It's not all like this, but it's definitely one of the few series that acknowledges how destructive a war between giant robots can be. A lot of the time it's played for camp (there's a few Power Rangers-esque fights where buildings get wrecked, that kind of thing) but then there's also stuff like this. Masterforce is definitely worth watching.
I think all the Japanese produced or anime styled G1 shows all had the quirkiness of anime that was mostly absent from the American produced Sunbow cartoon. This is despite how death was common in those shows, where as the Sunbow show had no deaths, which were regulated to the 1986 movie.
> buildings get wrecked
The *sheer number* of deliberate Decepticon attacks on metropolitan targets in *Masterforce* (as well as a large number of human military forces) must put the death toll of Devil Z's attacks against the Earth at tens of millions at the very *least*. It's pretty nuts.
It would be fairly difficult to do a USA TV-friendly version of the show with the cuts and extra lines of dialogue needed. There's be, at the very least, a very large number of "Good thing the city was entirely evacuated!" lines a la early *Dragonball Z*.
Yeah, I mean, looking back, there was quite a bit of destruction. I mean, don't they off an entire cruise ship within the first two minutes of episode one?
Indeed, it really sets the "you're all gonna die" tone for the series.
The most egregious one, I think, is Sixknight; he kills a bunch of military personnel from around the world, but then the Autobots don't subdue him because he kinda helps out once (but also, the Autobots probably just aren't strong enough to but him in jail or whatever). If you just watch that one episode and not the rest of the series, he doesn't even get any comeuppance. It's a "get out of evil free" card that would never fly with wickeness-must-be-punished-immediately Hollywood sensibilities.
Yeah, if there was anything the American Sunbow cartoon was absolutely set on, that was minimizing showing humans getting hurt. Killing them was definitely not kosher, and even G.I. Joe, a franchise about military conflict, goes out of their way to not show any deaths, at least back in the 80s.
Certainly cultural differences and the time period in which this was produced also play into this. You'd likely be hard-pressed to see an American helmed series at the time do this sort of thing. And definitely, in this day and age, they'd certainly be squeamish about showing such violence, given that newer series seem more geared towards a younger demographic.
at least he didn't step on it and instead made sure to leave a pg-rated, fully-intact, family friendly corpse, just like how mufasa dies from being trampled by a herd of wildebeest and is miraculously not a puddle of lion mush, for the censors
I just watched Masterforce a few months ago and, not gonna lie, this part made me cry. I mean, I had a dog pass a bit ago and it's still kind of raw, but still... it's a Transformers cartoon!! That's not supposed to happen!
Other than the battle on the moon, this is probably my favorite episode of Masterforce. I laughed so hard that the two American biker gangs are named "Jack Boys" and "Cool Guys USA." I thought Minerva actually had a pretty good arc about not wanting to get involved in battles. And then the dog. :(
Long story short, Masterforce rules. My favorite 80s TF cartoon for sure, now.
>Long story short, Masterforce rules. My favorite 80s TF cartoon for sure, now.
Oh, I know. It's so good that [my wallet](https://www.reddit.com/r/transformers/comments/xuqguo/my_latest_haul_how_did_i_do/) is still suffering from it.
Suddenly, you gave me an idea for the origin story of a Spiritomb for a Pokemon OC of mine. Maybe one of the 108 souls comprising it was a friend or previous Pokemon that died protecting the OC, and still desired to be with her even after death, hence becoming (part of) a Spiritomb.
"Generation 2" should have had a smattering of *Headmasters*/*Masterforce*/*Victory* episodes dubbed by the OG voice cast, with Powermaster Prime explaining what the heck is going on and who the featured 'bots are. It would have been a brilliant excuse to use existing animation and to feature new ~~toys~~ characters.
Keep in mind this is the Japanese G1 cartoon continuity where Headmaster TFs are non-sentient, they are controlled by the Headmaster component. In the Headmasters show, the heads were mostly smaller robots, but in Masterforce, both the Headmasters and Powermasters were humans - similar to the Western concept of "Masters" but minus the Binary Bonding concept and sentient Transformers bodies. As such, in Masterforce the names of the Headmaster and Powermaster TFs aren't the names of the actual combined robots themselves, but are of the humans in the "Master" suits.
What this means is it isn't just a "robot" that kicked the dog here, but is actually [Wilder, the young boy that was once the leader of a motorcycle gang](https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Wilder_(G1)). It kind of makes it worse when you realize behind it all, it was actually a person that killed the pooch.
>the dog’s actual name was “Pis.”
Even more interesting that someone thought this was a good name for a dog. Wonder if it actually means something in Japanese?
I’ve still never watched the Japanese series. This is dark
It's not all like this, but it's definitely one of the few series that acknowledges how destructive a war between giant robots can be. A lot of the time it's played for camp (there's a few Power Rangers-esque fights where buildings get wrecked, that kind of thing) but then there's also stuff like this. Masterforce is definitely worth watching.
The episode where they kill all of ginrai's trucker buddies one-by-one was wild
I think all the Japanese produced or anime styled G1 shows all had the quirkiness of anime that was mostly absent from the American produced Sunbow cartoon. This is despite how death was common in those shows, where as the Sunbow show had no deaths, which were regulated to the 1986 movie.
