level of delivering an exciting finish the episode does not disappoint – the fact that this episode has been steadily built towards allows it to go all out from the very beginning, with Ginrai and Black Zarak going toe-to-toe from pretty much the beginning of the episode. The stakes have been established clearly in the opening moments, and in the episodes that have come before, so that we know that Ginrai is fighting for the survival of the entire species. Likewise it has already been established that Devil Z is enormously powerful, so it doesn't feel contrived that Ginrai seems to be so overmatched by his opponent. Indeed, this is one of the most satisfying battles in the series - the more so because it is rooted in the themes of the show as much as the plot, but I will come back to that in due course. It is a out-and-out slugging match between the two most powerful individuals on their respective sides. Not only that but it feels very much a “no-holds barred” affair. We've certainly seen Ginrai tear through the nearly mindless-appearing Seacon drones before, but his attempt to systematically disarm BlackZarak certainly establishes that he is playing for keeps here. Not that BlackZarak is shy about going all out to kill Ginrai either (dropping a mountainside on him can't really be mistaken in terms of intent after all). There is an art to maintaining the pacing needed to carry a single battle across a whole half-hours worth of television – you have to be able to have the fight pause without it feeling like everyone has stopped just to talk at each other, which is something I think that this episode gets very right. The moments when the fight pauses briefly feel like genuine pauses for breath and for the combatants to marshal their energy rather than contrived interregnums for exchanging dialogue.
The other thing that I like in this episode is the way it gather the thematic threads of the series together and uses them to drive the resolution of the story. In our journey through the world of Masterforce we have slowly discovered that there is something special in the human spirit. Something distinct from, but intrinsicly tied to, the Masterforce that is tapped by the Headmaster Juniors and Godmasters. We have seen that Devil Z fears this power of humanity, which is why he directed his Destron cultists to first overthrow and suppress humanity, and then to destroy the species outright. This theme is at the heart both of the verbal barbs that Ginrai and Devil Z exchanges and also some of Devil Z's actions in the battle. His decision to first purge an unwilling Ginrai of his humanity, as he had done to the willing Darkwings, seems on the one hand to reflect a desire to steal from Ginrai the thing he most values – the very humanity he values above everything else. But on another hand there is a lingering sense that he wants to steal Ginrai's humanity because it gives him a power that Devil Z does not share – that he needs to separate Ginrai from his humanity before he can hope to destroy him.
In some ways the final form of BlackZarak's body that Devil Z assumes makes the opposition explicit on a physical level. Rather than the final battle being between two humanoid forms, Devil Z's twin-headed dragon form is about as far from humanoid as he can realistically get without reverting to his previous formless state. It is both a great way to keep raising the stakes – suggesting that Devil Z can keep using BlackZarak's body no matter what damage Ginrai inflicts – but also a visual statement of Devil Z's opposition to the humanity that our heroes stand for.
Indeed, the series demonstrates in its closing minutes that Devil Z has been right all along to be concerned about the power of humanity. He may boast to Ginrai that as the creator of the Godmasters he has nothing to fear from them, but in the end it is humanity that allows Ginrai – and the Cybertron Juniors – to go beyond their limits and destroy Devil Z.
Devil Z's final defeat is, frankly, very satisfying. Not only does it make good on the series theme of their being a great power that comes from being human – which is a rather uplifting thought – but also the fact that Ginrai and the Cybertron Headmaster Juniors join their powers together to defeat him is a satisfying conclusion to their narrative. As much as Ginrai, the Juniors have been the characters who have carried the spine of the series. We have seen them develop from humble beginnings – almost “mascot” characters to begin with – to being important and equal members of the Cybertron team. Just as with Ginrai we have followed them as they have grown and matured into their roles. So to see them stand together against the series' ultimate evil and, together, overcome it is satisfying and narratively very appropriate. The exact mechanics of it are, of course, a little obscure but somehow I find that I don't really mind it. It feels narratively appropriate for them to reach deep into themselves and find a power that Devil Z could not imagine.
Although Devil Z, Ginrai and the Cybertron Juniors are at the heart of the resolution of the story I don't want to overlook the send-off that some of the other characters get. Although Hawk doesn't actually get to involve himself that much in the final battle – being kicked around like a football last episode having left him rather believably battered and bruised – he nevertheless gets to demonstrate the stoic heroism with which he began the series. His noble efforts to get back into the fight despite his injuries are a nice final calling card for the character.
