Review: Toonami: The Forge Episode 3

 

OVERVIEW
TOM and his new yellow sibling rally the others to revolt and escape aboard the Vindication. Unfortunately, they’re ambushed by more of the beings enslaving them.

OUR TAKE

This week’s chapter seemed to go by in a flash, mostly because It’s nearly a minute and a half shorter than the last one. These are already pretty short, not even breaking the five minute mark, but the first two each had a surprisingly substantial amount of things to talk about, whether it was about the event as a whole in the context of the others that came before or what it might be trying to say by introducing these new characters. But maybe I jumped the gun too early in elaborating on those because I might be out of talking points for this week! This chapter just kind of carries on from the last one, only it stops suddenly in the middle of a scene that looks like it will be resolved next week. Not that we don’t already know how certain characters are going to get out of it.

Though of the few things to properly discuss, there are a couple of points. First is that the Beau Billingslea voiced creature is apparently not the only one of its kind, as the TOM team shoots one down handily (after it shoots off TOMs arm…which is not the first time he’s had that happen and won’t likely be the last) only to have them surrounded by more of the things by the end. Still waiting on an actual name for these things, by the way. Anyway, the other point is that TOM Yellow Version has also come into his own as an inspirational firebrand for freedom and revolution, using some stealthy Blade Runner references to boot. They’re doing their work to help him stand out from the newly formed crowd, especially if he’s going to be sticking around on the ship as I am expecting will happen.

We’re halfway through this event now, so time to comment on some of the speculations I’ve been seeing regarding what the big shift to the status quo will be for the block. First off, I am almost certain that TOM (at least the one we know) is sticking around, though whether it will be in his still heavily damaged body or a new one to move up to TOM 6 is another question. I’m slightly less certain that the new TOMs (who should also really be getting their own names at some point) will be replacing the Clydes, but that is still quite a bit of certainty. What I do know for sure is that this is probably one of the better Total Immersion Events the block has had in its revived form, but this bit just wasn’t that good.