Recap: Rodimus- Friend or Foe?

So, I saw Transformers: The Last Knight a bit ago, and it was totally insane. It may not be my favorite film, least of all in the live-action series; but it was totally bonkers and I do plan on looking into some of the figures soon. It’s probably the most insane film in the series that Michael Bay has helmed, and I’ve seen Revenge of the Fallen. 

That means it’s finally time for me to address another episode of Transformers Energon! Given how the film reintroduced Hot Rod as a French car for some reason, I thought I would do an episode centered around this anime’s version of Rodimus. While “The Legend of Rodimus” was pretty bad, I couldn’t find enough material for a full recap of it. This one, however, is not only bad, but it makes an enchanted talisman held by a robot knight seem downright logical! Let’s open up “Rodimus: Friend or Foe?” 

After a somewhat passable remix of the Transformers theme, we open in space, where Cylconus has apparently been reformatted into Snow Cat. While the figurine was one of the better ones of Energon’s toy line (given how he was a redeco/retool of his Armada figure), the character in the show is totally obnoxious. Long before The Last Knight made Megatron’s new army a bunch of violent prison thugs, we had this anime turn a stoic and insightful Decepitcon into an obnoxious yodeler. As for the pink lasers somehow freezing all the meteors: when I was trying to find a good copy of this episode, I skimmed the Japanese one, Super Link, which had the lasers be a more plausible white or light blue. Jeez, we’re barely a minute into this thing and I’ve already written a whole paragraph about this plot hole. As Stanley Tucci as Merlin was in the new movie, anyone who wants to watch this may want to get “snozzled.”

Megatron also lets out a yawn, which is my reaction to this episode as well. It really says something when the CGI is so bad that the traditional animation has to be used for expressions.

We then see the Energon Grid being set up to repel Snow Cat’s attacks, and Dr. Jones is awkwardly chuckling about the matter, much to the chagrin of his son Kicker. Again, even though this was made in 2004, it’s so shoddily-made and badly-written it’s like something that would give the Action Delivery Force a run for its money.

The Autobots then discuss their next move, and Inferno suggests that Ironhide take his place in the next meeting. Hot Shot then remembers his days fighting alongside Rodimus, and how they could use someone like him again. Gee, I wonder if this will play into the plot at all; especially if they want to sell the toy they’re promoting here!

Megatron is also sick of Alpha Q meddling in his affairs, and he demands that he be destroyed! Even with all the liberties they took with Quintessa in the new movie; I personally never understood the “it’s for kids” mentality that plagues many shows of this type. Even Sam Riegel argued against this idea, having been involved with the Beast Era shows. For me, there’s a difference between Transformers shows like Beast Wars and Prime, which defy the “kids don’t care” mentality, and this one; which seems to be a product of that mindset. Barely five minutes in and still 16 minutes to go. Strange how a 22-minute TV anime still somehow feels longer to me than a 149-minute summer blockbuster. 

During the battle meeting, Optimus Prme determines that they need more Energon in order to combat Megatron’s plans and make sure they find Rodimus before the Decepticons do! I know that each version has their own way to justify the plot; but barring “Distribution,” the bulk of this anime has phrases like this and repeats of stock footage and certain lines that you could make a drinking game out of it. In fact, TFWiki.net essentially has in their entries of this and other episodes of Energon. You should check them out sometime, they’re some of the best material on the website.

Hot Shot then tries to make contact with his old friend Carlos from Armada, but as communications are cut off; we see a glaring example of how bad the CGI is: while just a few years prior, Beast Machines could use the technology to create characters with a full range of emotions; Hot Shot tries to show concern but can only muster DULL SURPRISE! 

However, Hot Shot is able to make contact with Rodimus; and despite the deficiencies of the CGI, the design is somewhat toy-accurate while also having some flourishes that pay homage to the namesake character from G1, especially in the red paint job with flames on it. I got the figure at the flea market a while back from one of my visits to my father in California; it’s actually one of the better figures in the Energon line if you’ll pardon my usual joke.

Rodimus only $14.99 at fine retailers everywhere!

Before Ironhide and Kicker can do anything else, Hot Shot somehow drives into a wormhole to go rendezvous with Rodimus! Huh. That’s odd, especially since they somehow got an actor as distinguished as Sir Anthony Hopkins to talk about Transformer knights without a hint of irony.