Likewise, although the rest of the Cybertron Godmasters don't get that much to do they do make a creditable showing against Devil Z's forces – delivering a swift and crushing defeat to his robotic minions. Indeed, the ending of the episode nicely encapsulates the idea of the whole team having something to contribute. Ginrai might be the most powerful but the others play their part in dealing with the rest of the enemy forces so that he can concentrate on Devil Z, just as the Headmaster Juniors have their part to play in providing the combination of power that finally defeats him. All told it is a good use of the “together we are stronger” schtick.
Even people who don't quite make it to the final battle get a decent send-off. The former Destron Juniors attempted cavalry to ride to the rescue to the rescue is both amusing and rather uplifting. It is funny both for their dramatic arrival just too late to actually contribute to the battle, and because of their banter on the way. By now it feels like Wilder is just trying too hard to remind people that he hasn't come over to the heroic side – a definite “methinks the gang-leader doth protest too much”, and it is lovely to see that Cancer has come out of his shell enough to give Wilder a ribbing for it. On another level it is a fitting conclusion to their character arc that they decide to pitch in. We have seen them go from powerful minions of Destron evil, to powerless bystanders, to finding the courage to take a stand in a battle in which Wilder implies they know full well that they don't stand a very good chance. It is a very satisfying conclusion to the story of their redemption.
Another character arc ends in this episode as well, and of course I am not forgetting that this episode sees the end of Overlord's story as well as the lives of Giga and Mega. Overlord has been, for my money, one of the most impressive and imposing Destron leaders commited to celluloid and I do think that this episode gives him a fitting end. Giga and Mega's agreement that they owe Ginrai a debt that they cannot turn away from – he saved their lives, and they owe him the same, confirms the difference between themselves and Devil Z. They live by a code of rules that govern their behaviour, however twisted that code might seem to us they value it. I like the fact that, although they have a life to repay to Ginrai, their decision to turn on Devil Z is as much motivated by a hatred of what they have found the latter to stand for. In actively turning on his own followers Devil Z has shown himself to be a dishonourable, unworthy person and as a result their standing against him feels not only an appropriate development of the narrative but a necessary result of what we have learned about Giga and Mega.
Likewise, their eventual death feels like a logical result of their story as a whole and even has a slight tragic edge to it on some level. That is the sign of a well-told story, when I can actually feel some regret at the deaths of the villains. Giga's final words seem very apt as well – it would have somehow been out of character for him not to regret that he will never be able to satisfactorily resolve his rivalry with Ginrai, and if carries through the sense of respect for a strong and honourable opponent that he had developed for the Cybertron leader. It also feels apt that the fully robotic Overlord does not get to fight Ginrai properly. Bereft of the humans who had animated him he comes across as a hollow, leering, puppet of destruction. The story that existed to be told between Overlord and Ginrai was between the humans that were their hearts, and that story is told. The empty travesty of Overlord is rightly swept aside by Grand Maximus as an irrelevancy to the story.
The episode, in my opinion, does a great job of giving the cast – individually and as a whole – an excellent send off. The final scene, with the Juniors and Godmasters separated from their Transtectors – who have likewise been freed by the demise of Devil Z, gives a real sense of closure to the series. The mechanics of it remain a little bit obscure – Devil Z deliberately animated the Destron Transtectors as robotic lifeforms, but why did his death do the same thing for the Cybertron ones? Is it perhaps a last manifestation of the Godmasters as they are released from their fusion with their human hosts? A result of the release of Chokon power that accompanies the destruction of Devil Z? Or perhaps some of all of the above? Within the narrative, the series remains coy about which it is. I'm willing to overlook this though, because the scene feels right in the context of the series. There is a sense of the Godmasters and Juniors being able to lay down the heavy burden of defending the Earth that was laid upon them. Lets face it over the closing portion of the series this has been a heavy burden indeed. The scene gives us a sense of something new beginning as the newly born Cybertrons rally to Grand and pursue the Destrons into space, but at the same time a sense of something ending as Ginrai and his friends finally gain the opportunity to return – changed for the better by their experiences – to their lives. It is the capstone to strong, satisfying ending to a series with a strong narrative progression.

