COLLECTING THOUGHTS: WFC Kingdom – what worked & what didn’t (part 1)

The final part of the Transformers: War For Cybertron trilogy just recently dropped on Netflix and perhaps expectedly, it’s caused a lot of reactions! Some fans loved Kingdom for its introduction of classic Beast Wars characters and others remained unimpressed about the overall WFC series, but whatever your take, there was a fair amount to comment on.

As for me, I found it to be the most enjoyable chapter of the trilogy on the whole, even if many of my nitpicks from previous parts remained. Today I’m going to simply run through all the bits I thought worked and those that didn’t… although I’m sure not everyone will agree! In part 1, I’ll be covering off some of the more general points about the show and discussing individual characters, before going into specific plot beats in part 2. That said, let’s dive in!

 

WARNING! Major spoilers ahead for the whole of the War For Cybertron trilogy, obvs!

 

 

DID WORK: the setting

After twelve episodes predominantly set either on war-torn Cybertron or in various parts of space, the story relocating to prehistoric Earth was a welcome change of setting, in my opinion. Like a lot of fans, I was rather disappointed that the Earth never rose in Earthrise, so finally getting to glimpse the Cybertronian cast in an unfamiliar landscape was a lot of fun, and definitely helped Kingdom to stand out a bit from the previous two chapters.

 

DID WORK: the Beast Wars cast

I’m saying this generally here as I’ll go through some specifics shortly, but by and large, I thought Kingdom did a good job at reimagining the classic Beast Wars cast for a new show. Before the series aired, my biggest fear was that it would somehow fluff this one particular aspect, so I suppose it was a welcome relief to see most characters well-represented or at least done some amount of justice to varying degrees. There was clearly a lot of inspiration taken despite some efforts to branch out a bit, and on the whole, I thought it worked. I also found the idea that they had been at war for a long time and lost a lot of their comrades added a bit of weight to the proceedings.

 

DID WORK: blending ‘old & new’

Similarly, it was great fun to see the Maximals and Predacons interacting with their Autobot and Decepticon ancestors in a way that we’ve never really seen before, save for the odd snippet in the original Beast Wars cartoon. There were many standout moments in this regard, such as Cheetor running alongside the Autobot cars, Blackarachnia twisting Starscream round her little finger (claw?), or Dinobot going toe-to-toe with Soundwave, but for me, it was watching Airazor and Laserbeak duking it out in the skies. Great stuff.

 

DIDN’T WORK: sidelined characters

Unfortunately, with so many characters and so much plot stuffed into just six short episodes, it inevitably meant that a fair bit went by the wayside too, which was evident in how certain characters were given less focus. Cheetor is perhaps the prime (no pun intended) example here, although Tigatron and Rattrap rather faded into the background too, as did bad guys like Scorponok, who was used as mere army fodder. That’s to say nothing of the bulk of the Autobot cast, including the likes of Mirage, Ironhide, Ratchet, Prowl and Sideswipe, as you could very often forget they were even there!

 

DID WORK: the action

It wasn’t universally true throughout the show but I did think that there were a number of fairly thrilling action scenes crammed into the six episodes, with at least a few real standout moments. Again, it’s a lot of the Beast Wars cast that took top billing in this regard, particularly as their ability to more easily engage in combat in duel modes was made the most of. I’ve already mentioned Airazor’s introduction but the whole Maximal gang thundering into action during episode 5’s peak was a real highlight, as were many of the scenes involving T-Rex Megatron on the rampage. Overall, I enjoyed this a lot more than much of the overused long-range laser-firing that dominated the previous two chapters in the trilogy.

 

DID WORK: the humour

Again, it’s not exclusively true and I can’t even begin to claim that this was a ‘humourous’ show by any means, but at the very least, Kingdom made room for the odd moment of brevity. This was a welcome tonal break versus the often far too grim and serious tone of both Siege and Earthrise, especially as when the humour did come, it mostly landed. Both Prime and Primal responding in unison to the name, ‘Optimus’ being called was surely a moment some-twenty-five years in the making, and I can’t deny a chuckle when Hound responded to the Maximal commander shouting, “Maximise!” by querying if that meant they should transform.

 

DID WORK: the visuals

I’ll admit I’ve not always been stunned by every aspect of the animation throughout the WFC series – I still can’t get used to the strange outlines on the characters at times, and let’s not even speak of the bizarre bendy metal abdomens on characters like Optimus & Megatron, shall we? – but I really thought Kingdom brought the goods here, on the whole. Maybe it was the change of setting that helped yet again but it felt like there was a lot more visual flair than in previous chapters, including a significantly richer colour palette on the whole and more than a few moments which I would say were outright stunning to observe.

 

DIDN’T WORK: so much talking

Of all the many critiques I would level at the WFC series as a whole, this might be the one that most continues to be a problem here. I should explain that there’s obviously nothing wrong with a show (even one about giant warring robots) taking the time to explore itself through the character’s dialogue – far from it! It’s just that here it’s so heavy-handed and exposition-heavy that it drags down the whole pace of the proceedings and leaves a 20-minute episode feeling a lot longer overall. None of that is helped by the slooow pace that some of the characters continue to speak at (with the pondering dialogue of Optimus Prime… being… the worst… yet… again…), to the point where the joke about watching the show on 1.25x speed being preferable turns out to almost be true.