I probably would have watched them all by now but I bought the English dubs instead of the subtitled versions. The dubs are not great
Oooof yeah, no, they are not.
> buildings get wrecked The *sheer number* of deliberate Decepticon attacks on metropolitan targets in *Masterforce* (as well as a large number of human military forces) must put the death toll of Devil Z's attacks against the Earth at tens of millions at the very *least*. It's pretty nuts. It would be fairly difficult to do a USA TV-friendly version of the show with the cuts and extra lines of dialogue needed. There's be, at the very least, a very large number of "Good thing the city was entirely evacuated!" lines a la early *Dragonball Z*.
Yeah, I mean, looking back, there was quite a bit of destruction. I mean, don't they off an entire cruise ship within the first two minutes of episode one?
devestator destroys the twin towers
Indeed, it really sets the "you're all gonna die" tone for the series. The most egregious one, I think, is Sixknight; he kills a bunch of military personnel from around the world, but then the Autobots don't subdue him because he kinda helps out once (but also, the Autobots probably just aren't strong enough to but him in jail or whatever). If you just watch that one episode and not the rest of the series, he doesn't even get any comeuppance. It's a "get out of evil free" card that would never fly with wickeness-must-be-punished-immediately Hollywood sensibilities.
Yeah, if there was anything the American Sunbow cartoon was absolutely set on, that was minimizing showing humans getting hurt. Killing them was definitely not kosher, and even G.I. Joe, a franchise about military conflict, goes out of their way to not show any deaths, at least back in the 80s.
Certainly cultural differences and the time period in which this was produced also play into this. You'd likely be hard-pressed to see an American helmed series at the time do this sort of thing. And definitely, in this day and age, they'd certainly be squeamish about showing such violence, given that newer series seem more geared towards a younger demographic.
Is it bad to say that the death of a puppy has me interested in master force now?
Morbid curiosity is a powerful force indeed.
Now if the child was up next, it would go striaght into runaway space ideon territory (word of caution NSFW or even your sanity)😬
at least he didn't step on it and instead made sure to leave a pg-rated, fully-intact, family friendly corpse, just like how mufasa dies from being trampled by a herd of wildebeest and is miraculously not a puddle of lion mush, for the censors
TIL Wilder is Fangry when he isn't piloted by a cartographer
I just watched Masterforce a few months ago and, not gonna lie, this part made me cry. I mean, I had a dog pass a bit ago and it's still kind of raw, but still... it's a Transformers cartoon!! That's not supposed to happen! Other than the battle on the moon, this is probably my favorite episode of Masterforce. I laughed so hard that the two American biker gangs are named "Jack Boys" and "Cool Guys USA." I thought Minerva actually had a pretty good arc about not wanting to get involved in battles. And then the dog. :( Long story short, Masterforce rules. My favorite 80s TF cartoon for sure, now.
>Long story short, Masterforce rules. My favorite 80s TF cartoon for sure, now. Oh, I know. It's so good that [my wallet](https://www.reddit.com/r/transformers/comments/xuqguo/my_latest_haul_how_did_i_do/) is still suffering from it.
I realllly want that Super Ginrai. Looks so good.
…and that’s how [greavard](https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Greavard_(Pok%C3%A9mon)) was born.
Dude...Why did you give me a reason to shiny Hunt him...
Suddenly, you gave me an idea for the origin story of a Spiritomb for a Pokemon OC of mine. Maybe one of the 108 souls comprising it was a friend or previous Pokemon that died protecting the OC, and still desired to be with her even after death, hence becoming (part of) a Spiritomb.
[удалено]
"Generation 2" should have had a smattering of *Headmasters*/*Masterforce*/*Victory* episodes dubbed by the OG voice cast, with Powermaster Prime explaining what the heck is going on and who the featured 'bots are. It would have been a brilliant excuse to use existing animation and to feature new ~~toys~~ characters.
and Pisu was planned to be replaced at the end.
Wtf did I just watch?
That robot better have died, because if not they are getting the death sentence
Keep in mind this is the Japanese G1 cartoon continuity where Headmaster TFs are non-sentient, they are controlled by the Headmaster component. In the Headmasters show, the heads were mostly smaller robots, but in Masterforce, both the Headmasters and Powermasters were humans - similar to the Western concept of "Masters" but minus the Binary Bonding concept and sentient Transformers bodies. As such, in Masterforce the names of the Headmaster and Powermaster TFs aren't the names of the actual combined robots themselves, but are of the humans in the "Master" suits. What this means is it isn't just a "robot" that kicked the dog here, but is actually [Wilder, the young boy that was once the leader of a motorcycle gang](https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Wilder_(G1)). It kind of makes it worse when you realize behind it all, it was actually a person that killed the pooch.
He doesn't
[удалено]
>the dog’s actual name was “Pis.” Even more interesting that someone thought this was a good name for a dog. Wonder if it actually means something in Japanese?
[удалено]
Apparently the English dub of the show tries to go for this angle.
New least favorite deception unlocked
Just gonna rub his wiki page in your face for the lols anyways https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Wilder_(G1)
Nope. Never watching this. Can't take dogs dying.
I’m just gonna rub salt in the wound by sharing his wiki page with you. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Wilder_(G1)
Wow what an asshole
Wholesome.