Review: Transformers Combiner Wars “A War of Giants”

…get it?

I’m pretty sure no viewer went into this series and realistically expected an especially complicated story, even with the subject matter. With only eight episodes to work with and only five minutes of runtime each, it was clear that the most pragmatic route to take would be a small, contained plot that made the most of its restrictions and tapped into normally ignored parts of the non-animated areas of the franchise.

I shame no one told the writers that.

SPOILERS

So, Devastator cackles after ripping off Rodimus’ arm from last time. Optimus’ Matrix of Common Friggin Sense finally starts up as he begins to wonder about the remote possibility that Megatron, his former mortal army that he brought along on a Hail Mary of a plan for no concievable reason…MIGHT have betrayed him. Oddly enough though, this isn’t Megatron’s doing, which is made all the more clear when Devastator begins wrecking up the place looking for the Enigma. Now, I’ve mentioned before that I intended to look at this series as completely stand alone from other versions in this franchise, and not do any unnecessary research that this show should be responsible for filling me in on by itself. Let me break that rule this once to point out that the tinier, beeping Cons that Megatron was fighting with before Optimus and Windblade showed up were a few of the group known as the Constructicons, who are known primarily for turning into construction vehicles AND combining into Devastator. As Optimus talked to Megatron about the Enigma of Combination a couple episodes back, the defeated Constructicons that Megatron had trashed were seen beeping to themselves eerily, and I decided not to bring this up because it didn’t seem like it was worth mentioning, especially since they never bothered to establish that these were the bots that made up part of Devastator OR who the heck Devastator is (and neither does this recent episode). Essentially, it can be understood that if the Constructicons, and basically Devastator as a whole, was listening to talk about the Enigma and taking control of it, they/he would then come with their/his own plan to take it for them/himself.

Why am I cutting so much slack to this aspect of the plot, you might be asking. Well, that’s to show how at least it can be argued some thought and set-up went into Devastator’s involvement in this story. Meanwhile, the same cannot be said of Victorion, who I will be enforcing my previous rule upon in full force. Like Windblade, Victorion is a character who is notable for being another fan-polled creation, as well as a Combiner made up entirely of female Transformers. For her animated debut in this series, shewas built up as so important that she got her own inner monologue prelude video alongside Optimus, Starscream, and Windblade…but then flies into the plot right the scrap out of nowhere with absolutely no explanation whatsoever about who she is, where she came from, how she knew to come here, or even what the heck she wants. Her prelude mainly covers her beliefs that Combiners are a symbol of unity that can bring the galaxy together, but why does she think that? If she’s a Combiner, who is she made up of? Is she with the council or not? What was she doing before she got here?

We never get one answer about any of that before she starts going at Devastator. And before you get too excited, just know that they exchange one blow out of the entirety of their fight, and it’s practically a love tap. No, the only reason Devastator and Victorion are really here is to play into the hands of the one who has been pulling the strings of this whole conflict from the beginning, and you will lose your shit when you hear who it is because it is a total shocker. More on that in a bit.

Still in the process of shitting their circuit boards from being attacked by a former war hero, a former war criminal, a future mental patient, and now having two Combiners about to throw down, Rodimus, Starscream, and The Mistress of Flame all agree that the situation has become too dire, and that they must use the Enigma to take control of every Combiner and command them to stop. Why it does that is anyone’s guess, but that’s the plan. Unfortunately, Rodimus disarming (heh heh) makes him unable to use the Enigma because…reasons. Even worse, the Mistress, being from Caminus, has different physiology and therefore can’t use it either because…reasons. It’s up to Starscream, former Decepticon flunky and redeemed betrayer, to take hold of this great power to finally end this conflict once and for all. But now it’s time to hear about that mind-blowing reveal! You ready? Okay, here it goes:

The bad guy of this series is………..Starscream.

Crazy, right?! You’d never see it coming!

Actually, that’s not particularly fair, because even I got fooled for a little while there up until the last moment. Plus, upon reflecting on what actions he’s taken, there is a bit of subtle hinting. I talked before in my review of Episode 2 and about the preludes that this Starscream was an odd deviation from his usual conniving self, talking about the burdens of leadership, feeling genuinely remorseful of his actions, and reflective of his previous role under Megatron. Then in Episode 2, things happen that bode favorably for him politically by getting him shot and making him sympathetic, all while he is making the most reserved suggestions on what to do with he Enigma regarding how to deal with Combiners. A little while later in Episode 5, he admits to ordering Computron to follow Menasor, meaning he is responsible for the situation that pushed Windblade over the edge in the first place. So it’s not like this came out of nowhere. In fact, it was a twist so initially obvious, that I basically forgot about it possibly happening.

But does that necessarily make it a GOOD twist? Well, that depends on whether it helps or hurts the logic behind the twist and what it’s claiming. In this case, the claim is that Starscream was so manipulative that he was able to make everything in this episode happen with just his own cunning. And this falls apart when you think about everything that was set in motion and realize that he couldn’t have possibly predicted the majority of these things would happen.

The plan seems solid enough at first: Starscream wants control of the Enigma, but needs to make a situation that makes a scenario where his colleagues need to use it while also making it seem like he’d be the last one to want to resort to that. So he’ll rile up a short tempered not on Caminus in order to orchestrate that scenario coming to pass. The problem is that there is no concievable way that he could have predicted Optimus’ involvement, Megatron’s involvement, Devastator and Victorion randomly showing up, and others. Windblade, meanwhile, wants to kill Combiners and does it pretty easily, so it’s unclear how her actions would lead to a situation Starscream needed.

As the plot thickens, we move into the final quarter, and the final battle between Optimus’ team, the remaining council, and multi-combined Starscream. This show still doesn’t make a lick of sense, but at least there was more to talk about this week. And who knows. Maybe the finale will surprise me.