(Footnotes

1)Apparently the creators of the series noticed the same thing that the audience did, and likely at the same moment, in terms of the apparent disappearance to Limbo of the other Cybertron Pretenders. They do attempt to patch this slightly here, with a reference to them being busy trying to repair the damage that the Destron have done. On the one hand it is nice to see that the Cybertrons are still trying to mitigate the harm being inflicted, but on the other it does seem rather a poor use of resources – arguably it would be better to go all out to stop the devastation rather than try to do both at the same time.

2)Speaking of things falling off the series, the Devil Thunder amplifier manages that within a single episode. It is introduced here as a method (presumably only just completed by the Guard Minders) that Devil Z can use to amplify his power and destroy the whole world at once. But after a brief mention at the start of the episode where Ginrai swears he won't allow Devil Z to reach it we never hear hide nor hair of it again. In honesty I am not surprised. The Devil Thunder Amplifier is really false jeopardy, and Masterforce has enough real jeopardy to be getting on with by this stage. We have already seen Devil Z shatter the North American continent, and begin to do the same to Europe. We, the audience, are already sufficiently convinced that he can destroy the human race without needing a new death machine to clinch the deal. I am not really sorry that the Amplifier drops off the episode as abruptly as it arrives. I just think it is a shame that it was mentioned at all.)

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

A fine and comprehensive review. As so often, my views on the episode may be summed up by the three words, "what he said".

It occurs to me that as far as we know, the Decepticon Pretenders, the Seacons and possibly the Firecons are still at large on Earth at series end, along with the Autobot Pretenders, much like the situation at the start of the series. But so many much larger characters have come and gone in between, and the world itself brought to the brink of destruction, that such skirmishes seem much less scary and significant now. If in week 43 Bomb-Burst launches a new scheme to steal energy or cause a ruckus, humanity won't be quite so intimidated as they might have been in week 0.

Episode 42.5, the Big Book of Master or whatever it's called, is also a nice way to unwind after all the extreme tension of the series climax - Shuta and Grand just having a chat about things. And why not.

Well, that was Masterforce, folks!

Martin

[chrisl]

A fitting final review for a great episode there guys

[The Doctor]

Hurray!

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

Karl.

Collect those reviews in print. Twould be a splendid tome for the shelves of all discriminating fans.

Andy

[bertie]

Pick up the Masterpiece DVD boxset for £5. As more of a non-Japanese TF fan I highly recommend it. It is awesome.

El.

[Philip Ayres]

I think you mean MasterFORCE young Elliot, says Philip bouncing the posts into a suitable Masterforce thread on the Cartoon board.

[bertie]

I do indeed. :-)

[Dark Stranger]

Apr 26, 2011 20:36:32 GMT bertie said:

Pick up the Masterpiece DVD boxset for £5. As more of a non-Japanese TF fan I highly recommend it. It is awesome.

El.

Wow! Where'd you bag it so cheap?

[bertie]

Everywhere it's sold. I've never seen it for more than about £10. Amazon in this case.

[Dark Stranger]

To Amazon!!

[blueshift]

Nov 16, 2015 13:25:53 GMT Baron B of Triple B said:

I stumbled across Transformers Prime on Netflix recently and started it with trepidation. Mainly because almost every series since G1 has been turd.

