Should you watch this, Wiki this, or wait for the next episode’s recap? Watch this.
The Autobots encounter a Decepticon bent on collecting a bounty on Bumblebee’s head – Fracture – and he’s got a pair of Minicon allies, Airazor & Divebomb! They’re soon joined by his Autobot rival, Drift, who’s also got his own pair of Minicon buddies, Jetstorm & Slipstream! It’s a free-for-all battle with Bumblebee smack in the centre, but can our erstwhile hero get out of this unscathed?
“Hunting Season” is the twelfth episode of the first season of Transformers: Robots in Disguise. It’s the sequel series to Transformers: Prime, and revolves around Bumblebee and his group of cadets on Earth, with a subplot involving Optimus Prime pursuing a mystical mission in the afterlife. This episode sees the Autobots battling Fracture & his Minicon pals Airazor & Divebomb, while aided by Drift and his Minicon partners Jetstorm & Slipstream.
There are technically more guest starring characters than main characters in “Hunting Season” (not counting humans, of course), which makes this an awesome episode to watch. The sheer number of Transformers running around on screen makes you forget that you’re watching a modern Transformers series (which, starting from Transformers: Animated, features a small core cast rather than hordes of Transformers everywhere) since there are 11 bots running around on screen. Great throwback to the old times!
Highlights
Drift
Drift gets his own bit of character development, despite being a guest star, which makes him more than the stereotypical honourable samurai. Not too sure about the comparison of parenting techniques between him and Denny though. Drift’s single-mindedness when it comes to his objectives is a funny take on the honourable samurai trope, especially since Bumblebee is his primary target here.
Minicons
We get to see 4 Minicons here, covering the gamut from Autobot to Decepticon! They are a pretty interesting concept, and follows up on Chop Shop’s introduction of the concept of Minicons. Toy-wise, they are scattered across different lines, which is a little sad, but maybe we’ll get to see more of the little guys. How about giving us Blaster and a set of Minicons for him too (next season’s wishlist)?
Plenty of action
It’s just fights all the way in this episode. Given that Drift and Fracture are primarily warriors, their multiple clashes make for great swordfighting scenes, and their Minicon partners give us a good reason to segue between fights (since it’d be boring just to see one duo battling all the time). There’s little time spent on frivolous scenes or boring talking sequences thanks to the numerous fights.
Spaceships
We get to see spaceships. Two, in fact! Drift’s ship and Fracture’s ship. Granted, we’ll probably not see Fracture’s cruiser anymore, but as if Minicons weren’t enough, we had a little vehicular combat by throwing in their spaceships. Wonder if the Legends toys will get any of the spaceships as playsets?
Many guest stars
The plethora of guest stars makes this the best episode by far. Granted, the Minicons don’t exactly count for 4 extra characters (maybe 1.5), but it feels less forced and artificial when we can have more than one new character appear each time.
Letdowns
Focus not on the main characters
I do like the guest stars (both of them), but the fact is, the show should still focus on our main characters and let them save the day. It was a little disappointing to see how Bumblebee and crew were sidelined in favour of letting Drift and Fracture take the limelight for this one.
Denny is a terrible father
You know, most shows handwave the fact that little kids are put in terrible danger when they’re friends with characters who have power levels way above their league. Denny takes the trouble to point it out in this episode, but the fact is that forbidding your son to go into fights with Transformers is actually good parenting, not bad. It’s probably the wisest parental decision he’s made all series – and it gets reversed at the end.
“Hunting Season” gives us a good amount of new content, and the novelty of it is what makes this episode such a fun ride. Hopefully we get more follow ups on the Minicons, spaceships, and Drift too!
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