Meanwhile, Megatron and Starscream discover that Alpha Q is spying on them with Terrorcons, and suggest that Scorponok is behind all this! Well, that’s a logical conclusion! Did you figure that out on your own?

While Scorponok is behind this, I’m honestly surprised that he can somehow hear Megatron calling him across space. Still got nothing on Vegeta.

Hot Shot gets his ass to Mars, where Rodimus is located on Mars City. While both the episodes that feature this continuity’s Rodimus are bad, this one has an edge for having a more bizarre story, more liberties taken with the characters and even worse production values. I know I keep harping on the CGI, but even my PS2 in those days had better graphics than this!

Hot Shot then discovers an Energon mine when he’s ambushed by Terrorcons! Jeez, it’s like in a video game when you’re ambushed by enemies right when you get to the waypoint where your goal is! 

A battle breaks out, and the explosions look like badly-animated GIFs. I feel like the scene wouldn’t be out of place in one of those hilariously awful Birdemic movies. 

Rodimus appears on the scene, and in addition to being controlled by the Decepticons; he’s apparently been taking dialect coaching from Ultra Magnus. Even when he became a Prime, Rodimus usually had a sense of doubt and inexperience compared to Optimus; and for much of the third season, he still felt responsible for indirectly causing his death in the movie. Here, he’s unusually stern for reasons they never really explain, nor why he’s working with Scorponok. It’s quite clear they didn’t have enough plot to fill 20 episodes, let alone a whole 52-episode season. For all the faults of The Last Knight and the other live-action films, they at least had plenty of showy eye candy to make up for how the story and characters are often sparse in comparison to their contemporary competitors. I feel like I could get more entertainment value out of looking at a blank wall for 22 minutes. It would be just as dull, but at least it would be less dumb.

As more banal dialog is exchanged about Energon and how Alpha Q has recruited Rodimus, Hot Shot declares “I can’t believe what I’m hearing!” Neither can I, and I willingly paid ticket price to see a foul-mouthed robot “chav” that turns into an ATV; and a government IT tech that makes me look like Jean Claude Van Damme!

As Kicker and more Autobots arrive on Mars, Rodimus offers Hot Shot a chance to join him; and Hot Shot predictably refuses! Again, it’s really astonishing that the CGI of this anime is so bad that they have to go back to the traditional animation (which worked fine in Armada) just to get a better emotional range! This was the same year my favorite Pixar film, The Incredibles came out; and I honestly can’t wait for the sequel after all these years.

I'm not happy, Bob. Not. Happy.

The ensuing battle that closes out the episode is an absolute mess. Amid the rubbish CGI models and animated GIF explosions, I will at least give credit for the toy-accuracy of Rodimus’ model; even to a fault. I would have expected someone to draw the line at the hinges on the Powerlinx gimmick or the fists sticking out of his rear end; but then they said, “nah.”

Rodimus, still out of his mind, then Powerlinxes with Prowl to continue the fight! Imagine that. Well, they still gotta sell these toys somehow! 

Seriously, the plot points are repeated so much in these last few minutes that it’s like reading from my mental checklist that I ran through when I saw The Last Knight. While I did kind of like the movie in spite of all the jokes I made a bout it here, I can go through a similar process anytime I look for an episode of this anime to do a recap on. All 52 episodes have a very formulaic story structure, so I have to very carefully find episodes with material I know I can work with. It’s the same reason why I’m taking a break from my Yo-Kai Watch recaps for now: unless something else comes up officially, I’m not tapping my backlog just yet. I also still have the same plan for the third movie: while it was OK, unless the third game officially comes to the US, I won’t do it right now.

So, we close on Scorponok being returned to Megatron, and is punished for his insubordination by being launched into Earth’s defense grid! The torture he endures is akin to watching this episode over and over. 

“Rodimus: Friend or Foe?” is easily the dullest episode about robots that turn into fast trucks and giant scorpions that I’ve ever seen. Rodimus’ toy may be relatively decent in this version, but his character sure isn’t. While there are Transformers works that have come close to matching the godawfulness of Energon, this still holds the distinction of being the worst Transformers anime I will cover here. I refuse to look at Kiss Players, and I just about have my Next Top 13 Anime I will never recap compiled to explain why I won’t as well as 12 others, but that’s a matter for another day. I’m going to go see Spider-Man Homecoming as soon as I post this, then it’s finally time for my next Code Geass R2 recap. That’s all for now. Bang.