I wouldn't go that far. I enjoyed Masterforce, Beast Wars, SORT OF Beast Machines (great tv show, TERRIBLE Transformers show/Beast Wars sequel), RiD, the second half of Armada and Animated.

Prime is perfectly cromulent. Not good, not bad. It'll never blow you away but it's got a baseline of quality that's there but a bit uninspired.

[Baron B of Triple B]

Nov 16, 2015 16:58:27 GMT blueshift said:

Nov 16, 2015 13:25:53 GMT Baron B of Triple B said:

Mainly because almost every series since G1 has been turd.

I wouldn't go that far. I enjoyed Masterforce, Beast Wars, SORT OF Beast Machines (great tv show, TERRIBLE Transformers show/Beast Wars sequel), RiD, the second half of Armada and Animated.

Prime is perfectly cromulent. Not good, not bad. It'll never blow you away but it's got a baseline of quality that's there but a bit uninspired.

I'll confess, I've not seen Masterforce yet. Beast Wars I couldn't get into, ditto Beast Machines. Didn't like RiD or Animated either, too childish looking for me. Armada and Energon weren't bad actually and Energon did give us a couple of badass Unicron figures so it gets extra points for that.

[blueshift]

Nov 16, 2015 17:46:08 GMT Baron B of Triple B said:

I'll confess, I've not seen Masterforce yet. Beast Wars I couldn't get into, ditto Beast Machines. Didn't like RiD or Animated either, too childish looking for me. Armada and Energon weren't bad actually and Energon did give us a couple of badass Unicron figures so it gets extra points for that.

The first ten or so eps of Masterforce are ok but once Ginrai pops up it turns into legitimately the best Transformers show.

I found Beast Wars season 1 weak but season 2 is excellent. Season 3 is so-so.

Energon was incoherent and unwatchable to me

[Baron B of Triple B]

Nov 16, 2015 17:50:57 GMT blueshift said:

Nov 16, 2015 17:46:08 GMT Baron B of Triple B said:

I'll confess, I've not seen Masterforce yet. Beast Wars I couldn't get into, ditto Beast Machines. Didn't like RiD or Animated either, too childish looking for me. Armada and Energon weren't bad actually and Energon did give us a couple of badass Unicron figures so it gets extra points for that.

The first ten or so eps of Masterforce are ok but once Ginrai pops up it turns into legitimately the best Transformers show.

I found Beast Wars season 1 weak but season 2 is excellent. Season 3 is so-so.

Energon was incoherent and unwatchable to me

Masterforce seems to be on YouTube so I think I'll give it a go.

[blueshift]

Nov 16, 2015 18:08:28 GMT Baron B of Triple B said:

Masterforce seems to be on YouTube so I think I'll give it a go.

Is it? I know it used to be but a load got taken down.

There is an awful fandub on there. Avoid the fan dubs. Subtitles are what you want for Masterforce.

[The Doctor]

No you want the proper Star Dub!!!

-Ralph

[blueshift]

Nov 16, 2015 18:36:49 GMT The Doctor said:

No you want the proper Star Dub!!!

-Ralph

Don't listen to Ralph, that dub is both horrible AND misses out the songs!

[Philip Ayres]

"Mr Optimus Prime!"

[The Doctor]

Nov 16, 2015 18:53:23 GMT blueshift said:

Nov 16, 2015 18:36:49 GMT The Doctor said:

No you want the proper Star Dub!!!

-Ralph

Don't listen to Ralph, that dub is both horrible AND misses out the songs!

You sadden me.

-Ralph

[blueshift]

Nov 16, 2015 20:28:52 GMT The Doctor said:

Nov 16, 2015 18:53:23 GMT blueshift said:

Don't listen to Ralph, that dub is both horrible AND misses out the songs!

You sadden me.

-Ralph

You can't miss the songs!!