 

DID WORK: Airazor

Of the characters that received more screentime though, a lot of good was done. Airazor became a real highlight of the first half of the series, arguably gaining more time in the spotlight than her 1990’s counterpart, even! Whether it was spying on the Decepticons, remaining resourceful whilst imprisoned, working with Dinobot or developing a rapport with Blackarachnia, she became one of the standout Maximal cast.

 

DID WORK: Dinobot

Of all the beastly bots to be introduced in this show, this was the one I was most nervous about, like a lot of people I’m sure! Fortunately, I was really happy with the result, despite the character not really having all that much in common with his original depiction. Yes, they share a number of similar story beats (not to mention a common fate), but this interpretation felt like a very different animal to the hot-tempered and often overly ambitious raptor from the first small-screen outing. If anything, it was this different take that helped me to appreciate Kingdom Dinobot a lot more, and to that end, I was also a fan of how they gave him an entirely different voice (instead of attempting a Scott McNeil impersonation). I’ve read more than a few people saying that Tigatron and Dinobot should have had each other’s voices but for my money, I thought they worked well as they were and helped to set them apart from their classic depictions.

 

DID WORK: Megatron

Say what you will about a lot of what the WFC series has attempted over its run, but one character they have at least tried to flesh out a bit is Megatron. I always loved the Marvel UK comic portrayal of the Decepticon leader having risen as a gladiator before leading a coup against Cybertron’s ruling classes and I appreciate what the new show has tried to do in terms of working some of that in along the way too. A lot of that comes full circle in Kingdom, as Megatron is forced to consider what he’s really fighting for and make some hard choices along the way. He’s still a hateful so-and-so, but at least they tried to give him some sense ofexistential purpose beyond just wanting power for the sake of it.

 

DIDN’T WORK: Megatron

Oh boy, where to start here? For as much as I said I appreciated Dinobot for branching out a bit from his original depiction, unfortunately I didn’t feel the same worked much at all with the leader of the Predacons. In theory, his motivation was similar to his classic counterpart, wanting to steal the golden disc to help re-write the past, but turning him into a snivelling sycophant of his namesake felt very off indeed. A lot of the character’s dialogue fell flat too, with his childish taunts underselling the scheming superiority of the ’90s version. Then there’s his voice, which may be the most painful example in a show not exactly known for its strengths in this area, and really faltered for trying to include the vocal ticks of the far supeior original turn. Ultimately, I’d far rather they tried to do something completely different with it and make it epic in its own right, as opposed to turning in such a strange result here.

 

DID WORK: Optimus Primal

Comparatively, I thought the show did a decent job with the leader of the Maximals. Well, kinda, anyway. I’ll admit I cringed a bit when he first appeared on-screen as it seemed as though they were going for Optimus Primal being a bit one-note and angsty, but I found myself appreciating him more as that softened over the show’s run. Again, this is one depiction that deviates a fair bit from the softy we know from the original Beast Wars cartoon, but overall I liked this gruffer, older captain who feels a strong sense of responsibility for all the crew he’s lost in battle, and fiercely defends the ones he has left. It’s another example of Kingdom not trying to carbon copy what’s come before and arguably being the better for it, in my opinion.

 

DID WORK: Blackarachnia

Here’s another character who felt familiar in many respects, yet still managed to break away from what’s been done before, at least to some degree. It’s true that Blackarachnia followed the well-worn tropes of being duplicitous and underhanded, yet as it transpired, she had a slightly more noble cause in mind than her own advantage and proved to be one of the more clever characters in the entire story. If anything, it was fun to watch how effortlessly this updated take on the character could work well with Autobots, Maximals and Predacons alike, and her cheeky interactions with Airazor were a lot of fun too.

 

DID WORK: Rhinox

Rhinox didn’t receive masses of screentime in Kingdom and the character lacked a lot of the nuance of the original version, yet it was still enjoyable to see how he was presented here. His interactions with Wheeljack were particularly memorable, as he proved to be as capable as he ever was in the ’90s cartoon and then some, prompting the Autobot mechanic to even ask, “Are you some kind of super-genius?” Come what may, it’s reassuring to think you can always rely on Rhinox.

 

DIDN’T WORK: Nemesis Prime

The idea of a dark version of Optimus Prime is a fun one, which no doubt explains why there have been so many different takes on it in Transformers over the years. Kingdom follows the recent live-action movie example by making its Nemesis Prime out to be Optimus himself, turned bad by external forces. In this case, that’s because of Unicron, which is also an idea from other parts of the franchise’s history, including the Unicron Trilogy itself. That’s an intriguing start, and the promise of him and Galvatron as duel twisted future versions of our two faction leaders is something that has the potential to be rather epic, in my opinion. However, despite all of that potential and the character being teased through the first five episodes, there’s really not a lot done with it come the end of this show. When Nemesis does arrive, he’s little more than a grunting brute to begin with, and even when he does finally engage with Optimus in a bit of dialogue, the story doesn’t have the time to tap into what could have been. Still, he looks cool, eh?

 

So, that’s part 1! Join us next time when I’ll be breaking down some of the major plot beats and storylines.

TTFN