Should you watch this, Wiki this, or wait for the next episode’s recap? Watch this!!! Yes!!!
Bumblebee and the Autobots find themselves on the trail of another Decepticon criminal – only to find out that it’s a gang of four Skunkticons, led by Malodor! Meanwhile, in the Realm of the Primes, Optimus Prime faces a test by Micronus, one of the Thirteen Original Transformers. Will Bumblebee and the Autobots be able to defeat the senses scrambling Skunkticons, and will Optimus be able to overcome his metaphysical test?
“Out of Focus” is the thirteenth 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 facing off against Malodor and his Skunkticons, and introduces Micronus to Optimus Prime.
At last! Optimus Prime returns! And not just as some weird blurry illusion or deus ex machina, but as an actual character facing actual challenges in an actual plot! I wonder why Optimus isn’t featured more often, or maybe he’s just around for the important milestones in the series. In any case, Bumblebee’s plot thankfully follows suit by adopting a more serious, epic tone to the fights, with the fate of an entire town of humans lying in the balance. It’s a great mid-season finale, and caps off the first half of the season with our favourite Autobot.
Highlights
Optimus Prime
It’s Optimus Prime! Wielding a sword no less (yes, I’m swapping his weapon with Bumblebee’s when it comes to posing), he’s back and he’s battling Decepticons and sending sword laser blasts, overcoming insurmountable obstacles and saving innocent humans again! Pity he doesn’t have a team to lead, but this is offset by the fact that he’s hanging around one of the Original Thirteen Transformers – Micronus!
Micronus
Having Micronus here is like letting The Fallen guest star in an episode! Or maybe Vector Prime. It’s a pity we don’t get to see the full power of Micronus, or that he doesn’t combine with Optimus Prime and give him phenomenal cosmic power or something. Still, we at least have a talking visual of one of the Thirteen. That’s good enough for me.
Realm of the Primes
It’s not as weird as it sounds, and it’s lit pretty well. To see the Transformers version of the afterlife is quite interesting, since we’ve never actually seen anything like it before. More crystals would have been fun, but that would have to be compensated by more smoke and everything would thus be blurred, so nevermind. I’m happy enough seeing something that is only spoken about in legends.
Parallels between Optimus Prime and Bumblebee
They make a distinct effort to mirror the transitions so it’s a head-on-head cut from Optimus Prime to Bumblebee and back, and it helps so much with the thematic link of the episode. That both leaders need to learn how to focus is buoyed by the same type of stakes – innocent human lives – and this makes Bumblebee’s eventual ascension into a Prime so much more highly anticipated.
Ensemble episode
We see the Autobot crew working as a team here (a bickering, reckless team though), and it really shows them as a powerful team of Transformers rather than individual, angsty Autobots. It’s a good thing that they’ve got equally numerous foes to deal with in this episode, in the form of Malodor and his Skunkticons.
Gang of Decepticon antagonists
And here, we get to see a group of Decepticons rather than one single foe (and it’s getting pretty implausible that every single Decepticon they meet is capable of taking down the entire team of Autobots). Not only does it show that the Decepticons themselves have teams, it also gives a semblance of a fair fight when the same number of Autobots battle the same number of Decepticons.
Letdowns
Malodor looks the same as the other Skunkticons
I guess it can’t be helped… but how about a stripe, some sort of deformity, or maybe a bigger tail? It’s a good idea to give a leader to a group of army builders, but hey, how about some identifying marker for him? Won’t it be a good way to sell toys (a slight recolour from the Skunkticons yields you a Malodor)?
“Out of Focus” is a great episode that brings the first half of the season to an exciting conclusion, and sets up the stories for next season. We now know that Optimus will return to Earth, and that’ll be the capstone that we can look at for the season finale. Go, Optimus!
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