Manic Ramblings and Delirious Ranting
re: Coming of the Fuzors part 2
1/19/99

 Again, I had occasion to re-watch this ep a few nights back.  Now that
I've seen it enough times, I can look past the snappy dialogue and the
mind-blowing visuals, and focus on what's actually happening in the
episode.

 As it turns out, there's surprisingly little.  It's definately not meant
to be a serious episode, for the most part, despite several serious plot
developments: Rhinox searching the Matrix, Optimus's return, the
near-defeat of the Maximals.  Even this last point is handled rather
comedicly, with the "spagetti western" theme returning a second time.  

 Those are most of the real plot points; the one other is Tarantulus vs.
Blackarachnia, and BA grabbing the Golden Disk info, which is easily 
the highlight of the episode.  Something hit me later: when Megatron 
plants his spy bug on BA in "Bad Spark", is it an attemp to get that data 
(including the Ark's codes) back? That would explain the almost knowing 
look when he says "spiders spin their webs..."  He KNEW that Tarantulus 
would be listening in, would learn that BA was going on a mission, and 
would take the chance at capturing her -- and thus get the info Megatron 
needed FOR him.  No, wait -- Megs had the disks during "Bad Spark".  
What WAS he after?

  Anyway, getting back to CotF2: One thing repeatedly bothered me in this
episode: the fact that no-one manages to shoot anyone throughout the
entire episode.  Unlike BW's usual brutal fights, this one was plagued by
a spate of bad aim.  The only actual hits, for all the firepower being
leveled, were Dinobot shooting Inferno down, Sentinal hitting Silverbolt,
and... that's about it, till at the very end when the Preds suddenly
acquire a load of smart ordinance. 

 Worse, there were several inexplicable points when one side or another
simply *stops shooting*.  The first is after the initial round at the
beginning; the Maximals hide for a good minute or two behind their rock,
without a single shot being fired at them.  I guess this is explainable by
the fact that they were behind cover; in fact, when Rattrap tosses a rock
into the air, the slowness with which the first shots come do kind of
indicate that the Preds were kind of going, "whoa, hey, something's going
on over there!"

 But, a few moments later when Tarantulus and Waspinator arrive (for the
second time), it happens again! This time it's the Predacons who get to
stand around arguing, wide out in the open, with no shots fired at them.
You'd think the distraction of the Preds' infighting would be the perfect
opportunity for the Maximals to strike, but they let it slip right by.

 Then... the Maximals seem to forget they can shoot!  When Dinobot and
Rattrap are under attack from the air by Megs and Inferno, all Dinobot
does for a long moment is wave his fist and growl at them.  Use those eye
beams, Dinobot!  Do that rotating head trick like in "Law of the Jungle"!
Where's the aim we saw in "Victory"?  Not in this episode!

 THEN... there's really no reason for the Maximals to run out of ammo when
they do.  Rhinox is fresh from a nap; his weapons should be fully loaded.
As for the others, well, they've been firing just as much as the Predacons
-- less, in fact, since the Preds had to break through the Axalon's
shield.  Yet, after only a few seconds of firing, all of them run out of
energy (what about Cheetor?  His guns are built-in!  Ditto for Dinobot!)
Furthermore, why didn't they use the base's autoguns?  They handled
Silverbolt nicely; no reason to think they couldn't do the same for the
rest of Megatron's crew.  And finally, why didn't anyone think to use one
of the riot shields that Optimus so wisely brought along?

 The last showdown with Optimus was almost stretching it a bit too much.
It's kinda like... Okay, they're saved!  They're saved!  Okay.. they're
saved... Yoo hoo, hello?  They're saved now?  You can end it now?  Hello?
At least the VERY end -- Megatron almost blasting Primal, and Silverbolt
bashing Megs instead -- was nice and quick.  "I like your resume".  Heh.
One thing that almost no episode of BW can be criticized for is a lack of
witty dialogue; CoTF2 abounds in it.

 Overall... this episode was a lot of fun to watch, but in retrospect
there are a lot of plot holes as big as the one through Rhinox at the end
of the final battle.  But, hey, I don't think the episode ever claimed to
be anything more than a big fun fest, and that it does quite well.